Beatriz Michelena

Beatriz Michelena (February 22, 1890 – October 10, 1942), also known as Beatriz Bronte, was an American actress and singer during the silent film era, known at the time for her operatic soprano voice and appearances in musical theatre. She was one of the few Latina stars visible on the silver screen in the United States in the 1910s. She was a leading lady in each film project she was involved in and, after the failure of California Motion Picture Company, co-founded a production company with her husband George E. Middleton, producing four of her movies.

She wrote popular articles for newspapers, including an advice column for girls, describing what it was like to be an actress, and answering questions from readers. For adult readers, Michelena wrote other pieces such as a history of the moving picture industry. In 1920 when she stopped making films, she returned to her career as a singer.

Michelena faded from historiography for many years, but her place in history has recently been re-examined; she was mentioned in 2002 in a presidential proclamation and her 1914 film Salomy Jane enjoyed a limited re-release in 2008.

Early life

Beatriz Michelena was born in New York City. Her birth year is commonly given as 1890, as her 1942 obituaries give her age at death as 52, Her father was a noted tenor Fernando Michelena, whose Spanish parents had settled in Caracas, Venezuela, where he was born. Her mother, Frances Lenord, was an operatic soprano and pianist. Her sister Vera Michelena was also an actress.

Over much of her childhood, Michelena's parents toured with the Emma Abbott Grand Opera Company a traveling theatre company that performed famous operas translated into English for American audiences. Beatriz's father in later life taught music and worked as a vocal coach and, at the time of his death, was serving as president of Arrillaga Musical College, San Francisco. Beatriz and her sisters Vera and Teresa Luisa were trained by their father in classical voice and drama studies, and they followed in his footsteps by beginning singing careers of their own.

Vera first appeared onstage in the Princess Chic Opera company (1901) at 17, taking a leading role in The Man from China (1904). Beatriz, too, performed with Princess Chic in 1901, taking chorus roles suitable for a child of 11. By mid-1904, with Vera busy pursuing her career in New York, Fernando Michelena settled in San Francisco, California to teach voice.

Marriage and stage career Under the stage name Beatriz Bronte, Michelena appeared in the musical comedy A Girl From Dixie in 1904. and later toured as the title-character in George Ade's Peggy From Paris.

On Sunday, March 3, 1907, Michelena married George E. Middleton, a prominent San Francisco automobile dealer, the "happy culmination" of a romance that had begun in their school days. The private wedding took place at 232 Divisadero Street, the home of the parents of bridesmaid Margaret McGovern, "a lifelong friend of the bride". Starring actress Lora Lieb, native to San Francisco but unknown as a performer, took less applause.

Middleton and Michelena gave an interview to Anthony after The White Hen was an established hit. Middleton said that he had kept his wife off the stage, that he "didn't like the idea of musical comedy", but would not have objected to her appearance in "grand opera". Nonetheless, he agreed to an offer from Max Dill. Michelena said that she had so far spent her married life studying to perform three operatic roles: Carmen and Micaëla in Carmen, and Violetta Valéry in La traviata.

On December 6, 1910, a story in the Call talked about Michelena and her sister having been "discovered" seven years previously by John Slocum, the manager who worked with the girls in the Princess Chic company. A week earlier, Michelena had "caused a sensation" by resigning from the Max Dill company, but subsequently agreed to appear for four performances in Slocum's traveling production of The Kissing Girl, normally featuring Michelena's good friend, the actress Texas Guinan, who was willing to step down for a few days while Michelena covered the starring role of Christina. Michelena was quoted as saying, "Leo Cooper, seven years ago, insisted that Mr. Slocum should hear two youngsters sing. The youngsters were Vera and myself. He was good enough to have confidence in us and gave us positions in his 'Princess Chic' company, where we rose afterward, through his encouragement and help, to prima donna posts. In memory of these kindnesses of the past and because I love the work, I have been happy to say 'yes' to his request that I appear with his company a few times for auld lang syne before 'The Kissing Girl' goes on her osculatory way."

Michelena excelled in a singing role in The Tik-Tok Man of Oz in 1913. That year, during the autumn season, Michelena was a featured star of the Mechanics' Fair, an engineering and auto show in San Francisco. Following that, she sang at the inauguration of the Lincoln Highway, the nation's first transcontinental road. The western terminus celebration at the Valencia Theatre in San Francisco was organized by the Motor Car Dealers' Association, October 31, 1913.

California Motion Picture Company

Middleton set up the California Motion Picture Company in San Rafael in 1912 for the purpose of shooting promotional footage of the automobiles he was selling. He determined that his pretty wife could star in movies made by his company. By 1914, Middleton and Michelena were making three major films at the same time.

During the shooting of Salomy Jane, Michelena posed for a publicity still with leading man House Peters. The first feature completed by CMPC was Salomy Jane, screened initially at the St. Francis Hotel by invitation only. Michelena's role was Bret Harte's Salomy Jane Clay, an energetic daughter of an emigrant miner. She is wooed by four men but prefers a fifth played by British heartthrob House Peters.

The movie saw limited nationwide distribution and was judged a hit by viewers who were impressed by the wild California scenery: giant redwood trees, winding roads hugging rocky bluffs and the Russian River Michelena's dominant portrayal of the title role was also an appeal. Journalist Josephine Clifford McCracken wrote of her in the June 1915 issue of Overland Monthly: "Daughter of a renowned tenor of San Francisco's pioneer days, herself a prima donna with an assured place on the modern operatic stage, a girl with a wealth of artistic tradition behind her, Miss Michelena's gifts do not stop there. She has rare beauty, vivacity, wit, intellectual attainments and athletic grace." Other filming locations included undeveloped portions of Sonoma, Santa Cruz and Marin counties. In San Rafael, the studio boasted a large glass-walled and -roofed building that let in light but not wind so that shooting for indoor scenes could take place in full light without the telltale flapping of tablecloths and clothing blown by gusts. Considered expensive at the time, the company used a 1,250 Bell & Howell movie camera, worth about $ in current value. The camera held two reels of film so that two negatives were made of each scene. A second $700 camera provided a third reel of the same scene, from another perspective. but then appeared on Sundays in other newspapers: San Francisco Examiner and the Prescott Journal-Miner (Arizona). She wrote about the ideal qualities found in an actress, and what girls might do to develop them.

She received a torrent of letters from readers—many were from girls asking "Must I be able to ride" and "Must I be able to swim". In response, Michelena described in the column how those skills were helpful to a movie actress, but not absolutely necessary; she said they "are accessories to, rather than the substance of the thing ... I would advise every girl entering motion pictures to learn to ride and swim and do all the rest of it, but I would have her realize their subordination to the really artistic side of the profession."' ' In July, she discussed some of the specifics of the mental challenges of acting:

In addition to her column, Michelena wrote occasional articles intended for a wider readership. She wrote in October 1916 about the history of the moving picture industry in a multiple-article series, beginning her account with a retelling of Eadweard Muybridge's action photograph of Governor Leland Stanford's racehorse named Occident. She defined this high-speed image as essential to the development of moving pictures.

Michelena Studios

Middleton and Michelena bought their bankrupt film company for "a few thousand dollars" in 1917 and renamed it Michelena Studios. She died on October 10, 1942, at St. Mary's Hospital, San Francisco, following surgery.

Legacy The Michelena Features studio facility in San Rafael sat empty through the 1920s with its solitary metal-clad brick vault housing all the company's nitrate films, including the earlier ones shot by CMPC. In 1931, boys playing with a firecracker at the deserted lot set the vault and all of its flammable contents spectacularly on fire. Every known copy of Michelena's movies was destroyed, a loss that Middleton estimated at $200,000; In 2008, a new print of Salomy Jane'' was released for limited distribution.

Filmography