Tribute to Irene Rich, 1927 Maybelline Model - Silent Film and Radio Star

Irene Rich was a glamorous actress who played Will Rogers' nagging wife in 1930s films and read radio's World War II-era "Dear John" letters.

She was a San Francisco real estate agent before she got her first movie job as an extra in Mary Pickford's "Stella Maris" in 1918.

Soon, she had graduated to starring roles in silent melodramas, usually portraying mature women of the world, and in short films with Rogers.

By the late 1920s and early 1930s, she was playing Will Rogers' wife in talkies, including "They Had to See Paris," "So This is London" and "Down to Earth."

From 1933 to 1945, she was a popular radio star, reading "Dear John" letters to introduce and close Sunday-night episodes on the Welch's Grape Juice program.

The term "Dear John" became soldiers' slang for mail from a lover breaking off a romance.

Later, Rich appeared in 21 Warner Bros. movies—including "Lady Windermere's Fan" in 1925, "Craig's Wife" in 1928 and "The Champ" in 1931. She also performed in several Broadway shows.

Actress

Born Irene Luther on Oct. 13, 1891 in Buffalo, N.Y.

Died April 22, 1988 in Santa Barbara, CA

She retired from show business after her fourth marriage, to George H. Clifford, in 1950.

— Judy Pasternak in the Los Angeles Times April 25, 1988

New York Film Critics and Golden Globe, name "The Artist" Best Picture

If you love Old Hollywood, the 1920's, Silent Films and vintage glamour, be sure to check out the trailer below, and watch the Academy Awards this year.  The Artist may take best picture.

Hollywood, 1927: As silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion,

The Artist, behind the scenes. A black and white Silent Film that takes place in 1927 Hollywood, may become the first silent film to win the Oscar in oh, 83 years?

The Artist wins Golden Globe award tonight for, best actor in a motion picture comedy or musical, best motion picture comedy or musical and best original score.

                         Mildred Pierce click on Video

Actress in a TV miniseries/movie went to Emmy Award winner Kate Winslet, also a Globe nominee for Carnage, for her role in HBO's Mildred Pierce.

Boardwalk Empire didn't win a golden Globe, but it is still a stunning piece of nostalgia from the 1920s.

Like HBO's Boardwalk Empire and Mildred Pierce, The Artist, sets a background, with scenery, costumes, cars, and homes, much like The Maybelline Story. It seems the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s are making a big comeback.

Maybelline Family welcomes a baby girl in 1927.

Mabel and Chet's bundle of Joy!!!

Here's what was going on in Vogue Magazine, 1927.

                                                            
                    and this is what a Maybelline ad looked like.

Mabel and Chet with their first Baby, Shirley Anne Hewes,

But, the best part of 1927 was the birth of Mabel and Chet's, first baby girl, Shirley Anne.  She entered the world when big changes were taking place in America, including, Charles Lindbergh, solo non-stop flight to Paris -The Film industry going from Silent Films, to Talkies - and her uncle, Tom Lyle Williams, driving to California, for the first time and considering, making Hollywood his home. 

But, the most exciting change would happen, when her daddy finally accepted Tom Lyle's offer, to work for the Maybelline Co.  Until then, However, Baby Shirley, would just have to settle for being the apple of her daddy's eye and her mother's little darling.

May 20–May 21 – Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight, from New York City to Paris in his single-seat, single-engine monoplane, the Spirit of St. Louis

The Premier of the Silent Film, Wings, was held at the Criterion Theater, in New York City, on August 12, 1927.

October 6 – The Jazz Singer with Al Jolson, opened in the United States and become a huge success, although it would be a while before silent films were completely gone.

Read more about Chet and Mabel, and Chet's contribution to The Maybelline Company in,
The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.

Maybelline Targets the Flapper in the 1920's with film star Phyllis Haver.

       Why did Tom Lyle choose Phyllis Haver as a
                            Maybelline Model?

Phyllis Haver was one of the magic names during the Silent Film era and an original Mack Sennett bathing beauty.

The Sennett Bathing Beauties were pin-up girls for the doughboys during the First World War...... Phyllis Haver, starred in a series of top films and was known as the Nation's blond-darling during the teens and twenties of the twentieth century.  

"Her hair is a curly mass of golden corn silk. Her eyes are cerulean blue. Her teeth are perfect pearls. Her coloring is a Fort Valley Peach Festival," described a magazine writer of Haver. Other descriptions were, "Phyllis Haver's smile is coquettish and charming," "5' 6", 125 Ibs.," "picture of health," "skin like satin," and "her smile like peaches and cream  in her heyday.

Haver appeared on the covers of  Photoplay, Screenland. Motion Picture. Pathe Sun. Picture Play. and The Police Gazette.   She graced the cover of the sheet music, Singapore Lil, theme song for the Pathe motion picture production. Sal of Singapore, in which she starred. She, also, adorned calendars, matchbook covers, and postcards.

 I think you can see why Tom Lyle wanted Phyllis Haver as a Maybelline Model!  He wanted to target the Flappers in the 1920's and Phyllis Haver was had sex appeal.  

The Balloonatic (1923)  Catch a glimpse of Phyllis Haver with Buster Keaton in The Ballonaic, Click below.

http://www.archive.org/details/TheBalloonatic

She stared in Chicago a 1927 comedy-drama silent film produced by Cecil B. DeMille and directed by Frank Urson.

Phyllis Haver was in the ranks of Greta Garbo, Clara Bow, Colleen Moore, Delores Del Rio, Norma Talmadge, Conrad Nagel, Gloria Swanson, Wallace Beery, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Norma Sheerer and Lon Chaney.

In 1924 She played on Broadway in Laurence Stallings and Maxwell Anderson's gritty WWI comedy-drama What Price Glory?  Haver played Shanghai Mabel.

She appeared in Up in Mabel's Room released in 1926, If there was ever a star with the kind of sex appeal Maybelline wanted to exude during the Roaring 20's Haver had it!

Stay tuned next week for more Maybelline Models, including "Sex Symbol" Jean Harlow and "It Girl" Clara Bow.