Mammy Lou (born c. 1804 - died after 1918) claimed an age which would have made her one of the earliest-born people to appear in a motion picture.
Life
In 1918, she appeared in the silent film ''
The Glorious Adventure'', directed by
Hobart Henley
Hobart Henley (born Hess Manassah Henle; November 23, 1887 – May 22, 1964) was an American silent film actor, Film director, director, screenwriter and producer. He was involved in over 60 films either as an actor or director or both in his twen ...
, playing the part of The Mansion's Servant, the mansion being the Hermitage Plantation 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 ...
. Mammy Lou claimed she was 114 years of age, and had been a
slave
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
in Savannah until
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
abolished slavery; if proven, this would mean that Mammy Lou was around 60 years of age at the time she received her freedom from slavery.
If this legend is true, then Mammy Lou was one of the earliest-born individuals to appear in a feature film up until that time. The claim is unauthenticated, though, and a better claim may be made for Rebecca Clark(e), who appeared in a
Kinora
The Kinora was an early motion picture device. It was developed by the French inventors Auguste and Louis Lumière in 1895, while simultaneously working on the Cinematograph. It was patented in February 1896.
Basically a miniature version of th ...
reel made no later than 1912 (Reel 145, "Rebecca Clarke and kitten"), and who has been proved to have been born in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, on 5 June 1804.
Earliest born person to be filmed
/ref>
See also
*Longevity claims
Longevity claims are unsubstantiated cases of asserted human longevity. Those asserting lifespans of 110 years or more are referred to as supercentenarians. Many have either no official verification or are backed only by partial evidence. Cas ...
*List of slaves
Slavery is a social-economic system under which people are enslaved: deprived of personal freedom and forced to perform labor or services without compensation. These people are referred to as slaves, or as enslaved people.
The following is a ...
References
Bibliography
*Patrick Robinson, ''Film Facts'', 1st edition (London: Aurum Press Ltd., 2001)
External links
*
1804 births
Actresses from Georgia (U.S. state)
Actors from Savannah, Georgia
Year of death unknown
African-American actresses
American film actresses
Longevity claims
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