Winnie Lightner

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Winnie Lighter
Screenshot from the film Manhattan Parade (1932)
Birth name	Winifred J. Reeves
Born	September 17, 1899 Greenport, New York, USA
Died	March 5, 1971 Sherman Oaks, California, USA

Winnie Lightner (September 17, 1899 – March 5, 1971) was an American motion picture actress. Perhaps her most famous role was as a gold-digger named Mabel, in Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929). Lightner was often typecast as a wise-cracking gold-digger and was known for her talents as acomedienne and singer.

Winnie Lightner was born Winifred Reeves in Greenport, New York, but was raised in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen by her aunt and uncle Margaret and Andrew Hansen. She has a successful career in vaudeville and finally made it to Broadway. Winnie Lightner was known as Broadway's "Song a Minute Girl" because she could belt out a song in less than 60 seconds. Her brassy outgoing style lent itself to Warner's Vitaphone shorts when sound came in and soon Winnie Lightner was a top Warner star. Winnie Lightner was the first movie performer in history ever to be censored for what she said or sang on screen rather than for anything she did visually. In 1928 she made a Vitaphone short in which she sang "We Love It," "God Help a Sailor on a Night Like This," "That Brand New Model of Mine," and "We've Got a Lot to Learn." A censorship board in Pennsylvania held the release of the film because of the content of Lightner's songs. According to film historian Alexander Walker, "Warners asked the censors to merely pass judgment on the visuals - the censors refused.".

The musical Gold Diggers of Broadway was a triumph for Lightner in 1929, and made her an international star. The Warner Bros. quickly signed her up for a number of musical comedies. The first of these was Hold Everything, a lavish all-Technicolor feature based on a Broadway hit. This was followed by She Couldn't Say No (1930), in which Lighter was cast in a dramatic maudlin role which did not suit her talent. The picture, consequently, was not very successful. This was followed by another successful picture,The Life of the Party which was also shot entirely in Technicolor and was an even bigger hit than Hold Everything. Unfortunately, by the end of 1930 audiences had grown tired of musicals. This occurred while Winnie Lightner was in the process of shooting three musicals. These three pictures, Sit Tight (1931), Gold Dust Gertie (1931) and Manhattan Parade (1932) ended up being released with most of the music being cut from the film. This was especially noticeable on Sit Tight (1931) and Manhattan Parade (1932) on which even the background music was completely removed. Since musicals had become so unpopular, the Warner Bros. decided to try another dramatic role for Lightner and the result was a picture called Side Show (1931), which proved to be unsuccessful. She starred in two more comedies in which she co-starred with Loretta Young (without songs), before she left Warner Bros. In the first of these, Play Girl (1932) she was billed as the star with her name above the title, but in the second picture, She Had To Say Yes (1933) Loretta Young had taken over this privilege. Winnie Lightner left Warner Bros. after this to go freelance. She would play as a supporting actor in two more features, for MGM and Columbia Pictures respectively, before retiring in 1934.

Lightner had met Director Roy Del Ruth on the set of "Gold Diggers of Broadway" and they eventually fell in love and were married. Winnie had a son from a previous marriage named Richard Lightner (he legally changed his name to Lightner) when she married Del Ruth. They had a son named Thomas who is a cinematographer in Hollywood. After she quit pictures she never looked back. Friends and family never heard her speaking of her days of fame and the Del Ruth's rarely entertained the movie crowd in their home. Winnie died in 1972 and is buried next to Roy at the Mission San Fernando in Southern California.