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Showbiz Sisters, Part One: The Talmadge Girls

© Jenny Lynn Higgins

In the Roaring '20's, the Talmadge sisters were the girls who made headlines. Norma, the oldest sister, was a captivating brunette beauty; the reigning dramatic,tragic figure of Hollywood. By contrast, her youngest sister, Constance (affectionately nicknamed "Dutch" by her family and close friends) was the bouncy blond comedian who's antics inspired countless imitators. Even her competition - actresses such as Dorothy Gish and Marion Davies - loved their dear Dutch.

Natalie, the middle Talmadge sister, was not so lucky in film as she was in love. Her beauty never quite measured up to that of her sisters and she only appeared in six films. On the flip side, she married and had a family with the great physical comedian Buster Keaton. They lived a life of luxury that was considered extravagent even in Hollywood.

The Talmadge girls were symbols of wealth and class. Legend has it that the tradition of stars stepping in wet cement in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre was started by Norma, who accidentally stepped in wet cement at a premiere. The clothes they wore inspired trends. The sisters never suffered from a shortage of male admirers, either, and their rendezvous often made front-page news.

The mastermind behind the Talmadge girls fame and fortune was their mother. Peg Talmadge's driving ambition was to see her "sprouts" become rich and famous. She was so set on this goal that the girls' father soon became a ghostly shadow in their lives. She found work for Norma posing in music slides that were shown in nickeledeons when she was only fourteen. By 1910, Peg's oldest daughter was working for a film studio called Vitagraph. But her self-consciousness in front of the camera prompted a visit to Mr. Wilmore,the company's producer. She recalled the scene in a 1920 interview:

"(He said) Well, what do you think of acting?" "I'm afraid I'm not very good." "Very good! My dear, you are rotten bad...I suppose you know what is the matter with you?" "No, sir." "You can't act!" His brutal frankness shocked me. I thought, "Why couldn't he just fire me and have done with it? What right did he have to torture and insult me?" "You are a brute and I hate you!" I cried with a gesture at once passionate and dramatic. Mr. Wilmore surveyed me critically and thoughtfully stroked his chin. "Now why the deuce can't you do that before the camera?"

Ironically, Peg Talmadge was not the source of her daughters' stunning beauty. Sometimes described as a having a "lumpy" figure, her facial features were also no cause for celebration. This never fazed the determined Peg, and even though "stage mothers" were viewed to be on the same level with gnats and flies, she became a favorite in the Hollywood community.

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