{"id":53089,"date":"2025-11-14T15:19:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T15:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/53089\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T15:19:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T15:19:12","slug":"san-diegos-sunlit-silent-era-mystery-viola-dana-before-hollywood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/53089\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego\u2019s sunlit silent-era mystery: Viola Dana before Hollywood"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Title:\u00a0Viola Dana\u00a0Abstract\/medium:\u00a01 negative: glass; 5 x 7 in. or smaller. Date 1900. (Photo via Wikipedia\/public domain)<\/p>\n

Long before movie stars filled red carpets, a few of them might have been kicking up sand right here in San Diego. Among the early screen talents who may have worked here was Viola Dana, a bright-eyed ing\u00e9nue whose charm and expressive face made her one of the most recognizable stars of the 1910s and 1920s. In my opinion, she was quite beautiful, stylish, and ahead of her time.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn Beauty<\/p>\n

Born Virginia Flugrath on June 26, 1897, in Brooklyn, Dana began performing on stage as a child alongside her sisters, Edna Flugrath and Shirley Mason, who also found success in motion pictures. By 1910, she was appearing in short films for the Edison Co. in New York, and by 1915 had joined Metro Pictures Corp., where her popularity quickly soared.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There Are No Villains (1921) 1.jpg<\/a>. Viola Dana and Gaston Glass in\u00a0There Are No Villains<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 publicity still cropped (original image damaged \u2013 see source -, modified). (Photo via Wikipedia\/public domain)<\/p>\n

Though most of her confirmed early work was filmed on the East Coast and in Los Angeles, trade publications such as Moving Picture World <\/a>\u2014 a fascinating industry journal from the era \u2014 noted that film companies occasionally used Southern California\u2019s coastlines, including La Jolla, Coronado, and Balboa Park<\/a>, for outdoor scenes. These areas offered ideal lighting and landscapes for early filmmaking before studios built permanent backlots in Hollywood.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Actress Viola Dana, on page 17 of the August 12, 1922,\u00a0Movie Weekly. (Photo via Wikipedia\/public domain)<\/p>\n

Early Films<\/p>\n

Among the Metro productions of that period were The Cossack Whip (1916) <\/a>and The Foolish Virgin (1916),<\/a> both directed by John Collins, <\/a>who later became Dana\u2019s husband. Surviving notes and press reports suggest that some exterior scenes for these films were shot \u201csouth of Los Angeles,\u201d possibly including locations in or near San Diego.<\/p>\n

History suggests that during the 1910s, San Diego briefly attracted film companies drawn by its natural light, beaches, and Spanish-style architecture \u2014 all of which appeared in early shorts and features. While no surviving production logs confirm that Dana filmed here, Metro Pictures and other studios occasionally used Coronado and La Jolla for outdoor scenes between 1915 and 1917.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>John Collins and Violet Dana were married. Motion Picture Studio Directory and Trade Annual 1916 (14783351623).jpg, created: 1916, (Photo via Wikipedia\/public domain)<\/p>\n

Those fleeting productions marked San Diego\u2019s early brush with Hollywood \u2014 a quiet chapter in the city\u2019s cinematic story that preceded its later use as a filming location for classics like Citizen Kane and Some Like It Hot.<\/a><\/p>\n

As for Dana, her career took off soon after. She appeared in more than 100 silent films, including Blue Jeans (1917)<\/a>, The Devil\u2019s Garden (1920), <\/a>and Shadows (1922), <\/a>becoming one of Metro\u2019s top stars. Known for combining light comedy with emotional sincerity, she was named one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1922 <\/a>\u2014 a title given to promising young actresses on the verge of major stardom.<\/p>\n

Married Life<\/p>\n

Off-screen, Dana and Collins collaborated closely on films until his death from the 1918 influenza pandemic \u2014 a devastating loss that briefly halted her career. She never remarried but remained active in Hollywood through the 1930s, appearing in later productions like The Show of Shows (1929) and Two Sisters (1938).<\/p>\n

In a 1975 interview with Classic Images,<\/a> Dana looked back on her early outdoor shoots with fondness:<\/p>\n

\u201cFilming there was like playing in a sunlit playground. I loved the cliffs and the sand. It felt like the real world beyond the studio gates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Viola Dana died on July 3, 1987, at age 90, in Woodland Hills, and was laid to rest at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City<\/a>. She and Collins had no children, and though her connection to San Diego remains partly speculative, it offers a glimpse into the region\u2019s forgotten role in the dawn of American filmmaking.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Covergirl. (Photo via Wikipedia Commons\/public domain)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In a poster. (Photo via Wikipedia Commons\/public domain)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Violet Dana in 1922. (Photo via Wikipedia Commons\/public domain)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Film actress Viola Dana in the American comedy film\u00a0June Madness<\/a>\u00a0(1922). (Photo via Wikipedia Commons\/public domain)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Still from the film\u00a0The Beauty Prize<\/a>\u00a0(1924) with Eddie Phillips and Viola Dana.(Photo via Wikipedia Commons\/public domain)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Still from the American comedy film\u00a0The Chorus Girl\u2019s Romance\u00a0(1920) with Viola Dana, on page 99 of the August 14, 1920\u00a0Exhibitors Herald.(Photo via Wikipedia Commons\/public domain)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Another poster from the era. (Photo via Wikipedia Commons\/public domain)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Viola Dana (US-American, 1897-1987), actress, wearing a striped hat, black and white portrait photograph at bust length. (Photo via Wikipedia\/public domain)<\/p>\n

Selected Films:
The Cossack Whip (1916), The Foolish Virgin (1916), Blue Jeans (1917), The Devil\u2019s Garden (1920), Shadows (1922)<\/p>\n

Sources:
\u2022 Moving Picture World, 1916
\u2022 San Diego Union, July 1916 (archival references)
\u2022 Photoplay Magazine, 1922
\u2022 Classic Images, Feb. 1975
\u2022 IMDb, Viola Dana profile
\u2022 AFI Catalog of Feature Films<\/p>\n

Debbie L. Sklar is a contributing editor to the Times of San Diego. For more historical stories about Hollywood\u2019s Golden Age, visit\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n

READ NEXT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Title:\u00a0Viola Dana\u00a0Abstract\/medium:\u00a01 negative: glass; 5 x 7 in. or smaller. Date 1900. (Photo via Wikipedia\/public domain) Long before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[30716,33537,33538,930,33539,74,76,75,33540,33541,33542],"class_list":{"0":"post-53089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-connections","9":"tag-fillms","10":"tag-john-collins","11":"tag-la-jolla","12":"tag-movie-star","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-headlines","15":"tag-san-diego-news","16":"tag-silent-screen","17":"tag-violet-dana","18":"tag-virginia-flugrath"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}