Silent Players: A Biographical and Autobiographical Study of 100 Silent Film Actors and Actresses

Rating:
Summary: A Triumph!
Review: It is very simple: Anthony Slide's Silent Players will join Kevin Brownlow's The Parade's Gone By as the most quotable work on the silent screen. For the next 50 years or more, scholars and other writers will find themselves forced to begin every other sentence with "According to Anthony Slide's Silent Players ...." It is that kind of book. It is also one of the more exquisitely produced, beautifully illustrated and splendidly written volumes to come down the pike since, well, since Brownlow's Mary Pickford Rediscovered. That Silent Players is well written will of course come as no surprise to Mr. Slide's core readership but many may well be startled at the book's charming candor. Those of us fortunate enough to consider the author a friend know him to be a first-rate raconteur. But thus far, like a dutiful film scholar, he has avoided injecting himself into a narrative. This time, however, that was not merely unavoidable but necessary. Slide, you see, knew most of his subjects, all of whom with the exception of one luminous lady are now gone. Some he knew more intimately than others and if he didn't have first hand knowledge, he was well acquainted with their nearest and dearest. The subtitle to Silent Players, "A Biographical and Autobiographical Study of 100 Silent Film Actors and Actresses," is singularly appropriate. As Slide writes in his foreword: "With Silent Players I say goodbye to my friends and to a part of my life that has meant so much to me and that can never be repeated." To say that this fine book belongs on the bookshelf of anyone even remotely interested in the silent cinema is redundant. It probably is there already.

Rating:
Summary: Anthony Slide takes us into the lives of obscure figures...
Review: Ok, so maybe the idea of actor Ralph Graves and comedy director Mack Sennett in bed together in the 1920s seems a bit far-fetched, but who is to say whether or not it actually happened? For instance, the possibility of Sennett being gay was probed in the book "Keystone: The Life and Clowns of Mack Sennett" by Simon Louvish. The preceding is just one aspect of Mr. Slide's masterpiece that is sure to grab a reader's attention. There are many more, such as actress Viola Dana's supposed sexual appetite which spans more than that of a football team's alone! The book is an excellent read; one that I couldn't put down for a second. It delves into the lives of many silent players, from the well-known to the obscure, and more than a few in between. Slide gives the birth and death dates if he knows them, and details a lot about the later years of the stars' lives. He offers biographies of actors that span a page or more, offering anecdotes provided from the stars themselves, and spending a great deal of time on some of his favorites, his friends like Mary Brian, Priscilla Bonner, Jetta Goudal, and most important of all, Blanche Sweet, with whom he acted as a public companion to for years. Some of the superstars that he chronicles are Mary Astor, Theda Bara, Lon Chaney, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Greta Garbo, Lillian Gish, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Mabel Normand, Mary Pickford, Gloria Swanson, Norma Talmadge, and Rudolph Valentino. Mr. Slide also takes us into the lives of such obscure players as, Mignon Anderson, Constance Binney, Gladys Brockwell, Pauline Curley, Bess Flowers, Howard Gaye, Alice Howell, Babe London, James Morrison, Gertrude Olmstead, Arline Pretty, Clarine Seymour, and Pauline Starke. Rounding out the list are players who were stars in their own day, such as John Bunny, Elmer Clifton, Miriam Cooper, Bebe Daniels, Carol Dempster, Richard Dix, Billie Dove, Ethel Grandin, Corinne Griffith, Robert Harron, William S. Hart, Alice Joyce, J. Warren Kerrigan, Bessie Love, Mae Marsh, Conrad Nagel, Olga Petrova, Charles Ray, Wallace Reid, Constance Talmadge, Florence Turner, Henry B. Walthall, Kathlyn Williams, and Lois Wilson. Aside from the dozens more profiled, the author also has a section on the silent and sound screen star, Fay Wray (who just passed away on August 8, 2004). The book also includes a picture for every entry (and, boy you should see the wonderful one the author chose to put in here of actor George Walsh!). With names like these, how could anyone who is interested in classic film studies not want to buy this book (the only thing that did upset me is the fact that Mr. Slide chose not to include three of my ultimate favorites; actresses worthy of mentioning, Colleen Moore, Dorothy Gish and Marguerite Clark. Clara Bow isn't here either, but that is neither here nor there!)? The book is indespensible, and is destined to become a piece of major film history.

Rating:
Summary: Anthony Slide takes us into the lives of obscure figures...
Review: Ok, so maybe the idea of actor Ralph Graves and comedy director Mack Sennett in bed together in the 1920s seems a bit far-fetched, but who is to say whether or not it actually happened? For instance, the possibility of Sennett being gay was probed in the book "Keystone: The Life and Clowns of Mack Sennett" by Simon Louvish. The preceding is just one aspect of Mr. Slide's masterpiece that is sure to grab a reader's attention. There are many more, such as actress Viola Dana's supposed sexual appetite which spans more than that of a football team's alone! The book is an excellent read; one that I couldn't put down for a second. It delves into the lives of many silent players, from the well-known to the obscure, and more than a few in between. Slide gives the birth and death dates if he knows them, and details a lot about the later years of the stars' lives. He offers biographies of actors that span a page or more, offering anecdotes provided from the stars themselves, and spending a great deal of time on some of his favorites, his friends like Mary Brian, Priscilla Bonner,Jetta Goudal, and most important of all, Blanche Sweet, with whom he acted as a public companion to for years. Some of the superstars that he chronicles are Mary Astor, Theda Bara, Lon Chaney, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Greta Garbo, Lillian Gish, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Mabel Normand, Mary Pickford, Gloria Swanson, Norma Talmadge, and Rudolph Valentino. Mr. Slide also takes us into the lives of such obscure players as, Mignon Anderson, Constance Binney, Gladys Brockwell, Pauline Curley, Bess Flowers, Howard Gaye, Alice Howell, Babe London, James Morrison, Gertrude Olmstead, Arline Pretty, Clarine Seymour, and Pauline Starke. Rounding out the list are players who were stars in their own day, such as John Bunny, Elmer Clifton, Miriam Cooper, Bebe Daniels, Carol Dempster, Richard Dix, Billie Dove, Ethel Grandin, Corinne Griffith, Robert Harron, William S. Hart, Alice Joyce, J. Warren Kerrigan, Bessie Love, Mae Marsh, Conrad Nagel, Olga Petrova, Charles Ray, Wallace Reid, Constance Talmadge, Florence Turner, Henry B. Walthall, Kathlyn Williams, and Lois Wilson. Aside from the dozens more profiled, the author also has a section on the silent and sound screen (and still alive) star, Fay Wray. The book also includes a picture for every entry (and, boy you should see the wonderful one the author chose to put in here of actor George Walsh!). With names like these, how could anyone who is interested in classic film studies not want to buy this book (the only thing that did upset me is the fact that Mr. Slide chose not to include three of my ultimate favorites; actresses worthy of mentioning, Colleen Moore, Dorothy Gish and Marguerite Clark. Clara Bow isn't here either, but that is neither here nor there!)? The book is indespensible, and is destined to become a piece of major film history.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating and infuriating
Review: The book is both fascinating and infuriating. I have a few other of Mr. Slide's books, and they are full of useful information, just like this one.

This book has great profiles on a lot of lesser known, but still interesting actors and actresses. Some of the profiles are several pages and are in-depth. Others are a very short page or two. Mr. Slide met more than half of the people profiled in the book. For those people, he greatly comments on how these people treated him. The book also documents their talkie careers, their career decline and their lives before their death.

The book does dish dirt on many prominent silent film people. While some of it is certainly true and deserves to be public record, sometimes he speculates on things like sexual relationships that seem unlikely (Ralph Graves and Mack Sennett!). Mr. Slide apparently finds it hard to believe that older women who live together can do so as friends not have a sexual relationship.

I don't know Mr. Slide, but he really lets his personality show through in this book. For one thing, he does not have a sense of humor. Of the comedians, he only wrote admiringly of Harold Lloyd and Alice Howell. He has very poor opinions of Mabel Normand and John Bunny. He says Bunny's comedy "contains
nothing creative" and "one wonders if audiences ever did laugh at his work." Chaplin, Keaton, Langdon, and Raymond Griffith are barely mentioned. Laurel & Hardy and Charley Chase are ignored. He talks of Arbuckle as if Roscoe really did rape and murder Virginia Rappe.

Mr Slide seems to remember everyone that made an anti-semetic remark to him. Surely people of this era were just as bigoted toward blacks and other ethnic groups. Yet D.W. Griffith is the only person (remembered by Blanche Sweet) remembered as making a racist remark, and that was before BOAN and INTOLERANCE. (At least he did say in the preface that he decided not to profile Patsy Ruth Miller because of her racist views and he usage of the n-word.

Mr. Slide seems obsessed with determining everyone's sexual orientation, and who had affairs with whom. By the end of the book, you are almost disappointed if a person profiled just married once and didn't sleep with anybody else. In the case of William Haines, J. Warren Kerrigan, Ramon Novarro (only mentioned in the book) and a few others, their sexuality certainly was an important part of their story and certainly affected their careers. After "outing" so many people, I was actually surprised when he said that he had determined that George O'Brien is NOT bisexual.

Surely, just like the general population, silent actors got crotchety in their old age. The best chapters are actually the ones where Slide spent a lot of time with the person, like Jetta Goudal (!) and Blanche Sweet.

Mr. Slide also calls anybody who does not agree with his political views "right-wing". In an otherwise glowing profile on Lloyd, he calls THE CAT'S PAW (1934) "unfortunately right-wing". I'm not a conservative, yet his judgements of
the subjects' political views are unusually harsh.

The most shocking line in the book to me was, "Nowhere is the tragedy of Clarine Seymour's death more pointed than here; if only she might have lived and [Carol] Dempster died, how much better would Griffith have fared in the coming decade." While I agree that Dempster wasn't a very good actress, this is really some bizarre wish.

So anyway, it is a fun, fascinating read. Having said that, Kevin Brownlow's books have better interviews with their subjects, and Eve Golden's GOLDEN IMAGES book has better profiles of obscure silent film stars.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating and infuriating
Review: The book is both fascinating and infuriating. I have a few other of Mr. Slide's books, and they are full of useful information, just like this one.

This book has great profiles on a lot of lesser known, but still interesting actors and actresses. Some of the profiles are several pages and are in-depth. Others are a very short page or two. Mr. Slide met more than half of the people profiled in the book. For those people, he greatly comments on how these people treated him. The book also documents their talkie careers, their career decline and their lives before their death.

The book does dish dirt on many prominent silent film people. While some of it is certainly true and deserves to be public record, sometimes he speculates on things like sexual relationships that seem unlikely (Ralph Graves and Mack Sennett!). Mr. Slide apparently finds it hard to believe that older women who live together can do so as friends not have a sexual relationship.

I don't know Mr. Slide, but he really lets his personality show through in this book. For one thing, he does not have a sense of humor. Of the comedians, he only wrote admiringly of Harold Lloyd and Alice Howell. He has very poor opinions of Mabel Normand and John Bunny. He says Bunny's comedy "contains
nothing creative" and "one wonders if audiences ever did laugh at his work." Chaplin, Keaton, Langdon, and Raymond Griffith are barely mentioned. Laurel & Hardy and Charley Chase are ignored. He talks of Arbuckle as if Roscoe really did rape and murder Virginia Rappe.

Mr Slide seems to remember everyone that made an anti-semetic remark to him. Surely people of this era were just as bigoted toward blacks and other ethnic groups. Yet D.W. Griffith is the only person (remembered by Blanche Sweet) remembered as making a racist remark, and that was before BOAN and INTOLERANCE. (At least he did say in the preface that he decided not to profile Patsy Ruth Miller because of her racist views and he usage of the n-word.

Mr. Slide seems obsessed with determining everyone's sexual orientation, and who had affairs with whom. By the end of the book, you are almost disappointed if a person profiled just married once and didn't sleep with anybody else. In the case of William Haines, J. Warren Kerrigan, Ramon Novarro (only mentioned in the book) and a few others, their sexuality certainly was an important part of their story and certainly affected their careers. After "outing" so many people, I was actually surprised when he said that he had determined that George O'Brien is NOT bisexual.

Surely, just like the general population, silent actors got crotchety in their old age. The best chapters are actually the ones where Slide spent a lot of time with the person, like Jetta Goudal (!) and Blanche Sweet.

Mr. Slide also calls anybody who does not agree with his political views "right-wing". In an otherwise glowing profile on Lloyd, he calls THE CAT'S PAW (1934) "unfortunately right-wing". I'm not a conservative, yet his judgements of
the subjects' political views are unusually harsh.

The most shocking line in the book to me was, "Nowhere is the tragedy of Clarine Seymour's death more pointed than here; if only she might have lived and [Carol] Dempster died, how much better would Griffith have fared in the coming decade." While I agree that Dempster wasn't a very good actress, this is really some bizarre wish.

So anyway, it is a fun, fascinating read. Having said that, Kevin Brownlow's books have better interviews with their subjects, and Eve Golden's GOLDEN IMAGES book has better profiles of obscure silent film stars.

Rating:
Summary: "Revisionist, almost revolutionary" Gossip w/ Nice Photos
Review: This book by noted silent movie expert Anthony Slide features a photo and approximately three pages of biographical text (although some have as little as one page of text) on the following actors and actresses: Mignon Anderson, Mary Astor, William Bakewell, Lina Basquette, Madge Bellamy, Constance Binney, Priscilla Bonner, Hobart Bosworth, Evelyn Brent, Mary Brian, Gladys Brockwell, Kate Bruce, John Bunny, Ruth Clifford, Elmer Clifton, Miriam Cooper, Pauline Curley, Viola Dana, Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyon, Philippe De Lacy, Carol Dempster, Dorothy Devore, Richard Dix, Billie Dove, Claire DuBrey, Virginia Brown Faire, Bess Flowers, Howard Gaye, Lillian Gish, Dagmar Godowsky, Jetta Goudal, Ethel Grandin, Ralph Graves, Gilda Gray, Corinne Griffith, Robert Harron, William S. Hart, Alice Howell, Alice Joyce, Madge Kennedy, Doris Kenyon, J. Warren Kerrigan, Laura La Plante - The Legends: Lon Chaney, Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, Buster Keaton, Rudolph Valentino; - Harold Lloyd, Babe London, Bessie Love, Dorothy Mackaill, Mary MacLaren, Percy Marmont, Mae Marsh, James Morrison, Jack Mulhall, Mae Murray, Conrad Nagel, Nita Naldi, Mabel Normand, Jane Novak, George O'Brien, Gertrude Olmstead, Seena Owen, Jean Paige, Kathryn Perry, Olga Petrova, Mary Philbin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, Arline Pretty, Esther Ralston, Charles Ray, Wallace Reid, Billie Rhodes, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Clarine Seymour, Lowell Sherman, Pauline Starke, Gloria Swanson, Blanche Sweet, Constance Talmadge, Norma Talmadge, Alice Terry, Florence Turner, - The Vamps: Theda Bara, Louise Glaum, Kitty Gordon, Olga Grey, Alice Hollister, Valeska Suratt; - George Walsh, Henry B. Walthall, Kathlyn Williams, Lois Wilson, Margery Wilson, Claire Windsor, and Fay Wray.

For mostly selfish reasons, I was a little disappointed by this book because many silent player names (well known or otherwise) I run across and would like to look up I do not find in this book. I was also disappointed in the biography on the actor about whom I know the most because I run a tribute website on him. I did not learn much new about him through this book which surprised me because he was very famous between 1914-16 and Slide knew several actors and actresses who worked with him (i.e. Lillian Gish). As many other reviewers have noted, there is a lot of gossipy information in this book (Slide calls it "revisionist, almost revolutionary"). Everything from Robert Harron dying a virgin to Mary Pickford's drunken rages aimed at her husband Buddy Rogers. Certainly, one would be hard pressed to find such stories in other books. One of the best features in the book, however, are the photos. Every star has a full page photo (except for those in the "Legends" and "Vamps" chapters who have a smaller photo and only a paragraph of text). Many of the photos seem to be quite unusual. I had never seen the photo used in this book of my website subject before. Slide does not use the commonly seen publicity shots for this book, which is nice. If the above names intrigue you and you like a bit of controversy, I recommend this book but, as a reference guide to silent movie stars, I was disappointed in it.

Rating:
Summary: THEY HAD FACES THEN. AND NOW WE PAY HOMAGE TO THEM AGAIN.
Review: We have always been the first to say that silents is golden. And now there's proof. Anthony Slide's "Silent Players" is an biographical and autobiographical study of 100 silent film actors and actresses. Here, in this chunky compendium with its glorious cover, Slide pays homage to little-known actors and actresses with personal remembrances straight from the giants of yesteryear; quotes have been culled from conversations and previously published sources. Some of the names will be familiar, if only because of legend or a brief transition to talkies . Swanson, Garbo, Keaton, Gish, Fairbanks and Pickford. Then there are those only die-hard film freaks will recognize: Robert Harron, John Bunny, Babe London, Dorothy Mackaill, Lowell Sherman, Jetta Goudal ...names whose faces were introduced to us at 16 frames per second. Slide renounces the reputation of some while restoring fame to others. The profiles are concise and compelling, reminding us that real lives can often be sadder than any Hollywood scenario. The vintage photos remind us that they had faces then. And so we will be silent no longer: "Silent Players" slides into our list one of best reference books around.