The American Venus (1926) Online
Mary Gray, whose father manufactures cold cream, is engaged to sappy Horace Niles, the son of Hugo Niles, the elder Gray's most competitive rival in the cosmetics business. Chip Armstrong, a hot-shot public relations man, quits the employ of Hugo Niles and goes to work for Gray, persuading Mary to enter the Miss America contest at Atlantic City, with the intention of using her to endorse her father's cold cream should she win. Mary breaks her engagement with Horace. When it appears that she will win the contest, Hugo lures her home on the pretext that her father is ill, and she misses the contest. Chip and Mary return to Atlantic City, discovering that the new Miss America has told the world that she owes all her success to Gray's cold cream. On this note, Chip and Mary decide to get married.
Cast overview: | |||
Esther Ralston | - | Mary Gray | |
Lawrence Gray | - | Chip Armstrong | |
Ford Sterling | - | Hugo Niles | |
Fay Lanphier | - | Miss Alabama | |
Louise Brooks | - | Miss Bayport | |
Edna May Oliver | - | Mrs. Niles | |
Kenneth MacKenna | - | Horace Niles | |
William B. Mack | - | John Gray | |
George De Carlton | - | Sam Lorber | |
W.T. Benda | - | Artist | |
Ernest Torrence | - | King Neptune | |
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. | - | Triton |
This is currently a lost film, but the trailer survived and is one of the 50 films in the 3-disk boxed DVD set called "More Treasures from American Film Archives, 1894-1931" (2004), compiled by the National Film Preservation Foundation from 5 American film archives. The trailer, tinted pink with some color footage, is preserved by the Library of Congress and has a running time of 2 minutes.
Among the many beauty queens featured in the film are the contestants from the 1925 Miss America pageant, as well as Miss Bay Bridge, Miss Birmingham, Miss Bronx, Miss Newark, Miss San Francisco and Miss Seattle.
Two trailers and some Technicolor footage survive in the Library of Congress.
This film originally contained 3 - 2-strip Technicolor sequences, totaling 1574 of its original 7931 feet, or about 20% of its footage. The first sequence depicts the Atlantic City beauty contestants on the Boardwalk, the second is a series of artistic tableaux, and the third a fashion revue.
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