Florence Lawrence: The World's First Movie Star

Let’s talk about the birth of the movie star.

Not just the first movie star. Let’s talk about the rise and fall of the world’s first movie star. I’ve told part of this story hundreds of times on my channel, on panels, or in interviews because part of this story is funny and quirky - it gives you a really good sense of Carl Laemmle’s personality and vision. However, there is a second part of this story that is much darker, and I would bet that many of you who have been following my channel, or even those of you who are classic fans in general, have never heard about this before. I don’t usually talk about it, and I have noticed that other people don’t talk about it. But today, we will.

Carl Laemmle was so ambitious that he decided very quickly that just showing movies wasn’t enough for him. He wanted to make movies too.

Let’s rewind and set the scene. Universal doesn’t exist yet. We’re back 1906 and my Uncle Carl Laemmle, the guy who will start Universal Studios, at the age of 39 left the clothing business to open his very first movie theater in Chicago. This was a totally new business to get into, not just for him, but for everybody. Movies were very new, and many people didn’t take them seriously. They thought that they were just a trend that was going to die out, but Uncle Carl believed. He put everything into his theaters, and they were successful. He was so ambitious that he decided very quickly that just showing movies wasn’t enough for him. He wanted to make movies too. So, in the year 1909, he starts IMP - the Independent Moving Pictures Company.

Now this was a bold movie not just because Uncle Carl’s a new business owner in a new industry, but also because making IMP put him in direct competition with the Motion Picture Patents Company - also known as the Edison Trust. The Edison Trust was a powerful monopoly that ruled the industry with an iron fist run by the evil Thomas Edison. He would dictate who could make movies, how you could make movies, and he would charge some hefty fees for the privilege. Uncle Carl’s IMP was a small fish in a big pond, but he had a secret weapon: Florence Lawrence.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Florence Lawrence, despite the fame that she’d found.

Florence Lawrence was born on January 2, 1886, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Her mother was an actress and vaudeville performer, so Florence Lawrence grew up in that world, performing on stage for the first time at just 3 years old. Florence Lawrence made her film debut in 1906 with the Vitagraph Company, and quickly became known for her expressive acting style. By the time she joined Biograph in 1908, she had already appeared in numerous films, and she was one of the most recognizable faces on screen, but she was still uncredited.

At the time, the film industry was not yet crediting actors at all. They feared that by giving actors a name, their real name, that actors would become too powerful, and they would start demanding too much money. So instead, actors would be referred to by their studio, or by a physical feature. So, you might be known as, “The girl with the curls.” Florence Lawrence at the time, was The Biograph Girl. It’s worth noting that Biograph was one of the companies under Thomas Edison’s Trust.

So, in the midst of Carl Laemmle going head-to-head with Thomas Edison (I will remind you that Thomas Edison sued Carl Laemmle 289 times) Uncle Carl comes up with a brilliant idea. He offers Florence Lawrence name billing if she will leave Biograph and become an IMP actress. This move set the stage for one of the most daring and innovative publicity stunts, one that I have seen hundreds of times since. However, I cannot find an instance of it being used before this. Carl Laemmle knew that he had to do something big to compete with Thomas Edison and the Trust. He didn’t want to just make Florence Lawrence a name, he wanted to make her THE name.

Carl Laemmle orchestrated a brilliant publicity campaign, probably a little traumatizing too, where he started a rumor that Florence Lawrence died in a streetcar accident. This created huge buzz, suddenly people were talking about her movies, and for the first time ever, they were talking about her name. So once the news gets good and big enough, Uncle Carl releases a statement of his own. He claims the rumors were started by his competitors (pretty much blaming Thomas Edison and The Trust for it). He assures the public that Florence Lawrence is alive and well and she’s now an IMP actress, but he didn’t stop there! He announced that Florence Lawrence would be appearing in the upcoming IMP film The Broken Oath, and fans would be able to see her in person - proof that she was alive - at an event in St. Louis with her co-star King Baggot. Thousands of people showed up, they were practically rioting, trying to touch her and trying to grab at her clothes. They had never seen a celebrity in person before and it really cemented the celebrity status of Florence Lawrence. Audiences wanted to see her in her upcoming film, and they wanted more of her!

Carl Laemmle and Thomas Edison had a feud, to include over 298 lawsuits filed by Edison against Laemmle.

Florence Lawrence’s fame was a massive success for Carl Laemmle and IMP, and it marked the start of the star system, where actor’s names and faces were as important as the movies they were in. This was a pivotal moment in film history, and it paved the way for stars like Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Charlie Chaplin. I must admit that the industry was right to fear name billing. They anticipated that with great power would come great salary demands, and they were gith. Florence Lawrence soon proved too expensive. She left to work at Lubin Studios, and recommended Mary Pickford take her place as the next IMP star.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Florence Lawrence, despite the fame that she’d found. She might be one of the first people ever to feel the highs of stardom and the dramatic crash that so often follows. She felt immense pressure from the industry and from the public, and then in 1915 she was badly burned while working on a movie. I heard her face was scarred, and her spine fractured when a prop stairway fell on it. The pain was debilitating, and though she tried to return to the industry in the following years, she really struggled. The existence of stars increased the use of close ups in films, and because of her scars, she couldn’t take leading roles anymore. She took smaller parts and even uncredited work. To add to her pain, her mother died suddenly in 1929, and she divorced two more times (her first husband had died in 1920). Her third husband was an abusive alcoholic. She suffered from chronic pain, and she was diagnosed with an incurable bone disease. She became understandably severely depressed.

Florence Lawrence is considered the first movie star.

On December 28, 1938, Florence Lawrence died by suicide. It’s such a stark contrast from the woman that we once knew on top of the world at the dawn of movie stars. Florence Lawrence deserves to be remembered today as the world’s first movie star, and as a charming, talented and charismatic woman who laid the foundation for modern celebrities. Florence Lawrence and the movie star were simply the beginning for Uncle Carl Laemmle. He would defeat Thomas Edison and the Trust, he won every single lawsuit, he would start Universal and open up Universal City in California, he would invent the movie studio tour, and he would produce hundreds of incredible films. He and Florence Lawrence are a cornerstone of Hollywood history.

So next time you watch a movie and see your favorite actor’s name on the screen, I want you to think of Florence Lawrence and think of Carl Laemmle. Who are your favorite movie stars?