With her troubled teenage years, her numerous love affairs and her hedonistic way of life, Barbara La Marr was a character that could easily have come out of a novelist or a screenwriter‘s fertile mind. She lived life to its fullest and her eventful existence sadly ended when she passed away in January 1926, at the age of twenty-nine years. In an interview she gave in September 1922, she allegedly said: "I enjoy every bit of life, I want to get all I can out of every bit of it".
About beauty, Barbara declared as early as June 1914: "I believe that the beautiful girl has rare opportunities to succeed in life. Her dangers may be greater than her less favored sisters, but her opportunities will also be greater. It really depends on the girl after all as to whether she wins or loses." Did Barbara herself succeed in seizing all her chances and in avoiding the pitfalls of her good looks? In that respect, Adela Rogers St. Johns wrote in April 1926, "Barbara’s beauty carried her to the very pinnacle. But, I think it gave her none of the things her heart really longed for".
British postcard in the Famous Cinema Stars Series by Beagles, no. 152 D. Photo: Autrey, L.A. / First National. Barbara La Marr in The Prisoner of Zenda (Rex Ingram, 1922).
Mexican postcard by CIF, no. 1755. Photo: Autrey, L.A. Barbara La Marr in The Prisoner of Zenda (Rex Ingram, 1922).
Spanish postcard by Selecciones Capitolo S. Huguet, Barcelona. Photo: Metro. Barbara La Marr in The Prisoner of Zenda (Rex Ingram, 1922).
Barbara’s childhood
Barbara La Marr was born Reatha Watson in 1896 in North Yakima, Washington, U.S.A. Her parents were newspaperman William Watson and Rosa/Rose Contner.
She had an older brother, William Jr., who would later become a vaudeville performer known as Billy DeVore. She also had a half-brother, Henry, and a half-sister, Violet, from her mother’s previous marriage.
When she was a star, stories that she was an adopted child and was of distinguished European parentage were published but it was only publicity stuff.
In 1905, she made her stage debut. Over a few years, she appeared in such plays as 'East Lynne', 'Zaza', 'The Man from Texas ' and 'Uncle Tom’s Cabin'.
Her acting career stopped when she became too old for child parts.
Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 361. Barbara La Marr and Ramon Novarro in Trifling Women (Rex Ingram, 1922).
Mexican postcard, no. 349. Barbara La Marr in Trifling Women (Rex Ingram, 1922).
The notorious Reatha
In the first days of 1913, she made headlines for the first time. Then living in Los Angeles, her parents had reported to the police that she had been kidnapped by Violet and her lover, Clark Bosley. Several newspapers didn’t miss the opportunity to mention the young girl’s good looks, for example, the Los Angeles Examiner ("Beautiful girl disappears") or the San Francisco Call ("Kidnappers of pretty girl sought by police"). Faced with child stealing charges, her half-sister and Bosley decided to send her back home and, on the 4th of January, she was reunited with her parents.
This abduction case suddenly brought the young girl public attention and her beauty became the talk of the town: "Miss Watson hailed as California’s Venus", claimed the Los Angeles Evening Herald on the 25th of January. A trial took place but the case was dismissed in February. The judge had found no evidence that it had been a kidnapping and considered that Reatha had most probably willingly followed Violet and Boxley.
The family relocated to the remote town of El Centro but Reatha didn’t adapt to her new environment and, after a few months, she went back to Los Angeles. Although she was still a minor, she became a fixture of L.A.’s cabarets and nightlife, enjoying dancing and drinking until late hours.
Her father soon learned of his daughter’s behaviour and, in January 1914, he asked the Juvenile Bureau of the Los Angeles Police Department to take action. Faced with the choice of becoming a ward of the juvenile court or going back to her parents in El Centro, Reatha chose the latter option. Officer Leo Marden declared: "There is no charge against Miss Watson unless it be that she is dangerously beautiful. We believe that, despite the oddity of threatening to arrest a girl because she is beautiful, we are taking the right steps". Headlines such as "Too Beautiful for City, Girl Sent to Country for Safety" appeared in newspapers.
Amazingly, in March, she succeeded in persuading her ever-lenient parents to relocate with her to Burbank, in the Los Angeles suburbs. That same month, the notorious Reatha complained in an interview she gave to the Los Angeles Evening Herald that her beauty caused her too much trouble. She could not have put it better as, in June, the press again had a field day when she was involved in a bigamy marriage.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 743/1. Photo: Bafag, Berlin.
Finnish postcard by Kortcentralen Korttikerkus, no. 1.
Her dancing career
At the beginning of 1915, she decided on a ballroom dancing career and teamed with Robert Carville. As the Reatha Watson name was definitely smeared with scandal, she chose to be called Barbara La Marr from that time on.
The pair performed in cities such as San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. When the U.S.A. entered World War I in April 1917, Carville enlisted and their partnership came to an end.
A few months later, Barbara joined Ben Deely’s vaudeville act. He was a noted stage performer and had appeared in a few movies, notably as Theda Bara’s leading man in East Lynne (1916). She toured with him across the U.S.A.
In mid-1919, the strain of performing became too difficult to bear and, faced with permanent nerve and bone damage, she gave up her dancing career.
Barbara La Marr then relocated to Los Angeles.
Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, no. 1301.
Finnish postcard by Kortcentralen Korttikerkus, no. 227.
Hollywood’s Too Beautiful Girl
According to several sources, Barbara la Marr allegedly had played unbilled bit parts in movies in the first half of the 1910s but would have been blackballed by the film industry after her bigamy marriage scandal in June 1914.
Back in Hollywood in 1919, she turned to screenwriting and was soon signed by Fox Studios. In 1920, five of her stories were filmed. A sixth one would be used in 1924 when Barbara had become a star.
Unsurprisingly, her beauty attracted acting offers and she made her official screen debut with a bit role in an Anita Stewart vehicle, Harriet and the Piper (1920), in which she made an impression. Douglas Fairbanks then offered her a small part in The Nut (1921) and decided that she would be perfect to play the evil Milady de Winter in The Three Musketeers (1921). Barbara’s starring career was launched.
She got a big break when Rex Ingram cast her as Antoinette de Mauban in The Prisoner of Zenda (1922) and as the wicked heroine of Trifling Women (1922). The latter was publicised with ads such as "The most amazing drama of a human vampire ever filmed" or "A tale of Paris's most notorious temptress and her deadly power over the hearts of men". She next played a small-town vamp who tries to seduce a lawyer but loses him out to Blanche Sweet in Quincy Adams Sawyer (1922).
In June 1922, an article called 'The Girl Who Was Too Beautiful', written by Adela Rogers St. Johns, was published in Photoplay. It offered a sympathetic overview, mixing facts and fiction, of Barbara’s turbulent past. The 'Too Beautiful' tag would forever remain attached to her.
American postcard. Photo: Witzel.
Mexican postcard by CIF, no. 2098. Barbara La Marr in Thy Name Is Woman (Fred Niblo, 1924). The men in the picture are William V. Mong, Robert Edeson and Wallace MacDonald.
Barbara continues to make the grade
Unexpectedly, Barbara La Marr was given two mother roles by director Louis Gasnier in The Hero (1923) and Poor Men’s Wives (1923). It was a welcome change of pace and she mostly got good reviews for her performances. She proved she could be effective not depending upon her looks only.
She was then Leva Lemaire, a kindhearted actress who specialised in vamp roles, in Souls for Sale (1923), the unfaithful queen of an ancient kingdom in The Brass Bottle (1923), an amoral and self-interested fiancee in St. Elmo (1923), a dazzling Russian thief in Strangers of the Night (1923) and a woman who kills her lustful lover, after he had assaulted another girl, in The Eternal Struggle (1923).
She ended the year 1923 by playing Donna Roma in The Eternal City, which was partly filmed in Italy and had Mussolini and King Vittorio Emmanuele briefly appearing as themselves. Barbara’s name has now become synonymous with sheer seductiveness. According to Movie Weekly, "Barbara La Marr is a vision of loveliness in The Eternal City. She is one of the most beautiful women in the cinema and let her but once flicker across the screen and it becomes instantly vital with beauty and glamour".
She had one of her best roles as an unhappily married Spanish woman who succumbs to Ramon Novarro, to unfortunate consequences, in Thy Name Is Woman (1924). As had been the case with The Hero (1923) and Poor Men’s Wives (1923), most of the critics praised her acting. "She is a revelation of beauty and artistry, and she does it without the aid of fine feathers", wrote Photoplay’s reviewer Lamar Lane.
Her sex appeal was at its zenith as dancer Lou in The Shooting of Dan McGrew (1924). It earned her reviews such as "Her physical charms are undeniable and she displays them generously", "She seems to be getting more soulfully beautiful as time goes on" or "Highly sensuous and voluptuous performance". She was also at her most seductive as a poor student becoming a stage sensation in Paris in The White Moth (1924), attracting comments such as Variety’s "Maurice Tourneur has gone just about as far as the law will allow in undraping the physical allurement of Barbara".
Mexican postcard by CIF, no. 2141.
Danish postcard by J. Chr. Olsens Kunstforlag, Eneret, no. 580. Barbara La Marr in The Shooting of Dan McGrew (Clarence G. Badger, 1924).
Burning the candle by both ends
Barbara La Marr had a carefree approach to life. She enjoyed parties and nightlife and had serious drinking problems. She also was a big spender and occasionally had to face unpaid bills and taxes.
In November 1923, lawyer Herman Roth was arrested for blackmailing Barbara, threatening her to expose details about her private life. The trial took place in February 1924 and proved a difficult ordeal for her. Roth was found guilty and sent to San Quentin prison.
Sometimes, Barbara was the unwilling victim of her vamp image and got unwanted negative publicity, such as when she was unjustly involved in a divorce procedure in May 1923 (she didn’t know the husband) or when her name was linked to an alleged murder case in June 1924 (the victim was found to be very much alive).
At the beginning of November 1924, she was said to be in critical condition and the press alleged to a suicide attempt. When she rallied, Barbara denied those rumours and spoke of accidental poisoning.
However, her lifestyle didn’t prevent her from being a sensitive, lovable and generous woman. As Adela Rogers St. Johns would put it in 1928: "Judge her as you will, admit her faults and weaknesses, none of you could have known her and not loved her".
Possibly Russian or Bulgarian postcard.
Mexican postcard, no. 618. Barbara La Marr in The White Moth (Maurice Tourneur, 1924).
Her love life: Fasten your seatbelts
Barbara La Marr’s love life was quite complicated and tumultuous. At the end of November 1913, she declared to the press that she was a widow. She reported having been married for two months to a rancher named Jack Lytelle, who had prematurely died. No birth, marriage, death or census records have ever been found for the mysterious Lytelle and his existence is much subject to caution. Nevertheless, Barbara would choose to call herself Beth Lytelle or Folly Lytelle for a while.
Her first official marriage, to a man called Max Lawrence, took place on the 2nd of June 1914 and was very brief. It was quickly discovered that his real name was Lawrence Converse and that he was already married. As a result, Barbara made the news once more. Juvenile authorities again expressed their concern about her. An Assistant Officer stated: "We do not believe that Reatha Watson should be allowed to cause any more trouble for men, as she had for Converse". During the bigamy trial, it was revealed that Converse had been mentally unstable since a serious swimming pool accident. To prove that, at the time of his marriage to Barbara, he was not himself, he agreed to have an operation on the 27th of June to alleviate pressure in his brain, but complications ensued and he passed away. The marriage was of course annulled.
She then married dancer Philip Ainsworth in October 1916. They performed briefly together in San Francisco in December but, on the 7th, he was arrested for having beaten her up. "Dancer, scantily clad, forced to run for her life" claimed the San Francisco Chronicle. Barbara left him and he retaliated by soon filing a divorce suit, citing desertion, infidelity, alcoholism and ungovernable temper. An interlocutory divorce decree was granted in August 1917. Barbara got her final decree in Illinois in May 1918 but Ainsworth’s was only granted in 1920.
In September 1918, she married her vaudeville partner Ben Deely. In 1921, after several up and downs in their relationship, they separated for good but didn’t officially divorce. In February 1923, newspapers reported that she had just adopted a little boy, Marvin, from an orphanage. He was in fact her natural child, born in secrecy in 1922, probably in June. To this day, the father’s name has remained unknown. In May 1923, she married actor Jack Daugherty. Her lawyers had assured her that her previous marriage to Ben Deely was null and void. They estimated that the final divorce decree from her marriage to Ainsworth she got in Chicago in 1918 was not valid, as it was contingent upon a minimum one-year residency in Illinois, which was not the case for Barbara at the time. A Cook County judge granted the annulment of the La Marr-Deely marriage.
Deely disagreed and he sued Barbara for divorce in October 1923, citing adultery and naming Daugherty as co-respondent. Judges would then have the difficult task of investigating if she was still Ainsworth’s wife when she married Deely. In September 1924, Deely passed away and his divorce suit was dropped. At that time, Barbara and Daugherty were already separated. Deely’s death meant that judges would never have the opportunity to clearly determine Barbara’s marital status. In her life, she allegedly also had affairs with, among others, dancing partner Robert Carville, actors John Gilbert and Ben Lyon, producer and director Paul Bern, who would later marry Jean Harlow, and handsome and wealthy plantation owner Ben Finney, who had a very brief acting career in the 1920s.
Italian postcard, no. 268. Barbara La Marr in The White Moth (Maurice Tourneur, 1924).
Mexican postcard. Barbara La Marr in The White Moth (Maurice Tourneur, 1924).
A downward spiral
Sandra, released at the end of 1924, was about a woman with a split personality, a devoted wife and a heartless adventuress, and was not well-received. She had to endure harsh criticism such as "Miss La Marr is artificial to such a degree that, at the end of a few scenes, we are superfeited by her affectations", "Our disappointment on viewing this picture was the greatest we have ever felt while sitting before a screen" or "Miss La Marr doubtless will spend the balance of her career in pictures living down that terrible film". After filming, she started a drastic diet to lose weight.
The Heart of a Siren (1925) and The White Monkey (1925) followed and didn’t meet the expected success either. She especially got scathing reviews for her performance in the latter: "All Miss La Marr can do in the role is close and open her eyes and purse her lips" or "Every time Barbara La Marr starts to act, the scene is mercifully cut". Her career was in trouble.
Barbara’s health was declining. She suffered a nervous breakdown in mid-1925 and, at the end of July, doctors warned her of incipient tuberculosis. Her hectic way of life, her alcoholism, her overindulgence, her emotional upheaval and her reducing diets had gradually taken their toll. In September 1925, in the hope of regaining public favour, she began filming The Girl from Montmartre. It was a romantic story in which, to her great joy, she would play a non-vamping part.
Despite her failing health, she valiantly threw herself into work but, in the very beginning of October, she collapsed on the set. Actress Lolita Lee, who resembled Barbara, was hired to complete the movie’s long shots.
Pulmonary tuberculosis had finally settled in and, in December, she developed acute nephritis. During her final illness, Barbara La Marr entrusted her little boy to actress Zasu Pitts, who was a close friend, and her husband Tom Gallery. They legally adopted him in November 1926 and renamed him Donald.
Russian postcard, no. 80694.
Postcard possibly issued for a promotional campaign for First National.
The end of the tale
Barbara La Marr passed away on the 30th of January 1926, with her parents at her bedside. Her funeral attracted important crowds. Her crypt, bearing a plaque with the inscription 'With God in the Joy and Beauty of Youth', is situated in Hollywood Forever Cemetary’s Cathedral Mausoleum.
The Girl from Montmartre was released posthumously and audiences flocked to see it. Barbara would have been proud to read reviews such as New York Graphic’s "The picture shows Barbara La Marr in her real nature - a generous, impulsive, whole-souled and loving girl". In an interview published in September 1925, she declared: "If my next picture is no good, I will simply be kicked off the screen. And it would be so much nicer to retire gracefully". Her wishes had been granted. The Girl from Montmartre was considered by many as "a last and graceful gesture of adieu to a million filmgoers", as the Brooklyn Daily Eagle wrote.
At the time of Barbara’s death, Daugherty was still officially her husband. Paul Bern, who had stayed close to Barbara until the end, allegedly paid for her funeral and her crypt. Until his mysterious death in 1932, he also visited Barbara’s son regularly. After Barbara’s demise, rumours have arisen about an alleged drug dependence, but there never had been any actual proof of it. In his notoriously unreliable book 'Hollywood Babylon', Kenneth Anger even went so far as to falsely claim that she had died of a drug overdose.
People who actually knew Barbara voiced different opinions. For example, ex-lover Ben Finney and one of her best friends, Virginia Carville, Robert Carville’s sister, acknowledged that she was addicted to alcohol but denied that she had ever been a drug user.
In 1937, eleven years after the 'Too Beautiful Girl'’s death, a young Austrian actress, Hedy Kiesler, was signed by M.G.M. and was renamed Hedy Lamarr in remembrance of Barbara. She too would be noted for her exquisite beauty and her stormy private life.
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 10a.
Hungarian postcard by Morimüsor Vallalat. Barbara La Marr in The Heart of a Siren (Phil Rosen, 1925). The printed caption on the back of this card is 'A férfiak balvanya' (The Idol of Men).
Large Spanish 1925 card for Mennen brand, from the series no. 2. You had to buy two different Mennen products to get a movie star card.
Text and postcards: Marlene Pilaete.
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