Dorothy Gibson

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Dorothy Gibson
Gibson in a 1911 publicity photo
Born
Dorothy Winifred Brown

(1889-05-17)May 17, 1889
Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S.
DiedFebruary 17, 1946(1946-02-17) (aged 56)
Paris, France
Occupation(s)Model, actress and singer
Years active1906–1917
Spouses
  • George Henry Battier, Jr.
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1910; div. 1913)​
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1917; div. 1919)​

Dorothy Gibson (born Dorothy Winifred Brown; May 17, 1889 – February 17, 1946) was an American actress, socialite and

Titanic and starred in the first motion picture based on the disaster
.

Early life and career

Dorothy Gibson as illustrated by Harrison Fisher, 1911

Dorothy Gibson was born on May 17, 1889, to John A. Brown and Pauline Caroline Boesen as Dorothy Winifred Brown in

Hippodrome Theatre.[3]

In 1909, the year before she married George Henry Battier, Jr.,

Saturday Evening Post.[6]
Dorothy was widely publicized during this time as "The Original Harrison Fisher Girl".

Dorothy soon separated from Battier, though the two were not divorced until 1913.

Film career

Represented by top theatrical agent Pat Casey, Dorothy entered movies in early 1911, joining the

Éclair Studios in July 1911. She was an instant hit with audiences, becoming one of the first actresses in the new medium of film to be promoted as a "star" in her own right.[7] Praised for a natural, subtle acting style, she was particularly effective as a comedian in such popular one-reelers as Miss Masquerader (1911) and Love Finds a Way (1912), all of which were produced at Fort Lee, New Jersey, then the center of the burgeoning American motion picture industry.[8]

RMS Titanic

Despite her popularity in comedies, one of Dorothy's most important parts was that of Molly Pitcher in the historical drama Hands Across the Sea (1911), Eclair Studios' debut vehicle and Gibson's first star turn.[9]

Titanic disaster and first film based on it

Dorothy Gibson's most famous screen role was that of herself in

films about the event.[10]

Saved From the Titanic
 (1912), dressed in the same sweater she wore the night of the sinking

The Titanic is the best known aspect of Dorothy's life. After a six-week vacation in

Lifeboat #7, the first lifeboat launched.[11] After arriving in New York on the rescue ship Carpathia, Dorothy was persuaded by her manager to appear in a film based on the sinking. She not only starred in the one-reel drama but also wrote the screenplay. She even appeared in the same clothing she had worn aboard the Titanic that night—a white silk evening dress topped with a cardigan and polo coat.[12]

Although Saved From the Titanic was a tremendous success in America, Britain, and France,[13] the only known prints were destroyed in a 1914 fire at the Eclair Studios in New Jersey.[14] The loss of the motion picture is considered by film historians to be one of the greatest of the silent era.[15] Dorothy Gibson's other accomplishments in early cinema included starring in one of the first feature films made in the United States (Hands Across the Sea, 1911), co-starring in the first American-produced serial or chapter play (The Revenge of the Silk Masks, 1912), and making one of the first-ever public appearances by a movie personality (January 1912).[16]

With contemporary

Metropolitan Opera House in Madame Sans-Gene
(1915).

Personal life

Dorothy Gibson, the second Mrs. Jules Brulatour

In 1911, Dorothy Gibson began a six-year love affair with married movie tycoon

Eastman Kodak and co-founder of Universal Pictures. Brulatour was also an advisor and producer for Eclair; he backed several of Gibson's films, including her 1912 hit Saved From the Titanic. A year later, while driving Brulatour's sports car in New York, Dorothy struck and killed a pedestrian. During the resulting court case, it was revealed in the press that she was his mistress. Although Brulatour was already separated from his wife, the humiliation of the scandal motivated her to sue him for divorce, which was finalized in 1915.[18]
Brulatour's rising fame and political power forced him to legitimize his relationship with Dorothy Gibson, and the pair were finally married in 1917.

Its legality challenged, the union was dissolved two years later as an invalid contract. To escape gossip and start a new life, Dorothy left New York for Paris, where she remained, except for the four years she spent in Italy during World War II. Brulatour married film actress Hope Hampton in 1923.

Later life

A

Fiamme Verdi, Father Giovanni Barbareschi.[19]

Living in France, in 1946, Dorothy died of a stroke in her apartment at the

Saint Germain-en-Laye Cemetery. Gibson's estate was divided between her lover, Emilio Antonio Ramos, press attaché
for the Spanish Embassy in Paris, and her mother, who lived until 1961 when she too was found dead in a Paris hotel room.

Dorthy Gibson in the 1912 film A Lucky Holdup

Legacy

Dorothy Gibson's only surviving film is the adventure-comedy A Lucky Holdup [it] (1912).[20] Salvaged by collectors David and Margo Navone in 2001, it was preserved by the American Film Institute and is now archived at the Library of Congress.

The character of Susan Alexander in

General della Rovere, which was turned into an award-winning film by director Roberto Rossellini
in 1959.

Titanic
that commemorated the centenary of the disaster.

Authors Don Lynch and John P. Eaton were the first contemporary historians to rediscover Dorothy Gibson, writing and lecturing about her as early as the 1980s. The first in-depth study of Dorothy's mysterious later life was conducted by Phillip Gowan and published in the journal of the British Titanic Society in 2002.

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1911 A Show Girl's Stratagem
The Angel of the Slums
Good For Evil
Hands Across the Sea in '76 Grace Deane
Miss Masquerader Heiress
The Musician's Daughter Prima Donna
The Wrong Bottle The Bride
1912 Divorçons The Wife
Mamie Bolton
Love Finds a Way Helen
The Awakening The Sweetheart
The Guardian Angel The Wife
Getting Dad Married Ellen
Bridge
The Kodak Contest The Wife
It Pays to Be Kind The Sister
A Living Memory Her Memory
Brooms and Dustpans Kissing Cousin
The White Aprons
A Lucky Holdup [it] Miss Barton
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
The Easter Bonnet Dora
Revenge of the Silk Masks Society Girl
Saved from the Titanic Miss Dorothy Alternative title: A Survivor of the Titanic
Screenwriter
Roses and Thorns

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ Phillip Gowan and Brian Meister, "The Saga of the Gibson Women," Atlantic Daily Bulletin (2002), vol. 3, p. 10; Daughtry, Greg. "For One Jersey Passenger, Survival Brought a Flicker of Silent-Film Stardom", New Jersey Monthly, March 12, 2012. Accessed February 6, 2013.
  2. ^ New York Dramatic Mirror, "Gossip of the Studios," August 9, 1911, p. 21
  3. ^ Bigham, pp. 8-10
  4. ^ Gowan and Meister, vol. 3, p. 10
  5. ^ Billboard Magazine, "Dorothy Gibson: The Harrison Fisher Girl with the New American Eclair Stock Co.," November 11, 1911, p. 14
  6. ^ Magazine cover art by Harrison Fisher featuring Dorothy Gibson includes the Saturday Evening Post (April 8, 1911), Cosmopolitan (June and July 1911) and Ladies' Home Journal (June 1912)
  7. ^ "Dorothy Gibson," Moving Picture News, November 18, 1911, p. 8
  8. ^ "A New Star in the Picture Firmament," Moving Picture World, December 2, 1911, p. 720
  9. ^ Bigham, pp. 28–32
  10. ^ Frank Thompson, Lost Films (1996), pp. 12–18
  11. ^ Walter Lord, A Night to Remember (1955), p. 53
  12. ^ Chauncey L. Parsons, "Dorothy Gibson From the Titanic: An Account of the Shipwreck by an Actress who Went Through it," New York Dramatic Mirror, May 1, 1912, p. 13
  13. ^ Cine-Journal, June 29, 1912, p. 32
  14. ^ 17 March 1914 studio fire at Eclair Films America, Fort Lee, NJ. "Eclair American Company". Fort Lee Film Commission. Archived from the original on April 25, 2011. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  15. ^ Thompson, p. 18
  16. ^ Bigham, pp. 28, 50, 42
  17. ^ "Auto Suit is Settled," New York Times, May 22, 1913, p. 2
  18. ^ "Wants Her Income Assured," New York Times, April 23, 1915, p. 19
  19. ^ Barbareschi, Giovanni, "Montanelli In fuga da S. Vittore verso la liberta," Il Segno, Oct. 2001, pp. 38–40
  20. ^ "Dorothy Gibson in The Lucky Holdup". Encyclopedia Titanica. December 18, 2018.

References

External links
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