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Pearl White

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Pearl Fay White, (born March 4, 1889, Green Ridge, Missouri - died August 4, 1938, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France) was a star of silent film.

File:PearlWhite.jpg
Pearl White

Early life

The daughter of a poor Missouri farmer, Pearl White grew up in Springfield, where in high school she became interested in acting and participated in a local theatre company. At age 18, she joined the Trousedale Stock Company as a part-time performer, working the evening shows while keeping her day job to help support her family. Before long she was able to join the company full time, touring with the group throughout the American Midwest. In 1907 she married fellow actor Victor Sutherland (1889-1968), but they soon separated and eventually divorced.

Career Rise

In 1910, Pearl White was offered a chance by Pathé Frères to perform in The Girl From Arizona, the French company's first American film produced at their new studio in Bound Brook, New Jersey. She then worked at Lubin Studios and several other of the independents until the Crystal Film Company in Manhattan, gave her top billing in numerous short films.

Having gained some degree of public recognition, in 1914 the Pathé director Louis J. Gasnier (1875-1963) offered Pearl White the starring role in The Perils of Pauline, a film based on a story by playwright, Charles W. Goddard (1879-1951). The film was not about a helpless woman, but one where "Pauline" was the central character in a story involving considerable action, to which the athletic and unblinking Pearl White proved ideally suited.

The Perils of Pauline consisted of twenty episodes that enlarged upon the heroine-in-jeopardy cliffhanger style of film. An enormous box-office success, it made Pearl White a major celebrity and she was soon earning the astronomical sum of $3,000 a week. She followed this major achievement with an even bigger box-office winner, The Exploits of Elaine.

While flying airplanes, racing cars, swimming across rivers, and other assorted feats, she did four more successful serials based on the same theme. For these action-packed films, Pearl White did much of her own dangerous stunt work and as a result she suffered a number of injuries that forced her to use a stunt double in her later films.

Fame

By 1919, Pearl White was a wealthy young woman when she met and married World War I veteran Major Wallace McCutcheon, Jr. (1880-1928), who had become an actor, director and cinematographer. However, this marriage also did not last and they divorced in 1921. Two years later White made her last American film.

Influenced by the French friends she made while working for Pathé, and as one who appreciated different cultures, Pearl White was drawn to the gathering of artistic genius in the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris, France. While living there, she made her last film for her friend, the Belgian-born director Edward José (1880-1930), who had directed her in several serials. Silent films could be made in any country, and because White was a highly recognizable star worldwide, she was offered many roles in France but chose to perform live on stage in a Montmartre production called, "Tu Perds la Boule" (You Lost the Ball). Enjoying this type of performance, in 1925 she accepted an offer to star with comedian Max Wall in the "London Review" at the Lyceum Theatre in London.

Pearl White's childhood poverty made her frugal with money. A shrewd businesswoman, she invested in a successful Parisian nightclub, a Biarritz resort hotel/casino, plus a profitable stable of thoroughbred race horses. Living in a fashionable town house in the exclusive Parisian suburb of Passy, she also owned a villa in Rambouillet.

The former 'poor girl' from Missouri hobnobbed with the elite of European society, and in time became involved with Greek businessman, Theodore Cossika, who shared her interest in travel. Together they acquired a home near Cairo, Egypt and White further expanded her cultural horizons by touring with her companion throughout the Middle East and the Orient.

Alcoholism

Over the years, White's alcohol use increased substantially, possibly in an attempt to numb the chronic pain from the injuries resulting from her film stunts. In 1933 she had to be hospitalized, which led to an addiction to the drugs used to lessen her suffering. Her last few years were spent in a painful alcoholic haze, and she died from cirrhosis of the liver at age 49 in the American Hospital in the Paris suburb of Neuilly. She was buried in the Cimetière de Passy.

Pearl White's place in film history is seen as a benchmark in the evolution of both cinema genres and the role of women. The Perils of Pauline is only known to exist in a reduced 9-reel version released in Europe in 1916, but The Exploits of Elaine still exists and has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. All her films were made at East Coast studios, and it is believed White never visited Hollywood, which would honor her contributions to the film industry with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Selected filmography:

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