Silent Players: A Biographical and Autobiographical Study of 100 Silent Film Actors and Actresses

Filled with little known facts and personal remembrances of the stars of the silent screen, Silent Players profiles the lives and careers of the hundred best, brightest, or most unusual silent film actors and actresses. Anthony Slide shows that the unlikely plot twists in many silent films are nothing compared to the strange and often sad, lives led by many of the men and women whose images flickered onscreen. His subjects include shining stars Lillian Gish and Blanche Sweet, leading men William Bakewell and Robert Harron, gifted leading ladies Laura La Plante and Alice Terry, ingenues Mary Astor and Mary Brian, and Hollywood's most famous extra Bess Flowers, among others. As Slide expIores their unique talents and extraordinary private lives, the result is a series of insightful portraits of the characters,who symbolize an original and pioneering era in motion picture history. In addition to being a lively look at the lives and careers of many of the American silent cinema's leading men and women, Silent Players also offers fascinating insight into silent film performance, from makeup to acting techniques and pantomime to the role of the director. Actress Ethel Grandir recalls the first panorama shot in the film Traffic In Souls, and actor Harold Lloyd explains how his comic films began with nothing more than a cast of characters and a few locations and emerged with plot and structure exactly nine hundred feet of film—a one-reeler—later. Slide offers a completely fresh view of many of the stars he profiles, repudiating the status of some and restoring to fame others who have slipped from view. He personally interviewed many of his subjects and knew several of them intimately, putting him in a unique position to tell the true stories of early film's most vibrant and appealing personalities.