Barbara La Marr: The Girl Who Was Too Beautiful for Hollywood is a biography authored by the actress, writer, and model, Sherri Snyder. Snyder’s scholarly endeavors follow the overlooked and notorious American actress and screenwriter, Barbara La Marr, and encompass La Marr’s life from birth to death with a focus on her film career, from 1920 to 1926. The Film Foundation was established in 1990 by Martin Scorsese in hopes of preserving and restoring lost or damaged film. They assert that “[h]alf of all American films before 1950 and over 90% of films made before 1929 are lost forever” (“The Film Foundation”). Evidence supports this statistic because the majority of La Marr’s filmography remains unpreserved; 73% to be exact. With only 27% of La Marr’s filmography preserved today, Sherri Snyder faced challenges which stemmed from La Marr’s underwhelming presence in film and written history. Snyder prevailed, chronicling the first full-length profile of the Hollywood silent era’s most infamous femme fatales. Snyder participated in this interview with Film Matters via email in spring 2018.
Lily Frame: Tell us about Barbara La Marr: The Girl Who Was Too Beautiful for Hollywood.
Sherri Snyder: I wrote in the opening sentence of the book’s acknowledgments section, “It is said that life’s plans for us are often greater than those we dream ourselves.” I then wrote that this axiom has definitely proved true for me since Barbara La Marr entered my life. I had actually never heard of Barbara before my friend, Hollywood Forever tour guide, film historian, and author Karie Bible, emailed me one day in 2007, alerting me that she had passed my name along to the Pasadena Museum of History. Karie had been contacted by the museum and asked if she knew of an actress who could portray Barbara in a production called Channeling Hollywood, a joint venture between the museum and the Pasadena Playhouse. The producers were looking for an actress who could not only play Barbara, but also research and write her life story in monologue form. (Channeling Hollywood involved the life stories of five Hollywood notables connected to Pasadena; each actor’s self-authored monologue was interwoven to create the play. Since Barbara passed away in Altadena, California [a city slightly north of Pasadena], the producers, unable to resist her compelling story, included her in the show.) The day I received the voicemail message informing me that the director and producers had loved my audition, and that I had been chosen to play Barbara, was one of the happiest of my life. (I still have that message saved on my phone.)
What struck me most about Barbara and drew me into her story–aside from her career achievements and the tragedies and scandals that marked her turbulent life–was her indomitable strength. As I learned more about her, I was similarly moved by her kind, generous heart and free-spiritedness. She is, to me, much more than her demons and the calamities and heartbreak that befell her. As I wrote my Channeling Hollywood performance, I felt honored to be able to give Barbara a voice. By the time Donald Gallery (aka Marvin Carville La Marr), Barbara’s son and only child, attended the play’s final performance and asked me to author Barbara’s biography, I had truly fallen in love with her remarkable story.
Although cognizant of my writing ability from a young age, I never intended to use my skills to write a book; likewise aware of my passion for acting and performing, I always aspired to an acting career. Even so, after Donald Gallery requested that I fulfill his lifelong dream to have his mother’s biography written, I was unable to imagine doing anything else.
For the next ten years, I immersed myself in Barbara’s story, having the time of my life. I submitted a draft of my completed manuscript to the University Press of Kentucky and, in November 2017, my book, Barbara La Marr: The Girl Who Was Too Beautiful for Hollywood, was published.
Sadly, Donald passed away at age ninety-two in 2014, never having read the book in its entirety. He did, however, read several of the chapters pertaining to himself and Barbara. Only three years old when Barbara died, he had no memories of her. His wife told me that, after he read in my manuscript of Barbara’s deep love for him, he experienced a peace about Barbara and his relationship with her that he had never known. That and the absolute faith he placed in me meant the world to me. His wife later said that, right before his passing, he asked her to thank me for him when I finished the book. Yet I feel it is I who owe him a debt of thanks. Continue reading →
