Sally Phipps (born Byrnece Beutler; May 25, 1911 – March 17, 1978) was an American actress.

Early life and career

The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Edward Bogdon, Sally Phipps was born Nellie Bernice Bogdon in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

on May 25, 1911. She attended

Tamalpais High School Tamalpais High School (often abbreviated as Tam) is a public secondary school located in Mill Valley, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is named after nearby Mount Tamalpais, which rises almost above Mill Valley. Tamalpais High Scho ...

and was a sales girl in a department store in San Francisco before she began acting. She was only three years old and the veteran winner of several beautiful baby contests when she appeared under the name Bernice Sawyer as the Baby in the film ''Broncho Billy And The Baby'', made at the Niles, California, Essanay Studio in late 1914. She made two more Broncho Billy westerns there in early 1915, ''The Western Way'' and ''The Outlaw's Awakening''. Fox studio gave her the name Sally Phipps in 1926, when she was 15. Until 1929, she was a Fox Film star who appeared in well over 20 films, including a cameo in F.W. Murnau's classic ''Sunrise''. She was originally discovered by director Frank Borzage while still attending Fairfax High School in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. She began her work at the studio starring in two-reel comedies. Her first was ''Light Wines And Bearded Ladies'' (1926). Other comedies, both in 1927, were ''Girls'' and ''Gentlemen Prefer Scotch.'' Her first role in a feature was in '' Bertha, the Sewing Machine Girl'' (1926). Soon after, she was selected as one of the 13 1927

WAMPAS Baby Stars The WAMPAS Baby Stars was a promotional campaign sponsored by the United States Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers, which honored 13 (15 in 1932) young actresses each year whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom. ...

. Her first starring role in a feature was ''Love Makes 'Em Wild'' (1927). A May 4, 1927 review in the ''Appleton Post-Crescent'' complimented her skill as a performer in ''

Love Makes 'Em Wild ''Love Makes 'Em Wild'' is a 1927 American comedy film directed by Albert Ray and written by Harold Shumate. The film stars John Harron, Sally Phipps, Ben Bard, Arthur Housman, J. Farrell MacDonald and Natalie Kingston. The film was released on ...

'':

Miss Phipps is one of the most charming actresses we have had the privilege of seeing in many a day. She has a personality which is distinctly individual, to say the least, and flirts across the silver sheet with a grace which would become an actress of many more years experience.

In August 1927, she signed a five-year contract with Sol M. Wurtzel, personal secretary to William Fox. Fox sent Wurtzel to supervise West Coast productions for his studio in 1917. Phipps' Fox Film contract for October 1927 stipulated she was bound to the studio for a period of five years. She would be paid a starting wage of $125, which would rise to $600 a week for the last six months before expiration. Phipps starred in the very popular ''High School Hero'', with leading man Nick Stuart, which opened in late 1927. She was also the female lead for the 1928 Fox features ''

Why Sailors Go Wrong ''Why Sailors Go Wrong'' is a 1928 American silent comedy film directed by Henry Lehrman and written by Randall Faye and Delos Sutherland. The film stars Sammy Cohen, Ted McNamara, Sally Phipps, Nick Stuart, E. H. Calvert, and Carl Miller. Th ...

'', ''

News Parade ''News Parade'' is a 1928 American comedy film directed by David Butler and starring Nick Stuart, Sally Phipps and Brandon Hurst. The film portrays the adventures of a newsreel cameraman. Despite poor reviews and only a modest box office perf ...

'', and ''

None but the Brave is a 1965 war film directed by Frank Sinatra, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. Produced by Tokyo Eiga, Toho, and Artanis Productions (credited as Sinatra Enterprises), it was the first film international co-production between Japan and t ...

''. Her co-star for the first two films was Nick Stuart. The other co-starred Charles Morton. ''The News Parade'' is about the life of a Fox News cameraman and the daughter of a camera-shy millionaire. The motion picture was filmed in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Lake Placid, New York Lake Placid is a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,303. The village of Lake Placid is near the center of the town of North Elba, southwest of Plattsburg ...

, Palm Beach, Florida, and Havana, Cuba. Her last screen appearance at Fox was in the 1929 two-reel comedy talkie ''Detectives Wanted,'' starring Clark and McCullough. Two years later, she appeared on Broadway in the Kaufman and Hart comedy spoof of Hollywood, ''Once In A Lifetime'' (1930-1931), playing Susan Walker, the movie-struck ingenue. While on Broadway, she appeared as the female lead to

Joe Penner Joe Penner (born József Pintér; November 11, 1904 – January 10, 1941) was an American vaudeville, radio, and film comedian. Early life Penner was an ethnic Hungarian born József Pintér in Nagybecskerek, Austria-Hungary, (present-day Zre ...

in his 1931 Vitaphone two-reel comedy, ''Where Men Are Men.'' In it, she played Nancy Carter, a Western comedy vamp. In 1935, she again played a movie-struck ingenue in another Broadway comedy, ''Knock On Wood,'' by Allen Rivkin.

Personal life

On June 6, 1931, she married Gimbels department-store heir Benedict Gimbel Jr. (the grandson of

Adam Gimbel Adam Gimbel (1817–1896) was the founder of the Gimbel Brothers Company. Biography Gimbel was born to a Jewish family in Bavaria in 1817 where he worked in the local baron's vineyard.Ted Nathanson), and moved to Philadelphia; they divorced in 1935. In 1941, she married New York musician Alfred Marion Harned in Coyoacan, Mexico; they had two children, Maryanna and Robert, both born in Des Moines, Iowa; they divorced in 1956.

Death

Phipps died in

Long Island College Hospital University Hospital of Brooklyn at Long Island College Hospital (or LICH) was a 506-bed teaching hospital located in the Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York. The hospital was founded in 1858 as Long Island Coll ...

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

on March 17, 1978, at the age of 66.

Papers

In the summer of 2019, The Sally Phipps Archive was accepted into the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences in Hollywood, California. The Archive, now known as the “Sally Phipps Papers”, consists of extensive pictorial material, including hundreds of scene stills from her films made at Fox, Essanay Niles, and Warner Brothers Vitaphone; from her two Broadway shows; publicity and pinup photos; and also 16mm prints of a couple of her films, lobby cards, posters, glass slides, theater programs, and heralds.

References

Sources

*''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'', "Players Will Aid Exhibit", April 28, 1927, p. A8. *''

Appleton Post-Crescent ''The Post-Crescent'' is a daily newspaper based in Appleton, Wisconsin. Part of the Gannett chain of newspapers, it is primarily distributed in numerous counties surrounding the Appleton/Fox Cities area. History ''The Appleton Crescent'' was ...

'', "Comedy Galore In Fox Film At Bijou", Wednesday Evening, May 4, 1927, p. 11. *''Los Angeles Times'', "New Comedy Recruits", July 17, 1927, p. J4. *''Los Angeles Times'', "Girls Sign Pledge To Keep Thin", October 12, 1927, p. A1. *"A Summary of Sally." ''Photoplay'', April 1928, p. 67. *Manners, Dorothy. "Kute, Kool and Kalm; Twenty Years From Now Sally Phipps Might Take Pictures Seriously." ''Motion Picture Classic'', October 1928, p. 42, 77. *Wilson, Earl. "Wampas Ex-Baby Lives on WPA $23 – And Likes It." ''New York Post'', June 21, 1938, p. 11. *Frank, Gerold. "Ex-Film Starlet, Ex-Rich Wife, Happy in $23 Job." ''New York Journal And American'', June 26, 1938, p. E-3. *"Phipps, Sally." ''Filmlexicon degli autori e delle opere''. Roma: Edizioni di Bianco e Nero, 1962, p. 582. *Griffo, Richard. "Erik Rhodes, Sally Phipps Receive Rosemary Awards." ''Classic Film Collector'', Winter 1976, no. 53, p. x-16. *Roberts, John. "Sally Phipps." ''Classic Images'', November 1984, p. 57, 63. *"Phipps, Sally." Ragan, David. ''Who's Who In Hollywood; The Largest Cast of International Film Personalities''. New York: Facts On File, 1992, 2v. *Diliberto, Gioia. "The Flapper Doesn't Change Her Spots (Sally Phipps)." ''New York Times Style Magazine T'', February 24, 2008, p. 192, 194. *Harned, Robert L. "Sally Phipps, Silent Film Star." ''Classic Images'', March 2014, p. 6-15, 70. *Robuck, Erica. ''Fallen Beauty''. New York: New American Library, 2014. (quote from the novel: "... take me to a picture at the Crandall Theater. 'The High School Hero' with Nick Stuart and gorgeous Sally Phipps is playing. ...") *Harned, Robert L. ''Sally Phipps: Silent Film Star'', by her son. Brooklyn, NY: Robert L. Harned, 2015. (this book, in both digital (November 2014) and print (June 2015) editions, includes extensive filmography, bibliography of books, magazine and newspaper articles, and index) *Harned, Robert L. "Sally Phipps At Essanay: A Silent Star Begins Her Career." ''Silent Film Quarterly'', Vol. 1, Issue 2, Winter 2015–2016, p. 32-37. *Harned, Robert L. "The Borzages Of Hollywood And Sally Phipps: As Told By Her Son." ''Silent Film Quarterly'', Vol. 2, Issue 1, Fall 2016, p. 41-44. *"Phipps, Sally." Massa, Steve. ''Slapstick Divas: The Women of Silent Comedy''. Albany, GA: BearManor Media, 2017, p. 567. *Harned, Robert L. ''Sally Phipps Archive: An Illustrated Catalogue'', by her son. Brooklyn, NY: Robert L. Harned, 2018. *Harned. Robert L. "Sally Phipps and Influenza 928 Hollywood Epidemic" ''Classic Images'', June 2020, p. 24.

External links

* *
Sally Phipps profile
Virtual-History.com; accessed 10 November 2014. {{DEFAULTSORT:Phipps, Sally 1911 births 1978 deaths 20th-century American actresses Actresses from Oakland, California American child actresses American film actresses American silent film actresses American stage actresses Gimbel family Tamalpais High School alumni WAMPAS Baby Stars