Edhat.com: Large and In-Charge

[silentfilm]

http://www.edhat.com/site/tidbit.cfm?nid=147624

Way Back When in February 1915
updated: Feb 07, 2015, 11:00 AM

By Betsy J. Green

Hot off the presses from Santa Barbara’s Morning Press and Daily News & Independent, here’s the latest news that happened 100 years ago this month. In spite of more than 150 movie appearances, SB-born actress Blanche Payson is almost unknown here. As Santa Barbara entered the auto age, we celebrated the opening of the Rincon Road, and stressed about illegal ride sharing in Model Ts (kinda like Uber). Animals were in the news again – inquisitive mules, runaway horses, victorious chickens, and the Year of the Rabbit began.

“Large and in Charge” – the SB actress who made it big!
Santa Barbara actress Blanche Payson stole the scene from Buster Keaton in the 1923 film Three Ages. (Image: courtesy of Mike Perry)

Her name was Mary Elizabeth Bush when she was born here in 1881, but she preferred her nickname – Blanche. Most people here probably called her “the tall girl.” Blanche was 6’2” or 6’4”, depending on the source.

She grew up in Santa Barbara, married traveling salesman Eugene A. Payson around 1908, and moved to San Francisco – and that is where her height became her biggest asset. In February, 1915, the Panama-Pacific International Exposition opened in San Francisco to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal. Blanche’s height, plus the fact that her uncle had been Daniel Walter Martin, a longtime chief of police in Santa Barbara, landed her a plum position at the fair. She was appointed police officer at the Toyland exhibit.
Blanche Payson looked stylin’ in her uniform in 1915. (Image: courtesy of Mike Perry)

According to the Ogden Standard newspaper, “She will guard women and children, and mashers are warned to beware of her mailed fist.” Collier’s Magazine wrote, “Protecting girls from mashers was one of her specialties during the Exposition, and many offenders whom she arrested complained that she handled them too roughly.” But Blanche had her soft side as well – part of her job was helping lost children reconnect with their mothers.

Would-be mashers were not the only men who took notice of Blanche and her Amazonian proportions. Mack Sennett, the director of the Keystone Cops slapstick comedy movies, “discovered” Blanche at the fair. The next year, she appeared in nine of his films! Over the next 30 years, Blanche appeared in 158 movies. She performed with comedy greats such as Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, and the Three Stooges, among many others. Many of her parts were small, but she was the leading player in some films. She was usually cast as a domineering wife or mother-in-law – parts in which her height gave her a distinct advantage.
Blanche got plenty of press in movie magazines where her stature played to her advantage. (Image: Motion Picture News, April, 18, 1916)

According to the website http://lantern.mediahist.org/" target="_blank" target="_blank, Blanche was mentioned in no less than 150 media magazine articles. Take that, Kardashians!

When the “talkies” took over in the late ’20s, Blanche kept marching right along. Many early films have crumbled or burned or been lost, so we are fortunate that some of Blanche’s movies have survived. Here’s one that’s available on YouTube:

Although Blanche left Santa Barbara before 1910, she is still remembered by some people here. In the course of my research for this column, I discovered that longtime Mesa resident Mike Perry is one of her relations. Mike sent me some photos of Blanche, and also put me in touch with Bill Crane, a relative of his in San Diego who remembered meeting Blanche when he was a kid. Bill told me, “Cousin Blanche lived for a while about three blocks from us in San Francisco. I visited her a couple of times with my mother. I was about 12 or 13 at the time. I thought she was the tallest human being in the world … but very sweet.” Blanche pursued her film career until 1946, and died in Hollywood in 1964.

[Steve Massa]

Bruce - thanks for posting this piece on my favorite comic gargantuan.

[drednm]

Blanche Payson played "big woman" in The Broadway Melody, in a scene with Drew Demorest. I had always thought the part was played by Hope Emerson, but it was Payson.

[JFK]

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (6/25/1944 Page 23)

[Tommie Hicks]

WIFE AND AUTO TROUBLE was Blanche's first film. What is amazing to me about her debut is that she is large and in charge and violent before the reel is over, She didn't have to waste much film finding herself. I think she could rival Bud Jamison in appearances and number of studios worked for.