Margaret Dale (actress)

Margaret Dale
Hearst International Magazine 1907
Born	Margaret Rosendale March 6, 1876 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died	March 23, 1972 (aged 96) New York City, New York
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1898-1948

Margaret Dale (March 6, 1876 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – March 23, 1972 in New York City) was an American stage and film actress. Many sources give her birth year as 1880. She performed on Broadway for over fifty years and occasionally did films in the 1920s. She appeared in a large number of Broadway hits over the course of her years as an actress.

Born Margaret Rosendale, she later shortened her surname legally to 'Dale'.^[1] She began her career in Charles Frohman acting company in 1898, often in support of the leading actors. She was interviewed in Munsey's Magazine in 1903 where a brief rundown of her career was written and that she was single and living with her mother.^[2] She became the leading lady of John Drew from 1902 to 1905. Dale performed with George Arliss in the long running play Disraeli, 1911 to 1917.^[3] In the mid-1920s she was part of an ensemble cast that included Mary Boland, Edna May Oliver, Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Hackett and Gene Raymond in the popular play The Cradle Snatchers.^[4]

Motion Pictures

In 1920 Dale appeared in her first movie The World and His Wife. She would appear in six films between 1920 and 1934 preferring the theater. She rejoined Arliss in 1921 for the film version of Disraeli which was produced by his production company Distinctive and released through United Artists. Dale did not return to Arliss when he made his talking version of Disraeli in 1929.

In 1922 Dale appeared in D. W. Griffith's One Exciting Night, a haunted house melodrama. This movie had all the spirit of a Mary Roberts Rinehart story, then gaining popularity, but was an original story by Griffith. One Exciting Night was shot at Griffith's Mamaroneck studios on Long Island. The 1921 version of Disraeli is a lost film with one reel in existence at the George Eastman House. However a complete print is rumored to exist at Gosfilmofond in Russia. One Exciting Night was on home video (VHS) briefly in the 1990s. In 2014 it is available on DVD from Alpha Video^[5] Dale's last film and only talkie was The Man with Two Faces starring Edward G. Robinson and Mary Astor and now available from Warner Archive Collection.

Filmography

• The World and His Wife (1920)
• Disraeli (1921)
• One Exciting Night (1922)
• Second Youth (1924)
• Week End Husbands (1924)
• The Man with Two Faces (1934)

References

1. The Green Book Magazine Volume 9, page 520 published 1909(a contemporary periodical on Broadway and Theatre)
2. Munsey's Magazine, Vol.29 1903 page 945; Margaret Dale
3. George Arliss: The Man Who Played God by Robert Fells c.2004
4. Margaret Dale - North American Theatre Online
5. One Exciting Night at silentera.com

Sources

• New York Times, "ABOUT STAGE PEOPLE; Margaret Dale to be John Drew's New Leading Woman." February 20, 1902
• Appelbaum, Stanley Great Actors and Actresses of the American Stage in Historic Photographs: 332 Portraits from 1850-1950, c. 1983
• Fells, Robert M. George Arliss: The Man Who Played God, c. 2004

External links

• Margaret Dale at IMDb
• Margaret Dale at IBDb
• Margaret Dale photo gallery at New York Public Library Billy Rose Collection
• University of Louisville photo of Margaret Dale wearing a good luck pendant; Univ. of Louisville, Macauley Theatre collection
• Margaret Dale portraits (Univ. of Washington, Sayre Collection)
• lantern slide showing Margaret Dale(as Mrs. Noel Travers) with George Arliss as Disraeli in the 1921 film, DISRAELI