Anita Page

Lovely Anita Page in a dreamy 1930 portrait by MGM photographer Ruth Harriet Louise. She was born Anita Evelyn Pomares on August 4, 1910 in Flushing, Queens, New York. Page entered films with the help of friend, actress Betty Bronson. A photo of Page was spotted by a man who handled Bronson's fan mail who was also interested in representing actors. After doing a screen test for Paramount, she was offered a contract but eventually settled with MGM. After several small uncredited appearances, her first film for the studio was the comedy-drama “Telling the World” (1928). Her performance in her second MGM film, “Our Dancing Daughters” (1928) opposite Joan Crawford was a success and it inspired two similar films in which they also co-starred, “Our Modern Maidens” (1929) and “Our Blushing Brides” (1930). She also starred in “The Broadway Melody” (1929), the first sound film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. When not working on films, she was busy with studio photographer George Hurrell creating publicity shots. She was one of his first subjects, and her photograph was his first to be published. She was a charming, much-loved screen personality, which shone through in such films as “Night Court” (1932) and “Skyscraper Souls” (1932). When her contract expired in 1933, she announced her retirement from acting at the age of 23. She made one more movie, “Hitch Hike to Heaven” in 1936, and then retired from acting. She made a return 25 years later in “The Runaway” (1961), and she lived quietly out of the limelight for over a half century. She again returned to acting in 1996 in several low budget horror films. In the 1990s the now widowed star was rediscovered by the media, which enjoyed her light-humored journeys down memory lane about her career, MGM, the silent and early talkie eras and the stars she knew, earning the actress a devoted cult of young fans. Anita Page passed away in her sleep on September 6, 2008, at the age of 98.

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