Bessie Love
| Bessie Love | |
|---|---|
 c. 1916 | |
| Born |
Juanita Horton September 10, 1898 Midland, Texas, United States[1] |
| Died |
April 26, 1986 (aged 87) London, England, United Kingdom[2] |
| Occupation | Actress, Singer |
| Years active | 1915–83 |
| Height | 5 ft 0 in (1.52 m)[1] |
| Weight | 100 lb (45 kg)[1] |
| Spouse(s) | William Hawks (m. 1929; div. 1936)[3] |
| Children | Patricia (b. 1932)[3] |
Bessie Love (September 10, 1898 – April 26, 1986) was an American motion picture actress who achieved prominence mainly in the silent films and early talkies.[4] With a small frame and delicate features, she played innocent young girls, flappers, and wholesome leading ladies. Her performance in The Broadway Melody (1929) earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.[5]
Early life
Love was born Juanita Horton in Midland, Texas.[1] She attended school in Midland until she was in the eighth grade, when her chiropractor father moved his family to Arizona, New Mexico, and then to Hollywood.[2]
Career
The silent era
On actor Tom Mix's recommendation that she "get into pictures",[6] Love's mother sent her to Biograph Studios, where she met pioneering film director D.W. Griffith. Griffith, who introduced Bessie Love to films, also gave the actress her screen name. He gave her a small role in his film Intolerance (1916). Love dropped out of Los Angeles High School to pursue her film career, although she completed her degree many years later.[7]
Her "first role of importance" was in The Flying Torpedo;[8] she later appeared opposite William S. Hart in The Aryan and with Douglas Fairbanks in The Good Bad Man, Reggie Mixes In, and The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (all 1916).
Love took an active role in the management of her career, upgrading her representation to Gerald C. Duffy, the former editor of Picture-Play Magazine,[9] and publicizing herself by playing the ukulele and dancing for members of the military.[10] Even glowing reviews of her films criticized the venues in which they were shown, citing this as a reason she was not a more awarded actress.[11]
In 1922, Love was selected one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars.[12][13] In 1923, she starred in Human Wreckage with Dorothy Davenport and produced by Thomas Ince.
As her roles got larger, so did her popularity. Because of her performance in The King on Main Street (1925), Love is credited with being the first person to dance the Charleston on film,[14] popularizing it in the United States. Her technique was documented in instructional guides,[15] including a series of photographs by Edward Steichen.[16] She subsequently performed the dance the following year in The Song and Dance Man.[17]
She starred in The Lost World, a science fiction adventure based on the novel of the same name by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Three years later she starred in The Matinee Idol, a romantic comedy directed by a young Frank Capra.
The sound era and stage work
Love was able to successfully transition to talkies, and in 1929 she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Broadway Melody. She appeared in several other early musicals, including The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929), Chasing Rainbows (1930), Good News (1930), and They Learned About Women (1930).
However, by 1932, her American film career was in decline. She moved to England in 1935 and did stage work and occasional films there. Love briefly returned to the United States in 1936 to seek divorce.[3][18]
During World War II in Britain, when Love found acting work hard to come by, she was the "continuity girl" on the film drama San Demetrio London (1943), an account of a ship badly damaged in the Atlantic but whose crew managed to bring her to port. She also worked for the American Red Cross.[19]
After the war, she resumed work on the stage and played small roles in films—often as an American tourist.[20] Stage work included such productions as Love in Idleness (1944)[21] and Born Yesterday (1947).[21][22][23] She wrote and performed in The Homecoming, a semiautobiographical play, which had its opening in Perth, Scotland in 1958.[24][25] Film work included The Barefoot Contessa (1954) with Humphrey Bogart, Ealing Studios' Nowhere to Go (1958), and The Greengage Summer (1961) starring Kenneth More.[26] She also played small roles in the James Bond thriller On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) and in Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971). In addition to playing the mother of Vanessa Redgrave's titular character in Isadora (1968), Love also served as dialect coach to the actress.[27]
In October 1963, Love was the subject of This Is Your Life, when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in central London.[28]
Love appeared in John Osborne's play West of Suez,[29] and as "Aunt Pittypat" in a large-scale musical version of Gone With the Wind (1972). She also played Maud Cunard in the TV miniseries Edward & Mrs. Simpson in 1978. Her film work continued in the 1980s with roles in Ragtime (1981), Reds (1981), Lady Chatterley's Lover (1981), and—her final film—The Hunger (1983).
Personal life
Love married agent William Hawks (January 29, 1901 Neenah, Wisconsin – January 10, 1969 Santa Monica, California) at St. James Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California on December 27, 1929.[30] Mary Astor (William's sister-in-law), Carmel Myers, and Norma Shearer were among her bridesmaids; William's brother Howard Hawks and Irving Thalberg ushered. They then lived at the Havenhurst Apartments in Hollywood. They had a daughter, Patricia Hawks (February 19, 1932, Los Angeles, California),[3] who had some bit parts in movies in 1952. They divorced in 1936.[3]
Love was a Christian Scientist.[29] She died in London, England from natural causes on April 26, 1986.
Legacy
Love was periodically interviewed by film historians, and wrote a series of articles about her experiences for The Christian Science Monitor.[31] In 1977, Love published an autobiography based on these articles, entitled, From Hollywood with Love.[32]
She was interviewed in the television documentary series Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film (1980).[33]
Love has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6777 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, California.
Filmography
Silent films: 1915–1928
| Year | Title | Role | Studio | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1916 | Acquitted | Helen Carter | Triangle | lost |
| 1916 | The Flying Torpedo | Hulda | Triangle | lost |
| 1916 | The Aryan | Mary Jane Garth | Triangle | extant |
| 1916 | The Good Bad Man | Amy | Triangle | extant |
| 1916 | Reggie Mixes In | Agnes | Triangle | extant |
| 1916 | The Mystery of the Leaping Fish | The Little Fish Blower | Triangle | extant |
| 1916 | Stranded | The Girl | Triangle | lost |
| 1916 | Intolerance | The Bride | Triangle | extant |
| 1916 | Hell-to-Pay Austin | Briar Rose Dawson | Triangle | lost |
| 1916 | A Sister of Six | Prudence | Triangle | lost |
| 1916 | The Heiress at Coffee Dan's | Waffles | Triangle | lost |
| 1917 | Nina, the Flower Girl | Nina | Triangle | lost |
| 1917 | A Daughter of the Poor | Rose Eastman | Triangle | lost |
| 1917 | Cheerful Givers | Judy | Triangle | lost |
| 1917 | The Sawdust Ring | Janet Magie | Triangle | extant |
| 1917 | Wee Lady Betty | Wee Lady Betty | Triangle | lost |
| 1917 | Polly Ann | Polly Ann | Triangle | lost |
| 1918 | The Great Adventure | Rags | Pathé | extant[34] |
| 1918 | How Could You, Caroline? | Caroline Rogers | Pathé | lost |
| 1918 | A Little Sister of Everybody | Celeste Janvier | Pathé | lost |
| 1918 | The Dawn of Understanding | Sue Prescott | Vitagraph | lost |
| 1919 | The Enchanted Barn | Shirley Hollister | Vitagraph | lost |
| 1919 | Carolyn of the Corners | Carolyn May Cameron | Pathé | lost |
| 1919 | The Wishing Ring Man | Joy Havenith | Vitagraph | lost |
| 1919 | A Yankee Princess | Patsy O'Reilly | Vitagraph | lost |
| 1919 | The Little Boss | Peggy Winston (The Little Boss) | Vitagraph | lost |
| 1919 | Cupid Forecloses | Geraldine Farleigh | Vitagraph | lost |
| 1919 | Over the Garden Wall | Peggy Gordon | Vitagraph | lost |
| 1919 | A Fighting Colleen | Alannah Malone | Vitagraph | lost |
| 1920 | The Midlanders | Aurelie Lindstrom | Federated Film Exchanges | fragment found[35][36] |
| 1920 | Pegeen | Pegeen O'Neill | Vitagraph | lost |
| 1920 | Bonnie May | Bonnie May | Federated Film Exchanges | lost |
| 1921 | Penny of Top Hill Trail | Penny | Federated Film Exchanges | lost |
| 1921 | The Honor of Ramirez (short)[37] | Ramirez's Bride | Pathé | |
| 1921 | The Spirit of the Lake (short)[37] | Pathé | ||
| 1921 | The Swamp | Mary | Robertson-Cole | extant[38][39][40] |
| 1921 | The Sea Lion | Blossom Nelson | Associated Producers | extant |
| 1922 | The Vermilion Pencil | Hyacinth | Robertson-Cole | lost |
| 1922 | Forget Me Not | Ann, The Girl | Metro Pictures | lost |
| 1922 | Bulldog Courage | Gloria Phillips | Clinton | extant[41] |
| 1922 | The Village Blacksmith | Rosemary Martin, the Daughter | Fox | lost[42] |
| 1922 | Deserted at the Altar | Anna Moore (the country girl) | Phil Goldstone | extant |
| 1923 | The Adventures of Prince Courageous[43][44] | Bernice | Anchor | |
| 1923 | Three Who Paid | John Caspar/Virginia Cartwright | Fox | lost |
| 1923 | The Ghost Patrol | Effie Kugler | Universal | lost |
| 1923 | The Purple Dawn | Mui Far | Aywon/State's Rights | lost |
| 1923 | Mary of the Movies | Herself | Columbia/Robertson-Cole | incomplete[45] |
| 1923 | Human Wreckage | Mary Finnegan | FBO | lost |
| 1923 | The Eternal Three | Hilda Gray | Goldwyn | lost |
| 1923 | St. Elmo | Edna Earle | Fox | lost[46] |
| 1923 | Slave of Desire | Pauline Gaudin | Goldwyn | extant[40][47][48] |
| 1923 | Gentle Julia | Julia | Fox | lost |
| 1924 | Torment | Marie | Tourneur/Associated First National | lost |
| 1924 | The Woman on the Jury | Grace Pierce | Associated First National | lost |
| 1924 | Those Who Dance | Veda Carney | Ince/Associated First National | lost |
| 1924 | The Silent Watcher | Mary Roberts | First National | lost |
| 1924 | Dynamite Smith | Violet | Ince/Pathé | lost |
| 1924 | Sundown | Ellen Crawley | First National | lost |
| 1924 | Tongues of Flame | Lahleet | Paramount | lost |
| 1925 | The Lost World | Paula White | First National | extant |
| 1925 | Soul-Fire | Teita | First National | extant |
| 1925 | A Son of His Father | Nora Shea | Paramount | lost |
| 1925 | New Brooms | Geraldine Marsh | Paramount | lost |
| 1925 | The King on Main Street | Mary Young | Paramount | extant |
| 1926 | The Song and Dance Man | Leola Lane | Paramount | extant[49][50][51] |
| 1926 | Lovey Mary | Lovey Mary | MGM | incomplete[52] |
| 1926 | Meet the Prince | Producers Distributing Corporation | lost | |
| 1926 | Young April | Victoria | Producers Distributing Corporation | extant |
| 1926 | Going Crooked | Marie | Fox | extant[53][54] |
| 1927 | The American | Natural Vision Pictures | never released theatrically[40] | |
| 1927 | Rubber Tires | Mary Ellen Stack | Producers Distributing Corporation | extant |
| 1927 | A Harp in Hock | Nora Banks | Pathé | lost[55] |
| 1927 | Amateur Night (short) | Uncredited | Warner Brothers/Vitaphone | |
| 1927 | Dress Parade | Janet Cleghorne | Pathé | extant |
| 1928 | The Matinee Idol | Ginger Bolivar | Columbia | extant |
| 1928 | Sally of the Scandals | Sally Rand | FBO | extant[56] |
| 1928 | Anybody Here Seen Kelly? | Mitzi Lavelle | Universal | lost[57] |
Sound films: 1929–1983
| Year | Title | Role | Studio | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1929 | The Broadway Melody | Hank Mahoney | MGM | extant |
| 1929 | The Idle Rich | Helen Thayer | MGM | extant |
| 1929 | The Hollywood Revue of 1929[58] | Herself | MGM | |
| 1929 | The Girl in the Show | Hattie Hartley | MGM | extant |
| 1930 | Chasing Rainbows[59] | Carlie Seymour | MGM | extant |
| 1930 | They Learned About Women | Mary Collins | MGM | extant |
| 1930 | Conspiracy | Margaret Holt | RKO | extant |
| 1930 | Good News | Dixie O'Day | MGM | missing Technicolor ending[60] |
| 1930 | See America Thirst | Ellen | Universal | extant[61] |
| 1931 | Morals for Women | Helen Huston | Tiffany | extant |
| 1936 | I Live Again | Kathleen Vernon | National Provincial Film Distributors-UK | |
| 1941 | Atlantic Ferry (a.k.a. Sons of the Sea) | Begonia Baggot | Warner Brothers | |
| 1945 | London Scrapbook[62] | Spectator Short Films | ||
| 1945 | Journey Together | Mrs. Mary McWilliams | ||
| 1951 | No Highway in the Sky | Aircraft passenger (uncredited) | ||
| 1951 | The Magic Box | Wedding group member | ||
| 1954 | The Weak and the Wicked[62] | Prisoner | ||
| 1954 | The Barefoot Contessa | Mrs. Eubanks | ||
| 1954 | Beau Brummell | Maid (uncredited) | ||
| 1955 | Touch and Go | Mrs. Baxter | ||
| 1957 | The Story of Esther Costello | Matron in Art Gallery | ||
| 1958 | Next to No Time | Becky Wiener | ||
| 1958 | Nowhere to Go | Harriet P. Jefferson | ||
| 1960 | Too Young to Love | Mrs. Busch | ||
| 1961 | The Greengage Summer[63] | American tourist | ||
| 1961 | The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone | Bunny | ||
| 1963 | The Wild Affair | Marjorie's Mother | ||
| 1963 | Children of the Damned | Mrs. Robbins, Mark's Grandmother | ||
| 1964 | I Think They Call Him John[63] | Narrator | Samaritan Films | |
| 1965 | Promise Her Anything | Pet Shop Customer | ||
| 1966 | The Poppy Is Also a Flower | Uncredited | ||
| 1967 | Battle Beneath the Earth | Matron | ||
| 1967 | I'll Never Forget What's'isname | American tourist | ||
| 1968 | Isadora | Mrs. Duncan | ||
| 1969 | On Her Majesty's Secret Service | American tourist | Eon-Danilag Productions | |
| 1971 | Sunday Bloody Sunday[64] | Answering Service Lady | ||
| 1971 | Catlow | Mrs. Frost | ||
| 1974 | Vampyres | American Lady | ||
| 1974 | Mousey (a.k.a. Cat and Mouse)[64] | Mrs. Richardson | ||
| 1976 | The Ritz | Maurine | ||
| 1977 | Gulliver's Travels[64] | |||
| 1978 | Edward & Mrs. Simpson | Maud Cunard | television | |
| 1981 | Reds | Mrs. Partlow | ||
| 1981 | Ragtime | Old T.O.C. Lady | ||
| 1981 | Lady Chatterley's Lover | Flora | ||
| 1983 | The Hunger | Lillybelle | ||
References
- Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Stars of the Photoplay. Chicago: Photoplay magazine. 1924.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Folkart, Burt A. (29 April 1986). "Bessie Love, Silent Screen Actress Discovered in 1915, Dies at 87". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Kidd, Charles (1986). Debrett Goes to Hollywood. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 67. ISBN 0312005881.
- ↑ Obituary Variety, April 30, 1986.
- ↑ "Oscar History: 1930a". Retrieved 6 June 2014.
- ↑ Love 1977, p. 25
- ↑ "Little Whisperings from Everywhere in Playerdom". Motion Picture Magazine 18 (8): 104. September 1919.
- ↑ "Bessie Love's Popularity Growing". The Moving Picture World: 1233. March 1, 1919.
- ↑ "Cinema Truth in Flashes". Photo-Play Journal: 46. February 1919.
- ↑ "Hobnobbing with Bessie Love". Photo-Play Journal: 11, 56. February 1919.
- ↑ Essex, Bert D. (April 1919). "The Silent Trend". Photo-Play Journal: 36.
- ↑ "Wampas Baby Stars of 1922–1934 with Photos of Each Class". Immortal Ephemera. Retrieved January 6, 2015.
- ↑ Anderson, Chuck. "The WAMPAS Baby Stars". The Old Corral. Retrieved January 6, 2015.
- ↑ In The King on Main Street:
- "Crimson Playgoer: The Metropolitan Opens its Doors to an Unlimited Public and a Very Fair Opening Attraction". The Harvard Crimson. October 21, 1925.
Bessie Love too, who does a very jazzy version of the Charleston
- "The King on Main Street". Theatre Magazine. January 1926.
…it is memorable … for the fact that Bessie Love gives a perfect exhibition of the Charleston, proving that it can be danced with extreme grace and agility, and yet without a single hint of wriggling vulgarity. We hereby award Miss Love the palm as the greatest Charleston expert on the screen if not on the stage – which is by way of being a miracle, for ordinarily a film dance looks as silly as the capering of goats.
- "Crimson Playgoer: The Metropolitan Opens its Doors to an Unlimited Public and a Very Fair Opening Attraction". The Harvard Crimson. October 21, 1925.
- ↑ "Everybody's Doing It Now; Bessie Love Shows You How". Photoplay. October 1925.
- ↑ Feeney, Mark (July 19, 2009). "Steichen: A man for all styles – Exhibits showcase breadth of his career". The Boston Globe.
- ↑ In The Song and Dance Man:
- "Newspaper Opinions". The Film Daily 35 (30): 8. February 5, 1926.
The picture is well worth viewing, however, if for no other reason than to watch Bessie Love dance the Charleston.
- "Stage and Screen". The Cornell Daily Sun XLVI (134): 4. 25 March 1926.
Bessie Love is well cast as the girl – she surely can do the Charleston.
- "George M. Cohan's "Song and Dance Man" Comes to State". Reading Times (Reading, Pennsylvania). March 22, 1926. p. 8.
Bessie Love, the diminutive film favorite and the screen's foremost exponent of the 'Charleston,' is happily cast as the small time performer who eventually wins fame and for tune in the musical comedy field.
- "Lincoln Way Theatre". The Gettysburg Times (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania). August 31, 1926. p. 6.
See Bessie Love, the screen's Charleston champ, strut her stuff!
- "Newspaper Opinions". The Film Daily 35 (30): 8. February 5, 1926.
- ↑ "Bessie Love Back". Titusville Herald 72 (90) (Titusville, Pennsylvania). September 28, 1936. p. 1.
- ↑ "Bessie Love". AllMovie Guide. Retrieved November 22, 2014.
- ↑ "In Short". Billboard 58 (47): 36. November 23, 1946.
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 Love 1977, p. 136
- ↑ "London Garrick Theatre – Born Yesterday – Laurence Olivier". Retrieved 20 June 2014.
- ↑ "'Born Yesterday' Hit In Glasgow Opening Before London Deb". Billboard 58 (48): 4. November 30, 1946.
- ↑ "Silent Film Star a Playwright". Tri-City Herald (Pasco, Washington). April 21, 1958. p. 2.
- ↑ "Little Action in New Play". The Glasgow Herald. April 22, 1958. p. 3.
- ↑ "Bessie Love – Silent and Sound Film Actress". Golden Silents. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
- ↑ Love 1977, p. 140
- ↑ Bessie Love's appearance on This Is Your Life
- ↑ 29.0 29.1 Hollander, Zander (August 28, 1972). "Bessie Love—74 Years Young and Still Acting". The Dispatch 91 (99) (Lexington, NC). p. 21.
- ↑ Love 1977, p. 125
- ↑ The twenty-one articles were published over eighteen years:
- First article: Love, Bessie (May 9, 1962). "An Aryan in Sulphur Canyon". The Christian Science Monitor: 8.
- Last article: Love, Bessie (October 20, 1980). "The second time around". The Christian Science Monitor: 21.
- ↑ Love 1977
- ↑ Brownlow, Kevin; Gill, David (1980). "The Man With The Megaphone". Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film. Episode 10. Thames Video Production. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
- ↑ "The Great Adventure (1918)". BFI National Film and Television.
- ↑ "The Midlanders / Bessie Love [motion picture]". Library of Congress – Performing Arts Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 9, 2014.
- ↑ "Lost 35 mm Nitrate Film FOUND!". NitrateVille. January 18, 2014. Retrieved September 5, 2014.
- ↑ 37.0 37.1 Love 1977, p. 150
- ↑ "The Swamp". Silent Era. Retrieved November 9, 2014.
- ↑ "The Swamp / Colin Campbell [motion picture]". Library of Congress – Performing Arts Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 9, 2014.
- ↑ 40.0 40.1 40.2 The American Film Institute (1971). The American Film Institute catalog of motion pictures produced in the United States: Feature Films: 1921–1930. R.R. Bowker Co. OCLC 504274291.
- ↑ "Bulldog Courage (1922)". British Film Institute.
- ↑ "The Village Blacksmith". Silent Era. Retrieved November 9, 2014.
- ↑ Love 1977, pp. 82–83
- ↑ Love 1977, p. 151
- ↑ Kehr, Dave (June 7, 2010). "Trove of Long-Lost Silent Films Returns to America". The New York Times. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
- ↑ "St. Elmo". Silent Era. Retrieved November 9, 2014.
- ↑ "Slave of Desire / George D Baker [motion picture]". Library of Congress – Performing Arts Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 9, 2014.
- ↑ "Slave of Desire". Silent Era. Retrieved November 9, 2014.
- ↑ "The Song and Dance Man". Silent Era. Retrieved November 9, 2014.
- ↑ Andersen, Arne. "The Lost Films of Paramount Pictures". Lost Film Files. Retrieved November 8, 2014.
- ↑ "The Song and Dance Man / Herbert Brenon [motion picture]". Library of Congress – Performing Arts Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 9, 2014.
- ↑ Lovey Mary / King Baggot
- ↑ "Going Crooked". Silent Era. Retrieved November 9, 2014.
- ↑ "Going Crooked / George Melford [motion picture]". Library of Congress – Performing Arts Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 9, 2014.
- ↑ Andersen, Arne. "The Lost Films of Pathé Exchange". Lost Film Files. Retrieved November 8, 2014.
- ↑ "Sally of the Scandals / Lynn Shores [motion picture]". Library of Congress – Performing Arts Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 9, 2014.
- ↑ Andersen, Arne. "The Lost Films of Universal Studios". Lost Film Files. Retrieved November 8, 2014.
- ↑ Love 1977, p. 153
- ↑ Dickstein, Martin (24 February 1930). "The Cinema Circuit". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn). Retrieved 6 June 2014.
- ↑ "GOOD NEWS color sequence". NitrateVille. May 17, 2010. Retrieved November 9, 2014.
- ↑ Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress by The American Film Institute (1978)
- ↑ 62.0 62.1 Love 1977, p. 154
- ↑ 63.0 63.1 Love 1977, p. 155
- ↑ 64.0 64.1 64.2 Love 1977, p. 156
- Bibliography
- Love, Bessie (1977). From Hollywood with Love: An Autobiography of Bessie Love. London: Elm Tree Books. OCLC 734075937.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bessie Love. |
- Bessie Love at the Internet Movie Database
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