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Star Recalls Title Role inTwin Falls*1 Movie Star I4Peg’ PictureBy BOB LEERIGHT“Peg o' My Heart,” a tune popular in the early 1920s Is being revived— and along with it memories of Mrs. Jack Ridiey, Twin Falls, who played the part of ‘Teg” in the silen^ movie 26 years ago.Mrs. Richey, who was known professionally as Wanda Hawley, one of the most popular young actresses of the era that produced such notables as Be Be Daniels and Gloria Swanson, recalls that whenever she used to enter any of the Hollywood clubs the orchestra would stop in the middle of the piece they were playing and immediately start in on “Peg o’ My Heart.Mrs. Richey broke into movies in 1918 and was one of the few actresses who ever started as a “star,” In her first film role she was cast in the lead, opposite Stewart Holmes. She spent 12 years in the movies, retiring after making three “talkies” in 1931.Plays Opposite Reid She played opposite Wally Reid, who had the girls of the early 20s ga-ga, in a series of auto racing pictures and was the leading lady in several of Cecil B. DeMille’s early productions. Among the early De-Mtlle pictures In which she starred were “You Can't Have Everything” and “Male and Female.” She was cast with Reid and Gloria Swanson in the latter picture, one that would have been a sure bet for an Oscar in those days.The highlight of Mrs. Richey's career came In 1923 when she went to Egypt to make two pictures for a British film producer and one in England. While hi Egypt she starred in “The Desert Sheik and “Fires of Fate,” both A. Conan Doyle - stories.Holds King on Lap While in Egypt she held on her lap a 6-year-old boy, who now is King Faroukof Egypt. She was feted by .several English noblemen in the African country and was good friends with the Briton who led the expedition for the excavation of Tut-ankh-aman's grave.She started her career in New York City where she was studying voice and piano. She was bothered_ by attacks of laryngitis which were' hampering her music career. The son of one of the directors of the Master School of Music, at which she was studying, introduced her to William Fox, -who gave her a screen test.Known as “Dimple Girl”She starred in her first movie in 1918 for Fox and later became affiliated with Paramount studios. Miss Hawley, a baby-faced blond who was known as the “Dimple girl” of that era, was instrumental in the development of Warner Baxter and Bill Boyd, two current movie favorites, into stars.Mrs. Richey explained that leading ladies of those days were rather reluctant to be cast opposite “newcomers” but she consented to playing opposite Warner Baxter in “Love Charm” and opposite Bill Boyd In “Bobbed Hair.” Both were hits.Stars With Valentino Although she played opposite Wally Reid in most of his pictures she was co-starred with Rudolph Valentino in “The Young Rajah,” one of his most famous movies.Mrs. Richey said that women of that day were “crazy” about Reid. Their dressing rooms were across the hall from each other in the studio. Whenever Reid would become besieged with feminine admirers, he would play a particular tune on the phonograph in his dressing room. That was Mrs. Richey’s cue to barge into the dressing room and “outsit the rest of the women.”Starts Radio Program She also lays claim to being the first movie star to have a radio program. She originated the “Wanda Hawley Screen and Style Chats” program over KOMO, Seattle, prior to Hedda Hopper’s filmland commentary program.She married Richey in 1935 and they moved to Twin Falls four years ago.When asked for a comment on the movies of today, she declared the biggest Improvements have been made In photography, not only inOn the left is Mrs. Richey shown as “Peg” in the original screen version of “Peg o’ My Heart.” On the right is a picture of the retired actress in her Twin Falls home, (Staff engravings)Mrs. Jack Richey of Twin Falls, known in her movie days as Wanda Hawley, Is shown here in a scene from “The Love Charm,” a movie of the 1920s in which Warner Baxter, right, played his first leading role. Mrs. Richey was one of the leading stars of the 1920s when all movies first hecame “colossal, stupendous, and miraculous” productions.* * * *26 Years Ago— today
Newspaper Details
Twin Falls Times News
Twin Falls, Idaho, US
Sun, Aug 10, 1947
Page 10
Full Page
Clipped by
Twin F.
USA 18 Jun 2024
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