Ford Sterling — Motography’s Gallery of Picture Players (1913) 🇺🇸

Ford Sterling got his start in life in La Crosse, Wis. It was in the year 1880 and the exact date, not that that matters much, though, for Ford forgets his birthday when it comes around anyhow, was November 3.

After Sterling attained the dignity of long trousers, La Crosse ceased to attract; the world was waiting for his conquering hand and he ran away, when he was seventeen, with the old Robeson circus. “Keno, the boy clown,” was the title he enjoyed and relinquished after one year, to play a small part in “Tangled Relatives” with George Whittier.

Stock, the 4 Mortons, The Rays, Otis Skinner, William Gillette, burlesque and vaudeville all knew Sterling up to 1912, when he met Mack Sennett and went with him to the Biograph company where he had his first film experience.

He stayed on until Mack Sennett stepped into the ranks of the Keystone company, then Sterling stepped also.

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Collection: Motography Magazine, April 1913