Bathing Beauties
Mack Sennett bathing beauties
List activity
846 views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
18 people
- Phyllis Haver was born Phyllis O'Haver on January 6, 1899, in Douglas, KS. When she was a child her family moved to California. Young Phyllis got a job playing piano at a local movie theater. Producer Mack Sennett saw her and hired her to be one of his "Sennett Bathing Beauties". Between 1916-20 she appeared in more than 35 short films. With her curvy figure and blonde hair she quickly became one of the most popular of Sennett's bathing beauties. Eventually she left Sennett compact and signed a contract with Cecil B. DeMille. She co-starred with Olive Borden in Fig Leaves (1926) and with Victor McLaglen in What Price Glory (1926). She also won rave reviews for her performances as Roxie Hart in Chicago (1927).
In 1929 she married millionaire William Seeman. Although she was at the peak of her career, she decided to retire from acting. She and William moved into an 11-room penthouse in New York City. Phyllis said she loved being a wife and never wanted to return to Hollywood. Sadly, after 16 years of marriage she and William divorced. The couple had no children. As she grew older Phylis became more reclusive. She lived in a large house in Connecticut and rarely had visitors. Her only companion was her longtime housekeeper. She reportedly made several suicide attempts and was devastated when her former boss Mack Sennett died.
On November 19, 1960, 61-year-old Phyllis took her own life with an overdose of barbiturates. She was found in her bed fully dressed and wearing make-up. Phyllis was buried at Grassy Hills Cemetery in Falls Village, CT.Was a popular silent screen actress and committed suicide - Thelma Hill was born Thelma Floy Hillerman in Emporia, Kansas. Her family moved to Los Angeles, California during her early teen years. Living just blocks from the Mack Sennett studio, Thelma became one of the star struck, wide eyed girls who hung out near the studio peering through the gates. It took her five years, but eventually, using her womanly wiles, she weaseled her way through the gates and quickly caught the eye of Sennett himself and F. Richard "Dick" Jones, a producer and director who would work with Thelma in over a dozen films.
Thelma did bit parts and extra work throughout her school years, working weekends and during vacations. Because of her youth, beauty, and spunk, she quickly became "everybody's protégé."
When Mack Sennett revived his famous "Bathing Girls," Thelma the first to don the suit, as most of her parts up till then had been in bathing suits. In her first movie, "Picking Peaches," she had dived off a pier.
Because of her "mah jongg" bathing suit, she became quickly known as the "Mah Jongg Bathing Girl," although she'd already carried around a nickname since her first days on the set: "Pee-Wee," the little black-eyed youngster who grew up on the old lot.
As she matured she was hired to double for Mabel Normand, who, because of a roaring cocaine habit often showed up late for work or not at all. It was about this time that Thelma became a flapper; a style of women who were known for their androgynous bodies, flimsy and revealing clothing, and the traditional male behaviors smoking, heavy drinking, and casual sex. It was the drinking that eventually led to Thelma's downfall. Near the end of her first year in film, 1924, her big break came when she got the lead opposite Ralph Graves in the two reel comedy "Love's Sweet Piffle" directed by Edgar Kennedy.
Thelma was the first Sennett bathing beauty, and one of the few, to make it into feature films. She starred opposite Ben Turpin in "The Prodigal Bridegroom," and got one of the two female leads in the hilarious Laurel & Hardy "Two Tars" in 1928.
When Hollywood brought Jimmy Murphy's comic strip "Toots and Casper" to life on the big screen, Thelma got top billing opposite Bud Duncan as Casper, with Cullen Johnson as Buttercup and George Gray as Casper's boss. The series ran from 1927 through 1929.
One biographer wrote that she starred opposite a solo Stan Laurel (in "Pie-Eyed") but calling 24 seconds on the screen as a starring role seems a stretch.
Everyone in Hollywood knew Thelma was a real trooper with a knack for comedy. She willingly dropped her good looks to don thick black-rimmed glasses and a wild hairdo and work on two reel comedies rather than full length dramatic films. No part was too small for her. Later, during talkies, she played a bit part of a patient in the waiting room in W. C. Fields' "The Dentist." Today, all copies have been so cut up and repaired that her short scene has been lost.
She left Mack Sennett for a short stint with the Film Booking Offices of America (FBO) (also known as FBO Pictures Corporation) in 1927, and afterwards was signed by MGM to play a role in "The Fair Coed." It was about this time that she got engaged to St. Elmo Boyce, her director on the "Toots and Casper" shorts and a former Sennett cinematographer. Boyce and Hill both had drinking problems, Boyce having DUI arrests on his record. The relationship and Boyce's career began to fizzle and Boyce committed suicide in 1930 by poisoning. He'd just finished work on Columbia Pictures' most expensive film to date, "Dirigible."
Thelma Hill did not make the transition to talkies well. Her drinking and depression were starting to take their toll. She began working free lance for a variety of studios. She had made over 20 films in 1929, but with the advent of talkies and the end of frenetic slapstick comedy, she would work on just seven films over the next five years.
Her first sound film was "The Golfers" with the Sennett studios. Her next role was in a musical called "Two Plus Fours" featuring Bing Crosby as one of the Rhythm Boys. She took a small role in Frank Capra's drama, "The Miracle Woman," starring Barbara Stanwyck, a few more small, uncredited parts, one short educational film starring a very, very young Shirley Temple, and ended her career in 1934 at "The Lot of Fun," Hal Roach Studios, in the movie "Mixed Nuts." Her role was small, but unforgettable as she becomes the target of a professor of entomology's Arabian Sand Fleas.
She married John Sinclair (I), W. C. Fields' stunt double and gag writer, and settled into the role of housewife less than ten minutes away from the original Mack Sennett studios.
Whether fueled by her depression or her husband's hanging around with W. C. Fields, famous for his drinking, Thelma drank away her health and youth and died before her thirty-second birthday in 1938.
Biographers mistakenly attribute her cause of death to acute alcohol poisoning (erroneously reported as a "stomach ailment" in her obituary), but records show she had spent the last month of her life at the Edward Merrill Sanitarium (mistakenly listed in Culver City; actually in Venice, CA). She had been diagnosed with chronic alcoholism in 1932 and with pellagra (a B-vitamin deficiency, specifically niacin, often found in alcoholics) in 1937. The effects of malnutrition caused by alcoholism affect all organs in the body, and her official cause of death following an autopsy was cerebral hemorrhage.
Her body was cremated and the ashes were interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.Starred in dozens of Sennett's comedies and died at 31 - Marion Aye was born Maryon Eloise Aye on April 5, 1903 in Chicago, Illinois. Her father was a lawyer who moved the family to California. She was discovered by Fatty Arbuckle and started her career at Balboa Studios. When she was fifteen Marion lied about her age to elope with cameraman Sherman Plaskett. Sadly he passed away just a year later. After moving to New York City she worked at Bothwell Browne's Revue and became a Mack Sennett bathing beauty. Marion appeared in more than a dozen films including The Hick, Montana Bill, and The Weak-End Party with Stan Laurel. She also starred in a series of Cactus Westerns with Bob Reeves. In 1921 she made headlines when she became the first star to sign a contract with a morality clause in it. The following year was chosen to be one of the first Wampas baby stars along with Colleen Moore and Lois Wilson.
Her second marriage, to press agent Harry Wilson, ended in 1924. That same year Marion appeared in a successful stage production of White Collars. She seemed destined for stardom but her career never took off. Her last movie role was in the 1930 drama Up The River. Marion continued to work on the stage and the radio. Unfortunately she suffered from depression and in 1935 she attempted suicide. She married actor Robert Forester in 1936. Marion tried to make a comeback in 1951 and auditioned for a role on television. When she didn't get the part she became despondent. On July 10, 1951 she swallowed a large amount of poison in a Culver City motel. She was hospitalized but tragically she died eleven days later at the age of forty-eight. Her husband later told reporters that he never took her threats of suicide seriously. Marion was buried next to her mother at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.Appeared in a handful of films and committed suicide in 1951 - Actress
- Soundtrack
Popular star in Hollywood for two decades through 1936, Marie Prevost began as a Mack Sennett "Bathing Beauty" in 1917, later starring in dozens of light comedies. But not long into the sound era, she encountered problems with her burgeoning weight, to the jeopardy of her career. Her self-remedy resulted ultimately in her starving to death.
Marie Prevost was born Mary Bickford Dunn in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, on November 8, 1898. She broke into films when she was 18 years old in Unto Those Who Sin (1916). Finding work in films was difficult in the early days, just as it is today. Marie found herself doing odd jobs until 1917, when she made another film, Secrets of a Beauty Parlor (1917). After filming was completed, Marie found herself unemployed again and went back to scraping around for a living. She kept going to casting calls, but it wasn't until 1919 when she landed a role in Uncle Tom Without a Cabin (1919). Finally, in 1921, movie moguls discovered her talent and began casting her in a number of roles. She appeared in four films that year and an additional six in 1922. Marie seemed to be on a roll. She stayed busy through the balance of the 1920s in a number of films, mostly comedies. As a matter of fact, she would continue making films until 1933, when her appeal began to fade. She made no films in 1934 and precious few after that. With the advent of sound her thick New England accent didn't lend itself well to the "demon microphone", despite her beauty. Her depression about her career--or lack of it--drove her to alcohol, and she died on January 23, 1937, in Hollywood, of a combination of alcoholism and malnutrition, virtually broke and living in a dilapidated apartment. She never saw the release, in 1938, of her final film appearance: Ten Laps to Go (1936). She was 38 years old.Became a popular comedic actress and died penniless- Juanita Hansen's career goes back to at least 1915, and she worked for D.W. Griffith before becoming one of Mack Sennett's "Bathing Beauties." Sennett was so struck by her beauty that he often featured her over the other girls, which caused some friction among them. That could well be the reason she left Sennett in 1918 for Universal, where she began doing straight dramatic roles rather then the slapstick comedy of the Sennett one- and two-reelers. She soon began performing in Universal's serials, and from there she went on to do serials for William Nicholas Selig, Warners and Pathe, among others. Before long her success brought her a contract for $1500 a week - a huge salary in those days - but it also brought her a penchant for fast cars (she was being constantly arrested for speeding), all-night partying and, worst of all, a taste for cocaine, to which she soon became addicted. Her drug use caused Pathe no end of trouble and she had difficulty finishing the studio's 1921 serial The Yellow Arm (1921). When it was finally completed, over schedule and over budget, the company dropped her. After a few small roles in independent films, she found herself unemployable.
She was next heard from in 1928, after apparently cleaning herself up and getting off drugs, when she was hired for a Broadway play. However, an accident in the hotel where she was staying resulted in her being burned with scalding-hot water, and to ease the pain she was given morphine - to which she became almost immediately addicted. Although she received a large settlement from the hotel, much of the money she got went for lawyers and hospital bills, and either drugs or drug cures. She went back and forth between bouts of drug use and sobriety, and by 1934, having apparently cleaned up again, she began lecturing at carnivals and traveling shows on the evils of drug abuse.
Her life took another turn for the worse in 1941, when she attempted suicide by an overdose of sleeping pills. She finally gave up all hopes of resuming her career, took a job as a clerk for a railroad, and died of a heart attack in 1961.Made some movies during the 1920s and struggled with a cocaine addiction - Marvel Rea was born Marvel Luciel Rea on November 9, 1901, in Ainsworth, Nebraska. Her family moved to California when she was a child. Marvel grew into a beautiful teenager and in 1917 she became a Mack Sennett bathing beauty. The following year she married banker Henry Page Wells. Unfortunately he was a drug addict and she divorced him less than a year later. Marvel appeared in more than thirty films including Her Screen Idol and The Summer Girls. She never became a major star and in 1921 she quit acting. Her final role was in the short film For Land's Sake. Marvel married her second husband Edwin J. Wilkinson in 1936 but her happiness was short-lived. On September 2, 1936 she was kidnapped and assaulted by three men. They were caught and Marvel had to testify at the headline-making trial. Sadly she never fully recovered from the attack. She committed suicide on June 17, 1937 by ingesting ant poison. Marvel was only 35 years old. She is buried at Pacific Crest Cemetery in Redondo Beach, California.Had small roles in a few movies and committed suicide
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Carole Lombard was born Jane Alice Peters in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on October 6, 1908. Her parents divorced in 1916 and her mother took the family on a trip out West. While there they decided to settle down in the Los Angeles area. After being spotted playing baseball in the street with the neighborhood boys by a film director, Carole was signed to a one-picture contract in 1921 when she was 12. The film in question was A Perfect Crime (1921). Although she tried for other acting jobs, she would not be seen onscreen again for four years. She returned to a normal life, going to school and participating in athletics, excelling in track and field. By age 15 she had had enough of school, though, and quit. She joined a theater troupe and played in several stage shows, which were for the most part nothing to write home about. In 1925 she passed a screen test and was signed to a contract with Fox Films. Her first role as a Fox player was Hearts and Spurs (1925), in which she had the lead. Right after that film she appeared in a western called Durand of the Bad Lands (1925). She rounded out 1925 in the comedy Marriage in Transit (1925) (she also appeared in a number of two-reel shorts). In 1926 Carole was seriously injured in an automobile accident that resulted in the left side of her face being scarred. Once she had recovered, Fox canceled her contract. She did find work in a number of shorts during 1928 (13 of them, many for slapstick comedy director Mack Sennett), but did go back for a one-time shot with Fox called Me, Gangster (1928). By now the film industry was moving from the silent era to "talkies". While some stars' careers ended because of heavy accents, poor diction or a voice unsuitable to sound, Carole's light, breezy, sexy voice enabled her to transition smoothly during this period. Her first sound film was High Voltage (1929) at Pathe (her new studio) in 1929. In 1931 she was teamed with William Powell in Man of the World (1931). She and Powell hit it off and soon married, but the marriage didn't work out and they divorced in 1933. No Man of Her Own (1932) put Carole opposite Clark Gable for the first and only time (they married seven years later in 1939). By now she was with Paramount Pictures and was one of its top stars. However, it was Twentieth Century (1934) that showed her true comedic talents and proved to the world what a fine actress she really was. In 1936 Carole received her only Oscar nomination for Best Actress for My Man Godfrey (1936). She was superb as ditzy heiress Irene Bullock. Unfortunately, the coveted award went to Luise Rainer in The Great Ziegfeld (1936), which also won for Best Picture. Carole was now putting out about one film a year of her own choosing, because she wanted whatever role she picked to be a good one. She was adept at picking just the right part, which wasn't surprising as she was smart enough to see through the good-ol'-boy syndrome of the studio moguls. She commanded and received what was one of the top salaries in the business - at one time it was reported she was making $35,000 a week. She made but one film in 1941, Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941). Her last film was in 1942, when she played Maria Tura opposite Jack Benny in To Be or Not to Be (1942). Tragically, she didn't live to see its release. The film was completed in 1941 just at the time the US entered World War II, and was subsequently held back for release until 1942. Meanwhile, Carole went home to Indiana for a war bond rally. On January 16, 1942, Carole, her mother, and 20 other people were flying back to California when the plane went down outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. All aboard perished. The highly acclaimed actress was dead at the age of 33 and few have been able to match her talents since.Became a superstar in the 1930s and died in a plane crash at age 33- Actress
- Writer
Mildred June was born on December 23, 1905, in St Louis, Missouri. When she was a child her family moved to Kansas and eventually settled in California. She attended Hollywood high school and took dancing lessons. At the age of fifteen Mildred was discovered by producer Mack Sennett. She became one his bathing beauties and worked as an extra in his films. Mildred appeared in dozens of short films including Dog Shy with Charley Chase and Hook and Ladder with Hoot Gibson. She also starred in a series of two reel comedies with Billy Bevan. Although she enjoyed making comedies she dreamed of becoming a dramatic actress. Mildred married Herbert Edward Capps, a twenty-five year old dentist, in 1922. The following year she was given the lead in the drama The Greatest Menace.
She was signed by Universal studios but her career never took off. Mildred returned to Mack Sennett's studio and appeared in the 1927 comedy Crazy To Act. She divorced her husband and had a brief romance with with real estate executive Jimmy Houston. Unfortunately by 1928 she was unemployed and battling a serious alcohol problem. Mildred married her second husband, Bud Sheehan, in 1930. Sadly he passed away a few years later. In 1936 she had a bit part in the Laurel and Hardy film Our Relations. It would her last acting role. On June 19, 1940 Mildred passed away from cirrhosis of the liver caused by her alcoholism. She was only thirty-four years old. Mildred was cremated and her ashes were buried at Hollywood Forever cemetery in Hollywood, California.Starred in dozens of comedy shorts and died from alcoholism at age 36- Mary Thurman was born Mary Christiansen on April 27, 1895, in Richfield, Utah. She was one of seven children raised in the Mormon faith. Sadly her father passed away when she was nine. Mary attended the University of Utah and got a job as a teacher. In 1915 she took a trip to Hollywood. A talent scout saw her and she became one of the famous Mack Sennett bathing beauties. She also began appearing in Sennett's comedy shorts. Mary started out as an extra and quickly worked her way up to leading lady. Between 1916 and 1918 she made more than twenty films. Mary married her childhood sweetheart Victor E. Thurman but the couple divorced in 1919. Mary costarred with Rosco "Fatty" Arbuckle in Leap Year and with William Desmond in The Prince And Betty.
Although she had become a popular comedienne she dreamed of being a serious actress. She signed with producer Allan Dwan who cast her in the 1920 drama In The Heart Of A Fool. Her performance got rave reviews. Allan would direct Mary in several more films including The Sin of Martha Queed and A Broken Doll. Off screen Mary and Allan fell in love and were engaged for a short time. In the fall 1925 she began work on the movie Down Upon The Suwanee River. While filming in Florida she came down with a serious case of pneumonia. She struggled with the illness for months and passed away on December 22, 1925. Mary was only thirty years old. Her mother and her best friend, actress Juanita Hansen, were by her side when she died. Mary was buried in Richfield City Cemetery in her hometown of Richfield, Utah.Was a popular comedic actress and died at age 30 from pneumonia - Ruth Alice Taylor was born on January 13, 1905 (some sources say 1908) in Grand Rapids, Michigan. When she was a child her family moved to Oregon. At the age of nineteen Ruth went to Hollywood and started her career as an extra at Universal Studios. In 1925 she signed a two year contract with Mack Sennett and became one of his bathing beauties. With her perky smile and blonde spit curls Ruth quickly became one of Sennett's most popular actresses. She had supporting roles in several comedies including A Yankee Doodle Duke and The Pride Of Pikeville. Ruth was nicknamed "The Little Girl With A Big Personality".
In 1928 she beat out dozens of other actresses for the role of Lorelei Lee in the film version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. That same year she was named one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars. Ruth was offered a contract at Paramount and starred in the comedy The College Coquette. In 1930 she married stockbroker Paul Steinberg Zuckerman and had a son. She decided to quit making movies and became a housewife. Her final acting role was in the comedy short Scrappily Married. Ruth and Paul lived in Palm Springs and were happily married until his death in 1965. Their son, Buck Henry, became a successful screenwriter. Ruth died on April 12, 1984 at the age of seventy-nine. She is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California. - Dorothy Alita Dorr (sometimes spelled Dore) was born on October 12, 1897 in Kansas City, Missouri. She was the only child of Mary and Charles Dorr, a contractor. When she was nineteen she married Charles Judge Wilkinson and had a son named Walter. Soon after the family moved to Los Angeles, California. Dorothy made her film debut in the 1921 drama The Three Musketeers. Then she was chosen to be a "bathing girl" at Hal Roach's studio. She costarred with Harold Lloyd in Girl Shy and with Zasu Pitts in Legend Of Hollywood. Dorothy became one of Mack Sennett bathing beauties and had bit parts in the films Picking Peaches and His New Mamma.
Her final movie role as in the 1925 short Hollywouldn't. Meanwhile her son, Walter Wilkinson, became a successful child actor. He appeared in more than two dozen films including The Magic Garden and Honor Among Men. In 1929 Dorothy danced in the musical revue Broadway in Los Angeles. She spent the next several years performing in vaudeville. By 1940 she was divorced and retired from show business. She worked as a laundry supervisor and lived with her mother in Los Angeles. Dorothy died on February 1, 1962 at the age of sixty-four. - Lois Boyd was born in Oklahoma in 1904. She started her career dancing in The Ziegfeld Follies. In 1919 she became one of Mack Sennett's bathing beauties and made her film debut in Among Those Present. She had bit parts in many comedies including The Jolly Jilter and East Of The Water Plug. Lois also worked as one of Hal Roach's "Sunshine Girls". She married Ray Ramsey, a cameraman for the Eddie Cline Company in 1920. They had a son together and divorced. Lois costarred with Monty Banks in The Covered Schooner and with Buddy Messinger in Taming The East.
She was becoming a popular onscreen ingenue and in 1926 she signed a five year contract with Joe Rock. Lois was chosen to be the leading lady in the "Ton Of Fun" comedy series. In the films 100 pound Lois acted opposite three obese comedians - Frank Alexander, Hilliard Karr, and Bill "Kewpie" Ross. In 1927 she appeared in the dramas Wolves Of The Air and Thumbs Down. The following year Lois retired from acting. She married her second husband, Lou Erickson, and became a housewife. Lois died in 1995 at the age of 90. - Myrtle Lind was born Margaret Victoria Anderson in Mankato, Minnesota in 1898 (Lind was a family name). She attended dramatic school and appeared in some plays before moving to Hollywood with her parents. In 1916 she started her film career at the Mack Sennett studios. Myrtle appeared in numerous comedy shorts and became one of Sennett's famous bathing beauties. One magazine writer said "Myrtle has the face of an angel and the composure of a Scotch preacher". She worked with Ben Turpin No Mother To Guide Him and with Ford Sterling in A Maiden's Trust. At the Sennett studio Myrtle developed a reputation for being difficult. She was fired several times but was always hired back. Her first starring role was in the 1918 drama Nancy Comes Home.
In February of 1920 she married broker Frank A. Gessell. Unfortunately Frank cheated on her and she left him just two months after the wedding. Although she appeared in more than thirty films Myrtle never became a major star. She married photographer William Coleman in 1922 and decided to retire from acting. Her final film was Forget Me Not with Bessie Love. In December of 1923 Myrtle gave birth to a daughter named Jean. She divorced William in 1928 and married Harold S. Stevenson the following year. The couple lived in Atlanta, Georgia where he ran a candy factory. During the 1950s they moved to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. After her daughter Jean died Myrtle adopted and raised her grandson. She and Harold remained together until his death in 1970. Myrtle spent her final years living quietly in Florida where she died on October 12, 1993 at the age of ninety-five. According to her obituary she was buried next to her husband in Gaffney, South Carolina. - Eugenia Gilbert was born Eugenia Knapp on November 18, 1902 in East Orange, New Jersey. She attended high school in New York City and went to Mallborough College in Los Angeles. When her father became ill she quit school and got a job as a dancer. She made her acting debut in the short film Paul's Peril (1920). Eugenia began entering beauty pageants and in 1923 she won the title of Miss Los Angeles. She became one of Mack Sennett's bathing beauties and he signed her to a long term film contract. Eugenia starred in dozens of comedies including A Rainy Knight (1925), Sinners in Silk (1924), and A Broadway Butterfly (1925) (where she was, as often, credited as Eugenie Gilbert).
In 1927, she starred in the action serial The Crimson Flash (1927). She was also Leo D. Maloney's leading lady in three Westerns (Don Desperado (1927), The Long Loop on the Pecos (1927), and The Man from Hard Pan (1927)). Eugenia was considered one of the most versatile starlets in Hollywood. In her spare time she liked to go to a cabin she bought in the mountains. Although she made more than sixty films she never became a major star. At the age of twenty-seven Eugenia decided to quit making movies. Her final film was the comedy Courtin' Wildcats (1929). During the 1930s, she worked as a model in fashion shows. She eventually got married and changed her last name to Enders. Eugenia spent her final years living in Santa Monica. She died from heart failure on December 8, 1978 and was cremated. - Elsie Tarron was born Elsie Maud Hamilton on September 30, 1903, in London, England. She was a beautiful teenager who loved to dance and dreamed of becoming an actress. Eventually she moved to Hollywood and started entering beauty contests. When she was nineteen Elsie was chosen to be one of Mack Sennett's bathing beauties. She posed for countless cheesecake photos along with other starlets including Thelma Hill and Hazel Williams. The girls became close friends and formed a club called "The Little Dippers". Elsie was chosen to be their President. In 1923 she began working as an extra in Mack Sennett's comedies. Over the next two years she appeared in more than a dozen short films. Her parts gradually started getting bigger and she was given featured roles in The Lost Soul (1927) and High and Dizzy (1927). She signed a contract with F.B.O. studios and starred in the western Cyclone of the Range (1927). Unfortunately her success didn't last long and by 1929 she was back to playing bit parts.
She retired from making movies and married actor Andy Clyde on September 23, 1932. They had worked together in the films The Lion's Whiskers (1925) and A Taxi Scandal (1928). The couple bought a large mansion nicknamed "Clyde Manor" where they grew their own strawberries. Elsie enjoyed being a housewife and spent a lot of time playing golf with her husband. In 1935 they had a son named John Allan Clyde. Tragically John died when he was just nine years old. Elsie and Andy remained together until his death on May 18, 1967. A few months later she married 73-year-old actor George Gray ("Sloppy"). She had worked with him at the Sennett studios and he had been one of her husband's closest friends. Sadly George passed away just four weeks after their wedding. Elsie continued to live quietly in Los Angeles where she shared an apartment with Ruth Hiatt, another Sennett bathing beauty. She passed away from natural causes on October 24, 1990 at the age of 87. - Thelma Parr was born Betty Selby on October 19, 1906 in Oregon. She claimed to be a descendant of Thomas Paine, one of the founding fathers of the United States. When she was fourteen Thelma moved to California with her parents. Soon after the pretty brunette was discovered by producer Mack Sennett and became one of his bathing beauties. Thelma married banjo player William E. Goman in 1925. That same year she made her film debut in the comedy short Her Marriage Vow. Over the next three years she appeared in more than thirty short films. She starred opposite Ralph Graves in several movies including Hooked At The Alter and The Funny Mooners. Thelma was gifted comedic actress and was considered one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood. One newspaper said she was "the perfect type of American beauty". Her film career came to a sudden end in 1928 after she was seriously injured in a car accident. She suffered facial injuries and her mouth was permanently scarred. Two years after the accident she attempted a comeback with a small role in the comedy My Harem. In 1930 Thelma divorced her husband and retired from acting. She spent the rest of her life out of the spotlight. During her later years she lived in San Clemente, California. Thelma died on February 13, 2000 at the age of 93.
- Muriel Virginia Montrose was born in Denver, Colorado. Her family moved to California when she was a teenager. At the age of seventeen Muriel was discovered by producer Mack Sennett and became one of his bathing beauties. She also worked as Clara Bow's body double. Muriel appeared in a handful of movies including Heart Trouble and The Jolly Jilter. Then she started working as a stunt women in Western films.
In 1927 she married Ray Lloyd Ramsey but they were divorced soon after. She married John Stephen Dow, a designer and general contractor, on February 11, 1929. They moved to the San Fernando Valley and had two sons. Her younger son Tony Dow became an actor and starred in the 1950s television series Leave It To Beaver. Muriel served as Tony's manager. After her husband died in 1987 Muriel spent her time gardening and baking cookies for children in her neighborhood. She died on April 30, 2001 at the age of ninety-four. - Virginia Vance was born Dahlia Roberta Pears on July 1, 1902 in Illinois. She moved to Hollywood and became one of Mack Sennett's bathing beauties. In 1922 she made her acting debut in the comedy short Crash. Virginia would appear in more than ninety short films including Don't Hesitate and Hold You Hat. She married actor Bryant Washburn in 1929 and retired. The couple had one daughter. Virginia died of a heart attack on October 13, 1942. She was just 40 years old.