Norma Talmadge
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1176/1, 1927-1928. Photo: First National Pictures
Norma Talmadge (1894-1957) 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.
Norma Talmadge was the daughter of one of the most famous "mothers of artists" in film history: Peg Talmadge. Norma, her mother, and her sisters Natalie and Constance were abandoned by their alcoholic and jobless father Fred right on Christmas Day. Thus, the three teenagers had to start earning money as vaudeville models and actresses. In 1909, Norma began working in the cinema thanks to her discoverer, Vitagraph editor Breta Breuill. She acted in numerous Vitagraph shorts, a.o. Uncle Tom's Cabin (Stuart Blackton, 1910), Love of Chrysanthemum (Van Dyke Brooke, 1910), and A Tale of Two Cities (William Humphrey, 1911). Helped by Vitagraph leading actor Maurice Costello, her career blossomed. By 1913, she was the major star of Vitagraph Studios and had played in hundreds of shorts there. Her co-actors from the Vitagraph 'stable' were a.o. Maurice Costello, Van Dyke Brooke, Lilian Walker, Hughie Mack, Leo Delaney, and Clara Kimball Young.
In 1915 Norma Talmadge had a breakthrough when acting in Vitagraph's anti-German propaganda-film, the feature The Battlecry for Peace, but mother Talmadge was unsatisfied with Vitagraph and arranged a two-year contract at National Pictures. Yet, when Norma's first film there flopped, and the company went bankrupt, she called on director D.W. Griffith and was able to act in seven features at Triangle. In 1916 she met Joseph Schenck, a wealthy exhibitor who wanted to make films himself. Smitten by her, Schenk proposed marriage and a studio. They founded the Norma Talmadge Film Corporation. In Schenk's New York-based studio, Norma would act in her dramas on the ground floor, while her sister Constance would do comedies on the first floor, and the comic unit with Fatty Arbuckle played on the top floor, while sister Natalie Talmadge worked as a secretary and occasionally had small parts as well. Arbuckle brought along Buster Keaton and Al St. John. When Arbuckle was lent to Paramount to do features, Keaton took over the comic unit and married Natalie.
NormaTalmadge's first film at the studio, Panthea (Allan Dwan, 1917) was a straight hit. Between 1917 and 1921 Norma made four to six films per year, under Schenk's supervision. After her greatest success, the drama Smilin' Through (Sydney Franklin, 1922), Schenk closed the New York studio. The family continued in Hollywood, where Norma's films became bigger and glossier. She worked with top directors, cinematographers, and costume designers and by 1923 she was the best-paid film actress in Hollywood, earning 10.000 a week. In 1924 under Frank Borzage's direction, she did her best film (artistically and at the box office) Secrets. While Schenk became head of United Artists in 1924, Norma was still tied to distributor First National by contract and continued to make films for them in the mid-1920s, including Camille (Fred Niblo 1926). During the filming of Camille, she fell in love with her co-actor Gilbert Roland and asked Schenk for a divorce. He refused but saw they were a winning couple and matched them in several films. After that, she made films with UA, but the first two were flops and marked the end of her silent film career.
Norma Talmadge took voice lessons for a year, and despite expectations, produced a perfectly non-dialectical voice, but her first two sound films simply weren't good films, so she called it a day and left the film world. As she was very rich by now, she could permit herself to do so. Divorced from Schenck in 1934, she married her second husband, George Jessel, who eagerly brought her on his ailing radio shows, but both his shows and the marriage ended in failure. Norma married for the third time in 1946, with Carvel James, and died relatively young, on Christmas Eve 1957, at age 64, because of pneumonia. It is said that we owe to Norma Talmadge the tradition of stamping the handprints of the stars in front of the Grauman's Chinese Theater, when in 1927, accidentally, she left her own when falling on wet cement in the same place.
Sources: Wikipedia (English, Dutch, and Spanish), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Norma Talmadge
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1176/1, 1927-1928. Photo: First National Pictures
Norma Talmadge (1894-1957) 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.
Norma Talmadge was the daughter of one of the most famous "mothers of artists" in film history: Peg Talmadge. Norma, her mother, and her sisters Natalie and Constance were abandoned by their alcoholic and jobless father Fred right on Christmas Day. Thus, the three teenagers had to start earning money as vaudeville models and actresses. In 1909, Norma began working in the cinema thanks to her discoverer, Vitagraph editor Breta Breuill. She acted in numerous Vitagraph shorts, a.o. Uncle Tom's Cabin (Stuart Blackton, 1910), Love of Chrysanthemum (Van Dyke Brooke, 1910), and A Tale of Two Cities (William Humphrey, 1911). Helped by Vitagraph leading actor Maurice Costello, her career blossomed. By 1913, she was the major star of Vitagraph Studios and had played in hundreds of shorts there. Her co-actors from the Vitagraph 'stable' were a.o. Maurice Costello, Van Dyke Brooke, Lilian Walker, Hughie Mack, Leo Delaney, and Clara Kimball Young.
In 1915 Norma Talmadge had a breakthrough when acting in Vitagraph's anti-German propaganda-film, the feature The Battlecry for Peace, but mother Talmadge was unsatisfied with Vitagraph and arranged a two-year contract at National Pictures. Yet, when Norma's first film there flopped, and the company went bankrupt, she called on director D.W. Griffith and was able to act in seven features at Triangle. In 1916 she met Joseph Schenck, a wealthy exhibitor who wanted to make films himself. Smitten by her, Schenk proposed marriage and a studio. They founded the Norma Talmadge Film Corporation. In Schenk's New York-based studio, Norma would act in her dramas on the ground floor, while her sister Constance would do comedies on the first floor, and the comic unit with Fatty Arbuckle played on the top floor, while sister Natalie Talmadge worked as a secretary and occasionally had small parts as well. Arbuckle brought along Buster Keaton and Al St. John. When Arbuckle was lent to Paramount to do features, Keaton took over the comic unit and married Natalie.
NormaTalmadge's first film at the studio, Panthea (Allan Dwan, 1917) was a straight hit. Between 1917 and 1921 Norma made four to six films per year, under Schenk's supervision. After her greatest success, the drama Smilin' Through (Sydney Franklin, 1922), Schenk closed the New York studio. The family continued in Hollywood, where Norma's films became bigger and glossier. She worked with top directors, cinematographers, and costume designers and by 1923 she was the best-paid film actress in Hollywood, earning 10.000 a week. In 1924 under Frank Borzage's direction, she did her best film (artistically and at the box office) Secrets. While Schenk became head of United Artists in 1924, Norma was still tied to distributor First National by contract and continued to make films for them in the mid-1920s, including Camille (Fred Niblo 1926). During the filming of Camille, she fell in love with her co-actor Gilbert Roland and asked Schenk for a divorce. He refused but saw they were a winning couple and matched them in several films. After that, she made films with UA, but the first two were flops and marked the end of her silent film career.
Norma Talmadge took voice lessons for a year, and despite expectations, produced a perfectly non-dialectical voice, but her first two sound films simply weren't good films, so she called it a day and left the film world. As she was very rich by now, she could permit herself to do so. Divorced from Schenck in 1934, she married her second husband, George Jessel, who eagerly brought her on his ailing radio shows, but both his shows and the marriage ended in failure. Norma married for the third time in 1946, with Carvel James, and died relatively young, on Christmas Eve 1957, at age 64, because of pneumonia. It is said that we owe to Norma Talmadge the tradition of stamping the handprints of the stars in front of the Grauman's Chinese Theater, when in 1927, accidentally, she left her own when falling on wet cement in the same place.
Sources: Wikipedia (English, Dutch, and Spanish), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.