Olga Petrova
American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila.
Olga Petrova (1884-1977) was a British-American actress, screenwriter and playwright. During her seven years in film, Petrova appeared in more than two dozen films and wrote the script for several others.
Olga Petrova was born Muriel Harding in Tur Brook, England, in 1884. As a girl in England at the turn of the century, she felt stifled by her father’s strict rules. According to her memoir, Petrova’s father told her that while she lived in his house and ate his bread, he would set the rules. Petrova was determined to live in her own house and eat her own bread. Her success in reaching this goal, and more, is reflected in the title of her memoir, 'Butter with My Bread'. Wendy Holliday at Women Film Pioneers Project: "According to her memoir, Petrova’s desire for independence led her to run away to become a governess, but it is sometimes difficult to tell the mythmaking from reality in Petrova’s writing. She eventually met a theatre agent and became a successful actress in musicals and vaudeville in both London and New York. She likely chose the stage name Olga Petrova herself and created her own back story as a glamorous Pole or Russian."Interestingly both Wikipedia and IMDb write that Petrova made her film debut in Russia playing the role of Sofja Andreevna in Yakov Protazanov's Departure of a Grand Old Man (1912). This is doubtful and Holliday does not mention this. However, all sources agtree that she moved to the United States and became a star of vaudeville using the stage name Olga Petrova. Hollywood publicity later claimed that the studio created this persona, but press clippings and her memoir suggest that Petrova used the name on the stage. Her first American film was Alice Guy's drama The Tigress (1914). Through the 1910s, Olga became a highly popular film star appearing in more than two dozen films. Petrova starred in a number of films for Solax Studios and was Metro Pictures first diva, usually given the role of a femme fatale.Most of her films are now lost, including what she considered her best pictures, those directed by Maurice Tourneur. The Library of Congress Silent Feature Film Database indicates three of her films survive: the drama The Vampire (Alice Guy, 1915) for which Petrova wrote the screenplay, the comedy-drama Extravagance (Burton L. King, 1916) and The Waiting Soul (Burton L. King, 1917).
In 1913 Olga Petrova met local physician John Dillon Stewart in Indianapolis, Indiana, and was quickly engaged to be married. They married that year in Kansas City. Stewart relocated his practice to New York City in order to be near her primary base of operations. Petrova left the film industry in 1918. Her last starring role was as Patience Sparhawk in The Panther Woman (Ralph Ince, 1918), co-starring Rockliffe Fellows. She continued to act in Broadway productions. During the 1920s, she wrote three plays and toured the country with a theatre troupe. She also interviewed a number of prominent film stars on paid assignment for Shadowland magazine, Motion Picture Magazine, and Photoplay Journal including Marion Davies, Mary Pickford, Theda Bara, Alla Nazimova, Norma Talmadge, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., and Rudolf Valentino. In 1942, she published her autobiography, 'Butter With My Bread'. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Olga Petrova died in 1977 in Clearwater, Florida, aged 93. Her second husband was Louis Willoughby, who passed away in 1968. She had no children. Wendy Holliday: "In a 1917 Photoplay article she said, “I am a feminist. By that I do not mean that women should try to do the work of men. They should merely learn to do their own work, live their own lives, be themselves, with all the strength that is in them” (27). The example she set with her own life, achieving both bread and butter, attests to the power of this idea".
Sources: Wendy Holliday (Women Film Pioneers Project), Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Olga Petrova
American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila.
Olga Petrova (1884-1977) was a British-American actress, screenwriter and playwright. During her seven years in film, Petrova appeared in more than two dozen films and wrote the script for several others.
Olga Petrova was born Muriel Harding in Tur Brook, England, in 1884. As a girl in England at the turn of the century, she felt stifled by her father’s strict rules. According to her memoir, Petrova’s father told her that while she lived in his house and ate his bread, he would set the rules. Petrova was determined to live in her own house and eat her own bread. Her success in reaching this goal, and more, is reflected in the title of her memoir, 'Butter with My Bread'. Wendy Holliday at Women Film Pioneers Project: "According to her memoir, Petrova’s desire for independence led her to run away to become a governess, but it is sometimes difficult to tell the mythmaking from reality in Petrova’s writing. She eventually met a theatre agent and became a successful actress in musicals and vaudeville in both London and New York. She likely chose the stage name Olga Petrova herself and created her own back story as a glamorous Pole or Russian."Interestingly both Wikipedia and IMDb write that Petrova made her film debut in Russia playing the role of Sofja Andreevna in Yakov Protazanov's Departure of a Grand Old Man (1912). This is doubtful and Holliday does not mention this. However, all sources agtree that she moved to the United States and became a star of vaudeville using the stage name Olga Petrova. Hollywood publicity later claimed that the studio created this persona, but press clippings and her memoir suggest that Petrova used the name on the stage. Her first American film was Alice Guy's drama The Tigress (1914). Through the 1910s, Olga became a highly popular film star appearing in more than two dozen films. Petrova starred in a number of films for Solax Studios and was Metro Pictures first diva, usually given the role of a femme fatale.Most of her films are now lost, including what she considered her best pictures, those directed by Maurice Tourneur. The Library of Congress Silent Feature Film Database indicates three of her films survive: the drama The Vampire (Alice Guy, 1915) for which Petrova wrote the screenplay, the comedy-drama Extravagance (Burton L. King, 1916) and The Waiting Soul (Burton L. King, 1917).
In 1913 Olga Petrova met local physician John Dillon Stewart in Indianapolis, Indiana, and was quickly engaged to be married. They married that year in Kansas City. Stewart relocated his practice to New York City in order to be near her primary base of operations. Petrova left the film industry in 1918. Her last starring role was as Patience Sparhawk in The Panther Woman (Ralph Ince, 1918), co-starring Rockliffe Fellows. She continued to act in Broadway productions. During the 1920s, she wrote three plays and toured the country with a theatre troupe. She also interviewed a number of prominent film stars on paid assignment for Shadowland magazine, Motion Picture Magazine, and Photoplay Journal including Marion Davies, Mary Pickford, Theda Bara, Alla Nazimova, Norma Talmadge, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., and Rudolf Valentino. In 1942, she published her autobiography, 'Butter With My Bread'. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Olga Petrova died in 1977 in Clearwater, Florida, aged 93. Her second husband was Louis Willoughby, who passed away in 1968. She had no children. Wendy Holliday: "In a 1917 Photoplay article she said, “I am a feminist. By that I do not mean that women should try to do the work of men. They should merely learn to do their own work, live their own lives, be themselves, with all the strength that is in them” (27). The example she set with her own life, achieving both bread and butter, attests to the power of this idea".
Sources: Wendy Holliday (Women Film Pioneers Project), Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.