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Show THE HISTORY BLAZER Utah State Historical Societ!. 300 Rio Grande Salt L;\ ke City. 1" r 81101 Utah's Own John Gilbert Thrilled Silent Movie Fans THE SILENT FILM ERA OF THE 1920s featured a number of dashing, romantic leading men. The most famous of these was Rudolph Valentino whose performance in The Shcik assured him screen immortality and a vast female audience. Valentino's chief rival was Utah- born John Gilbert, and after Valentino's death in 1926, Gilbert reigned unchallenged as Hollywood's romantic idol. The addition of sound to motion pictures doomed the silent films, however, and with them Gilbert's career. John Gilbert was born in Logan, Utah, on July 10, 1897. His mother, Ida Apperly, was a well known local beauty who ( to her family's horror) had joined a travelling acting company when it passed through Logan. Ida returned to her family in Logan to give birth to John Cecil Pringle, named after his father, an actor in the company. When she later married actor Walter B. Gilbert, young John took his last name. John Gilbert worked at a number of odd jobs before joining a stock company in Washington state at age seventeen. In 19 15 he got his first movie role as an extra in a production by Thomas H. Ince. Gilbert played a number of small roles over the next few years while also working as a director, cutter, prop man, and set carpenter in the infant film industry. In 1918 he married for the first time and served a short stint in the Army. Gilbert's career began to take off in 1924 when he signed a contract with Metro- Goldwyn- Mayer. M- G- M's " boy genius," Irving Thalberg, cast Gilbert in a series of big- budget pictures with the studio's major female stars. Films such as His Hour ( 1924), 77ze Merry Widow ( 1925), and Lo Boheme ( 1926) established Gilbert as a leading man. His suave, dark good looks appealed greatly to women, while his biggest hit, the war picture The Big Parode ( 1925), gave him action credentials as well. Gilbert's three pictures with Greta Garbo were highly successful, helped by rumors of their off- screen romance. Gilbert remained at the top of this competitive industry for four years, signing a contract in 1929 that reportedly paid him $ 10,000 a week for seven films. The sound era, however, proved to be. his downfall. Gilbert's first " talkie," His Glorious Night, was greeted with derisive laughter. The actor's delivery seemed stilted and unnatural, and his voice sounded high and weak. Gilbert's friends and supporters blamed the primitive recording equipment, but after another failure the studio offered to buy out his contract. The proud Gilbert insisted that M- G- M fulfill the letter of their deal, so five more movies were released to critical and popular indifference. Gilbert's career was not completely over. In 1933, supposedly at Garbo's insistence, the studio signed him to co- star in Queen Cltristina. He received good reviews for his portrayal of an alcoholic in 771e Caprair~ Hate1 rl7e Sea ( 1934), but no further film offers resulted. Gilbert died of a heart attack at his home in Beverly Hills in 1936 at the age of 38. THEH ISTORBLYA ZERi s produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a gmt from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533- 3500. |
