Thomas H. Ince  

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Thomas Harper Ince (November 6, 1882 – November 19, 1924) was an American silent film actor, director, producer and screenwriter. His brothers, John and Ralph Ince, were also actors and film directors.

Life and career

Born in Newport, Rhode Island, Ince invented many mechanisms of professional movie production, like the usage of a detailed "shooting script", which also contained information on who was in the scene, and the "scene plot" which listed all interiors and exteriors, cost control plans and so on. He helped create a standardized and mechanized mode of production. He also was one of the first who had a separate writer, director and cutter (instead of doing everything himself).

In 1910, Ince was director at I.M.P. In 1911, Ince went to work at the New York Motion Picture Company which merged with Universal in 1912. That same year, Ince directed "Studio Inceville" and the Bison 101 movies as projects for Bison Life Motion Pictures.

Working under General Manager Fred J. Balshofer at the California studio/ranch of Bison Motion Pictures division of the New York Motion Picture Company, Ince's movies were mainly early Westerns, which were successful because of their beautiful images and their rhythm. While working with the New York Motion Picture Company, Ince also formed his own company, Kay-Bee Productions[1] Ince wrote a number of screenplays including 1915's The Italian which has been preserved by the United States National Film Registry. Ince also notably boosted cowboy actor William S. Hart as the top western star of his time [2].

In 1915, Ince partnered with D.W. Griffith and Mack Sennett to create the Triangle Motion Picture Company in Culver City, California. In 1918, he sold out to Griffith and Sennett and bought property from Harry Culver and formed the Thomas H. Ince Studios, which were in business from 1919 to 1924. In 1925, Cecil B. Demille acquired the land, renaming it the DeMille Studios. A street in Culver City, intersecting the Culver Studios is called Ince Blvd., in his honor and there is an Ince Theater planned to be constructed in a parking lot adjacent to Ince Blvd. in the near future [3]

Murder or natural death debate

On November 19, 1924, the silent film producer and 'father of the Western' died, officially of a heart attack suffered while on a weekend boat trip with William Randolph Hearst aboard Hearst's lavish yacht, the Oneida, while attending a cruise in honor of Ince's 42nd birthday. Other prominent guests in attendance were actor Charlie Chaplin, newspaper columnist Louella Parsons, author Elinor Glyn and film actresses Marion Davies, Aileen Pringle, Jacqueline Logan, Seena Owen, Margaret Livingston and Julanne Johnston.

In the years since, several conflicting stories have circulated about Ince's death, often revolving around the claim that Hearst shot Ince in a fit of jealousy (or shot Ince accidentally while fighting with Chaplin over Davies) and used his power and influence to cover up the killing.

A 2001 film directed by Peter Bogdanovich, The Cat's Meow, tells a tale based on these rumors. Bogdanovich claims he heard the story of Ince's death from director Orson Welles who in turn said he heard it from writer Herman J. Mankiewicz. Ince is portrayed in the film by Cary Elwes, William Randolf Hearst is portrayed by Edward Herrmann, Marion Davies is portrayed by Kirsten Dunst, and Charlie Chaplin is portrayed by Eddie Izzard.

Patty Hearst co-authored a novel with Cordelia Frances Biddle titled Murder at San Simeon (Scribner, 1996), based upon the death of Ince. Patty Hearst stated in interviews she didn’t believe the Ince stories due to the absence of evidence, “I also thought, Gee,” said Patty Hearst, “it really is a great story. So that's how it got to be part of the novel.”

Dr. Daniel Goodman, a guest on the Hearst yacht who treated Ince, described events:

"When he arrived on board he complained of nothing but being tired. Ince discussed during the day details of his agreement just made with the International Film Corporation to produce pictures in combination. Ince seemed well. He ate a hearty dinner, retired early. Next morning he and I arose early before any of the other guests to return to Los Angeles. Ince complained that during the night he had had an attack of indigestion, and still felt bad. On the way to the station he complained of a pain in the heart. We boarded the train, but at Del Mar a heart attack came upon him. I thought it best to take him off the train, insist upon his resting in a hotel. I telephoned Mrs. Ince that her husband was not feeling well. I called in a physician and remained myself until the afternoon, when I continued on to Los Angeles. Mr. Ince told me that he had had similar attacks before, but that they had not amounted to anything. Mr. Ince gave no evidence of having had any liquor of any kind. My knowledge as a physician enabled me to diagnose the case as one of acute indigestion."

Ince’s symptoms point towards what we would today call a bleeding ulcer; the pain is usually worse a couple of hours after a meal or in the middle of the night when the stomach empties. Bleeding is the most common complication of ulcers; if bleeding continues it’s fatal in c10% of sufferers.

"Stories began to percolate through Hollywood that Hearst, in a fit of jealous rage, had murdered Ince. The absence of hard evidence made it easier to invent new rumours. In the years to come, Hearst would be accused of poisoning Ince, shooting him, hiring an assassin to shoot him, fatally wounding him while shooting at Chaplin and, most recently and ridiculously, in an article published in 1997 in Vanity Fair, of accidentally stabbing him through the heart with Marion's hatpin, causing an instant, fatal heart attack." [David Nasaw] Rumours also circulated that Ince had raped Marion Davies's secretary Abigail Kinsolving onboard the ‘Oneida’ and she shot or stabbed him. When she died in a car accident it was further claimed she had been silenced.

Screen legend Charlie Chaplin, infamous in Hollywood for his sexual escapades often involving under aged girls, was inevitably drawn into conspiracy theories. Claims surfaced that Hearst had tried to shoot him when he found Chaplin in bed with Marion, but missed, accidentally hitting Ince in the head or chest. Alternatively, the bullet missed Chaplin and hit Ince either through an open widow or penetrating a wall/floor to hit him in the next room or on an upper deck as he was enjoying the fresh air. Allegations Hearst had such ill feeling towards Chaplin don’t fit well with the fact that he was an almost constant guest of the media baron at San Simeon after the alleged murder attempt, Chaplin and Davies appeared together in a movie, and Chaplin was also invited on vacations with Hearst and Davies which shows there was no hostility between Hearst and Chaplin.

The whisper campaign reached fever pitch and District Attorney for San Diego, Chester Kemply was called to investigate. Examining the evidence he concluded:

"I began this investigation because of many rumours brought to my office regarding the case, and have considered them until today in order to definitely dispose of them. There will be no further investigation of stories of drinking on board the yacht. If there are to be, then they will have to be in Los Angeles County where presumably the liquor was secured. People interested in Ince's sudden death have continued to come to me with persistent reports and in order to satisfy them I did conduct an investigation. But after questioning the doctor and nurse who attended Mr. Ince at Del Mar I am satisfied his death was from ordinary causes."

The Ince story faded from memory until publication of Kenneth Anger’s entertaining gossip tome ‘Hollywood Babylon’ breathed new life into it in 1975, introducing a new generation to the then half century old piece of tinsel town gossip.

The two leading biographies on Hearst, ‘Citizen Hearst’ by W.A. Swanberg and most recently ‘The Chief: The Life Of William Randolph Hearst’ by David Nasaw, state no foul play occurred, that no evidence to the contrary was ever presented by or to law enforcement officials, that it‘s a case of rumour and innuendo creating a non-existent scandal that still resonates.

The simple fact is extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and there has never been any evidence to support the claim that Thomas Ince was murdered on the ‘Oneida’ by anyone. Advocates have: no crime scene photographs - no forensic evidence - no murder weapon - no witness statements - no police report and no shot or stabbed corpse, depending on which version is told. All they have to offer is titillating gossip or hearsay that led to discredited tabloids and journalists who routinely made stories up to sell them.

No matter how rich and powerful Hearst was had there been substance to the rumours it would have leaked out: all the Ince conspiracy theories require Hearst paying off or intimidating dozens of people. Some implicated later fell on hard times and could have sold their story, had there been anything to it. Hearst’s excessive spending and financial turmoil of the 1930’s hit his interests hard, there was talk of actual bankruptcy when he lost autocratic control of his empire during a forced restructure. His imperial age had passed; after his death there was no need remain silent about ancient scandals.

No member of the ‘Oneida’ crew or guests present that fateful night, which included friends of Thomas Ince and his business manager George Thomas, ever made allegations something sinister happened to him. All the young actresses present that night as guests outlived Hearst (d1951) and Davies (d1961). Seena Owen died in 1966 - Margaret Livingston in 1984 - Julanne Johnston in 1988 - Aileen Pringle in 1989 - Jacqueline Logan died in 1993 and to the end their accounts of events never changed. Elinor Kershaw, Ince’s wife, died in 1971 and refuted the lurid stories to the end.

The record shows Ince was not killed on the ‘Oneida’. After falling ill (probably from a bleeding ulcer) he was taken home where he died two days later in the arms of his wife. Three different doctors who treated him, at different times, could affirm his ill health and death were due to natural causes. No bullet hole in the head or chest, nor had he been stabbed, poisoned, beaten or other dramatic modes of mortality Hollywood rumormongers invented over the years. Ince made a substantial contribution to the motion picture industry; it is sad that his life has been over shadowed by his death.

Filmography

Actor

• The Seven Ages (1905)
• Richard III (1908)
• The Cardinal's Conspiracy (1909)
• King Lear (1909)
• His New Lid (1910)
• The Englishman and the Girl (1910)
• Bar Z's New Cook (1911)
• For Her Brother's Sake (1911)
• Their First Misunderstanding (1911)
• The Gangsters and the Girl (1914)

Director

• Artful Kate (1911)
• Behind the Stockade (1911)
• The Brand (1911)
• A Dog's Tale (1911)
• The Fisher-Maid (1911)
• For Her Brother's Sake (1911)
• Her Darkest Hour (1911)
• The Hidden Trail (1911)
• His Nemesis (1911)
• The House That Jack Built (1911)
• In Old Madrid (1911)
• In the Sultan's Garden (1911)
• Little Nell's Tobacco (1911)
• Maid or Man (1911)
• A Manly Man (1911)
• Message in the Bottle (1911)
• New Cook (1911)
• Over the Hills (1911)
• The Penniless Prince (1911)
• Sweet Memories (1911)
• The Aggressor (1911)
• Across the Plains (1911)
• The Dream (1911)
• Their First Misunderstanding (1911)
• The Battle of the Red Men (1912)
• Blazing the Trail (1912)
• The Clod (1912)

• The Colonel's Son (1912)
• The Colonel's Ward (1912)
• A Double Reward (1912)
• The Empty Water Keg (1912)
• For Freedom of Cuba (1912)
• For the Cause (1912)
• The Law of the West (1912)
• A Mexican Tragedy (1912)
• War on the Plains (1912)
• The Invaders (1912)
• The Altar of Death (1912)
• The Sergeant's Boy (1912)
• Custer's Last Raid (1912)
• The Desert (1912)
• The Colonel's Peril (1912)
• His Message (1912)
• Soldier's Honor (1912)
• The Outcast (1912)
• The Lieutenant's Last Fight (1912)
• The Post Telegraphers (1912)
• The Deserter (1912)
• The Crisis (1912)
• The Indian Massacre / Heart of an Indian (1912)
• The Tables Turned (1912)
• Through the Flames (1912)
• The Kid and the Sleuth (1912)
• The Ambassador's Envoy (1913)
• The Boomerang (1913)
• Bread Cast Upon the Waters (1913)
• Days of '49 (1913)
• Granddad (1913)ř
• The Hateful God (1913)
• A Shadow of the Past (1913)
• In Love and War / Call to Arms (1913)
• The Battle of Gettysburg (1913)
• The Drummer of the 8th (1913)
• The Hour of Reckoning (1914)
• The Last of the Line (1914)
• The Village 'Neath the Sea (1914)
• Out of the Night (1914)
• The Death Mask (1914)
• The Coward (1915)
• The Toast of Death (1915)
• The Cup of Life (1915)
• The Alien / The Sign of the Rose (1915)
• The Devil / Satan's Pawn (1915)
• Dividend (1916)
• Civilization (1916)
• The Stepping Stone (1916)
• Peggy (1916)
• Anna Christie (1923)
• Flicker Flashbacks No. 1 (1947) (archive footage from Behind the Stockade, 1909)

Writer

• Little Nell's Tobacco (1910)
• For the Queen's Honor (1911)
• The Fortunes of War (1911)
• The Forged Dispatch (1911)
• The Stampede (1911)
• Across the Plains (1911)
• Sweet Memories (1911)
• The Mirror (1911)
• Bar Z's New Cook (1911)
• The Army Surgeon (1912)
• The Altar of Death (1912)
• The Outcast (1912)
• The Deserter (1912)
• The Battle of the Red Men (1912)
• The Indian Massacre (1912)
• War on the Plains (1912)
• The Battle of Gettysburg (1913)
• In the Sage Brush Country (1914)
• The Last of the Line (1914)
• A Political Feud (1914)
• The Fortunes of War (1914)
• The Bargain (1914)
• The Vigil (1914)
• The Mills of the Gods (1914)
• The Worth of a Life (1914)
• The Word of His People (1914)
• Stacked Cards (1914)
• The Winning of Denise (1914)
• An Eleventh Hour Reformation (1914)
• The City (1914)
• The Curse of Humanity (1914)
• The Voice at the Telephone (1914)
• The Wrath of the Gods (1914)
• The Latent Spark (1914)
• In the Cow Country (1914)
• Out of the Night (1914)
• Shorty Escapes Marriage (1914)
• The Rightful Heir (1914)
• Wolves of the Underworld (1914)
• The Gringo (1914)
• Desert Gold (1914)
• O Mimi San (1914)
• The Hammer (1915)
• Tools of Providence (1915)
• The Reward (1915)
• The Conversion of Frosty Blake (1915)
• Bad Buck of Santa Ynez (1915)
• The Cup of Life (1915)
• The Taking of Luke McVane (1915)
• On the Night Stage (1915)
• The Spirit of the Bell (1915)
• The Roughneck (1915)
• The Devil (1915)
• Tricked (1915)
• In the Switch Tower (1915)
• The Girl Who Might Have Been (1915)
• Satan McAllister's Heir (1915)
• Winning Back (1915)
• The Sheriff's Streak of Yellow (1915)
• The Grudge (1915)
• Mr. 'Silent' Haskins (1915)
• The Scourge of the Desert (1915)
• A Confidence Game (1915)
• The Italian (1915)
• The Despoiler (1915)
• Aloha Oe (1915)
• The Disciple (1915)
• The Coward (1915)
• Keno Bates, Liar (1915)
• The Living Wage (1915)
• A Knight of the Trails (1915)
• The $100,000 Bill (1915)
• Cash Parrish's Pal (1915)
• The Ruse (1915)
• The Deserter (1916)
• The Last Act (1916)
• Bullets and Brown Eyes (1916)
• Ashes of Hope (1917)
• The Family Skeleton (1918)