European Film Star Postcards: Pearl White

01 June 2022

Pearl White

Pearl White (1889-1938) was dubbed 'Queen of the Serials', and noted for doing her own stunts, in silent film serials such as The Perils of Pauline (1914) and The Exploits of Elaine (1914-1915). Often cast as a plucky onscreen heroine, White's roles directly contrasted those of the popularised archetypal ingénue. Until the end of the First World War White remained globally a popular action heroine.

French postcard. Nos artistes dans leur loge, no. 323. Photo: Comoedia, Paris.

British postcard. Photo: Pathé.

French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 14.

French postcard by A.N., Paris, in the Les vedettes de cinéma series, no. 55.

French postcard by Le Matin. Photo: Pathé Frères.

British postcard in the Famous Cinema Stars series by J. Beagles & Co. Ltd., London, no. 133E. Photo: Fox.

Pathé Frères

Pearl Faye White was born in 1889 on her father's farm in Green Ridge, Missouri, the youngest of five children. She moved with her family to Springfield, Missouri, where she grew up. Her mother died when Pearl was only three years old. Pearl joined the Diemer Theatre Company during her second year of high school.

At age 18, she went on the road with the Trousdale Stock Company, a repertoire group, in 1907. She was signed by the Powers Film Co. in New York in 1910. The following year, she moved to Philadelphia and joined the more professional film studio Lubin Film Company. She worked opposite some well-known actors, including Arthur Johnson and Florence Lawrence.

Then White got a contract with Pathé Frères. She only appeared in a few films there, before starting to work for Crystal Film Company where she first gained public attention. She acted in a handful of films that met with great success, including Pearl as a Clairvoyant (Phillips Smalley, 1913), Pearl's Dilemma (Phillips Smalley, 1913), Pearl as a Detective (Phillips Smalley, 1913), and What Pearl's Pearls Did (Phillips Smalley, 1914).

After this success, she returned to Pathé, where she became a star. In 1914, Pearl White starred in Pathe's 20-part film series The Perils of Pauline (Louis J. Gasnier, Donald MacKenzie, 1914), the fifth serial ever made.

Another success was The Exploits of Elaine (1914-1915). In Europe, The Exploits of Elaine were re-edited with two subsequent serials into Les Mystères de New York. Around 1914-1915 she was the most popular female film star, and for a time she even topped Mary Pickford's popularity at the box office. She became an international star and was the leading heroine in a number of serials, which enjoyed immense popularity.

She gained her initial fame by performing her own dangerous and life-threatening stunts. Stunt doubles were used after her popularity surged, and the studio became concerned for her safety. In 1922, during the filming of her final serial, Plunder, John Stevenson - her stand-in/stunt double - was killed while attempting a dangerous stunt. He was supposed to leap from the top of a bus on 72nd Street and Columbus Avenue onto an elevated girder. He missed the girder and struck his head. Stevenson died of a fractured skull. A rumor immediately spread that she had been killed, and a slight scandal arose when it was revealed that she had used a stand-in.

British postcard in the Pathé Frères Cinema LTD Series. Photo: Pathé Frères.

British postcard in the Pathé Frères Cinema LTD., Series. Photo: Floyd, N.Y.

Fox Film Corporation

Pearl White was married twice. In 1907, she met her first husband, Victor Sutherland when they were touring together. It was a problematic marriage and a divorce followed in 1914. In 1919, she married actor and war hero Wallace McCutcheon Jr., son of pioneering cinematographer and director Wallace McCutcheon Sr. He had been gassed in World War One and suffered mental problems. The couple divorced two years later.

In 1919, she left Pathé for a film contract with Fox Film Corporation, where she appeared in nine films. Almost all of the films flopped, so White returned to Pathé in 1923. Her second husband was distraught over the dissolution of the marriage and had disappeared only weeks after the divorce. It was believed that he had committed suicide.

Pearl went to Paris and subsequently suffered a nervous breakdown. The breakdown was attributed in part to her guilt over Stevenson and McCutcheon. She remained in seclusion in France until McCutcheon's reappearance in May 1923. In 1928, he fatally shot himself. When found, his pockets were bulging with clippings about Pearl. With her health deteriorating, she retired.

White was born into poverty, but by the time she retired from films in 1924, she had amassed a fortune of $2 million ($30 million in 2020). Pearl was a shrewd businesswoman, investing in a successful Parisian nightclub and a Biarritz resort hotel/casino. She owned a profitable stable of thoroughbred racehorses and divided her time between her townhouse in Passy and a 54-acre estate near Rambouillet.

In later life, Pearl White suffered from all the stunts she had performed. In 1933, she was permanently hospitalised. She died five years later, in 1938 at the age of 49. She left her enormous fortune to her partner, Greek businessman Theodore Cossika. Pearl White was buried in the Passy Cemetery in Paris, her tombstone bears only her name.

Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 173. Photo: Fox Film Corporation.

French postcard by Edition de la Cinematographie Française, Paris, no. 1006. Photo: Henri Manuel.

French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 128.

German press photo by Atlantic-Photo-Co., Berlin, no. 7275. Caption: From the monastery to the stage. Pearl White, the English [sic] film actress who retired to a convent some time ago, will return to film. First, she will appear in a revue in Paris.