Miss Rhea Mitchell

Now to a young lady that is virtually forgotten by movie fans today. In fact, I haven't even known about her for very long! 

Rhea Mitchell was born on December 10, 1890 in Portland, Oregon. She was the only child born to Willis, a shipping clerk, and his wife, Lillie. 

Along with his duties as a shipping clerk, Willie also spent his time working for local theatres as a stage hand. Rhea sometimes accompanied him and it is probably here where she got bitten by the acting bug. Although, she didn't begin acting on stage until she was around the age of seventeen. 

She joined a theatre stock company and eventually went out tour with them along the west coast performing in cities like San Francisco and Vancouver. It was in the latter city that she was spotted by a movie scout. 

Rhea's first credited film role was in 1913's A Frontier Wife. She reportedly appeared in a short called The Hidden Trail the year prior, but was not credited. 

Rhea and Richard Bennett

She was mostly cast in Westerns, most likely because they were churned out a mile a minute in those days. Gotta have a leading lady! One of her most frequent costars was cowboy actor, William S. Hart. 

Rhea made a brief splash in films, enough to get her noticed by fans, but she never made it to movie stardom. Her movie career last for roughly 40 years with over 100 titles under her belt. Her later years were spent appearing in hit films, but only in small or uncredited roles. Two of these said films were In the Good Ole Summertime (1949) and Annie Get Your Gun (1950). I am gonna have to go back and watch both of these with an eagle eye and try and spot Rhea!

Her last film appearance was as a townswoman in 1952's The Member of the Wedding which starred the glorious Ethel Waters. After this film, Rhea decided it was time to retire from Hollywood. She eventually got a job as a manager in a large house which had been divided up in apartments. 

On September 16, 1957, Sonnie Hartford Jr., a janitor who worked in the apartment building where Rhea lived, went to her home in order to pay her back $30 that she had loaned him. He later told police that he made a comment to Rhea that could have been taken as obscene and she threatened to tell the building manager. Sonnie said he couldn't have her getting him fired so he grabbed her by the throat and began strangling her. He then grabbed a blue silk cord from her bathrobe and began strangling her with that until she was still. After he saw she was dead, he ran out of the building.

At around 9 am the next morning, the reality company in charge of the apartment building received an anonymous phone call from a man. "Miss Mitchell is dead," is all he said before hanging up. It was soon after that Rhea's body was discovered on the floor of her dressing room. 

The police, friends, and family were at a loss as to who might have down this to Rhea. The police first thought that maybe it was connected to a string of other homicides in the area, but then they administered a lie detector test to Sonnie Hartford Jr. He failed. At first, he denied having anything to do with the murder until he finally recanted and described what had happened. He also mentioned that she was a really nice woman, and he wasn't sure exactly why he had gone so far and killed her. 

Hartford went to trial but I am not sure what the verdict was or what he was sentenced to. Which is very annoying.

Rhea Mitchell is TECHNICALLY interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, however, she had an odd clause in her will that stipulated that she was not to have a final resting place. So, she has been lying in a receiving vault for over 50 years. Strange, huh?

She never married or had children. 

She was nicknamed "Ginger" and was referred to as such in most if not all of the newspaper articles I found about her death. During her silent movie days, she was nicknamed the "Little Stunt Girl" because she was always willing to perform dangerous and daring stunts. 

She was friends with Anna Q. Nilsson and May McAvoy, who both tried to help the police try and figure out who could have killed Rhea.

"Just for once, I wish they'd let me romp around in comedy and curls - not brick-in-the-hat and pie-in-the-eye comedy, but bright, sunshiney roles. But, they never will." ~~ Rhea Mitchell in Photoplay - April 1918

Who art thou?

One of the purposes of this blog is to make sure that the wonderful actors and actresses of the silent film era are not forgotten. Some of their films may be lost, but as long as we keep sharing pictures and stories about them, we can do our best to keep them alive a hundred years later.

Which brings me to a big pet peeve of mine. I hate when I see a mislabeled picture of a silent star, or one where they aren't even named at all. I actually woke up in the middle of the night to argue with someone about a picture that was supposedly of Evelyn Nesbit. I could not seem to stress enough that the girl in the picture was NOT Evelyn and it drove me nuts that they would not believe me. My own fault for getting so worked up, but anyway...

I have been guilty on a couple of occasions of posting a picture of a silent film star I wasn't totally familiar with and it ended up not being them at all. Cases that come to mind are Helen Holmes and Elsie Mackay, mainly because there were other actresses or personalities from that time with the same names. However, I quickly remedy the situation because like I said, it is a pet peeve of mine to mislabel a picture.

The place I see this happening the most is on Pinterest. Now, Pinterest is a great site to find wonderful and sometimes rarely seen pictures of silent film stars. It is also the place where people mislabel the holy hell out of the pictures. I could spend all day fixing the tags on these pictures, but I have not yet gone completely insane (yet).

Here are some examples. See if you can guess the CORRECT name of the star in the picture. (If not, no worries...I put the answers at the bottom!)

I love this picture! But, sadly, this lovely lady is NOT Dolores Costello.

I normally despise colorized pictures, but this one isn't too bad. However, it is NOT Bessie Love.

How someone thought this was Clara Bow is beyond me.

A photograph taken by Alfred Cheney Johnston, the best! This however is NOT Billie Dove as the photo was captioned.

Someone was WAY off when they labeled her as being Theda Bara.

No excuse for mislabeling a picture with the actress's autograph on it! This is NOT Lottie Pickford.

No one can seem to get this gal's name right! This is NOT a picture of Mae Murray.

I have seen this picture numerous times with claiming that is Clara Bow in the picture. It is NOT Clara Bow. I actually do not know who this gal is, I just know it is NOT the It Girl.

A gentleman among us! However, he is NOT Ramon Novarro.

This is NOT America's Sweetheart, Mary Pickford.

And last but not least, this is one glamorous looking lady.  However, she is NOT Lupe Velez.

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Answers
1. Madge Bellamy
2. Anita Page
3. Theda Bara
4. Ruth Etting
5. Myrna Loy
6. Corinne Griffith
7. Madge Bellamy
8. Mystery Girl
9. Francis X. Bushman
10. Marion Davies
11. Katy Jurado

Miss Jeanette Loff

Another beautiful actress from the silent screen who came to a tragic end. Her death at age 35 reads eerily like the death of Olive Thomas which surprised me. Jeanette is definitely someone worth remembering not only for her beautiful face, but for her many talents.

Jeanette Loff was born on October 6, 1906 in Orofino, Idaho. She was the eldest daughter born to famous Danish violinist, Wiarius Loff and his wife, Inga. Sister Irene was born a year later, and youngest sister, Myrtle was born in 1914.

I have read that Jeanette was born Jeanette Lov but from what I could find in census records, her father changed the spelling of their last name before the girls were born. And I believe he went by Maurice instead of his given Danish name. Information is a bit scattered, so bear with me.

When the girls were still young, the family moved to Canada so their father could continue his music career. Jeanette too started honing her own talent by appearing in stage productions at age eleven and singing opera at age sixteen!

When she was seventeen, her family relocated to the Oregon where Jeanette got a job playing the organ at a movie house. She used the name "Jan Lov" while working here, so I think maybe this is why people think that she was born with the Danish spelling of her name still intact.

Jeanette reportedly made her screen debut in the 1927 version of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Supposedly Cecil B. DeMille spotted her in this film and decided to offer her a contract.

Her first credited role was later that year in the film My Friend From India.

Around the time that she began working in the film industry, her parents divorced and Inga, Irene, and Myrtle all moved to California to live near Jeanette. Even though the sisters were close and Inga made all of Jeanette's clothes, they all lived in separate houses. A girl has gotta have her space!

Unfortunately, Jeanette was type casted as an ingenue right off the bat. She was a beautiful blonde, so that must have been as far as her talents go, right? Ugh, Hollywood is such a ridiculous place. Her career consisted of 21 films in a 7 year span, and none of the films were really anything stellar. When the talkies came around, she took a brief break from the screen to do some stage work before heading back to make a couple more films.

Her final film was 1934's Million Dollar Baby.

Jeanette Loff passed away on August 4, 1942 at the Hollywood Hospital in Los Angeles. She died after ingesting ammonia either accidentally or purposefully. She was only 35 years old.

Did Jeanette kill herself or was this just a terrible, terrible accident? Her family refused to believe that she had killed herself. According to them, Jeanette had been dealing with a stomach ailment for several years before her death and she most likely ingested the ammonia thinking it was the bottle of medication. Sounds just like what may have happened to Olive Thomas, doesn't it? Both ladies died of severe burns to the throat as well. Ugh, what an awful way to go.

Jeanette was buried at Forest Lawn in Glendale. She shares a niche with her sister Myrtle, who died in 1957.

Jeanette was married twice. Her first husband was a salesman named Harry Rosenbloom. They met while she was still living in Oregon and they married sometime around 1927. They divorced two years later. Her second husband was liquor distributor and producer, Bert Friedlob. They married in 1935 and remained so until her death. Bert went on to marry and divorce actress Eleanor Parker.

She had have an affair with Gilbert Roland (lucky) and Paul Bern. Never understood the Paul Bern thing. The man got Jean Harlow, Barbara La Marr....I just don't get it! Maybe it was the power he had? Who knows.

She was often compared to Vilma Banky. I can kinda see the similarities, but not too much.

"It matters little whether she ever has a starring role, for she herself is an all-star blonde. She's Vilma Banky, May Allison, Agnes Ayres, Alice Terry, and Anna Q. Nilsson in a production of less than a hundred and ten pounds." ~~ Photoplay, May 1929

Miss Molly O'Day

Now let us move on to the younger sister of Sally O'Neil, Miss Molly O'Day! (Irish heritage much?)

Molly O'Day was born Suzanne Dobson Noonan October 16, 1911 in Bayonne, New Jersey. She was the youngest child of Judge Thomas Noonan and his opera singer wife, Hannah.

Around 1912 Thomas Noonan passed away, leaving Hannah to quit her singing career to raise her ten children. The family eventually packed up and headed to California. 

Molly was reportedly picked out by Hal Roach to appear in some of his famous Our Gang comedies. In her obituary, her name is mentioned alongside the Our Gang comedies, however, I can't see where she is listed as being in one let alone several. So, maybe it is just me failing at my research, but...I show her first film as being a 1926 Hal Roach film, 45 Minutes from Hollywood. (IMDB erroneously lists her sister Sally O'Neil as being in the film and not Molly). 

The same year she made her screen debut (going by my info at least) Molly and her sister, Sally were both named WAMPAS Baby Stars. 

Molly and Sally appeared together in three films during their Hollywood careers. The first was in 1927's The Lovelorn playing sisters. The second was the 1929 musical The Show of Shows where they appeared in the "Meet My Sister" segment with other Hollywood sister duos. Their third and final film pairing was the following year in Sisters, where they once again played a pair of sisters. 

Richard Barthelmess and Molly

There were/are rumors that Molly's career went downhill and eventually ended because of her very public issues with her weight (oh, we will get to that in a minute, don't worry). However, that doesn't seem to be the case. Instead, it seems that Molly instead chose to get married, have a family, and get away from the ridiculous and unbelievably negative pressures she was dealing with in Hollywood. Can't say I blame her.

Her last film was a 1935 Rin-Tin-Tin feature called Skull and Crown. Kinda sucks when your last on screen feature is with a dog as the star...

Molly O'Day passed away on October 22, 1998 in Avila Beach, California. She was cremated.

Molly was married twice. Her first husband was actor Jack Durant who she married in 1934. The couple had four children: John, Suzanne, Virginia and Jackie. Unfortunately, Jack and Molly divorced in 1951. A year later she married oilman James Kenaston, but they too divorced in 1956.

Now to the part that is just unbelievably ridiculous, the weight war that was waged against Miss Molly O'Day. I mean, first off, look at the pictures of her I have on here and judge for yourself. Does that look like an overweight actress? Even by the standards of 1920's Hollywood, it seems unbelievable to say that she was fat. I want to share with you some of the excerpts from magazine articles from the 1920's to show you what was being said about Miss Molly O'Day.

From Photoplay - August 1928 - "'Molly, you can get as fat as you please. You can eat as much as you please. You can diet as little as you please. We've done all we can. It's your life and you have to live it. As far as we are concerned you are through - that is, until you get down to the right physical size for pictures. Alice White started about the same time you did. We are going to star her in four pictures. Alice was a little heavy but she lost her extra flesh when we told her about it.'" - Producer Al Rockett

"There were four big stories waiting for her as a star for the next season. But in two of them, Molly had to dress up like a real lady. Did you ever see a pumpkin dressed in the evening clothes of a lady?"

"Molly was just the big-little sister of the rather over-populated Noonan family...Just a good little pal who was not exactly fat but most certainly pudgy."

"Molly O'Day is waging a battle as important to her as Waterloo was to Napoleon. To remain on the screen she must lost twenty pounds and lose them gracefully...If Molly wins she will be a full-fledged star at First National Pictures with four pictures each year..."

From Motion Picture Classic - 1928 - "Molly had no particularly outstanding success, but her consistent releases have kept her so much in the public eye that she is worthy box-office material."

From Photoplay 1929 - "And then there is Molly O'Day! What will be the fate of the O'Day? A part of the story was recounted in the August issue of Photoplay, but what of this recent development? Molly is overweight even for a non-professional...She [is] twenty pounds heavier than she should have been for the screen." 

"[Her doctor] believes that the operations will do no good because there is fat all over Molly's body. She is a splendid actress. Her director, her producer, her public know this. But unless she is most sylph-like her art will be completely wasted. This is the demand of the screen!"

And yep, you read that right. Molly went through an operation to "remove the extra flesh on her body." Can you imagine going through a weight loss surgery in the 1920's? And not only that horror show, but it was talked about in magazines with Molly even having her picture taken in the hospital! I felt so bad looking at her in that photo. It just seems like she was trying to be a normal girl wanting to be in the movies, but was getting reamed from all sides about how overweight she was. 

While researching the many stars I have covered on this site, I have never come across so much negativity directed to a star from that time. I kept thinking, "Oh, come on!" while was reading these articles. I hope me writing about Molly will keep her name in a more positive light and to have her be remembered as a beautiful face who graced the silent silver screen. 

Molly, Sally O'Neil, and Isabel Noonan

I also wanted to mention the other Noonan siblings because most of them went on to some kind of success in life. Isabel Noonan worked briefly as an actress but it didn't suit her, so she retired after only a few films. Gerard Noonan played football for Fordham College and Notre Dame before going pro and playing for the Rochester Jeffersons and the New York Brickley Giants. Mind you, this was under the name Jerry Noonan. He also served as a lieutenant in World War I. Another brother, George was on the Olympic Hockey Team (not sure the year) and also briefly played professional football. All I know about older sister Mary Noonan is that she worked as a nurse for the Red Cross during WWI. I don't have any information on Vincent, John, Thomas, or Edmund Noonan unfortunately. 

Miss Sally O'Neil

Molly O'Day and Sally O'Neil

So, I was going to do another dual entry about another pair of sisters but I read so much gossip (aka crap) about these sisters that I wanted to do a separate one for each and call out some of these 'journalists' from the 20's who insulted these lovely ladies. 

Oldest sister first!

Sally O'Neil was born Virginia Louise Noonan on October 23, 1908 in Bayonne, New Jersey. She was the ninth child born to Judge Thomas Noonan and his wife, Hannah. She joined older siblings Thomas, Mary, Gerard, George, Vincent, John, Isabel, and Edmund. (I have read that there were 11 children in the Noonan family, but I can't find any trace of it, so either someone miscounted or a child died in infancy). Sister Suzanne (Molly O'Day) was born the following year.

The Noonans had a pretty privileged upbringing. They employed servants and the children were educated in a convent. But, after such a stuffy learning environment, Sally was looking for some excitement, so she went off to join the vaudeville circuit under the name "Chotsie Noonan." 

She made her film debut in the 1925 short, Yes, Yes, Nanette which also featured Oliver "Babe" Hardy. 

Constance Bennett, Joan Crawford, and Sally

Sally's greatest film success was later that year when she starred in Sally, Irene, and Mary with Joan Crawford and Constance Bennett. Funnily enough Sally played Mary, not Sally. While this film made Sally a famous starlet,  the fame did not last long. She was great in light, flapper fair, but for some reason she just didn't have the right kind of star power. Her only other real film appearance of note was in the 1926 Buster Keaton film, Battling Butler.

Her great success did lead to her being named a WAMPAS Baby Star of 1928 along with Lina Basquette, Lupe Velez, and her sister, Molly O'Day.

Sally did make the transition into talkies, but a thick New Jersey accent and bad case of stage fright turned her film career into one filled with lackluster features. 

She made her last screen appearance in 1938's Kathleen, playing the title role. After she retired from Hollywood, she went back to acting on stage and toured with the USO until the end of World War II. I found this quite interesting considering she supposedly had stage fright in the talkies but could perform in front of a live audience. Not sure how that all worked. 

Sally O'Neil passed away on June 18, 1968 in Galesburg, Illinois from pneumonia. 

She was buried in Memorial Park Cemetery in Galesburg. 

Sally was married once, to Stewart Battles and I am not sure when they were married unfortunately. I do know that they remained married until her death because he was buried nexy to her when he passed away in 1984. 

Along with Chotsie Noonan, Sally was sometimes billed as "Sally O'Neill" and the weirdest one, "Sue 'Bugs' O'Neill." 

"Here's another girl who was plunged into prominence before she was ready to cope with it...Being saucy and piquant are her chief talents now, but time may change that." ~~ Motion Picture Magazine - 1927, putting almost zero faith in Sally. 

Miss Alice and Miss Marceline Day

Alice and Marceline

A sister act!

Marceline Day plays the love interest to Buster Keaton in one of my all time favorite silent films, The Cameraman. I found out later that she had a sister, Alice, who was an actress as well. Although Alice didn't make quite as big of a splash as her younger sister, they are both still remembered as beautiful ingenues of the silent screen.

Alice

Alice Day was born Jacquiline Alice Newlin on November 7, 1905 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Marceline came along a few years later on April 24, 1908.

Marceline

They were the daughters of Frank and Irene Newlin. Irene had run away from home at the age of sixteen and married Frank soon after. The pair eventually divorced shortly after Marceline was born.

In 1910, Irene took her two young daughters to her mother and step father's house to live. Frank Newlin may have remarried but I am not 100% sure.

Alice, being the oldest, was the first of the two girls to make an appearance on the movie screen. She was 18 years old when she was featured in the 1923 film The Temple of Venus as one of Mack Sennett's Bathing Beauties.  

Alice and Marceline

The following year, Marceline made her film debut as a Bathing Beauty alongside her sister in the Harry Landon film, Picking Peaches.

As I stated earlier, Marceline seemed to make the bigger splash with studios because she was named a WAMPAS Baby Star of 1926, two years before Alice was named one. That must have hurt a bit...

Alice appeared in about 60 features, which consisted of mostly B movies and Westerns later in her career.

The film that Alice would be known for the most nowadays would be the 1929 film, Little Johnny Jones. This is an important film of note because it is one of the earliest screen adaptations of the play/movie, Yankee Doodle Dandy. Unfortunately, the film is considered lost, BUT, the soundtrack is still around an in archive at UCLA I believe.

Alice's final film appearance was in a 1932 Western called Gold which starred cowboy actor Jack Hoxie.

Alice

Alice Day passed away on May 25, 1995 in Orange, California. I do not know where she is buried, but she could have possibly been cremated like her sister was.

Marceline's most well known work was with Keaton, but she also made a splash appearing alongside such heavies as Lon Chaney (in 1927's London After Midnight) and John Barrymore (in The Beloved Rogue, also 1927). When the talkies came, she appeared with Clara Bow in her 1929 film, The Wild Party.

Although Marceline and her sister both had perfectly fine voices for the talking pictures, both of their careers went downhill as the 1930s rolled in. Marceline made her last film appearance in the 1933 Western, The Fighting Parson.

Marceline

Marceline passed away on February 16, 2000 in Cathedral City, California. She was cremated and her ashes I believe were given to her family.

Marceline was married twice. First, to film producer Allen Klein and then later to a man named John Arthur in 1959. Those are pretty much all the details I have on her marriages, so, if you know any more information, please let me know! Marceline did date actor Richard Dix for a few months in 1928 and also an actor named James Murray. That second name didn't ring a bell with me, so I had to look him up and my goodness! Look him up, pretty intense. I may just have to do an entry on him.

Alice never married but she was reportedly engaged to her longtime beau, Carl Laemmle Jr. There is a great anecdote about them that I read in the November 1928 issue of Photoplay that I have to share. Apparently, the two had recently broken up and Carl was getting sweet on another actress, Sue Carol. One day at the studio, Carl  had the on set orchestra play the song "Sweet Sue" over and over again, and this was followed oh so cheekily by a request for the song "The Day is Done" (get it?) What Carl didn't know was that Alice was next door shooting her own film and she heard the entire thing. Carl got a big surprise when he turned around to see Alice standing behind him glaring at him. Love it!

Marceline and Alice as cats...of course!

The sisters appeared together another place besides the film in 1924! They were both featured in the variety show-esque film The Show of Shows. They appeared in a sequence called "Meet My Sister" which featured other famous sisters in Hollywood: Viola Dana and Shirley Mason, Sally O'Neil and Molly O'Day, Alberta and Adamae Vaugh, Helene and Dolores Costello, SallyBlane and Loretta Young, and Lola and Armida Vendrell. This sounds like something I need to get my hands on!

The girls had a very close relationship with their mother, Irene. When they moved to Hollywood, they got a three bedroom apartment so that they could all live together yet have their own space. Irene once told a story about how the girls wanted to be like the flappers they saw out on the town, smoking and drinking and having a grand old time. Irene told them, sure, you can drink, go right ahead! She poured them each a glass of red wine and told them to drink it all in big gulps and then lit a cigarette for each and told them to inhale deeply. Needless to say this demonstration had it's desired effect because while the other flappers were smoking and drinking, Alice and Marceline were chewing gum and drinking ice cream sodas.

For whatever reason, after she retired, Marceline refused to talk about her movie career and refused to grant interviews. There are a few stars who went this route and I am always curious as to why. Guess we will never know...

Alice and Marceline

"[on her daughters] When they come to me and say they'd like fur coats, I say 'Certainly, buy fur coats. Buy a lot of fur coats. You'll only pass this way once. You're making your own money. Make the most of it." ~~ Irene Newlin (Day) to Photoplay magazine, 1928

Mr. Elmer Clifton

I remember first seeing Elmer Clifton's face in a book about silent film stars and thinking, "Whoa! That is one good looking dude!" When you think of silent film actors you think of the suave and exotic Rudolph Valentino or the swashbuckling Douglas Fairbanks, but then you see a good looking boy next door and interests are piqued! Am I alone here?? Unfortunately, one of the things that Elmer is most well known for now is being the director of the film Warrens of Virginia, which is the film Martha Mansfield died while making. Tragic situation for all involved. But, let's explore more of who this man really was and why he really should be remembered.

Elmer Clifton was born Elmer Forsyth on March 14, 1890 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was the only child of Cecil and Margaret Forsyth. 

There is some discrepancy about how Elmer Forsyth became Elmer Clifton. There is some speculation that his mother married a man with the last name of Clifton who later adopted Elmer, but this is unconfirmed. Margaret Forsyth did in fact marry again later in life, but it was to a man with the last name of Owens.

Elmer first appeared on stage in 1907 and it was only a couple years later that he would be on the big screen. He had his film debut in the 1912 short, The Lake of Dreams. 

Like pretty much every actor during the early days of film making, Elmer appeared in both of D.W. Griffith's epics, Birth of a Nation (1915) as Phil Stoneman, brother of Lillian Gish, and and Intolerance (1916) as the warrior singer, Rhapsode. 

Dorothy Gish and Elmer

The following year Elmer began working behind the camera as a director. His feature film directorial debut was Her Official Fathers, starring Dorothy Gish. (Technically, his first directing job was in 1915 with the short, The Artist's Wife, but he really caught his stride starting in 1917).

Elmer continued working with Griffith, even helping him shoot scenes for the 1920 film, Way Down East. Elmer also worked as a stunt man for leading man Richard Barthelmess in a few scenes.

Besides working with Griffith, Elmer also had the chance to direct both Clara Bow and Rudolph Valentino in their earliest films. Lucky guy.

In 1924, he signed on to direct the war film The Warrens of Virginia starring screen ingenue Martha Mansfield. One day during a break in shooting, a lit match was carelessly tossed toward Martha's direction and lit her period costume on fire. The flames were extinguished by her co-star throwing his coat over her but she was already badly burned. Martha was taken to the hospital where she died the next day from severe burns. Although this was just a tragic accident and in no way Elmer Clifton's fault, he was still fired by the studio and his career went downhill from there. 

Elmer did manage to keep working when the talkies came to Hollywood, but his films were mostly so-so Westerns and other B-movie types. The last film he directed was 1949's Not Wanted, but it had to be finished by the film's star Ida Lupino after Elmer suffered a heart attack during production. 

Elmer Clifton passed away on October 15, 1949 in Los Angeles from a cerebral hemorrhage. He was buried at Forest Lawn in Glendale.

Although Elmer never married, it didn't mean that he didn't do his share of comparison shopping. In a 1917 Photoplay article, Elmer said that lovemaking was his favorite recreational activity. Way to be, sir, way to be! Gotta admire that bravado!

"An epic picture is produced, I believe, when (1) a great thought (2) is told in a simple and understandable way (3) by expert motion picture technicians...Unless every man working on the picture, from director to the man who runs the projection machine in the smallest village theater, executes his work efficiently, the greatest theme can never get over to the public in epic form." ~~ Elmer Clifton [asked what made an epic picture] (Motion Picture Magazine, 1926)