STILL GOING STRONG

In 1931 Carl Laemmle Jr., son of Carl Laemmle (one of the founders of Universal Pictures) was one of the producers of the 1931 film of Dracula which starred Bela Lugosi, Dwight Frye, Helen Chandler, David Manners and Edward Van Sloan as Van Helsing, amongst others.

There was an un-credited appearance by a young lady named Carla Laemmle, Carl Jr.’s cousin,who played apassenger on a coach bringing the unfortunate Renfield (a tour de force performance by Dwight Frye) to Dracula’s Castle. Ms Laemmle spoke the first words of dialogue in the film. She was born Rebecca Isabelle Laemmle on the 20^th October, 1909, in Chicago, Illinois. She is 101 going on 102. She has just been working on a film called The Extra starring Tyrone Power Jr, who was born in 1959 as Tyrone William Power IV and is the great great grandson of Tyrone Power, who died tragically young at 44 in 1958.

Details for The Extra, written and directed by Mike Donahue, can be found at:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1808547/combined

Mr Donahue has employed Ms Laemmle last year in a film entitled Pooltime.

Ms Laemmle’s brother Ernst Laemmle, directed a film in 1930 called What Men Want, which starred amongst others, Ms Barbara Kent, who was born Barbara Klowtmann in Gadsby, Alberta, Canada on the 16^th of December 1906.

She is now 104 going on 105. Unfortunately she is no longer working and refuses to give interviews concerning her film career. She appeared with Greta Garbo and John Gilbert in Flesh and the Devil (1926) and Indiscreet (1931) with Ben Lyon and Gloria Swanson.

Luise Rainer, born 12^th January 1910 in Dusseldorf, Germany, is of course still with us at 101.