Marion Davies was an American actress, producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist. Educated in a religious convent, Davies fled the school to pursue a career as a chorus girl. As a teenager, she appeared in several Broadway musicals and one film, Runaway Romany (1917). She soon became a featured performer in the Ziegfeld Follies. While performing in the 1916 Follies, the nineteen-year-old Marion met the fifty-three-year-old newspaper tycoon, William Randolph Hearst, and became his mistress. Hearst took over management of Davies' career and promoted her as a film actress.
Francis Lederer was an Austro-Hungarian Empire-born American film and stage actor with a successful career, first in Europe, then in the United States. His original name was Franz Lederer.
Show People is a 1928 American silent comedy film directed by King Vidor. The film was a starring vehicle for actress Marion Davies and actor William Haines and included notable cameo appearances by many of the film personalities of the day, including stars Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, William S. Hart and John Gilbert, and writer Elinor Glyn. Vidor also appears in a cameo as himself, as does Davies.
Jetta Goudal was a Dutch-American actress, successful in Hollywood films of the silent film era.
Salome of the Tenements is a 1925 American silent drama film adapted to the screen by Sonya Levien from the Anzia Yezierska novel of the same name. Made by Jesse L. Lasky and Adolph Zukor's Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, a division of Paramount Pictures, it was directed by Sidney Olcott and starred Jetta Goudal and Godfrey Tearle.
Reine Davies was an American singer and actress.
Charles Davies Lederer was an American screenwriter and film director. He was born into a theatrical family in New York, and after his parents divorced, was raised in California by his aunt, Marion Davies, actress and mistress to newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. A child prodigy, he entered the University of California, Berkeley at age 13, but dropped out after a few years to work as a journalist with Hearst's newspapers.
Nils Anton Alfhild Asther was a Swedish actor active in Hollywood from 1926 to the mid-1950s, known as "the male Greta Garbo". Between 1916 and 1963 he appeared in over seventy feature films, sixteen of which were produced in the silent era. He is mainly remembered today for two silent films – The Single Standard and Wild Orchids – he made with fellow Swede Greta Garbo, and his portrayal of the title character in the controversial pre-Code Frank Capra film The Bitter Tea of General Yen.
Pepi Lederer was an American actress and writer. She was the niece of actress and philanthropist Marion Davies. A high-spirited young woman, Lederer was a lesbian who had relationships with actresses Louise Brooks and Nina Mae McKinney. Due to either her sexual orientation or a drug addiction, Lederer was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric ward at the behest of either Davies or influential partner, newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst.
Laugh, Clown, Laugh is a 1928 American silent drama film starring Lon Chaney and Loretta Young. The movie was directed by Herbert Brenon and produced by Irving G. Thalberg for MGM Pictures. The film was written by Elizabeth Meehan, based on the 1923 Broadway stage production Laugh, Clown, Laugh, by David Belasco and Tom Cushing, which in turn was based on a 1919 play Ridi, Pagliaccio by Fausto Maria Martini. The theme song "Laugh, Clown, Laugh" was composed by Ted Fiorito (music) and Lewis and Young (lyrics).
The Red Mill is a 1927 American comedy film, starring Marion Davies, directed by Roscoe Arbuckle and produced by King Vidor.
The Road to Yesterday is a 1925 American silent romantic drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. The film is significant because it was Cecil B. DeMille's first release from his new production company, DeMille Pictures Corporation. It was also upcoming actor William Boyd's first starring role. In DeMille's next picture, The Volga Boatman, which was a tremendous success, he cast Boyd as the solo leading man.
George Washington Lederer was an American producer and director on Broadway from 1894 to 1931. He was the husband of actresses Reine Davies and Jessie Lewis and the father of Charles Lederer, Pepi Lederer, Glory Lederer and Geraldine Lederer.
Her Cardboard Lover is a 1942 American comedy film directed by George Cukor, starring Norma Shearer, Robert Taylor, and George Sanders. The screenplay by Jacques Deval, John Collier, Anthony Veiller, and William H. Wright is based on the English translation of Deval's 1926 play Dans sa candeur naïve by Valerie Wyngate and P.G. Wodehouse.
Lady of the Pavements is a 1929 American silent romantic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lupe Vélez, William Boyd, and Jetta Goudal. Griffith reshot the film to include a couple of musical numbers, making it a part-talkie.
The Kiss is a 1929 American silent drama film directed by Jacques Feyder, starring Greta Garbo, Conrad Nagel, and Lew Ayres in his first feature film. Based on a short story by George M. Saville, The Kiss bears the same title as the 1896 short that "shocked" the American public by being the first motion picture to depict a couple kissing. This 1929 production is notable for being the last major silent film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and the final silent performances by both Garbo and Conrad Nagel. Although this film is not entirely silent, MGM did take partial advantage of the new sound technology and released The Kiss with an orchestral score and sound effects recorded by the Movietone system.
Andrés Perelló de Segurola was a Spanish operatic bass.
The Bride's Play is a 1922 American silent romance film produced by William Randolph Hearst as a starring vehicle for Marion Davies. It was directed by George Terwilliger and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is an extant film that is preserved at the Library of Congress.
The Spaniard is a 1925 American silent drama film directed by Raoul Walsh, written by Juanita Savage and James T. O'Donohoe, and starring Ricardo Cortez, Jetta Goudal, Noah Beery, Sr., Mathilde Brundage, Renzo De Gardi, and Emily Fitzroy. It was released on May 4, 1925, by Paramount Pictures.
Fighting Love is a 1927 American silent drama film directed by Nils Olaf Chrisander and starring Jetta Goudal, Victor Varconi and Henry B. Walthall. The film survives complete. It is based on the 1925 novel If the Gods Laugh by the British writer and explorer Rosita Forbes. The film's sets were designed by the art director Anton Grot.
