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BOARDMAN, Eleanor (1898-1991, Philadelphia, PA) A MGM contract player during her career, there are still a fair amount of her films left that are not currently the equivilant of baby powder for many of her films were on nirate and not many were turned into video. Her career was certainly a promising one. (After all, she was married to one of MGM's first great directors, King Vidor. A very independent lady. Her determination led to eleven years in the picture business, 1922-1934. But by 1928, Eleanor already knew her years were numbered. Eleanor appeared in 35 movies from 1922-1934, and in 1980 appeared on the TV miniseries "Hollywood".
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CHAPLIN, Charlie (1889-1977, Walworth, England) His first appeared on stage at age five. In 1913 he signed with Keystone in Hollywood. His first film was Making a Living. He made 35 films that year.
Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914), changed his career. He wore baggy pants borrowed from Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, size 14 shoes worn upside down to keep them from falling off, a tiny jacket, a bowler hat and a moustache trimmed down to toothbrush size.
In 1943 he married his fourth wife Oona O'Neill, daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill. They had eight children. Tired of political controversies and plagued with tax problems, he left the United States for Switzerland in 1952. In 1972 he returned to Hollywood to receive an Oscar for Lifetime contributions to film. He was Knighted by the Queen of England in 1975.
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COOGAN, Jackie (1914-1984, Los Angeles)
On the stage by age four touring with his Vaudevillian family. While on stage was spotted by Charles Chaplin who shortly placed Jackie in a movie. His first film was A Day's Pleasure (1919). His most famous movie was in the The Kid (1921), where Chaplin played the Tramp and Coogan was the Kid.
His mother and step-father took the bulk of his four million dollars earnings as a child star. He sued his parents and got only $126,000 but from this suit "The Child Actors Bill", also known as the "Coogan Act" was enacted which would set up a trust fund for any child actor and protect his earnings. He was married to Betty Grable for a short time. In the 1950s he started his Television career. His most famous TV role was in the "The Addams Family" (1964), where he played Uncle Fester.
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COLBERT, Claudette (1905-1996, Paris)
Born Lily Claudette Chauchoin. This charing Paramount Star began her stage career in New York and subsequently appeared on the English stage. She made her Broadway debut in 1923 in the stage production of "The Wild Wescotts". It was during this event that she adopted the name Claudette Colbert.
When the Great Depression shut down most of the theaters, Claudette decided to make a go of it in films. Her first film was called For the Love of Mike (1927). She had her greatest triumph playing a runaway heiress, with enormous charm, opposite Clark Gable in Capra's comedy It Happened One Night (1934), for which she won the Academy Award as Best Actress. By 1938 her keen ability in business made her the highest paid star in Hollywood.
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CRAWFORD, Joan (1904-1977, San Antonio, Texas)
Here given name was Lucille Fay LeSueur. Winning an amateur dance contest in 1923 led to chorus work in Chicago, Detroit and New York. In 1925 she left for Hollywood. Her first film that made her a star was With Our Dancing Daughters (1928). She was with MGM for eighteen years. Mildred Pierce (1945) won her an Oscar. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) brought new careers to both Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. Horrified by a photo taken of her in 1974, she retired completely, devoting herself to Christian Science and increasing use of vodka. Her four adopted children received little from her two million dollar estate: $77,500 each for Cathy and Cindy, nothing for Christopher or Christina "for reasons best known to them".
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DANIELS, Bebe (1901-1971, London, England)
Bebe Daniels started touring at age four in a stage production of Richard III. At age 13 she was Harold Lloyd's leading lady in the "Lonesome Luke" comedies. She stared in movies for director DeMille. She was later in talkies, the most famous films were such hits as "Rio Rita" and "42nd Street". In 1930's she went to England and became a successful Western star.
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DAVIES, Marion (1897-1961, Brooklyn, NY)
Born as Marion Douras. She started her career as a model for painters. By the time William Randolph Hearst, America's most famous publisher, met her she had already was a star on the Broadway stage. In the years 1915 to 1917 she appeared in such films as Chin-Chin and Ziegfeld Follies. Her first film was Runaway Romany . During the next ten years she appeared in 29 films.
In the early 1920's, Davies and Hearst hosted many parties at their fabulous beach house Heart built in Santa Monica. They invited all the famous stars of the day.
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DEL RIO, Dolores (1905-1983, Durango, Mexico)
Born as Dolores Martínez Asúnsolo y López Negrete. She was the first Mexican movie star with international appeal and had a meteoric career in 1920s. She made her first film, Joanna (1925). The film was a success and Dolores was hailed as a female Rudolph Valentino. Her career rose until the arrival of sound in 1928. Dolores returned to Mexico in 1942. Her Hollywood career was over, and a romance with Orson Welles--who later called her "the most exciting woman I've ever met"--caused her second divorce. She made Flor silvestre (1943), with a wholly unexpected result: at age 37, Dolores Del Río became the most famous movie star in her country, filming in Spanish for the first time. Del Río became the prototypical Mexican beauty in foreign countries.
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GARBO, Greta (1905-1990, Stockholm, Sweden) Born as Greta Lovisa Gustafsson. All of Garbo's films were in black and white and black and white enhanced her mystery and romantic allure. Though she started her film career in Sweden, her first US film was The Torrent (1924). It was a silent film where she didn't have to speak a word of English. Greta starred in Anna Christie (1930) (her first "talkie"), which gave her an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress which she did not win. It was MGM's Anna Karenina (1935) where she, perhaps, gave the performance of her life. Her last film was Two-Faced Woman (1941) after which she retired to New York.
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GAYNOR, Janet (1906-1984, Philadelphia, PA) Born as Laura Gainor. After playing a few bit parts, at the age of 20, she landed the staring role in the film The Johnstown Flood (1926), In 1927 she appeared in Sunrise and in Seventh Heaven (1927). For those two movies and The Street Angel (1928), Janet received an Oscar for Best Actress, for all three films. She easily made the transistion from 'talkie' to sound in several films. Her last film was in Bernardine (1957)
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GISH, Dorothy (1898-1968, Massillon, OH) As soon as Dorothy and her sister Lillian Gish were old enough, they became part of the act. In 1912 they met fellow child actress Mary Pickford, and she got them extra work with Biograph Pictures. Their first picture was, with director D.W. Griffith in An Unseen Enemy (1912). Dorothy stared in over 100 two-reel films. Her popularity would always be overshadowed by that of her sister Lillian, who was considered to be one the silent screen's greatest stars. Her last silent film would be Madame Pompadour (1927). In 1928 Dorothy began a long career on the stage.
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LAMOUR, Dorothy (1914-1996, New Orleans, Louisiana) Her given name was Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton. She was Miss New Orleans of 1931. In 1936 she wore her famous sarong for her debut at Paramount, The Jungle Princess (1936), and continued to play a female Tarzan-Crusoe girl through the war years and beyond. The most famous of these was in the Hope-Crosby "Road to ..." movies - a combination of adventure, slapstick, ad libs and Hollywood inside jokes which became very popular. Among her serious films were Johnny Apollo (1945) and A Medal for Johnny (1943).
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LLOYD, Harold (1893-1971, Burchard, NB) He made his stage debut at age 12. On screen since 1913, starting with Edison Company in San Diego, CA. His first film was The Old Monk's Tale (1913). During his first contract with Hal Roach, that same year, he appeared in the Lonesome Luke comedies for Universal. Harold is reported to be the only actor that owned all the films he appeared in.
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LOLLOBRIGIDA, Gina (Born 1927, Subiaco, Rome, Italy) Her given name is Luigina Lollobrigida. After appearing in a half dozen films in Italy, in 1947 film tycoon Howard Hughes had her flown to Hollywood. Gina's fame finally came 6 years later in the John Huston film Beat the Devil (1953). Gina was tagged The Most Beautiful Woman in the World (1955). Her film Come September (1961) costarring Rock Hudson won the Golden Globe as the World's Film Favorite. Immersed in her other passions (sculpting and photography), it would be 1984 before Gina would grace American TV on Falcon Crest.
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NEGRI, Pola (1894-1987, Janowa, Poland) Her given name was Barbara Apollina Chalupiec. By 17, she was a star on the stage in Warsaw. Pola played earthy, exotic, strong women in her film roles. Her film career in Hollywood began in 1922 but reported romances with such stars as Chaplin and Valentino overshadowed her acting career. Here most successful films were: Forbidden Paradise (1924), and Hotel Imperial (1927). Her career did not take off because of three things. First her overdramatic display at Valentino's funeral in 1926. 2nd was the Hays Office codes which would not allow filming the very traits that made her a sex-siren European star. The 3rd was her thick accent would not play in the sound pictures that were coming into vogue. Her last film was The Moon-Spinners (1964).
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NISSEN, Greta (1906 – 1988) was a Norwegian-born American film and stage actress. Born Grethe Ruzt-Nissen in Oslo, Norway, Nissen was originally a dancer. She appeared in several Broadway shows in the 1920s. Greta was discovered by Paramount Pictures and appeared in more than twenty films. Among these were A Wife, The Love Thief, Ambassador Bill, The Lucky Lady, and Honours Easy. Her film career ended in the mid-1930s after she appeared in a few British films.
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PICKFORD, Mary (1892-1979, Toronto, Canada)
Her given name was Gladys Louise Smith. Mary Pickford was known to fans the world over for her tough, sentimental, and warmly comic style, and for dramas about brave young women facing a difficult world. She was also an important producer, writer and director. She was married three times, her most famous husband was Douglas Fairbanks, her second husband. She made over 200 films. Some of her most memorable films are: Daddy-Long-Legs or Sparrows as a classic Pickford kid, Stella Maris or My Best Girl in a drama.
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SWANSON, Gloria (1897-1983, Chicago, Illinois) Her film debut was an extra in The Fable of Elvira and Farina and the Meal Ticket (1915). In 1919, a contract with C.B. DeMille. DeMille transformed her into a provocative star. She survived the switch to talkies, even learning how to sing for Music in the Air (1934), but her era as a star was basically over by that time.
She had many lovers including Joseph Kennedy, father of JFK. He produced her film Queen Kelly, (1928) directed by Eric von Stroheim. It was von Stroheim's copy of this film which Swanson was watching as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard (1950) when she leaped into the projection beam shouting "Have they forgotten what a star looks like? I'll be up there again, so help me!" - The butler-projectionist was, again, von Stroheim. She returned to the stage in the 1940s. She received Best Actress nominations for Sadie Thompson, The Trespasser and Sunset Boulevard.
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TALMADGE, Norma (1893-1957, Niagara Falls, NY) Her first film was as the girl who was marched to the guillotine in A Tale Of Two Cities(1911). Talmadge became one of the top box office attractions in the silent era, evolving from a spunky teenager into one of the finest dramatic actresses of the screen. One of the wealthiest women in Hollywood, she retired after her two talkies proved disappointing at the box office.
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TEMPLE, Shirley (1923-, Santa Monica, California) She got her start in the movies at the age of three. Shirley could do it all: act, sing and dance and all at the age of five! Fans loved her as she was bright, bouncy and cheerful in her films and they ultimately bought millions of dollars worth of products that had her likeness on them. Everything from Dolls, to phonograph records, to mugs, to hats to dresses. Shirley was the box-office champion for three straight years, 1936-37-38. By 1939, her popularity declined. Her top two movies were: Since You Went Away (1944) and the The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947). Later, she served as an ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia.
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TERRY, Alice (1889-1987, Vincennes, Indiana) Her given name was Alice Taafe. She first played extra parts in pictures under the name of Taffe. In 1917, she would meet director Rex Ingram and they would marry in 1921. It was also in 1921 that Alice would gain acclaim as Marguerite in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. When sound came to the screen Alice retired when her favorite director Rex Imgram retired.
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VALENTINO, Rudolph (1895-1926, Castellaneta, Italy) His given name was Rodolfo Alfonzo Raffaelo Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla. After he finished school, he went to Paris where he learned apache dancing, joined a gay crowd, returned broke, took his inheritance of $4000 and on, December 1913, sailed for New York. He worked as a busboy, then gigolo, while pursuing dance, especially the tango. In 1917 went to Hollywood and obtained a small dancing part in Alimony (1917). He is responsible for bringing the Argentine Tango to America. Most of his early film roles were villains not lovers, that is, when he could get acting jobs. The film that made him a star was The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), in which he preformed the tango.
He met Natacha Rambova (nee Winifred Hudnut) and shortly thereafter, they eloped to Mexico 13 May, 1922 in the belief his divorce from Jean, his first wife, was official. He was jailed as a bigamist and fined $10,000. After his re-marriage to Natacha, the following year she fled to Paris. He then began dating sexy Pola Negri partly to improve his image as a man.
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WEST, Mae (1893-1980, Brooklyn, NY) She started in vaudeville stage at age seven. She quit school in the third grade and spend the next two decades in vaudeville and burlesque stages traveling around the country. In 1928 she finally gained notoriety in 1928 for writing and staging her play "Sex" in New York, which led to her widely publicized trial on obscenity charges, culminating in one week of incarceration and a lifetime of fame. West was signed by Paramount Pictures in 1932, where her phenomenal success is credited with keeping the studio solvent.
As the Hayes decency code was then in effect, West (who insisted on writing her own screenplays) was forced to couch her risque material in innuendoes and double entendres, which became a trademark of her comedic style; nevertheless, by the mid-1940s, West's films and popularity were so compromised after her bouts with censorship that she could no longer find work in Hollywood.
In the next decades, she returned to the stage, toured a wildly successful nightclub act, wrote a bestselling autobiography in 1954, and made appearances on records, radio and television, several of which were marked by the same controversies as in her early career. West returned after a 34-year absence to star in two motion pictures during the 1970s.
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EyeDeal Postcards © Figurines, 2009
For the Discriminating Vintage Postcard Collector |
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