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1-50 of 2,381
- Writer
- Director
- Actor
Clay M. Greene was born on 12 March 1850 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was a writer and director, known for Millionaire Billie (1916), Her Wayward Sister (1916) and Belle of Barnegat (1915). He was married to Mrs. Laura Hewett Robinson and Alice Randolph Wheeler. He died on 5 September 1933 in San Francisco, California, USA.- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Producer
David Belasco was born on 25 July 1853 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for The Man Without a Face (1993), The Return of Peter Grimm (1935) and Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930). He was married to Cecilia Loverich. He died on 14 May 1931 in New York City, New York, USA.- John Hays Hammond was born on 31 March 1855 in San Francisco, California, USA. He died on 8 June 1936 in Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA.
- Henry J.W. Dam was born on 27 April 1856 in San Francisco, California, USA. Henry J.W. was a writer, known for Her Silent Sacrifice (1917). Henry J.W. was married to Dorothy Dorr. Henry J.W. died on 26 April 1906 in Havana, Cuba.
- Olive West was born on 18 August 1857 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Madame Butterfly (1915), Lonely Heart (1921) and A Flock of Skeletons (1916). She died on 29 May 1943 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Gertrude Atherton, a famed author during the early 1900s, was always more a novelist than a screenwriter, but, amid her fame as a novelist, she was given major opportunities during the silent era when studios began turning to literary properties to adapt for the screen. A 1932 Los Angeles Times article says that after her husband died in 1887 and was shipped back to Chile in a barrel of rum, the writer left the Atherton estate and, dismissing her dead husband as 'the second rate offspring of the Athertons,' moved to San Francisco. Eventually, she relocated to New York with a completed novel that shocked publishers and was derided by critics, but immediately made Atherton famous.
The Los Angeles Times reported that in May 1919, Rex Beach, president of the Authors League, and Samuel Goldwyn announced the formation of the Eminent Authors Pictures Corporation, an organisation that owned exclusive picture rights to works by famed authors, one of whom was Gertrude Atherton. Each signed author was given supervision over the motion pictures that were being made from their source material, although they rarely wrote the screenplays for their projects. Atherton was no exception to this rule, although she did work closely with studios during the production of films based on her novels. In a 1921 Los Angeles Times article, she called her life on the studio lot 'intensive, unique, exciting, almost unreal' and referred to herself as being 'as temperamental as a prima donna'. Although she mainly supervised the adaptations of her work, in November 1920 the Los Angeles Times reported that Atherton was working on her first original screen story titled Noblesse Oblige . In April 1921, the same paper reported that the film opened under the title Don't Neglect Your Wife. Although it is possible these are different films, they are both referred to as Atherton's first original screen story, so it is more likely that the title changed over the course of the production.
In 1933, Gertrude Atherton became part of Woman Accused, a large-scale serial project initiated by Paramount Pictures. The sound film written by ten popular authors received a mixed reaction. Critics noted that Atherton's classic touches were less recognisable than others included in the project. Providing further evidence that Atherton continued working with studios during the sound era, is a 1933 Los Angeles Times article. While original stories were never her focus in production, Atherton blurred the line between novelist and screenwriter during the silent era when she worked in two worlds of writing-inside and outside of the major studios. - Georgia Woodthorpe was born on 11 October 1859 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Merely Mary Ann (1920), Thundering Dawn (1923) and Better Times (1919). She was married to Fred A. Cooper. She died on 25 August 1927 in Glendale, California, USA.
- Jefferson De Angelis was born on 30 November 1859 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Her Great Chance (1918), The Funny Side of Jealousy (1915) and Beware of the Dog (1915). He was married to Charlotte Elliott (1895-1938 actress) and Florence Conliffe. He died on 20 March 1933 in East Orange, New Jersey, USA.
- Eleanor Barry was born on 14 June 1860 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Heartaches (1915), The Lion and the Mouse (1914) and The Great Ruby (1915). She was married to William Bury Irwin Dasent and James Gilbert Chesley. She died on 13 March 1946 in Alameda County, California, USA.
- Actor
- Director
George F. Marion was born on 16 July 1860 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Anna Christie (1930), Death from a Distance (1935) and Robinson Crusoe (1916). He was married to Agnes E. Daly and Lillian E. Swain (actress). He died on 30 November 1945 in Carmel, California, USA.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Edwin Stevens was born on 16 August 1860 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Boy Girl (1917), Love Insurance (1919) and The Little Minister (1921). He was married to Louise Weller. He died on 3 January 1923 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- William Arms Fisher was born on 27 April 1861 in San Francisco, California, USA. William Arms died on 18 December 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
- The son of a sea captain, Theodore Roberts was a veteran stage actor, making his first appearance in 1880. Often referred to as the "Grand Duke of Hollywood," Roberts was a regular on the Cecil B. DeMille team and appeared in 23 of DeMille's films. He is best remembered for his role as Moses in DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1923). A well-known and well-loved actor, his funeral in Westlake Park (he died from uremic poisoning) was attended by nearly 2,000 people. However, Roberts felt so much bitterness in his heart for his immediate relatives that he bequeathed his estate to a nephew (a commercial illustrator) in New York. The estate was valued at nearly $20,000, including a yacht valued at $10,000. Several of Roberts' personal items were left to his friends William C. de Mille and his brother Cecil. Roberts claimed that during the worst times of his life, no one in his family offered a word of sympathy or any help at all. His only request was that he be laid to rest next to his beloved wife Florence Smythe, who passed away in 1925.
- Mai Wells was born on 1 April 1862 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress, known for His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1914), The Last Egyptian (1914) and Opened Shutters (1921). She was married to ? Chapman. She died on 1 August 1941 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Producer
- Director
- Writer
William Randolph Hearst was the greatest newspaper baron in the history of the United States and is the person whom Citizen Kane (1941), widely regarded as the greatest film ever made, is primarily based on. While there are many similarities between Charles Foster Kane, as limned by the great Orson Welles and his screenwriter, Herman J. Mankiewicz (who knew Hearst), there are many dissimilarities also.
He was born on April 29, 1863, in San Francisco, California, the only child of the multi-millionaire miner George Hearst and his wife, Phoebe Apperson Hearst. Mrs. Hearst was a former school-teacher with refined manners who was over 20 years her husband's junior. Phoebe spoiled William Randolph, who was raised with personal tutors and sent to the most elite prep schools back East. He attended Harvard College but was expelled in 1885.
When he was 23 years old, William Randolph asked his father if he could take over the daily operation of the "San Francisco Examiner," a newspaper that George had acquired as payment for a gambling debt. His father relented and William Randolph took over, styling himself as its "Proprietor." The "Examiner," which he grandly called "The Monarch of the Dailies" on its masthead, was the first of many newspapers that the young Hearst would come to run, and the first where he indulged his appetite for sensationalistic, attention-getting, circulation-boosting news stories.
When his father George died, Phoebe Hearst liquidated the family mining assets to fund her son's acquisition of the ailing "New York Morning Journal." (The family continued to own forest products and petroleum properties.) Ruthless and driven, the aggressive Hearst willed the "Morning Journal" into becoming the best newspaper in New York City, hiring the best executives and finest reporters from the competition. In the style of yellow-news baron Joseph Pulitzer, with whom he now went into direct competition, Hearst introduced an in-your-face, outrageous editorial content that attracted a new market of readers. Though the term "Yellow Journalism" was originally coined to describe the practices of Pulitzer, Hearst proved adept at it. Hearst responded to the request of illustrator Frederic Remington, who had been detailed to Havana in 1898 in anticipation of something big, to return to the States with a terse message: "Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war."
After the U.S.S. Maine was blown-up in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898, Hearst called the Journal city desk and demanded that the front page prominently play up the incident as the sinking of the American battleship meant war. The Journal began immediately running banner headlines proclaiming "War? Sure!" to inflame the public and pressure the government of President William McKinley to proclaim war against Spain. (Some critics accused Hearst of being indirectly responsible for McKinley's assassination as he had published a poem by Ambrose Bierce that seemed to call for such an act.)
The Spanish-American War became the Journal's war just as Vietnam was the television network's war. Ernest L. Meyer wrote about Hearst's journalistic standards: "Mr. Hearst in his long and not laudable career has inflamed Americans against Spaniards, Americans against Japanese, Americans against Filipinos, Americans against Russians, and in the pursuit of his incendiary campaign he has printed downright lies, forged documents, faked atrocity stories, inflammatory editorials, sensational cartoons and photographs and other devices by which he abetted his jingoistic ends."
Hearst added Chicago to his domain, acquiring the "Chicago American" in 1900 and the "Chicago Examiner" in 1902. The "Boston American" and the "Los Angeles Examiner" were acquired in 1904, firmly establishing the media empire that in its heyday during the 1920s, consisted of 20 daily and 11 Sunday newspapers in 13 cities, the King Features syndication service, the International News Service, and the American Weekly (Sunday syndicated supplement). One in four Americans in the '20s read a Hearst newspaper daily. His media empire also included International News Reel and the movie production company Cosmopolitan Pictures, plus a number of national magazines, including "Cosmopolitan," "Good Housekeeping" and "Harper's Bazaar." In 1924, he opened the "New York Daily Mirror," a racy tabloid that was an imitation of the innovative "New York Daily News," which ran many photographs to illustrate its lurid reporting.
Unlike Charles Foster Kane, Willaim Randolph Hearst never married the niece of the president of the United States. The closest he got to a president other than socializing with one was marrying Millicent Wilson, who shared the name of Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921). The nuptials took place the day before he turned 40. His family opposed his marriage to Millicent, who was a 21-year-old showgirl whom he had known for many years. Before Millicent, he had been involved with Tessie Powers, a waitress he had financially supported since he had attended Harvard and trysted with her while still sporting the college's beanie. Hearst's personal life often was featured in stories that his competitors, the tabloid newspapers, ran during his lifetime, the kind of press he would have no moral qualms about if the proverbial shoe were on the other foot and it was someone else's other than his ox being gored. (So much for his moral outrage over Citizen Kane (1941).) He and Millicent had five sons, but Hearst took another showgirl, 20-year-old Marion Davies of the Ziefgeld Follies, as his mistress. She was 34 years his junior. It was a relationship that lasted until the end of his life.
Hearst used his media power to get himself twice elected to Congress as a member of House of Representatives (1903-1905; and 1905-1907) as a progressive, if not radical Democrat. However, he failed in his two bids to become mayor of New York City in 1905 and 1909, and was defeated by the Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes in his attempt to become governor of New York State in (1906). He supported the Spanish-American War - many observers believe he even was the casus belli of that conflict - but opposed the U.S. entry into World War One as he despised the British Empire. He also opposed President Wilson's formation of the League of Nations and American membership in the organization.
By the time of the First World War, his political ambitions frustrated, he decided to live openly with Davies in California and at a castle he bought in Wales. His wife and children remained in New York, where Hearst became known as a leading philanthropist, creating the Free Milk Fund for the poor in 1921. They officially separated in 1926.
Hearst spent many years and a fortune promoting Marion Davies' film career. According to the great critic Pauline Kael, Davies was a first-rate light comedienne, but Hearst wanted her to play the classical roles of a tragedienne, with the result that he pushed her into movies that were ill-suited for her, and that made her look ridiculous. She was not, however, the talentless drunk that Charles Foster Kane's second wife, Susan Alexander was. (Orson Welles said that his only regret over Citizen Kane (1941) was the backlash and grief caused to Davies, who was a woman adored by everyone who knew her. Davies nephew actually was the step-father of Welles' first child.)
Phoebe Hearst died in 1919, and Hearst moved onto the family's 268,000-acre San Simeon Ranch in southern California. On 127 acres overlooking the California coast north of Cambria, he built what is now called Hearst Castle but that he called "La Cuesta Encantada." Starting in 1922, and not finished until 1947, the 165-room mansion was built by an army of craftsmen and laborers. The mansion -- which cost approximately $37 million to build -- was not ready for full-time occupancy until 1927, and additions to the main building continued for another 20 years. At La Cuesta Encantada, Hearst entertained the creme de la creme of Hollywood and the world, whom he treated to his hospitality among his personal art collection valued at over $50 million, the largest ever assembled by any private individual. He could live openly in California with Davies.
Along with his sensationalism and jingoism, William Randold Hearst was a racist who hated minorities, particularly Mexicans, both native-born and immigrants. He used his newspaper chain to frequently stir up racial tensions. Hearst's newspapers portrayed Mexicans as lazy, degenerate and violent, marijuana-smokers who stole jobs from "real Americans." Hearst's hatred of Mexicans and his hyping of the "Mexican threat" to America likely was rooted in the 800,000 acres of timberland that had been confiscated from him by Pancho Villa during the Mexican revolution.
The Great Depression hurt Hearst financially, and he never recovered from it. At one point, his financial distress was so great, his mistress, Marion Davies, had to pawn some of her jewels to get him the cash to keep him afloat. The Hearst media empire has reached its zenith in terms of circulation and revenues the year before the Stockmarket Crash of October 1929, but the huge over-extension of the Hearst media empire eventually cost him control of his holdings. Hearst's newspaper chain likely had never been profitable, but had been supported by the income from his mining, ranching and forest products interests. All of Hearst's business interests were adversely affected by the economic downturn, but the newspapers were hit particularly hard due to the decline in advertising revenues, the life's blood of any newspaper. His bellicose and eccentric behavior only made matters worse.
By the time Franklin D. Roosevelt exerted himself over the U.S. economy, Hearst had become a reactionary. He had produced a film, Gabriel Over the White House (1933) starring Walter Huston as a presidential messiah, but Roosevelt, apparently, wasn't his kind of Christ-figure. In the movie, President 'Judd' Hammond exercised near dictatorial powers, including apparently ordering summary executions of gangsters; this may have gone over well in corporate America, but hardly was a management paradigm for a working democracy. However, Roosevelt's attempts to centralize power in government and industry cartels to combat the Depression were eventually repudiated by Hearst. His anti-Roosevelt stance, trumpeted by his papers, proved unpopular with the common man who was his primary readership.
Once, he had served as the self-appointed tribune of the common man, and his progressive politics was denounced by the plutocrats as radical, but by the 1930s, Hearst was flirting with Fascism. The Hearst papers carried paid-for columns by both Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, though Hearst claimed that he was only an anti-Communist. However, during a continental tour with Marion Davies, Hearst actually attended the Nuremberg rally of 1934. He later completed a newsreel deal with Hitler during the trip. Franklin D. Roosevelt, of course, was as staunchly anti-fascist as Hearst was anti-communist. His pro-intervention policies on the side of Britian during the early days of World War Two rankled the philo-German Hearst.
Hearst had a complicated relationship with Roosevelt, whom he helped obtain the 1932 Democratic presidential nomination (as a moderate). Hearst fluctuated between endorsing and attacking F.D.R. and his New Deal. In public, Roosevelt, on his part, would woo Hearst with invitations to the White House, obtaining a temporary truce, while in private, Roosevelt complained of Hearst's power and had his income taxes investigated. In 1934, Hearst launched a virulent anti-communist witch-hunt that would last for 20 years in which he tarred New Deal supporters as reds, then ended up labeling F.D.R. himself a communist. In response to his red-baiting, liberals and leftists retaliated with a boycott of Hearst newspapers.
Hearst had become a major liability to the Hearst Corp. by the mid-1930s as he became more noxious. He had started out as a populist, but had veered right in the 1920s, then tacked left in the early 1930s, only to veer to the far right beginning in the mid-'30s. Always a maverick, Hearst might have been psychologically unable to maintain a constant position; unable or unwilling to reign in his ego and support those in power, he could never stay allies with anyone for long, and thus regularly shifted positions. As Roosevelt went left, Hearst went right. Apparently, as his flirtation with fascism elucidates, he had cast himself as the savior of America in his own mind.
The economic result of Hearst's shift to the right (which also may have been influenced by his need to cajole financiers, who decidedly were anti-Roosevelt) was that advertising sales and circulation declined, just as millions in debt came due and had to be refinanced. In 1936, Hearst's efforts to raise more capital by floating a new bond issue was stymied by his creditors, with the result that he was unable to service the Hearst Corp.'s debts. The Hearst Corp. went into receivership and was reorganized, and William Randolph Hearst was reduced to the status of an employee, with a court-appointed overseer. A liquidation of Heart Corp. assets began, and newspapers were shed, Cosmopolitan Pictures was terminated, and there was an auctioning off of his art and antiquities. Hearst, the media baron of unparalleled power, was through as a major independent power in American politics and culture.
However, he still retained enough clout with his remaining newspapers (and their ability to publicize movies) in the early 1940s to make life miserable for Orson Welles after the supreme insult of his roman a clef Citizen Kane (1941). Allegedly, Hearst wasn't so much incensed at Welles as he was at Mankiewicz, a friend who had betrayed his secrets. ("Rosebud," the name of the Charles Foster Kane's childhood sled that supposedly is the key to his psychology but is actually a "McGuffin" around which to structure the movie's plot, was allegedly Hearst's nickname for Davies' private parts.)
The economic recovery that came with war production during World War II (which he opposed, just as he had America's entry into the First World War) buoyed the Hearst newspapers' circulation and advertising revenues, but he never returned to the prominence he had enjoyed in the old days. He did, still, have the love of Marion Davies, who was with him to the end, steadfast in her love. Hearst died in 1951, aged eighty-eight, at Beverly Hills, California, and is buried at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California.
More than 50 years after his death, Hearst's stature has diminished while the reputation of Citizen Kane (1941) remains secure. Interestingly, Hearst's own current, largely negative image has largely been shaped by the film, which is considered a landmark in cinematic innovation. Perhaps it was just a case of Hearst living too long, of outliving his own innovative period. As a newspaper publisher, Hearst promoted innovative writers and cartoonists despite the indifference of his readers. George Herriman, the creator of the comic strip "Krazy Kat," was a Hearst favorite; Hearst even produced Krazy Kat movie shorts. "Krazy Kat" was not especially popular with readers, but it is now considered to be a classic and a watershed of that increasing respected art form. On the negative side, the sensationalistic, border-line fabricated, over-hyped journalistic paradigm that Hearst championed through his perfection of modern yellow journalism, a paradigm he made standard newspaper fare for over half-a-century, lives on in today's media.- Additional Crew
- Producer
- Writer
William A. Brady was born on 19 June 1863 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was a producer and writer, known for Life (1920), Stolen Orders (1918) and Beloved Adventuress (1917). He was married to Grace George and Rose Marie René (French dancer). He died on 6 January 1950 in New York City, New York, USA.- Charles Herzinger was born on 10 August 1864 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The Bat (1926), Rich Girl, Poor Girl (1921) and Honor Bound (1920). He died on 18 February 1953 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Dorothy Tennant was born on 10 July 1865 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Night Club (1929). She died on 3 July 1942 in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA.
- Considered the originator of modern boxing, Corbett became world heavyweight champ in one of the biggest upsets ever when he embarrassed the 30 pound heavier legend John L. Sullivan (1892). The handsome San Francisco bank clerk immediately had a play written for him ("Gentleman Jack"), and crossed the U.S. performing it. "Gentleman Jim" was also outstanding at baseball, playing exhibitions as he toured, and he attempted to join the 1894 Baltimore Orioles, partly to supply a season-ending attendance boost. Corbett's brother Joe pitched for the Orioles. The attempt was blocked by other teams, including the New York Giants, who beat the Orioles in the 1894 version of the World Series. His long-time pal John Montgomery Ward, was then Giants manager/player. Ward (Baseball's Radical for All Seasons), a lawyer, was a pioneer of scientific baseball, and was the other preeminent gentleman athlete of the 19th CEntury.
Ward and Corbett both dated the gorgeous actress Maxine Elliott. Corbett dumped Elliott to a marry his long-time wife, while Ward's controversial relationship with Elliott broke up his (and her first) marriage.
Gentleman Jim was the only top white heavyweight of the era to fight a top Black fighter, when he dueled another scientific boxer, the great Australian, Peter "The Black Prince" Jackson to a 61 round draw in 1891. Corbett lost the heavyweight championship in 1897 to Bob Fitzsimmons. Though devastated by the 1898 murder/suicide of his parents, Corbett continued his successful acting career on Broadway, and in early movies. Like Ward, he was a union organizer, active in the White Rats, the first successful U.S. actors' union.
His colorful biography The Roar of the Crowd, was the basis for the fine Corbett biopic "Gentleman Jim," with Errol Flynn starring. - Actor
- Director
- Writer
Frank McGlynn Sr. was born on 26 October 1866 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Captain Blood (1935), Little Miss Marker (1934) and The Plainsman (1936). He was married to Rose O'Byrne. He died on 18 May 1951 in Newburgh, New York, USA.- David Warfield was born on 28 November 1866 in San Francisco, California, USA. He died on 27 July 1951 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Additional Crew
Henry Bergman was born on 23 February 1868 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor and assistant director, known for Modern Times (1936), City Lights (1931) and The Gold Rush (1925). He died on 22 October 1946 in Hollywood, California, USA.- American-born Lloyd Osbourne (1868-1947) was the son of Fanny Osbourne Stevenson and the stepson of author Robert Louis Stevenson, with whom he collaborated on three novels: "The Wrong Box" (1889), "The Wrecker" (1892) and "The Ebb-Tide" (1894) ("The Wrong Box" and "The Ebb-Tide" have been adapted for film). Stevenson's most famous work, "Treasure Island", grew out of his efforts to entertain Lloyd on a rainy day in 1881, when he drew a map for the boy that evolved into the pirate story. Osbourne followed his mother and Stevenson on their journeys and settled with them in Samoa. Later he traveled a great deal and lived in France and the US. Osbourne was twice married and divorced, first to Katherine Durham and then to his mother's friend, Ethel Head. The author of various novels and short stories, he continually pursued literary fame, which, except for the works he co-authored with his stepfather, eluded him.
- Walter Perry was born on 14 September 1868 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The Johnstown Flood (1926), Troopers Three (1930) and The Third Alarm (1930). He died on 22 January 1954 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Rhody Hathaway was born on 5 October 1868 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for A Daughter of the Sioux (1925), The Phantom of the Forest (1926) and Bigger Than Barnum's (1926). He was married to Jean Hathaway. He died on 18 February 1944 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Harry C. Bradley was born on 15 April 1869 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The House of Mystery (1934), Riding on Air (1937) and Heat Lightning (1934). He was married to Lottie Alter and Lurelle Lancing Waters. He died on 18 October 1947 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- James Rolph Jr. was born on 23 August 1869 in San Francisco, California, USA. He died on 2 June 1934 in Riverside Farm, California, USA.
- Frank Belcher was born on 16 September 1869 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Gloria's Romance (1916), On the Quiet (1918) and Mrs. Balfame (1917). He was married to Nan. He died on 27 February 1947 in Brentwood, New York, USA.
- Sidney Barrington was born on 27 October 1869 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The Prisoner of Zenda (1913). He was married to Minnie Belle. He died on 11 January 1913 in New York, New York, USA.
- George Pauncefort was born on 24 November 1869 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The Key to Power (1920), Dawn (1919) and The Running Fight (1915). He was married to Marion Ballou. He died on 25 March 1942 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Lugné-Poe was born on 27 December 1869 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for La dame aux camélias (1934), Chipée (1938) and Lévy et Cie (1930). He was married to Suzanne Desprès. He died on 19 June 1940 in Avignon, Vaucluse, France.
- J.H. Benrimo was born on 21 June 1870 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was a writer, known for The Willow Tree (1920) and The Yellow Jacket (1948). He was married to Mary Leubuscher and Katharine Kaelred. He died on 26 March 1942 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Theodore Seixas Solomons was born on 20 July 1870 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was a writer, known for The Barbarian (1921). He died on 27 May 1947 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- William De Vaull was born on 12 December 1870 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Tea: With a Kick! (1923), In the Days of Buffalo Bill (1922) and The Ace of Spades (1925). He was married to Lottie De Vaull. He died on 4 June 1945 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Maximilian Foster was born on 27 February 1871 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was a writer, known for Something to Do (1919), When Strangers Marry (1933) and Rich Man, Poor Man (1918). He was married to Elizabeth D. Foster. He died on 21 September 1943 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Frank Hayes was born on 17 May 1871 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Vanity Fair (1923), A Hoosier Romance (1918) and After His Own Heart (1919). He was married to Lottie Harriet Ward Christensen Kemp (maiden name: Ward). He died on 28 December 1923 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
American stage actor and director who made numerous silent film appearances. Blinn was born and raised in San Francisco and attended nearby Stanford University. But his stage career had begun years before, when he made his acting debut at age six. Following his education, he resumed acting, eventually becoming a prominent figure on Broadway. He directed many of the plays he appeared in. In 1914, he made his first film and kept busy on screen and on stage for the remainder of his life. During the volatile strike of stage actors in 1919 that led to the formation of the actors' union, Actors Equity, Blinn was one of a minority of actors who sided with the opposition, the producers. He served as president of the Actors Fidelity League, which unsuccessfully fought the formation of the actors' union. During a vacation at Journey's End, his country home in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, Blinn was thrown from a horse. He appeared to be recuperating well, but the injury to his arm became infected and led to respiratory failure. He died on 24 June 1928 at 56.- Charles Belcher born in San Francisco in 1872. A graduate of San Francisco's Lincoln Grammar School. Became popular in drama and comedy theatre from 1907. White-haired gentleman who appeared in many action adventure and drama films, first starring with Ruth Roland in a adventure serial 'The Adventures of Ruth made at the Pathe Film Co in 1919, he's perhaps most notable for his roles in many of Douglas Fairbanks action films including 'The Mark of Zorro' in 1920, 'The Three Musketeers' in 1921 and 'The Black Pirate' in 1926, he' perhaps best remembered as Balthazar in 'Ben Hur' in 1925,Charles made his last screen appearance, playing the Duke in Albert Ray's 'Thief in the Dark' in 1928.
- Maud Cunard was born on 3 August 1872 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was married to Bache Cunard. She died on 10 July 1948 in Mayfair, London, England, UK.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Frank Hall Crane was born on 1 January 1873 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Stolen Voice (1915), The Family Cupboard (1915) and Old Dutch (1915). He was married to Irene M. Titus. He died on 1 September 1948 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Additional Crew
George MacQuarrie was born on 2 June 1873 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Backbone (1923), Betsy Ross (1917) and The Social Leper (1917). He was married to Helen MacKellar. He died in April 1951.- Mabel Colcord was born on 13 August 1873 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress, known for David Copperfield (1935), Little Women (1933) and Three Married Men (1936). She died on 6 June 1952 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Music Department
- Writer
- Composer
Joining ASCAP as a charter member in 1914, his musical collaborators included Ernest Ball, Rudolf Friml, Billy Hill, Karl Hajos, Harry Akst, Walter Donaldson, Werner Janssen, and Maurice Rubens. His song compositions include "Dear Little Boy of Mine", "Goodbye, Good Luck, God Bless You", "Empty Saddles", "Turn Back the Universe", "When My Boy Comes Home", "A Little Bit of Love", "My Bird of Paradise", "I'll Follow the Trail", "You Hold My Heart", and "Ireland Is Ireland to Me".- Actor
- Writer
- Director
American actor-director-writer-producer of silent pictures, formerly a singer and vaudevillian. A native of San Francisco's Telegraph Hill, he was one of four sons born to Rocco Beban, a Dalmatian immigrant, and Johanna Dugan, from County Cork, Ireland.
He exhibited singing talent at an early age and was known in San Francisco theater circles as "The Boy Baritone." By age 8, according to a 1920 newspaper interview, "[his] first professional job was singing at $8 a week at the Vienna Garden on Stockton Street. Then came boy parts with the McGuire, Rial and Osborne stock company at the Grand Opera house and the McKee Rankin stock company at the old California, where I used the name of George Dinks."
After his father continued to block his career choice, getting him fired from every one of those jobs, he ran away from home at the age of 14. He appeared in light opera and on stage with vaudevillians Weber & Fields. He recalled in the same 1920 interview that, "Marie Cahill offered me my first chance on Broadway, when I was about 22, in her first starring vehicle, the musical comedy 'Nancy Brown,' at the Bijou."
He played in vaudeville and legit theater for a number of years, primarily doing caricatured Frenchmen, before making his film debut in 1915. In his play (later film) "Sign of the Rose," (A.K.A. "The Alien") and in Thomas Ince's "The Italian," he sought to change the stereotype of Italian immigrants as all being members of The Black Hand (mafioso).
He told the San Francisco Examiner in 1910 that he "learned how to imitate Italian speech and talk Italian dialect with a proper accent," from his childhood days spent teasing and stealing fruit from local Italian gardeners and grape growers. "Also that was where I first learned to appreciate Italian character, to recognize that honesty and industry and gentleness of spirit are its attributes."
He wrote and/or directed many of his later films, few of which survive.
He retired in late 1926 following the death of his wife, the stage actress Edith Ethel MacBride, and by midsummer, 1928, completed work on his dream home on a bluff overlooking the Pacific in Playa del Rey, California. His August 19 housewarming became international news when two guests, the Western star Tom Mix and the vaudevillian William Morrissey, duked it out over Morrissey's comment that Mix's horse, Tony, would have a career in the talkies, because at least he could snort, but what could Mix do?
Five weeks later, while vacationing at June Lodge Dude Ranch at Big Pine, California, Beban was thrown from a horse and seriously injured on September 29, 1928. He died in Los Angeles several days later, from the effects of the fall and from uremic poisoning. His remains were cremated.
He was survived by his 14-year-old son, George Beban Jr., who had appeared with his father (using the stage name Bob White) in a few films, and who would have a short career in the 1940's playing supporting roles.
George Beban, Sr. was the grandfather of the cinematographer Richard Beban, and great-granduncle of the screen and TV writer Richard W. Beban.- Harry Humphrey was born on 15 December 1873 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Along the Rio Grande (1941), Dick Tracy's G-Men (1939) and Law and Order (1940). He died on 1 April 1947 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.
- Edna Wallace Hopper was born on 17 January 1874 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Who Killed Simon Baird? (1916) and The Perils of Divorce (1916). She was married to Albert O. Brown and DeWolf Hopper Sr.. She died on 14 December 1959 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Producer
- Actor
Eugene H. Roth was born on 20 February 1874 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was a producer and actor, known for The Vision (1926), Mona Lisa (1926) and Merry-Go-Round (1923). He died on 3 October 1951 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Writer
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Robert Lee Frost, arguably the greatest American poet of the 20th century, was born in San Francisco, California, on March 26, 1874. His father, William Prescott Frost Jr., was from a Lawrence, Massachusetts, family of Republicans, and his mother, Isabelle Moodie Frost, was an immigrant from Scotland. His father was a journalist who dabbled in politics, was rebellious and named his son after the Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. William Frost was also an alcoholic and tubercular.
William met his wife while teaching school in Pennsylvania. Their marriage was not a happy one due to a dissimilarity of temperament. He succumbed to tuberculosis in 1885, and Isabelle honored her husband's wish he be buried in his native Massachusetts. With Robert and her daughter Jeanie, they relocated to Lawrence, near his father's parents.
Isabelle became a schoolteacher in Salem, New Hampshire, just over the state line, close to Lawrence. Robert and Jeanie became two of her pupils. Robert attended Lawrence High School, where his first poems were published in the school's bulletin. Upon graduation in 1892, he shared valedictorian honors with Elinor White, to whom he became engaged later that year.
Frost entered Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, in September 1892, but left after one semester. This caused a conflict with Elinor, who wanted him to finish college and refused to marry him until he did so. In his late teens and early 20s he worked at various occupations, including mill hand, newspaper reporter and teacher in his mother's school.
His first published poem, "My Butterfly: An Elegy", appeared in the New York magazine "The Independent" in 1894, and he eventually self-published a book of poems. He and Elinor were married on December 19, 1895. Their first child, a son they named Elliott, was born on September 29, 1896. Robert was accepted at Harvard as a special student, but had to drop out due to tuberculosis and the birth of the couple's second child in 1899. He never finished his college education.
As the new century dawned, the Frost family was afflicted with the first of the tragedies that would dog them all of their lives. Elliott contracted cholera and died in July of 1900, at age four, a development that rocked the Frost marriage (Frost later addressed the event in his poem "Home Burial"). Frost's mother died that year from cancer, and his grandfather, William Prescott Frost Sr., passed away in 1901. His grandfather left him an annual annuity of $500 and the use of his Derry, New Hampshire, farm for ten years, after which ownership would pass to Robert.
The Frosts had four more children; their last, a daughter born in 1907, died after three days. Although Frost longed to be a poet since he was a youth, recognition of his talent would prove elusive. To support himself he had to work the farm and supplemented his income by teaching school, often in partnership with his wife. He tried to make a go as a poultry farmer, but he was not successful. Economic necessity forced him to spend the 1910-11 school year teaching at the State Normal School in far-off Plymouth, New Hampshire.
Frost practiced education by poetry with his children, since to him the two were one and the same. Poetry thus became part of the everyday life of the Frost family. His daughters Lesley, Irma, Marjorie and son Carol were home-schooled by their parents. Along with the basic instruction, they were encouraged to develop their powers of observation and cultivate their imaginations. Reading and writing were intended to be both pleasurable and a vehicle of discovery.
Frost shared his stories and poems with his children and they, in turn, were encouraged to write and share their stories and poems with their parents. The Frost children published their own little magazine, "The Bouquet", with their English friends while their family was living in England. The family had moved there in August 1912 because no American publisher was interested in his poems and he was feeling isolated. After coming into possession of the Derry farm in 1911, he sold it to raise the funds to finance the move. The relocation proved fortunate, as he quickly made friends and, for the first time in his life, was a member in good standing of a group of serious poets.
Living on a farm in Buckinghamshire with his family, Frost became a prolific writer as he went about finding his own, distinct poetic voice. Through an acquaintance, he met fellow American exile 'Ezra Pound', the great avant-garde poet who would prove to be a supporter of his.
Just two months after his arrival in England, the small London publisher David Nutt accepted his submission of a collection of poems primarily consisting of the work he had done over the previous nine years. "A Boy's Will" was published in 1913, and received good reviews from the English press despite being a young man's work. Frost then relocated to Gloucestershire, England, to be closer to the group of poets known as The Georgians. The second collection, his seminal "North of Boston", was published in 1914. The volume contained his classic poems "Mending Wall", "The Death of the Hired Man" and "After Apple-Picking", which have been frequently anthologized. Frost, as a poet, had not only arrived, but he had matured as an artist.
After the publication of "North of Boston", Frost moved his family back to the US due to England's involvement in World War One. By the time of his return, publisher Henry Holt had published "North of Boston" to great success. Frost was a shrewd promoter of himself as a poet, and he became celebrated by the literary establishments of Boston and New York. Holt, who would be his publisher throughout his life, brought out his third volume, "Mountain Interval", in 1916. The book, containing poems he had written in England and in his nine-year exile as a farmer-teacher, solidified his reputation. The collection included "The Road Not Taken", "An Old Man's Winter Night", "The Oven Bird" and "Birches".
Once again settling in the New England he would forever be associated with, Frost bought a farm at Franconia, New Hampshire. In 1917 he took a position at Amherst College as professor of literature and poet-in-residence. By the 1920s he was acknowledged as one of America's most important poets. Frost won the Pulitzer Prize in 1924 for his fourth book of verse, "New Hampshire". He published new and collected volumes of poetry at fairly regular intervals, assumed teaching appointments at Dartmouth, Harvard and the University of Michigan, and maintained a busy schedule of lectures and poetry readings. His honors, which included a record four Pulitzer Prizes, were matched by his popularity. He was the only poet ever chosen as a selection of The Book of the Month Club, and his books of poetry were sold in mass-market editions.
Frost has been frequently but erroneously mentioned as a Nobel laureate, but he never won the prize. As he became a leading literary lion in America, he became more influential, and was a favorite of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Frost successfully lobbied Ike to have Ezra Pound, incarcerated in a madhouse since being arrested for his treasonous radio broadcasts from fascist Italy during World War II, released and returned to private life.
One of the most famous moments in American history came at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, a fellow New Englander, on January 20, 1961, when Frost read a poem. He was the first poet ever to read at an American inauguration, and the event testified to both his greatness as a serious poet and his popular appeal. He represented the United States on official foreign missions during both the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. The U.S. Congress voted Frost a Congressional Gold Medal in 1962, presented to him by President Kennedy at a public ceremony. Kennedy sent Frost as a cultural emissary to the USSR at the height of the Cold War in 1962, not long before his death.
Towards the end of his life he had achieved a popular acclaim unique for an American poet, though his critical reputation had declined due to a diminution of his powers. "A Witness Tree", his last truly significant book of verse, was published in 1942. His final three collections of poetry were not as praised as his older poetry had been, though certain pieces were acknowledged as among his best.
When Frost died in a Boston hospital on January 29, 1963, two months shy of his 89th birthday, he was the most widely respected man of American letters. Since his death his reputation has not diminished, the mark of a great artist. In 1996 three poets who won the Nobel Prize for literature, Joseph Brodsky, Seamus Heaney and Derek Walcott jointly published an homage to the influence of Frost, whom they feel is one of literature's greatest poets.- Robert Frost was born on 28 March 1874 in San Francisco, California, USA. Robert was a writer, known for The Afterglow: A Tribute to Robert Frost (1989) and Nothing Gold Can Stay (2019). Robert died on 29 January 1963 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
- Jules Mendel was born on 6 May 1874 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Fun at a Ball Game (1915), The Caretaker's Daughter (1925) and Fighting Fluid (1925). He was married to Teddy La Due. He died on 17 March 1938 in Los Angeles, California, USA.