In the meantime, I'll be posting photos of various performers, starting with the most likely candidates for best supporting actress of 1917 ...
Bebe Daniels (The Harold Lloyd Comedy Shorts)
June Elvidge (A Girl's Folly)
ZaSu Pitts (left, with Mary Pickford) (The Little Princess)
Edna Purviance (The Chaplin Mutuals)
Florence Vidor (A Tale Of Two Cities)
Wasn't Bebe Daniels married to Harold Lloyd when she was just a kid? And couldn't she flap a mean Charleston? I'm a big fan.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm afraid my vote goes to Zasu Pitts. She had a nice small role in Lubitsch's Monte Carlo, which we just saw.
I'm a big fan of ZaSu Pitts -- although I will mention she's got a big part in Greed coming up in 1924.
ReplyDeleteNot to tip my hand or anything ...
ZaSu and Jeanette MacDonald were terrific in Monte Carlo. ZaSu Pitts is also good in Ruggles of Red Gap, a 1935 comedy starring Charles Laughton and Charlie Ruggles -- if you're looking to try another of her movies.
Oh, and as for Bebe Daniels and Harold Lloyd, they were linked romantically at this time, but never actually married (I had to look that up to be sure). Did you know she was only nine when she made her first movie, starring as Dorothy Gale in the 1910 version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz? She was 14 when she started working with Harold Lloyd in 1915.
She left to work with Cecil B. DeMille in 1919 and was a star for a while. Had an important part in 42nd Street (as the star dancer who breaks her leg, which gives Ruby Keeler her big chance). Got married, moved to England and was a huge hit on the radio there during the war with the show Life with the Lyons ... the title of which John Lennon made a punning reference to on his second avant garde solo album, Life with the Lions, the one recorded when Yoko had a miscarriage ...
You learn something new every single day.