Violet Mersereau

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Violet Mersereau (October 2, 1892 - November 12, 1975) was an American silent movie star.

Her career spanned the years from 1908-1926. She was born in New York, New York and was educated there. As a young girl she played child parts in stock. She toured with Margaret Anglin and had a role in the original company of The Clansman. The play continued to show for three years. Violet was given the nickname The Child Wonder. She starred on the road as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and then became a screen actress. She was five feet four inches tall with light hair and blue eyes. Her sister, Claire Mersereau, was also an actress, two years younger than Violet.

[edit] Silent Film Player

Violet made her first films for Blue Bird and was later an actress for Universal Pictures. In 1918 Carl Laemmle decided to open one of his eastern United States studios for Miss Mersereau's own productions. Laemmle engaged O.A.C. Land to direct Violet in these features. The actress took the first train available for Boston, Massachusetts. Blue Bird was absent from the Boston Exhibitor's Ball in October 1918, and while there, Mersereau represented the film company.

She had always exhibited a distinct preference for working in the East, and disliked California. Among her most successful ventures for Blue Bird and Universal include The Boy Girl (1917), Morgan's Raiders (1918), Little Miss Nobody (1917), Susan's Gentleman (1917), The Honor of Mary Blake (1916), Souls United (1917), Autumn (1916), and The Little Terror (1917).

The actress' continued in motion pictures into the 1920s with her final film being The Wives of the Prophet (1926), in which she had the role of Alma. The most acclaimed project of her final period was Nero (1922), directed by J. Gordon Edwards, grandfather of Blake Edwards.

Violet played the part of Marcia in a production which featured French actress Paulette Duval. The movie had many of the same elements as The Sign of the Cross, yet was inferior in many respects to the film directed by Cecil B. Demille. Nero was made with an impressive number of participants in the crowd scenes. However the chariot races and burning of Rome employed cheaply constructed sets. The American Mersereau's blond beauty was in sharp contrast to the lovely brunette foreign stars like Duval, Lina Talba, Lydia Yaguinto, and Maria Marchiali.

Violet Mersereau died in 1975 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, aged 83.

[edit] References

  • Iowa City, Iowa Citizen, Violet Mersereau, Tuesday, October 1, 1918. Page 5.
  • Lincoln, Nebraska Sunday Star, Answers To Movie Fans, March 18, 1917, Page 3.
  • Lincoln Sunday Star, Answers To Movie Fans, March 25, 1923, Page 15.
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