Born Today July 8: Arthur C. Miller

1895-1970

[apologies for lack proper editing, I am experiencing computer difficulties, but would like to publish this anyway.]

One of the most well known of the early cinematographers of the Fort Lee period of film making in the United States, Arthur Charles Miller was born on this day in Roslyn, New York. During his lifetime he was a seven time Oscar nominee and a three time winner in the 1940's for his cinematography work; but arguably his most famous work today came from the silent era. His birthplace of Roslyn is located on the northwestern edge of Long Island in Nassau County, this meant it's proximity to New York City saw a large number of residents finding work in the city, especially during the early 20th century, when public transportation exploded in the area. Miller was just 13 years of age when he found work in the new motion picture industry.  This came about quite by accident; as he recounted much later in life, that he knew how to ride horses and was working for a local horse dealer who knew that Miller could ride bare back--he soon found himself on a location shoot on a golf course in Brooklyn.  This is how he made the aquaintance of then cinematographer Fred Balshofer. His first credit comes on as an assistant camera operator on The True Heart of an Indian in 1909, on which Balshofer was responsible for the outdoor scenes shot in New Jersey (he also co-directed the short). Miller was just 14 years old (Note: it is highly probable that his has other credits earlier than this, as we still do not know what the film was that he was riding the horse for in 1908). Even more impressively at the age of 14, Balshofer allowed Miller to operate a camera all on his own for part of another film that Balshofer co-directed, thus giving Miller his first cinematographer credit: that film was Romance of a Fishermaid (1909). Just two years later, at the age of 16, he earned his first solo credit in cinematography for directing the photography of the Lois Weber film A Heroine of '76 (1911). The following year, at the age of 17, he was the DP on a Mack Sennett film at Keystone: At Coney Island (1912)--a film starring Sennett and Mabel Normand. What Miller is most remembered for in regards to his work in silents, are the serials that he worked on, the first of which was The Perils of Pauline (1914).  What is astonishing is that Pathé hired him for the entire 20 part serial as the sole cinematographer on the project when he was only 19! His reputation for being an expert at shooting tough on locations was solidified by the project; it is no wonder, then that he was selected four years later by Astra as one of two cinematographers on the now famously lost serial The House of Hate. He was more than ready to shoot even the most difficult of outdoor locations, even cliff sides (see below).

Very famous still from The House of Hate filming on Cliffhanger Point in New Jersey near Fort Lee. (And yes, this is where we get the term "cliffhanger")

In the meantime, he had worked on several George Fitzmaurice films, both at Pathé and Astra. One of those films was Blind Man's Luck (1917) was written by George B. Seitz, who would be the director on House of Hate.  After the filming for Hate concluded, he went back to being principle director of photography for Fitzmaurice, who was by this time working with his screenwriting wife Ouida Bergère.  When Fitzmaurice moved to Hollywood and signed at contract in 1919 with Paramount, Miller went with him.  Their first film for the studio The Witness for the Defense, a solidly melodramatic outing, starred Elsie Ferguson opposite Vernon Steele. His camera work at Paramount with a director other than Fitzmaurice was on another melodrama His House in Order (1920) directed by Hugh Ford.  When, by 1924 Fitzmaurice had gone over to the Samuel Goldwyn studio, again Miller followed, with The Cheat, a 1923 Pola Negri vehicle, being their first them there (in between studios, they worked on another Negri film that was a special sound project with the DeForest Phonofilm system: Bella Donna also in 1923).  When the George Fitzmaurice Productions company got going, the duo made His Supreme Moment in 1925; the film featured two scenes in the new technicolor process (known today as "2-strip Technicolor"). This would be the last film he shot with the director--his longest professional relationship to date; he then moved on to work with director Paul Sloane and the DeMille brothers. In 1927 he got the chance to team up with Lois Weber again, with her firmly in charge of the production this time around (!); that film was The Angel of Broadway and featured art direction by Mitchell Leisen. The first film that he worked on that had a major sound system attatched to it's production was the partial silent Annapolis a dramedy directed by Christy Cabanne utilizing the RCA Photophone System for sound effects. This change is photographic technique at the time was pretty fast and furious for DP's that wished to remain in the industry with the coming of full sound. Working with films with sound effects was one thing, photographing a film with talking sequences was quite another. Forturnately for Miller, he had experience with this.  The first film that he worked on with "modern" talking sequences was appropriately titled The Spieler, which despite it's obvious German origins, had come to denote a "fast talkers" or swindlers by way of Australia. The film, featuring Alan Hale in the lead, was released in December of 1928.  He never worked on a fully silent film again. His next two films would prove that he had the ability to adapt well to this environment: The Bellamy Trial (a "3/4" sound film) was ironically set on Long Island not far from where he hailed from and Strange Cargo (a full talkie) was by all accounts a film at least 10 years ahead of it's time, thanks in no small part to his photographic approach. Both films were released in 1929.  He worked on four more films in 1929, ironically he wound right back up at Pathé Exchange, where he had gotten such an early start as a young adult.  His last film of that decade was His First Command, released at the very end of the year/decade. He was already at work in 1929 on the first of his work to be released in 1930, shooting Officer O'Brien in time for it's release in February of 1930. It was not long however before the financial crisis that started on Wall Street in 1929 quickly caught up with the movie industry in Hollywood.  This would be his last film with Pathé--end of an era. [Please don't comment of the later RKO Pathé stuff...just not really the same company]. He then knocked around in several pre-code films in the very early 30's at a couple of different studios, including RKO--featuring talking films with some familiar faces including Pola Negri. He managed to ink a deal with Fox, which was in a position to concalitade it's power in tough times and his career was again on a solid footing. He was still with Fox when he was first nominated for an Oscar for The Rains Came and when he won his first Oscar for How Green Was My Valley. Miller would be nominated 5 more time, winning two more Oscars. All of his nominations came during a time when the Oscars awarded seperated wins to black & white and color cinematography.  Miller was nominated only once for a color film, all of his wins came for black and white film stock shoots. Miller retired from active film making after shooting The Prowler, which was released in May of 1951. He would serve as the President of the American Society of Cinematographers, of which he was a founding member in 1918,  from 1954-1956. Though he health kept him from shooting, he was active in the industry throughtout the the rest of his life. He penned a very important book with Fred Balshofer entitled One Reel A Week about their experience in the first studio hubs in the New York/New Jersey area before the move to Hollywood. Miller passed away on the 13 of the July in Hollywood, just five days after his 75th birthday. His ashes are interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery

IMDb

Wilipedia

Born Today July 7: Ruth Ford

1911-2009

Actress Ruth Elizabeth Ford was born on this day in Brookhaven, Mississippi. She and her writer/artist brother Charles Henri Ford were the children of wealthy hotel owners throughout the South. This meant frequent moves for the family when the children were young; though eventually Ruth obtained a degree back in her birth state from the University of Mississippi and went to work as a print model (she said on several occasions that her long time friendship with writer William Faulkner began when she was getting a Masters Degree in philosophy from the university). She and her brother both were early transplants to the New York City artist/theater scene--they would stay there, aside from her film sojourn in Hollywood in th 1940's, for the rest of their lives.  The reason for her inclusion here is her involvement in the theater scene of New York in the 1930's. Indeed, Ford was no child actress of films, but rather a now well known member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theater and a cast member of his silent film Too Much Johnson in 1938. The film is famous for amongst other things, being a very late silent film that was used as a rehearsal vehicle.  Unlike many other cast members however, the film was apparently not Ford's film debut. She is listed amongst the rather large uncredited cast member list of the equally bizarre poverty row Marshall Neilan directed horror film Chloe, Love Is Calling You from 1934 (this film, set in the bayous of Louisiana, was shot entirely on location in Florida).  She did not appear in another film until 1941, when she showed up in the lower budget Tex Ritter western Roaring Frontiers--a "damsel in distress" film in which she, obviously, plays the damsel.  In the meantime, she had married her first husband and a daughter. This period in her life marked the beginning of a less than stellar film career, that included lower budget films like:  Secrets of the Lone Wolf (1941), Murder In The Big House (1942), The Gorilla Man (1943), Adventure in Iraq (1943) & Woman Who Came Back (1945). She also made her television debut in the 1940's on the 3rd of November episode of Theatre of Romance: Camille. From that point forward, she did not appear in another film for some 14 years, instead doing television work and appearing in stage productions. In 1963 she again took up film acting, when she appeared in the only film ever directed by Dore Schary: Act One, along side Jason Robards and George Hamilton. She continued to act, off and on, through the rest of decade and throughout the 1970's. She appeared in two films in the 1980's, the last of which was the serial crime thriller Too Scared to Scream. Always an actor of the stage throughout her career, she finished her stage work out on Broadway in 1976. Ford retired to her apartment in The Dakota in New York City, which was already a hubbub of artistic activity, and continued to be so.  When her brother, who also had an apartment at The Dakota died in 2004 at the age of 94, she inherited his holdings. She herself died in New York City on the 12th of August, just a little more than a month after her 98th birthday.  Both her and her brother are buried in their birthplace in Brookhaven at the Rose Hill Cemetery there.  

[Source: Charline Herring Ryan (Find A Grave)]

IMDb

Wikipedia

Find A Grave entry

Born Today July 6: Annabelle Moore (Whitford)

1878-1961

Subject of several famous Edison dance shorts Annabelle Whitford, who used the name "Annabelle Moore" when performing (it was reportedly her stepfather's surname), was born on this day in Chicago [Note that through the years since her debut in film in the 1890's, she has been credited with both surnames]. She was famous not just for her appearance in early film, she was a sensation long before; which is, of course, how she came to be in motion pictures. She is historically important as a participant in a number firsts. She was the original "Gibson Girl", and was one of the original performers in Ziegfeld Follies in 1907; she was the first actor/performer featured in the very first Kinetoscope installed for viewing in London, England, and she has been credited as introducing eroticism to film--just to name but a few.  An excellent case can be made that she was the very first movie star.  In terms of how she came to be the subject of films, she was trained as a dancer in her youth and made her formal dance debut at the 1893 Columbian Exchange.  It is not a coincidence that she performed "butterfly dances" and similar "dress" or "skirt dances," and that she was from Chicago. The originator of the "skirt dance" was Loie Fuller, who started as a very talented improve or free dancer; she was already a famous burlesque dancer who both choreographed and lit her own dances--the most famous of which was the Serpentine Dance--and she was also from Chicago.  When Annabelle traveled to New York the following year, at the age of 16, she became one of the earliest actual performers for the Edison Manufacturing co. when she appeared in the Annabelle Sun Dance (1894) directed by William K. L. Dickson himself, and one of the films shot in the Black Maria, the world's very first film studio (note that the "poster" in the Internet Movie Database for this film depicts a different film, in fact the very next film she appeared in). In all, she made three "skirt dance" films for Edison--including the Annabelle Butterfly Dance (1894) & Annabelle Serpentine Dance (1895)--before moving on to American Mutoscope with another rendition of the Butterfly Dance in 1896. In another historical first, Annabelle Serpentine Dance represents one of the very first color motion pictures, hand tinted, and is most likely the very first distributed color film. In all she appeared 10 "dance" films with both companies combined. At American Mutoscope, she added her Tambourine Dance and a Flag Dance to the world of earliest cinema. Her later dance films in 1897 were all made back at the Edison facility.  She has just one other film to her name, a "trick film" made by the German Mutoscope & Biograph company, combining skirt dancing with footage shot at the German aquarium--edited in such a way as to make the dancer appear to be dancing underwater.  It was released as A Mermaid Dance in 1902. In the early 20th century, she spent time exclusively in stage revues of various sorts, and even did a little stage acting before retiring for good in 1912. She had married in 1910 and her and her husband moved back to Chicago. He died there in 1958, she followed on the 1st of December in 1961 at the age of 83.  In a "not much has changed" note: her and her husband, a Dr., donated in 1957 to a charity to benefit under privileged children in Chicago, when she earned-all on her own-a one time payment for writing an article about her witnessing the horrible fire at the Iroquois Theater in 1903, when the Federal Government learned of the donation, they kicked both of them off of their pensions....classy uh?? Interestingly, in the weeks following that blaze, which killed over 600 people, Annabelle herself was counted among the dead. About her actual death almost 6 decades later, there are conflicting reports as to whether she was buried at Chicago's famed Graceland Cemetery or cremated there and her ashes scattered. Three interesting documentaries have included footage and biographical materials on her, each in their own area of focus: from early color to early erotica. They are listed below:

Glorious Technicolor (1998)

Sex at 24 Frames Per Second (2003)

The Quiet Room: A Story of Cinema (2013 short) 

Gibson Girl

IMDb

Find A Grave entry

Born Today July 5: Jamie Darling

[Poster for David Copperfield (1913) in which he played Daniel Peggotty]

1850 (or 1951)-1934

Almost forgotten, British silent film actor Jamie Darling was born Thomas Dawson Walker on this day in Hull, England (interesting factoid: the town was located for a time in the ceremonial county of Humberside in the north eastern part of the country). There are scant biographical materials on him, but what is known is that he was a successful performer in musical theater in the Victorian music halls. He seems to have had at least one, possibly more stage names during this period of his life. He appears to have changed his name again to enter films.  His first film appearance (as far as we know) came when he was 60 or 61 years of age; that film was actually a milestone: an early full sound film featuring the  Cecil Hepworth invention the Vivaphone. Are We Down-Hearted? was a short full sound comedy directed by Frank Wilson and featured Madge Campbell. He was hired as a stock player for the Hepworth Co., and he stayed with them for the entirety of his film career; all of his film credits come from the Hepworth catalogue. Hepworth was the innovator of the feature length film in the UK and Darling was again part of history with his appearance in the company's 1 hour and 7 minute long version of Dickens' David Copperfield in 1913.  Of the 15 films that Darling acted in for Hepworth during the years 1911-1915, four of them were features: The Vicar of Wakefield (1913), The Cloister and the Hearth (1913) and another Dickens adaptation The Old Curiosity Shop (1913).  His last film was another short comedy: Cock 'o the Walk with Chrissie White in 1915. Darling/Walker died on the 10th of November 1934 in Norfolk at the age of 83 or 84. I can find no information on burial. 

[Still from The Vicar of Wakefield]

IMDb

Born Today July 4: Nathaniel Hawthorne

1804-1864

Fitting for the 4th of July, American gothic writer Nathaniel Hawthorne--birth sir name spelled Hathorne-- was born on this day in Salem, Massachusetts. A direct ancestor of his, John Hathorne, was one of the judges in the infamous Salem Witch Trials, and the only one to have not publicly--or privately that we know of--repent his involvement (read more about him here).  It was because of this that Nathaniel decided to add the "w" to his last name in his twenties to actively disassociate himself from his family history and he was fully intending to soon become a published author; which he accomplished in the year 1828.  There is little point trailing through his literary career, when there are far better sources for that than my writing (see links below). Suffice to say, that his name has laid claim, through other legendary American writers, to "best American novelist;" however, I will point out that Poe--that other master of dark romanticism--though complimentary of Hawthorne's "tone," leveled dislike of his style in his professional criticism, and form and even accused him (more than once) of plagiarism. Getting right down to the films, the first film made from his work came in 1908, and was made from arguably his most famous novel The Scarlet Letter, the film--the details of which can be found here--was made by Kalem and directed by Sidney Olcott.  To this day, The Scarlet Letter, remains the work that has been filmed far more than any of his other works.  During the silent era, 17 films were made from his work; other principle works included The House of the Seven Gables (1910)--made by Edison and directed by J. Searle Dawley; Feathertop (1912)--made by Eclair American and starring Muriel Ostriche; The New Adam and Eve (1915)--made by Gaumont and directed by Richard Garrick; Il Fauno of marmo (1920)-- the first foreign film of his work, produced in Italy and made by Celio Film based on his short story "The Marble Faun."  Predictably, the last silent film of his work was, yes, The Scarlet Letter in 1926. This was a major production (and the work has been restored at least once), it was directed by Victor Sjöström (as Victor Seastrom) and stars Lillian Gish. The novel was also the first of his works to get the sound treatment, funnily enough in a "poverty row" film in 1934 directed by Robert Vignola; the film wound up being the final film performance of star of silent screen Colleen Moore.  His work first made it on to television in 1949, when his work The House of the Seven Gables was performed live during a performance on The Philco Television Playhouse.  The Scarlet Letter joined it a year later in a performance on Studio One in Hollywood.  Over the years since, a few films based on his works have truly become classics. Famously, his Twice Told Tales got the horror treatment in 1963 in a film starring Vincent Price (Price had appeared in another adaptation of Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables in 1940). Probably the most famous film adapted from his work came in 1995 with the Roland Joffé directed The Scarlet Letter, starring Demi Moore and Gary Oldman.  And, to date The House of the Seven Gables (2018) is the most recent film made from his work; it is a short animated film, directed and adapted by Ben Wickey. Hawthorne himself did not make it to his 60th birthday. He had complained of some very painful stomach ailment, which only got worse with time. It was never properly diagnosed, so of what he actually died of will remain a mystery.  Whatever the ailment, it was with him for some time and curtailed his writing career by several years. Hawthorne actually died in his sleep while on a "recuperative trip" in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, near Plymouth on the 19th of May. He was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, MA on what is now known as "Author's Ridge" (note: this is not the same cemetery famously associated with Washington Irving, which is located in New York state). Hawthorne's pallbearers included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. Hawthorne was 59 years old at the time of this death.

An early daguerrotype of Hawthorne in 1848.

Wikipedia

American Literature

Poetry Foundation 

IMDb

Find A Grave entry

Born Today June 3: Hawes Craven

1837-1910

For a person only involved in only one short silent film, Hawes Craven warrants a larger write up here than it would seem that he would.  Craven was a British theatrical scene painter in Victorian London; and not just any scene painter at that--he's been called simply the best; certainly he was the pinnacle of realistic scene painting. He was born Henry Hawes Craven Green on this day in Leeds, England into a theatrical family. His father was importantly involved in the ancient and evolving art of pantomime, and his mother was an actress and published writer. He appeared on stage with his father at the very early age, where his name was shortened to "Hawes Craven." It stuck and stayed with him for the rest of his professional life. It was soon discovered that his real talent lie in drawing, which he displayed advanced ability in from a young age. He was summarily able to attend school in London and go on to an apprenticeship with one of the country's premiere set designers of his time: John Gray. Eventually he would get his first solo work, and he famously worked in the Drury Lane in the earliest portion of his career: both in pantomimes at the royal theater there and on opera sets at Covent Garden. He then went on to set designs for several large stage productions and eventually was awarded for working his way up through the ranks with position of principle scene painter at the Lyceum Theatre. He became a specialist in designing scenes for staging of Shakespeare plays; later on he also worked as a senior scene designer for opera's at the famed Savoy (this is when he worked for the larger than life Richard D'Oyly Carte). He lived through the era of gas lit theaters and with the coming of The Savoy in the 1880's, he then found himself working in a theater lit for the first time by electricity. These new working conditions required changes to set painting and design--a feat that he reportedly handled easily (no small task!).  At the Savoy, he was the principle painter for their famous staging of Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas (he also painted all of the scenery for the opera Ivanhoe by Arthur Sullivan--a sketch for can be seen below--staged at the Royal English Opera House in 1891). His last work was at Her Majesty's Theater and the Garrick respectively. In 1905 he was also elected president of the Scenic Artists' Association. Craven only live a further five years after this, succumbing to bronchitis 19 days after his 73rd birthday. He is buried at the Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries (they are adjacent, and are basically one cemetery at this point--I am not sure which one contains his grave); this is one of the very large resting places in the greater London area that are not part of the seven famous cemeteries known as the "magnificent seven." Below are some examples of his sketches used for set design and at least one painting (all are retrieved from Wiki sites). 

As far as film is concerned, as mentioned above, he was only involved the production of one film:  King John in 1899.  This is the oldest Shakespeare adaptation to have any surviving materials, and may possibly be the very first filmed adaptation of Shakespeare (owed to the the fact that the existence of Macbeth supposedly released in 1898, cannot be proven to have existed at all at this time). The original film was filmed in three parts, with Hawes' work coming in the section labeled as "Act I: Scene 5" or The John-Hubert Temptation.  He was the only artist responsible for the set decoration in this section of the original 5 minute film.  Today (as of this writing) only one filmed section of the original 3 part production remains extant, accounting for just about a one minute of runtime, unfortunately it is not the part of the film that Hawes worked on. There are however, and thankfully, stills that survive of that portion of the film, one of which can be seen above under the title card for the film. 

[Source: BillionGraves]

Ivanhoe sketch

Wikipedia

Born Today July 2: Albert Szirmai

1880-1967

Hungarian born composer and Broadway music editor Albert Szirmai was born on this day in Budapest in the Austria-Hungary Empire. Sometimes credited as "Albert Sirmay," he was primarily a composer of operas/operettas and scored just as many musical plays. Though born in Budapest, he was completely devoted to early American musical stage composition and greatly admired 20th century songsters like George Gershwin and Cole Porter (in fact, Szirmai made headlines and history, when, in 1965, he discovered some 100 songs here-for-to-unknown written by Porter shortly after his death). He was also a big admirer of Gilbert and Sullivan; and took inspiration from German classical romantics composers and his native Hungarian folk songs. Szirmai arrived in the United States via the New York port in 1923; after working from the early part of the 20th century as a conductor in Hungary. When he arrived, he already had two film compositions to his name--strange I know for the silent era, but his work was used specifically to accompany two films in Hungary--the first of which was Kruppka Endre's Gazdag ember kabátja in 1912.   The same can be said for the 1916 Korda Sándor (Alexander Korda) film Mágnás Miska.  These are the only two films that he had anything to do with in the silent era. His work next turns up in the 1935 Vitaphone comedic short Vitaphone Casino starring Buster West.  Though his work in American cinema mostly dates from the 1930's (and confined to musical shorts), his work was rediscovered at various points in time in his home country of Hungary. In fact, the most recent use of one of his operatic pieces dates from the 1996 Hungarian comedy Szamba, which sports a soundtrack exclusively comprised of Hungarian composers.  In the 1940's, he also collaborated at least once with Kurt Weill.  Szimai died in his adopted home town of New York City on the 15th of January at the age of 86.  I can find no burial information on him under any name that he used in life.  Toward the end of his life, he made one final trip back to Hungary; while there he successfully premiered two new works.  

A still from Gazdag Ember Kabátja (1912)

Wikipedia

IMDb

Silents On TCM: July 2020

Primetime Friday's in July: Directed by John Ford
Star of the Month: Tony Curtis

ALL TIMES IN EDT

Click Here For A Full List Horror Films on TCM July 2020

TCM HOMEPAGE

6 July 12AM [Year: 1924] Film Information (starts off a marathon of Mack Sennett silent shorts beginning at Midnight) 

6 July 12AM [Year: 1925] Film Information

Ten Dollars or Ten Days 6 July 12AM [Year: 1924] Film Information

6 July 12AM [Year: 1923] Film Information

6 July 12AM [Year: 1924] Film Information

The Vitagraph sound film apparatus: 1920's

Copy 6 July 7:15AM [Year: 1929] Film Information (early MGM talking short)

10 July 6AM [Year: 1929] Film Information (full talkie)

11 July 12AM [Year: 1921] Clip followed by...

11 July [Year: 1921] Trailer followed by....

12 July [Year: 1922] Clip

17 July 6AM [Year: 1925] Film Information

17 July 7AM [Year: 1928] Trailer (starts a Tod Browning 4 film marathon)

17 July 8:15AM [Year: 1929] Film Information (full talkie)

20th July 12AM [Year: 1925] Film Information

22 July 9AM [Year: 1927] Preview

27 July 12AM [Year:  1928] Clip

OF OTHER INTEREST:

21 July 8PM [Year: 2015] Trailer (part of a primetime lineup of "30 Years of Milestone Films)

22 July 12:30AM [Year: 1978] Trailer

31 July 4PM [Year: 2018] Preview

Born Today July 1: Madge Evans

1909-1981

Actress of stage and screen, and print model Margherita "Madge" Evans was born on this day in New York City. Her career in front of a camera started when she was just an infant; further, she was just five years old when she appeared in her first film in 1914: Shore Acres (though, The Sign of the Cross is often cited as her debut). She next appeared in three films in uncredited child parts.  Her fourth film appearance, however, was in the leading role; The Seven Sisters (1915) was a Sidney Olcott directed comedy based on a Edith Ellis play.  Also in 1915, she had her first "walk on" role in Frank Hall Crane's The Man Who Found Himself. From the time that she started film work, she had steady work, despite her young age. In addition to her film work as a child actor, she made her Broadway debut at the age of 8; and also continued her modeling career. By the time she reached her teens, her films appearances slowed consierably. She was only in five films in the 1920's, and none of those was after 1924.  The first of these was, the Frederick A. Thomson short Heidi; and the last was the 1924 John S. Robertson  melodrama Classmates starring Richard Barthelmess (a childhood friend of hers). She then spent several years acting on the stage. Upon turning 18 in 1927, she signed with MGM, but she did not show up in a film produced by the studio until 1931 when appeared in the Ramon Novarro romantic drama Son of India; she instead showed up in a series of Arthur Hurley shorts made for Warner Bros.--the first of which was Many Happy Returns--in 1930. Today her most recognizable film role from this period comes in MGM's 1933 comedy Dinner At Eight.  Evans married playwright Sidney Kingley in 1939 and retired from movie acting altogether. The couple moved to an estate in New Jersey, which later occassioned her the opportunity to work in both radio and television in New York. She made her television debut in 1949 as Elizabeth Bennett in the The Philco Television Playhouse staging of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. She made another appearance of the series the following years. She made her return to movie acting, this time for the small screen, as the star of Mrs. Thanksgiving in 1952.  Her last acting role before her permanent retirement to her estate came in a 1958 episode of the series "The Investigator".  She did show up one last time on television in 1978 as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center Tribute to George Cukor. Evans died only three years later at her home in Oakland, New Jersey after a battle with cancer on the 26th of April; she was 71 years old. She was cremated and her ashes were stored at her home in New Jersey.

Evans with William T. Carleton in Home Wanted (1919)

IMDb

Wikipedia

Find A Grave entry