Barbara La Marr

La Marr was finally "discovered" by Douglas Fairbanks, who gave her a prominent role in The Nut (1921), then cast her as Milady de Winter in his production of The Three Musketeers (1921). After two further career-boosting films with director Rex Ingram (The Prisoner of Zenda and Trifling Women, both with Ramon Novarro), La Marr signed with Arthur H. Sawyer to make several films for various studios, including The Hero (1923), Souls for Sale (1923), and The Shooting of Dan McGrew (1924), the first and last of which she co-wrote. During her career, La Marr became known as the pre-eminent vamp of the 1920s; she partied and drank heavily, once remarking to the press that she only slept two hours a night. In 1924, La Marr's health began to falter after a series of crash diets for comeback roles further affected her, leading to her death from pulmonary tuberculosis and nephritis at age 29. She was posthumously honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to the film industry.

• Name — Barbara La Marr • Birth Name — Reatha Dale Watson • Born — 28 July 1896 • Birthplace — Yakima, Washington, U.S. • Died — 30 January 1926 • Place of death — Altadena, California, U.S. • Resting Place — Hollywood Forever Cemetery • Other Names — * Beth Watson • Beth Lytelle • Folly Lytelle • Occupation — * Actress • screenwriter • Years Active — 1920–1926 • Children — 1 • Website — www.barbaralamarr.net

Barbara La Marr was born in 1896 as Reatha Dale Watson to William and Rosana "Rose" Watson in Yakima, Washington (La Marr later claimed she was born in Richmond, Virginia). Her father was an editor for a newspaper, and her mother, a native of Corvallis, Oregon, already had one son, Henry, and a daughter, Violet, from a previous marriage. La Marr's parents had wed sometime during 1884, and had a son, William Watson, Jr., born in June 1886, ten years before she was born. Through her mother, La Marr was of German and English descent. In the 1920s, the elder Watson became a vaudeville comedian under the stage name of Billy Devore. The Watsons lived in various locations in Washington and Oregon during La Marr's formative years. By 1900, she was living with her parents in Portland, Oregon, with her brother William, her half-sister Violet Ross, and Violet's husband Arvel Ross. As a child, La Marr also performed as a dancer in vaudeville, and made her acting debut as Little Eva in a Tacoma stage production of Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1904. By 1910, La Marr was living in Fresno, California with her parents. Some time after 1911, the family moved to Los Angeles, and La Marr worked at a department store. La Marr also appeared in burlesque shows. In January 1913, her half-sister, now going by the name of Violet Ake, took her 16-year-old sister on a three-day automobile excursion with a man named C.C. Boxley. They drove up to Santa Barbara, but after a few days, La Marr felt that they were not going to let her return home. Ake and Boxley finally let La Marr return to Los Angeles after they realized that warrants were issued for their arrests, accusing them of kidnapping. This episode was published in several newspapers, and La Marr even testified against her sister, but the case eventually was dropped. La Marr's name appeared frequently in newspaper headlines during the next few years. In November 1914, she came back to California from Arizona and announced that she was the newly widowed wife of a rancher named Jack Lytell and that they were supposedly married in Mexico. She also stated that she loathed the name Reatha and preferred to be called by the childhood nickname "Beth".

After marrying and moving in with her third husband, vaudevillian Ben Deely, La Marr, who at one time had aspirations of being a poet, found employment writing screenplays at Fox Film Corporation using the name Folly Lyell. She wrote numerous scenarios for studio shorts at Fox and United Artists, many of which she based on her life, earning over US$10,000 during her tenure at the studios. She was credited as writer Barbara La Marr Deely on the films The Mother of His Children, The Rose of Nome, Flame of Youth, The Little Grey Mouse, and The Land of Jazz (all released in 1920). La Marr continued to write short screenplays for the studio and supported herself by dancing in various cities across the country, including New York City, Chicago, New Orleans, and at the 1915 World's Fair in San Francisco. La Marr's dance partners included Rudolph Valentino and Clifton Webb, and her dance routines attracted the attention of publisher William Randolph Hearst, who featured her and a dance partner in a series of articles published in the San Francisco Examiner around 1914.

• Illustration — La Marr with Ramon Novarro in Trifling Women (1922) While working in the writers' building at United Artists, La Marr was approached by Mary Pickford, who reportedly embraced her and said, "My dear, you are too beautiful to be behind a camera. Your vibrant magnetism should be shared by film audiences." La Marr's association with filmmakers led to her returning to Los Angeles and making her film debut in 1920 in Harriet and the Piper. Though a supporting part, the film garnered her attention from audiences. La Marr made the successful transition from writer to actress with her supporting role in The Nut (1921), playing a femme fatale. Later the same year, she was hired by Douglas Fairbanks to play the substantial part of Milady de Winter in The Three Musketeers. • Illustration — La Marr in The Prisoner of Zenda (1922) Over the next several years, La Marr acted frequently in films, and became known to the public as "The Girl Who Is Too Beautiful", after Adela Rogers St. Johns, a Hearst newspaper feature writer, saw a judge sending her home during a police beat in Los Angeles because she was "too beautiful and young to be on her own in the big city." This publicity did much to promote her career. Among La Marr's films are The Prisoner of Zenda and Trifling Women, both 1922 releases directed by Rex Ingram. Although her film career flourished, she embraced the fast-paced Hollywood nightlife, remarking in an interview that she slept no more than two hours a night. In 1923, La Marr appeared in the comedy The Brass Bottle, portraying the role of the Queen, and Poor Men's Wives. She had a supporting part in the Fred Niblo-directed comedy Strangers of the Night, and was noted in a New York Times review for her "capable" performance. She starred in the lead role, with Bert Lytell and Lionel Barrymore, in The Eternal City (1923), which featured a cameo appearance by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

In 1924, during the filming of Thy Name Is Woman, production supervisor Irving Thalberg made regular visits to the set to ensure that La Marr's alcoholism was not interfering with the shoot. The same year, La Marr's first starring, above-the-title role came in the drama Sandra, from First National Pictures, which she filmed in New York City in August 1924. La Marr had served as a co-writer on the film, which focused on a woman suffering from a split-personality disorder. Upon release, the film received dismally negative reviews. La Marr's final screenplay, titled My Husband's Wives, was produced by Fox in 1924, arriving in theaters shortly after the release of Sandra, and before the production of what proved to be her final three films: The Heart of a Siren (a mixed reception), The White Monkey (a critical failure), and The Girl from Montmartre (a critical success, albeit posthumously released). While shooting The Girl from Montmartre in early October 1925, La Marr collapsed on set and went into a coma as the studio wrapped production without her with use of a double in long shots.

• Illustration — La Marr with son, Marvin, c. 1922 Although the tally is usually given as five, La Marr was officially married only four times. No documentation exists to prove the existence of her alleged first husband, Jack Lytelle, whom she claimed to have met while visiting friends in Yuma, Arizona in 1914. According to La Marr, Lytelle became enamored with her as he saw her one day riding in an automobile while he was on horseback. The couple allegedly married the day after they met, but Lytelle, it was claimed, died of pneumonia only three weeks into the marriage, leaving only a surname for Mrs. Lytelle to inherit. La Marr's first official documented marriage on June 2, 1914, was to a Max Lawrence, who later turned out to be a former soldier of fortune named Lawrence Converse. He was already married with children when he married La Marr under a false name, and was arrested for bigamy the following day. Converse died of a blood clot in his brain, allegedly caused by banging his head against the cell bars while calling for La Marr, three days later on June 5. On October 13, 1916, La Marr married Philip Ainsworth, a noted dancer. Although the son of well-off parents, Ainsworth eventually was incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison for passing bad checks, and the couple divorced in 1917. She married for a third time to Ben Deely, also a dancer, in 1918. Deely, who was over twice her age, was an alcoholic and a gambling addict, which led to the couple's separation in April 1921. Before the divorce from Deely was finalized, La Marr married actor Jack Dougherty in May 1923. Despite separating a year later, they remained legally married until her death. Some years after La Marr's death, she was revealed to have given birth to a son, Marvin Carville La Marr, on July 29, 1922. The name of the boy's father has never been released. During her final illness, La Marr entrusted the care of her son to her close friend, actress ZaSu Pitts, and Pitts' husband, film executive Tom Gallery. After La Marr's death, the child was legally adopted by Pitts and Gallery and renamed Donald Michael "Sonny" Gallery. Don Gallery was married to actress Joyce Reynolds from 1947 to 1951 before remarrying Patricia in 1985. He lived in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and died in 2014 at the age of 92.

• Illustration — La Marr in her Hollywood Hills home, 1924 La Marr partied long hours and got very little sleep during the latter part of her career, often pairing this behavior with drinking during especially low points; she once told an interviewer: "I cheat nature. I never sleep more than two hours a day. I have better things to do." In addition to her drinking and lack of sleep, during the last two years of her life, La Marr went on several extreme crash diets to lose weight. La Marr was rumored to have at one time ingested a tapeworm head in a pill to help her lose weight. By late 1925, La Marr's health had deteriorated significantly due to pulmonary tuberculosis. While filming her final feature, The Girl from Montmartre, La Marr collapsed on the set and lapsed into a coma. In mid-December, she was diagnosed with nephritis, an inflammation of the kidneys, as a complication of her already tubercular state. La Marr was bedridden through Christmas, and by late December, she reportedly weighed less than 80 lb. Some historians and writers have claimed that La Marr was addicted to morphine and heroin, which she had been prescribed after injuring her ankle and which may have contributed to her health problems. In Sherri Snyder's 2017 biography of La Marr, the writer states that these claims were untrue and erroneously reported. A frequently recirculated rumor was that La Marr was arrested for morphine possession in Los Angeles; however, Snyder states that this claim was mistakenly attributed to La Marr, when it had in fact been actress Alma Rubens who had been arrested in January 1931, five years after La Marr's death. Ben Finney, a close friend of La Marr, contested the claims of drug use, stating: "It is inconceivable that during our close friendship I would not have known if she were a junkie," adding, "She did well enough with booze."

On January 30, 1926, La Marr died of complications associated with tuberculosis and nephritis at her parents' home in Altadena, California, at the age of 29. Her friend, film director Paul Bern, was with her when she died. La Marr's son later speculated that Bern may have been his biological father, though this eventually was disproved; Bern died in a mysterious shooting six years later. La Marr's funeral at the Walter C. Blue Undertaking Chapel in Los Angeles attracted over 3,000 fans, and five women reportedly fainted in the crowd and had to be removed by police to safety. After her removal from the church during the funeral procession, hundreds of fans flooded the chapel hoping to obtain flowers from the decorative arrangements. She was interred in a crypt at Hollywood Cathedral Mausoleum, in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. In February 1960, the Hollywood Walk of Fame recognized her contribution to the motion picture industry, with a star at 1621 Vine Street.

Producer Louis B. Mayer persuaded actress Hedwig Kiesler to adopt the stage name Hedy Lamarr on behalf of his wife, a longtime admirer of La Marr. She is also referred to in the popular 1932 Flanagan and Allen song "Underneath the Arches" during a break in which Ches Allen reads the headlines from a 1926 newspaper. Children's author Edward Eager set an episode of his 1954 book Half Magic at a showing of La Marr's Sandra and includes ironic descriptions of the movie.

Key • Denotes a lost or presumed lost film. • Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1920 — Harriet and the Piper — Tam O'Shanter Girl — Credited as Barbara Deely Alternate title: Paying the Piper • Flame of Youth — Story • The Mother of His Children — – — Story Credited as Barbara La Marr Deely • Rose of Nome — – — Story Credited as Barbara La Marr Deely • The Little Grey Mouse — – — Story • The Land of Jazz — – — Story Credited as Barbara La Marr Deely • 1921 — The Nut — Claudine Dupree • Desperate Trails — Lady Lou • The Three Musketeers — Milady de Winter • Cinderella of the Hills — Kate Gradley — Credited as Barbara La Marr Deely • 1922 — Arabian Love — Themar • Domestic Relations — Mrs. Martin • The Prisoner of Zenda — Antoinette de Mauban • Trifling Women — Jacqueline de Séverac/Zareda • Quincy Adams Sawyer — Lindy Putnam • 1923 — The Hero — Hester Lane • The Brass Bottle — The Queen • Mary of the Movies — Herself — Incomplete • Poor Men's Wives — Laura Bedford/Laura Maberne — Incomplete • Souls for Sale — Leva Lemaire • Strangers of the Night — Anna Valeska — Alternate title: Ambrose Applejohn's Adventure • St. Elmo — Agnes Hunt • The Eternal Struggle — Camille Lenoir — Alternate title: Masters of Women • The Eternal City — Donna Roma — Incomplete • 1924 — Thy Name Is Woman — Guerita • The Shooting of Dan McGrew — Lou • The White Moth — Mona Reid/The White Moth — Writer, uncredited • Hello, 'Frisco • Sandra — Sandra Waring • My Husband's Wives — – — Story • 1925 — The Heart of a Siren — Isabella Echevaria — Alternate title: The Heart of a Temptress • The White Monkey — Fleur Forsyte — Incomplete • 1926 — The Girl from Montmartre — Emilia Faneaux

Born at Yakima in 1896 as Reatha Dale Watson, Wikipedia notes that La Marr herself later claimed to have been born in Richmond, Virginia. Her parents were William Watson, a newspaper editor, and Rosana Watson. During her formative years, her family lived in various locations across Washington and Oregon before relocating to California, where she worked in department stores, performed in burlesque, and danced in vaudeville following an early stage debut in 1904. Her early public life was marked by media attention, including a widely reported 1913 incident in which her half-sister Violet Ake and C.C. Boxley took her on an excursion to Santa Barbara, leading to kidnapping charges that were ultimately dropped. Following her return from Arizona in 1914, she adopted the name Beth and announced a brief marriage to Jack Lytell, a rancher whose existence remains undocumented according to biographical sources summarized in Wikipedia. She married multiple times, including documented unions with Lawrence Converse, Philip Ainsworth, Ben Deely, and Jack Dougherty. She died at her parents' home in Altadena on 30 January 1926 from complications of pulmonary tuberculosis and nephritis, and was posthumously awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Before achieving prominence as an on-screen performer, Barbara La Marr established a lucrative career behind the camera as a screenwriter for Fox Film Corporation and United Artists. Following her marriage to the vaudeville dancer Ben Deely, La Marr began writing studio scenarios under the pseudonym Folly Lyell. According to biographical records cited in Wikipedia, her screenwriting drew heavily upon her personal life experiences and earned her in excess of 10,000 United States dollars. During this period, La Marr supplemented her writing income by performing as a professional dancer in major cities including New York, Chicago, New Orleans, and at the 1915 World's Fair in San Francisco. Her dancing partners included Rudolph Valentino and Clifton Webb, and her routines attracted the attention of publisher William Randolph Hearst, who featured her in the San Francisco Examiner around 1914. La Marr continued to contribute to screenplays even after transitioning to acting, serving as a co-writer on The Hero (1923), Sandra (1924), and The Shooting of Dan McGrew (1924). Her final screenplay, My Husband's Wives, was produced by Fox Film Corporation in 1924.

Barbara La Marr's transition from screenwriting to acting occurred after actress Mary Pickford encountered her at United Artists and remarked that her appearance belonged in front of the camera. She made her screen acting debut in Harriet and the Piper in 1920, and established her image as a femme fatale the following year in The Nut (1921). Douglas Fairbanks subsequently cast her as Milady de Winter in The Three Musketeers (1921). Her profile expanded further through featured roles in Rex Ingram's productions of The Prisoner of Zenda (1922) and Trifling Women (1922), both co-starring Ramon Novarro. She gained public renown as "The Girl Who Is Too Beautiful", a phrase coined by journalist Adela Rogers St. Johns in a Hearst publication. Throughout the early 1920s, La Marr maintained a demanding schedule, appearing in films such as The Brass Bottle (1923), Poor Men's Wives (1923), Strangers of the Night (1923), and The Eternal City (1923). Her strenuous lifestyle and public admission of sleeping only two hours a night were accompanied by heavy drinking. Extreme crash diets severely compromised her physical condition, leading to her collapse on the set of The Girl from Montmartre in October 1925. While historical accounts occasionally cited drug addiction, biographer Sherri Snyder established in 2017 that reports of a narcotics arrest in Los Angeles were misattributed to La Marr and actually concerned actress Alma Rubens in 1931, a position supported by La Marr's friend Ben Finney.

Barbara La Marr was born Reatha Dale Watson in Yakima, Washington, in 1896, although Wikipedia records that she later asserted Richmond, Virginia, as her place of birth. Her parents were William Watson, a newspaper editor who later toured in vaudeville under the stage name Billy Devore, and Rosana Watson. While popular accounts frequently stated that La Marr entered into five marriages during her lifetime, surviving historical documentation verifies four official marital unions. La Marr claimed to have wed a rancher named Jack Lytelle in Yuma, Arizona, in 1914, asserting that he succumbed to pneumonia three weeks after their meeting; however, no official documentation has been located to verify Lytelle's existence or their union. Her first documented marriage occurred on 2 June 1914 to Max Lawrence, who was subsequently identified as Lawrence Converse. On 13 October 1916, La Marr married the dancer Philip Ainsworth, a union that ended in divorce in 1917 following his imprisonment at San Quentin State Prison. She subsequently married vaudeville dancer Ben Deely in 1918, separating from him in April 1921. On 29 July 1922, La Marr gave birth to a son, Marvin Carville La Marr. The identity of the child's father is not established in the archival record. During her final illness, La Marr entrusted her son to the actress ZaSu Pitts and film executive Tom Gallery, who legally adopted the child under the name Donald Michael Gallery. Johns that labelled her "The Girl Who Is Too Beautiful".

In 1924, First National Pictures released the drama Sandra, marking Barbara La Marr's initial starring appearance above the title. La Marr co-wrote the screenplay, which depicted a woman experiencing split-personality disorder, but the film received highly critical contemporary reviews. During the production of Thy Name Is Woman in the same year, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production supervisor Irving Thalberg instituted regular set inspections to monitor the impact of La Marr's severe alcoholism upon the shooting schedule. Following her final screenplay, My Husband's Wives, produced by Fox Film Corporation in 1924, La Marr completed work on The Heart of a Siren, The White Monkey, and The Girl from Montmartre. In early October 1925, while filming The Girl from Montmartre, La Marr collapsed on set and entered a coma. Studio authorities completed the production using a stand-in for long-distance shots. Her physical health deteriorated rapidly as a result of rigorous crash dieting, excessive alcohol consumption, and chronic exhaustion. In mid-December 1925, medical advisers diagnosed her with nephritis alongside pulmonary tuberculosis, and by late December her weight had dropped below eighty pounds. Although earlier historical accounts alleged that La Marr suffered from an addiction to morphine and heroin, biographer Sherri Snyder demonstrated in 2017 that these reports arose from erroneous attribution, confusing La Marr with the actress Alma Rubens, who was arrested on narcotics charges in January 1931.