American actress (1889?1946)
Dorothy Gibson
|
---|
Gibson in a 1911 publicity photo
|
Born
| Dorothy Winifred Brown
(
1889-05-17
)
May 17, 1889
|
---|
Died
| February 17, 1946
(1946-02-17)
(aged 56)
|
---|
Occupation(s)
| Model, actress and singer
|
---|
Years active
| 1906?1917
|
---|
Spouses
| -
George Henry Battier, Jr.
(
m.
1910;
div.
1913)
-
(
m.
1917;
div.
1919)
|
---|
Dorothy Gibson
(born
Dorothy Winifred Brown
; May 17, 1889 ? February 17, 1946) was an American actress, socialite and
artist's model
, active in the early 20th century. She survived the
sinking
of the
Titanic
and starred in the
first motion picture based on the disaster
.
Early life and career
[
edit
]
Dorothy Gibson was born on May 17, 1889, to John A. Brown and Pauline Caroline Boesen as
Dorothy Winifred Brown
in
Hoboken, New Jersey
.
[1]
Her father died when she was three years old, and her mother married John Leonard Gibson. Between 1906 and 1911, she appeared on stage as a singer and dancer in a number of theatre and
vaudeville
productions,
[2]
the most important being on Broadway in
Charles Frohman
's musical
The Dairymaids
(1907). She was also a regular chorus member in shows produced by the
Shubert Brothers
at the
Hippodrome Theatre
.
[3]
In 1909, the year before she married George Henry Battier, Jr.,
[4]
Dorothy Gibson began posing for famous commercial artist
Harrison Fisher
, becoming one of his favorite models.
[5]
Dorothy's image appeared regularly on posters, postcards, various merchandising products and in book illustrations over the next three years. Fisher also often chose her likeness for the covers of best-selling magazines such as
Cosmopolitan
,
Ladies Home Journal
, and the
Saturday Evening Post
.
[6]
Dorothy was widely publicized during this time as "The Original Harrison Fisher Girl".
Dorothy soon separated from Battier, though the two were not divorced until 1913.
Film career
[
edit
]
Represented by top theatrical agent Pat Casey, Dorothy entered movies in early 1911, joining the
Independent Moving Pictures Company
(IMP) as an extra and later the
Lubin Studios
as a stock player. She was hired as leading lady by the new U.S. branch of Paris-based
Eclair Studios
in July 1911. She was an instant hit with audiences, becoming one of the first actresses in the new medium of film to be promoted as a "star" in her own right.
[7]
Praised for a natural, subtle acting style, she was particularly effective as a comedian in such popular one-reelers as
Miss Masquerader
(1911) and
Love Finds a Way
(1912), all of which were produced at
Fort Lee, New Jersey
, then the center of the burgeoning American motion picture industry.
[8]
Despite her popularity in comedies, one of Dorothy's most important parts was that of
Molly Pitcher
in the historical drama
Hands Across the Sea
(1911), Eclair Studios' debut vehicle and Gibson's first star turn.
[9]
Titanic
disaster and first film based on it
[
edit
]
Dorothy Gibson's most famous screen role was that of herself in
Saved from the Titanic
(1912), based on her experiences in the legendary disaster.
Saved From the Titanic,
released a month after the sinking, was the first of many
films about the event
.
[10]
The
Titanic
is the best known aspect of Dorothy's life. After a six-week vacation in
Italy
with her mother, she was returning on the
Titanic
to make a new series of pictures for Eclair at Fort Lee. The women had been playing
bridge
with friends in the lounge on the night of the ship's fatal collision with the iceberg. With two of their game partners they escaped in
Lifeboat #7
, the first lifeboat launched.
[11]
After arriving in New York on the rescue ship
Carpathia
, Dorothy was persuaded by her manager to appear in a film based on the sinking. She not only starred in the one-reel drama but also wrote the screenplay. She even appeared in the same clothing she had worn aboard the
Titanic
that night?a white silk evening dress topped with a cardigan and polo coat.
[12]
Although
Saved From the Titanic
was a tremendous success in America, Britain, and France,
[13]
the only known prints were destroyed in a 1914 fire at the Eclair Studios in New Jersey.
[14]
The loss of the motion picture is considered by film historians to be one of the greatest of the silent era.
[15]
Dorothy Gibson's other accomplishments in early cinema included starring in one of the first feature films made in the United States (
Hands Across the Sea
, 1911), co-starring in the first American-produced serial or chapter play (
The Revenge of the Silk Masks
, 1912), and making one of the first-ever public appearances by a movie personality (January 1912).
[16]
With contemporary
Mary Pickford
, Dorothy was the highest paid movie actress in the world at the time of her premature retirement in May 1912. In a brief but eventful cinematic career, she appeared in an estimated 22 Eclair films and in an unspecified number while at Lubin and IMP studios. Dorothy left movies to pursue a choral career,
[17]
her most notable appearance in that venue being at the
Metropolitan Opera House
in
Madame Sans-Gene
(1915).
Personal life
[
edit
]
In 1911, Dorothy Gibson began a six-year love affair with married movie tycoon
Jules Brulatour
, head of distribution for
Eastman Kodak
and co-founder of
Universal Pictures
. Brulatour was also an advisor and producer for Eclair; he backed several of Gibson's films, including her 1912 hit
Saved From the Titanic
. A year later, while driving Brulatour's sports car in New York, Dorothy struck and killed a pedestrian. During the resulting court case, it was revealed in the press that she was his mistress. Although Brulatour was already separated from his wife, the humiliation of the scandal motivated her to sue him for divorce, which was finalized in 1915.
[18]
Brulatour's rising fame and political power forced him to legitimize his relationship with Dorothy Gibson, and the pair were finally married in 1917.
Its legality challenged, the union was dissolved two years later as an invalid contract. To escape gossip and start a new life, Dorothy left New York for Paris, where she remained, except for the four years she spent in
Italy
during World War II. Brulatour married film actress
Hope Hampton
in 1923.
Later life
[
edit
]
A
Nazi
sympathizer and alleged intelligence operative, Dorothy renounced her involvement by 1944. She was arrested as an anti-Fascist agitator and imprisoned in the
Milan
prison of San Vittore
, from which she escaped with two other prisoners, journalist
Indro Montanelli
and General
Bortolo Zambon
. The trio was aided through the intervention of
Cardinal Ildefonso Schuster
,
Archbishop of Milan
, and by a young chaplain of the Milanese resistance group
Fiamme Verdi
, Father Giovanni Barbareschi.
[19]
Living in France, in 1946, Dorothy died of a stroke in her apartment at the
Hotel Ritz Paris
at the age of 56. She is buried at
Saint Germain-en-Laye
Cemetery. Gibson's estate was divided between her lover, Emilio Antonio Ramos,
press attache
for the Spanish Embassy in Paris, and her mother, who lived until 1961 when she too was found dead in a Paris hotel room.
Legacy
[
edit
]
Dorothy Gibson's only surviving film is the adventure-comedy
A Lucky Holdup
[
it
]
(1912).
[20]
Salvaged by collectors David and Margo Navone in 2001, it was preserved by the
American Film Institute
and is now archived at the
Library of Congress
.
The character of Susan Alexander in
Orson Welles
’
Citizen Kane
(1941) may have been partly based on Dorothy, along with other real-life figures
Marion Davies
,
Hope Hampton
, and
Ganna Walska
. She was also the inspiration for a character in her friend Indro Montanelli’s novel
General della Rovere
, which was turned into an award-winning film by director
Roberto Rossellini
in 1959.
Sophie Winkleman
portrayed Dorothy in the 2012
Julian Fellowes
-written TV miniseries
Titanic
that commemorated the centenary of the disaster.
Authors Don Lynch and John P. Eaton were the first contemporary historians to rediscover Dorothy Gibson, writing and lecturing about her as early as the 1980s. The first in-depth study of Dorothy's mysterious later life was conducted by Phillip Gowan and published in the journal of the British Titanic Society in 2002.
Filmography
[
edit
]
Year
|
Title
|
Role
|
Notes
|
1911
|
A Show Girl's Stratagem
|
|
|
The Angel of the Slums
|
|
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Good For Evil
|
|
|
Hands Across the Sea in '76
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Grace Deane
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Miss Masquerader
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Heiress
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The Musician's Daughter
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Prima Donna
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The Wrong Bottle
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The Bride
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|
1912
|
Divorcons
|
The Wife
|
|
Mamie Bolton
|
|
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Love Finds a Way
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Helen
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The Awakening
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The Sweetheart
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The Guardian Angel
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The Wife
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Getting Dad Married
|
Ellen
|
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Bridge
|
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The Kodak Contest
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The Wife
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It Pays to Be Kind
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The Sister
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A Living Memory
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Her Memory
|
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Brooms and Dustpans
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Kissing Cousin
|
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The White Aprons
|
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A Lucky Holdup
[
it
]
|
Miss Barton
|
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The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
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The Easter Bonnet
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Dora
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Revenge of the Silk Masks
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Society Girl
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|
Saved from the Titanic
|
Miss Dorothy
|
Alternative title:
A Survivor of the Titanic
Screenwriter
|
Roses and Thorns
|
|
|
See also
[
edit
]
- ^
Phillip Gowan and Brian Meister, "The Saga of the Gibson Women,"
Atlantic Daily Bulletin
(2002), vol. 3, p. 10; Daughtry, Greg.
"For One Jersey Passenger, Survival Brought a Flicker of Silent-Film Stardom"
,
New Jersey Monthly
, March 12, 2012. Accessed February 6, 2013.
- ^
New York Dramatic Mirror
, "Gossip of the Studios," August 9, 1911, p. 21
- ^
Bigham, pp. 8-10
- ^
Gowan and Meister, vol. 3, p. 10
- ^
Billboard Magazine
, "Dorothy Gibson: The Harrison Fisher Girl with the New American Eclair Stock Co.," November 11, 1911, p. 14
- ^
Magazine cover art by Harrison Fisher featuring Dorothy Gibson includes the
Saturday Evening Post
(April 8, 1911),
Cosmopolitan
(June and July 1911) and
Ladies' Home Journal
(June 1912)
- ^
"Dorothy Gibson,"
Moving Picture News
, November 18, 1911, p. 8
- ^
"A New Star in the Picture Firmament,"
Moving Picture World
, December 2, 1911, p. 720
- ^
Bigham, pp. 28?32
- ^
Frank Thompson,
Lost Films
(1996), pp. 12?18
- ^
Walter Lord,
A Night to Remember
(1955), p. 53
- ^
Chauncey L. Parsons, "Dorothy Gibson From the Titanic: An Account of the Shipwreck by an Actress who Went Through it,"
New York Dramatic Mirror
, May 1, 1912, p. 13
- ^
Cine-Journal
, June 29, 1912, p. 32
- ^
17 March 1914 studio fire at Eclair Films America, Fort Lee, NJ.
"Eclair American Company"
. Fort Lee Film Commission. Archived from
the original
on April 25, 2011
. Retrieved
27 February
2014
.
- ^
Thompson, p. 18
- ^
Bigham, pp. 28, 50, 42
- ^
"Auto Suit is Settled,"
New York Times
, May 22, 1913, p. 2
- ^
"Wants Her Income Assured,"
New York Times
, April 23, 1915, p. 19
- ^
Barbareschi, Giovanni, "Montanelli In fuga da S. Vittore verso la liberta,"
Il Segno
, Oct. 2001, pp. 38?40
- ^
"Dorothy Gibson in The Lucky Holdup"
.
Encyclopedia Titanica
. December 18, 2018.
References
[
edit
]
- Bigham, Randy Bryan (2012).
Finding Dorothy: A Biography of Dorothy Gibson
.
Lulu
.
ISBN
978-1-105-52008-2
.
- Bottomore, Stephen (2000).
The Titanic and Silent Cinema
(Ltd. ed.). Hastings: Projection Box.
ISBN
978-1903000007
.
- Mills, Simon (1995).
The Titanic in Pictures
. Chesham: Wordsmith.
ISBN
1-899493-00-X
.
- Thompson, Frank (1996).
Lost Films : Important Movies That Disappeared
. Secaucus, N.J.: Carol Pub. Group.
ISBN
0-8065-1604-6
.
External links
[
edit
]