10 movie birthday celebration for Marie Dressler on TCM

November 9, 2:38 AMNY Classic Movies ExaminerCliff Aliperti

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Happy birthday today, November 9, to Marie Dressler. Turner Classic Movies celebrates by airing films featuring Dressler throughout their entire daytime schedule today. You'll find the entire schedule listed below the mini-biography which follows. Beneath the TCM schedule there's a slideshow of vintage collectible movie cards and collectibles featuring Marie Dressler.

Born Leila Koerber on November 9, 1869 in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada, Marie Dressler, remembered today as one of the more natural and modern comediennes of Hollywood's early talkies, actually suffered through several stops and starts in a long career which culminated with her greatest successes in her early 60's.

According to Barbara Garrick's biography found on The Marie Dressler Story website, Dressler lied about her age to land her first work with the Nevada Traveling Stock Company at age 14. After vaudeville and even opera, Dressler found her way to Broadway in the 1890's where her success grew and she was eventually spotted by Mack Sennett in a play called "Tillie's Nightmare" which led to her being cast in the first of the films TCM shows this morning, "Tillie's Punctured Romance" with Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Normand.

Dressler's silent film career flamed out rather quickly and by 1918 she was back in vaudeville. Her involvement in labor issues of the late 1910's led to a lack of offers coming in, with David Thomson writing in The New Biographical Dictionary of Film that Dressler wound up making comedy shorts in France during this period.

All but forgotten by 1927 Alan Dwan offered her a small role in "Joy Girl" and then screenwriter Frances Marion got her a part in MGM's "The Callahans and the Murpheys." Dressler credited her old friend Marion with not only saving her career, but saving her life as well. Dressler would go on to make all of the films showing on today's TCM schedule plus make notable appearances in a few which TCM chooses not to air: "Anna Christie" (1930) starring the great Garbo; the title role in "Tugboat Annie" (1933); and my own favorite, the earthy old star Carlotta Vance in "Dinner at Eight" (1933).

Dressler won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance opposite Wallace Beery in "Min and Bill" (airing at 3 pm EST today). What came of this was unexpected, but "Min and Bill" would propel Dressler not only to stardom, but actually make her the movies' top box office draw of the early 1930's! The teaming with the somewhat younger Beery, also formerly a silent film player himself, was a huge success and led to them being paired in "Tugboat Annie" and to share some screen time in "Dinner at Eight" as well.

She was nominated for another Oscar for her performance in the last of today's films to air, "Emma" (1932), but lost out to stage star Helen Hayes, who starred for MGM, Dressler's home studio, in "The Sin of Madelon Claudet" that same year. At age 64, mega-star Dressler would become the first woman to grace the cover of Time Magazine on the issued dated August 7, 1933. Her final film, "Christopher Bean," was released in late 1933. Marie Dressler died of cancer, July 28, 1934.

Marie Dressler TCM birthday schedule, November 9, 2009:

6:00 am "Tillie's Punctured Romance" (1914) starring Marie Dressler, Charles Chaplin, Mabel Normand, D: Mack Sennett

7:15 am "The Patsy" (1928) starring Marion Davies, Orville Caldwell, Marie Dressler, D: King Vidor

8:45 am "Chasing Rainbows" (1929) starring Bessie Love, Charles King, Marie Dressler, D: Charles Reisner

10:15 am "The Divine Lady" (1929) starring Corinne Griffith, Victor Varconi, Marie Dressler, D: Frank Lloyd

12:00 pm "The Vagabond Lover" (1929) starring Rudy Vallee, Marie Dressler, Sally Blane, D: Marshall Neilan

1:15 pm "The Girl Said No" (1930) starring William Haines, Leila Hyams, Marie Dressler, D: Sam Wood

3:00 pm "Min and Bill" (1930) starring Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, Dorothy Jordan, D: George Hill

4:15 pm "One Romantic Night" (1930) starring Lillian Gish, Rod La Rocque, Conrad Nagel, D: Paul Stein

5:30 pm "Politics" (1931) starring Marie Dressler, Polly Moran, Roscoe Ates, D: Charles F. Reisner

6:45 pm "Emma" (1932) starring Marie Dressler, Jean Hersholt, Myrna Loy, D: Clarence Brown

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