Elizabeth Ada Bronson (November 17, 1906 – October 19, 1971) was an American film and television actress who began her career during the
silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, 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) ...
era.
Early years
Bronson was born in
Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784. to Frank and Nellie Smith Bronson. She moved to East Orange, New Jersey and attended East Orange High School until she "convinced her parents to let her move to California to aid her career in films." Subsequently, the entire family moved to California.
Film career
Bronson began her film career at the age of 16 with a bit part in ''Anna Ascends''. At 17, she was interviewed by
J. M. Barrie
Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, (; 9 May 1860 19 June 1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several succ ...
, author of ''Peter Pan''. Although the role had been sought by such established actresses as
Gloria Swanson
Gloria May Josephine Swanson (March 27, 1899April 4, 1983) was an American actress and producer. She first achieved fame acting in dozens of silent films in the 1920s and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, most f ...
and
Mary Pickford
Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American stage and screen actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the US film industry, she co-founde ...
, Barrie personally chose Bronson to play the lead in the film adaptation of his work, which was released in 1924. She appeared alongside actresses
Mary Brian
Mary Brian (born Louise Byrdie Dantzler, February 17, 1906 – December 30, 2002) was an American actress who made the transition from silent films to sound films.
Early life
Brian was born in Corsicana, Texas, the daughter of Taurrence J. ...
(Wendy Darling) and
Esther Ralston
Esther Ralston (born Esther Louise Worth, September 17, 1902 – January 14, 1994) was an iconic American silent film star. Her most prominent sound picture was '' To the Last Man'' in 1933.
Early life and career
Ralston was born Esther Loui ...
(Mrs. Darling), both of whom remained lifelong friends.
Bronson had a major role, that of Mary, mother of Jesus, in the 1925 silent film adaptation of '' Ben-Hur''. In 1925, she starred in another Barrie story, ''
A Kiss for Cinderella
''A Kiss for Cinderella'' is a play by J. M. Barrie. It was first produced in London at Wyndham's Theatre on March 16, 1916, starring Gerald du Maurier and Hilda Trevelyan, enjoying great success over 156 performances, and with several annual Ch ...
'', an artfully made film that failed at the box office. She made a successful transition into sound films with ''
The Singing Fool
''The Singing Fool'' is a 1928 American musical drama part-talkie motion picture directed by Lloyd Bacon which was released by Warner Bros. The film stars Al Jolson and is a follow-up to his previous film, '' The Jazz Singer''. It is credited w ...
'' (1928), co-starring
Al Jolson
Al Jolson (born Eizer Yoelson; June 9, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was a Lithuanian-American Jewish singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian. He was one of the United States' most famous and highest-paid stars of the 1920s, and was self-billed ...
. She appeared in the sequel, '' Sonny Boy'', with
Davey Lee
Davey Lee (December 29, 1924 – June 17, 2008) was an American child actor. He was born in Hollywood, California, United States. He appeared in six feature films between 1928 and 1930.
Biography
The younger brother of actor Frankie Lee (191119 ...
in 1929. She was the leading lady opposite Jack Benny in the romantic drama '' The Medicine Man'' (1930).
Bronson continued acting until 1933 when she married Ludwig Lauerhass, "a well‐to‐do North Carolinian", with whom she had one child, Ludwig Lauerhass, Jr. She did not appear in films again until ''Yodelin' Kid from Pine Ridge'' (1937) starring Gene Autry. In the 1960s, she appeared in episodic television and feature films. Her last role was an uncredited part in the television biopic '' Evel Knievel'' (1971).
Bronson, the media, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr
Bronson was reclusive with the press, but received attention after being seen with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. He had his first boyhood crush on her, as he remembered in his autobiography ''The Salad Days'':
Another important picture had just started. It was ''Peter Pan'', directed by a clever caricature of a wildly temperamental movie director,
Herbert Brenon
Herbert Brenon (born Alexander Herbert Reginald St. John Brenon; 13 January 1880 – 21 June 1958) was an Irish-born U.S. film director, actor and screenwriter during the era of silent films through the 1930s.
Brenon was among the early film ...
. After exhaustive tests, Betty Bronson, a pretty and gifted girl in her middle teens, was given this famous role... I fell for Betty! It was my first intensely juvenile, deep-sighs-and-bad-sonnets love. It was not fully requited. She only flirted with me. My rival was a fellow in his twenties, a newspaperman who was to become one of New York's most respected theater critics, Richard Watts, Jr. ...In any event, I was so smitten with Betty, I could think of little else, except when I could call on her, even though her overprotective mother was always just in the next room.
It is known that Bronson kept all Fairbanks' letters and spoke of him fondly until her death.
The UCLA Library Special Collections department houses the "Betty Bronson papers, 1920-1970", containing "materials related to Bronson's career and includes clippings, photographs, correspondence, scrapbooks, and personal and professional ephemera."