Search
Nora Lane Profile
|
|
Photo gallery |
| (Nora Schilling) |
|
| 12 September 05 | is born at home to Louise (later Louis) and Maria Schilling, German immigrants, in Jones Ridge, Illinois. She has four siblings, Alma, Emma/Edna, Paul and Hubert (Herbert). |
| 06 | severely ill, she and her family must be rescued by boat from the rising Mississippi River |
| ? | moves to Chester, Illinois, where her father is manager of the City Hotel and where she attends the public grade school |
| ? | moves to Willisville, Illinois |
| 10 | resides in the Wine Hill Precinct of Randolph County, Illinois |
| ? | moves to St. Louis and completes her education in public schools and later models. She is in some school plays, but has no intent on acting. |
| 25 | joins a stock company in Davenport, Iowa, where she resides with her family |
| visits a friend in California and is offered a screen test by scenario writer Frances Marion. For adventure, she accepts and later says: "I didn't choose pictures for a career—they chose me; I came out here on a visit with no intention of going into pictures. Even when my friends suggested that I was the right type I told them I had no desire to become an actress since I had a perfectly good job back in St Louis. I was a model, dividing my time between artists and women's fashion shops. One night a casting director asked me to have a test made. I cried when I saw it—it was so terrible. But then I began to take the whole thing seriously. I did extra work at various studios for several months and then Fred Thompson picked me for a small part in one of his pictures, Don Mike. He chose me for his leading lady in his next picture, Arizona Nights, and gave me a five-year contract." Like many five-year contracts, hers is terminated during the first year after Thomson completes his own contract with Paramount. |
|
| July 27 | begins filming Jesse James. She was chosen for the role of James’ sweetheart by his son, Jesse E. James, a Los Angles attorney, who said she bears a remarkable resemblance to his mother. |
| 22 January 28 | twenty-nine of Hollywood's 15,000 registered extras made good during 1927, and she’s one of lucky few. “Nora Lane (Norma Stone), youthful wife of a doctor, signed early in the year as leading woman for Fred Thomson… The roster is that of the Central Casting Corporation, maintained by the studios and which has completed a list of its 'graduates' for the year—the men, women, and children who rose out of the extra ranks during the twelve months to the status of contract players.” |
| 26 March 28 | as an extra in a film, she admits she can’t dance but does it anyway when a director asks. Her grace captivates him and she’s given small parts, working her way up to playing opposite Adolphe Menjou. |
| 6 May 28 | columnist Dave Keene notices: “The ladies seem to have solved the bobbed-to-long-hair transition problem in a unique way. At the gala opening of the new Warner Brothers theater the other night, my attention was called to Nora Lane, Alma Rubens and Claire Windsor. Their hair, judged to be about shoulder length, was so arranged that it curled outward and upward from beneath the brim of a tight fitting hat. The effect was rather that of a set of furs, worn high about the ears.” |
| 28 | freelances and makes five pictures in six months |
| 29 | is filmed in color for the first time in Sally |
| 12 April 29 | had to survive one of the most difficult tests given to a candidate for a screen role before she was chosen for the ingénue in The Cohens and Kellys in Atlantic City. She had to have a face and figure good enough to win a "Summer Girl Contest" in Atlantic City and an excellent Movietone voice, besides all the requisites of acting ability, experience and suitability usually necessary for such a part. The story demanded that she win the contest over the pick of Atlantic City bathing beauties, and to make the sequence seem plausible, Director William Craft had to find a girl actually pretty enough to do this. Most of the picture was filmed in Atlantic City, and a real bathing beauty contest, with several hundred local girls taking part, was organized. Although a group of judges was appointed by Craft to select one of the contestants for first prize, she had to play the winner for the purpose of the picture. It was the candid opinion of the judges that pretty Nora actually fulfilled every requirement. She is the only member of the stellar cast not having stage experience, but by training for six months, especially for talking pictures, she has acquired a voice that registers perfectly in talking films. |
| 30 | resides in Los Angeles with her sister Emma/Edna |
| 16 April 30 | will be Rin Tin Tin’s next leading lady, and she will not use a leash |
| 20 January 31 | advertisers for Lux Toilet Soap: “It's marvelous for the flawless skin the close-ups demand." |
| 5 August 31 | two trainmen are killed and sixteen persons injured, eight seriously, when the first section of the Southern Pacific passenger train Argonaut, running in two sections and carrying a number of motion picture notables, is wrecked twenty miles east of Yuma, Arizona. The engine, two baggage cars and a day coach turn over as the train struck a rain-softened section of roadbed. Three horses belonging to a film company, which is en route to location at Tucson, are killed and cameras and sound equipment damaged. Actors Warner Baxter, Edmund Lowe, Conchita Montenegro, James Bradbury, Jr., Nora Lane, and Director Irving Cummings are among the film company of forty in the second section, which escapes crashing into the wrecked first section in the darkness by the fact that it had not yet gathered full speed on the grade which leads out of Yuma. Doctors, nurses and ambulances arrive from Yuma. |
| 2 October 31 | does not smoke and likes athletics. Her hobby is picture shows, and she attends two a day when not busy at the studios. Her only pet is her car. An excellent swimmer, she has won many medals. She likes to read humorous stories. In her spare time she cooks and sews—and makes most of her own gowns, too. |
| 26 December 31 | is perfectly at home on a horse and insists that her one and only pet is her Ford car. While on location in Tucson filming The Cisco Kid, she finds it necessary to depend on "Old Dobbin" not only for the requirements of her role but also to the impassable nature of the mesquite in that vicinity. |
| 14 July 32 | she’s one of the year's 32 newcomers that Variety picks to be the cream of the crop, with stardom in sight |
| 8 February 33 | columnist Dan Thomas writes: “After nearly two years of absence Nora Lane is back in front of the cameras again, her first picture being The Cook's Day Off for Mack Sennett.” |
| 24 February 33 | “I believe beauty comes from within the body and not from fancy jars on the dressing table. A strong, healthy constitution automatically creates a clear and unblemished complexion, sparkling eyes, and an abundance of soft and lustrous hair. Several miles of bicycle riding before breakfast is the start of my day and before sundown there is usually time for a few games of tennis, followed by swimming. Horseback riding is beneficial.” |
| 7 November 33 | Louella Parsons writes: “A recent nightclub party revealed Lois Wilson and Jimmie Dunn as the latest turtle doves. Felix Winslow, Lois' late romance, at the same table, devoted himself elsewhere. Nora Lane in the Dunn party with an attentive cavalier.” |
| 39 | films The Gentleman from Arizona near Phoenix. The film is privately financed as an experiment, using a new color process, which proves to be a success. |
| 40 | resides in Beverly Hills |
| 1 July 40 | spends two weeks visiting relatives and friends in Chester and surrounding areas. This is the first time since she began her acting career that she is able to make an extended visit. She motored to Chester with her sister and brother-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Grover Bergfield, and their daughter, residents of Phoenix. While in Illinois, she stays with her sister-in-law and brother, Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Schilling, with whom her father resides. Another sister, Mrs. Herman Gerlach, lives in Steeleville, and her brother Paul lives in Chester. She is proud to see her birthplace still standing. |
| c. 41 | marries Burdette Henney, a Los Angeles insurance broker originally from Kansas. He is three years her senior. It’s his third marriage and will be his happiest. Henney is something of a local celebrity in Los Angeles. While a student at USC in 1926, he originated the Trojan War Horse in the student card section at USC football games, at a time when big football college "yell kings" (like Rudy Vallee of Yale) were akin to All American halfbacks at such schools. He also was the public address half-time commentator at the L.A. Coliseum at USC home games for many years. |
| 40s | her husband serves a term or two as president of the downtown Los Angeles Optimists Club, and she as president of the Optimisses, representing wives of the members |
| during breakfast she and her family listen to the radio, hearing such shows as Don McNeill’s The Breakfast Club and the Westinghouse radio program featuring American opera baritone John Charles Thomas. Burdette loudly imitates Thomas, complete with grand gestures and embellishments, causing a round of laughter. |
|
| resides with her husband on Verdugo in the Hollywood Hills and later at 2816 East Chevy Chase Drive in Glendale |
|
| 18 September 48 | her husband dies at age 46 from a heart attack while on a fishing trip with her in Bishop, California. He is survived by his widow and his son Tim and daughter Jill of Long Beach. Services are held at the Wee Kirk o' the Heather, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale. |
| 18 October 48 | one month to the day of her husband’s death, she dies in Glendale, California, from a self-inflected gunshot wound, leaving a note for her husband’s son; she could not go on without her mate. |
| is interred next to her husband at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale |
|
| Sources: Tammy Grah, Chester Public Library, Tim Henney, The Capital Times, Chester Herald-Tribune, Chester Times, The Daily Independent, The Daily Inter Lake, Daily News Standard, Davenport Democrat and Leader, Davenport Public Library, The Fresno Bee Republican, Hamilton Daily News, The Lima News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Modesto News-Herald, The Morning Herald, North Adams Transcript, Oakland Tribune, Ogden Standard-Examiner, Olean Evening Herald, The Syracuse Herald, www.B-Westerns.com, www.Findagrave.com, www.Ancestry.com | |
| Recommended Books: | |
| Links: Filmography | |