Dorothy Seastrom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article is orphaned as few or no other articles link to it. Please help introduce links in articles on related topics. (October 2006) |
Dorothy Seastrom (March 16, 1903 - January 31, 1930) was a motion picture actress from Dallas, Texas.
Contents |
[edit] Contest Winner
She won a beauty contest in competition with fourteen other girls. They vied to be named the perfect 1925 model. It was erroneously reported that Seastrom was originally from Norway. She was an un-bobbed blonde of uncommon beauty.
[edit] Brief Stardom
Seastrom's film career began in 1923 with the role of Eleanor Harmon in The Call of the Canyon. The film was directed by Victor Fleming. Her first screen work was in comedies. Later she acted under the direction of Cecil B. Demille. She signed a five year contract with First National Pictures in September 1925. Seastrom was affectionately called the Candy Kid at First National because of her taffy colored hair. Like many First National stars, she had an antifat clause written into her contract. Her weight was listed as 117 pounds. The studio stipulated a deadline weight of 140 pounds.
She appeared in The Perfect Flapper with Colleen Moore and Classified with Corinne Griffith. Seastrom barely avoided a potentially disfiguring accident during the filming of We Moderns (1925). A shower of sparks from a short-circuited light fell upon her hair and shoulders at the United Studios. Seastrom escaped injury when assistant director James Dunne grabbed a table cloth from a prop table and covered the actress' head. Electricians shut off the power to a light which hung from the fly gallery above the scene. Seastrom made a full recovery from the burns she sustained. She returned to complete the John Francis Dillon directed film.
[edit] Untimely Death
She began to gain success after several years of working as an extra (actor). Suddenly her declining health became an issue. She returned to Dallas for a rest in the fall of 1925. While there she became ill. Physicians ordered her to a rest sanitorium for several months. It was feared that if she continued working, she would be forced out of movies completely. First National management agreed to hold the starting date of her contract temporarily, until she regained her health. She lost a role in Irene (1926), which she was scheduled to make with Moore. Her frail strength and a hard work regimine left her a victim of tuberculosis.
Seastrom was taken by her husband to a sanitorium in the hills of California. Actress Barbara LaMarr was a patient there at the time. LaMarr grew weaker while Seastrom seemed to regain her health. In 1926 Seastrom returned to Hollywood to make Delicatessen with Moore. Her final film role was in It Must Be Love (1926).
Dorothy Seastrom died of tuberculosis in Dallas in 1930.
[edit] References
- Charleston Gazette, Dorothy Seastrom On For Long Term, September 27, 1925, Page 35.
- Frederick Daily News, She Just Worships Vikings, Tuesday, March 24, 1925, Page 11.
- Los Angeles Times, Beauty Periled By Shower of Sparks, August 18, 1925, Page A1.
- Los Angeles Times, Actress Burned In Film Set Recovers, August 24, 1925, Page A3.
- Los Angeles Times, Dorothy Seastrom Will Be With First National, September 9, 1925, Page A9.
- Los Angeles Times, Avoirdupois is Banned on First National Lot, September 16, 1925, Page 6.
- Los Angeles Times, Illness Halts Film Rise, September 28, 1925, Page A10.
- Nevada State Journal, Behind The Screen, Sunday, May 2, 1926, Page 6.
