"Marie Prevost did not look her best..."

[Minstrel Boy]

I've loved this song since high school, when I bought Nick Lowe's Pure Pop for Now People lp. But I enjoyed it more before I learned it was based on the true story of a doomed Canadian actress.


Marie Provost by Nick Lowe

Marie Provost did not look her best
The day the cops bust into her lonely nest
in the cheap hotel up on Hollywood west
July 29

She'd been lyin' there for two or three weeks
The neighbors said they never heard a squeak
While hungry eyes that could not speak
said even little doggies have got to eat

She was a winner that became a doggie's dinner
She never meant that much to me
Whoa oh poor Marie

Marie Provost was a movie queen
mysterious angel of the silent screen
And run like the wind the nation's young men steamed
When Marie crossed the silent screen

Whoa she came out west from New York
but when the talkies came Marie just couldn't cope
The public said Marie take a walk
All the way back to New York

Those quaalude bombs didn't help her sleep
As her nights grew long and her days grew bleak
It's all downhill once you've passed your peak
Marie got ready for that last big sleep

The cops came in and they looked around
Throwin' up everywhere over what they found
The handiwork of Marie's little dachshund
That hungry little dachshund!

Marie Prevost:





It is a sad commentary that fame sometimes brings cruelty decades after a death. The death was that of Canadian-born silent movie star Marie Prevost in 1937. The cruelty is how she is remembered. Some forty years after Marie died, singer-songwriter Nick Lowe penned a tune titled Marie Prevost which includes the lines: She was a winner...Who became the doggie's dinner. Unfortunately that is what happened, but there are some facts that were left out of the song.

Marie Prevost started out in life as Mary Bickford Dunn in Sarnia, Ontario. When still a child she moved with her parents first to Denver, Colorado and then later to Los Angeles, California. It was a fateful decision. Had the family stayed in Sarnia, or Denver, chances are Mary Bickford Dunn would have remained unknown. But then we would have been robbed of one of the great beauties from the silent era.

...

That said, Marie continued to turn out strong performances in most of her films through 1930. Of particular note was her role as Joan Crawford's prison pal in Paid, as well as her superb work as a wisecracking crony of Barbara Stanwyck in Ladies of Leisure. But two years later things had changed. Marie made only four films in 1932 and the last of these had seen her marquee billing slip from star to a supporting role in Three Wise Girls. In the next three years Marie would appear in only 9 films, many of them made for small studios on small budgets. Marie was by now extremely heavy and in an attempt to regain her former status she began to diet. In truth, she stopped eating.

And that's how Marie died. She had starved herself to death. And the part about the dog is true. Trapped in her master's home without food or water, survival instincts were too strong and so her pet stayed alive by using the only food available. Instead of being remembered as one of the brightest stars in the early days of Hollywood, Marie Prevost is usually remembered, when she is remembered at all, because of her tragic death and gruesome end.
http://www.northernstars.ca/actorspqr/prevostbio.html

Marie Prevost filmography:

1916:
Unto Those Who Sinned

1917:
Two Crooks
Her Nature Dance

1918:
She Loved Him Plenty
His Smothered Love
His Hidden Purpose
Hide and Seek Detectives
The Village Chestnut

1919:
Yankee Doodle in Berlin
Why Beaches Are Popular
When Love is Blind
Up in Alf's Place
The Speakeasy
Sleuths
Salome vs. Shenandoah
Rip & Stitch: Tailors
Reilly's Wash Day
Never Too Old
Love's False Faces
East Lynne with Variations
The Dentist

1920:
Down on the Farm
Love, Honor and Behave

1921:
Moonlight Follies
Nobody's Fool
A Parisian Scandal

1922:
Don't Get Personal
The Dangerous Little Demon
The Crossroads of New York
Kissed
Her Night of Nights
The Married Flapper

1923:
Heroes of the Street
Brass
Red Lights
The Wanters

1924:
Tarnish
The Hollywood Kid
The Dark Swan
The Marriage Circle
How to Educate a Wife
Daughters of Pleasure
Cornered
Three Women

1925:
The Loves of Camille
Recompense
Kiss me Again
Bobbed Hair
Seven Sinners

1926:
Nana
Man Bait
His Jazz Bride
The Caveman
Other Women's Husbands
Up in Mabel's Room
Almost a Lady
For Wives Only

1927:
Getting Gertie's Garter
Night Bride
The Girl in the Pullman

1928:
The Rush Hour
On To Reno
A Blonde for a Night
The Rackett

1929
The Godless Girl
The Flying Fool

1930:
The Sideshow
Party Girl
Ladies of Leisure
Sweethearts on Parade
War Nurse
Paid

1931:
The Runaround
The Good Bad Girl
Reckless Living
Gentleman's Fate
It's a Wise Child
Call of the Rockies
Sporting Blood
The Sin of Madelon Claudet

1932:
Slightly Married
Hell Divers
Carnival Boat
Three Wise Girls

1933:
Parole Girl
The Eleventh Commandment
Only Yesterday

1935:
Keystone Hotel
Hands Across the Table

1936:
Thirteen Hours By Air
Ten Laps to Go
Tango
Cain and Mabel



"poor marie... poor poor marie...."

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. Yeah! The Basher.... she was a winnnnner

who became the doggy's dinner

She never meant that much to me

Oooh oh, marie.

[Minstrel Boy]

2. cool cover art, too.