Birthday:
09-17-1902
Deathday:
01-14-1994 (91 years)
Birthplace:
Bar Harbor, Maine, USA
Biography
Esther Ralston (September 17th, 1902- January 14th, 1994) was an American silent film star.
She began her career as a child actress in a family vaudeville act named "The Ralston Family with Baby Esther, America's Youngest Juliet". She then went on to appear in a few small silent film roles, including one alongside her brother in the 1920 film adaptation of Huckleberry Finn. Ralston gained attention as Mrs. Darling in the 1924 film adaptation of Peter Pan.
Her most well known sound picture was To the Last Man in 1933.
She began her career as a child actress in a family vaudeville act named "The Ralston Family with Baby Esther, America's Youngest Juliet". She then went on to appear in a few small silent film roles, including one alongside her brother in the 1920 film adaptation of Huckleberry Finn. Ralston gained attention as Mrs. Darling in the 1924 film adaptation of Peter Pan.
Her most well known sound picture was To the Last Man in 1933.
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The Prisoner
Act like Marie
event1923
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While traveling in Europe Philip Quentin encounters his former sweetheart, Dorothy Garrison, and finds that she is now engaged to Prince Ugo Ravorelli, whom Philip recognizes as the man wanted for a murder in Brazil.
The Blind Goddess
Act like Moira Devens
event1926
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Even though Big Bill Devens is a powerful politician, he still sticks to his working man's roots. His wife walked out on him 20 years before and his daughter, Moira, believes she is dead. Moira falls in love with Hugh Dillon, a handsome young attorney, and Devens gets him a job in the district attorney's office. One night, Devens' wife, now an old, decrepit woman known as Aileen Clayton, returns to ask forgiveness.
The Trouble With Wives
Act like Dagmar
event1925
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William Hyatt (Tom Moore) runs an exclusive shoe store, and his happy marriage to Grace (Florence Vidor) is nearly derailed by his well-meaning, but hopelessly gauche pal, Al Hennessy (Sterling). Dagmar, a Parisian shoe designer (Esther Ralston) has come to town to meet with Hyatt and Hennessy, and Hennessy describes the situation to Grace in the worst possible manner, convincing her that her husband is having an affair.
The Heart Buster
Act like Rose Hillyer
event1924
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Rose Hillyer, the sweetheart of cowboy Tod Walton, is about to marry Edward Gordon a slick con-man and a bigamist. Tod has proof of Gordon's bad deeds but it is late in arriving and he has to resort to many tricks to keep the marriage from happening... including kidnapping the minister.
The Butterfly Man
Act like (uncredited)
event1920
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Sedgewick Blynn is determined to marry a rich woman. One night he saves a child from a fire. Bessie Morgan, an heiress charmed by his act of heroism, promises to marry him, but at the last minute her father forbids it. Soon after, Blynn receives a telegram informing him of the death of his mother, and he realizes that he has wasted his life.
Crossing Trails
Act like Helen Stratton
event1921
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Helen, wrongly suspected of murder, escapes to the refuge of Jim's Ranch, where love soon blooms.
Sadie McKee
Act like Dolly
event1934 star_border 7
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A maid has romances with a two-timer, a boozing millionaire and the master of the house.
Jack O'Clubs
event1924
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A tough policeman who patrols the city's worst beat loses his nerve when he believes he has hurt the girl he loves.
The Best People
Act like Alice O'Neil
event1925
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Bertie and Marian Lenox are children of a wealthy family, and their mother intends that they marry "within their class". They, however, have different plans--Bertie is in love with chorus girl Sally O'Neil and Marian loves Henry Morgan, the family chauffeur. The family finds out about the impending marriages and determines to stop them. Complications ensue.
Mister Dynamite
Act like Charmian Dvorjak
event1935 star_border 6
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A gambler hires a detective to investigate when a murder is committed in his casino.
Ten Modern Commandments
Act like Kitty O'Day
event1927
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A chorus girl falls in love with a budding composer.
The Marriage Circle
Act like Miss Hofer
event1924 star_border 6.4
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An unhappily married couple moves to Vienna, where the wife’s married best friend lives, and soon, sparks fly between the wife and the best friend’s husband.
Pure and Simple
event1922
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Pure and Simple is a 1922 silent film
Letter of Introduction
Act like Mrs. Sinclair (uncredited)
event1938 star_border 5.9
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An aging actor, trying to make a comeback on Broadway, is surprised when his estranged daughter shows up. It seems that she is an actress and is also trying to make it on Broadway. He tries to re-establish his relationship with her while also trying to hide the fact that she is his daughter from the press.
Peter Pan
Act like Mrs. Darling
event1924 star_border 7
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Peter Pan enters the nursery of the Darling children and, with the help of fairy dust, leads them off to Never Never Land, where they meet the nefarious Captain Hook.
Lonely Wives
Act like Madeline Smith
event1931 star_border 4.7
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A highly respectable lawyer becomes a sexual animal after working hours; His live-in mother-in-law tries to keep him in line. When an actor-impersonator comes to see him, the two switch lives.
The Lone Hand
event1922
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Wyoming cattleman Laramie Lad takes a vacation by visiting an old friend who runs a summer resort, but before he can relax, he meets Jane Sheridan and her father, Al Sheridan, who are fighting off a group of swindlers who want the old man's mining property.
Blinky
Act like Mary Lou Kileen
event1923
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Blinky, the bespectacled son of Col. "Raw Meat" Islip, is scorned by his fellow cavalrymen stationed on the Mexican border because his previous military experience was as a Boy Scout.
Rome Express
Act like Asta Marvelle
event1932 star_border 6.2
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The theft of a famous painting leads to murder and many suspects on a plush train speeding from Paris to Rome.
By Candlelight
Act like Baroness von Ballin
event1933 star_border 5.8
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A beautiful woman mistakes a Prince's butler for the Prince.
The Marines Are Coming
Act like Dorothy Manning
event1934 star_border 4.5
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Expelled from his lieutenancy in the Marine Corps, Bill Traylor reenlists as a private. His unit is sent to a Latin American country where a rebel leader called The Torch promotes insurrection. There Traylor encounters again Captain Benton, the man responsible for his disgrace and his rival for the love of a girl.
To the Last Man
Act like Ellen Colby
event1933 star_border 5.9
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In Kentucky just after the Civil War, the Hayden-Colby feud leads to Jed Colby being sent to prison for 15 years for murder. The Haydens head for Nevada and when Colby gets out of prison he heads there also seeking revenge. The head of the Hayden family tries to avoid more killing but the inevitable showdown has to occur, complicated by Lynn Hayden and Ellen Colby's plans to marry.
Shadows of the Orient
Act like Viola Avery
event1935 star_border 5
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A classic "B" featurette about "smugglin' in Chinamen for $300 a load"
Womanhandled
Act like Molly Martin
event1925 star_border 7
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Bill Dana, a New York City playboy, can't resist the flaming flappers and red-hot mamas along the Great White Way, so he decides to head out west to his uncle's ranch in Wind River, Texas. But the gold-diggers and their relatives follow him.
Ladies Crave Excitement
Act like Miss Winkler
event1935 star_border 4.5
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Bored rich girl hooks up with news photographer, gets caught up in his adventures.
Streamline Express
Act like Elaine Vincent
event1935 star_border 4.7
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A disparate group of people meet as passengers on a superspeed train crossing the U.S. Aboard are a seductive blackmailer and the stage director he intends to frame, a woman chasing her husband who is running away with the blackmail victim, and the stage director's feisty leading lady.
We're in the Legion Now
Act like Louise Rillette
event1936 star_border 4
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Two petty gangsters trying to elude their enemies join the French Foreign Legion.
Clara Bow: Discovering the It Girl
Act like Self (archive footage)
event1999 star_border 7.7
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Clara Bow: Discovering the 'It' Girl features scenes from 25 of her films, as well as interviews with family members and acquaintances.
Jungle Menace
Act like Valerie Shields
event1937 star_border 5
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Mystery and adventure, surrounding a stolen rubber harvest.
The Mysterious Pilot
Act like Vivian McNain
event1937
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Jim Dorn endeavors to protect Jean McNain from a man she knows has committed a murder, Carter Snowden
Slander House
Act like Ruth De Milo
event1938 star_border 4
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Owner of salon catering to fat society dames must deal with a dull fiance, a romantic stranger, the jealous blond who loves him, and the lecherous husband of a client.
$50,000 Reward
Act like Carolyn Jordan
event1924 star_border 5
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Tex Sherwood has just come into possession of a valuable piece of land that will be irrigated by a new dam. Banker Holman knowing the deed must be registered the next day, offers a $50,000 reward for Tex's capture.
Remembrance
Act like Beatrice
event1922
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Although he graduated from that time-worn university, the college of hard knocks, the tireless efforts of John P. Grout have paid off. He owns a number of department stores and his wife and children are well provided for. However, his family is completely ungrateful and takes him -- and his money -- for granted. Grout's attempts to keep them all happy are driving him to bankruptcy and he eventually becomes seriously ill. Eventually his wife and kids come to realize how badly they've treated Pops.....
Beggar on Horseback
Act like Cynthia Mason
event1925 star_border 6
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Neil McRae, an impoverished composer, loves Cynthia Mason, but, fearing poverty, proposes to wealthy Gladys Cady. Can he compose himself and find the courage to seek love over comfort?
Strange Wives
Act like Olga
event1934
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When a young man marries a Russian girl, he finds that he has "married" her entire family.
Reunion
Act like Janet Fair
event1936
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Newspapers around the world proclaim the birth in Moosetown, Canada of the 3,000th baby brought into the world by the doctor, John Luke, known for delivering the famous Wyatt quintuplets. To honor the doctor on his retirement and to publicize their town, the Moosetown chamber of commerce decides to hold a reunion of all the babies delivered by the doctor, some of whom have become famous.
Oliver Twist
Act like Rose Maylie
event1922 star_border 6.3
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Oliver's mother, a penniless outcast, died giving birth to him. As a young boy Oliver is brought up in a workhouse, later apprenticed to an uncaring undertaker, and eventually is taken in by a gang of thieves who befriend him for their own purposes. All the while, there are secrets from Oliver's family history waiting to come to light. Written by Snow Leopard
San Francisco Docks
Act like Frances March
event1940 star_border 6
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Longshoreman Johnny Barnes is in love with Kitty Tracy, barmaid at her father's waterfront saloon, and he beats up Cassidy, a crooked politician who has been annoying her. Cassidy is murdered that night and Johnny is jailed for the crime. Kitty, her father Andy Tracy, and waterfront-priest Father Cameron believe Johnny is innocent but all evidence points to his guilt.
Old Ironsides
Act like Esther
event1926 star_border 6.2
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An embellished account of the 1803 expedition by famed frigate U.S.S. Constitution--a.k.a. "Old Ironsides"--against the Barbary pirates then terrorizing American shipping, focusing on the crew and passengers of a fictional merchant ship, The Esther, who fall afoul of the same pirates and thus become involved with the Constitution's mission.
A Kiss for Cinderella
Act like Fairy Godmother
event1925 star_border 5
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An adaption of a novel by Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie.
The Little French Girl
Act like Toppie Westmacott
event1925
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Madame Vervier, a sophisticated woman, sends her daughter Alix to live with Owen Bradley's parents in London.
The Prodigal
Act like Antonia Farraday
event1931 star_border 3.3
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An aspiring singer, who has fallen on hard times and is now living as a hobo, returns to his wealthy southern family.
Together We Live
Act like Jenny
event1935
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A ham-handed cautionary fable against communism, the film concerns a group of Civil War veterans who are appalled by the burgeoning radical movement in America.
After the Ball
Act like Elissa Strange
event1932
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The wife of a diplomat in Geneva pretends to be a maid in order to continue her flirting with a handsome young courier.
The Silent Feminists: America's First Women Directors
Act like Herself
event1993 star_border 1
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A documentary exploring the origins of the pioneers of women directors during the silent era.
Huckleberry Finn
Act like Mary Jane Wilks
event1920 star_border 5.8
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Huckleberry Finn, a rambuctious boy adventurer chafing under the bonds of civilization, escapes his humdrum world and his selfish, plotting father by sailing a raft down the Mississippi River. Accompanying him is Jim, a slave running away from being sold. Together the two strike a bond of friendship that takes them through harrowing events and thrilling adventures.
Hollywood Boulevard
Act like Flora Moore
event1936 star_border 2.5
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With a full Hollywood background and settings but more an expose of scandal-and-gossip magazines of the era, has-been actor John Blakeford agrees to write his memoirs for magazine-publisher Jordan Winston. When Blakeford's daughter, Patricia, ask him to desist for the sake of his ex-wife, Carlotta Blakeford, he attempts to break his contract with Winston.
The Girl from Mandalay
Act like Mary Trevor
event1936 star_border 3
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John Foster and Kenneth Grainger are a couple of Englishmen stationed at a teak wood post. When Foster's fiancée, Mary Trevor, writes him that their engagement is off, he goes off to Mandalay.
Jungle Terror
Act like Valarie Shields
event1946
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Re-edited feature film version of the 1937 serial, Jungle Menace.
The Victor
Act like Chewing gum baron's daughter
event1923
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In order to save his family from financial ruin, an English aristocrat agrees to come to America and marry the daughter of a wealthy businessman. Once there he can't bring himself to do it.....
The Kid
Act like Extra in Heaven Scene (uncredited)
event1921 star_border 8.2
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A tramp cares for a boy after he's abandoned as a newborn by his mother. Later the mother has a change of heart and aches to be reunited with her son.
Forced Landing
Act like Ruby Anatole
event1935
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In this high-flying mystery set aboard a cross-country flight to New York, some of the passengers are kidnappers who are trying to locate a hidden cache of loot. Unfortunately, something goes wrong during the trip and the pilots must land the plane in the Arizona desert during a terrible storm. There all of the passengers and crew find cramped accommodations in a lonely farmhouse where murder, mystery and mayhem occur.
Tin Pan Alley
Act like Nora Bayes
event1940 star_border 5
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Songwriters Calhoun and Harrigan get Katie and Lily Blane to introduce a new one. Lily goes to England, and Katy joins her after the boys give a new song to Nora Bayes. All are reunited when the boys, now in the army, show up in England.
The Sawdust Paradise
Act like Hallie
event1928
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She dances- The Dance of Death. She Sings- The song of Life. Scintillating, Fascinating, Desirable, Swifty She Weaves the Web of Destruction and then Regeneration. A Drama of Lights and Shadows.
The Mighty
Act like Louise Patterson
event1929 star_border 5
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In this melodrama set during WWI, a gangster joins the army and is promoted to major. He then returns from war torn Europe to tell a family that their beloved son had died in his arms during a battle. The major then falls in love with the late soldier's sister and decides to accept a position in town as the new police commissioner.
The Spy Ring
Act like Jean Bruce (as Jane Carleton)
event1938 star_border 5
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Two American-army officers are working on a new type of machine-gun for anti-aircraft warfare, when one of them is murdered. The other vows to get the spies that are after the invention and avenge his friend's death.
Children of Divorce
Act like Jean Waddington
event1927 star_border 5.9
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A young flapper tricks her childhood sweetheart into marrying her. He really loves another woman, but didn't marry her for fear the marriage would end in divorce, like his parents'. Complications ensue.
The American Venus
Act like Mary Gray
event1926
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A lost film - Mary Gray, whose father manufactures cold cream, is engaged to sappy Horace Niles, the son of Hugo Niles, the elder Gray's most competitive rival in the cosmetics business. Chip Armstrong, a hot-shot public relations man, quits the employ of Hugo Niles and goes to work for Gray, persuading Mary to enter the Miss America contest at Atlantic City, with the intention of using her to endorse her father's cold cream should she win. Mary breaks her engagement with Horace. When it appears that she will win the contest, Hugo lures her home on the pretext that her father is ill, and she misses the contest. Chip and Mary return to Atlantic City, discovering that the new Miss America has told the world that she owes all her success to Gray's cold cream. On this note, Chip and Mary decide to get married.
The Spotlight
Act like Lizzie Stokes / Olga Rostova
event1927
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Lizzie Stokes, an obscure and colorless actress, is elevated to stardom through publicity and better coaching from Daniel Hoffman, a theatrical producer. As Olga Rostova, an exotic Russian, she meets Norman Brooke, whose infatuation turns to love. Hoffman suggests that Norman could never care for Lizzie and proves his point. Heartbroken, Lizzie decides to see no more of him. On closing night, when he proposes to her in her dressing room and she refuses, Norman declares he must believe all the lurid details of her past; in desperation, she bares her true identity, only to find it is not her glamorous image but rather her real self that he loves.
The Lucky Devil
Act like Doris McDee
event1925 star_border 6.5
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Richard Dix, a displayer in a department store, enters a raffle and wins the so-called 'hoodoo' bad-luck automobile formerly owned by the store owner's son, a soul seemingly always in trouble with cops and women. Well, suddenly Dix begins to have the same problem, only he also gets mixed up in the life of Esther Ralston and her Aunt Edna May Oliver. Hilarious misunderstandings and undertakings become the fodder for the day!
Black Beauty
Act like Leila Lambert
event1933
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Black Beauty is being trained to run in the steeplechase race, upon which the Cameron family has staked its fortune. However, the horse is injured racing for a doctor when its owner is hurt, and it looks like it won't recover in time to compete in the race.
As Good as Married
Act like Miss Danforth
event1937 star_border 7
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When a boss proposes marriage to his secretary, she discovers that the arrangement is solely for tax purposes.
Betrayal
Act like Vroni
event1929
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André Frey, a bohemian artist, woos and wins a rustic Swiss maid, promising to return to her after a visit to the city. The girl, Vroni, finds herself pregnant and is forced by her father to marry Poldi Moser, the mayor of the small Swiss town. Moser and Vroni are happy together, and two sons are born to them. André returns to the village periodically and finally asks Vroni to go away with him. She refuses, and he writes her an angry note. That evening, Vroni and André are involved in a toboggan accident; Vroni is killed outright, and André is fatally injured. Moser finds André's note and goes to him, demanding of the dying man to know which of the boys is in fact André's child. Thinking to protect his own son, André informs Moser that Moser's own son is his (André's) son. Moser swears vengeance on the child but relents when he realizes that he loves both boys equally.
Wolves of the North
Act like Madge Chester
event1924
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Serialized adventures of fur trappers in the Pacific Northwest, as they fight Indians, the elements and each other.
Romance in the Rain
Act like Gwen de la Rue
event1934
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The publisher of a tabloid-type romance magazine decides to get some publicity by sponsoring a "Cinderella and Prince Charming" contest.
The Case of Lena Smith
event1929 star_border 5.2
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A peasant girl goes to great lengths to protect her child in 19th century Vienna. The film is considered lost, and only four minutes of footage are known to remain.
Figures Don't Lie
Act like Janet Wells
event1927
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Figures Don't Lie is a showcase for the physical charms of lovely Esther Ralston, who in one scene proves the accuracy of the title by donning a fetching one-piece bathing suit. The main story concerns wise-guy insurance salesman Richard Arlen, who through a combination of hard work and sheer gall lands a job as sales manager. But he can't land heroine Ralston, who has remained cool to his charms ever since he tried to make a play for her on the street. A lost film.
Half a Bride
Act like Patience Winslow
event1928 star_border 6
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Patience Winslow is an impulsive heiress who marries a much-older man whom she really doesn't love. While honeymooning on her yacht without her new husband, Patience is marooned on a desert island with handsome Captain Edmunds. Her head full of notions that she's gleaned from radio dramas and pulp novels, Patience demands that she and Edmunds enter into an in-name-only marriage, observing the responsibilities and proprieties of matrimony without the sexual entanglements. Complications naturally arise.
Fashions for Women
Act like Céleste de Givray and Lola Dauvry
event1927 star_border 2.5
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Celeste de Givray is renowned throughout Europe as the most beautiful and best-dressed model in all Paris. Her press agent DuPont concocts an attention-getting publicity scheme by having Celeste undergo cosmetic surgery, then unveiling her "new" face at a posh fashion show. But thanks to a delay in the surgery, DuPont is forced to hired a substitute for Celeste, a look-alike American girl named Lulu Dooley
The Rivals
event1923
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A comedy short starring Slim Summerville and Bobby Dunn featuring an early appearance by Esther Ralston.
The Wheel of Life
Act like Ruth Dangan
event1929
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British officer Capt. Leslie Yeullat is at present on leave in London. Falling in love with Ruth Dangan, the wife of his commanding officer, Yeullat does the gentlemanly thing by suppressing his own emotions for the sake of the Regiment. He goes so far as to resign from his commission and returns to India as a civilian.
The Quarterback
Act like Louise Mason
event1926 star_border 6
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Elmer Stone, quarterback of the 1899 Colton College football team vows to remain a student until Colton beats its biggest rival, State University. Twenty-seven years later, Elmer is still in school and is a classmate of his son, Jack. Other than driving a milk wagon in his spare time, Jack is also the quarterback of the football team. A matter of his eligibility comes up but he is cleared and goes out to do-or-die for Colton against State University. Maybe they will win The Big Game, and Jack's father can get a life...and a job.
Love and Learn
Act like Nancy Blair
event1928
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In love with political candidate Anthony Cowles, heroine Nancy Blair gets wind of the opposition's scheme to ruin Cowles' reputation. At the risk of her own good name, Nancy decides to turn the tables on the crooked politicos by framing Cowles' opponent in a compromising situation. Things don't go quite as planned.
The Further Adventures of Yorke Norroy
event1922
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A series of four 2-reelers based on the stories of George Bronson Howard, directed by Duke Worne, and starring Roy Stewart in the title role; each episode in the series was a story complete in itself. They are all presumably lost.
Our Five Daughters
(194 ep.)
event1962
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Our Five Daughters is a daytime soap opera that ran on NBC from January 2, 1962, until September 28, 1962. The show was written by Leonard Stadd and directed by Paul Lammers, and aired for a half hour, five days a week, at 3:30 PM EST, right after Young Doctor Malone.
The show starred former silent film icon Esther Ralston, whose career had faded with the advent of sound in the late 1920s; she had lost most of her money and had been working as a sales clerk before finding some acting roles here and there. One of them was a brief appearance on the daytime courtroom drama The Verdict Is Yours. Verdict producer Eugene Burr liked what he saw and offered her the lead role in his new soap, Our Five Daughters.
Ralston played Helen Lee, mother of five daughters, whose husband Jim was critically injured in an accident. He became an invalid and the abrupt change caused havoc for his wife and children. The show did not gain a significant audience and was ended after several months, on the same day The Brighter Day ended its run.
Jacqueline Courtney, who played daughter Ann Lee, went on to much fame on other daytime shows such as The Edge of Night, Another World, and One Life to Live.
Tales of Tomorrow
(1 ep.)
event1951 star_border 6
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Tales of Tomorrow is an American anthology science fiction series that was performed and broadcast live on ABC from 1951 to 1953. The series covered such stories as Frankenstein, starring Lon Chaney, Jr., 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea starring Thomas Mitchell as Captain Nemo, and many others featuring such performers as Boris Karloff, Brian Keith, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Bruce Cabot, Franchot Tone, Gene Lockhart, Walter Abel, Leslie Nielsen, and Paul Newman. The series had many similarities to the later Twilight Zone which also covered one of the same stories, "What You Need". In total it ran for eighty-five 30-minute episodes.
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