Volume III: Biographies

BENNER, Yale *

Actor (1916)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: Yale Benner was an actor with Thanhouser circa 1916.

Biographical Notes: Yale Delespine Benner was born in New York City on November 17, 1875 and received his education in Brooklyn.

An article in The Moving Picture World, July 3, 1915, told of his career: "Yale Benner's versatility got to work early in life, allowing him to make many entrances and exits from the stage - playing a sort of hide and seek game with the business and the profession, until his success tied him down to the stage.

"About 20 years ago - who'd think it to look at him - he was industriously sawing his way to success in the electrical business when the dramatic bug hit him and he forthwith - gadzooks! - developed a swelling which he called 'The Brooklyn Dramatic Society.' With such managerial success, he provided more infectious material in the shape of other amateur societies - and his name spread, until he just couldn't help chucking his job and taking to a repertoire company playing the smaller towns of the Eastern states. He languished in these confines until he found vaudeville which, slowing up, he jumped again and went into the natural gas business in West Virginia - this having no reference to 'hot air,' despite the fact that Yale is branded as a humorist.

"A number of years spent there and the old longing for the grease paint was too much. He was off again to play with his brothers as Linton, the reporter in Jesse Lynch Williams' romantic play, The Stolen Story. James Lee Finney's part, Captain Arnold Sylvester, now fell to Yale in the Zira company and in it he did some of the best work of his career. More versatility - he leaves this to play the trying part of the absinthe fiend, Raoul Burton, in Leah Kleschna, later, with characteristic nimbleness of adaptation, becoming one of the triplets in Harry Winters The Three Twins, with Clifton Crawford and Bessie McCoy. Then came two seasons in vaudeville as Miss Hope Booth's leading man, playing the dramatic critic in a sketch, The Little Blond Lady.

"But it was not until Yale wandered into motion pictures that his marked comedy was signally registered. He came east to visit his parents in Mount Vernon when he, out of curiosity, wandered into the Edison studio, and there he has remained, true to his first motion picture love. In comedy Yale should be renamed 'Gale' for that's what he excites in laughter. His fun is so natural, so free of straining after effect and so unctuous that it 'gets over' with unfailing certainty. At facial expression he is a master of convulsing faces, yet never overdone. He is probably one of the best known 'butlers' on the stage or screen, and many a time and oft has Yale pulled down the honors - and the laughs - when cast for that role, seemingly unimportant.

"He has appeared in Edison films innumerable times, some of which, within easy memory because of their funniness, are The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of, The Dumb Wooing, where he has a nervous affliction; and in the inimitable comedy, Going to the Ball Game. Then, in more serious roles, in The Man in the Dark; as the scheming butler in Olive's Opportunities series, and as the fun making 'indispensable' valet in the Lord Stranleigh series."

The Motion Picture Magazine, April 1916, quoted Benner on his career: "After closing in vaudeville, in Chicago, with Hope Booth in The Little Blond Lady, I decided to make my parents a visit. I was on my way to Mount Vernon, New York, where they resided, and, as I was proceeding on my journey by a route which Fate evidently decreed I should take, it led me face to face with the work with which I am now identified.

"On my arrival at Bedford Park, the first stop on my way, I chanced to see the name of the Edison studio, which interested me and lured me to its portals. I immediately requested an interview with the director, which was granted, and, after preliminary negotiations, I continued on my way, very well satisfied with my interview. I was entering into a new pasture, where I had never nibbled before, but the clover tips and every old weed seemed to say, 'We're all right.'

"It is my delightful privilege that I have been in constant touch with the Edison Company, under very competent and agreeable directorship, for over three years, and every moment of that time has served to convince me that diligent application to one's work and a respectful and receptive attitude to those in command will pretty surely assure one permanency in position and keep one's mind in a cheerful poise. I have played in many leading roles, and in others oftentimes assisting. I am very fond of my vocation and hope to improve and perfect myself that I may meet every requirement which the broadening field and newer and better types of production may suggest."

After working with Edison, Yale Benner went to Thanhouser. By autumn 1916 he was with Columbia, subsequently appearing in the January 1917 film, A Wife by Proxy (Columbia for Metro). His favorite pastime was motoring. In 1916 he lived at 395 East 197th Street, New York City, and was a member of the Screen Club. Yale Benner died on September 29, 1952.

Thanhouser Filmography:

1916: The Knotted Cord (2-2-1916), The Fifth Ace (3-22-1916), The Girl From Chicago (4-18-1916), Other People's Money (6-1-1916), The Pillory (10-8-1916)

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