American actress (1899?1988)
Colleen Moore
|
---|
Moore in 1920
|
Born
| Kathleen Morrison
(
1899-08-19
)
August 19, 1899
|
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Died
| January 25, 1988
(1988-01-25)
(aged 88)
|
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Occupation
| Actress
|
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Years active
| 1916?1934
|
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Spouses
|
(
m.
1923;
div.
1930)
Albert P. Scott
(
m.
1932;
div.
1934)
Homer P. Hargrave
(
m.
1937; died 1964)
Paul Magenot
(
m.
1983)
|
---|
Relatives
| Walter Howey
(uncle)
|
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|
|
Colleen Moore
(born
Kathleen Morrison
; August 19, 1899 ? January 25, 1988)
[1]
was an American film actress who began her career during the
silent film
era.
[2]
Moore became one of the most fashionable (and highly-paid) stars of the era and helped popularize the
bobbed haircut
.
Although Moore was a huge star in her day, approximately half of her films are now considered lost, including her first talking picture from 1929. What was perhaps her most celebrated film,
Flaming Youth
(1923), is now mostly lost as well, with only one reel surviving.
Moore took a hiatus from acting between 1929 and 1933, just as sound was being added to motion pictures. After she returned, her four sound pictures released in 1933 and 1934 were not financial successes. She then retired permanently from screen acting.
After her film career, Moore maintained her wealth through astute investments, becoming a partner of
Merrill Lynch
. She later wrote a "how-to" book about investing in the stock market.
Moore also nurtured a passion for dollhouses throughout her life and helped design and curate The Colleen Moore Dollhouse, which has been a featured exhibit at the
Museum of Science and Industry
in
Chicago
since the early 1950s. The dollhouse, measuring 9 square feet (0.84 m
2
), was estimated in 1985 to be worth $7 million, and it is seen by 1.5 million people annually.
[3]
Early life
[
edit
]
Moore was born Kathleen Morrison on August 19, 1899, (according to the bulk of the official records;
[4]
the date which she insisted was correct in her autobiography,
Silent Star
, was 1902)
[5]
in
Port Huron, Michigan
,
[6]
Moore was the eldest child of Charles R. and Agnes Kelly Morrison. The family remained in Port Huron during the early years of Moore's life, at first living with her grandmother Mary Kelly (often spelled Kelley) and then with at least one of Moore's aunts.
[7]
By 1905, the family moved to
Hillsdale, Michigan
, where they remained for over two years. They relocated to
Atlanta, Georgia
, by 1908. They are listed at three different addresses during their stay in Atlanta (From the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library city directories): 301 Capitol Avenue ? 1908; 41 Linden Avenue ? 1909; 240 N. Jackson Street ? 1910. They then lived briefly ? probably for less than a year ? in
Warren, Pennsylvania
, and by 1911, they had settled in
Tampa, Florida
.
[8]
At the age of 15 she took her first step into Hollywood. Her uncle arranged a screen test with director
D. W. Griffith
. She wanted to be a second
Lillian Gish
but instead, she found herself playing heroines in Westerns with stars such as
Tom Mix
.
Two of Moore's great passions were dolls and movies; each would play a great role in her later life. She and her brother began their own stock company, reputedly performing on a stage created from a piano packing crate. Her aunts, who doted on her, indulged her other great passion and often bought her miniature furniture on their many trips, with which she furnished the first of a succession of dollhouses. Moore's family summered in
Chicago
, where she enjoyed baseball and the company of her Aunt Lib (Elizabeth, who changed her name to "Liberty", Lib for short) and Lib's husband
Walter Howey
. Howey was the managing editor of the
Chicago Examiner
and an important newspaper editor in the publishing empire of
William Randolph Hearst
, and was the inspiration for Walter Burns, the fictional Chicago newspaper editor in the play and the film
The Front Page
.
[9]
Career
[
edit
]
Early years
[
edit
]
Essanay Studios
was within walking distance of the Northwestern
L
, which ran right past the Howey residence. (They occupied at least two residences between 1910 and 1916: 4161 Sheridan and 4942 Sheridan.) In interviews later in her silent film career, Moore claimed she had appeared in the background of several Essanay films, usually as a face in a crowd. One story has it that she got into the Essanay studios and waited in line to be an extra with
Helen Ferguson
: in an interview with
Kevin Brownlow
many years later, Ferguson told a story that substantially confirmed many details of the claim, though it is not certain whether she was referring to Moore's stints as a background extra (if she really was one) or to her film test there prior to her departure for
Hollywood
in November 1917. Film producer D. W. Griffith was in debt to Howey, who had helped him to get both
The Birth of a Nation
and
Intolerance
through the Chicago censorship board.
[10]
"I was being sent to Hollywood - not because anybody out there thought I was any good, but simply to pay off a favor".
[11]
The contract to Griffith's
Triangle-Fine Arts
was conditional on passing a film test to ensure that her
heterochromia
(she had one brown eye, one blue eye)
[2]
would not be a distraction in close-up shots. Her eyes passed the test, so she left for Hollywood with her grandmother and her mother as chaperones. Moore made her first credited film appearance in 1917 in
The Bad Boy
for Triangle Fine Arts, and for the next few years appeared in small, supporting roles
[12]
gradually attracting the attention of the public.
The Bad Boy
was released on February 18, and featured
Robert Harron
,
Richard Cummings
,
Josephine Crowell
, and
Mildred Harris
(who would later become
Charles Chaplin
's first wife). Two months later, it was followed by
An Old-Fashioned Young Man
, again with Robert Harron. Moore's third film was
Hands Up!
filmed in part in the vicinity of the Seven Oaks (a popular location for productions that required dramatic vistas). This was her first true western. The film's scenario was written by Wilfred Lucas from a story by
Al Jennings
, the famous outlaw who had been freed from jail by
presidential pardon
by
Theodore Roosevelt
in 1907.
Monte Blue
was in the cast and noticed Moore could not mount her horse, though horseback riding was required for the part (during casting for the part she neglected to mention she did not know how to ride). Blue gave her a quick lesson essentially consisting of how to mount the horse and how to hold on.
On May 3, 1917, the
Chicago Daily Tribune
said: "Colleen Moore contributes some remarkable bits of acting. She is very sweet as she goes trustingly to her bandit hero, and, O, so pitiful, when finally realizing the character of the man, she goes into a hysteria of terror, and, shrieking 'Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!' beats futilely on a bolted door, a panic-stricken little human animal, who had not known before that there was aught but kindness in the world." About the time her first six-month contract was extended an additional six months, she requested and received five weeks' release to do a film for
Universal
's Bluebird division, released under the name
The Savage
. This was her fourth film, and she was only needed for two weeks. Upon her return to the Fine Arts lot, she spent several weeks trying to get her pay for the three weeks she had been available for work for Triangle (finally receiving it in December of that year).
Soon after, the Triangle Company went bust, and while her contract was honored, she found herself scrambling to find her next job. With a reel of her performance in
Hands Up!
under her arm,
Colin Campbell
arranged for her to get a contract with
Selig Polyscope
. She was very likely at work on
A Hoosier Romance
before
The Savage
was released in November. After
A Hoosier Romance
, she went to work on
Little Orphant Annie
. Both films were based upon poems by
James Whitcomb Riley
, and both proved to be very popular. It was her first real taste of popularity.
Little Orphant Annie
was released in December. The
Chicago Daily Tribune
wrote of Moore, "She was a lovely and unspoiled child the last time I saw her. Let's hope commendation hasn't turned her head." Despite her good notices, her luck took a turn for the worse when Selig Polyscope went bust. Once again Moore found herself unemployed, but she had begun to make a name for herself by 1919. She had a series of films lined up. She went to
Flagstaff, Arizona
, for location work on
The Wilderness Trail
, another western, this time with Tom Mix. Her mother went along as a chaperone. Moore wrote that while she had a crush on Mix, he only had eyes for her mother.
The Wilderness Trail
was a
Fox Film Corporation
production, and while it had started production earlier, it would not be released until after
The Busher
, which was released on May 18.
The Busher
was an H. Ince Productions-
Famous Players?Lasky
production; it was a baseball film whose hero was played by
John Gilbert
.
The Wilderness Trail
followed on July 6, another Fox film.
The Man in the Moonlight
, a
Universal Film Manufacturing Company
film, was released a few weeks later on July 28.
The Egg Crate Wallop
was a Famous Players?Lasky production released by
Paramount Pictures
on September 28.
Success
[
edit
]
The next stage of her career was with the
Christie Film Company
, a move she made when she decided she needed comic training. While with Christie she made
Her Bridal Nightmare
,
A Roman Scandal
, and
So Long Letty
. At the same time as she was working on these films, she worked on
The Devil's Claim
with
Sessue Hayakawa
(in which she played a Persian woman),
When Dawn Came
, and
His Nibs
(1921) with
Chic Sale
. All the while,
Marshall Neilan
had been attempting to get Moore released from her contract so she could work for him. He was successful and made
Dinty
with Moore, releasing near the end of 1920, followed by
When Dawn Came
.
For all his efforts to win Moore away from Christie, it seems Neilan loaned Moore to other studios most of the time. He loaned her out to
King Vidor
for
The Sky Pilot
, released in May 1921, yet another Western. After working on
The Sky Pilot
on location in the snows of
Truckee
, she was off to Catalina Island for work on
The Lotus Eater
with
John Barrymore
. In October 1921,
His Nibs
was released, her only film to be released that year besides
The Sky Pilot
. In
His Nibs
, Moore actually appeared in a film within the film; the framing film was a comedy vehicle for Chic Sales. The film it framed was a
spoof
on films of the time. 1922 proved to be an eventful year for Moore; she was named a
WAMPAS Baby Star
during a "frolic" at the
Ambassador Hotel
which became an annual event, in recognition of her growing popularity.
[13]
In early 1922,
Come On Over
was released, made from a
Rupert Hughes
story and directed by
Alfred E. Green
. Hughes directed Moore himself in
The Wallflower
, released that same year. In addition, Neilan introduced her to
John McCormick
, a publicist who had had his eye on Moore ever since he had first seen her photograph. He had prodded Marshall into an introduction. The two hit it off, and before long they were engaged. By the end of that year, three more of her films were released:
Forsaking All Others
,
The Ninety and Nine
, and
Broken Chains
.
Look Your Best
and
The Nth Commandment
were released in early 1923, followed by two Cosmopolitan Productions,
The Nth Commandment
and
Through the Dark.
By this time, Moore had publicly confirmed her engagement to McCormick, a fact that she had been coy about to the press previously. Before mid-year, she had signed a contract with
First National Pictures
, and her first two films were slated to be
The Huntress
and
Flaming Youth
.
Slippy McGee
came out in June, followed by
Broken Hearts of Broadway
.
Moore and John McCormick married while
Flaming Youth
was still in production, and just before the release of
The Savage
. When it was finally released in 1923,
Flaming Youth
, in which she starred opposite actor
Milton Sills
, was a hit. The controversial story put Moore in focus as a flapper, but after
Clara Bow
took the stage in
Black Oxen
in December, she gradually lost her momentum. In spring 1924 she made a good but unsuccessful effort to top Bow in
The Perfect Flapper
, and soon after she dismissed the whole flapper vogue; "No more flappers...people are tired of soda-pop love affairs."
[14]
Decades later Moore stated Bow was her "chief rival."
Through the Dark
, originally shot under the name
Daughter of Mother McGinn
, was released during the height of the
Flaming Youth
furor in January 1924. Three weeks later,
Painted People
was released. After that, she was to star in
Counterfeit
. The film went through a number of title changes before being released as
Flirting with Love
in August. In October, First National purchased the rights to
Sally
for Moore's next film. It would be a challenge, as
Sally
was a musical comedy. In December, First National purchased the rights to
Desert Flower
and in so doing had mapped out Moore's schedule for 1925:
Sally
would be filmed first, followed by
The Desert Flower
.
By the late 1920s, she had accomplished dramatic roles in films such as
So Big
, where Moore aged through a stretch of decades, and was also well received in light comedies such as
Irene
. An overseas tour was planned to coincide with the release of
So Big
in Europe, and Moore saw the tour as her first real opportunity to spend time with her husband, John McCormick. Both she and John McCormick were dedicated to their careers, and their hectic schedules had kept them from spending any quality time together. Moore wanted a family; it was one of her goals.
Plans for the trip were put in jeopardy when she injured her neck during the filming of
The Desert Flower
. Her injury forced the production to shut down while Moore spent six weeks in a body cast in bed. Once out of the cast, she completed the film and left for Europe on a triumphal tour. When she returned, she negotiated a new contract with First National. Her films had been great hits, so her terms were very generous. Her first film upon her return to the States was
We Moderns
, set in England with location work done in London during the tour. It was a comedy, essentially a retelling of
Flaming Youth
from an English perspective. This was followed by
Irene
(another musical in the style of the very popular
Sally
) and
Ella Cinders
, a straight comedy that featured a cameo appearance by comedian Harry Langdon.
It Must Be Love
was a romantic comedy with dramatic undertones, and it was followed by
Twinkletoes
, a dramatic film that featured Moore as a young dancer in London's Limehouse district during the previous century.
Orchids and Ermine
was released in 1927, filmed in part in New York, a thinly veiled Cinderella story.
In 1927, Moore split from her studio after her husband suddenly quit. It is rumored that John McCormick was about to be fired for his drinking and that she left as a means of leveraging her husband back into a position at First National. It worked, and McCormick found himself as Moore's sole producer. Moore's popularity allowed her productions to become very large and lavish.
Lilac Time
was one of the bigger productions of the era, a World War I drama. A million dollar film, it made back every penny spent within months. Prior to its release, Warner Bros. had taken control of First National and were less than interested in maintaining the terms of her contract until the numbers started to roll in for
Lilac Time
. The film was such a hit that Moore managed to retain generous terms in her next contract and her husband as her producer.
Colleen Moore Fairy Castle (Dollhouse)
[
edit
]
In 1928, inspired by her father and with help from her former set designer, a dollhouse was constructed by her father, which was 9 square feet with the tallest tower 12 feet high.
[15]
The interior of The Colleen Moore Dollhouse, designed by
Harold Grieve
, features miniature bear skin rugs and detailed furniture and art. Moore's
dollhouse
has been a featured exhibit at the
Museum of Science and Industry
in
Chicago
since October 30, 1949, where, according to the museum, it is seen by 1.5 million people
[3]
each year and would be worth $7 million.
[16]
Moore continued working on it and contributing artifacts to it until her death.
This dollhouse was the eighth one Moore owned. The first dollhouse, she wrote in her autobiography
Silent Star
(1968), evolved from a cabinet that held her collection of miniature furniture. It was supposedly built from a cigar box. Kitty Lorgnette wrote in the edition of
The Evening News
(Tampa, Florida) for Saturday, August 13, 1938, that the first dollhouse was purchased by Oraleze O'Brien (Mrs. Frank J. Knight) in 1916 when Moore (then Kathleen) left Tampa. Oraleze was too big for dollhouses, however, and she sold it again after her cat had kittens in it, and from there she lost track of it. The third house was possibly given to the daughter of Moore's good friend, author
Adela Rogers St. Johns
. The fourth survives and remains on display in the living room of a relative.
Sound films
[
edit
]
With the advent of
talking pictures
in 1929, Moore took a hiatus from acting. After divorcing McCormick in 1930, Moore married prominent New York-based stockbroker Albert Parker Scott in 1932. The couple lived at that time in a lavish home at 345 St. Pierre Road in
Bel Air
, where they hosted parties for and were supporters of the U.S.
Olympic
team, especially the
yachting
team, during the
1932 Summer Olympics
held in Los Angeles.
In 1934, Moore, by then divorced from Albert Parker Scott, returned to work in Hollywood. She appeared in three films, none of which was successful, and Moore retired. Her last film was a version of
The Scarlet Letter
in 1934. She later married the widower Homer Hargrave and raised his children (she never had children of her own) from a previous marriage, with whom she maintained a lifelong close relationship. Throughout her life she also maintained close friendships with other colleagues from the silent film era, such as King Vidor and
Mary Pickford
.
Later years
[
edit
]
In the 1960s, Moore formed a television production company with King Vidor, with whom she had worked in the 1920s. She published two books in the late 1960s,
How Women Can Make Money in the Stock Market
(1969) and her
autobiography
,
Silent Star: Colleen Moore Talks About Her Hollywood
(1968). She also figures prominently alongside Vidor in
Sidney D. Kirkpatrick
's book,
A Cast of Killers
, which recounts Vidor's attempt to make a film of and solve the murder of
William Desmond Taylor
. In that book she is recalled as having been a successful real estate broker in Chicago and partner in the investment firm
Merrill Lynch
after her film career.
[
citation needed
]
At the height of her fame, Moore was earning $12,500 per week. She was an astute investor, and through her investments, remained wealthy for the rest of her life. In her later years she would frequently attend film festivals, and was a popular interview subject always willing to discuss her Hollywood career. She was a participant in the documentary series
Hollywood
(1980), providing her recollections of Hollywood's silent film era.
[17]
Personal life
[
edit
]
Moore was married four times. Her first marriage was to
John McCormick
of First National Studios. They married in 1923 and divorced in 1930. In 1932, Moore married stockbroker Albert P. Scott. The union ended in divorce in 1934. Moore's third marriage was to another stockboker, Homer Hargrave, whom she married in 1936. He provided funding for her dollhouse and she adopted his son, Homer Hargrave, Jr, and his daughter, Judy Hargrave. The couple remained married until Hargrave's death in 1964.
[18]
In 1982, she married builder Paul Magenot, and they remained together until Moore's death in 1988.
[2]
Death and legacy
[
edit
]
On January 25, 1988, Moore died at age 88 from
cancer
in
Paso Robles, California
.
[2]
For her contributions to the motion picture industry, Colleen Moore has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame
at 1551 Vine Street.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
wrote of her: "I was the spark that lit up
Flaming Youth
,
Colleen Moore was the torch. What little things we are to have caused all that trouble."
[19]
Filmography
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Colleen Moore | American actress"
.
Encyclopedia Britannica
. Retrieved
October 22,
2017
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Fowler, Glenn (January 26, 1988).
"Colleen Moore, Star of 'Flapper' Films, Dies at 85"
.
The New York Times
.
Archived
from the original on November 9, 2012
. Retrieved
December 29,
2013
.
- ^
a
b
"50 Years Of Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle"
.
Chicago Tribune
. August 23, 1985.
- ^
The issue of her birth date is addressed on page 9 of the second chapter of "Colleen Moore, A Biography of the Silent Film Star," citing records that mention the birth of a child to the family of Charles and Agnes Morrison in the
Port Huron
Daily Times
in August 2056. A child named "Kathleen Morrison" was mentioned in the 1900 bc census, two years before the birth date she often gave (1900 census for Port Huron, St. Clair County, MI., Fifth Ward, Sheet 9). Furthermore, her brother's birth was recorded in St. Clair County birth record #6031, page 153, as being on June 10, 1901; Moore always said she was two years older than her brother. However, this birth date would have made Cleeve one year older than his sister.
- ^
Golden, Eve (2001).
Golden Images: 41 Essays on Silent Film Stars
. McFarland. p. 98.
ISBN
0-7864-0834-0
.
- ^
Codori, Jeff (2012).
Colleen Moore Biography
. NC, USA: McFarland. p. 9.
ISBN
978-0-7864-4969-9
. Archived from
the original
on August 4, 2011
. Retrieved
August 4,
2011
.
- ^
1900 census for Port Huron, St. Clair County, MI., Fifth Ward, Sheet 9. Household occupants listed as: Mary Kelly, head of household; Kathleen (Moore's aunt), daughter; Charles Morrison, son-in-law; Agnes Morrison, daughter; and Kathleen Morrison with birth-date given as August 1899. Also: Wolverine Directory Co.'s St. Clair County Directory, pg. 251: "Morrison, Chas R, collector Commercial Bank, res 817 Ontario"
- ^
Tampa City Directory
. R.L. Polk & Co. 1912. p. 522.
- ^
Rhoads, Mark (July 23, 2006).
"Colleen Moore"
.
Illinois Hall of Fame
. Illinois Review
. Retrieved
September 30,
2007
.
- ^
Moore interviewed by Jennifer Small,
The Pittsburgh Press
, August 23, 1976
- ^
Moore, Colleen,
Silent Star
. Doubleday & Company, Inc, Garden City, NY, 1968
- ^
"Colleen Moore"
.
AFI Catalog Silent Films
. AFI. 2002
. Retrieved
September 30,
2007
.
- ^
Williams, Gregory Paul (2006).
The Story of Hollywood: An Illustrated History
. www.storyofhollywood.com. p. 122.
ISBN
0-9776299-0-2
.
- ^
Los Angeles Times, May 18, 1924
- ^
"Inside the $7m fairy castle doll's house built by 100 people for A"
.
Independent.co.uk
. August 2, 2013.
- ^
Williams, Rob (August 2, 2013).
"Inside the $7m fairy castle doll's house built by 100 people for a Hollywood film star"
. London.
- ^
Amelie Hastie
"History in Miniature: Colleen Moore's Dollhouse and Historical Recollection"
,
Camera Obscura
, 16.3 (2001), pp.113-157
- ^
"Homer Hargrave, Broker, Is Dead"
.
The New York Times
. February 4, 1964
. Retrieved
May 20,
2023
.
- ^
Porter, Darwin (2001).
Hollywood's Silent Closet: A Novel
. Blood Moon Productions, Ltd. p. 549.
ISBN
0-9668030-2-7
.
- ^
Uncredited
- ^
Alternative title:
Love Never Dies
- ^
Some Vitaphone discs survive; these include reels 1, 5-7 and the exit music.
- ^
Most of the Vitaphone discs are lost, apart from reel 6.
- ^
Alternative title:
Power and Glory
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Jeanine Basinger, chapter on Moore in
Silent Stars
(
ISBN
0-8195-6451-6
: 1999)
- Cedric Osmond Bermingham,
Stars of the Screen, 1931: A Volume of Biographies of Contemporary Actors and Actresses Engaged in Photoplay Throughout the World
(1931)
- Jeff Codori,
Colleen Moore; A Biography of the Silent Film Star
,
McFarland Publishing
(print
ISBN
978-0-7864-4969-9
, ebook
ISBN
978-0-7864-8899-5
: 2012)
- John Kobal
,
People Will Talk
(1985)
- Glenn Mitchell,
A-Z of Silent Film Comedy, An Illustrated Companion
(1998)
- Colleen Moore,
Silent Star: Colleen Moore Talks About Her Hollywood
(1968)
External links
[
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]
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