Gwendolyn Pates

Gwendolyn Pates (April 4, 1891 – November 1970), also billed as Gwendoline Pates, was an American actress in silent films and on stage.

Gwendolyn Pates
Gwendolyn Pates, from a 1913 publication
BornApril 4, 1891
Dallas, Texas
Died1970
New York
NationalityAmerican
Other namesGwendoline Pates, Gwendolen Pates, Gwendolyn Grew
Occupationactress

Early life

Gwendoline Ivore Pates was born in Dallas, Texas,[1] the daughter of Frederick B. Pates and Allie Beckwith Pates.[2] Her father was a voice teacher. She and her sister attended the Boyd Theater School of Acting in Omaha. Her sister Vivian Pates was also an actress.[3] She lived some of her youth in Alton, Illinois.[4][5]

Career

As an actress, Pates[6] was best known for "dainty, girlish" roles that focused on her "bewitching prettiness" and adventurous nature.[1] She appeared in more than forty short silent films between 1911 and 1915. She was often in the title role, for example in His Date with Gwendoline (1913), The Blind Girl of Castle Guille (1913), and When Romance Came to Anne (1914). In 1912 she appeared with George W. Beatty in An Aeroplane Love Affair.[7] Beatty was not an actor, but he was the chief test pilot and instructor at the United States Army Aviation School.[8]

"The necessary qualifications for a successful photoplayer are that you must photograph well, and be able to express facially the idea you want to convey to the audience," she explained about her work.[7]

Pates with George W. Beatty in An Aeroplane Love Affair (1912)[7]

In For Mayor–Bess Smith (1913), Pates played a woman running for political office, who instead accepts her opponent's marriage proposal.[9] For herself, she said she did not want the vote; "I'm truly so busy that I couldn't stop to vote," she told an interviewer in 1913.[1]

After her time in films, Pates performed on vaudeville.[10][11] She and her husband had a stock company, the Grew-Pates Players, performing The Gates of America,[12] Electrocuted at 5 A. M.,[13] Tess of the Storm Country, The Lure of the City, The End of the Trail, After Five, The Prince Chap, and a stage version of The Perils of Pauline,[14] in Boston and elsewhere, in 1914 and 1915.[15][16] In 1917, she headlined The Heart of Wetona in New York and on tour.[17] The Grew-Pates Players were based in Canada in 1918[18] and 1920.[19] In 1927, she appeared on Broadway in the original cast of The Mating Season, a farce; her husband wrote the show, and was also in the cast.[20][21]

Personal life

Gwendolyn Pates married actor and playwright William A. Grew by 1914. They divorced after 1927. She died in 1970, aged 79 years, in New York.

References
  1. Donnell, Dorothy (March 1913). "Gwendoline Pates of Pathé Frères". The Motion Picture Story Magazine. 5: 116–117.
  2. "FREDERICK B. PATES; Vice President and Manager in East of Modern Miller Dies". The New York Times. December 6, 1939. p. 32 – via ProQuest.
  3. "Demanding Better Music". Omaha Daily Bee. January 29, 1911. p. 37. Retrieved August 20, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "October 13, 1911". Alton Evening Telegraph. October 13, 1961. p. 4. Retrieved August 19, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. "Fred B. Pates Dies in New York". Alton Evening Telegraph. December 5, 1939. p. 5. Retrieved August 19, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "Gwendoline Pates" Motion Picture Story Magazine (February 1913): 2. via Internet Archive.
  7. Agnew, Frances; Scheuing, Frances May (1913). Motion Picture Acting: How to Prepare for Photoplaying, what Qualifications are Necessary, how to Secure an Engagement, Salaries Paid to Photoplayers. Reliance Newspaper Syndicate. pp. 83–84. Gwendoline Pates.
  8. Igoe, Kate. George W. Beatty Collection, National Air and Space Museum, 1997. Accessed September 6, 2009.
  9. Hennefeld, Maggie (2018-03-27). Specters of Slapstick and Silent Film Comediennes. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231547062.
  10. "Chat of the Theatres". The Chat. July 15, 1916. p. 18. Retrieved August 19, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Loew's Metropolitan". The Chat. March 11, 1922. p. 93. Retrieved August 19, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "'Gates of America' at Grand Opera House". The Boston Globe. November 30, 1915. p. 11. Retrieved August 20, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. "Melodrama at the Grand Opera House". The Boston Globe. November 9, 1915. p. 2. Retrieved August 20, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. "Empire Theatre". The Post-Star. September 4, 1914. p. 10. Retrieved August 20, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. "Miss Gwendoline Bates". The Brattleboro Daily Reformer. September 14, 1914. p. 5. Retrieved August 20, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. "'The Lure of the City' at the Grand Opera House". The Boston Globe. November 14, 1915. p. 50. Retrieved August 20, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. "Advertisement, The Heart of Wetona". Janesville Daily Gazette. December 22, 1917. p. 6. Retrieved August 19, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. "Plans to Produce Movie of Canada's Part in Big War". The Winnipeg Tribune. February 15, 1918. p. 11. Retrieved August 20, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. "Chatter of the Stage and of the Screen Stars". Fitchburg Sentinel. November 13, 1920. p. 10. Retrieved August 20, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. "The Mating Season, Selwyn Theatre, 1927". Playbill. Retrieved 2019-08-19.
  21. "Three New Shows Coming; 'The Mating Season' is Among Next Week's Openings". The New York Times. July 13, 1927. p. 20 – via ProQuest.
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