Friday Video: Silent Screen Actresses Model Flapper Fashions, 1928

Susan reporting:

Today's video is a short newsreel fashion show, featuring several Hollywood actresses modeling the latest fashions for 1928. Like a clip I shared earlier, this is a rare, early use of Kodachrome. Because of it, the women seem startlingly contemporary and fresh, as do many of the clothes. And check out those cars!

Of course I couldn't resist trying to learn more about these silent film actresses.  In order of their appearance:

•Corliss Palmer (1902-1952) was a popular silent screen actress, appearing in numerous films beside such famous actors as Charlie Chaplin, Max Sennett, and Oliver Hardy.
•Raquel Torres (1908-1987) was a Mexican-born actress who appeared in both silent and sound films. Today she's best remembered for playing a would-be Mata Hari in the Marx Brothers' move Duck Soup (1933).
• Laura LaPlante (1904-1996) was the most famous of these actresses in her time, and between 1921-1930 was Universal Pictures' most popular star. Talkies effectively ended her career, but her last movie, the Western Arizona (1931) included a young actor named John Wayne.
• Ruth Elder (1902-1977) was perhaps the most interesting of all these ladies. She was not only an actress, but also an aviatrix who - in a plane dubbed the American Girl - attempted to duplicate Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic to prove that women were equal to men.