The American Venus

The American Venus is a 1926 American silent comedy film directed by Frank Tuttle, and starring Esther Ralston, Ford Sterling, Lawrence Gray, Fay Lanphier, Louise Brooks, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. The film was based on an original story by Townsend Martin. The scenario was written by Frederick Stowers with intertitles by Robert Benchley. Plot As described in a film magazine review, the daughter of a maker of beauty cream enters and wins a beauty contest in her hometown and then enters the national contest in an effort to save her father from falling into the power of a rival manufacturer, to whose son she is engaged to be married. Through breaking her engagement, discovering her father’s rival in a bribery deal, forming an attachment for the rival’s former exploitation man, and making friends with the winner of the national contest, the girl succeeds in so shaping events that she and her father win on all points. Cast Production Before shooting began, the film became the subject of a minor controversy when the New York Graphic, a newspaper known for its use of yellow journalism, claimed that the film's distributor, Paramount Pictures, had "fixed" the Miss America pageant. In a series of articles, the paper claimed that the eventual winner, Fay Lanphier (Miss California), had been chosen before the pageant because she signed on to star in the film before the pageant was held. Paramount publicly admitted it had been involved with the pageant's promotions and had agreed to pay for pageant's reviewing stand. The studio also agreed to sponsor an "American Venus" contest to be held before the Miss America pageant to determine which of the contestants had the best "photographic possibilities". Lanphier won the American Venus title and was chosen by Famous Players–Lasky then production manager Walter Wanger a role in the film. The New York Graphic was later forced to retract their claim that the contest had been fixed.