Harold Homer Chase (February 13, 1883 in Los Gatos, California – May 18, 1947 in Colusa, California), nicknamed "Prince Hal", was a first baseman in Major League Baseball, widely viewed as the best fielder at his position. During his career, he played for the New York Highlanders (1905–1913), Chicago White Sox (1913–1914), Buffalo Blues (1914–1915), Cincinnati Reds (1916–1918), and New York Giants (1919).

No lesser figures than Babe Ruth and Walter Johnson named him the best first baseman ever, and contemporary reports describe his glovework as outstanding. He is sometimes considered the first true star of the franchise that would eventually become the New York Yankees. In 1981, 62 years after his last major league game, baseball historians Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig included him in their book The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time.

Despite being an excellent hitter and his reputation as a peerless defensive player, Chase's legacy was tainted by a litany of corruption. He allegedly gambled on baseball games, and also engaged in suspicious play in order to throw games in which he played.

Career[link]

Chase attended Santa Clara College, where he played college baseball. He signed his first contract with the Los Angeles Angels of the Class-A Pacific Coast League in 1904. The New York Highlanders selected Chase from Los Angeles in the 1904 Rule 5 draft on October 4, 1904.

Chase joined the Highlanders in 1905, and held out during March 1907, threatening to sign with the outlaw California League if the Highlanders did not increase his salary.^[1][2] though he agreed to join the Highlanders in April 1907.^[3] He served as player–manager in 1910 and 1911. The Yankees traded Chase to the Chicago White Sox for Babe Borton and Rollie Zeider on June 1, 1913. Before the 1914 season, Chase jumped from the White Sox to the Buffalo Buffeds of the Federal League.

Following a spell in the short-lived Federal League, he went to the Reds. In 1916, Chase led the NL with a .339 batting average.^[4] After Buck Herzog was fired as Reds manager in 1917, Chase was again passed over for management in favor of Christy Mathewson.

On February 19, 1919, the Reds traded Chase to the New York Giants for Walter Holke and Bill Rariden. It has long been rumored that the Giants acquired him after Mathewson let it be known he wanted nothing to do with Chase. However, this story is belied by the fact that Mathewson signed on with the Giants (where he had starred for many years as a pitcher) as assistant manager to John McGraw; moreover, after McGraw took a leave of absence from the team near the end of the 1919 season, Mathewson named Chase as first base coach.

Corruption[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Chase faced allegations of wrongdoing as early as 1910, when his manager, George Stallings, claimed that Chase was "laying down" in games. This claim was later made by Stallings' successor as manager of the Highlanders, Frank Chance. Yet, during this era, gambling was so rampant that whenever a player was not at his best, particularly in a big city such as New York, there were claims of players laying down, whether it was true or not. Stallings' claims may have resulted from a feud between him and Chase. While Chance allegedly made the same claim, he later told management that Chase was giving his all, but his abilities were in a state of decline.

Midway through the 1918 season, Chase allegedly paid pitcher Jimmy Ring $50 ($773 today) to throw a game against the Giants. Mathewson got wind of it and suspended Chase for the rest of the season. Mathewson brought formal charges against Chase for fixing games, but National League president John Heydler acquitted him. Heydler had told sportswriter Fred Lieb in private that he believed Chase had bet on baseball, but did not have enough evidence to convict him.

After the end of the season, an unknown individual sent Heydler a copy of a $500 ($6,702 today) check that Chase received from a gambler for throwing a game in 1918 — the same year that he had acquitted Chase for throwing games. Armed with this evidence, Heydler ordered Giants owner Charles Stoneham to release Chase. Since no American League team would sign him (on the advice of Detroit Tigers manager Hughie Jennings), Chase was now effectively blackballed from the major leagues.

Out of organized baseball[link]

Rumors of him being the middleman between the players and the gamblers in the Black Sox Scandal have never been confirmed. Though Chase was never charged with wrongdoing, he did acknowledge having advance knowledge of the conspiracy, saying he "was no squealer".^[4]

In 1920, while playing for the minor Mission League, he attempted to bribe Spider Baum, a pitcher for the Salt Lake Bees of the Pacific Coast League, to lose a game to the Los Angeles Angels. He also allegedly bribed an umpire. It turned out to be one of the last games he played in organized baseball. In the aftermath of the Black Sox Scandal, newly-appointed Commissioner of Baseball Kenesaw Mountain Landis never formally banned Chase from the game. However, any chance of Chase's return to organized baseball effectively ended with Landis' August 1921 announcement that no player who threw a game or promised to throw a game would ever be allowed in baseball.

For a time, Chase was player-manager of an outlaw team in Douglas, Arizona that included Buck Weaver, Chick Gandil and Lefty Williams. It was part of a league run by S.L.A. Marshall, who later said that Chase admitted to throwing a game. A few months later, he tore both Achilles tendons in a car accident. He later drifted to Mexico, where in 1925 he began making plans to organize a professional league. When American League president Ban Johnson got word of it, however, he pressured Mexican authorities to deport Chase.

Despite his unsavory past, Chase received a certain amount of National Baseball Hall of Fame support early in its history. During the inaugural Hall of Fame balloting of 1936, Chase garnered 11 votes and was named on 4.9% of the ballots. This total was more votes than 18 future Hall of Famers including such greats as Connie Mack, Rube Marquard, Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown, Charlie Gehringer, and John McGraw as well as the banned Shoeless Joe Jackson.^[5] In 1937, he received 18 votes (9%) which was more than 32 future Hall of Famers.^[6] Chase was dropped from the ballot following the 1937 vote^[7] and never received the required 75% support necessary for enshrinement.

Chase spent the rest of his life drifting between Arizona and his native California, working numerous low-paying jobs. Later in life, he expressed considerable remorse for betting on baseball. He lived with his sister in Williams, California and died in a Colusa, California hospital at the age of 64.^[4][8]

Chase defensively[link]

In his day, Hal Chase was almost universally considered one of the best fielders in the game — not just at first base, but at any position, even compared to catchers and middle infielders. In his Historical Baseball Abstract, Bill James quotes a poem entitled "You Can't Escape 'Em":

Sometimes a raw recruit in spring is not a pitching find;

He has not Walter Johnson's wing, nor Matty's wonderous mind.

He does not act like Harold Chase upon the fielding job,

But you may find in such a case, he hits like Tyrus Cobb.

Douglas Dewey and Nicholas Acocella's book on Chase, The Black Prince Of Baseball, talks about Chase's defensive abilities at length. He apparently made many spectacular plays that burnished his reputation as a glove wizard, but also committed 402 errors at first in just ten seasons, making his career fielding average only .980, four points below average for the period (since Chase was known to throw games, it's impossible to know how many of these misplays were intentional).

A more recent work by Bill James, Win Shares, suggested Chase was only a C-grade defensive player at first base. Analyst Sean Smith says on the Baseball-Reference.com website that Chase was below average defensively, costing his teams 65 runs versus an average first baseman.^[9]

Quotes[link]

• On why he bet on baseball: "I wasn't satisfied with what the club owners paid me. Like others, I had to have a bet on the side and we used to bet with the other team and the gamblers who sat in the boxes. It was easy to get a bet. Sometimes collections were hard to make. Players would pass out IOUs and often be in debt for their entire salaries. That wasn't a healthy condition. Once the evil started there was no stopping it, and club owners were not strong enough to cope with the evil."
• On his legacy: "You note that I am not in the Hall of Fame. Some of the old-timers said I was one of the greatest fielding first basemen of all time. When I die, movie magnates will make no picture like Pride of the Yankees, which honored that great player, Lou Gehrig. I guess that's the answer, isn't it? Gehrig had a good name; one of the best a man could have. I am an outcast, and I haven't a good name. I'm the loser, just like all gamblers are. I lived to make great plays. What did I gain? Nothing. Everything was lost because I raised hell after hours. I was a wise guy, a know-it-all, I guess."

See also[link]

• List of Major League Baseball leaders in career stolen bases
• List of Major League Baseball player–managers

References[link]

Bibliography

• Ginsburg, Daniel E. The Fix Is In: A History of Baseball Gambling and Game Fixing Scandals. inMcFarland and Co., 1995, 317 pages. ISBN 0-7864-1920-2. Contains a chapter dedicated to Chase and his various scandals.
• Goode, Christopher California Baseball: From the Pioneers to the Glory Years. Lulu Press, 2009, 390 pages. ISBN 978-0-557-08760-0
• Pietrusza, David. Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series. Basic Books, 2011, 528 pages. ISBN 978-0-465-02938-9.

In-line citations

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hal Chase

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Bio on BaseballLibrary.com
• The Hal Chase Place
• Bio on TheDeadBallEra.com
• The Hal Chase Place
• Hal Chase at Find a Grave.com

Charley Chase (October 20, 1893 - June 20, 1940) was an American comedian, actor, screenwriter and film director, best known for his work in Hal Roach short film comedies. He was the older brother of comedian/director James Parrott.

Life and career[link]

Born Charles Joseph Parrott in Baltimore, Maryland, Chase began performing in vaudeville as a teenager and started his career in films by working at the Christie Film Company in 1912.^[1] He then moved to Keystone Studios, where he began appearing in bit parts in the Mack Sennett films, including those of Charlie Chaplin. By 1915 he was playing juvenile leads in the Keystones, and directing some of the films as Charles Parrott. His Keystone credentials were good enough to get him steady work as a comedy director with other companies; he directed many of Chaplin imitator Billy West's comedies, which featured a young Oliver Hardy as villain.

He worked at L-KO Kompany during its final months of existence. Then in 1920, Chase began working as a film director for Hal Roach Studios. Among his notable early works for Roach was supervising the first entries in the Our Gang series, as well as directing several films starring Lloyd Hamilton; like many other silent comedians, Chase is reported to have regarded Hamilton's work as a major influence on that of his own. Chase became director-general of the Hal Roach studio in late 1921, supervising the production of all the Roach series except the Harold Lloyd comedies. Following Lloyd's departure from the studio in 1923, Chase moved back in front of the camera with his own series of shorts, adopting the screen name Charley Chase.

Chase was a master of the comedy of embarrassment, and he played either hapless young businessmen or befuddled husbands in dozens of situation comedies. His screen persona was that of a pleasant young man with a dapper mustache and ordinary street clothes; this set him apart from the clownish makeups and crazy costumes used by his contemporaries. His earliest Roach shorts cast him as a hard-luck fellow named "Jimmie Jump" in one-reel (10-minute) comedies.

The first Chase series was successful and expanded to two reels (20 minutes); this would become the standard length for Chase comedies, apart from a few three-reel featurettes later. Direction of the Chase series was taken over by Leo McCarey, who in collaboration with Chase formed the comic style of the series—an emphasis on characterization and farce instead of knockabout slapstick. Some of Chase's starring shorts of the 1920s, particularly Mighty Like a Moose, Crazy Like a Fox, Fluttering Hearts, and Limousine Love, are among the finest in silent comedy. Chase remained the guiding hand behind the films, assisting anonymously with the directing, writing, and editing.

Chase moved with ease into sound films in 1929, and became one of the most popular film comedians of the period.^[2] He continued to be very prolific in the talkie era, often putting his fine singing voice on display and including his humorous, self-penned songs in his comedy shorts. The two-reeler The Pip from Pittsburgh, released in 1931 and co-starring Thelma Todd, is one of the most celebrated Charley Chase comedies of the sound era.^[3] Throughout the decade, the Charley Chase shorts continued to stand alongside Laurel and Hardy and Our Gang as the core output of the Roach studio. Chase was featured in the Laurel and Hardy feature Sons of the Desert; Laurel and Hardy made cameo appearances as hitchhikers in Chase's On the Wrong Trek.

On the Wrong Trek was supposed to be the final Charley Chase short subject; by 1936 producer Hal Roach was now concentrating on making ambitious feature films. Chase played a character role in the Patsy Kelly feature Kelly the Second, and starred in a feature-length comedy called Bank Night, lampooning the popular Bank Night phenomenon of the 1930s. Chase's feature was plagued with a host of production problems and legalities, and the film was drastically edited down to two reels and finally released as one last Charley Chase short, Neighborhood House. Chase was then dismissed from the Roach studio.

Later years[link]

In 1937, Chase began working at Columbia Pictures, where he spent the rest of his career starring in his own series of two-reel comedies, as well as producing and directing other Columbia comedies, including those of The Three Stooges and Andy Clyde. He directed the Stooges' classic Violent Is the Word for Curly; although he is often credited with writing the film's song "Swinging the Alphabet",^[4] the tune actually originates with 19th century songwriter Septimus Winner. Recent research asserts that the Chase family's maid introduced the song to Charley and taught it to his daughters.^[5] Chase's own shorts at Columbia favored broader sight gags and more slapstick than his earlier, subtler work, although he does sing in two of the Columbias, The Grand Hooter and The Big Squirt (both 1937). Many of Chase's Columbia short subjects were strong enough to be remade in the 1940s with other comedians; Chase's The Heckler (1940) was remade with Shemp Howard as Mr. Noisy (1946).

Chase suffered from alcoholism for most of his professional career, and his tumultuous lifestyle began to take a serious toll on his health. His hair had turned prematurely gray, and he dyed it jet-black for his Columbia comedies.

His younger brother, comedy writer-director James Parrott, had personal problems resulting from a drug treatment, and died in 1939. Chase was devastated. He had refused to give his brother money to support his drug habit, and friends knew he felt responsible for Parrott's death. He coped with the loss by throwing himself into his work and by drinking more heavily than ever, despite doctors' warnings. The stress ultimately caught up with him; only months after his brother's death, Charley Chase died of a heart attack in Hollywood, California in 1940 and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. Chase was 46.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Charley Chase has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6630 Hollywood Boulevard.

Renewed interest[link]

Since the 1990s, there has been a revival of interest in the films of Charley Chase, due in large part to the increased availability of his comedies. An extensive website researching his life and work, The World of Charley Chase, was created in 1996, and a biography, Smile When the Raindrops Fall, was published in 1998.

Chase's sound comedies for Hal Roach were briefly televised in the late 1990s on the short-lived American cable network the Odyssey Channel. Retrospectives of Chase's work organized by The Silent Clowns Film Series were held in 1999, 2001, 2006, and 2008 in New York City.

A marathon of selected Charley Chase shorts from the silent era was broadcast in 2005 on the American cable television network Turner Classic Movies. In late 2006, Turner Classic Movies began to air Charley Chase's sound-era comedies. In January 2011, several of his sound shorts were featured during Turner Classic Movies' tribute to Hal Roach Studios.

In 2007, Mighty Like a Moose (1926) was selected for inclusion in the Library of Congress's National Film Registry, solidifying its reputation as one of the most celebrated comedies of the silent era and cementing Chase's status as a pioneer of early film comedy.^[6]

Kino International released two Charley Chase DVD volumes in 2004 and 2005 for their Slapstick Symposium series. The films came from archives and collectors around the world. In July 2009, VCI Entertainment released Becoming Charley Chase, a DVD boxed set of Charley Chase's early silent films.

Columbia Pictures has prepared digital restorations of its 20 Charley Chase shorts, in the same manner as its Buster Keaton DVD restorations. To date, the Chase DVDs are awaiting release; Chase's fans have signed an online petition assuring Columbia of their interest.

Selected filmography[link]

• The Masquerader (1914)

See also[link]

• List of United States comedy films

References[link]

External links[link]

• The World of Charley Chase
• Charley Chase at the Internet Movie Database

Harold Eugene "Hal" Roach, Sr. (January 14, 1892 - November 2, 1992) was an American film and television producer and director, and actor from the 1910s to the 1990s.

Early life and career[link]

Hal Roach was born in Elmira, New York, the grandson of Irish Immigrants^[1]. A presentation by the great American humorist Mark Twain impressed Roach as a young grade school student.

After an adventurous youth that took him to Alaska, Hal Roach arrived in Hollywood, California in 1912 and began working as an extra in silent films. Upon coming into an inheritance, he began producing short comedies in 1915 with his friend Harold Lloyd, who portrayed a character known as Lonesome Luke.

Also in 1915, Roach married actress Marguerite Nichols. They had two children, Hal, Jr. (1918–1972) and Margaret (1921–1964).

Success as a comedy producer[link]

Unable to expand his studios in downtown Los Angeles because of zoning, Roach purchased what became the Hal Roach Studios from Harry Culver in Culver City, California. During the 1920s and 1930s, he employed Lloyd (his top money-maker until his departure in 1923), Will Rogers, Max Davidson, the Our Gang kids, Charley Chase, Harry Langdon, Thelma Todd, ZaSu Pitts, Patsy Kelly and, most famously, Laurel and Hardy. During the 1920s Roach's biggest rival was producer Mack Sennett. In 1925 Roach hired away Sennett's supervising director, F. Richard Jones.

Roach released his films through Pathé Exchange until 1927, when he went to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was in the 1930s that Roach conceived of a joint business venture partnering with the Italian government. This proposed business alliance with Benito Mussolini and his Fascist regime so disconcerted the reigning Hollywood movie moguls that Roach was forced to sever his relationship with MGM and defect to United Artists in 1937.^[2] He converted his silent movie studio to sound in 1928 and began releasing talking shorts early in 1929. In the days before dubbing, foreign language versions of the Roach comedies were created by re-shooting each film in the Spanish, French, and sometimes Italian and German languages. Laurel & Hardy, Charley Chase, and the Our Gang kids (some of whom had barely begun school) were required to recite the foreign dialogue phonetically, often working from blackboards hidden out of camera range.

In 1931, with the release of the Laurel & Hardy film Pardon Us, Roach began producing occasional full-length features alongside the short product. Short subjects became less profitable and were phased out by 1936. The Our Gang series continued until 1938, when Roach sold the contracts of the Our Gang cast members and the series name to MGM.

From 1937 to 1940, Roach concentrated on producing glossy features, abandoning low comedy almost completely. Most of his new films were either sophisticated farces (like Topper and The Housekeeper's Daughter) or rugged action fare (like Captain Fury and One Million B.C.). Roach's one venture into heavy drama was the acclaimed Of Mice and Men. The Laurel and Hardy comedies, once the Roach studio's biggest drawing cards, were now the studio's least important product and were phased out altogether in 1940.

In 1940, Roach experimented with medium-length featurettes, running 40 to 50 minutes each. He contended that these "streamliners", as he called them, would be useful in double-feature situations where the main attraction was a longer-length epic. Exhibitors agreed with him, and used Roach's mini-features to balance top-heavy double bills. United Artists continued to release Roach's streamliners through 1943. By this time Roach no longer had a resident company of comedy stars, and cast his films with familiar featured players (William Tracy and Joe Sawyer, Johnny Downs, Jean Porter, Frank Faylen, William Bendix, George E. Stone, etc.).

In 1941, his wife of 26 years, Marguerite, died.

World War II and television[link]

Hal Roach, Sr. was called to active military duty in June 1942, at age 50, and the studio output he oversaw in uniform was converted from entertainment featurettes to military training films. The studios were leased to the U.S. Army Air Forces, and the First Motion Picture Unit made 400 training, morale and propaganda films at "Fort Roach." Members of the unit included Ronald W. Reagan and Alan Ladd.

In 1947, Hal Roach resumed production for theaters, with former Harold Lloyd co-star Bebe Daniels as an associate producer. Roach was the first Hollywood producer to go to an all-color production schedule, making four streamliners in Cinecolor, although the increased production costs did not result in increased revenue. In 1948, with his studio deeply in debt, Roach re-established his studio for television production, with Hal Roach, Jr., producing shows such as The Stu Erwin Show, Steve Donovan, Western Marshal, Racket Squad, The Public Defender, The Gale Storm Show, and My Little Margie, and independent producers leasing the facilities for such programs as Amos 'n' Andy, The Life of Riley, and The Abbott and Costello Show. By 1951, the studio was producing 1,500 hours of television programs a year, nearly three times Hollywood's annual output of feature movies.^[3]

The visionary Roach also recognized the value of his film library. Beginning in 1943 he licensed revivals of his sound-era productions for theatrical and home-movie distribution. Roach's films were also early arrivals on television; the Laurel & Hardy comedies in particular were a smashing success in television syndication.

Later years[link]

In 1955, Roach sold his interests in the production company to his son, Hal Roach, Jr., and retired from active production. Unfortunately, the younger Roach lacked much of his father's business acumen, and soon lost the studio to creditors. It was finally shut down in 1961.

For two more decades Roach Sr. occasionally worked as a consultant on projects related to his past work. Extremely vigorous into an advanced age, Roach contemplated a comedy comeback at 96. He was a guest on Late Night with David Letterman in 1982, where he recounted experiences with such stars as Stan Laurel and Jean Harlow; he even did a brief, energetic demonstration of a hula dance.

In 1984, 92-year old Roach was presented with an honorary Academy Award. Former Our Gang members Jackie Cooper and George "Spanky" McFarland made the presentation to a flattered Roach, with McFarland thanking the producer for hiring him 53 years prior.

In the spring of 1992, not long after his 100th birthday, Roach once again appeared at the Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Billy Crystal. When Mr. Roach rose from the audience to speak during the ceremony, the sound system did not pick up his words. Crystal quipped "I think that's fitting, after all — Mr. Roach started in silent film..." At the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival, Roach was given the honorary award of the Berlinale Camera.^[4]

Death[link]

Hal Roach died from pneumonia on November 2, 1992, two months short of his 101st birthday, at his home in Bel Air, California. He was married twice, and had two children (both of whom he outlived by more than twenty years) and a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Roach is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira, New York, where he grew up. Roach outlived many of the Our Gang children who starred in his pictures.

Hal Roach Studios[link]

The 14.5 acre (58,680 m²) studio once known as "The Lot of Fun," containing 55 buildings, was torn down in 1963 (despite tentative plans to reopen the facilities as "Landmark Studios") and replaced by light industrial buildings, businesses, and an automobile dealership. Today, Culver City's "Landmark Street" runs down what was the middle of the old studio lot, with the two original sound stages having been located on the north side of Landmark Street, and the backlot/city street sets had been located at the eastern end of Landmark Street. A plaque sits in a small park across from the studio's location, placed there by The Sons of the Desert.^[5]

Most of the film library was bought in 1971 by a Canadian company that adopted the "Hal Roach Studios" name. It primarily handled the business of keeping the library in the public eye and licensing products based upon the classic film series.

In 1983, Hal Roach Studios was one of the first studios to venture into the controversial business of film colorization, creating digitally colored versions of several Laurel and Hardy features, the Frank Capra film It's a Wonderful Life, Night of the Living Dead, and other popular films. In the 1980s, Hal Roach Studios produced Kids Incorporated in association with old business partner MGM. During the 1980s, Hal Roach Studios distributed its classic film library, as well as films in the public domain, on home video. From 1988 to 1990, while producing Kids Incorporated, Hal Roach Studios was known as Qintex.

In the years that followed, the Roach company changed hands several more times. Independent television producer Robert Halmi bought the company in the early 1990s, and it became RHI Entertainment. A short time later, this successor company was acquired by Hallmark Entertainment in 1994, but Halmi, Robert Halmi Jr. and affiliates of Kelso & Company reacquired the company in 2006. Hallmark Entertainment was absorbed into RHI Entertainment (with Vivendi as the current home video output partner).

In that same decade, a new incarnation of Hal Roach Studios (operated by the Roach Trust) was established, and today this new version of the company has released classic films on DVD, many of which are from Roach's own archival prints of his films, while others are public domain titles mastered from the best available 35 mm elements.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Richard Lewis Ward. A History of the Hal Roach Studios. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2005.

External links[link]

• Hal Roach at the Internet Movie Database
• Hal Roach
• Biography of Hal Roach, Sr. with list of Academy Awards
• Extensive list of Roach's work and publications about Roach
• The Charlie Hall Picture Archive
• Detailed listing of all films that Hal Roach worked on, including those not made by his studio, plus all films made by Hal E. Roach Studios, whether or not Roach himself was involved

v t e Our Gang Our Gang members Wally Albright • Sherwood "Spud" Bailey • Matthew "Stymie" Beard • Scotty Beckett • Tommy "Butch" Bond • Sonny Bupp • Janet Burston • Peggy Cartwright • Norman "Chubby" Chaney • Joe Cobb • John "Uh-huh" Collum • Jackie Condon • Jackie Cooper • Dorothy Dandridge • Mickey Daniels • Jean Darling • Jackie Davis • Dorothy DeBorba • Johnny Downs • Marianne Edwards • Mickey Gubitosi • Donald Haines • Darryl Hickman • Darla Hood • Allen "Farina" Hoskins • Philip Hurlic • Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins • Eugene "Pineapple" Jackson • Mary Ann Jackson • Gary "Junior" Jasgur • Darwood "Waldo" Kaye • Leonard Kibrick • Sidney "The Woim" Kibrick • Mary Kornman • Mildred Kornman • Leonard Landy • Billy "Froggy" Laughlin • Eugene "Porky" Lee • Jacquie Lyn • Kendall "Breezey Brisbane" McComas • Buddy McDonald • George "Spanky" McFarland • Dickie Moore • Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison • Juanita Quigley • Shirley Jean Rickert • Andy Samuel • Jay R. Smith • Harry Spear • Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer • Harold Switzer • Jackie Lynn Taylor • Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas • Jerry Tucker • Bobby "Bonedust" Young • Pete the Pup • June Marlowe (Miss Crabtree) Films Our Gang filmography Directors Sam Baerwitz • Edward L. Cahn • Gordon Douglas • Cy Endfield • Herbert Glazer • James W. Horne • Robert A. McGowan (Anthony Mack) • Robert F. McGowan • Fred Newmeyer • Gus Meins • James Parrott • George Sidney • Nate Watt Book · Category

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2009)

Olive Borden
Born	(1906-07-14)July 14, 1906 Richmond, Virginia, U.S.
Died	October 1, 1947(1947-10-01) (aged 41) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Years active	1924–1934
Spouse	Theodore Spector (m. 1931–1932) «start: (1931)–end+1: (1933)»"Marriage: Theodore Spector to Olive Borden" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Olive_Borden) John Moeller (m. 1934–1941) «start: (1934)–end+1: (1942)»"Marriage: John Moeller to Olive Borden" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Olive_Borden)

Olive Borden (July 14, 1906 – October 1, 1947) was an American actress in silent and early talkies. Nicknamed "The Joy Girl",^[1] Borden was known for her jet-black hair and overall beauty.

Early life[link]

Olive Borden was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1906. Her birth name was often reported erroneously as Sybil Tinkle until the 1990s when it was discovered that another woman with the same name had been confused with Borden.^[2] Borden's father died when she was a baby and she was raised by her mother, Sibbie, in Norfolk and Baltimore, Maryland where she also attended Catholic boarding schools.^[3] She was a distant relative of Lizzie Borden.^[4] As a teenager, she persuaded her mother to take her to Hollywood to pursue a career in show business. To support themselves they opened a candy store and Olive worked as a telephone operator.

Career[link]

Borden began her career as one of the Sennett Bathing Beauties in 1922 and was soon appearing as a vamp in Hal Roach comedy shorts. Producer Paul Bern chose her for a role in his film The Dressmaker In Paris. She was signed by Fox after being named a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1925 (along with cousin Natalie Joyce). Borden quickly became one of their most popular and highest paid stars earning a salary of $1,500 a week. She had starring roles in 11 films at Fox including 3 Bad Men and Fig Leaves both costarring her then-boyfriend George O'Brien. During this time she worked with some directors who would go on to achieve major fame, including John Ford, Howard Hawks and Leo McCarey.

When Fox cut her salary in 1927, she walked out on her contract. By this point she was a major star but she found it difficult to make the transition from silent films to "talkies". She worked to get rid of her Southern accent but could not overcome her reputation as being difficult. She was still in demand as an actress and continued to work for Columbia and RKO. Borden cut her trademark hair into a short bob and turned herself into a modern flapper. She made several movies in the early 1930s but her career stalled. Her last screen credit came in 1934 in the film Chloe, Love Is Calling You. She moved to New York where she had a brief stage career and made a living on the vaudeville circuit. By the late 1930s she had filed for bankruptcy and took a job at Macy's department store.

Personal life[link]

Borden had two failed marriages. She married a stockbroker named Theodore Spector in March 1931. He was arrested for bigamy in 1932 when it was discovered he had married Borden before divorcing his first wife. The marriage was annulled. She married her second husband, electrician John Moeller, in 1934. That marriage ended in divorce seven years later.

From 1926 until 1930 she had been romantically involved with actor George O'Brien and the press reported they were engaged. She also dated director Marshall Neilan, producer Paul Bern, and had a long affair with Arthur Benline, Lieutenant Commander in the Navy Construction Battalion. For most of her life Borden lived with her mother, Sibbie.

Later years and death[link]

In 1942, Borden joined the WAC where she has received an army citation for bravery in turning over an enemy ammunition truck.^[4] Her Army career ended after she was hospitalized in Walter Reed medical center with a severe foot injury. After her honorable discharge she attempted an unsuccessful comeback in films. She was now struggling with alcoholism and numerous health problems. Borden's final years were spent in the skid row section of Los Angeles scrubbing floors at the Sunshine Mission, a home for destitute women.^[4]

Borden died on October 1, 1947 from a stomach ailment and pneumonia at the age of 41. The only possession she had when she died was a signed photo of herself.^[5] She was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. Her mother Sibbie was interred in the grave next to her.

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Olive Borden has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Blvd. She was one of the first eight stars chosen to receive a star in 1958. Her name was drawn randomly from hundreds of nominees.

Selected filmography[link]

Further reading[link]

• Michael G. Ankerich (2010). Dangerous Curves atop Hollywood Heels: The Lives, Careers, and Misfortunes of 14 Hard-Luck Girls of the Silent Screen. BearManor. ISBN 1-59393-605-2. 
• Michelle Vogel (2010). Olive Borden: The Life and Films of Hollywood's "Joy Girl". McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-4795-8. 

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Olive Borden

• Olive Borden at the Internet Movie Database
• Olive Borden at AllRovi
• Olive Borden Online
• Olive Borden at Silent Ladies
• Olive Borden at Find a Grave
• Olive Borden at Virtual History