Ena Gregory
1906 - 1993In Australia, Gregory was known as the child wonder of the vaudeville stage. Her first screen experience came at the age of four when she was shown in her mother's arms in a crowd which was welcoming British dignitaries.
She was first signed in Hollywood for ingenue roles by Universal Pictures in 1921. She also worked for Hal Roach Studios and First National Pictures. In all she spent five years in comic roles before going into dramatic work. By 1924 she was the leading lady of the Independent Pictures Corporation. She was a WAMPAS Baby Star of 1925.
Gregory's film career started with comedy shorts like The Bull Thrower, Lion's Jaws and Kitten's Paws, and The Whizbang. After completing The Calgary Stampede and The Chip of the Flying U, she was promoted to leading lady for Jack Hoxie for two movies.
When Gregory failed to achieve stardom, she consulted a Hollywood seer. He suggested a new name which combined the syllables of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. It was Marian Douglas. Her first film using the new name was The Shepherd of the Hills. She took steps to become an American citizen beginning in October 1927.
Gregory continued to make movies as Marion Douglas until 1931. Her final films are Twisted Tales, Three Wise Clucks, Aloha, and Beach Pajamas.
Gregory divorced film director Alfred Rogell in August 1934. Gregory married Dr. Frank Nolan on 5 November 1937. The couple separated in May 1938 and Gregory obtained a divorce decree in July 1939.
Ena Gregory died in Laguna Beach, California in 1993, aged 87.
The Desert Flower
Irving Cummings
Colleen Moore, Lloyd Hughes
A mining camp girl attempts to reform a young derelict addicted to drink. Colleen Moore broke her neck in a fall from a moving handcar during the making of this rousing sagebrush melodrama. The pert Moore, an idol of her generation, quickly regained her mobility but was reportedly forced to sleep in a leather neck support for nearly ten years.
The Desert Flower
A Ten-Minute Egg
Leo McCarey
Charley Chase, Ena Gregory
The main premise for the comedy is the Jimmy discovers he can convince people he is a tough figure to be reckoned with merely by giving them a business card identifying him as the bouncer of the "Bucket of Blood Cafe."
A Ten-Minute Egg
Seeing Nellie Home
Leo McCarey
Charley Chase, Ena Gregory
The situation is typically embarrassing and unlikely-but-possible for Charley, but it is at the same time such a simple idea -- Charley shows off by taking a pretty girl back home, wreaks havoc trying to get her in, then discovers that she's married.
Seeing Nellie Home
Folly of Vanity
Maurice Elvey, Henry Otto
Billie Dove, Jack Mulhall
This drama had two directors: Maurice Elvey handled most of the film, but the fantasy sequence was directed by Henry Otto. Newlyweds Alice and Robert are already having differences over money. He gets angry at her extravagances, especially when she spends more than they can afford on an imitation pearl necklace. Ridgeway, a client of Robert's, invites the couple to a party. Robert wants to decline, but Alice insists that they go. Ridgeway loans Alice a real pearl necklace, to "restore their lustre," and everyone heads for his yacht. Ridgeway pays Alice a lot of attention, while a young widow tries to vamp Robert.
Folly of Vanity
Short Skirts
Harry B. Harris
Gladys Walton, Ena Gregory
Natalie, whose mother is engaged to Wallace Brewster, the reform candidate for mayor, is seventeen years old and resents being treated as a little girl, particularly by her mother's fiancé. When she meets the opposition candidate's son, Lance Christie, he persuades her to secure some papers incriminating Brewster.
Short Skirts
The Jazz Singer
Alan Crosland
Al Jolson, May McAvoy
A young Jewish man is torn between tradition and individuality when his old-fashioned family objects to his career as a jazz singer. This is the first full length feature film to use synchronized sound, and is the original film musical.
The Jazz Singer
Oil's Well
Mark Goldaine, Ben F. Wilson
Monty Banks, Robert Gray
Set in the oil-soaked country of “Chilitina”—shot on location in San Diego’s Balboa Park—Oils Well! follows the travails of Monty, an everyman office clerk, who thinks only of his boss’s daughter. When Herbert Hester, an oilman “so crooked he cheats when counting his pulse,” schemes to cover up the company’s new gusher so he can claim it himself and get the girl, Monty swings into action. He eludes the hapless Chilitinan army, sidesteps the General’s amorous wife, thwarts Herbert, and saves the day.
Oil's Well
The Calgary Stampede
Herbert Blaché
Hoot Gibson, Virginia Brown Faire
Real life rodeo champion Hoot Gibson plays Dan Molloy, an expert rider who wins the big one, the Calgary Stampede. When the father of his new French-Canadian girlfriend turns up dead, Molloy is the only suspect!
The Calgary Stampede
