Beatriz Michelena
Encyclopedia
Beatriz Michelena was an American actress during the silent film
era, known at the time for her operatic soprano voice and appearances in musical theatre
. She was one of the few Latina
stars visible on the silver screen in the United States in the 1910s. She was the leading lady in each film project she was involved in, and co-founded a production company with her husband, producing four of her own movies.
She wrote popular articles for newspapers, including an advice column for girls, describing what it was like to be an actress, and answering questions from readers. For adult readers, Michelena wrote other pieces such as a history of the moving picture industry. In 1920 when she stopped making films, she returned to her career as a singer.
Michelena faded from historiography for many years, but her place in history has recently been re-examined; she was mentioned in 2002 in a presidential proclamation and her single surviving movie, Salomy Jane
, is enjoying a limited re-release.
in 1890, six years after her sister Vera Michelena and around the same time that her father, Fernando Michelena, a Spanish-heritage native of Venezuela, was singing the title role of the opera Ernani
with a traveling theatre company that performed famous operas translated to English for American audiences. Both Vera and Beatriz were trained by their father in classical voice and drama studies, and they followed in his footsteps by beginning singing careers of their own. In 1901 at the age of 17, Vera first appeared onstage in the Princess Chic Opera company and took a starring role in The Man from China in 1904. Beatriz, too, performed with Princess Chic in 1901, taking chorus roles suitable for a child of 11. By mid-1904, with Vera busy pursuing her career in New York, Fernando Michelena had settled in San Francisco, California
to teach voice. There, he raised Beatriz and continued to train her, a soprano, in operatic vocal techniques. He passed his stage experience to his daughter: the way to move as another person, the way to make simple but authoritative gestures, and the way to build intensity over the span of a performance.
Middleton was the manager of the local Middleton Motor Car Company and the son of a California timber baron. He introduced Michelena to his society friends and business partners, including the trustees of Charles Crocker
's estate who had rebuilt the St. Francis Hotel after the 1906 earthquake and fire
.
After two years spent absent from the stage, in October 1910, "Beatriz Michelena Middleton" received a "full ovation" at the Garrick Theater for her role in The White Hen, a musical comedy set in Austria. Rotund comedian Max Dill
, leader of the acting company, was the star of the show, given 14 minutes of applause upon entering the stage. For her performance, Michelena was sent flowers worth "a small fortune", according to the San Francisco Call
theater writer, Walter Anthony
. Starring actress Lora Lieb, native to San Francisco but unknown as a performer, took less applause.
Middleton and Michelena gave an interview to Anthony after The White Hen was an established hit. Middleton said that he had kept his wife off the stage, that he "didn't like the idea of musical comedy", but would not have objected to her appearance in "grand opera". Nonetheless, he agreed to an offer from Max Dill. Michelena said that she had so far spent her married life studying to perform three operatic roles: Carmen and Micaëla in Carmen
, and Violetta Valéry in La traviata
. She said that prior to appearing at the Garrick Theater, she had been afraid that her stage training had been lost. Michelena said she had to overcome her own fears as well as her husband's objections.
At the end of November, Michelena quit Dill's company, reporting that she had been billed underneath Lora Lieb in theater publicity, against the arrangement she had made with company manager Nat A. Magner. She said she refused to put her famous family name in second place.
On December 6, 1910, a story in the Call talked about Michelena and her sister being "discovered" seven years previously by a John Slocum, the manager who worked with the girls in the Princess Chic company. According to the story, Slocum had been trying to get Michelena to sign a long-term contract, but was beaten out in that regard by Middleton, "the athlete and clubman about town", who she had married. A week earlier, Michelena had "caused a sensation" by resigning from the Max Dill company, but subsequently agreed to appear for four performances in Slocum's traveling production of The Kissing Girl, normally featuring Michelena's good friend, the actress Texas Guinan
, who was willing to step down for a few days while Michelena covered the starring role of Christina. Michelena was quoted as saying,
Following the three performances in San Francisco and one in Oakland
, Michelena and her husband took seats in the audience to watch Guinan perform the play's title role in San Jose's
Victory Theater on December 15.
Michelena excelled in a singing role in The Tik-Tok Man of Oz
in 1913. That year, during the autumn season, Michelena was a featured star of the Mechanics' Fair, an engineering and auto show
in San Francisco. Following that, she sang at the inauguration of the Lincoln Highway
, the nation's first transcontinental road. The western terminus celebration at the Valencia Theatre in San Francisco was organized by the Motor Car Dealers' Association, October 31, 1913.
in 1912 for the purpose of shooting promotional footage of the automobiles he was selling. He determined that his pretty wife could star in movies made by his company. By 1914, Middleton and Michelena were making three major films at the same time.
The first feature
completed by CMPC was Salomy Jane
, screened initially at the St. Francis Hotel by invitation only. Michelena's role was Bret Harte
's Salomy Jane Clay, an energetic daughter of an emigrant miner. She is wooed by four men but preferred a fifth played by British heartthrob House Peters. The movie saw limited, but nationwide, distribution and was judged a hit by viewers who were impressed by the shots of wild California scenery, including giant redwood trees, winding roads hugging rocky bluffs and the Russian River
, and by Michelena's dominant portrayal of the title role. Journalist Josephine Clifford McCracken
wrote of her in the June 1915 issue of Overland Monthly
:
One CMPC shooting location was on family property near Boulder Creek, California
where Middleton's father had established a timber holding now known as the Middleton Tract
. Other filming locations included undeveloped portions of Sonoma, Santa Cruz and Marin counties. In San Rafael, the studio boasted a large glass-walled and -roofed building that let in light but not wind so that shooting for indoor scenes could take place in full light without the telltale flapping of tablecloths and clothing blown by gusts. Considered expensive at the time, the company used a 1,250 Bell & Howell movie camera, worth about $ in current value. The camera held two reels of film so that two negatives
were made of each scene. A second $700 camera provided a third reel of the same scene, from another perspective.
Even though Salomy Jane didn't return a profit (likely due to second-string distribution channels), its favorable reception convinced Middleton that his wife could challenge the world's top movie star
, Mary Pickford
. Every CMPC movie was from that time forward intended to be a star vehicle for Michelena. Unfortunately, Michelena's ego expanded with the glowing reviews of her skill, and her demands for star treatment brought heavier expenses to productions that continued to lose money. Mignon, The Lily of Poverty Flat, A Phyllis of the Sierras, Salvation Nell and The Rose of the Misty Pool all failed to turn a profit, and a lavish production of Faust which was in production in 1915 was given until the end of the year to be completed. Faust wasn't done by January 1916, and CMPC president Herbert Payne shut the film company down and filed for bankruptcy. Faust was never released.
, and the Prescott Journal-Miner in Arizona. She wrote about the ideal qualities found in an actress, and what girls might do to develop them. She received a torrent of letters from readers—many were from girls asking "Must I be able to ride" and "Must I be able to swim". In response, Michelena described in the column how those skills were helpful to a movie actress, but not absolutely necessary; she said they "are accessories to, rather than the substance of the thing ... I would advise every girl entering motion pictures to learn to ride and swim and do all the rest of it, but I would have her realize their subordination to the really artistic side of the profession."
On May 7, 1916, Michelena wrote to caution girls wishing for fame on the silver screen that many like themselves ended up "broken in spirit", with shattered expectations. She advised them to stay home and avoid "bitter disappointment" in movie making. In July, she discussed some of the specifics of the mental challenges of acting:
In addition to her column, Michelena wrote occasional articles intended for a wider readership. She wrote in October 1916 about the history of the moving picture industry in a multiple-article series, beginning her account with a retelling of Eadweard Muybridge
's action photograph of Governor Leland Stanford
's racehorse named Occident. She defined this high-speed image as essential to the development of moving pictures.
The moviemakers' new distributor, Robertson-Cole, was unable to find the right market for Heart of Juanita and The Flame of Hellgate in 1920. American audiences had grown more sophisticated, yet Michelena Studios was still employing their earlier production techniques. After shooting The Flame of Hellgate, Middleton and Michelena stopped making movies altogether. She returned to her singing performances and he returned to his car sales. They divorced in the mid-1920s—the union produced no children.
and Madama Butterfly
to audiences there. The San Francisco Chronicle
reported that this was "the first invasion of those countries by an American operatic star in repertoire performances". Afterward, she retired from singing, and returned to San Rafael to live near her old film studio. Between 1937 and 1941, she sold 10 of the 26 real estate parcels that together had formed her studio lot. On October 10, 1942, after a surgical operation in San Francisco, she died at the age of 52. Her sister Vera Michelena and her ex-husband George Middleton survived her.
for preservation. Awareness of Michelena's contribution to early film, and her role as a groundbreaking Hispanic star, rose in 2002 with a proclamation made by President George W. Bush
upon the occasion of National Hispanic Heritage Month
in which he listed her as one of America's influential Latino actors. In 2008, a new print of Salomy Jane was released for limited distribution.
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
era, known at the time for her operatic soprano voice and appearances in musical theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
. She was one of the few Latina
Latino
The demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American descent."* "A Latin American."* "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."...
stars visible on the silver screen in the United States in the 1910s. She was the leading lady in each film project she was involved in, and co-founded a production company with her husband, producing four of her own movies.
She wrote popular articles for newspapers, including an advice column for girls, describing what it was like to be an actress, and answering questions from readers. For adult readers, Michelena wrote other pieces such as a history of the moving picture industry. In 1920 when she stopped making films, she returned to her career as a singer.
Michelena faded from historiography for many years, but her place in history has recently been re-examined; she was mentioned in 2002 in a presidential proclamation and her single surviving movie, Salomy Jane
Salomy Jane (1914 film)
Salomy Jane is a Western feature film based on Bret Harte's 1898 novella of the same name. The film is the only known surviving complete work of Beatriz Michelena and the California Motion Picture Corporation.-Plot:...
, is enjoying a limited re-release.
Early life
Beatriz Michelena was born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1890, six years after her sister Vera Michelena and around the same time that her father, Fernando Michelena, a Spanish-heritage native of Venezuela, was singing the title role of the opera Ernani
Ernani
Ernani is an operatic dramma lirico in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Hernani by Victor Hugo. The first production took place at La Fenice Theatre, Venice on 9 March 1844...
with a traveling theatre company that performed famous operas translated to English for American audiences. Both Vera and Beatriz were trained by their father in classical voice and drama studies, and they followed in his footsteps by beginning singing careers of their own. In 1901 at the age of 17, Vera first appeared onstage in the Princess Chic Opera company and took a starring role in The Man from China in 1904. Beatriz, too, performed with Princess Chic in 1901, taking chorus roles suitable for a child of 11. By mid-1904, with Vera busy pursuing her career in New York, Fernando Michelena had settled in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
to teach voice. There, he raised Beatriz and continued to train her, a soprano, in operatic vocal techniques. He passed his stage experience to his daughter: the way to move as another person, the way to make simple but authoritative gestures, and the way to build intensity over the span of a performance.
Marriage and stage career
On Sunday, March 3, 1907, Michelena married George E. Middleton, a prominent San Francisco automobile dealer; the "happy culmination" of a romance that had begun in their school days. The private wedding took place at 232 Divisadero Street, the home of the parents of bridesmaid Margaret McGovern, "a lifelong friend of the bride." Judge Thomas F. Graham performed the ceremony. The couple spent a few weeks in Los Angeles for their honeymoon.Middleton was the manager of the local Middleton Motor Car Company and the son of a California timber baron. He introduced Michelena to his society friends and business partners, including the trustees of Charles Crocker
Charles Crocker
Charles Crocker was an American railroad executive.-Early years:Crocker was born in Troy, New York, to a modest family and moved to an Indiana farm at age 14. He soon became independent, working on several farms, a sawmill, and at an iron forge. In 1845 he founded a small, independent iron...
's estate who had rebuilt the St. Francis Hotel after the 1906 earthquake and fire
1906 San Francisco earthquake
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...
.
After two years spent absent from the stage, in October 1910, "Beatriz Michelena Middleton" received a "full ovation" at the Garrick Theater for her role in The White Hen, a musical comedy set in Austria. Rotund comedian Max Dill
Max Dill
Max M. Dill was an American silent film actor who starred briefly in film between 1916 and 1917.His short career in film began relatively late at the age of 39....
, leader of the acting company, was the star of the show, given 14 minutes of applause upon entering the stage. For her performance, Michelena was sent flowers worth "a small fortune", according to the San Francisco Call
San Francisco Call
The San Francisco Call was a newspaper that served San Francisco, California. Because of a succession of mergers with other newspapers, the paper variously came to be called The San Francisco Call & Post, the San Francisco Call-Bulletin, San Francisco News-Call Bulletin, and the News-Call Bulletin...
theater writer, Walter Anthony
Walter Anthony
Walter Anthony was a screenplay, titles and documentary film writer. Before Walter started writing in films he was a dramatic and musical critic for San Francisco Morning Call....
. Starring actress Lora Lieb, native to San Francisco but unknown as a performer, took less applause.
Middleton and Michelena gave an interview to Anthony after The White Hen was an established hit. Middleton said that he had kept his wife off the stage, that he "didn't like the idea of musical comedy", but would not have objected to her appearance in "grand opera". Nonetheless, he agreed to an offer from Max Dill. Michelena said that she had so far spent her married life studying to perform three operatic roles: Carmen and Micaëla in Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
, and Violetta Valéry in La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
. She said that prior to appearing at the Garrick Theater, she had been afraid that her stage training had been lost. Michelena said she had to overcome her own fears as well as her husband's objections.
At the end of November, Michelena quit Dill's company, reporting that she had been billed underneath Lora Lieb in theater publicity, against the arrangement she had made with company manager Nat A. Magner. She said she refused to put her famous family name in second place.
On December 6, 1910, a story in the Call talked about Michelena and her sister being "discovered" seven years previously by a John Slocum, the manager who worked with the girls in the Princess Chic company. According to the story, Slocum had been trying to get Michelena to sign a long-term contract, but was beaten out in that regard by Middleton, "the athlete and clubman about town", who she had married. A week earlier, Michelena had "caused a sensation" by resigning from the Max Dill company, but subsequently agreed to appear for four performances in Slocum's traveling production of The Kissing Girl, normally featuring Michelena's good friend, the actress Texas Guinan
Texas Guinan
Mary Louise Cecilia "Texas" Guinan was an American saloon keeper, actress, and entrepreneur.-Early life:...
, who was willing to step down for a few days while Michelena covered the starring role of Christina. Michelena was quoted as saying,
Following the three performances in San Francisco and one in Oakland
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, Michelena and her husband took seats in the audience to watch Guinan perform the play's title role in San Jose's
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
Victory Theater on December 15.
Michelena excelled in a singing role in The Tik-Tok Man of Oz
Tik-Tok of Oz
Tik-Tok of Oz is the eighth Land of Oz book written by L. Frank Baum, published on June 19, 1914. The book actually has little to do with Tik-Tok and is primarily the quest of the Shaggy Man to rescue his brother, and his resulting conflict with the Nome King.The endpapers of the first edition...
in 1913. That year, during the autumn season, Michelena was a featured star of the Mechanics' Fair, an engineering and auto show
Auto show
An auto show, or motor show, is a public exhibition of current automobile models, debuts, concept cars, or out-of-production classics. It is commonly attended by automobile manufacturers. Most auto shows occur once or twice a year...
in San Francisco. Following that, she sang at the inauguration of the Lincoln Highway
Lincoln Highway
The Lincoln Highway was the first road across the United States of America.Conceived and promoted by entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, the Lincoln Highway spanned coast-to-coast from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, originally through 13 states: New York, New Jersey,...
, the nation's first transcontinental road. The western terminus celebration at the Valencia Theatre in San Francisco was organized by the Motor Car Dealers' Association, October 31, 1913.
California Motion Picture Company
Middleton set up the California Motion Picture Company (CMPC) in San RafaelSan Rafael, California
San Rafael is a city and the county seat of Marin County, California, United States. The city is located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area...
in 1912 for the purpose of shooting promotional footage of the automobiles he was selling. He determined that his pretty wife could star in movies made by his company. By 1914, Middleton and Michelena were making three major films at the same time.
The first feature
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
completed by CMPC was Salomy Jane
Salomy Jane (1914 film)
Salomy Jane is a Western feature film based on Bret Harte's 1898 novella of the same name. The film is the only known surviving complete work of Beatriz Michelena and the California Motion Picture Corporation.-Plot:...
, screened initially at the St. Francis Hotel by invitation only. Michelena's role was Bret Harte
Bret Harte
Francis Bret Harte was an American author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California.- Life and career :...
's Salomy Jane Clay, an energetic daughter of an emigrant miner. She is wooed by four men but preferred a fifth played by British heartthrob House Peters. The movie saw limited, but nationwide, distribution and was judged a hit by viewers who were impressed by the shots of wild California scenery, including giant redwood trees, winding roads hugging rocky bluffs and the Russian River
Russian River (California)
The Russian River, a southward-flowing river, drains of Sonoma and Mendocino counties in Northern California. With an annual average discharge of approximately , it is the second largest river flowing through the nine county Greater San Francisco Bay Area with a mainstem 110 miles ...
, and by Michelena's dominant portrayal of the title role. Journalist Josephine Clifford McCracken
Josephine Clifford McCracken
Josephine Clifford McCracken was a California writer and journalist, a contemporary of Bret Harte, John Muir, Ina Coolbrith, and Joaquin Miller, and an environmentalist.-Early history:...
wrote of her in the June 1915 issue of Overland Monthly
Overland Monthly
Overland Monthly was a monthly magazine based in California, United States, and published in the 19th and 20th century.The magazine's first issue was in July 1868, and continued until the late 1875. The original publishers, in 1880, started The Californian, which became The Californian and Overland...
:
One CMPC shooting location was on family property near Boulder Creek, California
Boulder Creek, California
Boulder Creek is a census-designated place in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. The population was 4,923 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Boulder Creek is located at ....
where Middleton's father had established a timber holding now known as the Middleton Tract
Middleton Tract, California
Middleton Tract is a rural community in the coastal Redwoods of San Mateo County, California. Unattributed press reports say the name Middleton Tract may have been applied to this area as early as 1925. In the present day, the name is official at the county government level...
. Other filming locations included undeveloped portions of Sonoma, Santa Cruz and Marin counties. In San Rafael, the studio boasted a large glass-walled and -roofed building that let in light but not wind so that shooting for indoor scenes could take place in full light without the telltale flapping of tablecloths and clothing blown by gusts. Considered expensive at the time, the company used a 1,250 Bell & Howell movie camera, worth about $ in current value. The camera held two reels of film so that two negatives
Negative (photography)
In photography, a negative may refer to three different things, although they are all related.-A negative:Film for 35 mm cameras comes in long narrow strips of chemical-coated plastic or cellulose acetate. As each image is captured by the camera onto the film strip, the film strip advances so that...
were made of each scene. A second $700 camera provided a third reel of the same scene, from another perspective.
Even though Salomy Jane didn't return a profit (likely due to second-string distribution channels), its favorable reception convinced Middleton that his wife could challenge the world's top movie star
Movie star
A movie star is a celebrity who is well-known, or famous, for his or her starring, or leading, roles in motion pictures. The term may also apply to an actor or actress who is recognized as a marketable commodity and whose name is used to promote a movie in trailers and posters...
, Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
. Every CMPC movie was from that time forward intended to be a star vehicle for Michelena. Unfortunately, Michelena's ego expanded with the glowing reviews of her skill, and her demands for star treatment brought heavier expenses to productions that continued to lose money. Mignon, The Lily of Poverty Flat, A Phyllis of the Sierras, Salvation Nell and The Rose of the Misty Pool all failed to turn a profit, and a lavish production of Faust which was in production in 1915 was given until the end of the year to be completed. Faust wasn't done by January 1916, and CMPC president Herbert Payne shut the film company down and filed for bankruptcy. Faust was never released.
Writer
In 1915 and 1916, Michelena wrote a regular newspaper column entitled "Talks with Screen-struck Girls", carried at first by the San Rafael Independent on Tuesdays but later expanded to appear on Sundays in such newspapers as the San Francisco ExaminerThe San Francisco Examiner
The San Francisco Examiner is a U.S. daily newspaper. It has been published continuously in San Francisco, California, since the late 19th century.-19th century:...
, and the Prescott Journal-Miner in Arizona. She wrote about the ideal qualities found in an actress, and what girls might do to develop them. She received a torrent of letters from readers—many were from girls asking "Must I be able to ride" and "Must I be able to swim". In response, Michelena described in the column how those skills were helpful to a movie actress, but not absolutely necessary; she said they "are accessories to, rather than the substance of the thing ... I would advise every girl entering motion pictures to learn to ride and swim and do all the rest of it, but I would have her realize their subordination to the really artistic side of the profession."
On May 7, 1916, Michelena wrote to caution girls wishing for fame on the silver screen that many like themselves ended up "broken in spirit", with shattered expectations. She advised them to stay home and avoid "bitter disappointment" in movie making. In July, she discussed some of the specifics of the mental challenges of acting:
In addition to her column, Michelena wrote occasional articles intended for a wider readership. She wrote in October 1916 about the history of the moving picture industry in a multiple-article series, beginning her account with a retelling of Eadweard Muybridge
Eadweard Muybridge
Eadweard J. Muybridge was an English photographer who spent much of his life in the United States. He is known for his pioneering work on animal locomotion which used multiple cameras to capture motion, and his zoopraxiscope, a device for projecting motion pictures that pre-dated the flexible...
's action photograph of Governor Leland Stanford
Leland Stanford
Amasa Leland Stanford was an American tycoon, industrialist, robber baron, politician and founder of Stanford University.-Early years:...
's racehorse named Occident. She defined this high-speed image as essential to the development of moving pictures.
Michelena Studios
Middleton and Michelena bought their bankrupt film company for "a few thousand dollars" in 1917 and renamed it Michelena Studios. Their new company was called Beatriz Michelena Features, and shooting began on their next feature-length film, Just Squaw. Michelena's lead character was a white woman raised by American Indians, a woman who does not realize her racial heritage until after she falls into forbidden love with a white man. The movie played for only a week in San Francisco in 1919, and did not return a profit.The moviemakers' new distributor, Robertson-Cole, was unable to find the right market for Heart of Juanita and The Flame of Hellgate in 1920. American audiences had grown more sophisticated, yet Michelena Studios was still employing their earlier production techniques. After shooting The Flame of Hellgate, Middleton and Michelena stopped making movies altogether. She returned to her singing performances and he returned to his car sales. They divorced in the mid-1920s—the union produced no children.
Retirement
After abandoning film work, Michelena continued with her singing career, and, in 1927, toured Latin America where she was warmly received as part of a 30-person troupe of singers and dancers who introduced the operas CarmenCarmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
and Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
to audiences there. The San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
reported that this was "the first invasion of those countries by an American operatic star in repertoire performances". Afterward, she retired from singing, and returned to San Rafael to live near her old film studio. Between 1937 and 1941, she sold 10 of the 26 real estate parcels that together had formed her studio lot. On October 10, 1942, after a surgical operation in San Francisco, she died at the age of 52. Her sister Vera Michelena and her ex-husband George Middleton survived her.
Legacy
The Michelena Features studio facility in San Rafael sat empty through the 1920s with its solitary metal-clad brick vault housing all the company's nitrate films, including the earlier ones shot by CMPC. In 1931, boys playing with a firecracker at the deserted lot set the vault and all of its flammable contents spectacularly on fire. Every known copy of Michelena's movies was destroyed, a loss that Middleton estimated at $200,000; worth about $ million today. In 1996, an 82-year-old nitrate copy of Salomy Jane was found in Australia; it was sent to the Library of CongressLibrary of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
for preservation. Awareness of Michelena's contribution to early film, and her role as a groundbreaking Hispanic star, rose in 2002 with a proclamation made by President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
upon the occasion of National Hispanic Heritage Month
National Hispanic Heritage Month
National Hispanic Heritage Month is the period from September 15 to October 15 in the United States, when people recognize the contributions of Hispanic and Latino Americans to the United States and celebrate the group's heritage and culture....
in which he listed her as one of America's influential Latino actors. In 2008, a new print of Salomy Jane was released for limited distribution.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1914 | Salomy Jane Salomy Jane (1914 film) Salomy Jane is a Western feature film based on Bret Harte's 1898 novella of the same name. The film is the only known surviving complete work of Beatriz Michelena and the California Motion Picture Corporation.-Plot:... |
Salomy Jane Clay | Michelena injured herself doing her own stunts |
| Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch | Lovey Mary | ||
| 1915 | Mignon | Mignon | from three Bret Harte Bret Harte Francis Bret Harte was an American author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California.- Life and career :... poems; Charles Kenyon Charles Kenyon Charles Kenyon was an American screenwriter, who wrote or co-wrote the screenplays for 114 films between 1915 and 1946... wrote the scenario |
| The Lily of Poverty Flat | Lily Folinsbee | ||
| A Phyllis of the Sierras | Minty Sharpe | from a Bret Harte Bret Harte Francis Bret Harte was an American author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California.- Life and career :... story |
|
| Salvation Nell | Nell Saunders | based on Edward Sheldon Edward Sheldon Edward Brewster Sheldon was an American dramatist. His plays include Salvation Nell and Romance , which was made into a motion picture with Greta Garbo.... 's play of the same name |
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| The Rose of the Misty Pool | Rose | Charles Kenyon Charles Kenyon Charles Kenyon was an American screenwriter, who wrote or co-wrote the screenplays for 114 films between 1915 and 1946... wrote the scenario |
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| 1916 | The Unwritten Law | Kate Wilson | |
| The Woman Who Dared | Princess Beatrix de Rohan | ||
| 1919 | Just Squaw | Fawn | Only four of five reels survive today at the Library of Congress Library of Congress The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and... . |
| The Price Woman Pays | Margueritee | ||
| 1920 | Heart of Juanita | Juanita | Michelena produced this film, first shot in 1916 as The Passion Flower |
| The Flame of Hellgate | Star Dowell | ||