Mae Marsh (born Mary Warne Marsh;[1] November 9, 1894[2] – February 13, 1968) was an American film actress whose career spanned over 50 years.
Early life
Mae Marsh was born Mary Warne Marsh in Madrid, New Mexico Territory, on November 9, 1894.[3] She was one of seven children of Mae T. (née Warne) and Stephen Charles Marsh. By 1900, the Marsh family had moved to El Paso, Texas, where Mary's father worked as a bartender.[4] Mae's father died in 1901, and the following year, her mother married William Hall, a native of Virginia. The family later moved to California, where Mae attended Convent of the Sacred Heart School in Hollywood as well as public school.[1]
A frequently told story of Marsh's childhood is "Her father, a railroad auditor, died when she was four. Her family moved to San Francisco, California, where her stepfather was killed in the great earthquake of 1906. Her great-aunt then took Mae and [her older sister] Marguerite to Los Angeles, hoping her show business background would open doors for jobs at various movie studios needing extras."[3]: 113 However, her father, S. Charles Marsh, was a bartender, not a railroad auditor, and he was alive at least as late as June 1900, when Marsh was nearly six.[2] Her stepfather, oil-field inspector William Hall, could not have been killed in the 1906 earthquake, as he was alive, listed in the 1910 census, living with her mother and sisters.[5]
Marsh worked as a salesgirl and loitered around the Hollywood sets and locations while her older sister worked on a film, observing the progress of her sister's performance. She first started as an extra in various movies, and played her first substantial role in the film Ramona (1910) at the age of 15.
“I tagged my way into motion pictures,” Marsh recalled in The Silent Picture. “I used to follow my sister Marguerite to the old Biograph studio and then, one great day, Mr. Griffith noticed me, put me in a picture and I had my chance. I love my work and though new and very wonderful interests have entered my life, I still love it and couldn't think of giving it up.”[3]: 114
Career rise
Marsh worked with D. W. Griffith in small roles at Biograph when they were filming in California and in New York. Her big break came when Mary Pickford, resident star of the Biograph lot and a married woman at that time, refused to play the bare-legged, grass-skirted role of Lily-White in Man's Genesis. Griffith announced that if Pickford would not play that part in Man's Genesis, she would not play the coveted title role in his next film, The Sands of Dee. The other actresses stood behind Pickford, each refusing in turn to play the part, citing the same objection.[6]
Years later, Marsh recalled in an interview in The Silent Picture: “...and he called rehearsal, and we were all there and he said, ‘Well now, Miss Marsh, you can rehearse this.’ And Mary Pickford said ‘What!’ and Mr. Griffith said ‘Yes, Mary Pickford, if you don't do what I tell you I want you to do, I'm going to have someone else do The Sands of Dee. Mary Pickford didn't play Man's Genesis so Mae can play The Sands of Dee.’ Of course, I was thrilled, and she was very much hurt. And I thought, ‘Well it's all right with me. That is something.’ I was, you know, just a lamebrain.” [3]: 117
Working with Mack Sennett and D. W. Griffith, she was a prolific actress, sometimes appearing in eight movies per year and often paired with fellow Sennett protégé Robert Harron in romantic roles.[7]
Marsh, in the memoir Screen Acting (1921) recalled her performance as “ Little Sister” in the “cellar scene” in which Union cavalry invade the Cameron family plantation in The Birth of a Nation, an example of her “counter-dramatic” acting:[8]
It was a matter of some moment of how [my character] the Little Sister would be affected. I can hear your average director: “Roll your eyes” he would say, “Cry! Drop to your knees in terror!” In other words, it would be the same old stuff...
Mr. Griffith, when he came to the cellar scene, asked me if there had been a time in my life when I had been filled with terror:
“Yes.” I said.
“What did you do?” he inquired.
“I laughed,” I answered.
He saw the point immediately. “Good” he said, “let’s try it.”
It was the hysterical laugh of the little girl in the cellar…that was far more effective than rolling the eyes or weeping would have been.”[9]
D. W. Griffith's cinematic handling of the courtroom episode in Intolerance, in particular his use of close-ups for “dramatic intensity,” are widely recognized.[10] According to film historian Paul O’Dell, “Mae Marsh gave to Intolerance one of her most memorable” portrayals,[11] identifying her role as the “Dear One” as integral to the film's success:
Much more mention should be made of the performance of Mae Marsh, which in this scene reaches one of its many peaks. Sir Alexander Korda included her performance as one of the most outstanding pieces of acting in the silent film era, and June Berry rated her playing of the Dear One as only second to Falconetti’s Joan of Arc (1928).[12]
Mae Marsh, in her 1923 memoir Screen Acting, comments on her struggle to fully deliver the sequence: “The hardest dramatic work I ever did was the courtroom scene in Intolerance. We retook the scenes on four different occasions. Each time I gave to the limit of my vitality and ability. I put everything into my portrayal that was in me...”[12]
March signed a lucrative contract with Samuel Goldwyn worth $2,500 per week after Intolerance, but none of the films she made with him were particularly successful. After her marriage to Lee Arms, a publicity agent for Goldwyn, in 1918, her film output decreased to about one per year.
She starred in the 1918 film Fields of Honor. Marsh's last notable starring role was as a flapper for Griffith in The White Rose (1923) with Ivor Novello and Carol Dempster. She re-teamed with Novello for the film version of his hit stage play The Rat (1925).
In 1955, Marsh was awarded the George Eastman Award,[13] given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film.
Marsh married Louis Lee Arms, Samuel Goldwyn's publicity agent, in Manhattan on September 21, 1918.[14] The couple, who had four children, remained together for 50 years, until 1968, when Mae died from a heart attack at Hermosa Beach, California.[15] Louis died at the age of 101 on June 11, 1989.[16] They are buried together in Section 5 at Pacific Crest Cemetery in Redondo Beach, California.[citation needed]
^"Twelfth Census of the United States: Population Schedule, 1900", image of original enumeration page showing Mae Marsh (daughter) and other children in household of S[tephen] C[harles] Marsh and his wife "May", El Paso, Texas, June 1, 1900. Census page retrieved via FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, March 30, 2023.
^U.S. Census records for 1910, Los Angeles, California, Sheet No. 4A
^Wagenknecht, 1962 p. 86: “...Mae Marsh, then a newcomer, got the role, incidentally, and her foothold in pictures along with it, because Griffith’s already established balked at being cast in a ‘bare-legged role,’ and he showed his appreciation by also giving Marsh the lead in The Sands of Dee…”
^O’Dell, 1970 p. 49: O’Dell refers to an unpublished manuscript title Mae Marsh and Robert Harron by Harold Dunham. See Bibliography, p. 157, note no. 4
^O’Dell, 1970 p. 16-17: Marsh “conveys beautifully the drama and tension of the situation through what might be called counter-dramatic terms...”
^O’Dell, 1970 p. 16-17: Minor changes to punctuation for clarity, italics added for same. Quoted here, ellipsis in O’Dell And p. 157: Bibliography: footnote no. 1, Mae Marsh in Screen Acting, Photo Star Publishing Co., 1921
^O’Dell, 1970 p. 72: “...the extreme close-up shots...are much quoted and illustrated as examples of Griffith's use of this technique...”
^"New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1938", marriage license and certificate of Louis Lee Arms and Mary Warne Marsh, September 21, 1918, Manhattan, New York City. Retrieved via FamilySearch, March 30, 2023.
^"Death of Mae Marsh", obituary, Los Angeles Times, February 18, 1968, p. F5. Retrieved via ProQuest Historical Newspapers (Ann Arbor, Michigan); subscription access through The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library, March 30, 2023.
^"California Death Index, 1940-1997," database, Louis Lee Arms, 11 June 1989; California Department of Public Health Services, Sacramento. Retrieved via FamilySearch, March 30, 2023.
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