The Women
Viola Dana (Virginia Flugrath b. June 26, 1897 Brooklyn, NY; d. July 3, 1987 Woodland Hills, CA ) A stage dancer and child actress, Dana began her career playing unbilled bit parts, later signing with Edison Pictures. A major star of silent film, her career ended with the coming of sound. Sister of film actresses Shirley Mason and Edna Flugrath and stage actress Leonie Flugrath, Dana was formerly married to director John H. Collins for five years, he died in the flu epidemic of 1918. She was then engaged to aviator Omar Locklear who was killed in a plane crash in 1920 while filming “The Skywayman.” She was also married to screen cowboy Maurice "Lefty" Flynn. In her later years she would often speak to television interviewers and film festival audiences about her career. Dana died from heart failure. She resided at 811 26th Street in Santa Monica. Actress – 101 films.
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Carmelita Geraghty (b. March 21, 1901 Rushville, IN; d. July 7, 1966 New York, NY) Daughter of screenwriter Tom Geraghty and sister of writers Maurice and Gerald Geraghty, she was a graduate of Hollywood High School where she was in charge of the school calendar. Voted a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1924, Geraghty spent most of her career as a leading lady, playing opposite Reed Howes and Estelle Taylor's husband, former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey. With the advent of sound, Geraghty's star dimmed and she went on to play the ‘other woman’ in various poverty row movies. Retiring in the mid-1930s, she married Carey Wilson on May 7, 1934, Jean Harlow as matron of honor and set designer Cedric Gibbons as best man. In the 1930's she made news when she was found unconscious and bleeding on her bathroom floor. Her husband came home, found blood on the living room floor and followed the trail to the bathroom where she lay unconscious. Wilson immediately called the police, thinking she may have been attacked by an intruder. She had actually fallen off the couch and struck her head on the hardwood floor and managed to get to the bathroom where she passed out. A physician arrived on the scene with the police and found that she had been unconscious nearly four hours, suffering a slight concussion. Geraghty later became an accomplished artist and during the last years of her life, her artwork was displayed at the "Weil Gardens" in Paris. Geraghty died of a heart attack and her body lies a few yards north of her husband. Early in her career she resided at 5930 Franklin Avenue in Hollywood. Actress – 67 films.
MORNE, Maryland (b. 1900 England; d. July 18, 1935 ‑ Abbey of the Psalms foyer, T‑2, N‑2) Wife of actor/producer Eugene Strong, Morne started her career as a Broadway actress performing in such hits as ‘In Love With Love’ with Lynn Fontanne and Henry Hull, and ‘Love `Em and Leave `Em.’ In 1922, she was picked from a group of 100,000 women to have her face adorn a special issue of the silver dollar the government planned to issue to commemorate the Armistice. Actress – 3 films.
NURMI, Maila ‘Vampira’ (Maila Elizabeth Syrjaniemi b. December 21, 1921 Petsamo, Finland (now Pechenga, Russia); d. January 10, 2008 Hollywood, CA) Nurmi moved to Ashtabula, Ohio with her family when she was two years old. At seventeen years of age she arrived in Hollywood where she modeled for Alberto Vargas and Bernard of Hollywood. Nurmi also found work posing for men’s magazines – ‘Gala’ and ‘Famous Models.’ In 1953 Nurmi attended a party dressed similar to “The Addams Family” character Morticia and there she caught the eye of Hunt Stromberg, Jr., who hired her to host a late night television show. When the show she was hosting cancelled in 1955, she retained rights to the Vampira character and made television history as the first horror movie hostess. Nurmi also appeared in films and became close friends with actor James Dean and dated director Orson Welles. She was married to Dean Riesner a screenwriter and Fabrizio Mioni, an actor. In the 1960’s Nurmi opened a clothing store on Hollywood’s Melrose Avenue where she sold homemade jewelry and clothing. In 1994 Nurmi was portrayed by Lisa Marie in Tim Burton’s film “Ed Wood” starring Johnny Depp and in 2001 she opened her website selling original pieces of art and autographed film memorabilia. She was also the subject of and appeared in several documentaries. Nurmi died at her home of cardiac arrest. Actress – 11 films.
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Eleanore Vogel (b. August 1, 1897 Atlanta, GA; d. June 26, 1973 Hollywood, CA) A Broadway actress, she teamed with Frankie Mack for years and together they became a very successful black-face team on stage and in films. Vogel went to Hollywood in 1923 and played uncredited roles in approximately 200 films and television shows. She was the sister of actress Jacqueline Patton. Along with actress Jane Crowley, they became known as “John Ford’s Rosebud Sisters,” even though they were not at all related. The two women were called “Hedy Vogel” and “Greta Crowley,” and were among the most colorful personalities of all Hollywood extras. They were discovered by John Ford and he used them in every picture he filmed for 25 years, sometimes as a pair, sometimes only one of them is used. Both women were middle-aged, dark haired and of similar build. Vogel was often overlooked for film parts due to her heavy Southern accent – she was to have resembled a Russian until she opened her mouth. Vogel died of a heart attack. Actress – 5 films.
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DAVIES, Marion (Marion Cecilia Douras b. January 3, 1897 Brooklyn, NY; d. September 22, 1961 Hollywood, CA) Educated in a convent, Davies made her stage debut in a Broadway chorus line at 16 years of age and went on to appear in: ‘Ziegfeld Follies of 1916,’ ‘Betty’ with Raymond Hitchcock and Edna Bates and ‘Words and Music’ with Flo Hart, Richard Carle and Lillian Davis. She was a Ziegfeld girl when she met newspaper magnet William Randolph Hearst and became his mistress. Davies often entertained and was known for her fabulous parties at her 110-room Georgian beach house on the shores of the Pacific in Santa Monica. In June of 1961, Davies was under treatment for osteomyelitis of the jaw at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital when she slipped, fell and received a small fracture to her leg, she was hospitalized nearly a month afterward. Davies died of cancer and as famous and well-known as she was, only a hundred or so people attended her funeral service. Honorary pallbearers included Joseph Kennedy, Bing Crosby and director Mervyn Leroy. Active pallbearers were director Raoul Walsh, Dick Powell, Howard Strickling, Buddy Rogers, and Glenn Ford, among others, with their task being turned over to sixteen members of the Naval ROTC. She is interred in the Douras family mausoleum along with her husband Horace Brown, her sisters Ethel Frances, Reine and Rose, and her mother Rose, her father Bernard, niece Pepi Lederer (daughter of Reine), actor Arthur Lake and his wife Patricia. (Patricia was in reality the daughter of Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst but was raised by Davies’ sister Rose, to avoid scandal and the ruin of Marion’s career.) During her life, Davies was a keen businesswoman and turned her earnings into a large fortune. Shortly before her death, she gave $2,000,000 to the University of California at Los Angeles, to build a children’s wing at its medical center. Davies resided at 1700 Lexington Avenue in Beverly Hills. (Demolition of some of the Beach House property began in April of 2007 and the area will become the Annenberg Community Beach Club.)
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Elinor Remick Warren (b. February 23, 1900 Los Angeles, CA; d. April 27, 1991 Los Angeles, CA) Educated at Westlake School for Girls and Mills College, Remick, a famed American composer, began music lessons on her fifth birthday and learned the piano as well as harmony and theory. She frequently attended recitals and began composing music and in her mid‑teens she shared a musical program with composer Charles Cadman. She moved to New York and later began touring as an accompanist for Metropolitan Opera stars Florence Easton, Richard Crooks, Lawrence Tibbett among others. At 18 years of age Warren wrote her first composition, ‘A Song of June’ which was published. Moving back to Los Angeles, she met and married Z. Wayne Griffin, a television and film producer ‑ they were wed in 1936. Warren went on to host a weekly radio program while continuing to work on her choral symphony, ‘The Passing of King Arthur.’ During the 1940s and 1950s, she produced ‘The Sleeping Beauty,’ ‘The Crystal Lake,’ ‘Along the Western Shore,’ ‘Singing Earth,’ ‘Transcontinental,’ among others. In 1953, she was named ‘Woman of the Year’ by the Los Angeles Times and received an honorary doctorate from Occidental College of Los Angeles in 1954.
