[ SHOWGSD-L ] Lena Baskette, the Great Dane Breeder/Exhibitor and Judge
- From: "Peter Cacioppo" <PeterCacioppo@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <Showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2007 09:12:25 -0800
Lina, or as born Lena, has been talked about recently so I thought I would
copy and paste a few articles from the web.
She sounds like she was a bit high maintenance but probably very interesting
to be around!!! If you respond to this please cut off most of it as it is
too long to be repeated on the list, thanks. Or, just start a new email.
Peter Cacioppo, Moraga,
www.eaglehillgroup.net
Eagle Hill Vineyards and Winery, German Shepherds and Belted Galloway cattle
Dancer
Born Lena Copeland Baskette in San Mateo, California. Her father's name was
Frank and her mother's maiden name was Gladys Rosenberg. Lena danced in the
Ziegfeld Follies in New York City before she began making movies.
[edit] Silent Movie Actress
Miss Basquette started working in motion pictures around age 9 in 1916. Her
first appearance came in What Can Love Do. In 1929 Miss Basquette made The
Godless Girl with Cecil B. DeMille and The Younger Generation, directed by
Frank Capra. In the former she played Judith, leader of a high school
atheist society. Her character forces members to renounce The Bible while
placing a hand on the head of a live monkey. In the climactic scene Lena's
eyebrows and eyelashes were singed. Director DeMille insisted on realism in
filming a last shot of the reformatory going up in flames. The actress's
eyelashes grew back but her eyebrows did not.
[edit] Brief Marriage To Film Mogul
She married Sam Warner of Warner Brothers nine years later. Warner is
considered The Father of Talking Pictures. She was a mother at nineteen and
a widow at 20. Sam died of a brain abscess complicated by pneumonia.
Basquette attempted suicide in 1930, following a custody battle with
Warner's brothers. In the litigation she lost custody of her daughter, Lita,
to her husband's brothers. Lena did not see her daughter again for more than
thirty years.
The actress obtained $40,000 from a life insurance policy, a car, and $85 a
week from one of Warner's trust funds.
[edit] Romance With Boxing Legend
Her autobiography, Lina: Demille's Godless Girl (1990), recounts the
actress' tempestuous affair with former world heavyweight boxing champion
Jack Dempsey. The relationship came after Lina's discovery that her current
husband, Theodore Hayes, was a bigamist. Hayes was Dempsey's former trainer
and Lina's manager in theatrical affairs. On September 10, 1932 the actress
was granted a Mexican divorce from Hayes, 43. The divorce was given on a
plea of desertion for more than six months in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. Hayes
and Basquette were married on October 31, 1931.
[edit] Notorious Friendship
She knew Adolf Hitler personally. Her film career was less interesting than
her personal relationships. Later in life Basquette traveled, giving talks
about director DeMille, her career which endured for 75 years, and her seven
marriages.
[edit] Dog Breeder
Miss Basquette was a breeder of the Great Dane for more than twenty years.
Her kennel, Honey Hollow, was located just outside of Doylestown,
Pennsylvania. She admitted that one of her marriages broke up because of her
passion for breeding dogs. One of her husbands gave her an ultimatum, It's
either me or the dogs. She said she had not seen the man since! She
preferred Great Danes to other dogs because they're the type of dog you only
have to feed and clean periodically, and then leave them to roam.
[edit] Film Comeback
In 1991 Lina was cast as Nada in filmmaker Danny Boyd's Paradise Park. She
played a grandmother who dreamed God is coming to grant a wish to residents
of an Appalachian trailer park. The film features country music stars Porter
Wagoner, as the governor of West Virginia, and Johnny Paycheck. Boyd was a
communications professor at West Virginia State University. He met the
actress at a Charleston, West Virginia film festival.
Lina Basquette died in Wheeling, West Virginia of cancer.
Lina Basquette was a half-sister of Marge Champion. In 1928 she was named
one of thirteen WAMPAS Baby Stars.
[edit] Quotes
Hitler's favorite actress, she said of him: "Maybe if I hadn't been so
fastidious I could have changed history, but, oh, that body odor of his!"
[edit] Filmography as Lina Basquette
A Night for Crime (1943)
Four Men and a Prayer (1938)
Rose of the Rio Grande (1938)
Ebb Tide (1937)
The Final Hour (1936)
Stolen Harmony (1935)
The Chump (1934)
The Phantom Express (1932)
Hello Trouble (1932)
The Midnight Lady (1932)
Arm of the Law (1932)
Mounted Fury (1931)
Trapped (1931)
Morals for Women (1931)
Hard Hombre (1931)
Arizona Terror (1931)
Pleasure (1931)
Goldie (1931)
The Dude Wrangler (1930)
Come Across (1929)
The Godless Girl (1929)
The Younger Generation (1929)
Show Folks (1928)
Celebrity (1928)
Wheel of Chance (1928)
The Noose (1928)
Serenade (1927)
Ranger of the North (1927)
Penrod (1922)
The Weaker Vessel (1919)
[edit] Filmography as Lena Basquette
Little Marian's Triumph (1917)
A Prince for a Day (1917)
A Romany Rose (1917)
A Dream of Egypt (1917)
The Star Witness (1917)
The Gates of Doom (1917)
His Wife's Relatives (1917)
Polly Put the Kettle On (1917)
The Caravan (1916)
The Human Cactus (1916)
The Grip of Crime (1916)
Brother Jim (1916)
The Dance of Love (1916)
Juvenile Dancer (1916)
[edit] References
Chicago Daily Herald, 1920s silent film star returns to movies with Paradise
Park, Thursday, October 3, 1991, Section 5, Page 8.
Levittown, Pennsylvania Bucks County Courier Times, Accent! on pets, March
16, 1975, Page 82.
Zanesville, Ohio Signal, Lina Basquette Is Divorced From Business Agent,
September 11, 1932, Page 1.
[edit] External links
Lina Basquette at the Internet Movie Database
Godless Girl at the Internet Movie Database
Photo at FindAGrave
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lina_Basquette";
Date of Birth
19 April 1907, San Mateo, California, USA
Date of Death
30 September 1994, Wheeling, West Virginia, USA. (cancer)
Birth Name
Lena Copeland Baskette
Spouse
Theodore Teddy' Hayes' (19 October 1931 - September 1932) (remarried twice)
1 son
J. Peverell Marley (January 1929 - 11 September 1930) (divorced)
Sam Warner (4 July 1925 - 5 October 1927) (his death)
Warren Gilmore (? - ?)
Frank Mancuso (? - ?)
Henry Mollison (? - April 1947)
Trivia
9 Marriages in all
She was a half sister of Marge Champion.
Well after her movie career ended, she became one of the leading United
States dog show judges.
Adolph Hitler's favorite actress. She also enjoyed a great deal of
popularity in the Soviet Union, due in part to her film The Godless Girl
(1929).
From: IMDB.
Born Lena Baskette, April 19, 1907, in San Mateo, CA; died of cancer at her
home in Wheeling, WV, September 30, 1994; daughter of Frank (a drugstore
owner) and Gladys (Lee) Baskette; married Sam Warner (cofounder of Warner
Brothers), July 4, 1925 (deceased, 1927); married J. Peverell Marley (a
cinematographer), 1929 (divorced, September, 1930); married Ray Hallam (an
actor), 1931 (deceased, 1931); married Theodore Hayes (a prizefight
trainer), December, 1931(Hayes was already married to another woman, so the
marriage was not legal),1933 (for the second time; divorced, 1935); married
Henry Mollison (an actor), 1937 (marriage ended); married Warner Gilmore,
1948 (divorced, 1950); married seventh husband, 1959; children: (with
Warner) Lita Warner Heller, (withHayes) Edward Alvin Hayes.
From: filmreference.com
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