Hollywood History Goddess

2020 marks the Centennial Deaths of 4 Silent Movie Stars who died in 1920. Clarine E. Seymour  (December 9, 1898 – April 25, 1920) was an American silent film actress. Brief Career In 1917, Seymour appeared in Pathé's Mystery of the Double Cross opposite actress Mollie King. Hal Roach saw her performance and offered her a film contract with his Rolin Film Company. Seymour accepted and relocated to Los Angeles to perform as the leading lady in the Toto the Clown (played by Armando Novello) film comedy serials. Throughout 1918, she appeared in the Toto serial and also had a supporting role in the comedy short Just Rambling Along (1918), opposite Stan Laurel. The deal with Roach soon soured after Seymour claimed she was fired for refusing to do her own stunts. She filed suit against the company and was awarded $1,325 (approximately $23,000 today) in damages. While the case was pending, Seymour appeared in comedy shorts for Al Christie's comedy shorts. In 1...

Pauline Frederick (born Pauline Beatrice Libbey, August 12, 1883 – September 19, 1938) was an American stage and film actress Pauline in 1916 Early Life Frederick was born Pauline Beatrice Libbey (later changed to Libby) in Boston in 1883 (some sources state 1884 or 1885),the only child of Richard O. and Loretta C. Libbey. Her father worked as a yardmaster for the Old Colony Railroad before becoming a salesman. Her parents separated when she was a toddler and Frederick was raised primarily by her mother to whom she remained close for the remainder of her life (her parents divorced around 1897). As a girl, she was fascinated with show business, and determined early to place her goals in the direction of the theater. She studied acting, singing and dancing at Miss Blanchard's Finishing School in Boston where she later graduated. Her father, however, discouraged her ambitions to be an actress and encouraged her to become an elocution teacher. After pursuing a career...

Joseph Edgar Allen John "Eddie" Mannix (February 25, 1891 – August 30, 1963)  was an American film studio executive and producer. He is remembered for his work protecting Hollywood stars as a "fixer", a person paid to disguise details of the stars' often colorful private lives to maintain their public image. Among his most lasting contributions to Hollywood was a ledger he maintained that lists the costs and revenues of every MGM film produced between 1924 and 1962, an important reference for film historians. After working as a bouncer and then treasurer of the Palisades Amusement Park, he became involved in motion picture exhibition, eventually working his way up to general manager within MGM in the 1920s. The Eddie Mannix Ledger is in the Margaret Herrick Library, at Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study. Personal Life Mannix was married twice and had no children. He married Bernice Fitzmaurice in 1916. Mannix had numerous affair...

Girl 27 Girl 27 is a 2007 documentary film by writer/director David Stenn about the 1937 rape of dancer and sometime movie extra Patricia Douglas (1917–2003) at an M-G-M exhibitors' convention, the front-page news stories that followed, and the studio's subsequent cover-up of the crime. Also covered in the film are a similar assault on singer Eloise Spann and her subsequent suicide, and the better-known scandal involving actress Loretta Young and her "adopted" daughter Judy Lewis, the product of her affair with Clark Gable during the production of The Call of the Wild. David Stenn uses first-person interviews and vintage film footage and music to explore the political power of movie studios in 1930s Hollywood, as well as public attitudes toward sexual assault that discouraged victims from coming forward. The filmmaker's dogged pursuit of Douglas and their resulting friendship is a consistent theme throughout. Renewed interest in the MeToo movement ...