Colleen Moore
Encyclopedia
Colleen Moore was an American film actress, and one of the most fashionable stars of the silent film
era.
, Miss Moore was the eldest child of Charles R. and Agnes 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.
By 1905 the family had moved to Hillsdale, Michigan
where they remained for over two years. They had 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 less than a year—in Warren, Pennsylvania
, and by 1911 they had settled down in Tampa, Florida
.
Two great passions of young Moore's 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. She admired the faces she saw on the silver screen and on magazine covers. She had resolved at a young age that she would be not only an actress, but a star. 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 doll houses.
The family summered in Chicago
, where Moore 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
.
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 she had gotten 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 if 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.
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) 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 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 for dear life. He also suggested she go out and get lessons. In a climactic scene she was locked in a closet and was able to scream her head off for the camera.
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 an 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 a 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 getting her pay 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 for her 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
[sic]. 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 chaperon. 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 wherein the hero was played by Jack (later John) Gilbert. The Wilderness Trail followed on July 6, another Fox film. A few weeks later The Man in the Moonlight, a Universal Film Manufacturing Company
film was released on July 28. The Egg Crate Wallop was a Famous Players-Lasky production released by Paramount Pictures
on September 28.
, a move she made when she decided she needed comic training. This was in 1920, and it was a good move because it allowed her to work on her comic timing, and because the arrangement she had made with Al Christie
allowed her to go out and look for other work while with the comic troupe. While with Christie, she made Her Bridal Night-Mare, 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 with Chic Sales. 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 farmed her out 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
. While it is popularly believed the work on this film was done in Florida
, it was in fact shot on location on Catalina Island
. From there she was off to New York for more location work, then back to California
where Neilan put her to work in Slippy McGee
. Work on Slippy McGee took her to Mississippi
.
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 as 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. 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 (1893–1961), a publicity man 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 she 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". 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 releases of So Big in Europe, and Moore saw the tour as her first real opportunity to spend time with her husband John. Both she and John were dedicated to their careers, and the hectic schedules they 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 while filming 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, and 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 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 John found himself as Colleen'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 One drama. A million dollar film, it made back every penny spent within months. Prior to the release of Lilac Time, 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 John as her producer.
, 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, Illinois since the early 1950s, where, according to the museum it is seen by 1.5 million people each year. Moore continued working on it, and contributing artifacts to it, until her death.
This dollhouse was the eighth dollhouse 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 Saturday, August 13, 1938 edition of The Evening News (Tampa) 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.
in 1929, Moore took a hiatus from acting. After divorcing McCormack in 1930, Moore was briefly married (1932-34) to a prominent New York-based stockbroker, Albert Parker Scott, one of her four husbands. She and Scott lived at that time in a lavish home 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, returned to work in Hollywood. She appeared in three films, none of which were 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 life-long 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
.
with whom she had worked in the 1920s. She also published two books in the late 1960s, her autobiography
Silent Star: Colleen Moore Talks About Her Hollywood (1968) and How Women Can Make Money in the Stock Market (1969). She also figures prominently alongside of King 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 after her film career.
Many of Colleen Moore's films deteriorated but not due to her own neglect. She actually sent them to be preserved at the Museum of Modern Art. Some time later, Warner Brothers asked for their nitrate materials to be returned to them. Moore's First National films were also sent mistakenly since Warner was once a part of First National. Upon their arrival, the custodian, not seeing the films on the manifest, put them to one side and never went back to them. Many years later, Moore inquired about her collection and MoMA traced back to find out that her films had been languishing unprotected. When the films were examined, it was revealed that they had decomposed past the point of preservation. Heartbroken, she tried in vain to retrieve any prints she could from several sources without much success.
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 1980 documentary film
series Hollywood
, providing her recollections of Hollywood's silent film era.
in Paso Robles, California
, aged 88. Her contribution to the motion picture industry has been recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
at 1551 Vine Street.
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."
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
era.
Early life
Born Kathleen Morrison on August 19, 1899 (some sources state 1902) in Port Huron, MichiganPort Huron, Michigan
Port Huron is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of St. Clair County. The population was 30,184 at the 2010 census. The city is adjacent to Port Huron Township but is administratively autonomous. It is joined by the Blue Water Bridge over the St. Clair River to Sarnia,...
, Miss Moore was the eldest child of Charles R. and Agnes 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.
By 1905 the family had moved to Hillsdale, Michigan
Hillsdale, Michigan
Hillsdale is a city in the state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 8,305. It is the county seat of Hillsdale County, and is run as a council-manager government....
where they remained for over two years. They had relocated to Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
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 less than a year—in Warren, Pennsylvania
Warren, Pennsylvania
Warren is a city in Warren County, Pennsylvania, United States, located along the Allegheny River. The population was 9,710 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Warren County. It is home to the headquarters of the Allegheny National Forest and the Cornplanter State Forest...
, and by 1911 they had settled down in Tampa, Florida
Tampa, Florida
Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....
.
Two great passions of young Moore's 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. She admired the faces she saw on the silver screen and on magazine covers. She had resolved at a young age that she would be not only an actress, but a star. 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 doll houses.
The family summered in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, where Moore 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
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
, and was the inspiration for Walter Burns, the fictional Chicago newspaper editor in the play and the film The Front Page
The Front Page
The Front Page is a hit Broadway comedy about tabloid newspaper reporters on the police beat, written by one-time Chicago reporters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur which was first produced in 1928.-Synopsis:...
.
Early years
At the time, Chicago was the center of the motion picture industry in America. Essanay StudiosEssanay Studios
The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company was an American motion picture studio. It is best known today for its series of Charlie Chaplin comedies of 1915.-Founding:...
was within walking distance of the Northwestern L
Chicago 'L'
The L is the rapid transit system serving the city of Chicago and some of its surrounding suburbs. It is operated by the Chicago Transit Authority...
, 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 she had gotten into the Essanay studios and waited in line to be an extra with Helen Ferguson
Helen Ferguson
Helen Ferguson was an American actress later turned publicist.Born in Decatur, Illinois in 1901, she graduated from Nicholas High School of Chicago and the Academy of Fine Arts. Ferguson was a newspaper reporter before entering the motion picture field.It is thought she made her debut in films in...
: in an interview with Kevin Brownlow
Kevin Brownlow
Kevin Brownlow is a filmmaker, film historian, television documentary-maker, author, and Academy Award recipient. Brownlow is best known for his work documenting the history of the silent era. Brownlow became interested in silent film at the age of eleven. This interest grew into a career spent...
many years later Ferguson told a story that substantially confirmed many details of the claim, though it is not certain if 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
The Birth of a Nation
The Birth of a Nation is a 1915 American silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and based on the novel and play The Clansman, both by Thomas Dixon, Jr. Griffith also co-wrote the screenplay , and co-produced the film . It was released on February 8, 1915...
and Intolerance
Intolerance (film)
Intolerance is a 1916 American silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and is considered one of the great masterpieces of the Silent Era. The three-and-a-half hour epic intercuts four parallel storylines each separated by several centuries: A contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption; a...
through the Chicago censorship board.
The contract to Griffith's Triangle-Fine Arts
Triangle Film Corporation
Triangle Film Corporation was a major American motion-picture studio, founded in the summer of 1915 in Culver City, California, and envisioned as a prestige studio based on the producing abilities of filmmakers D. W. Griffith, Thomas Ince and Mack Sennett...
was conditional on passing a film test to ensure that her heterochromia
Heterochromia
In anatomy, heterochromia refers to a difference in coloration, usually of the iris but also of hair or skin. Heterochromia is a result of the relative excess or lack of melanin...
(she had one brown eye, one blue eye) 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
The Bad Boy (1917 film)
The Bad Boy is an American crime drama film directed by Chester Withey and starring Robert Harron, Richard Cummings, Mildred Harris and actress Colleen Moore, who made her film debut in The Bad Boy.-Plot summary:...
for Triangle Fine Arts, and for the next few years appeared in small, supporting roles gradually attracting the attention of the public.
The Bad Boy was released on February 18, and featured Robert Harron
Robert Harron
Robert "Bobby" Harron was an American motion picture actor of the early silent film era. Although he acted in scores of films, he is possibly best remembered for his roles in the D.W. Griffith directed films Intolerance and The Birth of a Nation...
, Richard Cummings
Richard Henry Cummings
Richard Henry Cummings , was an American film actor of the silent era. He appeared in 82 films between 1913 and 1930...
, Josephine Crowell
Josephine Crowell
Josephine Crowell was a Canadian film actress of the silent film era. She appeared in 94 films between 1912 and 1929....
, and Mildred Harris
Mildred Harris
Mildred Harris was an American film actress. Harris began her career in the film industry as a popular child actress at age eleven. At the age of fifteen, she was cast as a harem girl in D. W. Griffith's Intolerance . She appeared as a leading lady through the 1920s but her career slowed with...
(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!
Hands Up! (1917 film)
Hands Up! is a 1917 Western film directed by Tod Browning. This was Colleen Moore's last film for Triangle/Fine Arts. D. W. Griffith had withdrawn from the Triangle arrangement and taken many performers and staff, who were under contract specifically with Fine Arts rather than Triangle. Moore's...
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
Al Jennings
Alphonso J. "Al" Jennings was an attorney in the western USA who at one time robbed trains. He later became a silent film star and made many appearances in films as an actor and technical advisor.-Biography:...
, the famous outlaw who had been freed from jail by presidential pardon
Pardon
Clemency means the forgiveness of a crime or the cancellation of the penalty associated with it. It is a general concept that encompasses several related procedures: pardoning, commutation, remission and reprieves...
by Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
in 1907. Monte Blue
Monte Blue
Monte Blue was a movie actor who began his career as a romantic leading man in the silent film era, and later progressed to character roles....
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 for dear life. He also suggested she go out and get lessons. In a climactic scene she was locked in a closet and was able to scream her head off for the camera.
On May 3, 1917, the Chicago Daily Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
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 an 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 a five weeks release to do a film for Universal
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
'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 getting her pay 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 for her with Selig Polyscope
Selig Polyscope Company
The Selig Polyscope Company was an American motion picture company founded in 1896 by William Selig in Chicago, Illinois. Selig Polyscope is noted for establishing Southern California's first permanent movie studio, in the historic Edendale district of Los Angeles...
. 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
Little Orphant Annie
"Little Orphant Annie" is an 1885 poem written by James Whitcomb Riley and published by the Bowen-Merrill Company. First titled "The Elf Child", Riley changed the name to "Little Orphant Allie" at its third printing, however a typecasting error during printing renamed the poem to its current form...
[sic]. Both films were based upon poems by James Whitcomb Riley
James Whitcomb Riley
James Whitcomb Riley was an American writer, poet, and best selling author. During his lifetime he was known as the Hoosier Poet and Children's Poet for his dialect works and his children's poetry respectively...
, 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
Flagstaff, Arizona
Flagstaff is a city located in northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States. In 2010, the city's population was 65,870. The population of the Metropolitan Statistical Area was at 134,421 in 2010. It is the county seat of Coconino County...
for location work on The Wilderness Trail, another western, this time with Tom Mix
Tom Mix
Thomas Edwin "Tom" Mix was an American film actor and the star of many early Western movies. He made a reported 336 films between 1910 and 1935, all but nine of which were silent features...
. Her mother went along as chaperon. 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
Famous Players-Lasky
Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company created on July 19, 1916 from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company -- originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays -- and Jesse L...
production; it was a baseball film wherein the hero was played by Jack (later John) Gilbert. The Wilderness Trail followed on July 6, another Fox film. A few weeks later The Man in the Moonlight, a Universal Film Manufacturing Company
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
film was released on July 28. The Egg Crate Wallop was a Famous Players-Lasky production released by Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
on September 28.
Success in Hollywood
The next stage of her career was with the Christie Film CompanyChristie Film Company
Christie Film Company was an American pioneer motion picture company founded in Hollywood, California by Al Christie and Charles Christie, two brothers from London, Ontario, Canada....
, a move she made when she decided she needed comic training. This was in 1920, and it was a good move because it allowed her to work on her comic timing, and because the arrangement she had made with Al Christie
Al Christie
Al Christie was a Canadian-born motion picture director, producer and screenwriter.-Career:Born Alfred Ernest Christie, in London, Ontario, Canada, he was one of a number of Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood who made their way to Hollywood, California, attracted by the newly developing motion...
allowed her to go out and look for other work while with the comic troupe. While with Christie, she made Her Bridal Night-Mare, A Roman Scandal
A Roman Scandal
A Roman Scandal was a synth pop band from Austin, Texas active from 1999 through 2001. Members included Tyler Jacobsen , Sean O'Neal A Roman Scandal was a synth pop band from Austin, Texas active from 1999 through 2001. Members included Tyler Jacobsen (from Denim and Diamonds and OMD 20/20), Sean...
, and So Long Letty
So Long Letty
So Long Letty is a silent American comedy film directed by Al Christie, and starring Grace Darmond, T. Roy Barnes, and Colleen Moore. So Long Letty was an adaptation of a popular stage comedy/musical of the same name.-Story:...
. At the same time as she was working on these films, she worked on The Devil's Claim with Sessue Hayakawa
Sessue Hayakawa
was a Japanese and American Issei actor who starred in American, Japanese, French, German, and British films. Hayakawa was the first and one of the few Asian actors to find stardom in the United States as well as Europe. Between the mid-1910s and the late 1920s, he was as well known as actors...
, in which she played a Persian woman, When Dawn Came, and His Nibs with Chic Sales. All the while, Marshall Neilan
Marshall Neilan
Marshall Ambrose Neilan was an American motion picture actor, screenwriter, film director, and producer.-Early life:...
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 farmed her out most of the time. He loaned her out to King Vidor
King Vidor
King Wallis Vidor was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter whose career spanned nearly seven decades...
for The Sky Pilot
The Sky Pilot
The Sky Pilot is a 1921 silent drama film directed by King Vidor and featuring Colleen Moore.-Plot:The Sky Pilot arrives in a rough and tumble northern town intent on bringing religion to the tough residents of a small cattle town. At first they reject him, but in time he wins the residents over...
, released in May 1921, yet another Western. After working on The Sky Pilot on location in the snows of Truckee
Truckee Range
The Truckee Range is a mountain range located in western Nevada in the United States. The border between Washoe County and Churchill County runs along the ridge. The ridge runs north-south for approximately 30 miles....
, she was off to Catalina Island for work on The Lotus Eater
The Lotus Eater (1921 film)
The Lotus Eater is a silent 1921 drama film produced and directed by Marshall Neilan and released through Associated First National.-Story:...
with John Barrymore
John Barrymore
John Sidney Blyth , better known as John Barrymore, was an acclaimed American actor. He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III...
. While it is popularly believed the work on this film was done in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, it was in fact shot on location on Catalina Island
Santa Catalina Island, California
Santa Catalina Island, often called Catalina Island, or just Catalina, is a rocky island off the coast of the U.S. state of California. The island is long and across at its greatest width. The island is located about south-southwest of Los Angeles, California. The highest point on the island is...
. From there she was off to New York for more location work, then back to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
where Neilan put her to work in Slippy McGee
Slippy McGee
Slippy McGee is a 1923 silent film, directed by Wesley Ruggles and based on the book Slippy McGee: Sometimes Known as the Butterfly Man by Marie Conway Oemler, published in 1917. The film was an Oliver Morosco Production released by Associated First National, and featured actress Colleen Moore as...
. Work on Slippy McGee took her to Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
.
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
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
on films of the time. 1922 proved to be an eventful year for Moore as she was named a WAMPAS Baby Star
WAMPAS Baby Stars
The WAMPAS Baby Stars was a promotional campaign sponsored by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers in the United States which honored thirteen young women each year whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom. They were selected from 1922 to 1934, and annual...
during a "frolic" at the Ambassador Hotel which became an annual event, in recognition of her growing popularity. In early 1922, Come On Over was released, made from a Rupert Hughes
Rupert Hughes
Rupert Hughes was an American historian, novelist, film director and composer based in Hollywood. Hughes was born in Lancaster, Missouri. His parents were Felix Turner Hughes and Jean Amelia Summerlin, who were married in 1865. His brother Howard R. Hughes, Sr., co-founded the Hughes Tool Company....
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 (1893–1961), a publicity man 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 she 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
Flaming Youth (film)
Flaming Youth was a 1923 silent film featuring Colleen Moore that centered on the sotry of a young woman named Patricia Frentiss. The portrayal cemented Colleen's position in the film world as the prototypical flapper .-Story:When Mona Frentiss dies, she has her confidante "Doctor Bobs" watch over...
. 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
Milton Sills
Milton Sills was a highly successful American stage and film actor of the early twentieth century....
was a hit. The controversial story put Moore in focus as a flapper but after Clara Bow
Clara Bow
Clara Gordon Bow was an American actress who rose to stardom in the silent film era of the 1920s. It was her appearance as a spunky shopgirl in the film It that brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl." Bow came to personify the roaring twenties and is described as its leading sex...
took the stage in Black Oxen
Black Oxen
Black Oxen is an American silent film released in December 1923, starring Corinne Griffith, Conway Tearle and Clara Bow and based on the novel by Gertrude Atherton...
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". 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
So Big (1924 film)
So Big is a 1924 silent film based on Edna Ferber's novel of the same name. It was produced by independent producer Earl Hudson the film was distributed through Associated First National...
, where Moore aged through a stretch of decades and was also well received in light comedies such as Irene
Irene (1926 film)
Irene is a silent romantic comedy film starring Colleen Moore, and partially shot in Technicolor. It was directed by Alfred E. Green and was based on the play Irene O'Dare written by James Montgomery. As reported in the book and documentary film The Celluloid Closet, actor George K...
.
An overseas tour was planned to coincide with the releases of So Big in Europe, and Moore saw the tour as her first real opportunity to spend time with her husband John. Both she and John were dedicated to their careers, and the hectic schedules they 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 while filming The Desert Flower
The Desert Flower
The Desert Flower is an opera in three acts composed by William Vincent Wallace. The libretto was an English translation and adaptation by A. Harris and Thomas J. Williams of the libretto by Henri Saint-Georges and Adolphe de Leuven for Halévy's Jaguarita l'Indienne...
. 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, and 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 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 John found himself as Colleen'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 One drama. A million dollar film, it made back every penny spent within months. Prior to the release of Lilac Time, 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 John as her producer.
Colleen Moore Dollhouse
In 1928, inspired by her father and with help from her former set designer, Horace Jackson, Moore constructed an 8 feet (2.4 m) miniature "fairy castle" which toured the United States. The interior of The Colleen Moore Dollhouse, designed by Harold GrieveHarold Grieve
Harold Grieve was an motion picture art director and interior designer.Born in Los Angeles, California, he attended Hollywood High School then studied art at the "School of Illustration and Painting" run by John Francis Smith in Los Angeles. In the early 1920s Grieve went to work in the film...
, features miniature bear skin rugs and detailed furniture and art. Moore's dollhouse
Dollhouse
A dollhouse is a toy home, made in miniature. For the last century, dollhouses have primarily been the domain of children but their collection and crafting is also a hobby for many adults. The term dollhouse is common in the United States and Canada...
has been a featured exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry
Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago)
The Museum of Science and Industry is located in Chicago, Illinois, USA in Jackson Park, in the Hyde Park neighborhood adjacent to Lake Michigan. It is housed in the former Palace of Fine Arts from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition...
in Chicago, Illinois since the early 1950s, where, according to the museum it is seen by 1.5 million people each year. Moore continued working on it, and contributing artifacts to it, until her death.
This dollhouse was the eighth dollhouse Moore owned. The first dollhouse, she wrote in her autobiography Silent Star
Silent Star
Silent Star: Colleen Moore Talks About Her Hollywood was silent film star Colleen Moore's autobiography.-Overview:The book was written after the death of her third husband Homer Hargrave. It was likely written with the help of Moore's friend Adela Rogers St. Johns...
(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 Saturday, August 13, 1938 edition of The Evening News (Tampa) 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
Adela Rogers St. Johns
Adela Rogers St. Johns was an American journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. She wrote a number of screenplays for silent movies and, late in life, appeared with other early twentieth-century figures as one of the 'witnesses' in Warren Beatty's Reds, but she is best remembered for her...
. The fourth survives and remains on display in the living room of a relative.
Sound films
With the advent of talking picturesSound film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...
in 1929, Moore took a hiatus from acting. After divorcing McCormack in 1930, Moore was briefly married (1932-34) to a prominent New York-based stockbroker, Albert Parker Scott, one of her four husbands. She and Scott lived at that time in a lavish home in Bel Air, where they hosted parties for and were supporters of the U.S. Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
team, especially the yachting
Yachting
Yachting refers to recreational sailing or boating, the specific act of sailing or using other water vessels for sporting purposes.-Competitive sailing:...
team, during the 1932 Summer Olympics
1932 Summer Olympics
The 1932 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the X Olympiad, was a major world wide multi-athletic event which was celebrated in 1932 in Los Angeles, California, United States. No other cities made a bid to host these Olympics. Held during the worldwide Great Depression, many nations...
held in Los Angeles.
In 1934, Moore, by then divorced, returned to work in Hollywood. She appeared in three films, none of which were successful, and Moore retired. Her last film was a version of The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter is an 1850 romantic work of fiction in a historical setting, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is considered to be his magnum opus. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an...
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 life-long close relationship. Throughout her life she also maintained close friendships with other colleagues from the silent film era, such as King Vidor
King Vidor
King Wallis Vidor was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter whose career spanned nearly seven decades...
and Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
.
Later life and career
In the 1960s, she formed a television production company with King VidorKing Vidor
King Wallis Vidor was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter whose career spanned nearly seven decades...
with whom she had worked in the 1920s. She also published two books in the late 1960s, her autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
Silent Star: Colleen Moore Talks About Her Hollywood (1968) and How Women Can Make Money in the Stock Market (1969). She also figures prominently alongside of King Vidor in Sidney D. Kirkpatrick
Sidney D. Kirkpatrick
Sidney D. Kirkpatrick is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and a bestselling historical author. He grew up in Stony Brook, Long Island and attended Kent School, Connecticut, Hampshire College, Massachusetts and New York University....
's book, A Cast of Killers, which recounts Vidor's attempt to make a film of and solve the murder of William Desmond Taylor
William Desmond Taylor
William Desmond Taylor was an Irish-born American actor, successful film director of silent movies and a popular figure in the growing Hollywood film colony of the 1910s and early 1920s...
. In that book, she is recalled as having been a successful real estate broker in Chicago after her film career.
Many of Colleen Moore's films deteriorated but not due to her own neglect. She actually sent them to be preserved at the Museum of Modern Art. Some time later, Warner Brothers asked for their nitrate materials to be returned to them. Moore's First National films were also sent mistakenly since Warner was once a part of First National. Upon their arrival, the custodian, not seeing the films on the manifest, put them to one side and never went back to them. Many years later, Moore inquired about her collection and MoMA traced back to find out that her films had been languishing unprotected. When the films were examined, it was revealed that they had decomposed past the point of preservation. Heartbroken, she tried in vain to retrieve any prints she could from several sources without much success.
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 1980 documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
series Hollywood
Hollywood (documentary)
Hollywood is a 1980 documentary series produced by Thames Television which explored the establishment and development of the Hollywood studios and its impact on 1920s culture....
, providing her recollections of Hollywood's silent film era.
Death
Moore died from cancerCancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
in Paso Robles, California
Paso Robles, California
Paso Robles is a city in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Paso Robles is the fastest growing city in San Luis Obispo County: Its population at the 2000 census was 24,297; in 2010 it recorded some 29,793 residentsLocated on the Salinas River north of San Luis Obispo, California,...
, aged 88. Her contribution to the motion picture industry has been recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
at 1551 Vine Street.
Quote
F. Scott FitzgeraldF. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
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."
Selected filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1916 | The Prince of Graustark | Maid | Uncredited |
| 1917 | The Bad Boy The Bad Boy (1917 film) The Bad Boy is an American crime drama film directed by Chester Withey and starring Robert Harron, Richard Cummings, Mildred Harris and actress Colleen Moore, who made her film debut in The Bad Boy.-Plot summary:... |
Ruth | |
| 1917 | An Old-Fashioned Young Man | Margaret | |
| 1917 | Hands Up! Hands Up! (1917 film) Hands Up! is a 1917 Western film directed by Tod Browning. This was Colleen Moore's last film for Triangle/Fine Arts. D. W. Griffith had withdrawn from the Triangle arrangement and taken many performers and staff, who were under contract specifically with Fine Arts rather than Triangle. Moore's... |
Marjorie Houston | |
| 1917 | The Little American The Little American The Little American is a 1917 American silent drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. The film stars Mary Pickford as an American woman who is in love with both a German and a French soldier during World War I.-Plot:... |
Undetermined Role | Uncredited |
| 1917 | The Savage The Savage (1917 film) The Savage is a 1917 silent film starring Colleen Moore and Monroe Salisbury. The film is lost.-Story:Marie Louise returns home from finishing school,and catches the eye of Julio Sandoval, an emotional half-breed. She is engaged to Captain McKeever of the mounted police, but Sandoval wants her... |
Lizette | |
| 1918 | Little Orphant Annie Little Orphant Annie (1918 film) Little Orphant Annie was a film adaptation of the famous and beloved James Whitcomb Riley poem of the same title, produced by William Selig and starring Colleen Moore in her first starring role, just one year after her arrival in Hollywood.... |
Annie | |
| 1918 | A Hoosier Romance A Hoosier Romance This 1918 Selig Polyscope film featured silent film actress Colleen Moore. It was one of two films for Selig she made, the other being Little Orphant Annie.-Story:... |
Patience Thompson | |
| 1919 | The Wilderness Trail The Wilderness Trail Shot between February and March 1919, The Wilderness Trail was the first of two films actress Colleen Moore would make with western star Tom Mix. Though Tom had shot many films in the vicinity of Prescott, Arizona since his days with Selig, This film was shot in and around Flagstaff. The cowboys on... |
Jeanne Fitzpatrick | |
| 1919 | The Egg Crate Wallop The Egg Crate Wallop The Egg Crate Wallop is a silent film featuring actress Colleen Moore. It was directed by Jerome Storm.-Story:Jim Kelly works for a railroad express company in a small Midwest town. After years of heavy lifting, he has developed quite a punch. He is infatuated with Kitty Haskell , the daughter of... |
Kitty Haskell | |
| 1919 | The Busher The Busher The Busher is a 1919 dramatic film directed by Jerome Storm featuring Colleen Moore, and produced by Thomas Ince. The film still exists and is available on dvd from Kino Video.-Story:... |
Mazie Palmer | |
| 1920 | The Man in the Moonlight The Man in the Moonlight (1919 film) The Man in the Moonlight was a 1919 silent film, a drama set in the great north, starring Colleen Moore and Monroe Salisbury.-Story:Two strangers arrive at the wedding of Sergeant O'Farrell of the Royal Mounted Police and Rosine Delorme. O'Farrell receives an urgent message that Rosine's wayward... |
Rosine | |
| 1919 | A Roman Scandal A Roman Scandal (film) A Roman Scandal is a short silent American comedy film starring Colleen Moore, and directed by Al Christie.-Story:Mary is stage struck and will not marry until she makes it in show business. Her fiance is distraught that they might never marry. The actors of the local stage company go on strike,... |
Mary | |
| 1920 | The Devil's Claim The Devil's Claim (1920 film) -Story:Akbar Khan, a novelist in New York, uses his love affairs as inspiration for his books. His current affair is with Indora, a Persian girl. However, the passion has left the relationship and he casts her out. Social worker Virginia Crosby comes to her aid and pretends to fall for Khan. He is... |
Indora | |
| 1920 | Her Bridal Nightmare Her Bridal Nightmare Her Bridal Nightmare is a 1920 silent film comedy from Christie FIlm Co.. It was one of Colleen Moore's first comedy films. She made for Christie studios, shot in and around Los Angeles. Her films with Christie included Her Bridal Nightmare, A Roman Scandal, So Long Letty, and His Nibs... |
Mary | |
| 1920 | So Long Letty So Long Letty So Long Letty is a silent American comedy film directed by Al Christie, and starring Grace Darmond, T. Roy Barnes, and Colleen Moore. So Long Letty was an adaptation of a popular stage comedy/musical of the same name.-Story:... |
Grace Miller | |
| 1920 | Dinty Dinty (film) Dinty is a 1920 silent drama featuring actress Colleen Moore. The film was written by Marshall Neilan specifically for Wesley Barry, a young actor known for his freckled complexion. In Wesley's previous film he played a character named "Dinty," a paperboy... |
Doreen O'Sullivan | |
| 1921 | The Sky Pilot The Sky Pilot The Sky Pilot is a 1921 silent drama film directed by King Vidor and featuring Colleen Moore.-Plot:The Sky Pilot arrives in a rough and tumble northern town intent on bringing religion to the tough residents of a small cattle town. At first they reject him, but in time he wins the residents over... |
Gwen | |
| 1921 | The Lotus Eater | Mavis | |
| 1921 | His Nibs His Nibs (film) -Story:The Slippery Elm Picture Palace screens the film ‘’He Fooled ‘em All’’ as various rural characters watch. The owner, operator and projectionist is “His Nibs.” He tells the audience that he has cut the titles from the film but will explain the action... |
The Girl | |
| 1922 | Forsaking All Others Forsaking All Others (1922 film) Forsaking All Others is a 1922 American dramatic film starring actress Colleen Moore and directed by Emile Chautard for Universal Studio. It was made before Colleen became famous as a flapper but did visit some of the same subjects her later films would.... |
Penelope Mason | |
| 1922 | The Ninety and Nine The Ninety and Nine (1922 film) The Ninety and Nine was a 1922 silent drama starring Colleen Moore made shortly before she gained fame as a film flapper.-Story:Tom Silverton is a wrongly accused man whose real name is Phil Bradbury. He was engaged to society girl Kate Van Dyke, but she falls in love with another man. When there... |
Ruth Blake | |
| 1922 | Broken Chains | Mercy Boone | |
| 1923 | April Showers April Showers (1923 film) April Showers was a silent romantic film with Colleen Moore, an "Irish" story that capitalized on her wholesome Irish persona.-Story:Danny O'Rourke is the son of a police officer who was killed in the line of duty. Eager to join the police force, Danny fails his exams. The failure causes him to... |
Maggie Muldoon | |
| 1923 | Slippy McGee Slippy McGee Slippy McGee is a 1923 silent film, directed by Wesley Ruggles and based on the book Slippy McGee: Sometimes Known as the Butterfly Man by Marie Conway Oemler, published in 1917. The film was an Oliver Morosco Production released by Associated First National, and featured actress Colleen Moore as... |
Mary Virginia | |
| 1923 | Flaming Youth Flaming Youth (film) Flaming Youth was a 1923 silent film featuring Colleen Moore that centered on the sotry of a young woman named Patricia Frentiss. The portrayal cemented Colleen's position in the film world as the prototypical flapper .-Story:When Mona Frentiss dies, she has her confidante "Doctor Bobs" watch over... |
Patricia Fentriss | |
| 1924 | The Perfect Flapper The Perfect Flapper The Perfect Flapper was a 1924 comedy film starring Colleen Moore. This was Colleen's second "flapper film" after Flaming Youth. It was released after Through the Dark--which had been made before Flaming Youth but did not make it to the theaters until after—and Painted People. The film is... |
Tommie Lou Pember | |
| 1924 | So Big So Big (1924 film) So Big is a 1924 silent film based on Edna Ferber's novel of the same name. It was produced by independent producer Earl Hudson the film was distributed through Associated First National... |
Selina Peake | |
| 1925 | We Moderns We Moderns We Moderns was an American silent comedy film directed by John Francis Dillon and starring Colleen Moore, the same team from Flaming Youth . The film was produced by Moore's husband John McCormick , was released through First National Pictures, and was based on the play and novel by Israel Zangwill... |
Mary Sundale | |
| 1925 | Ben-Hur Ben-Hur (1925 film) Ben-Hur is a 1925 silent film directed by Fred Niblo. It was a blockbuster hit for newly merged Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. This was the second film based on the novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace... |
Crowd extra in chariot race | Alternative title: Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ Uncredited |
| 1926 | Ella Cinders Ella Cinders (1926 film) Ella Cinders is a 1926 film adaptation of the comic strip Ella CInders, starring Colleen Moore and her most popular co-star, Lloyd Hughes.-Story:... |
Ella Cinders | |
| 1926 | Twinkletoes Twinkletoes Twinkletoes is a 1926 silent film romantic drama directed by Charles Brabin and starring Colleen Moore. The film, as with most of Moore's vehicles at this time, was produced by her husband John McCormick with the couple distributing through Moore's resident studio First National... |
Twink "Twinkletoes" Minasi | |
| 1927 | Orchids and Ermine Orchids and Ermine Orchids and Ermine is a 1927 silent film comedy starring Colleen Moore, filmed partly on location in New York. The film still exists.- Story :... |
"Pink" Watson | |
| 1927 | Naughty But Nice Naughty but Nice (film) -Plot:Bernice Sumners is sent to a finishing school her Texas uncle after oil is discovered on his property. At the school she blossoms into a young woman. Berenice is a compulsive liar. One evening she and a friend go to a hotel before a theater date, planning to meet popular Paul Carroll, but the... |
Bernice Sumners | |
| 1927 | Her Wild Oat Her Wild Oat Her Wild Oat is a silent comedy film made by First National Pictures, directed by Marshall Neilan, and starring Colleen Moore. The screenplay was written by Gerald C... |
Mary Brown | |
| 1928 | Lilac Time Lilac Time (1928 film) Lilac Time is a silent romantic war film directed by George Fitzmaurice, starring Colleen Moore and Gary Cooper, produced by John McCormick , and distributed by First National Pictures.... |
Jeannine Berthelot | Alternative title: Love Never Dies |
| 1928 | Oh, Kay! Oh, Kay! (film) Oh, Kay! is a 1928 silent film produced by John McCormick and distributed by First National Pictures. McCormick's wife Colleen Moore starred with Mervyn LeRoy directed.This film is currently a lost.-Story:... |
Lady Kay Rutfield | |
| 1929 | Smiling Irish Eyes Smiling Irish Eyes Smiling Irish Eyes , known as Hymyilevät silmät in Finland, is a sound American musical film with Technicolor sequences.The film is now considered a lost film, however the Vitaphone discs still exist.-Plot:... |
Kathleen O'Connor | |
| 1929 | Why Be Good? Why Be Good? Why Be Good? is a silent comedy film from First National Pictures starring Colleen Moore and Neil Hamilton. This movie had a Vitaphone soundtrack with music and sound effects. Jean Harlow had a small role in this movie.-Plot:... |
Pert Kelly | |
| 1929 | Footlights and Fools Footlights and Fools Footlights and Fools is a sound film billed by Warner Brothers as an all-talking musical film, released in Vitaphone with Technicolor sequences.-Production background:... |
Betty Murphy/Fifi D'Auray | |
| 1929 | Synthetic Sin Synthetic Sin Synthetic Sin is a 1929 film directed by William A. Seiter, based on a play of the same name.-Story:Famed playwright Donald Anthony returns home to Magnolia Gap, Virginia, and proposes to Betty Fairfax. She accepts and he offers he the lead part in his next play, but the play is a disaster... |
Betty | |
| 1933 | The Power and the Glory | Sally Garner | Alternative title: Power and Glory |
| 1934 | Social Register Social Register (1934 film) Social Register is a 1934 musical comedy-drama film starring Colleen Moore. The film re-united her with her old friend and one of the first directors to give her film career a start, Marshall Neilan. The film was based on the 1931 play of the same name by Anita Loos and John Emerson.-Story:Patsy... |
Patsy Shaw | |
| 1934 | Success at Any Price Success at Any Price (1934 film) Success at Any Price was a 1934 sound film starring former silent film actress Colleen Moore and Douglas Fairbanks Jr..-Cast:* Douglas Fairbanks Jr... |
Sarah Griswold | |
| 1934 | The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter (1934 film) The Scarlet Letter is a 1934 American film directed by Robert G. Vignola.It was shot in Salem's Pioneer Village and Sherman Oaks, California. This was the only film Colleen Moore ever said she made for the money. She was preparing to take her dollhouse on tour for charity, and saw the film as an... |
Hester Prynne |