Lizzie Borden Society Forum

Ran across some photos of Nance O'Neil. Some of these were new to me.

http://statelibrary.vic.gov.au/pcards/0 ... 0128.shtml
http://www.statelibrary.vic.gov.au/misc ... 3286.shtml
http://statelibrary.vic.gov.au/pcards/0 ... 0127.shtml
http://statelibrary.vic.gov.au/pcards/0 ... 000137.jpg
http://digital.library.ucla.edu/apam/se ... a&SCALE=.2

Oh wow...excellent find Harry!

Cool find, Harry! I'm always amazed at how mercurial Nance is, her look changes with every role that she plays. My favorite is the one of Nance with the dog.

Have we seen these?
From Harry's new Search Engine (2 pages!):

http://alltheweb.com/search?cat=img&cs= ... eil%22&o=0

PleaseClickOnPic

Cool finds Kat. Nance must have been somthing in her day.

That last photo is actually Marjorie Conn, the actress who plays Lizzie on stage in her one-woman play Miss Lizzie Borden Invites You To Tea

Oh thank you!
I wondered about that!
Her eyes are beautiful! That's why I had thought it was Nance Old...

On ebay there's a picture of Nance O'Neil going for about $75. I really can't tell if it's her. She's sitting on a horse and wearing a hat so it's hard to see her face.

These are great!!

k

http://www.acn.net.au/articles/theatre/

The above Australian Government article on the history of Australian theatre says:

"Nance O'Neill starred in a Melbourne production of Ibsen's 'Hedda Gabler' in 1900."

Today I got my copy of Frank Spiering's book Lizzie. I thumbed through it and will read it later. Two quotes did stick out for me. This first one I don't quite understand what Nance is talking about. Here's the quote. It's on page 212 and Nance is talking about why she moved from California to New England:

" to study them...I've got to lay bare one of the real secrets of my life-Every evening when the train came bringing me home from Boston, the one long street I had to walk to reach home was lined with the 'blue-nosed' inhabitants. Hundreds and hundreds of them were lined up inside gates to 'see that actress woman pass.' And some of their audible comments did not endear any of them to me. So one day I gathered my pets and belongings and moved back to the hotel in Boston. I had not studied them, while they had torn me to shreds."


Now is she talking about how New Englanders simply couldn't deal with an "actress" per se or is she alluding to the fact that many of them might have know she was the "actress hanging out with Lizzie"?

Second quote:

"We are rebels because those who govern us often, blindly, no doubt betray us. The unloved woman is usually just such, the victim of some man too stupid to know the difference between heaven and earth."


Now, I read that and to a degree I can't help but see a little bit of Lizzie in that quote. The idea of Lizzie being Andrew's victim.

I would love to have been the fly on the wall and heard what Lizzie and Nance talked about in private.

And there are two more photos of Nance at Corbis.com.

DWilly--

I don't think Nance's remarks had anything to do with Lizzie. I think she came to New England to research the Yankee character to enhance her acting.

The old Yankees, however, subscribed to the notion that all actors were loose and immoral people and looked down their blue-blooded (meaning aristocratic) noses at her. In other words, they were snobs and snubbed Nance.

What Nance had in common with Lizzie here is the fact that Lizzie, because of her own notoriety, was also looked-down-upon and snubbed.

It's not a good feeling to live in an environment where everyone thinks they are better than you.

Nice photos, Harry. I have a few in my silent movie books but they are small and grainy. These I'll add to my collection. I guess Nance was about 14 years younger than Lizzie.

-1bigsteve (o:

Maybe I am over analyzing, but has anyone ever taken notice of the names of the movies Nance played a role in? There seems to be an over all theme of sorts there. While not all of her movies fit into this theme, a good many do. Could this have been something Nance did subconciously? I've also read the plotlines and reviews for most of these movies, and find the theme carries over in many of them.


1932 Okay, America!
1932 Westward Passage
1932 False Faces
1931 Transgression
1931 Secret Service
1931 Resurrection
1931 A Woman of Experience
1931 The Good Bad Girl
1930 The Rogue Song
1930 The Eyes of the World
1930 The Florodora Girl
1930 Call of the Flesh
1930 Ladies of Leisure
1930 The Lady of Scandal
1930 Cimarron
1929 His Glorious Night
1915 Kreutzer Sonata
1912 The Count of Monte Cristo

http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/f ... 220487&mod

A lot of actresses of her day were pretty much type cast into certain roles or story themes. Mary Pickford hated playing young girls but that was where the money was. Theda Bara, Mable Norman, Clara Bow, Florence Lawrence, Louise Brooks and others all had their main groove they stayed in. I doubt Nance was any different.

-1bigsteve (o:

What is the theme you recognize, Allen?
I was wondering what you thought about these movies. I don't know a lot about them.
I did think it was possible that the times called for movies like these- but I don't know enough about these movies to figure this out.

Maybe nobody sees it but me. I'm aware of how an actress could be type cast. I've been interested in actors and actresses from the 30's and 40's, and Hollywood at that time in general, for many years. It's a really fascinating age in Hollywood. Much more facinating to me than anything going on there now.

On stage she was known as a great tragedian actress. Some people believe this is what originally drew Lizzie to Nance in the first place. That she identified so well with tragedy and controversy. I'm wondering if this was somehow subconcious on Nance's part, or wholly intentional. Did she choose these movies by title and/or plot subconciously?Or maybe I just haven't been getting enough sleep lately

Ladies of Leisure
http://movies.aol.com/movie/main.adp?ta ... id=1064553

Kreutzer Sonata
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kreutzer_Sonata

The Rogue Song
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rogue_Song

The Good Bad Girl
http://movies.aol.com/movie/main.adp?ta ... id=1060480

A Woman of Experience
http://movies.aol.com/movie/main.adp?ta ... id=1080690

Resurrection
http://www.vh1.com/movies/movie/71763/plot.jhtml

False Faces
http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&cf=in ... 30&intl=us