Betty Bronson — Biographical Sketch (1927) 🇺🇸

Betty Bronson’s advent to motion pictures was not just the pure streak of luck to which some people have attributed it. While it is true that she was selected from a large number of competitors as just the type suitable for the rôle of Peter Pan. she had struggled along in pictures for a year or so, and her foundation for picture work was laid for four years before she got her first real opportunity.

When she was ten years old and a school girl in Jersey she started thinking of the stage and screen, and she was working to that end continuously, until at fourteen she landed in the Paramount studios in Long Island City. At fourteen she left St. Vincent’s Academy in Newark, where she studied music and French. Then she studied Russian Ballet under Fokine in New York with the idea that a knowledge of dancing might give her an opportunity in motion pictures.

Following this she applied for work at the Paramount Studio in Long Island City, and was given a small bit in “Anna Ascends,” with Alice Brady. She worked only intermittently in the East, and then decided to go to Hollywood accompanied by her mother. Her selection for the rôle of Peter Pan followed, and was good fortune in that she had for her competitors many of the leading stage and screen players. None of them, however, was considered as well adapted for the part as the little fifteen-year-old girl.

Miss Bronson has appeared in a number of pictures since she scored her tremendous success in the Herbert Brenon production. Among these were: “Are Parents People?” “Not So Long Ago,” “The Golden Princess,” “A Kiss for Cinderella,” “The Cat’s Pajamas,” “Everybody’s Acting,” “Paradise for Two,” and “Ritzy.”

Betty takes her screen work more seriously than ever now. She is a student of the drama. When she is not swimming or dancing for exercise in her off hours she devotes much of her time to reading, and when she reads it is usually a book on plays. She is a slightly built Miss, weighing only one hundred pounds, and has blue eyes and brown hair. She was born in Trenton, N. J.

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Collection: Motion Picture News, October 1927 (Booking Guide and Studio Directory)