# Barbara Kent, 1906 - 2011 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 20, 2011, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-kent-1906-2011/600262 "2011-10-20T15:29:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-kent-1906-2011/600262/1 "2011-10-20T15:29:12Z")
All the silent “stars” are gone, we are down to the starlets and child actors. Barbara Kent–who lived to be _104_, poor thing–died on the 13th. Maybe the last person (adult, anyway) who costarred with Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Gloria Swanson, Marie Dressler, Harold Lloyd, poor ol’ James Murray, at least at the height of their careers in the 1920s-30s. She played Garbo’s rival for John Gilbert in _The Flesh and the Devil_ (1926), but my favorite title of hers is _Dumbbells in Ermine_. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-kent-1906-2011/600262/2 "2011-10-20T15:47:15Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > All the silent “stars” are gone, we are down to the starlets and child actors. Barbara Kent–who lived to be _104_, poor thing–died on the 13th. Maybe the last person (adult, anyway) who costarred with Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Gloria Swanson, Marie Dressler, Harold Lloyd, poor ol’ James Murray, at least at the height of their careers in the 1920s-30s. Hey, at least we’ve got the robust Olivia de Havilland still proving she was woefully miscast as the sickly Miss Melanie. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-kent-1906-2011/600262/3 "2011-10-20T16:01:14Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Hey, at least we’ve got the robust Olivia de Havilland still proving she was woefully miscast as the sickly Miss Melanie. Livvy refuses to die till Joan Fontaine does, and vice-versa. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-kent-1906-2011/600262/4 "2011-10-21T06:57:01Z")
Has it ever been made public what that was about? Hard to imagine what would make two sisters go that long without speaking to each other. (Five, ten, even thirty five years maybe, but when you reach their ages you’d think that “Whatever it was, screw it” would kick in, especially since they’re both so high profile.) ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-kent-1906-2011/600262/5 "2011-10-21T12:45:42Z")
\*Whatever \*it’s about, I am siding with Livvy. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-kent-1906-2011/600262/6 "2011-10-21T15:51:14Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > \*Whatever \*it’s about, I am siding with Livvy. Then I’m on Team Joan just so we’ll have point counterpoint. And because the problem clearly can’t be Joan as she was 1947’s [Most Cooperative Actress](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Apple_Award) winner. (Of course that sounds more like an award that Daryl Zanuck would have bestowed.) ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-kent-1906-2011/600262/7 "2011-10-21T15:56:16Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Then I’m on Team Joan just so we’ll have point counterpoint. **Sampiro** , you ignorant slut: Livvy introduced me to Irene Selznick, \*and \*she has a wonderful sense of humor, so I will forever defend her against that icy sister of hers. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-kent-1906-2011/600262/8 "2011-10-21T17:13:35Z")
Did Irene Selznick ever write her memoirs? With her father and husband she had to have some incredible stories. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-kent-1906-2011/600262/9 "2011-10-21T18:38:58Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Did Irene Selznick ever write her memoirs? With her father and husband she had to have some incredible stories. Yes she did–and she was, hands-down, the most intimidating person I have ever interviewed. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-kent-1906-2011/600262/10 "2011-10-21T18:46:17Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Yes she did–and she was, hands-down, the most intimidating person I have ever interviewed. How so? Incidentally, I honestly think you should write a “Conversations With” collection of interviews or just “memories of” people you’ve met. I’d sure as Abaddon buy it because there aren’t that many books that would feature Lillian Gish, Olivia De Havilland, Quentin Crisp and John Waters. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-kent-1906-2011/600262/11 "2011-10-21T19:28:55Z")
Ooooh, John Gilbert! Now he was a hottie. I have a t-shirt with his picture on it, from an MGM spectacle _Bardelys the Magnificent_. When it was restored it had it’s US debut at a silent film festival here in Topeka. I look forward to that weekend in February every year. Buster Keaton, Charley Chase, Laurel and Hardy, the Barrymores, etc, etc, and so forth. Some of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen have been the silents, like Keaton’s \*Seven Chances \*and Chase’s short _Limousine Love_. And of course some of the most heart wrenching, like Lillian Gish in _Broken Blossoms_ or Mabel Norman in _Smilin’ Through_. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-kent-1906-2011/600262/12 "2011-10-21T21:02:57Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > Ooooh, John Gilbert! Now he was a hottie. Check and raise with [Ramon Novarro](http://i.fanpix.net/images/orig/2/1/21clqkmez4oszeoq.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-kent-1906-2011/600262/13 "2011-10-21T23:41:58Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > Ooooh, John Gilbert! Now he was a hottie. Well, now that you have brought it up–and note, everyone, I said not a word about it!–my biography of John Gilbert will be published in May 2013 by the University Press of Kentucky. (I am now laboring away mightily on it). ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-kent-1906-2011/600262/14 "2011-10-21T23:44:40Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > How so? She was very brusque and terse, to say the least. She phoned me at work–at Livvy’s bequest–before I had time to do any real research or groundwork, so I had to scramble for questions. I did get some useful stuff out of her, but when I made the error of asking if she had known about Paul Bern’s common-law wife, she snapped “I have told you _quite enough_–more than I planned to–now _goodbye!_” [_click_] ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2011, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-kent-1906-2011/600262/15 "2011-10-22T00:50:29Z")
Eve, the following link is to the 2011 Silent Film Festival here in Topeka. It has information on some of those appearing, including the host, Denise Morrison, who has been involved with the festival since it started, and is a noted film historian from Kansas City. > **[2011 Notes, Kansas Silent Film Festival](http://www.kssilentfilmfest.org/kssff2011/notes.html)** > > Notes on the Program of the 2011 Kansas Silent Film Festival. Theme is The First Year of the Academy Awards, 1927-1928. Special guest is Annette D'Agostino Lloyd, Harold Lloyd expert. Films accompanied by live music. Introductions by Denise Morrison,... If you contact the Festival I’ll bet they’d be interested in hearing about your upcoming book, maybe give it a blurb in 2012, so folks will be looking for it. Can’t hurt to try, can it? ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2011, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-kent-1906-2011/600262/16 "2011-10-22T00:56:54Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > How so? > > Incidentally, I honestly think you should write a “Conversations With” collection of interviews or just “memories of” people you’ve met. I’d sure as Abaddon buy it because there aren’t that many books that would feature Lillian Gish, Olivia De Havilland, Quentin Crisp and John Waters. \ Make it a double book deal, with your _Casseroles for the Dead_. How’s that coming, btw? \ ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2011, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-kent-1906-2011/600262/17 "2011-10-22T21:12:29Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > If you contact the Festival I’ll bet they’d be interested in hearing about your upcoming book, maybe give it a blurb in 2012, so folks will be looking for it. Can’t hurt to try, can it? Thanks–I am trying to talk TCM into a John Gilbert Day (and to feature my book in their mag), and Warner Home Video into doing a John Gilbert Box Set (which has not yet been done, on video or DVD). My publisher is dragging me kicking and screaming onto Facebook to promote it, and I suppose now I am going to have to start twatting, or twerping, or whatever it’s called, too . . . ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2011, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-kent-1906-2011/600262/18 "2011-10-22T21:28:41Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > She was very brusque and terse, to say the least. She phoned me at work–at Livvy’s **bequest** –before I had time to do any real research or groundwork, so I had to scramble for questions. While I’ve often opined (not here, on some other website that – uhhh… doesn’t exist anymore, yeah, that’s it) that the world really _needs_ a portmanteau word that combines the best attributes of _request_ and _behest_, I’m afraid that wasn’t a very good candidate. That said, I’d just like to point out that it gives me the warm fuzzies to see you back, **Eve** , and I hope that all is well with you. You and **Sampiro** can be our Livvy and Joan, so we’ll be around forever! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-kent-1906-2011/600262/19 "2011-10-23T00:55:03Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > You and **Sampiro** can be our Livvy and Joan, so we’ll be around forever! 🙂 I call Livvy! Though it would be more fun if we can be Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, and of course I get to be Joannie. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-kent-1906-2011/600262/20 "2011-10-23T01:02:30Z")
P.S. I have been hammering away all night trying to make sense of the 1928 deal in which William Fox tried to buy controlling interest in MGM from Nick Schenck, which led indirectly to John Gilbert’s signing an \*obscenely \*huge contract. Trying to make obscure business deals readable is exhausting! Plus I am in \*pain \*–I tripped over an oxygen molecule or something this week and badly banged up my left knee; can’t really bend that leg. Rewrapped it today and the bandage hurts like three sonsofbitches. I think I need a rum & coke (which I have been making with root beer, much yummier). I only have four pain pills left, so I am being very stingy with them. \* _whine whine whine_ \* [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-kent-1906-2011/600262.md?page=2)