Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Colleen Moore- Silent Film Star: What a Doll.




Colleen Moore, studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory. D.W. Griffith brought her to Hollywood in 1917, returning a favor to her uncle, 'Walter C. Howey , the Chicago Examiner editor who helped him with The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916) through the censors. She performed leads in B pictures and Westerns, several co-starring with Tom Mix. The movie which defined her as the inventor of the "flapper" look was Flaming Youth (1923).


As a hobby, she built the grandest doll house ever, "The Enchanted Castle." She designed it, and working with hundreds of craftsmen over ten years, completed it at the cost of $500,000. Among its many one-of-a-kind features is a library that comes complete with miniature of many great works of literature, including a tiny version of "Tarzan of the Apes" signed by Tarzan's creator, Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Enchanted Castle is now on public display at Chicago's Museum of Science & Industry.
Pictured above is the book: WITHIN THE FAIRY CASTLE: COLLEEN MOORE'S DOLL HOUSE AT THE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY, CHICAGO.



In the 1960s, she formed a television production company with King Vidor with whom she had worked in the 1920s. She also published two books in the late 1960s, her autobiography Silent Star: Colleen Moore Talks About Her Hollywood (1968) and How Women Can Make Money in the Stock Market (1969). In her later years she would attend film festivals, where she loved to discuss her Hollywood career. She participated in the 1980 documentary film series Hollywood, sharing her knowledge of Hollywood's silent film era.

1 comment:

  1. I have a small antique doll collection, so the book on the doll house is of great interest to me.. :)

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