“…Marion Leonard had become the best know actress of the movie world. She was even more popular than Florence Lawrence and Mary Pickford…Miss Leonard is said to have been the first actress before the camera to receive a salary of $1000 a week. It was in 1913 that she signed a contract for 42 weeks […]
“Accident creates more chances than anything else. My best advice is for the young woman who wants to get on, to keep going to the studios and trying to get a place in mob scenes. If she is fairly good-looking and wears clothes well, she has a good chance to get in the line. Keep […]
“None of us knew anything in those days. Mr. Griffith always called us young ladies and she saw to it that we never smoked or drank or played cards. We didn’t anyway. We didn’t have beaus, except Dorothy Gish, who was going with Bobby Harron; we’d come to the set looking like tramps, our shoes […]
SCREEN ACTING LURED VIRGINIA FROM THE WAVES From the waves to the field of dramatic acting! Washington Herald, Feb. 26, 1922 Virginia Warwick, one of the famous Mack Sennett bathing beauties, she of the dark, vivacious eyes, deserted the lure of the swimming tank and the sandy beach to appear in one of the stellar […]
“She swims like Annette Kellerman, drives a machine like Barney Oldfield, fences like Piquard, boxes like Willie Ritchie; and as for bust-tricks of the range from throwing broncos: she was taught all the lariat to ‘bulldogging’ a steer by Tom Mix. She holds the unique distinction of being the first lady to ever perform the […]
“Actresses are supposed to act and yet the most difficult thing is to remember not to act. I get before the camera. ‘Eva,’ says Director Victor Seastrom, ‘your lover is leaving you. You will never see him again. Your heart is broken.’ I begin to feel heartbroken, and then I all tighten up. ‘Stop the […]
“Cortez‘s real name is Jack Kranze. He became Ricardo Cortez in 1922 when Lasky wanted a studio threat to his big star, Rudolph Valentino. Kranze-Cortez came from New York’s East Side, son of a well-to-do Jewish family.” – Reporter Bill Slocum in 1958.
The first English word Hungarian silent film star Lya de Putti learned when she came to America to make movies was “Applesauce,” which was 1920s slang for “nonsense.” De Putti was the subject of many sensational stories in Europe before coming to Hollywood. Below is one of those stories. There is no author to […]
“Human interest humor is rapidly coming into its own in motion pictures. This type of humor is constructive because it builds a character and aids in the logical development of a story, whereas mechanical ‘gags’ are usually diverted from the main theme.” — Jack Mulhall Source: 1927 High Speed (1917). Co-starring Fritzi Ridgeway.
“You never see a high-class Mexican on the screen. It is always the poor, uneducated peasant or bandit. Consequently, the American people have come to look upon the Mexicans as a nation of cut-throats. The jails of America are full of criminals and there are just as many more of them at large. But this […]