Louise Dresser — An Important Discovery (1925) 🇺🇸

To Pauline Frederick does the screen owe the discovery of Louise Dresser.

And it may prove to be a very important one. She is one of the few among the film’s maturer women who has succeeded in making mothers young and attractive, as well as entirely lovable.

There should really be no necessity for introducing Miss Dresser. She is known almost everywhere that vaudeville and musical comedy have been heard of. For years she sang and pattered and dialogued her way to fame. She was scarcely sixteen when she started, and her début was made more than a few seasons ago. She played leads to nearly every prominent comedian, was co-starred with De Wolfe Hopper, and others, and introduced a number of popular songs, including On the Banks of the Wabash.

About two years ago she came to California because her mother was seriously ill. She hadn’t settled on remaining; in fact, she soon expected to go back into a show. But one thing after another interfered.

All the time Miss Frederick had been talking pictures to her. Most of the talk was quite unavailing. Miss Dresser was certain that pictures offered her no career because so much of her popularity had been dependent on her singing.

“Then, one day, Polly told me,” Miss Dresser recounted, “‘Louise, you simply must act in my next picture, “The Glory of Clementina.” I’ve got a lovely part for you; my director wants you; you simply can’t refuse, and you’ve got to start right now.’

“Once I had accepted, something about acting without an audience fascinated me. But I didn’t let this fascination run away with me. I’m still skeptical.”

The idea is now prevailing in the films that Miss Dresser is just about ready to step out into some really big rôle. She has done “decorative” parts, as she calls them, of society characters, notably in “Salomy Jane,” and “The City That Never Sleeps.”

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Photo by: Eugene Robert Richee

Collection: Picture Play Magazine, March 1925