German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 2090/1, 1928-1929. Photo: United Artists. Merna Kennedy in The Circus (Charles Chaplin, 1928).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4719/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Universal. Merna Kennedy in Broadway (Paul Fejos, 1929).
An innocent and abused circus acrobat
Merna Kennedy was born Merna Kahler in 1908 in Kankakee, Illinois, USA. Her parents were Maud (née Reed) and John Kahler, a German-American butcher-turned-chiropractor. After her parents separated, her mother moved the family to California, where she married a grocer two years later. She changed their name to Kennedy. At the outbreak of World War I, their mother prepped seven-year-old Merna and brother Melvin Merle ‘Bud’ to tour as a dancing and singing sibling act on the Orpheum and Pantages theatre circuits of Vaudeville.
At dance school in 1916, Merna became acquainted with Lita Grey, who, in 1924, became the second Mrs Chaplin. They remained friends throughout the time of Merna’s tours and Lita’s first few appearances as an extra for Charlie Chaplin. When Merle broke his leg, it ended the duo. Grey suggested silent films to Merna and sent her husband to see her in the musical comedy ‘All For You’ in Los Angeles.
Chaplin selected Merna as his leading lady for The Circus (Charles Chaplin, 1928). She had red hair and muscular legs due to being a dancer, and this helped her gain the role of the circus bareback rider. The friendship with Lita Grey ended in 1927 when Grey found out about the affair between Merna and her husband.
Cliff Aliperti at Immortal Ephemera: “Production on The Circus was cursed by interruptions and distractions, including a fire that blazed through the studio and Chaplin’s divorce from Lita Grey, who listed Merna among a handful of well-known Hollywood actresses whom she accused her husband of having an affair. The gossip columns showed no mercy despite Merna’s insistence that she was already involved with actor James Hall by this time.”
In The Circus, the Tramp finds work and the girl of his dreams at a circus. Kennedy played the owner's lovely stepdaughter, circus rider Merna, who is abused by her father. Bethany Cox at IMDb: “The Circus, while it is very funny, is also very sweet and beautiful. It looks lovely and has a beautiful score. I also loved the recurring despondent theme of love, which provided The Circus's more touching moments, but there are also some truly brilliant slapstick set-pieces, especially when Chaplin walks a tightrope with falling trousers and a clinging monkey, while the chase through the hall of mirrors and the scene in the lion's cage are also inspired.”
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 90/3, 1925-1935. Photo: United Artists. Charlie Chaplin in The Circus (1928). Collection: Didier Hanson.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1502/1, 1927-1928. Photo: United Artists. Merna Kennedy in her costume of The Circus (Charles Chaplin, 1928).
The wasteland of indie leads and bit roles for the majors
The Circus was a troubled production, but it did well at the box office. For a couple of years, Merna Kennedy starred in some notable films. The first was the all-talkie Broadway (Pál Fejös, 1929) in which she co-starred opposite Glenn Tryon and Evelyn Brent. Cliff Aliperti: “While Broadway wasn’t the smash it was on, ahem, Broadway, where it ran over 600 performances, it was a success, mostly because of innovative new equipment and director Fejös’s skilful technique. That said, Broadway didn’t do much for Merna Kennedy, who’s stuck in the thankless part of the sugary ingenue that the lead hoofer tries to win back from the nefarious gangster. For all of its pretty camera work, Broadway’s divide is a bit sharp for my tastes: the spectacularly filmed musical numbers more or less interrupt a static and overlong backstage mob story.”
Universal began teaming her with her Broadway leading man, Glenn Tryon, and the two can also be seen together for a brief few moments in Merna’s third most impressive credit, King of Jazz (John Murray Anderson, Walter Lantz, 1930), with Paul Whiteman. She appeared in three additional films opposite Tryon at Universal before moving on to the wasteland of indie leads and bit roles for the majors.
By 1932, she was playing leads in such mediocre films as the Western Ghost Valley (Ted Allen, 1932) and the Gangster film The Big Chance (Albert Herman, 1933). She appeared with Pat O’Brien and Gloria Stuart in the crime drama Laughter in Hell (Edward L. Cahn, 1933) and with James Cagney and Bette Davis in the screwball comedy Jimmy the Gent (Michael Curtiz, 1934) as Jitters, a wisecracking secretary. Other interesting pictures included Son of a Sailor (Lloyd Bacon, 1933) with Joe E. Brown, and Wonder Bar (Lloyd Bacon, Busby Berkeley, 1934) with Al Jolson. The latter was one of Warner's biggest hits of the year.
Merna Kennedy retired from acting in 1934 to marry choreographer/director Busby Berkeley, after a total of 28 films. Studio executive Jack Warner was one of the witnesses. It was rumoured that Busby was a maternal uncle and that his mother did not see the marriage as fit for her son. The marriage broke down because of ‘mental abuse’. The couple divorced in 1936. Her alimony settlement from Berkeley amounted to $7,500 to be paid at a rate of $100 a week.
In 1944, she married in Las Vegas Master Sergeant Forrest Brayton, for whom she is said to have waited three years while he served in the Pacific. Only four days later, she died of a heart attack in Los Angeles. She was just 36. She is buried with her four-year-old older brother, Bud Kennedy, who died in 1950, in Inglewood Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. Merna Kennedy will be remembered as the innocent and abused circus acrobat whom Chaplin falls for in The Circus.
French poster postcard by Editions ZREIK, Paris, no. 3. Belgian poster by Delko, Anvers, for Universal Pictures. Merna Kennedy in Broadway (Pál Fejös, 1929). The poster was taken from 'Souvenirs d'Hollywood' by Ed. Alternatives, 1986.
French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition (CE), Paris, no. 513. Photo: United Artists.
British postcard in the Colourgraph Series, London, no. C 24.
Sources: Cliff Aliperti (Immortal Ephemera), Bethany Cox (IMDb), Trav S.D. (Travalanche), Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English), and IMDb.
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