Edna Purviance

Olga<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:NoteTag Edna Purviance (Template:IPAc-en;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> October 21, 1895 – January 13, 1958) was an American actress of the silent film era. She was the leading lady in many of Charlie Chaplin's early films and in a span of eight years, she appeared in over 30 films with him.

Life and career

1895–1913: Early life

Edna Purviance was born on October 21, 1895, in Paradise Valley, Nevada, to English immigrant Louisa Wright Davey and American vintner to the western mining camps Madison (Matt) Gates Purviance.<ref>Madison Gates Purviance</ref> When she was three, the family moved to Lovelock, Nevada,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> where they assumed ownership of the Singer Hotel.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="silent-hall-of-fame.org">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Her parents divorced in 1902, and her mother later married Robert Nurnberger, a German plumber. Growing up, Purviance was a talented pianist.<ref>Motion Picture Magazine - April 1918</ref>

She left Lovelock in 1913<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and moved in with her married sister Bessie while attending business college in San Francisco.<ref>Charlie Chaplin and Edna Purviance Dates and Events</ref>

1914–1927: Film career

File:Edna Purviance 4.jpg

Purviance in Photoplay magazine, 1915

In 1915, Purviance was working as a stenographer<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> in San Francisco when actor and director Charlie Chaplin was working on his second film with Essanay Studios, working out of Niles, California, 28 miles (45 km) southeast of San Francisco, in Southern Alameda County. He was looking for a leading lady for A Night Out.

"A Chaplin talent scout recognized potential in a pretty stenographer named Edna Purviance ... spotted sipping coffee at Tate's Café on Hill Street in Noe Valley."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

"... There she met Carl Strauss, in town scouting for a leading lady for the young Charlie Chaplin."<ref name="newspapers.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Chaplin arranged a meeting with her,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> but he was concerned that she might be too serious for comedic roles. Purviance still won the role.<ref>This is not the way Purviance met Chaplin, according to Gerith von Ulm's Charlie Chaplin – King of Tragedy, pp. 90–91.</ref>

File:EdnaPurviance.jpg

Purviance in The Adventurer (1917)

Edna Purviance was so closely associated with Chaplin on screen that trade reviewers took exception when she was away. Columnist Julian Johnson, reporting on Chaplin's solo performance in One A.M., wrote: "Congratulations, Mr. Chaplin, on speaking your piece so nicely, but—come on back, Edna!"<ref>Julian Johnson, Photoplay, October 1916, p. 80.</ref> The noticeably close relationship extended to the actors' private lives: Chaplin and Purviance were romantically involved during the making of his Essanay, Mutual, and First National films of 1915 to 1917.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The romance ended suddenly when Purviance read a newspaper report of Chaplin having married 16-year-old Mildred Harris.Template:Citation needed

Purviance appeared in 33 of Chaplin's productions, including the 1921 The Kid. Her last credited appearance in a Chaplin film, A Woman of Paris, was also her first leading role. The film was not a success and effectively ended Purviance's career. She appeared in two more films: Sea Gulls, also known as A Woman of the Sea (which Chaplin never released) and Éducation de Prince, a French film released in 1927.Template:Sfn

Purviance was peripherally involved in a scandal.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She and Mabel Normand were guests of millionaire<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> oil broker<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Courtland Stark Dines (1889-1945)<ref name="ReferenceA">Template:Cite news</ref> on New Year’s Day 1924. Mabel’s chauffeur,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> R. C. Greer, alias Joe Kelly,<ref name="ReferenceA"/> got into an argument with Dines, produced a revolver and shot him, not fatally. As a result some cities banned A Woman of Paris.<ref name="silent-hall-of-fame.org"/>

Between Purviance's last film in 1924 and her death in 1958,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Chaplin kept her on the payroll at $1000 a month.<ref name="newspapers.com"/>

1927–1958: Retirement and later years

For more than 30 years afterward, Edna Purviance lived quietly outside Hollywood. Purviance married John Squire, a Pan-American Airlines pilot, in 1938. They remained married until his death in 1945.Template:Citation needed

Chaplin kept Purviance on his payroll. She received a small monthly salary from Chaplin's film company until she got married, and the payments resumed after her husband's death.<ref>Eyman, 2023 p. 274: “…he paid Edna Purviance $100 a week ...”.</ref> She later played bit roles in Chaplin's last two American movies, Monsieur Verdoux and Limelight.

“How could I forget Edna?” Chaplin responded to an interviewer after her death. "She was with me when it all began."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Kiernan, 1999 p. 79: See footnote no. 1</ref>

In her posthumously published memoir, actress Georgia Hale, who played opposite Chaplin in The Gold Rush (1925), reported that Chaplin always spoke affectionately of Purviance. Hale relates Chaplin’s account of an incident during the silent film era, when Chaplin and Purvience—he in “an old sweatshirt” and she in “a cotton house dress”—stopped at the exclusive Riverside Inn “looking like hoboes.” The head waiter, alarmed at the couple's appearance, ushered them to the back of the restaurant:

He seated [Edna and myself] behind a large pillar. While we were scanning the menu, some of the customers recognized us. The word spread like wildfire. Back rushed the [head] waiter, waving us to a nice table by the window, where we’d be visible to all his guests. But Edna remained seated and motioned to me to be seated ... [the headwaiter] said “I’m so sorry, I thought you were just common people.” Edna looked at him and said sweetly, “We want to thank you for treating us like humble people. You have just paid us the highest compliment. That will be all. Please send us the waiter.”<ref>Hale, 1995 p. 79-80</ref>{{#if:|

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Death

On January 13, 1958, Purviance died from throat cancer at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, aged 62.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=ellenberger>Template:Cite book</ref> Her remains are interred at Grand View Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.<ref name=ellenberger/><ref>Eyman, 2023 p. 47: “...Edna gradually became, in the words of actress Virginia Cherrill ‘a terrible alcoholic’”</ref>

In popular culture

She was portrayed by Penelope Ann Miller in the film Chaplin (1992) and by Katie Maguire in the film Madcap Mabel (2010).

In the TV series Peaky Blinders (series three, episode four), the character Tatiana Petrovna played by Gaite Jansen is said to resemble her.

Filmography

File:EdnaPurviancePawnshop.jpg

Purviance in The Pawnshop (1916)

File:Happy Ending.JPEG

Charlie Chaplin and Purviance in Behind the Screen (1916)

File:The Idle Class (1921) - Chaplin & Purviance.jpg

Chaplin and Purviance in The Idle Class (1921)

Short subjects

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Template:Abbr
1915	A Night Out	The Headwaiter's Wife		Template:Sfn
1915	The Champion	Trainer's Daughter		Template:Sfn
1915	In the Park	Nursemaid		Template:Sfn
1915	A Jitney Elopement	Edna		Template:Sfn
1915	The Tramp	Farmer's Daughter		<ref name=afi/>
1915	By the Sea	Man in Top Hat's Sweetheart		Template:Sfn
1915	Work	Maid		Template:Sfn
1915	A Woman	Daughter of the House		Template:Sfn
1915	The Bank	Edna, a Secretary		Template:Sfn
1915	Shanghaied	Daughter of the Shipowner		Template:Sfn
1915	A Night in the Show	Lady in the Stalls with Beads		Template:Sfn
1915	Burlesque on Carmen	Carmen		<ref name=afi/>
1916	Police	Daughter of the House		Template:Sfn
1916	The Floorwalker	Manager's secretary		Template:Sfn
1916	The Fireman	The Chief's Sweetheart		Template:Sfn
1916	The Vagabond	Girl Stolen by Gypsies		Template:Sfn
1916	The Count	Miss Moneybags		Template:Sfn
1916	The Pawnshop	Daughter		Template:Sfn
1916	Behind the Screen	The Girl		Template:Sfn
1916	The Rink	The Girl		Template:Sfn
1917	Easy Street	The Mission Worker		Template:Sfn
1917	The Cure	The Girl		Template:Sfn
1917	The Immigrant	Immigrant		Template:Sfn
1917	The Adventurer	The Girl		Template:Sfn
1918	A Dog's Life	Bar Singer
1918	Triple Trouble	Maid
1918	The Bond	Charlie's Wife
1918	Shoulder Arms	French Girl
1919	Sunnyside	Village Belle
1919	A Day's Pleasure	Mother
1921	The Idle Class	Neglected Wife
1922	Pay Day	Foreman's Daughter
1923	The Pilgrim	Miss Brown		<ref name=afi/>

Feature films

Year	Title	Role	Director(s)	Notes	Template:Abbr
1921	The Kid	Mother	Template:Sortname		<ref name=afi/>
1923	A Woman of Paris	Marie St. Clair	Template:Sortname		<ref name=afi>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
1926	A Woman of the Sea	Joan	Template:Sortname	not released; destroyed lost film	<ref name=afi/>
1927	Éducation de Prince	The Queen	Template:Sortname		Template:Sfn
1947	Monsieur Verdoux	Garden Party Guest	Template:Sortname	uncredited
1952	Limelight	Mrs. Parker	Template:Sortname	uncredited

Footnotes

Template:Reflist <references group="note" />

Sources

• Eyman, Scott 2023. Charlie Chaplin vs. America: When Art, Sex and Politics Collided. Simon & Schuster, New York. Template:ISBN
• Hale, Georgia 1995. Charlie Chaplin: Intimate Close-ups. The Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland. Heather Kiernan, editor. Template:ISBN
• Jacobs, Lewis. 1967. The Rise of the American Film: Experimental Cinema in America, 1921-1947. Teachers College Press, Teacher’s College, Columbia University, New York. Library of Congress Catalog Number: 68-25845
• Kiernan, Heather. 1999. Introduction to Charlie Chaplin: Intimate Close-ups. The Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland. Heather Kiernan, editor. Template:ISBN
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book

External links

• [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 0701012

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• Edna Purviance—tribute and research site
• Edna Purviance at Then & Now
• Template:Find a Grave