Bubbles, Burst

Thanks to Lya dePutti, who won the contest last week. She knew William Haines' best friend was Joan Crawford, and that he called her "Cranberry". She chose Margaret Leahy as my subject for this week - a woman with a painfully fascinating story.


she closed the box
she struck the match
and fanned the fire so it would catch

one of the "lovely hundred", what a scam

she watched the flames
consume the pile
her winner's photo - what a smile!

chaplin and griffith's welcome telegrams

she had the look
but couldn't act
Schenck noted this with little tact

and cast her in her only claim to fame

keaton met her
on the dock
and subsequently felt the shock

of being trapped beneath the talmadge name

the ephemera of November
now naught but grief and smold'ring ember




Margaret Leahy