Anita Page
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Anita Page (born Anita Evelyn Pomares; August 4, 1910 – September 6, 2008) was an American film actress who reached stardom in the final years of the silent film era.<ref name="independent.co.uk">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref>
She was referred to as "a blond, blue-eyed Latin"<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> and "the girl with the most beautiful face in Hollywood" in the 1920s.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She retired from acting in 1936, but made a comeback in 1961, then she retired again. Page returned to acting 35 years later in 1996 and appeared in four films in the 2000s.
Early life
Anita Evelyn Pomares was born on August 4, 1910, in Flushing, Queens, New York.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> Her parents were Marino Leo Pomares, who was originally from Brooklyn,<ref>Anita Page Interview 4 out of 9. States her father was of Spanish origin born in Brooklyn.</ref> and Maude Evelyn (née Mullane) Pomares.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> She had one brother, Marino Pomares Jr., who later worked for her as a gym instructor, and her mother worked as her secretary and her father as her chauffeur.<ref name=obit>Template:Cite web</ref> Page's paternal grandfather, Salvador Marino Pomares, was from Cuba,<ref name="gbook">At the Center of the Frame: Leading Ladies of the Twenties and Thirties William M. Drew "My real name is Anita Pomares which is Spanish. Both my parents were born in this country. My paternal grandfather had come over from Spain and was a consul in El Salvador. My grandmother was definitely Castilian Spanish".</ref> and had worked as a consul in El Salvador. Her paternal grandmother Anna Muñoz was Venezuelan, of Castilian Spanish and French descent.<ref name="gbook" /><ref>Beyond Paradise: The Life of Ramon Novarro by André Soares</ref>
Career
Silent films and early talkies
Page entered films with the help of a friend, actress Betty Bronson. A photo of Page was spotted by a man who handled Bronson's fan mail who was also interested in representing actors. With the encouragement of her mother, Page telephoned the man who arranged a meeting for her with a casting director at Paramount Studios. After doing a screen test for Paramount, she became among the first residents of the Chateau Marmont.<ref name="telegraph">Template:Cite news</ref> Page was offered contracts by both studios and selected MGM,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> "because they were so good for female actresses. If you ask me, MGM was the studio."<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>
Page's first film for MGM was the 1928 comedy-drama Telling the World, opposite William Haines. Her performance in her second MGM film, Our Dancing Daughters (1928) opposite Joan Crawford, was a success that inspired two similar films in which they also co-starred: Our Modern Maidens and Our Blushing Brides. "I used to say that we're going to be 'The Galloping Grandmothers' at the rate we're going with these pictures," she reminisced in 1993.<ref name="Ankerich191">Template:Harvnb</ref>
The Broadway Melody (1929) is considered among her more successful films; it won Best Picture at the second annual Academy Awards. Page transitioned to sound films, although she criticized the total loss of silents. "In my opinion, silents were much better than talkies. One thing you had was mood music, which you could have playing throughout your scene to inspire you. My favorite song was 'My Heart at Thy Sweet Voice' from Samson and Delilah. I never seemed to tire of it. The trouble with talkies was, they let you have the music, but they'd stop it when you had to talk, and it was always a let down for me."<ref name="Ankerich191" />
When not working on films, she was busy with studio photographer George Hurrell creating publicity shots. She was one of his early subjects, and her photograph was his first to be published.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> MGM played up her heritage in these press releases such as this 1932 blurb: "She is that rarest and most interesting type of beauty...A Spanish blonde" <ref name=":0" /> and dubbed her "a blonde, blue-eyed Latin".<ref name=":1" />
During the early 1930s, she was one of Hollywood's busier actresses. She was the leading lady to Lon Chaney, Buster Keaton, Robert Montgomery, Clark Gable and others. She was involved romantically with Gable briefly during that time. At the height of her popularity, she received more fan mail than any other female star except Greta Garbo and received several marriage proposals from Benito Mussolini in the mail.<ref name=obit />
Retirement
When her contract expired in 1933, she announced her retirement from acting at the age of 23 because she'd been denied a pay raise. She made one more movie, Hitch Hike to Heaven, in 1936 and then retired fully from acting.<ref name=":0" /> Later, Page claimed that Irving Thalberg had offered her the starring role in three movies if she would sleep with him, which she refused.<ref name="telegraph" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Return to acting
Page came back to acting and portrayed a nun in The Runaway, completed in 1961, but she cut short her comeback. She returned to acting in 1996 after 35 years of retirement and appeared in several low-budget horror films. Film veteran Margaret O'Brien appeared in two of them.<ref name=":0" />
Legacy
For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Anita Page has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6116 Hollywood Boulevard.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Personal life
Page dated Ramon Novarro, her co-star in the 1929 silent film The Flying Fleet, and he asked her to marry him but she turned him down.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>
Page was a Democrat who supported the campaign of Adlai Stevenson during the 1952 presidential election.<ref>Motion Picture and Television Magazine, November 1952, page 33, Ideal Publishers</ref> She was a Catholic.<ref>Morning News, January 10, 1948, Who Was Who in America (Vol. 2)</ref>
She married composer Nacio Herb Brown in 1934. The marriage was annulled nine months later because Brown's previous divorce had not been finalized at the time they were married. Page admitted that she had never loved Brown and that she only married him because she had nothing else to do.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She married Navy pilot Lieutenant Hershel A. House on January 9, 1937, in Yuma, Arizona.<ref>Arizona, County Marriage Records, 1865–1972</ref> They moved to Coronado, California and lived there until his death in 1991. They had two daughters, Linda and Sandra.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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Page was the last living attendee of the first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and frequently gave interviews as the "last star of the silents", appearing in documentaries about the era.Template:Citation needed She collapsed at the 1988 Academy Awards ceremony and was rushed to Good Samaritan Hospital, where she was said to be in stable condition. A spokesperson reported she had fainted because of a "combination of things--the heat, exhaustion, the excitement."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Page died in her sleep at the age of 98 on September 6, 2008, at her home in Los Angeles,<ref name=":0" /> where she had lived with long-time companion Randal Malone.<ref name="telegraph" /> She is buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery in San Diego alongside House.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1925 | A Kiss for Cinderella | Uncredited | |
| 1926 | Love 'Em and Leave 'Em | Uncredited | |
| 1927 | Beach Nuts | Short | |
| 1928 | Telling the World | Chrystal Malone | |
| Our Dancing Daughters | Ann 'Annikins' | ||
| While the City Sleeps | Myrtle | portions of 2 reels are missing | |
| West of Zanzibar | bit role | uncredited | |
| 1929 | The Flying Fleet | Anita Hastings | |
| The Broadway Melody | Queenie Mahoney | alternative title: The Broadway Melody of 1929 | |
| The Hollywood Revue of 1929 | herself | ||
| Our Modern Maidens | Kentucky Strafford | ||
| Speedway | Patricia | ||
| Navy Blues | Alice "Allie" Brown | ||
| 1930 | Free and Easy | Elvira Plunkett | alternative title: Easy Go |
| Caught Short | Genevieve Jones | ||
| Our Blushing Brides | Connie Blair | ||
| The Little Accident | Isabel | ||
| War Nurse | Joy Meadows | ||
| Great Day | Incomplete | ||
| Estrellados | herself | uncredited | |
| 1931 | The Voice of Hollywood No. 7 (Second Series) | herself | short |
| Wir schalten um auf Hollywood | herself | uncredited | |
| Reducing | Vivian Truffle | ||
| The Easiest Way | Peg Murdock Feliki | ||
| Gentleman's Fate | Ruth Corrigan | ||
| Sidewalks of New York | Margie Kelly | ||
| Under Eighteen | Sophie | ||
| 1932 | Are You Listening? | Sally O'Neil | |
| Night Court | Mary Thomas | alternative title: Justice for Sale | |
| Skyscraper Souls | Jenny LeGrande | ||
| Prosperity | Helen Praskins Warren | ||
| 1933 | Jungle Bride | Doris Evans | |
| Soldiers of the Storm | Natalie | ||
| The Big Cage | Lilian Langley | ||
| I Have Lived | Jean St. Clair | alternative titles: After Midnight Love Life | |
| 1936 | Hitch Hike to Heaven | Claudia Revelle | alternative title: Footlights and Shadows |
| 1961 | The Runaway | Nun | |
| 1996 | Sunset After Dark | Anita Bronson | |
| 1998 | Creaturealm: From the Dead | herself | segment "Hollywood Mortuary" |
| 2000 | Witchcraft XI: Sisters in Blood | Sister Seraphina | direct-to-DVD release |
| 2002 | The Crawling Brain | Grandma Anita Kroger | direct-to-DVD release |
| 2004 | Bob's Night Out | Socialite | |
| 2010 | Frankenstein Rising | Elizabeth Frankenstein | released posthumously |
| 2019 | Doctor Stein | Elizabeth Stein | released posthumously; archive footage |
References
- Citations
- Works cited
External links
- 1910 births
- 2008 deaths
- 20th-century American actresses
- 21st-century American actresses
- American child actresses
- American film actresses
- American people of French descent
- American people of Spanish descent
- American silent film actresses
- Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City
- California Democrats
- Catholics from California
- Catholics from New York (state)
- Hispanic and Latino American actresses
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players
- New York (state) Democrats
- People from Flushing, Queens
- Actresses from Queens, New York
- Washington Irving High School (New York City) alumni