Pauline Curley

Pauline Curley (December 19, 1903 – December 11, 2000) was a vaudeville and silent film actress from Holyoke, Massachusetts. Her film career spanned much of the silent era, from 1915 to 1928. Early years Pauline Curley was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Her mother, Rose Curley, brought her into show business at the age of 4, at first on stage in vaudeville shows. In 1910 at 6 years old Rose brought Pauline to New York City to find her work in the newly established silent movie industry and on the stage, getting her bit parts in a variety of movies, as well as weekly stage performances in Uncle Tom's Cabin and Little Lord Fauntleroy for the Jack Packard Stock Company. In 1915, she appeared on Broadway in the role of Rhods in Polygamy at the Park Theatre. Her mother gave different ages for Pauline depending on the requirements of the role, leaving her confused about her actual age, which she only learned in 1998 when she was 94. Acting career Pauline Curley's acting career spanned the period of 1903 starting as a baby and finishing when she was 25 in 1929, after which she retired from acting although she retained a connection to the movie business through her cinematographer husband. Entry into movies Curley's first motion picture was Tangled Relations (1912). She played one of the children in a movie which starred Florence Lawrence and Owen Moore. For an audition for The Straight Road in 1914, Pauline was dressed as a boy to land a part as an orphan; a variety of such roles followed, "cornering the market in orphans and waifs".