Ziegfeld Girls
These actresses were showgirls in the Ziegfeld Follies ~ You can learn more about them at Ziegfeldfolliesgirls.com
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- Stunning silent screen actress Martha Mansfield was a musical comedy star in New York City by the time she entered films in 1916 for Max Linder. Before long she advanced to second leads in features, including the role of Millicent Carew in the John Barrymore starrer Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), which to this day remains her best known. The promising beauty was signed by Fox Studios in 1923 and began work on a new picture The Warrens of Virginia (1924). Nearing the completion of the film, Martha had just finished a scene and was returning to her automobile when her dress caught fire from a carelessly strewn match. Engulfed in flames, co-star Wilfred Lytell managed to throw his coat around her and extinguish the fire, but it was too late. She died the next day of severe burns at age 24.
- Actress
Diana Allen was born in 1898 in Gotland, Sweden. Her family moved to the United States when she was five. Diana was educated in New Haven, Connecticut. She started her career dancing in vaudeville with Eddie Wittstein and Ned Wayburn. The blonde haired, blue eyed beauty was invited to join the Ziegfeld Follies in 1917. She also starred in the Broadway show Miss 1917 and in Ziegfeld's Midnight Frolic. Diana made her film debut in the 1918 short Way Up Society. Then she had a role in the drama Woman. She was signed by Paramount in 1920 and costarred with Monte Blu in The Kentuckians. Her performance got good reviews and people started saying that she looked like Olive Thomas. She appeared in eight films in 1922 including The Beauty Shop, Beyond The Rainbow, and Divorce Coupons.
Diana said her ambition was "To learn and then to act". In 1924 she was cast as boxer Benny Leonard's leading lady in a series of two-reel comedy shorts. They would be her final films. She married Samuel P. Booth, the President of a newspaper circulation company, in 1924. He was more than thirty years older than she was. After their marriage she decided to quit acting and be full-time housewife. The couple divided their rime between homes in New York City and Palm Beach, Florida. They remained happily married until Samuel's death in 1939. Sadly Diana died on at the age of fifty-one. Her cause of death was not publicly revealed. She was buried next to her husband at Roseland Park Cemetery in Berkley, Michigan.- Actress
- Director
Lillian Lorraine was born Lillian Muriel Jaques on January 1, 1892 in San Francisco, California. Her father walked out when she was just six. Lillian and her mother lived in Leadville, Colorado before moving to New York City. She began her career on stage when she was a teenager. At the age of sixteen she was discovered by producer Florenz Ziegfeld. He cast her in the Broadway show Miss Innocence where she sang "By The Light Of The Silvery Moon". Then she appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies and the musical Over The River. Forty-one year old Florenz fell madly in love with Lillian and left his long time girlfriend Anna Held to be with her. He helped to promote her career and commissioned a nude portrait of her. The couple had a tempestuous relationship and they both cheated on each other. Lillian was called "the most beautiful actress in the world". She had auburn hair, blue eyes, and a voluptuous figure. In 1912 she made her film debut in The Immigrants Violin. That same year she impulsively married Frederick Gresheimer, a Chicago millionaire who had dated Fannie Brice. The two women had once gotten into a heated fight over him. Unfortunately he was not legally divorced from his first wife. The couple had to wait and get married again in April of 1913. Soon after Frederick got into a fistfight with Flo Ziegfeld outside a restaurant.
After just three months of marriage she filed for an annulment claiming he had kept her prisoner. Lillian had a starring role in the 1915 drama Should A Wife Forgive. She also appeared in the serial Neal Of The Navy and Playing The Game with Charles Ray. Then in 1918 she returned to the Ziegfeld Follies and starred in the Midnight Frolic. She was badly injured when she fell outside a nightclub in 1921. By this time she had developed a serious drinking problem and her film career had stalled. Her final role was in the comedy Lonesome Corners. She was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1923. Lillian spent the next several years performing in vaudeville. She nearly died in 1928 when her appendix burst. As she grew older she suffered from arthritis and became more reclusive. In February of 1941 she started a fire in her apartment and was hospitalized in a psychiatric ward. Then she began dating an accountant named Jack O'Brien. They were never legally married but they lived together in a common-law marriage. On April 17, 1955 Lillian died in her sleep from natural causes. She was sixty-three years old. Sadly only three people attended her funeral and she was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave. She was later buried in her family's plot at St. Raymond's Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.- Yvonne Shelton was born on June 18, 1900 in New York City. Yvonne's parents was English and French. They sent her to Canada for her education but she wanted to be an actress. At the age of fifteen she ran away from home to join the chorus of When Dreams Come True. Then she was cast in The Century Girl produced by Florenz Ziegfeld. Yvonne performed eight shows a week and danced at the Coconut Grove every night. She appeared on Broadway in Dance And Grow Thin and Miss 1917. The petite dancer was just five feet tall and weighed less than 100 pounds. Her friends called her "Vonnie". She fell madly in love with married State Senator Jimmy Walker. Yvonne made her film debut in the 1919 comedy short Wild Flowers. She also danced in the Ziegfeld Follies Midnight Frolic. In 1920 she had a supporting role in the film The Greatest Lover. It would be her final film.
Soon after she decided to quit show business. Her romance with Jimmy ended when he ran for Mayor of New York City in 1925. She was so devastated that she suffered a nervous breakdown and spent several weeks in a sanitarium. Yvonne impulsively married Miguel Arango in 1928 but the marriage only lasted a few months. On December 13, 1929 she married Stanley "Buck" Woodward, a millionaire from Pennsylvania. They divorced in 1931. Her third marriage, to oil magnate Lee Malsbury, also ended in divorce. She seemed to finally find happiness when she married songwriter Robert Havey in 1939. The couple lived in Laguna Beach, California and Yvonne got a job in a factory. Tragically on October 5, 1945 she died suddenly at the age of forty-five Her cause of death was not revealed in the press. - Actress
Dorothy Klewer was born Dorothy Henrietta Klewer on June 30, 1895 in Chicago, Illinois. Her father was a wealthy architect and the family lived in a large house on Lakeside Place. Dorothy was the youngest of five children, She dreamed of becoming a dancer and once caused a sensation when she did the tango at a local hotel. At the age of eighteen she married Robert Mayne Luther, a candy salesman. They had to elope because her parents didn't approve of the marriage. The couple opened a dance studio in Denver, Colorado. Dorothy filed for divorce in November of 1916. She moved to New York City and made her Broadway debut in the 1917 musical Hitchy-Koo. Then she appeared in the shows The Blue Pearl and The Squab Farm with Tallulah Bankhead.
The beautiful brunette also worked as a model. In 1919 she joined Ziegfeld's Nine O'Clock Review and starred in The Midnight Frolic. Tired of the stage she returned to Chicago in 1920. Dorothy said "New York is unspeakable. It's a regular Babylon of luxury." She married Oscar M. Hunt on August 6, 1930. The couple lived in Michigan where Oscar worked as a clerk. Unfortunately by the early 1940s they were divorced. Dorothy moved to Los Angeles and started working as an extra. She appeared in the films The File On Thelma Jordan and The Hanging Tree. As she grew older she suffered from diabetes and heart disease. On March 13, 1960 she died from pneumonia at the age of sixty-five. Dorothy was cremated and buried at Chapel Of The Pines Crematory in Los Angeles, California.- Actress
Constance Carper born Constance Edith Carper on January 1, 1900 in St. Louis, Missouri. Her father, Alfred Carper, worked for a railroad company. She moved to New York City in 1917 and was quickly signed by Goldwyn Pictures. Constance had a bit parts in the movies Thais and Dodging A Million with Mabel Normand. The she joined the cast of the Ziegfeld Follies. In June of 1918 she checked into a hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Tragically on June 13 she was found unconscious in her room. On the way to the hospital she died from gas poisoning at the young age of eighteen. The police said it was either an accident or a suicide. According to her friends she had seemed worried before her death. A letter she wrote to a soldier serving in Belgium was found in her room. Her mother believed she had died accidentally after forgetting to turn off the gas. Constance was buried at Aspen Grove Cemetery in Burlington, Iowa.- Actress
- Writer
Oliva R. Duffy was born on October 20, 1894, in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, the eldest of three children, with two younger brothers. Olive or Ollie, as she was known to family and friends, did not have much of a childhood. Life in industrial Pittsburgh (at the time, spelled "Pittsburg") was depressing and grim with its smoky factories and hard living. She married Bernard Krug Thomas at the age of 16 (which wasn't uncommon at the time), but the marriage wasn't happy, and they divorced two years later.
By that time, Olive had left Pittsburgh for New York, where she found work in a department store. On a lark, she entered a competition for the most beautiful girl in New York City and, unsurprisingly, won. With the ensuing publicity, she caught the eye of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. and immediately joined his famed Follies. An outstanding addition, men went wild over her beauty. She also posed nude for the famed Peruvian artist Alberto Vargas. As a result of her sudden fame, she was signed to a contract with Triangle Pictures. Her first film was Beatrice Fairfax (1916). Later that year, she married Jack Pickford, brother of screen star Mary Pickford.
The relationship was a stormy one. In 1917, she starred in four more films: Madcap Madge (1917), A Girl Like That (1917), Broadway Arizona (1917), and Indiscreet Corinne (1917). With five films on her resume, Olive was the toast of Hollywood. She made three films in 1918 and six in 1919. By 1920, Olive was at the top of the film world. She continued to make good pictures, most notably, Youthful Folly (1920) and also The Flapper (1920), which was an overwhelming success. After finishing Everybody's Sweetheart (1920), Olive and Jack sailed to France for a much-needed vacation.
The couple finally seemed happy, which seems odd in light of what was to follow. Olive accidentally ingested bichloride of mercury from a French-labeled bottle in a darkened bathroom, believing it to be another medication. Found unconscious, she died five days later. The death made worldwide headlines. Olive was only 25 when she died.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Dorothy Dell was born to Elbert and Lillan Goff in Hattiesburg, Mississippi on January 30, 1915. She won the most beautiful baby in Hattiesburg beauty contest when she was thirteen months old. She lived in New Orleans from the age of ten. She attended the Sophie Wright High School for girls. Winning the Miss New Orleans title, when she was fifteen, she went on a Fanchon and Marco vaudeville tour for six months. She got a job with the Ziegfield Follies of 1931 when she arrived in New York City. She sang a solo, "Was I Drunk?", in the production. All of her films at Paramount were released in 1934. She died that year in an automobile accident on June 8, 1934, She had left an all-night party at an inn in Altadena and was going to Pasadena in the wee hours when the car left the highway, hit a telephone pole, bounced off a palm tree and hit a boulder. Miss Dell was killed instantly. Her date, Dr. Carl Wagner, who was driving, died several hours later.- Betty Francisco was born Elizabeth Barton on September 26, 1900 in Little Rock, Arkansas. When she was a child she started acting in stock companies. She and her younger sister Evelyn Francisco performed in vaudeville as "The Dancing Franciscos". Betty worked as an artists model and starred in the Ziegfeld Follies for two years. In 1920 she made her film debut in A Broadway Cowboy. She had supporting roles in many films including Flaming Youth, Across The Continent, and Gambling Wives. Betty quickly found herself typecast as "the other woman".
She was chosen to be a WAMPAS baby star in 1923. That same years she was named "America's Most Perfect Blonde". She continued to get small roles in films like The Gingham Girl and Broadway Daddies. Betty married Fred Spradling, a New York stock broker, in 1930. She decided to quit Hollywood and become a full-time housewife. Her final film was the 1934 comedy Romance In Rain. She and her husband lived on a ranch in Corona, California. They never had children. On November 25, 1950 she died from a heart attack. She was only fifty years old. Betty was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. - Cecile Arnold was born Cecile Laval Arnoux on July 9, 1891 in Louisville, Kentucky (some sources say New York). Her parents divorced when she was a child. After her mother remarried the family lived in Missouri and Texas. She started her career as a chorus girl and joined the Ziegfeld Follies. Cecile was signed by Mack Sennett's Keystone studios in 1913. The beautiful blonde played vamps in comedies like The Masquerader and Gussie's Day Of Rest. She made eleven films with Charlie Chaplin including Those Love Pangs, His Musical Career, and The Face On The Barroom Floor. During her career she used the stage names Peaches Arnold and Cecile Arley. In 1915 she appeared in a New York stage production of Robinson Crusoe with Al Jolson.
She married director Frank "Duke" Reynolds in 1918 and quit making movies. The couple divorced two years later. Cecile moved to Shanghai, China where she worked as a stenographer in a real estate office. She married David Toeg, a wealthy stockbroker, but their relationship was rocky. On March 25, 1925 she gave birth to a son named Robert in San Francisco. Her son may have been the result of an affair with Nicolai Merkuloff, a Russian merchant. Robert was raised by Cecile's family in Texas. She returned to China and divorced her husband. Tragically on June 18, 1931 she died from a heart ailment. She was just thirty-nine years old. Cecile was buried at Happy Valley Roman Catholic Cemetery in Hong Kong. - Helen Lee Worthing was born Helen Wortham on January 31, 1905 in Louisville, Kentucky. Her mother died when she was a child and her father moved the family to Massachusetts. During World War 1 she worked with the Red Cross. She married Charles McDonald, a businessman, in 1917. At the age of twenty-four she entered a beauty contest and was named "the most beautiful woman in America". Soon after she moved to New York City and appeared in several shows. She joined the cast of the Ziegfeld Follies in 1921. The following year her marriage ended and she attempted suicide. Helen made her film debut in the 1923 drama Enemies of Women. She had supporting roles in The Other Woman's Story and Watch Your Wife. Her performances got good reviews and her future seemed bright. In the April of 1927 she was brutally attacked in her home. While she was recovering she fell in love with her African American physician Dr. Eugene Nelson. There was a scandal when the public found out the couple had gotten married. She was shunned by the film community and had to file for bankruptcy.
Helen started drinking and in 1930 she suffered a nervous breakdown. After numerous separations she and Eugene were divorced in May of 1932. A few months later Eugene told the court that she was using her alimony to buy drugs. When she threatened suicide a judge committed her to a sanitarium. She was arrested in 1933 for using narcotics and again in 1935 for public drunkenness. Then in 1939 she was caught forging prescriptions for morphine and had to spend a year in jail. Helen told reporters she hoped jail would help her but her life continued to spin out of control. She was arrested several more times and in March of 1946 she was found passed out drunk on a Los Angeles street. Helen moved into a run-down house where she spent her days looking through scrapbooks from her career. On August 25, 1948 she committed suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills. She was forty-three years old. The police found a note that said "I have had so many heartbreaks and so many let-downs and I don't believe I can stand one straw more." Her friends paid for her to be buried at Inglewood Cemetery in Los Angeles. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Geneva Doris Mitchell was born on February 3, 1908 in Medarysville, Indiana. Her father died in 1909 and her mother Verna Mitchell became a Ziegfeld Follies showgirl. When she was fourteen Geneva was hired to be in the Follies too. Florenz Ziegfeld said she was "the find" of the season. Her nickname was "The Pogo Girl". She also appeared in the show Sally and was chosen to be Marilyn Miller's understudy. Geneva eloped with Robert Savage, a millionaire's son, in March of 1922. They split up just five days later because she was too young. She made headlines again in May when she was fired from the Ziegfeld Follies. Florenz Ziegfeld got mad when she attended a wild party in her pajamas. After a ten day courtship she married Jack Hayes, a publicity agent, on September 22, 1923. The blue-eyed brunette starred on Broadway in the musicals Yours Truly and Take the Air. In 1929 she was offered a contract at Warner Brothers and made her film debut in the comedy Adam's Eve. She had small roles in Safety In Numbers and Her Wedding Night with Clara Bow.
Geneva divorced her husband and fell in love with director Lowell Sherman. The couple announced their engagement but they kept postponing the wedding. Lowell directed her in the 1933 drama Morning Glory. The following year she was signed by Columbia. Geneva costarred with the Three Stooges in several films including Restless Nights and Pop Goes The Weasel. She was heartbroken when Lowell, her longtime fiance, died suddenly in December of 1934. A few months later she married financier Harry J. Bryant. Sadly this marriage also ended in divorce. By the late 1930s her career had stalled and she was suffering from severe alcoholism. Her final film was the 1946 short Andy Plays Hookey. She stopped acting and got a job as a bookkeeper. Geneva married Daniel Sylvester Tuttle in February of 1948. Tragically on March 10, 1949 she died on from acute pancreatitis and cirrhosis of the liver caused by her alcoholism. She was only forty-one years old. Geneva was cremated and her ashes were buried at the Chapel Of The Pines Crematory in Los Angeles, California.- Blonde and utterly beautiful, Mary Nolan had the requisite figure and prettiness to rise up fast in the Hollywood ranks. Her downfall, however, would be just as fast and not at all pretty.
She was born Mary Imogene Robertson in 1905 and began her show-business career as a teenage model. Showman Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. took a gander at her--and her gorgeous gams--and signed up the young beauty for his "Follies" shows. A Jazz-Age baby and party girl by nature, Mary (who was using the moniker Imogene Wilson) had already earned the somewhat dubious nickname of "Bubbles" while working in New York, but she made the fatal career mistake of involving herself with a married Ziegfeld comedian and stirring up a major sex scandal. Frank Tinney was a top headliner married to musical comedy star Edna Davenport at the time. Mary's relationship with Tinney became quite abusive and the tabloids exposed the affair after Mary was seriously hospitalized during one of their many arguments. As a third-party husband-stealer, Mary received no comfort at all despite her injuries, and was summarily fired by Ziegfeld.
Forced to flee to Germany to avoid the negative attention, Mary starred in a few films there under the new moniker Imogene Robertson. She weathered the storm for almost two years in Europe before returning unobtrusively to Hollywood films in 1927 under another new stage name--Mary Nolan.
She proved a capable if not exceptional leading lady, pacing herself well in such films as West of Zanzibar (1928) with Lon Chaney, Desert Nights (1929)--one of John Gilbert's last vehicles--and Outside the Law (1930), a gangster flick opposite Edward G. Robinson. She even appeared top-billed in a few minor efforts, including Shanghai Lady (1929) and Young Desire (1930), but Docks of San Francisco (1932) would prove to be her last film appearance.
Troubled over her sudden and inexplicable reversal of fortune, she unfortunately let her self-destructive tendencies kick in again. Broke and despondent, she suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined due to acute malnutrition and a variety of physical ailments. She turned to heroin, and it spelled the end.
Little was heard from her until 1948, when she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems. She was only 45 years old. Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly. - She was born Catherine May Moylan in Rochester, New York on July 4, 1904. Her family moved to Dallas, Texas where she started competing in beauty contests. Catherine won the title of "Miss Dallas" in 1926 and then was named "Beauty Queen of the Universe". Florenz Ziegfeld hired her to appeared in the 1927 Ziegfeld Follies. She became known for the very sexy costumes she wore during the show. The beautiful blonde often posed fully nude for photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston. She was five feet, two inches tall and weighed 108 pounds. In 1928 she starred on Broadway in the musicals Rosalie and Whoopee.
During this time she appeared in ads for lingerie and Lucky Strike cigarettes. Catherine made headlines when her former fiance, Dr. Morton Berson, sued her for the return of $18,000 worth of jewelry. Then she was named as one of the other women in Realtor Miles Rabinowitz's divorce. She was signed by MGM in 1930 and appeared in the musical Our Blushing Brides with Joan Crawford. Catherine also had small roles in Love In Rough and Way Out West (she was sometimes billed as Katherine Moylan). She married J.H. Singleton, a real estate agent, in February of 1931.
The following year the couple had a daughter named Sylvia. Unfortunately by 1936 Catherine's career had stalled and she quit acting. After several separations she filed for divorce in 1938. She claimed her husband had abandoned her. In their settlement she received more than $40,000. She moved back to Texas to raise her daughter. Unfortunately she became an alcoholic and was eventually diagnosed with psychopathic personality disorder. She died on September 9, 1969 from heart disease. Catherine was sixty-five years old. She was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Fort Worth, Texas. - Mildred Reardon was born Mildred Louise Riordan on June 23, 1897 in Ottawa, Illinois. She was the middle child of Anna and Thomas Riordan. Her family called her "Lou". Mildred enrolled in art school but dropped out in 1916 when her father died. She needed to work to support her family so she started dancing with The Ziegfeld Follies in Chicago. When the show moved to New York City she went with them. She also modeled for artist Henry Clive who nicknamed her "The Girl With The Brown Eyes". Mildred made headlines when she sued a man for slander after he called her "a little bum". In 1918 she made her film debut in the comedy No Place Like Jail with Stan Laurel. She signed a contract with Sunshine Pictures and appeared in several comedies with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Cecil B. Demille cast Mildred in his 1919 drama Male and Female.
Then she was given prominent roles in Everywoman and Our Wives. By 1920 she was receiving hundreds of fan letters a week and she answered them all herself. She married S. Russell Hollander, a millionaire fur manufacturer, in May of 1920. Mildred said "I got married. It was a real romance too. Russ saw me on the screen about a year ago and fell in love with me - or so he says." The couple lived in New York City and spent their summers in Europe. She continued to make movies but her career never took off. Her husband Russell also acted in a few films. In 1927 Mildred had a supporting role in His Rise To Fame. Soon after she decided to quit acting. She and Russell moved to Stamford, Connecticut with their dog "Ty Cobb Jr". They never had children. On July 20, 1937 Mildred died of a heart attack. She was only forty years old. Mildred was buried in Spring Grove Cemetery in Darien, Connecticut. - Allyn King was born on February 1, 1899 in Wilmington, North Carolina. Tragically her father, Dr. Allyn King, was murdered in 1909. A few years later her mother moved them to New Haven, Connecticut. Allyn started performing in vaudeville when she was a teenager. In September of 1916 she became the headliner of the Ziegfeld Follies. She spent five seasons starring in the Follies where she earned five hundred dollars a week. Allyn was cast in the 1920 Broadway show Ladies Night. Over the next three years she starred in several more shows including Sun Showers and Moonlight. She was nicknamed "Broadway's Sweetest Girl". Allyn was obsessed with her weight because of a clause in her contract that said she would be fired if she gained ten pounds. She began starving herself and taking thyroid pills to maintain her boyish figure. In 1923 she made her film debut in The Fighting Blade. Unfortunately it would be her only movie role.
Allyn was romantically involved with Carl Wiedemann, a wealthy brewer from Kentucky. There were rumors they were engaged but the relationship ended when she refused to give up her career. By 1927 years of extreme dieting left her thirty pounds underweight and suffering from severe anemia. She entered a sanitarium to recover and remained there for almost two years. After being released Allyn started studying music and hoped to return to Broadway. Unfortunately she became very depressed when she gained weight. On March 29, 1930 she jumped out of a five-story apartment window. She survived the fall but died from her injuries on March 31. Allyn had committed suicide at the young age of thirty-one. She left a note saying she was unhappy about her failed career and recent weight gain. Allyn was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in New York City. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Christine Maple was born Christine Raphael on November 16, 1912 in Belle-Plaine, Kansas. When she was a child her parents divorced. Her mother remarried and they moved to Los Angeles. Christine started competing in beauty pageants and was a finalist in the Elks National Convention bathing beauty contest. In 1930 she made her film debut in the Charley Chase short Fifty Million Husbands. She also appeared as a dancer in the musical Whoopee. Florenz Ziegfeld hired her to star in the Ziegfeld Follies and gave her the title of "Miss Universe". During the show she shocked audiences by appearing on stage completely nude. She was romantically involved with violinist Enric Madriguera and plastic surgeon Dr. Morton Berson (who fixed her nose). Christine became known for wearing low-cut evening dresses and telling outrageous lies about her life. She once claimed that her father was a British duke. In December of 1933 she was arrested after causing a scene on train in Switzerland.
A few months later the wife of millionaire Martino De Alzaga Unzue accused her of being "too friendly" with her husband. She made headlines in April of 1935 when she got into a fight with a cab driver after refusing to pay her bill. Her mother said she had a nervous breakdown and sent her to a sanitarium. Christine signed a contract with Republic pictures in 1936 and appeared in the westerns The Big Show and Roarin' Lead. She went to Australia in 1938 to appear in a stage production of The Women. Unfortunately she had to leave the show when she became very ill. She suffered another nervous breakdown and had to be hospitalized in 1943. After being released she moved to Langhorne, Pennsylvania and worked in a department store. Tragically on January 12, 1947 she committed suicide by hanging herself. Christine was only thirty-four years old. Her body was cremated and her ashes were given to her family.- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Marion Davies was one of the great comedic actresses of the silent era and into the 1930s.
Marion Cecelia Douras was born in the borough of Brooklyn, New York on January 3, 1897, the daughter of Rose (Reilly) and Bernard J. Douras, a lawyer and judge. Her parents were both of Irish descent. Marion had been bitten by the show biz bug early as she watched her sisters perform in local stage productions. She wanted to do the same. As Marion got older, she tried out for various school plays and did fairly well. Once her formal education had ended, Marion began her career as a chorus girl in New York City, first in the pony follies, and eventually found herself in the famed Ziegfeld Follies. But she wanted to do more than dance. Acting, to Marion, was the epitome of show business and aimed her sights in that direction. Her stage name came when she and her family passed the Davies Insurance Building. One of her sisters called out "Davies!!! That shall be my stage name", and the whole family took on that name.
Her first film was Runaway Romany (1917), when she was 20. Written by Marion and directed by her brother-in-law, the film wasn't exactly a box-office smash, but for Marion, it was a start and a stepping stone to bigger things. The following year Marion starred in two films, The Burden of Proof (1918) and Cecilia of the Pink Roses (1918). The latter film was backed by newspaper magnate, William Randolph Hearst. When Marion moved to California, she already was involved with Hearst. They lived together at his San Simeon castle, an extremely elaborate mansion which stands as a California landmark to this day. At San Simeon, they threw grand parties, many of them in costume. Frequent guests included Carole Lombard, Mary Pickford, Sonja Henie, and Dolores Del Río - basically all the top names in Hollywood and other celebrities including the mayor of New York City, President Calvin Coolidge, and Charles Lindbergh. Davies and Hearst would continue a long-term romantic relationship for the next 30 years. Because of Hearst's newspaper empire, Marion would be promoted as no actress before her.
She appeared in numerous films over the next few years, with The Cinema Murder (1919) being one of the most suspenseful. In 1922, Marion appeared as Mary Tudor in the historical romantic epic, When Knighthood Was in Flower (1922). It was a film into which Hearst poured in millions of dollars as a showcase for her. Although Marion didn't normally appear in period pieces, she turned in a wonderful performance, and the film turned a profit. Marion remained busy, one of the staples in movie houses around the country. At the end of the twenties, it was obvious that sound films were about to replace silents. Marion was nervous because she had a stutter when she became excited and worried she wouldn't make a successful transition to the new medium, but she was a true professional who had no problem with the change. Time after time, film after film, Marion turned in masterful performances. In 1930, two of her better films were Not So Dumb (1930) and The Florodora Girl (1930). By the early 1930s, Marion had lost her box office appeal and the downward slide began.
Had she been without Hearst's backing, she possibly could have been more successful. He was more of a hindrance than a help. Hearst had tried to push MGM executives to hire Marion for the role of Elizabeth Barrett in The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934). Louis B. Mayer had other ideas and hired producer Irving Thalberg's wife, Norma Shearer instead. Hearst reacted by pulling his newspaper support for MGM without much impact. By the late 1930s Hearst was suffering financial reversals and it was Marion who bailed him out by selling $1 million of her jewelry. Without her, the Hearst Corporation might not be where it is today. Hearst's financial problems also spelled an end to her career. Although she had made the transition to sound, other stars fared better, and her roles became fewer and further between. In 1937, a 40-year-old Marion filmed her last movie, Ever Since Eve (1937). Out of films and with the intense pressures of her relationship with Hearst, Davies turned more and more to alcohol. Despite those problems, Marion was a very sharp and savvy business woman.
When Hearst died in 1951, Marion did not really know what was going on. The night before, there had been a lot of people in the house. Marion was very upset by the large crowd of family and friends. She said it was too noisy, and they were disturbing Hearst by talking so loud. She was upset and had to be sedated. When she woke, her niece, Patricia Van Cleve Lake, and her husband, Arthur Lake, told her that Hearst was dead. Upon Patricia's death, it was revealed she had been the love child of Davies and Hearst. Marion was banned from Hearst's funeral.
She later started many charities including a children's clinic that is still operating today. She was very generous and was loved by everyone who knew her. She went through a lot, even getting polio in the 1940s. Marion married for the first time at the age of 54, to Horace Brown. The union would last until she died of cancer on September 22, 1961 in Los Angeles, California. She was 64 years old.- Peggy Shannon was born Winona Sammon on January 10, 1907, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. She attended Catholic school where she became friends with child actress Madge Evans. While visiting her aunt in New York sixteen year old Peggy was discovered by producer Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.. He hired her as a chorus girl in The Ziegfeld Follies. Peggy married actor Alan Davis in 1926. The following year she was starring on Broadway in Earl Carrol's production of What Anne Brought Home. In 1931 she was offered a contract at Paramount studios. With her beautiful face and red hair Peggy was promoted as "the new Clara Bow". When Clara suffered a nervous breakdown Peggy was given her role in The Secret Call (1931). Although she starred in the films This Reckless Age (1932) and Hotel Continental (1932), her career never really took off. She also developed a reputation for being difficult to work with. After her movie contract was not renewed she tried returning to Broadway. Unfortunately by this time she had serious drinking problem and was fired from the play The Light Behind The Shadow. Peggy continued to get small parts in B-movies like Youth on Parole (1937) and Cafe Hostess (1940). She divorced Alan in 1940 and married camera man Al Roberts. On May 11, 1941 her husband returned home from a trip and found Peggy slumped over the kitchen table. She had died from a heart attack at the young age of thirty-four. Her autopsy revealed that she had a serious liver ailment caused by her alcoholism. Three weeks after her death Albert committed suicide. Peggy is buried at Hollywood Forever cemetery in Hollywood, California. The epitaph on her tombstone says "That Red Headed Girl, Peggy Shannon".
- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Paulette Goddard was a child model who debuted in "The Ziegfeld Follies" at the age of 13. She gained fame with the show as the girl on the crescent moon, and was married to a wealthy man, Edgar James, by the time she was 17. After her divorce she went to Hollywood in 1931, where she appeared in small roles in pictures for a number of studios. A stunning natural beauty, Paulette could mesmerize any man she met, a fact she was well aware of. One of her bigger roles in that period was as a blond "Goldwyn Girl" in the Eddie Cantor film The Kid from Spain (1932). In 1932 she met Charles Chaplin, and they soon became an item around town. He cast her in Modern Times (1936), which was a big hit, but her movie career was not going anywhere because of her relationship with Chaplin. They were secretly married in 1936, but the marriage failed and they were separated by 1940. It was her role as Miriam Aarons in The Women (1939), however, that got her a contract with Paramount. Paulette was one of the many actresses tested for the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939), but she lost the part to Vivien Leigh and instead appeared with Bob Hope in The Cat and the Canary (1939), a good film but hardly in the same league as GWTW. The 1940s were Paulette's busiest period. She worked with Chaplin in The Great Dictator (1940), Cecil B. DeMille in Reap the Wild Wind (1942) and Burgess Meredith in The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946). She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in So Proudly We Hail! (1943). Her star faded in the late 1940s, however, and she was dropped by Paramount in 1949. After a couple of "B" movies, she left films and went to live in Europe as a wealthy expatriate; she married German novelist Erich Maria Remarque in the late 1950s. She was coaxed back to the screen once more, although it was the small screen, for the television movie The Female Instinct (1972).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Today Barbara Stanwyck is remembered primarily as the matriarch of the family known as the Barkleys on the TV western The Big Valley (1965), wherein she played Victoria, and from the hit drama The Colbys (1985). But she was known to millions of other fans for her movie career, which spanned the period from 1927 until 1964, after which she appeared on television until 1986. It was a career that lasted for 59 years.
Barbara Stanwyck was born Ruby Catherine Stevens on July 16, 1907, in Brooklyn, New York, to working class parents Catherine Ann (McPhee) and Byron E. Stevens. Her father, from Massachusetts, had English ancestry, and her Canadian mother, from Nova Scotia, was of Scottish and Irish descent. Stanwyck went to work at the local telephone company for fourteen dollars a week, but she had the urge (a dream--that was all it was) somehow to enter show business. When not working, she pounded the pavement in search of dancing jobs. The persistence paid off. Barbara was hired as a chorus girl for the princely sum of $40 a week, much better than the wages she was getting from the phone company. She was seventeen, and was going to make the most of the opportunity that had been given her.
In 1928 Barbara moved to Hollywood, where she was to start one of the most lucrative careers filmdom had ever seen. She was an extremely versatile actress who could adapt to any role. Barbara was equally at home in all genres, from melodramas, such as Forbidden (1932) and Stella Dallas (1937), to thrillers, such as Double Indemnity (1944), one of her best films, also starring Fred MacMurray (as you have never seen him before). She also excelled in comedies such as Remember the Night (1939) and The Lady Eve (1941). Another genre she excelled in was westerns, Union Pacific (1939) being one of her first and TV's The Big Valley (1965) (her most memorable role) being her last. In 1983, she played in the ABC hit mini-series The Thorn Birds (1983), which did much to keep her in the eye of the public. She turned in an outstanding performance as Mary Carson.
Barbara was considered a gem to work with for her serious but easygoing attitude on the set. She worked hard at being an actress, and she never allowed her star quality to go to her head. She was nominated for four Academy Awards, though she never won. She turned in magnificent performances for all the roles she was nominated for, but the "powers that be" always awarded the Oscar to someone else. However, in 1982 she was awarded an honorary Academy Award for "superlative creativity and unique contribution to the art of screen acting." Sadly, Barbara died on January 20, 1990, leaving 93 movies and a host of TV appearances as her legacy to us.- Lilyan Tashman was born on October 23, 1896 in Brooklyn, New York to Rose (Cook) from Germany and Morris Tashman from Bialystock, Poland. After toying with stage work, Lilyan made her film debut with Experience (1921), followed the next year by Head Over Heels (1922) (this was at a time when some studios and their performers were turning out one film per week. She had no other offers for 1923, but her constant rounds of the casting offices finally did some good. In 1924 she appeared in no fewer than 6 films. For a while she averaged 7 films per year. She was one of relatively few performers who easily made the transition to the sound era, In 1934 she finished filming Frankie and Johnnie (1936) and went into a New York City hospital to have some tumors removed; she died there on March 21, 1934 at age 37. The film was released two years after her death.
- Actress
Toni Lanier was a Ziegfeld Follies showgirl whose lasting notoriety came not as a performer but as the wife of a high-level studio executive and the mistress of a famous television star. Lanier appeared in the film version of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.'s life, The Great Ziegfeld (1936), met MGM studio manager E.J. Mannix, and lived with him as mistress and later wife until his death in 1963. As Toni Mannix, she was well known for her beauty, flamboyance and sexual appetite, the latter of which was legendary. In 1951, around the time she married Mannix legally, she met George Reeves, soon to be world famous as television's "Superman". She and Reeves embarked on an affair under the approving eye of her husband, who had a new mistress of his own. Toni and Reeves were fairly public with their arrangement, but the press, out of respect for the clout Mannix wielded, never exposed the relationship outside the industry. In 1959 Reeves broke off the relationship with the eight-years-older Toni, leaving her both broken-hearted and angry. His suicide five months later shattered her and she remained devoted to his memory the remainder of her life (some have speculated that she or her husband might actually have murdered Reeves, but no credible evidence has ever arisen to support such a theory, while much evidence credibly undermines it). Mannix died in 1963, and Toni was left wealthy and lived comfortably until the onset of Alzheimer's Disease in her 70s. She died from complications of the syndrome in 1983.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Karla Knospe Gutohrlein was part of the Sisters G dancing duo. She was born on December 9, 1910 in Kaliningrad, Germany. Her older sister Eleanor had been born on August 18, 1909. The sisters would later claim they were twins. They also said their father was a Colonel in the Prussian army. After their parents divorced their mother Margaret married several more times. She became their manager and chaperon. The Sisters G began as a trio but their older sister Inez got married and left the group. When they were teenagers they danced in London, Vienna and Barcelona. They were the first Germans to perform at the Moulin Rouge in Paris after World War 1. The sisters became known for their black bobbed hair and flapper style. They spoke several languages including French and English. Producer Carl Leammele brought them to Hollywood in 1929 to dance in the Technicolor musical King Of Jazz.
They also appeared in the films Recaptured Love and God's Gift to Women. Critics praised their dancing but complained about their thick German accents. Karla sued director Zultan Korda in 1931 after she was injured in a car accident. In 1932 the sisters were hired to appear in the Ziegfeld Follies in Chicago. Unfortunately they were fired when one of them had an operation. They sued Florenz Ziegfeld for unpaid wages and breach of contract. Soon after they both left Hollywood and moved to Sweden. Karla married Per Oskar Olof Aberg in 1936. The couple had two children. Eleanor married Gosta Lennart Brywolf in 1938. During World War 2 they stayed out of Germany because they were Jewish. The sisters reunited in 1942 to perform at Liseberg Park in Gothenburg, Sweden. Eleanor died on June 7, 1997 at the age of eighty-seven. Karla died a few years later.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Eleanor Knospe Gutohrlein was part of the Sisters G dancing duo. She was born on August 18, 1909 in Kaliningrad, Germany, Her sister Karla was born on December 9, 1910. The sisters would later claim they were twins. They also said their father was a Colonel in the Prussian army. After their parents divorced their mother Margaret married several more times. She became their manager and chaperon. The Sisters G began as a trio but their older sister Inez got married and left the group. When they were teenagers they danced in London, Vienna and Barcelona. They were the first Germans to perform at the Moulin Rouge in Paris after World War 1. The sisters became known for their black bobbed hair and flapper style. They spoke several languages including French and English. Producer Carl Leammele brought them to Hollywood in 1929 to dance in the Technicolor musical King Of Jazz.
They also appeared in the films Recaptured Love and God's Gift to Women. Critics praised their dancing but complained about their thick German accents. Karla sued director Zultan Korda in 1931 after she was injured in a car accident. In 1932 the sisters were hired to appear in the Ziegfeld Follies in Chicago. Unfortunately they were fired when one of them had an operation. They sued Florenz Ziegfeld for unpaid wages and breach of contract. Soon after they both left Hollywood and moved to Sweden. Karla married Per Oskar Olof Aberg in 1936. The couple had two children. Eleanor married Gosta Lennart Brywolf in 1938. During World War 2 they stayed out of Germany because they were Jewish. The sisters reunited in 1942 to perform at Liseberg Park in Gothenburg, Sweden. Eleanor died on June 7, 1997 at the age of eighty-seven. Karla died a few years later.- Kay Laurel was born Ruth M. Leslie on June 28, 1890 in Erie, Pennsylvania. Sadly her father George died when she was eight. She briefly worked as a telephone operator. Then she moved to New York City and became an artist's model. Kay started dating George Messinger, a merchant from San Francisco. When he broke up with her in 1913 she sued him for $25,000 for breach of promise. Florenz Ziegfeld discovered her in 1914 and offered her a role in the Ziegfeld Follies. The shapely brunette caused a sensation when she appeared as a semi-nude Aphrodite in the opening of the show. Kay quickly became famous for her perfect figure and her willingness to be nude on stage. Florenz Ziegfeld said she was "the embodiment of feminine beauty." At the height of her popularity she was earning $500 a week. She married producer Winfield Sheehan in 1916 and retired from the stage. They had a very rocky relationship and legally separated in 1918.
That Spring she returned to the Ziegfeld Follies. Kay made her film debut in the 1919 drama The Brand. Then she appeared in the films The Valley Of The Giants and Lonely Heart. Unfortunately she wasn't offered any other film roles. Kay starred in the Broadway shows Quarantine and Nocturne. She also performed vaudeville. In 1925 she moved to Europe and acted with a French stock company. She fell in love with Joseph Whiteside Boyle, a businessman, and moved to London, England. The couple wanted to get married but she was still legally married to Winifred Sheehan. She became pregnant in the Spring of 1926. Tragically on January 31, 1927 she died shortly after giving birth. When she was told it was a boy she spoke her last words "That is just what I wanted." Kay was only thirty-six years old. Her body was cremated in London. The press falsely reported that she had died from pneumonia. She left her entire $100,000 estate to her fiance who raised their son Joseph Kay Boyle.