Louella Maxam (also credited as Lola, Lula, Lulu, and Luella Maxim; June 10, 1891September 3, 1970) was an American actress who performed in over 50 silent films from 1913 until 1921. She was often cast in comedies and Westerns, most notably being identified in 1915 as a "leading lady" in a series of shorts starring Tom Mix, who during the silent and early sound eras was promoted as the "Cowboy King of Hollywood".Jensen, Richard Douglas. Tom Mix: Cowboy King of Hollywood. Nashville, Tennessee: Raymond Street Publishers, 2013."Louella Maxam, Ex-Actress, Dies", The Sun (Baltimore, Maryland), September 5, 1970: A15. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.Rainey, Buck. Sweethearts of the Sage: Biographies and Filmographies of 258 Actresses Appearing in Western Movies. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 1992, pp. 56-57. Later, she was a female lead in other films for various studios, including several productions featuring another early cowboy star, Franklyn Farnum. Following her departure from acting, Maxam worked in county and municipal government in California, including service with the Burbank police department, where in 1943 she was hired as that city's first "police woman"."Silent Screen Actress Dead", Hartford Courant (Hartford, Connecticut), September 5, 1970, p. 4. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
Early life Born in Florida in 1891, Louella Marguerite Maxam was the elder child of Sue E. Maxam, a native of Illinois."The Thirteenth Census of the United States: 1910", copy of original enumeration page, Los Angeles, California, April 26, 1910. U.S. Bureau of the Census. FamilySearch. Retrieved June 7, 2019. Little is known about Louella's father. According to government records, he was a native of Rhode Island and died prior to April 1910, when the federal census identifies Sue as a widow. Louella later attended public schools in St. Louis, Missouri, before moving with her mother and brother Lauren to California."Motion Picture Studio Directory", entry for Louella Maxam under "Actresses—Leads", Motion Picture News (New York, N.Y.), October 21, 1916, pp. 80-81. Internet Archive, San Francisco, California. Retrieved June 11, 2019. The federal census of 1910 shows that in Los Angeles Sue earned income for her family by renting rooms in their house to several boarders, and that Louella—just shy of 19 years old at the time—was employed as a bookkeeper in a nearby grocery store. Within a few years, however, young "Lula" found work in Hollywood's rapidly growing film industry, initially performing in serials and in stand-alone shorts as an extra and in other small uncredited parts.
Film career By the latter half of 1913 Maxam was cast as a supporting character in The Adventures of Kathlyn, Hollywood's "first cliffhanger serial". The absence of any 1914 releases in Maxam's known filmography suggests that more substantial roles continued to elude her until the following year, when she began to find steady, credited work in Westerns. In that genre she soon became closely associated on screen with cowboy star Tom Mix, and in 1915 she was recognized as a "leading lady" in his popular productions.
Tom Mix shorts at Selig Maxam performed in at least 13 of Tom Mix's films. In one of those Westerns, A Child of the Prairie, Maxam's own three-and-a-half-year-old daughter Norma is featured and identified in 1915 trade publications as a "Los Angeles product" and "the youngest member of the Selig Polyscope Company of players"."BABY NORMA MAXAM/Who Plays With Tom Mix...", special interest item, The Photoplayers' Weekly (Los Angeles, California), April 23, 1915, p. 9. Internet Archive. Retrieved June 18, 2019."California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994", image of original birth certificate of Norma Marguerite Keller, April 23, 1911, Los Angeles, California. California State Archives, Sacramento. FamilySearch. Retrieved June 6, 2019. In its April 23 issue that year, The Photoplayers' Weekly describes "Baby Norma Maxam" on the set:
Also in April 1915, the Chicago-based trade journal Motography reviewed another Tom Mix Western, The Conversion of Smiling Tom. In its assessment of the short, the publication recognizes Maxam's contributions to the growing quality of the cowboy star's films. "Mix", states Motography, "is ably supported by Louella Maxam" as Smiling Tom's love interest.C.J.C. (1915). "The Conversion of Smiling Tom", review, Motography (Chicago, Illinois), April 24, 1915, p. 674. Internet Archive. Retrieved June 7, 2019. The journal then adds, "These two players and the others appearing in supporting roles make the film a convincing one by their acting." In addition to the media's recognition of her acting talent, The Photoplayers' Weekly credited her professional success, especially in Westerns, to additional attributes she possessed, namely "her absolute lack of fear" in performing stunts and her excellent "horsewomanship"."Home Life Holds Actress Here", Photoplayers Weekly, July 8, 1915, p. 6. Internet Archive. Retrieved July 22, 2019.
Maxam's association with Tom Mix continued to increase her popularity with moviegoers. Photoplayers' Weekly once again highlights Maxam in its July 8, 1915 issue, featuring a portrait of the actress on its front cover, an image that carries the tagline "Star of Western Dramas and Comedies". Yet, despite her screen success with Mix, she declined the offer in the summer of 1915 to relocate from California to work at a new studio in Las Vegas, New Mexico, one being constructed specifically for the production of the cowboy star's lucrative films. "Miss Louella Maxam", Photoplayers' Weekly reported, "one of the best known leading women in screen dramas of western life, refuses to sacrifice her home in Glendale, which is the reason she did not accompany Thomas Mix." The Los Angeles publication then added, "the talented young woman is considering other offers".
Universal and Keystone Later in 1915, after declining the move to New Mexico and leaving Selig, Maxam began working for Universal, performing there in Her Prey, Manna, The Phantom Fortune, The Measure of Leon Du Bray, and The Fair God of Sun Island, which was filmed on location in Laguna Beach."Universal City News Bulletins/The Fair God of Sun Island", The Photoplayers' Weekly (Los Angeles), September 5, 1915, p. 14. Retrieved June 9, 2019. In late November, Louella spent two weeks on location again with other "Universalites" in the snowy "Bear Lake regions" of Southern California, filming and co-starring with Sydney Ayres in John o' the Mountains, a three-reel "Canadian Northwest" drama written by F. McGrew Willis."Notes From All Over", Motography, December 18, 1915, p. 1301, col. 1. Retrieved June 10, 2019."Ayres Producing 'John o' the Mountains'", The Moving Picture World (New York, N.Y.), December 18, 1915, p. 451. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
In January 1916, after completing John o' the Mountains and The Sting of Conscience for Universal, Maxam signed a contract with Keystone Studios to be in a series of shorts."The Sting of Conscience", Motion Picture News (MPN), July 1, 1916, p. 4091. Retrieved June 18, 2019. This film was not released by Universal until months after Maxam joined Keystone.Sherk, Warren M.; compiler and editor. The Films of Mack Sennett. Lanham, Maryland and London: The Scarecrow Press, 1998, pp. 22, 144, 148. One of those releases was His Bitter Pill, a parody of Western films in which she co-stars with Mack Swain.A full digital copy of "His Bitter Pill (1916)" is available for free viewing on YouTube, originally posted by Mark Laferriere, n.d. Retrieved June 13, 2019."His Bitter Pill (1916)", article, Turner Classic Movies (TCM), Time Warner, Inc., New York, N.Y. Retrieved June 10, 2019. In May 1916, Keystone "loaned" Maxam to Signal Film Corporation so she could accompany her husband, fellow actor William Burton, to Honolulu and Hilo, Hawaii to film the five-reeler The Diamond Runners."Signal Back From Honolulu", Motography, July 1, 1916, p. 26. Retrieved June 27, 2019. In 1916, Signal was a subsidiary of Mutual Film Corporation. Maxam resumed her work at Keystone by late July and was cast in His Lying Heart, Vampire Ambrose, and Ambrose's Rapid Rise.Sherk, pp. 4, 94. While filming Ambrose's Rapid Rise, in a scene of a burning schoolhouse, the hair of actor Tom Kennedy caught fire. It is reported that when Maxam noticed "the cruel flames were licking up locks from his noble brow, she made a dash at him with a bucket of water and put him out.""Who's Who And Where", Film Fun (New York, N.Y.) November 1915; entire issue has unnumbered pages, but the quoted text is on the fourth and fifth pages from the back cover. Retrieved June 10; 2019. After that short's release in September 1916, Motion Picture News published an extensive "Motion Picture Studio Directory" in which Maxam's entry includes information about her life, some of her films, leisure activities, physical traits, and even her home address: Maxam's contract with Keystone was a relatively brief one. In early November 1916, shortly after Motion Picture News published the noted directory, Motography announced she had left Keystone "to join her husband [Brunton], who is one of the Signal players.""Sifted from the Studios: Pacific Coast Notes", Motography, November 11, 1916, p. 1099. Retrieved June 4, 2019. The widely read fan magazine Photoplay subsequently offered a less discreet explanation for Maxam's separation from Keystone, reporting that she was "axed" as part of cost-cutting measures and widespread restructuring within the motion picture industry:
Selig, American, and Triangle After leaving Keystone, Maxam returned to Selig and was cast in Only a Rose, Out of the Shadows, Paradise for a Day, and several other shorts through mid-1917, mostly in minor roles."'Out of the Shadows'", a review that also includes "Paradise for a Day", MPN, November 4, 1916, p. 2868. Retrieved June 18, 2019. One of the few co-starring credits she had at Selig during those months was in Won in the Stretch, a one-reeler."Won in the Stretch", MPN, June 2, 1917, p. 3472. Retrieved June 19, 2019. Possibly in a move to obtain work again in longer, more complex films, Maxam accepted roles in several five-reel productions with the American Film Company and Triangle Film Corporation during the latter half of 1917 and 1918. In one of those films, Because of a Woman, Maxam is one of three major supporting characters. Peter Milne, film critic for Motion Picture News, gives a rather vague assessment of the actors' performances in his September 22, 1917, review: "The principal roles are handled by Jack Livingston, Louella Maxam and George Ches[e]bro, a trio who distinguish themselves averagely."Milne, Peter (1917). "Because of a Woman", review, MPN, December 1917, p. 4399. Retrieved June 17, 2019."Two Dramas on Triangle Program: Belle Bennett's Beauty Helps Make 'Because of a Woman'...", Motography, December 22, 1917, p. 1288. Retrieved June 16, 2019.