Anita Page

[lulu]

Am I the only one that thinks this woman deserves some kind of recognition.
http://www.anitapage.com/

And, she's still working. I would love to just sit down and talk to her about the "good old days". Oh, the memories this woman has.

[KELT]

No, I've been an advocate of hers for years. To think that someone who was one of the biggest stars of the late 20s is still with us. I don't know why ROBERT OSBOURNE hasn't gotten her on TCM. She was in several silents with JOAN CRAWFORD too. The only star I can think of who is older and still 'with it' is LUISE RAINER who at 98 is 7 months older.
BRUCE BENNETT, and CHARLES LANE both reached 100, but have since died.

[Noelle Page]

Wow, I missed her somehow.

That website needs a good art deco-style redesign......

[Cherry Malotte]

Oh boy Kelt...you know, I love me some Anita Page, but I did put her on my Deathwatch List for this year.

Go ahead, I'll take my fifty lashes with a wet noodle.

[Ron Burgundy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Page

Anita Pomares better known as Anita Page (August 4, 1910 â?? September 6, 2008) was an American film actress and one of a few people to have acted as an adult (albeit young) in silent films (Barbara Kent, Dorothy Janis, and Miriam Seegar are among the handful of others). She was also the last known living attendee of the very first Academy Awards in 1929.
Contents




Rise to stardom

Page entered films in A Kiss For Cinderella 1925. She and her family were very close to Betty Bronson's family, and she got the part through Betty. After a few small but well received parts, was offered a contract with MGM Studios. MGM moulded her into one of their biggest female stars of the silent era, pairing her with such popular actors as Ramon Novarro and William Haines. Her performances in Our Dancing Daughters (1928) opposite Joan Crawford (with whom she appeared in three films), and The Broadway Melody (1929) opposite Bessie Love were her greatest successes of the period, and her popularity allowed her to make a smooth transition into talking pictures.
She was the leading lady to Lon Chaney, Buster Keaton, Robert Montgomery, and Clark Gable (among others) and during the early 1930s, she was one of Hollywood's busiest actresses. She was involved briefly with Gable romantically during that time. At the height of her popularity, she was receiving more fan mail than any other female star, with the exception of Greta Garbo, and received multiple marriage proposals from Benito Mussolini in the mail.
One of her finest roles was as the prostitute, Jenny LeGrand, in the 1932 pre-Code movie, Skyscraper Souls, which starred Warren William and a young Maureen O'Sullivan.
Her body was featured in a poster labeling her "The Ideal Movie Star", which discussed her body parts and measurements, and another actress who possessed one comparable for each.

Retirement

When her contract expired in 1933, she surprised Hollywood by announcing her retirement at the age of 23. She made one more movie (in the UK in 1936), and then left the screen, virtually disappearing from Hollywood circles for 60 years.
In a 2004 interview with author Scott Feinberg, she claimed that her refusal to meet demands for sexual favors by MGM head of production Irving Thalberg, supported by studio chief Louis B. Mayer, is what truly ended her career. She said that Mayer colluded with the other studio bosses to ban her and other uncooperative actresses from finding work.
She married composer Nacio Herb Brown that same year but their marriage was dissolved a year later. She married Admiral Hershel A. House in 1937 and they moved to Coronado, California and lived there until his death in 1991. They had two daughters, the elder of whom, Sandra, predeceased Anita.
She returned to the screen in 1996 after sixty years retirement and has since appeared in several low budget horror films, several of which appeared to have been uncompleted or not released. Surprisingly, film veteran Margaret O'Brien appeared in two of them.
Anita Page has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to Motion Pictures, at 6116 Hollywood Boulevard.

Death

Page died on September 6, 2008 in Los Angeles, California.

[Stonecold]

RIP. God bless her. A Navy wife!

[Philliefan]

Gosh, what a sad story about her retirement. Bastards. I'd never heard this. RIP Anita.

[jeca]

RIP, Anita.

[KELT]

Damn, damn, damn !
I was just thinking about her today & crossing my fingers that she'd make it to 100.
(I'd) been hoping that ROBERT OSBOURNE would tape an interview with her before it was too late.

[KELT]

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg...&GRid=29633425

[SistaSara]

Anita Page, silent movie star, dies aged 98
The Associated Press
Article Launched: 09/06/2008 06:56:26 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES—Anita Page, the beautiful blond MGM actress who appeared
in the films of Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford and Buster Keaton during
the transition from silents to talkies, has died. She was 98.
Her longtime friend and companion Randal Malone says Page died in her
sleep of natural causes early Saturday morning at her home in Los
Angeles.

The New York-born Page began her film career as an extra in 1924.

She had a major role—as the doomed bad girl—in "Our Dancing
Daughters," a 1928 film that featured a wild Charleston by Crawford
and propelled them both to stardom. It spawned two sequels, "Our
Modern Maidens" and "Our Blushing Brides."

Page and Crawford were both in all three films.

[KELT]

Here's video feed from YOU TUBE on Anita...............

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfi-IZ9KGNY

[Rosa Moline]

RIP, Ms Page. I often wondered about her as she was one of the last surviving stars from Hollywood's golden age. I was considering writing to her at one point for an autograph and a Crawford anecdote, but I wasn't sure if she was up for writing still.

Can't be many left now from that era I guess. Olivia De Havilland is the only one I can think of right now.

[AnneBoleyn]

Very interesting lady.. never heard of her before. She was a beauty, and good on her to resist those scumbags. Thanks for posting

Gloria Stuart is still alive isn´t she... she might not have been a huge star back then, but still a part of the Golden Age, in my oppinion

[AnneBoleyn]

Found a couple of pics.. one from her youth and a more resent one, still an attractive lady and a link to a homepage abot her; http://www.anitapage.com/

[Shamrocker99]

I never heard of her before. Thanks for introducing me and may she rest in peace.

[Tebssis]

I just loved this womans' lips! So sorry to hear she didn't make 100. Lovely pics Kelt and Anne. RIP Anita, you were a classy lady.

[JimC]

R.I.P. Anita.

She was a looker; and apparently had morals.

God bless her.

Thanks for the posts and photos, guys!

[onekindsistah]

She was beautiful! RIP Anita.

[leeny994]

Very interesting lady.. never heard of her before. She was a beauty, and good on her to resist those scumbags. Thanks for posting

Gloria Stuart is still alive isn´t she... she might not have been a huge star back then, but still a part of the Golden Age, in my oppinion

Yuppers Gloria is still alive and kickin!

[Blurgle]

Great article on Anita Page here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2000/...lture.features

Excerpt:

Two weeks ago, however, I received another phone call. As usual when she rings me, it was 2am in the UK and I was asleep. The television was on full volume in the Californian background. "Have I gotten you up," she asked. "Yes," I said. "There is a German woman on my TV." It was Leni Riefenstahl, in the news for a press conference she had given at the Frankfurt Book Fair to publicise a new biography. "She knew a friend of mine in Italy."



She went on: "Leni was an intimate friend of Adolf Hitler, or so they say." She talked about Riefenstahl as if they were once rivals, though in fact they were worlds apart. Where Riefenstahl was making propaganda films for the Nazi leadership, Page was a hedonist whose principal concern was finding the next glass of champagne.



I asked her why she is interested in the 98-year-old German film-maker. "Well, it is just that Leni had Hitler and I had Mussolini. Maybe Leni and I should get together, you know, girls comparing notes." She laughed. "I got the sweetest letters from Mussolini, real nice." And she started to tell me about the day they began to arrive - and about how, in the end, they would contribute to her being dropped by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

[KELT]

Very interesting lady.. never heard of her before. She was a beauty, and good on her to resist those scumbags. Thanks for posting

Gloria Stuart is still alive isn´t she... she might not have been a huge star back then, but still a part of the Golden Age, in my oppinion

STUART was fairly well known in the early 30s. I know that she had been a WAMPUS BABY which was a group of starlets chosen yearly for being pretty & showing promise. She was in THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932) &
THE INVISIBLE MAN (1933), GOLD DIGGERS OF 1935.

[KELT]

RIP, Ms Page. I often wondered about her as she was one of the last surviving stars from Hollywood's golden age. I was considering writing to her at one point for an autograph and a Crawford anecdote, but I wasn't sure if she was up for writing still.

Can't be many left now from that era I guess. Olivia De Havilland is the only one I can think of right now.

I know that ANITA'S mother thought that CRAWFORD was tough & common and urged ANITA not to socialize with her off the set.

[HARLOWNUMBER1]

NO!!!!

I too was hoping she would've made it to 100.

One of our last links to the golden age is now gone.

However, I don't think she can really hold the mantle for longest career since she stopped acting in 1936 and didn't return until 1994 - we're talking an absence of nearly 60 years! Lillian Gish & Katherine Hepburn's careers were nearly as long, and they worked across every decade over the course of their long careers. I don't think Anita had been in good health the past few years, since I had heard she had stopped giving interviews.

[cindyt]

RIP Anita.

[Old Soul]

At least she was beautiful til the end! Not many people get that privilege!

[deathaddict]

end of an era. Rest in peace.

[More Cheese Please]

[guardmom2008]

Such a beautiful lady.
RIP Anita