Georgia Hale

Little remembered Georgia Hale in a 1926 portrait by Russell Studios. Georgia Theodora Hale was born on June 25, 1900 in St. Joseph, Missouri. In 1922, she won a beauty contest in Chicago and despite strong disapproval from her father, she used the award money to go to New York City to break into theatre. Unsuccessful, she left New York for Hollywood. She immediately found work as a bit player in “By Divine Right” (1924), and she danced in the chorus of “Vanity's Price” (1924). Josef von Sternberg was an assistant director on both of these films, and he gave Georgia her first break came when he cast her for the film that he directed titled “The Salvation Hunters” (1925). It was from this picture that Charles Chaplin hired her to play the Georgia, the dance-hall girl who wins Charlie's heart, in “The Gold Rush” (1925). With a very successful film, Georgia became an instant celebrity and was signed by Paramount Pictures. Her big film with Paramount was “The Great Gatsby” (1926) where she played the role of Myrtle Wilson. But her career never went anywhere and her last silent picture would be the film “The Last Moment” (1928). She never married and remained loyal to Chaplin, who had her on his payroll on-and-off until 1953. She ran a dance school for a while and also wrote her two versions of her autobiography in the 1960s but couldn't find a publisher at the time. She eventually went into real estate that made her wealthy and also found a companion, who had no idea of her film career, until she gave an interview about Charlie Chaplin in the PBS documentary “Unknown Chaplin” (1983). He received most of her estate when she died at the age of 85 on June 17, 1985. Her second version of her autobiography, which was more detailed than her first (written in the 1960s), would finally be published ten years after her death in 1995, and it's title is "Charlie Chaplin: Intimate Closeups".

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