 |
| [Photo by Arnold Genthe] |
1881-1971
Famed and extremely talented choreographer and early screenwriter Marion Morgan was born Marion Cahill on this day in Paterson, New Jersey. Not yet twenty, she married Matthew Morgan in 1900, hence her professional surname. By 1910, her and her young son were on their own, relocated to Long Beach, California and Marion found work at a Los Angeles area high school, later landing a summer job as a dance instructor at the University of California at Berkeley. It was the first in a long line of dance work for Morgan. She thereafter formed her own all-female vaudeville troupe. It was truly a one of a kind outfit; all members were required to study classical literature because the group performed in costumes and style deliberately reminiscent of Egyptian and Greco/Roman themes (at one point all of the member were required to be practicing Christian Scientists and, at all times, the troupe was strictly vegetarian). They toured the country extensively and soon became infamous, if not famous. They were certainly always a crowd draw. In 1921, director/writer Allen Holubar hired her to work on his independently produced domestic drama Man-Woman-Marriage; the film was to contain flashbacks to various ancient times, including Ancient Roman scenes. She was the obvious choice for choreographing said scenes. Far more important in film history was not her first film credit, but the fact that she met one Dorothy Arzner on the set of this film.
They formed a personal relationship and would be one of the longest relationships in Hollywood history. They also had a business relationship, but they would not actually work together on a film until 1927. In the meantime, Morgan would continue to work at her new found work: choreography for films. She provided choreographical work on both Rocking Moon (specifically the native dance routine) and Don Juan--both were released in 1926, and in both her work went without a credit. She is also said to have worked on a number of other films in 1926 and 1927; the two most well known being Paris at Midnight (1926) a Jetta Goudal/Lionel Barrymore film, and Up in Mabel's Room (1927) with Marie Prevost and Harrison Ford.
Her first work on one of Arzner's film was in the capacity of both the choreographer and an editor. Fashions For Women was Arzner's professional directorial debut; it was a light-hearted melodrama centered around the fashion industry starring Esther Ralston. The culmination of the film was a fashion show which Morgan choreographed. She then moved on to choreograph Azner's Ten Modern Commandments, also a 1927 production, which also starred Ralston in the lead.
She is next credited with a "tableaux" in Azner's American abroad comedy Get Your Man starring Clara Bow. The tableau in question was was a staged dance routine set inside a wax museum. More than one review listed it as the high point of the film; and the dancers in question were drawn from her own troupe. The film exists in an incomplete form (missing two reels) at the Library of Congress.
From Get Your Man [Source: Library of Congress, via WSJ]
Her last choreographic work in an Arzner silent came in the prologue story of Manhattan Cocktail which again features an ancient Greek frame story, theme and costume; Morgan's dance specialty. Filmed as a partial silent, it appears that a silent version also existed; it's unclear in the "part-talkie" version if the dance sequence featured music. The film is today listed as almost totally lost, save for a small snippet of the monatage snippet of "Manhattan Skyline" by Serbian born cinematic artist Slavko Vorkapich.
Arzner continued to make films, but Morgan did not work with her again in any official capacity. Tragically in late 1929, her 28 year old son died in Los Angeles. Despite that she moved in with Arzner into a house they jokingly called "Armor" (after famous Pickford/Fairbanks "Pickfair") she did not work again at all for a time; choosing instead to put her energy into getting a degree--which she did from the drama school at Yale. It was another five years before she worked in film again. She came back to help pen two Mae West films based on stories she co-wrote with George Dowell, which West herself wrote the screenplays for: Goin' to Town (1935) and Klondike Annie (1936). She and Arzner had a forty year relationship and co-habitation; while not flaunting their sexual orientation, they didn't hide it either--highly unusual for the times. Morgan passed away in Los Angeles on the 10th of November in 1971 at the age of 90. She wished to be interred with her son, whom she had interred with her own mother, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. Her ashes were added to their niche, but her presence there remains unmarked. Her dance archives are preserved at the New York Public Library.
[Source: Detroit Public Library]
 |
| [Source: New York Public Library] |
 |
| [Source: Museum of the City of New York] |
[Photo: Arnold Genthe]
[Photo: Arnold Genthe]
[source: Kathy Salazar (Find a Grave)]
No comments:
Post a Comment