The day I sat down to watch ‘It’, starring Clara Bow, I was blown away when the first face to appear on screen belonged to the actress that I have been obsessed with since I was a child. I was told that we had an actress in the family, and I have been researching her life for many years: Lotus Thompson, a Paramount contract player at the time of screening, who remains uncredited in so many films to this day. There’s even a pretty damn good story about the interaction between these two actresses on set of another film, Rough House Rosie.
In 1924, nineteen-year-old Lotus Thompson departed Australia for Hollywood with copies of her film reels and bold ambitions. Cameras recorded her departure, and newspapers reported her arrival. There she stood, perched on the brink of stardom, but Hollywood had other plans.
Stay tuned for some very interesting film tidbits and revelations.
Acid Girl, An Australian Silent Film Star: Looking for Lotus is biography and detective story, blending film history and a personal search to uncover and reconstruct a life through family stories, archives, articles, and evidence.
My research suggests that Lotus has appeared in at least sixty films, challenging the idea that she failed and faded away. With this information, I imagined that the story that I was writing was complete, and her reputation vindicated.
In an utterly strange turn of events, Lotus was discovered recently inside Vault 5 at Chapel of The Pines where she has lain, unclaimed, since 1963 – and it is my hope to reunite Lotus her with her loved ones, once and for all.
Lotus Thompson was an outsider, female, Australian, and navigating Hollywood at an extraordinary time. The press called her many things, depending on context: girl, actress, star but as Jeanette Delamoir writes:
‘stars are so rare that their lives cannot represent the ways in which Hollywood is experienced by the majority of hopefuls. When we focus on the stars, we run the risk of buying into the film industry’s own set of values, and being blinded by oversimplified narrative trajectories to success. However, doing research into obscure Hollywood workers provides an opportunity to put together stories that, to some extent, lie outside the publicists’ reach.’
After the opening title, credits and narration slates, the silent film opens with an exterior establishing shot of the building where the main characters work, focussing on the sign– ‘Waltham’s World’s Largest Store.’ A low angle shot reveals a high– rise building set in a busy street, before cutting to a shot of the bustling store inside.
The camera then moves upwards to the top floor, where the General Manager’s office is located to find the Manager’s son. He is heavily flustered as he has very little business experience. We then see a wide shot of the male protagonist’s office followed by a mid– shot of the secretary.
The face on screen is of a blonde woman in mid– shot, an uncredited actress under contract to Paramount at the time. Her first line is ‘A gentleman to see you, Sir,’ and she continues to appear in office sequences throughout the length of the film.
Lotus Thompson: Silent Film Star 
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