Born Today December 15: Melva Cornell (Not So Silent edition)

 

1904-1960

 

 Almost completely unheard of actress and later long time employee at 20th Century Fox Melva Frances Cornell was born on this day in Santa Barbara. Both of her parents worked for the Santa Barbara based studio The American Film Company, so it is little surprise that growing up around the burgeoning film industry, Cornell would get bitten by the acting bug. She did appear on the stage on both coasts in a few plays, but she is formally listed as acting in only one film: Fox Movietone Follies of 1929, the musical celebrating Fox the studio and it's new all sound films (the film is also thought lost).  Her role is not named, though she does get a full credit (Google for some reason returns a search result that she was in the also lost full talkie from Fox The Girl from Havana in 1929, I combed through every source I could find online and found nothing--without time to check other sources this will just have to remain a question mark for the time being).  After she lost her husband and her son within a few years of each other in the early 1940's, she reportedly went to work at 20th Century Fox; so she stayed in the film industry--just behind the scenes. It affords the rare opportunity to praise the hundreds of people who work in jobs like these that make our viewing pleasures possible! She died at just the age of 55 in Los Angeles on the 19th of January in 1960. She is buried under her married name of Lachmann, next to her young son at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. 

 

[Source: Romper90069 (Find A Grave)]

 

Find A Grave entry 

Born Today May 21: Lola Lane (Not So Silent Edition)

1906-1981

American singer, actress and member of the Lane Sisters, Lola Lane was born on this day in Macy, Indiana.  Her birth name was Dorothy Mullican.  She was the second eldest of the Lane Sisters.  In all there were five sisters, but one--Martha--did not enter show business.  Their father was a doctor, and the family grew up in Indianola, Indiana.  Her first job that had anything to do show business, was a job playing piano in the local silent film house.  She was then sent to Des Moines to study music at Simpson College, but was expelled for cutting classes--this was fine with her, as she had not wanted to go in the first place.  There are two versions of what happened next, so there is no need to speculate; suffice to say that somehow she and her older sister wound up in New York.  Still using her birth name, she was given a $450 a week vaudeville contract there.  It was at this time that she and her sisters decided to change their surname to "Lane," and the Lane Sisters were born. Not liking her first name, she chose to change that as well. She then went a the tour circuit with Gus Edwards "Ritz Carlton Nights" and made her Broadway debut in 1928.  She caught the attention of film director Benjamin Stoloff and he gave her a part in his up coming talkie Speakeasy (1929) [yet another lost film :-(].  She would appear in two more films in 1929, both of them talkies.  The first of these was a exhibition reel from Fox to taut the MovieTone sound system that they had decided would be there choice for bringing full sound to their films:  Fox Movietone Follies Of 1929 is unfortunately also lost.  She next appeared in another Stoloff film The Girl From Havana, which is, you guessed, another lost film. All of these were victims of the tragic 1937 Fox film vault fire.  The first film that she had a role in that is not lost is The Big Fight (1930).  Though not as famous as an actress as a couple of her other sisters, Lola did, none the less, have steady work in films until she decided to retire in 1946.  The last film she appeared in was They Made Me A Killer (1946).  Lola Lane died of arterial disease at the age of 75 in Santa Barbara, Ca. on the 22 of June 1981.  She is buried there in Calvary Cemetery, along with her 5th husband of many years under her married name Lola Hanlon.

For More:

IMDb

The Lane Sisters (Wikipedia)

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