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Myrtle Gonzalez

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Myrtle Gonzalez
Gonzalez c. 1916
Born(1891-09-28)September 28, 1891
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
DiedOctober 22, 1918(1918-10-22) (aged 27)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
OccupationActress
Years active1913–1918
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1910, divorced)​
Allen Watt
​
(m. 1917)​
Children1

Myrtle Gonzalez (September 28, 1891 – October 22, 1918) was an American actress. She starred in at least 78 silent era motion pictures from 1913 to 1917, of which 66 were one and two-reel shorts.[1]

Gonzalez was best known for her role as Enid Maitland in Vitagraph's six-reel feature length drama The Chalice of Courage (1915) opposite William Duncan. A magazine writer once called her "The Virgin White Lily of the Screen".[2]

Early life

Myrtle Gonzalez was born in Los Angeles, California on September 28, 1891, the daughter of Manuel George Gonzalez (1868–1919) and Lillian L. Cook (1874–1932). Her siblings were Stella M. Gonzalez (1892–1965) and Manuel G. Gonzalez Jr. (1898–?).

Her father's family was a Hispanic Californio family of Mexico,[1] which had long settled this territory before the US took it over. Her mother, the daughter of immigrants from Ireland, was a former opera and popular singer. Her father was a retail grocer.

From early childhood, Myrtle displayed remarkable dramatic talent, and she had a good soprano voice.[3] She appeared in many local concerts and benefits and sang in church choirs. She later played juvenile parts on the stage with Fanny Davenport and Florence Stone.

Gonzalez married James Parks Jones circa 1910. They had one son together, James Parks Jones Jr. (c. 1911–1970), before they divorced.[4]

Movie career

Film advertisement in The Moving Picture World, 1916

Because she grew up in Los Angeles, the shift of movie production to her hometown was a big advantage for her. Gonzalez worked for such studios as Vitagraph and Universal.

Out of a total 80 movies in her career,[5] she appeared in five movies opposite William Desmond Taylor at Vitagraph: the comedy/drama Her Husband's Friend (1913), the drama Tainted Money (1914), the comedy Millions for Defence (1914), the drama The Kiss (1914), and the drama Captain Alvarez (1914).

In 1919, Photoplay Magazine honored Myrtle Gonzalez with a Bronze Plaque for her exceptional performance in “The Mexican,” considered one of her finest roles.[6]

In many of her roles, Gonzalez typified a vigorous out-of-doors type of heroine. During the last six years of her career, many of the movies she starred in were stories of the snow country and of the forests.

Personal life and death

Gonzalez married J. Parks Jones on August 25, 1910. They had one son, James Parks Jones, Jr., and divorced in November, 1914. Gonzalez charged Jones with desertion.[7] On December 1, 1917, she and actor/director Allen Watt (1885–1944) were married in Los Angeles.[8] She gave up her screen work and retired. They had met when Watt was working as an assistant director at Universal. By the time of their marriage, the US had entered World War I and Watt was an officer in the US Army. He was stationed at Camp Lewis, near Tacoma, Washington.

As Gonzalez's health was too frail for the climate, Capt. Watt was placed on the retirement list so he could return her to Southern California. He went back to work at Universal and began directing.[citation needed]

Gonzalez, at age 27, died during the worldwide Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. At the time of her death, she was at her parents' home in Los Angeles, at 908 West Thirtieth Street.[9][4]

On November 23, 2022, Google featured her in a Google Doodle in the United States.[10] November 23 is the anniversary of the release of the short film The Level (1914), in which she starred.[10][11]

Selected filmography

Bibliography

  • Doyle, Billy H. (1995). The Ultimate Directory of Silent Screen Performers. pp. 30–31. Metuchen, New Jersey, Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-2958-4.

References

  1. ^ a b MeXicana encounters: the making of social identities on the borderlands By Rosa Linda Fregoso
  2. ^ "Myrtle Gonzales Dead". The Los Angeles Times. October 23, 1918. p. 11. A writer in a Tokio magazine once called her "The Virgin White Lily of the Screen," and that was the tribute she most prized of the hundreds she received during her career.
  3. ^ "Beauty to Devote Her Life to Song: Miss Myrtle Gonzalez". The Los Angeles Times. 15 September 1907. pp. VI11. For three years she has been a serious student under a good teacher, and between them, with the mother's encouragement, it is the plan to make Myrtle a bright and particular star on the concert stage.
  4. ^ a b "Actress Left No Will: Petition Filed for Letters of Administration in Estate of Myrtle Gonzales". The Los Angeles Times. 30 October 1918. pp. II 4. No will seems to have been found. The heirs are the widower and a son by a former marriage, James Jones.
  5. ^ "Myrtle Gonzalez - Full Biography of the Silent Movie Star!". AllBlogThings - A Tech & Business Blog!. 2023-12-25. Retrieved 2023-12-25.
  6. ^ "Myrtle Gonzalez - Full Biography of old time heroine Myrtle Gonzalez!". Slightwave - A General Blog!. 2024-03-21. Retrieved 2024-03-21.
  7. ^ "Court Paragraphs. Proceedings in Brief: Wife Wins". The Los Angeles Times. November 3, 1914. p. 20. J. Parks Jones lost his wife and his son in the divorce court yesterday. He failed to get a decree some months ago and Mrs. Jones thought she would try it, charging desertion.
  8. ^ "Film Actress Bride of Army Officer: Capt. Allen Watt Comes from Camp Lewis to Wed Miss Gonzalez". The Los Angeles Times. 5 December 1917. p. 14. At an impromptu wedding ceremony last Saturday evening, Miss Myrtle Gonzalez, moving-picture actress, became the bride of Capt. Allen Watt of the Three Hundred and Sixty-third Infantry, Camp Lewis. Besides the bride and groom, only their parents and two or three close friends were present.
  9. ^ "Myrtle Gonzales Dead". The Los Angeles Times. 23 October 1918. pp. II 1. Miss Myrtle Gonzales (Mrs. Allen Watt.) one of the famous outdoor girls of motion pictures, daughter of an old Spanish family and native of Los Angeles, died yesterday of heart disease at the home of her parents.
  10. ^ a b "Celebrating Myrtle Gonzalez". Google. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
  11. ^ "The Level (Short 1914)". IMDB. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
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