A Nod to Natalie Kingston

Somewhat late in the game for us to shine a light on a silent comedy figure as significant as Natalie Kingston (Natalia Ringstrom, 1905-1991), but these things happen.

Though her father’s surname was Swedish, Kingston was a creature of Old California. One of her great-grandfathers was the politician Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, the man for whom Vallejo, California (her birthplace) was named, he himself from a long line of Spanish and Mexican leaders in the region. Another great-grandfather was the Hungarian nobleman Agoston Haraszthy, still celebrated as the Father of California Wine. (Stay tuned for National Wine Day, May 25!)

Natalie was educated at convents in the San Francisco bay area, and had learned traditional Spanish dances. As a young woman she danced in San Francisco cabarets, and this brought her to the attention of Fanchon and Marco who hired her for their troupe. She was with them when they played the Broadway Brevities of 1920, which also starred Eddie Cantor, Bert Williams, Eddie Buzzell, George LeMaire, and Edith Hallor. She was only 15 years old at the time.

Kingston was hired by Mack Sennett circa 1924 as a Bathing Girl and minor player in movie comedies starring Ben Turpin, Billy Bevan, Harry Langdon, Ralph Graves, Harry Gribbon, and the like. With Turpin, she appeared in Yukon Jake (1924) and his burlesque of Romeo and Juliet (1924). She is especially remembered as leady lady to Langdon in several key comedies, including All Night Long (1924), Feet of Mud (1924), His Marriage Wow (1925), Soldier Man (1926), and His First Flame (1927). Comedy features included Wet Paint (1926) with Raymond Griffith, Kid Boots (1926) with Eddie Cantor, and Lost at the Front (1927) with George Sidney and Charles Murray. (Some sources say she was also in Miss Brewster’s Millions with Bebe Daniels and The Cat’s Pajamas with Betty Bronson, also in 1926).

Having signed with Paramount, she also began appearing in dramas like Lost at Sea (1926), Don Juan’s 3 Nights (1926), The Silent Lover (1926), The Night of Love (1927), et al. She’s second female lead in the semi-talkie Street Angel (1928) with Janet Gaynor, leading lady to Tom Mix on Painted Post (1928), and in two of the earliest Tarzan films,Tarzan the Mighty (1928), and Tarzan the Tiger (1929), playing the coveted role of Jane in the latter. She’s also leading lady to Bob Custer in the B movie western Under Texas Skies (1930), but most of her roles in the talkie era were supporting parts. His Private Secretary (1933) with John Wayne and Evalyn Knapp, was her last movie.

For more on silent comedy film history please check out: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube — now also available on audiobook.