Women of Taunton: Silent film star Elsa Lorimer went from Silver City to the silver screen
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Silent films can be tricky to find.
According to a 2013 comprehensive survey of silent films conducted by the Library of Congress, about 70% of all of the feature-length silent films ever made are believed to be lost.
Films featuring early stars like Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford are somewhat easier to find, because more of those films have been preserved.
A combination of neglect, and decay (nitrate film stock is vulnerable to fire and deterioration) has made it more difficult to find the work of others.
Others like Elsa Lorimer — who was born in Taunton and went on to grace both the stage and the silver screen.
Elsa Lorimer: From the Silver City to the silver screen
Before she was known as Elsa Lorimer, she was Arcelia Ellen Atwood, according to David Kiehn, historian at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in Fremont, California.
Born in Taunton on Dec. 14, 1874, her parents were Solomon R. Atwood and Harriet S. Bradford Atwood.
The details of her early life are as scattered and hard to find as those old silent films.
According to IMDB, she went to Cambridge High School, and went on to earn a degree in English from Emerson College of Oratory in Boston.
The Gazette was unable to confirm when she left the East Coast for California, or even what she looked like, though IMDB describes her as short, at just five feet tall, with light hair and eyes.
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In California, she was also a member of the Enterprise Opera Reading Club and the Republican Club of Hollywood. IMDB lists her other hobbies as golfing and “motoring.”
She married Malcom Fay Skinner on Jan. 23, 1902.
After she became Elsa Lorimer, she began to work on the stage, first appearing in a touring stage production of “A Man’s A Man,” starring Robert Edeson, in 1910, according to Kiehn.
Lorimer would have been in her mid-30s at the time, a later age than most stars began their acting careers, much like her fellow Tauntonian Alan Gifford, a character actor perhaps best known for his appearance in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
A year later, Kiehn said, she had a small part in the Henry W. Savage production of “The Great Name.” Then in 1912, she was in a stage production of “Just Like John,” produced by William A. Brady.
According to both Kiehn and IMDB, her first movie work was in 1912 in Los Angeles for the Reliance Film Company, in “The Faith Healer,” starring Irving Cummings. Cummings would go on to appear in splashy, Technicolor musicals with legendary leading ladies like Betty Grable and beloved child actor Shirley Temple.
Lorimer would spend the next decade plus appearing on the silver screen, before the advent of “the talkies” changed motion pictures forever.
The Essanay Film Company and Lorimer’s body of work
She made a few films for the Selig Polyscope Company before moving to Niles, now part of Fremont, California, where she joined the Essanay Film Company.
Founded in Chicago in 1907, the Essanay Film Company took its name from its founders, George Kirke Spoor and Gilbert M. Anderson. Anderson was also known as “Broncho Billy” and was an early Western star. They had an additional film lot in Niles, and their films were shown at the theater there. Today the Edison Theater is home to the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum.
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Lorimer appeared in Anderson’s first feature film, “The Good-for-Nothing.” That film no longer survives.
She was also in “Broncho Billy’s True Love” (1914), a one-reel, 11-minute Western starring Anderson, Marguerite Clayton and Emory Johnson. It was directed by Anderson.
While that film no longer survives, a synopsis does, and it appears that Lorimer’s character was part of a love triangle:
Broncho Billy is in love with a woman played by Margeurite Clayton, who is devoted to him. He asks his sweetheart to a dance, but then he meets The Eastern Girl, played by Lorimer, who is visiting, well, from the East. Broncho Billy asks her to the dance instead, and Clayton’s character is heartbroken. The Eastern Girl finds her weeping, only to discover that she is the cause of Clayton’s sorrow.
Turner Classic Movies has a brief list of Lorimer’s filmography. The Gazette wasn’t able to track down any clips from these films:
“The Jungle Child” (1916): Played the part of a chaperone. The movies is 50 minutes long, directed by Walter Edwards.
“Too Much Johnson” (1919): Played Mrs. Dathis. Directed by Donald Crisp.
“The Six Best Cellars” (1920): Played Mrs. Hammond. Directed by Donald Crisp, with a running time of 50 minutes.
“The Gilded Dream” (1920): Played Geraldine. The movie is 50 minutes long and directed by Rollin S. Sturgeon.
“A Lady in Love” (1920): Played Clara Sedgewick. Directed by Walter Edwards.
“They Like ‘Em Rough” (1922): Played Mrs. Curtis.
“Too Much Business” (1922): Played Mrs. Comby.
“Queen o’Diamonds” (1926): Played Mrs. Ramsey.
Her last film appearance seems to be “Queen o’Diamonds.” The Gazette was unable to discover any later films that Lorimer starred in.
Lorimer’s later life and the legacy of American silent films
According to Kiehn, after “Queen o’Diamonds,” Lorimer returned to the stage, appearing in 1928’s “Sensation.”
“It appears she retired after that,” Kiehn said.
Perhaps Lorimer’s career suffered the same fate as that of so many other silent film stars: “the talkies” came along and her work didn’t survive the sea change.
But it also might not be because she was anything like “Singin’ in the Rain’s” Lina Lamont.
If she had anything like Lamont’s “can’t stannim” voice, would Lorimer have ever graced the stage in the first place? Or gone back to it?
Unlikely.
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Though it’s unclear what led to her retirement, Lorimer would not live many more years beyond it.
She died on Oct. 7, 1935, at age 60, in Los Angeles. The Gazette reached out to The Los Angeles Times to see if there might have been an obituary for Lorimer, but as of this writing had not received a response.
Historian and archivist David Pierce, who conducted the 2013 silent film study for the Library of Congress, told USA Today that few defunct art forms have the resonance of silent films.
"It's a lost style of storytelling, and the best of the films are as effective with audiences today as they were when they were initially released," he said.
Today, the most likely hope for finding any of these lost films is within private collections or foreign archives.
With any luck, the work of Elsa Lorimer, Taunton’s own silent film star, could be among them.
Taunton Daily Gazette/Herald News copy editor and digital producer Kristina Fontes can be reached at kfontes@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News and Taunton Daily Gazette today.
This article originally appeared on The Taunton Daily Gazette: Women of Taunton: Silent film star Elsa Lorimer's work is lost
