Volume III: Biographies

LAKE, Alice *

Actress (1916)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: Alice Lake was an actress with Thanhouser in 1916.

Biographical Notes: Alice Lake, who was given her first name after stage actress Alice Brady, was born in Brooklyn, New York on September 12, 1895 (one account says 1896) and was educated at Erasmus Hall High School in the same city. In her youth she enjoyed dancing, pantomime, and amateur theatricals. Her mother forbade her to go to dances, an argument ensued, and young Alice threatened to leave home. "All right, I'll help you pack," was her parent's reply. With her accumulated savings, she rented a small room and then went to Vitagraph's nearby Flatbush studio to seek employment. The 16-year-old girl told director Will Davis she was 19. Immediately, she was given a part as a vamp - in a scenario which called for her to stab her lover. During the first week as an employed actress she was so tired that all she could do each evening was to return to her room to rest and sleep. She never did go to a dance. Soon, she made peace with her mother and returned home.

Among the many films Alice Lake appeared in during her four years with Vitagraph were Her Picture Idol and The Boarding House Feud. Miss Lake was signed by Thanhouser on a project basis for an important role in The Fifth Ace, released March 22, 1916. Later, she worked for four months with Roscoe ("Fatty") Arbuckle in several Keystone for Triangle pictures, including The Moonshiners, A Cream Puff Romance, and The Waiters' Ball, all of which were 1916 releases, and Her Nature Dance in 1917. Arbuckle became ill, production was discontinued, and Miss Lake left the company.

By early 1917 she joined Universal in California and was subsequently seen as the leading woman in Come Through, with Herbert Rawlinson, and in The Texas Sphinx. Then she played a lead role with Harry Carey, after which she returned to comedies with Roscoe Arbuckle, and remained with him for the following year. From there she went into Mack Sennett comedies. Miss Lake then went to Metro, where she was seen in Blackie's Redemption, The Lion's Den, and Full o' Pep. Then she was in a two-reel Christie comedy, after which she went back to Metro and acted in Lombardi, Ltd., produced by Screen Classics. Among her other films of this era were the 1918 Comique Film for Paramount releases of Moonshine, Good Night Nurse, and Out West; the 1919 Comique Film for Paramount picture, Desert Hero; the 1919 Sennett for Paramount film, Cupid's Day Off; and, in 1920, in Shore Acres and Should a Woman Tell? for Screen Classics for Metro.

Alice Lake was 5' tall, weighed 108 pounds, and had brown hair and gray (one account says brown) eyes. On March 25, 1924 she married Robert B. Williams in a Los Angeles ceremony performed by Police Judge James H. Pope. Alice Lake remained in films through at least the mid 1930s. In 1936 and 1938 she was arrested in Hollywood for drunkenness. At the time she lamented that despite numerous visits to casting agencies, there were no roles offered to her. "Waiting, waiting, waiting - that's all I do now," she told an interviewer in February 1936. "I wait for a call to some studio. It gets your nerves - waiting. And this idleness, this everlasting false hope, drives you to drink. Everything is magnified then. I try to drown my sorrow. It's a long road downhill. First, I lost my starring contract. I took to free lance work.... I'm an extra and proud of it. I can take orders. I haven't any false pride."

Alice Lake died of a heart attack on November 15, 1967 in Paradise, California. Certain of her personal effects and memorabilia, none of which related to Thanhouser, were given to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Thanhouser Filmography:

1916: The Fifth Ace (3-22-1916)

# # #