By Robert Sorgenfrei

Is dashing Hollywood legend Douglas Fairbanks a former student of Mines? Rumor has it that he is and the word has spread.

A few years ago, a Los Angeles documentary film company called looking for photographs of Fairbanks during his college years. Was he really here? It doesn’t seem likely as no evidence exists. So, how did the rumor become accepted fact?

The Film Encyclopedia by Ephraim Katz says that Fairbanks was born May 23, 1883 in Denver as Douglas Elton Ulman. He had his first stage debut at 12 in a locally produced play.

The Film Encyclopedia goes on to state, “He continued appearing in occasional plays while attending the Colorado School of Mines.”

In Douglas Fairbanks: The Making of a Screen Character (1940), author Alistair Cooke says Fairbanks attended Mines in 1899 before heading to New York in 1900. Douglas Fairbanks: The Making of the Fourth Musketeer (1953) by Ralph Hancock and Letitia Fairbanks doesn’t mention Mines, but says Fairbanks attended Jarvis Military Academy and East Denver High School, and that he briefly attended acting classes at Harvard.

Record Keeping at Mines

Aside from this sketchy information, there is little to tie Fairbanks to Mines. Early School catalogs, the main source of documentary evidence, lists the names of every class member, from freshman to senior, as well as part-time and post-graduate students. Even if a person drops out after only a year, his or her name is recorded. Neither Douglas Elton Ulman nor Douglas Fairbanks appear in the listings.

Circumstantial evidence is also lacking. In fall 1899, Fairbanks was only 16 and had not graduated high school. The 1899-1900 School of Mines catalog clearly states that a candidate for admission must be at least 17. Therefore, age and lack of academic preparation would have made it almost impossible for him to gain admission.

An Early Interest in Theater

As a famous native son of Denver, mentions of Fairbanks were carefully indexed by The Rocky Mountain News.

He was active in local theatre in the 1890s, appearing in plays in places such as Elitch Gardens. He also took acting lessons at the Tabor Grand Opera House. He was so busy with acting that he had little time to pursue academics, and indeed there is no mention of any association with the Colorado School of Mines, theatrical or otherwise.

Judging from the newspaper articles, Fairbanks was a stage-struck young man with little interest in finishing high school, let alone attending college.

In 1900, Fairbanks left Colorado for New York, making his debut in 1901 at the age of 18. He left New York for California in 1915 and became one of Hollywood’s first superstars.

He was known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films, where he did most of his own stunts. He had a fairy-tale marriage to silent film star Mary Pickford that captivated Hollywood society throughout the 1920s.

Although Fairbanks had a stage-trained voice, his film career barely survived the silent-film era. By the early 1930s, his popularity had waned.

On Dec. 12, 1939, Fairbanks unexpectedly died in his sleep at his home in Santa Monica, Calif., at the age of 56. Obituaries mentioned that Fairbanks had attended CSM.

How the Rumor Got Started

How did Fairbanks and the Colorado School of Mines become linked? We many never know, but we can speculate. People frequently visit the archive to find out about relatives’ Mines attendance.

Four or five times a year, I have to report that the person never attended or if he did, he didn’t graduate. Obviously, some people are willing to claim an association with Mines that is either false or tenuous.

Maybe Fairbanks, even though a successful actor, succumbed to the time-honored practice of résumé padding. It is known that his mother had wished him to attend Mines. Perhaps he wished he had.

Whatever the reason, in 1914, when Who’s Who first listed Fairbanks, an unspecified attendance at the School of Mines was included as part of his educational experience. Generally, Who’s Who gets its biographical information from the person being listed. Therefore, it seems likely that Fairbanks himself started the idea that he had attended Mines.

The Power of the Printed Word

Once a fact is repeated in print for long enough, it becomes accepted as truth. The Fairbanks–Mines connection is a case in point.

By the time of his death in 1939, Fairbanks attendance at Mines was accepted truth and included in his obituaries around the country.

The reason for this was simple: newspapers gathering biographical information started by consulting Who’s Who. In doing so, they made part of the historical record an event that likely never occurred, that of Douglas Fairbanks attending the Colorado School of Mines.

Robert Sorgenfrei is librarian/archivist of the Russell L. & Lyn Wood Mining History Archive, Arthur Lakes Library.

From the July/August issue of Mines Magazine.

Douglas Fairbanks Legend Continues

Reference is made to Robert Sorgenfrei’s article in the July/August issue concerning Douglas Fairbanks ["Did Douglas Fairbanks Attend Mines?"].

The following is my best recollection of an event that occurred fall 1939 when I was a junior at Mines. Prof. John C. Fitterer was head of the mathematics department and was a highly respected gentleman, about to retire after a long teaching career.

He was exposing our class to partial and differential equations. We met on the north end of the second floor of Stratton Hall.

It was a cold, overcast afternoon, the lecture was going slowly and we were all bored. Suddenly the toot-toot of a steam locomotive’s whistle broke the spell. A short train was on its way to Idaho Springs.

Prof. Fitterer put down his chalk, walked over to the north window and looked down at the train. He then turned to the class and said, "Have I ever told you the story about Douglas Fairbanks and his tour at Mines?"

Sensing a break in the lecture, we all answered "No" loudly. Prof. Fitterer started by saying that the train whistle always reminded him of Douglas Fairbanks. He then gave us a short sketch of Fairbanks and his Mines experience.

The climax came after the first football game of the year. I believe it was a win over University of Denver (DU). Late in the afternoon, the Miners had returned to Golden in an exuberant and inebriated condition. Fairbanks and some of his buddies heard the train tooting and rushed to the railroad yard to see the activity. They lured the engineer out of the cab, jumped on the train and took off.

According to Prof. Fitterer’s story, the locomotive would go up the canyon for a mile or two, then come back to town, then go up the canyon again, then back to town—with the whistle blowing most of the time. This noise aroused the town and eventually the law stopped the activity.

At some time during the following week Mr. Fairbanks was asked to leave the school.

Therefore, it would appear that Douglas Fairbanks was on the Mines campus but did not stay long enough to obtain a grade. If I remember correctly, it was our impression that Prof. Fitterer had witnessed the above-described activity. At least we had no reason to doubt the accuracy of the story. I can’t remember any dates being mentioned.

Perhaps the reason that I have remembered Prof. Fitterer’s story is related to an earlier happening in my life.

Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, as you know, became quite famous and attracted much attention during their travels. They visited Denver frequently.

On two occasions they stayed, incognito, in the house across the street from where I lived. I was about 8 years old at the time and once walked over to Cheesman Park with them.

Douglas was my hero at the time, since my first movie experience had been watching him perform in "The Thief of Bagdad."

Robert L. Wilson Geol E ’41

From The November/December 1999 issue of  Mines Magazine