Silent Film Star: Mary Alden.

Mary Alden (June 18, 1883 – July 2, 1946). Born in New York City, Alden began her career on Broadway before moving to Hollywood where she worked for the Biograph Company and Pathe Exchange.

Her most popular role in movies, Birth of a Nation(1915) directed by D.W. Griffith. Alden played the role of a mulatto girl in love with a northern politician. The film is about the relationship of two families in Civil War and Reconstruction-era America: the pro-Union Northern Stonemans and the pro-Confederacy Southern Camerons over several years.

The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth, is also dramatized.

The film was a commercial success, but was highly controversial because its portrayal of African American men (played by white actors in blackface) and the portrayal of the Ku Klux Klan (whose original founding is dramatized) .

There were widespread protests against The Birth of a Nation, and it was banned in several cities. The outcry of racism was so great that Griffith was inspired to produce the film, Intolerance the following year. The movie is also credited as one of the events that inspired the formation of the "second era" Ku Klux Klan at Stone Mountain, Georgia.

It was the first motion picture to be shown at the White House. President Woodrow Wilson supposedly said the film was "like writing history with lightning".

The following year she performed in Griffith's, Intolerance(1916) with Mae Marsh, Miriam Cooper, and Vera Lewis. Intolerance is a silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and is considered one of the great masterpieces of the Silent Era.

The three-and-a-half hour epic parallels four story lines each separated by several centuries: A contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption; a Judean story: Christ’s mission and death; a French story: the events surrounding the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572; and a Babylonian story: the fall of the Babylonian Empire to Persia in 539 BC.

Intolerance, please click here to view movie.

After making, Less Than The Dust(1917) with Mary Pickford, she took a temporary leave from film, to go back on Broadway.

Many believe that Alden's performance of the mother, Mrs. Anthon in,  The Old Nest (1921) and her performance of an old lady in, The Man With Two Mothers (1922). Were her best performances.

Other movies that she was well known for were: The Plastic Age (1925), The Joy Girl (1927), Ladies of the Mob (1928) and Port of Dreams (1929).

The final films she received screen credit for are: Hell's House, Rasputin and the Empress, and Strange Interlude, each from 1932.

Alden died at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California in 1946. This had been her residence for the last four years of her life. She was 63 years of age.

Clara Bow "The Plastic Age" (1925)

"The Plastic Age" (1925) is a silent romantic comedy starring Clara Bow, Donald Keith, and Gilbert Roland. Directed by Wesley Ruggles and adapted from the novel by Percy Marks, this film is a portrayal of college youth during the Jazz Age. The story begins with Hugh Carver, played by Donald Keith, a high school athletic star, going off to Prescott College. Before he leaves home, his father explains sex to him, but Hugh looks confused. When he arrives at Prescott College, Hugh is shocked to know that his roommate Carl Peters, played by Gilbert Roland, is quite the ladies man and party animal. With little or no experience with girls, Hugh encounters the "hotsy-totsy" Cynthia Day, played by Clara Bow, while invading a sorority house during his freshman hazing. Inflamed by hormones, Hugh decides to start smoking. When the 440 yard race comes up, he comes in dead last. When Hugh's parents visit the campus, his father tells him not to return home until he "has made good." Hugh doesn't seem to care. Cynthia has become his first priority in life and he is deep into the party scene. This causes a fight between Hugh and Carl, ending their friendship. Realizing that her partying lifestyle is hurting Hugh, Cynthia tells him they can't see each other any more. "The Plastic Age" was a huge hit. Even though Clara Bow had appeared in more than two dozen films up to that time, it is this film that is credited with elevating her to the ranks of superstardom. Bow's performance and on-screen magnetism rather than the story line accomplished this feat. However, the film was released at the height of the flapper age so the timing was perfect. Bow expresses the youthful energy and playfulness that made her an icon of the era. Bow's Cynthia Day is Betty Boop in the flesh. With her bobbed hair, big eyes, and boop-a-doop personality, she is so cute and lovable. Every time she comes on the screen she lights up everything around her. It is clearly hinted that Cynthia is a playful sexual aggressor, but she is virtuous enough. Donald Keith is very credible in the role of Hugh Carver. His infatuation with Cynthia comes across quite well. A nineteen year old Luis Antonio Damaso Alonso, who was renamed Gilbert Roland, was signed for the second lead as Carl Peters. Roland's physical appearance certainly fits the role of the handsome college man. Fans of Clark Gable may find the film worthwhile just for taking a glimpse of him in several scenes as an athlete. Although "It" was the film that sparked Bow's nickname, "The Plastic Age" was the one in which she played her first flapper and made the role her own.

THE PLASTIC AGE (1925) MOVIE CLIP.