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- Samuel Richardson was born on 19 August 1689 in Mackworth, Derbyshire, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Jane Austen in Manhattan (1980), Mistress Pamela (1973) and Clarissa (1991). He died on 4 July 1761 in Parsons Green, Middlesex, England, UK.
- Eduard Julius Vortheil was born on 19 August 1851 in Tilsit, Kingdom of Prussia [now Sovetsk, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia]. He died on 25 February 1927 in Pabianice, Lódzkie, Poland.
- Yelizaveta Shebueva was born on 19 August 1852. She was an actress, known for Queen of Spades (1916). She died on 26 April 1935.
- Lawrence D'Orsay born in Peterborough, England. Well-known in drama and
comedy theatre from the 1880's, perhaps more notable for his starring
role in 'The Earl of Pawtucket' at the Manhattan Theatre in 1903. A
brilliant star in at least 8 Hollywood comedy and drama movies, he
played the typical English monocled upper-class character often seen as
Lords or Colonels, making his film debut in 'The Border Detective' a
short western made at the American Film Co in 1912, perhaps best
remembered as Hon. George Vane-Basingwell in Lawrence C. Windom's
'Ruggles of Red Gap' a western/comedy co-starring Taylor Holmes in
1918, his last screen appearance he played the role of Lord Elton in
D.W. Griffith's 'The Sorrows of Satan' starring Adolphe Menjou and
Carol Dempster at the Paramount studios in 1926. Died in London in 1931
age 78. - Soundtrack
James Milton Black was born on 19 August 1856 in South Hill, New York, USA. James Milton died on 21 December 1938 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, USA.- Harold Frederic was born on 19 August 1856 in Utica, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for Copperhead (2013). He was married to Grace Green Williams. He died on 19 October 1898 in Hornby, England, UK.
- Director
- Writer
Marie Hubert Frohman was born on 19 August 1858 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Marie Hubert was a director and writer, known for The Fairy and the Waif (1915). Marie Hubert was married to Gustave Frohman. Marie Hubert died on 4 July 1939 in Bronxville, New York, USA.- Adele Sandrock was born on 19 August 1863 in Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands. She was an actress, known for Helen of Troy (1924), Op hoop van zegen (1924) and Die Försterchristl (1931). She died on 30 August 1937 in Berlin, Germany.
- Metcalfe Wood was born on 19 August 1864 in Derby, Derbyshire, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Wanted a Wife (1919). He died on 17 January 1944 in Leatherhead, Surrey, England, UK.
- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Actor
Georges Denola was born on 19 August 1865 in Paris, France. He was a director and assistant director, known for Le secret de la comtesse (1917), Rocambole (1914) and Marie-Jeanne ou la femme du peuple (1914). He died on 3 March 1944 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France.- William Burress was born on 19 August 1867 in Newcomerstown, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for The Scarlet Pimpernel (1917), The World Changes (1933) and Kultur (1918). He was married to Carrie May O'Brien. He died on 30 October 1948 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Aurel Gondor was born on 19 August 1869 in Miskolc, Hungary. He was an actor, known for Be vagyok én csudálkozva (1908) and A tót szocialista (1908). He died on 12 September 1917 in Budapest, Hungary.
- Bernard Baruch was born on 19 August 1870 in Camden, South Carolina, USA. He was married to Annie Griffen. He died on 20 June 1965 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Carl Pedersen was born on 19 August 1870 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was an actor, known for Genboerne (1939). He died on 29 October 1953.
- Carl Petersen was born on 19 August 1870 in Denmark. He was an actor, known for Storstadens Hyæne (1912), Gud raader (1912) and Københavns Sherlock Holmes (1925). He died on 29 October 1953 in Denmark.
- Orville Wright was born on 19 August 1871 in Dayton, Ohio, USA. He died on 30 January 1948 in Dayton, Ohio, USA.
- Amalie Sandberg was born on 19 August 1872 in Lund, Sweden. She was an actress, known for Krudt med knald (1931), The run-away bride (1923) and Raske Riviera Rejsende (1924). She died on 29 December 1932 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
- Actor
- Producer
Hardly remembered today, if at all, Fred Stone was once one of the most
multi-faceted circus performers to hit turn-of-the century America.
There seemed to be nothing he couldn't do--tightrope walking,
acrobatics, clowning . . . you name it. This initial celebrity
eventually led to his stellar headlining in vaudeville houses, stardom
on the Broadway musical stage and character lead work in films.
He was born in a Valmont, Colorado, log cabin in the summer of 1873.
Running away from home at the ripe old age of 11, he eventually joined
a traveling circus show. By his teens he had taught himself the
high-wire act and other athletic skills so well that he earned a name
for himself under the big top. He met and teamed up with fellow circus
performer David Craig Montgomery
(1870-1917) in 1895. Billed as "Montgomery and Stone," they became a
prominent song-and-dance duo in burlesque houses and minstrel shows.
The toast of New York in the first decade of the 1900s, they appeared
in a number of hit revues, including "The Red Mill" and "Chin Chin."
One of their most famous pairings was in the 1903 Broadway musical
version of L. Frank Baum's "The Wizard of
Oz" in which Fred portrayed the Scarecrow to Montgomery's Tin Man. The
agile duo also shared billing on various other circuits, including
"Wild West" shows, with the likes of close friends
Will Rogers and
Annie Oakley.
After Montgomery's unexpected death on April 20, 1917, following an
unsuccessful operation, Fred continued solo, often appearing with wife
Allene Crater (later billed as Allene Stone or Mrs. Fred Stone) in such
musical shows as "Criss Cross" and "Ripples." Fred also extended his
talents to the movies. Although he didn't become a steady fixture (he
dropped out of films by the early 1920s), he had wrangled a few of his
own comedy and western vehicles to make a dent, with
The Goat (1918),
Under the Top (1919),
Johnny Get Your Gun (1919),
The Duke of Chimney Butte (1921)
and Billy Jim (1922) being his best. He
made an auspicious return to the movies in the sound era as
Katharine Hepburn's beleaguered father
in the seriocomic classic
Alice Adams (1935), and as a feuding
clan member in the tumbleweed western
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936).
Given such a rousing reception, the 63-year-old was offered his own
secondary feature, top-lining such comedy efforts as
The Farmer in the Dell (1936),
Grand Jury (1936),
Quick Money (1937) and
No Place to Go (1939), before
ending his lucky streak with
The Westerner (1940) starring
Gary Cooper and
Walter Brennan. In 1950 Fred retired
completely from show business. During the final years of his life he
suffered from advancing blindness and heart trouble. He died at his Los
Angeles home in March of 1959 at age 85. The patriarch of a show-biz
family, his daughters
Dorothy Stone,
Paula Stone and
Carol Stone were also actresses who
appeared with their father at various times on Broadway (he was also
the uncle of Milburn Stone, veteran
character actor and
Gunsmoke (1955)'s "Doc Adams"). A
long-overdue biography of Fred Stone was published by Armond Fields in
2002.- Actor
- Writer
Rudolf Blümner was born on 19 August 1873 in Breslau, Silesia, Germany. He was an actor and writer, known for M (1931), The Golem (1914) and Two Friends (1938). He died on 2 September 1945 in Berlin, Germany.- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Patrick Sylvester McGeeney was born on 19 August 1873 in Omagh, County Tyrone, Ireland. He was a director and actor, known for Little Miss Bluebonnet (1922), The Germ (1923) and Perils of the West (1922). He was married to Mary Graham. He died on 15 October 1943 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Soundtrack
Composer, educated at the New York Conservatory. He was a staff
arranger, composer, and manager for the orchestra department of
music-publishing firms, and advertising manager for the 'International
Musician'. Joining ASCAP in 1923, his song and instrumental
compositions include "Smoky Mokes Cake Walk", "The Whip", "Loveland
Waltzes", "First Love Waltz", "Symphia Waltz", "Blaze Away", "The
Spirit of Independence", and "Old Faithful".- Ardelia Palmer was born on 19 August 1875 in Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, USA. She was married to William Lewis Collins Palmer. She died on 6 June 1968 in Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, USA.
- John Evans was born on 19 August 1877 in Swansea, Wales, UK. He died on 10 June 1990 in Swansea, Wales, UK.
- Tom Connally was born on 19 August 1877. He died on 28 October 1963 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA.
- Manuel Quezon was born on 19 August 1878 in Baler, Tayabas, Philippines. He was married to Aurora A. Quezon. He died on 1 August 1944 in Saranac Lake, New York, USA.
- Cinematographer
J.C. Bitzer was born on 19 August 1878 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She was a cinematographer, known for The Venus Model (1918), The Face in the Dark (1918) and Back to the Woods (1918). She was married to Mary. She died on 6 September 1923 in Brooklyn, New York, USA.- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
George Enescu was born on 19 August 1881 in Liveni, Romania. He was a composer, known for The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Colonia Ingerilor (2011) and George Enescu - Alesul lui Dumnezeu (1996). He was married to Maria Cantacuzino. He died on 4 May 1955 in Paris, France.- Additional Crew
- Art Director
- Art Department
Edward Shulter was born on 19 August 1881 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an art director, known for The Squealer (1930), The Sideshow (1928) and Revelation (1918). He died on 16 January 1962 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Music Department
- Writer
- Actor
André Mauprey was born on 19 August 1881 in Paris, France. He was a writer and actor, known for The Threepenny Opera (1931), Le cavalier Lafleur (1934) and The Maiden (1955). He died on 3 February 1939 in Paris, France.- Writer
- Composer
- Music Department
Henri Falk was born on 19 August 1881. He was a writer and composer, known for Aventure à Paris (1936), Le père prématuré (1933) and La ronde des heures (1931). He died on 6 March 1937.- Stefania Betcherowa was born on 19 August 1882 in Warsaw, Poland, Russian Empire [now Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland]. She was an actress, known for Sto metrów milosci (1932), O czym sie nie mówi... (1939) and Ulani, ulani, chlopcy malowani (1932). She died on 2 July 1945 in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland.
- Costume Designer
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
Coco Chanel was born on 19 August 1883 in Saumur, Maine-et-Loire, France. She was a costume designer, known for The Rules of the Game (1939), Tonight or Never (1931) and The Greeks Had a Word for Them (1932). She died on 10 January 1971 in Paris, France.- The great Broadway stage actress and silent film star Elsie Louise
Ferguson was born on August 19, 1883 in New York City, the only child
of prominent lawyer Hiram Benson Ferguson and his wife. Due to her
father's wealth, hers was a privileged childhood, though she developed
a penchant for socialism in her late thirties.
Educated in Manhattan, Elsie made her theatrical debut as a chorus girl
in the musical comedy "The Belle of New York" at the Madison Square
Theatre in 1900. Her early flirtation with the stage was linked to a
friend importuning her to join the chorus, which she did out of
curiosity. She also was a chorus girl in "The Liberty Belles" the
following year. Allowed to speak one line in "Belles," she made up her
mind to become a stage actress. Elsie was quite beautiful, as well as
talented, and she worked her way up from the chorus to become a
Broadway star for three decades. She made her Broadway debut, proper,
at the end of 1903 in the musical The Girl from Kay's at the Herald
Square Theatre. In 1904, she then appeared in the play "The Second
Fiddle.
Between the time Elsie appeared on Broadway in the musical "Miss Dolly
Dollars" and in Arthur Conan Doyle's play "The Brigadier," one of the
major scandals that periodical rock America to its core occurred. On
June 25, 1906, Pittsburgh millionaire Harry K. Shaw, the husband of
Elsie's friend Evelyn Nesbitt, shot and killed renowned architect
Stanford White while he was attending a public performance at the
Garden Theatre situated atop Madison Square Garden, the penultimate
arena bearing that name actually located on New York City's Madison
Square. White's Garden, which he had designed, housed the Madison
Square Theatre, where Nesbitt had appeared in the 1903 musical "The
Girl from Dixie." Though the show was her last appearance in a
legitimate Broadway production, she had earlier been appearing in
private shows for White, the man whom she called "Stanny," at his
spectacular multi-floor apartment snug inside the Garden building's
tower, on top of which the rooftop theater sat.
White had first espied the young red-headed woman would become his
mistress and Lorelei in 1901, when she was in the chorus of the musical
"Florodora" at Broadway's Casino Theatre, in a time when girls from the
leg-line were as famous as supermodels are today. The Pittsburgh native
was 16 years old. Before taking to the stage, she had made her living
as a model for artists and photographers. After an introduction, White
played sugar daddy to her and her family, eventually purloining
Nesbitt's maidenhead in an act she variously described as a rape and
seduction.
Many men, including the young John Barrymore, who proposed to her,
wooed Evelyn. But White intervened, and she became involved with fellow
Pittsburgh native Thaw, an emotionally unstable man addicted to cocaine
and morphine, who had hated White for years, due to some snub involving
showgirls that had transpired before either man had made the fiery
young redhead's acquaintance. White, something of a Humbert Humbert,
gradually cooled towards the maturing Evelyn, though he still played
sugar daddy to her. Gradually, he took up with other, younger chorines,
and Evelyn, who had revealed the details of her affair to her other
suitor, made a "reluctant" marriage to Thaw. She did so despite her
fear of the man, who had a violent and bizarre streak that had
expressed itself once in his beating her with a dog whip during a
sojourn in Europe.
Evelyn moved to Pittsburgh, but she was ostracized from society due to
her reputation as a showgirl. Theatrical people simply were not
respectable in those halcyon days of Victorian morals and mores. She
grew her bored and lonely, ad was wary of her husband, who was prone to
tantrums and fits or rage. During a planned1906 trip to Europe, she and
her husband stopped off in New York, where they, by chance, met up with
Evelyn's former lover. It was just a matter of time before Thaw stalked
White to the sybaritic aerie atop his Garden and put three bullets into
his face. Adam had slain his Eve's snake, all in the name of "the
unwritten law" that held a man had the moral right to slay his wife's
seducer.
The press had a field day. Nesbitt became known as "The Girl in the Red
Velvet Swing" when the news of her private whoopee-making with White
became public knowledge. The press revealed the double-life of the
respected architect, who was unmasked as a libertine and voluptuary who
shared the taste for showgirls with the Gilded Age plutocrats with whom
he hobnobbed. They mass-circulation rags ran tearful, hand-wringing and
utterly salacious articles about the other showgirls whom White had
corrupted, all the while inveighing against the immorality of show
people while doing their utmost best to profit by it by. Anthony
Comstock, for 30 years the Lord General Cromwell in America's campaign
against smut in the mails, praised Thaw for avenging his wife's honor,
claiming that America would be better off with more Thaws taking the
law into their own hands and executing "the unwritten law." President
Theodore Roosevelt reportedly closely followed the case in the press.
Unfortunately, the press dragged Elsie into the scandal revolving
around the murder, an affair immortalized in the book, motion picture
and Broadway musical "Ragtime." A journalist revealed that Elsie had
known about her friend Evelyn's affair with White, which brought
unwanted attention. The two Thaw murder trials (the first one having
ended with a hung jury) constituted the first "Trial of the Century" in
that new century, and Elsie was anxious to avoid being subpoenaed as a
witness as it might generate more bad publicity. To be tarred as one of
the loose showbiz girls the press was reveling in, boosting its
circulation while sanctimoniously condemning their immorality while
covering their yellow pages with the skinny on their antics, could
prove fatal to a career in those more-outwardly Puritanical times.
Elsie accepted an offer to appear in "The Earl of Pawtucket" at the
London Playhouse in England, which proved to be a hit.
Returning to her home country, she appeared in melodramas on Broadway,
such as Edgar Selwyn's "Pierre of the Plains" in 1908. The next year,
she was hailed for her performance in the title role of "Such a Little
Queen." In the following decade, she became the 'Toast of Broadway' and
earned the reputation as 'the most beautiful woman on the spoken
stage.' Elsie rejected offers from movie producers as she considered
the primitive photoplays of her time to be inferior to the stage. She
continued to act on Broadway, appearing in a string of successes,
including the revival of "Arizona."
She distinguished herself playing Portia opposite Shylock of the great
English tragedian Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree in a 1916 production of
"The Merchant of Venice." Elsie next appeared as the eponymous heroine
of "Shirley Kaye." At this time, she surrendered to the blandishments
of Paramount-Artcraft sachem Adolph Zukor, who had offered her a very
lucrative three-year contract that would pay her $5,000 per week to
appear in 18 pictures.
Maurice Tourneur helmed her fist picture for Paramount, "Barbary Sheep"
(1917), which also featured the movie debut of George M. Cohan, later
immortalized on film in James Cagney's Oscar-winning turn as the master
showman in "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942). Initially, Elsie hated the
experience, but she had a good working relationship with Tourneur, who
became her favorite director during her relatively brief movie career.
She later told an interviewer, "I shall never forget my state of mind
during the making of `Barbary Sheep.' My experience before the camera
was the most painful thing I have ever known in life. It seemed to me
that the little black box became a monster that was leering and
scoffing at my feeble efforts to register an emotion before it. I went
home in tears. But the next morning I returned.... It is so different
and not at all as I expected.... I am fortunate in being under Mr.
Maurice Tourneur's direction and presume I shall soon look upon the
work as blandly as those to whom it has become a habit, though now it
is quite strange."
Maurice Tourneur relayed a story about Elsie's debut in films in an
interview in a Paramount media guide. "Downstairs the studio manager
declared 'Miss Ferguson is a wonder. When she came over here the first
day, she candidly said, 'I don't know film work, but I'm willing to
learn.' Other stars and stage folk dash in with that
'I-know-it-all-need-no-director-look-who-I-am' air, and their first
screen work shows how little they actually know." Tourneur predicted
that Elsie would become a major star due to her beauty and talent.
"Barbary Sheep" was a hit with critics and audiences, and Tourneur
directed her next two pictures, "The Rise of Jenny Cushing" (1917) and
"Rose of the World" (1918), the latter of which Elsie declared was her
favorite among her first batch of movies. In 1918, Tourneur also
directed her with less stellar results as Nora Helmer in a cinematic
adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's masterpiece "A Doll's House." It was the
third movie version of the play, which had also been filmed in 1911 and
1917, the latter with Dorothy Phillips as Nora and Lon Chaney as Nora's
nemesis, Nils Krogstad.
Ibsen's masterpiece had been frequently revived on Broadway since its
New York debut in 1889, starring the likes of the great Ethel Barrymore
and Alla Nazimova, who portrayed the tragic heroine three times on
Broadway between and 1907 and 1918. (The flamboyant Nazimova would play
the role in her own adaptation of the play in Charles Bryant's 1922
film version, co-starring Alan Hale, the father of The Skipper from
"Gilligan's Island," as her Torvald.) Elsie had not yet played in
anything with the gravity of Ibsen, on stage or screen. The photoplay,
which was changed from the play but retained the basic story,
displeased both the director and his star, and it flopped at the box
office. As the `Moving Picture World' had written about the failure of
the 1917 version to live up to Ibsen's play, "[T]he fine shades of
meaning in the dialogue without the aid of speech render the task of
the actors in the cast doubly hard...." If the great pantomimist Chaney
could not put the meaning across, it is doubtful that Elsie and her
less stellar supporting cast could, which likely abetted the failure of
her picture..
Marshall Neilan directed her in a remake of her old stage hit "Pierre
of the Plains," which had first been filmed in 1914 by the Selwyn
brothers, called "Heart of the Wilds" (1918), while George Fitzmaurice
directed her in four films. A fashion maven, Elsie earned the sobriquet
"The Aristocrat of the Screen" for her many portrayals of aristocrats
and high society women in her pictures.
Elsie refused Paramount's offer for a new, more lucrative contract, and
returned to the Broadway stage with the play "Sacred and Profane Love"
(1920), which was a huge hit. In this period, she admitted to an
interest in socialism in an October 1921 `Motion Picture Magazine'
interview. "All the while, the middle classes and the lower classes,
people are struggling and worrying and fretting their lives away over
questions of food and education for their children and the wherewithal
for the essentials of life. When a man has accumulated more than, say,
a million, the moneys made should revert back to those who have
contributed to the amassment." The statement is surprising, not because
of her wealthy background and lifestyle, but because the United States
had been in the grip of its first "Red Scare' for two years.
Paramount managed to sign Elsie to a two-year, four-picture contract in
late 1921, and she filmed a movie version of her stage success, "Sacred
and Profane Love" (1921), with director by William Desmond Taylor, a
man who himself would fall victim to a bullet at the beginning of 1921,
as had Stanford White almost two decades earlier. Supporting player
Maxine Elliott Hicks, who described her leading lady in "Love" as
`ritzy' in a 1990 interview, said, "She wouldn't allow anyone on the
set, including Momma, but she was a darling to me."
George Fitzmaurice directed her in a screen adaptation of George du
Maurier's novel "Peter Ibbetson" called "Forever" (1921), co-starring
Wallace Reid, the silent movie superstar addicted to morphine who would
die in an asylum in January 1923 while withdrawing from narcotics.
Containing her best screen performance, this third film of her two-year
Paramount contract was a big hit, as was her last, "Outcast" (1922).
She then returned to the Broadway stage in the 1923 hit "The Wheel of
Life," but she refused Paramount's offer of a new contract, which would
have included filming her latest success. She instead appeared in "The
Grand Duchess and The Waiter" on Broadway.
Elsie would later take her "Wheel" and "Duchess" co-star, British stage
actor Frederick Worlock, as her third husband. Earlier, she had been
married to businessman and Adams Express Co. heir Frederick C. Hoey,
then married bank executive Thomas Clarke, Jr. in the mid-1910s. Elsie
divorced Clarke in the late 1920s, married Warlock, and then shortly
divorced him in 1930. But that lay in the future.
After appearing in a supporting role to Adolphe Menjou and Norma
Shearer in the Monta Bell-directed movie "Broadway After Dark" for
Warner Bros., she made one more silent flicker, Vitagraph's "The
Unknown Lover" (1925), a film she detested and would never discuss.
Elsie continued her stage career with great success throughout the
decade, but retired at the end of the Roaring `20s. Five years later,
she appeared in First National Pictures' "Scarlet Pages" (1930). The
movie, a talkie, was based on the play of the same name that Elsie had
appeared in on Broadway in 1929. The 47-year-old actress played a
lawyer defending a young woman accused of murder. Elsie's speaking
voice on film was lower-pitched than her fans expected, but she had
clear and precise diction, as did man of the stage actors dragooned
into the talkies in that period. Her first talkie would prove to be her
last appearance on film.
Elsie's friend Lowell Sherman, who was developing a cinematic version
of William Makepeace Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" at R.K.O. for David O.
Selznik's friend and future business partner, multi-millionaire John
Hay "Jock" Whitney, cast her as the Duchess of Richmond. The movie,
"Becky Sharp" (1935), made cinematic history as the first feature film
shot in three-strip Technicolor. It was not directed by Sherman,
however, as he died before filming began and was replaced by Rouben
Mamoulian. With her friend gone, Elsie dropped out of the film, and
Billie Burke played the Duchess instead.
On March 17, 1934, the 51-year-old Elsie married wealthy Irishman
Victor Augustus Seymour Egan. They bought a farm in Connecticut that
same year, where she spent her retirement. They also maintained a home
in France. Elsie came out of retirement to appear on Broadway in the
1943 production of "Outrageous Fortune," which was a hit with the
critics, but a flop at the box office, playing only 77 performances.
She retired from acting for good, splitting her time between
Connecticut and France.
Elsie's husband, Victor Egan, died in France in 1956. Widowed for five
years, Elsie died at the age of 78 on November 15, 1961. With no
surviving heirs, she left $1,000,000 to New York City's Animal Medical
Center.
None of Elsie Ferguson's silent films are known to exist, although a
35mm print of "Forever" (1922) that had been owned by Dorothy Davenport
Reid, Wallace Reid's widow, may have made it into the hands of a
private collector. Her sole talkie, "Scarlet Pages," does exist and is
part of the Time-Warner library of films. It occasionally is shown by
the cable movie network Turner Classic Movies and remains the sole
legacy of this great actress' spectacular career in the first part of
the last century. - William David Ball was born on 19 August 1885 in Colorado, USA. He was a writer, known for The Ridin' Comet (1925) and Rustler by Proxy (1926). He died on 8 March 1971 in Kern County, California, USA.
- Francis Ledwidge was born on 19 August 1887 in Janeville, Ireland. He was a writer, known for Scope (1972). He died on 31 July 1917 in Passendale, Belgium.
- Additional Crew
Ivar Enhörning was born on 19 August 1887. He is known for The Prisoner of Zenda (1937). He died in 1989.- Soundtrack
Kenneth Blain was born on 19 August 1888 in Liverpool, England, UK. He died in 1971 in Westminster, London, England, UK.- Géza Kardos was born on 19 August 1888 in Tiszacsege, Hungary. He was an actor, known for A nap lovagja (1919), Fiú vagy lány? (1946) and Zörgetnek az ablakon (1944). He was married to Vickie Bruckner. He died on 5 August 1955 in South Bend, Indiana, USA.
- Gordon Coghill was born on 19 August 1888 in Kempsey, New South Wales, Australia. He was an actor, known for The Way of the World (1920). He died on 3 August 1970 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
- Soundtrack
Songwriter ("There's a Long, Long Trail A-Winding") and author,
educated at Yale University. He was press manager for the Yale Dramatic
Association, editor of the Yale Record, a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and
a columnist for the Spokesman-Review in Washington. During World War I
he served in the 3rd Washington Infantry of the National Guard. Joining
ASCAP in 1941, his chief musical collaborator was Zo Elliott, and his
other popular-song compositions include "There's a Wee Cottage on the
Hillside", "Enchanted River", "Oh Oh Abdullah", "Roll Along, Cowboy",
and "Tiddledidee-o".- Actor
- Soundtrack
Don Carney was born on 19 August 1889 in St. Joseph, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for Korn Plastered in Africa (1931) and Rambling 'Round Radio Row #6 (1933). He died on 14 January 1954 in Miami, Florida, USA.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Alves da Cunha was born on 19 August 1889 in Lisbon, Portugal. He was an actor and writer, known for Vivo ou Morto (1916), Maria do Mar (1930) and Urutau (1919). He died on 23 September 1956 in Lisbon, Portugal.- Actor
- Writer
- Music Department
Composer, songwriter, actor, author and director, educated at City
College of New York. He appeared in vaudeville, Broadway musicals and
films and wrote special material for films, as well as serving as
dialogue director. One of his jobs was as publicity director for
Yonkers Raceway. Joining ASCAP in 1923, his chief musical collaborators
included Walter Donaldson, James Hanley, Al Bryan, Harry Tierney, Harry
Akst, and Milton Ager. His popular-song compositions included
"M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I", "Round on the End, High in the Middle", "Far
Far Away in Rockaway", "I'd Love to Be a Monkey in the Zoo", "Four
Little Walls and Me", "Omaha", and "Vamping Rose".- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Being one of numerous important comedians during the silent era whose
popularity has turned into almost complete obscurity, Lloyd Hamilton
has nevertheless earned a reputation as an original talent among film
historians and enthusiasts. Born into a conservative middle-class
family in California, presumably in 1891, Hamilton began his career as
an extra in theatre-productions. He entered films at an early age,
although the exact year remains hard to specify; he claimed to have
appeared in his first films at Lubin Company in 1914, but he can be
glimpsed in a few surviving Frontier-comedies from the year before.
However, it is correct that it was in the year of 1914 that he first
gained success, when he teamed up with Bud Duncan in Kalem's 'Ham and
Bud'-series, being one of the very first permanent comedy teams
produced in the movies. The series turned out moderately popular and
ran for three years, although it can be hard to understand this success
for modern viewers; by common agreement, the 'Ham and Bud'-films have
not aged well and remain of interest mostly due to the limited insight
into Hamilton's maturity as a performer that they provide.
Hamilton left Kalem for Fox in late 1917, where he appeared on his own
under the direction of Henry Lehrman and Jack White. Along with White
and another director who would later reach fame as a performer in his
own right, Charley Chase, Hamilton established 'Mermaid Comedies' in
1920, a production unit exclusively dedicated to comedy shorts. He
appeared in a number of films over the next few years; sadly, only a
few of these are known to exist today, but comedies such as "Moonshine"
and "The Simp" (both 1920) confirm Hamilton's progression as a
performer during this time. Indeed, by 1922 he was hailed in the press
as a "great comedy coup" and audiences had already taken notice of him.
Hamilton's screen personality was something of its own, inheriting very
few traits of the other major comedians of the time; tubby and
baby-faced though he was, his character was a childish man of personal
contrasts: he possessed a touch of bewilderment, irresponsibility,
incredible self-assurance and frustration that gave him a partly tragic
complexion, which in return probably made his comedy more appealing to
adults than children.
By the mid-1920s, Hamilton's popularity had grown such a degree that he
considered it appropriate to establish his own production company. It
was about this time that he starred in his first feature-length film,
"The Darker Self," a film which does not only seem rather tasteless
today due to the use of racial stereotypes, but which in fact was a
disaster also when originally released and Hamilton's reputation
suffered a blow because of it. He nevertheless produced many fine short
comedies throughout the decade, such as "Move Along" (1926), "Nobody's
Business" (1926) and "Somebody's Fault" (1927), most of which were
directed by Norman Taurog. While it may be argued that some of the
films suffer from lack of continuity, they often provide many clever
visual gags and camera-tricks which still make them pleasant to watch;
in fact, in one respect absence of continuity suits Hamilton's
character well, as his movies are not so often based upon a particular
story as of him being constantly haunted by bad luck, with one bad
situation leading up to an even worse situation.
Despite being so very amusing on-screen, Hamilton led a troublesome
private life. He was a hard drinker, which severely affected his family
life. His first marriage was to actress Ethel Lloyd, five years his
senior, which took place at an early point of his movie career and
lasted just a few years; they were separated by 1923, and their split
caused a two-year long court battle. He married a second time in 1927
to Irene Dalton, who had appeared in some of his films. Dalton accused
her husband of being violent when drunk, and the couple divorced after
a year. (None of the marriages produced any children.) In the midst of
these personal difficulties, Hamilton was suddenly banned from the
screen after a boxer was murdered in a street-fight in which he was
involved; the comedian was not a suspect, but the tolerance of scandals
was minimal in Hollywood at this time and he remained unemployed for
more than a year. He did a comeback in a series of two-reeler's for
Mack Sennett at Educational Films in 1929, this time in sound pictures,
which had just done its lasting entrance in the medium. Lloyd had a
good voice which suited his character perfectly, but by this time his
troubled life-style had begun to get the better of him. After the
contract with Sennett expired, it was rumored that he would begin a new
series of two-reeler's for Hal Roach, but being informed of Hamilton's
alcoholism, Roach refused to hire him. He died unemployed and ill in
1935, aged 43.
During his brief period as a star, Charlie Chaplin is reported to have
remarked that Lloyd Hamilton "is the one actor of whom I am jealous,"
and Charley Chase confessed that whenever he had difficulties in doing
a scene, he'd always ask himself, "How would Lloyd have done it?"
Buster Keaton also expressed great fondness of his work, stating in a
late interview that Hamilton was "one of the funniest men in pictures."
Critic and playwright Walter Kerr, considered by many the most
insightful authority on silent comedy, discusses his work with great
respect and admiration in his 1975-book "The Silent Clowns." However,
despite all acclaim, Lloyd Hamilton is exceedingly seldom given a
mention today even among silent comedy fans. One significant reason to
this is his sad lack of surviving output; most of his negatives were
destroyed in a laboratory fire at Universal shortly after his death.
Happily, a fine collection of his work is now available on DVD through
silent comedy specialists "Looser Than Loose."- Director
- Writer
Heinrich Brandt was born on 19 August 1891 in Düsseldorf, Germany. He is known for Der Rächer von Davos (1924), Der Kampf ums Ich (1922) and Kampf der Geschlechter (1926).- Milton Lasell Humason was an American astronomer who worked with Edwin Hubble on the survey of galactic redshifts that led to the discovery of the expanding universe.
Having dropped out of school, he became a mule driver for the pack-trains that traveled the trail between the Sierra Madre and Mount Wilson during construction work on the Observatory. In 1911 he married the daughter of the Observatory's engineer and became a foreman on a relative's range in La Verne, but in 1917 he joined the staff of Mount Wilson Observatory as a janitor and was soon promoted to night assistant.
In 1919 George Hale, the observatory's director, recognized Humason's unusual ability as an observer and appointed him to the scientific staff. He became involved with Hubble's study of galaxies and personally developed a technique for determining the exposures and plate measurements.
Between 1930 until his retirement in 1957, Humason measured the redshifts of 620 galaxies, first using the 100-in (2.5-m) telescope at Mount Wilson and then the 200-in (5-m) reflector at Palomar. He also applied the techniques he developed for recording spectra of faint objects to the study of supernovae, old novae that were well past peak brightness, and faint blue stars (including white dwarfs). During his studies on galaxies he also discovered comet 1961e, notable for its large perihelion distance.
Humason was also the inspiration for the Big Dipper song "Humason," which appeared on the Boston group's 1987 album Heavens. - Art Director
- Art Department
- Music Department
Joseph C. Wright was born on 19 August 1892 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an art director, known for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), Guys and Dolls (1955) and My Gal Sal (1942). He died on 24 February 1985 in Oceanside, California, USA.- Arthur Hosking was born on 19 August 1892 in Saltash, Cornwall, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Solo for Canary (1958), As I Was Saying (1955) and The Railway Children (1957). He was married to Patricia Horder. He died in 1959 in Hammersmith, London, England, UK.
- Born Olga Vladimirovna Baklanova, one of six children of Vladimir
Baklanoff and his wife Alexandra, later billed as the Russian Tigress
in her early talking films, was born August 19, 1893. She graduated
from the Cherniavsky Institute in Moscow prior to her selection in 1912
at age 19 to apprentice at the Moscow Art Theatre. During her early
years at M.A.T. (1914-1918) she appeared in perhaps 18 films bringing
her into contact with Tourjansky, Boleslawski and M. Chekov among
others. Her last Russian film, Bread (1918) was the first communist
agitprop vehicle. From 1917 she appeared in the "classics" on the
parent stage and at the M.A.T. First Studio. Her mentor,
Nemirovich-Danchenko, showcased her in avant-garde productions of the
newly created M.A.T. Musical Studio from 1920-1925. She was honored
with the Worthy Artist Of The Republic by the Soviet regime.
Eight months after her M.A.T. New York debut in December 1925, she
declined to return with the M.A.T. company to Russia and subsequently
defected. She was noticed by the Hollywood studios while performing on
stage in Los Angeles in The Miracle in the role of the nun. Her film
debut was a bit in The Dove (1927). Her dramatic Portrayals in The Man Who Laughs (1928),
Street of Sin (1928), The Docks of New York (1928) and Forgotten Faces (1928) brought her critical acclaim in 1928. Her
subsequent vamp/tramp roles in early Paramount and Fox talking films
nearly destroyed her promising start. Stagey mannerisms and a heavy
accent relegated her to supporting roles. She appeared to advantage in
three films at MGM including the infamous Freaks (1932) with an unrestrained
and legendary performance.
After appearing in west coast stage productions in 1931-32, she
permanently left for the Broadway stage in 1933 following one last film
at Paramount. From 1933 to 1943 she starred in various Broadway
productions and then toured in road companies of Cat And The Fiddle,
Twentieth Century, Grand Hotel and Idiot's Delight. She debuted on the
London stage in 1936 in Going Places. One last big role in Claudia (1943) kept
her busy for two years (1941-1943). She returned to Hollywood in 1943
to recreate her stage role. Some summer stock and occasional night club
appearances followed as she moved into retirement.
During the mid-1960s Olga was interviewed by Richard Lamparski, Kevin
Brownlow and John Kobal who all recognized her unique contributions in
the performing arts. Her death occurred at Vevey, Switzerland on
September 6, 1974 after a period of declining health. - Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Elsie Waters was born on 19 August 1893 in Poplar, London, England, UK. She was an actress and writer, known for Gert and Daisy Clean Up (1942), It's in the Bag (1944) and Gert and Daisy's Week-end (1942). She died on 14 June 1990 in Steyning, Sussex, England, UK.