Volume III: Biographies

SPAULDING, Nellie Parker ("Eleanor") *

Actress (1915-1917)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: Nellie Parker Spaulding, an older woman, was an actress with Thanhouser during the 1915 to 1917 years.

Biographical Notes: Born in Machias, Maine, Nellie Parker Spaulding (married name) was also known in Thanhouser credits as Eleanor Spaulding. The daughter of Charles Parker, she was educated at Machias High School and at the Emerson College of Expression in Boston. She followed a stage career which included impersonations, vaudeville, and acting in stock and legitimate theatre. Stage productions in which she appeared included The Country Boy, The Dawn of a To-morrow, and The Governor's Lady. For a number of years she was with the Union Opera Company. She married Herbert Spaulding and used his surname.

Her film career included character parts for Peerless-World, and, beginning in 1915, for Thanhouser. For the New Rochelle studio she was seen in supporting roles in various films released through early 1917. In 1916, while she was working for Thanhouser in New Rochelle, her home mailing address was 120 Robbins Street, Waltham, Massachusetts. She was 5'5" tall, weighed 135 pounds, and had brown hair and blue eyes. Her pastimes included horseback riding, studying French, philosophy, and classical drama. In early June 1916 she was dismissed by the studio during a time when the outlook was uncertain. However, she may have worked at Thanhouser's New Rochelle studio for a short time thereafter. She was gone from Thanhouser before the end of 1916 (although she appeared in a Thanhouser film released in 1917), for she had a part in the Van Dyke film, Her Good Name, released through Art Dramas in January 1917. She appeared in Reputation, a Goodrich film released in September 1917 through Mutual. In 1918 she was in the Select film, Her Great Chance.

Nellie Parker Spaulding was seen in numerous films in the 1920s, including The Love Expert (Schenck, 1920), Good References (Schenck, 1920), Dynamite Allen (Fox, 1921), School Days (Warner Bros., 1921), The Power Within (Pathé, 1921), A Bride for a Knight (Syracuse, 1923), The Truth About Wives (B.B. Productions, 1923), Twenty-One (First National, 1923), and Time the Comedian (MGM, 1925). Mrs. Spaulding, by then a widow, died in Glendale, California on June 18, 1945.

Thanhouser Filmography:

1915: The Flying Twins (7-1-1915), Fifty Years After Appomattox (7-4-1915), P. Henry Jenkins and Mars (Falstaff 7-23-1915), Outcasts of Society (7-27-1915), When Hungry Hamlet Fled (8-17-1915), A Disciple of Nietzsche (9-25-1915), The Miracle (9-26-1915)

1916: The Flight of the Duchess (3-11-1916), Fear (3-29-1916), Oh! Oh! Oh! Henery! (4-4-1916), The Man's Sin (4-20-1916), Arabella's Prince (10-6-1916), The Pillory (10-8-1916)

1917: The Vicar of Wakefield (2-25-1917)

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