- Joan Lowell
Joan Lowell (November 23, 1902-November 7, 1967) was a movie actress of the
silent film era fromBerkeley, California . Hermother was the daughter of aMassachusetts Lowell. Her father was theson of a landowner fromMontenegro and a Turkish woman.Childhood at sea
Helen Joan Lowell was reared at sea by her father, who was captain of a trade
schooner . He took her aboard his ship at the age of three months when she was suffering frommalnutrition . He nursed her back to health. She became skilled in the art of seamanship andonce harpooned a whale by herself. Once while cruising in her father's steamship, Lowell was offered alotus flower coronet from theAtafu Islands. She declined to accept it.Lowell feared her father, Captain Nicholas Wagner (Preacher Nick), had died on December 24, 1924. Newspapers reported his ship, the Oceanic Vance, sank off the coast of
Mexico . Two weeks overdue inLos Angeles, California , the schooner was sighted in January 1925, fifteen miles (24 km) northwest ofSan Diego, California . The Oceanic Vance had lost herconvoy , the schooner Westerner, on Christmas Eve, 1924.Movie actress
She received her dramatic training from Gwendolen Logan Seiler. Lowell became an extra at
Goldwyn Studios at the age of 17. She played bit parts in motion pictures as an extra. One of her first efforts was the role of "Madge Barlow" in the movie "Loving Lies" (1924).She was featured withMonte Blue in "Cap'n Dan" and in the Thompson Buchanan production of "The Cub".After completing a leading part in "Branded A Thief" (1924), about
Mexican frontier life, Lowell was chosen as the queen of theFourth of July , 1924, inTijuana, Mexico . She was selected by Senor De Los Rios, a notedbullfighter fromSpain .Author and reporter
Lowell's book about growing up at sea, "Cradle of the Deep", became abestseller in nonfiction in 1929.
She married playwright Thompson Buchanan on October 16, 1927. The couple resided on a convert|170|acre|km2|sing=on farm three miles (5 km) from
New Hope, Pennsylvania . They separated in October 1929. Lowell continued to live in the smaller of two old stone houses on the property. She named the home Joan's Ark. Lowell liked the country, her horses, and books, while Buchanan preferred city life.Lowell became a newspaper reporter in
Boston, Massachusetts in theearly 1930s. She was assaulted by booking agent Morris Levine. He was sentenced to fourteen months in the House of Correction in January 1932.Lowell worked forWOR (AM) radio station inNew York City in 1934.Joan Lowell died in
Brasilia, Brazil in 1967. Photo Joan Lowell in Brasilia, 1966. [http://www.svpvril.com/Joan_Lowell.jpg]References
*
Los Angeles Times , "The Dizzy Whirl Of The Extra's Life", February 18, 1923, Page III29.
*Los Angeles Times, "Lobscouse Need Of Puny Infant", July 29, 1923, Page III31.
*Los Angeles Times, "Men, Women, and Things In The World's News", September 17, 1923, Page I8.
*Los Angeles Times, "To Entertain At Party Saturday", December 19, 1923, Page II11.
*Los Angeles Times, "Si Senor, El Toro Has Competition", July 4, 1924, Page A2.
*Los Angeles Times, "Actress' Father Is Lost At Sea", January 8, 1925, Page A9.
*Los Angeles Times, "Ship Oceanic Vance Safe", January 10, 1925, Page A6.
*Los Angeles Times, "Sailor Girl's Tale Spun", March 24, 1929, Page C11.
*Los Angeles Times, "New York's Best Sellers", April 14, 1929, Page 20.
*Los Angeles Times, "Joan Lowell's Dream Fades", November 10, 1929, Page 8.
*Los Angeles Times, "Lowell Attack Brings Sentence", January 27, 1932, Page 1.
*Los Angeles Times, "Short Talk", August 13, 1934, Page 5.
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