Born Today March 7: Madame Sul-Te-Wan (Nellie Crawford)

 

1873-1959

 

The ground breaking, but also some-what controversial black actress known professionally as Madame Sul-Te-Wan was born Nellie Crawford on this day in Louisville, Kentucky. She was the daughter of freed slaves, and was raised by a single mother who established her own business and herself as a laundress with skill.  The wealthier people (aka white) of the city sought out her mother Cleon for her services. When she was old enough, she employed her daughter for delivery. Eventually theatrical circles also used her mother's laundry business and Nellie got bitten hard by the acting bug delivering laundry to theaters. There she would stick around and watch rehearsals. When old enough, she sought out theatrical work herself and this lead her to Cincinnati. Joining a black theatrical company where she began using the stage name "Creole Nell." She would eventually found her own company, before setting her sights on film work. Somewhere along in this time frame she began going by the name under which she is credited in films: Madame Sul-Te-Wan.  Lillian Gish later commented that no one ever knew where the name originated from and that "no one was bold enough to ask." Also during this time, she married and had three sons, and got divorced--herself becoming a single mother. Two of her children would eventually follow her into acting, and, in fact, appeared in a few films with her.  While her film appearance in D.W. Griffith's A Birth of a Nation, is often listed as her film debut, she did in fact show up in at least one other film in 1915. She played a cook in the Kalem short The Cause of It All, directed by Chance Ward. (There are plenty of sources that state that she insisted she entered films in 1913, but as of this writing what those films are/were remains a mystery.)  But, it was her role in Griffith's "epic" The Birth Of A Nation that both stirred controversy (mostly much later on) and made history. The cast was for the films was HUGE for a start; and the uncredited cast, which included Sul-Te-Wan and the director himself, was at least twice as large as the credited cast. Of course, there were black actors in films before this, so what was the history making part?  Nellie Crawford, under her acting name, became the VERY FIRST black actor to have a contract for acting in a motion picture--an actual contract. It was for $25 dollars a day, that is nearly $650 dollars a day adjusting for monetary inflation!! It's breath taking and should be shouted from the rooftops; and, in fact, she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1986 for that very thing. But, it took until 1986 for that induction to go forward in part due of her very controversial friendship with Griffith after ward. She had apparently written a letter to Griffith introducing herself when she learned that Griffith was shooting Kentucky--as he, himself, was a Kentuckian.  The letter has never been verified, but she did make it into Nation and he subsequently cast her in his apology Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through The Ages the following year (albeit in the uncredited portion of the cast, which, if anything, was even larger than Nation). Griffith later stated that he was struck by her elaborate dress (her outfits even off the set often included elaborate turbans and long ornate dresses). She thereafter kept in touch with him through the death, attending a memorial service for him in Hollywood when he died in 1948. It was her seeming "reverence" for the man that has caused wrangling back and forth since the 1960's; most people today (and for some time now) give her a pass on this, with--I think--good reason. As mentioned above, she was a single mother and a black woman acting in Hollywood. Beyond her roles in the two Griffith epics, she thereafter was able to get tiny roles in films with the Gish sisters (she is also listed as uncredited in the Mae Marsh film Hoodoo Ann from 1916, penned by Griffith as "Granville Warwick").  After 1917, she played a lot of maids (a lot!), the first of which was as "Esmerelda--Jane's Maid" in the 1918 Tarzan of the Apes starring Enid Markey as Jane and Elmo Lincoln (of course) as Tarzan.  Maid roles came in some films that were A-listed however, including: Old Wives for New (1918) and Why Change Your Wife? (1920)--both directed by Cecil B. De Mille.  She also had a role in the short comedy The Son of a Sheik in 1922, credited as "Madame Suterman;" I mention this only because it was co-directed by Al Christie who was a white producer who would have a production facility in the latter part of the decade that made black films for black audiences. She followed this up with another tiny role in a De Mille film Manslaughter in 1922. In 1924, she had her "Mammy moment" in the Harry Carey western The Lightning Rider; in 1925 she was cast as "Easter" in the Matt Moore comedy The Narrow Street, a Warner Brothers picture. That would be the end of her officially credited roles for the decade (actually, for most of the rest of her career).  Later in 1925, she found herself back in a tiny role in another De Mille film The Golden Bed; while in 1927 she had a similar role in a the Buster Keaton film College. In 1927, Universal produced it's especially long (nearly 2 and 1/2 hours) version of Uncle Tom's Cabin, a partial silent with actor James B. Lowe as Uncle Tom; Sul-Te-Wan though was relegated to a tiny role with no credit (the uncredited cast, again was a large one, and it inlcuded the likes of Rondo Hatton and Francis Ford--older brother of director John Ford).  She was just just two more films in 1929 and that was it for the decade. Her first film appearance in a full talkie was the 1929 King Vidor musical Hallelujah.  She had a handful of credited roles in throughout the rest of her career, but most of the rest of her forty odd roles were tiny stereotyped roles: maid, cook, servant, slave...and one additional "mammy" role in King of the Zombies in 1941. She did have one appearance on a television series. In 1955 she was in a named role in the series "Medic" a dramatic medical reenactment show, playing "Grandma Jonson" in "All My Mothers, All My Fathers" (1x22).  She literally worked right up until the time of her death, with her last film appearance coming out after her death. She was the "witch woman" in the made-for-television film Tarzan and the Trappers, a cut down pilot for a no-go series of the same name; it was aired in March of 1960. Nellie Crawford had passed away in 1959, having suffered a fatal stroke at the age of 85 on the 1st of February. She is interred at the Valhalla Memorial Park in North Hollywood. Her two sons that followed her in the profession were Onest Conley and Odel Conley (who died tragically young). 

 

[Source: AJM (Find a Grave)]

 

 

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Born Today January 11: Monte Blue

1887-1963

Character actor Monte Blue was born Gerard Montgomery Bluefeather (some sources cite "Blue" as his birth sir name, but his father was of Native ancestry, Osage and Tsalagi [Cherokee], so it's possible either name could have been used--the original last name of the family was indeed "Bluefeather") on this day in Indianapolis, Indiana.  Montgomery and his four siblings grew up in a orphanage, in a home set up for orphaned children of soldiers (their father was a Civil War Veteran); this was occasioned by the sudden death of their father in a car accident and that their mother could no longer care for them on her own.  In addition to working a myriad of laboring jobs, from railroad worker to ranch hand, he also eventually got a higher education at Indiana's Purdue University.  Blue seems to have stumbled into the movie industry, making his film debut in 1915 as a hired extra in D. W. Griffith's infamous The Birth of a Nation as an uncredited extra/stuntman and as one of the many assistants to the director.  Though many next jump to his smallish role in Griffith's "apology" for Birth of a Nation Intolerance (1916) as his next role (and Blue's only other director's assistant credit), he in fact had at least 13 film appearances between the two films. His first actual named role came in his second film appearance--that of "Ignorance" in Christy Cabanne's lost epic The Absentee (1915).  It was also during this time that Blue appeared in his first western--a genre that would become his trademark (see The Wild Girl From The Hills (1915), a short western that partnered Blue up with Francis Marion).  While Griffith's Orphan of the Storm is often cited as the next big production in which he appeared, Blue was in fact in a named cast member of DeMille's 1918 remake of his own The Squaw Man.  He had also starred in lesser productions; see, for example, The Ship of Doom--a Wyndham Gittens production from 1917.  Orphans was, though, his big "breakout role."  After this, he was solidly considered leading man material and cast as such.  For the most part, his film career in the 1920's was spent in a series of romantic leads; frequent co-stars of his during this time were Mae Murray and Marie Prevost.  One of my personal favorites is Ernst Lubitsch's So This Is Paris (1926); though many feel that his best silent performance came two years later in White Shadows in the South Seas, though the film had a partial sound version making it the first film in which he appeared with talking sequences (it is also MGM's first sound film--that version was limited and premiered with special equipment at Grauman's Chinese Theater--it was also the first time that MGM's famous lion roared in full sound). Blue was under contract with Warner's for most of the decade, and was merely "loaned" out to MGM for White Shadows. When he returned to Warner's, his next film--Conquest (1928)-was the first full sound film that he made (with sound by Vitaphone).  Though he did return to silent acting in 1929, appearing the B-grade Central American action adventure From Headquarters.  He was also a participant in the all-star 2 hour musical revue Show of Shows--along with nearly every other Warner's contract performer.  His last film performance released in the 1920's was a Rin Tin-Tin film Tiger Rose, which also starred Lupe Velez.  While his first film of the new decade was Isle of Escape, which was made with Myrna Loy, whom he'd worked with previously in the 20's. He was one of the few a-listers of the silent era to smoothly make the transition to sound. All was not necessarily hunky-dory in life however; Blue lost almost all of his investments in the stock market crash of 1929. And, like a lot of silent stars that got their start in the teens, he was largely playing either bit parts in films or appearing in poverty row films by the late 1930's.  Many of these were westerns, which would be the key to the second half of his long career; as his film appearances in the 1940's was almost exclusively in westerns. There were, however, a few very notable exceptions--the most famous of which comes in his roll of Sheriff Ben Wade in John Huston's Key Largo in 1948. But, aside from a few roles in films noir, it was largely back to westerns for Monte. His television debut came in 1952 in the recurring role of Sheriff Hollister in, you guessed it, a western series, Sky King. From then on, aside from a few scant film roles, Blue stayed largely in the television business.  He made appearances in the likes of: Death Valley Days, The Lone Ranger, Rawhide, and, of course, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin.  His last acting role came in the series Pony Express episode The Search in 1960. In the later half of his life, Blue as a very active Mason and he spent the last three years of his life basically working in this capacity.  While in Milwaukee on business, he died suddenly of a heart attack brought on my by a virulent strain of flu on the 18th of February.  He was returned to California and his ashes were interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park at Glendale.

               

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Born Today April 12: Robert Harron

1893-1920

Young but extremely prolific actor Robert Emmett Harron was born on this day in New York City.  Affectionately known as "Bobby" he was the second of nine children in a large metropolitan Irish American family. Half of his younger siblings became child actors in the first studio system in the New York/Fort Lee area. When he was just fourteen he was hired at Biograph (home of D.W. Griffith); there he was both a set runner ("errand boy") and an extra in pictures. He is listed as "Boy at Door" in the 1907 Wallace McCutcheon comedy Dr. Skinum (the only other person credited in the short is veteran Irish born actor Anthony O'Sullivan--who is playing a part as a woman).  He stayed a principle actor with McCutcheon until falling under the influence of director Griffith in mid-1908 (many of the McCutcheon films in which he appeared, were actually penned by Griffith and a couple also feature Griffith as an actor as well).  His first turn under Griffith's direction came in the short comedy written by Griffith A Calamitous Elopement (1908).  After this, his short lived career was very closely tied to Griffith and his ever expanding since of film. Along the way, Harron acted with a number of actors who already were, or became, stars. They included:  Florence Lawrence (with whom he appeared often), Mary Pickford (and even her brother Jack), Mack Sennett, Marion Leonard, Owen Moore, Kate Bruce, Dell Henderson, Mabel Normand, Christy Cabanne, Lillian Gish (and sister Dorothy), Lionel Barrymore, Harry Carey, and Griffith's own wife at the time Linda Arvidson. It took until 1914 before his appeared in a film not directed by Griffith; when he appeared in one Christy Cabanne's earlier directorial efforts The Great Leap: Until Death Do Us Part with Irene Hunt and Donald Crisp. By the time he went back to appearing in Griffith films, he had appeared in several pictures that were over an hour long (what we generally call "features" today). His first feature with Griffith came in the gothic adaptation of Poe (by Griffith) in what is considered an "silent horror" today--The Avenging Conscience: or "Thou Shalt Not Kill" (1914)--even though the concept of horror films didn't really exist at that time. He would spend his time between features appearing in a series of shorts; until he was cast in probably his most famous--and infamous--role as Tod in Griffith's shameful (and record breakingly long) The Birth of a Nation in 1915.  It is this, and his role as "The Boy" in Griffith's supposed apology for Birth, Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages that Harron is remembered for almost exclusively today. In his short career, however, he actually appeared in well over 200 films.  After Intolerance he appeared in just 13 films between 1916 and 1921. By the dawn of the new decade he was actively trying to move on from Griffith's world, having since relocated to Hollywood. He appeared no films that were actually released in 1920. He landed a contract with Metro and appeared in the comedy Coincidence, which was in the can in by August of 1920 and a spiffy "preview" (ie: trailer) was produced for showcase in theaters in the large metropolitan cities. Harron and a friend traveled all the way from Los Angeles to New York expressly for the premiere of Griffith's latest: Way Down East (a film you may remember for it's infamous icy, wet and very dangerous outdoor shoots) in September of that year. The preview for Coincidence was shown at that premiere and apparently didn't go over terribly well with the audience--according to Harron himself (additional to this, he was reported to have been upset by not landing the lead in Way Down East, a report that seemed wholly fabricated by the press). In any case, upon returning to his hotel room, a gun he had in his packing trunk went off and struck him in the lung. Not thinking he was badly hurt, he called down to the desk and asked the hotel clerk for some help. It took some time to convince Harron allow an ambulance to be called. By the time he was removed from the hotel, he had reportedly lost a considerable amount of blood. While in hospital, he was arrested for being in possession of a firearm without a permit--a serious crime in the state of New York at the time. His arrest occasioned his being moved to the hospital's prison ward--which could not have helped his situation. However, he did appear to be on the mend, when four days after the incident, he took a turn for the worse (possibly due to an infection setting in) and died suddenly on the 5th of September. He was only 27 years old. A devout Catholic and a serious teetotaler (and also basically the sole income for his family-who resided with him in Los Angeles), there is almost zero evidence that he was trying to commit suicide. That, and the fact that he was both in good spirits and extremely apologetic with the hotel staff that attended him after his call for help, would lead anyone to conclude that this was nothing more than a tragic accident--an account that he himself repeated several times before his death. He also explained to the police that he brought the gun with him to keep his younger brother from finding it in their home while he was away.  Upon his return to California, he was set to begin filming with young director Elmer Clifton (it is possible that film was Down to the Sea in Ships).  Harron was, instead, buried at Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York.

[photo: TomDuse]

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Born Today September 20: Dark Cloud

1855-1918

Silent First Nations (that is Native American here in the US) actor Chief Dark Cloud was born Elijah Tahamont in the St. Francis Indian Village, (which is located near the Abenaki stronghold of Odanak in Quebec, Canada) on this day.  His "Christian name" was inherited from his father.  He was a member of and chief of the Canadian Abenaki's, and one of the first Native actors to decry stereotypes of American Aboriginals in films.  Like many natives of his time that wished to "better" themselves, he attended the Native founded Dartmouth and eventually became a lecturer of some popularity.  He also became a model for the western artist Frederic Remington.  He went to work for the American Mutoscope and Biograph Co. in 1910 and made his first film appearance that same year reportedly in D. W. Griffith's The Broken Doll.  His first credited role also came that year The Song Of The Wildwood a film more or less about a native custom dance in which he is definitely the only Native actor, starring along side of Mary Pickford (the film also features the likes of Dell Henderson and Mack Sennett). In 1911 he had the chance to play a part that actually was based on Natives from the east when he played the father of Uncas in the second production that year of The Last Of The Mohicans  (1911/II), which was filmed at Lake George, New York.  When Griffith's company moved westward in 1912, Dark Cloud was one of the actors to follow him there. For the most part during his rather brief acting career he played strictly Native American parts, most often in full plains gear that never had any association with the Band of Abenaki that he came from back east. The exception to this was when he appeared in a film about "the other Indians" in 1914--The Mystery Of The Hindu Image (a copy of the film has been restored by the George Eastman House).  He had a bit part as a general in Griffith's shameful epic The Birth Of A Nation (1915), being one of only three cast member that were actually alive during the Civil War.  Though many fanciful rumors abounded concerning his untimely death at the age of 62 on October 17, including that he had accidentally drown; and, more dramatically, that he was killed by a jealous husband--he turned out to be just another tragic statistic of the so-called "Spanish Flu" of 1918.  Several films that he appeared in were released in the next two years after his death; the last of which was The Woman Untamed (1920) in which he plays a South Seas Islander "witch doctor."  He is proudly buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.  Tahamont was married to Margaret Camp who appeared in some of his films billed as Dove Eye, though it is far from clear if she was actually of Native ancestry.  One of their daughters, Beulah, also became and actress of the stage and screen.  One of her daughters was at one point in her life married to Espera Oscar de Corti, better known as Iron Eyes Cody or "The Crying Indian"--though he was actually Italian/Sicilian.

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