A Century of Gloria Grey

It seems nothing but meet and right that they should be a silent screen star named Gloria Grey (Maria Dragomanovich, 1909-47), there also having been a Gloria Swanson, a Gloria Stuart, a Gloria DeHaven, and a Gloria Parker as well as a Gilda Gray, a Lita Grey, a Shirley Grey, a Virginia Grey, and a Coleen Gray, the latter of wheom shares the same birthday! Hic Gloria Mundi!

Anyway, our one started out with Gus Edwards kiddie revue in vaudeville, and made her first film Bag and Baggage, with Carmelita Geraghty and John Roche in 1923 (100 years ago as I write this). Her next was FBO’s successful A Girl of the Limberlost (1924), which nabbed her a coveted WAMPAS Baby Star status. She managed to keep her head above water through a couple of dozen more minor films through the end of the sound era. By The Hound of Silver Creek (1928) she was second billed to Dynamite the Wonder Dog. Grey’s fortunes sank farther when sound came in. In the musical Married in Hollywood (1929) she was tenth in the billing. It was her last Hollywood movie. About a decade later she starred in several additional films in Argentina — which is more than most of us can say for ourselves!

For more on vaudeville history please see No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous,and for more on early screen history please see Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube.