A while back, while researching historic movie theaters in my community, I ran across the odd story of what seemed to be a silent movie actor linked to Chippewa Falls. If you are coming in late, here's the story of Bunny Smith.
Obviously trying to research somebody whose last name was Smith and whose first name was a nickname is gonna be some heavy lifting. But by cross referencing the movies he claimed to have been in, and allowing for uncredited roles, I've figured out that "Bunny" was acting under the stage name of Bert Delaney.
I've looked into the story a bit more, and while it is still far from complete, here's what I know about Bert/Bunny.
His real name was Bernard Smith. He was born in Minneapolis on January 16th, 1891. This would make him 25 years old at the time of his letter to the hometown newspaper. He attended Notre Dame University, presumably in roughly the 1909-1913 time frame. He spent some time working as the private secretary to the President of the Canada Land Company of Minneapolis. He was then said to have spent some time "on stage", presumably in vaudeville as movies were just starting to become popular in that era.
As to his cinematic career he started out "with Edison". That being of course Thomas Edison who effectively invented motion picture technology and even more effectively patented it against potential rivals. But in the time frame we are discussing the Edison company was in steep decline, so Bunny's switch to the Vitagraph company makes sense. Vitagraph was in business from 1897 to 1925, so no time line help there. His roles were presumably uncredited. These companies were based out of New York.
In July of 1915 he started working for Thanhouser, first as an uncredited extra but in roles that eventually could be characterized as lead. In his letter Bunny says he was more or less "discovered" by someone working for Thanhouser. Specifically that he looked enough like their main "juvenile roles" actor Nolan Gane that he could step up to that job description when Gane died. That happened in February of 1915, so this seems to fit.
Smith/Delaney made movies for Thanhouser in 1915 and 1916. Mostly in their Florida winter season studios. The lone 1917 listing seems to have been a remake and re-issue of an earlier film. In the unstable film industry of the day Thanhouser, briefly a major player, was in turn on the way out.
So what came next? In a short but intriguing news article from the Florida Metropolis of May 24, 1916 we learn that Bert Delaney, as they knew him by that name, was: "...formerly connected with Thanhouser" and was joining the "Lasky Company of players on the West Coast." From this I think we can conclude that many of his 1916 movies were shot early in the year and were released later. This would fit the pattern of high volume production especially in Florida during the winter.
At this point you might be wondering what ever happened to Bernard Smith/Bert Delaney? I really don't know. In 1917 his address is given as "Care of Screen Club, New York City". This is not helpful at all. The Lasky Company eventually became Paramount Pictures, and there are sources that describe some of their early actors. But it was a big, sprawling, growing industry, and a small timer like Bunny does not seem to have been noticed. Indeed, maybe the whole story of heading off to Hollywood was bunk. This was after all the Industry of Illusions.
And what about his local connection? It seems tenuous. Although the editor of the paper in 1916 describes him as "..a product of Chippewa Falls..". I don't believe he ever lived here.
His mother, Mrs Jane Smith, is mentioned periodically in the local paper starting in 1910. Usually it was in connection with visits to and from her various children. In September of 1911 it is reported that "Bunny Smith of Minneapolis is the guest of his mother in the Taylor house flats". This would seem to be when you'd expect him to be a 20 year old college student.
And three years later......
The visit in fact was six weeks in length. By this point the Lyric theater was in operation in the ground floor of the Taylor house. I think we can assume Bunny took in a few shows there while he was in town. He missed the opening of this theater during his 1911 visit by just a few weeks. It can't have been long after that that he switched over to movies.
That's really about all the information the local papers can provide up until that lengthy, biographical account he sent to the editors in January of 1916. Interestingly, just two days after it ran, Mrs. Jane Smith and her daughter Miss Irene Smith, moved back to Minneapolis after a farewell party thrown by their friends. So while I had at first considered this to be a sort of "cheer up" story for his (presumably) widowed mother and for his sister with frail health; it seems instead to have been part of the send off festivities. I mean, what mother would not love to brag about her movie star son?
So how do these stories end?
I've had no luck tracking down Mrs. Jane Smith of Minneapolis. Or for that matter her son, under either his real or stage names. I'd guess he kept the latter for whatever length of time his professional career continued. Or who knows, maybe he picked a new one? I prefer to just assume all parties involved went on to have long, happy lives. With of course an elderly gentleman telling his grandkids about how he was in 21 movies in just a bit over one year; including such timeless silent era classics as "Peterson's Pitiful Plight" and "Clarissa's Charming Calf"!
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