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THE VAMPIRE ( 1913 )
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To Kalem goes the dubious honor of making the first "vampire" picture, and to Alice Hollister ( the Mary Magdalene on page 20) goes the artificial palm for being the first of that evil brood. The typical screen vampire lived a painfully circumscribed life— while it lasted. She was not allowed to pat a dog, say a kind word to a child, or even notice one. She had to mess things up between the hero and his girl friend, knowing in advance ( if she had ever seen a vampire picture) that she was destined to lose him and to come to a bad end. A scene from the first of the series (about 1913), entitled, oddly enough, The Vampire, is shown above, with Miss Hollister and Harry Millard. Millard's pose is suggestive of Fred Allen's definition of a gentleman as "one who never strikes a woman with his hat on."
Greatest of all the Essanay stars, the Clark Gable of his day, was Francis X. Bushman. After an early and indifferently successful career as clerk, miner, professional bicyclist, sculptor's model, and actor, he won a Most Handsome Man contest sponsored by The Ladies World. On the strength of this he got a job with Essanay in 1911. The women fell for him in droves, and Essanay costarred him with Beverly Bayne (whom he later married) in a long series of two and three-reel society dramas. They are shown here in a typical scene, made in 1913. Bryant Wash» burn is the cynical young man at the left. Incidentally, take a long look at the extra girl at the bridge table, just visible to the left of Bushman. Her name is Gloria Swanson.