Jane Novak

Jane Novak (January 12, 1896 - February 3, 1990) was a silent film actress from St. Louis, Missouri. Her career extended into the sound film medium. She began acting in motion pictures in 1913 at the age of 17. Jane had roles in 115 movies in her career. The actress began in a stage stock company with her uncle in St. Louis.

She appeared in a movie on her very first day in southern California, before there was a film studio in Hollywood. She met Frank Newburg who was leading man to Ruth Roland in silent films at Kalem Company and Biograph. Frank took her to a studio in Santa Monica, California, where her aunt, Anne Schafer, was a big star. Newburg and Novak later married.

Miss Novak endured as a performer, in part, by sacrificing "sensational" roles for roles as leading women in more wholesome films. Some actresses who were Novak's contemporaries quickly found stardom, yet were forgotten soon afterward. Jane was considered an "old-fashioned girl". She refused to work in films with other leading ladies. She played opposite Wallace Beery, Hobart Bosworth, Alan Hale Sr., Thomas J. Moore, and Lewis Stone. Jane was engaged to marry William S. Hart, the first great cowboy star. She made five films with him.

Miss Novak's movies were often based on outdoor stories. Some of these include "Kazan" (1921), "Isobel" (1920), "The River's End" (1920), and "The Rosary" (1922). By March 1922 the actress had her own company and was under contract for five outdoor movies. Her salary was $1,500 per week. Aside from Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Jane was the first film star to paid in four figures for a single movie. At this time performers were only paid while a motion picture was shooting. An entire film was completed in three or four weeks.

Jane's last starring role was opposite Richard Dix in "Redskin" (1929). The movie was supposed to be with sound but there was a contract dispute involving this being Dix's final film with Paramount Pictures. So it was made without sound. Miss Novak's voice was good but she made only a handful of pictures following the advent of sound. One was a pre-World War II epic entitled "The Yanks Are Coming". It starred Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom.

In 1974 the former silent screen star published a cookbook entitled "Treasury of Chicken Cooking". The volume is a collection of 300 recipes compiled by Novak over the years, all of them her own.

She was the sister of Eva Novak and died in Woodland Hills, California of a stroke in 1990.

References

*Modesto, California News, "Jane Novak-She's Filmland's Old-Fashioned Girl", March 8, 1922, Page 5.
*Nevada State Journal, "Silent Films Star Jane Novak Talks At Length About Her Past", Friday, November 22, 1974, Page 37.

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