#marge beebe

[vintagedreamsofsennett]

'Frank Eastman' was apparently a Sennett-only screen name for Beaston, a handsome stage leading man and baritone singer who was featured in over a dozen Sennett talkies during 1930-1932.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of the prominent banker, Frank attended college at Temple and Penn universities to prep for law school at his father's request. However, he wanted to be a newspaper reporter, and enrolled in the Columbia University School of Journalism. During summers, Beaston played stock and vaudeville on the East Coast, and won a role in 'The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary' with May Robson. Beaston got his big break when he landed the juvenile lead role of 'Jack Bedford' and 'Big Boy' with Al Jolson, which played Winter Garden for 22 weeks in 1925. Other Broadway roles came in 'Mud,' 'The Gorilla' as a wisecracking reporter, 'She Couldn't Say No,' 'Judy,' 'The Wasp's Nest' and 'Remote Control' all during 1924-29.

Beaston came to Hollywood in 1930 for a screen and voice test with Fox, but his contract expired 3 months later without a single film appearance-after which Sennett quickly signed him. Beaston adopted the last name 'Eastman' for his Sennett work, though all his prior stage appearances had come under his given name. No other film work seemed to follow, and he appears to have left show business for a career in another field. Beaston was married to Frances Sanger during the 1920s. He died at 85 in Cloverdale, Sonoma County, California.

-Walker, B.E., 2010, Mack Sennett's Fun Factory, McFarland&Company, Inc., Publishers, p. 500

gifs: Frank Eastman x Marge Beebe

[vintagedreamsofsennett]

<False Impressions (1932) produced by Mack Sennett>

A movie with an O.Henry-style plot in which a man and a woman lie to each other that they are rich when they are both poor.

While their boss, “Mr. Windermere,” is away, the servants of the house throw a party, and Edward (Edmund Burns), the house's butler, lies to Maizie (Marge Beebe), a woman he met in a clothing store, that he is Mr. Windermere; she introduces herself as a 'Lady', and introduces her friend Gertie (Dorothy Granger) to him as a 'Countess'. The two go to the party at Mr. Windermere's house in an attempt to raise their status. All of the invitees, except Maizie and Gertie, are servants at the house.

[vintagedreamsofsennett]

False Impressions (1932)

[vintagedreamsofsennett]

[vintagedreamsofsennett]

Mack Sennett and Marge Beebe in Movie-Town (1931) Left - Mack Sennett's Fun Factory, p.196 Right - Screenland, Sep 1931, p.6

Beebe possessed a certain sassy charm that apparently appealed to both audiences and Sennett himself, since the two of them would shortly become a romantic item.

-Walker, B.E., 2010, Mack Sennett's Fun Factory, McFarland&Company, Inc., Publishers, p.189

By late 1930, Mack Sennett and Marjorie Beebe were being seen together at many sporting and social events, and in October Sennett even had to go public to quell a rumor that he and Beebe were about to be engaged. During this time, Sennett was appearing in public quite a lot, and was continuing his role as not only a standard-bearer of the film community, but a participant in civic events as well.

-Walker, B.E., 2010, Mack Sennett's Fun Factory, McFarland&Company, Inc., Publishers, p.195

Marjorie Beebe had left the studio toward the end of 1931, appearing in a number of low budget features for companies like Monogram and Mayfair. She may have still been seeing Sennett socially for a time, but that would eventually end. In March 1932, columnist Rosalind Shaffer spotted Sennett dining with Irene Thompson at the Cocoanut Grove and wondered "where Marjorie Beebe, his usual companion, is?"

-Walker, B.E., 2010, Mack Sennett's Fun Factory, McFarland&Company, Inc., Publishers, p.204

[vintagedreamsofsennett]

Marge Beebe was one of Sennett's primary comedy stars during his Educational sound period of 1929-31. She returned for roles in his Paramount films in 1932-33, overall appearing in about 40 Sennett two-reelers and the feature Hypnotized.

The auburn-haired, green-eyed Beebe also reportedly had a personal relationship with Sennett during this time. After attending school in Kansas City and Los Angeles, the 5'3", 118-pound Beebe got started in films with shorts at Universal. She was then signed by Fox. Beebe also starred in a Vitaphone short, later appeared in Leon Errol's RKO short A Rented Riot (1937), and supported Fred Scott and Tom Tyler in low budget B Westerns in the late 1930s. Also, in late 1930s, she had several brief marriages, to oil man Onee Lewis (1933), broker Clinton E. Randall (1934-35) and photographer Carl Noelle (divorced in 1940). Beebe died at 74 in Escondido, California, as Marjorie Anderson.

-Walker, B.E., 2010, Mack Sennett's Fun Factory, McFarland&Company, Inc., Publishers, p.486