What do you think?
Rate this book
Marguerite Clark: America's Darling of Broadway and the Silent Screen
A biographical and illustrated biography of marguerite Clark by Curtis Nunn
188 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1980
17 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 7, 2020
Marguerite Clark was a major movie star from the silent era, rivaling Mary Pickford in terms of popularity. She played similar roles too because she was petite and youthful, working until she was 38 years old in ingenue parts.
She was born in Cincinnati and orphaned at a young age. Her older sister Cora took on a stage mother role and pushed her into show business while shielding her pretty sister from the hazards of the industry. Her stage career was very successful and lead her to a career in motion pictures which is mostly lost today.
Her stage work is summarized mainly through quotes from newspaper reviews and plot synopses. Sometimes author Curtis Nunn does not give a synopsis, as if the reader already knows the stories for films like Prunella, which is odd considering he acknowledges how few of her films survive. Nunn was an avid Marguerite Clark fan and saw all of her films on their first runs, which was fortunate for him, but too bad for us that he did not write more about them and his personal reactions to them. At this time only four of her films exist in complete form, and one partially. (At the time of this book’s publication only two were available.) The author does not give much context to give a full picture of Clark’s role in history, and he assumes the reader knows who people like Lee Schubert, John Barrymore and Sarah Bernhardt are. What emerges is a "and then she... and then she... and then she..." narrative style which is frankly dull to read.
“I confess that I really much prefer the stage to the pictures. I know that I am not supposed to say so but I do.”
She was born in Cincinnati and orphaned at a young age. Her older sister Cora took on a stage mother role and pushed her into show business while shielding her pretty sister from the hazards of the industry. Her stage career was very successful and lead her to a career in motion pictures which is mostly lost today.
Her stage work is summarized mainly through quotes from newspaper reviews and plot synopses. Sometimes author Curtis Nunn does not give a synopsis, as if the reader already knows the stories for films like Prunella, which is odd considering he acknowledges how few of her films survive. Nunn was an avid Marguerite Clark fan and saw all of her films on their first runs, which was fortunate for him, but too bad for us that he did not write more about them and his personal reactions to them. At this time only four of her films exist in complete form, and one partially. (At the time of this book’s publication only two were available.) The author does not give much context to give a full picture of Clark’s role in history, and he assumes the reader knows who people like Lee Schubert, John Barrymore and Sarah Bernhardt are. What emerges is a "and then she... and then she... and then she..." narrative style which is frankly dull to read.
“I confess that I really much prefer the stage to the pictures. I know that I am not supposed to say so but I do.”
Displaying 1 of 1 review