Vola Vale

• Name — Vola Vale • Birth Name — Vola Smith • Born — 12 February 1897 • Birthplace — Buffalo, New York, U.S. • Died — 17 October 1970 • Place of death — Hawthorne, California, U.S. • Occupation — Actress • Children — 1

Vale was born in Buffalo, New York and educated in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Her high school friends in Rochester, New York, where she was raised, knew her as Vola Smith. She began her career in amateur theatricals in Rochester. Then she played in stock companies for a while. After working under Bert Lytell on stage, in 1916 Vale began working in film for Biograph, under the tutelage of the film director D.W. Griffith. After a month of playing atmosphere parts, Vola was offered a genuine role. She wore a velvet gown with a train and a feathered hat. Soon she was appearing in short reel films for Biograph. Among the actors she was cast with were William S. Hart, Sessue Hayakawa, Tsuru Aoki, William Haines, Harry Carey, Tully Marshall and William Russell. She was adept in playing Spanish, Italian, French, and Gypsy roles. Aside from Biograph, Vale worked for Fox Film, Famous Players–Lasky, Universal Pictures, and Paramount Pictures.

Her ambition was to play Madame Butterfly with an actual Japanese company, as well as to act as Lorna Doone. She was most inspired by Hayakawa and hoped to learn to act inside, as he did. With Sessue Hayakawa, she made Each To His Kind (1917). Before filming began it was decided that the name Smith was too common to be used by a motion picture star. She changed her professional name to Vola Vale. Vale reflected in the early 1920s about observation, particularly its power in attaining one's acting proficiency. It is the ability of the actress to see and note of the little things in life and then store them in her subconscious mind where they await her call to use at the psychological moment before the camera that enables her to either register success in her chosen work, or be merely mediocre. She began this process as a youth acting with D.W. Griffith. She observed how the director took notice of everything the actors did.

Vale modeled clothes for the Broadway Department Store in Los Angeles, California. A 1916 photo from the Los Angeles Times shows her in an exclusive Betty Wales frock from Broadway. This was a very popular dress among college women of the era.

In the summer of 1917, Vale began living in an Ocean Bluff home in the city of Long Beach. Vale was married to film director and producer Al Russell. They had a son. On December 8, 1926, Vale married director John. W. Gorman in Santa Ana, California. They kept the wedding secret until they told friends on February 2, 1927. She married a third time to Lawrence McDougal, with whom she remained until his death in February 1970. She was a member of Our Club, a group of seventeen of Hollywood's baby cinema stars. Mary Pickford served as honorary president. Fellow members were Mildred Davis, Helen Ferguson, Patsy Ruth Miller, Clara Horton, Gertrude Olmstead, Laura La Plante, Virginia Fox, Colleen Moore, ZaSu Pitts, Lois Wilson, May McAvoy, Gloria Hope, Virginia Valli, Carmel Myers, Edna Murphy, and Carmelita Geraghty. Vale died in Hawthorne, California in 1970, aged 73, of heart disease. She is interred at Roosevelt Memorial Park in Los Angeles County, California.

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1916 — Timothy Dobbs, That's Me — Mary Clarkson — Lost film • 1916 — The Eagle's Wings — Kitty Miles — Lost film • 1916 — The Price of Silence — Aline Urmy • 1917 — Each to His Kind — Amy Dawe — Lost film • 1917 — The Winning of Sally Temple — Lady Pamela Vauclain • 1917 — Mentioned in Confidence — Marjorie Manning • 1917 — Perils of the Secret Service — Minna Ober — (Episode #1) • 1917 — The Bond Between — Ellen Ingram — Lost film • 1917 — The Secret of Black Mountain — Miriam Vale — Short Incomplete film • 1917 — The Son of His Father — Hazel Mallinsbee • 1917 — The Lady in the Library — Mildred Vandeburg • 1917 — Zollenstein — Princess Fulvia / Princess Zenia • 1917 — The Silent Man — Betty Bryce • 1918 — Wolves of the Rail — Faith Lawson • 1918 — The Locked Heart — Ruth Mason — Lost film • 1919 — Happy Though Married — Diana Ramon — Lost film • 1919 — A Heart in Pawn — Emily Stone — Lost film • 1919 — Hearts Asleep — Virginia Calvert — Lost film • 1919 — Hornet's Nest — Muriel Fletcher — Lost film • 1919 — Six Feet Four — Winifred Waverly • 1919 — Someone Must Pay — Molly Brent — Lost film • 1920 — Overland Red — Louise Alacarme — Lost film • 1920 — Alias Jimmy Valentine — Rose Lane — Lost film • 1920 — A Master Stroke — Minnie Patton — Lost film • 1920 — The Purple Cipher — Jeanne Baldwin — Lost film • 1920 — Someone in the House — Molly Brent — Lost film • 1920 — The Iron Rider — Mera Donovan — Lost film • 1920 — Common Sense — Violet Manners — Lost film • 1921 — Singing River — Alice Thornton — Lost film • 1921 — The Duke of Chimney Butte — Vesta Philbrook — Lost film • 1921 — White Oak — Barbara • 1922 — Good Men and True — Georgie Hibbler — Lost film • 1923 — Crashin' Thru — Diane — Lost film • 1923 — Soul of the Beast — Jacqueline • 1923 — The Man Between — Rosie (Joe Cateau's bride) — Lost film • 1923 — Mothers-in-Law — Ina Phillips — Lost film • 1923 — The Midnight Flower — Myra — Lost film • 1924 — The Mirage — Betty Bond — Lost film • 1925 — Who Cares — Tootles • 1925 — The Phantom of the Opera — Ballerina / Christines Maid — Uncredited • 1925 — Little Annie Rooney — Mamie • 1925 — Heartless Husbands — Mrs. Jackson Cain — Lost film • 1926 — Her Big Adventure — Countess Fontaine — Lost film • 1926 — Two Can Play — Mimi — Lost film • 1926 — The Sky Pirate — Lost film • 1926 — Home Sweet Home • 1927 — Black Tears — Lost film • 1932 — Tomorrow and Tomorrow — Townswoman — Uncredited • 1936 — One Rainy Afternoon — Minor Role — Uncredited

The authorities additionally record the heading Vola Smith. Her recorded language was English. She married Albert Russell and John Gorman.