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Arline Pretty

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Arline Pretty
BornSeptember 5, 1885
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedApril 14, 1978 (aged 92)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
OccupationActress
Years active1913-1935 (film)

Arline S. Pretty (September 5, 1885[1] – April 14, 1978) was an American film actress of the silent era.[2]

Early life and education

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Pretty was born September 5, 1885, in Philadelphia,[1] the daughter of Edwin S. Pretty and Ellen (Nellie) Service Pretty.[3] Her father died in 1894. Her mother was a musician, and the name "Arline" was chosen from the opera The Bohemian Girl.[4] She may have attended a school in High Bridge, New Jersey.[5] In 1903 she delivered a dramatic monologue at a meeting of the District of Columbia League of Debating Societies.[6]

Career

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In 1903 Pretty was founding member of the Criterion Players (CP) in Washington D.C.[7] She appeared in this organization's first production as the wife in Sydney Grundy's Prince of Liars which was staged at National Rifle Hall in November 1903. The Washington Post stated her performance was "commendably done".[8] She performed with the CP in 1904 as Etta in Suzette,[9] the Widow in A Mouse Trap,[10] and Mrs. Hummingtop in M. E. Kahn's What Happened to Hummingtop.[11] She was still actively performing in plays with the CP as late as 1907.[12]

In 1908 Pretty performed in vaudeville in Washington D.C. in a sketch called "The Happy Pair" with John Hill.[13] For three years she acted on stage in Washington, with the Columbia Stock Company (CSC), before debuting in films in 1913.[14] Some of her repertoire with the CSC included Paul Kester's When Knighthood Was in Flower (1911, as Jan Bollingbrook).[15] David Belasco and Richard Walton Tully's The Rose of the Rancho (1912, as Beatriz),[16] Clyde Fitch's The Climbers (1912, as Jessica Hunter),[17] and  Charles H. Hoyt's A Contented Woman (1913, as Bella).[18]

Her early film experience was as a supporting actress for King Baggot at Universal.[19] After that, she acted for the Vitagraph Company in leading ingenue parts.[20] She appeared as the daughter of a jailer with Douglas Fairbanks in In Again, Out Again (1917).[3][21] Pretty's film work included the Vitagraph serial The Secret Kingdom (1917).[22][23] In the serial A Woman in Grey (1919), she was tied to train tracks as a cliffhanger scene.[24][25] Her other costars included Jess Willard,[26] Jack Mower,[27] Thurston Hall,[28] Huntley Gordon,[29] Doris Kenyon,[30] Noah Beery, Betty Compson, and Leah Baird.[31] Long after her last film in 1935, she appeared in a scene of Belles on Their Toes (1952), along with other silent film stars.[32]

Pretty was considered a fashionable screen beauty.[33] Her "hats and frocks" were described in detail, with diagrams and photographs, in a 1917 Harper's Bazaar feature, where she was described as "devoted to outdoor life" and "an expert horsewoman" who did her own on-screen stunts.[34]

Legacy

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Pretty died in 1978, at the age of 92, at her home in Hollywood.[4][35] A Woman in Grey (1920) was on the program of the Kansas Silent Film Festival in 2018.[36] In 2022, a restored print of one of her later films, The Primrose Path (1925), was shown at the Museum of Modern Art's International Festival of Film Preservation[37] and at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, with live musical accompaniment.[38]

Selected filmography

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 Some sources give 1893 as her birth year, and Washington, D.C. as her birth place.
  2. ↑ Munden, Kenneth White. The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States, Part 1. (University of California Press, 1997): 616.
  3. 1 2 3 "Miss Pretty is Now a Movie 'Leading Lady'". The Evening News. 1917-05-08. p. 10. Retrieved 2026-04-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. 1 2 Rainey, Buck (1990). Those fabulous serial heroines : their lives and films. Internet Archive. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press. p. 395. ISBN 978-0-8108-1911-5.
  5. ↑ "Can it be That Only One Man Remembers The Pretty Girl from High Bridge Who Flashed Across the Silver Screen?". Echoes-Sentinel. 1974-08-08. p. 13. Retrieved 2026-04-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ "In Favor of the Negative". Washington Evening Star. March 5, 1903. p. 16.
  7. ↑ "The Criterion Players". The Washington Post. November 2, 1903. p. 4.
  8. ↑ "Stage Gossip". The Washington Post. November 25, 1903. p. 5.
  9. ↑ "Critierion Players in Suzette". Washington Evening Star. March 2, 1904. p. 16.
  10. ↑ "Criterion Players". The Washington Post. October 9, 1904. p. 30.
  11. ↑ "The Criterion Players". The Washington Post. December 4, 1904. p. 30.
  12. ↑ "Brookland". The Washington Times. February 3, 1907. p. 31.
  13. ↑ "Nomads at the Show". The Washington Post. March 4, 1908. p. 2.
  14. ↑ Wollstein, Hans J. "Arline Pretty". AllMovie. Archived from the original on 2021-08-31. Retrieved 2021-08-31.
  15. ↑ "At the Theaters". The Washington Post. August 1, 1911. p. 5.
  16. ↑ "Columbia—The Rose of the Rancho". The Washington Post. March 19, 1912. p. 5.
  17. ↑ "Amusements: Columbia". Washington Evening Star. June 25, 1912. p. 3.
  18. ↑ "Columbia– A Contented Woman". The Washington Herald. July 20, 1913. p. 18.
  19. 1 2 "Universal Program". Motography. 13: 506. 1915-03-27.
  20. ↑ "Prefers Ingenue, but has Run the Gamut of Parts; Began Career in Stock; Has Been in the Movies for Three Years". San Francisco Call. 1917-03-15. p. 5 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  21. 1 2 "This Week's Mirror Cover". Dramatic Mirror. 77 (1998): 2. 1917-04-07. Retrieved 2021-04-01.
  22. ↑ "'Secret Kingdom' Coming; Serial is Full of Romance". The San Francisco Examiner. 1917-02-15. p. 7. Retrieved 2026-04-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ↑ "Amusements: At the Academy". Fall River Herald. 1917-01-23. p. 2. Retrieved 2026-04-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ↑ Mooney, Tom (1985-01-07). "A bit of local film history returns to Valley". The Times Leader. p. 3. Retrieved 2026-04-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ↑ Weiler, A. H. (1965-02-14). "Pauline Was a Cliff-Hanger (review)". The New York Times. p. 109. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-04-30.
  26. 1 2 "Spotlight and Screen". The Evening News. 1919-06-30. p. 10. Retrieved 2026-04-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. 1 2 "'Golden Snare', 'One a Minute', and 'Life' on Photoplay Bills". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 1921-08-07. p. 45. Retrieved 2026-04-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  28. 1 2 "Story of the Far North with Arline Pretty at Kozy". The Paducah Sun. 1921-11-12. p. 8. Retrieved 2026-04-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  29. ↑ Wing, Ruth (1924). The Blue Book of the Screen. Blue Book of the Screen, Incorporated. p. 95.
  30. 1 2 "New Serial Has Thrilling Situations". The Edmonton Bulletin. 1918-06-01. p. 11. Retrieved 2026-04-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  31. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Great Crook Play Opens at Babcock Today; Tom Santschi, Noah Beery and Arline Pretty Starred". The Billings Gazette. 1924-11-30. p. 15. Retrieved 2026-04-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  32. 1 2 Pryor, Thomas M. (1951-09-16). "Heat in Hollywood". The New York Times. p. 257. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-04-30.
  33. ↑ "Hunt for Movie Heroine Has Most Fitting Reward; Actress is Ideally Fitted to Play the Part in Which She is Cast". San Francisco Call. 1917-02-16. p. 7 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  34. ↑ "Arline Pretty selects her hats and frocks with Jane Jarvis of Harper's Bazar Shopping Service". Harper's Bazaar: 88. March 1917.
  35. ↑ "Services for Arline Pretty, 92, Star of Silent Movies, Slated". Los Angeles Times. 1978-04-19. p. 21. Retrieved 2026-04-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  36. ↑ Maue, Savanna (2018-02-17). "Silent film festival focuses on women". The Topeka Capital-Journal. Retrieved 2026-05-01.
  37. ↑ "Clara Bow and Ina Ray Hutton, Newly Rediscovered!". The Museum of Modern Art. January 2022. Retrieved 2026-04-30.
  38. ↑ "The Primrose Path". San Francisco Silent Film Festival. 2022-05-06. Retrieved 2026-04-30.
  39. 1 2 3 Slide, Anthony (2010-09-12). Silent Players: A Biographical and Autobiographical Study of 100 Silent Film Actors and Actresses. University Press of Kentucky. p. 318. ISBN 978-0-8131-2708-8.
  40. ↑ "Vitagraph Night at Empire". San Antonio Express-News. 1916-03-06. p. 3. Retrieved 2026-04-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  41. 1 2 "Photoplay Houses (advertisement)". San Antonio Express-News. 1916-03-04. p. 7. Retrieved 2026-04-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  42. ↑ Lahue, Kalton C. (1968). Bound and gagged; the story of the silent serials. Internet Archive. South Brunswick, N.J.: A. S. Barnes. pp. 77, 147, 174, 301.
  43. 1 2 3 4 "Arline Pretty". British Film Institute. Retrieved 2021-04-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  44. ↑ "Graham Wilcox Offerings for 1926". The Film Renter & Moving Picture News. 1926-01-02.
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