Hello one and all!
Today the topic is the tragic story of Hollywood actress Barbara La Marr. A lot of people think celebrity struggles are a recent development but that has not been the case.
In January 1913 a 16-year old girl named Reatha Watson disappeared from the Los Angeles apartment that she shared with her parents. Suspicions centred on the girl’s half-sister Violet and her already married paramour C.C. Boxley, who were also nowhere to be found. The whole state was turned upside down while newspapers ran headlines like “Beautiful Girl Disappears”. Three days later Reatha mysteriously reappeared and declared that she had been deceived by the “monstrous” C.C. Boxley, though when the other two, Violet and Boxley, were finally found they sang quite a different song. They said she wanted to get away from her parents and the case against them were dropped because of a lack of evidence.
Returning to Los Angeles after a stint in El Centro with her parents, Reatha told reporters that she had been kidnapped again, by a rich rancher called Jack Lytelle and that they had run away to Mexico and were married. The mysterious Jack Lytelle died from pneumonia only two months into their marriage according to her. This story may have been spun by Reatha because under Californian law daughters were bound to their parent’s authority until they were 18, unless they were married.
She was sent back to El Centro for being “dangerously beautiful” but returned to Los Angeles, parents in tow in 1914. At a party of a friend the teenage would-be actor met Max, a wealthy Mexican cattle rancher, and even though they only met twice, they promptly married. A horrified Amelia Converse learned of the news, aghast because she was Max’s wife with two baby boys and his real name was in actual fact Lawrence Converse. Lawrence was charged with bigamy and Reatha was sucked into notoriety again. Doctors were of the opinion that that the only reason for this behaviour was due to pressure on his brain (resulting from hitting his head in a swimming pool) and to relieve it they had to perform trepanation, which Lawrence agreed to, but he died as a result of it.
After years on the road, Reatha returned to Los Angeles with the new name Barabara La Marr, to hide her controversial past. She got a lucrative contract from Fox to write five screenplays after her first story was accepted, even though she had no previous writing experience except for poetry that were published in magazines. Later on she also did really well in screen tests, and she made her breakthrough as an actress in the blockbuster The Three Musketeers alongside star Douglas Fairbanks. During the filming of Souls for Sale in 1923 she sprained her ankle though and the studio doctors gave her heroin so that they didn’t need to stop filming. She became completely addicted to drugs, to such a degree that her son Don Gallery recalled that she kept cocaine in a container on the piano, calling it her “joy powder”.
She died on Jan. 30, 1926, her parents by her side though, at 29 years old. Many people were still unaware of what really led to her death, thinking vigorous dieting was the cause.
Today the topic is the tragic story of Hollywood actress Barbara La Marr. A lot of people think celebrity struggles are a recent development but that has not been the case.
In January 1913 a 16-year old girl named Reatha Watson disappeared from the Los Angeles apartment that she shared with her parents. Suspicions centred on the girl’s half-sister Violet and her already married paramour C.C. Boxley, who were also nowhere to be found. The whole state was turned upside down while newspapers ran headlines like “Beautiful Girl Disappears”. Three days later Reatha mysteriously reappeared and declared that she had been deceived by the “monstrous” C.C. Boxley, though when the other two, Violet and Boxley, were finally found they sang quite a different song. They said she wanted to get away from her parents and the case against them were dropped because of a lack of evidence.
Returning to Los Angeles after a stint in El Centro with her parents, Reatha told reporters that she had been kidnapped again, by a rich rancher called Jack Lytelle and that they had run away to Mexico and were married. The mysterious Jack Lytelle died from pneumonia only two months into their marriage according to her. This story may have been spun by Reatha because under Californian law daughters were bound to their parent’s authority until they were 18, unless they were married.
She was sent back to El Centro for being “dangerously beautiful” but returned to Los Angeles, parents in tow in 1914. At a party of a friend the teenage would-be actor met Max, a wealthy Mexican cattle rancher, and even though they only met twice, they promptly married. A horrified Amelia Converse learned of the news, aghast because she was Max’s wife with two baby boys and his real name was in actual fact Lawrence Converse. Lawrence was charged with bigamy and Reatha was sucked into notoriety again. Doctors were of the opinion that that the only reason for this behaviour was due to pressure on his brain (resulting from hitting his head in a swimming pool) and to relieve it they had to perform trepanation, which Lawrence agreed to, but he died as a result of it.
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| Reatha developed a passion for reading and writing, and before her life as an iconic Hollywood actress, had landed a lucrative contract with Fox for writing movie screenplays. |
After years on the road, Reatha returned to Los Angeles with the new name Barabara La Marr, to hide her controversial past. She got a lucrative contract from Fox to write five screenplays after her first story was accepted, even though she had no previous writing experience except for poetry that were published in magazines. Later on she also did really well in screen tests, and she made her breakthrough as an actress in the blockbuster The Three Musketeers alongside star Douglas Fairbanks. During the filming of Souls for Sale in 1923 she sprained her ankle though and the studio doctors gave her heroin so that they didn’t need to stop filming. She became completely addicted to drugs, to such a degree that her son Don Gallery recalled that she kept cocaine in a container on the piano, calling it her “joy powder”.
Barbara liked to host and be the life of a party. Her favourite trick was to switch off the lights, letting intoxicated guests become intimate, and then later switch on the lights back on, revealing their undressed bodies and sheepish expressions. She is also reported to have said that she takes lovers by the dozen, like roses.
The combination of cocaine, heroin and strict dieting wreaked havoc on her body but she kept on working until 1925, when she had a “nervous breakdown”.
After rallying she collapsed on the set of filming The Girl From Montmartre in November 1925. Still seemingly undaunted, she invited reporters into her sick room, where she whispered to them:
“Hello everybody, I’m getting better. … I’ll be all right pretty soon. It gets awfully tiresome sometimes but I’ll be all right. … I’ll be all right.”
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| The actress addressing reporters from her sick bed. |
She died on Jan. 30, 1926, her parents by her side though, at 29 years old. Many people were still unaware of what really led to her death, thinking vigorous dieting was the cause.
Thank you for reading! On a sidenote, I'll be posting less frequently so that I can spend more time on an article, to make it really interesting to you, my discerning reader.
Sources:
Barbara La Marr: The Girl Who Was Too Beautiful for Hollywood
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