Ann Dvorak is known to movie buffs as a leading lady of the 1930s/1940s, but she actually made her film debut on February 7, 1916, when Ramona premiered at Clune’s Auditorium in Downtown Los Angeles.

Based on the immensely popular novel by Helen Hunt Jackson, Ramona was a major production directed by Donald Crisp and filmed at various locations around Southern California. I am not sure how a four-year-old Ann Dvorak became involved, but since her mother was acting in westerns at the time, it must have been a family connection that got the youngster the role.

This heavily romanticized tale set in California after the Mexican-American War, period had previously been filmed in 1910 as a 17 minute short by D.W. Griffith. The 1916 version ran around 12 reels (about as long as The Birth of a Nation), and was highly anticipated, esp by Southern California residents who looked upon the story as almost local mythology. Despite being completely fictional, the movie was shot on locations described in the book, many which became draws for tourists wanting to witness where Ramona lived and breathed.

Credited as “Baby Anna Lehr,” Dvorak portrayed the title character as a child in the prologue. Despite a limited amount of screen time the youngster received rave reviews. The day after the premiere, the Los Angeles Evening Herald proclaimed:

“Of all the Ramonas, the most charming and heart luring is the child of four, played with rare childish artistry by little Miss Anna Lehr. Probably the most disappointing feature of the entire production is the fact that this sweet youth remains on the canvas only a few brief moments.”

A couple of weeks later, another local paper ran a feature on the actress, complete with a portrait and the headline “Anna Lehr Great Hit in Ramona.” Unfortunately, we will probably never get the chance to see if Ann’s film debut lived up to the hype, as only reel #5 is known to exist (I think at the Library of Congress).

On a side note, Clune’s Auditorium, located on the corner of 5th and Olive in Downtown Los Angeles, was originally the Temple Baptist Church. William Clune leased the 2,700 seat theatre from roughly 1915-1920 before it became home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Commonly known as the Auditorium Building, the location has been a parking lot since the mid-1980s and will soon feature an overpriced condominium complex.

This concludes This Day in Ann Dvorak History.

On January 15, 1932, the film going public was officially introduced to Ann Dvorak when Sky Devils debuted at the United Artists Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles, at Broadway & 9th.

She had appeared in three silent films as “Baby Anna Lehr” and could be found hoofing her way through twenty-five or so MGM features and shorts, but this was this first time the name Ann Dvorak appeared in a film credit (she initially worked at MGM under the name Anna Lehr). In actuality, Sky Devils was the second film Ann shot under her newly inked contract with Howard Hughes’ Caddo Company. The release of Ann’s first film, Scarface, would be delayed another two months while Hughes battled with censors. Dvorak’s role as “the inevitable girl”* in this aviation comedy pales in comparison to Cesca Comonte, her tragic character in the classic gangster flick, and it’s unfortunate that Scarface’s censorship issues prevented her career from beginning with a bang.

This concludes This Day in Ann Dvorak History.

*”United Artists Shows Hughes Sky Thriller.” Los Angeles Times, January 17, 1932