Dorothy Gibson

Biography

Dorothy Gibson (born Dorothy Winifred Brown; May 17, 1889 – February 17, 1946) was an American actress, socialite and artist's model, active in the early 20th century. She survived the sinking of the Titanic and starred in the first motion picture based on the disaster.

== Early life and career == Dorothy Gibson was born on May 17, 1889, to John A. Brown and Pauline Caroline Boesen (1866–1961; Danish, and German immigrant father, and mother, respectively) as Dorothy Winifred Brown in Hoboken, New Jersey. Her father died when she was three years old, and her mother married John Leonard Gibson. Between 1906 and 1911, she appeared on stage as a singer and dancer in a number of theatre and vaudeville productions, the most important being on Broadway in Charles Frohman's musical The Dairymaids (1907). She was also a regular chorus member in shows produced by the Shubert Brothers at the Hippodrome Theatre. In 1909, the year before she married George Henry Battier Jr., Dorothy Gibson began posing for famous commercial artist Harrison Fisher, becoming one of his favorite models. Dorothy's image appeared regularly on posters, postcards, various merchandising products and in book illustrations over the next three years.

Fisher also often chose her likeness for the covers of best-selling magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Ladies Home Journal, and the Saturday Evening Post. Dorothy was widely publicized during this time as "The Original Harrison Fisher Girl". Dorothy soon separated from Battier, though the two were not divorced until 1913.

== Film career == Represented by top theatrical agent Pat Casey, Dorothy entered movies in early 1911, joining the Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP) as an extra and later the Lubin Studios as a stock player. She was hired as leading lady by the new U.S. branch of Paris-based Éclair Studios in July 1911. She was an instant hit with audiences, becoming one of the first actresses in the new medium of film to be promoted as a "star" in her own right. Praised for a natural, subtle acting style, she was particularly effective as a comedian in such popular one-reelers as Miss Masquerader (1911) and Love Finds a Way (1912), all of which were produced at Fort Lee, New Jersey, then the center of the burgeoning American motion picture industry.

Despite her popularity in comedies, one of Dorothy's most important parts was that of Molly Pitcher in the historical drama Hands Across the Sea (1911), Eclair Studios' debut vehicle and Gibson's first star turn.

== Titanic disaster and first film based on it == Dorothy Gibson's most famous screen role was that of herself in Saved from the Titanic (1912), based on her experiences in the legendary disaster. Saved From the Titanic, released a month after the sinking, was the first of many films about the event.

The Titanic is the best known aspect of Dorothy's life. After a six-week vacation in Italy with her mother, she was returning on the Titanic to make a new series of motion pictures for Eclair at Fort Lee. The women had been playing bridge with friends in the lounge on the night of the ship's fatal collision with the iceberg. With two of their game partners, they escaped in Lifeboat #7, the first lifeboat launched. After arriving in New York on the rescue ship Carpathia, Dorothy was persuaded by her manager to appear in a film based on the sinking. She not only starred in the one-reel drama but also wrote the screenplay. She appeared in the same clothing she had worn aboard the Titanic that night—a white silk evening dress topped with a cardigan and polo coat. Although Saved From the Titanic was a tremendous success in America, Britain, and France, the only known prints were destroyed in a 1914 fire at the Eclair Studios in New Jersey. The loss of the film is considered by film historians to be one of the greatest casualties of the silent era. Dorothy Gibson's other accomplishments in early cinema included starring in one of the first feature films made in the United States (Hands Across the Sea, 1911), co-starring in the first American-produced serial or chapter play (The Revenge of the Silk Masks, 1912), and making one of the first-ever public appearances by a movie personality (January 1912). With contemporary Mary Pickford, Dorothy was the highest paid movie actress in the world at the time of her premature retirement in May 1912. In a brief but eventful cinematic career, she appeared in an estimated 22 Eclair films and in an unspecified number while at Lubin and IMP studios. Dorothy left film to pursue a choral career, her most notable appearance in that venue being at the Metropolitan Opera House in Madame Sans-Gene (1915).

== Personal life ==