STAR OF SILENT DAYS

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 13773, 16 October 1942, Page 3

STAR OF SILENT DAYS

FAMOUS LILLIAN' GISH SECRET ROMANCE Beloved star of the Silent Screen, Lillian Gish, is believed to have married actor Louis Calhern with whom she has been appearing on tour in stage show “Life With Father.” No details are yet to hand of the secret wedding, says a Sydney message.

The Gish sisters, Lillian and Dorothy, were both leading ladies in the old days of the “flicks,” and their fans numbered millions. They starred together in the famous film epic, “Orphans of the Storm,” and Lillian caused a sensation by her death-defying exploits in “Way Down East,” in which she had to battle against storm and flood and make a perilous passage across the broken ice floes of a frozen river. Photographic faking was not so advanced in those days and it is a fact that in her early pictures Lillian Gish often risked her life for the sake of the story. Trained for the stage, Lillian took up film work under the direction of the great maestro D. W. Griffith, who named her the outstanding star of the screen.

She took the principal role in “The Birth of a Nation” and scored further successes in “Broken Blossoms,” “The Scarlet Letter,” and “La Boheme,” in which she appeared with John Gilbert. Later she deserted the screen and went back to the stage, returning only for “One Romantic Night” (United Artists) in 1930 and “His Double Life” (Paramount) in 1934. That was her last picture.

She has won further honours on the stage since, “Life With Father” having been a big hit in New York and an equal success on tour. Lillian Gish was born in Ohio 46 years ago. She was considered to be one of the loveliest women ever to adorn the silent screen and to possess what was described as a “cathedrallike” beauty.