Dorothy Elizabeth Gish (March 11, 1898June 4, 1968) was an American stage and screen actress.Although for many years it was believed that the Gish sisters were born with the surname "De Guiche" or "de Guiche", their surname was, in fact, Gish. Biographer Charles Affron explains the source of the inaccuracies regarding the name in Lillian Gish: Her Legend, Her Life: "The Gish name was initially the source of some mystification. In 1922, at the time of the opening of Orphans of the Storm, Lillian reported that the Gish family was of French origin, descending from the Duke de Guiche.... [S]uch press-agentry falsification was common. Just a few years later the story was modified slightly so that de Guiche becomes the more illustrious Duc de Guise.... [A]mong the Gish ancestors were a great-uncle probably murdered on a business trip to Philadelphia and four cousins who served in the Civil War ... James Leigh Gish was the youngest of four sons of David Gish (1814–1888) and Diana Caroline Waltz." Dorothy and her older sister Lillian Gish were major movie stars of the silent era. Dorothy also had great success on the stage, and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. Dorothy Gish was noted as a fine comedian, and many of her films were comedies.
Early life Dorothy Gish was born in Dayton, Ohio. She had an elder sister, Lillian. The Gish sisters' mother, Mary, supported the family after her husband James Leigh Gish, a traveling salesman, abandoned the family in New York.Dwyer, Shawn. "Dorothy Gish", Turner Classic Movies (TCM), Atlanta, Georgia. Retrieved September 25, 2019. Mary Gish, who was "a former actress and department store clerk", moved with her daughters to East St. Louis, Illinois, where she opened a candy and catering business. In 1902, at the age of four, Dorothy made her stage debut portraying the character "Little Willie" in East Lynne, an adaptation of the 1861 English novel by Ellen Wood.
In 1910, Mary heard from her husband's brother, Grant Gish, who lived in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and informed her that James was ill. He was in a hospital in nearby Norman, so Mary sent 17-year-old Lillian to visit him. At first, Lillian wrote back to her 12-year-old sister Dorothy that she planned to stay in Oklahoma and continue her education, but after seeing her father she admitted she missed her mother and sister. So, after a few months away from them, in the spring of 1912, she traveled back and they began performing as extras at the Biograph Studios in New York at salaries of 50 dollars a week."Dorothy Gish, Actress, Is Dead; In Theater and Films 50 Years: Starred With Sister, Lillian, in Griffith Silent Classics—Many Broadway Roles", The New York Times (1923–current digital archives), June 6, 1968, p. 47. ProQuest Historical Newspapers. During his initial work with the sisters, Griffith found it difficult to distinguish one from the other, so he had the five years older Lillian wear a blue ribbon in her hair and Dorothy a red one."Miss Lillian Gish Interview" conducted by actress Mariette Hartley on January 22, 1987, the 112th anniversary of D. W. Griffith's birth. YouTube, originally published there by Dana Harris on December 25, 2013. Retrieved September 25, 2019. The girls, especially Lillian, impressed the director, so he included them in the entourage of cast and crew he took to California to produce films there.
Career
Dorothy and her sister debuted in Griffith's 1912 production An Unseen Enemy. She would ultimately perform in over 100 short films and features, many times with Lillian. Throughout her own career, however, Dorothy had to contend with ongoing comparisons to her elder or "big" sister by film critics, fellow actors, studio executives, and by other insiders in the motion picture industry. Such comparisons began even from the outset of the sisters' work for Biograph. Linda Arvidson, Griffith's first wife, recalls their initial work for the studio in her autobiography When The Movies Were Young:
Near-fatal accident, 1914 Dorothy Gish's budding film career almost ended on a street in Los Angeles the day after Thanksgiving in 1914. On Friday, November 26, the 16-year-old actress was struck and nearly killed by a "racing automobile"."In Movie Land", The Chicago Sunday Tribune, January 3, 1915, p. VIII 7. ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Retrieved September 25, 2019. Newspapers and film-industry publications at the time reported the event and described the severe injuries Gish sustained. The near-fatal accident occurred as Dorothy was walking with Lillian at the intersection of Vermont and Prospect avenues."Dorothy Gish is Injured", Los Angeles Times, November 27, 1914, p. 110. ProQuest Historical Newspapers. According to news reports, after the car struck her, it dragged her along the street for 40 to 50 feet. Other movie personnel who were standing together on a nearby sidewalk, including D. W. Griffith, witnessed Dorothy being hit.
The following day, the Los Angeles Times informed its readers about the accident: Subsequent news reports also describe the reaction of other pedestrians at the scene. The Chicago Sunday Tribune and trade papers reported that Dorothy's "horrified friends" rushed to her aid, with Griffith being among those who lifted the unconscious teenager into an ambulance and reportedly rode with her in the emergency vehicle."Dorothy Gish Is Injured by Automobile", Motion Picture News, December 26, 1914, p. 26. Internet Archive. Retrieved September 25, 2019. In addition to Gish's initial examination by the doctor identified by the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago newspaper and Motion Picture News stated that she was rushed to the hospital, where surgeons mended her "very badly torn" left side with "many stitches" and treated the area where one of her toes had been "cut off", presumably a toe from her badly damaged right foot.
At the time of the accident, Gish was completing a two-reel romantic comedy with actor W. E. Lawrence. The film, How Hazel Got Even, had already been delayed once at Reliance-Majestic Studios due to director Donald Crisp's bout with pneumonia."In and Out of Los Angeles Studios", Motion Picture News, December 19, 1914, p. 44. Retrieved September 25, 2019. Completion of the short was postponed yet again, for over a month, while Gish recuperated."Dorothy Gish Injured", Photoplay (Chicago), February 1921, p. 135. Internet Archive. Retrieved September 25, 2019. Originally scheduled for release on December 27, 1914, How Hazel Got Even was not distributed to theaters until mid-February 1915."Release Dates for Ready Reference", "12–27 How Hazel Got Even", Motion Picture News, December 19, 1914, p. 44. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
1915–1928 After recovering from the 1914 accident, Gish resumed her screen career the following year, performing in a series of two- and three-reel shorts as well as in longer, more complex films such as the five-reel productions Old Heidelberg, directed by John Emerson, and Jordan Is a Hard Road, once again under D. W. Griffith's direction."Old Heidelberg", Variety (New York, N.Y.), October 8, 1915, p. 21. Internet Archive. Retrieved September 27, 2019."Jordan Is A Hard Road", Variety, November 19, 1915, p. 24. Retrieved September 27, 2019. Increasingly, Dorothy's appeal to both producers and audiences continued to grow in 1915, leading W. E. Keefe in the June issue of Motion Picture Magazine to recognize her as "one of the most popular film stars on the Motion Picture screen".Keefe, W. E. (1915). "Dorothy Gish", feature article in Motion Picture Magazine, June 1915, p. 109. Internet Archive. Retrieved September 28, 2019. In an article about Gish in the cited issue, Keefe also recognizes that Dorothy, career-wise, was finally emerging from her sister's shadow: In 1916 and 1917, Dorothy continued to expand her acting credentials by starring in a variety of five-reelers for Fine Arts Film Company or "Griffith's studio", which was a subsidiary of Triangle Film Corporation. Her work in those years required filming on locations in New York and on the West Coast.
In the 1918 release Hearts of the World, a film about World War I and the devastation of France, Dorothy found her first cinematic foothold in comedy, striking a personal hit in a role that captured the essence of her sense of humor. As the "little disturber", a street singer, her performance was the highlight of the film, and her characterization on screen catapulted her into a career as a star of comedy films.
Griffith did not use Dorothy in any of his earliest epics, but while he spent months working on The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance, Dorothy was featured in many feature-length films made under the banner of Triangle and Mutual releases. They were directed by young Griffith protégés such as Donald Crisp, James Kirkwood, and Christy Cabanne. Elmer Clifton directed a series of seven Paramount-Artcraft comedies with Dorothy that were so successful and popular that the tremendous revenue they raked in helped to pay the cost of Griffith’s expensive epics. These films were wildly popular with the public and the critics. She specialised in pantomime and light comedy, while her sister appeared in tragic roles. Dorothy became famous in this long series of Griffith-supervised films for the Triangle-Fine Arts and Paramount companies from 1918 through 1920, comedies that put her in the front ranks of film comedians. Almost all of these films are now considered to be lost films.
"And So I Am a Comedienne", an article published in Ladies Home Journal in July 1925, gave Dorothy a chance to recall her public persona: “And so I am a comedienne, though I, too, once wanted to do heroic and tragic things. Today my objection to playing comedy is that it is so often misunderstood by the audiences, both in the theater and in the picture houses. It is so often thought to be a lesser art and something which comes to one naturally, a haphazard talent like the amateur clowning of some cut-up who is so often thought to be ‘the life of the party’. In the eyes of so many persons comedy is not only the absence of studied effect and acting, but it is not considered an art.”
She made a film in England Nell Gwynn which led to three more films. Gish earned £41,000 for these movies.
Sound era and return to stage When the film industry converted to talking pictures, Dorothy made one in 1930, the British crime drama Wolves. Earlier, in 1928 and 1929, her performances in the Broadway play Young Love and her work with director George Cukor renewed her interest in stagecraft and in the immediacy of performing live again."Dorothy Gish", Internet Broadway Database (IBDB), stage credits, The Broadway League, New York, N.Y. Retrieved September 27, 2019. The light comedy had proven to be popular with critics and audiences in New York, in performances on the road in the United States, as well overseas in a London production. Those successes convinced her to take a respite from film-making.