Born Today September 6: June Marlowe

1903-1984

Actress June Marlowe was born Gisela Valeria Goetten to German immigrant parents in St. Cloud Minnesota.  She was best known for her role of Mrs. Crabtree in the Our Gang series in the early 1930's, where she donned a blond wig to match the hair of child star Jackie Cooper; but she actually made the majority of her film appearances in the 1920's.  Her first film Fighting Blood, dating from 1923, saw her in such a minor role that it went uncredited.  Her first credited role came in 1924 in the role of Kitty Reid in When A Man's A Man.  She was in several films in both 1924 and 1925, including opposite both Rin Tin Tin (yes, Rin Tin Tin!) and later John Barrymore.  One of the Rin Tin Tin films that she appeared in was Clash Of The Wolves (1925), which was nearly lost to history but survives today thanks in no small part to the National Film Preservation Society.  She was one of the WAMPAS Baby stars of 1925 (one can assume that being in this situation, she was "presented" with a "proper" screen name by one of the male studio big-wigs that ran these virtual harem of young girls in the mid-1920's on).  Marlowe did not possess what the studios thought was an acting voice pleasing in the dawning sound era,  and this must have greatly effected her confidence.  Probably as a result, in late 1929, when more and more of the largest studios--like Universal--were experimenting with full sound films, Marlowe made two films for a German production company under the studio umbrella of Universal--both were silent pictures.  Her first sound film--The Lone Defender (1930)--was another Rin Tin Tin film in which she played the Hispanic Dolores Valdez.  She then fell into making shorts with the like of Charly Chase, which landed her the role that she is known for today in 1930 in Teacher's Pet.  Hal Roach also paired her up with the budding film sensation that was Laurel and Hardy.  By this time, her interest in continuing an acting career waned; her last appearance in front of the camera came in 1932 as Mrs. Crabtree one last time in Readin' and Writin'.  She then quit to become a housewife, having married a Hollywood businessman in 1933.  She remained content with this life; though later in life, she became a writer of children's stories.  She died from complications due to Parkinson's in Burbank on the 10th of March in 1984 at the age of 80.  She was originally buried at the San Fernando Mission Cemetery, but was later moved to the new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, which has a mausoleum in it's basement.

Original marker buried with her brother Louis at San Fernando

Niche in Mausoleum at Lady of the Angels

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Born Today September 5: Doris Kenyon

1897-1979

Actress Doris Margaret Kenyon was born on this day in Syracuse, New York, the daughter of a Methodist minister and  poet.  She got her start in front of audiences singing in choirs.  As she progressed in her college education, first locally, and later at Columbia in New York, her voice stood out more and more.  Eventually she was noticed by theater scouts.  She made her stage debut in 1915, and only a little there after, she made her film debut as well in The Rack, a film made and distributed under  the umbrella of World Pictures.  Her industry standard 1 year contract under World provided here with numerous film roles throughout 1916.  Released from contract she made films for various early studios including Vitagraph, Pathé Exchange and Alice Guy's Solax.  In 1918, she started her own production company (not uncommon for stars of means at the time) called De Luxe in which she starred in four films, one of which--Twilight (1919)--was directed by J. Searle Dawley.  When the 1920's dawned, she was still working on the east coast, a situation that she was loathe to change, despite that she began working for production companies that had more "action" on the west coast than the east.  Fond of the stage, amazingly, she was able to stay through a goodly part of the 1920's in the New York area; even starring in a New York Paramount Studio [Queens] film with a young Rudolph Valentino:  Monsieur Beaucaire in 1924.  The Blonde Saint (1926) appears to be the first film shot in California that she starred in; the film which starred Lewis Stone, was filmed on location at Laguna Beach.  She was barely in California two years before landing a role in a very early talkie by Warner Bros.:  The Home Towners, which is unfortunately a lost film, was released in 1928 with full sound by Vitaphone.  She only made one more film in the 1920's and that was yet another early talkie.  Interference, a Paramount film, also dates from 1928 with Kenyon rounding out a cast that included Evelyn Brent, Clive Brook and William Powell.  Having done in the 1920's what many silent stars had to deal with in the early 1930's, Kenyon's transition to all talking films was pretty well cemented by the time she made Beau Bandit, a romantic western, in 1930.  She continued to work in film steadily up through the mid-1930's, when her appearances slowed.  Her last film appearance before retiring and moving on to other ventures, was in The Man In The Iron Mask a film directed by James Whale.  Kenyon moved on to radio in the 1940's, playing a very successful role on NBC's soap opera Crossroads.  She made her television debut in the 1950's on the Schlitz Playhouse.  She made two more television appearances before retiring from acting altogether.  The last of these was in the Double Date episode of The Real McCoys airing in 1962.  She died of cardiac arrest in her home in Beverly Hills on September the 1st 1979, just four days before her 82nd birthday.  She is buried at the Glendale location of Forest Lawn.  Kenyon's first marriage was to silent film actor Milton Sills, who died in 1930--they had one son together.  Famed actress Doris Day was reportedly named of her.

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Born Today September 4: Étienne Arnaud

1879-1955

French born director Étienne Arnaud was born on this day in Villeneuve-les-Béziers--his birth name was Chiaffredo Arnaud.  Arnaud started directing films in 1905 in France; his first film was Arrêtez mon chapeau!  He directed dozens of films between 1905 and 1907--later getting involved with fellow French director and animation artist Émile Cohl.  He co-directed a number of animated shorts with Cohl in 1909; after which, he continued to direct most of his--almost all of them short subjects--solo.  By 1910, he was a sometimes directorial collaborator of Louis Feuillade.  In 1912, he was lured away to the United States and signed a contract with Eclair.  His first film for them was The Guardian Angel (1912).  Arnaud worked for them under contract for two years; probably the film that he is best known for is the short Saved From The Titanic in 1912-premiering just 29 days after the disaster (the film is now lost).  Though he lived well into the 20th century, he did not make any more films past the year 1914.  His last film The Dancer and the King (1914) was made outside the umbrella of Eclair for Charles E. Blaney Productions.  Arnaud died in the U.S.--San Francisco--on the 11th of May 1955 at the age of 79.  There is no information as to his burial or cremation.

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Born Today September 3: Guy Kingsley Poynter

1915-1983

Actor Guy Kingsely Poynter was no child actor, in fact, he did not make any films within the silent era--not even during Hollywood's pre-code days--his film debut actually came in 1938 as "Henry McInstosh" in Orson Welles infamous silent film Too Much Johnson.  Poynter was born Guy Kingsley William in Great Neck, New York on this day in 1915. Poynter also appeared in a stage production of the Welles work as well.  After 1946, he lived and worked in the UK--this he would do for the rest of his life.  He is best known (at least in Britian) for his role the BBC radio show Journey Into Space, where he played Doc Matthews.   He thereafter appeared a series of low budget films and lesser known British television series.  His last appearance before he retired came in the episode The Dentist in 1965 on The Dickie Henderson Show.  Poynter possibly died in the Greater London area on the 6th of September 1983 in the UK just three days after his 68th birthday (note: some sources state that he died in July of that same year, due to a newspaper obit of "his widow" who died in August--creamtorium in Putney lists him as cremated in June of that year).  His remains were supposedly cremated at Putney Vale Cemetery and Crematorium.  No word as to their deposal or otherwise.

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Released Today September 4: The Sealed Room (1909)

Born Today September 2: Gardner Hunting

 

 

1872-1958

Writer Gradner Hunting is better known today for his writings after his involvement in the movie industry, starting from around 1925 thorught o 1958, the year of his death.  Obviously, what we are concerned with here are his works within the industry.  Hunting was born on this day in the state of Wisconsin.  He became a story writer, mostly of shorts and these would later lead him into active scenario writing for films.  The first film that his writing inspired came in 1914 with one of his short stories being adapted for Where The Mountains Meet.  Hunting quickly got into scenario writing--his first "screenplay" was produced in 1916 with Paying The Price.  Throughout 1916, he provided various scenorios for film, but kept writing his short stories as well.  In 1917, he was even employed for a short time to adapt other's stories for the silver screen (something that he seemed not to have taken to, given his short time doing it).  Later in 1917, he even began to adapt his own work for films as well.  Little Miss Optimist (1917) seems to have been the first example of this.  Though he would eventually work for some of the major studios of the time (such as Famous Players Lasky), he never worked on a film of any real note.  The last film that he penned came in 1921 with If Women Only Knew, a 1 hour drama filmed in Ithaca, New York.  By 1925, he was writing works that ranged from religious themed science fiction, to out and out religious self help books.  One could say that he was the original Norman Vincent Peale.  In fact, in many ways, Peale's book The Power Of Positive Thinking--which came out n 1952--is a kind of rip off of Hunting's 1934 Working With God.  Hunting continued to write and be published in magazine form right up until he passed away in Burbank, CA on the 21st of November 1958--having left behind a large volume of film scenarios that no one remembered.  He was 86 years old.  I can find no information as his burial or interrement.  

Dating from 1917, he adapted the story for the screen in this drama, independently produced.

 

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Born Today September 1: John W. Boyle

1891-1959

Cinematographer John W. Boyle was born on this day in Memphis, Tennessee.  By the end of his career, he had shot over 150 films, but he got his start solidly in the silent era.  His first film was Greater Love Hath No Man in 1915.  He was in fact, the cinematographer on a film starring Arthur Shirley (II), who was written up yesterday on this blog; the film was The Fall Of A Nation (1916).  By 1917,  he was working for Fox and photographed a great many of their late 1910's iconic films (most of them sadly lost)--including a great many of the Theda Bara/J. Gordon Edwards films.  Even after Edwards was through directing Bara, he kept Boyle on as his cinematographer.   He, for example, shot the now lost Edwards' directed The Queen Of Sheba (1921), which features Betty Blythe who also had a birthday on the 1st of September. From 1922 on, he was working at various studios, including: Metro, Warner Bros.,  and Goldwyn.  He was given top jobs at some the earliest merged studios as well.  1928 brought his first brush with early talking pictures; he was director of photography on The Good-By Kiss a partial sound film directed by the great Mack Sennett, for whom he worked in the late silent era.  He next worked on a short film of Sennett's that had an experimental two-color technicolor sequence: The Campus Carmen (1928).  Sennett's next comedic short The Lion's Roar (1928) was a full sound affair that Boyle also photographed.  Also by 1928, he gained the attention of up and coming directors working under Sennett's umbrella at Sennett Comedies--one of them was Frank Capra.  These aquntiances would serve him well later in his career.  The over-whelming bulk of the films that he shot in the late 1920's and early 1930's were shorts around 20 minutes long.  In 1928 and 1929, he also served as president of the American Society of Cinematographers.  Boyle worked right up until the time of his death, having made his television debut in shooting seven episodes of Big Town in the early 1950's.  The last film that he shot was Courage of Black Beauty in 1957.  Boyle passed away in Hollywood on the 28 of September 1959, almost one month to the day after his 68th birthday.  He is interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.  In 1965, some of his archive footage of Abbott and Costello was used in The World Of Abbott and Costello.  

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Born Today August 31: Arthur Shirley (II)

1889-1967

Silent Australian actor (and sometimes director) Arthur Shirley (not to be confused with the silent British actor of the same name) was born Henry Raymond Shirley on this day in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.  Though born Henry, he was christened Arthur.  He attended Catholic schools on the island and went to work as a young man, eventually becoming a clerk to a solicitor.  He was, however drawn to entertainment, and at the age of 16 basically "ran away to the circus" when he joined a traveling troupe of entertainers touring the area with a very modest caravan.  By 1904 he are relocated to Melbourne on the mainland and worked as a door to door salesman, enrolling later on in a seminary to Sydney.  Again, in 1905, he absconded to the entertainment industry, becoming involved in a theater.  He made his stage debut that same year back in Melbourne.  He spent the next two years as an actor in a company touring New South Wales and Victoria.  He then got involved with a couple of theater entrepreneurs, the first indication that he had some prowess as a salesman (obviously a hold over from his Melbourne days).  By 1909 he made a rather dramatic annoucedment that he would starring in a theatrical role written especially for him--though none of this has ever been confirmed.  It is known, that by 1913, he owed a considerable sum to at one individual--a woman known only as Miss Tindall--and declared bankruptcy by the end of the year.  His struggles with finances dogged him into the year 1914, the same year that he finally broke into the motion picture business.  He landed a named role in The Silence of Dean Maitland (1914).  This was quickly followed by The Shepherd of the Southern Cross (1914)--now a lost film--in which he had the starring role. (Note: he is often mistaken for the other Arthur Shirley in the British film from 1913 Sixty Years a Queen from 1913)  Both films were successes, though Maitland, much more so.  Shirley was still burdened by financial difficulties however; one of which resulted in his bringing suit against an employer and winning the case.  The money that he was awarded allowed him to settle his debts, but he felt that Australia had nothing further to offer him in regards to his acting ambitions.  In late 1914, he and his new wife, relocated to the United States and he was put under contract at Kalem in New York, where he apparently starred as a detective in a recurring role (I can find little information about this time in his life).  He eventually wound up at Universal in California where he starred in several films featuring Lon Chaney Sr.  He also had a role in the propaganda sequel to Birth of a Nation The Fall Of A Nation  in 1916.  He also ran his own business on Hollywood Blvd.--a photographic business that provided innovative photographic lighting solutions and specialized background pieces for photographic portraiture.  He continued to work in the American film industry for the rest of the 1910's (which comprised the bulk of his film acting career).  The last film that he made at Universal was The Triflers in 1920.  That same year, he returned to Australia.  Upon his return, he set up his own production studio, the venture ended with no films completed and sent Shirley again into bankruptcy.  He managed to recover enough to return to the stage in 1923 and to film acting in 1925 with The Mystery Of The Hansom Cab, a film that he wrote and directed.  He also wrote and directed The Sealed Room the following year.  In 1927, he relocated to London with the notion that he would promote his Australian films there and set a facility to make more.  This did not turn out according to plan; and again, the culprit was money woes.  By 1930, he was back in Hollywood; returning to Australia in 1934.  In the interim, he had managed to eek out a small role in a short early talkie in California in 1931:  The Champion.  He showed up in only two other roles during his brief time back in the U.S., both uncredited; the second of which would mark his last involvement in the film industry--the film was Pursued (1934), a Fox Film production.  He briefly got into politics in the 1940's, but spent most of the rest of his retirement either quietly in Australia or pursuing passions in archeology and ancient Egyptian interests.  Shirley died on the 24th of November in Rose Bay, New South Wales, Australia at the age of 81 and is buried in the Rose Bay cemetery there.

Poster for Alas And Alack (1915) a Hollywood production that Shirley acted in with Lon Chaney Sr. 

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Born Today August 30: Raymond Massey (Not So Silent Edition)

1896-1983

Actor of great talent and repute, Raymond Hart Massey, was born on this day in Toronto, Canada into a very wealthy established manufacturing family.  As a young man, he attended Upper Canada College and later matriculated to Appleby College in Oakville, Ontario, while there, he attended classes at the University of Toronto and later graduated from Balliol College Oxford (one of the oldest at the university).  He served in the Canadian Army during World War I; he returned with "shell shock" during the war.  This, ironically, would lead to his first acting experiences.  He was then made an instructor to American officers at Yale University, then later (1918) sent to serve in Siberia.  This is where he had his first encounter with the stage.  After the war (and recovering from injuries incurred during), he returned to Canada to work in the family business selling farm equipment and implements.  His experience in Siberia however had left him with a taste for the stage.  He managed to get work in that field and, in 1922, he appeared on the stage in London for the first time.  Before long, he had gained the interest of the film industry.  He made his first appearance in the film in a production in 1928 (premiering in 1929) in the UK war intrigue High Treason, the film was released in both sound and silent formats, with the sound version featuring the not so reliable British Acoustic system.  He had just a small part, but it was enough to send him on his way to wildly successful film career playing all types, with a bent toward character acting.  Massey next appeared in bit part in the UK partial silent The Crooked Billet (1929).  By this time in his career, he was directing stage productions in London, so it is no surprise that his next film role--solidly in the sound era--was one in which he had the starring role.  He was Sherlock Holmes in the 1931 The Speckled Band.  His next two films are personal favorites of mine, with the second marking his entry into the American film industry.  The Face At The Window (1932) was a British crime drama based on a Brooke Warren play.  And, The Old Dark House is the 1932 James Whale film that doesn't get a much attention as his other films do--it had an all star cast including Boris Karloff, Charles Laughton and Melvyn Douglas to name but a few (the film was lost for decades until 1968).  After this, Massey would return to making film appearances in the UK.  He would not return to the US film industry until 1937 with The Prisoner Of Zenda.  He returned again the UK and made a very, very early appearance in a British television program in 1938 in Picture Page, in that show's 12th episode.  Massey had continued to work on the stage all through out this time and had a surprise hit when assaying the historical role of Abe Lincoln.  He played Lincoln for the first of several times on film in 1940 with Abe Lincoln in Illinois (a filmed production of the play in which he starred).  It was a role that garnered his only Oscar nomination.  He would go on to have a distinguished career as both a leading actor and a supporting actor in several very well known films.  He also became a frequent actor on television as well.  He had recurring roles in both I, Spy and Dr. Kildare.  Massey continued to work up until about 10 years before his death.  His last filmed appearance came in My Darling Daughter's Anniversary (his second turn as Matthew Cunningham in a "Darling" film) in 1973, which was made for television.  Massey died of pneumonia in Los Angeles on the 29th of July, just before his 87th birthday.  He died the same day as David Niven, a sometime co-star of his.  He is buried in Beaverdale Memorial Park in New Haven, Connecticut. 

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Born Today August 29: Maurice Maeterlinck

1862-1949

French speaking symbolist Belgium playwright Maurice (Mooris) Polydore (Poidore) Marie Bernard (Bernhard) Maeterlinck was born on this day in Gent, Flanders, Belgium into a very wealthy family.  Naturally, he had a Catholic upbringing and in 1874 he was sent to a Jesuit college to study.  Mostly on the educational "menu" were religious studies and literature and immersion in French Romantic writing; the experience was not a good one for him.  In fact, it left him with a life-long distrust for organized religions in general and a strong dislike for the Catholic Church in particular.  He had, however, started writing on his own while he was in school; his volume of work was quite impressive--they included poetry and several short novels.  Though he clearly possessed a great talent for writing and preferred it as a line of work, his father insisted that he study the law instead.  He eventually finished his law degree in 1885 at the University of Ghent.  After this, he promptly left for Paris.  While there, he became acquainted with several members of the new Symbolism movement--an artistic philosophy that would have great influence over him.  This is when he began to write plays.  His first play made him an instant sensation in Paris.  As he wrote more plays, the themes became gradually darker and more symbolic--many of which included Death as a character.  His own personal experience of life tended toward the depressed, though he was diagnosed with an actual physical complaint in 1906--a condition that in modern times would be associated with actual physical pain caused by certain types of clinical depression.  Upon the diagnosis of what was then called Neurasthenia, he rented a partially ruined abbey in Normandy, France. He set about restoring the place to some extent (his rental of the space saved it from being turned into a chemical factory--a fact not lost on Pope Pius X, who bestowed a blessing on Maeterlinck despite his personal split from the church).  To move about the large property, he used roller skates.  During this period of time his writing took on a more socialist world view, and he, in fact, contributed personal monies to worker's unions and various socialist groups.  He then began to suffer from writers block apparently brought on by more bouts of depression.  He did recover eventually and began writing again, though his vigor as a writer was permanently compromised and the volume of his literary output dropped significantly.  His socialist standings on political matters landed him in trouble with The Vatican and by 1914 much of his work was placed on the official list of prohibited works by The Church.  Through it all though, when Germany invaded Belgium that same year, Maeterlinck's patriotism was stirred and he attempted to join the French Foreign Legion, but was refused due to his age.  So he lent his voice to the war effort instead, giving speeches lauding the bravery of his fellow countrymen fighting the invasion.  In 1919, he accepted an invitation by Samuel Goldwyn to write scenarios for film.  He left for the United States for this purpose and did produce a number of scripts.  None of them was ever used (what a shame) and only two are known to survive today.  After this, his writing turned back inward to subjects that he knew best: natural history, occultism and philosophical works based on ethics placed within these themes.  His writing powers, however, were of such a diminished capacity that he resorted to plagiarism by the mid 1920's (read more at the Wikipedia site link below).  During the 1930's he lived in a chateau in Nice, France.  By 1940 he was in Lisbon, from which he fled to the United States to avoid a yet another encroaching German invasion.  He stayed in the US throughout World War II, returning to Nice in August of 1947.  He lived there until his death in 1949 on the 6th of May of a heart attack. I can find no information as his burial or cremation.  Though none of his actual screenplays made it into production, films have been made from his work since the year 1910 (which, of course, pre-dates his short turn in the American film industry).  The first film made from his other work is based on the one work that he is largely remembered for today.  The Blue Bird was an UK production, based on his play of the same name.  In all, seven films were made from his writings during the silent era (which fell completely within his lifetime), with the UK production The Burgomaster of Stelmond of 1929 being the last.  One more feature length film was made during his lifetime:  20th Century Fox's The Blue Bird was released in 1940.  Shortly before his death, his work made it onto to early television in Brazil's Grande Teatro Tupi series in the episode Pelease e Melisande.  The most recent use of his work for a film came in 2012 with a made for television musical film in the German produced, French language Pelléas et Mélisande.

Still from Pelleas and Melisande 1913

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