Early years Essanay Studios was within walking distance of the Northwestern
L, which ran right past the Howey residence. (They occupied at least two residences between 1910 and 1916: 4161 Sheridan and 4942 Sheridan.) In interviews later in her silent film career, Moore claimed she had appeared in the background of several Essanay films, usually as a face in a crowd. One story has it that she got into the Essanay studios and waited in line to be an extra with
Helen Ferguson: in an interview with
Kevin Brownlow many years later, Ferguson told a story that substantially confirmed many details of the claim, though it is not certain whether she was referring to Moore's stints as a background extra (if she really was one) or to her film test there prior to her departure for
Hollywood in November 1917. Film producer D. W. Griffith was in debt to Howey, who had helped him to get both
The Birth of a Nation and
Intolerance through the Chicago censorship board: The contract to Griffith's
Triangle-Fine Arts was conditional on passing a film test to ensure that her
heterochromia (she had one brown eye, one blue eye) would not be a distraction in close-up shots. Her eyes passed the test, so she left for Hollywood with her grandmother and her mother as chaperones. Moore made her first credited film appearance in 1917 in
The Bad Boy for Triangle Fine Arts, and for the next few years appeared in small, supporting roles gradually attracting the attention of the public.
The Bad Boy was released on February 18, and featured
Robert Harron,
Richard Cummings,
Josephine Crowell, and
Mildred Harris (who would later become
Charles Chaplin's first wife). Two months later, it was followed by
An Old-Fashioned Young Man, again with Robert Harron. Moore's third film was
Hands Up!, filmed in part in the vicinity of the Seven Oaks (a popular location for productions that required dramatic vistas). This was her first true western. The film's scenario was written by Wilfred Lucas from a story by
Al Jennings, the famous outlaw who had been freed from jail by
presidential pardon by
Theodore Roosevelt in 1907.
Monte Blue was in the cast and noticed Moore could not mount her horse, though horseback riding was required for the part (during casting for the part, she neglected to mention she did not know how to ride). Blue gave her a quick lesson, essentially consisting of how to mount the horse and how to hold on. On May 3, 1917, the
Chicago Daily Tribune said: "Colleen Moore contributes some remarkable bits of acting. She is very sweet as she goes trustingly to her bandit hero, and, O, so pitiful, when finally realizing the character of the man, she goes into a hysteria of terror, and, shrieking 'Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!' beats futilely on a bolted door, a panic-stricken little human animal, who had not known before that there was aught but kindness in the world." About the time her first six-month contract was extended an additional six months, she requested and received five weeks' release to do a film for
Universal's Bluebird division, released under the name
The Savage. This was her fourth film, and she was only needed for two weeks. Upon her return to the Fine Arts lot, she spent several weeks trying to get her pay for the three weeks she had been available for work for Triangle (finally receiving it in December of that year). Soon after, the Triangle Company went bust, and while her contract was honored, she found herself scrambling to find her next job. With a reel of her performance in
Hands Up! under her arm,
Colin Campbell arranged for her to get a contract with
Selig Polyscope. She was very likely at work on
A Hoosier Romance before
The Savage was released in November. After
A Hoosier Romance, she went to work on
Little Orphant Annie. Both films were based upon poems by
James Whitcomb Riley, and both proved to be very popular. It was her first real taste of popularity.
Little Orphant Annie was released in December. The
Chicago Daily Tribune wrote of Moore, "She was a lovely and unspoiled child the last time I saw her. Let's hope commendation hasn't turned her head." Despite her good notices, her luck took a turn for the worse when Selig Polyscope went bust. Once again, Moore found herself unemployed, but she had begun to make a name for herself by 1919. She had a series of films lined up. She went to
Flagstaff, Arizona, for location work on
The Wilderness Trail, another western, this time with Tom Mix. Her mother went along as a chaperone. Moore wrote that while she had a crush on Mix, he only had eyes for her mother.
The Wilderness Trail was a
Fox Film Corporation production, and while it had started production earlier, it would not be released until after
The Busher, which was released on May 18.
The Busher was an H. Ince Productions-
Famous Players–Lasky production; it was a baseball film whose hero was played by
Charles Ray.
The Wilderness Trail followed on July 6, another Fox film.
The Man in the Moonlight, a
Universal Film Manufacturing Company film, was released a few weeks later on July 28.
The Egg Crate Wallop was a Famous Players–Lasky production released by
Paramount Pictures on September 28. ''.|alt=Tinted film scene showing a young woman in 1920s dress '' (1928) alongside Moore|alt=Black and white publicity photograph showing a film director and actress on a movie set
Success The next stage of her career was with the
Christie Film Company, a move she made when she decided she needed comic training. While with Christie she made
Her Bridal Nightmare,
A Roman Scandal, and
So Long Letty. At the same time as she was working on these films, she worked on ''The Devil's Claim
with Sessue Hayakawa (in which she played a Persian woman), When Dawn Came
, and His Nibs (1921) with Chic Sale. All the while, Marshall Neilan had been attempting to get Moore released from her contract so she could work for him. He was successful and made Dinty
with Moore, releasing near the end of 1920, followed by When Dawn Came''. For all his efforts to win Moore away from Christie, it seems Neilan loaned Moore to other studios most of the time. He loaned her out to
King Vidor for
The Sky Pilot, released in May 1921, yet another Western. After working on
The Sky Pilot on location in the snows of
Truckee, she was off to Catalina Island for work on
The Lotus Eater with
John Barrymore. In October 1921,
His Nibs was released, her only film to be released that year besides
The Sky Pilot. In
His Nibs, Moore actually appeared in a film within the film; the framing film was a comedy vehicle for Chic Sales. The film it framed was a
spoof on films of the time. 1922 proved to be an eventful year for Moore; she was named a
WAMPAS Baby Star during a "frolic" at the
Ambassador Hotel, which became an annual event, in recognition of her growing popularity. In early 1922,
Come On Over was released, made from a
Rupert Hughes story and directed by
Alfred E. Green. Hughes directed Moore himself in
The Wallflower, released that same year. Additionally, Neilan introduced her to
John McCormick, a publicist who had had his eye on Moore ever since he had first seen her photograph. He had prodded Marshall into an introduction. The two hit it off, and before long, they were engaged. By the end of that year, three more of her films were released:
Forsaking All Others,
The Ninety and Nine, and
Broken Chains.
Look Your Best was released in early 1923, followed by two
Cosmopolitan Productions,
The Nth Commandment and
Through the Dark. By this time, Moore had publicly confirmed her engagement to McCormick, a fact that she had been coy about to the press previously. Before mid-year, she had signed a contract with
First National Pictures, and her first two films were slated to be
The Huntress and
Flaming Youth.
Slippy McGee came out in June, followed by
Broken Hearts of Broadway. Moore and John McCormick married while
Flaming Youth was still in production and just before the release of
The Savage. When it was finally released in 1923,
Flaming Youth, in which she starred opposite actor
Milton Sills, was a hit. The controversial story put Moore in focus as a flapper, but after
Clara Bow took the stage in
Black Oxen in December, she gradually lost her momentum. In spring 1924, she made a good but unsuccessful effort to top Bow in
The Perfect Flapper, and soon after, she dismissed the whole flapper vogue: "No more flappers ... people are tired of soda-pop love affairs." Decades later Moore stated Bow was her "chief rival". '' magazine, 1926|alt=Magazine cover showing a young woman with short bobbed hair in 1920s styling
Through the Dark, originally shot under the name
Daughter of Mother McGinn, was released during the height of the
Flaming Youth furor in January 1924. Three weeks later,
Painted People was released. After that, she was to star in
Counterfeit. The film went through a number of title changes before being released as
Flirting with Love in August. In October, First National purchased the rights to
Sally for Moore's next film. It would be a challenge, as
Sally was a musical comedy. In December, First National purchased the rights to
Desert Flower and in so doing had mapped out Moore's schedule for 1925:
Sally would be filmed first, followed by
The Desert Flower. By the late 1920s, she had accomplished dramatic roles in films such as
So Big, where Moore aged through a stretch of decades, and was also well received in light comedies such as
Irene. An overseas tour was planned to coincide with the release of
So Big in Europe, and Moore saw the tour as her first real opportunity to spend time with her husband, John McCormick. Both she and John McCormick were dedicated to their careers, and their hectic schedules had kept them from spending any quality time together. Moore wanted a family; it was one of her goals. Plans for the trip were put in jeopardy when she injured her neck during the filming of
The Desert Flower. Her injury forced the production to shut down while Moore spent six weeks in a body cast in bed. Once out of the cast, she completed the film and left for Europe on a triumphal tour. When she returned, she negotiated a new contract with First National. Her films had been great hits, so her terms were very generous. Her first film upon her return to the States was
We Moderns, set in England with location work done in London during the tour. It was a comedy, essentially a retelling of
Flaming Youth from an English perspective. This was followed by
Irene (another musical in the style of the very popular
Sally) and
Ella Cinders, a straight comedy that featured a cameo appearance by comedian
Harry Langdon.
It Must Be Love was a romantic comedy with dramatic undertones, and it was followed by
Twinkletoes, a dramatic film that featured Moore as a young dancer in London's Limehouse district during the previous century.
Orchids and Ermine was released in 1927, filmed in part in New York, a thinly veiled Cinderella story. In 1927, Moore split from her studio after her husband suddenly quit. It is rumored that John McCormick was about to be fired for his drinking and that she left as a means of leveraging her husband back into a position at First National. It worked, and McCormick found himself as Moore's sole producer. Moore's popularity allowed her productions to become very large and lavish.
Lilac Time was one of the bigger productions of the era, a World War I drama. A million-dollar film, it made back every penny spent within months. Prior to its release, Warner Bros. had taken control of First National and were less than interested in maintaining the terms of her contract until the numbers started to roll in for
Lilac Time. The film was such a hit that Moore managed to retain generous terms in her next contract and her husband as her producer.
Colleen Moore Fairy Castle (Dollhouse) In 1928, with help from her former set designer, a dollhouse was constructed by her father, which was 9 square feet, with the tallest tower 12 feet high. The interior of the Colleen Moore Dollhouse, designed by
Harold Grieve, features miniature bear-skin rugs and detailed furniture and art. Moore's
dollhouse has been a featured exhibit at the
Museum of Science and Industry in
Chicago since October 30, 1949, where, according to the museum, it is seen by 1.5 million people each year and would be worth $7 million. Moore continued working on it and contributing artifacts to it until her death. This dollhouse was the eighth one Moore owned. The first dollhouse, she wrote in her autobiography
Silent Star (1968), evolved from a cabinet that held her collection of miniature furniture. It was supposedly built from a cigar box. Kitty Lorgnette wrote in the edition of
The Evening News (Tampa, Florida) for Saturday, August 13, 1938, that the first dollhouse was purchased by Oraleze O'Brien (Mrs. Frank J. Knight) in 1916, when Moore (then Kathleen) left Tampa. Oraleze was too big for dollhouses, however, and she sold it again after her cat had kittens in it, and from there, she lost track of it. The third house was possibly given to the daughter of Moore's good friend, author
Adela Rogers St. Johns. The fourth survives and remains on display in the living room of a relative.
Sound films With the advent of
talking pictures in 1929, Moore took a hiatus from acting. After divorcing McCormick in 1930, Moore married the prominent New York-based stockbroker
Albert Parker Scott in 1932. The couple lived at that time in a lavish home at 345 St. Pierre Road in
Bel Air, where they hosted parties for and were supporters of the U.S.
Olympic team, especially the
yachting team, during the
1932 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles. In 1934, by then divorced from Albert Parker Scott, Moore returned to work in Hollywood. She appeared in three films, none of which was successful, after which she retired. Her last film was a version of
The Scarlet Letter in 1934. She later married the widower
Homer Hargrave and raised his children (she never had children of her own) from a previous marriage, with whom she maintained a lifelong close relationship. Throughout her life, she also maintained close friendships with other colleagues from the silent film era, such as
King Vidor and
Mary Pickford. == Later years ==