A Mountain on Marguerite Snow

September 9 was the birthday of silent screen actress Marguerite Snow (1889-1958).

Snow was second generation showfolk, her father being the old time minstrel performer Billy Snow (ca. 1855-1890)**.

We learn a little about the father from a notice in the February 14, 1891 edition of the New York Clipper. From this item we are informed that Snow had formerly been with the team of Golden and Snow; other sources inform us that Snow had also been with a team called Snow and West at one point. Not sure if his partners were Richard Golden or Billy West, but both are exactly the right ages. At the time of his death Snow was in the “medicine belt” business, which implies that he was with a medicine show.Percy Williams had also hawked these medicine belts early in his career. Snow was clearly entrepreneurial; in addition to the songster shown above, he also published “Billy Snow’s Cornet and Banjo Instructor” in 1893.

At the time of his passing, Snow left his wife and infant daughter well-provided for. There was enough capital for Marguerite’s mother to start a bakery and confectioner’s shop in Savannah, Georgia, where the family had been living at the time. (They moved with the jobs, of course. Marguerite had actually been born in Salt Lake City). The item’s mention that shortly before his death Snow went blind, and the fact that he was only 35 years old, suggest to me that he died of syphillis, which was quite common at the time, especially among theatrical people.

Sometime later, Marguerite and her mother moved to Denver, where the youngster first went on the stage. By age sixteen she had professionalized and began touring with stock companies. In 1907 she joined James O’Neill in a Kansas City production of The Count of Monte Cristo. The following year she was on Broadway in Molnar’sThe Devil. In 1910 she supported Thomas Jefferson (Joe’s son) in The Other Fellow.

Marguerite Snow’s life changed radically in 1911 when she became one of the stars of the Thanhouser Studio. Early on she was billed as Margaret Snow. Marguerite definitely registers as more exotic, although it does cause us to confuse her from time to time with Marguerite Clark,the first Snow White! At any rate, Marguerite Snow rated second only to Florence Turner as a box office draw, headlining in scores of short films (this was the time before feature length became the standard. Many of them adaptations of classics, such as She, The Old Curiosity Shop, The Pillars of Society, A Doll’s House, Lorna Doone, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, East Lynne, Carmen, Tannhauser (an adaptation of the Wagner opera, unrelated to the name of the studio), and Joseph in the Land of Egypt.

Cruze & Snow ca. 1913

In 1913 Snow married director James Cruze, with whom she had apepared in films. The pair had a baby (Julie Jane Cruze) shortly after that. Snow left Thanhouser in 1915 and worked at a variety of Hollywood studios over the next decade, including Metro Pictures (prior to the merger that formed MGM) and George M. Cohan’s short-lived Artcraft, for which she appeared in Broadway Jones (1917). With Frank Bacon she was in The Silent Voice and Rosemary, both in 1915, and A Corner in Cotton (1916). She co-starred with King Baggott in The Eagle’s Eye and supported Irene Castle and Antonio Moreno in The First Law, both in 1918. She co-starred with H.B. Warner in Felix O’Day (1920). For director Lloyd Ingraham she starred in Lavender and Old Lace (1921) and The Veiled Woman (1922).

In 1923, Snow and Cruze had an acrimonious divorce following a decade of marriage. At the court proceedings, Snow related numerous occasions on which Cruze had beaten and abused her. Snow only made three additional films after the split: Chalk Marks (1924), Savages of the Sea (1925), and Kit Carson Over the Great Divide (1925), the latter with Roy Stewart and Henry B. Walthall. She married screen comedian Neely Edwards in 1925, and retired from the biz just in time to miss the sound revolution.

Edwards career lasted into the early days of talkies, although by 1933 it had fizzled, and the couple were residing in a trailer. Snow’s daughter, Julie Jane Cruze, who had recieved substantial wealth and property from her father, is said to have assisted her mother financially at this stage. Edwards continued to work as an extra and bit player through 1959.

**Obligatory Disclaimer: It is the official position of this blog that Caucasians-in-Blackface is NEVER okay. It was bad then, and it’s bad now. We occasionally show images depicting the practice, or refer to it in our writing, because it is necessary to tell the story of American show business, which like the history of humanity, is a mix of good and bad.

For more on show business history,consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, for more on silent movies please check out my book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube.