(2 of 3)
Death. Some 20 years ago, Scottish-born Dorothy Mackaye was a slip of a lass with a pair of sloe-black, Oriental eyes and an intermittent lisp that made her afraid audiences would laugh at the wrong times if she played dramatic roles. So she turned to comedy, made her biggest hit as Peg in Peg o' My Heart. She also married Musical Comedy Actor Ray Raymond.
One night in the roaring '20s Singer Raymond charged into his Hollywood home, ordered out of it Paul Kelly, stalwart young screen juvenile. Said Kelly: "You think I'm in love with your wife — and I am." A few months later Kelly came back. In the presence of Actress Mackaye and her daughter, Valerie Raymond, 4, Kelly threatened Raymond. But the singer, who said he had been drinking for two weeks, did not want to fight. Kelly slugged him. Ray Raymond died of the injuries he received. Contributing cause: acute alcoholism.
If Actress Mackaye's career was not ended at that moment, it was when she served ten months in jail for withholding evidence about the killing. Kelly served 25 months for manslaughter. Freed, exActress Mackaye married Cinemactor Paul Kelly, who is still making pictures.
Driving alone to their San Fernando Valley ranch one night last week, Dorothy Mackaye hit a soft shoulder. Her car turned over, pinned her beneath the steering wheel.
Three days later, Comedienne Mackaye, having lived more drama than most actresses act, died. At her bedside were Husband Paul Kelly, Daughter Valerie Raymond, 16.
» More significant than any sensational event of Hollywood's crowded week was the death of Flora Finch, believed to be over 70, (she would never tell her age).
Silent cinema's first famous comedienne, British-born Flora Finch was the first cinemactress to be known by name throughout the U. S. Her death brought to a close the silent film's pre-history as Douglas Fairbanks' death closed a later era.
Skinny, hatchet-faced, homely and aware of it, Funnywoman Finch could move with a birdlike grace, was a perfect foil for elephantine, moon-faced Funnyman John Bunny. With him she appeared on miles of film.
After John Bunny died in 1915, Flora Finch disappeared. Thinner and older, she reappeared in 1922. At M. G. M., where Flora Finch was a stock player until she died, few of the stars knew who she was.
Testament. When Douglas Fairbanks Sr. died suddenly last Dec. 12, Hollywood's wise men guessed his estate would be a whopper, but did not know how much, or who would be his heirs. Last week Douglas Fairbanks' will was filed in Manhattan. It disposed of an estate of more than $2,000,000.
Principal beneficiaries:
» Mrs. Douglas Fairbanks Sr., No. 3 (former British chorus girl who was Lady Sylvia Ashley before he married her)—an amount "not to exceed $1,000,000."
» Son Douglas Fairbanks Jr.—a sum "not to exceed $600,000."
» Brother Robert Fairbanks, Hollywood film executive—a sum "not to exceed $100,000." —
» The Motion Picture Actors' Relief Fund of Los Angeles—$10,000, to be known as the Douglas Fairbanks Fund.