Leatrice Joy — Blue Book of the Screen (1923) 🇺🇸

One of the Southern beauties who now ornaments the screen is Leatrice Joy, all the way from her native city of New Orleans. Her black hair, sparkling brown eyes and grace are very familiar to picture fans.

Most of Leatrice’s childhood days were spent in “dressing up” and playing “theater.” When school days arrived and she was sent to Sacred Heart Academy. Leatrice became the center of the little school plays.

But just at this time luck favored Leatrice. A local company was formed to produce motion pictures in New Orleans and the company, which was known as the Nola Films, advertised for a leading woman. Leatrice had had no professional experience, but along with about a hundred other ambitious girls, applied for the job. And she, out of the hundred, was selected.

The South knew nothing of motion picture people or the making of motion pictures. One lost caste by going into theatrical work. Exactly what happened to Leatrice. Her friends urged her to abandon the work and her family was even more urgent. But she insisted that she preferred the work to going to teas and dances and stuck it out in spite of all opposition. The Nola Film Company failed, but as far as Leatrice was concerned it had served its purpose. At her urging the family sold their home and moved to Wilkes-Barre, Pa., where Leatrice became leading woman for the Black Diamond-Paramount comedies that were produced there. The war had claimed her brother, and her father was in a sanitarium at this time.

From Wilkes-Barre the family journeyed to New York and thence to California. There was one six months’ period of playing in stage stock in San Diego, Cal. That has been Leatrice’s only legitimate stage experience.

New York, and later California, had their moments of keen disappointment. Every day Leatrice would make the rounds of the studios in search of work. Her persistence finally won out and she received her chance in Bunty Pulls the Strings. She made good and other pictures followed. She was then signed by Paramount. Her first picture was the Cecil B. De Mille [Cecil B. DeMille] production, Saturday Night. Then came “The Bachelor Daddy,” Manslaughter, “The Man Who Saw Tomorrow” and Java Head.

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Portrait by Evans • Los Angeles

Collection: The Blue Book of the Screen (1923)