Wings of an angel: Jobyna Ralston

I seem to recall saying at the beginning of the year, in a post about the reissue of the 1927 film Wings (the only silent to win Best Film at the Oscars until last year's The Artist), that I would in the future devote a whole blog post to one of the actresses to star in that picture and one of my favourite silent film ladies.  A quiet spell in the blogosphere coupled with the winding down of my Style Icons series plus some excellent posts about Lillian Gish over at Flapper Flickers and Silent Stanzas and another dip into my Harold Lloyd Collection have convinced me that now is the time to do just that.

Jack Powell (Charles Rogers) and Sylvia Lewis (Jobyna Ralston) in Wings (1927).
source

Wings starred the famous and archetypal '20s flapper girl actress Clara Bow in the lead role of Mary Preston.  Much has been written about Clara Bow, and quite rightly too, but Wings also featured the lesser-known Jobyna Ralston as rival-for-the-affections Sylvia Lewis. 

source

Unless you're familiar with the Harold Lloyd films of the 1920s you might not recognise Miss Ralston and indeed it is for the six Lloyd pictures (and Wings) she appeared in that she is arguably most well-known. 

Jobyna Lancaster Raulston was born in Tennessee  on 21st November 1899 and, in proof that it is not a modern affectation, was named after a famous actress of the time - Jobyna Howland.  (Incidentally, debate is still ongoing to this day on how to pronounce Misses Ralston's and Howland's first name.  The general consensus today seems to favour jo-bee-na, although Harold Lloyd himself was heard to use jo-bye-na - personally I prefer the former myself.  She quickly gained the nickname "Joby").

Being named for a famous stage & screen star and with a portrait photographer mother it should not come as a great surprise that Jobyna gravitated to show business.  Her very first performance was at the age of 9 in a local theatre production of Cinderella.  Her acting career was very nearly curtailed by a teenage marriage to a local farmer and childhood sweetheart but the union did not last and by 1919 she was in New York studying at the Ned Wayburn Dancing Academy.

A year later she had "made it" into pictures, featuring in some of the many comedy shorts that were being produced out of Jacksonville, Florida in the years before Hollywood became the centre of American film-making.  In 1921 she had the honour of appearing in the Marx Brothers' first ever picture Humor Risk - now sadly lost - and the next year appeared on Broadway in a George M. Cohan production.  Moving on to the famous Hal Roach Studios, by now in Hollywood, she was spotted by the silent film artist Max Linder and appeared in some of his later shorts for a time before returning to Roach in some of the "Paul Parrot" shorts (Paul Parrott was the stage name of James Parrott, who later went on to direct many of Laurel & Hardy's short films and who was also the brother of Charley Chase - real name Charles Parrott).  It was there that she was first noticed by Harold Lloyd (then still contracted to Hal Roach Studios).

source

While Jobyna had been busy forging a career for herself Lloyd and Roach were churning out short comedies (and later, features) many of which featured Lloyd's favourite leading lady, Mildred Davis.  He was so fond of her, in fact, that he ended up falling in love and marrying her in real life(!).  Their plan to start a family essentially put an end to Mildred's acting career and Lloyd started looking for a new ingénue.  He found Jobyna Ralston.

source

Between 1923 and 1927 Lloyd and Ralston appeared together in six films, always with Jobyna as the girl with whom Harold falls in love with and then must win in some fantastically humorous way (the exception being 1924's Hot Water in which she and Harold are already married at the beginning of the film).  Some of Harold Lloyd's best films (and my favourites) - Girl Shy, The Freshman, For Heaven's Sake, The Kid Brother - feature Jobyna who had the notable ability to successfully mix comedy and pathos, essential in those silent days.  It was undoubtedly this talent that earned her a supporting role in Wings. 

source

Following this career high Jobyna's acting roles began to decline for she had also married a co-star - Wings' Richard Arlen.  She appeared in a further fourteen features - including a 1928 Frank Capra production The Power of the Press with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. - between 1927 and 1931.  All but the last three of her films were silent and, just as fellow WAMPAS Baby Star Clara Bow with her strong Brooklyn accent had not made a successful transition to sound, so Jobyna struggled too - she had a noticeable lisp (and indeed if you watch closely during any long "speech" she has in the silents - showings of her talking films being rare - you might notice a barely-perceptible movement of the tongue which confirms this), such that The New York Times' review for her first talkie The College Coquette noted that "Miss Ralston's utterances are frequently indistinct".

Her final two films were Rough Waters, in which she starred opposite Rin Tin Tin(!) and 1931's Sheer Luck.  By that time she and Richard Arlen had had a son and Jobyna retired from acting to focus on her family.  In 1945 she and Arlen divorced and Jobyna continued to live in Los Angeles until her death (from a combination of a series of strokes and pneumonia, as well as chronic rheumatism) in 1967 at the age of 67.

source

The Kid Brother (1927) was the very first Harold Lloyd film I recall seeing, as a pre-teen lad.  It had a fairytale quality to the story which still shines through today and I remember being enthralled not just by the comedy and adventure but also the romance - and a lot of that was down to Joby.  Looking back I also get the feeling I must have marvelled at the nervous, awkward bespectacled boy on the screen actually getting the girl - and in the understated words of Variety's 1924 review of Girl Shy a "decidedly pretty" one at that! It's an empathy (and a crush!) that's never really gone away and I still look upon Girl Shy and The Kid Brother as two of my favourite Lloyd films for that reason. 

Unlike the "it-girl" sexiness of the 1920s typified by Clara Bow, Jobyna Ralston belonged to a different sort of look - tender and delicate more in the manner of late Victorian/early Edwardian women but yet with a modern Twenties "can-do" independence bubbling away underneath.  She complemented Harold Lloyd and his films' plots perfectly and will always have a special place on my list of top silent actresses.

The Artist, now showing in your home!

A quick reminder that today sees the UK release of The Artist on DVD and Blu-Ray.  I trust you've all bought your copies.  Don't get left behind!

Silence is golden for "The Artist"

I never doubted it for a minute, you know.  The Golden Globes hinted at it, the BAFTAs all but confirmed it and last night The Artist rose to the top of the pile and deservedly won five Oscars™ including Best Picture and Best Actor for Jean Dujardin, becoming the first silent film to win the top prize since Wings at the very first Oscars™ ceremony back in 1929.  Eighty-three years is a long time to wait (as long as 82-year-old Canadian actor Christopher Plummer, who should also be congratulated for his Best Supporting Actor award, which makes him the oldest recipient of one of those little statuettes)!

"The Artist" paints golden picture at Oscars

I don't mean to sound like a cracked record but I make no apologies for singing the praises of The Artist loud and long.  This may well be a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence and it should be made the most of, particularly by those of us interested in vintage and classic films.  Hopefully it will introduce a whole new audience to the wonders of the old black-and-white silents.

source

Oscars 2012: The Artist's win reminds us to protect our film heritage

I went and saw it at the cinema again last week, the first time I've seen the same film twice since 1995, and it was as wonderful as the initial viewing.  I may yet see it a third time, although showings at my local picture house are down to two an evening now.  At the risk of repeating myself, it absolutely warrants viewing on a big screen.  I was surprised but pleased to see the auditoria packed on both occasions I attended although it has to be said that my presence undoubtedly lowered the average age of the audience by a good few years(!).  Still it was great to see such popularity and enjoyment, especially in my neck of the woods - be it curiosity or out-and-out appreciation this is one silent film that has the public talking!

source

As an aside, I just bought [via download] the wonderful (and award-winning) soundtrack today, so I can now go about my business with a little bit of black-and-white movie magic music as accompaniment.  Although it's dashed difficult to live out a silent film, with all the noise things make!

The release date for the DVD has also just been announced.  Mark the 7th of May in your diaries, as that's when this little gem makes it on to a distinctly un-vintage format!

The award-winning Artist

Silence is golden as The Artist scoops 7 BAFTAs

This is just to acknowledge and congratulate The Artist on its winning seven BAFTA awards in London last night, including Best Film and Best Actor for Jean Dujardin.  They are all thoroughly well-deserved, every one, and all those involved should be justly proud.  The Oscars™ await, I feel sure.

Silent movie The Artist dominates 65th Baftas

If you haven't seen The Artist yet - what's the matter with you?!  Hurry up; it won't be in cinemas for much longer!  The BAFTA buzz and the Oscar™ hype might keep it out there for a little longer, but already showings are starting to lessen.  If you're still unsure, or have been living under a rock for the past two months and don't know what it's all about - here's my review of it from last month.  It deserves, nay needs, to be seen on the big screen so please do so if you can.


The success of The Artsist in the face of such strong opposition this year should be celebrated by the vintage community and shows that the silent film is by no means a dead genre.  In this modern age it is wonderful to see such an old-fashioned film taken to heart so well.  Perhaps it is the lean times we find ourselves in, perhaps it is the beginnings of a rebellion against sensory-assaulting CGI and 3D but whatever it is I am happy to see it celebrated by its peers, and more than glad to be able to say I saw it on the big screen.

Film noir femmes fatales

Film noir femmes fatales

A set of photographs now, courtesy of the Daily Telegraph, celebrating the dark and supremely stylish genre that is film noir. Double-crosses, blackmail, murder, crime passionnel and all in gloriously intense black-and-white. A gritty, complex world full of private eyes, suspicious strangers and killer dames. These girls are beautiful, elegant but oh-so-deadly! Watch out chaps!