By P.A. Geddie
Corinne Mae Griffith was born November 21, 1894, in Texarkana, to Ambolina Ghio and John Lewis Griffith. She became a popular star of the silent movies beginning in 1916. At the height of her popularity, she was known as the “Orchid Lady of the Screen,” and was widely considered the most beautiful woman in the era of silent films.
“Black Oxen” in 1924 was one of her most popular films. In 1925 she made the film “DeClasse” in which a young extra named Clark Gable appeared.
Griffith received an Academy Award nomination for her work in “The Divine Lady” which released in 1929. She appeared in more than 60 features during her movie career and was listed as executive producer on 11 of them.
The tabloid magazines of the day were kind to her: “… she is innocence personified… no one would be apt to tell a risque story in front of Corinne Griffith… furthermore, she is reserved. In a land where last names are forgotten overnight, she is still ‘Miss Griffith.’”
When sound on film began creating “talkies” in the late 1920s, that somewhat ended Corinne Griffth’s film career as she couldn’t sing, or even talk very well. Sound did not embrace her in the same way the silent films had. Her last Hollywood film released in 1930. After appearing in an English film in 1932, she retired. She appeared in one final film, “Paradise Alley,” the Hugo Haas potboiler.
It wasn’t long, though, before it was clear that the silent film star beauty also had brains. She went on to be a successful writer and amassed a fortune as an astute businesswoman, primarily in real estate.
Griffith published more than a dozen books including two best sellers. One was Papa’s Delicate Condition which was made into a movie starring Jackie Gleason in 1963. The story centers around the Griffith family in turn-of-the-century small-town Texas, and six-year-old “Corrie” that adores her eccentric, over-the-top father. Not amused by his shenanigans, his wife takes the kids and goes to her father’s house in Texarkana. Papa buys a circus and they all go to Texarkana and win back his family.
Perhaps the strangest thing about Griffith in her real life story is a period beginning in 1966 when she claimed she was not Corinne Griffith but the actress’ younger (20 years) sister who had taken her place upon the famous sister’s “death.” She was married for a few days to her fourth husband, Broadway actor Danny Scholl, who was 27 years younger, before filing for an annulment. She even testified in court, that she was her own sister. Contradictions by fellow actors that had known her since the twenties did not shake her story. Even as late as 1974 an editor of Photoplay Magazine said Griffith was still claiming that she was her own younger sister.
This part of her life inspired the Tom Tryon novel “Fedora” that was later filmed by Billy Wilder and released in 1979, coincidentally, the year of her death.
Her other marriages were to actor Webster Campbell (1920-23), producer Walter Morosco (1924-34) and to the owner of the Washington Redskins football team George Preston Marshall (1936-58).
Some of Griffith’s family are buried in Sacred Heart Cemetery in Texarkana including her grandparents Anthony and Augusta Ghio who have a great story of their own that takes place in Jefferson and then in Texarkana.
Corinne Griffith made her grand exit July 13, 1979, in Santa Monica, California. One of the richest women in America at the time, she left an estate of $150 million.
