David Vance SubstackRead More
Have you ever heard the tale of Marie Prevost?
Marie was a Canadian‑born silent‑film star whose life ended in poverty and neglect in 1937. Born Mary (or Marie) Bickford Dunn in Sarnia, Ontario, she moved to the United States as a child and entered films around 1917 as one of Mack Sennett’s “Bathing Beauties.”
She quickly rose to leading roles, signed with Universal in 1921, and then Warner Bros. in 1922, becoming a popular Jazz Age actress. Her career declined after Warner Bros. dropped her in 1926, coinciding with her mother’s death in a car accident, marital problems, heavy drinking, and severe dieting. Talk about tragedy.
By the early 1930s she was reduced to supporting roles, and by the mid‑1930s she was nearly destitute. On 23 January 1937, Prevost was found dead in her Los Angeles apartment; she was in her late thirties.
The official cause was acute alcoholism and malnutrition, essentially starvation. Sensational later stories about her dog eating her body are not supported by the record although it was present and distressed when her body was found. Her life is now remembered as a stark example of Hollywood’s neglect of its former stars.
But there is a twist! In 1978, the wonderful Nick Lowe turned the story into a cheerful but very dark pop song. It contains the classic line “She was a winner, that became the doggies dinner”! Give it a listen.
After Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe is my other lifelong favourite! And he did immortalise Marie!
