Friday, February 22, 2008

Ethel having a bad hair day


Rebecca - from whom I have cribbed most of what is in my tree about the Precious side of the family - tells me that Ethel went to Hollywood as understudy to Pearl White. That fitted in with the vague idea my sister and I had that the name "White" came into it somewhere. Pearl White was born in 1889 and Ethel in 1892 so they would have been close enough in age. Pearl's movie career spanned from 1910 to 1924, all silents. But all her movies were made in East Coast studios and it is believed she never visited Hollywood. So perhaps there is more to the story that we do not know yet. The Beverly Hills pictures I have posted here show Ethel and her family enjoying the fruits of their success. Did she start out on the other side of the continent? Husband Bob was a New Englander, so he might well have begun his movie career in studios on the East Coast.

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