Comments on: “Death Was Her Leading Man, Not Once, But Several Times”

By: Katie

Katie — Mon, 10 May 2010 22:46:01 +0000

Actually, her birth name was Kathleen Mabel Williams. She changed the spelling of her first name when she entered Montana Wesleyan University in Helena by 1899. She is listed in the 1902 Butte Montana Directory as “Kathleen M. Williams” living with her mother Mary C. Williams Also, I have a 1901 newspaper article which states that she was born “Kathleen Mabel Williams” too. There is a New York Times article which mentions her as “Kathleen M. Kainer” when she sued her first husband, Otto H. Kainer, for $20,0000 dollars in 1905. Her hometown newspaper mentions her as “Kathleen” several times. I have been researching her for over 2 years, and I have stuff from the Montana Historical Society in Helena.

By: Zoo World Free Cheats

Zoo World Free Cheats — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 09:52:30 +0000

next time i’m asked about Zoo World Cheats in the future i’ll know exactly where to look! thanks for the hard work you put in making your site

By: Dr. Russell A. Potter

Dr. Russell A. Potter — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 04:41:47 +0000

I was delighted to see this piece on Williams, and the excellent photos and research you’ve gathered here. I’m working to find out more about one of her films, “Life on the Border,” a 1911 Selig Polyscope of which part of one reel has survived. If you or others posting here have any further information about this film and her role in it, I would be delighted to hear from you. Keep up the good work!

By: moirafinnie

moirafinnie — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:12:25 +0000

When reading this account of Kathlyn Williams’ adventures all I could think was “What a time to be alive!” But then, I always think of that when I read about the capers of the early days of film.

While I realize that several of her late silent and early talkie movies have been preserved, I have one big question about this delightful sounding woman’s movies from the teens for you, Suzi–Please tell me that some of her early silents still exist in some form in an archive, if not on dvd?
Thanks so much for introducing this pioneer to me so fully in your vivid essay.

By: debbe

debbe — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:18:49 +0000

great stuff suzi. Had never heard of her. like you, love hearing about Hollywood before it was Hollywood. The risks they took- both with the “talent’ and the animals.Loved the story about Toddles. Even the name is great. I wonder though with all our technology and production equipment, and rules and regulations, are we telling better stories? Annette Bening and Warren Beatty have a girl named Kathlyn but I think its a coinicidence.

What would posses Kathlyn to leave Montana to be a film star in the early part of the century? So interesting. You always find the most interesting things to write about!

By: Sam

Sam — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:17:11 +0000

I wonder how much difference there would be in the movie industry, if the women were the makers and shakers, and would they have treated the men, as they were treated? I doubt it.

Great story Suzi, let us hear more of the women that helped make the movies, and in what way!!

Sam

By: Medusa

Medusa — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:46:09 +0000

With the news full of animal-human attacks — I’m thinking of the horrible chimpanzee event and the recent ABC special on Siegfried and Roy — it’s interesting to see that the urge to watch or hear about animal and human interaction has been around a long time and obviously isn’t about to go away any time soon. And the humans don’t always come out on top, do they?

Sad to hear about Kathlyn’s accident that so affected her mobility.

Another great story from the annals of Hollywood starring an amazing woman! Reminds me a bit of the Betty Hutton movie “The Perils of Pauline” where she played silent star Pearl White who was involved in so many exciting serial adventures.

Wonderful tale, SuziD!

By: Vincent

Vincent — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:26:27 +0000

In his book “Screwball,” Larry Swindell writes that Kathlyn Williams was the first favorite actress of young Jane Alice Peters in Fort Wayne, Ind., many years before her family moved west and she eventually became Carole Lombard. I have no idea whether they ever met; I do know that Williams had a supporting role in the 1928 MGM hit “Our Dancing Daughters,” portraying the mother of Anita Page, whom we lost last September.

Incidentally, speaking of the “pre-Hollywood” era, I used to live in Westfield, N.J., and according to IMDb, 17 movies were filmed there between 1907 and 1912, including several starring Mary Pickford, directed by D.W. Griffith and photographed by Billy Bitzer. (One of them, 1910′s “An Arcadian Maid,” was partially filmed at the Westfield train station across the street from my apartment.) Westfield — later home to New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams — was more recently used as a location site for the TV series “Ed”; you can see much of picturesque downtown Westfield in the opening credits.