The Fleeting Aristocracy of Constance Binney

Constance Binney fairly leapt out of the pages of Blum's A Pictorial History of the Silent Screen, with the kind of eyes that "often fire first and with deadly aim" [Film Fun, Sept 1919]. In a volume filled with lovely faces, hers was different somehow -- her gaze held depth, sparkle.  Who was the woman behind it?

Constance was born in New York City in 1896. She was sent to Paris for her education, returning to Connecticut to attend finishing school.  It was at the latter that she began performing in student productions, both acting and dancing.  By 1917 she was back in New York and appearing on Broadway in Saturday to Monday.

1918 saw her first appearance on the screen in SPORTING LIFE, along with her sister Faire.  Both young ladies had a mildly successful (if short-lived) career, with Faire's list of credits lasting only two years longer than Constance's.

Coincidentally, both Binneys made films with John Barrymore, and both in 1919:  Faire in HERE COMES THE BRIDE, a breezy comedy of the sort Jack excelled in at the time, and Constance in his first dramatic picture, THE TEST OF HONOR.  (Both films are lost as of this entry.)

[image courtesy Corbis]

The fan magazines made much of Constance's background, calling it "Massachusetts aristocracy" and playing up her ancestry as a "direct descendant of one of the ten thousand families that came over on the Mayflower" [1].  As a result, the image they paint of her is composed, noble, almost patrician:

There was none of the usual histrionic flutter in this twenty-year-old...[s]he is a lovely thing facially and physically...plus the poise of breeding...[and] the saving grace of a vast underlying gund of New England common-sense. [1]

She was very small, cool...distinctively, pleasantly crisp...upon an interesting verge of flapperism.  That cool little something, poise, aplomb...prevents her from ever quite slipping over the edge. [2]

Binney had good notices for THE TEST OF HONOR; Linda "Mrs DW" Griffith herself called her "a darling little person, with...youth, beauty, personality, and a simple, unaffected, direct style of acting" ["Comments and Criticisms of a Free-Lance", Film Fun, June 1919].  Famous Players-Lasky was impressed enough to sign her to their prestigious RealArt division.

Yet, even with this stellar beginning, her career slid to a halt by 1923.  (Her sister Faire's would end by 1925.)  She did a little stage work in London in the early 1940s, and was briefly married to British war hero Leonard Cheshire.  But, unlike Faire, who did a little TV work in the 1950s, Constance slipped completely from the public eye by 1951.  At one point, she returned to the New York area, settling in Queens.  Constance Binney died on November 15, 1989.  She was 93.

---

[1] Julian Johnson, "Plymouth Rock Chicken". Photoplay, September 1919
[2] Kenneth Curly, "Constance: The Brute-Breaker". Motion Picture, May 1922
All images courtesy the Media History Digital Library unless otherwise noted.

Happy Easter!

Let's celebrate the upcoming holiday -- FF + SS style, of course!

Mary Carlisle is cute as a button bunny.

H B Warner is Cecil B DeMille's King of Kings (1927).

[image courtesy Criterion]

Little Mary and a big rabbit.

Speaking of rabbits and eggs...

Jack Barrymore writes to Dolores Costello.

(The little sketch kills me!)

From the Manger to the Cross (1912)

[image courtesy icollector]

Have a very Happy Easter everyone!

5-Star Time Capsule: "The Show of Shows"

Once upon a time, sound and dialogue were added to movies, and “silents” fell to the cutting-edge “talkies”.  Studios were suddenly falling all over themselves trying to come up with the best way to feature their players with the new technology – and what better way than to have your most popular stars chatting, singing, and frolicking their pretty selves in a slam-bang celebrity variety show?

(image courtesy http://theinterrobang.com)

MGM drew first blood with The Hollywood Revue of 1929, but Warner Bros. answered right back with The Show of Shows.  Almost their entire star roster was featured in skits, comedy shorts, and musical numbers – lots of glitter and glamour.  The extant print available for viewing today is sadly missing the glorious two-strip Technicolor (aside from the “Chinese Fantasy” number, starring a very young Myrna Loy), but it’s not hard to appreciate the effort Warner Bros. put into making this a shiny and entertaining spectacle.

You can read a full list of all the skits/numbers and their performers here, so I make no apologies for the very subjective gushing about to follow.  Without further ado:

Jennifer's Completely Biased List of Best Parts 

• Lord Almighty and Christ on a cracker, I love Winnie Lightner.  If I had a time machine, I’d totally go back to see her on the stage.  She sings “Ping Pongo” and “Singin’ in the Bathtub” …actually, she doesn’t sing.  She belts.  She shakes the rafters with that voice, loud and glorious in the Sophie Tucker/Fanny Brice vein. 

(photo courtesy Find A Grave)

Lightner was an extremely popular vaudeville star who parlayed her success into some pre-Code films (not enough!).  Plus, she was from Long Island!

• The “Meet My Sister” number is chock-full of pretty, well-costumed cultural stereotypes posed by famous sisters.  Cute, but among the expected suspects (Dolores and Helene Costello, Alice and Marceline Day, Loretta Young and Sally Blane) were two pairs that made me ridiculously happy:

Alberta and Adamae Vaughn 

(photos courtesy Find A Grave and LucyWho.com)

Cute-as-a-button Alberta started as a Mack Sennett Bathing Beauty and appeared in some 130 films before leaving the screen in 1935.  She worked with Harry Langdon and Stan Laurel, and was a 1924 WAMPAS Baby Star (the same year as Clara Bow).  

Her sister, Adamae, was a Baby Star herself in 1927.  Her career was much more limited, lasting only nine films, and she died at age 37 from undisclosed causes.  Strangely enough, she was in pictures first; it was only after a casting call needed a brunette that she brought along her sister.  The rest, as they say, is history.

Armida and Lola Vendrell 

(photo courtesy http://www.allstarpics.net)

The beautiful and diminutive Armida Vendrell (she was barely 4'11") started in a vaudeville dancing act with her two sisters, Lola (sometimes billed as Lolita) and Lydia.  Her talent and natural vivacity got her noticed; she started in short subjects, and by age eighteen was handpicked by John Barrymore to be the gypsy dancer in General Crack.  She was in 29 films, mostly dancing or playing typical "Mexican" roles, but never reached the big time.  

Sadly, I can't find any further info about Lola; her IMDb page only lists one Spanish-language film after her appearance in Show of Shows, and an image search only brings up photos of her more-famous sister.  

• John Barrymore doing a scene from Henry VI (Part III).  It’s Jack.  Doing Shakespeare.  Enough said.

(photo courtesy IMDb)

• The crazy, frenetic, brilliant dancers of the “Lady Luck” segment.  I tried looking them up everywhere, and I can’t find names – even IMDb only lists first names with vague “dancer” tags.  I can’t even describe how marvelous they were…oh here, just watch for yourself:

The shimmy dancer and the pseudo-breakdancing and the completely over-the-top parading around of Betty Compson (Mrs James Cruze, remember?) and the chandeliers made of WOMEN!!!   In color, this would’ve been breathtaking; rainbow streamers even rain down at the end.  Sigh!

I taped this off of TCM, so if they ever show it again, run to set your DVR.  You need to see this.  (Yes, even with Frank Fay as emcee.)  You will love it!

I give this one (as if you needed to ask by now): 

Happy John Barrymore Awareness Day!

Oh sure, some people like to call it Valentine’s Day, poor misguided souls. They just need to be educated in the badassery that is “The Great Profile” – and you can be the one to do it! ! Show them this handy checklist to convince them to ditch the chubby kid with the arrows, and give flowers and candy in Jack’s name instead:

1. Best. Hamlet. Ever.

During the 1920s, Jack was regarded as the finest Shakespearean actor of his time, perhaps of all time. His performances of Hamlet and Richard III were religious experiences; the critic John Corbin marveled that “[t]he atmosphere of historic happening surrounded John Barrymore's appearance last night as the Prince of Denmark; it was unmistakable as it was indefinable. It sprang from the quality and intensity of the applause, from the hushed murmurs that swept the audience at the most unexpected moments, from the silent crowds that all evening long swarmed about the theatre entrance. It was nowhere-and everywhere. In all likelihood we have a new and lasting Hamlet.” (NYT, Nov 17 1922)

The only footage we have of Jack performing Hamlet is a two-strip Technicolor screen test made for a 1933 screen version, eventually aborted:

2. Rooftop Romance

Jack and brother Lionel (left) in 1917



October 1917 saw Jack occupying the top floor of an old four-story building in Greenwich Village. After he fixed up the apartment to his bohemian liking, he turned his attention to the roof. From Gene Fowler’s wonderful Good Night, Sweet Prince:

[He] planted cedars eight feet tall…[he] also installed white wisterias, arbor vitae, cherry trees, and grapevines…Mrs Nicholls [Jack’s landlady] returned to find a horticultural frenzy atop her house. She was somewhat amazed, but did not complain…for there was a startling yet weird beauty to Barrymore’s creation, and the man himself seemed so childishly content as he fed the birds on his “estate”.

3. Love, Love, Love

Jack & Dolores

Jack’s intelligence and charisma were legendary. Combined with darkly handsome good looks and an athlete’s build, he was the epitome of Lady Caroline Lamb’s “mad, bad, and dangerous to know”. He was married four times – one of those to the actress Dolores Costello – and had liaisons with Mary Astor, Jeanne Eagels, and Evelyn Nesbit, among others.

4. Ahoy There!

Captain Jack

Jack adored sailing more than anything in this world, and was quite accomplished at it.  When he wasn’t on board The Mariner, he lovingly furnished his home with model ships, navigation charts, even pieces of wrecks.  He would take to the sea for months at a time, keeping a detailed captain's log of his adventures and exploits.

5. King of the Retorts

Hepburn's debut film

The sheer number of brilliant quips and quotes from Jack is staggering.  He rivaled Oscar Wilde in pithiness and was sharp as a razor.  So many anecdotes are attributed to him that it’s hard to determine which ones are apocryphal, but this has always been one of my favorites (courtesy Anecdotage.com):

During the production of A Bill of Divorcement, Katharine Hepburn frequently quarreled with John Barrymore. When filming wrapped, she turned to her co-star and screamed, "Thank God I don't have to act with you anymore!" "I wasn't aware," Barrymore tartly replied, "that you ever had, darling."

---

There you have it.  Five great reasons why February 14^th should be all about Jack!

How are you celebrating today?