Lilyan Tashman

Lilyan Tashman
Tashman in the 1920s
Born	(1896-10-23)October 23, 1896 New York City, U.S.
Died	March 21, 1934(1934-03-21) (aged 37) New York City, U.S.
Resting place	Washington Cemetery
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1914–1934
Spouses	Al Lee ​ ​ (m. 1914; div. 1921)​ Edmund Lowe ​ ​ (m. 1925)​

Lilyan Tashman (October 23, 1896 – March 21, 1934) was an American stage, silent film, and sound film actress.

Early life

Born in 1896 in Brooklyn, New York to a Jewish family, Tashman was the youngest of eight children, born to Morris Tashman, a manufacturer of children's clothes, and his wife, Rose Cook Tashman. Her grandparents were Isaac and Rose Schlomowitz Tashman, and her siblings were named Bertha, Kitty, Jennie, Annie, Sarah, Gustav and Hattie. She attended high school in Brooklyn and later graduated from a finishing school.

Early work

Tashman worked as a model. Her blonde hair and a unique type of beauty appealed to artists, who employed her. From her earliest recollections she yearned to appear on the stage. By 1914, she had also starting working in vaudeville, on a bill that included the up and coming double act Eddie Cantor and Al Lee. Tashman and Lee were married in 1914, separated in 1920, and divorced in 1921. Cantor and Lee broke up, with Cantor going on to a successful solo career, Lee going on to become a manager for George White's Scandals and Tashman trying out for whatever Broadway show she could find.

Career

Ziegfeld company

Several tries by Tashman to get on the stage were largely failures. By the age of seventeen she had given up hope, when she met Florenz Ziegfeld. The meeting happened on an afternoon when she was eating at a Broadway restaurant. A mutual acquaintance introduced them at the producer's request. He quickly asked Lilyan if she wanted to appear in one of his shows as a Ziegfeld girl. In 1916, at the age of 20, she made the first of her Ziegfeld Follies appearances with a cast of newcomers that included Marion Davies and Peggy Hopkins Joyce. She stayed with the show for its 1917 and 1918 seasons. In 1919, Tashman left the Ziegfeld company for bigger and better opportunities.

Entering the film business

Later in 1919, she was given a job by the producer David Belasco in a comedy called The Gold Diggers starring Ina Claire. The show was a success, and ran for two years and in addition to her own supporting role, Tashman acted as Claire's understudy.

In 1921, she made her first film Experience with Richard Barthelmess and Nita Naldi. After a period of misfortune in New York in which one show closed, and she was fired from another, Tashman decided to move to Hollywood to further her film career.

On coming to Hollywood, Lilyan was cast in a supporting role in a Mabel Normand film, Head Over Heels (1922). When The Garden of Weeds (1924) came into production. Her part in the stage play secured for Lilyan the same place in the film. From then on Tashman appeared in many motion picture roles and became a prominent figure in the world of film. At first, she worked for independent film companies but later, she was featured in productions being made by the largest organizations in the industry.

Meeting Edmund Lowe

It was while acting in the film Ports of Call (1925) that the actress met her soon-to-be husband Edmund Lowe. By this time she and Al Lee had divorced. She married Lowe on 21 September 1925. The wedding occurred before the release of the film and the two made their home in Hollywood. Edmund and Lilyan resided in an Art Deco home thought to have been designed by Tashman. Both maintained their acting careers.

As a couple, Tashman and Lowe became more prominent in Hollywood than they had as single people. They entertained lavishly in their Beverly Hills home, and Tashman began appearing on "Best Dressed" lists. Their respective film careers began to improve as a result of the publicity they were beginning to generate.

Successful film actress

By 1925, Tashman had built a reasonable career as a film actress. She appeared in Pretty Ladies (Joan Crawford and Myrna Loy also taking small roles). Other film roles of note included "Seven Days" (1926), "Texas Steer" (1926), "Camille" (1927), "So This Is Paris" (1928), "Craig's Wife" (1928), "The Trial of Mary Dugan" (1929), "The Marriage Playground" (1929), and "The Gold Diggers of Broadway" (1929), and the pre-Production Code comedy "Girls About Town" (1931).

Over the next few years, Tashman appeared in numerous supporting roles, and several starring roles and, with the advent of talking pictures, made an easy transition. She had a rich contralto voice and a confident delivery of dialogue after years spent on the stage.

Declining health and death

After a busy year in 1931 in which Tashman appeared in eight films, she began to reduce her work schedules while newspapers speculated about the state of her health. After denying repeatedly that there was a problem with her health, Tashman was eventually hospitalized, and upon her release answered further rumors with a statement saying that she had undergone an appendectomy. It was only when she died soon after, that it was revealed she had died of cancer. Hospital authorities described the cause of her death as an advanced tumorous condition. She was conscious until the end according to A.J. Gertenbach, managing director of the hospital. Edmund Lowe was beside her bed as she died. The couple lived in New York at 73 East 70th Street.

Funeral in New York City

Tashman was 37 years old when she died at 2:15 at Doctor's Hospital, 170 East End Avenue, on March 21, 1934. She had undergone an operation the previous Friday. Rabbi Rev. Dr. Samuel H. Goldenson of Temple Emanu-El performed the funeral service at the Universal Funeral Chapel, 597 Lexington Avenue in New York City. Tashman was later interred at the plot of the Palestine Lodge 71, I.O.S.B., Washington Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1921	Experience	Pleasure	First feature film Lost film
1922	Head Over Heels	Efith Penfield
1924	Nellie, the Beautiful Cloak Model	Nita
	Manhandled	Pinkie Moran
	Winner Take All	Felicity Brown	Lost film
	The Garden of Weeds	Hazel	Lost film
	The Dark Swan	Sybil Johnson	Lost film
	Is Love Everything?	Edythe Stanley
1925	Ports of Call	Lillie	Lost film
	The Parasite	Laura Randall
	Declassée	Mrs. Leslie
	A Broadway Butterfly	Thelma Perry	Lost film
	I'll Show You the Town	Fan Green
	Pretty Ladies	Selma Larson	Film survives, but the color sequences are lost
	The Girl Who Wouldn't Work	Greta Verlaine
	Seven Days	Bella Wilson	Lost film
	Bright Lights	Gwen Gould	Lost film
1926	Rocking Moon	Sasha Larianoff
	The Skyrocket	Ruby Wright	Lost film
	Whispering Smith	Marion Sinclair
	Siberia	Beautiful Blonde	Lost film
	So This Is Paris	Georgette Lalle, a dancer
	For Alimony Only	Narcissa Williams
	Love's Blindness	Alice, Duchess of Lincolnwood	Lost film
	Camille	Olympe	Incomplete film
1927	Don't Tell the Wife	Suzanna
	Evening Clothes	Minor Role	Lost film Uncredited
	The Woman Who Did Not Care	Iris Carroll
	The Prince of Headwaiters	Mae Morin	Lost film
	The Stolen Bride	Ilona Taznadi
	A Texas Steer	Dixie Style	Lost film
	French Dressing	Peggy Nash	Lost film
1928	Craig's Wife	Mrs. Passmore	Lost film
	Happiness Ahead	Kay Sears	Lost film
	Phyllis of the Follies	Mrs. Decker
	Lady Raffles	Lillian
	Take Me Home	Derelys Devore	Lost film
	Manhattan Cocktail	Mrs. Renov	Lost film
1929	A Real Girl	Minnie
	The Lone Wolf's Daughter	Velma	Lost film
	The Trial of Mary Dugan	Dagmar Lorne
	Bulldog Drummond	Irma Peterson
	Gold Diggers of Broadway	Eleanor	Incomplete film
	The Marriage Playground	Joyce Wheater
	New York Nights	Peggy
1930	No, No, Nanette	Lucille Early	Lost film, only the soundtrack survives
	Puttin' On the Ritz	Goldie Devere	Film survives, but it has been cut down by twenty minutes, the title cards at the start and end have been edited and altered, and the technicolor sequences partially survive in only black-and-white
	On the Level	Lynn Crawford
	The Matrimonial Bed	Sylvaine
	Leathernecking	Edna	Lost
	The Cat Creeps	Cicily	Lost film
1931	One Heavenly Night	Fritzi Vajos
	Finn and Hattie	The 'Princess'
	Millie	Helen 'Hel' Riley
	Up Pops the Devil	Polly Griscom
	Murder by the Clock	Laura Endicott
	The Mad Parade	Lil Wheeler	Forgotten Women (US re-release title)
	The Road to Reno	Mrs. Jackie Millet
	Girls About Town	Marie Bailey
1932	The Wiser Sex	Claire Foster
	Those We Love	Valerie
	Scarlet Dawn	Vera Zimina
1933	Wine, Women and Song	Frankie Arnette
	Mama Loves Papa	Mrs. McIntosh
	Too Much Harmony	Lucille Watkins
1934	Riptide	Sylvia Wilson
1936	Frankie and Johnnie	Nellie Bly	released posthumously

External links

• Lilyan Tashman at IMDb
• Lilyan Tashman at the Internet Broadway Database
• Lilyan Tashman Photo Gallery
• Photographs and literature
• Lilyan Tashman at Find a Grave