Betty Blythe

Betty Blythe

Birth : 1893-09-01, Los Angeles, California, USA

Death : 1972-04-07

History

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Betty Blythe (born Elizabeth Blythe Slaughter, September 1, 1893 – April 7, 1972) was an American actress best known for her dramatic roles in exotic silent films such as The Queen of Sheba (1921). She appeared in 63 silent films and 56 talking pictures (known as talkies) over the course of her career. She is famous for being one of the first actresses to appear on film in the nude, or nearly so, during the Roaring Twenties. She is reported to have said, "A director is the only man besides your husband who can tell you how much of your clothes to take off." Blythe began her stage work in such theatrical pieces as So Long Letty and The Peacock Princess. She worked in vaudeville as the "California Nightingale" singing songs such as "Love Tales from Hoffman". After touring Europe and the States, she entered films in 1918 at the Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn, then she was brought to Hollywood's Fox studio as a replacement for actress Theda Bara. As famous for her revealing costumes as for her dramatic skills, she became a star in such exotic films as The Queen of Sheba (1921) (in which she wore nothing above the waist except a string of beads), Chu-Chin-Chow (made in 1923; released by MGM in the US 1925) and She (1925). She was also seen to good advantage in less revealing films like Nomads of the North (1920) with Lon Chaney and In Hollywood with Potash and Perlmutter (1924), produced by Samuel Goldwyn. Other roles were as an opera star, unbilled in Garbo's The Mysterious Lady. She continued to work as a character actress. One of her last roles was a small uncredited role in a crowd scene in 1964's My Fair Lady. Betty Blythe's name lives on through the Betty Blythe Vintage TeaRoom in West Kensington.

Profile

Betty Blythe

Movies

My Fair Lady
Lady at Ball (uncredited)
A snobbish phonetics professor agrees to a wager that he can take a flower girl and make her presentable in high society.
Runaway Daughters
Party Guest (uncredited)
Three teenagers with troubled families are unable to adjust at home and in high-school. Tempted with an easy, carefree life they soon pass from misdemeanors into serious crime - and will suffer for it. Sometimes, repentance comes too late.
Hollywood Story
Herself
A producer takes over a small film studio and - sensing that it'll be a good movie- begins investigating an old murder of a silent film director shot in his office years ago. He finds that his life is threatened as he digs deeper into the mystery.
Luxury Liner
Miss Fenmoor (uncredited)
Capt. Jeremy Bradford has a particularly exciting luxury liner cruise in store when he's charged with transporting a troupe of opera singers to Rio de Janeiro. Anxious to become a singer herself, Bradford's young daughter, Polly, decides to skip out on school and sneak onto the ship before it departs. Angry that his daughter disobeyed him, Bradford puts her to work on the ship for punishment, but Polly has her own ideas about how to spend the trip.
Shed No Tears
Mrs. Peet (Uncredited)
A man listens to his wife and fakes his own death so that she can get her hands on his insurance policy.
Letter from an Unknown Woman
Frau Kohner (uncredited)
A pianist about to flee from a duel receives a letter from a woman he cannot remember. As she tells the story of her lifelong love for him, he is forced to reinterpret his own past.
Madonna of the Desert
Mrs. Brown
A jeweled Madonna, property of rancher Joe Salinas, attracts two crooks to his ranch, Monica Dell, a smooth operator, and ruthless Nick Julian. Joe believe that the statue has a miraculous power to ward off evil, and Monica, after a narrow escape from injury while trying to steal the statue, is converted to Joe's faith and refuses to go through with the robbery. Nick has no such intentions.
Jiggs and Maggie in Society
Mrs. Vacuum
Maggi continues her forever-ever efforts to crash Manhattan's top society, while Jiggs still mingles with his old construction cronies at the bar of Dinty Moore on 10th Avenue.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Floor Manager (uncredited)
Walter Mitty, a daydreaming writer with an overprotective mother, likes to imagine that he is a hero who experiences fantastic adventures. His dream becomes reality when he accidentally meets a mysterious woman who hands him a little black book. According to her, it contains the locations of the Dutch crown jewels hidden since World War II. Soon, Mitty finds himself in the middle of a confusing conspiracy, where he has difficulty differentiating between fact and fiction.
Something in the Wind
Society Matron (uncredited)
A grandson of a recently deceased millionaire mistakes a beautiful female disc jockey for her aunt, who once dated the grandfather.
Undercurrent
Saleslady (uncredited)
After a rapid engagement, a dowdy daughter of a chemist weds an industrialist, knowing little of his family or past. He transforms her into an elegant society wife, but becomes enraged whenever she asks about Michael, his mysterious long-lost brother.
Joe Palooka, Champ
Mrs. Stafford
After losing heavyweight contender Al Costa to mob boss Florini fight promoter Knobby Walsh recruits small town boy Joe Palooka to take his place. First in the series.
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Customer (uncredited)
A married woman and a drifter fall in love, then plot to murder her husband.
The Undercover Woman
Cissy Van Horn
Two women private detectives arrive at a dude ranch in time to investigate the murder of their client's philandering husband.
Adventure
Mrs. Buckley (uncredited)
A rough and tumble man of the sea falls for a meek librarian.
They Were Expendable
Shortly after Pearl Harbor, a squadron of PT-boat crews in the Philippines must battle the Navy brass between skirmishes with the Japanese. The title says it all about the Navy's attitude towards the PT-boats and their crews.
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood
Mrs. Murdock (uncredited)
When two bumbling barbers act as agents for a talented but unknown singer, they stage a phony murder in order to get him a plum role.
Docks of New York
Mrs. Darcy
The East Side Kids are pursued by killers seeking a stolen necklace.
A Fig Leaf for Eve
Lavinia Sardham
A nightclub dancer, raised in an orphanage, learns she might be the long-lost heiress to a hair tonic fortune.
Charlie Chan in The Chinese Cat
Mrs. Manning
To solve the murder of a man shot in a locked room, Chan must wade through a Fun House, the writings of an unscrupulous author, and chess pieces.
Mr. Muggs Steps Out
Ordered by a judge to get a job, Muggs McGinnis is hired by wealthy Mrs. Murray, who has a penchant for picking up trouble-prone servants. At an engagement party for Mrs. Murray's spoiled daughter Brenda, Muggs enlists his pals as extra help.
Bar 20
Mrs. Stevens
Stagecoach robbers take the money Hoppy was going to use to buy cattle so Hoppy, California and Lin go after them.
Spotlight Scandals
Mrs. Baker
A down-on-his luck actor teams up with a singing barber to do a vaudeville act. Its success eventually leads them to Broadway, but things start to go awry.
Crime Doctor
Mrs. Harrington (uncredited)
Robert is found beside the highway with a head injury and amnesia. His amnesia motivates him to become a Physician and the country's leading criminal psychologist.
Sarong Girl
Miss Ellsworth
A dancer in a girlie show plots revenge when a judge orders her show closed.
Girls in Chains
Mrs. Grey
A fired teacher finds work at a girls reform school and helps a detective on a case.
Presenting Lily Mars
Dowager
Starstruck Indiana small-town girl Lily is pestering theatrical producer John Thornway for a role but he is reluctant.
Dawn on the Great Divide
Mrs. Elmira Corkle
Buck Roberts is leading a wagon train of railroad supplies and Jim Corkle and his henchman Loder are out to stop them by using white men dressed as Indians for the attacks.
Piano Mooner
Society Woman
Harry is a workaholic piano tuner whose bride-to-be's brother threatens to kill him if he doesn't marry his sister. His latest job assignment involves a socialite and a pesky French maid hounding him constantly.
House of Errors
Mrs. Martha Randall
Former silent screen comic Harry Langdon earned above-title billing for the final time in his long career in this roughhewn but amusing World War II farce released by Poverty Row company PRC. Langdon and Charles "Buddy" Rogers are newspaper messengers helping reporter Ray Walker obtain an interview with journalist-hating inventor Richard Kipling. But before they know it, Harry and Buddy become unwittingly involved in plans to steal the professor's newest invention: a machine gun.
Freckles Comes Home
Minerva Potter
Freckles Winslow comes home from college and the sheriff accuses him of murder, gangsters put him on the spot, and his girl friend, Jane, falls in love with a confidence man.
Inflation
Next Door Neighbor Who Begins Hoarding (uncredited)
The Devil works with Adolf Hitler to cause inflation in the United States.
Tuxedo Junction
Miss Hornblower
The Weaver Brothers and Elviry have migrated from their usual hard-scrabble digs in the Ozarks and have taken up truck-farming.
The Miracle Kid
Madame Gloria
A young boxer finds his life turned upside down when he meets with sudden success in the ring.
Top Sergeant Mulligan
Mrs. Lewis
Frank Faylen and Charlie Hall (a longtime Laurel & Hardy foil) star as Dolan and Doolittle, a pair of goofy druggists who join the army to escape the wrath of bill collector Mulligan
Honky Tonk
Mrs. Wilson
Fast-talking con-man and grifter Candy Johnson rises to be the corrupt boss of Yellow Creek, but his wife's alcoholic father tries to set things right.
Our Wife
Minor Role (uncredited)
A musician's ex-wife wants him back after he finds love and success.
Puddin' Head
Mrs. Bowser
On the day that United Broadcasting System's new building is dedicated, bumbling vice-president Harold L. Montgomery, Sr. discovers that he gave the wrong survey to the builders.....
Sis Hopkins
Mrs. Farnsworth
An unsophisticated farm girl enrolls in college and stars in the campus musical.
Federal Fugitives
Marcia
A government agent goes undercover in order to apprehend a saboteur who caused a plane crash.
Misbehaving Husbands
Effie Butler
Marital comedy in which a department store mannequin is mistaken for "the other woman".
Earl of Puddlestone
Millicent Potter-Potter
When Betty's father sees the condescending attitude displayed toward her by a rich family, he decides to get back at them by making them believe that his family has "royal" connections.
The Women
Mrs. South (uncredited)
A happily married woman lets her catty friends talk her into divorce when her husband strays.
Gangster's Boy
Mrs. Davis
A popular high school valedictorian and star athlete becomes a pariah when it's discovered that his father is a former bootlegger.
Delinquent Parents
Mrs. Wharton
A woman is forced to keep her marriage and past indiscretions a secret from those she loves.
Romance of the Limberlost
Mrs. Parker
An orphaned girl is being raised in the Limberlost by her aunt, who hates her because the girl's mother married the man that the aunt loved. The girl's existence is close to being servitude bondage, and her only companions are the birds and the animals of the forest. She meets and falls in love with a young man whose ambition is to be a lawyer. But her aunt is arranging for her to be married to the wealthiest man in the Limberlost, a drunken, coarse bully.
Hold That Kiss
Wedding Guest at Piermont's
Two young people meet at a wedding and begin dating, each thinking the other is extremely wealthy. Comedy.
Life in Sometown, U.S.A.
Mrs. Himber (uncredited)
A satirical visualization of strange and forgotten, but (at that time) nevertheless still existing laws in the U.S.A.
What Do You Think? (Number Two)
This short presents the possibility that a dead person's spirit can intervene in the lives of the living.
Topper
Mrs. Goodrich (uncredited)
Madcap couple George and Marion Kerby are killed in an automobile accident. They return as ghosts to try and liven up the regimented lifestyle of their friend and bank president, Cosmo Topper. When Topper starts to live it up, it strains relations with his stuffy wife.
Espionage
Train Passenger
Two reporters pose as man and wife in order to get the goods on a munitions supplier and the rumours of war in Europe.
Rainbow on the River
Flower Buyer (uncredited)
A young boy is forced to leave his family in the South and move in with relatives he doesn't know in New York.
The Gorgeous Hussy
Mrs. Wainwright
It's the early nineteenth century Washington. Young adult Margaret O'Neal, Peggy to most that know her, is the daughter of Major William O'Neal, who is the innkeeper of the establishment where most out-of-town politicians and military men stay when they're in Washington. Peggy is pretty and politically aware. She is courted by several of those politicians and military men who all want to marry her, except for the one with who she is truly in love.
Yours for the Asking
May
Casino operator Johnny Lamb hires down-on-her-luck socialite Lucille Sutton as his casino hostess, in order to help her and to improve casino income. But Lamb's pals fear he may follow Lucille onto the straight-and-narrow path, which would not be good for business. So they hire Gert Malloy and Dictionary McKinney, a pair of con-artists, to manipulate Johnny back off the path of righteousness.
Murder at Glen Athol
Ann Randel
A famous detective is invited to a swanky party at an elegant mansion, but before the night is over he finds himself involved with gangsters, blackmail and murde
Western Courage
Mrs. Hanley
Wealthy Henry Hanley takes his family to a dude ranch. But his daughter Gloria's boyfriend Eric is waiting and he is after Hanley's money. Ken overhears Eric's plan and abducts Gloria to stop the elopement. The outlaw Lacrosse and his henchman then catch Ken without his guns, take off with Gloria, and leave a tied up Ken in a burning shack.
The Spanish Cape Mystery
Mrs. Godfrey
Ellery Queen's vacation is interrupted when murder strikes next door to his oceanside cabin.
Cheers of the Crowd
Lil Langdon Walton
To draw attention to a popular show, a publicity expert hires a former carnival character, not knowing that the man is on the run from the law.
The Perfect Clue
Ursula Chesebrough
Mona Stewart, madcap, spoiled daughter of a wealthy man, becomes upset when she learns that her father is engaged to a woman she hates. She runs away, via various modes of transportation, and hires an ex-con, David Mannering, to drive her around as she eludes the all-out search conducted by her father and her fiancée, Ronnie Van Zandt. A romance is blossoming until her chauffeur is arrested for the murder of a crime-syndicate boss.
I've Been Around
Romantic problems of a society girl and an engineer.
Night Alarm
Mrs. Elizabeth Van Dusen
A reporter itching to get off the boring gardening "beat" gets a chance to investigate a series of arson fires that have been plaguing the city. He believes the fires are tied into a web of political corruption involving a wealthy businessman, the mayor and the police chief. Complicatins ensue when the girl assigned to help him turns out to be the businessman's daughter.
A Girl of the Limberlost
Mrs. Parker
Elnora Comstock is the badly abused daughter of Katherine Comstock, who blames her because her father was drowned while on the way home the night she was born. She finds her comfort with Margaret and Westley Sinton, a childless neighboring couple, who help her with her school costs, as does the wealthy Mrs. Parker, who takes an interest in the talented young girl. She meets and falls in love with Phillip Ammon, the nephew of Dr. Ammon, but learns that he is already engaged. The money that Elnora has saved for her college education is stolen, and when Mrs. Comstock goes to retrieve it from a suspect, she also learns of the duplicity of her husband, who had been courting a neighboring woman on the night he drowned. She begs forgiveness of Elnora, and the romance of Elnora and Phillip also begins to flourish.
Two Heads on a Pillow
Mrs. Agnes Walker
A lawyer handing a divorce case discovers the attorney for the opposition is his ex-wife.
The Scarlet Letter
Innkeeper
In the seventeenth century, in Massachusetts, a young woman is forced to wear a scarlet "A" on her dress for bearing a child out of wedlock.
Money Means Nothing
Mrs. Ferris
At Joe's Roadside, a popular but rundown New York roadhouse where the wealthy and not-so-wealthy hang out, a wealthy Manhattan girl and a struggling Brooklyn boy meet and fall in love. She marries him against the wishes of her family, believing that love can solve everything, but she soon wonders if she made the right choice when she finds herself living in a manner, and with the kinds of people, she hadn't counted on.
Badge of Honor
Mrs. Claire van Alstyne
Hoping to impress a pretty girl he's after, a playboy poses as a newspaperman and goes after a big story.
Ever Since Eve
Mrs. Vandergrift
Neil Rogers, a young man who owns a substantial share of a Western gold mine, comes East and falls in love with the rather wild Elizabeth Vandegrift.
Before Midnight
Mavis Fry
A detective tries to figure out who killed a man who predicted his own death.
Only Yesterday
Mrs. Vincent (Uncredited)
On the back of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, a young business man is about to commit suicide. With the note to his wife scribbled down and a gun in his hand, he notices a thick envelope addressed to him at the desk. As he begin to read, we're taken back to the days of WW1 and his meeting with a young woman named Mary Lane.
Pilgrimage
Janet Prescot
A mother from Arkansas is very possessive of her grown son. To prevent him from getting married she has him drafted into WW I.
Tom Brown of Culver
Dolores Delight
Boy who thought his father a war hero finds he was really a deserter.
Lena Rivers
Mathilda Nichols
Young Lena Rivers, who was born out of wedlock, goes to live with a rich uncle. Unfortunately, her uncle's wife and daughter make no secret of their dislike of Lena and that they don't want her in their family.
Stars of Yesterday
Self
Stars of Yesterday documentary film.
Stolen Love
Modiste
The story of a girl whose past casts a shadow over her future happiness with the man who loves her. How much of her past must a girl tell the man she wants to marry?
Sisters of Eve
Glorious Betsy
Princess Fredericka
Vitaphone production reels #2471-2478; third Warner Bros. feature film - the first being The Jazz Singer and the second Tenderloin - to include talking sequences, along with the by now usual Vitaphone musical score and sound effects. A copy of this film survives at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., but the sound disks are lost.
Domestic Troubles
Carrie
A Silent film comedy directed by Ray Enright.
A Million Bid
Mrs. Gordon
To satisfy her controlling mother and secure both of their futures, a daughter hesitantly enters a loveless marriage to a wealthy businessman. Years later, after she has uncovered and overcome her mother's deceptions and manipulations, her newfound happiness is threatened with the appearance of a mysterious "man from the sea."
Snowbound
Julia Barry
Assuming he is marrying a wealthy girl, Peter Foley passes a fraudulent check. To save him from jail, Julia Barry poses as his wife. Peter is actually in love with Alice Blake. He encounters complications with motorcycle cop Bull, who is engaged to Julia. A friend of Alice adds to the mix-up. All wind up snowbound together in a mountain lodge.
She
Ayesha
Mr. Blackwell discovers a relic that informs him about Blythe (as Ayesha, or "She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed"), who loved his father and others in the ancestral line. Blackwell accompanies pal Heinrich George and handyman Tom Reynolds to Arabia.
Percy
Lolita
Western melodrama about a sheltered youth who makes his way out West by playing the fiddle.
Folly of Vanity
Mrs. Ridgeway (modern sequence)
This drama had two directors: Maurice Elvey handled most of the film, but the fantasy sequence was directed by Henry Otto. Newlyweds Alice and Robert are already having differences over money. He gets angry at her extravagances, especially when she spends more than they can afford on an imitation pearl necklace. Ridgeway, a client of Robert's, invites the couple to a party. Robert wants to decline, but Alice insists that they go. Ridgeway loans Alice a real pearl necklace, to "restore their lustre," and everyone heads for his yacht. Ridgeway pays Alice a lot of attention, while a young widow tries to vamp Robert.
In Hollywood with Potash and Perlmutter
Rita Sismondi
A sequel of sorts, the Jewish ethnic comedy characters of Potash and Perlmutter return from their 1923 debut film, also produced by Goldwyn, but with a different actor for Potash.
Chu-Chin-Chow
Zahrat
In Baghdad a girl escapes from a robber sheikh and thwarts a plot to rob a merchant.
The Truth About Wives
Helen Frazer
The Truth About Wives is a 1923 silent film.
How Women Love
Rosa Roma
silent drama featuring Betty Blythe, Robert Frazer, and Gladys Hulette
Fair Lady
Countess Margherita
Countess Margherita is a Sicilian girl who is about to be married, but Caesar Maruffi, the head of a criminal syndicate, wants her for himself. He arranges to have the bridegroom assassinated, and Norvin Blake, a young American (Robert Elliott), almost loses his life in his attempt to save him.
Disraeli
The story of British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli and the purchase by England of the Suez Canal.
Charge It
Mille Garreth
A woman's excessive spending brings difficulty to her family.
The Queen of Sheba
Queen of Sheba
The story of the ill-fated romance between Solomon, king of Israel, and the Queen of Sheba.
Nomads of the North
Nanette
A Canadian Mountie allows an innocent fugitive to escape with the women he loves.
The Silver Horde
Mildred Wayland
A young man who has proven a failure in business goes to Alaska and enters the salmon-fishing industry, in direct competition with the father of the woman he loves.
Burnt Wings
Helen
Struggling artist Ned Templeton and his wife Joan are leading a poverty-stricken life in Paris. Threatened by starvation and eviction, Joan is forced to become a prostitute. After some time, Ned becomes successful, and he and Joan move to New York. There he meets Helen, daughter of wealthy art patron James Cartwright. Cartwright was the man who "bought" Joan in Paris, and when he learns that his daughter's happiness depends upon Ned's divorce, he threatens to expose Joan.
The Undercurrent
Mariska
Jack Duncan returns from the war in France to his wife and baby and learns that his job as a draftsman at the Loring Steel Mills has been taken. Given work in the machine shop, Jack becomes the prey of Red agitators who want him because of his popularity with soldiers. The Reds cause Jack's discharge just when his house payments come due, and when they convince him of the injustice of his situation, he joins their ranks. After learning of plans to burn the factory and Loring's home, and start a riot in the town, Jack is won over by a socialist's arguments advocating mild reforms. At a meeting of workingmen, Jack praises Americanism. He warns Loring and, with soldiers at a nearby camp, quells the riot. After a woman agitator kills her comrades and then shoots herself, Jack arrives home to save his wife from an attack by a Red ringleader. Jack is then made a foreman at the mill.
Beating the Odds
Hebe Norse
Beating the Odds
Over the Top
Madame Arnot
The film is based on a book of the same name by Arthur Guy Empey, detailing his service as an American volunteer with the British Army on the Western Front.
Slander
The wife of attorney John Blair (T. Jerome Lawler), heroine Helene (Kalich) finds herself in an untenable position when two of Blair's clients, Harry Carson (Robert Rendel)) and Richard Tremaine (Eugene Ormonde), both fall in love with her.