![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
||
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
||
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|||||
![]() |
![]() |
||||
![]() |
![]() |
||||
![]() |
![]() |
So said the New York Times on Sunday, August 7, 1938.
But the public actually knew little about the man who had come to be known as "Charlie Chan" in the movies. Prior to his death,
interviewers had noted how few interviews he gave and how even his studio seemed to know little about him. Oland, who adopted
a Chan-like manner even when away from the cameras, had said "Words like sunbeams, when concentrated can burn." So, who was
the man behind the affable grin and soft philosophical manner? The Olunds must have been a little more affluent than
average to be able to afford even a young maid. Also, just two years after that census they emigrated to the United States.
There was a lot of emigration from Sweden to the New World at that time and most seem to have headed to Minnesota. But our
little band seems to have ended up in Boston because we next hear of Warner Oland graduating from high school there. Just
what adventures the family had experienced in the intervening years can only be imagined, but when he stepped ashore in the
U.S. our Warner was about 12 years old and unlikely to have any English language skills coming, as he was, from a small northern
Swedish town. Warner's first taste of the movie business came in 1910
in a one reel version of "Pilgrim's Progress," but the little film and all other details of its making are lost. Around the
same time Warner and Edith were busy in a joint project translating some of the plays of Swedish playwright August Strindberg.
Edith even learned the Swedish language for the project, and the resulting body of work, "August Strindberg Plays," was published
by John Luce and Company of Boston in 1912.
Warner Oland's first MAJOR foray into film came in the
Theda Bara movie "Jewels of the Madonna" (also known as "Sin") as an Italian gangster type, Pietro, shot in Ithaca, New York
(The movie that is, not the gangster!). This movie had its U.S. release on Warner's 36th birthday, October 3, 1915. His first
detective role seems to have been in the 15-part serial "Beatrice Fairfax" in 1916, also shot in Ithaca, which was a thriving
little movie-making center prior to Hollywood's emergence. His other roles around that time were mainly of ethnicly European
types. But it was in the 1917 Pathe serial "Patria," in the role of the Japanese Baron Huroki, that he first donned an Oriental
movie persona, and a villainous one at that. The serial was somewhat controversially xenophobic, with Japanese and Mexicans
portrayed as plotting the downfall of the U.S. This was during World War I, and since the Japanese were on the Allied side
in that conflict, it led to President Wilson writing to the distributors of "Patria," asking that it be withdrawn from exhibition.
Warner Oland must have made an impact as an Oriental,
because in the years to come he would be called upon to play many others, such as Wu Fang in 1918's "The Lightning Raider,"
Li Hsun in "Mandarin Gold" in 1919, Okada in "Pride of Palomar" in 1922, Fu Shing in "The Fighting American" in 1924, Shanghai
Dan in "Curly Top" also in 1924, among others. He played many other character roles in between these of course, becoming a
Frenchman or a Spaniard or a Indian Maharajah. In several of these roles he was a menace to Pearl White in cliffhanger serials,
and in an odd, movie-like, coincidence, she died in Paris of cirrhosis of the liver just two days before Oland's death in
Stockholm, Sweden.
"The Phantom Foe" (1920).
Warner Oland first appeared on screen as Charlie Chan
in "Charlie Chan Carries On," in 1931. The story line has Charlie's friend from Scotland Yard, Inspector Duff, on the trail
of a murderer among a group on a world cruise. (It seems the police departments in those days were liberal in their detectives'
budgets, AND seemed OK with their best guys meandering around the world!) Duff gets wounded in the course of the investigation
and "Charlie Chan Carries On" with the investigation, although he doesn't make an appearance until about half way into the
movie. It's as if the studio still wasn't sure about how popular an Oriental hero might be. However, the film was an immediate
hit and studio research showed that Charlie's character, as portrayed by Oland, was the main asset of the movie. So with the
next Chan movie, "The Black Camel," Charlie was in the thick of it from early in the story.
The studio's confidence in the format is evidenced by
the fact that they allowed "Carries On" director Hamilton MacFadden to shoot the movie on location in Hawaii, with all the
extra expense and possible production problems that meant. (Warner Oland was paid $10,000 for his role in "Carries On," but
got a pay rise to $12,500 for "Camel" and subsequent Charlie Chan movies up to "Charlie Chan at the Circus" (1936), when he
finally got the $20,000 a movie he had been asking for since "The Black Camel.") The next three movies emerged slowly, "Charlie
Chan's Greatest Case" in 1932, again with Hamilton MacFadden directing, followed by "Charlie Chan's Chance" in 1933 and "Charlie
Chan's Courage" in 1934. ("Carries On," "Greatest Case," "Chance" and "Courage" are all lost movies without any prints known
to exist.) During these years, Warner Oland was playing other roles as well, and it must have been rewarding time for him
professionally. The rewards of his career allowed for a comfortable,
if not a lavish, lifestyle. Edith and Warner Oland traveled widely between movie assignments. They were not "Hollywood types,"
never being seen in nightclubs or otherwise doing the rounds of the Hollywood set. Edith Oland was by all accounts a lady
with a strong personality, described variously as "electric," "terrific" (used in its 1930s context meaning "awesome") and
"more energy that I've ever seen in a woman." At the age of 67 it was said that she "could throw a stone further than any
woman"! All of this gives the picture of Edith being the boss at home. An article in 1937 referred to the colors of the "two
bedrooms" in the Olands' house, inferring they had separate rooms. The article also mentions Warner's trouble sleeping and
his habit of getting up at night and delving into his private stock of Swedish sardines, kept in his wardrobe. He would sit
out on the verandah in his pajamas looking out over the sea, listening to Bach on his phonograph and snacking on sardines.
Also, he and Mrs. Oland would swim every morning in the sea near their house and Warner could be found on his off duty days
sitting out in the sun "like a bronze Buddha, in sunglasses and a straw coolie hat."
Although the Olands didn't have any children themselves,
Warner certainly seems to have enjoyed their company. Visitors' children could expect to hunt sea shells with him on the beach
and be treated to little performances of the "Princess Ming Lo Fu" song that he sang as Chan in "Charlie Chan in Shanghai."
He would also dress up in one of his oriental robes and do samurai routines, using spoons for swords and intoning gibberish
in a singsong voice!
Both of the Olands were artistic and intellectual by
nature, both painted, with Warner's landscapes taking their place on the walls alongside his wife's more professional portraits
. Edith called Warner "Jack" after is real first name Johann. And "Jack" had a real-life connection to the legal fraternity
in that his brother-in-law, Clarence Shearn, was the former Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court.
But Warner's drinking got worse, effecting his work,
and in "Charlie Chan at the Racetrack" he was found asleep in the track restaurant and had to be held up by extras for the
scene by the racetrack rail so he wouldn't fall down. A nurse was assigned to keep an eye on his drinking during the shooting
of "Charlie Chan at the Circus" in 1936. This "nurse" is referred to in several sources and seems to have figured prominently
in Warner's last couple of years. Her name was Catherine F. Ryan, and she is referred to as a "secretary" in some sources
and there will be more on her below. Back in Hollywood they were franticly trying to contact
him to return because on the 3rd of August his studio had started pre-production on the first Chan movie of his three picture
deal, the Oland version of "Charlie Chan in Honolulu." Early in August 1938 in Stockholm, Warner Oland was in hospital with
bronchial pneumonia. He had been a heavy smoker for years and perhaps this, combined with a climate change from southern California
to his birthplace in northern Sweden, and a weakened physical condition, may have been too much. News of his serious illness
made its way to his estranged wife back in the U.S. and she hurriedly prepared to leave for Sweden to be by his bedside. They
had been working on a reconciliation, it is said, prior to his departure for Europe. But at 3 p.m. Stockholm time on the 6th
of August, in a Stockholm hospital, Warner Oland died. As he had said as Charlie Chan in "Charlie Chan in Egypt," "From life
to death is span of man." (Keye Luke would later relate how Warner died in his mother's bed. But as comforting and poetic
as that may be, the reality is that it was more likely in an oxygen tent in a hospital bed.) It seems here were considerable loose ends on both sides
of the Atlantic. Warner Oland had made his last will and testament on the 11th of May 1937. In that he left all his worldly
goods to his wife "Edith Shearn Oland." In the will, the amount of $50,000 was the estimate of the value of said worldly goods.
(But how does this relatively small amount sit with the "1,000 acres on the Mexican island, house in Massachusetts, buildings
and acreage on the coast near Santa Barbara"? 1930s creative accounting? Or were they in Edith's name or her own property?)
The estate was eventually assessed for probate at $46,527.74, plus a few thousand in cash. Meanwhile back in Stockholm, Edith arrived to take charge
of matters. She stayed at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm and it was there that she received a Swedish bank wrote requesting
she settle the matter of Warner's overdrawn check account, in the amount of 190 Kroner. She arranged for Warner's cremation
and the shipment of his ashes back to New York. (That she didn't take the ashes back personally is inferred by a charge of
225 Kroner by the Swedish undertaker, for shipment from Gotenberg to New York.) Edith Oland cabled Boston lawyer Harrison
Schaff to arrange a cemetery plot and he did so acquiring lot 51 of Block 10 in the Southbouough Cemetery in Massachusetts
for $50, with an extra $100 for perpetual care of same. The ashes arrived and the size of the burial ceremony may be deduced
from the invoice from Gregg and Sons Funeral Directors, all of $25. The charges for a "cement vault" are listed as $35 and
the cemetery fee at $5. (His large stone headstone must have been a later addition.)
On arriving back in Hollywood she had to, as Warner's
nominated executrix of his estate, start sorting through the claims that started to roll in. Jack Gardner, his agent and to
whose home he had gone after leaving Edith, made a claim for $1,700 and, in company with his wife Louise, a further claim
for $900. (Had they been counting every sardine Warner ate at their home!?) Edith rejected the claim. They sued, and she settled
for about $1,200 total. Another curious claim came from Catherine F. Ryan. (Yes, the "nurse/secretary" referred to in several
sources.) She had accompanied Warner to residence in the Gardner household, and now claimed $1,193.17, which she was granted
in the final probate settlement. We can only speculate on what the basis of that claim was since it is inferred by all sources
that she was a studio employee. Other claims were paid to "The Orient" (unspecified entity), for $864.05 and to someone called
Vernon Snively for $110 (Why does that name inspire instant dislike!). During the settlement process Edith had had to sell
$3,000 in Treasury Bonds plus stocks such as 100 shares of Standard Oil to meet expenses and settle claims. Another disputed
claim was by a Dr.Eugene Jacques Usukor (sp.?) for $925. Edith refused, the Doc sued, and they settled on $400. Then the lawyers
jumped in for a couple thousand dollars for services rendered in fighting these claims and the other disputes arising from
the estate. All this took until early 1941 to settle. Thankfully Warner was past caring. Deacades slowly passed, and Edith, the tough little
old Bostonian died in 1968 just two days past her 98th birthday. Milton, the Olands' loyal chauffer, passed away in 1980.
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
||||
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
||||
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|
![]() |
||||
![]() |
||||
![]() |
||||