#sennett actress

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Exhibitors Herald, Dec 27, 1924, p.73 / From Rags to Britches (1925)

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Little Billy's Triumph (1914) / Pictures and the Picturegoer, Dec 11, 1915 / Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World, Nov 24, 1928, p.31 / Calling Hubby's Bluff (1929)

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Rodgers was frequently seen in vamp roles (such as the woman who tries to steal Owen Moore from Mabel Normand in Mabel Lost and Won) and sometimes as leading ladies in many Keystone films of 1915-17. Born in Los Angeles (though also given as New York City and France), Rodgers attended Sacred Heart Convent, Hollywood High School and the New York School of Dramatic Arts. Rodgers worked on stage and as an Oriental and toe dancer before a leg injury ended her dancing career.

Fontaine La Rue and Chester Conklin in Droppington's Family Tree (1915)

She also kept and trained exotic snakes, which were sometimes used in films. Rodgers — who was 5'1", 130 pounds, with olive complexion, black hair and dark brown eyes — stayed with Keystone after Sennett separated from Triangle, then worked for Hal Roach/Rolin in March 1918, supporting Toto the Italian clown (playing the title role in Cleopatsy), appeared in features such as After the War (Uni 1918) and Who Killed Walton? (Tri 1918), and the Joe Martin chimp comedy Prohibition Monkey (Uni 1920). In 1918, she began using the screen name Fontaine La Rue (her married surname by actor Louis La Rue), and built a steady career as a character actress in features. These included Boots (Par 1919) (as the female heavy to Dorothy Gish), William de Mille's The Lost Romance (FPL 1921), A Blind Bargain (Goldwyn 1922), His New York Wife (Preferred 1926) and West of the Rockies (J. Charles Davis 1929).

-Walker, B.E., 2010, Mack Sennett's Fun Factory, McFarland&Company, Inc., Publishers, pp.540~541

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Harriet Hammond in Leap Year (1924)

This bathing beauty actress, born in Bay City, Michigan, was a featured leading lady in more than 20 films during the Sennett Paramount period of 1919-22 (including Charlie Murray's daughter in several of the "Reilly and Yonson" two-reelers). Hammond also appeared in Marshall Neilan's Bits of Life (Assoc FN 1921), and was one of Fatty Arbuckle's three would-be fiancées in Leap Year (Par 1921). In 1922, she was injured by a premature explosion for a stunt in a Buck Jones picture, which included burns to her face, and led to a temporary retirement from the screen for two years. Hammond returned to films in late 1924, playing Ramon Novarro's leading lady in The Midshipman (M-G-M 1925), and appearing in at least four Harry Carey westerns including Soft Shoes (PDC 1925), along with the feature Queen of the Chorus (Morris Schlank 1928). Hammond died in Valley Center, California, at 91 under the name Harriet Janet Drake.

-Brent E. Walker, Mack Sennett's Fun Factory, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2010, p.511

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Field was a 6' tall, 250-pound blonde bathing girl, whose presence in 1927-28 "Sennett Girl" comedies was hard to ignore, as her ample size often factored into gags. Born in Charlotte, Michigan, Field had no stage experience when she signed with M-G-M in 1925. She also appeared in Fox Imperial Comedies, an episode of Stern Bros.Universal's "What Happened to Jane" series (1927), Bray Sunkist Comedies, William Pizor comedies and the Colleen Moore feature Ella Cinders (FN 1926). Field developed a lasting friendship with Sennett co-star Carole Lombard, who called her "Fieldsie." After her Sennett days, Field served as Lombard's unofficial manager, negotiating her five-year contract with Paramount in 1930. Lombard also left Field an annuity upon her unexpected death in 1942. In 1937, Field married director Walter Lang, and their son Richard (whose godmother was Lombard) became a television director. Field's only credited sound feature was Paris Interlude (M-G-M 1934). She died at 67 in Palm Springs, California, and is interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California.

-Walker, B.E., 2010, Mack Sennett's Fun Factory, McFarland&Company, Inc., Publishers, pp.504~505

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The tiny (4'8", 98 pounds) but energetic Pollard spent five years at Sennett off-and-on from 1927-32. She starred or co-starred in the "Sennett Girl" comedies, and had a couple of starring roles in later Sennett talkie shorts.

Daphne was born in Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia, and was on stage by age six with Pollard's Lilliputians Opera Company — the group of touring child performers from which she and Snub Pollard derived their stage names (and of which Billy Bevan was also a member). Daphne toured the world as "prima donna" of the Pollard troupe, which she joined when she was eight years old. She came to America in 1901 when the troupe moved its home base to Seattle, Washington, and Daphne later found work with the San Francisco Opera Company. Pollard made her Broadway debut in 1908 in "Mr. Hamlet of Broadway" starring Eddie Foy, and spent several years with the Keith Albee vaudeville circuit, which included stints at the Palace in New York. After appearing in "The Passing Show of 1915" at New York's Winter Garden, she starred at the London Hippodrome in 1917 and at the Folies Bergère in Paris in 1918 — then returned to the Winter Garden in 1923 for "The Greenwich Village Follies." Though she is said to have come to Sennett at the recommendation of fellow Pollard alumnus Alf Goulding, Daphne herself has said that Sennett had unsuccessfully attempted to hire in 1915. Pollard also starred in shorts for Vitaphone (1928), RKO Pathé (1930), Universal (1931), and did some supporting work at Hal Roach studios — playing Oliver Hardy's wife in a couple of films (most notably Thicker Than Water). She also starred with Shemp Howard in Vitaphone shorts in 1934-35. Pollard's feature appearances include Hit of the Show (FBO 1928), The Sky Hawk (Fox 1929), Swing High (M-G-M 1930), Bonnie Scotland (Roach-M-G-M 1935), Our Relations (Roach-M-G-M 1936), The Dancing Masters (20th 1943) and Kid Dynamite (Mon 1943).

She married newspaper editor (and later stockbroker) Ellington S. Bunch in Seattle in 1911; he widowed her in 1959. She died as Daphne Bunch at 87 in Hollywood, and is interred at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills.

-Walker, B.E., 2010, Mack Sennett's Fun Factory, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, p.538

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Alice Day's younger sister was a Sennett leading lady in 1924. Marceline was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado to Frank and Irene Newlin, and grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah. Marceline, who was 5'3", attended Venice High School while at Sennett. After Sennett, she appeared in Universal Bulls Eye Comedies in 1925 and was named a Wampas Baby Star of 1926. This lead to a feature contact with M-G-M, where she was cast in several big productions as leading lady opposite top male stars—John Barrymore in The Beloved Rogue (1927), Lon Chaney in London After Midnight (1927) and Buster Keaton in The Cameraman (1928). Marceline soon was given a starring role in Restless Youth (1928) at Columbia, but her career didn't continue on the same heights after sound arrived.

-Walker, B.E., 2010, Mack Sennett's Fun Factory, McFarland&Company, Inc., Publishers, p.498

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"Born in Richfield, Utah, Thurman attended the University of Utah, and performed throughout Utah on stage in that school's dramatic group.

Acquiring her screen last name through a January 2, 1912 marriage to Victor Thurman, Mary and her new husband became schoolteachers in Utah in 1913.

Visiting Los Angeles with her husband in 1916, she was spotted by a representative of the Fine Arts company and cast in the DeWolf Hopper Triangle short Sunshine Dad, which led to a Keystone contract.

The exuberance Thurman exhibited in her Sennett roles led to a starring feature contract with producer-director Allan Dwan in his independent features for Associate Producers.

Tragically, Thurman contracted malaria while on location in Florida for the film Down Upon the Suwanee River (1925). Though she initially appeared to overcome the malaria, she then contracted pneumonia and died in the Flowers Hospital in New York City, leaving her mother Mary Sophia Christiansen. She was interred at the Richfield Cemetery in Richfield, Utah."

-Walker, B.E., 2010, Mack Sennett's Fun Factory, McFarland&Company, Inc., Publishers, pp. 549~551