Marion Davies

(click image to enlarge) Who? Marion Davies (January 3, 1897 - September 23, 1961) was an American actress best known as the longtime mistress of newspaper publisher, sometime politician, and dachshund lover William Randolph Hearst. Davies, born Marion Cecilea Douras, was one of the great comedic actresses of the silent era and into the 30's. She began as a chorus girl in New York, first in the pony follies and later in the Ziegfield Follies. Her stage name came when she and her family passed...Read Full Story

If you dig old-school movies, both silent and talkies, today's a good day to tune into TCM. The channel is running a 24-hour marathon of Marion Davies pictures, running up to their hour-long original documentary The True Story of Marion Davies . From an article at examiner.com: While today's Marion Davies schedule consists of predominately her later movies, the talkies from the 30's, TCM does wisely schedule two of her most beloved silent films in the prime time slot, with "Show People" on at...Read Full Story

Noted Actress Returns From European Visit: Marion Davies, well known actress, shown on board the S.S. Bremen as she arrived in New York today, September 27th, after an extended visit to Europe. Related: Dachshunds in Pop Culture: Marion DaviesRead Full Story

Marion Davies, ditzy blonde actress of the 1920s and 30s and long-time mistress of William Randolph Hearst, turned a childhood stutter into a small fortune with the talkies. To be invited to one of her famous masquerade parties was the equivalent to being nominated for an Oscar. In 1952 Marion donated $1.9 million dollars for the construction of a children's wing at the UCLA Medical Center. The project was an outgrowth of the Marion Davies Foundation, a charitable nonprofit corporation...Read Full Story

We went to view the delightful Marion Davis silent "The Patsy" (1928), but nearly had the evening ruined by its terribly intrusive new score. It was being shown at the National Film Theatre as part of the 'Birds Eye View Film Festival' which celebrates female film-makers; fortunately none of the organisers in the self-congratulatory introduction started pontificating about Bigelow being the first female director to win an Oscar. What they did do however was to commission someone called...Read Full Story