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Spanish collector's card. La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, No. 12.

Frank Mayo (1889–1963) was an American actor, who appeared in 310 films between 1911 and 1949.

Born in New York, Frank Mayo was the grandson of 19th-century theater actor Frank M. Mayo and made his theater debut at age 6 in his grandfather's play Davy Crockett. Mayo was first credited in film in the 1911 short film The Thumb Print (1911), by the Vitagraph Studios, along with Earle Williams, Maurice Costello and Florence Turner. He later acted in The Lure of the Windigo (Selig, 1914) and acted at the Balboa Amusement Company in such films as The Love Liar (1915), The Rim of the Desert (1915), The Adventures of a Madcap (1915) and in the series The Red Circle (1915), alongside Ruth Roland. Meanwhile, Mayo directed a single film, The Lost Bracelet (Lubin, 1916).

He signed to World Films in 1918, and acted in several World Film films throughout the 1918 and 1919. For Universal Pictures Mayo starred between 1919 and 1923 in some 25 features including The Girl in Number 29 (1920), The Red Lane (1920), Hitchin 'Posts (1920), The Shark Master (1921), and Out of the Silent North (1922). In 1923 he moved over to Goldwyn Pictures where he starred in e.g. Souls for Sale (Rupert Hughes, Goldwyn 1923) and Wild Oranges (King Vidor, Goldwyn 1924), after which he acted for First National and a whole string of smaller companies, as in The Triflers (Louis Gasnier, Bud Schulberg productions 1924) and Then Came the Woman (David Hartford, David Hartford Productions 1926). After 1927 he had a big gap in film acting and started again in 1930 when the sound film had set in. However, his glory days as film star were over, and he had now to satisfy with supporting parts at most and more often he had uncredited parts. Until 1949 Mayo acted but almost only in uncredited parts,

Frank Mayo's first wife, Joyce Eleanor Mayo, told in 1920 that her husband had deserted his marriage in 1919 after “six years of marriage”, i.e. from 193 onward. Afterward, Frank married actress Dagmar Godowsky in Tijuana, Mexico in 1921. Frank married Dagmar four days after an emergency proceeding to divorce Joyce Eleanor Mayo, but California law did not allow new marriage until a final sentence was reached one year after the injunction was granted, which eventually characterized the case as bigamy. In March 1925, Dagmar Godowsky appointed Anna Luther as co-responsible in a lawsuit that initiated the divorce proceedings after alleging to have discovered Luther with her husband in Mayo's apartment. The marriage was annulled in August 1928, based on the fact that Mayo had another wife. In 1963 Mayo died in Laguna Beach, California of acute myocardial infarction, and was buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills).

Sources, English and Portuguese Wikipedia, IMDB.

Spanish collector's card. La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, No. 17.

Norma Talmadge ( 1894-1957) was an American actress and film producer of the silent era. A major box-office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among the most popular idols of the American screen.

Spanish collector's card. La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, No. 11.

Constance Talmadge (1898-1973) was an actress of the American silent screen.

While she started at Vitagraph in 1914, Talmadge had her breakthrough as the tomboyish Mountain Girl, while she also played princess Marguerite de Valois in the same film, D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916). So popular was her character of the Mountain Girl, that when Griffith in 1919 released a single story version of the Babylonian episode of Intolerance, The Fall of Babylon, he filmed her character a happy ending, instead of her death in Intolerance. Talmadge appeared in over 80 films, mostly comedies of manners, for which Anita Loos wrote several scripts, such as A Pair of Silk Stockings (1918), Happiness à la Mode (1919), Romance and Arabella (1919), Wedding Bells (1921), and The Primitive Lover (1922). Together with her sister Norma, Constance Talmadge was billed as one of the biggest stars of the twenties.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Spanish collector's card. La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, No. 163.

Natalie Talmadge (1896-1969) is a silent film actress best known for being the sister of Norma and Constance Talmadge until her marriage to actor Buster Keaton. She appears in particular in Intolerance (1916) by D. W. Griffith and Our Hospitality (1923) by Buster Keaton, her last role.

Talmadge was born in Brooklyn, New York on April 29, 1896, although her date of birth was sometimes declared as four years later by her mother. Initially developing as screenwriter (she co-scripted Roscoe Arbuckle's Out West, 1918, in which Keaton also acted), she was pushed to become actress, but mostly had supporting parts in films of her sisters Norma and Constance. A bit part she had in Keaton's The Haunted House (Eddie Cline & Buster Keaton, 1921). Talmadge married Buster Keaton on May 31, 1921, after an unusual court where they did not see each other for two years and did not exchange a single love letter. She offered herself to him in a letter of January of that year, writing “I am alone now with Mother. If you still think of me let me know. Keaton traveled east from Hollywood by train and married her. The reasons for their union have never been further explained. They had had dates but without much involvement. It was rumored that it was Joseph Schenck, then producer of the actor and husband of Norma, who influenced this merger, arguing that it would solve many problems and leave the business in the family.

From their tumultuous union were born two sons, James, born in 1922, and Robert, born in 1924. Natalie spent prodigious sums on clothes and luxury homes in Beverly Hills. The west wing of Talmadge and Keaton's villa was packed with Natalie's clothes. After the birth of her second son, she stopped having sex with Buster and they had separate bedrooms. Keaton signified to Natalie and her mother that he could not abstain and would find other partners. This was permitted, provided he kept it secret. He was then only 28 years old. Some time later, Buster's career declined following the sale of his contract with Schenck to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, by which he was drastically curtailed. He now openly went out with other women and depended more and more on alcohol. Following a crushing and bitter divorce in 1932, Natalie took away Keaton's fortune and legally changed the names of her children to Talmadge, forbading them to see their father for years.

In the following years, Talmadge had a relationship with actor Larry Kent. They lived together in a house bought for her by her sister Constance after the sale in 1933 of the Italian Villa property that Keaton had built for her. But their story did not last. She never remarried and also becomes prone to alcoholism, just like her ex. Her hatred towards Keaton persisted throughout her life and she kept refusing to talk about him. Natalie Talmadge died of cardiac arrest in 1969. She was buried in the family crypt.

Sources: IMDb, English Wikipedia.

Spanish postcard by La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, no. 170. See also www.flickr.com/photos/truusbobjantoo/9581212011/in/photol...

Muscular Italian actor Luciano Albertini (1882-1945) is best remembered for his acrobatic and daredevil acting in Italian and German silent cinema.

Spanish collector's card. La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, No. 195.

Marion Davies (1897-1961) was one of the great comedic actresses of the silent era. She starred in nearly four dozen films between 1917 and 1937.

Spanish collector's card. La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, No. 124.

Forrest Stanley (1885–1969) was an American actor who was a prominent leading man in the 1910s and 1920s American silent film but continued afterward as a character actor. Memorable titles of his were e.g. Other Men's Wives (Victor Schertzinger, 1919) with Dorothy Philips, When Knighthood Was in Flower (Robert Vignola, 1922) with Marion Davies, and The Cat and the Canary (Paul Leni, 1927) with Laura La Plante.

Spanish collector's card. La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, No. 208.

Nigel Barrie (1889-1971) was an actor in American, British and German silent cinema.

Dark-haired and tall (6’ 1”) British actor Nigel Barrie was born in 1889 in Calcutta, India, as Roynon Cholmondeley Nigel-Jones.He became an established dancer and stage actor in the 1910s, both in England and the USA, performing in vaudeville and operettas like The Count of Luxemburg and Gipsy Love.

During the First World War Nigel Barrie made his film debut in the American serial Beatrice Fairfax (1916), starring Grace Darling, and directed by Leopold and Theodore Wharton. Another film debutant in this film serial was Olive Thomas. Next Barrie played Marguerite Clark’s love interest in the Bab series by Famous Players - Bab's Diary (1917), Bab's Burglar (1917), and Bab’s Matinee Idol (1917), all directed by J. Searle Dawley. After that Barrie had supporting roles in silent Hollywood for years, often playing villains. To his well-known movies of the next years belong The Marionettes (Emile Chautard 1918) starring Clara Kimball Young, Tangled Threads (Howard Hickman 1919) starring Bessie Barriscale, Widow by Proxy (Walter Edwards 1919) starring Marguerite Clark, The Cinema Murder (George D. Baker 1919) starring Marion Davies, The Turning Point (J.A. Barry 1920) starring Katherine MacDonald, the Jack London adaptation The Little Fool (Phil Rosen 1921) starring Milton Sills, The Little Minister (Penhryn Stanlaws 1921) starring Betty Compson, Peg O’My Heart (King Vidor 1922), and The Stranger’s Banquet (Marshall Neilan 1922).

In 1923 Barrie went back to Britain where he worked for Gaumont British and played now leading parts in Fires of Fate (Tom Terriss 1923), Lights of London (Charles Calvert 1923), Claude Duval (George A. Cooper 1924), and the Anglo-American production The Desert Sheik (Tom Terriss 1924) with Barrie as the British major Eggerton and Wanda Hawley as his American love interest. From 1924 on, Nigel Barrie also played in three German silent movies: Komödie des Herzens (Rochus Gliese 1924) a comedy with Lil Dagover, the drama Der Turm des Schweigens (Johannes Guter 1925) with Xenia Desni, and Blitzzug der Liebe (Johannes Guter 1925), a comedy with Ossi Oswalda, Willi Fritsch and Lillian Hall-Davis. From 1925 on, Barrie was back in Hollywood but had to satisfy with supporting roles, as in The Love Thief (John McDermott 1926), The Amateur Gentleman (Sidney Olcott 1926),The Climbers (Paul L. Stein 1927), and The Lone Eagle (Emory Johnson 1927). In 1928 Barrie went back to Britain where he again played leading roles or at least co-star roles in late silent films, such as The Forger (G.B. Samuelson 1928), the Edgar Wallace adaptation The Ringer (Arthur Maude 1928), the Pat and Patachon comedy Cocktails (Monty Banks 1928) and the Estelle Brody romance The Plaything (Castleton Knight 1929), Barrie’s last silent film.

When sound cinema set in, Barrie’s career petered out. He still had a large part in his first sound film, the drama Under the Greenwood tree (Harry Lachman 1929), but this was followed only by two minor parts in the comedy Old Soldiers Never Die (Monty Banks 1931) and in the biopic Dreyfus (F.W. Kraemer, Milton Rosmer 1931). After a gap of several years, Barrie’s last film roles were in the thriller Passenger to London (Lawrence Huntington 1937) and the crime film Anything to Declare? (Redd Davis 1938).

From 1919 to 1925 Nigel Barrie was married to Helen Lee, and from 1925 on to Gertrude Poklington. Nigel Barrie died in London, in 1971.

Sources: IMDB, www.cyranos.ch/spbarn-e.htm.

Spanish collectors card by La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, no. 164. See also www.flickr.com/photos/truusbobjantoo/49964783057/in/photo...

Alfonso Cassini (Bologna, 1st March 1858 - Rome, 6th August 1921) was an Italian actor of theater and silent cinema.

Cassini was a generic actor and character. He began his career in 1876 and over the years he played in various theater companies, including those of Francesco Gervasi Benincasa, Ermete Novelli and Virgilio Talli. From 1912 until his death he also worked in cinema for various companies such as Cines, Etna Film, Italia Ars Film, Itala Film, Tiber Film, and Fert. He often played the father of the leading characters played by the Italian divas or their male partners, as in such films as Christus (Giulio Antamoro, 1916) with Leda Gys, La signora delle camelie (Baldassarre Negroni, 1915) with Hesperia, La falena (Carmine Gallone, 1916) with Lyda Borelli, La cuccagna (Negroni, 1917) with Hesperia, Femmina (Augusto Genina, 1918) with Italia Almirante, L'onestà del peccato (Genina, 1918) with Maria Jacobini, Zoya (Antamoro, 1920) with Diana Karenne, La preda (Guglielmo Zorzi, 1920) with Maria Jacobini, and La statua di carne (Mario Almirante, 1921) with Italia Almirante. Cassini was married to the actress-director Giulia Cassini-Rizzotto. All in all he acted in some 70 films.

Sources: Italian Wikipedia, IMDB.

Spanish collector's card. La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, No. 106.

Buddy Messinger (1907–1965) was a popular child actor in American silent cinema of the late 1910s and 1920s. Between 1923 and 1925 he had his own series on the character of Buddy, produced by Century Film and distributed by Universal. In 1926-27 he worked for Bray Studios, and in 1928 he was in many episodes of the Drugstore Cowboy one reel comedies. He continued in the sound era till the early 1940s - but in uncredited parts - while from the 1950s he worked as assistant-director.

Spanish card by La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, no. 150.

Al St. John (1892-1963) was an early American film comedian, and nephew of Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, with whom he often appeared. He appeared in dozens of Mack Sennett's early Keystone comedies and worked with Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Mabel Normand. He would eventually create and star in his own vehicles for other studios. In the sound era, he was the sidekick of B-Western heroes like Bob Steele and Buster Crabbe. He played the scruffy comedy relief character 'Fuzzy Q. Jones' in the Billy the Kid series (1940-1946), and the Lone Rider series (1941-1943). From 1912 to 1952, Al St. John acted in 346 films.

Al St. John was born as Alfred St. John in 1892 in Santa Ana, California to Walter St. John and Nora Arbuckle. Gawky, loose-limbed Alfred performed from childhood with his family in vaudeville and burlesque around his home state of California, perfecting an athletic bicycle act that would stand him in good stead for the remainder of his career. He entered silent films around 1912 and soon rose to co-starring and starring roles in short comic films from a variety of studios. His uncle on his mother's side, Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, may have helped him in his early days at Mack Sennett Studios, but talent kept him working. He was slender, sandy-haired, handsome, and a remarkable acrobat. St. John became a 'Keystone Kop' in that famous congregation's very first film, The Bangville Police (Henry Lehrman, 1913). He supported Charles Chaplin and Marie Dressler in the feature comedy Tillie's Punctured Romance (Mack Sennett, Charles Bennett, 1914), and frequently appeared as Arbuckle's mischievously villainous rival for the attentions of leading ladies like Mabel Normand and Minta Durfee. He worked with Arbuckle and Charles Chaplin in The Rounders (Charles Chaplin, 1914), although his most critically praised film during this period with Arbuckle remains Fatty and Mabel Adrift (Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, 1916). In France, he was billed as "Picratt." When Arbuckle formed his own production company, he brought St. John with him and recruited stage star Buster Keaton into his films, creating a formidable roughhouse trio. After Arbuckle was involved in a widely publicised scandal that prevented him from appearing in films, he pseudonymously directed his nephew Al as a comic leading man in silent and sound films such as The Iron Mule (William Goodrich, Grover Jones, 1925) and Bridge Wives (William Goodrich, 1932).

During the sound era, Al St. John was mainly seen as an increasingly scruffy and bearded comic character with oversized overalls and a porkpie hat. Hans J. Wollstein at AllMovie: "St. John himself later claimed that a deal with the Fox company went sour and that he suddenly found himself more or less blacklisted by the major studios. He did appear in one of Roscoe Arbuckle's comeback shorts, Buzzin' Around (Alfred J. Goulding, 1933), but by the mid-'30s he seemed all washed up. To keep food (and, it was rumored, quite a bit of spirits) on the table, St. John switched gears and began pursuing a career in independently produced B-Westerns." He created the character 'Stoney' in the film The Law of 45's (John P. McCarthy, 1935). It was the start of a continuing Western film series, The Three Mesquiteers, that was later played at a low point in his own career by John Wayne. St. John also appeared in Buster Keaton's comedy Love Nest on Wheels (Charles Lamont, 1937). That same year he began supporting cowboy stars Fred Scott and later Jack Randall, but most of his films were made for Poverty Row studio Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC). For that studio, he played the limber, baggy-pants braggart 'Fuzzy Q. Jones' in the Billy the Kid series starring Bob Steele, the Lone Rider series (starring George Houston and later Bob Livingston), and the Billy the Kid/Billy Carson series starring Buster Crabbe. The name "Fuzzy" originally belonged to a different actor, John Forrest “Fuzzy“ Knight, who took on the role of cowboy sidekick before St. John. The studio first intended to hire Knight for the Western series, but then gave the role to St. John instead, who took on the nickname of his rival for his screen character. Exhibitors loved Fuzzy, who could be counted on to attract filmgoers. Fuzzy's character was the main box-office draw in these films when shown in England and Europe. These ultra-low-budget Westerns took only a bit more than a week to film, so that Crabbe and St. John made 36 films together in a surprisingly short time. When Crabbe left PRC, St. John was paired with new star Lash LaRue. Hans J. Wollstein at AllMovie: "Al St. John was unique among B-Western sidekicks in that he actually carried his films rather than the easily disposable leading men. Both Crabbe and LaRue were well aware of that and remained steadfast in their praise for the diminutive performer. When the LaRue era finally ended with a short-lived television series, Lash of the West (1953), St. John returned to the boards" Ultimately, St. John had made more than 80 Westerns as Fuzzy. Until his death in 1963 in Lyons, Georgia, he made personal appearances at fairs and rodeos and traveled with the Tommy Scott Wild West Show. In 1960, he was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6313 Hollywood Blvd. Ak St. John was working with a traveling Wild West show in Georgia and was waiting to go on when he suffered a massive heart attack and died at age 70. He was married to Lillian Marion Ball, Yvonne June Villon Price Pearce, and Flo-Bell Moore. He had one daughter with Lillian Marion Ball: Mary Jane St. John. Dozens of St. John's early films were screened during the 56-film Arbuckle retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 2006.

Sources: Hans J. Wollstein (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Spanish card by La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, no. 102.

American film actor Lewis Stone (1879–1953) is best known for his role as Judge James Hardy in the Andy Hardy film series and as an MGM studio contract player. In 1929, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Ernst Lubitsch's lost film The Patriot (1928). With his distinguished look and grey hair, Stone was able to play the roles of well mannered romantic men>, and he appeared in seven films with Greta Garbo.

Lewis Shepard Stone was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1879, to Bertrand Stone and Philena Heald Ball. Reportedly by age 20, Lewis's hair had turned gray prematurely. He served in the United States Army in the Spanish–American War as a lieutenant, then returned to a career as a writer. He soon began acting. In 1912, he found success in the popular play 'Bird of Paradise' which starred Laurette Taylor. The play was later filmed in 1932 and 1951. Stone's career was interrupted by World War I where he served again in the United States Army in the cavalry as a major. After the war, he went to China to train troops. After returning from China, he made his feature film debut either in The Man Who Found Out (Unkown director, 1915), according to IMDb, or in Honor's Altar (Walter Edwards, 1916), according to Wikipedia. Stone showed up in First National's Nomads of the North (David Hartford, 1920) as a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman opposite Lon Chaney. He portrayed the title role in the silent film version of The Prisoner of Zenda (Rex Ingram, 1922) with Alice Terry and Ramon Novarro. The three stars reunited for another elegant and popular Swashbuckler, Scaramouche (Rex Ingram, 1923). In 1924, Stone joined the newly-formed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer where he remained for the rest of his career. The next years, he was busy. He played an adventurer opposite Wallace Beery in the dinosaur epic The Lost World (Harry O'Hoyt, 1925), adapted from Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel of the same name. The film featured pioneering stop motion special effects by Willis O'Brien, a forerunner of his work on the original King Kong. Stone was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1929 for The Patriot (Ernst Lubitsch, 1928). He played the character that gives the film its title, but he was not the top-billed star. That was Emil Jannings who starred as Emperor Paul I of Russia.

Lewis Stone made the transition from silent to sound with The Trial of Mary Dugan (Bayard Veiller, 1929), which starred Norma Shearer. Sound did not cause Lewis any problems and his appearance in the successful prison film The Big House (George Hill, 1930) furthered his career. He continued to be busy with his roles as the distinguished lead and appeared in seven films with Greta Garbo, spanning both the silent and early sound periods. He played the role of Dr. Otternschlag in Grand Hotel (Edmund Goulding, 1932), in which he utters the famous closing line: "Grand Hotel. People coming. Going. Nothing ever happens." The following year, he had a larger role in Queen Christina (Rouben Mamoulian, 1933). Stone also played an adventurer in The Mask of Fu Manchu (Charles Brabin, 1932) with Boris Karloff and a police captain in Bureau of Missing Persons (Roy Del Ruth, 1933) with Bette Davis. In 1937, Stone essayed the role which would become his most famous, that of Judge James Hardy in the Andy Hardy series. Stone appeared as the judge in fourteen of the sixteen Andy Hardy features, beginning with You're Only Young Once (George B. Seitz, 1937). Tony Fontana at IMDb: "Judge Hardy was the father audiences wanted in the late 30s early 40s. He was kind, intellectual, fair and as patient as he had to be with Andy, played by Mickey Rooney. This series occupied most of his screen time until it ended and he did slow down during the late 40s." Stone also appeared in the short Andy Hardy's Dilemma, which promoted charitable donations to the Community Chest, but he had died by the time of the final Hardy feature, Andy Hardy Comes Home (Howard W. Koch, 1958).

During World War II, Lewis Stone was a lieutenant colonel in the California National Guard. Stone was MGM's longest-contracted actor and the longest-ever-contracted actor at a studio up to his death. In the 1950s he continued to appear in a number of films including remakes of the two Swashbucklers he had made 30 years before with Alice Terry: Scaramouche (George Sidney, 1952), and The Prisoner of Zenda (Richard Thorpe, 1952), both starring Stewart Granger. The week before his death, he (together with Lionel Barrymore) received a gold key to his dressing room. He had made approximately 100 films. Lewis Stone died in Hancock Park, Los Angeles in 1953, aged 73. He reportedly suffered a heart attack while chasing away some neighborhood kids who were throwing rocks at his garage. Another published report states that on that date Stone and his third wife were watching television when they heard a racket in the back yard. When he investigated, Stone found lawn furniture once again floating in the pool and glimpsed three or perhaps four teenage boys running towards the street. Stone gave chase despite his wife's warning not to exert himself. Upon reaching the sidewalk, Stone suddenly collapsed. A gardener, Juan Vergara, witnessed the chase and summoned aid. A photo published in newspapers of the day showed Stone lying on the sidewalk immediately after the incident. Following his death, he was interred at Angelus Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. He was married three times. His wives were Florence Oakley, Margaret Langham, and Hazel Elizabeth Wolf. With Oakley, he had two children. Lewis Stone was later honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6524 Hollywood Blvd.

Sources: Tony Fontana (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

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Spanish card by La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, no. 136.

J. (Jack) Warren Kerrigan (1879-1947) was an American actor of the silent screen. From 1910, he had a most active career first in shorts at Essanay, American at Victor, then in features at Universal. After a gap in the early 1920s, he came back with a bang in James Cruze's The Covered Wagon (1923) but stopped acting in 1924 after a car accident.

J. (Jack) Warren Kerrigan was born in New Albany, Indiana, in 1879. He worked as a warehouse clerk in his teens until a chance arrived to appear in a vaudeville production. He continued to act in traveling stock productions, though he took a brief time away from the stage to attend the University of Illinois. By the time he was 30 years old, he started to act as a leading man in short films for Essanay Studios from 1910 onwards. In 1910 he already acted in some 20 short films at Essanay: westerns, comedies, etc., quite a few directed by ‘Broncho Billy ‘ Gilbert M. Anderson. In the very same year, Kerrigan shifted to the American Film Corporation, where Kerrigan was often cast as a modern man of the age. His nickname was The Gibson Man. Some of his films at American were directed by Allan Dwan. At American, the production must have had killing time schedules, as according to IMDB some 90 short films were produced in 1911, almost 100 in 1912, some 75 in 1913, so basically two every week. During 1913 both Dwan and Kerrigan shifted to the Victor company. In 1914 some 35 films were made, as Kerrigan made his first feature-length films that year as well, such as the six-reeler Samson (J. Farrell MacDonald, 1914), with Kerrigan’s sister Kathleen co-acting as Delilah, and he himself in the title role. The choreography, sets (based on Gustave Doré), and costumes were praised in The Moving Picture World, while instead the plot was criticized as ‘spineless’. About Kerrigan: “It would be hard to find a finer Samson than is Warren Kerrigan, who is more than the average in size, is perfect physically and is youthful and graceful.” Far into 1916 Kerrigan would continue, however, to act mainly in shorts by Victor. In 1916 he officially went over to Universal - even if Victor already by 1913 had been bought by Universal - and started to appear in features on a regular base. Titles were a.o. The Silent Battle (Jack Conway, 1916) with Lois Wilson co-starring, The Beckoning Trail (Conway, 1916), The Social Buccaneer (Conway, 1916), and The Measure of Man (Conway, 1916). Kerrigan continued to make shorts as well, at Mutual, but also at American with Dwan directing for instance.

In May 1917, J. Warren Kerrigan was nearing the end of a four-month-long personal appearance publicity tour that had taken him across the United States and into Canada. At one of the final stops, a reporter for The Denver Times asked Kerrigan if he would be joining the (First World) war. Kerrigan replied: I am not going to war. I will go, of course, if my country needs me, but I think that first, they should take the great mass of men who aren't good for anything else or are only good for the lower grades of work. Actors, musicians, great writers, artists of every kind—isn't it a pity when people are sacrificed who are capable of such things—of adding to the beauty of the world. Picked up and reprinted in newspapers across the country, this statement stunned his fans and his popularity plummeted, never to fully recover. Family members later reported in Behind the Screen (2001) by William J. Mann that his slump in popularity was more due to his living with his mother and his partner, silent movie actor James Vincent, in the same house, not wanting to marry, and not having a business manager to overcome the negative publicity, in contrast to the later protection of stars tied to the Hollywood majors. What partly contradicts this controversy of 1917, is that Kerrigan had a relatively steady production up to 1920: six features in 1918, seven in 1919, seven in 1920. Only then a gap in his career came in 1921-1922. However, when director James Cruze cast him as the rugged lead in The Covered Wagon (1923), Kerrigan found himself back on top, acting in six more features the same year. In the spring of 1924, after John Barrymore bowed out, Kerrigan was assigned the starring role in the Vitagraph production of Captain Blood. While the film was a moderate success, critics were unmoved. In December 1924, Kerrigan was injured in an automobile accident in Illinois. According to the Des Moines Tribune, his face was so badly scarred, he would not star in films again. Whatever happened, Captain Blood was Kerrigan’s last substantial film. All in all, he had starred in over 300 films up to 1924. Kerrigan was homosexual, never married, and lived with his lover James Carroll Vincent from about 1914 to Kerrigan's death in 1947. After Kerrigan had died of pneumonia, Vincent married but after nine months committed suicide. Both men were buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Spanish card by La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, no. 167.

Shirley Mason (1901-1979) was an American actress of the silent era. She was a sister of Viola Dana. She made her film debut at the age of 10. Between 1910 and 1929, she made more than 110 films.

Shirley Mason was born Leonie Flugrath in Brooklyn, New York, to Emil and Mary (née Dubois) Flugrath. Her father was a printer. She and her two sisters Edna and Virginia became actresses at the insistence of their mother. Emil helped out with the process by building his daughters a gymnasium for them to work out and 'train' in. Mason, and her sister Virginia (Viola Dana), made their film debuts at the ages of 10 and 13, respectively, in the film A Christmas Carol (J. Searle Dawley, 1910) for Edison. The film runs 13 minutes and is one of the earliest film adaptations of Charles Dickens' famous 1843 novella. It featured Marc McDermott as Ebenezer Scrooge and Charles S. Ogle as Bob Cratchit. Shirley and Viola appeared as the daughters of Bob Cratchit in the final scene. Mason's next film was The Threshold of Life (Director unknown, 1911) with Mary Fuller. She appeared with her sister Edna in the short, Uncle Mun and the Minister (C.J. Williams, 1912), and appeared with Viola in Children Who Labor (Ashley Miller, 1912) and The Portrait in the Attic (John H. Collins, 1915). As a child actress, Mason was not in high demand. It was not until 1915 that she played the role of the young Becky Sharpe in Vanity Fair (Eugene Nowland, Charles Brabin, 1915). She acted for Edison studios in 1916, starring in The Littlest Magdalene (Burton George, 1916). In 1917, her career saw a major advance as she was cast in 13 films that year alone, and was given the title role in the film The Awakening of Ruth (Edward H. Griffith, 1917). One of her most well-known roles was as Eve Leslie in the Seven Deadly Sins series (Theodore Marston, Richard Ridgely, 1917). Jessica Keaton at Silence is Platinum: It started with Envy, then Pride, Greed, Sloth, Passion, Wrath, and finally The Seventh Sin. "The last installment should have been 'Gluttony' but the term was deemed too offensive by the producers so the title was changed. The same goes for Passion as 'Lust' was considered offensive as well." Mason continued a vibrant acting career through the 1920s, landing substantial parts in films such as Love's Harvest (Howard M. Mitchell, 1920), The Lamplighter (Howard M. Mitchell, 1921), and Very Truly Yours (Harry Beaumont, 1922). In 1929, she appeared in her final role in The Flying Marine (Albert S. Rogell, 1929), along with Ben Lyon and her sister Viola Dana.

The Flugrath sisters were a talented trio, and all three graced cinema with their silent films. Edna Flugrath was the eldest daughter, born in 1893, and was the only sister to maintain her original name upon entering the film business. Virginia, who later changed her name to Viola Dana, was born in 1897, followed by the youngest, Leonie, who one day became Shirley Mason. The mother of the Flugrath sisters was the one who first dreamed of their stage careers, and at a very young age had them enrolled in dance classes. The sisters spent much of their childhood touring with companies at Coney Island, Elks Clubs, and other venues. Eventually, their mother's efforts paid off; all three sisters were hired by Edison Studios. Viola met her husband, John Collins, at Edison, and the young director and actress became a successful husband-wife team. Edna also met her future husband Harold Shaw at the Edison Studios, and when he went to the UK in 1913 to direct at the London Film Company. Edna accompanied him; however, they did not marry until 1917 when they were producing films in South Africa. Shirley had appeared in several films and had met her future husband, Bernard Durning. Durning was a fellow actor and also director, and although eight years her senior, the two were married in 1917 when Mason was only 16 years old. Mason and Durning enjoyed a very happy marriage, his directing films back East, and Shirley acting in them. All was well until 1923 when Bernard Durning reportedly drank some tainted water while working on a film in Brooklyn and got typhoid fever. He died, leaving 22-year-old Shirley a widow. Mason was remarried once more in 1927 to director Sidney Lanfield. The two remained married until Lanfield died of a heart attack in 1972. In 1979, Shirley Mason died of cancer in Los Angeles. She was interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park. Like her sisters, she never had children.

Sources: Jessica Keaton (Silence is Platinum), Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Spanish card by La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, no. 84.

Wesley Barry (1907-1994) was an adorable child actor in silent films who was known for his face full of freckles. He later became a producer and director of both film and television. As a director, he was sometimes billed as Wesley E. Barry.

Wesley Barry was born in Los Angeles, in 1907. He was seven years old when a young director was attracted by his face full of freckles and put him to work at the Kalem Studios. However, the boy was not noted for his freckles until Marshall Neilan cast him in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917), starring Mary Pickford. It was the first time that his freckles were uncovered. Earlier producers had insisted that all subjects cover facial blemishes with grease paint. Neilan also let the boy's naturally wild hair grow out instead of being slicked down. Wesley was eleven years old when he appeared as one of the orphans opposite Mary Pickford in the orphanage scenes in the beginning of Daddy-Long-Legs (Marshall Neilan, 1919). That year, he also appeared in Male and Female (Cecil B. DeMille, 1919). He played the snoopy servant Buttons, who peers giddily through a bedroom keyhole to see the beautiful Gloria Swanson asleep in her nightgown before he is caught red-handed by Thomas Meighan. Soon, Barry became a star in his own right with the hit Dinty (Marshall Neilan, 1920). Neilan wrote the comedy-drama specifically for Wesley Barry. Together with the African American Aaron Mitchell and the Chinese-American Walter Chung, Barry created the prototype of the multi-ethnic baby gang which would serve as a model for the Our Gang series (1922-1944) and in other films like Little Annie Rooney (1925) with Mary Pickford. Audiences were charmed by the young actor's naturalness and "all-American" looks and flocked to his films. Barry's later starring vehicles included School Days (William Nigh, 1921), Rags to Riches (Wallace Worsley, 1922), and Heroes of the Street (William Beaudine, 1922) with Marie Prevost.

Wesley Barry made some minor film appearances in sound films through the 1930s. His last film appearance was in Ladies' Day (1943). Barry was not one of those former child stars whose life fell apart after growing into adulthood. He was tutored on sets and graduated from Los Angeles High. In the 1940s, he became a director and producer of television and B-movies, such as The Steel Fist and Racing Blood. During this period, Barry also began a prolific career as an assistant director on many major films, including The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (Roger Corman, 1967). In 1962, Barry directed what has become arguably his most well-known film, The Creation of the Humanoids, a science fiction film starring Don Megowan. It depicts a future society in which robots, known derisively as "Clickers", are persecuted by a fanatical human organisation named "The Order of Flesh and Blood". In 1963, he directed his last film, The Jolly Genie (1963). Wesley Barry died in 1994 in Fresno, California. He was 86. In 1926, he married Julia A. Wood. His second wife was Lynn Waring Barry.

Sources: Golden Silents, Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Spanish card by La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, no. 95.

Marguerite De La Motte (1902-1950) was an American film actress of the silent film era. She played opposite Douglas Fairbanks in such Swashbucklers as The Mark of Zorro (1920), The Three Musketeers (1920), and The Iron Mask (1929). With her husband John Bowers, she appeared together in twelve films. Sound finished her film career.

Marguerite De La Motte was born in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1902. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph De La Motte. Her family moved to San Diego in 1913 after her father, a lawyer, was disbarred in Minnesota. She was a 1917 graduate of the Egan School of drama, music, and dancing. Early publicity reports claim that she was instructed by Anna Pavlova. In 1919, she appeared at Sid Grauman's Million Dollar Theater. At the age of 16, she made her screen debut in the Douglas Fairbanks-directed romantic comedy film Arizona (1918). She worked with H.B. Warner in The Pagan God and with Jack Pickford in the comedy In Wrong. In December 1919, her mother passed away following an automobile accident. Marguerite, who was also in the car, had minor injuries, Just seven months later her father died from heart disease. Film producer J.L. Frothingham, for whom she was working at the time, assumed guardianship of both Marguerite and her younger brother. De La Motte spent the 1920s appearing in numerous films, often cast by Douglas Fairbanks to play opposite him in swashbuckling adventure films such as The Mark of Zorro (Fred Niblo, 1920) and The Three Musketeers (Fred Niblo, 1920). The Mark of Zorro defined the genre of the Swashbuckler. It was based on the 1919 story 'The Curse of Capistrano' by Johnston McCulley, which introduced the masked hero, Zorro. Fairbanks himself as 'Elton Thomas' wrote the screenplay together with Eugene Miller. De La Motte developed a close friendship with Fairbanks and his wife, actress Mary Pickford.

Marguerite De La Motte married matinee idol John Bowers in 1924, The couple were a popular onscreen team appearing in twelve films together including Desire (Rowland V. Lee, 1923), Daughters Who Pay (George Terwilliger, 1925), and Richard the Lion-Hearted (Chester Withey, 1923), featuring Wallace Beery. In 1929 she returned as Constance Bonacieux opposite Douglas Fairbanks's D'Artagnan in the adventure film The Iron Mask (Allan Dwan, 1929). It is an adaptation of the last section of the novel 'The Vicomte de Bragelonne' by Alexandre Dumas, père, which is itself based on the French legend of the Man in the Iron Mask. The Iron Mask was a part-talkie, though until recently it was usually shown in a silent version. Fairbanks lavished resources on his final silent film, with the knowledge he was bidding farewell to his beloved genre. This marks the only time where Fairbanks's character dies at the end of the film, with the closing scene depicting the once-again youthful Musketeers all reunited in death, moving on (as the final title says) to find "greater adventure beyond". With the arrival of sound, De La Motte's career slowed dramatically, but she continued acting in bit parts during the 1930s. Together with her husband John Bowers, she started performing in vaudeville. Their marriage was rocky mostly because he had a serious drinking problem. The couple decided to separate but they remained legally married. In 1936, Bowers committed suicide by drowning himself in the ocean. The film A Star Is Born (William A. Wellman, 1937) was loosely based on their marriage and his suicide. In 1939, De La Motte married attorney Sidney H. Rivkin whom she divorced after four years of marriage. She made her final film appearance with a small part in the Western serial Overland Mail (Ford Beebe, John Rawlins, 1942) opposite both Noah Beery Jr. and Lon Chaney Jr. After her film career had ended, De La Motte worked as an inspector in a southern California war plant during World War II. Later she moved to San Francisco, where she worked in the Red Cross office. In 1950, De La Motte died of cerebral thrombosis in San Francisco at the age of 47. She was buried at Olivet Memorial Park in Colma, California. In 1960, De La Motte was awarded a star in the Motion Pictures section of the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6902 Hollywood Blvd.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

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Spanish card by La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, no. 88.

Handsome and distinguished, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (1909-2000) was much more than the son of his superstar father. He was a bright, multi-talent, who excelled in sports and sculpting, was involved in the business, and was knighted for his war efforts as a lieutenant. He acted in approximately 100 films or TV shows.

Douglas Elton Ulman Fairbanks Junior was born in New York City in 1909 as the only child of the future swashbuckler of silent films, Douglas Fairbanks, and Beth Sully, the daughter of a wealthy cotton mogul. His parents divorced when he was nine years old, and both remarried. He lived with his mother in New York, California, Paris, and London. He soon proved a gifted boy. Guy Bellinger at IMDb: "Douglas Elton Ulman - better known as Douglas Fairbanks Jr. - never really intended to take up acting as a career. However, the environment he was born into, and the circumstances naturally led him to be a thespian. Noblesse oblige. " 'Doug' excelled at sports, notably during his stay at the Military Academy in 1919. Later his role in Claude Autant-Lara's L'athlète incomplete/Love Is a Racket (1932) illustrated these abilities. He also excelled academically and attended the Lycée Janson de Sailly in Paris, where he had followed his divorced mother. Very early in his life he developed a taste for the arts as well and became a painter and sculptor. Not content to limit himself to just one field, he became involved in the business, in fields as varied as mining, hotel management, owning a chain of bowling alleys, and a firm that manufactured popcorn. During World War II he headed London's Douglas Voluntary Hospital (an establishment taking care of war refugees), was President Franklin D. Roosevelt's special envoy for the Special Mission to South America in 1940 before becoming a lieutenant in the Navy (he was promoted to the rank of captain in 1954) and taking part in the Allies' landing in Sicily and Elba in 1943. He held the Silver Star and the Legion of Merit with V for valour in combat device from the U.S. government for his combat service. In 1949, he was created an honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. A fervent Anglophile, he often entertained Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in his London mansion, 'The Boltons'.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. began his film career at the age of 13. Largely on the basis of his father's name, Fairbanks, Jr. was given a contract with Paramount Pictures. He debuted in the silent comedy Stephen Steps Out (Joseph Henabery, 1923) but the film flopped and his career stagnated despite a critically acclaimed role in Stella Dallas (Henry King, 1925). He took to the stage, where he impressed his father, his stepmother Mary Pickford, and Charlie Chaplin, who encouraged him to continue with acting. Things really picked up in 1929 when he appeared in the silent drama Our Modern Maidens (Jack Conway, 1929) opposite Lucille Le Sueur, a young starlet who was soon to become better known as Joan Crawford. They married and the young couple became the toast of the town. Good parts followed in early sound films, such as an ace pilot in the World War I drama The Dawn Patrol (Howard Hawks, 1930), and the hapless partner of Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar (Mervyn Leroy, 1931). His separation and 1933 divorce from Joan Crawford gained even more publicity than their courtship and marriage. The 1930s were a fruitful period for Fairbank who easily played a wide variety of roles. He did a favourably reviewed turn as the villain Rupert of Hentzau in The Prisoner of Zenda (John Cromwell, 1937) starring Ronald Colman, but his most memorable role is probably that of the British soldier in Gunga Din (George Stevens, 1939) with Cary Grant and Victor McLaglen. Although it was somewhat of a 'swashbuckling' role, Fairbanks carefully tried to avoid comparisons with his father. After World War II, his star waned. He produced and was a co-writer of several films. Between 1954 and 1956 he was the executive producer and host of a popular television anthology show, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Presents . Despite a moving part opposite Fred Astaire and Melvyn Douglas in Ghost Story (John Irvin, 1981), he did not appear in a major film. At the age of 90, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. died of a heart attack in 2000. He was married three times. After his divorce from Joan Crawford, he was married till her death to Mary Lee Eppling, with whom he had three daughters, and till his death to Vera Fairbanks. He published two volumes of autobiography - 'The Salad Days' (1988) and 'A Hell of a War' (1993). Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. also collaborated with Richard Schickel on the illustrated survey of Fairbanks Sr. and Jr. called 'The Fairbanks Album' (1975) and with Jeffrey Vance on a critical study/biography of Fairbanks Sr. ultimately published as 'Douglas Fairbanks' (2008). Guy Bellinger: "Now a legend himself, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. left this world with the satisfaction of having lived up to the Fairbanks name at the end of a life nobody could call 'wasted'."

Sources: Guy Bellinger (IMDb), New York Times, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

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Spanish card by La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, no. 115.

Louise Lorraine (1904-1981) was an American film actress, who started out in two-reel comedies for independent studios, then spent time at MGM and Universal. She became very popular in action-filled silent serials and may be best remembered for being the third actress to portray Jane, in the serial The Adventures of Tarzan (1921). In 1930, she retired from the film industry.

Louise Lorraine was born Louise Escovar in 1904 in San Francisco, California. One day, a photography salesman knocked on the door of the Los Angeles home where Louise lived with her widowed mother and five siblings. The door was answered by the 13-year-old Louise. The salesman was so taken aback by her looks and demeanor that he told her mother she should be in films, then silent films and he happened to have contact with Ince Studio. Initially, Louise's mother refused but eventually gave in. Louise began her career as Louise Fortune opposite Chai Hong, a Chinese screen comic known as the "Chaplin of the Orient." In 1920, she was the leading lady in the Western serial Elmo the Fearless (J. P. McGowan, 1920), starring Elmo Lincoln. A new action queen was born and Universal signed her to a long-term contract.

Louise Lorraine's small stature and delicate beauty seemed hardly the qualities to be desired in a serial heroine, but she became very popular in action-filled serials such as The Radio King (Robert F. Hill, 1922) and With Stanley in Africa (William James Craft, Edward A. Kull, 1922) starring George Walsh as Henry Morton Stanley. In total, she starred in 11 serials, showing much energy and charisma, not as much seen in many of her colleagues in that genre. She may be best remembered for being the third actress to portray Tarzan's Jane, having portrayed the character in the 15-chapter serial The Adventures of Tarzan (Robert F. Hill, Scott Sidney, 1921), which features the third and final appearance of Elmo Lincoln as Tarzan. Louise was selected as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1922. In 1925, Lorraine married one of her leading men, the hard-drinking cowboy star Art Acord. Together they left Universal to star in Westerns produced by poverty row company Truart. Hans Wollstein at AllMovie: "The strain quickly began to show both on- and offscreen, and the marriage ended in 1929. Entertaining the idea of escaping action melodramas altogether, Lorraine signed with posh MGM, but without her riding britches she was unremarkable."

Louise Lorraine starred in only five talkies in her film career, including the Western Near the Rainbow's End (J. P. McGowan, 1930), co-starring Bob Steele in his talking picture debut as a singing cowboy. She returned to Universal for one final serial, The Lightning Express (Henry MacRae, 1930). However, Lorraine discovered that some of the fun had gone out of filmmaking with the introduction of sound. Following the short comedy Moonlight and Cactus (1932) directed by Fatty Arbuckle a.k.a. William Goodrich, she retired from the film industry to devote her time to her husband and two children. She married three times. Her first marriage to Joseph Bray in 1922 ended in divorce. Her second husband from 1926 to 1928 was Art Acord. Her third marriage to Chester J. Hubbard lasted from 1930 to 1963, his death. They had two children. In her later years, she remained amazed at how well both she and her serials continued to be remembered. Louise Lorraine died in 1981, aged 76, in New York City, from undisclosed causes. Her interment was in Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery.

Sources: Marlène Pilaete (La Collectionneuse - French), Hans Wollstein (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Spanish card by La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, no. 76.

Tullio Carminati (1895-1971) was an Italian stage and film actor with a longstanding career from the 1910s to the 1960s. He played in Italian, German, American, British, and French films and on Italian, American, and British stages.

Tullio Carminati was born as Count Tullio Carminati de Brambilla in Zara, Austrian-Hungarian Empire (now Zadar, Croatia) in 1892 (1894, according to IMDb and Wikipedia). He ran away from school and joined a theatre company which soon ran into financial trouble. Disinherited and chased from the house by his father, he had to start working as an actor. He managed to get employed by Alfredo de Sanctis in 1907, during a Dalmatian tour by the latter. In 1909 Carminati arrived in Rome. By mediation of actor Gustavo Serena, Carminati met Ferruccio Garavaglia, first actor of the Compagnia stabile romana, which resided at the Teatro Argentina and which accepted him as an extra. The company director, Ettore Paladini, was not convinced of Carminati’s talent and restricted him to modest parts. In 1910 actress Emma Grammatica discovered him, while giving guest performances at the Argentina. She admired his elegance and spontaneity and convinced the management to give him jeune premier parts. Under this flag, star actor and director Ermete Novelli noticed him in La fiamma and hired him in 1912 for his own company. Novelli became his teacher who learned him to give a balanced and natural performance and the taste for simple and touching solutions. Under the aegis of Novelli, Carminati transformed in a modern, refined and sensible actor, free of affectations. Soon, Marco Praga hired Carminati for his Compagnia stabile of the Teatro Manzoni in Milan and let him play in various modern plays by Gabriele D’Annunzio, Dario Niccodemi, Praga himself, and others. During a tour in South America and back in Milan the focus was more on the lighter repertory.

In 1914 Tullio Carminati made his début in the Italian silent cinema. His first film appearance was in La mia vita per la tua/My life for yours (1914), starring Maria Carmi and directed by Emilio Ghione. When the Manzoni company stopped in 1915, Carminati signed a contract with the Ambrosio company of Turin, playing in the propaganda film Romanticismo/Romanticism (Carlo Campogalliani, Arrigo Frusta, 1915), in which he was the Italian aristocrat fighting the Austrians during the Risorgimento. His co-actress was Elena Makowska who had her breakthrough in this film. Carminati would be paired with Makowska in several other Ambrosio films, as in Val d’Olivi/Val of Olives (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1916), again set at the Risorgimento. Carminati also did a few films with actress Madeleine Céliat, such as Davanti alla legge/In front of the law (Carlo Campogalliani, 1916). In 1916 Carminati joined the theatre company of Lyda Borelli and Ugo Piperno. He played in Nozze dei Centauri (Wedding of the Centaurs), La donna nuda (The naked woman) and Amanti (Lovers). But soon Carminati left again and focused on film acting, with titles like Tramonto triste/Sad Tramonte (Giuseppe Pinto, 1916) and L’articolo IV/The article IV (Gennaro Righelli, 1917). At the company Tiber Film, he played in a series of films directed by Augusto Genina in 1916-1918: Kalidaa – la storia una mummia/Kalidaa - the history of a mummy (1917), Il trono e la seggiola/The throne and the chair (1918) and in particular the successful films Il presagio/The premonition (1916) and La menzogna/The lie (1916), both with Vera Vergani. By now Carminati had become a real film star, his face and shape endlessly reproduced on postcards, posters and photos, in particular his kiss from Il presagio. Between 1917 and 1922 Carminati acted in twelve star vehicles with the Italian diva Hesperia, such as L’aigrette/The Egret (1917), La donna dei cuori/The woman of the hearts (1917) and La donna abbandonata/The Abandoned Woman (1917), all directed by her husband Baldassarre Negroni. In the late 1910s, Carminati also played with Maria Jacobini in La via più lunga/The longest street (Mario Caserini, 1918) and he made a few films with Gemma and Bianca Stagno Bellincioni. In 1919 Carminati founded his own film company, Carminati-Film. He produced five films with it in 1919-1920, all directed by Enrico Roma, but in the end he was forced to dissolve the company. All in all Carminati played in some 37 Italian silent films between 1914 and 1924. After some failures in the cinema Carminati was forced to return to the stage. There he became extremely successful with his own company, together with Alda Borelli, Lyda's sister, in 1920 and 1921. Carminati’s plays were known for their eye for detail, realism and style and their lack of frivolous overdoing. He played elegant and refined characters, full of spirit and wit. However, his part as Armand in Alexandre Dumas’ La dame aux camélias (Camille) was considered as too cold. When Borelli left the company in 1921, Carminati became director and first actor of Eleonora Duse’s company. Here he directed three dramas of which he played only in one, Cosí sia (Such is) by T. Gallarati Scotti. United Artists producer Joseph Schenck spotted him and offered him to come to Hollywood to play in a series of films, but after the failure of Carminati-Film and because of his workload at the theatre, Carminati had his doubts. When Duse went on tour to the US, Carminati joined the theatre company of Lucio d’Ambra and Mario Fumagalli, appearing in plays by Luigi Pirandello, Roberto Bracco and Sem Benelli. Carminati did only a few films in those years including Mensch gegen Mensch/Person against person (Hans Steinhoff, 1923), shot in Germany with Alfred Abel in the lead. Between 1924 and 1925 Carminati did a series of plays with Italia Almirante Manzini and Lina Tricerri, including the very successful comedy Le nozze di Leporello (The wedding of Leporello) by Luigi Almirante.

Fed up with the decline of the Italian film world and deluded by the collaboration with Italia Almirante Manzini and Lina Tricerri, Tullio Carminati went to the US in 1925, without any clear prospects and without speaking the language properly. After some time, he managed to get a contract with United Artists and played a detective in his first American film: The Bat (Roland West, 1926), with Jack Pickford and Louise Fazenda. This was followed by parts as the 'lover' in The Duchess of Buffalo (Sydney Franklin, 1926) with Constance Talmadge, and Stage Madness (Victor Schertzinger, 1927) with Virginia Valli. He then switched to Paramount where he reached fame with his part in Honeymoon Hate (Luther Reed, 1927) with Florence Vidor. He also acted in the Pola Negri vehicle Three Sinners (Rowland V. Lee, 1928). With the advent of sound cinema, Carminati moved to New York and joined the company of Basil Rathbone. Critics liked his elegance, openness and sobriety, while audiences loved his foreign accent and Latin lover image. His American stage career was confirmed with Strictly Dishonorable by Preston Sturges, which ran for two years in 1930-1931 in some 725 shows. The continuous success of this play reopened the doors of Hollywood for Carminati. Until 1940, he continued to play in various films, like Gallant Lady (Gregory LaCava, 1933), Moulin Rouge (Sydney Lanfield, 1934) with Constance Bennett, and One Night of Love (Victor Schertzinger, 1934) with Grace Moore. In Europe he played the male lead in the Franco-Italian production Marcia nuziale/The Wedding March (Mario Bonnard, 1935), starring Kiki Palmer. After another Broadway show, he acted in the romantic comedies Let’s Live Tonight (Victor Schertzinger, 1934) with Lilian Harvey, and Paris in Spring (Lewis Milestone, 1935) with Mary Ellis, establishing him as the mature Don Giovanni. In 1936 he acted in two British films by Herbert Wilcox: London Melody (1936) and The Three Maxims (1936), both starring Anna Neagle. In 1938, after a stay in Italy, he played again on Broadway in By Candle Light, and in 1939 in the comedy Stephen Jumel. In 1940 he played in Hollywood in Sunset in Vienna (Norman Walker, 1940), with Lilli Palmer, and in Safari (Edward H. Griffith, 1940), with Douglas Fairbanks jr. and Madeleine Carroll. In December 1941, a few days after the US declared war to Italy, Carminati was imprisoned. He was sent back to Italy in May 1942, because of anti-American activities. In the following year he made his Italian cinema come-back in La via torna/The Street Turns (Pier Luigi Faraldo, 1943) and he joined the company of Elsa de Giorgi and Elena Zareschi, performing in various plays before and after the liberation there. In 1946 he joined the company Morelli-Stoppa, for which he played in Antigone (Jean Anouilh), directed by Luchino Visconti. In 1953, after a stage absence of several years, Carminati returned in such plays as Il Ferro (The Iron) by Gabriele D’Annunzio. From the late 1940s until 1963, Carminati acted in various films in Italy, Spain, France and the US. Memorable titles are La Chartreuse de Parme/The Charterhouse of Parme (Christian Jaque, 1948) starring Gérard Philipe, La madonnina d’oro/The Golden Madonna (Ladislao Vajda, 1949) with Phyllis Calvert, La Beauté du diable/Beauty and the Devil (René Clair, 1950), the box office hit Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953) with Audrey Hepburn, Giovanna d’Arco al rogo/Joan of Arc at the Stake (Roberto Rossellini, 1954) with Ingrid Bergman, War and Peace (King Vidor, 1956), the epic El Cid (Anthony Mann, 1961) featuring Charlton Heston. His final film was The Cardinal (Otto Preminger, 1963). Tullio Carminati died in 1971 in Rome because of a brain haemorrhage. He was 78.

Sources: Roberta Ascarelli (Italian - Treccani), Vittorio Martinelli (Italian - Il cinema muto italiano), Wikipedia (Italian and English), and IMDb.

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Spanish card by La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, no. 73.

Mary Philbin (1902-1993) was an American film actress of the silent film era, who is best known for playing the roles of Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera (Rupert Julian, 1925) opposite Lon Chaney, and as Dea in The Man Who Laughs (Paul Leni, 1928), opposite Conrad Veidt.

Mary Philbin was born in 1903, in Chicago, Illinois, to John Philbin and his first wife and namesake, Mary. The child was regarded as a little beauty from an early age and her mother was exceedingly proud of her and loved to show her off. Her mother was controlling and domineering, to the point of imprinting her strict religious beliefs on the child. Mary took after her shy, quiet, and reserved father, whom she adored. Emily Greene at IMDb: "Many of her contemporaries remarked how she didn't seem to belong to the current age; her personality was a throwback to the 19th century with her mannerisms and religious, quiet and very gentle nature. Being an only child, Mary grew up quite spoiled by her mother. Her father would take her often to see the plays at local theaters and even, on rare occasions, to see an opera at the Chicago Opera House." She fell in love with the stage and decided that she wanted a career in the theatre. She took up classical dancing (ballet and waltz) and was quite adept at playing the pipe organ and piano, although much to her chagrin, she could not sing. However, she did not train in an acting school and this would ultimately have impact on her later career. Her best friend was Carla Laemmle, the daughter of Joseph Laemmle, brother of Universal Studios mogul Carl Laemmle. Through her friend's uncle, Mary became interested in films and put her stage career on hold. Upon seeing her first "Nickelodeon", she was bitten by the film bug and eagerly awaited any new ones that came out. She was particularly fond of the films of Erich von Stroheim, so much so that at the age of 16, when she heard that the director was making his new film Blind Husbands (1919) and a contest was set up to search for talent for the film, Mary tried to sign up. At first, she could not find the right photograph worthy of submission, but her mother had taken a picture and submitted it. The contest was held in Chicago at the Elks Club and was sponsored by her church, with Von Stroheim himself as the judge. The Teutonic director was smitten with her beauty and her eagerness to behave and speak well and gave her the leading role in one of his films. When finding out she was to move to Los Angeles to make the film, Mary at first had reservations and consulted her parents. Her parents refused until they found out their old family friends, the Laemmles, were moving out to Los Angeles as well, and they gave consent for Mary to go but only with her parents as her chaperons due to their fear that the 'sheiks' of Los Angeles would corrupt Mary's moral character. When arriving at the studio, she found out that she had been replaced in the leading role in Blind Husbands. Mary was deeply hurt at the time and felt cheated, and was considering going home had it not been for her friend Carla who recommended her to her uncle, the owner of Universal City, Carl Laemmle, and the man in charge of production, Irving Thalberg. Although Carl Laemmle had met Mary sometime earlier and always regarded her as an 'angelic, sweet, quiet' young lady, he was none too impressed with her at the time to consider her for a contract, owing mostly to her moralistic and reserved disposition. Thalberg held the same reservations about her. However, after being persuaded by Mary's family and Carla, Carl caved and gave 17-year-old Mary her first big part: Talitby Millicuddy, the leading lady, in the melodrama The Blazing Trail (Robert Thornby, 1921) starring Frank Mayo. Mary caught on in films very quickly and was considered by the public, initially at least, in the same league as her bigger contemporaries - Mary Pickford, Florence Lawrence, Mae Marsh, and Lillian Gish, one of those 'child-woman' actresses particularly noted for her subtle but extraordinary ethereal Irish beauty. In 1922, Philbin was awarded at the first annual WAMPAS Baby Stars awards, a promotional campaign sponsored by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers, which honoured thirteen young women each year whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom.

After the moderate success of her first film, Mary Philbin was cast in Danger Ahead! (Rollin S. Sturgeon, 1921), the one-reel comedy Twelve Hours to Live (William Watson, 1921), and the Western Red Courage (B. Reeves Eason, 1921), starring Hoot Gibson. In all, she made six films in 1921. After seeing her work in Danger Ahead, Erich von Stroheim cast Mary in a small part as the crippled girl for his next film, Foolish Wives (Erich von Stroheim, 1922). It would become the most expensive production ever for Univeral; the costs rising up to a million dollars. Mary can be seen in the film as the little girl on crutches with her back turned, and you only quickly get a darkened glimpse of her face through her curly ringlets. Although her role in the film was just a bit part, Mary relished being under Von Stroheim's tutelage and it was from him, as she always said, she learned about 'true' acting in comparison to stage acting. Emily Greene at IMDb: "It has always been said of Mary Philbin that when the director was really good (such as von Stroheim, Paul Leni, and William Beaudine), people noticed she could be equally as good an actress as her colleagues. However, in the hands less talented directors such as Rupert Julian, who would partly direct her later in Merry-Go-Round (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera, her lack of acting training became a real handicap for her (this is clearly evident in some of her later films)." Mary began to get more notice from Carl Laemmle and Irving Thalberg, after Erich von Stroheim's high recommendation of her. After a minor film, The Trouper (Harry B. Harris, 1922) starring Gladys Walton, she was given the role of Ruth in Human Hearts (King Baggot, 1922). Mary began to get even further recognition, but her personal life was darkened by her father's divorce and remarriage to Alice Mead. Mary was shattered by the event, and as a result, became closer to her mother. Mary made two more films before she received her first big break as the heroine Agnes Urban, in von Stroheim's The Merry-Go-Round (1923). The casting for this film, set in the Austro-Hungarian Empire of the time of Emperor Franz Josef, was impeccable and in particular with her leading man, Norman Kerry, she would be reunited in several films. The production came to a standstill when the perfectionist von Stroheim insisted that some of the actors wear underwear embroidered with the Imperial Austrian Royal Family insignia, which infuriated Carl Laemmle. After an intense argument with Laemmle the wildly extravagant director was dropped from the picture. The cast was stunned and the two most affected were Wallace Beery (cast as Agnes' father) and Mary Philbin. Beery, infuriated with Laemmle's decision walked out, as did many others. Laemmle hired Universal actor Rupert Julian to direct. Not having met or worked with Julian before, Philbin decided to stay, and Cesare Gravina was re-cast in Beery's role. However, it became clearly evident that Julian was a novice compared to von Stroheim, and much of the original footage was cut or re-filmed upon its release. However, Merry-Go-Round (Rupert Julian, Erich von Stroheim, 1923) launched Mary as an official Hollywood star. During this time, Mary met the love of her life, Universal Studio executive/producer Paul Kohner - through the Laemmles. Paul Kohner was only a year older than Mary and born in Teplitz-Schoenau, Austria-Hungary (now Teplice, Czech Republic). They were immediately smitten with each other - but due to Mary's parents' religion (Roman Catholicism) and the fact that Paul was a Jew - they kept their relationship, in the early years, secret as much as possible. Mary's film career took off with such films as the comic Western Where Is This West? (George Marshall, 1923), the drama The Age of Desire (Frank Borzage, 1923), the fantasy The Temple of Venus (Henry Otto, 1923), and the action-comedy The Thrill Chaser (Edward Sedgwick, 1923) with Hoot Gibson. Paul Kohner sometimes was the producer, which afforded her more time to be with him, under the protection from her parents' observance. But it wasn't until 1924 after she made good in the role of Marianne in The Rose of Paris (Irving Cummings, 1924) that Mary was to be cast in her next, most famous and best-remembered film role of her entire career.

In 1924, Carl Laemmle was searching among the elite list of Hollywood starlets for the role of the young Swedish soprano Christine Daaé in the film adaption of Gaston Leroux's novella 'Le Fantôme de l'Opéra' (The Phantom of the Opera) starring in the leading role of Erik, the Phantom of the Opera, was one of Hollywood's best actors Lon Chaney, fresh from his success in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Wallace Worsley, 1923). Much to the concern of the cast and crew, the director hired for the picture was the temperamental Rupert Julian. Julian remembered Mary and Norman Kerry from Merry-Go-Round and hired them. Mary was cast in the key role of Christine, the chance of a lifetime. But the production was one of the most difficult for the cast to endure. Although Mary was working alongside of many of her former colleagues and friends (Norman Kerry, Cesare Gravina, and Carla Laemmle), she had never met Lon Chaney personally before and, in keeping with her nature, was initially very shy and nervous around him. During the filming Chaney and Julian exchanged heated arguments. Chaney would direct his own scenes including several scenes with Mary. Her big test with Chaney came for the climactic unmasking scene - there was a shot of Mary on the floor screaming after Christine unmasks the Phantom and is supposed to cry. Julian had gone through several takes of the scene with Mary, but all takes failed to satisfy Julian. This angered the cast and crew and Julian called it a day and they shut down early. But Lon Chaney remained behind and asked Mary and the crew to stay and reshoot the scene themselves. His approach was a success. From then on Chaney would always be on the set when Julian was directing Mary in future scenes, even if he was not in it. The Phantom of the Opera (1925) was Universal's biggest money maker of the decade, launching not only Chaney to stardom but Philbin as well. Her next big role was the dual part of Stella Maris/Unity Blake in a remake of Mary Pickford's Stella Maris (Marshall Neilan, 1918). The new version, Stella Maris (Charles Brabin, 1925), was received with moderate success with Mary being complimented on her ability to change from the beautiful Stella into the hideous outcast Unity Blake so well that many didn't recognise her. When Mary was filming The Man who Laughs in the role of the blind girl Dea, her secret fiance Paul Kohner was acting as production supervisor and interpreter for Conrad Veidt who played Gwynplaine. On opening night, the film was hailed as a box-office success and Mary was praised for her the role as Dea. It was then that Mary announced her engagement to Paul Kohner. But her family was outraged at the news and called a meeting to meet Kohner. Paul admitted then he was a staunch Jew and Mary's mother would have none of it. In the end, Mary gave the devastated Paul back the ring. Mary also was devastated, even so much that she would never marry. At the dawn of talkies, Mary's film career nose-dived along with her personal life. Because of the inadequacy of early recording equipment - Mary's voice recorded as high pitched and squeaky. However, she did dubbed her own voice when The Phantom of the Opera was given sound and re-released in 1929. New scenes with Norman Kerry were intercut with footage of the 1924 version with Chaney. In retrospect, all of her post-Phantom films were mediocre. She received good notices in D.W. Griffith's otherwise pathetic Drums of Love (1928), co-starring Lionel Barrymore and Don Alvarado. Her final film was the sound film After the Fog (Leander De Cordova, 1929). Mary decided to abandon her film career and took up a life of self-enforced celibacy, becoming a virtual recluse in her father's home. Mary virtually vanished off the face of the earth and Hollywood forgot her. In the 1960s, it was discovered that Philbin was still alive, living in the very same home in Huntington Beach, she had bought in the 1920s. She had never married and had spent much of her life looking after her parents. It was remarked at how youthful and beautiful she still looked even though she was in her 60s and how her voice still had that youthful girlish quality. She had been a faithful member of her parents' church and only went out to visit friends and family, shop, and go to church. During that time, she admitted that she refused interviews and photo shoots, although she replied to her fans and sent them autographs. In the late 1970s, Philbin experienced the first symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease. In 1988, Mary made her first public appearance since 1931 at a memorial service for Rudolph Valentino. Another blow came when it was announced Paul Kohner had passed away. Shortly after his death, workers cleaning out his office at his agency found Mary's love letters close at hand in his desk, more than 60 years later. When she was informed, Mary cried and revealed the letters Paul had sent to her and even a few after the 'family incident'. After that Mary's memory lapses grew worse, and her old friend Carla Laemmle came to help her. At her insistence - Mary made two more public appearances - the first at the Los Angeles opening night of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical 'The Phantom of the Opera'. And the second to help promote author Philip Riley's study 'The Phantom of the Opera'. After that, Mary was never seen in public again. In 1993, Mary Philbin died of complications from pneumonia. The original Christine Daaé was dead at age 91.

Sources: Emily Greene (IMDb) Wikipedia and IMDb.

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