Shirley Mason — Blue Book of the Screen (1923) 🇺🇸

As a child Shirley Mason had a fling at many of the stage plays that most of the film actresses had to wait several years to play on the screen.

Born in Brooklyn, N. Y., and privately tutored, Miss Mason started her stage career at the age of three. She first rose to fame when she created the role of Little Hal in The Squaw Man with William Faversham. This was followed by Rip Van Winkle and Passers By. Then she was given the leading child part in The Poor Little Rich Girl.

Miss Mason made her screen debut with the Edison company and later went to Paramount where she was cast in “Good-Bye Bill,” “The Rescuing Angel,” “The Final Close-Up” and “The Winning Girl.”

When Maurice Tourneur was casting “Treasure Island” he chose Miss Mason to play the little boy’s role. After the picture was completed she was signed by Fox under a long-term starring contract.

Under the Fox banner she was starred in “Her Elephant Man,” “Molly and I,” “Love’s Harvest,” “The Little Wanderer,” “Merely Mary Ann,” “The Girl of My Heart,” “The Flame of Youth,” “Ming Toy,” “The Lamplighter” and “Shirley of the Circus.”

Miss Mason is just five feet tall and weighs 94 pounds. Like her sister Viola Dana, Miss Mason has gray eyes and brown bobbed hair. She has another sister [Edna Flugrath] who is an actress on the stage in England.

In real life Miss Mason’s name is Mrs. Bernard Durning, her husband being a director for Fox, sometimes directing his talented wife.

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Collection: The Blue Book of the Screen (1923)