Mae Murray

Born as Marie Adrienne Koenig in Portsmouth, Virginia in 1889, Mae Murray began her career on stage with ballroom dancing legend Vernon Castle in the 1906 Broadway show “About Town”. Two years later she joined the “Ziegfeld Follies” chorus line and moved up to headliner status by 1915. She played the top clubs in Paris and the U.S. in an act that celebrated her dancing. One of her dance partners was Rudolph Valentino.

Mae's motion picture debut was in To Have and to Hold (1916) and by 1919 she was starred in two films, The Delicious Little Devil and Big Little Person with former dance partner Valentino. Many of her films contained especially designed dance sequences, but her most acclaimed film was Stroheim's The Merry Widow (1925) opposite John Gilbert. For her fourth marriage (1926), Valentino was best man and Pola Negri was matron of honor.

Mae’s movie career faded with the advent of sound, her voice being not particularly suited to "talkies". She made a total of 41 films from 1916 to 1931. Leaving the film world, Mae grew more eccentric over the years (It has been speculated that the character Norma Desmond of Sunset Boulevard was modeled after her) and was eventually forced to declare bankruptcy, living in abject poverty for the better part of her later life. Mae Murray died at age 75 on March 23, 1965.

Early in her career - Postcard from 1916 or 1917

1923 Postcard

Peacock Alley - 1922 - Mae earned $10,000 a week for this film.

Mae Murray - What do you think - Allure?