Post by Admin on Nov 22, 2020 12:20:15 GMT
Who is Anne Cavanaugh, and Where is She Now?
Introduction
From a “Hedda Hopper's Hollywood” column in the Los Angeles Times, around the middle of 1942
Anne Cavanaugh, Goddess of the Silent Silver Screen
Anne was the undisputed queen of silent movies for at least 10 years - the richest, the most famous, the most beautiful actress in Hollywood, sought after for the best leading roles. But how did she get there, and where is she now?
Her early years
Anne’s father was the captain of the famous exploration ship, the Tipperary. Her mother passed away when Anne was 5, and until she was 17, she lived almost exclusively on board the Tipperary, continually surrounded by scientists and explorers, many of whom took an interest in her education. Anne was an avid student and acquired an extensive and eclectic education, as well as visiting all 7 seas, all 7 continents and at least 20 countries.
Anne was particularly fascinated by radio, as that was often the Tipperary’s only contact with civilization for months on end. She was an inventive and innovative experimenter, and at 15 built a radio set that allowed the Tipperary, at the time exploring in the Tasman Sea near New Zealand, to communicate directly with her home base in Ireland.
Actress and Inventor
When Anne was 17, a newsreel documentary team came aboard to film an expedition, and Anne charmed the much older producer into taking her back to Hollywood, where he got her a small part in Cleopatra in 1917. Within three years she was a major star. In 1930, she was the top silent film actress in the world, but then her career quickly declined as the interest in silent movies declined with the advent of the talkie.
Ironically, Anne’s innovative genius killed her own acting career… She continued inventing while she was acting, focusing on improving the movie industry. She was the major contributor to the invention of Sonicfilm, the ‘sound-on-film’ system for making ‘talkies’ that quickly became the Hollywood industry standard. But while Anne’s invention totally changed the movie landscape, killing off silent films, as an actress, Anne was unable to make the transition to the talkies. No amount of vocal training would make her harsh, strident voice palatable to audiences. The best parts she could get were non-speaking extra roles. Eventually she gave up her pursuit of acting entirely and focused on radio and electronics.
Last Scene?
Anne saw the war as a major opportunity - for the past few years, she had been working on an advanced detection system using radio - later to be called Radar. A few months into 1942, she demonstrated her new invention to the Department of War - only to be rejected, as they had just adopted an even more advanced system invented by Dr. Ned Quest (see The Return of Dr. Boom). She stormed out of the meeting and hasn’t been heard from since…