1920s Actresses (February 2004 - November 2010)

[somnambule]

a little tribute to olive thomas,another actress who died much too young and under dubious circumstances.i would LOVE to see the documentary about her that came out on dvd only recently.the last time i had a look it was way too expensive for me.if i can´t find a cheaper offer i think i´ll have to wait until christmas .
anway here are some pictures of her...

 

[somnambule]

some more:

 

[Orchide]

thanks for those! i belong to the "new coven of olive thomas"fan site
for those of you who aren't familiar, i know not you sonumubule-hehe, she died so tragically so young- 21- and was newly married to jack pickford mary's brother.
she was a ziegfield girl and had a promising new film career ahead of her.

 

[Orchide]

oops- i made the above post b/f going back a page and seeing what you wrote!
thanks!
yes, mmm wasn't the most liked...but i am fascinated by her story. get the book...its a true crime book about our favorite era...mmm in it comes off as sort of a "baby Jane" character in life...way creepy...would make a good movie, her life.

as for you being in germany, my ultimate favorite star i adore all-time is Marlene
my heritage is german so maybe one day, i can come over and see all the places and meet you too!

regarding barbara lamarr, who died of drug overdose...i have a photo taken of her in her casket at the funeral and it freaks me out a bit.
when i went to her tomb in hollywood, she is very near to valentino, i could just imagine her in there in the same pose...yikes!
her nickname always cracked me up..."the too-beautiful girl"...heehee!

 

[jennifer~]

jennifer,thanks for posting these beautiful pictures.you reminded me to post some pictures of asta nielsen.even though she was danish she made most of her films in germany.

Beautiful photos yourself.

 

[somnambule]

thanks for those! i belong to the "new coven of olive thomas"fan site
for those of you who aren't familiar, i know not you sonumubule-hehe, she died so tragically so young- 21- and was newly married to jack pickford mary's brother.
she was a ziegfield girl and had a promising new film career ahead of her.

i´m a member there too .not a good member i have to admit.i never posted there.i only "stole" the pics,read the messages and followed the links that are listed there .i still go there from time to time to read the messages.did you have the chance to watch love´s prisoner ?


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"regarding barbara lamarr, who died of drug overdose...i have a photo taken of her in her casket at the funeral and it freaks me out a bit.
when i went to her tomb in hollywood, she is very near to valentino, i could just imagine her in there in the same pose...yikes!
her nickname always cracked me up..."the too-beautiful girl"...heehee!"
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i once saw a picture of marilyn monroe,taken,i think,when she was carried out of her house on a stretcher after her death.i wish i hadn´t seen it .

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yes, mmm wasn't the most liked...but i am fascinated by her story. get the book...its a true crime book about our favorite era...mmm in it comes off as sort of a "baby Jane" character in life...way creepy...would make a good movie, her life.
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"baby jane" character sounds interesting to me .i loved the movie with bette davis btw.i´m somehow drawn to these kind of characters.i hope i can find a cheap used copy at amazon.


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"as for you being in germany, my ultimate favorite star i adore all-time is Marlene
my heritage is german so maybe one day, i can come over and see all the places and meet you too!"
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i like marlene a lot too.not as much as i used to,but she definitley is a fascinating actress/woman.which movie is your favourite?mine is the blue angel followed by morocco.
let me know when you come to germany one day .


thanks jennifer,i´m glad you liked them !

more pictures:
1 and 2 betty compson ,once more
3 florence vidor
4 geraldine farrar (she was an opera singer,but she also made 15 movies.i saw her in "carmen" and she was incredibly good even without her voice.her movie career was more or less over at the beginning of the 20´s but i thought i´d post her anyway)
5 helen kane,the original betty boop.she was a singer but also appeared in several movies.

 

[Orchide]

betty compson was so gorgeous!
if they don't have it for cheap on amazon, let me know...may be i can find it at a 2nd hand shop for you

 

[somnambule]

thanks orchide for your offer,that´s very nice of you !!i´ve been to amazon.com meanwhile.the price of the cheapest offer is only 0,01 dollars.even combined with the shippiong costs it´s rather cheap .the reviews i read sounded very interesting.i think it will be a good read.

i like betty compson a lot too.she has a "special",extraordinary look imo (i can´t find a better description right now).

@ all : what are your favourite male actors from the silent era?
my absolute favourite is richard barthelmess.than john barrymore,wallace reid (he was incredibly handsome ),ramon novarro.i like valentino too,even though i think that he´s terribly overrated,regarding his looks as well as regarding his acting abilities .

 

[Orchide]

well, aside from all you have named, i love a man who can make me laugh so i love harold lloyd

 

[Orchide]

and from what i have heard about mister gary cooper- woo hoo- from the escapades of clara bow

i definitely am a big fan!

 

[Orchide]

he was soooo beautiful *swoon* tallulah did say famously that she "came to hollywood so she could f*ck that gary cooper"-heehee- supposedly, she chased him around the dressing room too

 

[somnambule]

oh yes,clara and gary.the horse-comparison comes to my mind . he was very,very good-looking indeed.
i read about tallulah´s endeavour too.she obviously completed her mission,because she was bragging about it afterwards .
i admit that i don´t know anything about harold lloyd.only his name sounds familiar to me.are there any films that you would recommend and that are easily available?


i know this is the wrong thread but i just have to ...

1 and 2 richard barthelmess...i won the second pic,a postcard,at ebay and it´s now gracing my walls .
3 wallace reid
4 and 5 john barrymore,on the stage as hamlet during the teens i guess and a very cute picture,with his first daughter diana,during the 20´s.

 

[purplelucrezia]

Lillian Gish... there's going to be a showing of her films soon- I'm prepping!

 

[somnambule]

beautiful pictures,purplelucrezia.lillian gish seems so fragile yet you can always sense her inner strength.
do you know which films they´ll show?is it a festival?
i´ve seen 3 of her silent films,broken blossoms,way down east and orphans of the storm.i loved her in all of them,especially in broken blossoms,one of the best performances i´ve ever seen.i like her sister dorothy too.she wasn´t as ethereal as lillian but she had a beautiful,expressive face too.

 

[Orchide]

ahh lillian!
thanks for posting those...love her
she is another who i got to go to her cenntennial birthday celebration party/screening thingee a few years back! so nice...they had a speaker who knew her and he did a slide presentation and then they screened "romola" which was shot on location in italy and she wears the best costumes...sombody earlier in the thread has a pic of it...and then they had cake and brandy alexander cocktails.
my avatar on another forum is one of the young gish sisters!

re harold lloyd, he is so consistently good that i have never seen a dud film of his..."speedy" has great chase scenes that are real...i like his films where he does a sort of rich loafer character who is a bit conceited...he is sooooo funny and always gets the girl...i will post movie titles for you later on as i am unsure if ones i have seen on bigscreen are available otherwise.
for example, i went last august to paramount ranch, where they used to film silents and now they have a summer silent series called "silents under the stars" and one they showed in august was a cecil b. demille called "saturday night" had leatrice joy in it and it was amazing! i love this film. then i tried to locate it on dvd or video and it is nowhere
at a anniversary party at the egyptian theatre where they screened "cleopatra" the silent, a new biography on demille was being talked about and the author was there...i asked him about this film and he said he owns it and he loaned it for the ranch screening and you can't find it anywhere...poops!
so, i don't wanna recommend something you can't get a hold of.

 

[purplelucrezia]

beautiful pictures,purplelucrezia.lillian gish seems so fragile yet you can always sense her inner strength.
do you know which films they´ll show?is it a festival?

- The Scarlett Letter
- An Unseen Enemy/ Broken Blossoms
- The Cobweb
- The Wind
- Annie Laurie
- The Night of the Hunter
- La Boheme
- Duel in the Sun
- The Lady and the Mouse/ True Heart Susie (plus a lecture)
- Orphans of the Storm
- Way Down East

I'll admit that I haven't yet been able to see any of hers, so I'm very excited about this opportunity! It's actually not a festival dedicated exclusively to her movies, but the art gallery has it's own movie theatre. I suppose, then, that they just decided to compose a sort of tribute to them... Oh, and they're having live piano playing (as is historically accurate) to accompany the movies, which sounds great to me!

I found a couple sites on Anna May Wong. She was really a groundbreaking actress!

purple lucrezia, this is THE BEST. i'm chinese myself and found this incredibly fascinating. as well as the rest of this topic. you folks are exposing me to a wonderful world of fashion. thank you.

I'm definitely going to get to reading them very soon! It's so amazing being to share information here... I'm thrilled that you've enjoyed the topic and are becoming increasingly interested in her.

 

[somnambule]

that´s a great list.i would especially love to see la bohème and the wind.what is so impressive about lillian gish is that her career lasted 7 decades but she never sold herself.she always put artistry over commerce.despite her looks she was a very strong woman ,emancipated at a time when this wasn´t common.that´s why the studio bosses (louis b. mayer) wanted to get rid of her at the end of the silent era.but she awlays came back with great performances.when i saw the whales of august,her last film,i couldn´t believe thatz she was already 93/94 years old at that time.she was still full of grace and dignity.bette davis looked much older than her even though she was 15 years younger.
purplelucrezia and orchide,you´re both lucky that you have the chance to see silent films on a big screen.it must be an amazing experience especially with live music !

lillian and dorothy:

 

[Orchide]

it makes such a difference to see the film as it was intended for sure!

i love it! somnubule, i feel you deserve to experience this yourself...you are such a knowledgable fan...i know you would appreciate it more than you could imagine

 

[somnambule]

thanks orchide .yes,i really hope i´ll get the chance one day .

 

[Orchide]

thanks orchide .yes,i really hope i´ll get the chance one day .

I am a super happy girl today I got in the mail a lot of Colleen Moore pc's and autographs and Louise Brooks 8x 10's and a dvd of Clara Bow's Mantrap and Capital Punishment together....yay
I am going in a bit to a big screen showing of "Miss Lulu Betts" at the Silent Movie Theatre...wish you could join us Somnubule
It stars Lois Wilson who I haven't seen on big screen before...looks like a good one! I will report back on it...