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- A legendary stage actress and character player in early films, Lucille La Verne is one of those forgotten legends who seem to fade as the years go on. However, at her prime she was one of the most acclaimed actresses of her generation.
Lucille La Verne Mitchum was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on November 7, 1872. Little is known about her family. She made her stage debut at the local summer stock theater in 1876. The production was called "Centennial" in honor of America's 100th birthday, and the three-year old Lucille was among a handful of child extras in the play. In 1878 she returned to play another child part. She continued to return every summer, sort of becoming the playhouse's resident child star. She quickly proved herself a talented actress, and as she got older she was given better parts. She won great acclaim when during the summer of 1887 she played both Juliet and Lady Macbeth--at only 14 years of age.
On the night of her 16th birthday in 1888, made her Broadway debut with a supporting role in "La Tosca". The play closed after four weeks. In the fall of 1889 she performed with a stock company in Washington, DC, where she played May in "May Blossom" and Chrissy Rogers in "The Governess". She also toured as Ethel in "Judge Not". Her breakthrough performance was a limited-run Broadway revival of "As You Like It" with an all-female cast in March 1894, and she won much acclaim for her performance as "Corin". In the 1894-95 season, she played Patsy in Frank Mayo's Broadway production of Mark Twain's "Pudd'nhead Wilson". She also scored great success by playing the female lead roles in three different acclaimed touring productions over the next three years: "Notre Dame" (1895-96), "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1897-98) and "Lady Windermere's Fan" (1897-98). In 1898 La Verne was made manager and director of the newly built Empire Theater in Richmond, VA. She staged five shows every season, and received mostly rave reviews. She played everything from leading roles in "Hedda Gabbler" and "Antigone" to character parts such as "Ma Frochard" in "The Two Orphans." She also wrote an adaptation of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", which she first staged in 1900, and her version was used by several other theaters in the early 1900s. She received much acclaim for her work at the Empire, and even received the Woman of the Year Award from the Virginia Women's Society in 1901.
She stepped down from the Empire Theater at the end of the 1903-04 season to make her London debut in a comic supporting role in the play "Clarice". She again received acclaim and repeated her success in the Broadway production three months later. She remained a staple of the Broadway stage for the next several years, specializing in character parts. She also returned on occasion to stock theaters to act and direct. She made her film debut in 1914 in Butterflies and Orange Blossoms (1914). From then on she would divide her time between film and the stage. She was used in film frequently by D.W. Griffith for various character parts. While she was a versatile actress, her most memorable parts in film were always those of vengeful women.
Her greatest stage triumph was the creation of the Widow Caggle role in the original Broadway production of "Sun Up". After the Broadway engagement she directed, as well as continued to perform, in the US and European tours of the play. She also recreated her role for the film version (Sun-Up (1925)). In 1927 Broadway's Princess Theater was renamed the Lucille La Verne Theater in her honor, and she was named manager and director. For her first outing as a Broadway producer and director she chose an original play called "Hot Water", giving herself the role of Jessica Dale. The play received mixed reviews and closed rather quickly. Later that same season she launched a revival of "Sun Up" repeating her Widow Caggle role, but it also closed quickly. Since the theater had lost money, she was let go as manager and the name reverted to being the Princess Theater. Upset, she moved to California for the time being to make more movies.
By 1928 she had already established herself as a good character actress in silent films and made the transition easily to talkies. As with her stage career, however, she tended to get typecast as unlikable women, despite her acclaim on Broadway for being able to play almost any character type. She did not abandon the stage entirely, however, and appeared frequently in regional productions in Los Angeles and San Francisco. In 1936 she returned to Broadway in the lead role of the thriller "Black Widow". Despite the rave reviews she received, the play itself got mixed reviews and closed after just a few performances. It would be her last stage production. La Verne quickly returned to Hollywood to take on her most famous role. She voiced both the Wicked Queen and her alter ego, the Old Hag in Walt Disney's first animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). She also worked as a live-action model for the artists.
After working on "Snow White", Lucille La Verne retired from acting and became co-owner of a successful nightclub. She died at age 72 of cancer on March 4, 1945, in Culver City, CA. - Actor
- Director
Charles Murray was born on 22 June 1872 in Laurel, Indiana, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Percy (1925), Vamping Venus (1928) and The Wizard of Oz (1925). He was married to Nellie Bae Hamilton. He died on 29 July 1941 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Born in Carlow, Ireland. Came to USA c. 1890. Worked as stage actor, engineer, antique dealer, gold miner. Entered silent film industry as actor in 1912; most noted film as actor was Captain Alvarez (1914) for Vitagraph. Directed first film for Balboa Films in 1914. Subsequently directed for American Film, Favorite Players, Pallas, Morosco, Fox, Famous Players-Lasky, Select, Realart and Paramount. Served in the British Army 1918-1919 then resumed his Hollywood career. Served as president of the Motion Picture Directors' Association for three terms. Stars he directed included Mary Pickford Dustin Farnum Wallace Reid and Mary Miles Minter . Directed Davy Crockett (1915) , Tom Sawyer (1917) , Anne of Green Gables (1919) and Huckleberry Finn (1920) among others. His unsolved murder in 1922 remains one of Hollywood's greatest mysteries.- Writer
- Director
- Actor
Born Pearl Zane Gray on January 31, 1872, in Zanesville, Ohio--a town founded by his mother's family--famed western novelist Zane Grey was an athlete and outdoorsman from an early age, with his main interests being fishing and baseball. He attended the University of Pennsylvania on a baseball scholarship, graduating with a degree in dentistry in 1896. He played minor-league baseball for a short period for a team in West Virginia. He started a dentistry practice in New York city, where he met the woman who would become his wife, Lina Roth, who got him to focus more on his writing. He would, however, periodically take fishing trips to the upper Delaware River in Lackawaxen in Pike County, Pennsylvania. In 1902 he became a published author by selling a story about fishing. Three years later he and Lisa married and moved to a farm in Lackawaxen
Grey began to take an interest in the West after accompanying a friend to Arizona on a trapping expedition to capture mountain lions. He published his first western novel, "Spirit of the Border", in 1906, and it quickly became a best-seller. In 1912 he published what is probably his best-known western novel, "Riders of the Purple Sage", which was also a big seller. Aiming to get his books made into films, he formed his own motion-picture production company, which he later sold to Paramount Pictures executive Jesse Lasky. Paramount would produce a large number of westerns based on Grey's novels.
Unlike many successful authors, Grey didn't content himself with simply churning out more novels. He traveled all over the world and involved himself in a variety of endeavors, from working a mining claim on Oregon's Rogue River to fishing for sharks in New Zealand, and writing books--both fiction and non-fiction--about his adventures. He had a special affinity for New Zealand and wrote many best-selling books about his fishing experiences there, which helped to make the country a mecca for deep-sea sport fishermen. Grey himself held many world records for catching big-game fish.
He died in 1939 and is buried at the Union Cemetery in Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania. The city is also the location of the Zane Grey Museum, which is administered by the National Park Service.- Actor
- Director
Born in Germany in 1872, Paul Panzer spent several years on the stage before entering the film industry with Edison in 1905. He later went to Vitagraph, one of the first actors to work at that studio, but left them in 1911. He directed one film, The Life of Buffalo Bill (1912), with the real Buffalo Bill (aka Buffalo Bill Cody) released by Monopol, a small independent company. However, he returned to acting and worked, often uncredited, in that capacity for the next 40+ years, appearing in more than 350 films all told. He made his last film in 1952, and died in Hollywood in 1958.- Ralph Lewis was born on 28 October 1872 in Englewood, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for The Birth of a Nation (1915), Casey Jones (1927) and The Wolf Man (1915). He was married to Vera Lewis. He died on 4 December 1937 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Director
Lafe McKee began working in Hollywood around 1913. He usually played the likeable father of the heroine, the distressed businessman, or the ranch owner on the verge of losing his homestead or cattle to the villains. The majority of his films were westerns and he supported such actors as Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Gene Autry, Tim McCoy, Tom Tyler, and others.- Arthur Byron was born on 3 April 1872 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Mummy (1932), 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932) and Marie Galante (1934). He was married to Kathryn Byron and Lillian Hall (actress). He died on 17 July 1943 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Beaming, rotund Lennox Pawle is chiefly remembered for his delightful, albeit brief, performance as the 'pixillated' Mr. Dick in MGM's classic David Copperfield (1935). A former newspaperman and owner of a racing publication, Pawle had been on stage in his native England from the 1890s as a comic actor and member of the Maude Adams Playhouse Company. With significant stage experience under his belt, he arrived in the U.S. in 1910. He almost immediately attracted supporting roles on Broadway in long-running hit plays like "Grumpy" and "Monsieur Beaucaire". Only infrequently in films, he portrayed Samuel Pepys in The Glorious Adventure (1922), but otherwise tended to subordinate film acting to his busy stage career. This changed in 1929, when he made three films for Fox. However, during the succeeding decade, he made relatively few and all-too-brief appearances on the silver screen before succumbing to a cerebral hemorrhage on February 22, 1936.
- Alix of Hess-Darmstadt was born on June 8, 1872 in Darmstadt, Germany. Her parents were the Grand Duke and Duchess of Darmstadt; her mother was also the daughter of Queen Victoria. When Alix was still very young, her sister Mary and then her mother died of diphtheria. Also, her brother Frederick (1870-1873) died from a fall from a window in his mother's room, complicated by hemophilia. She spent much of her time in England, staying with her grandmother and various aunts, uncles and cousins. When she was older she continued in the role of Landsmutter (Mother of the land) for her father.
At the wedding of her sister Elizabeth (Ella) to their cousin Seril of Russia, Alix met for the first time (and fell in love with) the Tsarivitch Nicholas. Even thought she was in love with him she did not want to marry him because she did not want to give up her Protestantism to be Russian Orthodox. About 4 or 5 years after they first met Alix's brother Ernest got married to their first cousin nicknamed Ducky. Since both were cousins of Nicholas as well he went to the wedding to see Alex. During the time that he was there he continually asked her to be his wife, and thanks to their love as well as their cousin Kaiser William II Alex finally consented to marry Nicholas.
Alix spent the first part of her engagement with her grandmother Queen Victoria in England telling her everything that had transpired leading to the engagement. The rest of the engagement did not go so smoothly though. Several months after the engagement Nicholas's father became ill at one of his palaces in Russia. Alix hearing this got there as soon as she could, but shortly after she got there Nicholas became Tsar Nicholas II. After this tragedy Alix did not want to wait to become a member of the family. Shortly after the death of her future father-in-law Alix became a member of the Russian Orthodox Faith taking the name Alexandra Fyodorovna. She and Nicholas wanted to marry where they were, but family told them that they should get married after the funeral of his father in Moscow. Thus the people of Russia got their first glimpse of their future Empress through death.
They were married on November 26, 1894, shortly after the death of his father, and before 1901 had four daughters named Olga (1895-1918) Tatiana (1897-1918), Maria (1899-1918) and Anastasia (1901-1918). In 1904 Alix gave birth to a son Alexis (known as Alexei) and sadly he had hemophilia, which was passed on to her a sister and brother from their mother Princess Alice and grandmother Queen Victoria.
In 1917 Nicholas was forced to abdicate the throne of Russia. The people who would have accepted it if he had abdicated in favor of his son, did not understand why he abdicated in favor of his brother. He only did this because he knew that his son's chances of survival were not good.
He and his family were then imprisoned in Siberia, and later moved to Ekaterinburg, where on the night of July 17, 1918 the Russian royal family was massacred. In the 1990s the burial sites were investigated, although the bodies of the Tsarivitch Alexei and one of his sisters (it is unclear which one) were missing. Using DNA from HRH Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh (Alix was his great-aunt) proved that four of the bodies belonged to the Tsarina and three of her daughters. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Anna Held was born Helene Anna Held on March 8, 1872 (some sources say 1873) in Warsaw, Poland, the youngest of eleven children in a Jewish family. Her family moved to France, where her father died from alcoholism when she was twelve years old. She began her career singing in Europe. Her signature song was "Won't You Come And Play With Me." In 1894, she married Maximo Carrerra, a wealthy South American adventurer. Their daughter, Liane, was born the following year.
While performing in London in 1886 she met producer Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. He brought her to New York and the two began a passionate affair. Held quickly became one of Broadway's most popular stars. She starred in the hit shows A Parlor Match, Papa's Wife, and Miss Innocence. Audiences loved her voice and her risque performances. Her lavish stage shows were the inspiration for the Ziegfeld Follies. The press reported that she bathed in milk every day and had a rib removed to achieve her perfect hourglass figure (her waist was only eighteen inches).
Maximo Carrera, her estranged husband, died in 1908. Although she referred to Ziegfeld as her husband the two never legally married and he broke her heart with his infidelity. When she became pregnant he convinced her to have an abortion. The couple ended their relationship in 1909 after he fell in love with Lillian Lorraine. In 1916, Held made the feature length film Madame la Presidente (1916), playing Mademoiselle Gobette, for which she was paid $30,000. Later, she appeared in the Broadway musical Follow Me.
During WWI, she went to France to entertain the soldiers. She was diagnosed with cancer in early 1918. On August 12, 1918, aged 46, she died of multiple myeloma. She was buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, Westchester County, New York. Florenz Ziegfeld was criticized in the press for not attending her funeral.- Actress
- Soundtrack
An endearing veteran of the U.S. and London stages before entering films at the advent of sound, matronly Louise Closser Hale would also earn recognition as a novelist. Born Louise Closser in Chicago, Illinois on October 13, 1872, she was the daughter of a well-to-do grain dealer. She began her acting studies at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC and Emerson College of Oratory in Boston.
On stage from 1894 in a production of "In Old Kentucky," Louise thrived in stock companies for several years. In 1899, she married actor/writer/artist Walter Hale and added his surname to her moniker for the stage. She made her Broadway debut in "Arizona" at the Herald Square Theatre in 1900 which also featured her husband. Louise's first hit New York show was a few years later as Miss Garnett in George Bernard Shaw's "Candida" (1903), and thereafter continued at a fairly regular pace with sturdy performances in "Abigail" (1904), "It's All Your Fault" (1906), "Clothes" (1906) and "The Straight Road" (1907). In 1907, she made her London debut in one of her most identifiable roles, that of Miss Hazy in "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch."
A writer of travel books, husband Walter collaborated and illustrated a number of them -- We Discover New England (1915), We Discover the Old Dominion (1916), and An American's London (1920). Both Louise and Walter also continued on the Broadway stage with some of Louise's credits including "The Sins of Society" (1909), "His Name on the Door" (1909), "Lulu's Husband" (1910), "The Blue Bird" (as a Fairy) (1910), "The Marriage of Columbine" (1914) and "Ruggles of Red Gap" (1915). Following Walter's death from cancer in 1917, Louise returned to Broadway in such shows as "For the Defense" (1919), "Miss Lulu Bett" (as Lulu's mother) (1920), "Peer Gynt" (as Aase) (1923), "Expressing Willie" (1924), "One of the Family" (1925), "The Ivory Door" (1927), "Paris" (1928) and "Lysistrata" (1930).
Usually playing older than she was, Louise debuted on film in an isolated silent short Winning His Wife (1919). She would not return to the screen until a decade later with the mystery part-talkie The Hole in the Wall (1929) starring Claudette Colbert. Abandoning the theatre completely, the 57-year-old Louise would appear in a surprisingly large number of pre-Code films during her all-too-brief Hollywood stay -- less than a half decade to be exact. Playing everything from housekeepers to haughty blue bloods, most of her characters were readily equipped with a tart tongue and severe look of disapproval.
Among the silver-haired actress's many films were the romantic musical Paris (1929) as an interfering mother who goes to great lengths to stop her son's (Jason Robards Sr.) marriage; the Helen Kane western comedy Dangerous Nan McGrew (1930) as the wealthy owner of a hunting lodge; the Al Jolson blackface musical comedy Big Boy (1930) as a plantation matriarch; the Constance Bennett romantic drama Born to Love (1931) as crusty Lady Ponsonby; the chic comedy Platinum Blonde (1931) as wealthy socialite Jean Harlow's snooty mother; the Marlene Dietrich/Josef von Sternberg classic adventure Shanghai Express (1932) as the prim, disdainful owner of a Shanghai boarding house; the George Arliss romance drama The Man Who Played God (1932) as the benevolent and supportive sister to pianist Arliss; the sudsy Joan Crawford drama Letty Lynton (1932) as Crawford's loyal maid and traveling companion; the pre-Code version of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1932) starring Marian Nixon with Louise as acidulous Aunt Miranda; another Crawford vehicle, the war drama Today We Live (1933), as, again, Crawford's devoted servant; the Helen Hayes romantic weepy Another Language (1933) as a master manipulating mother; and the classic all-star dramedy Dinner at Eight (1933) as Billie Burke's blunt cousin.
In addition to her travel books, Louise became quite well known in the literary field as an author. Her first novel, A Motor Car Divorce (1906), was followed by The Actress (1909); The Married Miss Worth (1911); Her Soul and Her Body (1912), which created a sensation and was later turned into a play; Home Talent (1926); and Canal Boat Fracas (1927). Louise also co-wrote Mother's Millions" (1931), which was later developed into a play.
Following an unbilled role in The Marx Brothers zany comedy Duck Soup (1933), 60-year-old Louise Closser Hale suffered an apoplectic stroke on July 25, 1933, while shopping in Hollywood, California. Rushed to Monte Sano Hospital, she suffered a fatal second stroke the next day, robbing Hollywood too soon of a highly gifted character actress. The film was released posthumously later that year in November.
The widowed Ms. Hale had no children and left her estate to relatives and various charities. Her body was cremated and her ashes interred in Hollywood Forever Cemetery.- Actor
- Writer
Harry Holman was born on 15 March 1872 in Conway, Missouri, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Meet John Doe (1941), The Dark Horse (1932) and Oliver Twist (1933). He died on 3 May 1947 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
William P. Carleton was born on 3 October 1872 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Return of Jimmy Valentine (1936), Behind Masks (1921) and Morals (1921). He was married to Toby Claude. He died on 6 April 1947 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Dr. Ralph Vaughan Williams was perhaps the most important English composer of the 20th Century. His influence on the development of 20th Century music was immense. Benjamin Britten and numerous film composers (Jerry Goldsmith, etc.) owe a lot to him. He created a truly contemporary idiom whose roots reached back to Tudor times and folk music.
He first made a name as one of the leading collector/researcher of traditional English folk music at the turn of the century. He worked also as organist, conductor, lecturer, teacher, editor and writer. He studied under Sir Hubert Parry, Max Bruch and Maurice Ravel. He had a life-long friendship with Gustav Holst, and if one listens carefully one can hear crossover 'hommages' in their works. His professional career spanned more than six decades, with nine Symphonies, several concertos, a ballet, a few operas and countless choral works. The latter are often performed in church services, not bad for an agnostic composer. In 1941, at an age most people have retired (almost 70), he entered the movies with the score to Michael Powell's '49th Parallel'. He composed 11 motion picture scores. Out of his score to 'Scott of the Antarctic' he developed his majestic 7th Symphony.- Though three U.S. Presidents have died on the Fourth of July, John Calvin Coolidge was the first and only one to have been born on that date, in 1874. He is also the only President to have had the oath of office administered by his father, a justice of the peace, who swore him in when the Coolidges received word of President Warren G. Harding's death. Coolidge's reputation is that of an unfeeling and lazy man, unaware of what was going on in the country and who dawdled while the United States drifted toward the Great Depression. Yet history doesn't really support this caricature of a man who actually was a highly intelligent and complex individual.
Though self-contained and terse, Coolidge was an extremely intelligent man and a fine scholar (his wedding gift to his wife, Grace Goodhue, was his own translation of Dante Alighieri's "Inferno". A week after the wedding, Coolidge, ever the practical New Englander, also presented his wife with 52 pairs of his socks that needed mending). Some have argued that Coolidge was the best-prepared candidate ever to become President, having worked his way through a succession of elective political offices until he wound up as the Vice President under Harding, attaining the presidency when Harding died in office in August of 1923. Coolidge was a laissez-faire proponent, believing, like Jefferson, that the government governs best which governs least. In July of 1924 his son, Calvin Jr., died of blood poisoning. The younger Coolidge, like his mother, was an outgoing and gregarious boy, and his death affected his father deeply. Although some historians have characterized Coolidge's behavior in office as marked by laziness or indolence, it seems now that it was almost certainly a deep depression brought about by the death of his son. Coolidge chose not to run in 1928. Privately, his wife remarked to a friend that "Daddy thinks there is going to be a Depression." On January 5, 1933, he died of heart failure at his home in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Though Coolidge was dismissed for years as a presidential lightweight, his reputation has grown in recent years. President Ronald Reagan retrieved Coolidge's portrait from storage and displayed it in the White House during his tenure in office, and a recent biography has provided a much more favorable view of Coolidge and his presidency than had previously been available. - Frank Lanning was born on 14 August 1872 in Marion, Iowa, USA. He was an actor, known for The Unknown (1927), Huckleberry Finn (1920) and The Victoria Cross (1916). He was married to Merva Eaton. He died on 17 June 1945 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Maude Adams was born Maude Ewing Kiskadden on November 11, 1872 in Salt Lake City, Utah. She performed on stage from the age of an infant until her retirement from the stage at age 60. Maude Adams starred in over twenty-five plays on Broadway between 1888 and 1916. Her most famous role was "Peter" in J.M Barrie's "Peter Pan" in 1905. Her final appearances on stage were in summer stock theater in 1931, and 1935. Unlike other actors of her day, Maude Adams did not make the move to the silent screen and her only appearance on film is a screen test she made in 1938 for Hollywood director, David O. Selznick. The screen test, in its entirety, After her stage career, Maude Adams patented several stage lighting devices and taught drama in the 1930's and 1940's at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. Maude Adams passed away on July 17, 1953 at Tannersville, New York
- Vaughan Glaser was born on 17 November 1872 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for Saboteur (1942), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) and Meet John Doe (1941). He was married to Lois Landon. He died on 23 November 1958 in Van Nuys, California, USA.
- Margaret Seddon was born on 18 November 1872 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. She was an actress, known for Bachelor Mother (1932), Raffles (1939) and Quality Street (1927). She died on 17 April 1968 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Walter Soderling was born on 13 April 1872 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor, known for The French Key (1946), Death of a Champion (1939) and The Luckiest Girl in the World (1936). He died on 10 April 1948 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Director
- Actor
- Writer
A former railroad clerk, Tucker made a name for himself in 1913 with a film entitled Traffic in Souls (1913), a six-reel expose of white slavery. Tucker and Carl Laemmle financed the sum of $57,000 to make the film in New York, the film ultimately grossed $450,000. The success of the film enabled Laemmle, under pressure from Thomas Edison's Patent Trust, to follow the exodus to Hollywood and create his own studio, Universal City. Tucker was married to actress Elisabeth Risdon.- Learned Hand was born on 27 January 1872 in Albany, New York, USA. He was married to Frances Amelia Finke. He died on 18 August 1961 in New York, New York, USA.
- Camille Bardou was born on 24 August 1872 in Fresnay-sur-Sarthe, Sarthe, France. He was an actor, known for Jim la houlette, roi des voleurs (1926), Les mystères de Paris (1922) and Protéa (1913). He died on 8 June 1941 in Créteil, Val-de-Marne, France.
- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Director
Rob Wagner moved to Santa Barbara from Detroit in 1906. He settled in Los Angeles about 1909. His first scenario for a film, "The Artist's Sons," was produced by Selig Studios in 1911. Between 1915 and 1918 he wrote a series of articles on the film industry for the Saturday Evening Post. Wagner was Charlie Chaplin's publicity man and confidant for many years. He was a director of Will Rogers film shorts. He was founder, editor and publisher of Rob Wagner's Script, a literary magazine for the film community. The magazine was published from 1929 to 1949.- Actor
Sol Horwitz was born on 4 November 1872 in Kovno, Russian Empire [now Kaunas, Lithuania]. He was an actor. He was married to Jennie Horwitz. He died on 19 December 1943 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Margaret Turnbull was born on 17 November 1872 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. She was a writer, known for The World to Live In (1919), My Cousin (1918) and Public Opinion (1916). She died on 12 June 1942 in Yarmouthport, Massachusetts, USA.
- Margaret McWade was born Margaret May Fish in Chicago, Illinois in 1872. In vaudeville, during the 1890s, she met Margaret Seddon. The two teamed up in a double act billed as the "Pixilated Sisters". She later appeared most often as spinsters or mothers in many films, first under contract to the Edison Film Company under the direction of Ashley Miller in The Drama of Heyville (1914), starring Marc McDermott, followed by the Vitagraph Film Company.
She may have been best-remembered for playing the role of Mrs. Challenger with Wallace Beery as Professor Challenger in 1925's The Lost World (1925), made with the First-National Film Company. She was mostly seen in minor roles in many talkies until her last film before retiring, George Cukor's It Should Happen to You (1954), starring Jack Lemmon and Judy Holliday. - B.F. Blinn was born on 3 April 1872 in Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Stop, Look and Listen (1926), Common Sense (1920) and The Blooming Angel (1920). He died on 28 April 1941 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Cinematographer
- Director
- Camera and Electrical Department
G.W. Bitzer was born on 21 April 1872 in Roxbury, Massachusetts, USA. He was a cinematographer and director, known for The Birth of a Nation (1915), Broken Blossoms (1919) and Logging in Maine (1906). He was married to Ethel Boddy. He died on 29 April 1944 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Frederick Sullivan was the nephew of composer Sir Arthur Sullivan of Gilbert & Sullivan fame. His father was Sir Arthur's older brother Frederic Thomas Sullivan (1837-1877) On Frederick's death Sir Arthur stepped in and helped support Frederick's widow and raise the family of 8 children. The movie actor's actual name was Frederic Richard Sullivan. He was known as Dickie in the family. Fredric was the only other member of the family who went into show business. In 1902 he married Kate Webb.- Robert McWade was born on 25 January 1872 in Buffalo, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Kennel Murder Case (1933), The Dragon Murder Case (1934) and Anything Goes (1936). He was married to Almina Lee. He died on 19 January 1938 in Culver City, California, USA.
- Bertrand Russell was born on 18 May 1872 in Ravenscroft, Trelleck, Monmouthshire, Wales, UK. He was a writer, known for Reductio: Adventures in Ideas (2019), Filosofix (2018) and Aman (1967). He was married to Edith Finch, Patricia Spence, Dora Russell and Alys Pearsall. He died on 2 February 1970 in Penrhyndeudraeth, Merioneth, Wales, UK.
- Sidney Ainsworth was born in Manchester, England, on December 21, 1873, according to contemporaneous sources. As an infant, he was brought to America, where his family settled in Madison, Wisconsin. As a boy, he sang in the choir at Grace Church in Madison. After graduating from Madison High School, he studied drama at the University of Notre Dame for several years. He then earned his undergraduate degree from the Chicago Musical College. Shortly after graduation, he was invited by Maud Adams to co-star in "The Little Minister." His stage career was briefly interrupted when he served in the Spanish American War, as a member of the First Wisconsin Infantry. Later, Ainsworth toured the United States and England, appearing in various productions. After appearing in a large number of short films, Ainsworth signed with the Goldwyn Company in 1919. In early 1922, he returned to Madison, suffering from an illness, and was under the care of a nurse. He died on May 21, 1922. Some newspapers attributed his death in part to yellow fever, which he had never overcome since contracting it during his military service.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Born in France in 1872, Charles Prince Seigneur had been a stage comedian for years when he made his first films at Charles Pathé's studio in 1909. He quickly became the one film comedian of the time who could compete with Max Linder in terms of popularity, known as Rigadin in France, Moritz in Germany, Whiffles in England, and Tartufini in Italy. However, whereas Linder remains a relatively well-known name among silent film enthusiasts, Prince appears to have been forgotten since his popularity faded after the first world war. Swedish film historian Rune Walderkrantz pointed out that Prince used less refined methods than Linder, being more of a clown in the traditional manner. Prince kept on performing until his death in 1933, however, appearing mostly in bit parts on film.- Writer
- Director
- Actor
Rupert Hughes was born on 31 January 1872 in Lancaster, Missouri, USA. He was a writer and director, known for Souls for Sale (1923), True As Steel (1924) and Look Your Best (1923). He was married to Patterson Dial, Mrs. Rupert Hughes and Agnes Wheeler Hedge. He died on 9 September 1956 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Vangie Beilby was born on 8 January 1872 in Yorkshire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Fugitive Road (1934). She died on 14 October 1958 in Alameda County, 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.- Hannah Jones was born on 15 October 1872 in Shoreditch, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Blackmail (1929), Downhill (1927) and Murder! (1930). She died in 1949 in Wood Green, London, England, UK.
- Heinrich Gotho was born on 3 May 1872 in Dolyna, Ukraine. He was an actor, known for The Ship of Lost Men (1929), Woman in the Moon (1929) and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933). He died on 28 August 1938 in Berlin, Germany.
- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Alexander Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist who invented the first colour keyboard and notation for lights and colors based on his scale of Synesthetic colors. His symphony 'Prometheus: The Poem of Fire' (1910) was the first composition in history which included notation for lights and colors. Scriabin's large-scale performances in Moscow and New York were the first live shows ever with lights and colors played on a colour keyboard and projected to the beat and harmony of his music, thus preceding modern day rock concerts.
He was born Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin on January 6, 1872, (old calendar date December 25, 1871, the Russian Orthodox Christmas), in Moscow, Russia. His father, named Nikolai Scriabin, was a wealthy aristocrat, a lawyer, and a ranking diplomat, who lived mostly in the Russian embassies abroad. His mother, named Lyubov Petrovna, was a professional pianist; she died when Scriabin was only one year old. Young Scriabin was brought up by his aunt, and played his first music on his late mother's piano.
His first piano teacher was Nikolai Zverev who was also teaching Sergei Rachmaninoff at the same time, and two composers developed a life-long friendship. From 1882-1889 he studied sciences and languages at the Moscow School of Cadets. From 1888-1892 Scriabin studied piano and composition under 'Sergei Taneyev' at Moscow Conservatory, graduating in 1892, as composer and pianist, then he became a professor at the same conservatory. In 1896 Scriabin married a famous Russian pianist, Vera Isakovich, who was the winner of the Gold Medal for performances of Scriabin's piano music. Before 1900 Scriabin joined the Moscow Philosophic Society and studied various schools of thought in his pursuit of inspirational ideas.
From 1904-1910 Scriabin was living and concertizing in Western Europe and in the United States. He was a remarkable pianist and successfully performed his original compositions before international audiences. At that time Scriabin became a curious student of contemporary philosophic trends and literature. His readings ranged from Oriental philosophies and Metaphysics, to Friedrich Nietzsche, whose 'ubermensch' theory Scriabin eventually outgrew, to Astrology and Medicine, and to Sir Isaac Newton's 'Optics'. He joined the circle of the Belgian Symbolist and Occultist Jean Delwille in Brussels. Scriabin also entered the circle of late Helene Blavatsky in London, studied her Theosophy, and even visited the room where she died. Scriabin's search for inspiration was not limited to Mysticism, Astrology and other Esoteric writings of the time. From 1907-1910 Scriabin lived in Paris with his second wife, Tatiana Schletser. There he was involved in the circle of Sergei Diaghilev and provided his compositions for concerts of Russian music. He also gave piano performances with the Russian Symphony Orchestra directed by M. I. Altshuller.
Scriabin was gifted with syn-aesthetic ability, though probably different from that of the physiological gift of Wassily Kandinsky, or a cognate cross-sensational gift of Vladimir Nabokov. Scriabin was the first composer in the world who wrote the musical notation for the light and color, thus making color intertwined with sound in a cross-senses harmony. In his symphonic poem 'Prometheus: the Poem of Fire' (1909) he wrote the line with notation for 'Luxe', a specially designed multicolor light projector with colored light-bulbs which was controlled by Scriabin himself playing on a colour keyboard. The multi-colored keyboard was first built in Russia by physicist Alexander Moser in 1910 for the performances of 'Prometheus'. It's performances in Moscow and in New York were the first ever orchestral concerts with color accompaniment being projected on a special screen. Scriabin also experimented with such styles as musical impressionism and expressionism. His harmonic and melodic inventiveness became manifested in his piano works and especially in his orchestral compositions. The 'Prometheus' chord' was the beginning in Scriabin's search for the new tonal/harmonic means of expression. His theory of the 'Synthesis of arts' made profound effect on innovations in film and theatre, most notably those of Vsevolod Meyerhold at the Moscow Art Theatre.
In 1915 Scriabin worked on developing of a new form of entertainment that would unite all Mankind through music, art, light, acting and interaction between performers and public. For this project Scriabin started a draft of a new cross-genre composition, which included music, literature, dance, architecture, natural landscape and light. He contemplated a seven-day long composition titled 'Misterium', of which he wrote down a few fragments on seventy pages shortly before his death. He described the composition in his draft as "a grandiose religious synthesis of all arts which would herald the birth of a New World." Scriabin planned his work to be performed at the foothills of the Himalayan mountains. Scriabin planned to include the Sunrises and the Sunsets into the measures of his unfinished music score. Part of that unfinished composition was performed under the title of 'Prefatory Action' by Vladimir Ashkenazy in Berlin with Aleksey Lyubimov at the piano. The idea of a seven-day music piece was later realized by Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Scriabin's admirer and friend poet Valery Briusov was a regular guest at Scriabin's home, where composer performed for friends and absorbed new ideas in cross-disciplinary discussions. Those discussions initially revolved around Symbolism in Art, and then eventually led to Scriabin's idea of "Future Art" or "Synthesis of Arts" alluding to a term "Gezamtkunstwerk" which was originally coined by Richard Wagner. Music and cultural heritage of other nations was among important sources of inspiration for Scriabin, who was also known as an acclaimed piano performer of music by Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt and Ludwig van Beethoven. Scriabin's original piano pieces show progressive development of his own tonal and harmonic thinking. His ten piano sonatas, 24 preludes, poems, études and other piano pieces are staples of many contemporary concert pianists' repertoire. The piano recordings of Scriabin's music by Vladimir Sofronitsky and Vladimir Horowitz are among the finest there are.
During the 1890s and 1900s Scriabin's evolution to multi-tonal complexities superseded calculated duodecafonic compositions of the Neo-Viennese school. From his early piano compositions to his grand-scale symphonies, Scriabin's music is peppered with harmonic innovations, unusual changes and surprise tonal discoveries. Scriabin's creative thinking invites a prepared listener to an intellectual journey beyond the calculated atonality of Arnold Schönberg or even the sophisticated cosmopolitanism of Igor Stravinsky. The ascensual trajectory of Scriabin's multi-tonality development is unparalleled in freedom of musical imagination. His rich and delicate Piano Concerto in F-Sharp Minor (1896) and the passionate 'Poem of Ecstasy' (1906) has been among the most recorded and frequently performed of his orchestral works.
Alexander Scriabin was at the peak of his creativity and worked on his innovative breakthrough project of 'Mysteria', when he died of septicaemia, a complication from an inflammation on his upper lip, aged 43, on April 27, 1915, in Moscow. He was laid to rest in the Church of St. Nikolai na Peskah, near his home in Moscow, Russia. Since 1922, the Scriabin's home in Moscow has been open to public as a National museum and a Cultural Heritage Memorial. Scriabin's Bechstein grand piano has been used for regular concert performances of his music.
Since the 1910 premiere of 'Prometheus', Scriabin's large-scale symphonies has been successfully performed with light and color accompaniment at concert venues all over the world. Among the milestone performances of Scriabin's 'Prometheus' with lights were the London premiere with conductor Henry Wood (UK, 1914), the Carnegie Hall premiere (USA, 1915), the Bolshoi Theatre show (Russia, 1918), the New Haven show (USA, 1971), and the Kasan Conservatory show (Tatarstan, 1996) where Scriabin's music was intertwined with colorful compositions of Wassily Kandinsky. Scriabin's ideas are now working in such projects as "Animusic" and other 3D visualization and MIDI-based music applications.- Writer
- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Songwriter ("Darktown Poker Club"), author and agent who wrote special material for musical comedy and vaudeville, also scenarios for Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd, and a press agent for Lew Dockstader's Minstrels. A charter member of ASCAP (1914), Havez' other novelty and popular-song compositions included "Everybody Works but Father", "When You Ain't Got No Money then You Needn't Come Around", "I'm Looking For an Angel", "Do Not Forget the Good Old Days", "You're On the Right Road, Sister", and "He Cert'ny Was Good to Me".- Edward Childs Carpenter was born on 13 December 1872 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Edward Childs was a writer, known for The Major and the Minor (1942), Captain Courtesy (1915) and The Perfect Gentleman (1935). Edward Childs was married to Helen Alden Knipe. Edward Childs died on 28 June 1950 in Guildford, Surrey, England, UK.
- Mary Foy was born on 9 August 1872 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for The House of Mystery (1934), Slightly Married (1932) and The White Rose (1923). She was married to Patrick Foy. She died on 18 June 1956 in New York, New York, USA.
- Mace Greenleaf began as a stage actor starring and supporting in many popular plays, perhaps his best known roles was as Herbert, the King's Forrester in 'The Prisoner of Zenda' in the 1890's and in 1898 played Mr. Hunston in Sir Arthur Wing Pinero's play 'Trelawny of the Wells' at the Lyceum Theatre in New York, other Broadway performances was in 'The Pride of Jennico' with James K. Hackett at the Citerion Theatre in 1900 and played Myrtle May's lover in 'The Parish Priest'. Over the first decade of the new century played starring roles in stock companies all over America, he returned to Broadway in 1905 to play the Prince of Wales in the romantic musical 'Edmond Burke'. In 1911 he joined the film industry where he would star in at least 20 drama movies, making his debut in The Golden Rule (1911) co-starring James Kirkwood at the Reliance Film Co. He is perhaps best known as Dr. Earl Headley in Alice Guy Blache's Falling Leaves (1912) for the Solax Film Co in 1912. His last film before his sudden death from pneumonia age 38 was in The Girl in the Arm-Chair (1912) with Blanche Cornwall. In 1906 Mace married Lucy Banning in Santa Ana, California, Lucy came from a very wealthy family they owned Catalina Island, she left Mace in 1910 for the son of prominent judge, Mace divorced his beautiful wife on the ground of desertion, Lucy was known as something of a free spirit and often scandalized 'polite society' with the number of men in her life.
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Al Giebler was born on 17 October 1872 in Randolph, Missouri, USA. He was a writer, known for The Girl from Everywhere (1927), His First Flame (1927) and The Chaser (1928). He died on 12 December 1950 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Mae Hotely was born on 7 October 1872 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. She was an actress, known for Queenie of the Nile (1915), Girls Who Dare (1929) and The Actress and Her Jewels (1913). She was married to Arthur Hotaling. She died on 6 April 1954 in Coronado, California, USA.
- Hans Junkermann was born on 24 February 1872 in Stuttgart, Germany. He was an actor, known for Die Fledermaus (1931), Delikatessen (1930) and Liebeswalzer (1930). He was married to Julia Serda. He died on 12 June 1943 in Berlin, Germany.
- Actress
- Writer
Kate Price was born on 13 February 1872 in Cork, Ireland. She was an actress and writer, known for Quality Street (1927), Arizona (1918) and Paradise (1926). She was married to Joseph Price Ludwig . She died on 4 January 1943 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- 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.