June Mathis
Encyclopedia
June Mathis was an American screenwriter
and one of the highest paid Hollywood executives in the 1920s. Mathis was the first female executive for Metro/MGM
and at only 35, she was the highest paid executive in Hollywood. In 1926 she was voted the third most influential woman in Hollywood, behind Mary Pickford
and Norma Talmadge
. Today, she is best remembered for discovering Rudolph Valentino
and writing such films as The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
, and Blood and Sand.
, the only child of Virginia Ruth and Dr. Philip Hughes. Her parents divorced when she was seven and her mother remarried, this time to William D. Mathis, a widower with three children whose name she would eventually adopt as a stage name. She had been a sickly child and believed she healed herself through her sheer force of will. She believed everything was mental and everyone had certain vibrations stating, "If you are vibrating in the right place, you will inevitably come in contact with the others who can help you. It's like tuning in on your radio. If you get the right wave-length, you have your station."
Mathis was educated in Salt Lake City and San Francisco. It was while in San Francisco she got her first stage experience, dancing and doing imitations in vaudeville
. At the age of 12 she joined a traveling company and at 17 became an ingenue
, performing with Ezra Kendall in The Vinegar Buyer. Later she appeared in several Broadway
shows and toured for four seasons with the female impersonator Julian Eltinge
in the widely popular show The Fascinating Widow. Supporting her now twice widowed mother, she would continue to perform in theatre for the next 13 years.
studios, later known as MGM. As one of the first screenwriters to include details such as stage directions and physical settings in her work, Mathis saw scenarios as a way to make movies into more of an art form. Much of the present standard screen writing styles can be attributed to her. Mathis later credited her success to a strong concentration on plot and theme: "No story that did not possess a theme has ever really lived.... Occasionally one may make money and perhaps be popular for a time. But in the end it dies."
By 1919 Mathis and her mother had moved to Hollywood. After only a year of screenwriting, she had advanced to the head of Metro's scenario department. She was one of the first heads of any film department and the only female executive at Metro.
During her early years she had a close association with silent star Alla Nazimova
, however their films together can be said to be marked by over sentimentality. What little praise these films garned were due to Nazimova's acting rather the conventional romantic stories.
's novel The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse. The epic bestseller had been considered unadaptable by every major studio in the country. Rowland handed the book off to Mathis for adaptation and was so impressed with her screenplay that he asked her input on director and star. Mathis had seen Rudolph Valentino
in a bit part in The Eyes of Youth, and was greatly impressed. Mathis exerted considerable influence to cast Valentino, as studio heads resisted hiring an unknown actor for a lead role. Despite her many other accomplishments, this "discovery" would grow to be her best known act. For the same movie she also insisted the studio hire Rex Ingram
as director.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
, groundbreaking on many levels, was one of the first films with an anti-war theme. Mathis also injected some early depictions of alternative lifestyles; it featured a scene with German
officers coming down the stairs in drag. Of the scene, Mathis would later tell the The Los Angeles Times, "I had the German officers coming down the stairs with women's clothing on. To hundreds of people that meant no more than a masquerade party. To those who have lived and read, and who understand life, that scene stood out as one of the most terrific things in the picture."
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was a success grossing $4,500,000 domestically, thus becoming one of the most commercial silent films ever made and launching Valentino into stardom. Even before it was released, Valentino was receiving offers from other studios. Taking Mathis' advice, he remained with Metro to get another solid role or two under his belt.
Mathis and Valentino remained fast friends after Four Horsemen. There was never a question about the nature of the relationship; the older plain-looking Mathis doted on the incredibly talented beautiful young man. Accounts state that Valentino regarded Mathis in a motherly way, calling her "Little Mother." Nita Naldi, who worked with the pair on Blood and Sand, said of them, "She mothered Rudy, and my dear she worshiped him and he worshiped her". "She discovered me, anything I have accomplished I owe to her, to her judgment, to her advice and to her unfailing patience and confidence in me", said Valentino on Mathis in a 1923 interview with Louella Parsons
Mathis looked after Valentino's welfare during his time at Metro, making sure he got the best parts and was taken care of. When Valentino showed up on the set for The Conquering Power, another Mathis script with Rex Ingram at the helm, his new-found stardom went to his head, along with resentment at working for the same wage of $350 a week. The friction between himself and Ingram, and his need for more money to support mounting debts led Valentino to sign with Famous Players-Lasky
(later known as Paramount Pictures
) for $1,000 a week.
Mathis was also one of the people who helped bail Valentino out of jail when he was arrested for bigamy
having married Natacha Rambova
without finalizing his divorce to Jean Acker
. Though the two were inseparable, their relationship became strained during Valentino's marriage to Rambova. When Mathis submitted a script for The Hooded Falcon, one of Valentino's pet projects, the couple deemed it unacceptable and asked to have it rewritten. Mathis took it as a great insult and broke off all contact with Valentino.
. Mathis had influence over casting, choice of director and many other aspects of production. Her strength lay in careful preparation of the shooting script along with the director, cutting out waste in production while at the same time sharpening narrative continuity.
After spending seven years at Metro, Famous Players-Lasky was able to lure her away with the promise that she could continue to write for her protégé Valentino. When Valentino moved to Goldwyn Pictures
she did as well, this time gaining sovereign control.
presented Goldwyn Pictures with his masterpiece Greed
, following Frank Norris
's novel McTeague
pretty closely, it was 42 reels and 10 hours long. Stroheim himself realized the original version was far too long, so he reduced it to 24 reels (6 hours), hoping the film could be screened with intermissions in two successive evenings. But Goldwyn executives demanded further cuts. Stroheim allowed his close friend Rex Ingram
to reduce it to 18 reels (4½ hours).
However, in the middle of production, Goldwyn had merged with Metro and Louis B. Mayer Pictures to form Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. MGM took Greed out of Stroheim's hands and gave it to Mathis, with orders to cut it even more, which she assigned to a routine cutter, Joseph W. Farnham
. The film was then reduced to 13 reels (2½ hours) long. In the process, many key characters were cut out, resulting in large continuity gaps.
There is speculation on whether Mathis took part in the actual cutting. However, for contractual reasons her name was listed in the credits as a writer, and it was she who would be blamed for what Stroheim and his fans would call "tampering with his genius". In fact Mathis had worked with Stroheim before and had been fond of his themes, and thus it would be unlikely she would butcher his film unnecessarily.
, Mathis fought the studio over the casting and production for many months. It was her idea to film the one million dollar script in Italy; the film would eventually come in just under four million dollars. When she arrived the original director Charles Brabin
, in his words, refused to let her "interfere". The production troubles were numerous, and due to political troubles engulfing Italy at the time, resulted in disputes and delayed permissions. When the sea battle was filmed near Livorno, Italy, many extras had apparently lied about being able to swim. The first attempt to film the chariot race was on a set in Rome, but there were problems with shadows and the racetrack surface. One of the chariots' wheels came apart and the stuntman driving it was thrown in the air and killed.
MGM inherited the production when it took over control of Goldwyn studios; with the film over budget and getting out of control, the studio halted production and relocated the shoot from Italy to California, under the supervision of Irving Thalberg
. Before they had even returned from Italy, MGM would fire Mathis, Brabin, and star George Walsh
. MGM replaced them with director Fred Niblo
, screenwriters Bess Meredyth
and Carey Wilson, and star Ramon Novarro
.
ian fashion, she was also one of the first "writer-directors" and laid the groundwork for the later development of screenwriters becoming producers. A spiritualist with mystical bents, her scripts featured many heroes with a Christ-like demeanor. A believer in reincarnation
, she always wore an opal
ring when she wrote, convinced it brought her ideas.
Mathis had been romantically linked to George Walsh
and Rex Ingram
, however she returned from Italy engaged to an Italian cinematographer named Sylvano Balboni (sometimes spelled as Silvano Balboni). The pair married December 20, 1924 at Mission of St. Cecilia, in Riverside, California
. Upon her return, First National
hired her as editorial director. She also scripted several successful Colleen Moore
pictures including Sally, The Desert Flower, and Irene. After two years she left First National over limitations and signed with United Artists
; with her husband she made one picture for them, The Masked Woman. The Magic Flame (1927) would be her last picture, and one of her best, due in part to Ronald Colman
's performance and Henry King
's direction.
). However, when Mathis herself died the following year, the arrangement became permanent.
On July 26, 1927, during the third act of the Broadway show The Squall, while accompanied by her mother Mathis suffered a fatal heart attack. Her last words were reportedly, "Mother, I'm dying!" Mathis was 38 years old.
Her ashes were returned to California: instead of "evicting" Valentino, Mathis' husband, Sylvano Balboni, moved Valentino to the niche beside hers, sold the remaining crypt to Valentino's family and returned to Italy. Mathis and Valentino repose side by side to this day.
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
and one of the highest paid Hollywood executives in the 1920s. Mathis was the first female executive for Metro/MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
and at only 35, she was the highest paid executive in Hollywood. In 1926 she was voted the third most influential woman in Hollywood, behind 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...
and Norma Talmadge
Norma Talmadge
Norma Talmadge was an American actress and film producer of the silent era. A major box office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among the most popular idols of the American screen.Her most famous film was Smilin’ Through , but she also...
. Today, she is best remembered for discovering Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, and early pop icon. A sex symbol of the 1920s, Valentino was known as the "Latin Lover". He starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik...
and writing such films as The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (film)
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is a 1921 silent movie produced by Metro Pictures Corporation, adapted by June Mathis, directed by Rex Ingram and starring Rudolph Valentino, Pomeroy Cannon, Josef Swickard, Wallace Beery, and Alice Terry...
, and Blood and Sand.
Early life
Born June Beulah Hughes in Leadville, ColoradoLeadville, Colorado
Leadville is a Statutory City that is the county seat of, and the only municipality in, Lake County, Colorado, United States. Situated at an elevation of , Leadville is the highest incorporated city and the second highest incorporated municipality in the United States...
, the only child of Virginia Ruth and Dr. Philip Hughes. Her parents divorced when she was seven and her mother remarried, this time to William D. Mathis, a widower with three children whose name she would eventually adopt as a stage name. She had been a sickly child and believed she healed herself through her sheer force of will. She believed everything was mental and everyone had certain vibrations stating, "If you are vibrating in the right place, you will inevitably come in contact with the others who can help you. It's like tuning in on your radio. If you get the right wave-length, you have your station."
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
. At the age of 12 she joined a traveling company and at 17 became an ingenue
Ingenue (stock character)
See also Disingenuous, which is not quite the antonym that it may seem!The ingénue is a stock character in literature, film, and a role type in the theatre; generally a girl or a young woman who is endearingly innocent and wholesome. Ingenue may also refer to a new young actress or one typecast in...
, performing with Ezra Kendall in The Vinegar Buyer. Later she appeared in several Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
shows and toured for four seasons with the female impersonator Julian Eltinge
Julian Eltinge
Julian Eltinge , born William Julian Dalton, was an American stage and screen actor and female impersonator. After appearing in the Boston Cadets Revue at the age of ten in feminine garb, Eltinge garnered notice from other producers and made his first appearance on Broadway in 1904...
in the widely popular show The Fascinating Widow. Supporting her now twice widowed mother, she would continue to perform in theatre for the next 13 years.
Screenwriting
Mathis was determined to become a screenwriter and with her mother in tow moved to New York City. She studied writing by day and went to the movies at night. She entered a screenwriting competition; but despite not winning, her entry was so impressive it did bring job offers. Her first script, House of Tears, would be directed by Edwin Carewe in 1915 and led to a contract in 1918 with MetroMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
studios, later known as MGM. As one of the first screenwriters to include details such as stage directions and physical settings in her work, Mathis saw scenarios as a way to make movies into more of an art form. Much of the present standard screen writing styles can be attributed to her. Mathis later credited her success to a strong concentration on plot and theme: "No story that did not possess a theme has ever really lived.... Occasionally one may make money and perhaps be popular for a time. But in the end it dies."
By 1919 Mathis and her mother had moved to Hollywood. After only a year of screenwriting, she had advanced to the head of Metro's scenario department. She was one of the first heads of any film department and the only female executive at Metro.
During her early years she had a close association with silent star Alla Nazimova
Alla Nazimova
Alla Nazimova , was a Russian American film and theatre actress, a screenwriter and film producer. She is perhaps best known as simply Nazimova, but also went under the name Alia Nasimoff.-Early life:...
, however their films together can be said to be marked by over sentimentality. What little praise these films garned were due to Nazimova's acting rather the conventional romantic stories.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
In 1921, Richard Rowland, the head of Metro paid $20,000 and 10% of the gross earning for Vicente Blasco IbáñezVicente Blasco Ibáñez
Vicente Blasco Ibáñez was a Spanish realist novelist writing in Spanish, a screenwriter and occasional film director....
's novel The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse. The epic bestseller had been considered unadaptable by every major studio in the country. Rowland handed the book off to Mathis for adaptation and was so impressed with her screenplay that he asked her input on director and star. Mathis had seen Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, and early pop icon. A sex symbol of the 1920s, Valentino was known as the "Latin Lover". He starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik...
in a bit part in The Eyes of Youth, and was greatly impressed. Mathis exerted considerable influence to cast Valentino, as studio heads resisted hiring an unknown actor for a lead role. Despite her many other accomplishments, this "discovery" would grow to be her best known act. For the same movie she also insisted the studio hire Rex Ingram
Rex Ingram (director)
Rex Ingram was an Irish film director, producer, writer and actor. Legendary director Erich von Stroheim once called him "the world's greatest director."-Early life:...
as director.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (film)
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is a 1921 silent movie produced by Metro Pictures Corporation, adapted by June Mathis, directed by Rex Ingram and starring Rudolph Valentino, Pomeroy Cannon, Josef Swickard, Wallace Beery, and Alice Terry...
, groundbreaking on many levels, was one of the first films with an anti-war theme. Mathis also injected some early depictions of alternative lifestyles; it featured a scene with German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
officers coming down the stairs in drag. Of the scene, Mathis would later tell the The Los Angeles Times, "I had the German officers coming down the stairs with women's clothing on. To hundreds of people that meant no more than a masquerade party. To those who have lived and read, and who understand life, that scene stood out as one of the most terrific things in the picture."
Valentino
Mathis and Valentino remained fast friends after Four Horsemen. There was never a question about the nature of the relationship; the older plain-looking Mathis doted on the incredibly talented beautiful young man. Accounts state that Valentino regarded Mathis in a motherly way, calling her "Little Mother." Nita Naldi, who worked with the pair on Blood and Sand, said of them, "She mothered Rudy, and my dear she worshiped him and he worshiped her". "She discovered me, anything I have accomplished I owe to her, to her judgment, to her advice and to her unfailing patience and confidence in me", said Valentino on Mathis in a 1923 interview with Louella Parsons
Mathis looked after Valentino's welfare during his time at Metro, making sure he got the best parts and was taken care of. When Valentino showed up on the set for The Conquering Power, another Mathis script with Rex Ingram at the helm, his new-found stardom went to his head, along with resentment at working for the same wage of $350 a week. The friction between himself and Ingram, and his need for more money to support mounting debts led Valentino to sign with 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...
(later known as 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...
) for $1,000 a week.
Mathis was also one of the people who helped bail Valentino out of jail when he was arrested for bigamy
Bigamy
In cultures that practice marital monogamy, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. Bigamy is a crime in most western countries, and when it occurs in this context often neither the first nor second spouse is aware of the other...
having married Natacha Rambova
Natacha Rambova
Natacha Rambova was an American silent film costume and set designer, artistic director, screenwriter, producer and occasional actress. Later in life she worked as a mildly successful fashion designer and Egyptologist....
without finalizing his divorce to Jean Acker
Jean Acker
Jean Acker was an American film actress with a career dating from the silent film era through the 1950s. She was perhaps best known as the estranged wife of silent film star Rudolph Valentino.-Early life and career:...
. Though the two were inseparable, their relationship became strained during Valentino's marriage to Rambova. When Mathis submitted a script for The Hooded Falcon, one of Valentino's pet projects, the couple deemed it unacceptable and asked to have it rewritten. Mathis took it as a great insult and broke off all contact with Valentino.
Executive
Mathis' position with Metro was called by the Los Angeles Times, "The Most Responsible Job ever Held by A Woman". She was arguably one of the most powerful women in Hollywood, even said to be almost as powerful as Mary PickfordMary 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...
. Mathis had influence over casting, choice of director and many other aspects of production. Her strength lay in careful preparation of the shooting script along with the director, cutting out waste in production while at the same time sharpening narrative continuity.
After spending seven years at Metro, Famous Players-Lasky was able to lure her away with the promise that she could continue to write for her protégé Valentino. When Valentino moved to Goldwyn Pictures
Goldwyn Pictures
Goldwyn Pictures Corporation was an American motion picture production company founded in 1916 by Samuel Goldfish in partnership with Broadway producers Edgar and Archibald Selwyn using an amalgamation of both last names to create the name...
she did as well, this time gaining sovereign control.
Greed
Mathis continued to survive in Hollywood despite being involved in two of the greatest fiascoes of the 1920s. When Erich von StroheimErich von Stroheim
Erich von Stroheim was an Austrian-born film star of the silent era, subsequently noted as an auteur for his directorial work.-Background:...
presented Goldwyn Pictures with his masterpiece Greed
Greed (film)
Greed is a 1924 American dramatic silent film. It was directed by Erich von Stroheim and starring Gibson Gowland, Zasu Pitts, Jean Hersholt, Dale Fuller, Tempe Pigott, Sylvia Ashton, Chester Conklin, Joan Standing and Jack Curtis....
, following Frank Norris
Frank Norris
Benjamin Franklin Norris, Jr. was an American novelist, during the Progressive Era, writing predominantly in the naturalist genre. His notable works include McTeague , The Octopus: A Story of California , and The Pit .-Life:Frank Norris was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1870...
's novel McTeague
McTeague
McTeague is a novel by Frank Norris, first published in 1899. It tells the story of a couple's courtship and marriage, and their subsequent descent into poverty, violence and finally murder as the result of jealousy and avarice...
pretty closely, it was 42 reels and 10 hours long. Stroheim himself realized the original version was far too long, so he reduced it to 24 reels (6 hours), hoping the film could be screened with intermissions in two successive evenings. But Goldwyn executives demanded further cuts. Stroheim allowed his close friend Rex Ingram
Rex Ingram (director)
Rex Ingram was an Irish film director, producer, writer and actor. Legendary director Erich von Stroheim once called him "the world's greatest director."-Early life:...
to reduce it to 18 reels (4½ hours).
However, in the middle of production, Goldwyn had merged with Metro and Louis B. Mayer Pictures to form Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. MGM took Greed out of Stroheim's hands and gave it to Mathis, with orders to cut it even more, which she assigned to a routine cutter, Joseph W. Farnham
Joseph Farnham
Joseph White Farnham was an American playwright and a film writer and film editor of the silent movie era to the early 1930s. He was also a founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
. The film was then reduced to 13 reels (2½ hours) long. In the process, many key characters were cut out, resulting in large continuity gaps.
There is speculation on whether Mathis took part in the actual cutting. However, for contractual reasons her name was listed in the credits as a writer, and it was she who would be blamed for what Stroheim and his fans would call "tampering with his genius". In fact Mathis had worked with Stroheim before and had been fond of his themes, and thus it would be unlikely she would butcher his film unnecessarily.
Ben-Hur
For the 1924 production of Ben HurBen-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...
, Mathis fought the studio over the casting and production for many months. It was her idea to film the one million dollar script in Italy; the film would eventually come in just under four million dollars. When she arrived the original director Charles Brabin
Charles Brabin
Charles J. Brabin was an American film director and screenwriter. He was active during the silent era, then pursued a short-lived career in talkies....
, in his words, refused to let her "interfere". The production troubles were numerous, and due to political troubles engulfing Italy at the time, resulted in disputes and delayed permissions. When the sea battle was filmed near Livorno, Italy, many extras had apparently lied about being able to swim. The first attempt to film the chariot race was on a set in Rome, but there were problems with shadows and the racetrack surface. One of the chariots' wheels came apart and the stuntman driving it was thrown in the air and killed.
MGM inherited the production when it took over control of Goldwyn studios; with the film over budget and getting out of control, the studio halted production and relocated the shoot from Italy to California, under the supervision of Irving Thalberg
Irving Thalberg
Irving Grant Thalberg was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and his extraordinary ability to select the right scripts, choose the right actors, gather the best production staff and make very profitable films.-Life and...
. Before they had even returned from Italy, MGM would fire Mathis, Brabin, and star George Walsh
George Walsh
George Walsh was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in 81 films between 1914 and 1936.He was born in New York, New York and died in Pomona, California from pneumonia. He was the younger brother of film director Raoul Walsh...
. MGM replaced them with director Fred Niblo
Fred Niblo
Fred Niblo was an American pioneer film actor, director and producer.-Biography:He was born Frederick Liedtke in York, Nebraska, to a French mother and a father who had served as a captain in the American Civil War and was wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg...
, screenwriters Bess Meredyth
Bess Meredyth
Bess Meredyth was a film writer and silent film actress. The wife of the Casablanca director Michael Curtiz, Meredyth wrote The Affairs of Cellini and adapted The Unsuspected . She was one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
and Carey Wilson, and star Ramon Novarro
Ramón Novarro
Ramón Novarro was a Mexican leading man actor in Hollywood in the early 20th century. He was the next male "Sex Symbol" after the death of Rudolph Valentino...
.
Personal life
A short woman with untamed brown hair and a love of ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
ian fashion, she was also one of the first "writer-directors" and laid the groundwork for the later development of screenwriters becoming producers. A spiritualist with mystical bents, her scripts featured many heroes with a Christ-like demeanor. A believer in reincarnation
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
, she always wore an opal
Opal
Opal is an amorphous form of silica related to quartz, a mineraloid form, not a mineral. 3% to 21% of the total weight is water, but the content is usually between 6% to 10%. It is deposited at a relatively low temperature and may occur in the fissures of almost any kind of rock, being most...
ring when she wrote, convinced it brought her ideas.
Mathis had been romantically linked to George Walsh
George Walsh
George Walsh was an American actor of the silent era. He appeared in 81 films between 1914 and 1936.He was born in New York, New York and died in Pomona, California from pneumonia. He was the younger brother of film director Raoul Walsh...
and Rex Ingram
Rex Ingram (director)
Rex Ingram was an Irish film director, producer, writer and actor. Legendary director Erich von Stroheim once called him "the world's greatest director."-Early life:...
, however she returned from Italy engaged to an Italian cinematographer named Sylvano Balboni (sometimes spelled as Silvano Balboni). The pair married December 20, 1924 at Mission of St. Cecilia, in Riverside, California
Riverside, California
Riverside is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, and the county seat of the eponymous county. Named for its location beside the Santa Ana River, it is the largest city in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area of Southern California, 4th largest inland California...
. Upon her return, First National
First National
First National was an association of independent theater owners in the United States that expanded from exhibiting movies to distributing them, and eventually to producing them as a movie studio, called First National Pictures, Inc. It later merged with Warner Bros.-Early history:The First National...
hired her as editorial director. She also scripted several successful Colleen Moore
Colleen Moore
Colleen Moore was an American film actress, and one of the most fashionable stars of the silent film era.-Early life:...
pictures including Sally, The Desert Flower, and Irene. After two years she left First National over limitations and signed with United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
; with her husband she made one picture for them, The Masked Woman. The Magic Flame (1927) would be her last picture, and one of her best, due in part to Ronald Colman
Ronald Colman
Ronald Charles Colman was an English actor.-Early years:He was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, the second son and fourth child of Charles Colman and his wife Marjory Read Fraser. His siblings included Eric, Edith, and Marjorie. He was educated at boarding school in Littlehampton, where he...
's performance and Henry King
Henry King (director)
Henry King was an American film director.Before coming to film, King worked as an actor in various repertoire theatres, and first started to take small film roles in 1912. He directed for the first time in 1915, and grew to become one of the most commercially successful Hollywood directors of the...
's direction.
Death
After Valentino's marriage with Rambova ended in 1925, the two reconciled at the premiere of Son of the Sheik when Valentino spotted Mathis with friends. When Valentino unexpectedly died in August 1926, Mathis offered up what she thought would be a temporary solution; she lent him her spot in the family crypt she had purchased in Hollywood Memorial Cemetery (now called the Hollywood Forever CemeteryHollywood Forever Cemetery
Hollywood Forever Cemetery, originally called Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, is one of the oldest cemeteries in Los Angeles, California. It is located at 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard in the Hollywood...
). However, when Mathis herself died the following year, the arrangement became permanent.
On July 26, 1927, during the third act of the Broadway show The Squall, while accompanied by her mother Mathis suffered a fatal heart attack. Her last words were reportedly, "Mother, I'm dying!" Mathis was 38 years old.
Her ashes were returned to California: instead of "evicting" Valentino, Mathis' husband, Sylvano Balboni, moved Valentino to the niche beside hers, sold the remaining crypt to Valentino's family and returned to Italy. Mathis and Valentino repose side by side to this day.
Selected filmography
| Year | Film | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1916 | The Upstart | Scenario |
| God's Half Acre | Scenario | |
| 1917 | Miss Robinson Crusoe | Story |
| Blue Jeans | Writer | |
| The Millionaire's Double The Millionaire's Double The Millionaire's Double is a 1917 silent American drama film directed by Harry Davenport, starring Lionel Barrymore and Evelyn Brent. The film is considered to be lost.- Cast :* Lionel Barrymore as Bide Bennington* Evelyn Brent as Constance Brent... |
Story | |
| 1918 | The Legion of Death The Legion of Death -Cast:* Edith Storey as Princess Marya* Philo McCullough as Captain Rodney Willard* Fred Malatesta as Grand Duke Paul* Charles K. Gerrard as Grand Duke Orlof... |
Screenplay and story |
| The Eyes of Mystery The Eyes of Mystery The Eyes of Mystery is a 1918 silent mystery film directed by Tod Browning.-Cast:* Edith Storey - Carma Carmichael* Bradley Barker - Jack Carrington* Harry Northrup - Roger Carmichael * Frank Andrews - Quincy Carmichael... |
Adaptation | |
| 1919 | Johnny-on-the-Spot | Scenario |
| Fair and Warmer | Writer | |
| 1920 | The Saphead The Saphead The Saphead is a 1920 comedy film featuring Buster Keaton. It was the actor's first starring role in a full-length feature and the film that launched his career.... |
Scenario |
| Hearts Are Trumps | Scenario | |
| 1921 | The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (film) The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is a 1921 silent movie produced by Metro Pictures Corporation, adapted by June Mathis, directed by Rex Ingram and starring Rudolph Valentino, Pomeroy Cannon, Josef Swickard, Wallace Beery, and Alice Terry... |
Writer |
| Camille Camille (1921 film) Camille is a 1921 silent film starring Rudolph Valentino and Alla Nazimova. It is one of numerous screen adaptations of La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The original play opened in Paris in 1852. The first Broadway production of the play opened on 9 December 1853... |
Writer | |
| 1922 | The Young Rajah The Young Rajah The Young Rajah is a 1922 silent film starring Rudolph Valentino. The film was based on the book Amos Judd by John Ames Mitchell.-Plot:... |
Screenplay |
| Blood and Sand | Writer | |
| 1923 | Three Wise Fools | Writer |
| The Day of Faith The Day of Faith The Day of Faith is a 1923 drama film directed by Tod Browning.-Cast:* Eleanor Boardman - Jane Maynard* Tyrone Power, Sr. - Michael Anstell * Raymond Griffith - Tom Barnett* Wallace MacDonald - John Anstell... |
Adaptation | |
| 1924 | The Hooded Falcon | Writer |
| Greed Greed (film) Greed is a 1924 American dramatic silent film. It was directed by Erich von Stroheim and starring Gibson Gowland, Zasu Pitts, Jean Hersholt, Dale Fuller, Tempe Pigott, Sylvia Ashton, Chester Conklin, Joan Standing and Jack Curtis.... |
Adaptation and dialogue | |
| 1925 | We Moderns | Writer |
| 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... |
Adaptation | |
| 1926 | The Greater Glory The Greater Glory The Greater Glory is a 1926 silent drama film directed by Curt Rehfeld, starring Conway Tearle and featuring Boris Karloff. This film is sometimes listed as The Viennese Medley, the title of Edith O'Shaughnessy's novel of which the film is based. The film is lost.-Cast:* Conway Tearle - Count... |
Scenario |
| Her Second Chance | Editorial director | |
| 1927 | An Affair of the Follies | Writer |
| The Magic Flame The Magic Flame The Magic Flame is a feature film directed by Henry King. It was based on the play Konig Harlekin by Rudolph Lothar. George Barnes was nominated at the 1st Academy Awards for Best Cinematography. The film promoted itself as the "Romeo and Juliet" of the circus upon its release... |
Continuity | |
| 1930 | Reno | Writer |
External links
- Watch Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse at the Internet Archive
- Mathis at Forever Network
- "Erich von Stroheim: Greed" The Guardian Unlimited, September 30, 1999