January 17, 1915, is a special day for Edna Purviance. It was the day her photograph appeared in one of the largest newspapers in San Francisco, The Examiner.
On January 9, 1915, Edna Purviance attended the grand ball at the opening of the San Francisco Civic Center Exhibition Auditorium. It was a huge affair, with over 20,000 people attending. Edna was one of them.
After the event, the Examiner started running stories, showing photographs of people who attended. The photos showed on the Society page.
On this day, in 1915, Edna's picture appeared in the paper. The paper wasn't only seen in San Francisco, but thanks to the trains, it appeared in many cities across the US. Lovelock, Nevada had their edition soon after its release. The whole town was overrun with excitement in seeing their Edna, in the SF paper!
But their excitement was only beginning. Monday, Edna went to work, as usual, not knowing that she was about to meet a famous young filmmaker looking for a new leading lady.
UPDATE: Today is also Mack Sennett's birthday! If it wasn't for Mack signing Chaplin for Keystone films, we might have never seen Edna (or Chaplin in films, for that matter). After Chaplin's success with Keystone in 1914, he signed with Essanay in 1915.
NOTE: If you own The Sea Gull, it is on page 8. Or you can see a flash version of the page at this link. Edna was the biggest picture on the page, filling nearly half the right hand side. Her name was listed on the back side of this page. Her hometown was bubbling with excitement about this. Personally, I think it has something to do with Edna being found so fast after this release.
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Edna's Date in History:
January 16, 1958 - Edna's funeral was held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. It was a small private affair. Due to recovering from a serious illness, Lita Hill could not attend. Edna did receive a pay check from Mr. Chaplin until her passing.
3 comments:
Is there a picture of Edna available from that day from a copy of the Examiner, Linda?
Odd how dates sometimes run together in a life - many decades later Edna closed out her life in the same time period as it began to open up ...
Yes. I have it on my Edna and Charlie story and have it linked in this posting. I placed into a flash piece to keep people was posting it everywhere.
Also, it is in The Sea Gull book on page 8.
This picture was huge, because the newspapers in 1915 were much larger than any papers made today.
She was one of the few people shown full body, while many others were cropped. Her name was listed on the back page in the article. Her local paper made a big mention about it! They were super excited!
Note to everyone reading: The days and dates of 2010, line up exacting with the days and dates of 1915.
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