Marion Morgan (January 4, 1881 – November 10, 1971) was an American choreographer and motion picture screenwriter and the longtime romantic partner of motion picture director
Dorothy Arzner
Dorothy Emma Arzner (January 3, 1897 – October 1, 1979) was an American film director whose career in Feature films, Hollywood spanned from the silent era of the 1920s into the early 1940s. With the exception of longtime silent film director Lo ...
. Arzner lived for the last 40 years of her life with Morgan.
Early life
Marion R. Cahill was born on January 4, 1881, in
Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. She married Matthew A. Morgan in 1900, and the next year the couple had a son, Roderick, before separating by 1905. By 1910, Marion and her son had relocated to
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California.
Incorporate ...
, where she was employed as a physical education teacher at
Manual Arts High School
Manual Arts High School is a secondary public school in Los Angeles, California, United States.
History
Manual Arts High School was founded in 1910 in the middle of bean fields, one-half mile from the nearest bus stop. It was the third high scho ...
in Los Angeles. Later, when she was hired as a dance instructor for the summer program at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
, she began recruiting girls for a dance troupe to perform in
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 ...
on the Orpheum Circuit. In 1915 she also staged a publicity dance in the snow in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
's
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
. Initially, Morgan featured six young women who had studied together in California. The group then grew to up to twenty-five members, and at times would employ a male dancer. They performed interpretive dances, bare-armed and sometimes bare-footed, in filmy costumes, with a repertoire based on Egyptian and classical Greek and Roman themes.
Morgan had specific requirements for her dancers to remain fit. They were required to be
vegetarians
Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter.
Vegetarianism may ...
, at one point all were practicing
Christian Scientists
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
, and they all had to study classic literature to understand their roles. The group toured throughout the country, creating a sensation wherever they appeared. In 1921, Morgan met
Dorothy Arzner
Dorothy Emma Arzner (January 3, 1897 – October 1, 1979) was an American film director whose career in Feature films, Hollywood spanned from the silent era of the 1920s into the early 1940s. With the exception of longtime silent film director Lo ...
on the set of the movie ''Man-Woman-Marriage'' directed by
Allen Holubar
Allen Holubar (August 3, 1890 – November 20, 1923) was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter of the silent film era. He appeared in 38 films between 1913 and 1917. He also directed 33 films between 1916 and 1923.
Career
Allen ...
. The meeting prompted a passionate personal relationship which would later blossom into a business relationship as well. After more than a decade of performances on the
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 ...
stage, Morgan began to create choreography for movies, such as ''
Paris at Midnight
''Paris at Midnight'' is a 1926 American silent drama film starring Jetta Goudal and Lionel Barrymore and was directed by E. Mason Hopper. It was distributed by Producers Distributing Corporation. It was based on the novel '' Le Père Goriot'' ...
'' (1926). She also created choreography for movies like ''A Night of Love'' (1926), '' The Masked Woman'' (1927), and '' Up in Mabel’s Room'' (1926), in which the Marion Morgan Dancers performed.
Arzner and Morgan first worked together in 1927 on the set of ''
Fashions for Women
Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion ind ...
'', when Arzner, in her directorial debut film, hired Morgan to choreograph the fashion show. That same year, in Azner’s '' Get Your Man'', Morgan created a tableau featuring her dancers in a
wax museum
A wax museum or waxworks usually consists of a collection of wax sculptures representing famous people from history and contemporary personalities exhibited in lifelike poses, wearing real clothes.
Some wax museums have a special section dubbe ...
, which ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' called the highlight of the film. In ''
Manhattan Cocktail
A Manhattan is a cocktail made with whisky, whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters. While rye whisky, rye is the traditional whiskey of choice, other commonly used whiskies include Canadian whisky, bourbon whiskey, bourbon, blended whiskey, and ...
'', (1928) the couple paired again, with Morgan choreographing the opening prologue with the tale of
Ariadne
Ariadne (; grc-gre, Ἀριάδνη; la, Ariadne) was a Cretan princess in Greek mythology. She was mostly associated with mazes and labyrinths because of her involvement in the myths of the Minotaur and Theseus. She is best known for having ...
and Theseus, which her dancers had previously performed on stage. In 1930, the couple moved into a house they named "Armor", giving nod to Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbank's "
Pickfair
Pickfair is a mansion and estate in the city of Beverly Hills, California with legendary history. The original Pickfair was an 18 acre (7.3 ha) estate designed by architect Horatio Cogswell for attorney Lee Allen Phillips of Berkeley Square as ...
", which was located on Mountain Oak Drive in the Hollywood Hills.
During the 1930s, Morgan frequently traveled to the
East Coast
East Coast may refer to:
Entertainment
* East Coast hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop
* East Coast (ASAP Ferg song), "East Coast" (ASAP Ferg song), 2017
* East Coast (Saves the Day song), "East Coast" (Saves the Day song), 2004
* East Coast FM, a ra ...
and Europe and in 1934, she graduated from the
Yale School of Drama
The David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University is a graduate professional school of Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1924 as the Department of Drama in the School of Fine Arts, the school provides training in e ...
. In the mid 1930s, Morgan teamed with George B. Dowell and wrote several short stories.
Mae West
Mae West (born Mary Jane West; August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American stage and film actress, playwright, screenwriter, singer, and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned over seven decades. She was known for her breezy ...
co-scripted both ''
Goin' to Town
''Goin' To Town'' is a 1935 musical comedy film directed by Alexander Hall and written by Mae West. The film stars Mae West, Paul Cavanagh, Gilbert Emery, Marjorie Gateson, Tito Coral and Ivan Lebedeff. The film was released on April 25, 1935, ...
'' (1935) and ''
Klondike Annie
''Klondike Annie'' is a 1936 American Western (genre), Western film starring Mae West and Victor McLaglen. The film was co-written by West from her play ''Frisco Kate'', which she wrote in 1921 and a story written by the duo Marion Morgan (choreo ...
'' (1936) with the duo. In 1951, the pair moved to the desert of
Palm Springs
Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land ...
, where they lived until Morgan's death.
Death and legacy
Morgan died on November 10, 1971, at Los Angeles. Morgan is buried at
Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
Forest Lawn Memorial Park is a privately owned cemetery in Glendale, California. It is the original and current flagship location of Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries, a chain of six cemeteries and four additional mortuaries in Southern Ca ...
together with her son, Roderick D. Morgan (1901–1929).
Her dance archives are preserved at the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, is located in Manhattan, New York City, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side, between the Metro ...