Nov 23, 2022
Celebrating Myrtle Gonzalez
Today’s Doodle celebrates Mexican American actress, Myrtle Gonzalez and was illustrated by Bay Area-based guest artist, Ana Ramírez González. Myrtle Gonzalez starred in an astounding 80 silent films in just five years between 1913 and 1917. On this day in 1914, one of Myrtle Gonzalez’s most well-known films, The Level, was released.
Gonzalez was born in Los Angeles, California, on September 28, 1891. She had a lovely soprano voice, often singing in church and at local charity events as a young girl.
As movie production shifted from New York to Los Angeles, which offered more diverse scenic landscapes for filmmakers, Gonzalez seized the opportunity to get involved in film. She participated in a few local plays before joining a silent motion picture studio called Vitagraph Company of America, where she made her film debut in The Yellow Streak.
After a few years, she moved to Universal Studios and performed in feature films like The Secret of the Swamp and The Girl of Lost Lake. Many of the bold, outdoorsy heroines she played lived in the wilderness, forcing the city girl to adapt to filming in new, treacherous climates. As shown in today’s Doodle, Gonzalez once acted in three feet of snow!
Gonzalez was proud of her Hispanic heritage, and throughout her career, she played strong women who persevered through adversity with strength and dignity.
While much of her work was lost over the years, the Library of Congress preserved a few of her films. She is remembered as one of the first Latina actresses to break into Hollywood.
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