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Film Star Bebe Daniels Advertises the San Francisco Chronicle

1925 photograph of glamorous moving-picture star Bebe Daniels

Glamorous moving-picture star Bebe Daniels held a copy of the San Francisco Chronicle's Rotogravure Pictorial Section for this 1925 advertisement.

Daniels (1901-1971) was a leading lady in silent pictures and, in the late 1920s, gracefully managed the transition to sound in such musicals as "Rio Rita" (1929), "Dixiana" (1930) and "Reaching for the Moon" (1931). She also appeared in the first film adaptation of "The Maltese Falcon" (1931), Dashiell Hammett's detective novel set in San Francisco.

She had just starred in the 1924 silent "Monsieur Beucaire" when this advertisement was published, and had probably begun production on "Campus Flirt" (1926).

She is best remembered today for her part in the 1933 motion picture "Forty-Second Street" as the stage star who sprains her ankle just before the show was to open. A chorus girl, Ruby Keeler, takes over — with the encouragement of Warner Baxter — and immediately becomes a big star. The Darryl F. Zanuck-produced film also starred Dick Powell and Ginger Rogers. In this picture Daniels introduced the sensational Al Dubin — Harry Warren tune "You're Getting to be a Habit With Me." Musical numbers for this film were directed by Busby Berkeley.

Daniels' last American film was "The Return of Carol Deane" (1939).

She moved to England and married British star Ben Lyon. They appeared on stage, radio and television, and continued to make pictures in Britain until 1955.


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