The Elusive Evelyn Sherman

I’d like to have more to tell about character actress Evelyn Sherman (Eva Mae Spear, 1882-1974), but I consider that what is known is of sufficient interest to rate a post here.

Sherman was from a tiny town of New England transplants called Nashua, Iowa (named in honor of the one in New Hampshire.) IMDB tells us she was acting in films in New York as early as 1910, although the first credit they list dates from a decade later, when she was 38 years old. I have not been able to find any theatrical credits or movies she was in prior to this, and that’s the missing piece I’d love to have. We do know that she was married to a Richard Allison. The name Sherman was her mother’s maiden name. (No relation to Lowell Sherman that I have espied).

Her films, the 30 we know about anyway, are an interesting hodgepodge, most of them featuring well known stars of one kind or another. Twisted Souls (1920) was a vehicle for the magician Howard Thurston. She followed this up with Millionaire for a Day (1921) starring Guy Empey, a World War One hero who’s scored a success with an autobiography called Over the Top, as well as a 1918 screen adaptation in which he himself starred. then came School Days (1921) with child star Wesley Barry.

Sherman is fourth billed in the Mabel Normand picture Suzanna (1921). This is of course one of her career highlights. With this picture something interesting is established. Her character is Doña Isabella, and thereafter she went on to play several older Spanish women: in Proud Flesh (1925) with Eleanor Boardman, Don Dare Devil (1925) with Jack Hoxie, The Border Whirlwind (1926) with Bob Custer, Song of the Caballero (1930) with Ken Maynard, The California Trail (1933) with Buck Jones. Did she have a reputation for playing these kind of roles? Especially gifted at it? She was not, after all, Spanish.

Most other times, she played dowagers, mothers-in-law, and other matronly roles. Her comedies (most of them for Mack Sennett) include Helen’s Babies (1924) with Baby Peggy, Cupid’s Boots (1925) and A Yankee Doodle Duke (1926) with Ralph Graves, Plain Clothes (1925) with Harry Langdon, A Sweet Pickle (1925) and The Plumber’s Daughter (1927) with Alice Day, Isn’t Love Cuckoo? (1925) with Raymond McKee,Fight Night (1926) with Billy Bevan, Flirty Four Flushers (1926) with Bevan and Madeline Hurlock,Blonde or Brunette (1927) with Adolphe Menjou, and Jimmy’s New Yacht (1932) with Ray Cooke.

Other films she appeared in included the 1923 version of Trilby, A Fool’s Awakening (1924), Speed Madness (1925), and Sunshine of Paradise Alley (1926). She appears to have retired around 1937.

For more on silent comedy film, including movies of Mack Sennett in which Evelyn Sherman appeared, please check out my book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube — now also available on audiobook!