Died on this day, Florence Lawrence, The First Movie Star. Lawrence is featured in the book Tragic Hollywood Beautiful Glamorous and Dead. The following is a chapter in that book, available on Amazon If you visit Florence Lawrence’s grave in Hollywood Forever Cemetery, her epitaph reads “Florence Lawrence, The Biograph Girl/The First Movie Star.” Who was Florence Lawrence and how did she acquire this prestigious title? Florence had been toiling away in sub par one-reel affairs for a studio known as the Vitagraph Company when she was noticed by a young actor named Henry Solter in 1908. He introduced her to D.W.Griffith of Biograph Pictures. She signed a contract with Biograph and married Solter that same year. She went on to make 60 films for the studio, most of them directed by Griffith, the most prestigious director of the time. This was early 20th century filmmaking, however, and studios had made the unbelievable decision not to credit actors on screen as they felt this would create “celebrities” out of mere performers, leading them to demand higher salaries.Oh the studios. Gotta admire them for trying. Florence became extremely popular, but was simply known as “The Biograph Girl.” Still, she was well compensated and seemed content, until a little German studio boss approached her with a wild scheme and an offer she simply couldn’t refuse. Carl Laemmle was the head of Independent Motion Picture Company Of America, or IMP for short. This studio would later form part of what is today known as Universal Pictures. To lure Lawrence away from Biograph, he offered her and Solter the leads in his next film, The Broken Oath, as well as their own names above the marquee. This was unprecedented, and the couple jumped at the chance, but Laemmle had one condition; he was going to stage the first “publicity stunt” on record, and he wanted his two new stars to participate. While the film was still in production, Laemmle sent out a fake notice saying that Lawrence had been killed in a streetcar accident. The press lapped it up. “Biograph girl dead!” screamed the headlines, affording the film gobs of free publicity and significantly increasing Florence Lawrence’s profile. A few days later, Laemmle sent out a press release stating “We Nail A Lie”, refuting the “scandalous “ claim and quoting Lawrence as saying she was very much alive and would soon be making a public appearance to promote her new film, The Broken Oath. Genius. When Lawrence and Solter appeared together in St. Louis Missouri, a near riot ensued, assuring the film’s success and guaranteeing that Florence would go down in history as the first film actress to achieve name recognition with the public. In n other words, she really was the first star. Lawrence was unbelievably popular during this time. The press chased her wherever she went and she was mobbed by adoring fans whenever she appeared in public. She supposedly received so much mail that her postman suffered a nervous collapse lugging the letters to her door every day. She also raced cars competitively and was rumored to be the inventor of the first car turn signal. Lawrence and Solter went on to form their own production company, Victor Film Company, and made several successful films under the title. Just two years later, in 1912, Lawrence announced her intention to retire, but was persuaded to make Pawn’s Destiny for Universal, who had acquired Victor Film Company in 1914. She was severely injured during the filming when a fire got out of control, burning her and causing her to fall, injuring her back. She was incapacitated for months and when she did return to the set, she suffered a mental collapse. Several months later, the press was waiting for her when she pulled into the Universal lot in a massive, luxury automobile, looking frail and depleted, to begin her comeback. She smiled and charmed her way through the interview and left them all with the impression that the movie business was a wonderful thing as long as stars like Florence Lawrence were around. Sadly, Florence’s glory days were behind her and she began a slow and painful decline. She divorced Solter after her accident on the set, blaming him for making her perform her own stunts. After her two nervous breakdowns, she never regained the leading lady stature she once enjoyed. By the mid 1920’s she was hardly working at all and when the stock market collapsed in 1929, she was wiped out financially. That same year her beloved mother passed away, causing Florence to lapse further into despair. Despite her limited finances, she paid for an elaborate burial for her mother, including a large, sculpted bust to be placed on her tomb. In 1933 she married Henry Bolton, a drunk who beat her for the five-month duration of the marriage. By this time she was suffering from a painful bone marrow disorder called myelofibrosis. On the eve of December 27, 1938, she carefully placed mementos around her of her former life as a star as she lay down in great pain. Then she swallowed ant paste. She was discovered the following day, still alive and in agony. She was rushed to the hospital but died that afternoon. She was 52. Florence’s real death garnered little publicity, in stark contrast to her faked death years before, and she was buried in an unmarked grave just a 1000 yards from the elaborate tomb of her mother, at Hollywood Forever. Decades later, Roddy Mcdowall, then serving on The National Film Preservation Board, paid for the current marker and engraving, which finally restores some measure of recognition to this long forgotten woman: Florence Lawrence, the screen’s first movie star.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 19:45:53 +0000
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