Think the Britney Spears saga is a product of our times? Think again. It was happening many years ago as well...

From the New York Morning Telegraph, 18 June 1916...

"Mary Sunshine in Suit"
Helen Marie Osborn, 4 1-2 years of age, known to the moving picture public as "Little Mary Sunshine," is to have a new mamma, so that her promising film career may not be impeded. Her salary, which far exceeds that of her father and mother combined, will be taken charge of by a trust company and devoted to her future education. The parents of the child have instituted legal proceedings to prevent the coming of this state of affairs.
The mother, Mrs. Edythe Osborn, who was arrested a few weeks ago following a raid on a bungalow at El Monte, charged in a petition before the Probate Court that her husband, "Little Mary Sunshine's" father, is "squandering and spending" the salary of the child and is habitually intemperate. In an affidavit filed in response the father contends that the mother is not a fit person to have custody of the child.
H.M. Horkheimer, of the Balboa Amusement Producing Company, testified that he is willing to enter into a contract providing for an increase of salary to $75 a week for the child. He has also agreed to employ the mother and father of the child at the studio at a salary of $20 a week each. Father Readon, a Long Beach churchman, suggested a Mrs. Hazel Keyes as the proper guardian of the child. The judge thought very well of this arrangement, except that he thought a disinterested party, in so far as the domestic troubles of the man and wife were concerned, should have charge of the child. The Court is now looking for such a one to become the mother of "Little Mary Sunshine."

This won't be a usual entry on this person -- more like a rant on how difficult it is to find the correct information!

Flora Finch is a silent movie favorite, the rail-thin foil to the immense John Bunny in Vitagraph films in the 1910s. Her career seemed to have faltered after his 1914 death, but she actually continued to work steadily in films for many years, ending up like so many in bit parts in the 1930s. She died unexpectedly in 1940 from a staph infection that would have been curable in an instant today.

I have the basic facts -- enough that I should be able to find out more about her. I know that her maiden name was Brooks/Brookes, I know she was born around 1868 in London or Sussex. I know she was married at some time to a Harold Marsh and had a daughter Veronica.

What I don't know is if her first name is indeed Flora (or Anna or June as she listed in the 1910 and 1920 US censuses), where the name Finch came from (was she married twice?), what happened to Harold, when Miss Finch came to the US -- more question marks than answers about the elusive Flora Finch! I have abused ancestry.com and freebmd.com to the point of exhaustion.

There are several Flora Brooks born in that era in that part of England -- the most promising is a Flora Brookes born May 1869 in St. Mary's, Strand, London. Her parents were Thomas and Charlotte; he was a publican. I eliminated the other Flora Brooks but finding them in the 1901 UK census (Flora Finch was in the US by then). I have spent days and weeks looking for the right Flora!

Even if this isn't the right Flora, I did have some great emails with a relative of this family -- the Hembrows -- after I discovered that Flora's mother Charlotte remarried after Thomas's death to her own stepfather. I think the only way to confirm or deny this family is to find the mother's death info to see if Flora Finch, Flora Marsh, or Veronica Finch-Marsh is listed at all. Even if she isn't, it still possible that this is the family -- I still have nothing else to tie them together.

Ah well, one day, it will all fall neatly into place -- or not!

From the review pages of Moving Picture World, here are a few of the fifty-eight films (mostly one reel) that show the week's best -- and worst -- offerings...

DARBY AND JOAN (Lubin), May 22 -- Miss May Buckley plays, as a lady's maid to a countess, the most interesting role in this costume picture. The times seems to be about 200 years ago in England. As a story, it is dramatic and interesting; but it will appeal more on account of the art with which it is acted, set and photographed. These scenes of old time English life in palace, cottage, village inn, and along the roadside hedges, are very good indeed. It makes a graceful, pleasing picture.

THE FORTUNES OF A COMPOSER (Vitagraph), May 21 -- Mr. Charles Kent, by very sincere acting, hold up, in this picture, a situation that otherwise would have failed to convince, would, perhaps, have had little effectiveness. As it is, up to the last scene, which is tremendously effective, the interest in the story's outcome, while always awake, is secondary to the picture's lesser qualities, its acting, lighting, scene making and photography, which all are of high order. The story of the old composer's loss of memory and his separation from his friends, and even of the homecoming to die in the empty theater where he had just heard his greatest opera rendered, are not impossible; but they are not made very real. There is plenty in this picture that does ring true and the scene where the composer dies is fine. The acting all through is excellent. Mrs. Julia Swayne Gordon plays the composer's wife; Edith Halleran and Norma Talmadge play his two daughters, and do excellent work.

THE PERIL (IMP), May 30 -- In making this picture of a melodramatic story, dealing with military life, the Imp people have heightened it convincing power by scenes taken at the Presidio, showing the fortress with its guns and the garrison. The story is a love match between a lieutenant (King Baggot) and the daughter of the colonel (Violet Horner). A Japanese spy is in the colonel's service as a servant (Mr. Daly). Because the lieutenant drinks, the colonel (Mr. Shay) objects to him. The lieutenant and the girl plan an elopement and , while attempting this, the young officer comes upon the spy. There is a very tensely conducted and convincing struggle in the colonel's library. The whole picture convinces. It is well acted, tense, and very well set and photographed. It is a picture that will be liked, a first class melodrama.

JIM'S WIFE (Edison), May 28 -- A typical melodrama with the usual villainy and heroics. It is a logging story, set in the Maine woods in winter time and has some extremely beautiful forest pictures, such as the falling pine cut on the hillside, the great log dragger making its way, with puffing steam and a long trail behind it, along the snowy forest road. The hero of the picture, by the way, is left bound and helpless one dark night in the path of this tremendous monster. His brave wife runs slipping along the icy road to save him. It is true that the audience laughed a wrong times, but it was a sophisticated audience.

THE SCALAWAG (Nestory), May 29 -- Miss Eugenia Forde and Mr. Jack Conway play the leading roles in this picture as husband and wife. The husband is the scalawag. The story of this band-man-father, whose wife left him, taking their baby, and of his death, finishes the picture with scenes that thrill and scenes that appeal to the emotions. The child, a little girl now grown to be about ten years old, gives a very pleasing touch. It is a chase picture; but as usual in Nestor pictures, freshness in handling, speediness and first-class camera work make it again something that is different.

THE BEAST AT BAY (Biograph), May 27 -- A melodramatic picture existing chiefly to show a race between an automobile and a locomotive. It is not quite up to Biograph's high standard; but it doesn't drag and is both humorous and exciting. At moments, it also gives a chance for first class Biograph acting. The camera work is serviceable; but it also isn't quite as good as usual.

A GOOD CATCH (Essanay), May 23 -- A farce comedy, a large part of which is of the run and knock over order. There are other things in it, but nothing that is really funny. The audience liked part of it and got some good laughs. The players are pleasing in themselves. The camera work is good.

THE REDEMPTION OF BEN FARLAND (Vitagraph), May 25 -- A ranch, story. Ben Farland, a young Westerner (played by Robert Burns) has a besetting sin -- drink. He works for the father of the girl he loves (played by Edna Fisher). Because she still believes that he can free himself, he makes another struggle and succeeds in keeping straight. The acting is of good quality; but the scenario isn't very dramatic. The camera work is only fair.

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Whenever an almost-forgotten silent film player is remembered with a biography, we film fans rejoice. When a forgotten silent film player is remembered with an EXCELLENT biography, we film fans want to yell it from the rooftops and mountaintops, and tell anyone who will listen. So listen -- Wendy Warwick White's new biography of Ford Sterling is one of the excellent ones, well worth picking up and inhaling.

Since the iconic image of the Keystone Kops has survived in American pop culture, Ford Sterling's name -- or at least his face -- should still spark interest even in those casually interested in film history. Newly-learned facts about Sterling jump off every page. His real name was George Ford Stich, Jr. He went to Notre Dame. He was in the circus and vaudeville. He was estranged from actress-wife Teddy Sampson more than he was with her. And the real surprises begin -- see how baseball and photography played large roles in Sterling's off-screen life.

The book is full of fantastic silent film plot and character descriptions, mostly long forgotten and funny. Ford Sterling played many great hilarious roles -- Keystone Chief Teheezal the most memorable -- but also some serious ones. As he aged out of slapstick, the roles naturally became more character-driven. He worked constantly through the 1920s and most of the 1930s in wide variety of surprising places and some great stars. His death in 1939 at the age of 57 came after multiple fights with pneumonia and poor health.

With its great photos and remarkable insight as to the hows and whys of slapstick comedy, this book is not to be missed.  

Ford Sterling, The Life and Films, by Wendy Warwick White, was published by McFarland and Company, 2007.

http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-2587-7

Here is another full page from my album:

They are:

(first row) Jean Acker, Hobart Bosworth, Barbara Montville, Lillian Gish and Alexander Gaden;

(second row) Florence LaBadie, Louise Glaum, Guy Coombs, Mae Hotely, and E.K. Lincoln.

Other stickers in the book are Florence Hackett, Glen White, and Billy Quirk.  Two loose ones from another series are Marguerite Clayton and Harry C. Myers.

The advertising on the back cover is great:      "A new craze is sweeping the country... it will soon embrace every city, town and hamlet.  It is the collecting of 'postage stamps' bearing the latest portraits of American motion picture actors and actresses.  Of course, these stamps are not actually good for postage, but otherwise they represent postage stamps..."

Have a good day, Kelly