2 Nights, 2 Talmadge Sisters: 2 Cool 2 B 4 Gotten.

Movies are full of famous real-life siblings: there were the Barrymores, the Gishes, the Fondas, why even the Baldwins, not to mention Olivia and Joan and Shirley and Warren. But never were there two more glamorous and glorious sister movie stars than Norma and Constance Talmadge.

Norma and Constance Talmadge: Never were there such devoted sisters

Norma and Constance Talmadge were Hollywood royalty who reigned during the golden era of the 1920s. Norma's specialty was drama and Connie's was comedy.

Norma and "Dutch" - Happy in the California sunshine

The family franchise also included middle sister Natalie, who is chiefly remembered as Buster Keaton's wife, but Norma and Constance, known as "Dutch" to her friends and family, provided the family star power.

Natalie, Norma and Constance Talmadge

While they are largely forgotten today, Norma Talmadge and Constance Talmadge were much admired and adored. Women copied them, men wanted them and both sexes flocked to their films.

The driving force behind the sisters was mother, Peg Talmadge. Abandoned by the girls' father when they were small, Peg endured the poverty of a single mother in the early 1900s and earned a meager living by doing an assortment of menial jobs, including doing laundry. Peg may not have had marketable skills, but she was a shrewd woman who taught her daughters that poverty was to be avoided at all costs. All three daughters paid attention.

Norma
Considered to be the most beautiful Talmadge, Norma entered moving pictures in 1909 at the Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn. Between 1909 and 1916 Norma made well over 250 films.

In 1916 Norma married producer Joseph M. Schenck, who guided her career ever after. Together they formed the Norma Talmadge Film Corporation, which featured Norma in a seemingly endless series of immaculately produced hits.

In 1922, Schenck moved production to the west coast, where Norma joined Constance and brother-in-law Keaton, both of who were also under contract to Schenck. Norma's west coast productions were even more elaborate and glamorous and her public continued to adore her.

Nothing lasts forever. Norma and Schenck divorced (she had a flaming affair with Gilbert Roland and later married George Jessel before settling into a happy marriage with Dr. Carvel James). By the time sound films came in, Norma had been around for almost 20 years. She proved to have a more than adequate speaking voice in her few sound films, but the public had grown tired of her and, it seems, Norma had grown tired of them. The story goes that a retired Norma, when approached by still-loyal fans for an autograph, told them "get away dears. I don't need you anymore and you don't need me."

Kiki
Until just this week, I had never seen Norma act in a film. I knew her name and her face, but not her films. Luckily, Turner Classics decided to show "Kiki"(1926) and I finally got to see Norma in action!

Norma and Ronald Colman: he had a thing for the Talmadge girls!

"Kiki" is actually a very atypical Norma Talmadge film, since it is a comedy (one of the very few she made). Stealing a page from sister Constance's book, she is quite charming and natural. I would say that she was just a tad too mature for the role of a Parisian gamine who worms her way into Ronald Colman's revue and home and then heart (I kept thinking how cute Clara Bow would have been in this role), but she is always sparkling and never tries too hard.

Kiki's "question mark" hat: Mary Pickford wore it in the remake

The supporting cast of Ronald Colman, George K. Arthur and Gertrude Astor all lend charm and smiles to the proceedings, but it is Norma's show and it shows why she was such a tremendous star.

Constance

Like a glass of fine French champagne, Constance Talmadge had great sophistication and simply goes to your head.

The youngest of the sisters, Constance followed Norma into the movies at Vitagraph in 1914. In 1916 she achieved great fame as the spirited Mountain Girl in the Babylonian sequence of D.W. Griffith's "Intolerance."

Once in California, Constance found her true talent lay in sophisticated and bubbly comedies, many of them written by Talmadge family friend, Anita Loos. Throughout the 20s, fun-loving Constance was a fan favorite (it seemed she would have been the more compatible spouse for Buster). However, once sound came in, she saw the writing on the wall and quit acting while never making a sound film. She married four times, and like her two sisters, struggled with alcohol dependency. But her wit and wisdom remained solid. While Norma was struggling to find her footing in talkies, sister Dutch advised her, "Leave them while you're looking good and thank God for the trust funds Momma set up."

Her Sister From Paris

There must have been something in the air this week, because before it was over, I had seen both Norma and Constance Talmadge in one of their movies. I was indeed fortunate, because I saw Constance in "Her Sister From Paris" on the big screen with an audience and live music. Oh bliss!

"Her Sister From Paris" is a delightful piece of fun that stars Constance as dull sister Helen and Paris sister, La Perry. Helen's husband (Ronald Colman again loving up a Talmadge girl and George K. Arthur in support) is giving poor Helen a hard time and she thinks he doesn't love her. When twin sister, La Perry, shows up, hubby goes gaga over her, but we know that it is Helen is disguise. As the straight-laced Helen who bobs her hair and learns to let her hair down at the same time and as sophisticated la Perry, Connie is a dream and today, across the many decades, the audience still loved her.

The Talmadge Legacy

While the names of Norma and Constance Talmadge are remembered only by those who care about such things, the Talmadge legacy lives on in southern California.

Talmadge is a neighborhood in San Diego that was named for the Talmadge sisters (each has a street named after her). It was opened in 1927 as Talmadge Park, part of a family real estate development and is still, by the looks of it, a very charming community.

Norma's legacy also lives on right in downtown Hollywood. Legend has it that she accidently stepped in some wet cement in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater and started the trend of the footprints of the famous.

Norma's dainty prints were one of the first the first to grace Grauman's forecourt

By all accounts, Mother Peg was the power behind the throne of the royal sisters and it may be true that Anita Loos based the gold-digging wisdom of her Lorelei Lee on Peg's common-sense approach to life. Her motto was "get rich and get comfortable." All three sisters, though not always happy, were certainly rich and very comfortable long after the film stopped running and the lights came up.

Mother and her three students: Natalie, Norma, Peg and Dutch

The Flappers: Free, Female & 21

Fourth in a series about strong women in film. Strong women are independent, beautiful, sexy, feminine and just want everything in life that a man wants and believe that they have every right to have it!

The 1920s, that youth-worshiping decade of freedom and abandon, spawned a female phenomena known as "The Flapper." Skirts were higher, hair was bobbed and women were voting, working and living on their own. It was this independence that made these young women the antithesis of earlier women film stars with a more demure attitude (though strong in their own way) such as Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish.

The Flappers, though outwardly carefree and fun-loving, set the stage for the strong film women of the 1930s and beyond. They made their own money, bought their own fashionable clothes, lived away from Mom & Dad (either on their own or with a room mate) and pursued men as eagerly as men pursued them. Although  the mores of the times dictated that there be no sex before marriage (though they frequently came close), the audience knew these girls were no innocents. To the young men so scarred from World War I, the Flappers were a tonic.

Louise Brooks: The Perfect Image of the Flapper

Louise Brooks had the look and the life. She is totally "today" in her attitude, her minimalist method of acting and her elegant sense of style. It is fashionable to prefer her to such bigger stars of the era such as Clara Bow or Collen Moore, who look a little dated to us today. As an actress, we rely heavily on her splendid performances in her two German films, "Pandora's Box" and "Diary of a Lost Girl" as proof of her star power. However, her American films many times showcase her as the fun-loving girl of the '20s, a lifestyle this ex-Follies dancer knew all too well.

Louise Brooks is a Flapper whose fame rests largely on the brilliant gallery of still photographs that beguile us to this day. Her beauty is evident, but there is a stubborn streak of independence and strength that cuts through the 2-dimensional glossies. No matter what, this woman is not going back to the days before the liberating 1920s!

Clara Bow:Jazz Baby Supreme

Clara Bow was the definitive Flapper. The original "Jazz Baby," she was fun-loving, independent, pretty and presumably reckless. Her most famous film, "It," showcased all of the elements of the Flapper. Her character worked and made her own money, she was saucy and knew how to have fun, and she was impudent enough to pursue the boss because she wanted him and knew she was irresistible to him.

Clara Bow's Flapper stressed the joys of youth, freedom and strength. There was never any doubt that Clara was strong. She was proudly a girl from Brooklyn, and if you messed with her - watch out. In many ways she pre-dated Joan Crawford's 1930s determined shop girl, usually playing a "regular" gal of modest means. More than anything, Clara's Flapper was fun. But always there was a far-away look in her eyes, the hint of sadness that was just right for the desperately fun-loving 20s.

Constance Talmadge: Silent Screwball

Constance Talmadge was sophisticated and funny. Like a glass of French champagne, she was bubbly and a little forbidden (in those days of Prohibition). And maybe a little out of reach.

Connie, sister to the dramatic Norma and sister-in-law to Buster Keaton via her sister Natalie's marriage, was the zany, fun-loving girl who didn't take sex very seriously. Though a great comedienne, her image was also chic. She was a genuine Hollywood Star. Though her range was wide (her first important role was that of the Mountain Girl in Griffith's "Intolerance"), she seemed most at home in a mansion with servants and a very nice wardrobe. Her image and temperament somewhat predated Carole Lombard in "My Man Godfrey" and Katharine Hepburn in "Bringing Up Baby."  Her confidence in her right to be delightful on her own terms and her devil-may-care insouciance in such films as "Her Night of Romance" and "Her Sister from Paris" offer a breath of fresh air that places her firmly in the company of these fabulous Flappers.

Colleen Moore: Ground Breaker

Colleen Moore was an actress who played the part of the Flapper. While Louise Brooks, Clara Bow and Constance Talmadge all lived, to some degree, the life of a Flapper in real life, Colleen merely portrayed this type of woman on screen. Off screen, she was a thoughtful woman who took her career very seriously.

Yet, here she is, bobbed hair, short skirts and all. Films such as "Flaming Youth" and "Synthetic Sin" made her one of the very first cinema Flappers, although the emphasis on sex was more innocent than most others. Another first-rate comedienne, she was the healthy, fun-loving collegiate just sampling the first taste of freedom. Sadly,many of her films are lost today.

The Flappers and the Great Depression
The crash of 1929 heralded the end of the Roaring 20s and its representative woman, the Flapper. Each of the above-referenced woman's career either ended or stalled in the 30s and none of them would ever achieve the career luster they enjoyed in the 20s. The revolutionary aspect of their character, their insistence on freedom in the bedroom, the workplace and society suddenly became obsolete. Interestingly, all except Colleen Moore struggled with great personal unhappiness in their maturity.

And then there is Joan Crawford...

Joan Crawford was also a representative Flapper. Unlike her contemporaries, however, she did not meet the same end. Her image evolved from that of the carefree woman to the free woman with cares; in other words, a mature woman. Crawford offered a bridge between the fledgling Flapper and a full-fledged woman of true strength and freedom.


These Bright Young Things, as much girls as women, paved the way for the strong women in film that followed for ever after. Their look, their style and their attitude gave women a new way to look, not just at the world, but at themselves, their place in it and the possibilities that lie ahead.

To them, we raise a glass of forbidden bubbly!

And a shout out to other film flappers Olive Thomas, Leatrice Joy and Billie Dove!

Olive Thomas

Leatrice Joy

Billie Dove