Virginia Lee Corbin: The Dresden Doll of the Movies

Virginia Lee Corbin (1910-1942) became a movie star twice, and was getting her toe wet in movies yet a third time when she died tragically young of TB at age 32.

Corbin was the daughter of a Precott, Arizona pharmacist of such beauty and talent that she was already modeling at age two, and learning to sing and dance by age three. The family moved to San Diego when she was six and she immediately began getting cast in pictures. Billed as “Baby Virginia”, she was promoted as younger than she actually was, with her birthday usually given as 1911 or 1912. Her older sister Ruth was also briefly in pictures, but Virginia had staying power. Her porcelain skin, blue eyes, and blonde hair earned her the nickname “The Dresden Doll of the Movies”. From small roles in Let Katie Do it and Intolerance she progressed to a co-starring role in The Chorus Girl and the Kid (all in 1916).

In 1917 and 1918 she starred in a series of Fox Kiddie Features (often opposite Francis Carpenter) which were popular with audiences: Jack and the Beanstalk, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, The Babes in the Woods, Treasure Island, and Fan Fan. In 1918 she supported Tom Mix in two westerns, Six Shooter Andy and Ace High. The last film of her kiddie period was the all-star Enemies of Children (1923). Through the awkward tween years she performed with a song and dance act in vaudeville.

At the young (and maybe inappropriate) age of 14, Corbin entered a new phase of her career by reinventing herself as a flapper. From walk-ons in such roles in Wine of Youth and Sinners in Silk (1924) she quickly moved up to prominent roles in films like The City That Never Sleeps (1924) with Louise Dresser and Ricardo Cortez, and The Chorus Lady (1924) with Margaret Livingston. By Lillies of the Streets (1925) she was the star of the film again on her own account.

One element of her career that is generally overlooked is that she was leading lady to several comedians during the late silent period. She was the co-star of Raymond Griffith in Hands Up (1926), of Edward Everett Horton in The Whole Town’s Talking (1926) and The Perfect Sap (1927), and of Monty Banks in Play Safe (1927).

Corbin’s starring vehicle Bare Knees (1928) is the culmination of her flapper period. After this came films of the transition to sound: The Little Snob (1928), Jazzland (1928), and Footlights and Fools (1929), in which she played supporting roles. During this period she starred in a Mack Sennett short called Jazz Mamas (1929), supported by Vernon Dent.

After this, Corbin was in four films for smaller studios, all in 1931. She co-starred in the Columbia western Shotgun Pass with Tim McCoy. She had supporting roles in two films for Tiffany Pictures: Morals For Women with Bessie Love and Conway Tearle, and X Marks the Spot with Lew Cody and Sally Blane. And she was in the ensemble in Forgotten Women, at Monogram.

Having married a stock broker in 1929, Corbin retired from films to raise a family. Following a 1937 divorce she appeared in two additional films in walk-ons: Letter of Introduction (1938) with Adolphe Menjou and Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, and Adventures in Diamonds (1940) with George Brent. Shortly after remarrying she moved to Chicago, where she died in a sanitarium for tuberculosis patients.

For more on silent movies please check out my book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, and for more on vaudeville in which Virginia Lee Corbin also appeared,consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous,