Clara Bow's first job was working at a Hot dog stand. Not long after that she entered a competition in a magazine to win a role in a film called Beyond the Rainbow. She won and played the lead’s little sister. Only when she went to see the film with two of her friends, she found her scenes had all been cut.
A few shots of Theda Bara playing the title role in the 1917 silent movie CLEOPATRA. I'm reading about Cleopatra at the moment in Kara Cooney's WHEN WOMEN RULED THE WORLD: 6 QUEENS OF EGYPT, so she's very much on my mind. If you're interested in the female rulers of ancient Egypt, I'd definitely recommend this book. It goes into detail about how they rose to power, the challenges they faced because of their gender and how the patriarchy usually tried to take credit for their achievements and wipe out all trace of them after they were gone. Like a lot of what you read about the ancient world, some of it's guesswork, but the arguments are convincing and seem to fit the evidence. I ❤️ this subject, so might get around to writing a proper review when I'm done. As for the movie pics, I get that Elizabeth Taylor's take on the character is better known, but I think Theda looks more iconic.
Few movies this handsome silent film star acted in actually survive. There is very little biographical information on him either. I had to go on Ancestry to find out he married in 1904 and he and his wife had 4 children. The gif I made is from The World and Its Woman (1919). (I see some Rowan Atkinson mannerisms here.) He also played Dante in the 1924 adaptation of Dante’s Inferno.
“That cold, pure profile. It just takes all the heart out of one.” - P. G. Wodehouse
Here are 10 things you should know about Richard Barthelmess, born 127 years ago today. A big star in the 1920s, his popularity dropped off (inexplicably, in our view) once talking pictures took over.
Buster Keaton did all his own stunts, including the famous scene where the facade of a house falls on him and he is unhurt because he's standing just where the open Window is.