Marie Dressler (born Leila Marie Koerber, November 9, 1868 – July 28, 1934) was a Canadian stage and screen actress, comedian, and early
silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...
and
Depression-era
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
film star. In 1914, she was in the first full-length film comedy. She won the
Academy Award for Best Actress
The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. ...
in 1931.
Leaving home at the age of 14, Dressler built a career on stage in traveling theatre troupes, where she learned to appreciate her talent in making people laugh. In 1892, she started a career on Broadway that lasted into the 1920s, performing comedic roles that allowed her to improvise to get laughs. From one of her successful Broadway roles, she played the titular role in the first full-length screen comedy, ''
Tillie's Punctured Romance'' (1914), opposite
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...
and
Mabel Normand. She made several shorts, but mostly worked in New York City on stage. During World War I, along with other celebrities, she helped sell
Liberty bond
A liberty bond (or liberty loan) was a war bond that was sold in the United States to support the Allied cause in World War I. Subscribing to the bonds became a symbol of patriotic duty in the United States and introduced the idea of financi ...
s. In 1919, she helped organize the first union for stage chorus players.
Her career declined in the 1920s, and Dressler was reduced to living on her savings while sharing an apartment with a friend. In 1927, she returned to films at the age of 59 and experienced a remarkable string of successes. For her performance in the comedy film ''
Min and Bill
''Min and Bill'' is a 1930 American Pre-Code comedy-drama film, directed by George W. Hill and starring Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery. Adapted by Frances Marion and Marion Jackson from Lorna Moon's 1929 novel, ''Dark Star'', the film tells ...
'' (1930), Dressler won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She died of cancer in 1934.
Early life
Dressler was born Leila Marie Koerber on November 9, 1868, in
Cobourg,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
. She was one of the two daughters of Anna (''
née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
'' Henderson), a musician, and Alexander Rudolph Koerber (1826–1914), a German-born former officer in the
Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...
. Leila's elder sister, Bonita Louise Koerber (1864–1939), later married playwright
Richard Ganthony Richard Ganthony (1856–1924) was an actor and playwright. He is best known as the author of the drama '' A Message from Mars'', which premiered in 1899.
Biography
Born in Liverpool, England, in 1856, Richard Ganthony spent most of his career in t ...
.
Her father was a music teacher in Cobourg and the organist at St. Peter's Anglican Church, where as a child Marie would sing and assist in operating the organ. According to Dressler, the family regularly moved from community to community during her childhood. It has been suggested by Cobourg historian Andrew Hewson that Dressler attended a private school, but this is doubtful if Dressler's recollections of the family's genteel poverty are accurate.
The Koerber family eventually moved to the United States, where Alexander Koerber is known to have worked as a piano teacher in the late 1870s and early 1880s in
Bay City and
Saginaw
Saginaw () is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County. The city of Saginaw and Saginaw County are both in the area known as Mid-Michigan. Saginaw is adjacent to Saginaw Charter Township and considered part of Greater ...
(both in
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
) as well as
Findlay, Ohio
Findlay ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hancock County, Ohio, United States. The second-largest city in Northwest Ohio, Findlay lies about 40 miles (64 km) south of Toledo. The population was 40,313 at the 2020 census. It is home ...
. Her first known acting appearance, when she was five, was as
Cupid in a church theatrical performance in
Lindsay, Ontario
Lindsay is a community of 22 367 people ( 2021 census) on the Scugog River in the Kawartha Lakes region of south-eastern Ontario, Canada. It is approximately west of Peterborough. It is the seat of the City of Kawartha Lakes (formerly Victori ...
.
Residents of the towns where the Koerbers lived recalled Dressler acting in many amateur productions, and Leila often irritated her parents with those performances.
Stage career
Dressler left home at the age of 14 to begin her acting career with the Nevada Stock Company, telling the company she was actually 18. The pay was either $6 or $8 per week,
and Dressler sent half to her mother. At this time, Dressler adopted the name of an aunt as her stage name.
According to Dressler, her father objected to her using the name of Koerber. The identity of the aunt was never confirmed, although Dressler denied that she adopted the name from a store awning. Dressler's sister Bonita, five years older, left home at about the same time. Bonita also worked in the opera company. The Nevada Stock Company was a travelling company that played mostly in the American Midwest. Dressler described the troupe as a "wonderful school in many ways. Often a bill was changed on an hour's notice or less. Every member of the cast had to be a quick study". Dressler made her professional debut as a chorus girl named Cigarette in the play ''Under Two Flags'', a dramatization of life in the Foreign Legion.
She remained with the troupe for three years, while her sister left to marry playwright Richard Ganthony. The company eventually ended up in a small Michigan town without money or a booking. Dressler joined the Robert Grau Opera Company, which toured the Midwest, and she received an improvement in pay to $8 per week, although she claimed she never received any wages.
Dressler ended up in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, where she joined the Starr Opera Company as a member of the chorus. A highlight with the Starr company was portraying Katisha in ''The Mikado'' when the regular actress was unable to go on, due to a sprained ankle, according to Dressler. She was also known to have played the role of Princess Flametta in an 1887 production in
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Washtenaw County. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor ...
. She left the Starr company to return home to her parents in Saginaw. According to her, when the Bennett and Moulton Opera Company came to town, she was chosen from the church choir by the company's manager and asked to join the company. Dressler remained with the company for three years, again on the road, playing roles of light opera.
She later particularly recalled specially the role of Barbara in ''The Black Hussars'', which she especially liked, in which she would hit a
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
into the stands. Dressler remained with the company until 1891, gradually increasing in popularity. She moved to Chicago and was cast in productions of ''Little Robinson Crusoe'' and ''The Tar and the Tartar''. After the touring production of ''The Tar and the Tartar'' came to a close, she moved to New York City.
In 1892, Dressler made her debut on Broadway at the
Fifth Avenue Theatre
Fifth Avenue Theatre was a Broadway theatre in New York City in the United States located at 31 West 28th Street and Broadway (1185 Broadway). It was demolished in 1939.
Built in 1868, it was managed by Augustin Daly in the mid-1870s. In 1877, ...
in ''Waldemar, the Robber of the Rhine'', which only lasted five weeks. She had hoped to become an operatic diva or tragedienne, but the writer of ''Waldemar'',
Maurice Barrymore
Herbert Arthur Chamberlayne Blythe (21 September 1849 – 25 March 1905), known professionally by his stage name Maurice Barrymore, was an Indian-born British stage actor. He is the patriarch of the Barrymore acting family, father of John, Li ...
, convinced her to accept that her best success was in comedy roles. Years later, she appeared in motion pictures with his sons,
Lionel and
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
, and became good friends with his daughter, actress
Ethel Barrymore. In 1893, she was cast as the Duchess in ''Princess Nicotine'', where she met and befriended
Lillian Russell
Lillian Russell (born Helen Louise Leonard; December 4, 1860 or 1861 – June 6, 1922), was an American actress and singer. She became one of the most famous actresses and singers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, known for her beauty ...
.
Dressler now made $50 per week, with which she supported her parents. She moved on into roles in ''
1492 Up to Date'', ''
Girofle-Girofla'', and ''A Stag Party, or A Hero in Spite of Himself'' After ''A Stag Party'' flopped, she joined the touring
Camille D'Arville Company on a tour of the Midwest in ''Madeleine, or The Magic Kiss'', as Mary Doodle, a role giving her a chance to clown.
![The-Lady-Slavey-FC](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/The-Lady-Slavey-FC.jpg)
In 1896, Dressler landed her first starring role as Flo in
George Lederer
George Washington Lederer (c. 1862, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania − October 8, 1938) was an American producer and director on Broadway from 1894 to 1931. He was the husband of actresses Reine Davies and Jessie Lewis and the father of Charles Leder ...
's production of ''
The Lady Slavey
''The Lady Slavey'' was an 1894 operetta in two acts with a score by John Crook (with contributions by Henry Wood and Letty Lind, among others), to a libretto by George Dance (with additional lyrics by Adrian Ross, among others) which opened a ...
'' at the
Casino Theatre on Broadway, co-starring British dancer Dan Daly. It was a great success, playing for two years at the Casino. Dressler became known for her hilarious facial expressions, seriocomic reactions, and double takes. With her large, strong body, she could improvise routines in which she would carry Daly, to the delight of the audience.
Dressler's success enabled her to purchase a home for her parents on
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
. The ''Lady Slavey'' success turned sour when she quit the production while it toured in Colorado. The Erlanger syndicate blocked her from appearing on Broadway, and she chose to work with the Rich and Harris touring company. Dressler returned to Broadway in ''Hotel Topsy Turvy'' and ''The Man in the Moon''.
She formed her own theatre troupe in 1900, which performed
George V. Hobart's ''Miss Prinnt'' in cities of the northeastern U.S. The production was a failure, and Dressler was forced to declare bankruptcy.
In 1904, she signed a three-year, $50,000 contract with the Weber and Fields Music Hall management, performing lead roles in ''Higgeldy Piggeldy'' and ''Twiddle Twaddle''. After her contract expired she performed vaudeville in New York, Boston, and other cities. Dressler was known for her full-figured body, and
buxom contemporaries included her friends Lillian Russell,
Fay Templeton
Fay Templeton (December 25, 1865 – October 3, 1939) was an American actress, singer, songwriter, and comedian.
Her parents were actors/vaudevillians and she followed in their footsteps, making her Broadway debut in 1900. Templeton excelled ...
,
May Irwin
May Irwin (born Georgina May Campbell; June 27, 1862 – October 22, 1938) was an actress, singer and star of vaudeville. Originally from Canada, she and her sister Flo Irwin found theater work after their father died. She was known for her per ...
and
Trixie Friganza
Trixie Friganza (born Delia O'Callaghan; November 29, 1870February 27, 1955) was an American actress. She began her career as an operetta soubrette, working her way from the chorus to starring in musical comedies to having her own feature act o ...
. Dressler herself was tall and weighed .
In 1907, she met James Henry "Jim" Dalton. The two moved to London, where Dressler performed at the
Palace Theatre of Varieties for $1500 per week. After that, she planned to mount a show herself in the
West End. In 1909, with members of the Weber organization, she staged a modified production of ''Higgeldy Piggeldy'' at the
Aldwych Theatre
The Aldwych Theatre is a West End theatre, located in Aldwych in the City of Westminster, central London. It was listed Grade II on 20 July 1971. Its seating capacity is 1,200 on three levels.
History
Origins
The theatre was constructed in th ...
, renaming the production ''Philopoena'' after her own role. It was a failure, closing after one week. She lost $40,000 on the production, a debt she eventually repaid in 1930. She and Dalton returned to New York. Dressler declared bankruptcy for a second time.
She returned to the Broadway stage in a show called ''The Boy and the Girl'', but it lasted only a few weeks. She moved on to perform vaudeville at
Young's Pier in Atlantic City for the summer. In addition to her stage work, Dressler recorded for
Edison Records
Edison Records was one of the early record labels that pioneered sound recording and reproduction, and was an important player in the early recording industry.
The first phonograph cylinders were manufactured in 1888, followed by Edison's found ...
in 1909 and 1910. In the fall of 1909, she entered rehearsals for a new play, ''Tillie's Nightmare''. The play toured in
Albany, Chicago, Kansas City, and Philadelphia, and was a flop. Dressler helped to revise the show, without the authors' permission, and in order to keep the changes she had to threaten to quit before the play opened on Broadway. Her revisions helped make it a big success there. Biographer Betty Lee considers the play the high point of her stage career.
Dressler continued to work in the theater during the 1910s, and toured the United States during World War I, selling
Liberty bond
A liberty bond (or liberty loan) was a war bond that was sold in the United States to support the Allied cause in World War I. Subscribing to the bonds became a symbol of patriotic duty in the United States and introduced the idea of financi ...
s
and entertaining the
American Expeditionary Forces
The American Expeditionary Forces (A. E. F.) was a formation of the United States Army on the Western Front of World War I. The A. E. F. was established on July 5, 1917, in France under the command of General John J. Pershing. It fought along ...
. American infantrymen in France named both a street and a cow after Dressler. The cow was killed, leading to "Marie Dressler: Killed in Line of Duty" headlines, about which Dressler (paraphrasing
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
) quipped, "I had a hard time convincing people that the report of my death had been greatly exaggerated."
After the war, Dressler returned to vaudeville in New York, and toured in Cleveland and Buffalo. She owned the rights to the play ''Tillie's Nightmare'', the play upon which her 1914 movie ''
Tillie's Punctured Romance'' was based. Her husband Jim Dalton and she made plans to self-finance a revival of the play. The play fizzled in the summer of 1920, and the production was disbanded. In 1919, during the
Actors' Equity
The Actors' Equity Association (AEA), commonly referred to as Actors' Equity or simply Equity, is an American labor union representing those who work in live theatrical performance. Performers appearing in live stage productions without a book ...
strike in New York City, the
Chorus Equity Association
The Chorus Equity Association was created on August 12, 1919, in New York City during the strike by the Actors' Equity Association. After Florenz Ziegfeld revealed that he was joining the Producing Managers' Association, the chorus girls in his ...
was formed and voted Dressler its first president.
Dressler accepted a role in ''Cinderella on Broadway'' in October 1920, but the play failed after only a few weeks. She signed on for a role in ''
The Passing Show of 1921
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'', but left the cast after only a few weeks. She returned to the vaudeville stage with the Schubert Organization, traveling through the Midwest. Dalton traveled with her, although he was very ill from
kidney failure
Kidney failure, also known as end-stage kidney disease, is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney failure is classified as eit ...
. He stayed in Chicago while she traveled on to
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
and
Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...
. He died while Marie was in St.Louis, and Marie then left the tour. His body was claimed by his ex-wife, and he was buried in the Dalton plot.
After failing to sell a film script, Dressler took an extended trip to Europe in the fall of 1922. On her return she found it difficult to find work, considering America to be "youth-mad" and "flapper-crazy". She busied herself with visits to veteran hospitals. To save money she moved into the Ritz Hotel, arranging for a small room at a discount. In 1923, Dressler received a small part in a revue at the Winter Garden Theatre, titled ''The Dancing Girl'', but was not offered any work after the show closed. In 1925, she was able to perform as part of the cast of a vaudeville show which went on a five-week tour, but still could not find any work back in New York City. The following year, she made a final appearance on Broadway as part of an Old Timers' bill at the
Palace Theatre.
Early in 1930, Dressler joined
Edward Everett Horton
Edward Everett Horton Jr. (March 18, 1886 – September 29, 1970) was an American character actor. He had a long career in film, theater, radio, television, and voice work for animated cartoons.
Early life
Horton was born in Kings County ...
's theater troupe in Los Angeles to play a princess in
Ferenc Molnár
Ferenc Molnár ( , ; born Ferenc Neumann; 12 January 18781 April 1952), often anglicized as Franz Molnar, was a Hungarian-born author, stage-director, dramatist, and poet, widely regarded as Hungary’s most celebrated and controversial play ...
's ''The Swan'', but after one week, she quit the troupe. Later that year she played the princess-mother of
Lillian Gish's character in the 1930 film adaptation of Molnar's play, titled ''
One Romantic Night''.
Film career
![The Scrublady](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/The_Scrublady.jpg)
Dressler had appeared in two shorts as herself, but her first role in a feature film came in 1914 at the age of 44. In 1902, she had met fellow Canadian
Mack Sennett
Mack Sennett (born Michael Sinnott; January 17, 1880 – November 5, 1960) was a Canadian-American film actor, director, and producer, and studio head, known as the 'King of Comedy'.
Born in Danville, Quebec, in 1880, he started in films in the ...
and helped him get a job in the theater. After Sennett became the owner of his namesake motion picture studio, he convinced Dressler to star in his 1914 silent film ''Tillie's Punctured Romance''. The film was to be the first full-length, six-reel motion picture comedy. According to Sennett, a prospective budget of $200,000 meant that he needed "a star whose name and face meant something to every possible theatre-goer in the United States and the British Empire."
The movie was based on Dressler's hit ''Tillie's Nightmare''. She claimed to have cast
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...
in the movie as her
leading man
A leading actor, leading actress, or simply lead (), plays the role of the protagonist of a film, television show or play. The word ''lead'' may also refer to the largest role in the piece, and ''leading actor'' may refer to a person who typica ...
, and was "proud to have had a part in giving him his first big chance." Instead of his recently invented
Tramp
A tramp is a long-term homeless person who travels from place to place as a vagrant, traditionally walking all year round.
Etymology
Tramp is derived from a Middle English verb meaning to "walk with heavy footsteps" (''cf.'' modern English ''t ...
character, Chaplin played a villainous rogue. Silent film comedian
Mabel Normand also starred in the movie. ''Tillie's Punctured Romance'' was a hit with audiences, and Dressler appeared in two ''Tillie'' sequels and other comedies until 1918, when she returned to
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
.
In 1922, after her husband's death, Dressler and writers Helena Dayton and Louise Barrett tried to sell a script to the Hollywood studios, but were turned down. The one studio to hold a meeting with the group rejected the script, saying all the audiences wanted is "young love". The proposed co-star of Lionel Barrymore or
George Arliss
George Arliss (born Augustus George Andrews; 10 April 1868 – 5 February 1946) was an English actor, author, playwright, and filmmaker who found success in the United States. He was the first British actor to win an Academy Award – which he ...
were rejected as "old fossils". In 1925, Dressler filmed a pair of two-reel short movies in Europe for producer Harry Reichenbach. The movies, titled the ''Travelaffs'', were not released and were considered a failure by both Dressler and Reichenbach. Dressler announced her retirement from show business.
In early 1927, Dressler received a lifeline from director
Allan Dwan
Allan Dwan (born Joseph Aloysius Dwan; April 3, 1885 – December 28, 1981) was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.
Early life
Born Joseph Aloysius Dwan in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Dwan, was ...
. Although versions differ as to how Dressler and Dwan met, including that Dressler was contemplating suicide, Dwan offered her a part in a film he was planning to make in Florida. The film, ''
The Joy Girl
''The Joy Girl'' is a 1927 American two-strip Technicolor silent comedy film directed by Allan Dwan, released by Fox Film Corporation, starring Olive Borden, Neil Hamilton, and Marie Dressler, and based on the short story of the same name by ...
'', an early color production, only provided a small part as her scenes were finished in two days, but Dressler returned to New York upbeat after her experience with the production.
Later that year,
Frances Marion
Frances Marion (born Marion Benson Owens, November 18, 1888 – May 12, 1973) was an American screenwriter, director, journalist and author often cited as one of the most renowned female screenwriters of the 20th century alongside June Mathis a ...
, a screenwriter for the
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...
(MGM) studio, came to Dressler's rescue. Marion had seen Dressler in the 1925 vaudeville tour and witnessed Dressler at her professional low-point. Dressler had shown great kindness to Marion during the filming of ''
Tillie Wakes Up'' in 1917, and in return, Marion used her influence with MGM's production chief
Irving Thalberg
Irving Grant Thalberg (May 30, 1899 – September 14, 1936) was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and ability to select scripts, choose actors, gather productio ...
to return Dressler to the screen. Her first MGM feature was ''
The Callahans and the Murphys
''The Callahans and the Murphys'' is a 1927 American silent comedy film directed by George W. Hill. The film was based on a novel by Kathleen Norris, and was the first of several MGM films to star Marie Dressler and Polly Moran.
The film was ...
'' (1927), a rowdy silent comedy co-starring Dressler (as Ma Callahan) with another former Mack Sennett comedian,
Polly Moran
Pauline Theresa Moran (June 28, 1883 – January 25, 1952) billed as Polly Moran, was an American actress of vaudeville, stage and screen and comedian.
Career
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Moran started in vaudeville, and widely toured North A ...
, written by Marion.
The film was initially a success, but the portrayal of Irish characters caused a protest in the ''Irish World'' newspaper, protests by the American Irish Vigilance Committee, and pickets outside the film's New York theatre. The film was first cut by MGM in an attempt to appease the Irish community, then eventually pulled from release after Cardinal Dougherty of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia called MGM president
Nicholas Schenck
Nicholas M. Schenck (14 November 1880, Rybinsk, Russia – 4 March 1969, Florida) was a Russian-American film studio executive and businessman.
Biography Early life
One of seven children, Schenck was born to a Jewish household in Rybinsk, ...
. It was not shown again, and the negative and prints may have been destroyed. While the film brought Dressler to Hollywood, it did not re-establish her career. Her next appearance was a minor part in the
First National film ''
Breakfast at Sunrise
''Breakfast at Sunrise'' is a 1927 silent film comedy directed by Malcolm St. Clair and produced by and starring Constance Talmadge. It was distributed by First National Pictures.
Prints survive at George Eastman House and Library of Congress. ...
''. She appeared again with Moran in ''
Bringing Up Father
''Bringing Up Father'' is an American comic strip created by cartoonist George McManus. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, it ran for 87 years, from January 2, 1913, to May 28, 2000.
The strip was later titled ''Jiggs and Maggie'' (or ''M ...
'', another film written by Marion. Dressler returned to MGM in 1928's ''
The Patsy'' as the mother of the characters played by stars
Marion Davies
Marion Davies (born Marion Cecilia Douras; January 3, 1897 – September 22, 1961) was an American actress, producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist. Educated in a religious convent, Davies fled the school to pursue a career as a chorus girl ...
and
Jane Winton
Jane Winton (October 10, 1905 – September 22, 1959) was an American film actress, dancer, opera soprano, writer, and painter.
Early years
Winton was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1905. The deaths of her father when she was four yea ...
.
Hollywood was converting from silent films, but "
talkies
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...
" presented no problems for Dressler, whose rumbling voice could handle both sympathetic scenes and snappy comebacks (the wisecracking stage actress in ''
Chasing Rainbows'' and the dubious matron in
Rudy Vallée
Hubert Prior Vallée (July 28, 1901 – July 3, 1986), known professionally as Rudy Vallée, was an American singer, musician, actor, and radio host. He was one of the first modern pop stars of the teen idol type.
Early life
Hubert Prior Vall ...
's ''Vagabond Lover''). Frances Marion persuaded Thalberg to give Dressler the role of Marthy in the 1930 film ''
Anna Christie
''Anna Christie'' is a play in four acts by Eugene O'Neill. It made its Broadway debut at the Vanderbilt Theatre on November 2, 1921. O'Neill received the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for this work. According to historian Paul Avrich, the ...
''. Garbo and the critics were impressed by Dressler's acting ability, and so was MGM, which quickly signed her to a $500-per-week contract. Dressler went on to act in comedic films which were popular with movie-goers and a lucrative investment for MGM. She became Hollywood's number-one box-office attraction, and stayed on top until her death in 1934.
She also took on serious roles. For ''Min and Bill'', with
Wallace Beery
Wallace Fitzgerald Beery (April 1, 1885 – April 15, 1949) was an American film and stage actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in '' Min and Bill'' (1930) opposite Marie Dressler, as General Director Preysing in '' Grand Hotel'' ( ...
, she won the 1930–31
Academy Award for Best Actress
The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. ...
(the eligibility years were staggered at that time). She was nominated again for Best Actress for her 1932 starring role in ''Emma'', but lost to
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes MacArthur ( Brown; October 10, 1900 – March 17, 1993) was an American actress whose career spanned 80 years. She eventually received the nickname "First Lady of American Theatre" and was the second person and first woman to have w ...
. Dressler followed these successes with more hits in 1933, including the comedy ''
Dinner at Eight'', in which she played an aging but vivacious former stage actress. Dressler had a memorable bit with
Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow (born Harlean Harlow Carpenter; March 3, 1911 – June 7, 1937) was an American actress. Known for her portrayal of "bad girl" characters, she was the leading sex symbol of the early 1930s and one of the defining figures of the ...
in the film:
Harlow: I was reading a book the other day.
Dressler: Reading a book?
Harlow: Yes, it's all about civilization or something. A nutty kind of a book. Do you know that the guy said that machinery is going to take the place of ''every'' profession?
Dressler: Oh my dear, ''that's'' something ''you'' need never worry about.
![AngryDresslerMinBill1930Trailer](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/AngryDresslerMinBill1930Trailer.jpg)
Following the release of
Tugboat Annie
''Tugboat Annie'' is a 1933 American pre-Code film directed by Mervyn LeRoy, written by Norman Reilly Raine and Zelda Sears, and starring Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery as a comically quarrelsome middle-aged couple who operate a tugboat. Dr ...
Dressler appeared on the cover of Time in its issue dated August 7, 1933. Despite glamour actresses such as
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragedy, ...
,
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, ncertain year from 1904 to 1908was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion pict ...
, or
Norma Shearer
Edith Norma Shearer (August 11, 1902June 12, 1983) was a Canadian-American actress who was active on film from 1919 through 1942. Shearer often played spunky, sexually liberated ingénues. She appeared in adaptations of Noël Coward, Eugene O'N ...
MGM's most prominent female star at the time was Dressler. The aging star consistently packed movie theaters with hits like
Min and Bill
''Min and Bill'' is a 1930 American Pre-Code comedy-drama film, directed by George W. Hill and starring Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery. Adapted by Frances Marion and Marion Jackson from Lorna Moon's 1929 novel, ''Dark Star'', the film tells ...
,
Emma, and Tugboat Annie. An exhibitors poll inside the January 1933 issue of
Motion Picture Herald The ''Motion Picture Herald'' was an American film industry trade paper published from 1931 to December 1972.Anthony Slide, ed. (1985)''International Film, Radio, and Television Journals'' Greenwood Press. p. 242. It was replaced by the ''QP Heral ...
had Dressler as the number one box office star in Hollywood.
[Eyman, S. ''Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer''. Simon and Schuster (2005). pg 191.]
Coming to movie stardom late, Dressler had no pretensions and a delightful sense of humor. Once, when visiting William Randolph Hearst's California palace San Simeon, a monkey pelted her with some of his excrement. Dressler responded, "Oh, a critic!"
.
Dressler was very grateful for her career's late resurgence. While working on two films with Wallace Beery, ''Tugboat Annie'' and ''Min and Bill,'' she refused to take nonsense from the notorious "son of a bitch". In response to one of Beery's insults, she said, "look you silly shit, you pull one more thing like that on me and I'll have your head. On a platter. And not an expensive platter. A little, cheap, lousy, wooden platter. Like John the Baptist. With a personal note to L.B. Mayer."
Dressler's newly regenerated career came to an abrupt end when she was diagnosed with terminal cancer in the early 1930s. MGM studio head
Louis B. Mayer
Louis Burt Mayer (; born Lazar Meir; July 12, 1882 or 1884 or 1885 – October 29, 1957) was a Canadian-American film producer and co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios (MGM) in 1924. Under Mayer's management, MGM became the film industr ...
learned of Dressler's illness from her doctor (who didn't even tell Dressler of her condition). The studio chief took it upon himself to take charge of Dressler's health. To keep her home, he ordered her not to travel, forcing her to miss a charity event in New York. Although furious, Dressler complied. She only learned about her condition six months later. After some experimental cancer therapy, Dressler returned to work under limitations enforced by Mayer. For the rest of her career, the actress only worked three hours a day and had mandatory stand-ins wherever possible. Before she died in July 1934, Dressler starred in two more features and had a small part in ''Dinner at Eight''.
She appeared in more than 40 films, and achieved her greatest successes in talking pictures made during the last years of her life. The first of her two autobiographies, ''The Life Story of an Ugly Duckling'', was published in 1924. A second book, ''My Own Story'', "as told to Mildred Harrington", appeared a few months after her death.
Personal life
Dressler's first marriage was to an American, George Francis Hoeppert (1862 – September 7, 1929), a theatrical manager. His surname is sometimes given as Hopper. The couple married on May 6, 1894, in Grace Church Rectory, Greenville, New Jersey, as biographer Matthew Kennedy wrote, under her birth name, Leila Marie Koeber,. Some sources indicate Dressler had a daughter who died as a small child, but this has not been confirmed.
![Marie Dressler portrait crop](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Marie_Dressler_portrait_crop.jpg)
Her marriage to Hoeppert gave Dressler U.S. citizenship, which was useful later in life, when immigration rules meant permits were needed to work in the United States, and Dressler had to appear before an immigration hearing.
Ever since her start in the theatre, Dressler had sent a portion of her salary to her parents. Her success on Broadway meant she could afford to buy a home and later a farm on Long Island, which she shared with her parents. Dressler made several attempts to set up theatre companies or theatre productions of her own using her Broadway proceeds, but these failed and she had to declare bankruptcy several times.
In 1907, Dressler met a
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
businessman, James Henry "Jim" Dalton, who became her companion until his death
eath Record 3104-27934on November 29, 1921, at the Congress Hotel in Chicago from diabetes. According to Dalton, the two were married in Europe in 1908. However, according to Dressler's U.S. passport application, the couple married in May 1904 in Italy.>
Dressler reportedly later learned that the "minister" who had married them in
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is ...
was actually a local man paid by Dalton to stage a fake wedding. Dalton's first wife, Lizzie Augusta Britt Dalton, claimed he had not consented to a divorce or been served divorce papers, although Dalton claimed to have divorced her in 1905. By 1921, Dalton had become an invalid due to
diabetes mellitus
Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...
, and watched her from the wings in his wheelchair. After his death that year, Dressler was planning for Dalton to be buried as her husband, but Lizzie Dalton had Dalton's body returned to be buried in the Dalton family plot.
After Dalton's death, which coincided with a decline in her stage career, Dressler moved into a servant's room in the Ritz Hotel to save money. Eventually, she moved in with friend Nella Webb to save on expenses. After finding work in film again in 1927, she rented a home in Hollywood on Hillside Avenue. Although Dressler was working from 1927 on, she was still reportedly living hand to mouth. In November 1928, wealthy friends Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Neurmberg gave her $10,000, explaining they planned to give her a legacy someday, but they thought she needed the money immediately. In 1929, she moved to Los Angeles to 6718 Milner Road in Whitley Heights, then to 623 North Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills, both rentals. She moved to her final home at 801 North Alpine in Beverly Hills in 1932, a home which she bought from the estate of
King C. Gillette
King Camp Gillette (January 5, 1855 – July 9, 1932) was an American businessman who invented a bestselling version of the safety razor. Gillette's innovation was the thin, inexpensive, disposable blade of stamped steel. Gillette is often err ...
. During her seven years in Hollywood, Dressler lived with her maid Mamie Cox and later Mamie's husband Jerry.
Miscellanea
Although atypical in size for a Hollywood star, Dressler was reported in 1931 to use the services of a "body sculptor to the stars",
Sylvia of Hollywood
Sylvia Ulback (6 April 1881 – 2 March 1975), known as Sylvia of Hollywood, was an early Hollywood fitness guru. Between 1926 and 1932, "Madame Sylvia", as she was also known, specialized in keeping movie stars camera-ready through stringent ...
, to keep herself at a steady weight.
Biographers Betty Lee and Matthew Kennedy document Dressler's long-standing friendship with actress
Claire Du Brey
Claire Du Brey (born Clara Violet Dubreyvich, August 31, 1892 – August 1, 1993) was an American actress. She appeared in more than 200 films between 1916 and 1959. Her name is sometimes rendered as Claire Du Bray or as Claire Dubrey.
Ear ...
, whom she met in 1928. Dressler and Du Brey's falling out in 1931 was followed by a later lawsuit by Du Brey, who had been trained as a nurse, claiming back wages as the elder woman's nurse.
Death
On Saturday, July 28, 1934, Dressler died of cancer, aged 65, in
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coas ...
. After a private funeral held at
The Wee Kirk o' the Heather chapel, she was interred in a crypt in the Great Mausoleum in the
Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California.
![Marie Dressler Grave](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Marie_Dressler_Grave.JPG)
She left an estate worth $310,000, the bulk left to her sister Bonita.
Dressler bestowed her 1933 Duesenberg Model J automobile and $35,000 to her maid of 20 years, Mamie Steele Cox, and $15,000 to Cox's husband, Jerry R. Cox, who had served as Dressler's butler for four years.
Dressler intended that the funds should be used to provide a place of comfort for black travelers,
["Southward", Chas. A. R. McDowell, ''The Negro Motorist Green Book'', 1940 edition.] and the Coxes used the funds to open the ''Coconut Grove'' night club and adjacent tourist cabins in
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...
, in 1936, named after the
night club in Los Angeles.
Legacy
![Marie Dressler, stage actress (SAYRE 23999)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Marie_Dressler%2C_stage_actress_%28SAYRE_23999%29.jpg)
Dressler's birth home in Cobourg, Ontario, is known as Marie Dressler House and is open to the public. The home was converted to a restaurant in 1937 and operated as a restaurant until 1989, when it was damaged by fire. It was restored, but did not open again as a restaurant. It was the office of the Cobourg Chamber of Commerce until its conversion to its current use as a museum about Dressler and as a visitor information office for Cobourg. Each year, the Marie Dressler Foundation Vintage Film Festival is held, with screenings in Cobourg and in
Port Hope, Ontario
Port Hope is a municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, approximately east of Toronto and about west of Kingston. It is located at the mouth of the Ganaraska River on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in the west end of Northumberland County. ...
. A play about the life of Marie Dressler called "Queen Marie" was written by
Shirley Barrie
Shirley Barrie (1945-2018) was a Canadian writer. She was the co-founder of the Wakefield Tricycle Company and Tricycle Theatre. Her plays include ''Straight Stitching'', ''Carrying the Calf'', and ''Tripping Through Time''.
Early life and edu ...
and produced at 4th Line Theatre in 2012 and Alumnae Theatre in 2018.
For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Dressler has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Californ ...
at 1731
Vine Street
Vine Street is a street in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California that runs north–south between Franklin Avenue and Melrose Avenue. The intersection with Hollywood Boulevard was once a symbol of Hollywood itself. The famed intersection fell into d ...
, added in 1960. After ''Min and Bill'', Dressler and Beery added their footprints to the cement forecourt of
Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, with the inscription "America's New Sweethearts, Min and Bill."
Canada Post
Canada Post Corporation (french: Société canadienne des postes), trading as Canada Post (french: Postes Canada), is a Crown corporation that functions as the primary postal operator in Canada. Originally known as Royal Mail Canada (the opera ...
, as part of its "Canada in Hollywood" series, issued a postage stamp on June 30, 2008, to honour Marie Dressler.
Dressler is beloved in Seattle. She played in two films based on historical Seattle characters. ''Tugboat Annie'' (1933) was loosely based on
Thea Foss
Thea Christiansen Foss (8 June 1857 – 7 June 1927) was the founder of Foss Launch and Tug Company, Foss Maritime, the largest tugboat company in the western United States. She was the real-life person on which the fictional character "Tugboat ...
, of Seattle. Likewise Hattie Burns, in ''
Politics
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
'' (1931), was based on
Bertha Knight Landes, the first woman to become mayor of Seattle.
Dressler's 152nd birthday was commemorated in a
Google Doodle
A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running an ...
on November 9, 2020.
Stage
Note: The list below is limited to New York/Broadway theatrical productions
Filmography
Quotes
* "If ants are such busy workers, how come they find time to go to all the picnics?"
* "You're only as good as your last picture"
See also
*
List of actors with Academy Award nominations
*
List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees
This is a list of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees in the award categories Acting and Directing.
This list is based on "statistics valid through the nomination announcement for the 2015 (88th Academy Awards), announced on J ...
*
Other Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
IBDB for Marie Dressler*
*
*
*
Notes
External links
*
*
Marie Dresslerat Women Film Pioneers Project
portrait galleryNY Public Library, Billy Rose collection)
Marie Dressler cylinder recordings from the
Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project The Cylinder Audio Archive is a free digital collection maintained by the University of California, Santa Barbara Library with streaming and downloadable versions of over 10,000 phonograph cylinders manufactured between 1893 and the mid-1920s. The ...
at the
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...
Library
Web site dedicated to Marie DresslerPhotographs and literatureMarie Dressler dressed in Edwardian style and fashion, 1908(Univ. of Washington, Sayre collection)
Marie Dressler reading newspaper in 1911 play ''Tillie's Nightmare''(Univ. of Washington, Sayre collection)
Marie Dressler in a still of scene from ''Tillie the Scrub Lady'' 1917(Univ. of Washington, Sayre collection)
1922 passport photo; Marie DresslerMarie Dressler interviewedin Vanity Fair Magazine ''Marie Dressler Tells How She Amuses Herself'', October 11, 1902
Marie Dresslergoing through one of her stage routines; early 1900s
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dressler, Marie
1868 births
1934 deaths
19th-century Canadian actresses
20th-century Canadian actresses
Actresses from Ontario
Best Actress Academy Award winners
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
Canadian expatriate actresses in the United States
Canadian film actresses
Canadian film producers
Canadian people of Austrian descent
Canadian silent film actresses
Canadian stage actresses
Deaths from cancer in California
Canadian women film directors
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players
People from Cobourg
People with acquired American citizenship
Silent film directors
Vaudeville performers
Canadian women memoirists
Canadian memoirists
Canadian women film producers
Women film pioneers
Canadian people of German descent