Mae Murray (born Marie Adrienne Koenig; May 10, 1885 – March 23, 1965) was an American actress, dancer, film producer, and screenwriter. Murray rose to fame during the

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

era and was known as "The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips" and "The Gardenia of the Screen".

Early life

Murray was born in New York City, the second-oldest child of Joseph and Mary (née Miller) Koenig. Her maternal grandparents had emigrated from France while her paternal grandparents had emigrated from Germany. She had two brothers, William Robert and Howard Joseph. The family eventually moved to an apartment in the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it w ...

. In May 1896, Murray's father, died from acute gastritis due to his alcoholism. To support the family, her mother took a job as a housekeeper for

Harry Payne Whitney Harry Payne Whitney (April 29, 1872 – October 26, 1930) was an American businessman, thoroughbred horse breeding, horse breeder, and member of the prominent Whitney family. Early years Whitney was born in New York City on April 29, 1872, as ...

Career

Stage

Murray began acting on the Broadway stage in 1906 with dancer Vernon Castle. In 1908, she joined the chorus line of the

Ziegfeld Follies The ''Ziegfeld Follies'' were a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 to 1931, with renewals in 1934, 1936, 1943, and 1957. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as '' The Ziegfeld Foll ...

, moving to headliner by 1915. Murray became a star of the club circuit in both the United States and Europe, performing with Clifton Webb,

Rudolph Valentino Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguella (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926), known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed The Latin Lover, was an Italian actor who starred in several well-known sile ...

, and John Gilbert as some of her many dance partners. Broadway Rose 1922

Films

Murray made her motion picture debut in '' To Have and to Hold'' in 1916. She became a major star for Universal, starring with

in ''

The Delicious Little Devil ''The Delicious Little Devil'' is a 1919 American silent film, silent comedy-drama film starring Mae Murray and Rudolph Valentino. A 35 mm print of the film is housed at the EYE Film Instituut Nederland,Big Little Person'' in 1919. At the height of her popularity, Murray formed her own production company with

Robert Z. Leonard Robert Zigler Leonard (October 7, 1889 – August 27, 1968) was an American film director, actor, producer, and screenwriter. Biography He was born in Chicago, Illinois. At one time, he was married to Silent film, silent star Mae Murray with t ...

. Critics were sometimes less than thrilled with her over-the-top costumes and exaggerated emoting, but her films were popular with movie-going audiences and financially successful. In 1925, Murray, Leonard, and Stahl produced films at Tiffany Pictures, with ''Souls for Sables'' (1925), starring Claire Windsor and Eugene O'Brien, as the first film made by Tiffany. For a brief period of time, Murray wrote a weekly column for newspaper scion

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His extravagant methods of yellow jou ...

. At her career peak in the early 1920s, Murray, with other notable Hollywood personalities such as

Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American filmmaker and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of American cinema and the most co ...

Douglas Fairbanks Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr. (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman; May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor and filmmaker best known for being the first actor to play the masked Vigilante Zorro and other swashbuckler film, swashbu ...

, William S. Hart, Jesse L. Lasky,

Harold Lloyd Harold Clayton Lloyd Sr. (April 20, 1893 – March 8, 1971) was an American actor, comedian, and stunt performer who appeared in many Silent film, silent comedy films.Obituary ''Variety'', March 10, 1971, page 55. One of the most influent ...

Hal Roach Harold Eugene "Hal" Roach Sr. Skretvedt, Randy (2016), ''Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies'', Bonaventure Press. p.608. (January 14, 1892 – November 2, 1992) was an American film and television producer, director and screenwriter, ...

Donald Crisp Donald William Crisp (27 July 188225 May 1974) was an English people, English film actor as well as an early producer, director and screenwriter. His career lasted from the early silent film era into the 1960s. He won an Academy Award for Best S ...

Conrad Nagel John Conrad Nagel (March 16, 1897 – February 24, 1970) was an American film, stage, television and radio actor. He was considered a famous matinée idol and leading man of the 1920s and 1930s. He was given an Honorary Academy Award in 1940, a ...

and

Irving Thalberg Irving Grant Thalberg (May 30, 1899 – September 14, 1936) was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and ability to select scripts, choose actors, gather productio ...

, was a member of the board of trustees at the Motion Picture & Television Fund – a charitable organization that offers assistance and care to those in the motion picture and television industries without resources. Four decades later, Murray received aid from this organization. In the early 1920s, Murray was painted by Hollywood portrait painter Theodore Lukits. This work titled ''Symphony in Jade and Gold (The Actress Mae Murray)'' (1922, private collection, northern California) depicted Murray nude, gazing in a mirror. It was exhibited at the Pacific Asia Museum in 1999 and two other venues as part of the exhibition ''Theodore Lukits, An American Orientalist''. Mae Murray Photoplay August 1916

Decline

Murray appeared in the title role in the

Erich von Stroheim Erich Oswald Hans Carl Maria von Stroheim (born Erich Oswald Stroheim, ; September 22, 1885 – May 12, 1957) was an Austrian-American director, screenwriter, actor, and producer, most noted as a film star and avant-garde, visionary director of ...

-directed film ''

The Merry Widow ''The Merry Widow'' ( ) is an operetta by the Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The Libretto, librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein (writer), Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's ...

'' (1925), with John Gilbert. When silent films gave way to sound film, she debuted in the medium in '' Peacock Alley'' (1930), a remake of her earlier 1921 version '' Peacock Alley''. In 1931, she was cast with

Irene Dunne Irene Dunne (born Irene Marie Dunn; December 20, 1898 – September 4, 1990) was an American actress who appeared in films during Classical Hollywood cinema, the Golden Age of Hollywood. She is best known for her comedic roles, though she perf ...

, Lowell Sherman, and fellow silent screen star Norman Kerry in '' Bachelor Apartment''. The film was critically panned at the time of release, and Murray made only one more film: ''High Stakes'' (1931), also with Sherman. Signed drawing of Mae Murray by Manuel Rosenberg 1927

Signed drawing of Mae Murray by Manuel Rosenberg 1927

A critical blow to her film career occurred after she married her fourth husband David Mdivani, a Georgian man of minor aristocratic roots, whose brothers Serge and Alexis married actress Pola Negri and the heiress Barbara Hutton respectively. The couple married on June 27, 1926, and Mdivani became her manager, suggesting that his new wife ought to leave MGM. Murray took her husband's advice and walked out of her contract with MGM, making a powerful foe of studio boss

Louis B. Mayer Louis Burt Mayer (; born Lazar Meir; July 12, 1884Mayer maintained that he was born in Minsk on July 4, 1885. According to Scott Eyman, the reasons may have been: * Mayer's father gave different dates for his birthplace at different times, so ...

. Later, she swallowed her pride and pleaded to return, but Mayer would not rehire her. In effect, Mayer's hostility meant that Murray was blacklisted from working for the Hollywood studios.Program Note for "High Stakes" issued by Films on the Hill, Washington DC (June 13, 2009). Meanwhile, in 1927, Murray was sued by her then-masseuse, the famous Hollywood fitness guru

Sylvia of Hollywood Sylvia Ulback (6 April 1881 – 2 March 1975), known as Sylvia of Hollywood, was an early Hollywood fitness guru. Between 1926 and 1932, "Madame Sylvia", as she was also known, specialized in keeping movie stars camera-ready through stringent ...

, for the outstanding amount of $2,125; a humiliating and detailed court case followed.

Later years

In the 1940s, Murray appeared regularly at

Billy Rose Billy Rose (born William Samuel Rosenberg; September 6, 1899 – February 10, 1966) was an American impresario, theatrical showman, lyricist and columnist. For years both before and after World War II, Billy Rose was a major force in entertainm ...

's Diamond Horseshoe, a nightclub that specialized in a "Gay '90s" atmosphere, often presenting stars of the past for nostalgic value. Her appearances collected mixed reviews: her dancing (in particular the Merry Widow Waltz) was well received, but she was criticized for her youthful costumes and heavy makeup application, which were seen as attempts to conceal her age. In 1946 she taught ballroom dancing to teenagers at a dance studio in Los Angeles. It was located on Crenshaw Blvd., near 48th Street. Murray's finances continued to collapse, and for most of her later life, she lived in poverty. She was the subject of the authorized biography ''The Self-Enchanted'' (1959), written by Jane Ardmore, that has been incorrectly called Murray's autobiography. On the evening of February 19, 1964, 78-year-old Murray was found disoriented in St. Louis, thinking that she had completed a bus trip to New York City. Murray explained to a Salvation Army officer that she had become lost trying to find her hotel, which she had forgotten the name of. She also refused bus fare back to Los Angeles as she claimed to have a ticket for the remainder of the journey in her purse "if she could find it."

Personal life

In September 1908, in Hoboken, New Jersey, while she was appearing in the ''Follies of 1908'', Murray married William M. Schwenker Jr. (born 1885), the unemployed son of a brewery-supply dealer, who cut off his son's allowance upon news of the wedding; they divorced in 1910. On December 18, 1916, she married former dancer and future Olympic bobsled champion Jay O'Brien. He had been married to Irene Fenwick. After divorcing O'Brien in 1918, Murray wed movie director

on August 18, 1918; they divorced on May 26, 1925. Murray married David Mdivani, her fourth husband, on June 27, 1926. They had one child, Koran David Mdivani (1926-2018), then divorced in 1933. Koran later was raised by Sara Elizabeth "Bess" Cunning of Averill Park, New York, who began taking care of him in 1936 when the child was recovering from a double mastoid operation (Cunning's brother Dr. David Cunning was the surgeon). When Murray attempted to regain custody of her son in 1939, Cunning and her other brothers, John, Ambrose, and Cortland, refused, according to ''The New York Times'', at which time Murray and her former husband Mdivani entered a bitter custody dispute. It finally ended in 1940, with Murray being given legal custody of the child and the court's ordering Mdivani to pay $400 per month in support. However, Koran Mdivani continued to live with Bess Cunning, who adopted him in 1940 under the name Daniel Michael Cunning. Reportedly, Mdivani had managed to drain nearly all of Murray's money. Murray campaigned for the reelection of President

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and ...

in 1932.

Death

Many years later, Murray moved into the

Motion Picture House In physics, motion is when an object changes its Position (geometry), position with respect to a reference point in a given time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of Displacement (geometry), displacement, distance, velocity, accelerati ...

in Woodland Hills, California, a retirement community for Hollywood professionals. She died there on March 23, 1965, at the age of 79. She is interred in Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood, California. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Mae Murray has a star on the

Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a landmark which consists of 2,813 five-pointed terrazzo-and-brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in the Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood dist ...

at 6318 Hollywood Blvd. She was one of three actresses ( Pola Negri and

Theda Bara Theda Bara ( ; born Theodosia Burr Goodman; July 29, 1885 – April 7, 1955) was an American silent film and stage actress. Bara was one of the more popular actresses of the silent era and one of cinema's early sex symbols. Her femme fatal ...

were the others) whose eyes were combined to form the

Chicago International Film Festival The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964 by Michael Kutza, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. Its logo is a stark, black and white close up of the comp ...

's logo, a stark, black-and-white close-up of the composite eyes set as repeated frames in a strip of film.About Our Logo – The Chicago International Film Festival.
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Filmography

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Jane Kesner Morris Ardmore, ''The Self-Enchanted: Mae Murray, Image of an Era.'' (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959) * "The Rise to Stardom of Mae Murray" by Jimmy Bangley in ''Classic Images'' August 1996 (Muscatine, Iowa: Muscatine Journal, 1996) * F. Cugat, "Mae Murray's Victory", ''Movie Weekly'' (August 19, 1922) *

Frances Marion Frances Marion (born Marion Benson Owens; November 18, 1888 – May 12, 1973) was an American screenwriter, director, journalist and author often cited as one of the most renowned female screenwriters of the 20th century alongside June Mathis a ...

, ''Off with Their Heads!'' (New York: Macmillan Publishers, 1972) * Adela Rogers St. Johns, "Mae Murray-A Study in Contradictions", ''Photoplay'' (July 1924), 43

External links

* *
Mae Murray
at the Women Film Pioneers Project * * Mae Murray a

* Mae Murray Biography a

Mae Murray
at Virtual History

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, Mae 1885 births 1965 deaths 20th-century American actresses Actresses from Manhattan American film actresses Film producers from New York (state) American people of German descent American people of French descent American silent film actresses American stage actresses Burials at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players American women screenwriters Ziegfeld girls Women film pioneers Screenwriters from New York (state) American women film producers 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American screenwriters People from the Lower East Side