La Collectionneuse: Patsy Ruth Miller

Patsy Ruth Miller was a versatile actress who was in high demand in the 1920s, especially after she had played gypsy girl Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923). Her other best-known film is probably Ernst Lubitsch’s successful and inventive comedy So This Is Paris (1926). During her career, the actress appeared in a large variety of roles and later declared, "Whenever a part came along, I took it. In my day, being an actress meant doing what you were hired to do. And that was acting. But when I look back on it, it’s amazing all the parts I played."


British postcard in the Picturegoer series, London, no. 173.


Spanish postcard in the Kursaal series. Patsy Ruth Miller in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Wallace Worsley, 1923).

A trip to Los Angeles that changed her life

Patsy Ruth Miller was born on the 17th of January 1904 in St Louis, Missouri, U.S.A.

As a teenager, she developed a desire to become an actress. To author Michael G. Ankerich, she reminisced: "I loved being in school plays. I can remember I always went into it heart and soul, while most of the girls giggled and laughed it off."

She was also a big fan of motion pictures. In 1920, during a trip to Los Angeles with her parents to visit relatives, she made a screen test, which proved awful. Luckily, she was thereafter introduced to famous star Alla Nazimova, who took a liking to the young girl and thought that she had movie potential.

So, she was given the role of Nichette, the heroine’s young milliner friend, in Camille (1921), in which Nazimova starred as Marguerite Gautier, the Lady of the Camellias.

Her hopes had come true, and her film career was on track.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 505. Photo: Universal. Patsy Ruth Miller in Lorraine of the Lions (Edward Sedgwick, 1925).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 516. Photo: Universal. Patsy Ruth Miller in Lorraine of the Lions (Edward Sedgwick, 1925).

Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame

In 1922, Patsy Ruth Miller notably played opposite Tom Mix, who taught her to ride, in two Westerns, The Fighting Streak and For Big Stakes. That same year, she was chosen as a Wampas Baby Star.

She was then Charles Ray’s leading lady in The Girl I Loved (1923), adapted from James Whitcomb Riley‘s book of poetry about unspoken love and unrealised aspirations. Patsy fondly remembered: "It was one of the most beautiful pictures of its time. It was really lovely. It was a pleasure working with Charles Ray, and I really think I learned a great deal of sensitivity and subtlety from him."| 

She got a big break when Universal gave her the role of Esmeralda in their prestigious and costly The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), which starred Lon Chaney as Quasimodo.

Later, she explained how he gave her helpful advice on their profession. He pointed out to her that acting was making people feel the emotion rather than intensely feeling it oneself. He insisted on staying in control of one’s performance, as, if you wasted yourself in dramatics, you might not have any effect on the audience at all.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame was a smash hit and brought her into prominence.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4220/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Universal.


Polish postcard by Edition Victoria, no. 278.

A prolific actress

The young star was in high demand in the following years and had a hectic film schedule. 1924 was a record year, as 12 films featuring Patsy were released.

She got along very well with Monte Blue, and they co-starred in three Warner comedies: Red Hot Tires (1925), Ernst Lubitsch’s So This Is Paris (1926) and Wolf’s Clothing (1927). About Lubitsch, she once said: "You did have to do everything exactly the way he wanted it, but it always turned out that the way he wanted it was really the best way for you. He was great."

She also loved working with popular comedian Glenn Tryon, with whom she was paired by Universal in films such as Painting the Town (1927), Hot Heels (1927), A Hero for a Night (1927), and The Gate Crasher (1928).

Her other films include Daughters of To-Day (1924), Girls Men Forget (1924), The Wise Virgin (1924), The Girl on the Stairs (1925), Lorraine of the Lions (1925), Rose of the World (1925), Hogan’s Alley (1925), Why Girls Go Back Home (1926), Hell-Bent for Heaven (1926), Broken Hearts of Hollywood (1926), What Every Girl Should Know (1927), The First Auto (1927), Once and Forever (1927), South Sea Love (1927), The Tragedy of Youth (1928), We Americans (1928), Beautiful But Dumb (1928), …

She found time for other activities as well. She learned to pilot an aeroplane and was popular with the Hollywood society of the 1920s. She was regularly invited by Marion Davies and W.R. Hearst to parties at San Simeon Castle. She also belonged to a group of actresses known as "Our Club", organised in 1923 by Mildred Davis and Helen Ferguson, with Mary Pickford as its honorary president.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5320. Photo: Universal-Film.


French postcard by Cinémagazine Edition, Paris, no. 529. Photo: Cannons.

A new interest: writing

At Columbia, Patsy Ruth Miller appeared in her first all-talking picture, The Fall of Eve (1929).

Warner teamed her with Edward Everett Horton in four comedies: The Hottentot (1929), The Sap (1929), The Aviator (1929) and Wide Open (1930). Pathé reunited them for the last time in Lonely Wives (1931). That same year, she starred in Night Beat for the Poverty Row company Action Pictures.

However, by the early 1930s, she was losing interest in movie acting and was ready to tackle a new challenge. In 1929, she married screenwriter and director Tay Garnett and claimed to have begun to unofficially help him on some of his scripts.

After their divorce in 1933, she turned to a writing career. First, she authored short stories and then came a novel about Hollywood, 'That Flannigan Girl', published in 1939. She also penned a play, 'Windy Hill', which was performed on the road by Kay Francis in 1945 and 1946, and she wrote the book for the musical 'Music in My Heart', which ran on Broadway from October 1947 to January 1948.

She also briefly came back to acting in 1936 by appearing on Broadway in Samson Raphaelson’s 'White Man', based on a story of Afro-Americans passing for white. It was a flop and closed after seven performances.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5190/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Warner Bros / National.


Spanish postcard by M.C., Barcelona, no. 50.

My Hollywood: When Both of Us Were Young

Patsy Ruth Miller married screenwriter John Lee Mahin in 1937, and they had a son in 1941. They divorced in 1946. Her last husband was businessman Effingham Smith Deans. The couple travelled extensively, and she remained happily married with him from 1951 to his death in 1986.

In 1951, she accepted, allegedly as a joke, to play a bit part, made up like an old woman, in Quebec (1951), directed by George Templeton, who had known her since the 1920s.

She came back to the screen for the last time in Mother (1978), an independent film reportedly shot in five days on a small budget. The script had been especially written for her and Coleen Gray by Brian Pinette, who also directed and produced.

Her memoirs, 'My Hollywood: When Both of Us Were Young', were published in 1988. She remarked at the time: "I don’t think any of us ever dreamed that, half a century later, all those films we made in our day-to-day routine would be hauled out again and viewed by young people."

Patsy Ruth Miller passed away on the 16th of July 1995.


Belgian postcard by Weekblad “Cinéma”, Antwerpen.

Postcards and text: Marlene Pilaete.