The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)

Quasimodo: [title card] Sanctuary! Sanctuary!

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Quasimodo: Why was I not made of stone, like thee?

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Wallace Worsley Jr., son of the film's director, said that many of the extras for the massive crowd scenes were recruited in downtown Los Angeles for $1.00 a night and meals. Among them, he said, were a good number of prostitutes, who did a "considerable sideline business" on the sets. Universal also hired 50 Pinkerton detectives and put them among the crowd, and their job was to catch pickpockets and various other thieves among the extras.
The myth that Irving Thalberg came up with the idea for the movie was dispelled when it was discovered through telegrams and contracts in the collection of Alfred Grasso, Lon Chaney's manager, that Chaney himself suggested not only the story but who would be cast and who would direct. Chaney's original pick for director was actually Frank Borzage, not Wallace Worsley (who had directed several other pictures for Chaney). Erich von Stroheim, Allen Holubar, Chester Withey and Emile Chautard were all considered as well.
A competition was held in 1923 through Universal through various Photoplay music (stock silent music) companies to come up with a theme song for the film. The winner was Maurice Baron, whose characteristic reverie "The Chimes of Notre Dame" was used as the main theme. The original cue sheet to the film came with a copy of the piece for piano, with the suggestion that it be used imperatively.
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