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Originally Posted by ethereal_reality
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Hey,
ER, thanks so much for making this post!
I've never heard of Elva being a
director before. If I had to guess, I would say that entry is incorrect, due simply to the fact that female directors in Hollywood were as rare as hens teeth at the time. Mabel Normand was a female director who came out of the Sennett studios, but she was also a very big star at the time, not a bit player like my grandmother.
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Originally Posted by ethereal_reality
I read that your grandmother was a Sennett bathing beauty for two years (1919-1920), and that she appeared in nine films.
Is that about right?
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Elva was in
a Ben Turpin film in 1921, so we can certainly expand that range to 1919-1921.
Unfortunately, most movie history resources (like IMDB) are
vastly incomplete when it comes to the silent era. For example, my grandfather Charlie directed
countless silent movies, but IMDB has him listed as working on exactly
two movies during
all of the 1920s. That's a pretty easy workload for an entire decade! And this was in a time when movies were routinely shot in under a week!
Grandpa Charlie was primarily a Sennett director, yet IMDB lists not a single Sennett credit on his resume. He also shot a number of features for Hal Roach, none of which are mentioned on his IMDB page.
As the records for my grandfather's movies are so utterly incomplete, I have no reason not to suspect that Elva's credits are also just as incomplete. As
90% of the movies made during the silent era have been forever lost, it is reasonable to assume that a similar percentage applies to the careers of my grandparents; I once consulted with silent film historian
F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre, and he told me this:
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Elva Diltz worked for Mack Sennett circa 1920. This is the worst possible time for her to have worked for Sennett.
By 1919, Keystone was gone and Sennett had become an independent producer, releasing his films through the Educational Pictures company owned by Al Christie. Sadly, Christie never bothered to take care of his films, and many of them were lost in warehouse fires or general neglect. We have many films from Sennett's Keystone period and Keystone-Triangle period, but very few surviving examples from Sennett's Christie period (the time when Elva Diltz worked for Sennett).
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality
And maybe you knew this already, but the house Elva was living in in 1920 is still standing! It looks rather mysterious. (then again, everything looks mysterious to me  )
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WOW! Thanks so much for this,
ER! I never knew that before.
Things like this utterly fascinate me; I'll be sure to drive by and check it out as soon as I can!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Noir_Noir
At the back about the :20 second mark looks the best match for Elva and the hat.
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Hi, Noir_Noir!
Elva is actually the
third from the left in the group photo. Her face is largely obscured in the video screenshot:
