Peoria Girl Eases Silent Film Stars into the Talkies

• Prev
• 1 of 4
• Next

Brush With History... Peorians in the National Spotlight

Her dad was a set designer at the Main Street Vaudeville Theater in the early 1900s Peoria.

When the magnificent vaudeville palace named the Hippodrome opened on Jefferson Street in 1913, Mr. Churchill became its first manager. His little 3-year-old daughter, Marguerite, never missed a performance.

The family home was on Barker Avenue, and when it came time to send her to Whittier grade school, precocious Marguerite could not be held down. Bill Adams wrote in the Peoria Journal Star, "The first day, she came home making spitballs. The second day, she learned to say 'darn,' and the third day, she got the mumps. So her father and mother decided she had had education enough for a 4-year-old."

At one matinee, a comedy was playing and they needed a little black boy in the second act. Marguerite's dad grabbed her out of the audience, smeared her with blackface makeup, and shoved her on stage. A star was born.

In 1920, Marguerite's father died and her mother took her to New York City to attend the Theatre Guild Dramatic School. By the time she was sixteen, she was starring in many Broadway productions. Her dramatic talents were so brilliant that few members of the audience or theater critics could guess her age.

When talking motion pictures became a reality in 1927, Hollywood agents rushed to New York to sign the very best Broadway talent for the new talkies. Fox Movie Studio signed Marguerite and cast her in her first movie "The Diplomats" in 1929. Critics hailed her not only for her ravishing beauty, but haunting seductive voice.

It was becoming apparent that many of the male silent film stars were not transitioning to the talkies well. Marguerite was cast in Fox's big movies to coach, teach, and carry the stars. Will Rogers, Paul Muni, and Spencer Tracy all had their first talking picture successes with her.

But Marguerite's biggest challenge came in 1930. John Wayne had just been cast in his first starring role in Raoul Walsh's "The Big Trail." He was the talented stuntman and the studios were trying to mold him into a leading man. Now considered one of the earliest great classic westerns, the movie bombed at the box office. John Wayne always spoke highly of Marguerite for her patience and kindness though.

In 1931, she starred with George O'Brien in "Riders of the Purple Sage." She always said the stage was her true love. In 1932, she left Hollywood briefly to go back to Broadway to star in Kauffman & Ferber's classic "Dinner at Eight." But a love that kindled for George O'Brien would not die, and she returned to Hollywood to marry him in 1933.

Marguerite Churchill starred in 25 films. She died peacefully in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, in 2000. Peoria's Hippodrome Theater, which would later be renamed the Rialto Theater, had helped motivate and fashion one the world's greatest cinema stars.

About the Author