Marvel Rea

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Marvel Rea (left), Ford Sterling, and Alice Maison, appearing in Mack Sennett Comedies
Marvel Rea (left), Ford Sterling, and Alice Maison, appearing in Mack Sennett Comedies

Marvel Rea (b. 1903) was a silent film actress who started as a bathing girl in Mack Sennett productions.[1] Rea had blue eyes and blonde hair.[2]

Contents

[edit] Film comedian

She was in Her Screen Idol (1918) with Ford Sterling and Louise Fazenda. Rea played the character, The Screen Idol's Heroine. The movie was a humorous satire on the matinee idol of motion pictures. Sennett displayed the technique of illustrating a play within a play in this production.[3]

Rea was in movies from 1917 through 1921. Among more than twenty-five screen credits are roles in A Clever Dummy (1917), The Summer Girls (1918), East Lynne with Variations (1919), When Love Is Blind (1919), A Lightweight Lover (1920), The Simp (1920), and For Land's Sake (1920).

[edit] Marriage

Rea was married to Henry Page Wells on October 25, 1918. They separated in November. About two weeks after their wedding Rea said that Page stood her on her head. The accusation was part of a divorce suit which Rea brought in August 1922. She accused her husband of spending most of his $800 per month salary on narcotics.[4]

[edit] Attack victim

Three young men kidnaped Rea, threw her into a large red truck, and transported her to a eucalyptus grove at 120th Street and Compton Avenue,[2] South Los Angeles[5] on September 2, 1936. She was then assaulted by the three. As she screamed they threw her on the ground. Her body was scratched by broken bottles and she was left semiconscious. She recovered four hours later.

Rea had been attacked while walking at 107th Street and Compton Avenue in Los Angeles, California. The youths offered to take her to her home at 159 East 107th Street. She refused. The three suspects were apprehended and questioned by Los Angeles Police Department detectives after Rea was taken home to rest.[2] Another account says that she staggered into the Compton, California police station at dawn. She claimed the seizure and attack occurred around midnight.[5] The three men were booked on suspicion of kidnaping and attack after denying the assault.[2]

In January 1937 the three young truck drivers unsuccessfully requested a new trial on charges that they attacked Rea. They gave oral notice of appeal in Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Frank M. Smith's court. The three were sentenced to prison terms of from one to fifty years.[6]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sennett Bathing Girls, Los Angeles Times, January 3, 1939, Page E11.
  2. ^ a b c d Kidnap Attack Nets Three, Los Angeles Times, Page A3.
  3. ^ Ford Sterling In New Sennett Film, Ogden, Utah Examiner, July 7, 1918, Page 10.
  4. ^ Husband Stood Her On Her Head, Beauty Charges, New Castle, Pennsylvania News, August 25, 1925, Page 19.
  5. ^ a b Trio Attacks Film Beauty, San Antonio Light, September 3, 1936, Page 1.
  6. ^ Three Sentenced in Attack Case, Los Angeles Times, January 21, 1937, Page A1