Thursday, December 13, 2012

Miss Betty Blythe



Betty Blythe was born Elizabeth Blythe Slaughter on September 1, 1893 in Los Angeles, California. I can't seem to find her father's name in census records, so I am assuming that he died before Betty was born or shortly after. I did find that her mother's name was Kate and that she had an older sister named Abigail. One census record lists another daughter's name, but I cannot for the life of me read what it says. From what I can tell, Abigail must have been much older because she was listed as the head of the household and seems to have been taking care of her mother and sister.

She first got into acting by appearing on stage in various shows. While part of these troupes she was able to tour not only the US, but also Europe. She eventually ended up in New York, when one day she and a roommate of hers went to visit the Vitagraph Studios. It just so happened that a director on set that day needed a leading lady for his film, and he signed Betty right up! She wasn't there long before she was sent packing back to California to work for Fox Studios.

Fox Studios was interested in Betty because they wanted a "new" Theda Bara. So, of course to compete with the big girl vamps, Betty had to go without a few items of clothing. She was also one of the first actresses to appear nude onscreen (the first is considered to be Nell Shipman).


One of her most popular films at the time was 1921's The Queen of Sheba. Sadly, the film is considered lost and all we have from it are a few production stills, but what we can see is that Betty was pretty much just draped in sheer shawls as a costumed. She did have a few scenes where she was completely topless, but those scenes only appeared in the European releases of the film.

That was her biggest hit during her career, and the only way to go from the top was to the bottom unfortunately.

She was allowed to appear in a few films that didn't require her to show so much skin. In fact, she got to appear with the master himself, Lon Chaney in the 1920 film, Nomads of the North. Interesting production note, while filming a scene involving a forest fire, Lon and Betty were both burned by a fire that popped up in one of their escape paths. They managed to make it to safety by running through a tunnel that had been built for such an emergency but production had to be stopped for almost two weeks while the actors recovered.

Betty continued to appear in films in lesser and lesser roles until she was appearing in uncredited roles. Her last film appearance was in My Fair Lady in a crowd scene.


Betty Blythe passed away on April 7, 1972 in Woodland Hills, California.

She was buried at Forest Lawn in Glendale, California.

Betty was only married once, to movie director Paul Scardon in 1919. They remained married until his death in 1954. They did not have any children.

Betty almost did remarry in 1967. She announced that she was going to marry Manuel de Encio, who worked for the Warner Brothers Studio. I am not sure what happened between them, but they never made it down the aisle.

She was earning $1 million during the peak of her career.


In 1935, Betty was called in as a witness during the divorce trial of actor Charles Ray and his wife, Clara. Betty was siding with Clara saying that she was with her on the many nights that Charles was away having an affair with a woman named Beverly. They also produced a bunch of love letters that they had found written by Beverly where she calls him, "Charlie Dear" and "Dodo." Charming.

During her later years, Betty made quite the comment on the actresses of the day. "It's too bad that they are dog-faced. They have pug noses and square faces, just like dogs. They may be good actors and have rugged qualities, but I always look for beauty in actors. I think they should be pleasant to look at, the way they were in the silent days. We had them ten. Men like Ramon Novarro, whom I discovered for films. And Ronald Colman, who was an extra in one of my pictures." I guess she wasn't one to hold her tongue! And I have never heard anything about the "discovering" of Ramon by Betty, but hey...who knows.


"A director is the only man besides your husband who can tell you how much of your clothes to take off." ~~ Betty Blythe

"I had 28 costumes in [Queen of Sheba], and if I'd worn them all at once I couldn't have kept warm." ~~ Betty Blythe

13 comments:

  1. Hi Jessica,
    Here is an article about Betty Blythe's death :http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=w1xKAAAAIBAJ&sjid=8SINAAAAIBAJ&pg=6805,2167091&dq=betty+blythe&hl=en

    It mentions she was survived by a stepdaugther.

    Enjoy!
    Theresa

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Jessica,
    On the 1900 census it listed the Slaughter household as Kate Slaughter (Head) , Blythe Slaughter (Daughter) age 16, Abigail Slaughter age 15,and Elizabeth Slaughter age 7 . It listed her birth year as 1892.

    Enjoy!
    Theresa

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Jessica,
    Hope you have an awesome weekend . Here is a link to a magazine cover with Betty Blythe's Queen of Sheba:http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_object_image.aspx

    Enjoy!
    Theresa
    P.S :I think it's beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Theresa! BLYTHE! Thank you for that! The census record I had, I just could not read what it said! And you are right, she did look beautiful. It is amazing how beautiful she looked back then wearing almost nothing, but nowadays, girls just look trashy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Jessica,
      I complete agree with you about girls looking trashy nowadays.

      Theresa

      Delete
  5. I'm glad to have found this accidentally, while googling Paul Scardon, husband of Betty Blythe, step-mother of my step-grandmother. My step-grandmother, Joan Scardon Piastro, was wife of my grandfather, Mishel Piastro. I knew Joan well and she admired her step-mother Betty. There are many fond memories of Betty that have been passed through the family. There are a few wonderfully written letters from Betty to Joan and Mishel, written in the 1950s from Los Angeles when she was having financial troubles and asked for some help from Joan and Mishel.
    Leslie

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  6. Well, hello there Leslie! And so glad you were able to find my blog. I would love to hear more of your families stories in regards to Betty. I am always interested in the "behind the scenes" info. Pleas e-mail me!

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  7. Hi Jessica,
    I'll try not to overload you with too much genealogical info right off the top.....
    My paternal grandfather was first cousin to Betty. Her father was Henry S. Slaughter (b. 14 Jul 1859, d. 14 Feb 1895). He was a wealthy lawyer who died young, in Hamburg, Iowa. Her mother was Kate Blythe, and I know nothing else about her.
    Henry and Kate had at least 3 daughters, of whom Abigail was one, probably quite a bit older than Betty as you have guessed.
    This particular branch of the Slaughter family is descended from the first immigrant, Robert Slaughter, who came to Virginia in 1686 as an indentured servant. He and his descendants owned large tobacco plantations in VA. Betty's great grandfather fought at the Battle of New Orleans.
    It's interesting to me that I never heard about my famous relative (Betty)from my grandparents. I would guess that they thought she was so scandalous appearing in silent films in such flimsy outfits that they never wanted us little kids to hear about it.
    Thanks for providing so many details about her life, most of which I was unaware.

    Garey Slaughter

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Garey! Feel free to overload me with info, I love it! I get a lot of it in the comments, so I do need to go back and update the entries with all the new info so it is right there for everyone to see. That is very interesting that they never mentioned her fame. Perhaps you are right that she was seen as "too scandalous" for kids ears. Thanks for the extra info though, I love it! And glad I could fill in any holes about Betty for you.

    ReplyDelete
  9. HELLO JESSICA IT IS EUGENE.LIKED THE ESSAY ON BETTY.I DO NEED TO SEE HER SILENT MOVIES.I HAVE ONLY SEEN HER TALKIES.IT IS ASHAME HOW HOLLYWOOD TOSSED HER ASIDE!SHE HAD TALENT AND CHARM.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Look

    http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7992857

    http://www.uk.mundia.com/gb/Person/35011829/18734137812

    ReplyDelete
  11. My grandfather was Manuel de Encio. I have the article about their engagement.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would love to read it if you have it scanned! Feel free to e-mail it to me!

      Delete