French postcard by Cinémagazine-Édition, Paris, no. 66. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 307a.
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 316. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
The sweetheart of some of the top cowboy stars
Marceline Day was born as Marceline Newlin in 1908 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She was the daughter of Frank and Irene Newlin and the younger sister of actress Alice Day. She was raised in Salt Lake City. She attended Venice High School.
In 1923, she followed her older sister into the film business when Alice became a bathing beauty in one and two-reel comedies for producer Mack Sennett of Keystone Studios. Sennett cast Marceline alongside Harry Langdon in such short comedies as Picking Peaches (Erle C. Kenton, 1924) and The Luck o' the Foolish (Harry Edwards, 1924).
She had a supporting part in the historical drama The Splendid Road (Frank Lloyd, 1925) starring Anna Q. Nilsson, Robert Frazer, and Lionel Barrymore. She co-starred with Richard Talmadge in the action comedy The Wall Street Whiz (Jack Nelson, 1925).
Day also appeared in silent Westerns as the sweetheart of some of the top cowboy stars. For Universal, she starred opposite Hoot Gibson in The Taming of the West (Arthur Rosson, 1925), opposite Jack Hoxie in The White Outlaw (Clifford Smith, 1925) and opposite Art Acord in Western Pluck (Travers Vale, 1926).
Her popularity snowballed and her success eclipsed the career of her sister Alice Day, who was herself now a well-known actress. Marceline co-starred with Lew Cody and Carmel Myers in the romantic drama The Gay Deceiver (1926), directed by John M. Stahl. In 1926, Day was named one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars, a campaign sponsoring newly emerging actresses. Other Baby Stars that year included Joan Crawford, Janet Gaynor, Mary Astor and Dolores del Río. The campaign contributed to Day's popularity.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3774/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Marceline Day and Ramon Novarro in A Certain Young Man (Hobart Henley, 1928).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3777/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3774/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Ramon Novarro and Marceline Day in A Certain Young Man (Hobart Henley, 1928).
One of the most sought-after lost silent films
MGM cast Marceline Day in the romantic adventure The Beloved Rogue (Alan Crossland, 1927) opposite John Barrymore as legendary Parisian poet/vagabond Francois Villon. Then followed the now lost Horror classic London After Midnight (Tod Browning, 1927) starring Lon Chaney.
London After Midnight became the most successful collaborative film between Chaney and Browning, but it received mixed reviews from critics. The eerie sets, and Chaney's stunning vampire make-up, make for intriguing still photographs. The last known copy of the film was destroyed in the 1965 MGM vault fire, making it one of the most sought-after lost silent films.
As Serafina, she was the partner of leading man Ramon Novarro in the adventure film The Road to Romance (John S. Robertson, 1927). Adept at comedy, Day is best remembered for her role in The Cameraman (Edward Sedgwick, 1928), in which she starred as Sally Richards opposite Buster Keaton. The film was a box office hit, grossing $797,000, and was well-received by film critics.
During the rise of the sound film, Day made her transition effortlessly thanks to her pleasant, attractive voice. Her first sound film was The Jazz Age (Lynn Shores, 1929) with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. She appeared with her sister in the musical The Show of Shows (John G. Adolfi, 1929). She also appeared in The Wild Party (Dorothy Arzner, 1929) opposite Clara Bow. The film did very well at the box office. In the early 1930s, she left MGM and had to work mainly for smaller film studios with low budgets. Day was soon reduced to appearing in low-budget thrillers and action pictures.
By 1933, Day made the transition back to the Western genre, appearing in 'B' Westerns starring Tim McCoy, Hoot Gibson, Ken Maynard, Jack Hoxie, and John Wayne. Her last film was The Fighting Parson (Harry L. Fraser, 1933) with Gibson. She appeared in a total of 64 films between 1924 and 1933. In later years, she no longer spoke of her film career and refused numerous requests for interviews from fans or film historians. Marceline Day passed away in 2000 in Cathedral City, California. She was 91. The actress was married twice and had no children. She married furrier Arthur J. Klein in 1930 and was married for a second time in 1959 to John Arthur until he died in 1980.
French postcard by Europe, no. 502. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1671/2, 1927-1928. Photo: United Artists.
Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5486. Photo: Fox. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.
Sources: AllMovie, Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.
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