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- Actress
- Writer
Clara Morris was born on 17 March 1848 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was an actress and writer, known for Mystic Faces (1918), My Lady Friends (1921) and A Pasteboard Crown (1922). She was married to Frederick C. Harriot. She died on 19 November 1925 in New Canaan, Connecticut, USA.- Actor
- Director
Percy Winter was born on 16 November 1861 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor and director, known for The Other Girl (1915), The Inevitable Penalty (1915) and The Son (1915). He was married to Mary N. Saunders (actress) and Blanche Armand. He died on 4 May 1928 in Boonton, New Jersey, USA.- Acton Bond was born on 27 November 1861 in Toronto, Canada. Acton was an actor, known for Henry VIII (1911). Acton was married to Eve Tame. Acton died on 28 November 1941 in Hampstead, London, England, UK.
- Helen MacMurchy was born on 7 January 1862 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She died on 8 October 1953 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
- Laura Alberta was born on 6 November 1862 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was an actress, known for The Masked Menace (1927). She was married to John Sutherland. She died on 17 March 1938 in Bronx, New York, USA.
- Maud Allan was born on 27 August 1873 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was an actress, known for The Rug Maker's Daughter (1915). She died on 7 October 1956 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Prolific silent film director, the son of Irish immigrants. Olcott started as an actor on the New York stage and then appeared in films for Mutoscope in 1904, eventually working his way up to general manager of Biograph. Lured away to a rival company he began to direct features for Kalem by 1907. That year, he became embroiled in a hitherto unprecedented lawsuit (which dragged on for four years), since he had filmed Ben Hur (1907) in blatant disregard of copyright. Publishers and the estate of author Lew Wallace sued Kalem to the tune of $25,000.
In addition to shooting films in Jacksonville, Florida, and Ireland (where Kalem had their studios), Olcott also took his film crews to far-flung overseas locations -- in the process becoming the first-ever filmmaker to do so. He went to Egypt and Palestine to film the life of Christ, From the Manger to the Cross (1912) which proved a big money-spinner for Kalem. However, a dispute over Olcott's salary led to his name being removed from the credits and he consequently resigned.
Not out of work for long, he signed with Famous Players Lasky (which later became Paramount) in 1915. Until his retirement in 1927, Olcott directed some of the studio's biggest stars, from Mary Pickford and Gloria Swanson to Norma Talmadge and Rudolph Valentino.- Canadian vaudevillian and stage actor who appeared in several silent films. As a dramatic actor, he appeared in such plays as "The Pearl of Pekin," "The Hole in the Ground," and "Dear House of Ireland." Later he entered vaudeville with a sketch show, "The Race Tout's Dream," which occupied him for many years. He made occasional appearances in films and lived in Hollywood, but continued on the vaudeville circuit until his death from a heart attack in his sleep, at age 54.
- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Henry MacRae was born on 29 August 1876 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was a director and producer, known for Detective Lloyd (1932), Danger Island (1931) and The Lost Special (1932). He was married to Mary O'Neill and Margaret Oswald. He died on 2 October 1944 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Berton Churchill was born on 9 December 1876 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for Stagecoach (1939), Sweethearts (1938) and Steamboat Round the Bend (1935). He was married to Harriet Elizabeth Gardner. He died on 10 October 1940 in New York City, New York, USA.- Archibald "Arch" Selwyn, the theater impresario who was one of the founders of the Goldwyn Studios, was born Archibald Simon in 1877. As a child he and his family, including older brother Edgar Selwyn, lived in Toronto, Ontario, before moving to Selma, Alabama, where his parents died. Arch followed his brother to New York in the 1890s, where Edgar was establishing himself as an actor.
Arch used his brother's theatrical connections to go into business with a loan from theatrical literary agent Elisabeth Marbury. He had acquired the rights to operate a Coney Island concession that required the purchase of a penny-slot-weighing machine, which he did with Marbury's money. After much frustration with the rusting machine, Arch and his partner garnered 1,300 pennies in one day from a Coney Island crowd mindful of their waists. The two partners promptly lost their loot, which was wrapped in a blanket, although they did recover it from a restaurant trash can. It was time for a new career for Arch.
In 1914 Edgar, Arch and future Broadway producer-director Crosby Gaige launched Selwyn & Company, Inc., a theatrical production company and play brokerage. In addition to producing plays, the company owned and operated Broadway theaters. The Selwyn Theater, which was built in 1918 on 42nd St. behind their six-floor New York City office building, was inaugurated on Oct 2, 1918, with the play "Information Please". The money for constructing the theater, which was re-christened the American Airlines Theater in the year 2000, was obtained by Arch from gambler 'Arnold Rothstein' (qv, the man who fixed the 1919 World Series (one of the inspirations for the character of Meyer Wolfsheim in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," Rothstein pioneered New York's narcotics trade, in addition to being a gangster, swindler and political fixer. He financed the first of George White's "Scandals" in 1918. His henchman Nicky Arnstein was the husband of Fanny Brice, who appeared in the rival Ziegfeld Follies). Rothstein, who liked to date Broadway showgirls, relied on his gal pals to steer patrons to his gambling parlors.
The most popular play to appear at the Selwyn was Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman's "The Royal Family," which burlesqued the Barrymore family. Opening on December 28, 1927, the play, which was produced by Broadway legend Jed Harris, ran for 345 performances. The Selwyns also built the Times Square Theater on 42nd Street in 1920. The theater opened with Edgar's own play, "The Mirage," which turned out to be a hit that ran for six months. The second play at the theater, Avery Hopwood's "The Demi-Virgin," ran for eight months. Eight of the 23 plays that followed these two inaugural hits were successful, and its boards were tread by the likes of Beatrice Lillie, Tallulah Bankhead and Robert Cummings. Gertrude Lawrence co-starred with the young Laurence Olivier and Noël Coward in Coward's 1931 hit comedy "Private Lives" at the theater. Other famous productions at the theater were "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" in the 1926-27 season, "The Front Page" in 1928 and "Strike Up the Band" in 1930.
The Times Square Theater's exterior featured an open-colonnaded limestone facade that had an entrance for the Selwyn's Apollo Theater. Built in 1919 as a movie-cum-vaudeville house named The Bryant, it was taken over by the Selwyns in 1920 and rebuilt. The renamed Apollo was converted to a legitimate theater showcasing plays and musicals, sharing a single marquee with the Times Square Theater. The Apollo didn't have its first hit until 1923's "Poppy," starring W.C. Fields. The theater then was taken over exclusively for George White's "Scandals," a Ziegfeld Follies-like show that ran annually from 1924-31. The "Scandals" was famous for its chorus line of undressed showgirls.
This was the Jazz Age, a period that saw the maturation of the American theater. The first great American playwright, Eugene O'Neill, made his mark in the era. Many of the musicals and popular songs launched in the 1920s are still with us, though, ironically, most of the popular playwrights of the era, like Avery Hopwood (who once had five hits running simultaneously on Broadway) have been forgotten. It was the time of Damon Runyon's "Bloodhounds of Broadway," when men like Rothstein and the swindler Julius "Nicky" Arnstein, the real-life models for Runyon's Nathan Detroit and Sky Masterson, strutted their stuff in the theater district amongst the other Guys & Dolls. Flush with money from securities swindles and other dubious endeavors, they were anxious to launder their dirty money as well as rubs shoulders with the showgirls and well-heeled sheep they were born to fleece. Silent partners putting up the capital for the construction of theaters or the production of shows, they embodied a Promethean race of theatrical angels who stole the light of heaven and gifted it to Broadway, making it shine. The Jazz Babies were ecstatic, and the box office boomed. The apogee of the Great White Way, so called due to the proliferation of white light given off by the plethora of uncolored light bulbs on theater marquees, was the Broadway season of 1927-28, when Broadway featured over 250 productions in over 70 legitimate theaters. Broadway was the heart of popular culture, as the shows that debuted there would segue to neighborhood theaters in metropolitan New York, and then work their way out to the stock companies in the hinterlands, even penetrating to the sticks populated by hicks before the advent of the sound flicks. According to the book "Broadway" (1974) by "New York Times" drama critic Brooks Atkinson (for whom the Richard Mansfield Theatre was renamed in 1960), the traffic in the Times Square area was so intense, due to the conglomeration of taxis and trolley cars, that most people out for a night at the theater walked. The theaters were built close together in the district to create a kind of entertainment bazaar, enabling theatergoers to shop for a show to attend, much as modern moviegoers mull their choices at a multiplex. Walking from theater to theater, this crowd in evening dress provided audiences for less-popular works, as many shows had sold out. Theaters still holding empty seats sent batches of tickets to broker Joe Leblang to be sold at half price. Producers of hit shows often resorted to the practice of "icing," hoarding tickets and selling them through scalpers at a higher price, then splitting the profits. When Lee Shubert, the head of the Shubert theatrical empire, died in 1953, his safe unexpectedly held several million dollars ($1 million in 1953 is equivalent to approximately $6.6 million in 2003 dollars), likely the profits from icing. Broadway was hit hard by the Great Depression that came after the 1929 stock market crash. Attendance dropped off sharply in the 1930s (just as movie attendance would drop off sharply in the late 1940s and early 1950s, due to the inroads of television), and there were fewer productions mounted. The Chanin Brothers went bankrupt in 1933 and lost everything. The Shubert Theater Corp., the premier Broadway theater operator, went bankrupt in 1934, though the canny Lee Shubert proved to be the only bidder when the organization's theaters were auctioned worth, outfoxing his brother J.J.
As a new decade dawned, many theaters that once were home to legitimate productions converted to movie houses or retail space, while others were torn down. The Shuberts did manage to preserve many of Broadway's most significant theaters, but other impresarios like the Selwyns exited the business. The Apollo closed as a legitimate theater after the musical "Blackbirds of 1933" flopped. It then began showing movies, until it was acquired by the Minskys, who turned it into a burlesque theater from 1934-37. In 1938 it transformed itself into a movie theater specializing in foreign films, then evolved into a Times Square grindhouse, closing in 1978. It was reopened as a legitimate house with "On Golden Pond" in 1979, but now is just an empty shell.
In 1933 the Times Square Theater ceased to be a legitimate theater after the closing of the play "Forsaking All Others," starring Tallulhah Bankhead. Produced by Arch, the play opened on March 1, 1933, and closed after 110 performances. The theater was refitted as a movie house in 1934, as was The Selwyn that same year, before being converted into a retail store in 1940. The Selwyn degenerated into one of Times Squares' many double-feature grindhouses before being reclaimed as a theater in the 1990s, when the Wooster Group staged Eugene O'Neill's "The Hairy Ape" there in 1997.
The source of the Selwyn family's fortune wasn't solely the theater. To capitalize on Edgar's popularity as a Broadway actor and playwright, the Selwyn brothers started producing movies in 1912 through their All Star Feature Films Corp. Arch produced a film of Upton Sinclair's sensational expose "The Jungle" in 1914--The Jungle (1914))--with a script based on his sister-in-law Virginia Mayo's dramatization of Sinclair's novel. Mayo was a successful actress-playwright herself, who also wrote novels.
In December 1916 the Selwyns merged their movie company with that of producer Samuel Goldfish, creating the Goldwyn Pictures Corp. The symbol of the new company was a reclining lion, surrounded by a banner made from a strip of celluloid film, reading, in Latin, "Ars Gratia Artis" ("Art for Art's Sake"). Designed by advertising-publicity man Howard Dietz, who later became a Broadway lyricist and movie executive, it adorned the front gate of the studio's Culver City, California, production facilities, which ranked with the finest in Hollywood (the inspiration for the original "Leo the Lion" likely were the stone lions fronting the New York Public Library on 44th St., which was across from the All Star Feature Corp.'s offices).
Margaret Mayo and Broadway impresario Arthur Hopkins also were partners in the deal, but the dominant figure at Goldwyn Pictures and Goldwyn Distributing was Sam Goldfish. Goldfish, a founding partner of the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Film Co. in 1914, was forced out of the company in early 1916 when Jesse Lasky more closely integrated his production company with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Co. The two firms would serve as the basis of Paramount Pictures. Goldfish, who had immigrated to Canada as Schmuel Gelbfisz before coming to the United States, liked the name of his new company so well, he adopted it as his surname, thus becoming Samuel Goldwyn.
Goldwyn Pictures rented studio space in Fort Lee, NJ, at the Solax studios, and then at the larger studios owned by the Universal Film Manufacturing Co. In September 1917, Goldwyn released its first movie, Polly of the Circus (1917), based on Margaret Mayo's 1907 play, starring Mae Marsh. In addition to Marsh, Goldwyn's stable of stars included Tallulah Bankhead, Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand, and Will Rogers. Its directors included Ralph Ince, Frank Lloyd and Raoul Walsh.
Sam Goldwyn dominated Goldwyn Pictures for three years, until he lost an ownership struggle in September 1920. He resigned and, tired of partners, became an independent producer for the rest of his career. Subsequently, the Goldwyn-less Goldwyn bought the Triangle Studios in Los Angeles and leased two more New York studios while ceasing operations in New Jersey. The company eventually was merged with Loew's Inc.'s Metro Pictures in 1924 through a stock swap, creating Metro-Goldwyn, which subsequently merged with Louis B. Mayer's Louis B. Mayer Productions. The Leo the Lion trademark would be adopted by MGM, and after being modified, would become one of the most famous and enduring trademarks in history. Under the guidance of Mayer and his central producer, former Universal production executive Irving Thalberg, MGM became the greatest studio in the world.
Arch's brother Edgar, who was the brother-in-law of MGM chief Nicholas Schenck through his second marriage to the former Ruth Wilcox, eventually became a producer at MGM and Mayer's editorial assistant. While Edgar concentrated on his career at MGM, Arch continued with his life in the theater, producing plays through 1939.
Between 1912 and 1942 Arch and Edgar, singularly and together, produced over 80 plays on Broadway and at least a score of motion pictures. Arch Selwyn died in Los Angeles on June 21, 1959, having outlived his brother and former business partner Edgar by 15 years. - Actor
- Soundtrack
Sydney Jarvis was born on 11 January 1878 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for Loose Ankles (1930), Climbing the Golden Stairs (1929) and Casey at the Bat (1927). He was married to Virginia Dare. He died on 6 June 1939 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Tom Fortune was born on 18 January 1878 in Toronto, Canada. He was an actor, known for Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight? (1909), A Girl of the West (1912) and Slim Driscoll, Samaritan (1913). He died on 16 March 1943 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Carlyle Ellis was born on 17 August 1878 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was a director and writer, known for Home-Keeping Hearts (1921), The Big Idea (1920) and The Calorie Counter: A Lesson in Nutrition (1925). He died on 7 April 1942 in Palmdale, California, USA.- Cinematographer
- Producer
H. Alderson Leach was born on 26 August 1878 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. H. Alderson is known for The Winning Stroke (1919), Illusion of Love (1929) and A Camouflage Kiss (1918).- Charles Arling was born on 22 August 1880 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for Back to God's Country (1919), Number 99 (1920) and Droppington's Devilish Deed (1915). He died on 21 April 1922 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Fred Woodward was born on 26 April 1882 in Toronto, Canada. He was an actor, known for The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914), His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1914) and The Country Circus (1915). He died on 26 March 1960 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.- Actor
- Writer
Canadian native Edward Earle was born in Toronto on July 16, 1882, and was raised and schooled there. His stage career took form in Canada with an early emphasis on musical comedy, and he later toured in vaudeville and stock in association with Belasco, DeWolf Hopper Sr., Marie Cahill and the Schuberts, among other theatrical illuminaries. Making his Broadway debut in the comedy "The Triumph of Love" in 1904, his work on the stage eventually led to film parts in 1914.
Earle entered via the Edison film company and emerged a star not long after, distinguishing himself at other studios as well, including Vitagraph, Famous Players, Metro, Warners and Columbia, with a tally of over 400 silent and talking films by the time he retired four decades later. Tawny blond, blue-eyed, well-built and with a clean-cut handsomeness, Earle was a natural for dashing, romantic silent film leads. He gained initial film attention starring in Edison's "Olive's Opportunities" one-reeler series paired opposite Mabel Trunnelle in 1914 and 1915. Adding dash and verve to such silents as Ranson's Folly (1915), a western also showcasing Ms. Trunelle; The Innocence of Ruth (1916); The Light of Happiness (1916) and The Gates of Eden (1916), all opposite a dramatic Viola Dana, he went on to dress up everything from stalwart war dramas (For France (1917)) to mystery comedies (The Blind Adventure (1918)). From 1917 through 1919, he and Agnes Ayres enjoyed great success in a series of two-reeler shorts based on the works of O. Henry.
Earle ventured into the 1920s with such stylish movie showcases as East Lynne (1921), False Fronts (1922) and The Dangerous Flirt (1924), but then began to falter into second leads and support roles, which including the George Arliss starrer The Man Who Played God (1922), the Marie Prevost comedy How to Educate a Wife (1924), little Baby Peggy's showcase The Family Secret (1924), Colleen Moore's comedy romance Irene (1926), the John Gilbert/Joan Crawford sea tale Twelve Miles Out (1927), and Conrad Nagel's part talking prohibition tale Kid Gloves (1929). Come the advent of sound Earle was offered character parts and by the end of the pre-Code talkies era was relegated to bit and unbilled extra parts in Shirley Temple, Laurel and Hardy and Marx Bros. flicks.
He continued to appear throughout the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s and tended to be more visible in oaters and serial cliffhangers. Extremely athletic with a daredevil instinct, he tried his hand as an artist, aviator and automobile racing car driver. Retiring in the early 1960s, Earle eventually retired to the Woodland Hills, California Motion Picture Country Home, where he passed away from complications of old age at age 90 in 1972.- Henry Mortimer was born on 14 August 1882 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for His Wife's Friend (1919), La grande mare (1930) and The Road Called Straight (1919). He died on 20 August 1952 in Whitby, Ontario, Canada.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
For many years Walter Huston had two passions: his career as an engineer and his vocation for the stage. In 1909 he dedicated himself to the theatre, and made his debut on Broadway in 1924. In 1929 he journeyed to Hollywood, where his talent and ability made him one of the most respected actors in the industry. He won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948).- William Millman was born on 7 May 1883 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for The Lost City (1935), Silent Barriers (1937) and Motive for Revenge (1935). He died on 19 July 1937 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Art Director
- Art Department
- Additional Crew
Jack Holden was born on 4 October 1883 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an art director, known for The Black Pirate (1926), The Gaucho (1927) and Rose o' the Sea (1922). He died on 11 July 1967 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Allan Dwan was born on 3 April 1885 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was a director and writer, known for Bound in Morocco (1918), A Perfect Crime (1921) and Panthea (1917). He was married to Marie Shelton and Pauline Bush. He died on 28 December 1981 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Additional Crew
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Harland Dixon was born on 4 November 1885 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for Surprise! (1935), Dublin in Brass (1935) and Maid for a Day (1936). He was married to Charlotte MacMullen. He died on 27 June 1969 in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City, New York, USA.- Frederick Roland was born on 12 November 1885 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for Hearts of Oak (1914), The Rainmakers (1935) and The Price of Ambition (1915). He died on 2 June 1936 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Vincent Starrett was born on 26 September 1886 in Toronto, Canada. He was a writer, known for Wanted: A Coward (1927), The Great Hotel Murder (1935) and The Web (1950). He was married to Lillian Hartsig. He died on 4 January 1974 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
- Actor
Vincent Massey was born on 20 February 1887 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor. He was married to Alice Stuart Parkin. He died on 30 December 1967 in London, England, UK.- Actor
- Director
W.T. McCulley was born on 29 December 1887 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is known for The Duchess (1915), Diana of Eagle Mountain (1915) and Haunted Hearts (1915).- Writer
- Actor
- Director
Earle Rodney was born on 4 June 1888 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was a writer and actor, known for Uppercut O'Brien (1929), The College Kiddo (1927) and Clancy at the Bat (1929). He was married to Leona Adelle Domke. He died on 16 December 1932 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
James Rennie was born on 18 April 1889 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for Now, Voyager (1942), Illicit (1931) and Skylark (1941). He was married to Dorothy Gish and Sara Madeleine Eldon McConnell. He died on 31 July 1965 in New York City, New York, USA.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Jerry Mills was born on 18 December 1889 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor and director, known for The Homesteader (1919), The Grafter and the Maid (1913) and The Railroad Porter (1912). He was married to Clara Brown. He died on 17 December 1963 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.- Garnett Weston was born on 27 June 1890 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was a writer, known for White Zombie (1932), Daughter of Shanghai (1937) and Bulldog Drummond's Bride (1939). He was married to Marion Prentice Gray. He died in October 1980 in British Columbia, Canada.
- L. Moore Cosgrave was born on 28 August 1890 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He died on 28 July 1971 in Montréal, Québec, Canada.
- Beverley Baxter was born on 8 January 1891 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was married to Edith Letson. He died on 26 April 1964 in Haslemere, Surrey, England, UK.
- Art Department
William Bach was born on 21 November 1891 in Toronto, Canada. He is known for The Witch (1916). He died on 25 March 1940 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.- Writer
- Actor
- Producer
George White started in a burlesque dance team and later became a solo act. In the 1910s he came to Broadway, where he produced, directed, wrote and sometimes even appeared in shows. He is best remembered for his annual revue "Scandals" from the late 1910s to 1939. Frances Williams, Alice Faye, Rudy Vallee, Eleanor Powell and Ann Miller appeared in his stage productions. He made two movie versions of his "Scandals" that starred Alice Faye: George White's Scandals (1934) and George White's 1935 Scandals (1935). In 1945, another film was made, George White's Scandals (1945), but that used only his material.- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Mary Pickford was born Gladys Louise Smith in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Elsie Charlotte (Hennessy) and John Charles Smith. She was of English and Irish descent. Pickford began in the theater at age seven. Then known as "Baby Gladys Smith", she toured with her family in a number of theater companies. At some point, at her devout maternal grandmother's insistence, when young Gladys was seriously ill with diphtheria, she received a Catholic baptism and her middle name was changed to "Marie".
In 1907, she adopted a family name Pickford and joined the David Belasco troupe, appearing in the long-running The Warrens of Virginia". She began in films in 1909 with the 'American Mutoscope & Biograph [us]', working with director D.W. Griffith.
For a short time in 1911, to earn more money, she joined the IMP Film Co. under Carl Laemmle. She returned to Biograph in 1912, then, in 1913 joined the Famous Players Film Company under Adolph Zukor. She then joined First National Exhibitor's Circuit in 1918. In 1919, she co-founded United Artists with D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin and then-future husband, Douglas Fairbanks.- Jesslyn Fax was born on 4 January 1893 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was an actress, known for Rear Window (1954), The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966) and Kiss Me Deadly (1955). She died on 16 February 1975 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Roy Thomson, Lord Thomson of Fleet Street, the late Canadian media mogul, was a radio salesman who solved the problem of not being able to market his merchandise due to a lack of local radio stations by starting his own in 1931. The Canadian radio industry suffered due to its proximity to the high-powered American stations just over the border, and because Canadians were allocated less efficacious frequencies when the radio spectrum was divvied up. In 1934, after starting two more radio stations, Thomson moved into print media, buying his first newspaper in a small mining town in northern Ontario. It was the newspaper empire that made Thomson's fortune and led to his ennoblement in Britain. (As Conrad Black so famously proved, Canadians like their neighbors to the south cannot receive titles; Black, now styled Lord Black of Crossharbour, like Thomson and Lord Beaverbrook before him, had to repatriate himself to the UK to accept his title).
Thomson, and his son Kenneth, the current Lord Thomson, acquired many newspapers, including 'The Times' of London (which the first Lord Thomson saved from financial ruin, and was rewarded with a peerage), eventually creating the greatest media empire in Canada. Kenneth, the second Lord Thomson of Fleet Street, eventually sold off the newspapers to reposition Thomson Corp. as a digital company in the new millennium. Lord Thomson retains a 69% stake in Thomson Corp. which racked up US$8.1 billion in sales in 2004. The media empire, which is now chaired by his son David, who took over in 2002, is an international electronic media and information services giant. Divesting itself of its 54 trade publications for $350 million in 2004, it is now even more entrenched in new media, as it acquired the bond-trading platform TradeWeb for $385 million as it moves into financial services software.
The current Lord Thomson, who lives in London, is the richest Canadian in the world, with a fortune estimated by Forbes at US$17.9 billion. He paid a record $76.2 million for Peter Paul Rubens's "Massacre of the Innocents" in 2002. He donated over $300 million worth of paintings to the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2002, and pledged $50 million for expanding the galleries in 2003.
A major concert hall/performing arts house in Toronto, Roy Thomson Hall, was dedicated in 1982. - Jack Young was born on 7 October 1894 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) and What's Your Hurry? (1920). He died on 28 October 1966 in Toronto, Canada.
- Conn Smythe was born on 1 February 1895 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He died on 18 November 1980 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
- Lottie Pickford was born on 9 June 1895 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was an actress, known for Fanchon, the Cricket (1915), White Roses (1910) and A Strange Meeting (1909). She was married to John William Lock, Russel O. Gillard, Allan Forrest and Alfred Rupp. She died on 9 December 1936 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Nepotism certainly has had its advantages in Hollywood, none more so than in the cinematic career of Jack Pickford, whose famous older sis, "America's Sweetheart" Mary Pickford, saw to it that Jack had every advantage her star weight could muster. In Jack's case, it only added fuel to a self-starting tragic fire.
The youngest of three children, if Jack was christened with the extremely common name of John (aka Jack) Smith, his life would resemble anything but. Born in Toronto, Canada, on August 18, 1896, his middle sister was minor actress Lottie Pickford (née Charlotte Smith, (1893-1936)). Both younger children were prompted by their actress/mother, Charlotte Smith, to follow Mary (née Gladys Louise Smith) into show business after her husband (also John Charles Smith), an alcoholic, deserted the family.
A child actor on the theatre stage, it was Mary who got both her baby brother and baby sister into the Biograph film company as steady fixtures starting in 1909. They all appeared in scores of short films for D.W. Griffith -- Jack's list included Wanted, a Child (1909), To Save Her Soul (1909), The Smoker (1910), Muggsy Becomes a Hero (1910), Sweet Memories (1911), As a Boy Dreams (1911), The Speed Demon (1912), Heredity (1912), The Sneak (1913) and Home, Sweet Home (1914). Lottie had her own lead pictures, including The Pilgrimage (1912) and They Shall Pay (1921). Mary, Jack and Lottie all appeared together in the films Sweet Memories (1911) and Fanchon, the Cricket (1915), among others. Jack occasionally worked for other film companies, as he did when he played the title role in Giovanni's Gratitude (1913) for Reliance; and starred in The Making of Crooks (1915), The Hard Way (1916), The Conflict (1916) and Cupid's Touchdown (1917) for Selig Polyscope,
Jack followed along with sister Mary when she left Biograph and moved to the Famous Players Film Company (later Paramount Pictures) in 1914, and proved a personable light leading man. When Mary signed her famous million-dollar contract with First National in 1917, one of her stipulations was that Jack receive a lucrative contract as well. He appeared with Mary in such films as A Girl of Yesterday (1915) and Poor Little Peppina (1916), and starred on his own as lovelorn Bill Baxter in Seventeen (1916); as Pip in Great Expectations (1917); as Jack in The Dummy (1917); and as Tom Sawyer in both Tom Sawyer (1917) and Huck and Tom (1918); as well as the title roles in His Majesty, Bunker Bean (1918), Mile-a-Minute Kendall (1918) and Sandy (1918) (all co-starring lovely Louise Huff, and the films Freckles (1917), The Girl at Home (1917), What Money Can't Buy (1917) and Jack and Jill (1917).
The young man, however, just couldn't stay out of trouble. A 1918 stint in the Navy Reserve to straighten up proved disastrous when Jack, among others, was accused of accepting bribes from draftees who wanted light shore duty and stay out of front-line action. With the help of his family, he avoided a court martial, was exonerated and received a general discharge -- more than he deserved.
Earning a modicum of naïve "boy-next-door" success, Jack went on to produce a few of his own films (Burglar by Proxy (1919), Garrison's Finish (1923) and In Wrong (1919)), as well as co-direct (with Alfred E. Green) a couple of Mary's films (Through the Back Door (1921) and Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921)). Some of Jack's better silents during the "Roaring 20's" included The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come (1920), The Man Who Had Everything (1920), Waking Up the Town (1925), The Goose Woman (1925), Brown of Harvard (1926) and the classic Beatrice Lillie backstage comedy vehicle Exit Smiling (1926) as a young leading man of the troupe.
Tragically, Jack's obsessive taste for the high life quickly took over. A ne'er-do-well playboy and constant carouser, his scandalous private life aroused more public interest than his on-camera work in light romantic films. He picked up severe alcohol, drug and gambling addictions to accommodate his partying decadence with bouts of syphilis adding to the complications. Jack's wedded life was anything but blissful. All three wives were Ziegfeld girls at one time. His stormy marriage to despondent, drug-addicted first wife, actress Olive Thomas, ended after four years when the 25-year-old died by swallowing mercury bichloride. His next two marriages to legendary Broadway musical star Marilyn Miller and minor actress Mary Mulhern also ended quickly due to his acute alcoholism.
By the late 1920s Jack was completely undependable and, with the advent of sound, his career ground to a screeching halt, despite Mary's continued attempts to rescue it. Jack's health deteriorated considerably after this letdown. His last two films were the (lost) silent feature (with talking sequences) The Dancer Upstairs (2002) co-starring Olive Borden and a lead in the short film All Square (1930).
He died aged 36 on January 3, 1933, in Paris. The cause was listed as "progressive multiple neuritis", but it was almost certainly precipitated by his chronic alcoholism-- a tragic and seemingly unnecessary end for a young man who chose to tarnish the silver platter readily handed to him. Sister Lottie too fell into extreme excess and died in 1936 at age 43 of alcohol-related causes. Jack later earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.- Marjorie Crossland was born on 7 January 1896 in Toronto, Canada. She was an actress, known for Louisa (1950), Bright Victory (1951) and The Captive City (1952). She died on 15 November 1954 in Corpus Christi, Texas, USA.
- Ilean Hume was born on 26 February 1896 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was an actress, known for The Turmoil (1916), The $5, 000, 000 Counterfeiting Plot (1914) and The Duchess of Doubt (1917). She died on 20 November 1978 in Studio City, California, USA.
- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Fraser Tarbutt was born on 31 March 1896 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor and assistant director, known for The Law of Blood (1916) and Mary Moreland (1917). He died on 16 June 1918 in France.- Arlene Harris was born on 7 July 1896 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was an actress, known for The Hit Parade (1937), One Exciting Week (1946) and Peter Gunn (1958). She died on 12 June 1976 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Educated at the University of Toronto & Balliol College, Oxford, he joined the Canadian Field Artillery in World War I, served in France & was wounded. His first appearance was in a stage production in Siberia, during the multi-nation intervention of 1918 - 1919. Raymond returned to Canada & his family farm implement business , Massey-Harris Tractor Company, after the war, although footlights proved a greater allure than plowshares. He appeared at the Everyman Theatre, London in "In the Zone" in 1922 and from then his acting career never looked back. As adept in front of arc lights as the footlights, he was signed up for a 5 year contract by Alexander Korda. Major Massey was invalided from the Canadian Army in 1943. Raymond was devoted to his American wife Dorothy, to whom he referred all queries and problems. He had an ardent radio following in the States and became an American citizen. This was natural as his mother and maternal grandmother were Americans. A bad traveler, Raymond hated the sea and airplanes. A good sportsman, he excelled at golf and fishing, A scholar, he loved good literature. A modest man, he regarded himself as supremely uninteresting.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Margaret Bannerman was born on 15 December 1896 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was an actress, known for The Gay Lord Quex (1917), Lady Audley's Secret (1920) and Hindle Wakes (1918). She was married to Pat Somerset (I) and Anthony Prinsep (London producer). She died on 25 April 1976 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.- Born in Newtonbrook, Ontario, Lester Bowles Pearson was the son of Annie Sarah Bowles and Edwin Arthur Pearson. Throughout World War I, Pearson volunteered for service and entered in it. He survived an aeroplane crash and Pearson went by the code name, "Mike".
After World War I, Pearson returned back to school and received his Bachelor of Arts in Toronto in 1919. In 1925, Pearson married Maryon Moody, who was from Winnipeg. Together, they had two children, Geoffrey and Patricia. In 1929, with the Stock Market Crash and Mackenzie King's defeat, Pearson entered his diplomatic career. During World War II, he served in the United Kingdom. After the war, Pearson served as the second Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations.
In 1957, Pearson won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the Suez Canal Crisis. The following year, he became leader of the Liberal Party, after Louis St. Laurent retired. In 1963, Pearson defeated John Diefenbaker in the 1963 election. Pearson remained Prime Minister until April 20, 1968, when Pierre Trudeau defeated him.
Pearson remained active until he died from cancer on December 27, 1972. He was 75 years old.