Anita King

Anita King (born Anna Keppen; August 14, 1884 – June 10, 1963) was an American stunt driver, actress, and thoroughbred racehorse owner. In 1915, she became the first woman to drive a car unaccompanied across the United States, with her 49-day journey from Hollywood to New York City.

Early life

Born Anna Keppen to German immigrants in Michigan City, Indiana, her father committed suicide in 1896 when she was twelve years old and two years later her mother died of pulmonary tuberculosis. Left an impoverished orphan with siblings, Keppen went to work as a house servant and in her late teens moved to Chicago. There, the attractive young girl found employment doing modeling and acting in minor parts in theatre.

Around 1908 she moved to the West Coast where she developed a fascination with powerful cars after working as a model at California auto shows. Keppen soon learned to drive and by the early 1910s was competing in auto races. The Lasky studio historian, Boswell McGaffey, claimed that she was the first woman automobile racing driver. First heading north to San Francisco, King spent several days doing publicity appearances at the Panama-Pacific World's Fair. With even more fanfare, and declaring that "if men can do it, so can a woman," she headed east. After many promotional stops at Paramount theaters along the way, and coverage by major newspapers coast to coast, on October 19, after forty-nine days on the road, King received a hero's welcome in New York City, with Motor Age remarking she had arrived with "Los Angeles air in the front tires of her car". In the early 1930s, she married Thomas Morrison McKenna, a wealthy steelmaker. Widowed in the 1940s, she became part of the Hollywood elite, joining such others as Louis B. Mayer and William Goetz as owners of thoroughbred racehorses. In 1951, jockey Johnny Longden rode her colt Moonrush to victory in the Santa Anita Handicap.

Death King died of a heart attack in 1963 at her home in Hollywood and is buried at Forest Lawn in Glendale, California.

Partial filmography The Man from Home (1914) The Virginian (1914) Temptation (1915) The Girl of the Golden West (1915) Snobs (1915) The Race (1916) Anton the Terrible (1916) Maria Rosa (1916) The Heir to the Hoorah (1916) The Golden Fetter (1917) The Squaw Man's Son (1917)

Other sources

Tejera, P. (2018). Reinas de la carretera. Madrid. Ediciones Casiopea. (paper) / (digital). Spanish edit.