The 1932 biographical film Silver Dollar, produced by First National Pictures (a subsidiary of Warner Bros.), offers a fascinating window into early Hollywood’s attempt to capture the dramatic, rags-to-riches-to-rags saga of Colorado’s legendary silver baron, Horace Tabor. At the heart of this adaptation was the source material—David Karsner’s 1932 biography of the same name—and the creative hands of screenwriters, including the relatively young and promising Carl Erickson.
Carl Erickson: A Rising Star at Warner Bros.
Carl Erickson (1908–1935) was a film writer whose brief but active career was spent primarily at Warner Bros. during the era of Darryl F. Zanuck. Born in Connecticut to Swedish immigrants, Erickson grew up in New Haven before moving to California to pursue screenwriting.
His work on Silver Dollar (1932), credited alongside Harvey F. Thew, was an early notable success in his filmography. The film, which starred Edward G. Robinson as the thinly veiled Horace Tabor (renamed Yates Martin in the movie) and Bebe Daniels as his sensational second wife, Baby Doe (renamed Lily Owens Martin), allowed Erickson to adapt a contemporary and highly dramatic true story for the screen. While some critics found the final film “drily directed,” Erickson and Thew were noted for keeping the narrative “popping,” largely due to the inherent drama of Tabor’s meteoric rise from storekeeper to silver tycoon and his subsequent fall after the silver crash. Erickson’s contribution to Silver Dollar was a significant step in his career at the studio, leading to further screenwriting credits on films like Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) and Black Fury (1935) before his untimely death in 1935 at the age of 27.
The Genesis: David Karsner’s Book to the Warner Bros. Screen
The foundation for the movie was laid by David Karsner’s 1932 book, Silver Dollar: The Story of the Tabors. Karsner’s work was a popular and largely accurate biographical account of Horace Tabor and his family. The book, unlike the movie adaptation, used the actual names of the principals: Horace, his first wife Augusta, and his second wife Elizabeth “Baby Doe” Tabor.
The production of Silver Dollar was handled by First National Pictures, which was distributed by Warner Bros. This affiliation meant that Warner Bros. was the studio responsible for bringing the story to the screen.
While the exact sequence of events by which David Karsner contacted Warner Bros. to make the movie is not explicitly detailed in available accounts, the standard process involves a literary agent or the author himself offering the book rights to a Hollywood studio. The fact that Warner Bros. (via First National Pictures) acquired the rights and promptly made the film in the same year the book was published suggests a quick and decisive acquisition process, likely driven by the book’s immediate popularity and the studio’s recognition of the powerful, ready-made historical melodrama it contained. Warner Bros. successfully marketed the film based on the drama adapted from Karsner’s book, changing the principal characters’ names—evidently a “pardonable pictorial license”—to present an “intelligent and interesting film.”
Baby Doe Tabor’s Involvement: A Heartbreaking Contrast
The question of Baby Doe Tabor’s involvement is a poignant one that highlights the dramatic contrast between the glittering Hollywood version of the story and the harsh reality of her later life.
In 1932, when Silver Dollar was released, Elizabeth “Baby Doe” Tabor was living in profound poverty in a dilapidated cabin near the Matchless Mine in Leadville, Colorado, following her late husband Horace Tabor’s final instructions to “hold on to the Matchless.” Her life, once marked by unparalleled extravagance, had become a lonely vigil in the freezing mountains, symbolizing the ultimate downfall of the silver boom.
Yes, the producers did contact the real Baby Doe Tabor.
The producers of Silver Dollar approached her about attending the film’s world premiere, which was held in Denver on December 1, 1932. However, Baby Doe did not attend the premiere. She was advised by friends to sue those responsible for the movie, suggesting her reaction was not one of approval or cooperation with the film’s production. Despite this, there is a report that, while she apparently never saw the film, she sent some ore from the Matchless Mine to Denver to be displayed at the premiere—a small, but deeply symbolic gesture from the aging “Silver Queen” to the public spectacle based on her life.
The studio’s decision to rename the characters (Horace Tabor to Yates Martin, and Baby Doe Tabor to Lily Owens Martin) was likely a strategy to mitigate legal risks, given Baby Doe’s precarious financial and emotional state and the dramatic nature of the screen adaptation. The film, despite changing the names, clearly told the story of Horace, Augusta, and Baby Doe Tabor, capitalizing on the legend that was already surrounding her life, a legend she would live out until her death in 1935, found frozen in her cabin.
The Spectacle and Scope
Reviewers appreciated the film’s broad scope and its ability to capture a significant period of American financial history—the Colorado Silver Boom and the eventual crash of 1893. It was seen as more than just a character study; it was an ambitious attempt to weave personal tragedy into the fabric of national events. The film’s production values, characteristic of a major studio effort, were also noted, with the elaborate costumes and sets successfully conveying the opulence of Tabor’s peak years.
The making of Silver Dollar stands as an early example of Hollywood converting a sensational American life story into a cinematic epic. It cemented the early career of screenwriter Carl Erickson and brought the true-life drama of the Tabors—and the living legend of Baby Doe—to a national audience, even as its subject lived out her final, solitary years in the shadow of the silver fortune that had both defined and destroyed her.
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