Colleen Moore
Colleen Moore was an American film actress who began her career during the silent film era and continued into the early sound film era. Moore became one of the most fashionable stars of the era and helped popularize the bobbed haircut.
Moore was a huge star in her day. She made 64 films in total; 30 are extant in their entirety, 7 are partially lost and 27 are completely lost. Moore donated prints of 15 of her films to the Museum of Modern Art for preservation. Unfortunately, the films were preserved so poorly that they disintegrated beyond restoration over the years, which deeply distressed her. Ten of those films survive in full, and another 3 were damaged but some parts remain; only 2 of the films were completely destroyed. Her first two talking pictures, Smiling Irish Eyes and Footlights and Fools, both from 1929, are lost, apart from the Vitaphone soundtrack disks. What was perhaps her most celebrated film, Flaming Youth, is now mostly lost as well, with only one 11-minute reel surviving.
Moore took a hiatus from acting between 1929 and 1933, just as sound was being added to motion pictures. After she returned, her last four sound pictures, The Power and the Glory, Social Register, Success at Any Price, and The Scarlet Letter, were not financial successes. She then retired permanently from screen acting.
After her film career, Moore maintained her wealth through astute investments, becoming a partner of Merrill Lynch. She later wrote a "how-to" book about investing in the stock market.
Moore also nurtured a passion for dollhouses throughout her life and helped design and curate The Colleen Moore Dollhouse, which has been a featured exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago since 1949. The dollhouse, measuring, was estimated in 1985 to be worth $7 million, and it is seen by 1.5 million people annually.
Early life
Moore was born Kathleen Morrison on August 19, 1899, in Port Huron, Michigan. Moore was the eldest child of Charles R. and Agnes Kelly Morrison. The family remained in Port Huron during the early years of Moore's life, at first living with her grandmother Mary Kelly and then with at least one of Moore's aunts.By 1905, the family had moved to Hillsdale, Michigan, where they remained for over two years. They had relocated to Atlanta, Georgia, by 1908. They are listed at three different addresses during their stay in Atlanta : 301 Capitol Avenue in 1908, 41 Linden Avenue in 1909, and 240 N. Jackson Street in 1910. They then lived briefly—probably for less than a year—in Warren, Pennsylvania, and by 1911, they had settled in Tampa, Florida.
At the age of 15, she took her first step into Hollywood. Her uncle arranged a screen test with director D. W. Griffith. She wanted to be a second Lillian Gish, but instead, she found herself playing heroines in Westerns with stars such as Tom Mix.
Two of Moore's great passions were dolls and movies; each would play a great role in her later life. She and her brother began their own stock company, reportedly performing on a stage created from a piano packing crate. Her aunts, who doted on her, indulged her other great passion and often bought her miniature furniture on their many trips, with which she furnished the first of a succession of dollhouses. Moore's family summered in Chicago, where she enjoyed baseball and the company of her Aunt Lib and Lib's husband, Walter Howey. Howey was the managing editor of the Chicago Examiner and an important newspaper editor in the publishing empire of William Randolph Hearst, and he was the inspiration for Walter Burns, the fictional Chicago newspaper editor in the play and the film The Front Page.
Career
Early years
was within walking distance of the Northwestern L, which ran right past the Howey residence. In interviews later in her silent film career, Moore claimed she had appeared in the background of several Essanay films, usually as a face in a crowd. One story has it that she got into the Essanay studios and waited in line to be an extra with Helen Ferguson: in an interview with Kevin Brownlow many years later, Ferguson told a story that substantially confirmed many details of the claim, though it is not certain whether she was referring to Moore's stints as a background extra or to her film test there prior to her departure for Hollywood in November 1917. Film producer D. W. Griffith was in debt to Howey, who had helped him to get both The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance through the Chicago censorship board:The contract to Griffith's Triangle-Fine Arts was conditional on passing a film test to ensure that her heterochromia would not be a distraction in close-up shots. Her eyes passed the test, so she left for Hollywood with her grandmother and her mother as chaperones. Moore made her first credited film appearance in 1917 in The Bad Boy for Triangle Fine Arts, and for the next few years appeared in small, supporting roles gradually attracting the attention of the public.
The Bad Boy was released on February 18, and featured Robert Harron, Richard Cummings, Josephine Crowell, and Mildred Harris. Two months later, it was followed by An Old-Fashioned Young Man, again with Robert Harron. Moore's third film was Hands Up!, filmed in part in the vicinity of the Seven Oaks. This was her first true western. The film's scenario was written by Wilfred Lucas from a story by Al Jennings, the famous outlaw who had been freed from jail by presidential pardon by Theodore Roosevelt in 1907. Monte Blue was in the cast and noticed Moore could not mount her horse, though horseback riding was required for the part. Blue gave her a quick lesson, essentially consisting of how to mount the horse and how to hold on.
On May 3, 1917, the Chicago Daily Tribune said: "Colleen Moore contributes some remarkable bits of acting. She is very sweet as she goes trustingly to her bandit hero, and, O, so pitiful, when finally realizing the character of the man, she goes into a hysteria of terror, and, shrieking 'Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!' beats futilely on a bolted door, a panic-stricken little human animal, who had not known before that there was aught but kindness in the world." About the time her first six-month contract was extended an additional six months, she requested and received five weeks' release to do a film for Universal's Bluebird division, released under the name The Savage. This was her fourth film, and she was only needed for two weeks. Upon her return to the Fine Arts lot, she spent several weeks trying to get her pay for the three weeks she had been available for work for Triangle.
Soon after, the Triangle Company went bust, and while her contract was honored, she found herself scrambling to find her next job. With a reel of her performance in Hands Up! under her arm, Colin Campbell arranged for her to get a contract with Selig Polyscope. She was very likely at work on A Hoosier Romance before The Savage was released in November. After A Hoosier Romance, she went to work on Little Orphant Annie. Both films were based upon poems by James Whitcomb Riley, and both proved to be very popular. It was her first real taste of popularity.
Little Orphant Annie was released in December. The Chicago Daily Tribune wrote of Moore, "She was a lovely and unspoiled child the last time I saw her. Let's hope commendation hasn't turned her head." Despite her good notices, her luck took a turn for the worse when Selig Polyscope went bust. Once again, Moore found herself unemployed, but she had begun to make a name for herself by 1919. She had a series of films lined up. She went to Flagstaff, Arizona, for location work on The Wilderness Trail, another western, this time with Tom Mix. Her mother went along as a chaperone. Moore wrote that while she had a crush on Mix, he only had eyes for her mother. The Wilderness Trail was a Fox Film Corporation production, and while it had started production earlier, it would not be released until after The Busher, which was released on May 18. The Busher was an H. Ince Productions-Famous Players–Lasky production; it was a baseball film whose hero was played by Charles Ray. The Wilderness Trail followed on July 6, another Fox film. The Man in the Moonlight, a Universal Film Manufacturing Company film, was released a few weeks later on July 28. The Egg Crate Wallop was a Famous Players–Lasky production released by Paramount Pictures on September 28.
Success
The next stage of her career was with the Christie Film Company, a move she made when she decided she needed comic training. While with Christie she made Her Bridal Nightmare, A Roman Scandal, and So Long Letty. At the same time as she was working on these films, she worked on The Devil's Claim with Sessue Hayakawa, When Dawn Came, and His Nibs with Chic Sale. All the while, Marshall Neilan had been attempting to get Moore released from her contract so she could work for him. He was successful and made Dinty with Moore, releasing near the end of 1920, followed by When Dawn Came.For all his efforts to win Moore away from Christie, it seems Neilan loaned Moore to other studios most of the time. He loaned her out to King Vidor for The Sky Pilot, released in May 1921, yet another Western. After working on The Sky Pilot on location in the snows of Truckee, she was off to Catalina Island for work on The Lotus Eater with John Barrymore. In October 1921, His Nibs was released, her only film to be released that year besides The Sky Pilot. In His Nibs, Moore actually appeared in a film within the film; the framing film was a comedy vehicle for Chic Sales. The film it framed was a spoof on films of the time. 1922 proved to be an eventful year for Moore; she was named a WAMPAS Baby Star during a "frolic" at the Ambassador Hotel, which became an annual event, in recognition of her growing popularity. In early 1922, Come On Over was released, made from a Rupert Hughes story and directed by Alfred E. Green. Hughes directed Moore himself in The Wallflower, released that same year. Additionally, Neilan introduced her to John McCormick, a publicist who had had his eye on Moore ever since he had first seen her photograph. He had prodded Marshall into an introduction. The two hit it off, and before long, they were engaged. By the end of that year, three more of her films were released: Forsaking All Others, The Ninety and Nine, and Broken Chains.
Look Your Best was released in early 1923, followed by two Cosmopolitan Productions, The Nth Commandment and Through the Dark. By this time, Moore had publicly confirmed her engagement to McCormick, a fact that she had been coy about to the press previously. Before mid-year, she had signed a contract with First National Pictures, and her first two films were slated to be The Huntress and Flaming Youth. Slippy McGee came out in June, followed by Broken Hearts of Broadway.
Moore and John McCormick married while Flaming Youth was still in production and just before the release of The Savage. When it was finally released in 1923, Flaming Youth, in which she starred opposite actor Milton Sills, was a hit. The controversial story put Moore in focus as a flapper, but after Clara Bow took the stage in Black Oxen in December, she gradually lost her momentum. In spring 1924, she made a good but unsuccessful effort to top Bow in The Perfect Flapper, and soon after, she dismissed the whole flapper vogue: "No more flappers... people are tired of soda-pop love affairs." Decades later Moore stated Bow was her "chief rival".
Through the Dark, originally shot under the name Daughter of Mother McGinn, was released during the height of the Flaming Youth furor in January 1924. Three weeks later, Painted People was released. After that, she was to star in Counterfeit. The film went through a number of title changes before being released as Flirting with Love in August. In October, First National purchased the rights to Sally for Moore's next film. It would be a challenge, as Sally was a musical comedy. In December, First National purchased the rights to Desert Flower and in so doing had mapped out Moore's schedule for 1925: Sally would be filmed first, followed by The Desert Flower.
By the late 1920s, she had accomplished dramatic roles in films such as So Big, where Moore aged through a stretch of decades, and was also well received in light comedies such as Irene. An overseas tour was planned to coincide with the release of So Big in Europe, and Moore saw the tour as her first real opportunity to spend time with her husband, John McCormick. Both she and John McCormick were dedicated to their careers, and their hectic schedules had kept them from spending any quality time together. Moore wanted a family; it was one of her goals.
Plans for the trip were put in jeopardy when she injured her neck during the filming of The Desert Flower. Her injury forced the production to shut down while Moore spent six weeks in a body cast in bed. Once out of the cast, she completed the film and left for Europe on a triumphal tour. When she returned, she negotiated a new contract with First National. Her films had been great hits, so her terms were very generous. Her first film upon her return to the States was We Moderns, set in England with location work done in London during the tour. It was a comedy, essentially a retelling of Flaming Youth from an English perspective. This was followed by Irene and Ella Cinders, a straight comedy that featured a cameo appearance by comedian Harry Langdon. It Must Be Love was a romantic comedy with dramatic undertones, and it was followed by Twinkletoes, a dramatic film that featured Moore as a young dancer in London's Limehouse district during the previous century. Orchids and Ermine was released in 1927, filmed in part in New York, a thinly veiled Cinderella story.
In 1927, Moore split from her studio after her husband suddenly quit. It is rumored that John McCormick was about to be fired for his drinking and that she left as a means of leveraging her husband back into a position at First National. It worked, and McCormick found himself as Moore's sole producer. Moore's popularity allowed her productions to become very large and lavish. Lilac Time was one of the bigger productions of the era, a World War I drama. A million-dollar film, it made back every penny spent within months. Prior to its release, Warner Bros. had taken control of First National and were less than interested in maintaining the terms of her contract until the numbers started to roll in for Lilac Time. The film was such a hit that Moore managed to retain generous terms in her next contract and her husband as her producer.