The Silver Screen Oasis

So who were the top 5 Most Popular Male Stars of 1928, at least according to Moving Picture World Magazine? You might be very surprised at this list:

1. Lon Chaney

2. Tom Mix

3. John Gilbert

4. Harold Lloyd

5. Richard Dix


A brief analysis:

Chaney obviously had a broader demographic of appeal, and bigger fan base than virtually any other Male Star at the time.

Mix never receives the proper credit today. He was clearly among the biggest Silent Stars of them all! Because He made only Western's He is continuously overlooked by most everybody! It certainly doesn't help that his films are basically nowhere around either.

Gilbert one would expect to rate at least this high, if not number 1. In the category of the type of films He was making, some might say Adventure-Romance, or more properly Romance-Adventure, He was a clear cut number one at the time.

Harold Lloyd, is well Harold Lloyd! His limitless appeal knew no boundaries! But Harold being a died in the wool perfectionist, and a notoriously slow worker, only released one film a year starting in 1925 with THE FRESHMAN, FOR HEAVENS SAKE in 1926, THE KID BOTHER in 1927, and SPEEDY in 1928. So under the circumstances, it's relatively hard to believe that He still rated this highly. Although all of those films were ligitimate Blockbusters, that ran for weeks on end allot of places.

Richard Dix??? This is certainly the biggest stunner of the bunch to me! I have seen relatively few of this guys Silent films. In all honesty, I would have probably expected this spot to be occupied by Charles Farrell, or Ramon Novarro.

Well, you get to see all kinds of different popular appeal here. Chaney represents the horror/thriller genre, although he was versatile and did many different things. Then there are two western stars, one comedy star and one great lover-type star.

At first I was kind of surprised Chaplin didn't make the list, but now, thinking about it, I'm not. Unless this is after The Circus he hadn't made a movie since 1925, and had since been involved in a messy divorce which might have damaged his image a bit.

However, that list might be wrong. There were very many popular male stars, like the ones you mentioned.

Hedvig,

The only three Silent films that I have seen with Richard Dix are Demille's THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1923), and REDSKIN (1928) which are both on DVD, and SOULS FOR SALE (1923) with Eleanor Boardman, which TCM runs from time to time.

Dix is OK, but really didn't do much for me. I would love to see SINNERS IN HEAVEN (1924) with Bebe Daniels. I have no idea how many more of Dix Silent's still survive? He was still a big name leading man, and actor though well into the 30's, and even the early 40's.

I think many of Tom Mix’s silents have survived and are somewhere in Europe. I’ve tried to track down some of them b/c Gary Cooper had bit parts in a handful of them, but no such luck. I tried to find the page again where I found that info about them being in Europe (I think it was France) but I couldn’t find it.

I like Harold Lloyd and Lon Chaney from that list but I’m not so crazy about the rest of them. I actually have more favorite female than males actors overall and especially during the silent era.

From 1928 in particular I would say I like Gary Cooper and Charles Farrell the best. I love the types of characters these two played. Both were sweet, with a quiet shyness (no pun intended since they were silent films ) and all around good guys.

Charles appeared in three films in ’28: Street Angel (the only one I’ve seen from this year), Fazil, and The Red Dance.

Gary was in seven films in ’28: Half a Bride, Beau Sabreur (I have the trailer for this one), Doomsday (have this one and it's my fave of his silents), Legion of the Condemned, Lilac Time (have this one), The First Kiss, and Shopworn Angel.

Both of these guys began their careers around the same time (’23 for Charles and ’25 for Gary) and were born only a few months apart in ’01 (1901 of course ). I would say that Charles had more success first thanks to big hits like Seventh Heaven (in ’27) and Street Angel. Of course Gary’s silent career was quite successful too especially beginning in 1928 which was the first year in which he had leading roles in all his films. They both transitioned well to talkies but that’s when Gary’s star began to shine brighter.

I don’t want to harp too much on their looks, but come on, these are two of the best looking men to ever grace the silver screen and you can’t deny that adds to their appeal. Some of the other actors that I’m quite fond of like Cary Grant and Clark Gable may make most women’s hearts go pitter pat, but they really don’t do anything for me romantically. But boy, Gary and Charles sure do!! It’s the combination of their looks, abilities, screen persona, and real personalities that make them a couple of my faves (with William Powell being in my top three as well).





Is it wrong to wanna kick Leslie Howard to the curb and sandwich myself in between Gary and Charles? I didn’t think so.

I'm glad John Gilbert is high up on the list, Lon Chaney I can appreciate. I'd have put Charlie and Buster in there too.

and who were 6 through 10 ???

Ed,

Who were 6-10? The list starts out with no surprises, and ends with three major ones! Dominated by Western Stars! Take a look:


6. William Haines

7. Richard Barthelmess

8. Hoot Gibson

9. Fred Thompson

10 Ken Maynard


Incidentally, 11 and 12 were Milton Sills, and Douglas Fairbanks. Novarro was 14th, Chaplin 16th. There were 75 Male actors included in all who received votes.

I expected Haines and Barthelmess who rank among the greats... but what a bizzaro surprise so many cowboy stars!!!