British postcard by Photo-Roff in the Black & White Gallery, London, no. 1180. Photo: David Steen, 1980.

 

American film and television actor Lee Marvin (1924-1987) began as a supporting player of a generally vicious demeanor, then metamorphosed into a star playing tough, hard-bitten anti-heroes. Known for his gravelly smoke burnished voice and premature white hair, Marvin initially played villains, soldiers, and other hardboiled characters. A prominent television role was that of Detective Lieutenant Frank Ballinger in the NBC crime series M Squad (1957–1960). He became a major star with Cat Ballou (1965), a comedy Western in which he played dual roles, but his career waned considerably after Paint Your Wagon (1969). For portraying both gunfighter Kid Shelleen and criminal Tim Strawn, he won the Oscar for Best Actor, along with a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, an NBR Award, and the Silver Bear for Best Actor. Marvin is also remembered for his 'tough guy' characters in The Killers (1964), The Professionals (1966), The Dirty Dozen (1967), Point Blank (1967), and The Big Red One (1980).

 

Lamont Waltman Marvin Jr. was born in 1924 in New York City. He was the son of Lamont Waltman Marvin, an advertising executive and later the head of the New York and New England Apple Institute, and Courtenay Washington (née Davidge), a fashion and beauty writer/editor. As with his elder brother, Robert, he was named in honor of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who was his first cousin, four times removed. His father was a direct descendant of Matthew Marvin Sr., who emigrated from Great Bentley, Essex, England, in 1635, and helped found Hartford, Connecticut. Marvin studied the violin when he was young. As a teenager, Marvin "spent weekends and spare time hunting deer, puma, wild turkey, and bobwhite in the wilds of the then-uncharted Everglades". He attended Manumit School, a Christian socialist boarding school in Pawling, New York, during the late 1930s, and later attended St. Leo College Preparatory School, a Catholic school in St. Leo, Florida, after being expelled from several other schools for bad behaviour. Marvin left school at 18 to enlist in the United States Marine Corps Reserve in 1942. He served with the 4th Marine Division in the Pacific Theater during World War II. While serving as a member of "I" Company, 3rd Battalion, 24th Marines, 4th Marine Division, he was wounded in action on in 1944, during the assault on Mount Tapochau in the Battle of Saipan, during which most of his company were casualties. He was hit by machine-gun fire, which severed his sciatic nerve, and then was hit again in the foot by a sniper. After over a year of medical treatment in naval hospitals, Marvin was given a medical discharge with the rank of private first class (he had been a corporal years earlier but had been demoted after causing trouble) in 1945 Philadelphia. Marvin's military awards include the Purple Heart Medal, the Presidential Unit Citation, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, and the Combat Action Ribbon.

 

After the war, while working as a plumber's assistant at a local community theatre in upstate New York, Lee Marvin was asked to replace an actor who had fallen ill during rehearsals. He caught the acting bug and got a job with the company at $7 a week. He moved to Greenwich Village and used the GI Bill to study at the American Theatre Wing. He appeared on stage in a production of 'Uniform of Flesh', an adaptation of the novel 'Billy Budd' (1949). It was done at the Experimental Theatre, where a few months later Marvin also appeared in 'The Nineteenth Hole of Europe' (1949). Marvin began appearing on television shows like Escape, The Big Story, and Treasury Men in Action. He made it to Broadway with a small role in a production of Uniform of Flesh, now called Billy Budd in February 1951. Marvin's film debut was in You're in the Navy Now (Henry Hathaway, 1951), which also marked the debuts of Charles Bronson and Jack Warden. This required some filming in Hollywood. Marvin decided to stay there. He had a similar small part in Teresa (Fred Zinnemann, 1951). As a decorated combat veteran, Marvin was a natural in war dramas, where he frequently assisted the director and other actors in realistically portraying infantry movement, arranging costumes, and the use of firearms. He guest-starred on episodes of Fireside Theatre (1950), Suspense (1950), and Rebound (1952). Hathaway used him again on Diplomatic Courier (Henry Hathaway, 1952) and he could be seen in Down Among the Sheltering Palms (Edmund Goulding, 1952), We're Not Married! (Edmund Goulding, 1952), The Duel at Silver Creek (Don Siegel, 1952), and Hangman's Knot (Roy Huggins, 1952). He guest-starred on Biff Baker, U.S.A. (1952) and Dragnet (1952-1953), and had a decent role in a feature with Eight Iron Men (Edward Dmytryk, 1952), a war film starring Bonar Colleano and produced by Stanley Kramer. Marvin's role had been played on Broadway by Burt Lancaster. He was a sergeant in the Western Seminole (Budd Boetticher, 1953), and was a corporal in The Glory Brigade (Robert D. Webb, 1953), a Korean War film starring Victor Mature. He was now in much demand for Westerns: The Stranger Wore a Gun (Andre DeToth, 1953) with Randolph Scott, and Gun Fury (Raoul Walsh, 1953) with Rock Hudson and Donna Reed.

 

Lee Marvin received much acclaim for his portrayal as villains in two Film Noirs: The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953) where he played Gloria Grahame's vicious boyfriend, and The Wild One (László Benedek, 1953) opposite Marlon Brando. Marvin's gang in the film was called "The Beetles". He continued in TV shows such as The Plymouth Playhouse (1953) and The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse (1954). He had support roles in the 3D horror mystery B-movie Gorilla at Large (Harmon Jones, 1954) and had a notable small role as smart-aleck sailor Meatball in The Caine Mutiny (Edward Dmytryk, 1954), produced by Stanley Kramer. Marvin was in the war film The Raid (Hugo Fregonese, 1954) with Van Heflin and Anne Bancroft, and in episodes of the TV series Center Stage (1954), Medic (1954) and TV Reader's Digest (1955). He had an excellent part as Hector, the small-town hood in Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955) with Spencer Tracy and Robert Ryan. Also in 1955, he played a conflicted, brutal bank-robber in the thriller Violent Saturday (Richard Fleischer, 1955) with Victor Mature. A latter-day critic wrote of the character, "Marvin brings a multi-faceted complexity to the role and gives a great example of the early promise that launched his long and successful career." Marvin played Robert Mitchum's friend in Not as a Stranger (Stanley Kramer, 1955), a medical drama also produced by Kramer. He had bigger supporting roles in A Life in the Balance (Harry Horner, Rafael Portillo, 1955), Pete Kelly's Blues (Jack Webb, 1955) and I Died a Thousand Times (Stuart Heisler, 1955) with Jack Palance. Marvin was the villain in 7 Men from Now (Budd Boetticher, 1956) with Randolph Scott, and was second-billed to Jack Palance in Attack (Robert Aldrich, 1956). Marvin had good roles in The Rack (Arnold Laven, 1956) with Paul Newman, Raintree County (Edward Dmytryk, 1956) starring Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor, and The Missouri Traveler (Herry Hopper, 1958). Marvin finally got to be a leading man in 100 episodes in the successful television series M Squad (1957-1960). Set in Chicago, Illinois, it starred Marvin as Detective Lieutenant Frank Ballinger, a member of "M Squad", a special unit of the Chicago Police, assisting other units in battling organized crime, corruption, and violent crimes citywide. One critic described the show as "a hyped-up, violent Dragnet ... with a hard-as-nails Marvin" playing a tough police lieutenant. Marvin received the role after guest-starring in a memorable Dragnet episode as a serial killer. When the series ended Marvin appeared on such TV shows as Wagon Train (1960-1961), Route 66 (1961; he was injured during a fight scene), Bonanza (1962), The Untouchables (1961-1962; several times), The Virginian (1962), The Twilight Zone (1961-1963), and The Dick Powell Theatre (1963).

 

Lee Marvin returned to features with a prominent role in The Comancheros (Michael Curtiz, 1961) starring John Wayne. He played in two more films with Wayne, both directed by John Ford: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and Donovan's Reef (1963). As the vicious Liberty Valance, Marvin played his first title role and held his own with two of the screen's biggest stars (John Wayne and James Stewart). In 1962 Marvin appeared as Martin Kalig on the TV western The Virginian in the episode titled 'It Tolls for Thee'. He continued to guest star on shows like Combat! (1963), Dr. Kildare (1962-1964), and The Great Adventure (1963). For director Don Siegel, Marvin appeared in The Killers (1964) playing an efficient professional assassin alongside Clu Gulager. The Killers was also the first film in which Marvin received top billing. Marvin finally became a star for his comic role in the Western comedy Cat Ballou (Elliot Silverstein, 1965) starring Jane Fonda. This was a surprise hit and Marvin won the 1965 Oscar for Best Actor and several other awards. Playing alongside Vivien Leigh and Simone Signoret, Marvin won the 1966 National Board of Review Award for male actors for his role in Ship of Fools (Stanley Kramer, 1965). Marvin next performed in the hit Western The Professionals (Richard Brooks, 1966), in which he played the leader of a small band of skilled mercenaries (Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, and Woody Strode) rescuing a kidnap victim (Claudia Cardinale) shortly after the Mexican Revolution. He followed that film with the hugely successful World War II epic The Dirty Dozen (Robert Aldrich, 1967) in which top-billed Marvin again portrayed an intrepid commander of a colorful group (future stars John Cassavetes, Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, Jim Brown, and Donald Sutherland) performing an almost impossible mission. In the wake of these two films and after having received an Oscar, Marvin was a huge star, given enormous control over his next film Point Blank (John Boorman, 1967), co-starring Angie Dickinson. He portrayed a hard-nosed criminal bent on revenge. Marvin, who had selected Boorman himself for the director's slot, had a central role in the film's development, plotline, and staging. Marvin also appeared in another Boorman film, the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful World War II character study Hell in the Pacific (John Boorman, 1968), also starring famed Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune. Marvin was originally cast as Pike Bishop (later played by William Holden) in The Wild Bunch (1969), but fell out with director Sam Peckinpah and pulled out to star in the Western musical Paint Your Wagon (Joshua Logan, 1969), in which he was top-billed over a singing Clint Eastwood. Despite his limited singing ability, he had a surprise hit song with "Wand'rin' Star". By this time, he was getting paid a million dollars per film, $200,000 less than top star Paul Newman was making at the time.

 

Lee Marvin had a much greater variety of roles in the 1970s, with fewer bad-guy roles than in earlier years. His 1970s films included Monte Walsh (William A. Fraker, 1970), a Western with Jack Palance and Jeanne Moreau; the violent Prime Cut (Michael Ritchie, 1972) with Gene Hackman; Pocket Money (Stuart Rosenberg, 1972) with Paul Newman; Emperor of the North (Robert Aldrich, 1973) opposite Ernest Borgnine; as Hickey in The Iceman Cometh (John Frankenheimer, 1973) with Fredric March and Robert Ryan; The Spikes Gang (Richard Fleischer, 1974) with Noah Beery Jr.; The Klansman (Terence Young, 1974) with Richard Burton; Shout at the Devil (Peter Hunt, 1976), a World War One adventure with Roger Moore; The Great Scout and Cathouse Thursday (Don Taylor, 1976), a comic Western with Oliver Reed; and Avalanche Express (Mark Robson, 1978), a Cold War thriller with Robert Shaw who died during production. None of these films were big box office hits. Marvin was offered the role of Quint in Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975) but declined, stating "What would I tell my fishing friends who'd see me come off a hero against a dummy shark?". Marvin's last big role was in Samuel Fuller's The Big Red One (1980), a war film based on Fuller's own war experiences. His remaining films were Death Hunt (Peter R. Hunt, 1981), a Canadian action film with Charles Bronson; Gorky Park (Michael Apted, 1983) with William Hurt; and in France Canicule/Dog Day (Yves Boisset, 1984), with Miou-Miou. For TV he did The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1985), a sequel with Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, and Richard Jaeckel picking up where they had left off despite being 18 years older. His final appearance was in The Delta Force (Menahem Golan, 1986) with Chuck Norris, playing a role turned down by Charles Bronson. Marvin had married Betty Ebeling in February 1951 and together they had four children, son Christopher Lamont (1952–2013), and three daughters: Courtenay Lee (1954), Cynthia Louise (1956), and Claudia Leslie (1958–2012). Married 16 years, they divorced in 1967. A long-term romantic relationship with Michelle Triola led, after their breakup, to a highly publicized lawsuit in which Triola asked for a substantial portion of Marvin's assets. Her case failed in its main pursuit but did establish a legal precedent for the rights of unmarried cohabitors, the so-called "palimony" law. Marvin reunited with his high school sweetheart, Pamela Feeley and they married in October 1970. She had four children with three previous marriages, they had no children together and remained married until his death in 1987. In December 1986, Marvin was hospitalized for more than two weeks because of a condition related to coccidioidomycosis. He went into respiratory distress and was administered steroids to help his breathing. He had major intestinal ruptures as a result and underwent a colectomy. Marvin died of a heart attack on 29 August 1987 in Tucson, Arizona, aged 63. He was buried with full military honours at Arlington National Cemetery.

 

Sources: Jim Beaver (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

American Mirro-Krome postcard by H.S. Crocker Co. Inc., San Francisco, Calif., no. HSC-305. Lee Marvin in the TV series M Squad (1957). Caption: Lee Marvin plays the role of Lieutenant Ballinger in M Squad, an action-detective series filmed at Revue Studios. In addition to starring in his M Squad series, Lee also appears as a guest star in television specials.

 

American film and television actor Lee Marvin (1924-1987) began as a supporting player of a generally vicious demeanor, then metamorphosed into a star playing tough, hard-bitten anti-heroes. Known for his gravelly smoke burnished voice and premature white hair, Marvin initially played villains, soldiers, and other hardboiled characters. A prominent television role was that of Detective Lieutenant Frank Ballinger in the NBC crime series M Squad (1957–1960). He became a major star with Cat Ballou (1965), a comedy Western in which he played dual roles, but his career waned considerably after Paint Your Wagon (1969). For portraying both gunfighter Kid Shelleen and criminal Tim Strawn, he won the Oscar for Best Actor, along with a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, an NBR Award, and the Silver Bear for Best Actor. Marvin is also remembered for his 'tough guy' characters in The Killers (1964), The Professionals (1966), The Dirty Dozen (1967), Point Blank (1967), and The Big Red One (1980).

 

Lamont Waltman Marvin Jr. was born in 1924 in New York City. He was the son of Lamont Waltman Marvin, an advertising executive and later the head of the New York and New England Apple Institute, and Courtenay Washington (née Davidge), a fashion and beauty writer/editor. As with his elder brother, Robert, he was named in honor of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who was his first cousin, four times removed. His father was a direct descendant of Matthew Marvin Sr., who emigrated from Great Bentley, Essex, England, in 1635, and helped found Hartford, Connecticut. Marvin studied the violin when he was young. As a teenager, Marvin "spent weekends and spare time hunting deer, puma, wild turkey, and bobwhite in the wilds of the then-uncharted Everglades". He attended Manumit School, a Christian socialist boarding school in Pawling, New York, during the late 1930s, and later attended St. Leo College Preparatory School, a Catholic school in St. Leo, Florida, after being expelled from several other schools for bad behaviour. Marvin left school at 18 to enlist in the United States Marine Corps Reserve in 1942. He served with the 4th Marine Division in the Pacific Theater during World War II. While serving as a member of "I" Company, 3rd Battalion, 24th Marines, 4th Marine Division, he was wounded in action on in 1944, during the assault on Mount Tapochau in the Battle of Saipan, during which most of his company were casualties. He was hit by machine-gun fire, which severed his sciatic nerve, and then was hit again in the foot by a sniper. After over a year of medical treatment in naval hospitals, Marvin was given a medical discharge with the rank of private first class (he had been a corporal years earlier but had been demoted after causing trouble) in 1945 Philadelphia. Marvin's military awards include the Purple Heart Medal, the Presidential Unit Citation, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, and the Combat Action Ribbon.

 

After the war, while working as a plumber's assistant at a local community theatre in upstate New York, Lee Marvin was asked to replace an actor who had fallen ill during rehearsals. He caught the acting bug and got a job with the company at $7 a week. He moved to Greenwich Village and used the GI Bill to study at the American Theatre Wing. He appeared on stage in a production of 'Uniform of Flesh', an adaptation of the novel 'Billy Budd' (1949). It was done at the Experimental Theatre, where a few months later Marvin also appeared in 'The Nineteenth Hole of Europe' (1949). Marvin began appearing on television shows like Escape, The Big Story, and Treasury Men in Action. He made it to Broadway with a small role in a production of Uniform of Flesh, now called Billy Budd in February 1951. Marvin's film debut was in You're in the Navy Now (Henry Hathaway, 1951), which also marked the debuts of Charles Bronson and Jack Warden. This required some filming in Hollywood. Marvin decided to stay there. He had a similar small part in Teresa (Fred Zinnemann, 1951). As a decorated combat veteran, Marvin was a natural in war dramas, where he frequently assisted the director and other actors in realistically portraying infantry movement, arranging costumes, and the use of firearms. He guest-starred on episodes of Fireside Theatre (1950), Suspense (1950), and Rebound (1952). Hathaway used him again on Diplomatic Courier (Henry Hathaway, 1952) and he could be seen in Down Among the Sheltering Palms (Edmund Goulding, 1952), We're Not Married! (Edmund Goulding, 1952), The Duel at Silver Creek (Don Siegel, 1952), and Hangman's Knot (Roy Huggins, 1952). He guest-starred on Biff Baker, U.S.A. (1952) and Dragnet (1952-1953), and had a decent role in a feature with Eight Iron Men (Edward Dmytryk, 1952), a war film starring Bonar Colleano and produced by Stanley Kramer. Marvin's role had been played on Broadway by Burt Lancaster. He was a sergeant in the Western Seminole (Budd Boetticher, 1953), and was a corporal in The Glory Brigade (Robert D. Webb, 1953), a Korean War film starring Victor Mature. He was now in much demand for Westerns: The Stranger Wore a Gun (Andre DeToth, 1953) with Randolph Scott, and Gun Fury (Raoul Walsh, 1953) with Rock Hudson and Donna Reed.

 

Lee Marvin received much acclaim for his portrayal as villains in two Film Noirs: The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953) where he played Gloria Grahame's vicious boyfriend, and The Wild One (László Benedek, 1953) opposite Marlon Brando. Marvin's gang in the film was called "The Beetles". He continued in TV shows such as The Plymouth Playhouse (1953) and The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse (1954). He had support roles in the 3D horror mystery B-movie Gorilla at Large (Harmon Jones, 1954) and had a notable small role as smart-aleck sailor Meatball in The Caine Mutiny (Edward Dmytryk, 1954), produced by Stanley Kramer. Marvin was in the war film The Raid (Hugo Fregonese, 1954) with Van Heflin and Anne Bancroft, and in episodes of the TV series Center Stage (1954), Medic (1954) and TV Reader's Digest (1955). He had an excellent part as Hector, the small-town hood in Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955) with Spencer Tracy and Robert Ryan. Also in 1955, he played a conflicted, brutal bank-robber in the thriller Violent Saturday (Richard Fleischer, 1955) with Victor Mature. A latter-day critic wrote of the character, "Marvin brings a multi-faceted complexity to the role and gives a great example of the early promise that launched his long and successful career." Marvin played Robert Mitchum's friend in Not as a Stranger (Stanley Kramer, 1955), a medical drama also produced by Kramer. He had bigger supporting roles in A Life in the Balance (Harry Horner, Rafael Portillo, 1955), Pete Kelly's Blues (Jack Webb, 1955) and I Died a Thousand Times (Stuart Heisler, 1955) with Jack Palance. Marvin was the villain in 7 Men from Now (Budd Boetticher, 1956) with Randolph Scott, and was second-billed to Jack Palance in Attack (Robert Aldrich, 1956). Marvin had good roles in The Rack (Arnold Laven, 1956) with Paul Newman, Raintree County (Edward Dmytryk, 1956) starring Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor, and The Missouri Traveler (Herry Hopper, 1958). Marvin finally got to be a leading man in 100 episodes in the successful television series M Squad (1957-1960). Set in Chicago, Illinois, it starred Marvin as Detective Lieutenant Frank Ballinger, a member of "M Squad", a special unit of the Chicago Police, assisting other units in battling organized crime, corruption and violent crimes citywide. One critic described the show as "a hyped-up, violent Dragnet ... with a hard-as-nails Marvin" playing a tough police lieutenant. Marvin received the role after guest-starring in a memorable Dragnet episode as a serial killer. When the series ended Marvin appeared on such TV shows as Wagon Train (1960-1961), Route 66 (1961; he was injured during a fight scene), Bonanza (1962), The Untouchables (1961-1962; several times), The Virginian (1962), The Twilight Zone (1961-1963), and The Dick Powell Theatre (1963).

 

Lee Marvin returned to features with a prominent role in The Comancheros (Michael Curtiz, 1961) starring John Wayne. He played in two more films with Wayne, both directed by John Ford: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and Donovan's Reef (1963). As the vicious Liberty Valance, Marvin played his first title role and held his own with two of the screen's biggest stars (John Wayne and James Stewart). In 1962 Marvin appeared as Martin Kalig on the TV western The Virginian in the episode titled 'It Tolls for Thee'. He continued to guest star on shows like Combat! (1963), Dr. Kildare (1962-1964) and The Great Adventure (1963). For director Don Siegel, Marvin appeared in The Killers (1964) playing an efficient professional assassin alongside Clu Gulager. The Killers was also the first film in which Marvin received top billing. Marvin finally became a star for his comic role in the Western comedy Cat Ballou (Elliot Silverstein, 1965) starring Jane Fonda. This was a surprise hit and Marvin won the 1965 Oscar for Best Actor and several other awards. Playing alongside Vivien Leigh and Simone Signoret, Marvin won the 1966 National Board of Review Award for male actors for his role in Ship of Fools (Stanley Kramer, 1965). Marvin next performed in the hit Western The Professionals (Richard Brooks, 1966), in which he played the leader of a small band of skilled mercenaries (Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, and Woody Strode) rescuing a kidnap victim (Claudia Cardinale) shortly after the Mexican Revolution. He followed that film with the hugely successful World War II epic The Dirty Dozen (Robert Aldrich, 1967) in which top-billed Marvin again portrayed an intrepid commander of a colorful group (future stars John Cassavetes, Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, Jim Brown, and Donald Sutherland) performing an almost impossible mission. In the wake of these two films and after having received an Oscar, Marvin was a huge star, given enormous control over his next film Point Blank (John Boorman, 1967), co-starring Angie Dickinson. He portrayed a hard-nosed criminal bent on revenge. Marvin, who had selected Boorman himself for the director's slot, had a central role in the film's development, plotline, and staging. Marvin also appeared in another Boorman film, the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful World War II character study Hell in the Pacific (John Boorman, 1968), also starring famed Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune. Marvin was originally cast as Pike Bishop (later played by William Holden) in The Wild Bunch (1969), but fell out with director Sam Peckinpah and pulled out to star in the Western musical Paint Your Wagon (Joshua Logan, 1969), in which he was top-billed over a singing Clint Eastwood. Despite his limited singing ability, he had a surprise hit song with "Wand'rin' Star". By this time, he was getting paid a million dollars per film, $200,000 less than top star Paul Newman was making at the time.

 

Lee Marvin had a much greater variety of roles in the 1970s, with fewer 'bad-guy' roles than in earlier years. His 1970s films included Monte Walsh (William A. Fraker, 1970), a Western with Jack Palance and Jeanne Moreau; the violent Prime Cut (Michael Ritchie, 1972) with Gene Hackman; Pocket Money (Stuart Rosenberg, 1972) with Paul Newman; Emperor of the North (Robert Aldrich, 1973) opposite Ernest Borgnine; as Hickey in The Iceman Cometh (John Frankenheimer, 1973) with Fredric March and Robert Ryan; The Spikes Gang (Richard Fleischer, 1974) with Noah Beery Jr.; The Klansman (Terence Young, 1974) with Richard Burton; Shout at the Devil (Peter Hunt, 1976), a World War One adventure with Roger Moore; The Great Scout and Cathouse Thursday (Don Taylor, 1976), a comic Western with Oliver Reed; and Avalanche Express (Mark Robson, 1978), a Cold War thriller with Robert Shaw who died during production. None of these films were big box office hits. Marvin was offered the role of Quint in Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975) but declined, stating "What would I tell my fishing friends who'd see me come off a hero against a dummy shark?". Marvin's last big role was in Samuel Fuller's The Big Red One (1980), a war film based on Fuller's own war experiences. His remaining films were Death Hunt (Peter R. Hunt, 1981), a Canadian action film with Charles Bronson; Gorky Park (Michael Apted, 1983) with William Hurt; and in France Canicule/Dog Day (Yves Boisset, 1984), with Miou-Miou. For TV he did The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1985), a sequel with Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, and Richard Jaeckel picking up where they had left off despite being 18 years older. His final appearance was in The Delta Force (Menahem Golan, 1986) with Chuck Norris, playing a role turned down by Charles Bronson. Marvin had married Betty Ebeling in February 1951 and together they had four children, son Christopher Lamont (1952–2013), and three daughters: Courtenay Lee (1954), Cynthia Louise (1956), and Claudia Leslie (1958–2012). Married 16 years, they divorced in 1967. A long-term romantic relationship with Michelle Triola led, after their breakup, to a highly publicized lawsuit in which Triola asked for a substantial portion of Marvin's assets. Her case failed in its main pursuit but did establish a legal precedent for the rights of unmarried cohabitors, the so-called "palimony" law. Marvin reunited with his high school sweetheart, Pamela Feeley and they married in October 1970. She had four children with three previous marriages, they had no children together and remained married until his death in 1987. In December 1986, Marvin was hospitalized for more than two weeks because of a condition related to coccidioidomycosis. He went into respiratory distress and was administered steroids to help his breathing. He had major intestinal ruptures as a result and underwent a colectomy. Marvin died of a heart attack on 29 August 1987 in Tucson, Arizona, aged 63. He was buried with full military honours at Arlington National Cemetery.

 

Sources: Jim Beaver (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our albums Dutch TV History and Vintage TV Heroes, and our blog European Film Star Postcards.

British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 370.

 

Blonde and utterly beautiful Mary Nolan (1902-1948) appeared on stage, on screen, and most of all in the tabloids. After a 'sex scandal', she fled to Germany where she starred in 17 silent films under her real name, Imogene Robertson.

 

Mary Nolan was born Mary Imogene Robertson in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. in 1902 (according to Wikipedia and 1905 according to IMDb). She was one of five children born to Africanus and Viola Robertson. Her mother died of cancer at the age of 46. Unable to care for five young children, Africanus Robertson placed Mary in a foster home. She eventually went to live in a Catholic orphanage in Missouri where she earned the nickname 'Bubbles'. The beautiful blonde arrived broke in New York in 1919. Eve Golden at Films of the Golden Age: "She really was breathtaking with her perfect bone structure, a cloud of thick blonde hair, and china-blue eyes. It wasn't long before Mary got work as an artist's model for such big shots as James Montgomery Flagg and Arthur William Brown." Famous Broadway producer Oliver Morosco launched her stage career in the choruses of Daffy Dill and Lady Butterfly (1923). Bubbles proved to be a Jazz-Age baby and a party girl by nature. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. signed her up for his Follies shows on Broadway. As a showgirl, she performed under the stage name Imogene 'Bubbles' Wilson. For the next several years, she started a violent love/hate relationship with Ziegfeld comedian Frank Tinney. Tinney was married to the comedy star Edna Davenport. Tinney set Mary up in a West 72nd Street apartment and showered her with expensive gifts, but he also showered her with bruises, both physical and emotional. The abusive affair stirred up a major sex scandal in 1924. The tabloids exposed the tumultuous relationship when Mary was seriously hospitalised after one of their many arguments. Mary was fired by Ziegfeld and set sail for France where she was scheduled to appear in vaudeville. She made her way to London in October where she reunited with Frank Tinney. By December 1924, Tinney had resumed drinking and began to physically abuse her again. In early 1925, Nolan finally ended the relationship. She then travelled to Germany where she began to work in the film industry under the new stage name Imogene Robertson. Her first German film was Verborgene Gluten/Hidden Fires (Einar Bruun, 1925) with Alphons Fryland. Later that year, she appeared in the title role of Die Feuertänzerin (Robert Dinesen, 1925) for the Ufa. She received good reviews for her work in the film which prompted the Ufa to offer her a contract for $1500 a week. Nolan worked steadily in Germany from 1925 to 1927 and continued to receive favourable reviews for her acting. Her best-known films include the mystery Das Parfüm der Mrs. Worrington/The Parfum of Mrs. Worrington (Franz Seitz, 1925) with Ernst Reicher as detective Stuart Webbs, Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Nils Asther, and the drama Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines/The adventures of a 10-mark note (Berthold Viertel, 1926).

 

While in Germany, Imogene Robertson received offers from Hollywood producers to appear in American films but turned them down. She finally relented after Joseph M. Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. She returned to the United States in January 1927. To solve the problem of audiences connecting her with her scandalous past, United Artists suggested she change her name to Mary Nolan. For United Artists, she appeared in an uncredited bit part in Topsy and Eva (Del Lord, 1927), and a supporting role in Sorrell and Son (Herbert Brenon, 1927). In 1928, Nolan was signed to Universal Pictures. Her first film for the company was Good Morning, Judge (William A. Seiter, 1928), starring Reginald Denny for which she received good reviews. Universal loaned her out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928), about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralysed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). Nolan played Chaney's defiled daughter Maizie. The film was a hit and Nolan received favourable reviews for her work in the film. The following year, she was loaned to MGM again for the romantic drama Desert Nights (William Nigh, 1929), with John Gilbert. Two thieves (Noland and Ernest Torrence) victimize a diamond mine and kidnap its manager (Gilbert), but he gains the upper hand (and falls in love with Nolan) when they flee into the hostile desert. Desert Nights was another financial success and served to boost Nolan's career. Shortly after signing with Universal in 1927, Nolan had begun a relationship with another married man, studio executive Eddie Mannix. Mannix used his clout to further Nolan's career and was responsible for her loan outs to MGM. Shortly after Desert Nights was released in 1929, Mannix abruptly ended the relationship. This angered Nolan who threatened to tell Mannix's wife Bernice of their affair. Mannix became enraged and beat her unconscious. Nolan was hospitalised for six months and required fifteen surgeries to repair damage Mannix inflicted on her abdomen. While hospitalized, Nolan was prescribed morphine for pain. She eventually became addicted which contributed to the decline of her career. In the Universal production Young Desire (Lew Collins, 1930), Nolan plays Helen Herbert aka 'La Belle Helene', a carnival sideshow dancer. She falls in love with wealthy, wet-behind-the-ears Bobby Spencer who whisks her off to his hometown of Spencerville and stakes her to an apartment and a job. But Helen's sordid past catches up with her... By then, Nolan's acting career had begun to decline due to her drug abuse and reputation for being temperamental. She was fired from the film What Men Want (1930). Nolan got into an argument with the film's director, Ernst Laemmle after she learned she was the only cast member who hadn't received a close-up shot. Laemmle banned Nolan from the set and she was subsequently fired. After threatening to file a lawsuit against Universal, the studio bought her out of her contract in January 1931. She married stock broker Wallace T. McCreary on 29 March 1931. One week before they married, McCreary lost $3 million on bad investments. The couple used McCreary's remaining money to open a dress shop in Beverly Hills. The shop went out of business within months and Nolan filed for bankruptcy in August 1931. Nolan divorced McCreary in July 1932. After her exit from Universal, she was unable to secure film work with any of the major studios. Nolan spent the remainder of her acting career appearing in roles in low-budget films for independent studios. She made her final film appearances in File 113 (Chester M. Franklin, 1933), for Allied Pictures Corporation. From then on, Nolan appeared in vaudeville and performed in nightclubs and roadhouses around the United States. Later, Mary Nolan suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined. She turned to heroin, and it spelt the end. In 1948, she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems (according to IMDb, but Wikipedia writes she died of a barbiturate overdose). Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly."

 

Source: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Eve Golden (Films of the Golden Age), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1190/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Emelka Films / Süd-Film. Bayern Films. Imogene Robertson in Erinnerungen einer Nonne/Memories of a Nun (Arthur Bergen, 1927).

 

Blonde and utterly beautiful Mary Nolan (1902–1948) appeared on stage, on screen, and most of all in the tabloids. After a 'sex scandal', she fled to Germany where she starred in 17 silent films under her real name, Imogene Robertson.

 

Mary Nolan was born Mary Imogene Robertson in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. in 1902 (according to Wikipedia and 1905 according to IMDb). She was one of five children born to Africanus and Viola Robertson. Her mother died of cancer at the age of 46. Unable to care for five young children, Africanus Robertson placed Mary in a foster home. She eventually went to live in a Catholic orphanage in Missouri where she earned the nickname 'Bubbles'. The beautiful blonde arrived broke in New York in 1919. Eve Golden at Films of the Golden Age: "She really was breathtaking with her perfect bone structure, a cloud of thick blonde hair, and china-blue eyes. It wasn't long before Mary got work as an artist's model for such big shots as James Montgomery Flagg and Arthur William Brown." Famous Broadway producer Oliver Morosco launched her stage career in the choruses of Daffy Dill and Lady Butterfly (1923). Bubbles proved to be a Jazz-Age baby and a party girl by nature. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. signed her up for his Follies shows on Broadway. As a showgirl, she performed under the stage name Imogene 'Bubbles' Wilson. For the next several years, she started a violent love/hate relationship with Ziegfeld comedian Frank Tinney. Tinney was married to the comedy star Edna Davenport. Tinney set Mary up in a West 72nd Street apartment and showered her with expensive gifts, but he also showered her with bruises, both physical and emotional. The abusive affair stirred up a major sex scandal in 1924. The tabloids exposed the tumultuous relationship when Mary was seriously hospitalised after one of their many arguments. Mary was fired by Ziegfeld and set sail for France where she was scheduled to appear in vaudeville. She made her way to London in October where she reunited with Frank Tinney. By December 1924, Tinney had resumed drinking and began to physically abuse her again. In early 1925, Nolan finally ended the relationship. She then travelled to Germany where she began to work in the film industry under the new stage name Imogene Robertson. Her first German film was Verborgene Gluten/Hidden Fires (Einar Bruun, 1925) with Alphons Fryland. Later that year, she appeared in the title role of Die Feuertänzerin (Robert Dinesen, 1925) for the Ufa. She received good reviews for her work in the film which prompted the Ufa to offer her a contract for $1500 a week. Nolan worked steadily in Germany from 1925 to 1927 and continued to receive favourable reviews for her acting. Her best-known films include the mystery Das Parfüm der Mrs. Worrington/The Parfum of Mrs. Worrington (Franz Seitz, 1925) with Ernst Reicher as detective Stuart Webbs, Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Nils Asther, and the drama Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines/The adventures of a 10-mark note (Berthold Viertel, 1926).

 

While in Germany, Imogene Robertson received offers from Hollywood producers to appear in American films but turned them down. She finally relented after Joseph M. Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. She returned to the United States in January 1927. To solve the problem of audiences connecting her with her scandalous past, United Artists suggested she change her name to Mary Nolan. For United Artists, she appeared in an uncredited bit part in Topsy and Eva (Del Lord, 1927), and a supporting role in Sorrell and Son (Herbert Brenon, 1927). In 1928, Nolan was signed to Universal Pictures. Her first film for the company was Good Morning, Judge (William A. Seiter, 1928), starring Reginald Denny for which she received good reviews. Universal loaned her out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928), about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralysed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). Nolan played Chaney's defiled daughter Maizie. The film was a hit and Nolan received favourable reviews for her work in the film. The following year, she was loaned to MGM again for the romantic drama Desert Nights (William Nigh, 1929), with John Gilbert. Two thieves (Noland and Ernest Torrence) victimize a diamond mine and kidnap its manager (Gilbert), but he gains the upper hand (and falls in love with Nolan) when they flee into the hostile desert. Desert Nights was another financial success and served to boost Nolan's career. Shortly after signing with Universal in 1927, Nolan had begun a relationship with another married man, studio executive Eddie Mannix. Mannix used his clout to further Nolan's career and was responsible for her loan outs to MGM. Shortly after Desert Nights was released in 1929, Mannix abruptly ended the relationship. This angered Nolan who threatened to tell Mannix's wife Bernice of their affair. Mannix became enraged and beat her unconscious. Nolan was hospitalised for six months and required fifteen surgeries to repair damage Mannix inflicted on her abdomen. While hospitalized, Nolan was prescribed morphine for pain. She eventually became addicted which contributed to the decline of her career. In the Universal production Young Desire (Lew Collins, 1930), Nolan plays Helen Herbert aka 'La Belle Helene', a carnival sideshow dancer. She falls in love with wealthy, wet-behind-the-ears Bobby Spencer who whisks her off to his hometown of Spencerville and stakes her to an apartment and a job. But Helen's sordid past catches up with her... By then, Nolan's acting career had begun to decline due to her drug abuse and reputation for being temperamental. She was fired from the film What Men Want (1930). Nolan got into an argument with the film's director, Ernst Laemmle after she learned she was the only cast member who hadn't received a close-up shot. Laemmle banned Nolan from the set and she was subsequently fired. After threatening to file a lawsuit against Universal, the studio bought her out of her contract in January 1931. She married stock broker Wallace T. McCreary on 29 March 1931. One week before they married, McCreary lost $3 million on bad investments. The couple used McCreary's remaining money to open a dress shop in Beverly Hills. The shop went out of business within months and Nolan filed for bankruptcy in August 1931. Nolan divorced McCreary in July 1932. After her exit from Universal, she was unable to secure film work with any of the major studios. Nolan spent the remainder of her acting career appearing in roles in low-budget films for independent studios. She made her final film appearances in File 113 (Chester M. Franklin, 1933), for Allied Pictures Corporation. From then on, Nolan appeared in vaudeville and performed in nightclubs and roadhouses around the United States. Later, Mary Nolan suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined. She turned to heroin, and it spelt the end. In 1948, she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems (according to IMDb, but Wikipedia writes she died of a barbiturate overdose). Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly."

 

Source: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Eve Golden (Films of the Golden Age), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5721. Photo: Universal-Film, Berlin.

 

Blonde and utterly beautiful Mary Nolan (1902-1948) appeared on stage, on screen, and most of all in the tabloids. After a 'sex scandal', she fled to Germany where she starred in 17 silent films under her real name, Imogene Robertson.

 

Mary Nolan was born Mary Imogene Robertson in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. in 1902 (according to Wikipedia and 1905 according to IMDb). She was one of five children born to Africanus and Viola Robertson. Her mother died of cancer at the age of 46. Unable to care for five young children, Africanus Robertson placed Mary in a foster home. She eventually went to live in a Catholic orphanage in Missouri where she earned the nickname 'Bubbles'. The beautiful blonde arrived broke in New York in 1919. Eve Golden at Films of the Golden Age: "She really was breathtaking with her perfect bone structure, a cloud of thick blonde hair, and china-blue eyes. It wasn't long before Mary got work as an artist's model for such big shots as James Montgomery Flagg and Arthur William Brown." Famous Broadway producer Oliver Morosco launched her stage career in the choruses of Daffy Dill and Lady Butterfly (1923). Bubbles proved to be a Jazz-Age baby and a party girl by nature. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. signed her up for his Follies shows on Broadway. As a showgirl, she performed under the stage name Imogene 'Bubbles' Wilson. For the next several years, she started a violent love/hate relationship with Ziegfeld comedian Frank Tinney. Tinney was married to the comedy star Edna Davenport. Tinney set Mary up in a West 72nd Street apartment and showered her with expensive gifts, but he also showered her with bruises, both physical and emotional. The abusive affair stirred up a major sex scandal in 1924. The tabloids exposed the tumultuous relationship when Mary was seriously hospitalised after one of their many arguments. Mary was fired by Ziegfeld and set sail for France where she was scheduled to appear in vaudeville. She made her way to London in October where she reunited with Frank Tinney. By December 1924, Tinney had resumed drinking and began to physically abuse her again. In early 1925, Nolan finally ended the relationship. She then travelled to Germany where she began to work in the film industry under the new stage name Imogene Robertson. Her first German film was Verborgene Gluten/Hidden Fires (Einar Bruun, 1925) with Alphons Fryland. Later that year, she appeared in the title role of Die Feuertänzerin (Robert Dinesen, 1925) for the Ufa. She received good reviews for her work in the film which prompted the Ufa to offer her a contract for $1500 a week. Nolan worked steadily in Germany from 1925 to 1927 and continued to receive favourable reviews for her acting. Her best-known films include the mystery Das Parfüm der Mrs. Worrington/The Parfum of Mrs. Worrington (Franz Seitz, 1925) with Ernst Reicher as detective Stuart Webbs, Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Nils Asther, and the drama Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines/The adventures of a 10-mark note (Berthold Viertel, 1926).

 

While in Germany, Imogene Robertson received offers from Hollywood producers to appear in American films but turned them down. She finally relented after Joseph M. Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. She returned to the United States in January 1927. To solve the problem of audiences connecting her with her scandalous past, United Artists suggested she change her name to Mary Nolan. For United Artists, she appeared in an uncredited bit part in Topsy and Eva (Del Lord, 1927), and a supporting role in Sorrell and Son (Herbert Brenon, 1927). In 1928, Nolan was signed to Universal Pictures. Her first film for the company was Good Morning, Judge (William A. Seiter, 1928), starring Reginald Denny for which she received good reviews. Universal loaned her out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928), about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralysed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). Nolan played Chaney's defiled daughter Maizie. The film was a hit and Nolan received favourable reviews for her work in the film. The following year, she was loaned to MGM again for the romantic drama Desert Nights (William Nigh, 1929), with John Gilbert. Two thieves (Noland and Ernest Torrence) victimize a diamond mine and kidnap its manager (Gilbert), but he gains the upper hand (and falls in love with Nolan) when they flee into the hostile desert. Desert Nights was another financial success and served to boost Nolan's career. Shortly after signing with Universal in 1927, Nolan had begun a relationship with another married man, studio executive Eddie Mannix. Mannix used his clout to further Nolan's career and was responsible for her loan outs to MGM. Shortly after Desert Nights was released in 1929, Mannix abruptly ended the relationship. This angered Nolan who threatened to tell Mannix's wife Bernice of their affair. Mannix became enraged and beat her unconscious. Nolan was hospitalised for six months and required fifteen surgeries to repair damage Mannix inflicted on her abdomen. While hospitalized, Nolan was prescribed morphine for pain. She eventually became addicted which contributed to the decline of her career. In the Universal production Young Desire (Lew Collins, 1930), Nolan plays Helen Herbert aka 'La Belle Helene', a carnival sideshow dancer. She falls in love with wealthy, wet-behind-the-ears Bobby Spencer who whisks her off to his hometown of Spencerville and stakes her to an apartment and a job. But Helen's sordid past catches up with her... By then, Nolan's acting career had begun to decline due to her drug abuse and reputation for being temperamental. She was fired from the film What Men Want (1930). Nolan got into an argument with the film's director, Ernst Laemmle after she learned she was the only cast member who hadn't received a close-up shot. Laemmle banned Nolan from the set and she was subsequently fired. After threatening to file a lawsuit against Universal, the studio bought her out of her contract in January 1931. She married stock broker Wallace T. McCreary on 29 March 1931. One week before they married, McCreary lost $3 million on bad investments. The couple used McCreary's remaining money to open a dress shop in Beverly Hills. The shop went out of business within months and Nolan filed for bankruptcy in August 1931. Nolan divorced McCreary in July 1932. After her exit from Universal, she was unable to secure film work with any of the major studios. Nolan spent the remainder of her acting career appearing in roles in low-budget films for independent studios. She made her final film appearances in File 113 (Chester M. Franklin, 1933), for Allied Pictures Corporation. From then on, Nolan appeared in vaudeville and performed in nightclubs and roadhouses around the United States. Later, Mary Nolan suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined. She turned to heroin, and it spelt the end. In 1948, she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems (according to IMDb, but Wikipedia writes she died of a barbiturate overdose). Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly."

 

Source: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Eve Golden (Films of the Golden Age), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no 289. Photo: Lee Marvin in Monte Walsh (William A. Fraker, 1970).

 

American film and television actor Lee Marvin (1924-1987) began as a supporting player of a generally vicious demeanor, then metamorphosed into a star playing tough, hard-bitten anti-heroes. Known for his gravelly smoke burnished voice and premature white hair, Marvin initially played villains, soldiers, and other hardboiled characters. A prominent television role was that of Detective Lieutenant Frank Ballinger in the NBC crime series M Squad (1957–1960). He became a major star with Cat Ballou (1965), a comedy Western in which he played dual roles, but his career waned considerably after Paint Your Wagon (1969). For portraying both gunfighter Kid Shelleen and criminal Tim Strawn, he won the Oscar for Best Actor, along with a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, an NBR Award, and the Silver Bear for Best Actor. Marvin is also remembered for his 'tough guy' characters in The Killers (1964), The Professionals (1966), The Dirty Dozen (1967), Point Blank (1967), and The Big Red One (1980).

 

Lamont Waltman Marvin Jr. was born in 1924 in New York City. He was the son of Lamont Waltman Marvin, an advertising executive and later the head of the New York and New England Apple Institute, and Courtenay Washington (née Davidge), a fashion and beauty writer/editor. As with his elder brother, Robert, he was named in honor of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who was his first cousin, four times removed. His father was a direct descendant of Matthew Marvin Sr., who emigrated from Great Bentley, Essex, England, in 1635, and helped found Hartford, Connecticut. Marvin studied the violin when he was young. As a teenager, Marvin "spent weekends and spare time hunting deer, puma, wild turkey, and bobwhite in the wilds of the then-uncharted Everglades". He attended Manumit School, a Christian socialist boarding school in Pawling, New York, during the late 1930s, and later attended St. Leo College Preparatory School, a Catholic school in St. Leo, Florida, after being expelled from several other schools for bad behaviour. Marvin left school at 18 to enlist in the United States Marine Corps Reserve in 1942. He served with the 4th Marine Division in the Pacific Theater during World War II. While serving as a member of "I" Company, 3rd Battalion, 24th Marines, 4th Marine Division, he was wounded in action on in 1944, during the assault on Mount Tapochau in the Battle of Saipan, during which most of his company were casualties. He was hit by machine-gun fire, which severed his sciatic nerve, and then was hit again in the foot by a sniper. After over a year of medical treatment in naval hospitals, Marvin was given a medical discharge with the rank of private first class (he had been a corporal years earlier but had been demoted after causing trouble) in 1945 Philadelphia. Marvin's military awards include the Purple Heart Medal, the Presidential Unit Citation, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, and the Combat Action Ribbon.

 

After the war, while working as a plumber's assistant at a local community theatre in upstate New York, Lee Marvin was asked to replace an actor who had fallen ill during rehearsals. He caught the acting bug and got a job with the company at $7 a week. He moved to Greenwich Village and used the GI Bill to study at the American Theatre Wing. He appeared on stage in a production of 'Uniform of Flesh', an adaptation of the novel 'Billy Budd' (1949). It was done at the Experimental Theatre, where a few months later Marvin also appeared in 'The Nineteenth Hole of Europe' (1949). Marvin began appearing on television shows like Escape, The Big Story, and Treasury Men in Action. He made it to Broadway with a small role in a production of Uniform of Flesh, now called Billy Budd in February 1951. Marvin's film debut was in You're in the Navy Now (Henry Hathaway, 1951), which also marked the debuts of Charles Bronson and Jack Warden. This required some filming in Hollywood. Marvin decided to stay there. He had a similar small part in Teresa (Fred Zinnemann, 1951). As a decorated combat veteran, Marvin was a natural in war dramas, where he frequently assisted the director and other actors in realistically portraying infantry movement, arranging costumes, and the use of firearms. He guest-starred on episodes of Fireside Theatre (1950), Suspense (1950), and Rebound (1952). Hathaway used him again on Diplomatic Courier (Henry Hathaway, 1952) and he could be seen in Down Among the Sheltering Palms (Edmund Goulding, 1952), We're Not Married! (Edmund Goulding, 1952), The Duel at Silver Creek (Don Siegel, 1952), and Hangman's Knot (Roy Huggins, 1952). He guest-starred on Biff Baker, U.S.A. (1952) and Dragnet (1952-1953), and had a decent role in a feature with Eight Iron Men (Edward Dmytryk, 1952), a war film starring Bonar Colleano and produced by Stanley Kramer. Marvin's role had been played on Broadway by Burt Lancaster. He was a sergeant in the Western Seminole (Budd Boetticher, 1953), and was a corporal in The Glory Brigade (Robert D. Webb, 1953), a Korean War film starring Victor Mature. He was now in much demand for Westerns: The Stranger Wore a Gun (Andre DeToth, 1953) with Randolph Scott, and Gun Fury (Raoul Walsh, 1953) with Rock Hudson and Donna Reed.

 

Lee Marvin received much acclaim for his portrayal as villains in two Film Noirs: The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953) where he played Gloria Grahame's vicious boyfriend, and The Wild One (László Benedek, 1953) opposite Marlon Brando. Marvin's gang in the film was called "The Beetles". He continued in TV shows such as The Plymouth Playhouse (1953) and The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse (1954). He had support roles in the 3D horror mystery B-movie Gorilla at Large (Harmon Jones, 1954) and had a notable small role as smart-aleck sailor Meatball in The Caine Mutiny (Edward Dmytryk, 1954), produced by Stanley Kramer. Marvin was in the war film The Raid (Hugo Fregonese, 1954) with Van Heflin and Anne Bancroft, and in episodes of the TV series Center Stage (1954), Medic (1954) and TV Reader's Digest (1955). He had an excellent part as Hector, the small-town hood in Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955) with Spencer Tracy and Robert Ryan. Also in 1955, he played a conflicted, brutal bank-robber in the thriller Violent Saturday (Richard Fleischer, 1955) with Victor Mature. A latter-day critic wrote of the character, "Marvin brings a multi-faceted complexity to the role and gives a great example of the early promise that launched his long and successful career." Marvin played Robert Mitchum's friend in Not as a Stranger (Stanley Kramer, 1955), a medical drama also produced by Kramer. He had bigger supporting roles in A Life in the Balance (Harry Horner, Rafael Portillo, 1955), Pete Kelly's Blues (Jack Webb, 1955) and I Died a Thousand Times (Stuart Heisler, 1955) with Jack Palance. Marvin was the villain in 7 Men from Now (Budd Boetticher, 1956) with Randolph Scott, and was second-billed to Jack Palance in Attack (Robert Aldrich, 1956). Marvin had good roles in The Rack (Arnold Laven, 1956) with Paul Newman, Raintree County (Edward Dmytryk, 1956) starring Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor, and The Missouri Traveler (Herry Hopper, 1958). Marvin finally got to be a leading man in 100 episodes in the successful television series M Squad (1957-1960). Set in Chicago, Illinois, it starred Marvin as Detective Lieutenant Frank Ballinger, a member of "M Squad", a special unit of the Chicago Police, assisting other units in battling organized crime, corruption, and violent crimes citywide. One critic described the show as "a hyped-up, violent Dragnet ... with a hard-as-nails Marvin" playing a tough police lieutenant. Marvin received the role after guest-starring in a memorable Dragnet episode as a serial killer. When the series ended Marvin appeared on such TV shows as Wagon Train (1960-1961), Route 66 (1961; he was injured during a fight scene), Bonanza (1962), The Untouchables (1961-1962; several times), The Virginian (1962), The Twilight Zone (1961-1963), and The Dick Powell Theatre (1963).

 

Lee Marvin returned to features with a prominent role in The Comancheros (Michael Curtiz, 1961) starring John Wayne. He played in two more films with Wayne, both directed by John Ford: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and Donovan's Reef (1963). As the vicious Liberty Valance, Marvin played his first title role and held his own with two of the screen's biggest stars (John Wayne and James Stewart). In 1962 Marvin appeared as Martin Kalig on the TV western The Virginian in the episode titled 'It Tolls for Thee'. He continued to guest star on shows like Combat! (1963), Dr. Kildare (1962-1964), and The Great Adventure (1963). For director Don Siegel, Marvin appeared in The Killers (1964) playing an efficient professional assassin alongside Clu Gulager. The Killers was also the first film in which Marvin received top billing. Marvin finally became a star for his comic role in the Western comedy Cat Ballou (Elliot Silverstein, 1965) starring Jane Fonda. This was a surprise hit and Marvin won the 1965 Oscar for Best Actor and several other awards. Playing alongside Vivien Leigh and Simone Signoret, Marvin won the 1966 National Board of Review Award for male actors for his role in Ship of Fools (Stanley Kramer, 1965). Marvin next performed in the hit Western The Professionals (Richard Brooks, 1966), in which he played the leader of a small band of skilled mercenaries (Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, and Woody Strode) rescuing a kidnap victim (Claudia Cardinale) shortly after the Mexican Revolution. He followed that film with the hugely successful World War II epic The Dirty Dozen (Robert Aldrich, 1967) in which top-billed Marvin again portrayed an intrepid commander of a colorful group (future stars John Cassavetes, Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, Jim Brown, and Donald Sutherland) performing an almost impossible mission. In the wake of these two films and after having received an Oscar, Marvin was a huge star, given enormous control over his next film Point Blank (John Boorman, 1967), co-starring Angie Dickinson. He portrayed a hard-nosed criminal bent on revenge. Marvin, who had selected Boorman himself for the director's slot, had a central role in the film's development, plotline, and staging. Marvin also appeared in another Boorman film, the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful World War II character study Hell in the Pacific (John Boorman, 1968), also starring famed Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune. Marvin was originally cast as Pike Bishop (later played by William Holden) in The Wild Bunch (1969), but fell out with director Sam Peckinpah and pulled out to star in the Western musical Paint Your Wagon (Joshua Logan, 1969), in which he was top-billed over a singing Clint Eastwood. Despite his limited singing ability, he had a surprise hit song with "Wand'rin' Star". By this time, he was getting paid a million dollars per film, $200,000 less than top star Paul Newman was making at the time.

 

Lee Marvin had a much greater variety of roles in the 1970s, with fewer bad-guy roles than in earlier years. His 1970s films included Monte Walsh (William A. Fraker, 1970), a Western with Jack Palance and Jeanne Moreau; the violent Prime Cut (Michael Ritchie, 1972) with Gene Hackman; Pocket Money (Stuart Rosenberg, 1972) with Paul Newman; Emperor of the North (Robert Aldrich, 1973) opposite Ernest Borgnine; as Hickey in The Iceman Cometh (John Frankenheimer, 1973) with Fredric March and Robert Ryan; The Spikes Gang (Richard Fleischer, 1974) with Noah Beery Jr.; The Klansman (Terence Young, 1974) with Richard Burton; Shout at the Devil (Peter Hunt, 1976), a World War One adventure with Roger Moore; The Great Scout and Cathouse Thursday (Don Taylor, 1976), a comic Western with Oliver Reed; and Avalanche Express (Mark Robson, 1978), a Cold War thriller with Robert Shaw who died during production. None of these films were big box office hits. Marvin was offered the role of Quint in Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975) but declined, stating "What would I tell my fishing friends who'd see me come off a hero against a dummy shark?". Marvin's last big role was in Samuel Fuller's The Big Red One (1980), a war film based on Fuller's own war experiences. His remaining films were Death Hunt (Peter R. Hunt, 1981), a Canadian action film with Charles Bronson; Gorky Park (Michael Apted, 1983) with William Hurt; and in France Canicule/Dog Day (Yves Boisset, 1984), with Miou-Miou. For TV he did The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1985), a sequel with Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, and Richard Jaeckel picking up where they had left off despite being 18 years older. His final appearance was in The Delta Force (Menahem Golan, 1986) with Chuck Norris, playing a role turned down by Charles Bronson. Marvin had married Betty Ebeling in February 1951 and together they had four children, son Christopher Lamont (1952–2013), and three daughters: Courtenay Lee (1954), Cynthia Louise (1956), and Claudia Leslie (1958–2012). Married 16 years, they divorced in 1967. A long-term romantic relationship with Michelle Triola led, after their breakup, to a highly publicized lawsuit in which Triola asked for a substantial portion of Marvin's assets. Her case failed in its main pursuit but did establish a legal precedent for the rights of unmarried cohabitors, the so-called "palimony" law. Marvin reunited with his high school sweetheart, Pamela Feeley and they married in October 1970. She had four children with three previous marriages, they had no children together and remained married until his death in 1987. In December 1986, Marvin was hospitalized for more than two weeks because of a condition related to coccidioidomycosis. He went into respiratory distress and was administered steroids to help his breathing. He had major intestinal ruptures as a result and underwent a colectomy. Marvin died of a heart attack on 29 August 1987 in Tucson, Arizona, aged 63. He was buried with full military honours at Arlington National Cemetery.

 

Sources: Jim Beaver (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5316. Photo: Universal-Film.

 

Blonde and utterly beautiful Mary Nolan (1902-1948) appeared on stage, on screen, and most of all in the tabloids. After a 'sex scandal', she fled to Germany where she starred in 17 silent films under her real name, Imogene Robertson.

 

Mary Nolan was born Mary Imogene Robertson in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. in 1902 (according to Wikipedia and 1905 according to IMDb). She was one of five children born to Africanus and Viola Robertson. Her mother died of cancer at the age of 46. Unable to care for five young children, Africanus Robertson placed Mary in a foster home. She eventually went to live in a Catholic orphanage in Missouri where she earned the nickname 'Bubbles'. The beautiful blonde arrived broke in New York in 1919. Eve Golden at Films of the Golden Age: "She really was breathtaking with her perfect bone structure, a cloud of thick blonde hair, and china-blue eyes. It wasn't long before Mary got work as an artist's model for such big shots as James Montgomery Flagg and Arthur William Brown." Famous Broadway producer Oliver Morosco launched her stage career in the choruses of Daffy Dill and Lady Butterfly (1923). Bubbles proved to be a Jazz-Age baby and a party girl by nature. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. signed her up for his Follies shows on Broadway. As a showgirl, she performed under the stage name Imogene 'Bubbles' Wilson. For the next several years, she started a violent love/hate relationship with Ziegfeld comedian Frank Tinney. Tinney was married to the comedy star Edna Davenport. Tinney set Mary up in a West 72nd Street apartment and showered her with expensive gifts, but he also showered her with bruises, both physical and emotional. The abusive affair stirred up a major sex scandal in 1924. The tabloids exposed the tumultuous relationship when Mary was seriously hospitalised after one of their many arguments. Mary was fired by Ziegfeld and set sail for France where she was scheduled to appear in vaudeville. She made her way to London in October where she reunited with Frank Tinney. By December 1924, Tinney had resumed drinking and began to physically abuse her again. In early 1925, Nolan finally ended the relationship. She then travelled to Germany where she began to work in the film industry under the new stage name Imogene Robertson. Her first German film was Verborgene Gluten/Hidden Fires (Einar Bruun, 1925) with Alphons Fryland. Later that year, she appeared in the title role of Die Feuertänzerin (Robert Dinesen, 1925) for the Ufa. She received good reviews for her work in the film which prompted the Ufa to offer her a contract for $1500 a week. Nolan worked steadily in Germany from 1925 to 1927 and continued to receive favourable reviews for her acting. Her best-known films include the mystery Das Parfüm der Mrs. Worrington/The Parfum of Mrs. Worrington (Franz Seitz, 1925) with Ernst Reicher as detective Stuart Webbs, Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Nils Asther, and the drama Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines/The adventures of a 10-mark note (Berthold Viertel, 1926).

 

While in Germany, Imogene Robertson received offers from Hollywood producers to appear in American films but turned them down. She finally relented after Joseph M. Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. She returned to the United States in January 1927. To solve the problem of audiences connecting her with her scandalous past, United Artists suggested she change her name to Mary Nolan. For United Artists, she appeared in an uncredited bit part in Topsy and Eva (Del Lord, 1927), and a supporting role in Sorrell and Son (Herbert Brenon, 1927). In 1928, Nolan was signed to Universal Pictures. Her first film for the company was Good Morning, Judge (William A. Seiter, 1928), starring Reginald Denny for which she received good reviews. Universal loaned her out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928), about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralysed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). Nolan played Chaney's defiled daughter Maizie. The film was a hit and Nolan received favourable reviews for her work in the film. The following year, she was loaned to MGM again for the romantic drama Desert Nights (William Nigh, 1929), with John Gilbert. Two thieves (Noland and Ernest Torrence) victimize a diamond mine and kidnap its manager (Gilbert), but he gains the upper hand (and falls in love with Nolan) when they flee into the hostile desert. Desert Nights was another financial success and served to boost Nolan's career. Shortly after signing with Universal in 1927, Nolan had begun a relationship with another married man, studio executive Eddie Mannix. Mannix used his clout to further Nolan's career and was responsible for her loan outs to MGM. Shortly after Desert Nights was released in 1929, Mannix abruptly ended the relationship. This angered Nolan who threatened to tell Mannix's wife Bernice of their affair. Mannix became enraged and beat her unconscious. Nolan was hospitalised for six months and required fifteen surgeries to repair damage Mannix inflicted on her abdomen. While hospitalized, Nolan was prescribed morphine for pain. She eventually became addicted which contributed to the decline of her career. In the Universal production Young Desire (Lew Collins, 1930), Nolan plays Helen Herbert aka 'La Belle Helene', a carnival sideshow dancer. She falls in love with wealthy, wet-behind-the-ears Bobby Spencer who whisks her off to his hometown of Spencerville and stakes her to an apartment and a job. But Helen's sordid past catches up with her... By then, Nolan's acting career had begun to decline due to her drug abuse and reputation for being temperamental. She was fired from the film What Men Want (1930). Nolan got into an argument with the film's director, Ernst Laemmle after she learned she was the only cast member who hadn't received a close-up shot. Laemmle banned Nolan from the set and she was subsequently fired. After threatening to file a lawsuit against Universal, the studio bought her out of her contract in January 1931. She married stock broker Wallace T. McCreary on 29 March 1931. One week before they married, McCreary lost $3 million on bad investments. The couple used McCreary's remaining money to open a dress shop in Beverly Hills. The shop went out of business within months and Nolan filed for bankruptcy in August 1931. Nolan divorced McCreary in July 1932. After her exit from Universal, she was unable to secure film work with any of the major studios. Nolan spent the remainder of her acting career appearing in roles in low-budget films for independent studios. She made her final film appearances in File 113 (Chester M. Franklin, 1933), for Allied Pictures Corporation. From then on, Nolan appeared in vaudeville and performed in nightclubs and roadhouses around the United States. Later, Mary Nolan suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined. She turned to heroin, and it spelt the end. In 1948, she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems (according to IMDb, but Wikipedia writes she died of a barbiturate overdose). Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly."

 

Source: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Eve Golden (Films of the Golden Age), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1516/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Süd-Film A.G., Berlin. Imogene Robertson a.k.a. Mary Nolan in Das süße Mädel/The Sweet Girl (Manfred Noa, 1926).

 

Blonde and utterly beautiful Mary Nolan (1902–1948) appeared on stage, on screen, and most of all in the tabloids. After a 'sex scandal', she fled to Germany where she starred in 17 silent films under her real name, Imogene Robertson.

 

Mary Nolan was born Mary Imogene Robertson in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. in 1902 (according to Wikipedia and 1905 according to IMDb). She was one of five children born to Africanus and Viola Robertson. Her mother died of cancer at the age of 46. Unable to care for five young children, Africanus Robertson placed Mary in a foster home. She eventually went to live in a Catholic orphanage in Missouri where she earned the nickname 'Bubbles'. The beautiful blonde arrived broke in New York in 1919. Eve Golden at Films of the Golden Age: "She really was breathtaking with her perfect bone structure, a cloud of thick blonde hair, and china-blue eyes. It wasn't long before Mary got work as an artist's model for such big shots as James Montgomery Flagg and Arthur William Brown." Famous Broadway producer Oliver Morosco launched her stage career in the choruses of Daffy Dill and Lady Butterfly (1923). Bubbles proved to be a Jazz-Age baby and a party girl by nature. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. signed her up for his Follies shows on Broadway. As a showgirl, she performed under the stage name Imogene 'Bubbles' Wilson. For the next several years, she started a violent love/hate relationship with Ziegfeld comedian Frank Tinney. Tinney was married to the comedy star Edna Davenport. Tinney set Mary up in a West 72nd Street apartment and showered her with expensive gifts, but he also showered her with bruises, both physical and emotional. The abusive affair stirred up a major sex scandal in 1924. The tabloids exposed the tumultuous relationship when Mary was seriously hospitalised after one of their many arguments. Mary was fired by Ziegfeld and set sail for France where she was scheduled to appear in vaudeville. She made her way to London in October where she reunited with Frank Tinney. By December 1924, Tinney had resumed drinking and began to physically abuse her again. In early 1925, Nolan finally ended the relationship. She then travelled to Germany where she began to work in the film industry under the new stage name Imogene Robertson. Her first German film was Verborgene Gluten/Hidden Fires (Einar Bruun, 1925) with Alphons Fryland. Later that year, she appeared in the title role of Die Feuertänzerin (Robert Dinesen, 1925) for the Ufa. She received good reviews for her work in the film which prompted the Ufa to offer her a contract for $1500 a week. Nolan worked steadily in Germany from 1925 to 1927 and continued to receive favourable reviews for her acting. Her best-known films include the mystery Das Parfüm der Mrs. Worrington/The Parfum of Mrs. Worrington (Franz Seitz, 1925) with Ernst Reicher as detective Stuart Webbs, Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Nils Asther, and the drama Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines/The adventures of a 10-mark note (Berthold Viertel, 1926).

 

While in Germany, Imogene Robertson received offers from Hollywood producers to appear in American films but turned them down. She finally relented after Joseph M. Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. She returned to the United States in January 1927. To solve the problem of audiences connecting her with her scandalous past, United Artists suggested she change her name to Mary Nolan. For United Artists, she appeared in an uncredited bit part in Topsy and Eva (Del Lord, 1927), and a supporting role in Sorrell and Son (Herbert Brenon, 1927). In 1928, Nolan was signed to Universal Pictures. Her first film for the company was Good Morning, Judge (William A. Seiter, 1928), starring Reginald Denny for which she received good reviews. Universal loaned her out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928), about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralysed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). Nolan played Chaney's defiled daughter Maizie. The film was a hit and Nolan received favourable reviews for her work in the film. The following year, she was loaned to MGM again for the romantic drama Desert Nights (William Nigh, 1929), with John Gilbert. Two thieves (Noland and Ernest Torrence) victimize a diamond mine and kidnap its manager (Gilbert), but he gains the upper hand (and falls in love with Nolan) when they flee into the hostile desert. Desert Nights was another financial success and served to boost Nolan's career. Shortly after signing with Universal in 1927, Nolan had begun a relationship with another married man, studio executive Eddie Mannix. Mannix used his clout to further Nolan's career and was responsible for her loan outs to MGM. Shortly after Desert Nights was released in 1929, Mannix abruptly ended the relationship. This angered Nolan who threatened to tell Mannix's wife Bernice of their affair. Mannix became enraged and beat her unconscious. Nolan was hospitalised for six months and required fifteen surgeries to repair damage Mannix inflicted on her abdomen. While hospitalized, Nolan was prescribed morphine for pain. She eventually became addicted which contributed to the decline of her career. In the Universal production Young Desire (Lew Collins, 1930), Nolan plays Helen Herbert aka 'La Belle Helene', a carnival sideshow dancer. She falls in love with wealthy, wet-behind-the-ears Bobby Spencer who whisks her off to his hometown of Spencerville and stakes her to an apartment and a job. But Helen's sordid past catches up with her... By then, Nolan's acting career had begun to decline due to her drug abuse and reputation for being temperamental. She was fired from the film What Men Want (1930). Nolan got into an argument with the film's director, Ernst Laemmle after she learned she was the only cast member who hadn't received a close-up shot. Laemmle banned Nolan from the set and she was subsequently fired. After threatening to file a lawsuit against Universal, the studio bought her out of her contract in January 1931. She married stock broker Wallace T. McCreary on 29 March 1931. One week before they married, McCreary lost $3 million on bad investments. The couple used McCreary's remaining money to open a dress shop in Beverly Hills. The shop went out of business within months and Nolan filed for bankruptcy in August 1931. Nolan divorced McCreary in July 1932. After her exit from Universal, she was unable to secure film work with any of the major studios. Nolan spent the remainder of her acting career appearing in roles in low-budget films for independent studios. She made her final film appearances in File 113 (Chester M. Franklin, 1933), for Allied Pictures Corporation. From then on, Nolan appeared in vaudeville and performed in nightclubs and roadhouses around the United States. Later, Mary Nolan suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined. She turned to heroin, and it spelt the end. In 1948, she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems (according to IMDb, but Wikipedia writes she died of a barbiturate overdose). Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly."

 

Source: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Eve Golden (Films of the Golden Age), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del Cine Series by Editorial Gráfica, Barcelona, no. 6. Photo: Universal Film.

 

Blonde and utterly beautiful Mary Nolan (1902-1948) appeared on stage, on screen, and most of all in the tabloids. After a 'sex scandal', she fled to Germany where she starred in 17 silent films under her real name, Imogene Robertson.

 

Mary Nolan was born Mary Imogene Robertson in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. in 1902 (according to Wikipedia and 1905 according to IMDb). She was one of five children born to Africanus and Viola Robertson. Her mother died of cancer at the age of 46. Unable to care for five young children, Africanus Robertson placed Mary in a foster home. She eventually went to live in a Catholic orphanage in Missouri where she earned the nickname 'Bubbles'. The beautiful blonde arrived broke in New York in 1919. Eve Golden at Films of the Golden Age: "She really was breathtaking with her perfect bone structure, a cloud of thick blonde hair, and china-blue eyes. It wasn't long before Mary got work as an artist's model for such big shots as James Montgomery Flagg and Arthur William Brown." Famous Broadway producer Oliver Morosco launched her stage career in the choruses of Daffy Dill and Lady Butterfly (1923). Bubbles proved to be a Jazz-Age baby and a party girl by nature. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. signed her up for his Follies shows on Broadway. As a showgirl, she performed under the stage name Imogene 'Bubbles' Wilson. For the next several years, she started a violent love/hate relationship with Ziegfeld comedian Frank Tinney. Tinney was married to the comedy star Edna Davenport. Tinney set Mary up in a West 72nd Street apartment and showered her with expensive gifts, but he also showered her with bruises, both physical and emotional. The abusive affair stirred up a major sex scandal in 1924. The tabloids exposed the tumultuous relationship when Mary was seriously hospitalised after one of their many arguments. Mary was fired by Ziegfeld and set sail for France where she was scheduled to appear in vaudeville. She made her way to London in October where she reunited with Frank Tinney. By December 1924, Tinney had resumed drinking and began to physically abuse her again. In early 1925, Nolan finally ended the relationship. She then travelled to Germany where she began to work in the film industry under the new stage name Imogene Robertson. Her first German film was Verborgene Gluten/Hidden Fires (Einar Bruun, 1925) with Alphons Fryland. Later that year, she appeared in the title role of Die Feuertänzerin (Robert Dinesen, 1925) for the Ufa. She received good reviews for her work in the film which prompted the Ufa to offer her a contract for $1500 a week. Nolan worked steadily in Germany from 1925 to 1927 and continued to receive favourable reviews for her acting. Her best-known films include the mystery Das Parfüm der Mrs. Worrington/The Parfum of Mrs. Worrington (Franz Seitz, 1925) with Ernst Reicher as detective Stuart Webbs, Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Nils Asther, and the drama Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines/The adventures of a 10-mark note (Berthold Viertel, 1926).

 

While in Germany, Imogene Robertson received offers from Hollywood producers to appear in American films but turned them down. She finally relented after Joseph M. Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. She returned to the United States in January 1927. To solve the problem of audiences connecting her with her scandalous past, United Artists suggested she change her name to Mary Nolan. For United Artists, she appeared in an uncredited bit part in Topsy and Eva (Del Lord, 1927), and a supporting role in Sorrell and Son (Herbert Brenon, 1927). In 1928, Nolan was signed to Universal Pictures. Her first film for the company was Good Morning, Judge (William A. Seiter, 1928), starring Reginald Denny for which she received good reviews. Universal loaned her out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928), about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralysed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). Nolan played Chaney's defiled daughter Maizie. The film was a hit and Nolan received favourable reviews for her work in the film. The following year, she was loaned to MGM again for the romantic drama Desert Nights (William Nigh, 1929), with John Gilbert. Two thieves (Noland and Ernest Torrence) victimize a diamond mine and kidnap its manager (Gilbert), but he gains the upper hand (and falls in love with Nolan) when they flee into the hostile desert. Desert Nights was another financial success and served to boost Nolan's career. Shortly after signing with Universal in 1927, Nolan had begun a relationship with another married man, studio executive Eddie Mannix. Mannix used his clout to further Nolan's career and was responsible for her loan outs to MGM. Shortly after Desert Nights was released in 1929, Mannix abruptly ended the relationship. This angered Nolan who threatened to tell Mannix's wife Bernice of their affair. Mannix became enraged and beat her unconscious. Nolan was hospitalised for six months and required fifteen surgeries to repair damage Mannix inflicted on her abdomen. While hospitalized, Nolan was prescribed morphine for pain. She eventually became addicted which contributed to the decline of her career. In the Universal production Young Desire (Lew Collins, 1930), Nolan plays Helen Herbert aka 'La Belle Helene', a carnival sideshow dancer. She falls in love with wealthy, wet-behind-the-ears Bobby Spencer who whisks her off to his hometown of Spencerville and stakes her to an apartment and a job. But Helen's sordid past catches up with her... By then, Nolan's acting career had begun to decline due to her drug abuse and reputation for being temperamental. She was fired from the film What Men Want (1930). Nolan got into an argument with the film's director, Ernst Laemmle after she learned she was the only cast member who hadn't received a close-up shot. Laemmle banned Nolan from the set and she was subsequently fired. After threatening to file a lawsuit against Universal, the studio bought her out of her contract in January 1931. She married stock broker Wallace T. McCreary on 29 March 1931. One week before they married, McCreary lost $3 million on bad investments. The couple used McCreary's remaining money to open a dress shop in Beverly Hills. The shop went out of business within months and Nolan filed for bankruptcy in August 1931. Nolan divorced McCreary in July 1932. After her exit from Universal, she was unable to secure film work with any of the major studios. Nolan spent the remainder of her acting career appearing in roles in low-budget films for independent studios. She made her final film appearances in File 113 (Chester M. Franklin, 1933), for Allied Pictures Corporation. From then on, Nolan appeared in vaudeville and performed in nightclubs and roadhouses around the United States. Later, Mary Nolan suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined. She turned to heroin, and it spelt the end. In 1948, she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems (according to IMDb, but Wikipedia writes she died of a barbiturate overdose). Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly."

 

Source: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Eve Golden (Films of the Golden Age), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5408. Photo: Universal-Film.

 

Blonde and utterly beautiful Mary Nolan (1902–1948) appeared on stage, on screen, and most of all in the tabloids. After a 'sex scandal', she fled to Germany where she starred in 17 silent films under her real name, Imogene Robertson.

 

Mary Nolan was born Mary Imogene Robertson in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. in 1902 (according to Wikipedia and 1905 according to IMDb). She was one of five children born to Africanus and Viola Robertson. Her mother died of cancer at the age of 46. Unable to care for five young children, Africanus Robertson placed Mary in a foster home. She eventually went to live in a Catholic orphanage in Missouri where she earned the nickname 'Bubbles'. The beautiful blonde arrived broke in New York in 1919. Eve Golden at Films of the Golden Age: "She really was breathtaking with her perfect bone structure, a cloud of thick blonde hair, and china-blue eyes. It wasn't long before Mary got work as an artist's model for such big shots as James Montgomery Flagg and Arthur William Brown." Famous Broadway producer Oliver Morosco launched her stage career in the choruses of Daffy Dill and Lady Butterfly (1923). Bubbles proved to be a Jazz-Age baby and a party girl by nature. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. signed her up for his Follies shows on Broadway. As a showgirl, she performed under the stage name Imogene 'Bubbles' Wilson. For the next several years, she started a violent love/hate relationship with Ziegfeld comedian Frank Tinney. Tinney was married to the comedy star Edna Davenport. Tinney set Mary up in a West 72nd Street apartment and showered her with expensive gifts, but he also showered her with bruises, both physical and emotional. The abusive affair stirred up a major sex scandal in 1924. The tabloids exposed the tumultuous relationship when Mary was seriously hospitalised after one of their many arguments. Mary was fired by Ziegfeld and set sail for France where she was scheduled to appear in vaudeville. She made her way to London in October where she reunited with Frank Tinney. By December 1924, Tinney had resumed drinking and began to physically abuse her again. In early 1925, Nolan finally ended the relationship. She then travelled to Germany where she began to work in the film industry under the new stage name Imogene Robertson. Her first German film was Verborgene Gluten/Hidden Fires (Einar Bruun, 1925) with Alphons Fryland. Later that year, she appeared in the title role of Die Feuertänzerin (Robert Dinesen, 1925) for the Ufa. She received good reviews for her work in the film which prompted the Ufa to offer her a contract for $1500 a week. Nolan worked steadily in Germany from 1925 to 1927 and continued to receive favourable reviews for her acting. Her best-known films include the mystery Das Parfüm der Mrs. Worrington/The Parfum of Mrs. Worrington (Franz Seitz, 1925) with Ernst Reicher as detective Stuart Webbs, Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Nils Asther, and the drama Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines/The adventures of a 10-mark note (Berthold Viertel, 1926).

 

While in Germany, Imogene Robertson received offers from Hollywood producers to appear in American films but turned them down. She finally relented after Joseph M. Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. She returned to the United States in January 1927. To solve the problem of audiences connecting her with her scandalous past, United Artists suggested she change her name to Mary Nolan. For United Artists, she appeared in an uncredited bit part in Topsy and Eva (Del Lord, 1927), and a supporting role in Sorrell and Son (Herbert Brenon, 1927). In 1928, Nolan was signed to Universal Pictures. Her first film for the company was Good Morning, Judge (William A. Seiter, 1928), starring Reginald Denny for which she received good reviews. Universal loaned her out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928), about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralysed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). Nolan played Chaney's defiled daughter Maizie. The film was a hit and Nolan received favourable reviews for her work in the film. The following year, she was loaned to MGM again for the romantic drama Desert Nights (William Nigh, 1929), with John Gilbert. Two thieves (Noland and Ernest Torrence) victimize a diamond mine and kidnap its manager (Gilbert), but he gains the upper hand (and falls in love with Nolan) when they flee into the hostile desert. Desert Nights was another financial success and served to boost Nolan's career. Shortly after signing with Universal in 1927, Nolan had begun a relationship with another married man, studio executive Eddie Mannix. Mannix used his clout to further Nolan's career and was responsible for her loan outs to MGM. Shortly after Desert Nights was released in 1929, Mannix abruptly ended the relationship. This angered Nolan who threatened to tell Mannix's wife Bernice of their affair. Mannix became enraged and beat her unconscious. Nolan was hospitalised for six months and required fifteen surgeries to repair damage Mannix inflicted on her abdomen. While hospitalized, Nolan was prescribed morphine for pain. She eventually became addicted which contributed to the decline of her career. In the Universal production Young Desire (Lew Collins, 1930), Nolan plays Helen Herbert aka 'La Belle Helene', a carnival sideshow dancer. She falls in love with wealthy, wet-behind-the-ears Bobby Spencer who whisks her off to his hometown of Spencerville and stakes her to an apartment and a job. But Helen's sordid past catches up with her... By then, Nolan's acting career had begun to decline due to her drug abuse and reputation for being temperamental. She was fired from the film What Men Want (1930). Nolan got into an argument with the film's director, Ernst Laemmle after she learned she was the only cast member who hadn't received a close-up shot. Laemmle banned Nolan from the set and she was subsequently fired. After threatening to file a lawsuit against Universal, the studio bought her out of her contract in January 1931. She married stock broker Wallace T. McCreary on 29 March 1931. One week before they married, McCreary lost $3 million on bad investments. The couple used McCreary's remaining money to open a dress shop in Beverly Hills. The shop went out of business within months and Nolan filed for bankruptcy in August 1931. Nolan divorced McCreary in July 1932. After her exit from Universal, she was unable to secure film work with any of the major studios. Nolan spent the remainder of her acting career appearing in roles in low-budget films for independent studios. She made her final film appearances in File 113 (Chester M. Franklin, 1933), for Allied Pictures Corporation. From then on, Nolan appeared in vaudeville and performed in nightclubs and roadhouses around the United States. Later, Mary Nolan suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined. She turned to heroin, and it spelt the end. In 1948, she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems (according to IMDb, but Wikipedia writes she died of a barbiturate overdose). Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly."

 

Source: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Eve Golden (Films of the Golden Age), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 878/2. Photo: Vienna-Film. Imogene Robertson in Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926).

 

Blonde and utterly beautiful Mary Nolan (1902–1948) appeared on stage, on screen, and most of all in the tabloids. After a 'sex scandal', she fled to Germany where she starred in 17 silent films under her real name, Imogene Robertson.

 

Mary Nolan was born Mary Imogene Robertson in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. in 1902 (according to Wikipedia and 1905 according to IMDb). She was one of five children born to Africanus and Viola Robertson. Her mother died of cancer at the age of 46. Unable to care for five young children, Africanus Robertson placed Mary in a foster home. She eventually went to live in a Catholic orphanage in Missouri where she earned the nickname 'Bubbles'. The beautiful blonde arrived broke in New York in 1919. Eve Golden at Films of the Golden Age: "She really was breathtaking with her perfect bone structure, a cloud of thick blonde hair, and china-blue eyes. It wasn't long before Mary got work as an artist's model for such big shots as James Montgomery Flagg and Arthur William Brown." Famous Broadway producer Oliver Morosco launched her stage career in the choruses of Daffy Dill and Lady Butterfly (1923). Bubbles proved to be a Jazz-Age baby and a party girl by nature. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. signed her up for his Follies shows on Broadway. As a showgirl, she performed under the stage name Imogene 'Bubbles' Wilson. For the next several years, she started a violent love/hate relationship with Ziegfeld comedian Frank Tinney. Tinney was married to the comedy star Edna Davenport. Tinney set Mary up in a West 72nd Street apartment and showered her with expensive gifts, but he also showered her with bruises, both physical and emotional. The abusive affair stirred up a major sex scandal in 1924. The tabloids exposed the tumultuous relationship when Mary was seriously hospitalised after one of their many arguments. Mary was fired by Ziegfeld and set sail for France where she was scheduled to appear in vaudeville. She made her way to London in October where she reunited with Frank Tinney. By December 1924, Tinney had resumed drinking and began to physically abuse her again. In early 1925, Nolan finally ended the relationship. She then travelled to Germany where she began to work in the film industry under the new stage name Imogene Robertson. Her first German film was Verborgene Gluten/Hidden Fires (Einar Bruun, 1925) with Alphons Fryland. Later that year, she appeared in the title role of Die Feuertänzerin (Robert Dinesen, 1925) for the Ufa. She received good reviews for her work in the film which prompted the Ufa to offer her a contract for $1500 a week. Nolan worked steadily in Germany from 1925 to 1927 and continued to receive favourable reviews for her acting. Her best-known films include the mystery Das Parfüm der Mrs. Worrington/The Parfum of Mrs. Worrington (Franz Seitz, 1925) with Ernst Reicher as detective Stuart Webbs, Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Nils Asther, and the drama Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines/The adventures of a 10-mark note (Berthold Viertel, 1926).

 

While in Germany, Imogene Robertson received offers from Hollywood producers to appear in American films but turned them down. She finally relented after Joseph M. Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. She returned to the United States in January 1927. To solve the problem of audiences connecting her with her scandalous past, United Artists suggested she change her name to Mary Nolan. For United Artists, she appeared in an uncredited bit part in Topsy and Eva (Del Lord, 1927), and a supporting role in Sorrell and Son (Herbert Brenon, 1927). In 1928, Nolan was signed to Universal Pictures. Her first film for the company was Good Morning, Judge (William A. Seiter, 1928), starring Reginald Denny for which she received good reviews. Universal loaned her out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928), about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralysed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). Nolan played Chaney's defiled daughter Maizie. The film was a hit and Nolan received favourable reviews for her work in the film. The following year, she was loaned to MGM again for the romantic drama Desert Nights (William Nigh, 1929), with John Gilbert. Two thieves (Noland and Ernest Torrence) victimize a diamond mine and kidnap its manager (Gilbert), but he gains the upper hand (and falls in love with Nolan) when they flee into the hostile desert. Desert Nights was another financial success and served to boost Nolan's career. Shortly after signing with Universal in 1927, Nolan had begun a relationship with another married man, studio executive Eddie Mannix. Mannix used his clout to further Nolan's career and was responsible for her loan outs to MGM. Shortly after Desert Nights was released in 1929, Mannix abruptly ended the relationship. This angered Nolan who threatened to tell Mannix's wife Bernice of their affair. Mannix became enraged and beat her unconscious. Nolan was hospitalised for six months and required fifteen surgeries to repair damage Mannix inflicted on her abdomen. While hospitalized, Nolan was prescribed morphine for pain. She eventually became addicted which contributed to the decline of her career. In the Universal production Young Desire (Lew Collins, 1930), Nolan plays Helen Herbert aka 'La Belle Helene', a carnival sideshow dancer. She falls in love with wealthy, wet-behind-the-ears Bobby Spencer who whisks her off to his hometown of Spencerville and stakes her to an apartment and a job. But Helen's sordid past catches up with her... By then, Nolan's acting career had begun to decline due to her drug abuse and reputation for being temperamental. She was fired from the film What Men Want (1930). Nolan got into an argument with the film's director, Ernst Laemmle after she learned she was the only cast member who hadn't received a close-up shot. Laemmle banned Nolan from the set and she was subsequently fired. After threatening to file a lawsuit against Universal, the studio bought her out of her contract in January 1931. She married stock broker Wallace T. McCreary on 29 March 1931. One week before they married, McCreary lost $3 million on bad investments. The couple used McCreary's remaining money to open a dress shop in Beverly Hills. The shop went out of business within months and Nolan filed for bankruptcy in August 1931. Nolan divorced McCreary in July 1932. After her exit from Universal, she was unable to secure film work with any of the major studios. Nolan spent the remainder of her acting career appearing in roles in low-budget films for independent studios. She made her final film appearances in File 113 (Chester M. Franklin, 1933), for Allied Pictures Corporation. From then on, Nolan appeared in vaudeville and performed in nightclubs and roadhouses around the United States. Later, Mary Nolan suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined. She turned to heroin, and it spelt the end. In 1948, she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems (according to IMDb, but Wikipedia writes she died of a barbiturate overdose). Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly."

 

Source: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Eve Golden (Films of the Golden Age), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

French postcard by Europe, no. 776. Photo: Universal Film.

 

Blonde and utterly beautiful Mary Nolan (1902-1948) appeared on stage, on screen, and most of all in the tabloids. After a 'sex scandal', she fled to Germany where she starred in 17 silent films under her real name, Imogene Robertson.

 

Mary Nolan was born Mary Imogene Robertson in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. in 1902 (according to Wikipedia and 1905 according to IMDb). She was one of five children born to Africanus and Viola Robertson. Her mother died of cancer at the age of 46. Unable to care for five young children, Africanus Robertson placed Mary in a foster home. She eventually went to live in a Catholic orphanage in Missouri where she earned the nickname 'Bubbles'. The beautiful blonde arrived broke in New York in 1919. Eve Golden at Films of the Golden Age: "She really was breathtaking with her perfect bone structure, a cloud of thick blonde hair, and china-blue eyes. It wasn't long before Mary got work as an artist's model for such big shots as James Montgomery Flagg and Arthur William Brown." Famous Broadway producer Oliver Morosco launched her stage career in the choruses of Daffy Dill and Lady Butterfly (1923). Bubbles proved to be a Jazz-Age baby and a party girl by nature. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. signed her up for his Follies shows on Broadway. As a showgirl, she performed under the stage name Imogene 'Bubbles' Wilson. For the next several years, she started a violent love/hate relationship with Ziegfeld comedian Frank Tinney. Tinney was married to the comedy star Edna Davenport. Tinney set Mary up in a West 72nd Street apartment and showered her with expensive gifts, but he also showered her with bruises, both physical and emotional. The abusive affair stirred up a major sex scandal in 1924. The tabloids exposed the tumultuous relationship when Mary was seriously hospitalised after one of their many arguments. Mary was fired by Ziegfeld and set sail for France where she was scheduled to appear in vaudeville. She made her way to London in October where she reunited with Frank Tinney. By December 1924, Tinney had resumed drinking and began to physically abuse her again. In early 1925, Nolan finally ended the relationship. She then travelled to Germany where she began to work in the film industry under the new stage name Imogene Robertson. Her first German film was Verborgene Gluten/Hidden Fires (Einar Bruun, 1925) with Alphons Fryland. Later that year, she appeared in the title role of Die Feuertänzerin (Robert Dinesen, 1925) for the Ufa. She received good reviews for her work in the film which prompted the Ufa to offer her a contract for $1500 a week. Nolan worked steadily in Germany from 1925 to 1927 and continued to receive favourable reviews for her acting. Her best-known films include the mystery Das Parfüm der Mrs. Worrington/The Parfum of Mrs. Worrington (Franz Seitz, 1925) with Ernst Reicher as detective Stuart Webbs, Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Nils Asther, and the drama Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines/The adventures of a 10-mark note (Berthold Viertel, 1926).

 

While in Germany, Imogene Robertson received offers from Hollywood producers to appear in American films but turned them down. She finally relented after Joseph M. Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. She returned to the United States in January 1927. To solve the problem of audiences connecting her with her scandalous past, United Artists suggested she change her name to Mary Nolan. For United Artists, she appeared in an uncredited bit part in Topsy and Eva (Del Lord, 1927), and a supporting role in Sorrell and Son (Herbert Brenon, 1927). In 1928, Nolan was signed to Universal Pictures. Her first film for the company was Good Morning, Judge (William A. Seiter, 1928), starring Reginald Denny for which she received good reviews. Universal loaned her out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928), about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralysed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). Nolan played Chaney's defiled daughter Maizie. The film was a hit and Nolan received favourable reviews for her work in the film. The following year, she was loaned to MGM again for the romantic drama Desert Nights (William Nigh, 1929), with John Gilbert. Two thieves (Noland and Ernest Torrence) victimize a diamond mine and kidnap its manager (Gilbert), but he gains the upper hand (and falls in love with Nolan) when they flee into the hostile desert. Desert Nights was another financial success and served to boost Nolan's career. Shortly after signing with Universal in 1927, Nolan had begun a relationship with another married man, studio executive Eddie Mannix. Mannix used his clout to further Nolan's career and was responsible for her loan outs to MGM. Shortly after Desert Nights was released in 1929, Mannix abruptly ended the relationship. This angered Nolan who threatened to tell Mannix's wife Bernice of their affair. Mannix became enraged and beat her unconscious. Nolan was hospitalised for six months and required fifteen surgeries to repair damage Mannix inflicted on her abdomen. While hospitalized, Nolan was prescribed morphine for pain. She eventually became addicted which contributed to the decline of her career. In the Universal production Young Desire (Lew Collins, 1930), Nolan plays Helen Herbert aka 'La Belle Helene', a carnival sideshow dancer. She falls in love with wealthy, wet-behind-the-ears Bobby Spencer who whisks her off to his hometown of Spencerville and stakes her to an apartment and a job. But Helen's sordid past catches up with her... By then, Nolan's acting career had begun to decline due to her drug abuse and reputation for being temperamental. She was fired from the film What Men Want (1930). Nolan got into an argument with the film's director, Ernst Laemmle after she learned she was the only cast member who hadn't received a close-up shot. Laemmle banned Nolan from the set and she was subsequently fired. After threatening to file a lawsuit against Universal, the studio bought her out of her contract in January 1931. She married stock broker Wallace T. McCreary on 29 March 1931. One week before they married, McCreary lost $3 million on bad investments. The couple used McCreary's remaining money to open a dress shop in Beverly Hills. The shop went out of business within months and Nolan filed for bankruptcy in August 1931. Nolan divorced McCreary in July 1932. After her exit from Universal, she was unable to secure film work with any of the major studios. Nolan spent the remainder of her acting career appearing in roles in low-budget films for independent studios. She made her final film appearances in File 113 (Chester M. Franklin, 1933), for Allied Pictures Corporation. From then on, Nolan appeared in vaudeville and performed in nightclubs and roadhouses around the United States. Later, Mary Nolan suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined. She turned to heroin, and it spelt the end. In 1948, she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems (according to IMDb, but Wikipedia writes she died of a barbiturate overdose). Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly."

 

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Eve Golden (Films of the Golden Age), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Dutch postcard, no. 60. Photo: Croese Bosman Universal.

 

Blonde and utterly beautiful Mary Nolan (1902–1948) appeared on stage, on screen, and most of all in the tabloids. After a 'sex scandal', she fled to Germany where she starred in 17 silent films under her real name, Imogene Robertson.

 

Mary Nolan was born Mary Imogene Robertson in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. in 1902 (according to Wikipedia and 1905 according to IMDb). She was one of five children born to Africanus and Viola Robertson. Her mother died of cancer at the age of 46. Unable to care for five young children, Africanus Robertson placed Mary in a foster home. She eventually went to live in a Catholic orphanage in Missouri where she earned the nickname 'Bubbles'. The beautiful blonde arrived broke in New York in 1919. Eve Golden at Films of the Golden Age: "She really was breathtaking with her perfect bone structure, a cloud of thick blonde hair, and china-blue eyes. It wasn't long before Mary got work as an artist's model for such big shots as James Montgomery Flagg and Arthur William Brown." Famous Broadway producer Oliver Morosco launched her stage career in the choruses of Daffy Dill and Lady Butterfly (1923). Bubbles proved to be a Jazz-Age baby and a party girl by nature. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. signed her up for his Follies shows on Broadway. As a showgirl, she performed under the stage name Imogene 'Bubbles' Wilson. For the next several years, she started a violent love/hate relationship with Ziegfeld comedian Frank Tinney. Tinney was married to the comedy star Edna Davenport. Tinney set Mary up in a West 72nd Street apartment and showered her with expensive gifts, but he also showered her with bruises, both physical and emotional. The abusive affair stirred up a major sex scandal in 1924. The tabloids exposed the tumultuous relationship when Mary was seriously hospitalised after one of their many arguments. Mary was fired by Ziegfeld and set sail for France where she was scheduled to appear in vaudeville. She made her way to London in October where she reunited with Frank Tinney. By December 1924, Tinney had resumed drinking and began to physically abuse her again. In early 1925, Nolan finally ended the relationship. She then travelled to Germany where she began to work in the film industry under the new stage name Imogene Robertson. Her first German film was Verborgene Gluten/Hidden Fires (Einar Bruun, 1925) with Alphons Fryland. Later that year, she appeared in the title role of Die Feuertänzerin (Robert Dinesen, 1925) for the Ufa. She received good reviews for her work in the film which prompted the Ufa to offer her a contract for $1500 a week. Nolan worked steadily in Germany from 1925 to 1927 and continued to receive favourable reviews for her acting. Her best-known films include the mystery Das Parfüm der Mrs. Worrington/The Parfum of Mrs. Worrington (Franz Seitz, 1925) with Ernst Reicher as detective Stuart Webbs, Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Nils Asther, and the drama Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines/The adventures of a 10-mark note (Berthold Viertel, 1926).

 

While in Germany, Imogene Robertson received offers from Hollywood producers to appear in American films but turned them down. She finally relented after Joseph M. Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. She returned to the United States in January 1927. To solve the problem of audiences connecting her with her scandalous past, United Artists suggested she change her name to Mary Nolan. For United Artists, she appeared in an uncredited bit part in Topsy and Eva (Del Lord, 1927), and a supporting role in Sorrell and Son (Herbert Brenon, 1927). In 1928, Nolan was signed to Universal Pictures. Her first film for the company was Good Morning, Judge (William A. Seiter, 1928), starring Reginald Denny for which she received good reviews. Universal loaned her out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928), about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralysed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). Nolan played Chaney's defiled daughter Maizie. The film was a hit and Nolan received favourable reviews for her work in the film. The following year, she was loaned to MGM again for the romantic drama Desert Nights (William Nigh, 1929), with John Gilbert. Two thieves (Noland and Ernest Torrence) victimize a diamond mine and kidnap its manager (Gilbert), but he gains the upper hand (and falls in love with Nolan) when they flee into the hostile desert. Desert Nights was another financial success and served to boost Nolan's career. Shortly after signing with Universal in 1927, Nolan had begun a relationship with another married man, studio executive Eddie Mannix. Mannix used his clout to further Nolan's career and was responsible for her loan outs to MGM. Shortly after Desert Nights was released in 1929, Mannix abruptly ended the relationship. This angered Nolan who threatened to tell Mannix's wife Bernice of their affair. Mannix became enraged and beat her unconscious. Nolan was hospitalised for six months and required fifteen surgeries to repair damage Mannix inflicted on her abdomen. While hospitalized, Nolan was prescribed morphine for pain. She eventually became addicted which contributed to the decline of her career. In the Universal production Young Desire (Lew Collins, 1930), Nolan plays Helen Herbert aka 'La Belle Helene', a carnival sideshow dancer. She falls in love with wealthy, wet-behind-the-ears Bobby Spencer who whisks her off to his hometown of Spencerville and stakes her to an apartment and a job. But Helen's sordid past catches up with her... By then, Nolan's acting career had begun to decline due to her drug abuse and reputation for being temperamental. She was fired from the film What Men Want (1930). Nolan got into an argument with the film's director, Ernst Laemmle after she learned she was the only cast member who hadn't received a close-up shot. Laemmle banned Nolan from the set and she was subsequently fired. After threatening to file a lawsuit against Universal, the studio bought her out of her contract in January 1931. She married stock broker Wallace T. McCreary on 29 March 1931. One week before they married, McCreary lost $3 million on bad investments. The couple used McCreary's remaining money to open a dress shop in Beverly Hills. The shop went out of business within months and Nolan filed for bankruptcy in August 1931. Nolan divorced McCreary in July 1932. After her exit from Universal, she was unable to secure film work with any of the major studios. Nolan spent the remainder of her acting career appearing in roles in low-budget films for independent studios. She made her final film appearances in File 113 (Chester M. Franklin, 1933), for Allied Pictures Corporation. From then on, Nolan appeared in vaudeville and performed in nightclubs and roadhouses around the United States. Later, Mary Nolan suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined. She turned to heroin, and it spelt the end. In 1948, she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems (according to IMDb, but Wikipedia writes she died of a barbiturate overdose). Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly."

 

Source: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Eve Golden (Films of the Golden Age), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

St. Albans School (STA) is an independent college preparatory day and boarding school for boys in grades 4–12, located in Washington, D.C. The school is named after Saint Alban, traditionally regarded as the first British martyr.[1] Within the St. Albans community, the school is commonly referred to as "S-T-A." It enrolls approximately 545 day students from grades 4 through 12, approximately 30 boarding students from grades 9 through 12, and is affiliated with the National Cathedral School for Girls (NCS) and the co-ed Beauvoir School – The National Cathedral Elementary School for PreKindergarten-3 students, all of which are located on the grounds of the Washington National Cathedral on Mount St. Alban in Washington. St. Albans, along with its affiliated schools on the Cathedral Close and the Washington National Cathedral, are members of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation.

 

The school was founded in 1909, with $300,000 ($7.2 million in 2015 dollars) in funding bequeathed by Harriet Lane Johnston, niece of President James Buchanan.[1] Initially, it was a school for boy choristers to the Washington National Cathedral, a program that the school continues today.[1]

 

The school mascot is the bulldog, a symbol adopted under the school’s fourth headmaster, Canon Charles S. Martin, because of Martin’s fondness for his pet bulldogs.[1] The St. Albans motto, "Pro Ecclesia et Pro Patria," translates to "For Church and Country.[1]" St. Albans requires all students to attend Chapel twice a week in The Little Sanctuary. The school seeks to develop in its students a sense of moral responsibility through Chapel, its Honor Code, and a co-curricular social service program.

  

St. Albans in 2012

A 2004 article in the Wall Street Journal found that among U.S. schools, St. Albans had the 11th-highest success rate in placing graduates at 10 selective universities.[2] In 2012, St. Albans sent 24 out of its 75 graduates, or 32%, to an Ivy league School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or Stanford, making its matriculation one of the best in the country. The class of 2013 similarly fared well, with 21 graduates attending Ivy League schools or Stanford and 2 each attending the University of Chicago and the United States Military Academy. From the 76 member class of 2014, 16 headed to the Ivy League, 2 to Stanford, 1 to Duke, and 4 to the University of Chicago.

 

A 2015 article in "Business Insider" ranked St. Albans the smartest boarding school in America.[3]

 

Almost 75% of the faculty at the school have advanced degrees.[4] The school also maintains one writer-in-residence, who teaches English classes while developing his or her work. (A past writer-in-residence is Curtis Sittenfeld, who worked on her best-selling novel Prep while at St. Albans.)[5] The school's seventh headmaster is Vance Wilson, who has also recently served as the President of the International Boys School Coalition (IBSC), a world-wide organization for all-boys schools.[6]

 

The school opened its new Upper School building - Marriott Hall - in 2009–2010. The firm Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill LLP, designed the new building, which has been the subject of articles in numerous publications, including The Washington Post, The Architects Newspaper, Building Stone Magazine, Arch Daily, Architecture DC, Mid-Atlantic Real Estate Journal, Construction, School Planning & Management, and American Society of Civil Engineers.[7]

 

Contents [hide]

1Admissions and financial aid

2Athletics

3Extracurriculars and clubs

4School of Public Service

5Summer programs

6Notable alumni

7References

8External links

Admissions and financial aid[edit]

 

St. Albans

The St. Albans application process begins in the fall prior to the student's intended year of attendance. In September, a family may schedule a tour and interview, both of which occur during a single visit and are a required component of the application process. In addition to the visit, a general application form, personal statement, teacher recommendations, standardized testing, and a school transcript are required for the application. Decisions become available in March.

 

St. Albans operates a need-blind admission policy. As a result, a student's application for financial aid has no bearing on his application for admission.[8]

 

The St. Albans Skip Grant Program offers financial aid and other support to enrolled students from a diversity of socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. This program was started by former St. Albans teacher Brooks Johnson and is now named after the program’s second director, former teacher, coach, and athletic director, Oliver “Skip” Grant.[9]

 

Athletics[edit]

Along with academics and social service, the athletic program at St. Albans is considered co-curricular and all students are required to participate. St. Albans competes in the Interstate Athletic Conference (IAC), a league of independent schools in the Washington, D.C. area. In addition to fielding varsity teams in 14 sports: cross country, football, soccer, aquatics, basketball, indoor soccer, ice hockey, wrestling, track and field, lacrosse, baseball, tennis, golf, and crew, the school offers the Voyageur Outdoor Experiential Education program in which students can participate in such sports as indoor rock climbing on a climbing wall and white water kayaking. St. Albans rock climbers compete in the Washington Area Interscholastic Climbing League and kayakers no longer participate in interscholastic competition on the Great Falls rapids of the Potomac River, because the other schools decided to stop competing.

 

In recent years, programs that have experienced success and produced significant numbers of intercollegiate athletes include baseball, crew, cross-country, football, and lacrosse. The crew team won the Virginia State Rowing Championships in 2010 and 2011, placed second at the Stotesbury Cup Regatta in 2010 and first in 2011, and placed fourth at the Scholastic Rowing Association of America Regatta in 2010 and third in 2011; cross-country has won seven IAC banners in the last 10 years, and in 2009, won the DC-MD Private Schools Championship; football has won three IAC banners in the last four years; lacrosse won the IAC in 2007. The varsity soccer team also won the IAC Championship outright in 2012 by defeating Landon in the tournament final. In addition, they emerged victorious in the first ever DCSAA tournament against Maret, securing the treble (IAC regular season champions, IAC tournament champions, DCSAA champions). On May 6, 2014, the lacrosse team knocked off then-second ranked in the nation Georgetown Prep (MD) in the last athletic contest on Saterlee-Henderson Field. A construction project renovating the athletic facilities was completed in September 2015[10] During the 2015 season, the team repeated as soccer champions, defeating Georgetown Prep in the IAC tournament final, and Washington International School in the DCSAA tournament final.

 

Extracurriculars and clubs[edit]

St. Albans has one official student newspaper, The Saint Albans News, founded in 1930. Students publish several books annually: the Albanian, the yearbook, Grace, a collection of chapel homilies, and Gyre, a literary magazine that includes a CD featuring music by the students and faculty. There is also one non-official student newspaper, The Independent.

 

The school also sponsors many political clubs including the decades-old Government Club which encourages debates between liberals and conservatives, and a Model United Nations club that competes in conferences on the East Coast of the United States. Academic teams such as "It's Academic," Fed Challenge, JETS, and a math team are also popular. Fundraising groups for charity are commonplace at the school, and most dances held at the school donate profits to charity.

 

St. Albans has an active student vestry that gives homilies in Chapel and invites guest speakers to chapel services. Each grade elects three vestry members. Form VI (Grade 12) has three vestry members in addition to the Senior Warden, a student who presides over the vestry.

 

The Upper School has a student council that serves on the disciplinary councils and organizes social events and the annual school Diversity Day (every year a different topic regarding diversity is addressed though speakers, discussion groups, and films). Each grade has three prefects, one of whom is the class president. There is also a Head Prefect, always a Form VI (Grade 12) student.

 

School of Public Service[edit]

 

The Lane-Johnston building of St. Albans School in 1910.

St. Albans established its School of Public Service ("SPS") in 2002. SPS is a residential public policy, politics, and public service program that takes place for a four-week period each summer, beginning in late June. Nearly 40 rising high school seniors are selected to participate in SPS, located at St. Albans School. SPS admits both male and female students who have already shown a great deal of interest in public service, as well as an ability to positively influence others. While in the program, students gain experiences designed to heighten not only an interest in public service but also their probability of entering into and succeeding in a career in civic leadership. SPS students are held to a high level of scholarship, using case studies (including some from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government) that are more commonly used at the graduate level.[11]

 

In addition to using the case study method—used for graduate study in law, business, and public policy—SPS students continue the dynamic learning experience outside the classroom through policy simulations, speakers, and visits and meetings with public servants from State Department Foreign Service Officers to serving Army and Marine officers. In the past several years, SPS students have (in simulation) run congressional campaigns, negotiated their way through a dangerous crisis with North Korea, taken steps to contain a flu pandemic sweeping the nation, and argued and decided Supreme Court cases on First Amendment and national security issues. In the "real" world, the SPS students have, among other things, visited the White House to talk with the White House Chief of Staff, had lunch with the Governor of Maryland, hosted a formal dinner for Ambassadors from around the world, attended screenings of "Meet the Press" and talked with host David Gregory, met with members of the U.S. Supreme Court, and chatted about fiscal policy with the Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

 

Summer programs[edit]

St. Albans offers a number of camps and classes in the summer designed for children of various ages and interests and fostering both intellectual and physical development. The diverse curriculum consists of core academic classes, as well as specialty courses in such fields as technology and study skills. On the athletic front, St. Albans has once again partnered with Headfirst, a provider of sports instruction and other recreational activities, and Power Through Sports Basketball to offer an impressive variety of camps to students. The school also offers before and after care, as well as a daily “cool down” in the St. Albans indoor pool for full-day campers. Its academic classes consist of things like robotics and chemistry.

 

Notable alumni[edit]

David C. Acheson, son of former Secretary of State Dean Acheson, lawyer, former United States Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, President of the Atlantic Council, attended and went on to graduate from Groton School[12]

K. Shankar Bajpai '44, former Indian Ambassador to the United States, China, the Netherlands, and High Commissioner to Pakistan

Malcolm Baker '87, professor at Harvard Business School and former Olympic rower

Marion Christopher Barry, businessman, son of former DC mayor Marion Barry

Charles F. Bass, United States Congressman from New Hampshire

Evan Bayh '74, former United States Senator for Indiana[13]

Ralph Becker, Mayor of Salt Lake City

Odell Beckham Jr., current wide receiver for the New York Giants, attended 7th grade after his home town was struck by Hurricane Katrina.

John Bellinger '77, legal advisor to the State Department

James Bennet, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Monthly magazine[14]

Michael Bennet '83, United States Senator for Colorado

James Boasberg '81, District Judge on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia

Tom Boasberg '82, Superintendent of Denver Public Schools

Joshua Bolten '72, former White House Chief of Staff[15]

David Bosco, journalist and assistant professor of international politics at American University

Keith Bradsher '82, journalist, The New York Times chief Hong-Kong correspondent

Brooke "Untz" Brewer '16, Former NFL athlete and World Class Sprinter

Clancy Brown '77, American actor (The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, The Shawshank Redemption, Carnivàle, and Starship Troopers) and chairman of the board of Brown Publishing Company

Olin Browne '77, Professional golfer, 3-time PGA Tour event champion[16]

Garnett Bruce '85, American opera director

Neil Bush '73, son of former President of the United States George H.W. Bush, brother of former U.S. President George W. Bush[17]

Josh Byrnes, General Manager for the San Diego Padres

Goodloe Byron '45, United States congressman from Maryland's 6th District

John Casey '57, novelist

Michael Collins '48, Apollo 11 astronaut[18]

Peter Cook, Bloomberg anchor and journalist

Walter J. Cummings, Jr., Solicitor General of the United States from 1952 to 1953; judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

Jonathan Daniels '18, White House Press Secretary, author

Eli Whitney Debevoise II '70, U.S. Executive Director of The World Bank

Brandon Victor Dixon '99, Tony-nominated Broadway actor

George M. Ferris, Jr. '44, President of the firm Ferris Baker Watts

Miles Fisher '02, television and film actor

Harold Ford Jr. '88, former United States congressman and current head of the Democratic Leadership Council[19]

Rodney Frelinghuysen '64, Congressman from New Jersey

David Gardner, co-founder of The Motley Fool

Tom Gardner, co-founder of The Motley Fool

James W. Gilchrist, Maryland Assemblyman representing Montgomery County, Maryland

Al Gore Jr. '65, former Congressman and United States Senator from Tennessee, Nobel laureate, and the 45th Vice President of the United States.

Donald E. Graham '62, former chairman of The Washington Post

Thomas N.E. Greville '27, American mathematician

Paul Greenberg '86, former CEO of CollegeHumor and current CEO of fashion magazine Nylon

Ernest Graves, Jr. '41, Lieutenant general, former director of Defense Security Cooperation Agency

Frederick Hauck '58, astronaut, commander of Space Shuttle Discovery

André Heinz '88, American environmentalist and H. John Heinz IV, members of the Heinz family

Samuel Herrick '28, American astronomer, professor at UCLA

Bill Hobby '49, Texas Lieutenant Governor 1973–91

Stuart Holliday '83, former U.S. Representative for Special Political Affairs in the United Nations and President of Meridian International Center

Jesse Hubbard '94, professional lacrosse player[20]

Danny Hultzen '08, baseball pitcher, 2nd overall pick of the 2011 Major League Baseball Draft by the Seattle Mariners

Brit Hume '61, Fox News television anchor[21]

Reed Hundt '65, former FCC Chairman[22]

Prince Feisal bin Al Hussein of Jordan '81, son of King Hussein and Princess Muna al-Hussein, and the younger brother of king Abdullah II.

Adi Ignatius '76, editor-in-chief of Harvard Business Review.

David Ignatius '68, Washington Post Columnist, author of Body of Lies[23]

Uzodinma Iweala '00, critically acclaimed author[24]

Jesse Jackson, Jr. '84, United States congressman, son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr.[25]

Steven Berlin Johnson '86, popular science author

Bo Jones '64, former publisher and CEO of the Washington Post, director of the Associated Press

Draper L. Kauffman, past Superintendent of the United States Naval Academy

Thomas Kean '53, former governor of New Jersey, chairman of the 9/11 Commission, attended 4th and 5th grades

Edward Kennedy, Jr. '79, founder of the Marwood Group, son of senator Ted Kennedy

Randall Kennedy '73, Harvard Law School professor

Tyler Kent, American diplomat convicted of spying for the Nazi Germany government during World War II

John Kerry, 68th United States Secretary of State, Democratic candidate in the United States presidential election, 2004; attended lower school for several years before graduating from St. Paul's School in New Hampshire

Nick Kotz '51, American journalist, author, and historian who won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 1968

Damian Kulash '94, lead singer of rock band OK Go[26]

Robert D. Lamberton '60, classics scholar, poet, and translator, professor at Washington University in St. Louis

Tom Ligon '58, character actor, Paint Your Wagon (film), Bang the Drum Slowly, The Young and the Restless, Oz

Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., former United States Senator from Massachusetts, United States Ambassador to United Nations, South Vietnam, and Special Envoy to the Vatican, and 1960 Vice Presidential Candidate.

John Davis Lodge, 79th Governor of Connecticut, and former United States Ambassador to Spain, Argentina, and Switzerland.

Nick Lowery '74, former professional football player, Kansas City Chiefs

C. Max Magee '96, founder of The Millions

J. W. Marriott, Jr. '50, billionaire, chairman and former CEO of Marriott International

Richard E. Marriott '56, billionaire, brother of J. W. Marriott, Jr. and CEO of Host Hotels & Resorts

Jay Pierrepont Moffat, Jr. '49, U.S. diplomat, ambassador to Chad

William H. Mondale '80, Assistant Attorney General for the State of Minnesota, son of former Vice President of the United States Walter Mondale

Arthur Cotton Moore '54, architect known for the Washington Harbour development, renovation of the Thomas Jefferson Building, and the restoration of The Cairo.

Bill Oakley '84, former executive producer of The Simpsons

Jonathan Ogden '92, former professional football player, 2000 Super Bowl Champion, 2013 NFL Hall of Fame inductee Baltimore Ravens

Jameson Parker, former co-star of 1980s television series Simon & Simon

Michael J. Petrucelli, Founder, Clearpath Inc., Deputy Director and Acting Director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services at the US Department of Homeland Security

Laughlin Phillips '42, former director of The Phillips Collection

David Plotz '86, writer and editor at Slate

Ben Quayle, son of Dan Quayle and former Congressman from Arizona

John D. Rockefeller V '88, lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, eldest son of West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller, and fifth generation member of the Rockefeller family

Justin Rockefeller '98, political activist and fifth generation member of the Rockefeller family

James Roosevelt, son of Franklin Roosevelt, Congressman from California, attended and went on to graduate from Groton School

Kermit Roosevelt III '88, novelist, law professor University of Pennsylvania

Mark Roosevelt '74, superintendent of the Pittsburgh Public Schools, President of Antioch College

Alex Ross '86, music critic of The New Yorker, MacArthur Fellow

Luke Russert '04, NBC correspondent and XM Satellite radio host, son of Tim Russert,[27]

Hib Sabin '53, American sculptor and educator

Barton Seaver '97, Chef and author

Timothy Shriver '77, Chairman of Special Olympics[28] son of Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Sargent Shriver;

Bruce Smathers, former Florida Secretary of State, son of US Senator George Smathers

Frank M. Snowden III '64, son of African American scholar Frank M. Snowden, Jr., Professor of History at Yale University[29]

Tomas Eduardo Müller Sproat '63, Chilean Ambassador to the United Kingdom

Burr Steers, director of the film Igby Goes Down

Andrew Stevovich '66, artist

Ned Temko '70, editor of The Jewish Chronicle

Russell E. Train '37, former Director of the EPA, Founder Chairman Emeritus of World Wildlife Fund

James "Jimmie"Trimble III '43, baseball player and marine, killed in action at Iwo Jima [30]

Gore Vidal, author/writer, attended and went on to graduate from Phillips Exeter Academy

Peter Jon de Vos '56, former United States Ambassador to Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Tanzania, and Costa Rica

The Walkmen, musicians (four out of the five members attended)[26]

John Warner, former United States Secretary of the Navy, five-term Republican Senator from Virginia, attended but did not graduate

Josh Weinstein '84, former executive producer of The Simpsons

Jonathan Williams, American poet, founder of The Jargon Society

John C. White '94, Louisiana Superintendent of Education since 2012[31]

Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island Attorney General and Senator, attended and went on to graduate from St. Paul's School

Thomas Wilner '62, lawyer at Shearman & Sterling who represented Guantanamo Bay detention camp detainees

Robert Wisdom '72, actor, played Bunny Colvin on HBO's The Wire

Paul Woodruff '60, classicist, professor, dean at the University of Texas at Austin

Jeffrey Wright '83, Emmy and Tony Award-winning actor (Angels in America, Basquiat, Syriana)[32]

Joon Yun '86, Korean-American physician and hedge fund manager

Jeffrey Zients '84, Director of the Office of Management & Budget, Businessman, first Chief Performance Officer of the United States

Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5722. Photo: Universal-Film, Berlin.

 

Blonde and utterly beautiful Mary Nolan (1902-1948) appeared on stage, on screen, and most of all in the tabloids. After a 'sex scandal', she fled to Germany where she starred in 17 silent films under her real name, Imogene Robertson.

 

Mary Nolan was born Mary Imogene Robertson in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. in 1902 (according to Wikipedia and 1905 according to IMDb). She was one of five children born to Africanus and Viola Robertson. Her mother died of cancer at the age of 46. Unable to care for five young children, Africanus Robertson placed Mary in a foster home. She eventually went to live in a Catholic orphanage in Missouri where she earned the nickname 'Bubbles'. The beautiful blonde arrived broke in New York in 1919. Eve Golden at Films of the Golden Age: "She really was breathtaking with her perfect bone structure, a cloud of thick blonde hair, and china-blue eyes. It wasn't long before Mary got work as an artist's model for such big shots as James Montgomery Flagg and Arthur William Brown." Famous Broadway producer Oliver Morosco launched her stage career in the choruses of Daffy Dill and Lady Butterfly (1923). Bubbles proved to be a Jazz-Age baby and a party girl by nature. Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. signed her up for his Follies shows on Broadway. As a showgirl, she performed under the stage name Imogene 'Bubbles' Wilson. For the next several years, she started a violent love/hate relationship with Ziegfeld comedian Frank Tinney. Tinney was married to the comedy star Edna Davenport. Tinney set Mary up in a West 72nd Street apartment and showered her with expensive gifts, but he also showered her with bruises, both physical and emotional. The abusive affair stirred up a major sex scandal in 1924. The tabloids exposed the tumultuous relationship when Mary was seriously hospitalised after one of their many arguments. Mary was fired by Ziegfeld and set sail for France where she was scheduled to appear in vaudeville. She made her way to London in October where she reunited with Frank Tinney. By December 1924, Tinney had resumed drinking and began to physically abuse her again. In early 1925, Nolan finally ended the relationship. She then travelled to Germany where she began to work in the film industry under the new stage name Imogene Robertson. Her first German film was Verborgene Gluten/Hidden Fires (Einar Bruun, 1925) with Alphons Fryland. Later that year, she appeared in the title role of Die Feuertänzerin (Robert Dinesen, 1925) for the Ufa. She received good reviews for her work in the film which prompted the Ufa to offer her a contract for $1500 a week. Nolan worked steadily in Germany from 1925 to 1927 and continued to receive favourable reviews for her acting. Her best-known films include the mystery Das Parfüm der Mrs. Worrington/The Parfum of Mrs. Worrington (Franz Seitz, 1925) with Ernst Reicher as detective Stuart Webbs, Das süße Mädel/The sweet girl (Manfred Noa, 1926) with Nils Asther, and the drama Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines/The adventures of a 10-mark note (Berthold Viertel, 1926).

 

While in Germany, Imogene Robertson received offers from Hollywood producers to appear in American films but turned them down. She finally relented after Joseph M. Schenck offered her a contract with United Artists. She returned to the United States in January 1927. To solve the problem of audiences connecting her with her scandalous past, United Artists suggested she change her name to Mary Nolan. For United Artists, she appeared in an uncredited bit part in Topsy and Eva (Del Lord, 1927), and a supporting role in Sorrell and Son (Herbert Brenon, 1927). In 1928, Nolan was signed to Universal Pictures. Her first film for the company was Good Morning, Judge (William A. Seiter, 1928), starring Reginald Denny for which she received good reviews. Universal loaned her out to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for West of Zanzibar (Tod Browning, 1928), about the vengefulness of a cuckolded magician (Lon Chaney) paralysed in a brawl with his rival (Lionel Barrymore). Nolan played Chaney's defiled daughter Maizie. The film was a hit and Nolan received favourable reviews for her work in the film. The following year, she was loaned to MGM again for the romantic drama Desert Nights (William Nigh, 1929), with John Gilbert. Two thieves (Noland and Ernest Torrence) victimize a diamond mine and kidnap its manager (Gilbert), but he gains the upper hand (and falls in love with Nolan) when they flee into the hostile desert. Desert Nights was another financial success and served to boost Nolan's career. Shortly after signing with Universal in 1927, Nolan had begun a relationship with another married man, studio executive Eddie Mannix. Mannix used his clout to further Nolan's career and was responsible for her loan outs to MGM. Shortly after Desert Nights was released in 1929, Mannix abruptly ended the relationship. This angered Nolan who threatened to tell Mannix's wife Bernice of their affair. Mannix became enraged and beat her unconscious. Nolan was hospitalised for six months and required fifteen surgeries to repair damage Mannix inflicted on her abdomen. While hospitalized, Nolan was prescribed morphine for pain. She eventually became addicted which contributed to the decline of her career. In the Universal production Young Desire (Lew Collins, 1930), Nolan plays Helen Herbert aka 'La Belle Helene', a carnival sideshow dancer. She falls in love with wealthy, wet-behind-the-ears Bobby Spencer who whisks her off to his hometown of Spencerville and stakes her to an apartment and a job. But Helen's sordid past catches up with her... By then, Nolan's acting career had begun to decline due to her drug abuse and reputation for being temperamental. She was fired from the film What Men Want (1930). Nolan got into an argument with the film's director, Ernst Laemmle after she learned she was the only cast member who hadn't received a close-up shot. Laemmle banned Nolan from the set and she was subsequently fired. After threatening to file a lawsuit against Universal, the studio bought her out of her contract in January 1931. She married stock broker Wallace T. McCreary on 29 March 1931. One week before they married, McCreary lost $3 million on bad investments. The couple used McCreary's remaining money to open a dress shop in Beverly Hills. The shop went out of business within months and Nolan filed for bankruptcy in August 1931. Nolan divorced McCreary in July 1932. After her exit from Universal, she was unable to secure film work with any of the major studios. Nolan spent the remainder of her acting career appearing in roles in low-budget films for independent studios. She made her final film appearances in File 113 (Chester M. Franklin, 1933), for Allied Pictures Corporation. From then on, Nolan appeared in vaudeville and performed in nightclubs and roadhouses around the United States. Later, Mary Nolan suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined. She turned to heroin, and it spelt the end. In 1948, she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems (according to IMDb, but Wikipedia writes she died of a barbiturate overdose). Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly."

 

Source: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Eve Golden (Films of the Golden Age), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Deep Peace Carving By Michael Appleby

 

In the quiet corners of the world, where nature and humanity harmoniously blend, there exists a gifted artist whose hands dance upon the canvas of wood. His name is Michael Appleby, and his art is a testament to the profound connection he shares with the natural world. The gentle strokes of his carving tools bring forth intricate and mesmerizing pieces, each imbued with a sense of deep peace that resonates with all who behold them.

 

Michael's journey into the realm of wood carving began in his early childhood. Growing up in a small village nestled between majestic mountains and a serene river, he spent his days exploring the forests and meadows. Nature became his playground, and the trees and stones became his friends. It was during these formative years that Michael's love for the wilderness began to intertwine with his artistic inclinations.

 

As he grew older, Michael honed his skills as an artist, experimenting with various mediums such as charcoal, paint, and clay. However, it was when he stumbled upon an old, weathered carving knife in his grandfather's attic that he discovered his true calling. The rusty blade seemed to resonate with a hidden energy, whispering tales of untold beauty locked within the wood.

 

Under the guidance of his grandfather, a skilled carpenter in his own right, Michael learned the basics of wood carving. Initially, he carved simple shapes and patterns, but as his passion grew, so did the complexity of his work. His designs began to mirror the intricate patterns found in nature – delicate leaves, graceful tendrils, and animals caught in moments of serene stillness.

 

As Michael's reputation as a wood carver grew, so did his appreciation for the environment. He recognized the urgent need to protect the very source of his inspiration. Believing that art could be a catalyst for change, he started using his work to advocate for conservation and the preservation of nature's wonders.

 

One of Michael's most renowned pieces, "Deep Peace," embodies his artistic philosophy and his commitment to the natural world. It is an exquisite representation of a tranquil forest scene carved into a massive slab of oak. The carving depicts a dense canopy of trees, their branches intermingling like old friends holding hands. Below, a gentle stream winds its way through the underbrush, where woodland creatures find solace in the presence of one another.

 

What sets "Deep Peace" apart is not merely its stunning craftsmanship, but the emotional depth it conveys. Michael's reverence for nature is palpable in every groove and curve, as if the spirit of the forest itself guided his hand. The piece seems to whisper ancient tales of forgotten wisdom and the interconnectedness of all living beings.

 

To bring this masterpiece to life, Michael spent countless hours immersed in the rhythm of the carving process. His workshop, surrounded by the very woods that fueled his imagination, became a sanctuary where time seemed to slow down. With each stroke of the knife, he surrendered to the wood's will, allowing the raw material to dictate the path of the art.

 

Michael's connection with the natural world was not limited to his art alone. He embarked on numerous expeditions into remote wilderness areas, seeking new inspiration and gaining a deeper understanding of the delicate balance of ecosystems. These adventures not only enriched his creativity but also fueled his desire to protect these sacred spaces from the encroachment of modern development.

 

Through his work and advocacy, Michael Appleby became a champion of environmental conservation, inspiring others to cherish and protect the natural world. His art exhibitions became platforms for raising awareness and funding for various environmental causes. His carvings also found homes in galleries, museums, and private collections around the world, serving as a reminder of the beauty and fragility of the Earth's ecosystems.

 

As his artistic journey continued, Michael's carvings evolved to include not only scenes of nature but also portraits of the people and cultures he encountered during his travels. With each piece, he sought to capture the essence of the human experience and the profound interconnectedness between all living things.

 

One of his most moving pieces, "Elders of the Plains," showcases the faces of indigenous elders etched into a towering totem pole. Each wrinkled visage tells a story of resilience, wisdom, and a deep-rooted bond with the land they have called home for generations. The totem serves as a testament to the strength of these communities and the urgent need to protect their ancestral territories.

 

Michael's journey as an artist and conservationist has not been without its challenges. The changing climate, deforestation, and the relentless march of progress all posed threats to the delicate balance of the natural world he held dear. Yet, in the face of adversity, his art continued to be a beacon of hope and a call to action for all who beheld it.

 

As the years passed, Michael's creations began to take on a new dimension. Collaborations with musicians, dancers, and writers allowed his art to transcend traditional boundaries and create immersive experiences that touched the hearts and souls of those who experienced them. His art installations became interactive sanctuaries, where visitors could reconnect with nature and their own inner peace.

 

Michael's commitment to the environment and his pursuit of deep peace through art garnered international recognition. He received numerous awards and accolades, but to him, the true reward was seeing how his art inspired positive change in the world. The awareness generated by his work contributed to the establishment of protected areas, reforestation projects, and the support of indigenous communities.

 

In an ever-changing world, Michael Appleby's art stands as a testament to the power of creativity, compassion, and the deep connection between humanity and nature. It serves as a reminder that each stroke of kindness, each act of preservation, and each endeavor to protect the environment can have a profound impact on the world around us.

 

In the end, "Deep Peace" is not merely a carving etched into wood; it is a reflection of the artist's soul, a mirror of the world's beauty, and a beacon of hope for a better, more harmonious future. Michael's journey continues, and his art continues to touch the lives of countless individuals, spreading a message of reverence for nature and the transformative power of creativity.

 

And so, with each new carving that graces the world, Michael Appleby's legacy endures – a legacy of deep peace, artistry, and a profound love for the natural world. As long as there are forests to inspire, rivers to whisper, and mountains to sing, his art will echo in the hearts of all who seek solace, wonder, and the enchantment of the wild.

 

The Cathedral Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, commonly known as St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Scottish Episcopal Church in the West End of Edinburgh, Scotland; part of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

 

Its foundation stone was laid in Palmerston Place, on 21 May 1874 by the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, and the building was consecrated on 30 October 1879.

 

St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral is the Mother Church of all Scottish Episcopal churches in the Edinburgh Diocese, which stretches from the Firth of Forth down to the English border. There are seven dioceses in Scotland. St Mary’s is the see of the Lord Bishop of Edinburgh, one of the seven bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church.

 

It was designed in a Victorian Gothic revival style by architect Sir George Gilbert Scott. It has attained Category A listed building status, and is part of the Old Town and New Town of Edinburgh World Heritage Site. The cathedral is one of only three in the United Kingdom that feature three spires, the other two being Lichfield and Truro cathedrals. The main spire is 90 metres (295 ft) tall, making the building the tallest in the Edinburgh urban area. The other two spires were completed in 1917. The Song School and the Chapter House were also added in later years.

 

History

In 1689, following the Glorious Revolution, Presbyterianism was restored in place of episcopacy in the national Church of Scotland. This led to the emergence of the Scottish Episcopal Church as a separate Christian denomination.

 

Edinburgh's historic St Giles' Cathedral was raised to cathedral status in 1633, the seat of the newly established Bishop of Edinburgh. However the rejection of episcopacy saw the cathedral converted to Presbyterian use. For a time the Episcopal residue of that congregation worshipped in an old woollen mill in Carrubber's Close, near the site of the present Old St Paul's Church.

 

A bequest by Barbara and Mary Walker left the cathedral's site in Edinburgh's West End to the Episcopal Church alongside an endowment. administered by the Walker Trustees, allowing for the building of a cathedral dedicated to St Mary the Virgin. The sisters owned the surrounding Drumsheugh Estate and lived in Easter Coates House, which survives to the north of the cathedral. They were the granddaughters of the Rev. George Walker, the Episcopal minister of Oldmeldrum Church (1734–1781). Their father, William Walker, was Attorney in Exchequer, and Bearer of the White Rod of Scotland; their mother was Mary Drummond, daughter of George Drummond, six times Lord Provost of Edinburgh and initiator of the New Town. William Walker bought the Coates estate from the Byres family around 1800 and is remembered in the street names William Street and Walker Street round the corner from Manor Place.

 

Design and construction

The cathedral was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and the foundation stone was laid on 21 May 1874 by the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, whose family had been supportive of Scottish episcopacy over the previous hundred years. Inside the stone was placed a bottle containing a copy of the trust deed, the Edinburgh Post Office Directory, Oliver and Boyd's Almanac, newspapers and coins. The cathedral's builder was G. W. Booth and the clerk of works was Edwin Morgan.

 

St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral has four main doors: the west, east, north and south doors. The cathedral's main entrance is the ornate west entrance, from Palmerston Place, which features Saint Peter and the key to the Kingdom of Heaven.

 

In preparation for the opening of the cathedral a congregation had been formed to worship in a temporary iron church erected on the site now occupied by the Song School. Beginning on 26 May 1876, it was ministered to by the dean, James Montgomery, and two chaplains, and grew rapidly. The nave of the cathedral was opened on 25 January 1879 and from that day, daily services have been held in the cathedral. The cathedral was consecrated on 30 October 1879 in the presence of about 200 clergy from around the country.

 

The twin spires at the west end, known as "Barbara" and "Mary" after the Walker sisters, were not begun until 1913 and completed in 1917. The architect for these was Charles Marriott Oldrid Scott, Sir George's grandson.

 

The reredos is designed by John Oldrid Scott and sculpted by Mary Grant. The critic Sacheverell Sitwell condemned the design as "peerless for ugliness, unless it be for its own sister, Scott's St John's College chapel, at Cambridge".

 

Music

Choral services

St Mary's Cathedral is the only cathedral in Scotland to maintain a tradition of daily choral services, for most of the year, with choristers drawn from its own choir school.

 

It was the first cathedral in Great Britain to employ girls in the treble line as well as boys, in 1978, when Dennis Townhill was organist and choir master. In 2005, St Mary's Cathedral became the first cathedral in the Anglican tradition to have a female alto singing in daily services.

Song School

 

The Song School was built in 1885. It was designed by John Oldrid Scott. It provided St Mary's choir with a rehearsal space which the choir use for their daily practice. It houses a second Father Willis organ (1829). The Song School walls are ornately decorated by the Irish-born artist Phoebe Anna Traquair. Guided tours of the Song School are available, at certain times during the year.

 

St Mary's Music School and choir

St Mary's Music School was founded to educate its choirboys. It continues to educate choristers of the cathedral and is now a separate specialist music school open to all pupils.

 

Bells

There are ten original bells in the central tower of the cathedral hung for change ringing, with two further bells which have been added more recently. They were the gift of the first dean of St Mary's, James F. Montgomery. The bells were all cast by John Taylor & Co. of Loughborough to weight ratios defined by Lord Grimthorpe who was a leading bell designer of his day. This is one of only a few complete Grimthorpe rings still in existence. The tenor bell weighs 41 cwt. The bells were dedicated on 29 October 1879.

Festival Fringe venue

 

St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral (Venue 91) hosts classical concerts, coffee concerts, lunchtime recitals, art events and exhibitions, during the annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

 

St Mary's also has an active calendar of concerts, charity concerts, events and exhibitions throughout the year.

Organists

T. H. Collinson

 

1878 Thomas Henry Collinson

1929 Robert Head

1958 Eric Parsons

1961 Dennis Townhill

1991 Timothy Byram-Wigfield

1999 Matthew Owens

2005 Simon Nieminski

2007 (to current day) Duncan Ferguson (Master of Music & Organist)

 

Provosts of the cathedral

The provost in the Scottish Episcopalian church is the senior priest of the cathedral, with responsibility for the mother church of the diocese. When the bishop officiates, the provost is assistant priest. They are formally addressed as The Very Reverend and more informally as Provost or simply .

 

1879–1897 James Montgomery

1897–1919 John Wilson

1920–1925 Edward Henderson

1925–1938 William Margetson

1938–1939 Logie Danson

1940–1944 David Dunlop

1944–1949 Ivor Ramsay

1949–1956 Hector Gooderham

1957–1967 Reginald Foskett

1967–1970 Patrick Rodger

1970–1990 Philip Crosfield

1990–2017 Graham Forbes

September 2017 (to current day) John Conway

 

Objects of interest

Memorials

Captain James Dundas V.C. (1842–1879)

General Sir Alexander Frank Philip Christison Bt. (1893–1993), erected by the Burma Star Association

Soldiers of the Royal Scots killed overseas 1857–1870

Reclining marble effigy of James Francis Montgomery (1902) by James Pittendrigh Macgillivray.

Barbara and Mary Walker, the philanthropists who funded the church (see above)

 

The war memorial is by Pilkington Jackson (1920).

Rood cross

 

The Lorimer rood cross was designed as part of the National War Memorial, and completed by Sir Robert Lorimer in 1922. It is positioned high aloft the nave altar, unmissable as eyes lift to view the high altar, or the east lancet windows beyond. It is a striking figure of Christ crucified on a background of Flanders poppies and decorated with golden winged angels.

 

Walter Scott's pew

Sir Walter Scott’s pew moved to the cathedral in 2006. Its first location was in St George's Church on York Place and was then moved in 1932 to St Paul's Church across the road when the two congregations amalgamated, and the latter building became St Paul's and St George's.

 

Raised a Presbyterian in the Church of Scotland where he was ordained as an elder, in adult life he also adhered to the doctrine of the Scottish Episcopal Church.

Paolozzi’s ‘Millennium Window’

 

The cathedral is home to a stained-glass window reworked as an artwork in the Modern Art genre for year 2000 by Eduardo Paolozzi who was born in Leith. The glasswork consists of a large rose window with three lancet windows below, in vibrant colours of glass which are designed to project onto stonework inside the cathedral on bright days.

 

It is visible from the south side of St Mary's from Bishop's Walk but is best viewed from inside with the light behind, from either the Resurrection Chapel on the south side, or beside the ornate wooden casing and pipework of St Mary's ‘Father Willis’ organ on the north side.

Prayer labyrinth

 

The south grounds of the cathedral are accessed from Bishop's Walk or from the south doors in the Resurrection Chapel when these stand open.

 

A prayer labyrinth designed by artists connected with the cathedral has been carved and sown with wild flowers, with help from others in the congregation of St Mary's. Unlike a maze, a labyrinth is a single continuous route, from entry point to centre. The prayer labyrinth frees you to think your own thoughts or prayers for others, as you follow the path, edged by wild flowers; to attract insects.

 

Midlothian is a historic county, registration county, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian lies in the east-central Lowlands, bordering the City of Edinburgh council area, East Lothian and the Scottish Borders.

 

Midlothian emerged as a county in the Middle Ages under larger boundaries than the modern council area, including Edinburgh itself. The county was formally called the "shire of Edinburgh" or Edinburghshire until the twentieth century. It bordered West Lothian to the west, Lanarkshire, Peeblesshire and Selkirkshire to the south, and East Lothian, Berwickshire and Roxburghshire to the east. Traditional industries included mining, agriculture and fishing—although the modern council area is now landlocked.

 

Following the end of the Roman occupation of Britain, Lothian was populated by Brythonic-speaking ancient Britons and formed part of Gododdin, within the Hen Ogledd or Old North. In the seventh century, Gododdin fell to the Angles, with Lothian becoming part of the kingdom of Bernicia. Bernicia united into the Kingdom of Northumbria which itself became part of the early Kingdom of England. Lothian came under the control of the Scottish monarchy in the tenth century.

 

In the Middle Ages, Lothian was the scene of several historic conflicts between the kingdoms of Scotland and England. The Battle of Roslin took place in 1303 at Roslin as part of the First War of Scottish Independence. A Scottish army led by Simon Fraser and John Comyn defeated an army led by English commander John Segrave.

 

Along with other parts of the Lothians, the county was involved in the Rough Wooing when Roslin Castle, seat of the Earl of Caithness, was destroyed in 1544 by forces of Henry VIII of England.

 

In the 17th century, the county featured in the War of the Three Kingdoms, where General George Monck had his base at Dalkeith Castle as the Commonwealth's Commander in Scotland. Following the Restoration of the monarchy, the "Pentland Rising" in the region culminated with the Battle of Rullion Green in 1666, a decisive victory for the Government forces against Covenanter rebels.

 

In 1650, Oliver Cromwell's army came to Dalkeith. His officer General George Monck, was Commander in Scotland, and the government of the country was based out of Dalkeith castle.

 

The 1878-80 Midlothian campaign by British Liberal politician William Ewart Gladstone entered history as an early example of modern political campaigning, resulting in Gladstone taking the Midlothian constituency from the long-time Conservative Member of Parliament William Montagu Douglas Scott and going on to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

 

On 1 June 1978, Midlothian became Sister Cities with Midlothian, Illinois.

 

The modern council area of Midlothian is governed by Midlothian Council, based in Dalkeith.

 

The origins of the historic county of Midlothian are obscure; it emerged as a shire (the area controlled by a sheriff) in the Middle Ages, and was certainly in existence by the reign of David I (reigned 1124–1153). It covered the central part of the former kingdom or province of Lothian, and was formally called the "shire of Edinburgh" or "Edinburghshire", although the alternative name "Midlothian" was also used from a very early date. The burgh of Edinburgh became administratively independent from the surrounding county in 1482 when James III granted the burgh the right to appoint its own sheriff and coroner, making it a county of itself.

 

Commissioners of Supply were established for each shire in 1667, and served as the main administrative body for the county until elected county councils were created in 1890 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, taking most of the commissioners' functions. The commissioners for Edinburghshire, and the county council which followed them, did not have jurisdiction over the city of Edinburgh, which was administered by the town council of the burgh.

 

From its creation in 1890 the county council called itself "Midlothian County Council". However, the legal name of the county remained the "county of Edinburgh" or "Edinburghshire". In 1913 the county council petitioned the government to formally change the name to Midlothian. The government responded that it would direct all government departments to use Midlothian rather than Edinburghshire, but that a formal change of name needed to be done by statute and it could not justify the parliamentary time to make such a change. The statutory change of name from Edinburghshire to Midlothian eventually took place in 1947, under section 127 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947.

 

Midlothian County Council was based at Midlothian County Buildings, built in 1904 on George IV Bridge in Edinburgh on the site of the earlier County Buildings.

 

Midlothian was abolished as a county for local government purposes in 1975. The boundaries of the historic county of Midlothian, including the city of Edinburgh, are still used for some limited official purposes connected with land registration, being a registration county.

 

Midlothian County Council was abolished in 1975 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, which abolished Scotland's counties and burghs as administrative areas and created a new two-tier system of upper-tier regions and lower-tier districts. Most of Midlothian's territory went to a new district called Midlothian within the Lothian region. The Midlothian district was smaller than the area of the pre-1975 county, with the parts of the pre-1975 county going to other districts being:

 

Currie, Balerno, Ratho and Newbridge to the city of Edinburgh.

Musselburgh burgh and parish of Inveresk (which included the villages of Inveresk, Wallyford and Whitecraig) to East Lothian.

The Calders (East Calder, Midcalder and West Calder) and the Midlothian part of Livingston to West Lothian.

Heriot and Stow parishes to the Ettrick and Lauderdale district of the Borders region.

 

For lieutenancy purposes, the last lord-lieutenant of the county of Midlothian was made lord-lieutenant for the new district of Midlothian when the reforms came into effect in 1975. The former county council's headquarters in Edinburgh became the offices of the new Lothian Regional Council, whilst the Midlothian District Council established its headquarters in Dalkeith. In 1991 the council built itself a new headquarters called Midlothian House at 40-46 Buccleuch Street in Dalkeith.

 

The Lothian region was abolished in 1996. The four districts in the region, including Midlothian, became unitary council areas. The reconstituted Midlothian Council continues to be based at Midlothian House in Dalkeith. The Midlothian lieutenancy area corresponds to the current council area rather than the historic county.

 

There is a Midlothian constituency of the House of Commons.

 

There was a Midlothian constituency of the Scottish Parliament up to the 2011 elections when it was divided between Midlothian North and Musselburgh and Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale.

 

The Midlothian council area contains the towns of Dalkeith, Bonnyrigg and Penicuik, as well as a portion of the Pentland Hills Regional Park, Rosslyn Chapel and Dalkeith Palace.

 

The historic county has a roughly trapezoidal shape; it consists of a fairly flat area along the Firth of Forth, which is heavily urbanised and dominated by the Edinburgh conurbation. Off the coast lie the small islands of Inchmickery and Cramond Island. The land gradually rises to the south, with the Pentland Hills in the south-west, Moorfoot Hills in the centre-south and the Lammermuir Hills in the far south-east. Blackhope Scar on the border with Peeblesshire is the highest point in the county at 651 m (2,136 ft). The county contains no lochs of any size, though there are many reservoirs, most notably Gladhouse Reservoir, Rosebery Reservoir, Edgelaw Reservoir, Loganlea Reservoir, Glencorse Reservoir, Threipmuir Reservoir, Harlaw Reservoir, Harperrig Reservoir, Crosswood Reservoir, Morton Reservoir and Cobbinshaw Reservoir.

 

Notable people associated with Midlothian

 

William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585–1649), Scottish poet.

Princess Margaret of Scotland (1598–1600), daughter of James VI and I of Scotland and England (born Dalkeith Palace)

John Clerk of Penicuik, 2nd Baronet (1676–1755), was a Scottish politician, lawyer, judge, composer and architect.

William Robertson (1721–1793), historian, minister in the Church of Scotland, and Principal of the University of Edinburgh

Robert Smith (1722–1777), American architect, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, born in Dalkeith

Hector Macneill (1746–1818), poet and songwriter, born near Roslin

John Clerk, Lord Eldin (1757–1832), Scottish judge, lived in Lasswade for several years.

Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) wrote the novel The Heart of Midlothian and lived at Lasswade Cottage (now Sir Walter Scott's Cottage) in Lasswade from 1798 to 1804, where he wrote his Grey Brother, translation of Goetz von Berlichingen, etc. and was visited by Wordsworth.

William Tennant (1784–1848), the author of Anster Fair, was parish schoolmaster in Lasswade from 1816 to 1819.

Thomas de Quincey (1785–1859), author of Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1822), lived in Man's Bush Cottage (now De Quincey Cottage), Polton, from 1840 until his death in 1859.

Thomas Murray (1792–1872), the Gallovidian author, died in Lasswade.

Anne Richelieu Lamb (1807–1878), feminist writer

William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898), MP for Midlothian 1880–1895 and conducted his famous Midlothian campaign across the UK in 1880

Patrick Edward Dove (1815–1873), mainly remembered for his book The Theory of Human Progression, born at Lasswade

John Lawson Johnston (1839–1900), the creator of Bovril, born at Roslin.

Charles W. Nibley (1849–1931), Scottish-American religious leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Nibley was served as second counselor in the First Presidency to Heber J. Grant (1925–31), and Presiding Bishop (1907–25).

Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (1869–1959) of Glencorse, Nobel prize-winning physicist.

George Forrest (1873–1932), a plant collector who gained fame with his expeditions to the far east who spent a significant part of his early years in Loanhead.

Sir William MacTaggart (1903–1981), artist, and grandson of the artist William McTaggart, he became President of the Society of Scottish Artists, President of the Royal Scottish Academy, and Trustee of the National Museum of Antiquities.

Charles Forte, Baron Forte (1908–2007), the hotelier, worked in an Italian cafe in Loanhead, on his arrival in Scotland from Italy.

Karl Miller (1931–2014), founding editor of the London Review of Books and Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College, London (1974–1992), born in Straiton.

Annette Crosbie (born 1934), actress, born in Gorebridge Ishbel MacAskill (1941–2011), heritage activist and traditional Scottish Gaelic singer and teacher

Gary Naysmith from Loanhead (born 1978), Scottish International Footballer who played for Heart of Midlothian and Everton. He was named Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year in 1998. He won the Scottish Cup with Hearts in 1998.

Darren Fletcher (born 1984), from Mayfield Dalkeith. Scotland International footballer and holds the record of being the youngest player to captain his national side, and was part of the Manchester United squad that won the UEFA Champions League in the 2007–2008 season.

Steven Whittaker from Bonnyrigg, (born 1984), Scotland International footballer, ex-Hibernian F.C. and Rangers F.C.