Found Another Hollywood Cousin

Clip from the 1929 movie, "Our Modern Maidens," starring Joan Crawford and Anita Page.  I'm not quite sure how Eunice Winkler did the voice for Anita Page since the movie is a silent, but I'm probably missing something.  My guess is that it means if you went to Grauman's Chinese theater you'd hear her voice the part.

I discovered the following cousin Eunice L. Lilley Winkler (1911-1948) was in show biz:

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, CA)
Thursday, 18 Jul 1929
page 10, col 2 (Newspapers) 

Still--It's a Sound Business
Anyway MISS EUNICE WINKLER thinks so when she remembers that she's the voice of MISS ANITA PAGE, movie star, who whenever she wishes to look at Miss Winkler or rather Miss Winkler's voice just takes out a strip of celluloid and glances at it.
--TRIBUNE photo [not included in this transcription] 

Talkie Girl, Who Provides Voice Only, Visiting Here
RICHMOND, July 18 -- Once upon a time, there were two little boys, who, because they had been so ordered, were seen and not heard. 

Of course, that's a fairy tale. 

But here is a true story about two little movie actresses, one of whom was seen--but the other, ah, the other was heard and not seen at all. 

The voice, in this instance, is Miss Eunice Winkler, who is here today to visit her mother, Mrs. Emma Winkler, 330 Thirteenth street.  The other movie actress, is Miss Anita Page, a star in her own right. 

Miss Winkler was selected from a group of other actresses, she says, to speak a part in "Modern Maidens," in which Miss Page plays the emotional role of the star.
Miss Winkler, who was Miss San Francisco in 1926, is now under contract in a singing and dancing act at Grauman's Chinese theater, Hollywood, and there does the song made famous in the successful "On With the Show."  Her stage debut was made more than a year ago as the winner of a Fanchon and Marco Opportunity contest.
After a brief stay here she will return to the footlights and the glare of the Kleigs.

This movie, which turned out to be called "Our Modern Maidens," had quite a story plot for it's time:

Heiress Billie Brown (Crawford), is engaged to marry her longtime sweetheart, budding diplomat Gil Jordan (Fairbanks). When Billie goes to see senior diplomat Glenn Abbott (La Rocque) about ensuring that Gil get a favorable assignment, Billie and Glenn are undeniably attracted to one another. Gil is likewise attracted to Kentucky Strafford, (Page), Billie's houseguest, who becomes pregnant by Gil. Gil finds that he loves Kentucky, but marries Billie instead. Once Billie realizes that Kentucky is pregnant with Gil's child, their marriage is annulled and both are paired up with the people they truly love.

Edited to add: Unfortunately she died young, at the Roxie Motel in Las Vegas, Nevada, from an overdose of sleeping pills.  She had been living in the Los Angeles and was married to Ted Menches (her third marriage) but had been in Las Vegas for the last three months.

Nevada State Department of Health, Clark County, Eunice Lucille Menches, 31 Jul 1948, State File No: 48-871, Registrar's No: 223; digital image, Ancestry.com database Nevada, Death Certificates, 1911-1965 (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=60974) : accessed 10 April 2018.

What is even more troubling is this article concerning the Roxie Motel a few years later:

Bakersfield Californian (on NewspaperArchive)
Monday, 2 Aug 1954
page 6, col 1
3 Convicted in Vice Case
Los Angeles (INS) - Three persons convicted by a federal jury of operating a Hollywood-Las Vegas white slave ring were jailed today pending sentencing on Sept. 13.
The trio included Edward V. Clippinger, 69, and his wife, Roxie, 42, operators of the notorious Roxie Motel in Las Vegas, and Richard Kellogg, 61, manager of the establishment.
A federal jury convicted them on one count of conspiracy and three counts of transporting Women from California to Nevada for immoral purposes.
Maximum sentence on the charges total 20 years plus a $20,000 fine each.
The government had charged that the trio conspired with Joseph Sanchez, named as one of the co-conspirators but not indicted, to procure girls from California for the Las Vegas establishment.
The jury deliberated 12 hours before finding the trio guilty.

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Fantastic Find: Media History Digital Library

Just in time for this year's Academy Awards, the Media History Digital Library's Fan Magazine Collection provides links to extensive runs of classic magazines like Photoplay (1914-1943), Motion Picture [Magazine] (1914-1941), and Radio Mirror (1934-1963).

[Photoplay, November 1914, Internet Archive]

[Motion Picture Magazine, November 1916, Internet Archive]

[Picture Play, October 1923, Internet Archive]

[Silver Screen, May 1934, Internet Archive]

[Motion Picture, February 1938, Internet Archive]

[Screenland, December 1944, Internet Archive]

[Modern Screen, March 1956.  Internet Archives]

[Screenland "Plus TV-Land, July 1958, Internet Archive]

Of course this is only one section of links you can find at the Media History Digital Library which describes itself this way:

"We are a non-profit initiative dedicated to digitizing collections of classic media periodicals that belong in the public domain for full public access. The project is supported by owners of materials who loan them for scanning, and donors who contribute funds to cover the cost of scanning. We have currently scanned over 1.3 million pages, and that number is growing."

WARNING: It's far too easy to lose track of time while paging through these old magazines (all those ads!), but if you feel that you haven't seen enough movie-related information after spending time at this site, try Classic Movie Links here.


© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.