Last December, I ran into an article on swimming sensation, silent film star, author & entrepreneur, Annette Kellerman.

Called The Australian Mermaid, billed as “the Diving Venus”, and dubbed “the world’s most perfectly-formed woman”, Kellerman had her share of scandals, including being arrested in 1907 for indecent exposure for appearing in her bathing suit & being the first big star to appear nude in a film. She also authored several books (on fitness as well as children’s stories) and had a fitness club in LA.

I know some of you classic film buffs are scratching your heads, thinking this all sounds familiar… It is. In 1952 Esther Williams played the role of Annette Kellerman in Million Dollar Mermaid.

Knowing that those-in-the-know estimate that only about 20% of the silent features have survived, it made me wonder & worry… Have any of Kellerman’s films survived? And if so, are they only shown in exclusive locations and the silent film festivals of larger cities? Would I ever be able to see a Kellerman film?

Then I read about Mary Ann Cade.

Mary is one of those collectors I hope I grow up to be someday (even if we are nearly the same age). She’s not only a great collector; a serious, dedicated researcher; but a rescuer of silent films. She’s actually found Kellerman film and other silent film footage which had been presumed lost.

Can you imagine?

I get frustrated when I can find no answers after a few weeks of diligent searching, but here’s a person who searches even when others — who ought to know — stamp an object “presumed lost”.

Naturally, I had to talk to Mary.

A most gracious, and, as you shall see, fascinating person, Mary agreed.

When & how did your interest in Annette Kellerman begin?

Well, let me start by saying that I have always been interested in silent films since viewing my first one around the age of 13. The article I wrote for Tim Lussier’s website about Lost Silent Films starts out with my first exposure and interest in silent film. I was so fascinated by silent film after seeing Phantom of the Opera, I started researching silent film at the time and checked out all the local books in my area library (long before the invention of the internet and Ebay) to find out what I could.

One of the first books I checked out was The Pictorial History of the Silent Screen by Daniel Blum which has tons of photos of silent stars and film scenes, many of which no longer survive. My introduction to Ms. Kellerman was through this book (as was my introduction to Valkyrien) and I remember checking it out numerous times after that until I could locate my own copy for purchase.

After viewing the Annette Kellerman bio-pic Million Dollar Mermaid with Esther Williams, I renewed my interest in Ms. Kellerman and started searching to see if any films of hers had survived. Kellerman was kind of like the Oprah Winfrey or Madonna of her generation with her film career, hippodrome shows, books, physical fitness books and health clubs and it is just a shame how forgotten she is today.

Since the invention of the internet and Ebay, I have been collecting lots of silent film books and memorabilia, including film and movie props.

I have one of Ms. Kellerman’s bathing suits that is in excellent shape considering it is over 90 years old. It still has the Annette Kellermann (with two n’s) label sewn into it.

I have an autographed photo of her film still, The Daughter of the Gods, with the famous nearly nude shot, probably the first nude shot in history.

I also have a silent film pen pal who purchased Ms. Kellerman’s A Daughter of the Gods wardrobe trunk. He has sent me photos of it and I have been asking him if he would sell it for a long time, but so far I haven’t been successful.

The story of your hunting for any lost films by Kellerman is fascinating! When I read it I was swept away — and a little envious too. While you blithely write about discoveries in Russia — including tracking them down to physically get your hands on such lost films — I’m sure there was a lot more hard work involved. Tell us a bit about this process.

My article for lost silent films started when Tim Lussier of SilentsAreGolden.com had been asking me to write an article for his website. I had seen many reviews for films and originally I was going to do a film review, but couldn’t really decide on which film, so instead of that, I asked him about an article regarding the decomposition of nitrate film stock and the loss of almost 90% of the silent films ever produced. I think around the time of the article, there was the discovery of the 1922 Rudolph Valentino/Gloria Swanson film Beyond the Rocks that was presumed lost and found some 80+ years later that gave me the idea to do an article about lost films.

I had been corresponding with Ned Thanhouser of Thanhouser Company Film Preservation, Inc., whose grandfather Edwin Thanhouser, started Thanhouser Productions in the early 1910’s. Ned is on a mission to locate every surviving Thanhouser film production and get them preserved and released so they can be viewed again. I started doing Google searches on silent film, obtaining film contacts via the internet and contacting the Library of Congress for assistance via their Ask a Librarian feature on their website.

The information I was given by the LOC regarding the possibility of some Kellerman footage surviving in archives worldwide, led to my contacts at Screensound Australia and my email conversations with Bronwyn Dowdall. I contacted her and found that about one reel (20 minutes) of footage survived from the 1914 release Neptune’s Daughter and could be purchased directly from their archive on VHS tape. I contacted Jack Hardy of Grapevine Video and together we purchased the footage.

[Interviewer's Note: Jack Hardy of Grapevine Video confirmed that the found Neptune's Daughter footage is an extra on the Venus of the South Seas disc.]

In the meantime, I had been in contact with Thomas Christensen of the Danish Film Institute and he had footage from a 1911 Kellerman short entitled Siren of the Sea. This short film wasn’t even listed in Ms. Kellerman’s credits on IMDB until I located it. He sent me a copy of the footage which is about 3 minutes in length.

The research for the article took time and patience but it was a labor of love for me and most people were very kind and helpful so it wasn’t that difficult. The biggest problem was getting some archives to respond. I think some of the difficulty could be the language barrier. I think many of the sites are dual language now, which helps, but for example, Gosfilmofond of Russia, most of the site is in Russian, as is their catalog, so you have to be able to contact someone who can read and interpret English. I think this is why it is difficult to get regular responses from them. They confirmed in emails that they hold about one reel of footage from Neptune’s Daughter but cannot tell me which section of footage they hold. They also stated that it can be purchased from TekNoVideo but no one ever gives a response regarding the purchase and I keep sending emails without success.

How long have you spent researching Kellerman? Estimates, even if on say one film etc., would help illustrate how much effort you’ve put into this.

Research time on Kellerman would be impossible to pinpoint in hours or time searched. I wouldn’t even venture a guess. I have probably spent as much time on research of her as I have on Henry VIII and the House of Tudor and that is another passion of mine since the 6th grade as well. I found out much later that my maternal great grandmother’s surname was Tudor many years later, which might explain my fascination with him and the era.

I am not sure what you mean about estimates? Are you referring to time spent or money spent? If it’s money spent, it varies considerably from archive to archive. Some will charge minimal amounts for films, while others can charge over $1000 for a copy of a film. It just depends upon how the archive has structured their fees.

Any estimate on time taken to research Kellerman? Even just hours spent on one film or something, to give readers a bit of perspective as I’m not sure that those who do not research for writing etc, who only ’search’ for bidding/buying, will understand the enormity of how much time you’ve spent researching.

I would say I have probably spent at least 6 to 9 months (if you count it in one timeblock) in gathering research and dealing with archival sources, waiting for replies, etc. on Kellerman. This does not include the time it will take to sort through all the resources I have compiled and put them in an organized article.

You’ve found some spectacular things; I’m impressed beyond words. And exhausted just reading of your work — I know that there were/are hours of unrewarded searching, dead ends etc., while you still hope that you’ll get a reply or find another thread to pull…

The turnaround time for replies, diarying email requests for followup and then pursuit of additional leads is what takes the longest time. There have been instances of some archives (Gosfilmofond of Russia is a prime example) who continue to ignore email followup replies. This can also put longer research time into a project because of continued followups and still awaiting the missing information.

My whole goal is to find that lost silent treasure languishing in a private collection or archive and finally being one of the first people to see it after almost a century of being hidden away. This is probably the major reason I continue to do this in my spare time.

Your dedication is astounding — and so appreciated.

I appreciate the compliment. My whole reason for doing any of this is to save these films from extinction and to get them out there so the general public can see them. This is why they were created in the first place. I think it is a complete tragedy that some of these films have been held hostage in these archives for decades, some are deteriorated beyond repair (before people knew about cold storage techniques) and are either lost for good or kept hidden, much like the stereotype of the reclusive forgotten star of yesteryear.

When you ask the average person about silent film, most people will know Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino, Lillian Gish, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, or Lon Chaney but when you ask them about people like Olive Thomas, Carol Dempster, Betty Bronson, Florence La Badie, Muriel Ostriche, Boyd Marshall, Marguerite Snow, Maude Fealy, Violet Mersereau, Claire Mersereau, Martha Mansfield, Mabel Taliaferro, Louise Glaum, Louise Lovely, Arline Pretty, Ella Hall, Ethel Grandin, Valda Valkyrien or Annette Kellermann, you get blank stares.

Most people when hearing the name Fatty Arbuckle immediately think of the 1922 rape and murder case of starlet Virginia Rappe and don’t realize he was acquitted in several trials but the case in effect ruined his career. He was just starting to get back into show business as an actor and director (under a pseudonym, William Goodrich, because he couldn’t get parts under the Arbuckle name) when he died in 1931.

When most people hear the name Mary Miles Minter, if they even know who this person was, they immediately think of the William Desmond Taylor unsolved murder case of 1922 and how both the careers of Mary Miles Minter and Mabel Normand were effectively ruined over the sensationalism of the case and the accusations hurled by the press in general.

By preserving and making the existing films available to the public, the stars of these productions, whether they are big names or forgotten ones, will have an enduring legacy that will live on.

The interview with Mary continues. Part Two will be published here at Collectors’ Quest on Monday — and believe me, you don’t want to miss it!

If you’d like to reach Mary Ann Cade, you may email her at cadesmall@sbcglobal.net or mcade@ccmsi.com. See more Annette Kellerman items here too.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 30th, 2008 at 7:32 am and is filed under collecting fyi, interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.