...anita page - the last of the screen flappers...

In the 20s, the term "flapper" is used for young ladies who are fashionable and lively. Veteran actress, Anita Page(4th August 1910 - 6th September 2008), who lived up to the name "flapper", has passed away in her sleep at the age of 98.

The vivid, petite blonde Anita Page was born Flushing, New York with the name Anita Evelyn Pompares. Her father had an electrical contracting business in Murray Hill, Flushing. He helped Anita get into pictures because he had done some lighting work for a studio in Astoria and knew somebody who promised to do what he could for Anita. Later, her mother, Helen "Maude" became her secretary, her father, John, became her chauffeur and her brother, Marino, was her gym instructor.

Anita had a small screen roles in some silent movies, 1925's "A Kiss For Cinderella" and 1926's "Love 'Em And Leave 'Em". She had a starring role opposite the dashing but gay William Haines in MGM's silent "Telling The World" (1928). She supported Joan Crawford in the semi-silent "Our Dancing Daughters" (1928), a movie that made Crawford a star. She starred with "the man of a thousand faces" the great Lon Chaney in a crime/drama "While The City Sleeps" and had a bit role in his "West Of Zanzibar".

The came the movie that made motion picture history, "The Broadway Melody" (1929), arguably the first full sound transitioned musical. It also won an Oscar for Best Picture in that year. The story of two sisters act, trying their luck on the great white way. Anita was one of the sister, the other was played by Bessie Love.

In 1929 Anita received over 10,000 fan letters a week, second only to Greta Garbo. Over one hundred of these were from an ardent Italian admirer, who wrote obsessively about her every move and asked for her hand in marriage several times - Benito Mussolini!.

She was back to support Joan Crawford in another silent, "Our Modern Maidens" (1929) and once again opposite William Haines in two talking comedies, "Speedway" (1929) and "Navy Blues" (1929). Anita Page had Buster Keaton as his leading man in "Free and Easy" (1930), his first musical talkie. There was another Joan Crawford drama "Our Blushing Bride" (1930) and a comedy opposite Crawford's then husband, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., "Little Accident". There was a kleenex drama with Robert Montgomery in 1931 "War Nurse". She portrayed Clark Gable's first on screen love interest in "The Easiest Way" (1931). She made some heavy dramas - with John Gilbert in "Gentleman's Fate" (1931) and with William Haines in "Are You Listening" (1932).

Eloped with her first husband, songwriter Nacio Herb Brown to Tijuana in 1934. They never lived together (Page said they needed to be married in the Catholic Church before she would live with him and this never happened). After nine months of marriage, she found out he was still married to his previous wife when he married Page, so she had their marriage annulled.

She retired from the screen in 1933 (reportedly due to her refusal to give in to Irving Thalberg's (he was married to Norma Shearer at the time) and Louis B. Mayer's sexual advances.

Anita Page made a comeback in 1996 in the odd R-rated "Sunset After Dark" along with child star Margaret O'Brien and Randal Malone. "Witchcraft XI : Sisters In Blood" (2000) was a horror with lots of nudity. Her last film appearance was "Frankenstein Rising" (2008).

There goes another grande dame of the silver screen.

(Scanned autographed photo property of author)