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- Coming to the U.S. in 1884, Vassar performed as a musical/comic star during the 1890s. She played in "The Lady of the Slipper; Or, A Modern Cinderella" which opened at the Globe Theatre in New York in 1912 and ran for 232 performances.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Charles Sellon was born on 24 August 1870 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Make Me a Star (1932), The Monster (1925) and Bright Eyes (1934). He was married to Florence E. Willis. He died on 26 June 1937 in La Crescenta, California, USA.- Actor
- Writer
Character actor in films, often portraying strident types, he is best remembered cast as "The Thin Man" (actually, "Wynant") of the hit 1934 MGM film. He Ellis was active on Broadway as an actor, producer and playwright from 1905-32 (see "Other Works"). He died in Beverly Hills, CA at age 81 in 1952.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jessie Ralph was a sailor's daughter, who first came to the stage at the age of 16, performing with a stock company in either Boston, Massachusetts, or Providence, Rhode Island (accounts differ). The year was 1880, and it took Jessie another 26 years to make her debut on the Great White Way in "The Kreutzer Sonata". Already a seasoned actress, she enjoying third billing. Her screen career started with one and two reelers as early as 1915, but her proper entry into Hollywood did not come about until 1933.
For more than 20 years, plump, down-to-earth Jessie made her reputation as a character actress on Broadway playing an assortment of nurses, maids and aunts. She was used in musicals by George M. Cohan and acted in Shakespearean roles, from "Twelfth Night" to "Romeo and Juliet". She was nurse to Jane Cowl's Juliet in the 1923 play which ran for an unprecedented 174 performances and co-starred Eva Le Gallienne and Katharine Cornell (amazing, when considering that the star was already 39 years old!). Like other successful actresses of the stage, Jessie was brought to Hollywood to reprise a Broadway hit role, in this case her Aunt Minnie in Child of Manhattan (1933).
After half a lifetime in the theatre, Jessie's sojourn in Hollywood was relatively brief but marked by a series of memorable performances. She was the definitive incarnation of the endearing nurse Peggotty in David Copperfield (1935) and played Greta Garbo's loyal maid Nanine in Camille (1936). She was the matriarch of the Whiteoaks of Jalna (1935), an adaptable society matron in San Francisco (1936) and harridan of a mother-in-law to W.C. Fields, Hermisillo Brunch, in The Bank Dick (1940). Whether in comedy or drama, as a Chinese aunt in both stage and screen versions of The Good Earth (1937), or a kindly sorceress in The Blue Bird (1940), Jessie gave consistently good value for money. The New York Times review of October 12, 1935, wrote of her performance in I Live My Life (1935): "Jessie Ralph as the tyrannical head of the family, proves again that she is the best of the screen grandmothers".
Jessie retired from acting in 1941 after having a leg amputated and died three years later.- Additional Crew
- Writer
- Actor
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (22 April 1870 - 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1924 and of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1924. Under his administration, Russia, and later the Soviet Union, became a one-party socialist state governed by the Communist Party. Ideologically a Marxist, his developments to the ideology are called Leninism.- Actor
- Soundtrack
A man so disagreeable on celluloid, Claude Gillingwater's characters seemed to subsist on a steady diet of persimmons. Fondly recalled as the cranky old skinflint whose seemingly cold heart could only be warmed by the actions of a cute little tyke, the tall and rangy Gillingwater invariably played much older than he was. He, with the omnipresent bushy brows, crop of silver hair and perpetually sour puss, had a much more versatile career than perhaps realized -- on both stage and in film. Most assuredly, this caustic screen image he perfected belied a softer, gentler off-screen demeanor for he was a kind and sympathetic gent and devoted husband to wife Carlyn Stiletz (or Stellith). Their only child, Claude Gillingwater Jr., briefly became an actor himself. Sadly, Gillingwater Sr.'s thriving character career ended on a grim and tragic note in 1939.
Born Claude Benton Gillingwater on August 2, 1879, in the small Mississippi River town of Louisiana, Missouri, he was the son of James E. and Lucy (Hunter) Gillingwater and attended St. Louis High School. For a time he was an apprentice to a lawyer uncle, but he eventually left home and joined a traveling stock company. Gradually building up his nascent career on the stage, he was discovered by theater impresario David Belasco. Gillingwater proceeded strongly on the Broadway stage beginning with a melodramatic role in "A Young Wife" (1899). This led to a well-received series of parts for the next full decade in New York ranging from high drama ("Madame Butterfly", "Du Barry") to operettas ("Mlle. Modiste," "The Old Town," "The Girl in the Train") to original works ("The Only Son," "The New Secretary").
1918 was a banner year for Gillingwater for he not only appeared in the hit Broadway show "Three Wise Fools," but also made his silent film debut in support of Gladys Leslie and Richard Barthelmess in Wild Primrose (1918). This disagreeable typecast began to assert itself with his second movie three years later as the grumbling, icy-souled Earl of Dorincourt whose grandson helps reveal his tenderer side in Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921), which starred America's sweetheart Mary Pickford in a dual role.
A rash of leading/co-starring roles came with the immediate impact of this single success, including Crinoline and Romance (1923) with Viola Dana, Alice Adams (1923) with Florence Vidor, Dulcy (1923) with Constance Talmadge, and Three Wise Fools (1923) with Eleanor Boardman. The last film mentioned gave him the opportunity to repeat his 1918 Broadway triumph. More than not, however, he was supporting the Hollywood elite such as kid star Jackie Coogan in My Boy (1921), Richard Dix in Fools First (1922) and The Christian (1923), 'Leonore Ulric' in Tiger Rose (1923), Alla Nazimova in Madonna of the Streets (1924), Ronald Colman in A Thief in Paradise (1925), Anna Q. Nilsson in Winds of Chance (1925), and Colleen Moore in Oh Kay! (1928). Sometimes his character's names reflected his curt, stern image -- names such as John P. Grout, Lord Storm and Simon Peck.
A founding member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (1927), he advanced into the talking era of films with equal verve, although his roles were, more often than not, token grouches. Some of his more distinctive parts came with the films A Tale of Two Cities (1935) (as Jarvis Lorry), Mississippi (1935) and The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936). He proved to be an excellent crabapple foil for 20th Century-Fox moppet star Shirley Temple in Poor Little Rich Girl (1936) and subsequently appeared in two more of her pictures - Just Around the Corner (1938) and Little Miss Broadway (1938).
Gillingwater played a few more curmudgeons in his last years but this period of time was to be marked by acute sadness and physical/mental hardship. A serious accident on the movie set of the picture Florida Special (1936) (he fell from a platform and injured his back) damaged his health and threatened his career, and the death of his long-time wife Carlyn left him irrevocably depressed. Fearing the possibility of becoming an invalid and wishing not to become a serious burden to anyone, the 69-year-old actor committed suicide at his Beverly Hills home with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head on November 1, 1939. Gillingwater left a fine Hollywood legacy and the fun of some of his old films is watching his vinegar turn to sugar.- Jack Richardson was born on 18 November 1870 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Midnight Express (1924), The Old Maid's Baby (1919) and The Toll Gate (1920). He was married to Louise Lester and Florence Stone. He died on 12 June 1960 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Director
- Cinematographer
- Writer
In the late 1890s Porter worked as both a projectionist and mechanic, eventually becoming director and cameraman for the Edison Manufacturing Company. Influenced by both the "Brighton school" and the story films of Georges Méliès, Porter went on to make important shorts such as Life of an American Fireman (1903) and The Great Train Robbery (1903). In them, he helped to develop the modern concept of continuity editing, paving the way for D.W. Griffith who would expand on Porter's discovery that the unit of film structure was the shot rather than the scene. Porter, in an attempt to resist the new industrial system born out of the popularity of nickelodeons, left Edison in 1909 to form his own production company which he eventually sold in 1912.- Albert Fish was born on 19 May 1870 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. He died on 16 January 1936 in Ossining, New York, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Richard Bennett was born on 21 May 1870 in Deer Creek, Indiana, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Damaged Goods (1914) and The Eternal City (1923). He was married to Aimee Raisch Hastings, Adrienne Morrison and Grena Heller. He died on 22 October 1944 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Marie Ault was born on 2 September 1870 in Wigan, Lancashire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), Fanny Hawthorne (1927) and Major Barbara (1941). She was married to James Alexander Paterson. She died on 9 May 1951 in London, England, UK.
- Actor
- Music Department
- Writer
Harry Lauder was born on 4 August 1870 in Portobello, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Huntingtower (1927), Ali G Indahouse (2002) and Auld Lang Syne (1929). He was married to Annie Vallance. He died on 26 February 1950 in Strathaven, Lanarkshire, Scotland, UK.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
John Steppling was born on 8 August 1870 in Essen, Germany. He was an actor and director, known for The Reckless Age (1924), Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1913) and Lombardi, Ltd. (1919). He died on 5 April 1932 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
- Additional Crew
As a young boy in England, Lawrence Grant became a great admirer of the Native American peoples. He devoured every book or article he could get his hands on relating to their culture and history. Years later Grant got the opportunity to spend some months living with several Native American tribes in Wyoming and Montana. He filmed his experiences using an early motion picture color film process called Kinemacolor. Later, after editing the thousands of feet of film he shot, Grant embarked on a lecture tour that he named "Travels with Kinemacolor".
Grant first came to America in 1908 with a repertoire company that also starred Pauline Frederick. Within a few years he was able to launch a successful 25 year career as a Hollywood character actor.
Lawrence Grant died on 19 February 1952, in Santa Barbara, California, at the age of 81. His health began to fail him the previous year after four performances he gave at the Santa Barbara Lobero Theater during a major heat wave. Though married four times, the only immediate family he had at the time of his death was four nieces living in England.- Frank Dawson was born on 4 July 1870 in Plymouth, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Woman in the Window (1944), The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939) and Broadway Hostess (1935). He was married to Pauline Matthews. He died on 11 October 1953 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Lon Poff was born on 8 February 1870 in Bedford, Indiana, USA. He was an actor, known for The Three Musketeers (1921), Main Street (1923) and The Iron Mask (1929). He died on 8 August 1952 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Edward LeSaint was born on 13 December 1870 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Modern Times (1936), Merely Mary Ann (1920) and Only a Shop Girl (1922). He was married to Stella Razeto. He died on 10 September 1940 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Writer
George Ovey was born on 13 December 1870 in Trenton, Missouri, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Pirate of Panama (1929), Hit the Deck (1929) and Strings of Steel (1926). He was married to Louise Horner. He died on 23 September 1951 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Nelson McDowell was born on 14 August 1870 in Greenville, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for The Last of the Mohicans (1920), The Girl of the Golden West (1923) and The Ridin' Kid from Powder River (1924). He was married to Sophie Lottie Green. He died on 3 November 1947 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Cinematographer
Louis Ravet was born on 14 June 1870 in Paris, France. He was an actor and cinematographer, known for The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), The Heir of the Lagarderes (1913) and L'Arlésienne (1922). He died on 7 April 1933 in Joinville-le-Pont, Val-de-Marne, France.- Stocky, bespectacled English character actor, whose career began in the music halls. Educated at Dover College, Oliver Burchett Clarence acted in repertory theatre from 1890. He then worked as a member of actor-manager Frank Benson's troupe for a number of years. During the First World War, he served as a special constable. After the war, Clarence undertook extensive classical training in Britain and America and subsequently accumulated a long list of credits on London's Shakespearean stage. A regular in British films from 1930, he was generally well-cast in period drama or comedy, often as cloth-capped working class types, priests or likable old dodderers. O.B. Clarence retired from acting at the age of eighty.
- Charles Hill Mailes was born on 25 May 1870 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He was an actor, known for The Mark of Zorro (1920), The Hungarian Nabob (1915) and Money Madness (1917). He was married to Claire McDowell. He died on 17 February 1937 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Lee Beggs was born on 3 December 1870 in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Ten Nights in a Barroom (1913), Janice Meredith (1924) and Phantom Paradise (1912). He was married to Doris Singleton. He died on 18 November 1943 in New York City, New York, USA.- Additional Crew
- Producer
Lewis J. Selznick, one of the pioneers of studio film production and the father of Oscar-winning Gone with the Wind (1939) producer David O. Selznick, was born Lewis Zeleznik in Kiev, Ukraine, Russian Empire, into a poor Jewish family with 18 children. Selznick migrated to London at the age of 12, and then to the US, eventually winding up as a small-time jeweler in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Fate intervened in Selznick's life in the guise of John P. Harris, who opened up the first dedicated cinema in Pittsburgh in 1905 (Pennsylvania officials claim that Harris' nickelodeon was the country's first, but there were dedicated theaters in the US for at least three years before Harris' theater--a dedicated cinema had opened in Los Angeles in 1902). Harris called his new theater, which he opened with a 20-minute, one-reel film from Lumiere, a "nickel-odeon," even though his admission price was ten cents ("odeon" is the Greek word for "theater," and "melodeon" had been a name given to music halls), which raises doubts over his claim to have invented the word, as well as the concept. Before the nickelodeon, movies had been shown in makeshift auditoriums and between variety acts in vaudeville houses as "chasers"--they were shown in order to chase lingering patrons out of the theaters to make room for paying customers for the next show. Two merchants with shops near Harris' nickelodeon became intrigued with the potential of the new industry--Harry Warner and Selznick. Both would go on to be the founders of major studios.
"Time" magazine, in a story about his son David in its July 1, 1935 issue, claimed that Lewis became a producer by walking into the headquarters of Universal Film Manufacturing in 1917, commandeering an abandoned desk and putting a sign labeled "General Manager" over it. The truth may be more mundane, but it is nonetheless fascinating and elucidates the evolution of the motion picture industry.
Selznick became general manager of the East Coast Universal Film Exchange, and eventually started Equitable Pictures with financial backing from Chicago mail-order magnate Arthur Spiegel and a Wall Street investment firm. In a familiar pattern of that time, Selznick created Equitable with the aim of raiding Vitagraph for Clara Kimball Young, a huge draw at the box office. Selznick was one of the investors behind World Pictures, headquartered in Ft. Lee, NJ, the first American movie capital. World had been created in 1914 to import foreign-made features and to distribute the movies of several newly established feature-film companies, including Selznick's Equitable Pictures. Selznick then merged his company with Shubert Pictures, which was the movie production arm of Shubert Theatrical Co., and Peerless Pictures, the movie production company created by motion picture raw film stock magnate Jules Brulatour.
World Pictures, now under the effective control of Selznick, released movies produced by Equitable, Peerless and Shubert Pictures, as well as those produced by independent companies, including the California Motion Picture Corp. of San Francisco. Movie production was centered at the Peerless Studio in Fort Lee, which had been built by Brulatour in 1914, and at the Paragon Studio, which was built in 1916. Gradually World Pictures began to dominate the companies whose movies it distributed. World Film Corp. was incorporated in February 1915, with Arthur Spiegel as president and Selznick as vice president and general manager.
"Photoplay" Magazine reported in 1915 that World Film was a large feature film company, both producing and distributing movies through its own exchanges. Its market capitalization totaled $2 million in stock--with a per-share value of $5.00--of which approximately $1.5 million was outstanding. For the fiscal year ending June 27, 1915, World Film reported a net profit of $329,000, equivalent to return of a little over 20% on the outstanding stock. At the time of the Photoplay article World Film had yet to pay a dividend, and its stock was active on the New York Curb Market at prices both above and below its par value.
World Film's market staples were traditional romances, comedies and dramas, starring the likes of Lillian Russell, Alice Brady, Marie Dressler and Lew Fields. Maurice Tourneur, who came over from Éclair America, proved to be World's top filmmaker. Other World Film employees who went on to greater careers included Josef von Sternberg, who worked as a film cutter, and Frances Marion, the future Oscar-winning screenwriter. Famed Broadway caricaturist Al Hirschfeld was appointed head of the art department by Selznick when he was still in his teens.
Lewis Selznick was ousted as general manager of World Film in 1916. Three years later he left World, taking Clara Kimball Young with him, and formed his own production company, the Clara Kimball Young Film Corp. The company leased studios from the Solax Co., which had been founded in Fort Lee by 'Alice Guy Blache' and her husband, Herbert Blaché (Alice Blanche was not only one of the first women movie executives but one of the first women directors as well). Selznick's company also released movies produced by the Schenck brothers, Joseph M. Schenck and Nicholas Schenck, who were partners with theater-owner Marcus Loew in his chain of movie houses, as well as in the Palisades Amusement Park in the Fort Lee/Cliffside Park area.
The early days of the film studios saw a constant spate of mergers and acquisitions as the industry underwent consolidation, and individual moguls jockeyed for position. Samuel Goldfish was ousted from two companies he co-founded in the 1910s, Famous Players-Lasky and Goldwyn Pictures (from which he took his name, being forever known as independent producer Samuel Goldwyn). Selznick merged with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Pictures in 1917, creating Select Pictures, later reorganized as Selznick Film Co. Selzlnick eventually bought out Zukor and merged his two companies into Selznick-Select, then acquired World Pictures' film exchanges, which he renamed Republic Distributing Corp. He shifted his operation to California, completing the move in 1920, where he again linked up with Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky's Paramount-Artcraft, the successor to Famous Players-Lasky.
Colorful and flamboyant, a quote of Selznick's became one of the most famous aphorisms about the motion picture industry: "There's no business in the world in which a man needs so little brains as in the movies." He also showed a wicked sense of humor. As a Jew growing up in Czarist Russia, a land famous for its anti-Semitic pogroms, Selznick suffered persecution before he emigrated to England. When Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown in the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917, Selznick sent a cable to him: "When I was a poor boy in Kiev some of your policemen were not kind to me and my people stop I came to America and prospered stop Now hear with regret you are out of a job over there stop Feel no ill will what your policemen did so if you will come New York can give you fine position acting in pictures stop Salary no object stop Reply my expense stop Regards you and family".
Unlike most of the other moguls, Lewis J. Selznick didn't take the movie business too seriously. The other magnates were outraged by his cavalier attitude toward the industry and the moguls themselves. Among the immigrant businessmen who created Hollywood and the American motion picture industry, it was the cultured and introspective ones who failed. Selznick had a self-deprecating cynicism that eventually diluted his ambition. It was said in the early 1920s that Selznick would rather stay at home surrounded by his ojects d'art. Apparently, he eschewed schmoozing with other industry insiders at their favorite haunts, the track, the polo grounds, the skeet range, and the speakeasies. Lacking their tastes and world view, Selznick wound up distrusted by the other movie magnates.
When Lewis J. Selznick Production, Inc., became financially troubled during the production glut of 1923 that roiled the industry, he had no one to turn to. His company went bankrupt in 1923 due to overexpansion, done in by the machinations of a vengeful Zukor. He never produced another movie, or as he'd prefer it, his days as a "presenter" were through (Lewis J. Selznick Productions' pictures were opened with a title card that read: "Selznick Presents." The slogan "Selznick Pictures Make Happy Hours" was, by the end of the second decade of the new 20th century, the best-known slogan in the entertainment industry).
His son David learned the ropes as a young man at Lewis J. Selznick Productions. As an independent producer, David later surpassed Lewis J., winning back-to-back Oscars for "Gone with the Wind" and Rebecca (1940). After his father went bankrupt, David quit Columbia and moved to California to get back into the industry without any help from his father. getting a proofreader's job at MGM. Famous for his facility with words and his writing ability, David quickly worked his way up to story editor, then became an assistant producer in producer Harry Rapf's unit. He began a secret romance with Irene Mayer, daughter of MGM boss Louis B. Mayer, and he eventually decided to quit and take a lower-paying job with better prospects at Paramount.
When he became betrothed to Irene L.B. was skeptical due to Selznick's being a "traitor" by leaving MGM. Actually, he respected David for striking out on his own and avoiding charges of nepotism. Mayer's real objection, it seemed, was rooted in his hatred of David's dad, a renegade who had tried to horn in on the original Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), claiming he had rights to the stage play. David apologized for his father, admitting it wasn't right for Lewis to have pulled such a con, and the two healed their rift, with David eventually working for his father-in-law after the death of Mayer's right-hand man Irving Thalberg (the news of the elevation of David to supervising producer at MGM was the source of the famous newspaper headline, "The Son-in-Law Also Rises.")
Lewis J. Selznick died on January 25, 1933, in Los Angeles, California. World Film and Lewis J. Selznick Productions Inc. no longer exist, and many of the films he produced are lost or forgotten, so his son David's output of great motion pictures remains Lewis J.'s Hollywood legacy. For it was at World Film Corp. that the banner "Quality Not Quantity" had first been unfurled.- Actress
Felipa Gómez was born on 10 September 1870 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She was an actress. She died on 15 April 1967 in Pacheco, Buenos Aires, Argentina.- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Leopold Wharton was born on 1 September 1870 in Manchester, England, UK. He was a director and producer, known for Beatrice Fairfax (1916), The Great White Trail (1917) and Patria (1917). He was married to Bessie Wharton. He died on 27 September 1927 in New York City, New York, USA.- Cora Williams was born on 6 December 1870 in Chelsea, Massachusetts, USA. She was an actress, known for The Great Mail Robbery (1927), Temptations of a Shop Girl (1927) and His Parisian Wife (1919). She was married to A.H. Busby and Leon Williams Schnitzer. She died on 1 December 1927 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- His film resume belies the fact that he was the most important man in motion pictures at the time of his death. Born as Max Loew in New York City to a poverty-stricken Viennese waiter, his life could've easily gone the the way of many boys of the east side slums, except that he was hyper-enterprising. He was also extremely superstitious: he never walked under ladders, distrusted nearly every doctor he met and refused to sign anything on a Friday (a habit that was often mistaken for something semitic; he was Jewish but decidedly non-practicing). Loew left school at nine and never looked back. Loew sold newspapers and lemons on the street, worked like a dog in an industrial printing plant, and began and failed at several business ventures - a print shop, furniture store and a fur factory - going bankrupt before he was 20. It's a testimonial to his personality and self-assurance that he picked himself up from these early failures and persevered. A second stab at the fur business brought him in contact with Adolph Zukor who became a friend and partner. Loew bought into a Zukor's penny arcade business and set about expanding it around the country. While opening up a new arcade in Cincinnati he was told of a competitor who was scoring bigger money with motion pictures than his mechanical machines. Loew struck up a deal with the Vitagraph Company for the necessary equipment and films, borrowed chairs and based on nickel admissions, grossed almost $250 the first day. Back in New York, Loew bought a Brooklyn burlesque house and converted it into the Royal, a first class house mixing the vaudeville bill with movies. The success of the Royal convinced him to convert his penny arcades into movie houses. Loew struck up a fateful business deal with brothers Joseph M. Schenck and Nicholas Schenck in 1906 when the group formed the Fort George Amusement Company and began a Paradise Park concession stand. Over the next decade Loew worked a slow (being a relative term in the business), methodical plan for theatrical dominance. By Armistice Day he owned 112 theaters that continued to offer a mix of vaudeville and movies. Joe Schenck ventured away from the company to become a movie producer.
By 1920 Loew was the dominant movie theater owner in New York and had recently expanded into Canada. With this expansion he faced increasing problems obtaining a reliable supply of quality films, especially problematic since audiences were pushing vaudeville acts off his stages. On January 3, 1920 he paid $3.1 million for Metro Pictures, a Hollywood studio with a lot of potential but suffering from poor management and a middling track record of success. Marcus Loew understood the value of his theatrical empire but felt that movie production was too huge a gamble to personally manage. At heart he was a New Yorker and felt comfortable handling the finances, not the mechanics of grinding out pictures in far-away Hollywood. It was at this juncture that Louis B. Mayer enters the story - Louis B. Mayer Productions was a far smaller shaker in town, but had three key assets: a successful track record of producing profitable melodramas that played well in the sticks, wunderkind producer Irving Thalberg - recently hired away from Universal and who rapidly proved his worth as a producer all consumed with movie production, and L.B. himself - admittedly a great macro manager, who shared Loew's rise from nothing life story. Oddly, Loew was only impressed with two of these factors; he didn't want Thalberg! He caved after Mayer insisted that any merger include his key producer (one of the wisest manoeuvrings L.B. would ever make). Loew's Metro company was then courting a third studio, troubled Goldwyn Productions (see Samuel Goldwyn). Loew was attracted to its state-of-the art studio and 40-acre lot, an asset that he understood. Unfortunately, the Goldwyn company was hemorrhaging red ink due to an out-of-control production in Italy, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), and was, closer to home, immersed in Erich von Stroheim's costly exercise in artistic overindulgence, Greed (1924), which only further demonstrated the need for competent management. Louis B. Mayer Productions was, despite its relatively insignificant size, the key to the merger. The parties worked out a percentage agreement and Loew merging a third troubled company into the fold, Goldwyn Pictures, which he had purchased for $4.3 million. The conglomerate bought Louis B. Mayer Productions for a mere $76,500 which tells something of the state of L.B.'s hard assets at the time of the merger. Metro-Goldwyn Pictures was formed on May 16, 1924 and dominated by Mayer's management team with Thalberg quickly rallying the best writers, directors, actors and technicians amongst the 3 former concerns. Mayer himself was named vice president and general manager of the new company at $1,500 a week, but that was dwarfed by a profit participation deal that included Thalberg (adding to his $650 a week salary) and key secretary Robert Rubin. These three men would split 20% of the company's profits, an incredibly rich benefits package as it turned out). Marcus Loew had chosen his personnel well, leaving him exactly in the position he wanted to be, writing checks from his 46 acre Long Island mansion and long weekly constructive arguments with Mayer on the phone. Under Mayer and Thalberg, the combination of these 3 shaky production companies and a huge injection of cash from Loew's Inc. created the premier studio in Hollywood. It's first official Metro-Goldwyn release, He Who Gets Slapped (1924), starring Lon Chaney was a hit. The company's name soon reflected Mayer's presence (the MGM moniker first seen in Buster Keaton's Go West (1925)) and for the next three decades MGM stood apart from every other operation in Hollywood, or the world for that matter. Unfortunately the early balanced managerial dynamic of Loew, Mayer and Thalberg ended forever when Marcus Loew died on September 5, 1927 at only age 57, leaving a $30 million estate (including 400,000 shares of Loew's Inc. stock) to his wife Caroline and sons. The title as the most powerful man in the film industry was assumed by Nicholas Schenck and MGM, for better or worse, would never be the same. - William Welsh was born on 9 February 1870 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for The Bull's Eye (1917), With Stanley in Africa (1922) and Burning Words (1923). He died on 16 July 1946 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Eddie Redway was born on 12 May 1870 in Reading, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for The Sunbeam (1916), The Winner (1914) and Pat Casey's Case (1914). He was married to Katherine Pearl Smith. He died on 9 April 1919 in Reading, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Florence Arliss was born on 29 July 1870 in London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Disraeli (1929), Disraeli (1921) and The King's Vacation (1933). She was married to George Arliss. She died on 12 March 1950 in Paddington, London, England, UK.- D'Arcy Corrigan was born on 2 January 1870 in County Cork, Ireland, UK [now Republic of Ireland]. He was an actor, known for The Last Warning (1928), A Christmas Carol (1938) and Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1927). He died on 25 December 1945 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Samuel Adams was born on 16 December 1870 in Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for Pick a Star (1937), Amateur Crook (1937) and The Luckiest Girl in the World (1936). He died on 24 March 1958 in Sun Valley, California, USA.
- Louÿs' refined evocations, not to say re-inventions, of the society of Hellenistic Greece proved extremely popular in both France and the English speaking world, especially due to the somewhat risque nature of such works as Aphrodite (1896) and Les Chansons de Bilitis (1894). He lived his entire life in Paris, travelling occasionally around the Mediterranean coast where so many of his works of art were set. He had close friends among the writers of his day but otherwise kept among himself rather apart from literary cliques except for that of Mallarme.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Trixie Friganza was born on 29 November 1870 in Grenola, Kansas, USA. She was an actress, known for Free and Easy (1930), If I Had My Way (1940) and Silks and Saddles (1936). She was married to Charles A. Goettler and William J.M. Barry. She died on 27 February 1955 in Flintridge, California, USA.- Gertrud Eysoldt was born on 30 November 1870 in Pirna, Germany. She was an actress, known for ...reitet für Deutschland (1941), Hotelgeheimnisse (1929) and The Lady with the Mask (1928). She was married to Max Martersteig and Benno Berneis. She died on 6 January 1955 in Ohlstadt, Bavaria, West Germany.
- Director
- Writer
- Cinematographer
Dadasaaheb Phalke was born in 1870 in Trymbakeshwar in Nasik. He was born to a Sanskrit scholar, he studied at J.J. college of Art in Bombay and at Kala Bhavan, Baroda. He then studied architecture and became landscape painter of academic nature studies. He worked in a photographic studio and at Ratlam learned three-colour block making and ceramics. He then worked as a portrait photographer, stage make-up man, assistant to a German illusionist and as a magician! He was offered backing to start an Art Printing Press and his backers to acquaint him with the latest printing process arranged for him to go to Germany provided that he remain with the company. But by the time Phalke returned he knew that a printing career would not satisfy him. He raised loan from his friend and pledging his life insurance, Phalke went to England in 1912 to purchase the necessary equipment and acquaint himself with the technical aspects of filmmaking. When he returned from London he launched Raja Harishchandra about an honest king who for the sake of his principles sacrifices his kingdom and family before the gods impressed with his honesty restore him to his former glory and this movie was released in 1913. Later he produced Mohini Bhasmasur (1913),Satyavan Savitri (1914), Lanka Dahan (1917), Shri Krishna Janam (1918) and Kaliya Madan (1919). Due to changing tastes of movies and extreme commercialised atmosphere in film world, Phalke retired. Later in 1937 he produced Gangavataram (1937), but he had lost his magic. He died in Nasik, a forgotten man. But today he is considered as a pioneer of Indian cinema and a prestigious Indian film industry award is named after him.- Joseph Burke was born on 8 August 1870 in England, UK. He was an actor, known for Too Many Kisses (1925), The White Rose (1923) and Kidnapped (1917). He died on 7 March 1933 in New York, New York, USA.
- Producer
- Actor
Jules Brulatour was born on 7 April 1870 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He was a producer and actor, known for Saved from the Titanic (1912), Marionettes (1925) and Kodachrome Two-Color Test Shots No. III (1922). He was married to Hope Hampton, Dorothy Gibson and Clara Isabelle Blouin. He died on 26 October 1946 in New York City, New York, USA.- Jane Fairbanks was born on 13 July 1870 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Zudora (1914), The Cripple (1914) and Her Menacing Past (1915). She was married to John Henry Fairbanks. She died on 4 March 1954 in Islip, New York, USA.
- Kate Cutler was born on 14 August 1870 in London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for I Stand Condemned (1935), Wedding Rehearsal (1932) and Lord of the Manor (1933). She was married to Sidney Ellison. She died on 14 May 1955 in London, England, UK.
- American Western actor of silent pictures. Born of Irish stock in Lewiston, Maine, USA, Harris became friends with Western star Harry Carey, for whom he worked as a hired hand and with whom he appeared in approximately twenty silent Westerns. Harris lived with Carey and his family for decades. He died in 1953, aged 82.
- Anne Schaefer was born on 10 July 1870 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. She was an actress, known for A Little Princess (1917), The Price of a Good Time (1917) and Main Street (1923). She was married to F. Medek. She died on 3 May 1957 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Hector Hugh Munro was born on 18 December 1870 in Akyab, Burma [now Myanmar]. He was a writer, known for Great Ghost Tales (1961), Tales of the Unexpected (1979) and The Addends. He died on 13 November 1916 in Beaumont-Hamel, Somme, France.
- Demeter Ritter von Tuschinski (after 1918, Dimitrie de Tusinschi) was the First Attorney of State in Austrian-Hungarian Czernowitz. After WW1, when the city became Romanian, he was appointed Prime President of the Higher Regional Court from 1926 until his retirement in 1938. Several thousand pre-WW2 press articles mention him and the important role he played in society of Bucovina. Particularly, his involvement in numerous charities was often stressed. Demeter Ritter von Tuschinski received numerous important awards, including the Grand Officer's Cross of the Romanian Order of the Crown in 1936, and the Austrian-Hungarian Order of the Iron Crown in 1912.
- Maria Montessori was born on 31 August 1870 in Chiaravalle, Marche, Italy. She was a writer, known for Let the Child Be the Guide (2017) and The Children's House (1915). She died on 6 May 1952 in Noordwijk, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands.
- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Franklin Dyall was born on 3 February 1870 in Liverpool, England, UK. He was an actor and director, known for The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), Easy Virtue (1927) and The Gaunt Stranger (1931). He was married to Mary Merrall and Mary Phyllis Logan. He died on 8 May 1950 in Worthing, Sussex, England, UK.- Anders Randolf was born Anders Randrup in Denmark 1870.
His parents were Matthius Randrup and Kristine Jensen. He had a number of siblings - two of which were sisters Kirstine Randrup born in 1884 and Jensine Marie Randrup born 1880. He grew up on Old Rybjergaard farm, living with an Aunt rather than his parents. Her name was Marie (Randrup) and she was married to Anders Kristian Jensen.
Anders moved to the USA around 1890-1893. When Anders first got to the USA he went to live with an Aunt in Denver. When she died a short time later he moved to Chicago and entered the army. He became an officer and taught fencing. In 1912 he moved to New York and started working for movie studio Vitagraph.
He got married in the United States. His wife was Dorthea Amdersine Jorgensen (b. 1890) and she was from Denmark. They had one daughter Karen Kristine Randolf (1917-1989). After his death in 1930 there was a grand funeral in Hollywood. A short time later his wife and daughter moved back to Denmark.
In 1942 his daughter had one son who was named Peter Michael Mogens Randolf. (Father unclear but her son was given the Randolf surname)) His Grandson Peter married (Kirsten) and they had a son named Anders Peter Randolf II, born July 26,1973. His grandson died in 1991. - King Christian X was born on 26 September 1870 in Charlottenlund, Denmark. He was an actor, known for En ny dag gryer (1945), Aankomst en verblijf in Brussel van de Deense vorsten (1914) and La visite officielle des souverains du Danemark (1914). He was married to Dronning Alexandrine. He died on 20 April 1947 in Amalienborg, Copenhagen, Denmark.
- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Burton Holmes was born on 8 January 1870 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a producer and director, known for How California Harvests Wheat (1917), Today in Samoa (1918) and Fiji Does Its Bit (1918). He was married to Margaret Oliver. He died on 22 July 1958 in Los Angeles, California, USA.