Volume III: Biographies

GIBSON, Frances *

Actress (1912)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: Frances Gibson appeared in the 1912 Thanhouser release of Nicholas Nickleby.

Biographical Notes: Frances Gibson was born circa 1892 to theatrical parents in Everton, England, the first born in a family which eventually included 11 children. At age three she made her stage debut with Wilson Barrett's company, after which she played child's roles for six years. Her parents relocated to America, and in New York City she attended the Holy Cross Convent on 42nd Street. Five years later she went on stage and was seen in various productions. Then followed several years traveling the Orpheum circuit in a singing and acting act, during which time she called Portland, Oregon her home base.

In July 1903, when she was in the chorus of the Tivoli Theatre in San Francisco, she married Walter Bownes, a wealthy Colorado cattleman. The couple had met in Seattle, when Arthur Cunningham, a baritone singer in Miss Gibson's traveling company, introduced them. Following their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Bownes went to Denver, and it was announced that Miss Gibson was retiring from the stage. This retirement lasted but a short time, and in 1904 she was again before the footlights with the Tivoli stock company in San Francisco. Acting in soubrette parts, she was watched for a week by Fred C. Whitney, who offered her the chance to come to New York City for the first time in her career, to take the role of Rose Melon in Piff, Paff, Pouf at the Casino Theatre. Around this time she was also seen in Babes in Toyland.

Around this time she had an encounter with the Black Hand, an organization of criminals. For several years she had been hounded with threats by this terrorist group. In August 1904, while she was with the Piff, Paff, Pouf company, Miss Gibson received the following message, here translated from the Italian hand in which it was written:

"Miss Gibson, Casino Theatre: You are ordered by me and my companions to hand $500 to a man who will wait for you one evening outside of the stage door. Within two weeks also resign from the cast of 'Piff, Paff, Pouf' or you will be kidnapped. Be careful not to notify anyone. THE BLACK HAND."

To escape the threat, she announced the intention of going to Europe with her husband. In 1905 and 1906 she was seen in various American stage productions. During the San Francisco earthquake in April 1906 she was acting in that city and lost all of her belongings.

Her film career included work with Solax, Thanhouser, Lubin, and others. The November 6, 1914 issue of The Moving Picture World reported that by that time she had appeared in over 50 films, including Lady Betty's Strategy (Solax, December 1910), The Mills of the Gods (Solax, March 1911), The Rose of the Circus (Solax, April 1911), and Steve Hill's Awakening (a four-reel production produced and directed by Marcus Dow in autumn 1914). She was in the Thanhouser production of Nicholas Nickleby, released in March 1912. Before then and immediately thereafter she was with Solax, and it could be that she worked for Thanhouser on a special project basis for this one film.

The September 15, 1913 issue of the New York Morning Telegraph included a lengthy article on a group recently organized by Miss Gibson, the Stage Uplift Eugenic Club for the Propagation of Actors and Actresses. Impressed by reading Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species, she formulated a program whereby, in her words, "actors and actresses should marry only actors and actresses. then, you see it's perfectly simple, they are bound to give to the stage a lot of children who are born for The Profession. But I would carry my idea still further. A chorus girl should marry a chorus man. Then they will have children who are good chorus girls and chorus men from the start.... Stars should marry stars and keep the star crop well supplied."

Apparently, her own experience of marrying a wealthy man was less than she had hoped for, as she continued: "It makes me particularly sore to see a good actress marry one of these millionaires. Their children are neither pure actors nor are they full-blooded millionaires." In autumn 1914 her spare time interests included rope and pole climbing, swimming, and horseback riding.

Thanhouser Filmography:

1912: Nicholas Nickleby (3-19-1912)

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