A Tribute to Katherine Perry

-->

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.

A Tribute to Lois Wilson

A Tribute to Lois Wilson Born in Pittsburgh on June 28, 1894, Lois Wilson was the most famous of four sisters who entered films. The others were Connie Lewis, Diana Kane and Janice Wilson.

Lois made her debut in director Lois Weber’s The Dumb Girl of Portici (1916) after winning a beauty contest organized by Universal. Under contract to Universal, Lois moved to Los Angeles and established herself as J. Warren Kerrigan’s leading lady. Lois was not too impressed with Kerrigan’s performance opposite her in The Covered Wagon (1923) and felt that John Holt would have been better suited for the role.

In 1919, Lois signed a long-term contract with Famous Players-Lasky, with whom she remained until 1926, and for whom she contributed her finest screen performances. Lois had the second female lead after Leatrice Joy in Cecil B. De Mille’s Manslaughter (1922) Lois also had the second female lead after Pola Negri in Bella Donna (1923). Lois was the love interest in Edward Everett Horton’s Ruggles of Red Gap (1923). Lois went to Ireland to play opposite Thomas Meighan in Irish Luck (1925) Lois appeared with her sister Diana Kane opposite Ben Lyon in Bluebeard’s Seven Wives (1925), and starred opposite Ford Sterling and Louise Brooks in The Show-Off (1926). She was also Richard Dix’s leading lady in Let’s Get Married (1926). In the Rudolph Valentino vehicle, Monsieur Beaucaire (1924), Lois played Queen Marie of France and Lowell Sherman was King Louis XV.



In all, Lois appeared in more than thirty Paramount features. She found particular enjoyment in seven produced at the company’s Astoria, New York studios.



During the 1930’s, Lois alternated between leads and supporting roles in pictures. She appeared in a small role with Bette Davis in Seed (1931). At Warner Brothers in 1932 and 1933, she had supporting roles in The Crash (1932) and Female (1933) starring Ruth Chatterton. Lois also had a small part in The Age of Love (1931) which was produced by Howard Hughes and starred Billie Dove. Lois also did Divorce in the Family (1932) with Conrad Nagel and Jackie Cooper for MGM. Lois had a small part in No Greater Glory (1934) at Columbia with Ralph Morgan. She also did Bright Eyes (1934) at Fox with Shirley Temple. In a film career that spanned from 1916 to 1949, Lois appeared in over one hundred films, and her last screen appearance was as Virginia Mayo’s mother in The Girl from Jones Beach (1949). Lois went on to work in television and on stage.

It’s interesting to note that when Bette Davis became an established star, she wrote in a book she autographed to Lois Wilson-“To Lois Wilson, the first star I ever worked with-Love, Bette Davis.”



Lois never married, and during her later years, she suffered severe memory loss. Eventually, Lois relocated to a niece’s home in Reno, Nevada where she died on March 3, 1988. Lois was 93 years old.-

A Tribute to Neil Hamilton

A Tribute to Neil Hamilton

Born in Lynn, Massachusetts on September 9, 1899, Neil Hamilton was a sometime player in stock and a model for Arrow shirts in magazine ads. Neil got his first film role in 1918, but received his big break from D.W. Griffith in The White Rose (1923) with Carol Dempster, one of Griffith’s actresses. Neil also starred with Carol Dempster in America (1924) and Isn’t Life Wonderful? (1924) before he was signed by Paramount in the late 1920’s.

  In the late 1920’s, Neil became one of the studio’s most popular leading man. Some of the films he starred during the mid to late 1920’s were Beau Geste (1926), The Great Gatsby (1926) Diplomacy (1926), The Joy Girl (1927) and Why Be Good? (1929). Neil easily transitioned into sound films in The Love Trap (1929), a part silent, part talkie. He was very busy throughout the 1930’s playing leading man to many female stars of the day like Jean Arthur in The Return of Fu Manchu (1930), Marian Nixon in Ex-Flame (1930), Alice White in The Widow from Chicago (1930), Norma Shearer in Strangers May Kiss (1931), Joan Crawford in Laughing Sinners (1931), Helen Hayes in The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1932), Constance Bennett in What Price Hollywood? (1932) and Two Against the World (1932), Myrna Loy in The Animal Kingdom (1932) Maureen O’Sullivan in Tarzan, The Ape Man (1932) and Ann Sothern in Blind Date (1934) and many more films until the 1940’s when he couldn’t find A-level work in Hollywood and he was reduced to working in B films.

A staunch Catholic, Neil later claimed that his faith got him through this difficult period. When television came along, Neil hosted Hollywood Screen Test (1948-1953) and did guest shots on numerous series of the 1950’s and 1960’s such as seven episodes of Perry Mason with Yvonne Craig who would go on to play Neil’s daughter in the Batman series of the 1960’s. Neil also appeared in episodes of Perry Mason, 77 Sunset Strip, as well as Maverick, Mister Ed, and The Outer Limits in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Neil is best remembered as Police Commissioner Gordon in the Batman series of the 1960’s, and appeared in all 120 episodes of Batman.

Neil was married to Elsa Whitmer from 1922 until his death in 1984 of an asthma attack. The couple had one son. Neil was actually a distant cousin of Margaret Hamilton, best known for playing The Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz (1939).

I think Neil was a versatile actor that was very effective in playing cads as well as romantic leads. I like the way he had a respectable career in silent and pre-code films and a busy career as a character actor after the 1940’s. Neil’s career spanned from 1918- 1971.

A Tribute to Laura La Plante

-->

A Tribute to Laura La Plante

The natural, down-home beauty of silent film actress Laura La Plante was matched by an easy going charm and personality. Her characterizations were generally wholesome and refreshingly light, a welcome relief from the exoticism of other leading ladies of the 1920’s. 

Although mainly a comedienne, Laura’s early personal life was marked by poverty and her parents’ divorce seemed far from the antics of her screen characters. Born on November 1, 1904, in St. Louis, Missouri, Laura was not motivated by any artistic aspirations, but rather, the need to help with the family’s finances. Following a divorce, Laura’s mother moved her and her sister from St. Louis to California. 

In 1920, Laura was sent to stay with her aunt in Los Angeles and obtained work with the Christie Comedy Company. Laura spent the formative years of her career developing her skills in short comedies, serials and westerns. At the age of nineteen, Laura was teamed with Reginald Denny in the comedy Sporting Youth (1924) and was on her way to the top. 

Laura’s big break came when Charles Ray cast her as the love interest, Myrtle, in The Old Swimmin Hole (1921). After two minor films at Fox, Laura moved over to Universal, where she was to spend the rest of the decade.  Laura was often in comedies, and her role as the feminine half of a couple striving for upward mobility was one she made all her own. In Skinner’s Dress Suit (1926), for instance, Laura and Reginald Denny are a young married couple living beyond their means as they “try to keep up with the Joneses.” In Poker Faces (1926) opposite Edward Everett Horton, Laura is a wife who takes a job to earn additional money to buy a new rug. 

As the heroine of The Love Trap (1929) directed by William Wyler, Laura as a chorus girl married to a taxi driver, played by Neil Hamilton, exposes sexual hypocrisy, takes control of her life, and ends up demonstrating how much wiser and more mature she is than are the men around her. However, Laura was not always the clever wife outwitting a husband. She demonstrated her range in films like Smouldering Fires (1924), and The Midnight Sun (1926). In the Cat and the Canary (1927) Laura is charming as the heiress to an estate that includes a haunted house. 

With the dawn of sound in 1929, Laura had the part of Magnolia, the romantic lead in the first version of Show Boat (1929) co-starring Joseph Schildkraut. Success seemed assured in talkies, but in 1930, Laura abruptly left Universal before her contract had expired. Amidst the upheavels caused by sound, the studio apparently lost interest in her career. 

In 1933, Laura moved to Europe where she divorced her first husband, director William A. Seiter to marry Irving Asher, a former publicist  who was then heading Warner Brothers’ British studio. Laura had not intended to make films in England, but at her new husband’s suggestion, she starred in five: Her Imaginary Lover (1933), The Girl in Possession (1934), The Church Mouse (1934) Widow’s Might (1935), and Man of the Moment (1935), the last opposite Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Laura La Plante and Irving Asher might have remained in England had it not been for WWII, but they had two small children and they wanted to get to California. 

Back in the United States, Laura made a few films through 1957, but she had no real interest in reviving her career. Laura and her husband retired to Rancho Mirage near Palm Springs. Laura died at the Motion Picture Country Hospital on October 14, 1996. She was 91 years old. 

It’s interesting to note that Laura La Plante was considered the Doris Day of her era because of her girl- next-door persona in an age of glamour queens. 

Laura La Plante appeared in about 100 films in a career that spanned from 1920-1957.

A Tribute to May McAvoy

A Tribute to May McAvoy

Silent film actress May McAvoy is best remembered for being the leading lady to Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer (1927) and Ramon Novarro in Ben Hur (1925). However, May went on to star in forty films, working for every major Hollywood studio in the 1920’s until sound ended her career.

Born in New York City on September 8, 1899,M to an Irish-American family, she was only 4’10” in height and author Carl Sandburg called her “the star-eyed goddess.” May’s moving and sensitive performance in Paramount’s production of Sir James Barrie’s Sentimental Tommy (1921) landed her a contract with Paramount and choice roles such as George Fitzmaurice’s Kick In (1922) and William C. deMille’s The Bedroom Window (1924). 

Stardom for May, however, was not with its difficulties. She refused to be typecast as the “girl next door.” Nor would May allow herself to be exploited as a sex goddess. When Cecil B. DeMille wanted May to appear semi-nude in a film, she flatly turned him down. 

As a result, for three years May freelanced in some very impressive films. May costarred with Ronald Colman in the Samuel Goldwyn production of Tarnish (1924) and costarred with Richard Barthelmess in The Enchanted Cottage (1924). May also costarred with Ronald Colman in Ernst Lubitsch’s Lady Windermere’s Fan (1925), a film that she didn’t like because she thought she wasn’t right for it, but Lubitsch insisted and she decided to do it because she liked working with him. Ironically, Lady Windermere’s Fan  (1925) is one of May’s better known films aside from Ben Hur (1925) and The Jazz Singer (1927).

Some of May’s lesser known films were Morals (1921), and The Top of New York (1922) which were director William Desmond Taylor’s last films before he was murdered. May worked with Wallace Reid in director William C. DeMille’s  Clarence (1922) just when his drug problem was very visible. May was loaned out to make Her Reputation (1923) for Thomas Ince, which happened to be a very good picture.

Continuing to freelance, May did the Mad Whirl (1924) at Universal which was directed by Bill Seiter. May also did My Old Dutch (1926) at Universal which was directed by Larry Trimble and starred Pat O’Malley. The Savage (1926) starring Ben Lyon was a picture May did for First National.

In Metro, May starred in The Fire Brigade (1926) with Charles Ray. May also did a lot of comedies at Warners because she was sick of drama. In 1929, May left the screen to marry Maurice Cleary, an executive at United Artists. The marriage lasted until she widowed in 1973. She insisted that her career came to an end, in part, because she was used as a guinea pig by Warner Brothers in their first talking pictures when she was billed as “The Vitaphone Girl.” Then came the rumors that May had a lisp, allegations she attributes to the poor quality of Warners’ primitive early talkies. In 1940, May went back to pictures when her son started school. She played extra and bit roles in many films at Metro in the 40’s and 50’s until she retired. May died on April 26, 1984. She was 84 years old. 

A Tribute to Gertrude Olmstead

A Tribute to Gertrude Olmstead Silent film actress Gertrude Olmstead began her career in Westerns. On June 13, 1920, Gertrude won the Herald-Examiner Elks’ beauty contest in Chicago, where she was born on November 13, 1897. Erich Von Stroheim was brought to Chicago to test the fifteen participants, and when Gertrude was declared the winner, Carl Laemmle immediately signed Gertrude to a contract at Universal.

In 1925, Gertrude became Lon Chaney’s leading lady in The Monster (1925) wearing a blonde wig, and she was to play a lesser role with him in Mr. Wu (1927). In the early 1920’s, Gertrude left Universal and embarked on a career as leading lady to many of the major male stars of the day. She played opposite John Gilbert in Cameo Kirby (1923), Tom Mix in Ladies to Board (1924), Reginald Denny in California Straight Ahead (1925) and The Cheerful Fraud (1927). Milton Sills in Puppets (1926), Charles Ray in Sweet Adeline (1926) George K. Arthur in The Boob (1926), and Richard Dix in Sporting Goods (1928). She reached  the peak of her career in September 1924, when she was signed by MGM, a studio with which she was to remain through 1927. It was the same year when Gertrude appeared in The Callahans and the Murphys starring Marie Dressler.

Two of the most memorable, if not the most important films of Gertrude’s career are Cobra (1925) with Rudolph Valentino and The Torrent (1926), on which she was billed third below Greta Garbo and Ricardo Cortez. One positive result from Gertrude’s MGM contract was playing Time, the Comedian (1925) on the set of which she met director Robert Z. Leonard. The couple were married in Santa Barbara, California in June 1926 and remained together until Leonard’s death in 1968. Gertrude continued to work through 1929. Her first talkie was Hit of the Show (1928) opposite Joe E. Brown, followed by four further sound productions. After 1929, Gertrude was happy to retire and spend more time with her husband. She considered her career to be very colorless and very short. Gertrude passed away on January 18, 1975. She was 78 years old.

A Tribute to Mary MacLaren

-->

A Tribute to Mary MacLaren

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on January 19, 1896, Mary MacLaren was barely pretty, but she had the appearance of an average working-class girl. Director Lois Weber found the actress easy to direct and was impressed by her ordinary features. As a result, Mary was perfect for the lead in Shoes (1916) where she is a shop girl.

It was a heartrending melodrama that might have been over the top were it not for Weber’s direction and Mary’s performance. Weber directed Mary again in Idle Wives (1916) , Wanted –a Home (1916), and The Mysterious Mrs. M. (1917), in which the actress had the opportunity to play a lighter role.

Weber brought out in Mary a talent that others could not discern. David O. Selznick was particularly harsh, stating that Mary could not act. However, audiences enjoyed Mary’s performances because she seemed able to weep profusely on camera.

Persuaded by her sister, actress Katherine MacDonald not to renegotiate a Universal contract, and unable to come to terms with Paramount, Mary became an independent player in the late teens, but she was unsuccessful at finding adequate roles.

Mary’s last prominent appearance is as the queen of France in Douglas Fairbanks’ production of The Three Musketeers (1921). Mary’s last silent film is The Dark Swan (1924), in which she is seventh billed. In 1924, Mary married a British colonel George H. Young and moved with him to India. The marriage was not successful and the couple divorced. 

Mary returned to the screen in 1933 as a bit player in more than seventy-five films made over the next two decades. In the late 1940’s, Mary began operating the home in which she had moved in 1917 in Hollywood as a boarding house. She sank slowly into poverty.

Mary was involved in automobile wrecks in 1946 and 1961. In 1965, Mary married Robert S. Coleman, a blind amputee veteran of World War I. She described it as a “marriage of mercy.” In 1981, a fire destroyed the upper floor of Mary’s house.  

A visit to Mary’s house after the fire was certainly an experience. She would sit down on the decomposing couch on the front porch. Mary also slept on a rotted mattress with her five dogs and four cats. The welfare of the animals was far more important to Mary than her wellbeing, and whatever money was available, she spent on them.

In December 1983, the house in which Mary had lived for 65 years was auctioned off. Mary passed away on November 9, 1985 as a resident of the Virgil Convalescent Hospital. She was eighty-nine years old. 

It is very sad that the 1929 stock market crash wiped Mary’s fortune and in her final decades she was declared incompetent and living like a bag lady while her sister actress Katherine MacDonald died in luxury. It’s also ironic that Mary was a more talented actress than Katherine.

A Tribute to Mary Philbin

A Tribute to Mary Philbin

Even though Mary Philbin is best known for unmasking Lon Chaney in The Phantom of the Opera (1925), she was in a number of Universal’s best known productions of the 1920’s. Born on July 16, 1903, in Chicago, Mary had a strict Irish Catholic upbringing. 

Mary entered the 1920 Herald-Examiner Elks’ beauty contest in Chicago and Universal Studios mogul Carl Laemmle immediately signed her to a contract and she was to remain with Universal through 1929. 

Mary made her film debut in "The Blazing Trail" (1921) and had the good fortune to be cast as Erich Von Stroheim’s leading lady in "Merry-Go-Round" (1923). Mary tried unsuccessfully to emulate Mary Pickford in the 1925 remake of "Stella Maris." She was Conrad Veidt’s co-star in "The Man Who Laughs" (1927) and "The Last Performance" (1927). In 1928, Mary was loaned to D.W. Griffith for "Drums of Love", one of the director’s lesser works. 

It was after the opening night of "The Man Who Laughs" (1927) that Mary announced her engagement to agent Paul Kohner, who had co-written Mary’s 1928 film, "Love Me and the World is Mine,"directed by E.A. Dupont.

Mary’s parents were outraged at the news that Paul Kohner was Jewish and she was told that she would be disowned if she married him. Paul was devastated when Mary gave him the engagement ring back. There were no further suitors in Mary’s life, and the actress never married. Mary did appear in three sound films in 1929, and she could have continued her career, but instead she retired. She never gave interviews after that and became a reclusive in her later years.

Mary appeared in a total of 32 films from 1921-1929.

It’s interesting to note that shortly after Paul Kohner’s death in 1989, workers cleaning out his office at his agency found Mary’s love letters close at hand in his desk more than sixty years later.

Paul Kohner married Mexican actress Lupita Tovar in 1932, and their marriage lasted until his death in 1989. They had two children. Lupita Tovar is now 102 years old.

Mary Philbin died on May 7, 1993. She was 90 years old.

Personally, I think Mary Philbin’s life was one of the saddest in Hollywood. It’s unfortunate that she allowed her parents to completely dominate her to the point that she never got to marry the man she loved, experience motherhood or just live on her own instead of living with her parents until they passed away. Mary had the tendency to give in to her parents’ wishes, and as a result, she had a very empty life.

A Tribute to Jack Mulhall

A  Tribute to Jack Mulhall

Even though Jack Mulhall made major appearances in over 150 silent films, together with more than 200 supporting and bit performances in sound features, he is not a famous name in film history. However, Jack was a reliable and affable leading man who ultimately outlasted many of his female stars. With his broad smile, blue eyes, and genial demeanor, Jack was breezy without being arrogant.

Born on October 7, 1887, in Wappinger Falls, New York, he entered films in 1913 with the American Biograph Company, after a career as a café singer and dancer in vaudeville.

Jack was under contract to Universal as a juvenile lead opposite Cleo Madison in 1916, to Famous Players Lasky in 1918, and to First National for seven years in the 1920’s. 

 

Some of the silent films he starred are not well remembered. Dulcy (1923), with Constance Talmadge, Within the Law (1923) with Norma Talmadge,The Mad Whirl (1925) with May McAvoy, Classified (1925) with Corinne Griffith, Orchids and Ermine (1927 ) and We Moderns (1928) with Colleen Moore, and ten features with Dorothy Mackaill, who perfectly matched him in charm. 

 Jack may not have been a typical actor, but he was a long standing member of the Screen Actor’s Guild, becoming a life member in 1934, and from 1959 through 1976, he served as a field representative for the organization. Jack died at the Motion Picture Country House on June 1, 1979. He was 91 years old.

Jack’s private life was rather tragic. His first wife Bertha Vuillot died shortly after their marriage. His second, Laura Brinton, committed suicide in 1921. A third marriage to Evelyn Winans outlasted Jack’s life, and they had one daughter.