Extraordinary Woman: Film Star Marion Davies (1897-1961)

Her story has overtones of Pygmalion, and while it led to a 35-year relationship, it had a far from happy ending. Her Henry Higgins was William Randolph Hearst. In 1916, he saw her, a 19-year-old performing in the Ziegfeld Follies. He was 53. She became his mistress until hs death in 1951, hostess to A-list visitors for years in the castle he built on a hill at San Simeon.

Marion Davies was blonde and beautiful, a gifted mimic and an actor with great comedic talent. Hearst took over her career, steered her into film, produced her movies through his company Cosmopolitan Pictures, financed them and used his media empire to publicize her work. In the 1920s, she was a top box-office draw.

So what went wrong? Why has she been diminished and forgotten, unlike other top clasic cinema stars who were her contemporaries? Hearst may have built her career as a film star, but his influence did not always favour her talents. And her reputation, in the end, was destroyed by the 1941 film Citizen Kane in which she never appeared.

Learn more about Marion Davies on Sunday, March 30, 12:30 pm at the Revue Cinema. We are screening the documentary Captured on Film: The True Story of Marion Davies with special guest Christina Stewart from U of T’s Media Commons Archives. She has a particular interest in the history and films of Cosmopolitan, Hearst’s company, which produced more than 40 of Davies' films.

The event is one in Back Lane Studios' series about Extraordinary Women, presented in partnership with the Revue Cinema.

More about the Film:

Narrated by Charlize Theron, Captured on Film: The True Story of Marion Davies combines archival film clips, interviews and rare home movies to explore her life and work.

Released in 2001, 57 min. Directed by Hugh Munro Neely.

Host or Publisher Back Lane Studios