Marguerite Clark

• Name — Marguerite Clark • Other Names — Marguerite Clarke • Birth Name — Helen Marguerite Clark • Born — 22 February 1883 • Birthplace — Avondale, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. • Died — 25 September 1940 • Place of death — New York City, New York, U.S. • Resting Place — Metairie Cemetery • Years Active — 1900–1921 • Occupation — Actress

• Illustration — Hand-tinted postcard of Clark in the play Happyland • Illustration — Clark in 1912, the year she starred in two Broadway plays, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and The Affairs of Anatol Born in Avondale, Cincinnati, Ohio on February 22, 1883, she was the third child of Augustus "Gus" James and Helen Elizabeth Clark. She had an older sister, Cora, and an older brother named Clifton. Clark's mother Helen died on January 21, 1893. Her father worked in his self-owned successful haberdashery located in downtown Cincinnati before his death on December 29, 1896. Following his death, Clark's sister Cora was appointed her legal guardian and removed her from public school to further her education at Ursuline Academy.

Marguerite Clark finished school at age 16, decided to pursue a career in the theatre, making her first stage appearance as a member of the Strakosch Opera Company in 1899. She made her Broadway debut in 1900. The 17-year-old performed at various venues. In 1903, she was seen on Broadway opposite hulking comedian DeWolf Hopper in Mr. Pickwick. The 6 ft Hopper dwarfed the "petite and daintly" Clark who stood four-foot-ten-inches (1.5 meters). She starred opposite Hopper again in Happyland in 1905. Several adventure-fantasy roles followed. In 1909, Clark starred in the whimsical costume play The Beauty Spot, establishing the fantasy stories which would soon become her hallmark. In 1910, Clark appeared in The Wishing Ring, a play directed by Cecil B. DeMille which was later made into a motion picture by Maurice Tourneur. That same 1910 season had Clark appearing in Baby Mine, a popular play produced by William A. Brady. In 1912, Clark performed in a lead role with John Barrymore, Doris Keane and Gail Kane in an English adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's play Anatol, which was later made into the film The Affairs of Anatol by Clark's future movie studio Famous Players–Lasky and directed by DeMille. That same year, she starred in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The classic tale was adapted for the stage by Winthrop Ames (writing under the pseudonym Jessie Braham White), who closely oversaw its production at his Little Theatre in New York and personally selected the lead actress. Clark expressed her delight in the role, and the play had a successful run into 1913. After seeing Clark’s performance in a revival of Merely Mary Ann (1914), film producer Adolph Zukor signed her to make motion pictures with his Famous Players Film Company.

• Illustration — Snow White, full 63 minute 1916 film starring Clark • Illustration — Advertisement for Wildflower in Moving Picture World (1918) • Illustration — Silks and Satins (1916) • Illustration — Marguerite Clark by Harrison Fisher, a red conte crayon drawing done for the March 24, 1918 edition of American Weekly At age 31, it was relatively late in life for a film actress to begin a career with starring roles, but the diminutive Clark had a little-girl look, like Mary Pickford, that belied her years. Also, film was not developed or mature enough to showcase Clark at her youthful best at the turn of the century. These were some of the reasons established Broadway stars refused early film offers. Feature films were unheard of when Clark was in her early 20s. Once signed with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company, she was cast in starring roles in more than a dozen features. Her first appearance on screen was in the short film Wildflower (1914), directed by Allan Dwan. • Illustration — Clark in Molly Make-Believe (1916) Marguerite Clark's emergence as an outstanding film actor was acknowledged by 1915, when Moving Picture World, in a review of The Goose Girl, based on a 1909 best-selling novel by Harold MacGrath, reported that Clark "conquers her audience in an instant." She performed in the feature-length production The Seven Sisters (1915), directed by Sidney Olcott, and then reprised her stage role in a film that would define the Clark persona—the influential 1916 screen version of Snow White. Clark was directed in this by J. Searle Dawley, as well as in a number of films, notably when she played the characters of both "Little Eva St. Clair" and "Topsy" in the feature Uncle Tom's Cabin (1918). • Illustration — Promotion in Moving Picture World, 1919 Clark starred in Come Out of the Kitchen (1919), which was filmed in Pass Christian, Mississippi, at Ossian Hall. The same year, she enrolled as a yeowoman in the naval reserves. Clark made all but one of her 40 films with Famous Players–Lasky, her last with them in 1920 titled Easy to Get, in which she starred opposite silent film actor Harrison Ford. Her next film, in 1921, was made by her own production company for First National Pictures distribution. As one of the most popular actresses going into the 1920s, and one of the industry's best paid, her name alone was enough to ensure reasonable box office success. As such, Scrambled Wives was made under her direction, following which she retired at age 38 to be with her husband at their country estate in New Orleans. Critic Alice Hall, writing in Picturegoer magazine (April 1921), observed that the 34-year-old Clark, near the end of her film career "seems to have discovered the secret of perpetual youth; and with it moreover, to have combined the grace and charm which the wisdom of experience alone can bring." • Illustration — Clark and Williams' former mansion on St. Charles Avenue in Uptown New Orleans now houses the Latter branch of the New Orleans Public Library

Mary Pickford and Marguerite Clark were working at the same movie studio, Famous Players–Lasky, as they emerged as major Hollywood stars of the silent film era. While the two remained personally disengaged, a "definite rivalry" developed over their respective critical and popular successes. According to film historian Paul O'Dell, the competition was evidenced primarily by the apparent hostility between Pickford's mother Charlotte and Clark's mother Helen and older sister, Cora. The rivalry became explicit in 1918 when Motion Picture Magazine conducted a poll among movie fans that garnered Pickford 158,199 votes to Clark's 138,852 (53% to 47%). As to Pickford's narrow margin of success over Clark in popularity, film producer Samuel Goldwyn, writing in his 1923 memoir Behind the Screen, provides this assessment:

On August 15, 1918, Clark married New Orleans, Louisiana, plantation owner and millionaire businessman—then a US Army Lieutenant—Harry Palmerston Williams, a marriage that ended with the death of Williams on May 19, 1936 in an aircraft crash. After his death, Clark owned Wedell-Williams Air Service Corporation, which had built and flown air racers, along with other aviation enterprises, until sold in 1937.

After the death of her husband, Clark moved to New York City where she lived with her sister Cora. On September 20, 1940, she entered LeRoy Sanitarium where she died five days later of pneumonia. A private funeral was held at Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel on September 28. She was cremated and buried with her husband in Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Marguerite Clark has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6304 Hollywood Boulevard.

• Date — Production — Role • September 24 – November 10, 1900 — The Belle of Bohemia — Rosie Mulberry • October 7 – November 30, 1901 — The New Yorkers — Mary Lamb • May 5 – August 30, 1902 — The Wild Rose — Lieutenant Gaston Gardennes • January 19 – May 1903 — Mr. Pickwick — Polly • June 22 – July 18, 1903 — George W. Lederer's Mid-Summer Night Fancies — Dorothy • October 2, 1905 – June 2, 1906 — Happyland — Sylvia • December 3, 1908 – January 16, 1909 — The Pied Piper — Elviria • April 10 – August 7, 1909 — The Beauty Spot — Nadine, General Samovar's daughter • January 10 – January 22, 1910 — The King of Cadonia — Princess Marie • January 20, 1910 – Closing date unknown — The Wishing Ring • May 10 – June 1910 — Jim the Penman • August 23, 1910 – Closing date unknown — Baby Mine — Zoie Hardy • October 14 – December 1912 — The Affairs of Anatol — Hilda • November 7, 1912 – Closing date unknown — Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs — Snow White • May 1 – May 1913 — Are You a Crook? — Amy Herrick • October 27, 1913 – Closing date unknown — Prunella — Prunella

Film • Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1914 — Wildflower — Letty Roberts — Lost film • 1914 — The Crucible — Jean — Lost film • 1915 — The Goose Girl — Gretchen — Lost film • 1915 — Gretna Green — Dolly Erskine — Lost film • 1915 — The Pretty Sister of Jose — Pepita — Lost film • 1915 — The Seven Sisters — Mici — Lost film • 1915 — Heléne of the North — Heléne Dearing — Lost film • 1915 — Still Waters — Nesta — Lost film • 1915 — The Prince & the Pauper — Prince Edward/Tom Canty — Lost film • 1916 — Mice and Men — Peggy — Lost film • 1916 — Out of the Drifts — Elise — Lost film • 1916 — Molly Make-Believe — Molly — Lost film • 1916 — Silks and Satins — Felicite • 1916 — Little Lady Eileen — Eileen Kavanaugh — Lost film • 1916 — Miss George Washington — Bernice Somers — Lost film • 1916 — Snow White — Snow White • 1917 — The Fortunes of Fifi — Fifi — Lost film • 1917 — The Valentine Girl — Marion Morgan — Lost film • 1917 — The Amazons — Lord Tommy — Lost film • 1917 — Bab's Diary — Bab Archibald — Lost film • 1917 — Bab's Burglar — Bab Archibald — Lost film • 1917 — Bab's Matinee Idol — Bab Archibald — Lost film • 1917 — The Seven Swans — Princess Tweedledee — Lost film • 1918 — Rich Man, Poor Man — Betty Wynne — Lost film • 1918 — Prunella — Prunella — Incomplete film • 1918 — Uncle Tom's Cabin — Little Eva St. Clair/Topsy — Lost film • 1918 — Out of a Clear Sky — Countess Celeste de Bersek et Krymm — Lost film • 1918 — The Biggest and the Littlest Lady in the World — The Little Lady — Lost film; a short about war bonds • 1918 — Little Miss Hoover — Ann Craddock • 1919 — Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch — Lovey Mary • 1919 — Three Men and a Girl — Sylvia Weston — Lost film • 1919 — Let's Elope — Eloise Farrington — Lost film • 1919 — Come Out of the Kitchen — Claudia Daingerfield — Lost film • 1919 — Girls — Pamela Gordon — Lost film • 1919 — Widow by Proxy — Gloria Grey — Lost film • 1919 — Luck in Pawn — Annabel Lee • 1919 — A Girl Named Mary — Mary Healey — Lost film • 1920 — All of a Sudden Peggy — Peggy O'Hara — Lost film • 1920 — Easy to Get — Molly Morehouse — Lost film • 1921 — Scrambled Wives — Miss Mary Lucille Smith — Lost film