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Dear Silent Hall of Fame Users:

    You have come to this website, because you like silent films and silent movie stars.  There are many places like this.  But unlike other sites, here at Silent Hall of Fame you can make a real difference.  You can help us show for the first time many films featuring your favorite silent stars that have not been seen in generations.  This will bring their names back into the public discourse.  But you can do much more than that: you can help your favorite silent stars receive belated recognition and glory.

    Until now there has never been an organization with the purpose to place a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for movie personalities from a century ago.  Silent Hall of Fame is this historic organization.  Silent Hall of Fame is the only organization of its kind.  We will make history and we invite you to become a part of history by sponsoring a silent movie star for the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  All contributions are tax deductible.

   Please use this button for a one-time donation. Use the button on the right-hand side for a recurring donation.

 

Rare Gems on DVD

Our users have spoken, and we have listened. You want to see rare and hard to find films, and we have created for you the Silent Gems Collection, available on eBay. This DVD collection includes rare and for the first time available films with our stars, as well as other silent masterpieces. These are high quality films that are hard to find anywhere else. Please click on this link to see the collection: Silent Gems Collection

Important Update:

You don't have to leave our website in order to obtain the films from our Silent Gems Collection. These gems are now available to our users as a reward for donation. For details click here.

 Out Yonder 1919The Woman God Forgot 1917That Model from Paris 1926For Better for Worse 1919Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall 1924

 

OUR DOCUMENTARY

    We are proud to present to all silent film lovers our multiple award-winning documentary! In March 2015 it won the distinction "Award of Merit" at the San Francisco Film Awards. In May it won the Silver Award at the 2015 International Independent Film Awards. In September 2015 it won the Award of Recognition at the Accolade Global Film Competition. Of equal merit is the inclusion of the documentary in the Official Selection of the San Jose International Short Film Festival in October 2015. In December the documentary won the extremely prestigious Diamond Award at the 2015 California Film Awards. The amazing run of recognition for our documentary continued in 2016. In February it was included in the Official Selection of the Buffalo Niagara International Film Festival.

 San Francisco Film Awards newInternational Independent Film Awards newAccolade Global Film Competition Award newSan Jose International Short Film Festival newCalifornia Film Awards small new

Article Index


Failing in business, Flo tried to put a little fire in her private life. She was married to Charles Bryne Woodring whom little is known about, other than that he fought in the Great War and was a car salesman upon his return. They had known each other just five days. But even marriage could not distract her from her lack of roles. She did a part here and a part there over the next few years, but a steady career evaded her. She was getting desperate- lying about her age, and even getting her nose "bobbed." She also opened a cosmetic shop: "Florence's Hollywood Cosmetics," which never had much hope of success. Then, on Aug. 20, 1929 Florence lost her mother. Not long after, she and Woodring were divorced. Flo was truly alone. She was easy prey when Henry Bolton, a mysterious man, found her and convinced her to marry him. She did in 1933, only to discover he was an abusive alcoholic who beat her mercilessly. By March 1934, Flo had removed herself from his grasp and obtained yet another divorce. She would not marry again.


The Last Gasp

Broken hearted, but still determined, Flo made another stab at Hollywood. She landed a speaking role- talkies had entered cinema!- in The Hard Hombre starring Hoot Gibson. Flo surprised people with her youthful good looks, despite the fact that she was now 45. She also had a clear and unaccented speaking voice and handled herself very well in her cameo. This was pretty much her last hoorah, which is sad since she did such an amazing job. The rest of her work consisted of extra jobs and small roles in a handful of other pictures. In 1937, she developed a painful condition, in conjunction with her sore back, which was attacking her bone marrow. It would probably be diagnosed today as something akin to myelofibrosis. The symptoms included fluid and pain in the abdomen, joint and bone pain, and skin eruptions. There was no cure. In agony, Florence also endured anemia, which was reasonably followed by depression. Florence had resigned herself to oblivion. Her moment, her brief moment in the spotlight, was over. All she had left was misery and memories. The stubbornly optimistic golden girl put a smile on for friends, but she knew she was dying. Furthermore, she knew her career was dead.

On Wednesday, Dec. 28, 1938, Florence canceled an acting job with Metro. Sometime in the afternoon, her neighbor at Westborne Ave, Marian Menzer, heard her scream. She found her writhing on the floor and called an ambulance, which rushed her to Beverly Hills Emergency Hospital. She was pronounced dead at 2:45p.m. She had consumed a mixture of cough syrup and ant paste. The suicide note she had left her roommates said the following: "Call Dr. Wilson. I am tired. Hope this works. Good-by my darlings. They can't cure me so let it go at that. Lovingly, Florence. P.S. You've all been swell guys. Everything is yours." At the age of 52, after 31 years in the motion picture business, the first movie star was gone. Her funeral on Dec. 30 seems to have been a small, private affair. Her body was interred at Hollywood Memorial Cemetery, now known as Hollywood Forever. For years, her grave was left unmarked, and Florence lay forgotten. Later, a sympathetic soul heard of her unmarked tomb and paid for a modest marker to be placed above it. I have heard rumors that this person was the gentlemanly Roddy McDowall. The stone says: "Florence Lawrence, The Biograph Girl, The First Movie Star, 1890-1938." Flo would have loved the fact that they shaved off a few years for her.

The brutal lesson of what Hollywood can do was taught to us early. The first star was raised up like a beacon of wonder, only to be shot down before it reached its zenith. Flo showed us the grandeur of celebrity, the effect of an actor's charisma and storytelling power on the public, and then equally taught us the repercussions of living life on a pedestal set far too high. Florence entered the biz an impetuous and spirited talent who could not be contained nor denied, and exited a forgotten and lost soul, betrayed by the very people who had once claimed to love her. As with everything: there is dark and there is light. In recalling Florence, as a woman and as a friend, those who did claim to know her could not believe that she would kill herself. It was so unlike her. She was too strong, too stubborn, too full of life. Perhaps it was in one of her all too impulsive moments that she made the decision to end it all. How I wish her films were available to us. How I wish her name were as known as Tom Cruise or Julia Roberts, Clark Gable or Jean Harlow. Sadly it is not, and yet we owe her so much for what we are-- not as ravenous rag-mag readers, but as human beings, who for brief periods of time let our guards down, entrust ourselves to the safety of the theater, and let filmmakers and actors guide our souls. Florence was one of the first to crack us open, to offer herself up to us as a martyr for our emotions, an outlet for our laughter and sorrows. I am grateful for this woman, whom I shall never know. (Is it strange to feel that I do)??? Before I close the book on her, I will let her say farewell to you in her own words. From the final entry of the auto-biographical series she wrote for "Photoplay" at the height of her stardom:

"And now I say goodbye, I love you all-- love you with all my heart and soul. When I look from my window at night I wonder if there is anything I have ever done to cause you pain. I hope not. So again, good-bye!"

 

From thegreatstars


Click to enlarge

Selected Filmography
  • The Deception (1909)
  • The Girls and Daddy (1909) - Hidden Gem
  • The Drive for a Life (1909)
  • Politician's Love Story (1909) - Free Movie
  • His Wife's Mother (1909)
  • Nursing a Viper (1909) - Hidden Gem
  • The Brahma Diamond (1909)
  • The Jilt (1909)
  • Jones and His New Neighbors (1909)
  • Jealousy and the Man (1909)
  • Jones and the Lady Book Agent (1909)
  • Mr. Jones' Burglar (1909)
  • Bear Ye One Another's Burdens (1910)
  • The Little Rebel (1911)
  • Her Child's Honor (1911)
  • The Cook (1911)
  • Flo's Discipline (1912) - Hidden Gem
  • The Winning Punch (1912)
  • The Closed Door (1913)
  • A Girl and Her Money (1913)
  • His Wife's Child (1913)
  • Suffragette's Parade in Washington (1913)
  • The Counterfeiter (1913)
  • The Girl o'the Woods (1913)
  • The Influence of Sympathy (1913)
  • The Spender (1913)
  • Unto the Third Generation (1913)
  • A Disenchantment (1914)
  • A Mysterious Mystery (1914)
  • A Singular Cynic (1914)
  • A Singular Sinner (1914)
  • Counterfeiters (1914)
  • Diplomatic Flo (1914)
  • Her Ragged Knight (1914)
  • The Bribe (1914)
  • The Coryphee (1914)
  • The Doctor's Testimony (1914)
  • The False Bride (1914)
  • The Great Universal Mystery (1914)
  • The Honeymooners (1914)
  • The Honor of the Humble (1914)
  • The Law's Decree (1914)
  • The Little Mail Carrier (1914)
  • The Mad Man's Ward (1914)
  • The Pawns of Destiny (1914)
  • The Romance of a Photograph (1914)
  • The Stepmother (1914)
  • The Woman Who Won (1914)
  • Elusive Isabel (1916)
  • The Unfoldment (1922)
  • The Satin Girl (1923)
 
 Florence-Lawrence-in-Confidence-1909-director-DW-Griffith-10

   Florence Lawrence in "Confidence" (1909).

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