Reginald Denny (Reginald Leigh Dugmore, 1891-1967) and Sam Hardy (1883-1935) in THE NIGHT BIRD (1928), Denny’s last silent film.
Samuel B. Hardy was a Yale man (1905x); he left college to go on stage, and made his Broadway début in THE FORTUNES OF THE KING (1904-5). He supported Douglas Fairbanks and Irene Fenwick in HAWTHORNE OF THE U.S.A. (1912) and appeared in the ZIEGFELD FOLLIES OF 1916 with Fanny Brice, Ina Claire, and Marion Davies.
Marion Davies (Marion Cecilia Douras, 1897-1961) by Ira L. Hill (1876-1947).
She first appeared on Broadway in Charles Dillingham’s CHIN CHIN (1914) as a member of the Ensemble. After a named role in NOBODY HOME (1915), she returned to the chorus for Dillingham’s MISS INFORMATION (1915), then another named part in STOP! LOOK! LISTEN! (1915-16). She had finally arrived, joining the 1916 ZIEGFELD FOLLIES with Ina Claire and Fanny Brice.
Photo by Ruth Harriet Louise, MGM’s chief portrait photographer 1925-30.
Legend has it that Marion Davies met William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951) during the run of the 1916 FOLLIES; in the latter half of the decade Hearst took firm control of her career. More than three decades her senior, the heir to great wealth who had gone on to make even more, he had ample confidence in his own judgment as he wagered several fortunes on this lovely, stammering beauty — a mimic and a comedian, whom Hearst wished to mold into another one of those stately Ziegfeld dolls.
Elizabeth Brice (Bessie Shaler, 1885-1965) by White Studios.
Brice — no relation to Fanny, a Ziegfeld perennial — made her Broadway début in Lee and J. J. Shubert’s THE SOCIAL WHIRL (1906 and 1907); she appeared in the ZIEGFELD FOLLIES of 1913, although the IBDb page for the show does not list her part.
Her Wikipedia page emphasizes her partnership in this period with Charles King (1886-1944), who would later appear in THE BROADWAY MELODY (1929, where he introduced the song “You Were Meant for Me”), THE HOLLYWOOD REVIEW OF 1929 (“Orange Blossom Time”), and CHASING RAINBOWS (1930, “Happy Days are Here Again”). In 1930, Brice and King recorded a dozen duets for the Victor, Columbia, and Brunswick record labels.
