In honor of Eleanor's 100th birthday on 8/19/98, here is the Internet's first legitimate Website in honor of the nearly forgotten silent film actress. Before I ramble on with biographical facts and all that sort of thing, I would like to make clear Eleanor's place in film history in case the name rings up familiarly and the significance does not. It is probably no major surprise as to why she is so forgotten. Sadly, few of her films are on video, and the remaining nirate with printed pictures of her are, for the most part, crumbling up a la Theda Bara and Mae Murray. Happily, having been an MGM contract player during her career, there are still a fair amount of her films left that are not currently the equivilant of baby powder.
It is surprising that she isn't too talked about today. Her career was certainly a promising one. (After all, she was married to one of MGM's first great directors, King Vidor. And we all know about MGM!) The lovely young lady from Philadelphia was very independent and her determination led to eleven years in the picture business, 1922-1934. But by 1928, Eleanor already knew her years were numbered.
I do not take all the credit for this Website. William M. Drew, author of the brilliant book Speaking of Silents: First Ladies of the Silent Screen, brought the idea of making a commemorative page to my attention six days before Eleanor's big centennial. I would like to thank him for doing so and wish him all the luck in his future article and book writing projects.
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