Marie Dressler 1868- 1934

Marie Dressler was one of a kind. She was big, 5’7” and 200 lbs., and some said she looked like a bulldog and sounded like one. But by 1931 she had won the Oscar for “Min and Bill’ and captured the hearts of America. She was even invited to dinner at the White House with FDR and Eleanor. And most of all, she made the country laugh when all they wanted to do was cry!

Marie with hat!

The hat Marie's way!

She was born Leila Marie Koerber on November 9th, 1868 in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada to Anna Henderson and Alexander Rudolph Koerber, an Austrian professor of music. She had a least one sibling, a sister Bonita. They moved frequently, possibly due to Alexander’s volatile temper and impatience with his students. But delving into Marie’s early years was made very difficult because she told so many conflicting stories about her childhood. However, one thing was certain. Marie’s father made her life unbearable because of his resentment over her appearance and she never forgave him.

Schooling was something Marie never discussed and it is almost certain that she was home schooled, taught to read and write by her mother and music and ciphering by her father. When she was in her early teens, she tried clerking at the local dry goods store but was let go after only one day. Amateur theatricals proved to be a better fit and, at 14, she left with her sister to travel with the Nevada Stock Company. After 3 years, Bonita left to be married but Marie continued to tour with one stock company or another until 1892 when she decided to try Broadway.

In 1893 she got her first big break with a small part in a play called “Princess Nicotine” starring Lillian Russell. She kept finding good roles through the turn of the century, when Broadway had names like Maude Adams, John Drew, Minnie Maddern Fiske and Lionel Barrymore gracing the marquees. Sometime around 1899 she supposedly married a theater ticket seller named George Hoeppert (she declared it made her an American citizen) but there has been no documentation of this marriage or their child (rumored to have died in infancy) ever found.

Sometime in 1907 Marie met James Henry Dalton who, without any prior experience, suddenly became her manager. And, even though still very married, “Sunny Jim” also became her live-in companion, a liaison that lasted until his death in 1921. Marie was in California with Dalton when Mack Sennett asked her to star in “Tillie’s Punctured Romance” with Charlie Chaplin. That was followed by “Tillie Wakes Up” from a script by a former journalist Frances Marion that was even a bigger hit.

When James Dalton died in 1921 after suffering from the ravages of Bright’s disease, Marie was devastated. But the real agony came when, after making funeral arrangements for him, his wife’s agents claimed his body. From that time on, Marie was alone except for her maid and friend, Mamie Cox, Mamie’s husband and later, close friend and secretary Claire Dubrey.

With Garbo in "Anna Christie"

Marie made her first talkie “The Callahans and the Murphys” in 1927 after a long absence from the screen. In 1930 she almost eclipsed the Great Garbo in her role as the waterfront derelict Marthy Owens and, in 1932 created one of the classic moments in silent comedy with Jean Harlow in the finale of “Dinner at Eight”.

"Chasing Rainbows"

"Dinner at Eight"

In 1931 after suffering from a persistent headache, Marie went to her “little doctor” a chiropractor/naturopath who found nothing in her head to cause the pain but discovered a swelling in her right side. He suggested surgery. The diagnosis was a cyst and the “little doctor” told Claire Dubrey it tested benign. For some strange reason he also called MGM Louis B. Mayer’s physician. In mid-January, 1932 when a rash developed on Marie’s arm. L.B. called in his physician again. But it wasn’t until July of that year, that he told Dubrey that Marie had terminal cancer although he knew it in January. To this day, no reason has ever been uncovered as to why Mayer delayed that report.

Marie succumbed to cancer on July 28th, 1934 and buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California. The 100 guests invited to her funeral included close friends and co-workers. Jeanette MacDonald sang “Abide With Me” and “Face To Face” during the ceremony.

Today many of Marie Dressler’s films are in the hands of archivists but hopefully the day will come when they will be available to all of us who love the treasures of that golden age.