Betty Compson — Blue Book of the Screen (1923) 🇺🇸

Betty Compson has made many pictures. But the one her friends remember best never was filmed. She appeared in it as a little vagabond maid playing the violin in a Salt Lake theatre. This was when she was a little girl and the Compson funds were low.

She had been playing the violin in the orchestra of the theatre, until one day one of the acts failed to show up. She was given the opportunity to fill in. Her supply of suitable frocks for a public appearance being extremely low, there was a great scurrying around, until her mother hit on the happy suggestion that she appear in the attire of a street musician. This she did, but she was a very peaked and anxious little maid until the thunder of applause assured her that the audience liked her act.

This was the beginning of Miss Compson’s public career. Her success on her initial appearance prompted her to go into vaudeville in a violin-playing sketch. She managed to obtain an engagement playing on various circuits. The producers of film plays were impressed by her charm and magnetism, and in 1915 she accepted an offer from Al Christie to act in Universal comedies.

But one fact stood out very early in her career which largely influenced her entire career, and this was her determination to avoid “slap stick” fun making. She held to this determination, although it caused her much anxiety and appeared to retard progress. But again her opportunity came, this time in an offer to do some serials, which were more along the line she wanted to go. Next came a comedy with William Desmond.

Then she made the big hit in “The Miracle Man,” a Paramount-Artcraft picture. Three pictures — Betty Compson productions — were made, but the actress found the work too difficult for her young shoulders, and she returned to Paramount pictures as a star.

Since then she has played in “The Little Minister,” “The Green Temptation,” “To Have and To Hold” and “Kick In” with Bert Lytell, “The Rustle of Silk,” “The White Flower,” “The Bonded Woman,” “The Law and the Woman” and “At the End of the World.”

Miss Compson was born on March 18, 1897. She is five feet two inches tall and weighs 118 pounds. Her hair is brown and her eyes blue. Her education was obtained in the public schools of Salt Lake City. She and her mother, devoted chums, live in Hollywood.

—

Betty Compson with her pet Pom.

The beautiful Beverly Hills home of Betty Compson

Portrait by Donald Biddle Keyes • Los Angeles

Collection: The Blue Book of the Screen (1923)