My 2nd Annual Flash Fiction Blogfest post is here.
Thursdays in Blog Me MAYbe are themed “May I tell you something about someone else?” This week’s spotlight is on Florence LaBadie, a star of the silent era’s popular Thanhouser studio. I featured her on my old “Too Young, Too Soon” series on my old Angelfire site.
Florence LaBadie (née Russ), who lived from 27 April 1888 till 13 October 1917, was an incredibly popular actor from 1910 onwards. It appears as though she were the very first major female moviestar to die.
In her second year of stardom, 1911, she began acting with the Thanhouser company, becoming its most popular and prominent performer, male or female. In addition to playing the lead in scores of films, she also was the lead in her very own serial, The Million Dollar Mystery, which ran from 1914 to 1915. Back then film serials were very popular; other very popular ones included The Perils of Pauline, The Exploits of Elaine, and the series of films Herbert Yost starred in as the detective Octavius.
Florence, an only child, was born in New York, and was later adopted by Amanda and Joseph LaBadie. After completing her education, Florence became a model for the famous illustrator Penrhyn Stanlaws, who later became a film director. In 1908 Florence made her stage début, and a year later played some bit parts in films, though it wasn’t till 1910 that she became an established member of the Biograph Studio’s stock acting company.
Florence wasn’t quite sure of what her future might be there, so in 1911 she moved to Thanhouser. This was a very good move, as very soon after joining up with this new studio, she went from strength to strength and eventually became the studio’s most famous and prestigious player. Everybody loved and admired her, and saw Florence as the embodiment of beauty and charm.
Besides acting, Florence was also an accomplished singer and pianist, and also very much enjoyed dancing, painting, art, and sculpture. She also found time to be involved with social issues. Florence showed great compassion, care, concern, and sympathy for the men fighting in WWI, and when one of her many fans wrote her a letter from the front lines in 1915, along with 120 pictures showing the war in all of its graphic, grisly horror, she announced that, at her own expense no less, she would make these photos into stereopticon slides and use them to deliver lectures, starting off with one for the Peace Society.
The next year saw her as one of the most prominent fundraisers for the World’s Statue of Liberty Illumination Fund. In gratitude and reward for all of her services, the Thanhouser company gave her a special Pullman car, an automobile she used while she was raising money for the war effort. Florence was also engaged twice, though she never married.
When she was driving along with her second fiancé, Daniel Carson Goodman, her brakes failed, sending the couple plummeting down a hill at a terrifying speed and flipping them over at the bottom of the hill. Daniel only broke his leg and sustained some other minor injuries, but Florence was thrown and broke her pelvis in a compound fracture.
She survived, but her condition grew worse, coupled with the still relatively primitive medical care of the era. At the age of 29, two months after the accident, she passed away of a combination of her injuries and a septicemia infection.
It must have been amazing to act back in the early 1900’s. I love silent films.
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Thanks for reading and commenting! There were lots of interesting innovations going on in many of the films of the 1900s and 1910s, even if by today’s standards they might not look as advanced.
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Hey, thanks for the shout out on Florence LaBadie…you can learn more about Flo at http://www.thanhouser.org/people/labadief.htm and see a dozen of her surviving films online at no charge! Plus, please spell THANHOUSER correctly…it’s a common mistake!
Best Regards, Ned Thanhouser
Grandson of Edwin and Gertrude Thanhouser
President, Thanhouser Company Film Preservation, Inc. (a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation)
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Thanks for correcting the spelling for me. I’d always seen the Thanhauser spelling when reading about the company.
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Im so glad to find someone else knows about florence la badie. The silentmoviequeen youtube channel is actually my channel and one of my purposes is to keep the name of florence alive as she is my favorite silent era actress. If you have a youtube channel please subscribe to mine 🙂
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Sure, will do!
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I would love find some one who is writing a book on Florence La Babie! I have not found any Books on Florence? Please help
me! Halia
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hello i really liked you article it so interesting and i seek where i can read the two books of poems that wrote Florence LaBadie?
thank you
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