Edith Johnson — The Kodak Girl (1920) 🇺🇸

The distinction of being one of the most-photographed and advertised girls in the world belongs to Edith  Johnson.

by Fritzi Remont

Not that she achieved this result thru her short career in motion pictures. It was because the Eastman Kodak Company selected her from a number of aspirants to pose for their advertisements.

You have seen Edith Johnson in every sort of kodak pose from the time she was fourteen years old, even tho she “made up” to add a few years. She was born in Rochester — perhaps that is why the Eastman people thought home talent should have first chance. Thru her earnings, Miss Johnson was able to take a college course, and because of her much-photographed beauty, a small part was offered her with the Lubin Company, in Philadelphia.

However, William Duncan’s leading lady states emphatically that her reel life only began when she entered his company to do serials. While she had studied make-up and action with other companies, her opportunities were decidedly limited. Yet it was because Mr. Duncan chanced to enter a theater where the feature showed Edith Johnson playing leads, that she received a telephone invitation to come to the Vitagraph lot and talk over “a little business proposition.” The first days talk covered Edith’s screen experience and sounded her on the question of playing serials. No mention of salary had been made by Mr. Duncan, and contracts were not even referred to. The star and the girl who had played opposite Tyrone Power [Tyrone Power Sr.] in several productions parted pleasantly, but without even a “see you again soon” expression.

Within the second setting of the sun, the telephone summoned Miss Johnson again to the Vitagraph, and this time she was offered a salary much in advance of her previous earnings and asked to do one picture. She’s doing the third serial with the Scotch star now, the first having been “The Fight for Millions.” This was succeeded by “The Man of Might” and now “Smashing Barriers” is nearing completion.

Edith Johnson has been described as a blonde. That’s because she wears a golden wig defying detection. In repose, she is almost a twin to Beverly Bayne — and the girls were born in the same year, 1895. Miss Johnson is two inches taller than Mrs. Bushman, but of the same delicately rounded build. She has tenderly feminine brown eyes — eyes not to be associated with death-defying stunts.

Miss Johnson is blest with strong individuality, makes intimacies slowly and yet is charmingly entertaining on first acquaintance. She dresses far more like an Easterner than a California girl, always choosing grey, white or black frocks. We of the West, so accustomed to ruby lips and tinted cheeks on the streets, with frocks outbidding the flowers in brilliancy, find the quiet costuming and creamy pallor of Edith Johnson a distinct oddity. But if her furbelows are modest and almost colorless, the jewels of Edith Johnson reveal regal splendor. They are many and priceless.

“Did you ride before you went into pictures?” I asked, as we sat in her second-floor dressing-room. The little chamber assigned to Miss Johnson is made habitable by wall drapes of blue and white silkoline, the dressing-table and boxes being covered with the same material. At Vitagraph, the dressing-rooms were hurriedly put up, sans plaster and presenting a very uninviting appearance, so Edith got busy with tacks and hammer and has a sky-blue cage with three windows and to which very few are admitted; in fact —

“You see, I chose this end room because I can hear any one come up the stairs and walk along the dressing-room row — and they’re not admitted if I hear them coming first!” Miss Johnson laughed merrily. “One has so little time, and it is very disturbing to entertain visitors. The colored maid asked me today why I didn’t take the room next to mine, formerly occupied by Bessie Love. It’s much larger and has a better lighting system, but I know I should not be nearly so safe, and I would miss the view of the hills and sunsets possible to these end windows. “Oh, yes, you were asking about my riding? I never had been on a horse before I went into serials. The first day I rode I was not even given a chance to practice, but just sent off on what seemed a fiery steed to me. We rushed down a hillside until I hadn’t a hairpin left, but I clung on and made it safely. When I was to alight my knees shook so and I was so frightened they had to lift me off. But now! You should see me. I’m not afraid to take anything — broad jumps, streams, chasms or anything the picture requires.

“There is only one stunt in which I use a double — the swimming scene. I have a terrible fear of the water. Yes, I can swim, but the moment I find myself in water above the chest I almost lose consciousness with fear, so I know it would not be safe for me to attempt water stunts.”

“Did you ever have a real scare — something that would put crimps into your hair for a week?” “Yes, I had a horrid experience with a lion in the second serial. I was supposed to be in a cave with this beast and, while there were two trainers, and outside some men with iron bars, and lights were placed in front of the camera to confuse the animal, an unexpected danger arose. I was waiting for them to get it all ready for action — was sitting with a bit of embroidery in the back of the cave. They had wire fencing between the cameramen and the lion, and the trainer was endeavoring to make him go thru certain tricks, for this was not one of the old Selig lions usually hired by producing companies, but a wild one which proved to be very stubborn and excited to boot. “Suddenly there was a roar — and I just looked up in time to see the lion leaping. Whatever made me act so quickly, I could not tell you, but I ducked and put my head between my knees, and as the lion took the entire cave-length in one leap, I narrowly escaped having my head or shoulders badly clawed. Everybody was so frightened. The wire supports were torn down. Mr. Duncan had a piece of crooked pipe which he was trying to manipulate to keep the lion back, and finally the forest king made one big jump over a high obstruction and got out, followed by the trainers, who finally subdued him.

“But that was only the beginning of a bad day. I was supposed to face a snake as soon as I got to another end of the cave. For some reason, as I was led to turn around, and while the men were busy, I saw this snake right in front of me. He had his fangs, for the man who owned him said he was the only one of his snakes who could feed himself and he refused to take out the poison sacs.

“I hardly know what did happen, but Mr. Duncan was shouting orders to me, and I simply obeyed what he told me to do — and somehow he managed to grasp that hissing serpent by the neck, as he had been told to do by its owner, and I escaped snake-bite from a mad rattler. I can’t see anything pleasant in acting with animals, but I don’t mind being suspended over cliffs or rescued from almost impossible positions; in fact, I think serials are lots of fun,” finished Miss Johnson, very vivaciously.

Miss Johnson’s mother and her brother, Donald, aged seventeen, live with her in California. She is determined to put Donald thru college and is giving him every educational advantage even now. At present the little family is merely “existing” in an apartment, while house-hunting goes on merrily. There is a shortage in dwellings here, and Edith Johnson thinks she will be forced to buy, as “For Rent” signs are scarcer than oranges in the Arctic zone.

But meantime, she just “loves” housework, and when the housekeeper goes out. Edith swirls a broom happily and says it the best sort of exercise. Her greatest sorrow is that being a motion picture actress prevents her from cooking and cleaning. She loves to do the tilings many other women despise, thinks dishwashing is a rare treat after cavorting about on a horse all day and just wishes she could be a housewife.

But before such dreams come true, if ever they do, Edith Johnson is to do some straight dramas with William Duncan, for the Vitagraph Company has promised to give the star and his lovely lady an opportunity to show their talents in an entirely different line of work when they are thru “Smashing Barriers,” in stories probably written by James Oliver Curwood.

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A Rochester girl, Edith Johnson, became known the world over as “the Kodak Girl” Miss Johnson posed for Eastman Kodak advertising pictures from the time she was fourteen. She started her screen career with Lubin

Photograph right © by Evans [Nelson Evans], L. A. Photograph below by Hartsook, L. A.

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William Duncan, the Vitagraph serial star, saw Miss Johnson in the films playing with Tyrone Power. He immediately engaged her. Result — Miss Johnson is one of the best known of screen players

Photographs © by Evans, L. A

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Collection: Motion Picture Classic Magazine, February 1920