- published: 13 Jul 2015
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Esther ( /ˈɛstər/; Hebrew: אֶסְתֵּר, Modern Ester Tiberian ʼEstēr), born Hadassah, is the eponymous heroine of the Biblical Book of Esther. According to the Bible, she was a Jewish queen of the Persian king Ahasuerus. Ahasuerus is traditionally identified with Xerxes I during the time of the Achaemenid empire. Her story is the basis for the celebration of Purim in Jewish tradition.
King Xerxes held a 180-day feast in Susa (Shoushan). While in "high spirits" from the wine, he ordered his queen, Vashti, to appear before him and his guests to display her beauty. But when the attendants delivered the king's command to Queen Vashti, she refused to come. Furious at her refusal to obey, the king asked his wise men what should be done. One of them said that all the women in the empire would hear that "The King Xerxes commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not." Then the women of the empire would despise their husbands. And this would cause many problems in the kingdom. Therefore it would be good to depose her.
Esther Ralston (September 17, 1902 – January 14, 1994) was an American movie actress whose greatest popularity came during the silent era.
Ralston started as a child actress in a family vaudeville act which was billed as "The Ralston Family with Baby Esther, America's Youngest Juliet." From this, she appeared in a few small silent film roles before gaining attention as Mrs. Darling in the 1924 version of Peter Pan.
In the late 1920s she appeared in many films for Paramount, at one point earning as much as $8000 a week, and garnering much popularity, especially in Britain. She appeared mainly in comedies, often portraying spirited society girls, but she also received good reviews for her forays into dramatic roles. In 1962, she had a leading role in the short-lived daytime drama, Our Five Daughters.
Despite making a successful transition to sound, she was reduced to appearing in B-movies by the mid-1930s, leading to her retirement. By the time she settled down in 1941, she had made over 100 movies. During the mid-1950s as Mrs. Esther Lloyd, a grandmother, she worked in the Seventh Church of Christ Scientist in New York. Happy with her life, Ralston expressed no desire to make a comeback.