New York State Writers Institute - Classic Film Series

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Show People

May 5, 2000 (Friday) at 7:30 p.m.
Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue
(Free and Open to the Public)

(American, 1928, 82 minutes, b&w, 16mm)
Silent with live piano accompaniment by Mike Schiffer

Directed by King Vidor
Starring Marion Davies, William Haines, Dell Henderson

A would-be starlet arrives at the gates of MGM studios in hopes of becoming a great dramatic actress. Instead, she scores a hit as an ingenue in slapstick comedies. The film was loosely inspired by the career of Gloria Swanson and includes a number of cameo apperances featuring MGM silent-screen luminaries. The film shows the comic talent of Marion Davies, later notorious as the mistress of William Randolph Hearst.

Preceeded by a Buster Keaton short.