Hollywood History Goddess

Truly Shattuck (July 27, 1875 – December 6, 1954) was a soubrette star of vaudeville, music halls and Broadway whose career began in tragedy and ended in relative obscurity. Early Life and Scandal  Truly Shattuck was born at San Miguel, San Luis Obispo County, California in an adobe house adjoining the historic Mission San Miguel Arcángel. Her birth name was said to be Clarice Etrulia de Burchards (or Burcharde) which has proven difficult to verify through public records. Shattuck was the surname of her stepfather, who like her birthfather, nothing here is known. Truly’s mother was Jane Shattuck. In 1893 Jane Shattuck murdered Harry Poole, her daughter's boyfriend, after he refused to commit to marriage after the couple spent the night together. Shattuck's mother was originally convicted of first degree murder, but was later released after winning a temporary insanity appeal. At the time Shattuck was a chorus girl at the Tivoli Opera House in San Francisco an...

Virginia Belle Pearson (March 7, 1886 – June 6, 1958) was an American stage and film actress. She made fifty-one films in a career which extended from 1910 until 1932. Career and Personal Life She was born on March 7, 1886 in Anchorage, Kentucky to parents Joseph F. Pearson and Mary Alice Calloway. She had one younger brother, Harvey Thompson Pearson. Virginia was also the granddaughter of Precious Martha Grable Pearson (actress Betty Grable's great aunt). Virginia worked for a brief time as an assistant in the public library in Louisville, Kentucky after completing school. She was famous in her hometown Louisville playhouse performances. Pearson trained in the tradition of the stars of the American stage, and played in stock productions in Washington, D.C. and New York City. In New York she played the heroine in Hypocrisy, a story which laid bare "the shame of society." She was promoted by William Fox of Fox Film Corporation for the same kind of strong...