There are days where this comes easy. Then there are others…
Del Lawrence (1874) was yet another actor connected with the train and train station in YOUNG TOM EDISON (1940). I previously mentioned that I didn’t realize the Bowery was in Port Huron MI until I saw Bobby Jordan running the street gang in that movie; now I’m starting to realize, based on the number of train extras, that Grand Central Station was also located there. Lawrence is only listed as appearing in seven films in nine years, so I suspect he was truly an extra with an incomplete record, or films were a hobby for him. He did appear as Turney in BEHIND PRISON GATES, a Columbia film, in 1939. Interestingly, Virginia did OUTSIDE THESE WALLS at the same studio in the same year. I wonder if they used the same prison set? I found no photo so the lovely Tannie Edison and her brother stand in.
Russ Powell (1875) appeared in over 200 more films than Del Lawrence did. He started out as a young actor in silent films and was a grizzled character player by the time he appeared in films with Weidler. He was a Fat German in STAMBOUL QUEST (1934) and a juror in THE SPELLBINDER (1939). His specialty seems to be playing watchmen and burgermeisters. I wonder if there is any call for burgermeisters in films today? In the photo, he looks truly grizzled as Windy Bill in THE BIG TRAIL.
Earl Carroll (1893) was a theatrical producer and director, writer, and composer and never worked directly with Virginia. She was far too young and too something else to appear in one of his productions. He did, however, appear in the Vitaphone short PEEKS AT HOLLYWOOD (1945) which features the last known professional movie footage of Virginia Weidler as she did a cute golf routine with her dear friend, Jane Withers. Carroll produced shows with scantily clad showgirls. they were so scantily clad, in fact, that Carroll was known as “the troubadour of the nude”. Carroll died in a plane crash in 1948 along with his girlfriend and, oddly, fellow TIGer Beryl Wallace. Here he is with a few of his “girls” in PEEKS.
Mildred Gover (1905) was limited by the conventions of the day to playing maids and cooks. Her connection to Ginny is twofold, she played Priscilla in MRS. WIGGS OF THE CABBAGE PATCH (1934). She also appeared in THE BIG BROADCAST OF 1936, playing a cook spilling milk. She also appeared in films like THE ADVENTURES OF MARK TWAIN, SANTA FE TRAIL, and LITTLE MISS MARKER. The photo is of one of her few dramatic scenes. She’s a woman killed in the crossfire between bank robbers and police in PENROD AND SAM.
