Constance Talmadge — Blue Book of the Screen (1923) 🇺🇸

Opportunity knocked on Constance Talmadge’s door loudly, several years ago, after a period of rather quiet studio life.

As the “mountain girl” in Griffith’s [D. W. Griffith] spectacular production of Intolerance, she became more than a tall, slender and pretty girl in her early teens who had the rare ability and charm to get her personality across the silver sheet in her first big part. In essence she merged into the very spirit of the mountain, symbolizing ageless, triumphant Youth. It is a part that will live when the magnificent Babylonian spectacle has passed into the oubliette of forgotten things, and it marked a beginning of great events for Constance.

With Mrs. Talmadge at the helm of her daughter’s career, it was smooth sailing thereafter.

Constance was born April 19, 1900, in Brooklyn, N. Y., and secured a portion of her education in Erasmus Hall.

She had her first, humble picture experience with Vitagraph.

From the start of the meteoric careers of the Talmadge girls, it was a game of follow the leader, Norma [Norma Talmadge], who is the eldest of the trio. It was she who set the pace, with her youngest sister, Constance, a close second. Natalie [Natalie Talmadge], after considerable urging by the other two girls, finally appeared in several of their productions, but forsook the kliegs gladly for a home life, when she became Mrs. Buster Keaton.

It was the East that gave Constance her try-out in films as “atmosphere,” and in bits. Later she came to Los Angeles, Mecca of all picture folks, and the West became not only her land of promise but of fulfillment. Following her overwhelming triumph in the Griffith super-production, Intolerance, she began a starring engagement for the Paramount-Famous Players combine, which included “Scandal,” “The Honeymoon,” “A Pair of Blue Stockings,” “Mrs. Leffingwell’s Boots,” “Romance and Arabella,” “Two Weeks,” “In Search of a Sinner” and “The Perfect Woman.”

Her gift for pantomime is certainly a supreme factor in her progression.

In the next phase of her work she produced such pictures as “The Temperamental Wife,” “Dangerous Business,” “Mama’s Affair,” one of New York’s recent stage successes; “Lessons in Love,” “Woman’s Place” and “Weddings Bells,” all of them adding to a popularity already at high mark.

Miss Talmadge is a vigorous outdoor girl. She loves activity and a romp. She is five feet, five inches tall, weighs 120 pounds, has golden hair and brown eyes.

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This picture shows the Constance Talmadge company preparing to make a scene for East is West.

Portrait by W. T. Seely • Los Angeles

Collection: The Blue Book of the Screen (1923)