Mack Sennett's Bathing Beauties

I'm not going to write much about Mack Sennett.  He was born in Canada in 1880 and died, within my lifetime, in 1960.  He was early cinema's King of Comedy, the producer or director of hundreds of one and two reel shorts.  He also either ran, or was a partner, in several studios, most notably, Keystone, Triangle, with Thomas Ince and D. W. Griffith, and, of course, The Mack Sennett Studios.  There are plenty of articles on the web, as well as the better source, well written books, out there for those who want to know more.

This post is about the Mack Sennett bathing beauties.  Smart business man that he was, Sennett saw the relationship between pretty girls and ticket sales, so in 1915, he recruited his first troop of bathing beauties.  It wasn't hard to find  pretty young women, on the beaches of California,  willing to be filmed or photographed wearing a skimpy bathing suit. (In 1915, the above image was skimpy.  Things do change, after all.)  But while the bathing beauties were about box office, they weren't about stardom.  Sennett did his best to keep them as anonymous as possible.  They weren't credited, and were often replaced by someone prettier or more willing to do anything for a laugh.  Many of them would get their featured bits, or  what even could be considered an actual part, but only a few got out of  the background and into the limelight.

Juanita Hansen, 1895-1961, had the lead or a major supporting role in dozens of silent films, but a problem with alcohol and cocaine addiction ended her career in 1923.  Eventually, she got sober and had a second act as an anti drug and alcohol activist.

Claire Anderson, 1891-1964, made 73 movies, many as one of the bathing beauties, and many as credited lead.  Her last film was in 1926.

Marie Prevost, 1898-1937, was the first of the beauties to become a major star, with the lead in several films directed by  Ernst Lubitsch.   After her mother died in a car accident, and an unhappy love affair with Howard Hughes, she sank into a deep depression and, like Juanita Hansen, developed a drug and alcohol problem.  Her last film was in 1936.  She died a year latter from the long term damage caused by alcoholism, and acute malnutrition.  At her death, her estate was worth less than $300.  If Joan Crawford hadn't paid for her funeral, it would have fallen to Los Angeles county to bury her as an indigent.

Phyllis Haver, 1899-1960, married millionaire William Seeman in 1930, and retired form the screen, but not before starring as Roxie Hart in the first film version of Chicago, in 1927.  Divorced in the mid forties, Haver would die of an accidental barbiturate overdose.

Carole Lombard, 1908-1942.  The greatest of the bathing beauties, Lombard, was one of the great film comedians of the sound era.  She starred in a number of genuine film classics including, Twentieth Century, My Man Godfrey, Nothing Sacred, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and the Lubitsch classic, To Be Or Not To Be.  After America's entry into World War 2, she returned to her native Indiana on a war bond tour.  Her plane back to Los Angeles crashed, killing all on board, including her mother and agent.   Her husband, Clark Gable, joined the army not long after her funeral.

And finally, I've never understood the appeal of the six degrees of Kevin Bacon game, but....Kevin Bacon appeared with Colin Firth in Where the Truth Lies, Colin Firth costarred with Claire Bloom in The King's Speech, Claire Bloom was Charlie Chaplin's leading lady in Limelight, and Chaplin had a supporting role in Mabel's Strange Predicament, directed by and starring Mabel Normand, produced by Mack Sennett, .

On Gault Street 5

And Forrestine makes her final appearance in the last of the Gault Street photos.  In the first photo in the column, Forrestine, on the far right, looks like she did in other photos from the mid thirties, but a printers mark on the front, right border dates the print to "NOV 57"  Eva was looking back on her childhood, her frineds and family from long ago.

Captions from top to bottom, "Marcia, Rita, Joan & Forrestine"  But who is the adult standing on the porch?
"Lucille Willoughby and Florence Willoughby, Taken in 1939"  "Joan Motz, Marie Hanna, July 1940"  "Norman & Trixie"  and finally "Dale"  

On Gault Street 4

In an earlier post, it was determined that it was Eva writing the captions.  Take a close look at the kid on the right in the first photo of the column, and compare him with the little boy in the final picture.  He sure looks like the same to me, perhaps no more than one or two years older.  The print, and the one just above it, however, are far more recent than that.  (Don't ask me how I know, other than twenty plus years of professional experience printing black & white photos.)  Anyway, for those of us old enough to remember life before the digital age, most homes had a box.  Maybe an old shoe box, maybe a large carton, full of old snapshots and negatives.  I think Eva was the one who decided to go through the box, put things in order, get a few new prints made, and write captions before memories faded and the people in the prints were forgotten.  It'll be interesting to see, twenty years from now, if people will go through the old hard drives, looking for images to print, so they can be passed around.

Captions from top to bottom.  "Forrestine, Dale, Norman on Pontiac 1931.  Rear of 1335 Gault St. Cols, O."  "Norman 3 yrs. old on Gault."  "Wertha, Dale, & Norman (on Gault St.)"  "Millie at Thurston"  And finally, a photo without a caption.  Eva, wasn't he worth the memory?

On Gault Street 3

The return of Forrestine!  Weird names, or archaic names, names that were once popular, but have fallen out of favor? Just for the hell of it, I entered Forrestine, Evealie, and Wertha into a search engine.  According  to the white pages website, as of February 2011, there were 115 Forrestines in their listings, 23 in Tennessee, 2 Evealies, both in Oregon, and no Werthas.  I did find an article about an astronomer named Wertha Pendleton Cole, but that Wertha was a man.

Captions from top to bottom.  "Lucille, friend, Laura, & Otis"  "Otis & Clarence"  "Clarence, Otis, Jud  & the boy who drove Jud's car"  "Forrestine & Dale, Shelter house Lancaster, O, Rising Park, 1931"  Lancaster is a small city in Ohio, and Rising Park is it's main park.  And finally,  "Eva Anthony, Marie Fisher, Elsie Anthony, & Forrestine Kristol in George's ice wagon"  Another quick note on names.  Eva's handwriting isn't the best in the world.  Forrestine's last name sometimes appears to be  Kristol, sometinmes Krostol, or Krostel.  I've chosen Kristol as the most likely for no other reason that I've run across the name before.

On Gault Street 2

Take a look at the second picture in the column.  This is something I've seen before.  A girl who isn't yet a full grown adult, but is also well beyond small child, wearing ringlets or the big hair bows, most often associated with little girls.  Is it me, or do others find it a bit perverse.  It doesn't help, that she looks like she might be pregnant.

Alright then, captions from top to bottom.  "Oscar's Mother second from right and her 3 cousins (sisters and brother) from Ada, Ohio."   A bit of confusion?  Siblings or cousins?  "Steve, Marion, Breece, Marie, Eva, J.J., Dalton & Otis (rear)"  More strange names.  "Millie's side door.  Snow on ground."  Well, every collection has a few dull photos.  "Forrestine, Mrs. Moehl, Billy Moehl, Arlene Moehl, & their cousin."
 "(Eva wrote this) Eva, Dalton, Laura, and Evealie with the youngest of all who is Mamma."  As I noted in the last post, all the captions are written in the same hand, and now we know it's Eva.  "Oscar's Mother, Columbus."

On Gault Street 1

I've picked up a small collection of photos that I'll be putting up in five separate posts.  Most look to have been printed when the pictures were taken, though there are also a couple of reprints in the group.  Some have captions that reference Gault Street and Columbus, Ohio, though some were printed in Texas.  All of the captions are written in the same hand.

Written on the prints, top to bottom.  "1924  X Grandma Kristol X Forrestine, 3 yrs."  "Laura Shaheen taken on Gault St. in early thirties"  There is also a stamp on the back of this one, "THIS IS A SKILLTONE PRINT  SKILEEN'S SEP. 20, 1937  FINISHED IN OUR MODERN LAB" The first of the reprints.  "Elsie Sharp & Forrestine, Gault St."  "Werthe & Oscar Berry pickers"  "Dalton on porch of his home.  Jud, Evealie & Marion on the side."

What a great bunch of names.

On the 40th Anniversary of Watergate

Forty years ago, today, a group of semi incompetent burglars broke into Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel.  The were employees of CREEP, The Committee to Re-Elect the President.  Their capture lead to a scandal that would force the newly re-elected president to resign in disgrace.

I was born during the Eisenhower administration, have clear memories of both the Kennedy and Johnson years, but it was Richard Nixon's administration that was the  presidency of my youth.  I can remember the Watergate investigation, the press coverage, and the congressional hearings that, had Nixon not quit in disgrace, would have resulted in his impeachment, conviction, and removal from office.

The caption on the back of this postcard, "AMERICA'S FIRST FAMILY  President Richard M. Nixon and Mrs. Nixon are shown with their two daughters Patricia (Tricia) and Mrs. Julie Eisenhower and her husband, David.  It's evident that they're enjoying the President's piano playing."  The card was never mailed, Published by "Scenic AMERICA Postcards, BESSEMER, ALA. 35020."