Lillian Ruth Powell (May 29, 1896 – May 31, 1992) was a Canadian-born American

Denishawn The Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts, founded in 1915 by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn in Los Angeles, California, helped many perfect their dancing talents and became the first dance academy in the United States to produce a professional ...

-trained dancer who performed in early experimental silent film musicals. She would later teach dance and physical education before embarking on a nearly two-decade career in television.

Life and career

She was born in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Gre ...

, where some six months after her birth she was adopted by Charles and Eliza Powell and brought south to live in

Ventura, California Ventura, officially named San Buenaventura (Spanish for "Saint Bonaventure"), is a city in and the county seat of Ventura County, California, United States. It is a coastal city located northwest of Los Angeles. The population was 110,763 at the ...

. Powell's adoptive parents later divorced and by 1910 she was living in San Diego where Eliza Powell worked as a milliner at a local department store. Powell later studied piano and attended Technical High School in Oakland, California. By 1918, Powell was a dancer with

Ruth St. Denis Ruth St. Denis (born Ruth Dennis; January 20, 1879 – July 21, 1968) was an American pioneer of modern dance, introducing eastern ideas into the art and paving the way for other women in dance. She was inspired by the Delsarte advocate Gene ...

and Ted Shawn at their Denishawn studio in Hollywood, California. That September she appeared in a Denishawn concert staged at Oakland's Pantages Theatre in a dance called ''The Driad''. The following year she began touring with the Denishawn Dancers playing the title rôle in ''Julnar of the Sea'' a spectacular ballet Shawn based on the ''

Arabian Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition () ...

'' character Julnar, the sea queen. In 1922, Powell performed Shawn's ''Bubble Dance'' and one of his Egyptian dances (with

Martha Graham Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American modern dancer, teacher and choreographer, whose style, the Graham technique, reshaped the dance world and is still taught in academies worldwide. Graham danced and taught for over s ...

) in short silent films by

Hugo Riesenfeld Hugo Riesenfeld (January 26, 1879 – September 10, 1939) was an Austrian-American composer. As a film director, he began to write his own orchestral compositions for silent films in 1917, and co-created modern production techniques where film ...

in his attempt to synchronize a dance routine on film with a live orchestra and on-screen conductor. On April 15, 1923, Powell appeared in a short film ''Lillian Powell Bubble Dance'', presented in a program of 18 short films made in the Lee DeForest

Phonofilm Phonofilm is an optical sound-on-film system developed by inventors Lee de Forest and Theodore Case in the early 1920s. In 1919 and 1920, de Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patents on a sound-on-film process, DeForest Phonofi ...

sound-on-film process at the Rivoli Theater in New York City. The films were co-presented by Riesenfeld who was musical director of the Rivoli. A copy of this film was found in 1976 in Australia, and was restored by the

National Film and Sound Archive The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting, and providing access to a national c ...

. In the late 1920s Powell was a dancer with Jack Klein (or Kline) and the Californians, a West Coast vaudeville act. By her mid-thirties, Powell was teaching at a Los Angeles area dance studio while continuing to performing on stage at concerts and community events. In 1933, she was a premier dancer with the Michio Itō Dance Company touring Canada and the United States. By her early forties, she had become a physical education teacher with a

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

school district. In 1954 Powell began acting in television productions. Over a near twenty-year span she played frequent guest or reoccurring roles on such series as '' Dragnet,'' '' The Man Behind the Badge,'' '' Noah's Ark'' and made guest appearances in the shows ''

My Three Sons ''My Three Sons'' is an American television sitcom that aired from September 29, 1960, to April 13, 1972. The series was filmed in black-and-white and broadcast on ABC during its first five seasons, before moving to CBS for the remaining seve ...

,'' ''

Father Knows Best ''Father Knows Best'' is an American sitcom starring Robert Young (actor), Robert Young, Jane Wyatt, Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray (actor), Billy Gray and Lauren Chapin. The series, which began on radio in 1949, aired as a television show for six ...

,'' ''

The Thin Man ''The Thin Man'' (1934) is a detective novel by Dashiell Hammett, originally published in a condensed version in the December 1933 issue of '' Redbook''. It appeared in book form the following month. A film series followed, featuring the main ...

,'' ''

Whirlybirds ''Whirlybirds'' (sometimes called ''The Whirlybirds'' or ''Copter Patrol'') is a Television syndication, syndicated American Dramatic programming, drama/adventure television series, which aired for 111 episodes — broadcast from February ...

, '' '' Cimarron City,'' '' Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond,'' '' The Millionaire,'' ''

The DuPont Show With June Allyson ''The DuPont Show with June Allyson'' (also known as ''The June Allyson Show'') is an American anthology drama series which aired on CBS from September 21, 1959, to April 3, 1961, with rebroadcasts continuing until June 12, 1961. The series w ...

,'' ''

Ben Casey ''Ben Casey'' is an American medical drama television series that aired on ABC from 1961 to 1966. The show was known for its opening titles, which consisted of a hand drawing the symbols "♂, ♀, ✳, †, ∞" on a chalkboard, as cast member ...

'' and ''

Adam-12 ''Adam-12'' is an American police procedural crime drama television series created by Robert A. Cinader and Jack Webb and produced by Mark VII Limited and Universal Television. The series follows Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers Pe ...

.'' Throughout her career, Powell was frequently used by

Jack Webb John Randolph Webb (April 2, 1920 – December 23, 1982) was an American actor, television producer, Television director, director, and screenwriter, most famous for his role as Joe Friday in the Dragnet (franchise), ''Dragnet'' franchise ...

, creator of ''Dragnet'', appearing in fourteen episodes of ''Dragnet,'' six episodes of ''Noah's Ark,'' an episode of ''Adam-12'' and a minor rôle in his film '' The Last Time I Saw Archie''. Powell retired in 1970 and died in 1992 in Los Angeles at the age of 96.California and Social Security Death Index

References

External links

*
''Lillian Powell Bubble Dance'' at SilentEra
{{DEFAULTSORT:Powell, Lillian 1896 births 1992 deaths Actresses from Victoria, British Columbia Canadian emigrants to the United States American female dancers American silent film actresses American television actresses 20th-century American actresses 20th-century American dancers American adoptees

Life and career

See also

References

External links