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=== The silent era === ==== 1915–20: Young ingenue ==== [[File:Bessie Love as Hulda in The Flying Torpedo.jpg|thumb|Love as Hulda, the Swedish maid, in ''[[The Flying Torpedo]]'' (1916), her second onscreen appearance]] In June 1915, while a student at [[Los Angeles High School]], Horton went to the set of a film to meet with actor [[Tom Mix]], who had recommended that she visit him if she wanted to "get into pictures".{{sfn|Love|1977|p=25}} However, when Mix was unavailable, she was advised to meet with pioneering film director [[D.W. Griffith]],{{sfn|Love|1977|p=25}} who placed her under personal contract.<ref name="dunham" /> When it was decided that her given name was too long for theater marquees and too difficult to pronounce,<ref name="nostranger" /> Griffith's associate [[Frank E. Woods|Frank Woods]] gave Horton the stage name Bessie Love:<ref name="filmdope33">{{cite magazine|magazine=Film Dope|last=Surowiec|first=Catherine A.|title=Bessie Love|issue=36|date=Feb 1987|pages=33–36}}</ref>{{sfn|Love|1977|p=25}} "Bessie, because any child can pronounce it. And Love, because we want everyone to love her!"<ref name="nostranger" /> Love dropped out of high school to pursue her film career, but she completed her diploma in 1919.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/motionpicturemag18moti/page/n199|page=104|title=Little Whisperings from Everywhere in Playerdom|magazine=Motion Picture Magazine|date=September 1919|volume=18|issue=8}}</ref> Griffith gave her a small role in his ''[[Intolerance (film)|Intolerance]]'' (1916). Although ''Intolerance'' was her first performance to be filmed, it was her ninth film to be released.<ref name="nostranger" /> The first films Love made were with Griffith's [[Fine Arts Film Company|Fine Arts]] company, yet ''Intolerance'' was the only film that he formally directed.{{efn|At Fine Arts, other directors would direct the films, but Griffith would direct the final rehearsal before filming.<ref name="dunham" />}} Her "first role of importance"<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Bessie Love's Popularity Growing|page=1233|magazine=[[The Moving Picture World]]|date=March 1, 1919|url=https://archive.org/details/movwor39chal/page/1232}}</ref>—in the second of her films to be released—was in ''[[The Flying Torpedo]]'' (1916). She later appeared opposite [[William S. Hart]] in ''[[The Aryan]]'' and with [[Douglas Fairbanks]] in ''[[The Good Bad-Man]]'', ''[[Reggie Mixes In]]'', and ''[[The Mystery of the Leaping Fish]]'' (all 1916). This string of appearances and supporting roles led to her first starring role, in ''[[A Sister of Six (1916 film)|A Sister of Six]]'' (1916).<ref name="dunham" /> In her early career, she was likened to [[Mary Pickford]],{{sfn|Side|1980|p=[https://archive.org/details/kindergartenofmo0000slid/page/84 84]}} and was called "Our Mary" by Griffith.{{sfn|Side|1980|pp=[https://archive.org/details/kindergartenofmo0000slid/page/12 12]–13}} In early 1918, Love left Fine Arts for a better contract with [[Pathé Exchange|Pathé]].<ref name="dunham" /> After the Pathé films were unsuccessful,<ref name="dunham" /> she signed a nine-film contract with [[Vitagraph Studios|Vitagraph]] later that year,{{efn|All nine films with Vitagraph were made: 1918's ''[[The Dawn of Understanding]]''; 1919's ''[[The Enchanted Barn]]'', ''[[The Wishing Ring Man]]'', ''[[A Yankee Princess]]'', ''[[The Little Boss]]'', ''[[Cupid Forecloses]]'', ''[[Over the Garden Wall (1919 film)|Over the Garden Wall]]'', and ''[[A Fighting Colleen]]''; and 1920's ''[[Pegeen (film)|Pegeen]]''.}}<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/motionpicturenew18moti_7/page/3146|magazine=Motion Picture News|title=Vitagraph|page=3146|date=November 30, 1918}}</ref> all of which were directed by [[David Smith (director)|David Smith]]. Her performances often received positive reviews, but her films often were shown at smaller [[movie theater]]s, which impacted the growth of her career.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Photo-Play Journal|date=April 1919|page=36|title=The Silent Trend|first=Bert D.|last=Essex|url=https://archive.org/details/photoplayjournal03cent/page/n221}}</ref> ==== 1921–28: Dramatic actress ==== Upon the completion of her Vitagraph contract, Love became a free agent. She took an active role in the management of her career, and was represented by Gerald C. Duffy, the former editor of ''[[Picture Play (magazine)|Picture-Play Magazine]]''.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Photo-Play Journal|date=February 1919|title=Cinema Truth in Flashes|page=46|url=https://archive.org/details/photoplayjournal03cent/page/n115}}</ref> [[File:Bessie Love and Victory Bateman in Human Wreckage.jpg|thumb|With [[Victory Bateman]] in ''[[Human Wreckage]]'' (1923)]] Love sought roles that were different from the little girls she had portrayed earlier in her career when under contract to studios. She played Asian women in ''[[The Vermilion Pencil]]'' (1922) and ''[[The Purple Dawn]]'' (1923); a drug-addicted mother in ''[[Human Wreckage]]'' (1923); a woman accused of murder in ''[[The Woman on the Jury]]'' (1924); an underworld flapper in ''[[Those Who Dance (1924 film)|Those Who Dance]]'' (1924); and versions of her real-life self in ''[[Night Life in Hollywood]]'' (1922), ''[[Souls for Sale]]'' (1923), and ''[[Mary of the Movies]]'' (1923). As a film star, she was expected to entertain studio executives at parties, so she learned to sing, dance, and play the ukulele.<ref>{{cite news|title=Stagestruck? Who, Me?|first=Bessie|last=Love|date=November 20, 1967|newspaper=[[The Christian Science Monitor]]|page=8}}</ref> She gradually honed these skills and later performed them onscreen and on the stage.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/photoplayjournal03cent/page/n79|title=Hobnobbing with Bessie Love|magazine=Photo-Play Journal|pages=11, 56|date=February 1919}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Ukuleles Are Popular Among Hollywood Stars: Alfred Santell, Irene Rich, and Bessie Love Among Exponents|newspaper=[[The Baltimore Sun|The Sun]]|location=Baltimore, MD|date=2 Nov 1930|page=MR3|quote=Bessie Love and the uke have always been associated.}}</ref> Because of her performance in ''[[The King on Main Street]]'' (1925), Love is credited with being the first person to dance [[Charleston (dance)|the Charleston]] on film,<ref>In ''The King on Main Street'': * {{cite news|newspaper=[[The Harvard Crimson]]|title=Crimson Playgoer: The Metropolitan Opens Its Doors to an Unlimited Public and a Very Fair Opening Attraction|date=October 21, 1925|url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1925/10/21/crimson-playgoer-pwith-the-coming-of/|quote=Bessie Love too, who does a very jazzy version of the Charleston}} * {{cite magazine|magazine=Theatre Magazine|date=January 1926|quote=…it is memorable … for the fact that Bessie Love gives a perfect exhibition of the Charleston, proving that it can be danced with extreme grace and agility, and yet without a single hint of wriggling vulgarity. We hereby award Miss Love the palm as the greatest Charleston expert on the screen if not on the stage{{spaced ndash}}which is by way of being a miracle, for ordinarily a film dance looks as silly as the capering of goats.|title=The King on Main Street}}</ref> popularizing it in the United States. Her technique was documented in instructional guides,<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Everybody's Doing It Now; Bessie Love Shows You How|magazine=Photoplay|date=October 1925|url=https://archive.org/details/photoplay2829movi/page/n455|pages=32–3}}</ref> including a series of photographs by [[Edward Steichen]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.boston.com/community/photos/raw/articles/2009/07/19/edward_steichen_exhibits_showcase_breadth_of_photographers_career/?page=full|newspaper=[[The Boston Globe]]|title=Steichen: A man for all styles{{spaced ndash}}Exhibits showcase breadth of his career|first=Mark|last=Feeney| author-link=Mark Feeney |date=July 19, 2009}}</ref> She subsequently performed the dance the following year in ''[[The Song and Dance Man]]''.<ref>In ''The Song and Dance Man'': * {{cite magazine|magazine=The Film Daily|volume=35|issue=30|title=Newspaper Opinions|date=February 5, 1926|page=8|url=https://archive.org/details/filmdaily3536newy|quote=The picture is well worth viewing, however, if for no other reason than to watch Bessie Love dance the Charleston.}} * {{cite magazine|magazine=The Cornell Daily Sun|volume=XLVI|issue=134|date=25 March 1926|url=http://cdsun.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/cornell?a=d&d=CDS19260325.2.42&srpos=&st=0&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN------#|title=Stage and Screen|page=4|quote=Bessie Love is well cast as the girl{{spaced ndash}}she surely can do the Charleston.}} * {{cite news|newspaper=[[Reading Eagle|Reading Times]]|title=George M. Cohan's 'Song and Dance Man' Comes to State|date=March 22, 1926|page=8|location=Reading, Pennsylvania|quote=Bessie Love, the diminutive film favorite and the screen's foremost exponent of the 'Charleston,' is happily cast as the small time performer who eventually wins fame and fortune in the musical comedy field.}} * {{cite news|newspaper=[[The Gettysburg Times]]|location=Gettysburg, Pennsylvania|page=6|title=Lincoln Way Theatre|date=August 31, 1926|quote=See Bessie Love, the screen's Charleston champ, strut her stuff!}}</ref> In 1925, she starred in ''[[The Lost World (1925 film)|The Lost World]]'', a science fiction adventure based on [[The Lost World (Conan Doyle novel)|the novel of the same title]] by [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle]]. In 1927, she appeared in the successful ''[[Dress Parade]]'', and was so impressed by her experiences on location that she wrote the unpublished novel ''Military Mary''.<ref>{{cite book|title=Military Mary|first=Bessie|last=Love|date=1929|oclc=37148006}}</ref> A year later, she starred in ''[[The Matinee Idol (1928 film)|The Matinee Idol]]'', a romantic comedy directed by a young [[Frank Capra]]. Despite these successes, Love's career was on the decline.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://archive.org/details/newmoviemagazine01weir/page/n31|pages=28, 124|work=The New Movie Magazine|title=Snappy Comebacks|first=Walter|last=Winchell| author-link=Walter Winchell |date=December 1929}}</ref> She lived frugally so she could afford lessons in singing and dancing.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/picturep31stre/page/n375|magazine=Picture Play|page=116|title=Must a Star 'Go Hollywood'?|first=Myrtle|last=Gebhart|volume=31|issue=2|date=October 1929}}</ref>
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