A Tribute to Florence Turner, the Vitagraph Girl

A Tribute to Florence Turner, the Vitagraph Girl

Born in New York on January 6, 1887, Florence Turner spent a number of  years on stage and in vaudeville before joining the Brooklyn-based Vitagraph Company in 1907.

At that time, she was hired not only as an actress, but also as a bookkeeper, pay clerk, accountant, and wardrobe woman. Florence starred in a vast number of one-reel short subjects, including  Shakespeare adaptations and Southern melodramas.

Florence was the sole performer in a 1911 short titled “Jealousy,” a study in the art of dramatic expression.  A year later Florence had consolidated her popularity by making the first personal appearance by a screen star at a movie theatre in Brooklyn. Florence was a little old for the title, but she was recognized as “The Vitagraph Girl.”

When Florence left Vitagraph in 1913, it was not to join another American producer, but to travel to England, where she set up her own production company with Vitagraph director, Larry Trimble. In all, she starred in more than 25 British films. The most prominent are the five-reel adaptation of Far From the Madding Crowd (1915) and My Old Dutch (1915). In 1916, Florence and Larry Trimble returned to the United States. In the three years she had been away, The American film industry had changed drastically, with many of the old producers fading away and the feature film replacing the short subject. There was really no room for Florence. Unfortunately, there were also changes in the British film industry. Production was hampered by a lack of funds and lack of public interest in British films. By 1924, the slump was such that all production ceased.

Small roles were all that were left for the pioneering  actress, usually those of the mother, as in the Buster Keaton vehicle College (1927). By the 1930’s, Florence was playing extra and early in the next decade, she entered the Motion Picture Country House, where she died on August 28, 1946.

A Tribute to Molly O’Day

A Tribute to Molly O’Day

Born Suzanne Noonan in October 1910 in Bayonne, New Jersey, she was one of eleven children, Suzanne and her siblings were raised by a devoted mother.  Suzanne’s father was Judge Thomas Francis Noonan, and after his death money apparently became a concern for the family. The Noonan family sold their home in New Jersey and moved to California. The banks closed and the family became poor. Suzanne was fourteen and lived in California, so she tried for acting in the movies. Luckily, she was a success.

It was with the Noonan girls that sisters, Virginia and Isabelle both entered films. Virginia had perhaps the longest film career and became Sally O’Neil on the advice of MGM. First National eventually changed Suzanne’s name to Molly O’Day. Isabelle eventually realized films were not for her, and bowed out leaving Molly and Sally to achieve stardom.

Molly started her career making two-reelers with Hal Roach. She also made independent films with Buster Keaton. She enjoyed working with Keaton very much. Molly knew Loretta Young quite well because they went to the same Catholic girls high school together.

Molly’s big break occurred when she went on a casting call  to First National for the role of Curley Callahan in The Patent Leather Kid (1927). Molly won this coveted role which vaulted her to stardom. Richard Barthelmess was already a major star when he took on the role of the prize fighter in the film.

Molly and Richard Barthelmess did one more film together, The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come (1928).

In 1928, Molly was selected as a Wampas Baby Star.

Molly worked with her sister Sally O’Neil in The Lovelorn (1927), Show of Shows (1929), and Sisters (1930).

A Tribute to Madge Bellamy

A Tribute to Madge Bellamy

Born on June 30, 1902, in Hillsboro, Texas, Madge Bellamy was one of the few silent stars who came to Hollywood from the Broadway stage. She made her film debut in The Riddle : A Woman (1920) for Pathe and soon after was signed to a four-year contract by pioneer producer Thomas Ince.

In 1922, reviewers hailed her performance in Maurice Tourneur’s “Lorna Doone.” Her first film for Fox was in John Ford’s classic epic Western, The Iron Horse (1924) in which she played the heroine with leading man George O’Brien. A year later Madge signed a contract with Fox quickly becoming the studio’s most feminine star.

Madge’s brilliance as a comedienne in such films as Summer Bachelors (1926), Ankles Preferred (1927)  Very Confidential (1927) and Soft Living (1928) gained the attention of critics. Madge was loaned to Paramount to make The Call of the North (1921) with Jack Holt.

As an actress, Madge was entirely spontaneous and felt most of the directors didn’t know very much. In 1922, Maurice Tourneur directed Madge in "Lorna Doone"  Madge felt that "Lorna Doone" could have been a better film but Tourneur and the scriptwriter were not interested in characterization so it was just a series of pictures. Madge’s worst film was the improbable drama, Soul of the Beast (1923) in which her co-star is Anna May, the elephant.

Frank Borzage directed Madge in Lazy Bones (1925) where Madge plays an illegitimate child adopted by Buck Jones, who falls in love with her.

Mother Knows Best (1928) was a part talkie that starred Madge with Louise Dresser and Barry Norton. It was one of the few dramatic films she made. The popular song, “Sally of My Dreams” was written for this film.

In the early years of talkies, Madge had a spat with Fox Studios and fell from grace. She was unable to keep her stardom much longer. Madge made only nine films between 1929 and 1945.  White Zombie (1932) in which she has second billing after Bela Lugosi is the best known. Madge’s last film was Northwest Trail (1945).

Beautiful but dumb is how Madge Bellamy was described in the 1920’s. Madge was convicted and received a suspended sentence for shooting at her boyfriend, millionaire lumberman Albert Murphy. The Great Depression radicalized Madge, and she became a Socialist. Throughout her life, Madge was exploited by her parents and by Hollywood. In old age, she at least enjoyed the interest of young film buffs, who saw her as a link to the exotic era of silent films.

Madge lived her final years in Ontario, California in semi-rural  squalor. She died at the age of 91 in Upland California on January 24, 1990.

A Tribute to Pauline Starke

A Tribute to Pauline Starke

Born in Joplin, Missouri on January 10, 1900, Pauline Starke came to Los Angeles with her mother, and when the latter began work as an extra, her daughter would accompany her. Pauline happened to be in the crowd when D.W. Griffith was selecting and he said he admired her forehead.

Griffith used Pauline in quite a few pictures. Pauline was initially an extra in The Birth of a Nation (1915) and then selected as one of the favorites of the harem in the afternoon.

Pauline had the look of a country girl, unspoiled, natural and unfamiliar with makeup. She was featured in a number of films produced by the Fine Arts Company of which Griffith was the head and supervising producer, including The Wharf Rat (1916), The Bad Boy (1917), and Cheerful Givers (1917).

As late as 1919, Pauline was not a star. For example, Pauline is the second lead under Clara Kimball Young in that year’s Eyes of Youth (1919). By 1921, Pauline does have star billing along with Harry Myers in the first version of “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.”

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer signed Pauline to a contract in 1925 at a salary of $1,000 a week, rising the following year to $1500, and her first starring role there was opposite Conrad Nagel in Sun-Up (1925).

In Sun-Up (1925), Pauline is still the rugged outdoor type, but quickly MGM changed her image to that of a glamorous Hollywood –style star. Nowhere is this change more apparent than in the two-color Technicolor extravaganza, The Viking (1929), co-produced with the Technicolor Corporation and released in 1929 with music and sound effects. From Missouri country girl, Pauline Starke was transformed to the blonde Viking, Helga.

The Viking (1929) was Pauline’s last MGM release. She starred in a couple of talkies for Universal, Man, Woman, and Wife (1929), What Men Want (1930) and one for Columbia, A Royal Romance (1930) and then retired from the screen. Pauline was to have starred in the “camp” production of The Great Gabbo (1929) with Erich Von Stroheim, but after three of four days of shooting, director James Cruze replaced her with his wife Betty Compson.

Pauline later starred in a couple of B pictures in the 1930’s, but she couldn’t revive her career. In 1927, Pauline married comedy producer Jack White. They were divorced in 1931. The following year she married George Sherwood and their marriage was a lasting and happy one.

Pauline appeared in a total of 69 films. Some are lost films, but Captain Salvation (1927) and Little Church Around the Corner (1923) are available on dvd. 

A Tribute to Clara Kimball Young

A Tribute to Clara Kimball Young

Clara Kimball Young played the sort of roles in the1910’s that were taken by Norma Talmadge in the 1920’s. She starred in dozens of successful “women pictures” featuring noble, mature characters coping with tragedy and heartbreak.

Clara was born of theatrical parents. She was born in Chicago on September 6, 1890. Her earliest childhood was spent on the stage because her mother did not want to leave her home, so she acted across the country until she was old enough for boarding school.

Clara spent her teen years at St. Francis Xavier Academy in her hometown, then went right back onstage. While playing stock in Salt Lake City, Clara met actor/director James Young and the two wed in 1912.

When Clara was in her 20’s, she and her husband signed with Vitagraph and worked there for two years. While making some twenty Vitagraph films, Clara learned to apply her own film makeup and design her own costumes. Clara made both dramas and comedies at Vitagraph, often costarring with Maurice Costello, but at twenty-five she appeared ten years older and parlor dramas suited her best.

Clara’ biggest Vitagraph success was also her last film, My Office Wife (1914), which was directed by her husband. Lewis J. Selznick stole Clara from Vitagraph shortly after and she was to stay with him through her greatest successes.

In 1914, at least one fan magazine poll named her the country’s most popular actress. However, Clara’s success unnerved her husband whose career was waning. They divorced in 1919. Her career continued with hit film after another. She even  played “Trilby” and “Camille” in 1915 and recreated dramatic Broadway hits.

In 1916, Selznick to reward her for her first success formed The Clara Kimball Young Corporation within Selznick. Unfortunately, things started falling apart when Clara married producer/director Harry Garson, who took control of her career at a dangerous point. The problem was that Clara projected a rather matronly image in the flapper era. Clara and her husband left Selznick and went out on their own. Things went all right for a year or two.

In 1919, Clara starred in the successful "Eyes of Youth" for Equity. Her leading man in this melodrama was Milton Sills, but supporting player Rudolph Valentino stole the film. In 1922, Clara separated from her second husband and freelanced at different studios. Clara was seriously injured in an auto accident in 1932 and declared bankruptcy the following year. Flat broke, Clara made her film comeback in RKO’s Kept Husbands (1932) starring Joel McCrea.

Clara appeared in another sixteen films after Kept Husbands (1932). A few were for the major westerns, but the remainder were for Monogram, Chesterfield, Tiffany, and the like. Humiliating articles appeared regularly, but what was remarkable was Clara’s cheerful attitude about her plight. Her response was that she had her share of glory. Clara’s last film was The Round Up (1941) another low-budget western in which fellow silent film star Francis S. Bushman made an appearance. Even  though she was out of the film industry, Clara did not become a recluse. She spoke at film conventions and spoke to reporters, but she refused to become nostalgic.

In 1956, Clara signed on as correspondent with Johnny Carson’s comedy variety show on CBS. This was before his “Tonight Show” fame. Clara entered the Motion Picture Country Home after a bout with pneumonia in January 1960. When she died on October 15 of that year, Clara was broke and virtually forgotten. She was also one of the happiest and most emotionally healthy actresses the film industry ever produced. Clara died at the age of 70.

A Tribute to Claire Windsor

 A Tribute to Claire Windsor

Born Ola Kronk in Cawker City, Kansas, on April 14, 1897, Claire Windsor was a professional dancer, a single parent with a three-year-old son, when she arrived in Los Angeles.

After working as an extra in a couple of features directed by Allan Dwan, Claire was spotted by director Lois Weber. She was signed to a one-year contract at a salary of $150 dollars a week, and renamed Claire Windsor. The name was selected by Lois Weber because she felt it captured what she perceived as the English patrician beauty of the actress.

Claire’s best work is in the five feature films produced and directed by Lois Weber between 1920 and 1921, To Please One Woman (1920), What’s Worth While (1921), Too Wise Wives (1921), The Blot (1921) and What Do Men Want? (1921).

Each of the films deal with the male-female relationship, and Claire and Lois Weber are helped tremendously in that the male in three of the films is Louis Calhern who was to go on a distinguished film and stage career. There is little drama in the stories, and whatever emotional intensity exists is created by Claire’s character.

Claire and Lois Weber might have continued to work together had their films been successful at the box office. They were not, and Claire signed a contract with Samuel Goldwyn. Claire was later under contract to MGM from 1924-1926.

From 1925 to 1927, Claire was married to Bert Lytell,  who had once been the highest paid male star at Metro, but whose career was rapidly declining.

Claire was a very busy actress in the 1920’s, but only a few of her post-Weber films are worthy of consideration, and neither are any of her occasional appearances in sound films through the mid-1940’s. Claire was questioned by the police in the William Desmond murder case in 1922, since she and Taylor had a dinner date the night before he was found murdered in his house. Claire was eventually cleared of any involvement in the murder.  

Claire was involved in a highly publicized escapade in July 1921. While horseback riding in the Hollywood Hills, she disappeared for two days. Charlie Chaplin offered a 1,000 reward for her safe return, and there were rumors that he was planning to marry her. It was all a publicity stunt.  

In her later years, Claire was a stunningly beautiful grandmother. Claire died in Los Angeles on October 23, 1972. She was 75 years old. 

A Tribute to Alice Howell

 A Tribute to Alice Howell

One of the most entertaining, unusual, and underrated of silent screen comediennes was Alice Howell, a famous vaudevillian.

Alice Howell was born Alice Cook in New York on May 20, 1886, and took her stage name from a vaudeville act, Howell and Howell that she and her husband, Dick Smith replaced.

The couple entered films in 1913 with Mack Sennett, appearing together as party guests in Tillie’s Punctured Romance (1914). Alice can be seen in a number of Charlie Chaplin’s Keystone shorts, most notably as the dentist’s wife in Laughing Gas  (1914).

Alice became a comedy star with Henry “Pathe” Lehrman’s Knock-Out Komedies made by his L-Ko  Motion Picture in 1915.  At L-Ko, Alice hid her natural beauty and developed a unique eccentric style of dress with ill-fitting clothing, her hair piled into a mess of golden curls and topped with the most unsuitable hats. Her eyebrows were over emphasized and her walk was more like a penguin.

Alice was no light or polite comedienne, she was a physical comic who could handle anything better than any male. It’s no exaggeration to describe Alice as the female counterpart of Charlie Chaplin.

While Chaplin had his tramp costume, Alice had her scrub lady outfit. However, while Chaplin developed his comedy for the feature-length film, Alice was stuck in short subjects for most of her career, moving from L-Ko to Reelcraft, to Universal in the early 1920’s, and, finally, to Fox for a couple of titles in 1926 and 1927.

Unlike Chaplin, Alice didn’t really care much about her film career. Alice made films in order to make money, and she invested her money in real estate. By the late 1920’s, she had no need to work and all she cared about was real estate.

Alice Howell died a wealthy woman in Los Angeles on April 11, 1961. Her passing went unrecorded in both the trade and the popular press.

Alice Howell had an extensive filmography with more than 80 titles. Some of the titles are intriguing such as Silk Hose and High Pressure (1915), Lizzy’s Lingering Love (1916), Tilly’s Terrible Tumbles (1916), and Beauty and the Boob (1919).

If someone would screen Alice Howell’s films today, she would probably generate more laughter than Mabel Normand.

A Tribute to Ralph Graves

A Tribute to Ralph Graves

Born in Cleveland, Ohio on July 23, 1900, Ralph Graves came from a wealthy family, but jumped a freight train to get away from his parents and soon found himself in Chicago. Here, he entered a contest organized by Universal to find a leading man for actress Violet Mersereau. Graves won the contest but instead of coming to Hollywood, he found a position with the Chicago-based Essanay Company by Louella Parsons, who was then a newspaper woman in the city. 

Graves first major screen role was as leading man to Mary MacLane in Men Who Have Made Love to Me (1918). In 1919, Graves was signed by D.W. Griffith and immediately signed Graves in two 1919 productions, “Scarlet Days” and “The Greatest Question,” and starred opposite Carol Dempster in the 1921 feature “Dream Street.”

After Dream Street (1919), Graves received a number of offers from other producers. Graves went to consult with Griffith as he had done with Blanche Sweet and Lillian Gish, and others, the director told him to go.

The features in which Graves appeared in the 1920’s were not memorable, but he had the opportunity to play opposite Colleen Moore, Miriam Cooper, Marguerite de la Motte, Bessie Love and Blanche Sweet. 

From 1923 through 1926, Graves was under contract to Mack Sennett playing opposite Mabel Normand in The Extra Girl (1923) and starring in a series of two-reel comedy shorts. 

Claiming that he was losing his hair and his sex appeal, Graves decided to become a director, initially for Harry Cohn at Columbia, although he did continue acting until as late as 1949.

At Columbia, Graves became associated with actor Jack Holt and with director Frank Capra, whom the actor had become familiar with at the Mack Sennett studios. 

Capra did star Graves in five features: That Certain Thing (1928), Submarine (1928), Flight (1929) Ladies of Leisure (1930) and Dirigible (1931). 

In the 1930’s, Graves became an assistant director at MGM to Irving Thalberg. 

In old age, Graves had a healthy contempt for a society that would relegate a great man such as D.W. Griffith to the gutter and that could denigrate a Rudolph Valentino because he was a foreigner. Graves also believed that black people and uneducated people were looked down. 

By the 1950’s, Graves was retired but living well in Balboa, Holmby Hills and eventually Santa Barbara, where he died on February 18, 1977. He was 76 years old. 

Ralph Graves had an extensive film career. He appeared in a total of 92 films between 1918 and 1949.

  

A Tribute to Mae Murray

A Tribute to Mae Murray

Mae Murray was called the “girl with the bee-stung lips.” She was a popular star of early films, yet she is largely forgotten today.

 Director Erich Von Stroheim’s The Merry Widow (1925) is the film in which Mae Murray is best remembered, but it was not typical of most of her work.

A former showgirl and artists’ model, Mae Murray was born in Portsmouth, Virginia on May 10, 1889, with the name of Marie Adrienne Koenig.

Little is known about Mae’s childhood, but by her teenage years she was already in New York. She made her professional debut singing “Comin’ Through the Rye” as Vernon Castle’s partner in 1906 on Broadway in “About Town” and soon appeared in the 1908, 1909, and 1915 Ziegfeld Follies as a featured dancer.

Mae Murray’s beauty transcended the early years of screen imagery in the teens, a style that reflected the Victorian era’s girl-next door, virginal purity. Mae quickly remade her image in The Roaring Twenties style of hair designs and makeup. Her famous bee stung lips were the vogue in the 1920’s.

Mae starred in 44 films from 1916- 1931. Her early image changed from wholesome virtuous vamps as illustrated by some of the titles of her films: Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1916), The Dream Girl (1916), The Plow Girl (1916), and A Mormon Maid (1917). The titles of some of her jazz-age films were Modern Love (1918), The ABC of Love (1919), The Delicious Little Devil (1919), with a young Rudolph Valentino as her love interest and Peacock Alley (1922).

Fascination (1922) kept Mae well-suited in a parade of splendid gowns, loaded with flaming youth, bee stung lips, and Prohibition defiance. However, “The Dance of the Bulls” stirred up heated controversy and was criticized by many for the suggestive movements deployed by Mae.

Many critics today would acknowledge that Mae was not a great actress, and by the coming of sound she was reduced to working in a poverty row production of Peacock Alley (1930). Mae also appeared in two talkies in 1931, “High Stakes” and “Bachelor Apartment.”

Mae’s best performance was in The Merry Widow (1925), and it was because Erich Von Stroheim  pounded out of Mae a performance of depth and sincerity.

Mae’s marriage to Prince Mdivani, a Georgian prince of dubious ancestry, ended and she lost custody of her son. She was forced into bankruptcy and barely survived the next two decades. In her later years a sort of dementia seemed to overcome her. Mae spent her last days in The Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland  Hills, California. Mae died on March 23, 1965. She was 75 years old.

A Tribute to Katherine Perry

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A Tribute to Katherine Perry

Born Katherine Perry in New York City on January 5, 1897, a Ziegfeld Follies show girl as Katherine was a natural for a screen career, despite a limited talent as an actress. 

Katherine came to director D.W. Griffith’s attention and with her mother visited his Mamaroneck Studios on Long Island. 

However, Katherine was disappointed when her participation was limited to that of of one of the attractive young ladies partying with Lowell Sherman. Griffith did, however, give her one close-up, and that may have lead to Katherine’s making her first credited screen performance as Miss Hollander in Lewis J. Selznick’s production of Sooner or Later (1920).

The leading man in Sooner or Later (1920) was Owen Moore (Mary Pickford’s first husband). Katherine did not play opposite him, but in her second film with Owen Moore, The Chicken in the Case (1921) she was his leading lady. Katherine married Owen Moore on July 16, 1921, and embarked on a domestic life that was as comic as the farces in which the two appeared on screen. 

Owen Moore was brother to Matt and Tom, all of whom were from Ireland. Aside from The Chicken in the Case (1921), Katherine co-starred with Owen in A Divorce of Conscience (1921) and Love Is an Awful Thing (1922) for Lewis J. Selznick, and Husbands for Rent (1927) at Warner Bros. 

Katherine starred opposite Mat Moore in The First Year (1926) and Early to Wed (1926) released by Fox. Katherine’s first talkie was Side Street (1929), a crime drama released by RKO starring all three of the Moore brothers, but with Tom rather than Owen as her romantic interest. After Side Street (1929) there were no more featured roles. Owen Moore died at the couple’s Beverly Hills home on June 9, 1939 of a heart attack at the age of 52. Katherine continued to act on screen through 1951, but her roles were always uncredited bits such as that of a socialite in My Man Godfrey (1936). Toward the end of her life Katherine admitted that she didn’t think she did anything very well, but she was happy all the time. Katherine died at the Motion Picture Country Hospital on October 14, 1983. She was 86 years old, and had aged from a beautiful brunette to a gray-haired old lady with a risqué sense of humor.

Katherine appeared in a total of thirty-six films from 1920-1936, and most of them were credited as Kathryn Perry.

A Tribute to Esther Ralston

Dubbed “The American Venus,” Esther Ralston began her film career as an extra in the late teens. Born Esther North in Bar Harbor, Maine on September 17, 1902, her family can be traced back to the Mayflower. Around 1904 the Norths changed their name to Ralston and took to the stage. By the mid 1910’s, Esther, her four brothers, and her parents were touring the United States.

The Ralstons arrived in California in 1917, and Esther spent the next few years playing parts in films. Her first major role was in William Desmond Taylor’s Huckleberry Finn (1920).

Esther appeared in twenty-four films before being signed to a contract at Paramount to play Miss Darling in Peter Pan (1924). Esther was twenty- two years old and co-starred with Betty Bronson and Mary Brian. During the next six years, Esther rose in the Paramount ranks, starring or co-starring in another twenty-five films. 

Among the better known films were The Best People (1925) with Warner Baxter, The American Venus (1926) with Louise Brooks, Old Ironsides (1926) with Wallace Beery and Charles Farrell, A Kiss for Cinderella (1926) with Betty Bronson, Children of Divorce (1927) with Gary Cooper and Clara Bow, Betrayal (1929) with Emil Jannings, and her first talkie, The Wheel of Life (1929).

Possibly Esther’s greatest film performance was in Josef von Stenberg’s The Case of Lena Smith (1929).

Although she was one of Paramount’s top stars, Esther was let go in 1929, at the dawn of the talkie era. The studio just couldn’t take the chance to pay so much money without knowing if talkies will catch on.

Esther married a total of three times, but they all ended in divorce. Esther did, however, come out of these marriages with two daughters and one son. 

Esther retained happy memories of her career and her costars. Among her best friends were Gary Cooper, Randolph Scott and Warner Baxter. However being beautiful and innocent had its pitfalls, especially in Hollywood. When signed to MGM in 1934, Esther claimed to have refused the favors of Louis B. Mayer several times, although she never reported it to the press. Mayer threatened that she would never get another job. He sold Esther to Universal for five or six pictures instead of paying her the MGM salary. The only major studio that would take Esther was Paramount thanks to Randolph Scott. 

Few of Esther’s talking films are classics, but she appeared in an impressive twenty-seven films from 1931-1941. Sadie McKee (1934) with Joan Crawford was one of her favorites because it was the first time they let her sing, and she got along fine with Joan Crawford.

Esther also did TV commercials, soap operas, radio and theater. Esther eventually gave up film-going, although she continued to enjoy television till the end of her life. Esther ended her days in an upscale trailer park in Ventura, California where one of her brothers also lived. Esther died on January 14, 1994. She was 92 years old and was survived by her three children, fifteen grandchildren and three great grand-children.