Tweet Silent Star Jacqueline Logan

I was very surprised to learn that silent film star Jacqueline Logan, who played Mary Magdelene in DeMille's 1927 "King of Kings", and was present on the infamous boat trip with Hearst and Chaplin, et al, when Thomas Ince began his journey to eternity, is buried in a historic cemetery right here in Decatur, Illinois!
It seems when she passed away in Florida several years ago, she willed it to be buried in her family plot here.

I teach a film history class for the local college, and paused a DVD of "King of Kings" right on the (2-strip color) close-up of Jacqueline near the beginning of the movie. I then told the class that this actress's mortal remains was only 4 blocks from where we were!

To go even further, since the old theater we hold classes in was opened in 1916 (The Avon Theater, which is owned by me) there was a very good chance she had attended a show there when she visited her family here many years ago.

Kind of cool, huh?

-Skip Huston

Welcome Skip, and it is cool if you can find a personal or local tie-in to give a silent film or actor an unexpected relevance to the younger generations. I ran a film club in college in New Rochelle, NY, (back in the Dark Ages) and I would run an occasional Thanhouser film (DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE 1911) that was filmed in an around New Rochelle. A few miles down the road was Mamaroneck where D.W. Griffith had his studio in the early 1920s. I even knew somebody who saw him filming the Valley Forge sequence for AMERICA (1924) after a blizzard hit the area just prior to the film's premiere in NYC on 2/22/24. Can't beat those local tie-ins!

Thanks for the note! I've often wondered if there is any trace of Griffith's Mamaroneck studio still visible?

I remember emailing Leonard Maltin about a year ago to see if he knew of anyone who might have a piece of Griffith's Babylon set from Intolerance stashed any place? He did not know.

I also asked him what became of the title cards from silent films after the movie was produced?
As far as I know, NONE of them have survived. He had never heard of any of those around either.

Some of those intertitles were very artistic, and it seems incredible that not a single one has survived!

I used to live near Mamaroneck, and I never saw the slightest trace of the studio. It's basically just suburbia now, and I think it was even within Griffith's lifetime. It was a strange place to build a studio, a little piece of land that extends out into the ocean and is only just barely connected to the mainland by a small road.

Griffith's nearby home is still in existence, though it's apparently been renovated a lot since he lived there. It was on the market about ten years ago.

The wife (actually one of the wives) of silent music composer Gaston Borch lived in Decatur and taught music at Millikin University (might have been called a college back then, I don't remember). She moved on to Los Angeles though after the embarrassment of Gaston leaving her. She filed for divorce in Decatur. Her first name was Rose.

More information on Gaston and wife is in this thread:

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Welcome to Nitrateville. I've been to Decatur many times. My sister used to live there.

Rick

[silentfilm]

Jacqueline Logan and Raymond Griffith in The Dawn of a Tomorrow (1924)

I've got several photos of Logan from various films. Unfortunately, except for King of Kings (1927), most of her films are not easily seen, or no longer exist. The IMDB shows her directing a British sound film in the early 1930s.