2013 Essays

Louise Lovely

Delamoir, Jeannette

Louise Lovely was an Australian actress who worked in early Hollywood between 1915 and 1922. Although she made ten verified films in Australia and fifty in the United States, few are extant. With scant surviving personal papers, research into Lovely’s oeuvre depends largely on trade journals and star publicity—materials that have limitations as sources. Furthermore, while Australia’s Film and Sound Archive has important collections of Louise Lovely photographs and scrapbooks, trade journals or Hollywood studio records have been difficult to access in Australia. Nevertheless, the available materials reveal Lovely’s struggle to expand her filmmaking beyond performing and to exert control over her career.