Leota Lorraine

The most biographical information I have about Leota Lorraine comes from someone who was doing a light spot of genealogical research and came across her in their family tree—a second cousin twice removed. They also found a marriage announcement in The Kansas City Star that mentions a first husband not mentioned on her IMDb page; neither husband is on her Wikipedia page. The second marriage was performed in Pasadena; divorce from the first husband was obtained on the grounds of non-support. A few other personal details are included, but even that article is a sparse document.

Which means I may be the first person to really delve into the very existence of Leota Lorraine. She was born Leota Crider in Kansas City, Missouri. Born in 1889, she was a young woman when the movies started getting big. She made nearly two dozen movies during the silent era, including a few shorts. Possibly more; I suspect that IMDb isn’t always as good about the silent era as it should be. By 1916, when she remarried, she was apparently a featured player at Metro before it became part of MGM. She doesn’t seem to have done many works anyone has heard of.

I don’t know why she didn’t make a strong transition into sound. Unless IMDb is missing a lot, the 1920s were not a good year for Lorraine’s career overall. In the ‘30s, however, what would become the staple of her career began. No, not her Our Gang short, wherein she played Spanky’s mother. Nor Ruggles of Red Gap, wherein she plays the sister of the title character’s employer’s wife. (I haven’t seen the movie, myself, though I’ve been meaning to.) These could have lead to further opportunities but seem not to have.

No, arguably the most important role she ever took was “Undetermined Secondary Role (uncredited)” in The Captain Hates the Sea, a movie probably best known for a Three Stooges cameo. And you may think to yourself, “How is it possible for that to be her most important role?” And here’s the thing—this is another place I assume IMDb to be incomplete. But even with what’s there, I lost count on how many “uncredited” performances are listed there at around a hundred. It’s probably somewhere around 120 to 130. An astonishing number of them are as “party guest.”

And you know what? Good for her. She was “party guest” in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. White Christmas. Monsieur Verdoux and A Place in the Sun. She was a spectator for events in Song of the Thin Man, All About Eve, and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. And that’s not even every movie you’ve heard of with Leota Lorraine randomly hanging around the background. If you can make a career out of that, good on you. Maybe she wasn’t a star, but if you start paying attention, you’ll see the woman who apparently went to more parties than anyone else in Hollywood, at least on camera.