2013 Essays

Anita Stewart

Neely, Hugh

Anita Stewart began her career as an actress at the Vitagraph Company in 1911, and rose to become one of the most popular stars of the teens. In 1918 she started Anita Stewart Productions, in partnership with Louis B. Mayer, and began to produce her own feature films for First National Exhibitors Circuit. Anita Stewart Productions produced seventeen feature films between 1918 and 1922. After concluding her association with Mayer, Stewart accepted an offer from William Randolph Hearst to appear in Cosmopolitan Productions. She continued to make films with Fox, Columbia, and lesser studios through the end of the silent era, appearing in her last feature in 1938.