Monte Blue — Blue Book of the Screen (1923) 🇺🇸

Back in 1914 a little war was started in Europe, which rumbled on into the greatest struggle that the world has ever known. The same year in Hollywood a man started a struggle for screen success which has rolled on and on, until today he is a star.

He is Monte Blue, who entered D. W. Griffith’s studio as a day laborer at $1.50 a day. Now he earns better than a hundred times that much every day. The story of Monte’s success reads like a romantic fairy story, but it is no fantasy of the mind; it is a cold-fact story of struggle, work and study.

It was in Indianapolis that Monte Blue was born, on the 11th day of January, “just a few years ago.” He got his early education at the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphan Home at Knightstown, Indiana. He worked his way through high school and Purdue University.

Then the wanderlust got him and he traveled over the United States, Europe, the tropics, Canada and Mexico as a soldier of fortune in the role of a sailor, soldier, lumberjack, cowpuncher, miner, railroader and even went into industrial and commercial lines. At this time he was seeking his true vocation. So far none had appealed to him. During these years he continued his reading and studies. In 1913 he took notice of the motion picture industry. He was unable to obtain work in the pictures, but managed to get a job as ditch digger at $1.50 per day, and thus he started.

Being more or less of a student and a public speaker, he used to address the other laborers from a soapbox. One day he was waxing hot in a discussion about capital and labor, when he noticed one of his audience looking off behind him and smiling. Turning, he was surprised to see Mr. Griffith absorbed in his discussion.

A few weeks later an actor “fell down” as a stump speaker in a part where he was supposed to urge a crowd to cheers. Griffith became impatient, and remembering the lad who had made the speech to the studio gang, said to his assistant: “Find that tall young fellow that was talking to the boys the other noon and bring him here.” Monte was brought before the great director. “How would you like to play a little part?” Griffith asked. Monte realized his time had come. The assistant made him up and put him on the box.

Monte’s best-known characterization to date is that as Danton in Orphans of the Storm.

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Monte Blue is one of the few artists of make-up on the screen. He is a young leading man, but his characterization of Danton in Orphans of the Storm will long be remembered.

Portrait by Floyd • New York

Collection: The Blue Book of the Screen (1923)