Glamorous Gertrude Olmstead

I know not whether Gertrude Olmstead (1897-1975) was related to the famous designer of city parks, but I do know that, astoundingly, she is far from the only bygone star named Gertrude, what with Gertrude Hoffman, Gertrude Vanderbilt,Gertrude Astor, Gertrude Lawrence, Gertrude Niesen, Gertrude Ederle, Gertrude Selby, and even ethnic outliers like Gertrude Berg and Gertrude Howard all in the mix. Clearly, a century ago, the name did not convey to the mind’s eye what it seems to now, someone rather dowdy and wizened. What is now a comedy name once bespoke glamor.

Gertrude Olmstead’s career coincidentally spanned the 1920s almost to the minute. In 1920 the Chicago native beat out over 5,000 entrants in a national beauty contest sponsored by the Elks. The prize was $10,000 and a movie contract. Her career started at Universal; most of her early films were Hoot Gibson westerns. In 1922 she was the female lead in the serial The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, with Harry Myers as Crusoe and Noble Johnson as Friday. Starting around 1923 her track record in features starts to get pretty interesting. That year she followed up a supporting role in Trilby with a part opposite John Gilbert in John Ford’s adaptation of Booth Tarkington’sCameo Kirby. This was followed by Mal St Clair’s 1924 adaptation of George M. Cohan’sGeorge Washington Jr. That same year saw The Land of the Limberlost with Gloria Grey, the screen adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’sBabbit, and four other features. In 1925 she was in Roland West’s The Monster with Lon Chaney and Johnny Arthur and Cobra with Rudolph Valentino. Later stuff included William Wellman’sThe Boob (1926) with George K. Arthur, The Callahans and the Murphys (1927) with Marie Dressler and Polly Moran, and the 1928 screen adaptation of Bringing Up Fatherwith same.

Olmstead’s final film was the all-star 1929 production The Show of Shows. Clearly speaking dialogue was not her forte. Fortunately, in 1926 she had married Robert Z. Leonard, director of classics like The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and In the Good Old Summertime (1949), so she was fixed for life.

For more on silent screen history please see Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube.