Forgotten 'Silent' Ladies of the Silver screen.

[VintageKell]

Helene Chadwick was an American actress in silent motion pictures and in early sound films. Her mother was an opera singer who performed on the stage and her father was a wealthy business man who owned a silk mill. She began making films for Pathe Pictures in Manhattan, New York after she was persuaded by an artist friend to pose for one of his paintings while on a visit to New York .... a director saw it and was also impressed by Chadwicks's talent as a rider (horses I think). She went to California in 1913 and began acting as a Western star in silent movies in 'The Challenge' in 1916.

She was a star from 1920 through 1925, but the roles declined with the advent of sound in 1929, and until 1937 she found some success as a character actress. In the final five years of her life she was reduced to taking film roles as an 'extra', playing "atmospheric parts" and in all she made 89 movies. She was always optimistic that her fortunes would turn for the better. She had married Lieutenant William A. Wellman, an American pilot in July 1921, but in the summer of 1923, Chadwick sued Wellman for divorce on grounds of desertion and non-support

Her death was indirectly the result of an accident she suffered in June 1939. She had stumbled over a chair and sustained injuries to her left side and eye. Doctors said her illness was exacerbated by "her highly nervous state" and she died at St. Vincent's Hospital, Los Angeles, California, aged 42, in 1940.

Trivia:

• At the pinnacle of her acting career, she earned a salary estimated to have been $2,000 per week.
• Her husband was cited for bravery for his valor in World War I and was signed to play a prominent role in an upcoming movie with Douglas Fairbanks Sr.
• Her ex husband Wellman directed Wings, the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture.
• The Chadwick family was of noble lineage on the paternal side, a direct descendant from a Lord Chadwick of England.

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[VintageKell]

Carmelita Geraghty was an American silent-film actress. A graduate of the Hollywood High School, she went off to become a movie star. Her father, who was a screen writer, was slow to approve of his daughter's new employment.

She started work out as an extra in the early 1920's, using a fictitious name until getting her big break when she was selected as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1924. She soon became a favorite leading lady for directors, but when the age of sound dawned Carmelita's career began to crumble. Her roles began to be smaller and her last film role in a career covering 73 movies, was in 'Phantom of Santa Fe' in 1936. She then retired from film altogether.

Married once to MGM writer/producer Carey Wilsonin 1934, and the marriage only ended in 1962 upon his death. Carmelita Geraghty died of a heart attack in 1966 at the Lombardy Hotel in Manhattan, aged 65.

Trivia:

• One of her first major roles was in 'The Pleasure Garden' in 1925 which was directed by a young Alfred Hitchcock.
• She became a very accomplished artist about ten years after leaving motion pictures. Her painting style was reminiscent of French Impressionism. In the last years of her life her artwork was put on display at the Weil Gardens in Paris.

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[VintageKell]

Philippine "Betty" Amann was a German-American film actress. She began her film career in silent movies in the US in 1926 in 'The Kick-Off'. In 1929 she went to Germany to star in the female role in 'Asphalt'. She then starred in the first sound film in German cinema.

In 1931, she went to work in England, appearing in a Alfred Hitchcock film 'Rich and Strange', and she then returned to Germany to appear in 'Schleppzug M 17' in 1933. She then drifted back to the US where she mainly appeared in poverty row productions, and her last role in a career spanning 30 films was in 'Isle of Forgotten Sins' in 1943.

Trivia:

• She began her screen career as Bee Amann.
• In 1987, Betty Amann received the German award Filmband in Gold for her long and outstanding work and performance for the German film.

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[VintageKell]

Harriet Hammond was an American actress of the silent era. When she left school she tried to become a concert pianist, but her health broke under the strain of six hours a day practice. She then turned her attention to movies and was taken on as one of Mack Sennett's Bathing Beauties and became a competent comedienne, and also developed the 'Sennett bathing figure'. She was five feet seven inches tall, fair haired, with blue eyes and weighed a hundred and fifteen pounds, and was a splendid athlete, excelling in 'water sports' (which was an innocent statement in those days).

Her career didn't survive the mass cull of actresses which occurred with the advent of the talkies, but she appeared in 46 films between 1918 and 1930.

Trivia:

A keen gun enthusiast, she was president of the Nemours Gun Club.

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[VintageKell]

Dorothy Devore was a leading and popular American silent-film actor and comedian in her time. She completed her education and then joined a musical comedy company, with which she appeared for one year. She worked in comedies at Universal Pictures, where she was "discovered" by director/producer Al Christie. Starting in small parts she soon received leads and moved from one-reelers to two-reelers.

A talented actress, specializing especially in comedic roles, she was popular with the public throughout the 1920's. She was best known for her work on the comedic two-reel 'Christie Comedies', but she proved her versatility by performing to accalim as female lead in the fulll length movie, '45 Minutes from Broadway' in 1920. She made her last credited film in a career spanning 94 movies, in 'Take the Heir', in 1930, and apart from an uncredited bit part in 1939, she retired from the movies .... this may well have been influenced by the advent of the talkies.

She married theater owner Albert Wylie Mather in 1926. Devore died in 1976, aged 77

Trivia:

• Dorothy was chosen as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1923.
• Height: 5' 1" (1.55 m).
• Alternate Name: Dorothy De Vore

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[VintageKell]

Alice Hollister was an American silent film actress. The daughter of French-Canadian immigrants, at age seventeen, she married George K. Hollister who a few years later became a pioneer cinematographer with Kalem Studios in New York City.

She began appearing in film in 1911 while with her husbands film crew in Florida, at first in bit part but later she went on to appear in eighty five films, her last coming in 1925.

Married once, she died on the 24th February 1973, in Costa Mesa, California, USA.

Trivia:

• Hollister's most important role was that of Mary Magdalene in the 1912 film From the Manger to the Cross. Filmed on location in Palestine, it has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

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[VintageKell]

Barbara Jane Bennett was an American silent film actress, whose family were theatrical. Her parents her two sisters Constance and Joan Bennett were actors or actresses. She made her film debut in 1916 in 'The Valley of Decision' as an 'unborn soul'. Her adult career was started in 'Black Jack' in 1927, and ended just three films later in 1930. She then resurrected her film connection as a film editor for three films between 1943 and 1952.

She had a varied career, once as a literary rep for producer Walter Wanger. Bennett scouted best-sellers and the like as potential movie properties, especially for Wanger's wife, her sister Joan.

She married three times in her lifetime. Firstly to tenor Morton Downey, with who she had five children. She later married singing cowboy Addison Randall. After being widowed she married for the last time to Laurent Suprenant in 1954. They remained together until her death of a heart attack four years later in Montréal, Québec, Canada in 1958.

Trivia:

• In July 1945, the singing cowboy Randall died after suffering a heart attack and falling from a horse during the filming of 'The Royal Mounted Rides Again'.
• A popular myth was that its Bennett who was portrayed by Jocelyn Brando, older sister of actor Marlon Brando, in the 1981 film 'Mommie Dearest' It is just a coincidence that the 'Redbook writer' in that film has the same name, as Bennett was never a magazine writer.

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[VintageKell]

Yvonne Howell was an actress whose career began in silent films. Born into a show business family, her mother Alice Howell was also a vaudeville performer and silent actress. She moved to Los Angeles with her mother in 1915. She started performing in Mack Sennett films as one of his "bathing beauties" and had parts in the 1927 films "Fashions for Women" and "Somewhere in Sonora", but only made 7 movies in all between 1924 and 1931.

She met cameraman George Stevens in 1928, when he was working for Hal Roach's Laurel and Hardy films, and they married in 1930. She then retired from acting (apart from an uncredited role in 1931), and they had a son, George Jr., but they divorced in 1947. After her film career ended, Mrs. Stevens was a nurse's aide at Army hospitals in Southern California during World War II and later served as a volunteer tutor. She died of heart failure in May 2010 at her home in Hollywood, aged 104.

Trivia:

• Her husband George Stevens later became an Academy Award-winning film director.
• Their son, George Stevens, Jr., was founding director of the American Film Institute.
• Her grandson Michel Stevens is also in movies.

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[VintageKell]

Constance Binney was an American stage and film actress and dancer. A wealthy born New York girl she was educated in Connecticut and finished in Paris, France.

She made her Broadway theatre debut in 1917 and the following year appeared in the Maurice Tourneur silent film, 'Sporting Life' and in 1919, she starred opposite John Barrymore in 'The Test of Honor'.

She left the film business in 1923 after 16 movies, and last performed on Broadway in 1924. She then relocated to the stage in London and in 1941 married the British war hero, Leonard Cheshire who was twenty-one years her junior. However, this marriage was short-lived. She was married three times in all.

Constance Binney died in 1989 in Whitestone, Queens, New York City, aged 93.

Trivia:

• Her sister, Faire Binney was also actress.
• Her contribution to the industry was recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6301 Hollywood Blvd.

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[VintageKell]

Paula Blackton (b. Paula Hilburn) a.k.a. Paula Dean was a silent-screen actress and female film director. Her career spanned just 9 movies as an actress, which included 2 titles in which she was also a writer, and one as the director. Married once with children, she died of cancer and is buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

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