Sybil Jason
Encyclopedia
Sybil Jason was a motion-picture child actress who, in the late 1930s, was presented as a rival to Shirley Temple
.
. She was introduced to the theatre-going public of London
by way of her uncle, Harry Jacobson, a then-popular London orchestra leader and also pianist to Gracie Fields
. The apex of her career came with a concert performance with Frances Day at London's Palace Theatre
. Jason's theatre work led to appearances on radio
and phonograph
records, and a supporting role in the film Barnacle Bill (1935).
Irving Asher
, the head of Warner Bros.
' London studio, saw Jason's performance in Barnacle Bill and subsequently arranged for her to make a screen test
for the studio. The test was a success, resulting in Warner Bros. signing her to a contract. Her American film debut came as the lead in Little Big Shot
(1935), directed by Michael Curtiz
and co-starring Glenda Farrell
, Robert Armstrong
, and Edward Everett Horton
. Jason followed this with supporting roles opposite some of Warner Bros. most popular stars, including Kay Francis
in I Found Stella Parish
(1935), Al Jolson
in The Singing Kid (1936), Pat O'Brien
and Humphrey Bogart
in The Great O'Malley (1937), and again with Kay Francis in Comet Over Broadway (1938). Warners also starred her in The Captain's Kid (1937), and four Vitaphone
two-reelers filmed in Technicolor
: Changing of the Guard, A Day at Santa Anita, Little Pioneer
, and The Littlest Diplomat.
Jason, however, never became the major rival to Shirley Temple that Warner Bros. had hoped for and, her film career ended after playing two supporting roles at 20th-Century Fox. Ironically, these films — The Little Princess (1939) and The Blue Bird
(1940) — were in support of Temple, who became her life-long friend.
.
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
.
Career
Born as Sybil Jacobson in 1927 in Cape Town, South Africa, she began playing the piano at age two and, a year later, began making public appearances doing impersonations of Maurice ChevalierMaurice Chevalier
Maurice Auguste Chevalier was a French actor, singer, entertainer and a noted Sprechgesang performer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including Louise, Mimi, Valentine, and Thank Heaven for Little Girls and for his films including The Love Parade and The Big Pond...
. She was introduced to the theatre-going public of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
by way of her uncle, Harry Jacobson, a then-popular London orchestra leader and also pianist to Gracie Fields
Gracie Fields
Dame Gracie Fields, DBE , was an English-born, later Italian-based actress, singer and comedienne and star of both cinema and music hall.-Early life:...
. The apex of her career came with a concert performance with Frances Day at London's Palace Theatre
Palace Theatre, London
The Palace Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster in London. It is an imposing red-brick building that dominates the west side of Cambridge Circus and is located near the intersection of Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road...
. Jason's theatre work led to appearances on radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
and phonograph
Phonograph
The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...
records, and a supporting role in the film Barnacle Bill (1935).
Irving Asher
Irving Asher
Irving Asher was an Producer. He worked as a managing director for Warner Brothers in England in the 1930s, working on Alexander Korda's classic epic, The Four Feathers...
, the head of Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
' London studio, saw Jason's performance in Barnacle Bill and subsequently arranged for her to make a screen test
Screen test
A screen test is a method of determining the suitability of an actor or actress for performing on film and/or in a particular role. The performer is generally given a scene, or selected lines and actions, and instructed to perform in front of a camera to see if they are suitable...
for the studio. The test was a success, resulting in Warner Bros. signing her to a contract. Her American film debut came as the lead in Little Big Shot
Little Big Shot
Little Big Shot is a 1935 film directed by Michael Curtiz from Warner Brothers Pictures. The movie stars Sybil Jason, Glenda Farrell, Robert Armstrong and Edward Everett Horton.- Plot summary :...
(1935), directed by Michael Curtiz
Michael Curtiz
Michael Curtiz was an Academy award winning Hungarian-American film director. He had early creditsas Mihály Kertész and Michael Kertész...
and co-starring Glenda Farrell
Glenda Farrell
-Career:Farrell came to Hollywood towards the end of the silent era. Farrell began her career with a theatrical company at the age of 7. She played Little Eva in Uncle Tom's Cabin...
, Robert Armstrong
Robert Armstrong
Robert Armstrong may refer to:*Robert Archibald Armstrong , Gaelic lexicographer*Robert Armstrong , American professional baseball player*Robert Armstrong , film actor...
, and Edward Everett Horton
Edward Everett Horton
Edward Everett Horton was an American character actor. He had a long career in film, theater, radio, television and voice work for animated cartoons. He is especially known for his work in the films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.-Early life:Horton was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Isabella...
. Jason followed this with supporting roles opposite some of Warner Bros. most popular stars, including Kay Francis
Kay Francis
Kay Francis was an American stage and film actress. After a brief period on Broadway in the late 1920s, she moved to film and achieved her greatest success between 1930 and 1936, when she was the number one female star at the Warner Brothers studio, and the highest paid American film actress...
in I Found Stella Parish
I Found Stella Parish
I Found Stella Parish is a 1935 melodrama starring Kay Francis as a beloved actress whose dark secret is revealed to the world.-Plot:In London, Stella Parish has her greatest stage triumph in a play produced and directed by Stephen Norman . However, her happiness is short-lived. She finds a man...
(1935), Al Jolson
Al Jolson
Al Jolson was an American singer, comedian and actor. In his heyday, he was dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer"....
in The Singing Kid (1936), Pat O'Brien
Pat O'Brien (actor)
Pat O’Brien was an American film actor with more than one hundred screen credits.-Early life:O’Brien was born William Joseph Patrick O’Brien to an Irish-American Catholic family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He served as an altar boy at Gesu Church while growing up near 13th and Clybourn streets...
and Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
in The Great O'Malley (1937), and again with Kay Francis in Comet Over Broadway (1938). Warners also starred her in The Captain's Kid (1937), and four Vitaphone
Vitaphone
Vitaphone was a sound film process used on feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects produced by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1930. Vitaphone was the last, but most successful, of the sound-on-disc processes...
two-reelers filmed in Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
: Changing of the Guard, A Day at Santa Anita, Little Pioneer
Little Pioneer
Little Pioneer was a 1937 Warner Brothers/Vitaphone short subject.-Plot outline:In 1880 South Africa, young Betsy has an adventure involving Zulu tribesmen, Dutch settlers, The Vortrekkers, and her older brother's romance of Katie Snee....
, and The Littlest Diplomat.
Jason, however, never became the major rival to Shirley Temple that Warner Bros. had hoped for and, her film career ended after playing two supporting roles at 20th-Century Fox. Ironically, these films — The Little Princess (1939) and The Blue Bird
The Blue Bird (1940 film)
The Blue Bird is a 1940 American fantasy film directed by Walter Lang. The screenplay by Walter Bullock was adapted from the 1908 play of the same name by Maurice Maeterlinck...
(1940) — were in support of Temple, who became her life-long friend.
Personal life
On 31 December 1947 Jason married Anthony Drake. Their daughter, Toni, is married to Phillip W. Rossi, producer of The New Price is RightThe New Price Is Right
The New Price is Right can refer to the following incarnations of the television game show The Price is Right:* The Price Is Right , which used the title from 1972-1973 on the daytime show and in print ads for the nighttime show until at least 1974* The New Price Is Right , a short-lived syndicated...
.
Legacy
- Sybil Jason was an active member in the International Al Jolson Society and also made frequent appearances at celebrity shows throughout the United States.
- Her autobiography, My Fifteen Minutes: An Autobiography of a child star of the Golden Era of Hollywood, was published in 2005. She also authored a stage musical entitled Garage Sale.
- In 1983 a Sybil Jason Fan Club was established in Lincoln, NebraskaLincoln, NebraskaThe City of Lincoln is the capital and the second-most populous city of the US state of Nebraska. Lincoln is also the county seat of Lancaster County and the home of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln's 2010 Census population was 258,379....
.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1935 | Barnacle Bill Barnacle Bill (1935 film) Barnacle Bill is a 1935 British drama film directed by Harry Hughes and starring Archie Pitt, Joan Gardner and Gus McNaughton. A conflicted sailor tries to balance his family life with his time at sea.-Cast:* Archie Pitt - Bill Harris... |
Jill as a child |
| Dance Band | Girl on train | |
| Little Big Shot | Gloria "Countess" Gibbs | |
| A Dream Comes True | Herself | |
| I Found Stella Parish I Found Stella Parish I Found Stella Parish is a 1935 melodrama starring Kay Francis as a beloved actress whose dark secret is revealed to the world.-Plot:In London, Stella Parish has her greatest stage triumph in a play produced and directed by Stephen Norman . However, her happiness is short-lived. She finds a man... |
Gloria Parish | |
| 1936 | The Singing Kid | Sybil Haines |
| Changing of the Guard | Sybil | |
| The Captain's Kid | Abigail Prentiss | |
| 1937 | A Day at Santa Anita | Peaches Blackburn |
| The Great O'Malley | Barbara "Babs" Phillips | |
| Little Pioneer Little Pioneer Little Pioneer was a 1937 Warner Brothers/Vitaphone short subject.-Plot outline:In 1880 South Africa, young Betsy has an adventure involving Zulu tribesmen, Dutch settlers, The Vortrekkers, and her older brother's romance of Katie Snee.... |
Betsy Manning | |
| The Littlest Diplomat | Sybil Hardwick | |
| 1938 | Comet Over Broadway | Jacqueline "Jackie" Appleton |
| 1939 | Woman Doctor | Elsa Graeme |
| The Little Princess | Becky, Servant at Minchin Seminary | |
| 1940 | The Blue Bird The Blue Bird (1940 film) The Blue Bird is a 1940 American fantasy film directed by Walter Lang. The screenplay by Walter Bullock was adapted from the 1908 play of the same name by Maurice Maeterlinck... |
Angela Berlingot |