Born Today July 10: John Gilbert

1899-1936

Actor (okay Movie Star...uh um Super Star?), mostly of the silent era--but probably best remembered for his talkie roles--John Gilbert was born John Cecil Pringle on this day in Logan, Utah.  His last name "Gilbert" was from his step father--he was unaware until later in his life that "Pringle" was his birth surname.  His nickname was "Jack" and he was often credited in films as "Jack Gilbert" early on.  Though he was born into a show business family--his parents were traveling actors--his childhood was not a happy one.  He suffered greatly from being forced from one school to another.  Despite this, it's hardly surprising that he got into acting himself.  He appeared in his first film in 1915 in the Bison Production of The Mother Instinct--a short drama.  He then made a few pictures for Kay-Bee Pictures, before being snapped up by Thomas Ince, who worked at both Kay-Bee in scenario writing, as well as owning his own production company.  The first film he appeared in for the Thomas H. Ince Corp. was Civilization in an uncredited part.  Several of the films that he had supporting roles in in 1915 & 1916 starred Frank Keenan.  He had steady work all through out the rest of the 1910's, albeit in many small roles--but he did work his way up through the ranks and by 1920 he was noticed by director Maurice Tourneur.  It was with Tourneur's help that Gilbert would add writing and directing credits to his name.  In 1921, he both wrote and directed Love's Penalty (he also aided in the editing of the film as well).  He was then signed to a three year contract at Fox Films, hired to play romantic leads.  This brought him his first taste stardom.  But it wasn't until he made the move to MGM in 1924 that he would become a movie star to rival even the likes of Rudolph Valentino.  There he was directed  by the likes of King Vidor, Victor "Seastrom" (that'sVictor Sjöström), and Erich von Stroheim.  It was reportedly on the set of The Merry Widow (1925), directed by von Stroheim, that Gilbert's birth father introduced himself, this is supposedly when he found out that his original last name was Pringle.  By this time he was one of the biggest stars that Hollywood had ever seen.  In 1926 he starred in The Flesh And The Devil with Greta Garbo; this ignited a torrid affair between the two that MGM made sure got out into the press. They even actually marketed one of the pairs films--A Woman Of Affairs  (1928) around the affair on the film's poster! There were even plans to marry, but ultimately, Garbo broke his heart.  He had other troubles as well.  His entire tenure at MGM included frequent run-ins with studio boss Louis B. Mayer.  The two had frequent and very heated arguments over all manner of subjects to do with the running of the studio--this spilled over into clashes over social matters (in one case, Gilbert may have struck Mayer over a crude remake that he made about Garbo--historians disagree whether this actually took place).  The animosity between the two would prove to be the beginning of the end of Gilbert's career.  By early 1928, Gilbert had a small in King Vidor's Show People, a partial silent--sound was making it's way permanently into film.  His next film, The Masks Of The Devil--a Sjöström movie--had two versions, one mono and one that was partially silent.  His first full sound mono film came next, with the above mentioned 1928 Garbo film.  It's not that Gilbert had an off putting voice, he didn't and was even greatly praised for his turn in The Hollywood Revue Of 1929 along side Norma Shearer; it would seem that Mayer wanted to use to transitional period to get rid of Gilbert.  There was a persistent rumor that Mayer ordered Gilbert's voice altered to sound much higher than it really was, and Mayer also had the power to put him inferior talkies.  He also must have begun to suffer the beginnings of the ailment that would eventually claim his life.  He did manage to grab one fairly prominent role in 1931, when he was cast in The Phantom Of Paris in a role meant for Lon Chaney Sr.; Chaney died in 1930 and Gilbert was handed the part.  His career, however was already in decline and the film did nothing to stop that.  Not even a part in the Garbo film Queen Christina (1933), directed by Rouben Mamoulian, stemmed the decline.  His last film came when Columbia cast him in The Captain Hates The Sea in 1934.  He had been suffering from premature heart failure for some time, not helped by depression or alcohol abuse, and a severe heart attack in 1935.  On the 9th of January he had a mild heart attack, but it was enough to take his life, as his heart was so weak.  He was just 36 years old.  [This, unfortunately still happens today, famed True Blood actor Nelsan Ellis passed away just two days ago from the same ailment at the age of 39].  During his time in Hollywood Gilbert was known to be quite the ladies man, he was linked with a number of starlets.  At the time of his death, he was seeing Marlene Dietrich.  He was cremated and interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale.

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Born Today July 9: Marian Swayne

1891-1973

Silent film ingenue Marian Marguerita Swayne (sometimes spelled "Marion") was born on this day in Philadelphia.  She got her start on the stage, where she quickly became a darling with audiences; so it wasn't very long before she garnered the attention of the film industry.  And, it wasn't just any studio that took notice of her.  In 1911, she signed a contract with Alice Guy Blanché's and her husband Herbert's newly formed Solax Film Company.  Her first film appearance was in An Interrupted Elopement, in which she acted across from Lee Beggs.  She very quickly became a darling of the silver screen as well.  She was young enough and popular enough after just a few film appearances to get a role in Alice Guy's studio spoof celebrating the coming of the 1912 new year as "The Chi-i-ld" A Solax Celebration.  With her contract up a Solax, she was free to take roles at various other production houses.  The first non-Solax film that she was in came in The Line-Up At Police Headquarters in 1914, made for the Nonpareil Feature Film Corp, which only made two films--one of which is the historically important 1915 version of Alice In Wonderland (1915).  She had very steady work all throughout the years during the 1910's that her career spanned, but started going back to the stage 1919.  She only made 5 films made 5  films in the 1920's, the last of which was Heart Of Alaska in 1924.  She then retired from silver screen, presumably to raise a family; she was married to fellow screen actor Joseph Levering.  Later in life she took acting on the radio.  Swayne died on the 21st of August 1973 in New York City at the age of 82.  She is buried in a family at West Laurel Cemetery in Bala Cynwynd, Pennsylvania.  

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Born Today July 8: Paul Leni

1885-1929

Famed German expressionist silent film director Paul Leni was born Paul Josef Levi on this day in Stuttgart.  His artistic bent was evident early in his life, and by the age of 15 was an avant-garde painter with obvious talent.  This led his to study at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts; during his time at art school he started work as a set designer for various stage productions.  His work for the live stage led to his transition to work on set design in the budding film industry.  He then added costume design to his resume (in this capacity, he worked for--amongst others--one Ernst Lubitsch).  In fact, though remembered today as a director, a very large portion of his film credits stem from being in the art department of many productions; the experience in that field led him to be a very artistic, hands on type of director.  The first film that he is credited with "Art Director" was Ein Augestoßener: 1, Teil-Der junge Chef in 1913.  He next served as the Production Designer for The Black Triangle (1914).  He finally made his directorial debut in 1916 with Das Tagebuch des Dr. Hart, or Dr. Hart's Diary, a kind of propaganda film. He would have a long career in the silent era in his native Germany, including a series of animated shorts; but by 1926 the call of Hollywood was too great to ignore.  In 1927 he directed his first film on American soil with the famous Cat And The Canary for Universal Pictures.  He would go on to direct just three more films; one of which is a solid Gothic horror masterpiece:  The Man Who Laughs (1928) starring Conrad Veidt of The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari fame (I wrote a piece about Veidt's character Cesare for a blogathon, that can be found here).  His last film would be The Last Warning (1929), a horror mystery that was a partial silent; the film featured some scenes tinted with a gold treatment similar to that of the Handshiegl Color Process.  Leni died suddenly at the age of 44 of the 2nd of September 1929, the cause of death was listed a "blood poisoning;" he had a massive septic infection from an untreated tooth infection.  For such a talented and well known silent director, I can find zero information about his burial and/or cremation.  The world truly lost a real talent, right on the cusp of becoming a formidable Hollywood director in the age of talking films.

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Born Today July 7: Peter Courtney

Peter Courtney is on the right.

1867-1896

Boxer, actor and early Edison short subject Peter Courtney was born on this day in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.  He is known for an appearance in one film only, Corbett and Courtney Before The Kinetograph, a famous Edison actuality that is mostly lost.  What survives is the first round of the match (1 reel) and, as each round was set at 1 minute a piece, the film is just 40 seconds long (originally there were 6 reels), making it a fragment of the first reel.  The whole match was filmed at the famed Black Maria studio (the world's first).  Amazingly the print that survived at the Library of Congress was in good enough condition for restoration.  It has been released on DVD and is available for viewing online.  Courtney is not known to have participated in any other boxing matches aside for this one specially set up for filming.  Courtney died very, very young, at the age of 28 from tuberculosis, just two years after this was filmed, on the 11th of May.  He may have died in Trenton, New Jersey, where was listed as a resident.  The is no information on his burial.

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Born Today July 6: Ralph Morgan

1883-1956

Well honed Hollywood character actor Ralph Morgan was born Raphael Kuhner Wupperman In New York City on this day.  He was the older brother of Frank Morgan.  As noted in my post on his brother, both were children (2 of 11 total) of well off parents, with their father being wildly successful in the importation and sale of Angostura Bitters from Barbados.  Ralph was extremely well schooled for a man who would ultimately chose acting as a career.  He attended Trinity School in New York, then Riverview Military Academy, and finally graduated from Columbia with a degree in law.  He got his first taste of acting at Columbia, appearing in the school's annual Varsity Show.  Bored after just two years of law practice, he suddenly quit and became a traveling actor instead.  It turns out that he possessed serious talent as a thespian.  He soon became a local stock actor, and then quickly there after made his Broadway debut. Although several sources cite his film debut as coming in the year 1915, it seems that he actually appeared in film for the first in 1914 in Seeds Of Jealousy, a dramatic short that he made for Balboa Amusement.  He would go on to appear in several films in the 1910's, but found silent work not to his taste and returned to the stage, working very sporadically in film during the rest of the silent era.  The last silent film that he made an appearance in came in 1925 with the melodrama The Man Who Found Himself made for Famous Players.  He would return to film work in 1930 with the full sound Vitagraph short Excuse The Pardon.  His first full sound feature length film appearance came in 1931 in Honor Among Lovers, starring Claudette Colbert and directed by female director Dorothy Arzner.  He would step up his film work from here on out, and return less and less to the live stage.  His value as a character actor became evident in 1930's and he would go on to play a whole host of fun and delicious villainous types in mysteries and B-horror.  He appeared along side a number of other actors that also specialized in those genres, such as Basil Rathbone, Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr.  One of my personal favorites is his turn in the William Powell/Mary Astor vehicle The Kennel Murder Case (1933) directed by Michael Curtiz.  Morgan made his television debut in 1951 on the series Celanese Theater--which he appeared on twice.  His last filmed appearance also came on broadcast television in the episode The Crime Of Sylvester Bonnard on the comedic drama anthology series Your Favorite Story in 1953.  He then retired and relocated back to his birthplace: New York City.  He died there, on the 11th of June in 1956 at the age of 72.  He is interred, along with his extended family, including his brother Frank, at the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.  One of Morgan's most important contributions in the world of acting came when he became one of the founding members of the Screen Actors Guild, of which he was a charter member and served several times as President.  

Showing his and his brother Frank's memorial (Ralph being on the left).

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Born Today: Dell Henderson

1877-1956

Actor George Delbert "Dell" Henderson was born on this day in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada (his birth year of 1883 on IMDb is incorrect).  Henderson, like so many silent stars, got his start on the stage, but didn't stay there long.  He appeared in his first film in 1908 in the D. W. Griffith directed, Mack Sennett penned comedic short Monday Morning In A Coney Island Police Court.  He spent most of his early film career in D.W. Griffith films, branching out only to star in a few Mack Sennett directed films (Sennett ran Biograph's comedy division before founding Keystone in 1912).  Griffith even hired him to adapt print material into film scenarios; the first film that he worked on in this capacity was The Modern Prodigal (1910), a film that survives and is available for purchase.  Henderson made his own directorial debut along side Sennett in 1911 with Comrades.  The first film that he directed on his own was Mr. Grouch At The Seashore in 1912, featuring amongst others, Jack Pickford--younger brother of Mary.  By the time that Griffith graduated to feature length films, Henderson was mostly directing himself in films for Biograph.  However it was over at Famous Players in 1916 that he directed his first feature length film with Rolling Stones.  In 1917, he added his only production credit to his name with Outcast, a film that he also directed; the film was made at the largely independent Empire All Star Corp.  Henderson kept directing all throughout the 1910's and 1920's, but decided to retire from the chair in 1927 to devote his life to a full time acting career (he had become so engrossed with directing that he had an acting hiatus between 1916 and 1924).  The last film that he directed was The Rambling Ranger, a 50 minute western made for Universal.  His last writing credit came in 1928 with Galloping Ghosts; he penned the script with Stan Laurel, with the film featuring Oliver Hardy, made for Hal Roach Studios.  The first sound film that appeared in is a film that he is well remembered for: King Vidor's 1928 Show People--the film is a partial silent with only sound effects and a score.  The first full sound film that he appeared in was the 1929 romance The College Coquette, with sound by MovieTone.  He continued to work right up close to the time of his death, though most of his roles were small and uncredited; the last film he appeared in was Louisa (1950), a film starring Ronald Reagan.  He only appeared on television once in 1954 in the This Is Your Life episode honoring Mack Sennett.  Henderson died two years later of a heart attack at the age of 79 on the 2nd of December.  He is interred at Valhalla Memorial Park. Henderson was married to actress Florence Lee, with whom he appeared in several silent films.

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Born Today July 4: Dolores Cassinelli

1888-1984

Silent film actress Dolores Cassinelli was born on Independence Day 1888 in Chicago, Illinois--her actual first name was Elvere, with Dolores being her middle name. She was hired under contract to Essanay and appeared in her first film for them in 1911 with Two Men And A Girl.  She stayed with Essanay until the end of 1913, when her contract was up.  The last film that she made for them was Dollars, Pounds, Sense (1913).  After this she became a kind of free agent.  The first film that she made out of contract came at the very end of 1913; The Wolf Of The City (1913) was made for Selig Polyscope.  She then starred in a series of Tom & Jerry films for the Emerald Motion Picture Company.  Two of her later acting jobs came under the production of the Chronicles of America Pictures; back to back she played Queen Isabella in Christopher Columbus (1923) and turned right around to play Pocahontas in Jamestown (1923).  Her next the last film that she ever made with Bela Lugosi in The Midnight Girl in 1925.  Her last film--also in 1925--was The Unguarded Hour.  She then retired from the film business altogether.  During her time in the film industry, she earned the nickname "The Cameo Girl of the Movies," but she was a popular enough actress to be featured in the 1920 Screen Snapshots, Series 1, No. 21.  Cassinelli died in New Brunswick, New Jersey on the 26 April 1985, she was 95.  She is buried in South Plainfield, New Jersey at the Holy Redeemer Cemetery. (Note:  some sources cite her birth year as 1893, this may be due to her own fibbing about her age.  And, others sources say that she was born in New York City--she wasn't.)

Cassinelli in 1919

[Source: Find A Grave]

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Born Today July 3: George M. Cohan

1878-1942

George Michael Cohan, giant of the Broadway stage, and all round silent film renaissance man, was born on this day in Providence, Rhode Island.  Cohan pretty much did it all: he was a composer, he penned musicals, he was a stage and film actor, a film scenario writer, a librettist and he was also a motion picture producer.  He was even a big enough character to be played by several famous actors, with Mickey Rooney and James Cagney (who also played Lon Chaney Sr.) amongst them. Public records and baptismal records show that he was indeed born on the 3rd of July, but he and his family like to say that he was born on the 4th of July instead.  His parents were traveling vaudevillians and he himself was put on the stage by the age of 8--playing the violin and later as a troupe dancer.  By 1890, the family was touring under the name The Four Cohans; they continued to do this through the year 1901.  It was at this time that he and a sister made their Broadway debut.  Around this time, he coined his famous curtain exit speech "My mother thanks you, my father thanks you,, my sister thanks you, and I thank you."  Memories of a relatively happy childhood, especially the summers spent with Grandmother in North Brookfield, Mass off the touring circuit inspired his popular musical 50 Miles From Boston in 1905.  He had already had extensive experience in both skit writing and song writing for his family on the vaudeville circuit, and would eventually become a major figure Tin Pan Alley.  His most famous song is definitely "Yankee Doodle Dandy." The first time any of his work was used in a motion picture came in 1907 with Harrigan, an experimental early sound film from the UK using the Chronophone system (of Gaumont fame), showcasing his song of the same name, written in the same year. In 1916, he added film scenario writing to his credits with Officer 666; the film was directed by his brother-in-law Fred Niblo.  He first appeared in film in 1917 when he took the starring role in Broadway Jones (he had already appeared on film as himself in 1910 in the Actor's Fund Field Day).  Broadway Jones, also gave him his only film production credit.  His music was featured in the William A. Wellman 1927 epic Wings.  His play Seven Keys to Baldpate was made into the 1983 horror comedy House Of The Long Shadows, featuring the likes of Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and John Carradine--all ganging up on Desi Arnaz Jr.  His music was first featured on television with "Yankee Doodle Dandy" being used in two episodes on the 1949 season of The Ed Sullivan Show.  The most recent use of his compositions in filmed media came last year in the film Hidden Figures (2016).  Cohan lost his battle with cancer at home in his apartment in New York City on the 5th of November in 1942; he was 64 years old.  His funeral mass was held at St. Patrick's Cathedral with giants of the stage attending, amongst them Irving Berlin, Eugene O'Neill and Eddie Cantor.  He is interred in a family mausoleum at the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx.  

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His Obituary in The New York Times

Born Today July 2: Friedrich G. Klopstock

1724-1803

German poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock was born on this day in Quedlinburg, in what was then part of the Holy Roman Empire (now part of Germany).  He was the eldest son of a prominent lawyer.  In his youth, reported to be a happy one, he was devoted to physical activity, and by his very early teens had become an expert on horseback.  When he was 13 years of age, he entered the local gymnasium for study and in 1739 matriculated to a boarding school where he excelled in Greek and Latin.  It was at this time that he began write, mostly odes and such, in the German language.  He next turned his pen to writing an epic religious poem in the style of Milton.  What he is principally remembered for today is his epic Der Messias (The Messiah), which he was already working on while at school.  He then decided to go to Jena to study theology, not finding that atmosphere to his liking, he then went to Leipzig.  He fell in with a young circle of young male writers, and contributors to the periodical Bremer Beiträge; it was in this periodical that the first parts of Der Messias was published in 1748.  With German literature enjoying a resurgence in popularity, it was not long before Klopstock got noticed.  This lead to, some time later, an invitation by the king of Denmark Frederick V for Klopstock to settle in Copenhagen with a handsome annuity.  He accepted with the agreement that he would finish Der Messias once settled there.  In the meantime, he had married a woman that had a writing spirit of her own; however she died suddenly, leaving him broken hearted.  Thus the last parts of Der Messias are melancholy to the extreme.  He became personally prone to bouts of grief and sadness for the rest of his life, despite having remarried at the age of 67.  He is credited with giving German poetry of "voice" of it's own outside of what were considered poetic standards of the day, which were based on French verse.  His prose work was mostly non-fiction in nature and was principally concerned with the history of German poetry and philology.  He was also an avid correspondant in letters.  Later in life, he developed a keen interest in the revolutionary movements in both France and what would become the United States of America.  Though he spent a good deal of his adult life in Copenhagen, by the time of his death on the 14th of March in 1803, he had relocated back to Germany and settled in Hamburg.  He was 78 years of age.  News of his death sparked national mourning and he given an elaborate funeral, finally being laid to rest next to his first wife in the village of Ottensen.  His work has only been used once for film source material and that came in a film entitled Satana (or Satan), an Italian horror film from the year 1912.  It was developed from Klopstock's poetic works in the style of English poet John Milton.  

[Source: Frankie (Find A Grave)]

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Born Today July 1: Alice Guy

1873-1968

Ground breaking film director and writer Alice Guy-Blanche was born Alice Ida Antoinette Guy in Paris on this date. Her parents were based in Chile and this left little Alice in the care of elderly grandparent in a French speaking area of Switzerland.  Around the age 4 (possibly 3), she was sent to live briefly with her parents in Chile.  At the age of 6, she was sent to school in a convent in France on the boarder with Switzerland.  When her father's book business in Chile went bankrupt, the family could no longer afford her private Jesuit education, and so she was sent to a regular school.  By 1893, she was training as a typist and stenographer.  She soon went to work in that capacity at a vanish factory in order to help support her family.  One year later, she went to work as a secretary to Léon Gaumont at the still photography company that he would eventually run through a type of by-out.  When the company went bankrupt, Gaumont purchased the company's inventory and started a business for himself, taking Guy with him.  Although she was working as a secretary, she showed a keen interest in learning all aspects of the business and became acquainted with many of the company's clients.  Three of these were early film pioneers: The Lumière Brothers and Georges Demenÿ.  On the 22nd of March 1895, she and Gaumont attended an event by the Lumière Brothers that they were billing as a "surprise."  The event turned out to be the first ever demonstration of a film projector.  Though they were selling their equipment for "demonstration films"--actualities, newsreels and moving photographic subjects--a light immediately went off in Guy's head that the medium could be used for fictional narrative stories.  The exact date surrounding her being "green lit" to explore her ideas in film is not really known, however it is known that her first film came out in 1896: Les démolisseurs was made using Gaumont's funds, making his company a de facto production venture.  Though her one-woman power-house project La fée aux choux (1896) (The Cabbage Fairy) is often cited as being her first film--in fact, it is often tagged as the first film directed by a woman--she actually made some 4 shorts before this.  It is correct to say that it is probably the world's first narrative film; and one that gave her credits in writing, cinematography and acting.  This had her off to a start in one of the most influential careers in film history.  From 1896 to 1906 she was Gaumont's head of production--their very own in house director.  During this period of time she experimented heavily with various techniques, with hand tinting proving to be one of her talents.  Her films became so popular, that Gaumont licensed them to both Lumières and Edison, making her internationally known.  She became one of the very first film-makers to adapt works of literature to film (she directed the first film adaptation of Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1905 with Esmeralda). She was also an early sound pioneer, utilizing Gaumont's in house Chronophone system. A good example of this is her 1905 Le boléro cosmopolite. She garnered her first actual producer credit in 1902 with Midwife To The Upper Classes (she wouldn't have another until 1911, when she became a producer at her own company). Guy also was probably the first film maker to feature interracial casting in a narrative film. 

Colored still from La Tango (1905)

One of her true groundbreaking moments came in 1906 with the huge production that was The Birth, the Life, and the Death of Christ.  The film boasted 300 extras and several of her on inventions for special effects; the film also features a very early sweeping pan shot.  In all, many of her innovations included things she either came up with on her own, or perfected from the techniques of others; they include:  double exposure, running film in reverse,  and various masking treatments.  In 1907 she married filmmaker Herbert Blanché, and thus hyphenating her last name (though the pair divorced in 1922, she used the name for the rest of her life).  It was truly a marriage of equals; they were put in charge of the Gaumon't newly created American house and thus left for the U.S. to run that.  They stayed the U.S. Gaumont until 1910, when they left to found their own production house--the hugely influential Solax; they promptly built a studio in Flushing, New York.  Gaining in influence and popularity (and poaching talent from production companies that people were unhappy with), the company built a brand new studio in Fort Lee, NJ in 1912 to the tune of $100,000.  

The Solax "Factory" under construction (photo from great little book Fort Lee: Birthplace Of The Motion Picture Industry).

Rumors began to swirl around the power couple that all was not well with their relationship, that Herbert Blanché spending wildly to try and out do his more talented wife--Solax was reputed to be bankrupt.  She, herself, blamed the money woes on her husband's bad stock investments.  With the delusion of her marriage and the rapid decline in east coast film production, she auctioned off what assets were left at Solax, while claiming bankruptcy.  She then quietly went back to France.  Before this, and while dealing with the money woes of her production studio, she directed her last film Vampire, during which she came down with Spanish flu and almost died--the year was 1920.  In 1927, she returned to the U.S. to try to resume her film making career, but to no avail, so she returned to her birth country.  In the 1940's she wrote a memoir, but it was not published during her lifetime.  She never remarried and in 1964 again returned to the U.S. to stay with one of her daughters and 4 years later, she died in a nursing home in Mahwah, New Jersey at the age of 94.  She is buried at the Maryrest Cemetery there.  During her lifetime she often did not get anywhere near the credit that was her due because of her sex, it is so important to give her the credit that she deserves, as many of her personal innovations were claimed to have been invented by later filmmakers--all of them male.

Her original grave marker

Newer marker giving her credit where credit is richly deserved!

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