Earle was a director at Vitagraph back in the silent era. In 1941 his old boss, Vitagraph owner
J. Stuart Blackton, was struck by a bus in Los Angeles and later died of his injuries. It turned out that Blackton was penniless and was about to be buried by the city of Los Angeles in a pauper's cemetery. Earle heard of it, bought his old boss a plot of land at Forest Lawn Cemetery and had him buried there. He later married Blackton's ex-wife,
Evangeline Russell, and when she died he had her ashes placed next to Blackton's at Forest Lawn.