Volume III: Biographies

SEYMOUR, Clarine *

Actress (1916-1917)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: Clarine Seymour was an actress with Thanhouser in 1916 and early 1917.

Biographical Notes: Clarine Seymour was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1901. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Albert V. Seymour, lived in New Rochelle in the summertime, and Miss Seymour used the opportunity to register for work as an extra with the Thanhouser studio. After what seemed to be an intolerably long wait with no work in sight, she began her film career at the Thanhouser studio in the autumn of 1916, in the film which was released in 1917 as Pots and Pans Peggie. She also acted in another 1917 Thanhouser release, It Happened to Adele. Early in 1917 Miss Seymour acted in a role as Mollie King's girlfriend in the Astra serial (released through Pathé March-June 1917), The Mystery of the Double Cross.

In the spring of 1917 Hal Roach came to New York, and while there he sought a woman of short stature to play with Toto the clown in Rolin Film Company comedies in California. Miss Seymour, who stood just five feet tall, was enlisted after Roach spotted her in a film clip screened for him by Pathé. The arrangement proved to have complications, trouble erupted, and she filed suit against Rolin for discharging her because of her refusal to do such stunts as turning handsprings and walking on a pebbly beach. The court awarded her $1,325 in damages. During the time the matter was on the court docket, Miss Seymour was seen in Christie comedies. In July 1917, Motion Picture Classic stated that the actress lived in a bungalow on Fountain Avenue in Hollywood with her parents and her only sibling, a four-year-old brother. In between picture engagements during this era she earned a living by playing small roles in vaudeville sketches and dancing acts.

Later, Miss Seymour was hired by D.W. Griffith, who wanted her to substitute for Dorothy Gish, so that Miss Gish could act with Carol Dempster in The Girl Who Stayed at Home. However, Dorothy Gish had other plans and the arrangement did not materialize. Clarine Seymour appeared in a number of Griffith's Artcraft films released in 1919, including The Girl Who Stayed at Home, True Heart Susie, and Scarlet Days. Following an intestinal illness incurred on the set of Griffith's production of Way Down East, in Mamaroneck, New York, Clarine Seymour entered the hospital for an operation to correct strangling of the intestines. She did not recover, and on April 25, 1920 she died in Misericordia Hospital, 531 East 86th Street, New York City. Services were held on April 28th in New Rochelle at the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Albert V. Seymour. Interestingly, numerous obituaries overlooked her 1917 acting with Thanhouser and stated she began in films when she was "discovered" by D.W. Griffith, who gave her a part in The Girl Who Stayed at Home. Edward Wagenknecht, later to become a prominent literary scholar and film historian, wrote a section of a sermon upon her death, used as an illustration of the theme of the discourse, which was privately published by her father, becoming his first published book.

Note: In publicity, including many times in a lengthy article in Motion Picture Classic, July 1919, her surname was misspelled as "Seymore."

Thanhouser Filmography:

1917: Pots and Pans Peggie (3-18-1917), It Happened to Adele (7-15-1917)

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