Ethel Shannon
Encyclopedia
Ethel Shannon was an American actress. She appeared in over 30 silent movies
in the early 20th century.
, the daughter of James Shannon and Agnes Knight. After finishing school, she moved to Hollywood
. Not long afterward, she was asked by a friend if she wanted to work as an extra
in a movie
and she readily said yes. The extra part lasted several days and, before she left the studio
, Shannon was offered a role in a Bert Lytell
comedy
, Easy to Make Money (1919), which sparked her career.
After playing the role as Gwendolyn, the American, in Tsuru Aoki
's Universal Studios
production, The Breath of the Gods (1920), Shannon replaced Josephine Hill
as leading lady
with Universal's western
star, Hoot Gibson
. Shannon later signed a contract with B.P. Schulberg
and became a featured player. She was selected by Schulberg to play the principal feminine role in the most extravagantly produced picture at Schulberg Studios, Daughters of the Rich (1923), from the book of the same title by Edgar Saltus
. In her first production, Shannon had a supporting cast that included at least half a dozen players who either had appeared as stars in their own right, or had seen their names in lights as featured players.
Shannon was chosen as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars
of 1923, along with Eleanor Boardman
, Evelyn Brent
, Dorothy Devore
Virginia Browne Faire
, Betty Francisco
, Pauline Garon
, Kathleen Key
, Laura La Plante
, Margaret Leahy
, Helen Lynch
, Derelys Perdue
, and Jobyna Ralston
.
She appeared opposite Harry Carey
in The Texas Trail
(1925) and the New York Times proclaimed her "one of the best leading women you could imagine for this kind of photoplay." Despite good reviews and a promising future, Shannon's last movie role was as Ruth Morris in Through Thick and Thin (1927) opposite William Fairbanks
. She then retired from the screen to become a wife and "take up a home-making career."
She and Joseph Jackson (June 8, 1894 – May 26, 1932), screenwriter
and former press agent
, were married April 10, 1927, at the Wilshire Boulevard Congregational Church, Los Angeles
. The couple then moved into a new home on Tuxedo Terrace in the Hollywood Hills
. They had one son, Joseph Shannon Jackson (born September 11, 1928).
At a housewarming party
for newlyweds Charles Kenyon
and Jane Winton
in October 1927, Shannon was there "looking altogether too pretty to quit the screen," but declared herself quite contented. "On the way over here," she joked, "I thought of all the famous red heads of history, so as to be able to forget the fact that I had cooked the dinner at home myself! 'What,' I said to myself, 'would my public think of me if they knew I had really peeled the potatoes myself?' " Her marriage to Joe Jackson ended when he drowned while swimming at Laguna Beach
, in 1932.
stated that the "piquant red-haired" actress was coming out of her retirement to resume her career as she was signed to a long-term contract by Warner Bros.
and given, as her first assignment, an important part in Stars Over Broadway and was to be billed as Ethel Shannon Jackson.
The occurrence that changed her comeback to the screen is uncertain, but Shannon's final movie appearance turned out to be an uncredited role as "a woman" in Stars Over Broadway (1935), starring Pat O'Brien
and Jane Froman
.
. She is interred in Forest Lawn Cemetery
, Glendale, California
.
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
in the early 20th century.
Early life and career
Ethel Shannon was born in Denver, ColoradoColorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, the daughter of James Shannon and Agnes Knight. After finishing school, she moved to Hollywood
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
. Not long afterward, she was asked by a friend if she wanted to work as an extra
Extra (actor)
A background actor or extra is a performer in a film, television show, stage, musical, opera or ballet production, who appears in a nonspeaking, nonsinging or nondancing capacity, usually in the background...
in a movie
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and she readily said yes. The extra part lasted several days and, before she left the studio
Movie studio
A movie studio is a term used to describe a major entertainment company or production company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to film movies...
, Shannon was offered a role in a Bert Lytell
Bert Lytell
Bert Lytell , Born Bertram Lytell, he was a popular screen star of the silent film era who starred in romantic, melodrama and adventure films....
comedy
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
, Easy to Make Money (1919), which sparked her career.
After playing the role as Gwendolyn, the American, in Tsuru Aoki
Tsuru Aoki
was a popular Japanese-American stage and screen actress whose career was most prolific during the silent film era of the 1910s through the 1920s. Aoki may have been the first Asian actress to garner top-billing in American motion pictures.-Life and career:...
's Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
production, The Breath of the Gods (1920), Shannon replaced Josephine Hill
Josephine Hill
Josephine Hill was an American actress of the silent era. She appeared in 107 films between 1917 and 1933. She was married to Western star Jack Perrin from 1920 until their divorce in 1937....
as leading lady
Leading lady
Leading lady is an informal term for the actress who plays a secondary lead or supporting role, usually a love interest, to the leading actor in a film or play. It is not usually applied to the leading actress in the performance if her character is the protagonist.A leading lady can also be an...
with Universal's western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
star, Hoot Gibson
Hoot Gibson
Hoot Gibson was an American rodeo champion and a pioneer cowboy film actor, director and producer.-Early life and career:...
. Shannon later signed a contract with B.P. Schulberg
B. P. Schulberg
B.P. Schulberg was a pioneer film producer and movie studio executive.Born Percival Schulberg in Bridgeport, Connecticut, he took the name Benjamin from the boy in front of him when registering for school to avoid mockery for his British name...
and became a featured player. She was selected by Schulberg to play the principal feminine role in the most extravagantly produced picture at Schulberg Studios, Daughters of the Rich (1923), from the book of the same title by Edgar Saltus
Edgar Saltus
Edgar Evertson Saltus was an American writer known for his highly refined prose style. His works paralleled those by European decadent authors such as Huysmans and Oscar Wilde...
. In her first production, Shannon had a supporting cast that included at least half a dozen players who either had appeared as stars in their own right, or had seen their names in lights as featured players.
Shannon was chosen as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars
WAMPAS Baby Stars
The WAMPAS Baby Stars was a promotional campaign sponsored by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers in the United States which honored thirteen young women each year whom they believed to be on the threshold of movie stardom. They were selected from 1922 to 1934, and annual...
of 1923, along with Eleanor Boardman
Eleanor Boardman
Eleanor Boardman was an American film actress, popular during the era of silent movies.-Early life and career:...
, Evelyn Brent
Evelyn Brent
Evelyn Brent was an American film and stage actress.-Early life:Born Mary Elizabeth Riggs in Tampa, Florida and known as Betty, she was a child of 10 when her mother Eleanor died, leaving her father Arthur to raise her alone...
, Dorothy Devore
Dorothy Devore
Dorothy Devore was a leading and popular American silent-film actor and comedian in her time.-Early life:...
Virginia Browne Faire
Virginia Browne Faire
Virginia Brown Faire was an American silent-film actress, appearing in mainly dramatic films and westerns....
, Betty Francisco
Betty Francisco
Betty Francisco was an American silent-film actress, appearing mainly in dramatic/romantic films...
, Pauline Garon
Pauline Garon
Pauline Garon was a Canadian-born American silent film, feature film and stage actress.-Early life:Born in Montreal, Quebec as Marie Pauline Garon, Garon was the daughter of Pierre and Victoria Garon. Pierre was of French descent and Victoria's heritage was Irish...
, Kathleen Key
Kathleen Key
Kathleen Key was an American actress who achieved a brief period of fame during the silent era. She is best remembered for playing Tirzah in the 1925 film Ben-Hur. Key was the great-great granddaughter of Francis Scott Key, composer of "The Star Spangled Banner", and a distant cousin of author F...
, Laura La Plante
Laura La Plante
Laura La Plante was an American actress, best-known for her roles in silent films.-Early acting career:...
, Margaret Leahy
Margaret Leahy
Margaret Leahy was a British actress. After winning a beauty contest, Leahy went on to make only one film in her very short-lived film career.-Life and film career:...
, Helen Lynch
Helen Lynch
Helen Lynch was an American silent-film actress.She was born in Billings, Montana where she was also raised. After winning a beauty contest conducted in her hometown, she soon went to movie studios and received little trouble gaining roles, starting out as an extra in 1918...
, Derelys Perdue
Derelys Perdue
Derelys Perdue was an American silent-film actress and popular dancer during the 1920s. Her height was 5' 2.5"....
, and Jobyna Ralston
Jobyna Ralston
Jobyna Ralston was an American stage and film actress.-Early life and career:Born Jobyna Lancaster Raulston in South Pittsburg, Tennessee in 1899 to parents who named her after famed entertainer of the time, Jobyna Howland...
.
She appeared opposite Harry Carey
Harry Carey
Harry Carey was an American actor and one of silent film's earliest superstars. He was the father of Harry Carey Jr., who was also a prominent actor.-Early life and career:...
in The Texas Trail
The Texas Trail
The Texas Trail is a 1925 Western film featuring Harry Carey.-Cast:* Harry Carey - Pete Grainger* Ethel Shannon - Betty Foster* Charles K. French - Ring 'Em Foster* Claude Payton - Dan Merrill* Sidney Franklin - Ike Collander...
(1925) and the New York Times proclaimed her "one of the best leading women you could imagine for this kind of photoplay." Despite good reviews and a promising future, Shannon's last movie role was as Ruth Morris in Through Thick and Thin (1927) opposite William Fairbanks
William Fairbanks
William Fairbanks was an American actor. He appeared in over 65 silent movies in the early 20th century.He was born Carl Ullman in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Charles and Emma E. Ullman. His father was born in Bavaria, Germany, emigrated to the U.S. and became a naturalized citizen, and his...
. She then retired from the screen to become a wife and "take up a home-making career."
Personal life
She was first married to broker Robert Cary and divorced.She and Joseph Jackson (June 8, 1894 – May 26, 1932), screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
and former press agent
Press agent
A press agent, or flack, is a professional publicist who acts on behalf of his or her client on all matters involving public relations. Press agents are typically employed by public personalities and organizations such as performers and businesses...
, were married April 10, 1927, at the Wilshire Boulevard Congregational Church, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. The couple then moved into a new home on Tuxedo Terrace in the Hollywood Hills
Hollywood Hills
The Hollywood Hills is an affluent and exclusive neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in the southeastern Santa Monica Mountains. It is bound by Laurel Canyon Boulevard to the west, Vermont Avenue to the east, Mulholland Drive to the north, and Sunset Boulevard to the south.-Hollywood Hills...
. They had one son, Joseph Shannon Jackson (born September 11, 1928).
At a housewarming party
Housewarming party
A housewarming party is a party held within approximately 90 days of moving into a new residence. It is an occasion for the hosts to present their new home to their friends, and for friends to give gifts to furnish the new home...
for newlyweds Charles Kenyon
Charles Kenyon
Charles Kenyon was an American screenwriter, who wrote or co-wrote the screenplays for 114 films between 1915 and 1946...
and Jane Winton
Jane Winton
Jane Winton was a movieactress, dancer, opera soprano, writer, and painter. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.During the 1920s she began her stage career as a dancer with the Ziegfeld Follies.-Film actress:...
in October 1927, Shannon was there "looking altogether too pretty to quit the screen," but declared herself quite contented. "On the way over here," she joked, "I thought of all the famous red heads of history, so as to be able to forget the fact that I had cooked the dinner at home myself! 'What,' I said to myself, 'would my public think of me if they knew I had really peeled the potatoes myself?' " Her marriage to Joe Jackson ended when he drowned while swimming at Laguna Beach
Laguna Beach, California
Laguna Beach is a seaside resort city and artist community located in southern Orange County, California, United States, approximately southwest of the county seat of Santa Ana...
, in 1932.
Later years
Although it was announced a couple of times that Shannon was to marry again, she apparently never did. In August 1935, an article in the Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
stated that the "piquant red-haired" actress was coming out of her retirement to resume her career as she was signed to a long-term contract by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
and given, as her first assignment, an important part in Stars Over Broadway and was to be billed as Ethel Shannon Jackson.
The occurrence that changed her comeback to the screen is uncertain, but Shannon's final movie appearance turned out to be an uncredited role as "a woman" in Stars Over Broadway (1935), starring Pat O'Brien
Pat O'Brien (actor)
Pat O’Brien was an American film actor with more than one hundred screen credits.-Early life:O’Brien was born William Joseph Patrick O’Brien to an Irish-American Catholic family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He served as an altar boy at Gesu Church while growing up near 13th and Clybourn streets...
and Jane Froman
Jane Froman
Jane Froman was an American singer and actress. During her thirty-year career, Froman performed on stage, radio and television despite chronic injuries that she sustained from a 1943 plane crash...
.
Death
Ethel Shannon died at age 53 in Los AngelesLos Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. She is interred in Forest Lawn Cemetery
Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale
Forest Lawn Memorial Park is a privately owned cemetery in Glendale, California. It is the original location of Forest Lawn, a chain of cemeteries in Southern California. The land was formerly part of Providencia Ranch.-History:...
, Glendale, California
Glendale, California
Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...
.