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Roscoe Arbuckle, the youngest of nine children, reportedly weighed 16 pounds at birth in Smith Center, Kansas on March 24, 1887. His family moved to California when he was one year old. At age 8 he first appeared on the stage. His first part was with the Webster-Brown stock company. From then until 1913, Roscoe was on the stage, performing as an acrobat, a clown, and a singer. His first real professional engagement was in 1904, singing illustrated songs for Sid Grauman at the Unique Theater in San Jose, California at $17.50 a week. He later worked in the Morosco Burbank stock company and traveled through China and Japan with Ferris Hartman. His last appearance on the stage was with Hartman in Yokahama, Japan in 1913, where he played the Mikado.

Back in Hollywood, Arbuckle went to work at Mack Sennett's Keystone film studio at $40 a week. For the next 3-1/2 years he never starred or even featured, but appeared in hundreds of one-reel comedies. He would play mostly policemen, usually with the Keystone Kops, but he also played different parts. He would work with Mabel Normand, Ford Sterling, Charles Chaplin, among others, and would learn about the process of making movies from Henry Lehrman, who directed all but two of his pictures. Roscoe was a gentle and genteel man off screen and always believed that Sennett never thought that he was funny.

Roscoe never used his weight to get a laugh. He would never be found stuck in a chair or doorway. He was remarkably agile for his size and used that agility to find humor in situations. By 1914 he had begun to direct some of his one-reels. The next year he moved up to two-reels, which meant that he would need to sustain the comedy to be successful; as it turned out, he was. Among his films were Fatty Again (1914), Mabel, Fatty and the Law (1915), Mabel and Fatty's Wash Day (1915), Mabel and Fatty Viewing the World's Fair at San Francisco (1915), Fatty's Reckless Fling (1915), and many more. For "Mabel and Fatty Viewing the World's Fair at San Francisco", Keystone took the actors to the real World's Fair to use as background; the studio's cost was negligible, while the San Francisco backgrounds made the picture look expensive.

By 1917 Roscoe formed a partnership with Joseph M. Schenck, a powerful producer who was also the husband of Norma Talmadge. The company they formed was called Comique and the films that Roscoe made were released through Famous Players on a percentage basis, and soon Arbuckle was making over $1,000 a week. With his own company Roscoe had complete creative control over his productions. He also hired a young performer he met in New York by the name of Buster Keaton. Keaton's film career would start with Roscoe in The Butcher Boy (1917). Roscoe wrote his own stories first, tried them out and then devised funny twists to generate the laughs. His comedy star was second only to Charles Chaplin. With the success of Comique, Paramount asked Roscoe to move from two-reel shorts to full-length features in 1919. Roscoe's first feature was The Round-up (1920) and it was successful. It was soon followed by other features, including Brewster's Millions (1921) and Gasoline Gus (1921).

Unfortunately, tragedy struck on Labor Day on September 5, 1921 with the arrest and trial of Roscoe Arbuckle on manslaughter charges. Roscoe with friends Lowell Sherman and Fred Fishback drove to San Francisco where they checked into the St Francis Hotel threw a lavish party, complete with drinking, drugs and carousing, which was crashed by a "starlet" named Virginia Rappe, who fell seriously ill and died three days later from a ruptured bladder. Rappe had accused Arbuckle of raping her prior to passing away, but Rappe had a history of accusing men of rape. The newspapers, led by William Randolph Hearst, used this incident to generate Hollywood's first major scandal. Roscoe was tried not once but three times for the criminal charges; the trials began in November 1921 and lasted until April 1922; the first two ended with hung juries (the mistrial decision in the second trial was reached on February 3, 1922, the day after Arbuckle's friend and fellow Paramount director William Desmond Taylor was found murdered, and Arbuckle was visibly affected by the news). At his third and final trial in April of 1922, the jury not only returned a "not guilty" verdict but excoriated the prosecution for pursuing a flimsy case with no evidence of Arbuckle having committed any crime; it was at this final trial that the jury went further, writing a personal letter of sympathy and apology to Arbuckle for putting him through this ordeal. He kept it as a treasured memento for the rest of his life.

However, Arbuckle's acquittal marked the end of his comedic acting career. Unable to return to the screen, he later found work as a comedy director for Al St. John, Buster Keaton and others under the pseudonym "William Goodrich" (he was inspired to use this pseudonym by Keaton, who suggested Arbuckle use the name "Will B. Good"). In 1932 producer Samuel Sax signed Roscoe to appear in his very first sound comic short films for Warner Brothers, starting with Hey, Pop! (1932). He completed six shorts and showed the magic and youthful spirit that he had a decade before. With the success of the shorts, Warner Brothers signed Roscoe to a feature film contract, but he died in his sleep on June 29, 1933 , at age 46, the night after he signed the contract.

Blanche Friderici was born on 21 January 1878 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for It Happened One Night (1934), Sadie Thompson (1928) and Secrets (1933). She was married to Donald Campbell. She died on 23 December 1933 in Visalia, California, USA.

Nepotism certainly has had its advantages in Hollywood, none more so than in the cinematic career of Jack Pickford, whose famous older sis, "America's Sweetheart" Mary Pickford, saw to it that Jack had every advantage her star weight could muster. In Jack's case, it only added fuel to a self-starting tragic fire.

The youngest of three children, if Jack was christened with the extremely common name of John (aka Jack) Smith, his life would resemble anything but. Born in Toronto, Canada, on August 18, 1896, his middle sister was minor actress Lottie Pickford (née Charlotte Smith, (1893-1936)). Both younger children were prompted by their actress/mother, Charlotte Smith, to follow Mary (née Gladys Louise Smith) into show business after her husband (also John Charles Smith), an alcoholic, deserted the family.

A child actor on the theatre stage, it was Mary who got both her baby brother and baby sister into the Biograph film company as steady fixtures starting in 1909. They all appeared in scores of short films for D.W. Griffith -- Jack's list included Wanted, a Child (1909), To Save Her Soul (1909), The Smoker (1910), Muggsy Becomes a Hero (1910), Sweet Memories (1911), As a Boy Dreams (1911), The Speed Demon (1912), Heredity (1912), The Sneak (1913) and Home, Sweet Home (1914). Lottie had her own lead pictures, including The Pilgrimage (1912) and They Shall Pay (1921). Mary, Jack and Lottie all appeared together in the films Sweet Memories (1911) and Fanchon the Cricket (1915), among others. Jack occasionally worked for other film companies, as he did when he played the title role in Giovanni's Gratitude (1913) for Reliance; and starred in The Making of Crooks (1915), The Hard Way (1916), The Conflict (1916) and Cupid's Touchdown (1917) for Selig Polyscope,

Jack followed along with sister Mary when she left Biograph and moved to the Famous Players Film Company (later Paramount Pictures) in 1914, and proved a personable light leading man. When Mary signed her famous million-dollar contract with First National in 1917, one of her stipulations was that Jack receive a lucrative contract as well. He appeared with Mary in such films as A Girl of Yesterday (1915) and Poor Little Peppina (1916), and starred on his own as lovelorn Bill Baxter in Seventeen (1916); as Pip in Great Expectations (1917); as Jack in The Dummy (1917); and as Tom Sawyer in both Tom Sawyer (1917) and Huck and Tom (1918); as well as the title roles in His Majesty, Bunker Bean (1918), Mile-a-Minute Kendall (1918) and Sandy (1918) (all co-starring lovely Louise Huff, and the films Freckles (1917), The Girl at Home (1917), What Money Can't Buy (1917) and Jack and Jill (1917).

The young man, however, just couldn't stay out of trouble. A 1918 stint in the Navy Reserve to straighten up proved disastrous when Jack, among others, was accused of accepting bribes from draftees who wanted light shore duty and stay out of front-line action. With the help of his family, he avoided a court martial, was exonerated and received a general discharge -- more than he deserved.

Earning a modicum of naïve "boy-next-door" success, Jack went on to produce a few of his own films (Burglar by Proxy (1919), Garrison's Finish (1923) and In Wrong (1919)), as well as co-direct (with Alfred E. Green) a couple of Mary's films (Through the Back Door (1921) and Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921)). Some of Jack's better silents during the "Roaring 20's" included The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come (1920), The Man Who Had Everything (1920), Waking Up the Town (1925), The Goose Woman (1925), Brown of Harvard (1926) and the classic Beatrice Lillie backstage comedy vehicle Exit Smiling (1926) as a young leading man of the troupe.

Tragically, Jack's obsessive taste for the high life quickly took over. A ne'er-do-well playboy and constant carouser, his scandalous private life aroused more public interest than his on-camera work in light romantic films. He picked up severe alcohol, drug and gambling addictions to accommodate his partying decadence with bouts of syphilis adding to the complications. Jack's wedded life was anything but blissful. All three wives were Ziegfeld girls at one time. His stormy marriage to despondent, drug-addicted first wife, actress Olive Thomas, ended after four years when the 25-year-old died by swallowing mercury bichloride. His next two marriages to legendary Broadway musical star Marilyn Miller and minor actress Mary Mulhern also ended quickly due to his acute alcoholism.

By the late 1920s Jack was completely undependable and, with the advent of sound, his career ground to a screeching halt, despite Mary's continued attempts to rescue it. Jack's health deteriorated considerably after this letdown. His last two films were the (lost) silent feature (with talking sequences) The Dancer Upstairs (2002) co-starring Olive Borden and a lead in the short film All Square (1930).

He died aged 36 on January 3, 1933, in Paris. The cause was listed as "progressive multiple neuritis", but it was almost certainly precipitated by his chronic alcoholism-- a tragic and seemingly unnecessary end for a young man who chose to tarnish the silver platter readily handed to him. Sister Lottie too fell into extreme excess and died in 1936 at age 43 of alcohol-related causes. Jack later earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Lilian Hall Davis was born June 23, 1898, in Mile End, London, England, the daughter of a London cab driver. For publicity purposes, she changed the spelling of her name to to the tonier Lillian Hall-Davis and reported her birthplace as the more fashionable Hampstead, London. She began acting in films in 1917 and by the early 1920s, Hall-Davis was one of the leading actresses of British silent film. She was Alfred Hitchcock's favorite actress during the early days of his career. He directed her in The Ring (1927) and The Farmer's Wife (1928) Hall-Davis was married to Walter Pemberton, a British stage actor. Her last film was a supporting role in Her Reputation (1931). By 1933, her film career was over, she was being treated for neurasthenia and was suffering a nervous breakdown. On October 25, 1933, she locked herself in the kitchen of her home in Golders Green, turned on the gas, stuck her head in the oven, and cut her throat with her brother's straight razor. Her 14-year-old son Grovsvenor, came home from school, found her suicide note in the hall and summoned the neighbors for help. They were too late. Hall-Davis was dead at the age of 34.

Forceful, authoritative character actor of the 1920s and 1930s. Entered films in 1916. Even by then, close to 60, Kerr was very effectively cast in powerful, dynamic supporting roles, usually most often as a cultured, dignified old man. Probably most memorable as the old Baron Frankenstein in Frankenstein (1931). A brilliant performer of stage and screen, yet terribly obese and a heavy smoker. He died at 74 of lung cancer near his birthplace of London in 1933.

Renee Adoree was born Jeanne de la Fontein in Lille in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France, on September 30, 1898. She had what one could call a normal childhood. Her background is, perhaps, one of the most difficult of all actresses to research. What we do know is that her interest in acting surfaced during her teen years with minor stage productions in France. By 1920 she had attracted the attention of American producers and she came to New York. Her first film before US audiences was The Strongest (1920) that same year. That was to be it until 1921, when she appeared in Made in Heaven (1921). The lack of roles led Renee to wonder if she had made the right move by going into motion pictures. Finally MGM saw fit to put her in more films in 1922. Movies such as West of Chicago (1922), Day Dreams (1922), Mixed Faces (1922) and Monte Cristo (1922) saw her with meatier roles than she had had previously. Renee was, finally, hitting her stride. Better roles to be sure, but still she was not yet of first-class caliber.

All that changed in 1925 when she starred as Melisande with John Gilbert in The Big Parade (1925). The picture made stars out of Renee, Gilbert and Karl Dane. Based on the film's success, Renee was put in another production, Excuse Me (1925). The movie lacked the drama of the previous picture but it was well-received. In a plot written by Elinor Glyn, Renee starred as Suzette in Man and Maid (1925). This was Renee's most provocative role yet and she was fast becoming one of the sexiest actresses on the screen. In 1927 Renee starred as Nang Ping in Mr. Wu (1927), along with her sister Mira Adoree. The film, with co-stars Ralph Forbes and Lon Chaney, was a hit, but it was Renee's character that carried the film. After several more pictures, her career was slowing down. Although, she had a bit part in Show People (1928) later that year. The following year she had another bit role in His Glorious Night (1929), this time uncredited. MGM then released her from contract, but she was re-discovered by First National Pictures for whom she appeared in The Spieler (1928), playing a struggling carnival manager trying to overcome the dishonesty that went on in her organization.

Ill with tuberculosis, she retired in 1930. Less than a week after her 35th birthday, on Oct. 5, 1933, Renee Adoree died in Tujunga, CA.

He was the man you loved to hiss. This towering (6' 4"), highly imposing character star with cold, hollow, beady eyes and a huge, protruding snout would go on to become one of the silent screen's finest arch villains. Born Ernest Thayson Torrence-Thompson on June 26, 1878, in Edinburgh, Scotland, he was, unlikely enough, an exceptional pianist and operatic baritone. A graduate of the Stuttgart Conservatory, Edinburgh Academy before earning a scholarship at London's Royal Academy of Music, he toured with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in such productions as "The Emerald Isle" (1901) and "The Talk of the Town" (1905) before serious vocal problems set in. Both Ernest and his actor brother David Torrence came to America directly from Scotland prior to WWI. Focusing instead on a purely acting career, both brothers developed into seasoned players on the New York stage. Ernest made his Broadway bow with "Modest Suzanne" in 1912 and a standout role in "The Night Boat" in 1920 brought him to the attention of Hollywood filmmakers.

He earned superb marks playing the despicable adversary Luke Hatburn in Tol'able David (1921) opposite Richard Barthelmess, and immediately settled into films for the rest of his career. Adept at both comedy and drama, Ernest avoided what could have been a damaging stereotype with his sympathetic portrayal of a grizzled old codger in the classic western The Covered Wagon (1923). He further bolstered his celebrity with plum, lip-smacking roles alongside Lon Chaney in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) as Clopin, king of the beggars, and Betty Bronson in Peter Pan (1924) as the dastardly Captain Hook. In an offbeat bit of casting he paired up with Clara Bow in Mantrap (1926) as a gentle, bear-like backwoodsman in search of a wife, and participated in other silent classics such as The King of Kings (1927) (as Peter) and Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) as Buster Keaton's steamboat captain Dad.

Despite his celluloid villainy, Ernest was known as a courtly and cultivated gentleman in private. He made the transition into talking films intact and was able to play a marvelous nemesis, Dr. Moriarty, to Clive Brooks' Sherlock Holmes (1932) before his untimely death. Ernest died following his filming as a smuggler in I Cover the Waterfront (1933) starring Claudette Colbert in New York on May 15,1933, at the relatively young age of 54. It seems that while en route to Europe by ship, Torrence suffered an acute attack of gall stones and was rushed back to a New York hospital. He died of complications following surgery. Looking and usually playing much older than he was, Hollywood lost a marvelously talented and robust character player who had dozens of films ahead of him.

Now completely forgotten, the name of Gerald Ames had a very special feel back in the silent era. The man who bore this name was indeed a heart breaker. Six feet tall, burly, athletic, mustached, dark-eyed and dark-haired, Ames had all it took to get top billing and he did grace about seventy films (many of which directed by pioneers George Loane Tucker and Cecil M. Hepworth) with his manly presence. He very successfully portrayed three archetypal fiction characters, Rupert Von Hetzau, Arsène Lupin and Raffles. And he most often found himself in the shoes of figures of imposing bearing such as aristocrats (knights, counts, marquises, princes...), officers (lieutenants, captains...), judges, ambassadors, the like... Directors also explored the darker side of his personality by making him a spy or an enemy officer. Debuting on the boards as of 1905 and on the big screen in 1914, Gerald was one of the few actors to manage two careers at once. For not content to be a thespian he was also a fencing champion and even represented Britain in the Stockholm Games of 1912. Born in Blackheath in 1881, educated at Freiburg University in Germany, married to actress Mary Dibley, Percy Gerald Ames died too soon of a heart attack after falling down the steps at a London Underground station in 1933. He was only 51.

Julia Swayne Gordon was born on 29 October 1878 in Columbus, Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for My Lady's Slipper (1916), You Can't Fool Your Wife (1923) and The Painted World (1919). She was married to Hugh Thomas Swayne. She died on 28 May 1933 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Earl Derr Biggers was born on 24 August 1884 in Warren, Ohio, USA. He was a writer, known for The House Without a Key (1926), Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939) and Charlie Chan in Shanghai (1935). He was married to Eleanor Ladd. He died on 5 April 1933 in Pasadena, California, USA.

An endearing veteran of the U.S. and London stages before entering films at the advent of sound, matronly Louise Closser Hale would also earn recognition as a novelist. Born Louise Closser in Chicago, Illinois on October 13, 1872, she was the daughter of a well-to-do grain dealer. She began her acting studies at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC and Emerson College of Oratory in Boston.

On stage from 1894 in a production of "In Old Kentucky," Louise thrived in stock companies for several years. In 1899, she married actor/writer/artist Walter Hale and added his surname to her moniker for the stage. She made her Broadway debut in "Arizona" at the Herald Square Theatre in 1900 which also featured her husband. Louise's first hit New York show was a few years later as Miss Garnett in George Bernard Shaw's "Candida" (1903), and thereafter continued at a fairly regular pace with sturdy performances in "Abigail" (1904), "It's All Your Fault" (1906), "Clothes" (1906) and "The Straight Road" (1907). In 1907, she made her London debut in one of her most identifiable roles, that of Miss Hazy in "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch."

A writer of travel books, husband Walter collaborated and illustrated a number of them -- We Discover New England (1915), We Discover the Old Dominion (1916), and An American's London (1920). Both Louise and Walter also continued on the Broadway stage with some of Louise's credits including "The Sins of Society" (1909), "His Name on the Door" (1909), "Lulu's Husband" (1910), "The Blue Bird" (as a Fairy) (1910), "The Marriage of Columbine" (1914) and "Ruggles of Red Gap" (1915). Following Walter's death from cancer in 1917, Louise returned to Broadway in such shows as "For the Defense" (1919), "Miss Lulu Bett" (as Lulu's mother) (1920), "Peer Gynt" (as Aase) (1923), "Expressing Willie" (1924), "One of the Family" (1925), "The Ivory Door" (1927), "Paris" (1928) and "Lysistrata" (1930).

Usually playing older than she was, Louise debuted on film in an isolated silent short Winning His Wife (1919). She would not return to the screen until a decade later with the mystery part-talkie The Hole in the Wall (1929) starring Claudette Colbert. Abandoning the theatre completely, the 57-year-old Louise would appear in a surprisingly large number of pre-Code films during her all-too-brief Hollywood stay -- less than a half decade to be exact. Playing everything from housekeepers to haughty blue bloods, most of her characters were readily equipped with a tart tongue and severe look of disapproval.

Among the silver-haired actress's many films were the romantic musical Paris (1929) as an interfering mother who goes to great lengths to stop her son's (Jason Robards Sr.) marriage; the Helen Kane western comedy Dangerous Nan McGrew (1930) as the wealthy owner of a hunting lodge; the Al Jolson blackface musical comedy Big Boy (1930) as a plantation matriarch; the Constance Bennett romantic drama Born to Love (1931) as crusty Lady Ponsonby; the chic comedy Platinum Blonde (1931) as wealthy socialite Jean Harlow's snooty mother; the Marlene Dietrich/Josef von Sternberg classic adventure Shanghai Express (1932) as the prim, disdainful owner of a Shanghai boarding house; the George Arliss romance drama The Man Who Played God (1932) as the benevolent and supportive sister to pianist Arliss; the sudsy Joan Crawford drama Letty Lynton (1932) as Crawford's loyal maid and traveling companion; the pre-Code version of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1932) starring Marian Nixon with Louise as acidulous Aunt Miranda; another Crawford vehicle, the war drama Today We Live (1933), as, again, Crawford's devoted servant; the Helen Hayes romantic weepy Another Language (1933) as a master manipulating mother; and the classic all-star dramedy Dinner at Eight (1933) as Billie Burke's blunt cousin.

In addition to her travel books, Louise became quite well known in the literary field as an author. Her first novel, A Motor Car Divorce (1906), was followed by The Actress (1909); The Married Miss Worth (1911); Her Soul and Her Body (1912), which created a sensation and was later turned into a play; Home Talent (1926); and Canal Boat Fracas (1927). Louise also co-wrote Mother's Millions" (1931), which was later developed into a play.

Following an unbilled role in The Marx Brothers zany comedy Duck Soup (1933), 60-year-old Louise Closser Hale suffered an apoplectic stroke on July 25, 1933, while shopping in Hollywood, California. Rushed to Monte Sano Hospital, she suffered a fatal second stroke the next day, robbing Hollywood too soon of a highly gifted character actress. The film was released posthumously later that year in November.

The widowed Ms. Hale had no children and left her estate to relatives and various charities. Her body was cremated and her ashes interred in Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Martha Mattox was born on 19 June 1879 in Natchez, Mississippi, USA. She was an actress, known for The Cat and the Canary (1927), Huckleberry Finn (1920) and Christine of the Big Tops (1926). She died on 2 May 1933 in Sidney, New York, USA.

The name Mildred Washington isn't remembered but she appeared in under 15 films in small parts but her presence, finesse, beauty and vivacious personality wasn't small. Mildred was a beautiful, curvaceous, popular Black actress and dancer in the 1920s and 1930s. She started on the stage appearing in musicals for many years and later conquered California nightclubs and theaters becoming a full-fledged, substantial, popular entertainer who was called the sensation of the West. She was headliner and dance director for many years at the legendary Sebastian's Cotton Club. Mildred was the ultimate performer; she was a skilled dancer who knew how to wow a crowd and amaze them with her great dance and lively stage presence as is seen in the Hollywood movies she appeared in. On the side she appeared in Hollywood films because it was her dream to be in movies. Her beauty and outgoing personality helped her into movies like many white females. Mildred had an magnetic charm that couldn't be overlooked on stage and screen. Mildred introduced a new image of Blacks, she wasn't the common homely, sad, blue, and unintelligible type, Mildred was gorgeous, fun-loving, spoke intelligently, had poise and though sexy she was quite dainty and winsome.

In Hollywood Mildred played the role of a maid in the pre-code era which meant Mildred wasn't forced to be demeaning or stereotyped. In the pre-code era, there were no rules, Blacks had more to do outside the stereotype and most importantly was apart of the films they appeared in not just a maid or servant thrown in. Mildred added her own winning personality, sense of humor and spark; she simply glowed on screen. She entertained her white employees when they were down and out, educated them on life, and lifted their spirits. Mildred was one of the few, very few, beautiful black women who played the maid roles, she wasn't overweight or homely but beautiful, engaging, and scintillating, often stealing attention in scenes from leading white stars because of her beauty, talent and sex appeal. Her persona was certainly in the same fashion as Clara Bow, Alice White, and Jean Harlow. Though, Mildred had little to do on screen in a few of her movies, she still took advantage of getting herself recognized. Her maid costumes was just that...a costume, it didn't define her or her talent and that's what the black community loved about her. Mildred got fan mail, requests for her autographed photo, and she was featured in many leading black publications and newspapers. Whether Hollywood wanted her to be a stereotype or not is not the question, she took it upon her own initiative to present herself the way she wanted and she took her roles seriously and presented them the best she thought would entertain the public. "Hearts in Dixie" was one of the first black cast films made in Hollywood where Mildred co-starred, Mildred was said to have gave an excellent performance, the reviews were in Mildred's favor but sadly the film is believed to be lost. Her best role was in "Torch Singer" starring Claudette Colbert, in which she played a maid/confidante to Colbert. In this particular film she showed her awesome versatility and sincerity, where she went from dramatic to comedic naturally in good timing and she did some hot dancing. She was just marvelous in her role that you would forget she was suppose to be a maid, sometimes Mildred forgot, because she made her roles significant by being an actress not a maid.

Mildred was an highly educated and cultured woman, she graduated from Los Angeles High School where she was an honor graduate and valedictorian. She had two years at the University of California at Los Angeles and also studied at Columbia University. She could speak fluent Spanish and French. Mildred chose being an entertainer and actress as her career but her education was always there to fall back on. Off screen she lived well, she dabbled in real estate and one of the few black movie stars who made enough to own a big, beautiful home in which she had a maid working for her. Mildred was truly a Renaissance Black woman and a new kind of Black woman who didn't let anyone hold her back. Mildred was on her way to becoming a full-time actress and studio heads were very satisfied with her previous work and beauty but it was her untimely death in late 1933 that stalled her escalating screen career. During an major earthquake in the spring of 1933, Mildred developed appendicitis when she fell running for cover from Graumans Chinese Theatre. Her death was caused by peritonitis following appendicitis, she died on a Thursday afternoon at the White Memorial Hospital during surgery. She was 28 years old. Her funeral was a star- studded one with many black and white stage and screen stars.

Young "Sunny Jim" McKeen was featured in 39 "Newlyweds and Their Baby" shorts in the late 1920s, then went on to make a series of six sound shorts on his own. A very blond little boy, he was a contemporary of the child actors such as Allen 'Farina' Hoskins and Jackie Cooper, Davey Lee and Shirley Temple. He died of blood poisoning in 1933, at the age of 8.

Tall in the saddle, and dark and handsome to boot, he may be little remembered today when compared to a William S. Hart, Tom Mix or Hoot Gibson, but cowboy hero Roy Stewart was arguably one of the best known of the silent screen back then. While touring with the famous Floradora Girls, Stewart entered films in the early 1910s in support roles until signing with Triangle in 1916 and emerging as a star. Known for his engaging, dimpled grin, he proved a solid and rugged hero and churned out during the course of his career hundreds of two-fisted two-reelers such as The Learnin' of Jim Benton (1917), Cactus Crandall (1918), which he co-wrote, and The Sagebrusher (1920), not to mention reenacting a number of tales from the Old West and portraying such legendary figures as Buffalo Bill and Daniel Boone. Out of the saddle Stewart was quite at home in plush drama and served as a perfect leading man for the likes of Lillian Gish in __House Built Upon Sand, The (1916), Bessie Love in A Daughter of the Poor (1917) and Mary Pickford in her classic silent Sparrows (1926). Come the advent of sound, Stewart lost his footing and was relegated to support roles as a character actor. He continued working until his sudden death in 1933 of a heart attack in his Los Angeles home at the age of 49.

A famous, yet controversial major league baseball player, "Turkey Mike," as Donlin was known because of his unique strut, played on seven teams in a 12-year career, mostly in the National League, from 1899-1914. His career reached its peak in 1905-06, when he was the star outfielder for the champion New York Giants, so lionized that he became known as "the baseball idol of Manhattan." Donlin attempted to cash in on his athletic fame on the Broadway stage, where he met and married vaudeville star Mabel Hite. Together, they starred in a baseball-themed play "Stealing Home" that ran on Broadway for almost three years. Donlin's devotion to the stage hurt his baseball career, derailing what could have been a Hall of Fame career. When Hite died of cancer in 1912, Donlin returned to the diamond, but his age and his frequent absences to pursue stage success ended his baseball career. Donlin migrated to Hollywood, where his close friend John Barrymore helped him find work. Donlin never found stardom on the screen, although he did appear in at least 53 films, mostly in bit parts or as an extra.

After being traded (for what turned out to be the last time) to New York from Pittsburgh in 1912, Donlin refused to report to the Giants, instead concentrating on his seemingly budding film career, which never materialized.

Sam Marx was born on 23 October 1859 in Alsace, France. He was an actor. He was married to Miene Schönberg. He died on 10 May 1933 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

King Kong died on 2 March 1933 in New York City, New York, USA.

It's hard to be very specific about any dates or events early in the life of Texas Guinan. She loved publicity and frequently improvised facts about herself when she felt they made better stories than the truth. She was born in Waco, Texas, but likely not on a ranch as she often claimed. She was active in vaudeville and theater, and was in many movies (often as the gun-toting hero in silent westerns, more than a match for any man). In the prohibition era, Tex's talents for entertainment and self-promotion came together for a successful career as the owner and hostess in night clubs and speakeasies, where she made certain everyone had a good time.

Spottiswoode Aitken was born on 16 April 1867 in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for The Birth of a Nation (1915), The White Circle (1920) and The Americano (1916). He was married to Marion Dana Jones. He died on 26 February 1933 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Educated at Collegiate Prepitory-Columbia Extension Institute, Hugh Trevor-Thomas was planning an altogether different future for himself until following the advice of his distant relative, producer William Le Baron. He left New York where he had successfully begun his own insurance company (Thomas and Blomer, Inc.) and instead decided to pursue an acting career. After completing a positive screen test reportedly directed by actor Richard Dix, he made his film debut at the end of the silent era. Often cast in collegiate roles, this handsome, ingratiating young actor continued as a successful leading man in both sound features as well as radio. In 1931, he once more turned his attention to the insurance business, forming another company. Although not appearing in films for the next two years, he was still in demand and roles continued being offered for his consideration. Sadly, as it was, both careers were abruptly ended by his death two weeks after his 30th birthday; dying from post-operative complications following an appendectomy.

Entering films as an actor in 1910, John G. Adolfi soon switched careers and became a director. He turned out numerous, mostly low-budget films for minor companies, but every so often got a chance to work at a big studio like Fox. His big break came in the sound era, when he formed a partnership with actor George Arliss and directed several of Arliss' most successful films.

Though three U.S. Presidents have died on the Fourth of July, John Calvin Coolidge was the first and only one to have been born on that date, in 1874. He is also the only President to have had the oath of office administered by his father, a justice of the peace, who swore him in when the Coolidges received word of President Warren G. Harding's death. Coolidge's reputation is that of an unfeeling and lazy man, unaware of what was going on in the country and who dawdled while the United States drifted toward the Great Depression. Yet history doesn't really support this caricature of a man who actually was a highly intelligent and complex individual.

Though self-contained and terse, Coolidge was an extremely intelligent man and a fine scholar (his wedding gift to his wife, Grace Goodhue, was his own translation of Dante Alighieri's "Inferno". A week after the wedding, Coolidge, ever the practical New Englander, also presented his wife with 52 pairs of his socks that needed mending). Some have argued that Coolidge was the best-prepared candidate ever to become President, having worked his way through a succession of elective political offices until he wound up as the Vice President under Harding, attaining the presidency when Harding died in office in August of 1923. Coolidge was a laissez-faire proponent, believing, like Jefferson, that the government governs best which governs least. In July of 1924 his son, Calvin Jr., died of blood poisoning. The younger Coolidge, like his mother, was an outgoing and gregarious boy, and his death affected his father deeply. Although some historians have characterized Coolidge's behavior in office as marked by laziness or indolence, it seems now that it was almost certainly a deep depression brought about by the death of his son. Coolidge chose not to run in 1928. Privately, his wife remarked to a friend that "Daddy thinks there is going to be a Depression." On January 5, 1933, he died of heart failure at his home in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Though Coolidge was dismissed for years as a presidential lightweight, his reputation has grown in recent years. President Ronald Reagan retrieved Coolidge's portrait from storage and displayed it in the White House during his tenure in office, and a recent biography has provided a much more favorable view of Coolidge and his presidency than had previously been available.

Rita Harlan was born in 1875 in St. Thomas, Danish Virgin Islands. She was an actress, known for Angel Child (1919) and The Way of the Strong (1919). She was married to George W. Harlan. She died on 31 May 1933 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Walter Hiers was born on 18 July 1893 in Cordele, Georgia, USA. He was an actor, known for Seventeen (1916), The Conquest of Canaan (1916) and The Ghost Breaker (1922). He was married to Adah Lavinia McWilliams. He died on 27 February 1933 in Los Angeles, California, USA.