Silent Stars

They are long gone, but they are not forgotten. They are not really gone but maybe they are forgotten? Being a movie star was different in the silent era. There were no paparazzis so there were no gossip magazines, at the most, a gossip column in the local newspaper. There were no television, which meant no reality shows, gossip news or talk shows. All together, movie stars could be very private when they wanted to be. If you wanted to see them, you had to go to the movies. These pictures are some of my favourites, I will update them a couple of times until I get it “right”. I will start with actresses from the “oldest” part of the silent era. Mary Pickford comes first, she was the first movie star and by her marriage to Douglas Fairbanks, one half of the first Hollywood it-couple (think Brad and Angelina). Last but not least in my gallery, is Jean Harlow. She started filming in the end of the silent era but became famous for her work in sound pictures. Partly because of her froglike voice who was perfect for comedies.

I have to point out that I´m not an expert, just someone that love old movies and old pictures. Like always, I focus on actresses not actors but there might show up some male stars as well. Take time to click on the pictures, I recommend this, they are simply amazing!

: Mary Pickford (1892-1979) She did her first movie in 1909.

: Norma Talmadge (1894-1957) Difficult childhood, her younger sister Constance also did some acting, but Norma became a super star of her time.

: Constance Talmadge (1898-1973) Younger sister of Norma Talmadge, not as successfull as her though.

: Bebe Daniels (1901-1971)

: Mae Marsh (1894-1968)

: Anna Q Nilsson (1888-1974) Swedish girl, moved to New York to become a star.

: Lillian Gish (1893-1993) Older sister of Dorothy.

: Dorothy Gish (1898-1968) Younger sister of Lillian Gish.

: Maude Fealy (1883-1971)

: Gladys Brockwell (1894-1929) She died young from injuries caused by a car crash several years earlier.

: Ethel Barrymore (1879-1959) She and her two brothers were very successfull actors, all related to Drew Barrymore.

: Theda Bara (1885-1955) Her real name was Theodosia Burr. She was always typecasted as the dangerous/bad-girl/villain.

: Edna Purviance (1895-1958) She started working as a stenographer but would later appear as Charlie Chaplins leading lady in more than 20 films. Her last movie was “Limelight” (1952) a small part opposite Chaplin (of course!).

: Marie Dressler (1868-1934) She had her biggest success when she got older.

: Mae Murray (1889-1965) In 1906 she started performing on Broadway as a ballroom dancer. Two years later she joined the “Ziegfeld Follies” chorus line. Mae´s movie debut came in 1916 and she was very popular. Her voice wasn´t considered suitable for talkies and she did her last movie in 1931. Pola Negri was her maid of honour at her fourth wedding.

: Gloria Swanson (1899-1983) She did make her most successfull movie in 1950 but in the silent era, she was one of the absolute biggest stars.

: Gertrude Astor (1887-1977)

: Bessie Love (1898-1986) She starred in her first movie at 17 and she never really stopped working, she made her last movie at 85. “The flying torpedo” (1916), “Gentle Julia” (1923), “The Broadway Melody” (1929), “Journey together” (1945), “Isadora” (1968) are some of the movies she starred in.

: Alla Nazimova (1879-1945) Russian born actress that created a garden at her house, The garden of Allah, the parties she held there were legendary.

: Pola Negri (1897-1987) Born in Polen, she and her mother emigrated to America after the success of a German film she had starred in.

: Billie Burke (1884-1970) She was a star in the silent era but is most remembered for playing the good witch in “The Wizard of Oz” (1939).

: Anna May Wong (1905-1961) She was the first chinese-american actress to make it in Hollywood.

: Marion Davies (1897-1961)

: Vilma Banky (1898-1991) She was from Hungary and between 1920-25 she starred in Hungarian, Austrian and French movies. 1925-26 she did two movies with Rudolph Valentino, “The Eagle” (1925) and “The Son of the Sheik” (1926). Her transission to talkies didn´t go well, due to her heavy accent and she did her last movie in 1933.

: Colleen Moore (1899-1988)

: Mary Astor (1906-1987)

: Norma Shearer (1902-1983) One of the biggest stars in the silent era.

: Clara Bow (1905-1965) She has been called the ultimate flapper girl. She was fun and outspoken, the audience loved her.

: Greta Garbo (1905-1990) Swedish actress that was discovered and emigrated to America. She became an even bigger star in Hollywood but retired quite early.

: Jean Arthur (1900-1991) A comedy actress known from “Mr. Smith goes to Washington”.

: Olive Borden (1906-1947)

: Fay Wray (1907-2004) She was called The scream queen because of her parts in King Kong and similiar movies.

: Louise Brooks (1906-1985) – She became famous for more then her acting abilities: her hair-do was copied by women all over the world.

: Tallulah Bankhead (1902-1968) She was 15 when she started acting with a local theater troup. At 16 she won a beauty pagent and moved to New York. It didn´t work out like she had hoped, so she moved to London and eventually became a star at the theater scene. Soon she was getting offered parts in movies but her biggest success came in 1944 with Hitchcocks “Lifeboat”. Tallulah was bisexual and was said to have had a long relationship with iconic singer Billie Holiday.

: Joan Crawford (1906-1977) In the world of “talkis” only Garbo became bigger than her.

: Dolores Del Rio (1904-1983) She was from Mexico, the first spanish speaking actress to make it big in Hollywood.

: Anita Page (1910-2008)

: Claudette Colbert (1903-1996)

: Jean Harlow (1911-1937) She is an icon. Became a big star in the 1930´s but died very young.

The site http://www.doctormacro.com have some of the most amazing pictures. You can read about these women and every other actress that ever starred in a Hollywood movie, at http://www.imdb.com.

Black and White photography

I haven´t posted anything in almost a week, instead I have been busy updating older posts. But here is a new one, with wonderful black and white photography. The American photographer George Hurrell 1904-1992 worked with everybody that was somebody. He created the glamorous black and white picture that is significant to old Hollywood. He worked with Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, and later Harrison Ford, Sharon Stone and Sherilyn Fenn.

Brooke Shields, 1981, Veronica Lake & Marlon Brando. It is difficult to guess which picture is oldest and which picture is the newest one.

Jean Harlow, 1934, Chevy Chase, circa 1980 & Anna May Wong, 1937 (above).

Bette Davis, 1939, Sharon Stone, 1992. Sharon was the last star to be photographed by Hurrell.

Below: Jean Harlow, probably in the mid 1930s.

Betty Grable & Aretha Franklin (above).

Carole Lombard, 1935 & Sherilyn Fenn, 1992 (above).

Rita Hayworth & Corinne Calvet, 1948 (above).

Harrison Ford, 1984, Douglas Fairbanks Jr & Julian Sands (above).

Gary Cooper, 1937, Diana Ross & Greta Garbo (above).

Johnny Weissmuller, 1932 (above).

Clark Gable & Harrison Ford, 1984 (above).

Hurrell photographed the record-cover for Natalie Cole´s album Unforgettable in 1991. Second pic; Kathleen Turner & Michael Douglas (above).

Marlene Dietrich, Bette Midler, Katharine Hepburn & Shirley Temple.

Jean Harlow in the 1930s & Hurrell´s muse, Joan Crawford, 1931 (above).

Photographer George Hurrell himself (above).

Old Hollywood List

In no special order, here is a list with 12 of my favourite Old Hollywood actors:

Veronica Lake (1922-1973)

Veronica Lake was born in Brooklyn, New York. She was 12 years old when her father died in an explosion on a oil-ship. Her mother remarried and when she was fifteen they moved to LA for her to pursuit an acting career. Within a year she got bit parts in several movie-productions. A few years later she would become a big movie-star and would continue being so for about five years. Then she had to struggle with smaller parts and bad scripts and she also made some television. When she left Hollywood she was broke and an alcoholic. She died 50 years old from hepatitis. She was then living in a cheap hotel, working as a bartender, had four children and was married for the fourth time.

Ginger Rogers (1911-1995)

Ginger was born as Virginia Katherine McMath. Her upbringing was difficult due to her divorced and fighting parents. Her mother went to court to get full custody and Ginger was then kidnapped several times by her father. When she got full custody of Ginger she was sent to live with her grandparents while her mother searched for work. When she got a job in Los Angeles Ginger as sent for, and she also remarried. At fourteen she won a charleston dance-contest and she also found work in vaudeville. She did her first film in 1929 at age eighteen. That year she married and (a couple of month later) divorced her first husband. She would later marry and divorce no less then four more times. Ginger did many movies with her dance partner Fred Astaire.

Cary Grant (1904-1986)

Cary Grant was born as Archibald Alexander Leach in Bristol, England. He came to America with an acrobat-show and while performing in New York he was discovered by Mae West. He was one of Alfred Hitchcock´s favourite actors.

Jeanne Moreau (born in 1928)

Jeanne is a French actress that mostly have worked in France. She still lives in Paris and she is still very active as an actress. She is also a film director and a singer.

Sidney Poitier (born in 1927)

Sidney was born in Bahamas. As a teenager he constantly got into trouble with the local police and his parents sent him to live with a relative in Florida. That is where he went to the movies for the first time.

Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993)

Audrey was born in Belgium, her parents both came from England. She grew up in London but when the World War 2 came closer, she and her mother moved back to Belgium. They were very poor and it was an extremely difficult time for her. After the war she studied ballet and later worked as a model. She was discovered by a movie director in Paris and soon she did a screen-test in Hollywood. Her screen-test is still considered the best one ever made in Hollywood.

Greta Garbo (1905-1990)

Greta Garbo was born as Greta Lovisa Gustafsson in Stockholm, Sweden. Her father died when she was 12 years old which led to her dropping out of school to help support the family. She found work at a department store and later she started modelling for the same company. It was mostly newspaper ads but also an advertising short film, a commercial. She then did one short film and one feature film and won a scholarship to a very good drama school in Stockholm. While in school she made two more movies when the swedish film director Mauritz Stiller made her drop out to appear in his Gösta Berlings Saga. This was 1924, she was 19 years old and by the time she turned 25 she was a well-known actress in Sweden as well as in America. She became a US Citizen 1951. She never married, there have been speculations weather she was gay or not. Greta is considered one of the best actresses the world have ever seen. She is called La Divina, The Divine, Den Gudomliga.

Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962)

Marilyn had a difficult childhood and married young. Her first husband wanted her to give up her dreams of being a movie-star and that´s why she soon divorced him. In her other two marriages it would be the same thing, her two husbands (Joe DiMaggio, A Miller) wanted her to settle down or at least work less. She was too young when she died, probably by suicide. Marilyn is still the biggest and brightest star the world had ever seen.

Sophia Loren (born in 1934)

Sophia Loren grew with her mother and sister in Rome, Italy. Her father was married to another woman. After she came second in a local beauty contest she was discovered by an older movie director. She later married him and they stayed married for many years until he died a few years ago.

Bela Lugosi (1882-1956)

Bela Lugosi was born in Hungary (then Rumania). He is known for numerous horror films and mostly for his performance as Dracula in many different movies.

Gary Cooper (1901-1961)

Gary Cooper grew up in Iowa and the first time he played theatre was in high school. Before he went to Hollywood he worked as a park guide. Later he would go on to win two academy awards.

Shirley Temple (1928-1914)

Shirley was the most famous childstar the world have ever seen. She could sing, dance, act and she was the cutest thing you had ever seen. She gave up acting as an adult, went to university and worked in politics. For many years she worked as an US ambassador in both Africa and Europe.

I have found a lot of information at http://www.imdb.com. Many of the pictures I publish at these old stars come from http://www.doctormacro.com.