# It’s Anita Page’s 93rd birthday **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 4, 2003, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-anita-page-s-93rd-birthday/192906 "2003-08-04T15:20:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-anita-page-s-93rd-birthday/192906/1 "2003-08-04T15:20:05Z")
My friend MGM star (c1928–32) Anita Page turns 93 today. She is in very poor health, poor dear, though she is very well looked-after by her “Max.” I must give her a call tonight she see how she’s doing. Anita was a rising young starlet in the late silent/early talkie era at MGM, and has great stories about working with Buster Keaton, Joan Crawford, Lon Chaney, John Gilbert, Clark Gable (she was his first leading lady), Billy Haines, Ramon Novarro . . . She was an excellent dramatic actress (especially in _Our Dancing Daughters_ and _Night Court_), but she was so kewpie-doll pretty that they rarely gave her a role she could really tear into. She’s also a really nice gal with never a bad word to say about anyone (which is why she could never get her memoirs published). Here are her [IMDB](http://us.imdb.com/Name?Page,+Anita) listing (notice she’s done some recent video crap, as a favor to a friend), a [photo gallery](http://silent-movies.com/Ladies/PPage.html), and the [Anita pages](http://www.anitapage.com/). ---
**Author:** ![Gulo\_gulo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bcef8e/32.png) [@Gulo\_gulo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gulo_gulo)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-anita-page-s-93rd-birthday/192906/2 "2003-08-04T21:47:30Z")
Well a big happy birthday to her! I sincerely hope her health improves. I sure would love to hear her stories. Are there any biographies on her? ---
**Author:** ![Wumpus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8c91f0/32.png) [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-anita-page-s-93rd-birthday/192906/3 "2003-08-04T21:59:11Z")
Happy Birthday to her! And let me just add that she was one of the leads in The Broadway Melody of 1929, the _first_ all-talkie MGM musical, and Best Picture (Production) winner at the second Academy Awards. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-s-anita-page-s-93rd-birthday/192906/4 "2003-08-04T23:49:24Z")
I just left a Happy Birthday message on her answering machine. She was very ill in the hospital last month, but she’s a tough old bird and has bounced back before. There’s no biography of her, but there are chapters on her in several books about the period (including one of my own, she adds modestly).