Florence Lawrence
Canadian-American actress and inventorWikipedia
15
MENTIONS
5
EPISODES
5
PODCASTS
Search complete. 15 mentions across 5 episodes found for "Florence Lawrence".
Oct 15, 2026
Adam RocheHOST
Throughout the first decade of the 20th century, the most popular star of the cinema was a beautiful, enigmatic actress without a name.
Adam RocheHOST
Because she acted in pictures produced by Biograph Films, she came to be known only as The Biograph Girl.
Adam RocheHOST
She starred as a society beauty in Betrayed by a Handprint, as an Indian girl in The Red Girl, as the adulterous Katusha in D.W. Griffith's Resurrection.
Adam RocheHOST
And yet, although most of America had fallen in love with her face, only a handful of people knew her name.
Adam RocheHOST
Laemmle, sensing a shrewd opportunity, met with The Biograph Girl and offered her a deal.
Adam RocheHOST
If she would star in films for his Independent Moving Pictures Company, he would see to it that her name would be featured on all advertising for her movies.
Adam RocheHOST
He began by announcing that the name of The Biograph Girl was Florence Lawrence.
Adam RocheHOST
Then he killed her.
Lawrence SchlossmanHOST
Number one.
James HarrisHOST
Jennifer Lawrence, Martin Lawrence, Florence, Florence Lawrence?
Lawrence SchlossmanHOST
[laughs]
James HarrisHOST
Come on.
James HarrisHOST
Who?
Lawrence SchlossmanHOST
Lawrence Schlossman?
James HarrisHOST
Florence Lawrence, an inventor of early car signals.
Lawrence SchlossmanHOST
[laughs] What is...
Josh ClarkHOST
It was, it was actually, um, Laemmle's son who really put Universal on the map, as we'll see, but, um, Laemmle Sr. had a part to play in that.
Josh ClarkHOST
He ended up basically starting the star system in, um, the movie industry by taking one actress, Florence Lawrence...
Josh ClarkHOST
Good Lord, the Laemmle family and Florence Lawrence together at last.
Chuck BryantHOST
[laughs]
Josh ClarkHOST
And he, he started a publicity campaign that focused on her, and this was new because up to that point it was like, actor, actor, I don't care who you are, I'm here for the story.
Josh ClarkHOST
He made Florence Lawrence, like, the point to go see a movie, and he did it in, in fairly dastardly amusing fashion.
Chuck BryantHOST
fashion.Yeah, he created a, a fake story, uh, about her dying in a car crash, and then blamed her former employer, uh, Biograph, for creating that fake story to begin with because they were mad that they lost her to Universal.
Chuck BryantHOST
So this created a lot of publicity buzz and, you know, kind of helped create that star system.
Samuel Garza BernsteinGUEST
1910 was a big year with people whose names mean almost nothing today.
Samuel Garza BernsteinGUEST
You know, the I love the story of the world's first movie star by name, Florence Lawrence, who only, you know, all the studio heads had gotten together and agreed that they would never tell anybody these people's names because they would start demanding more money if you used their names.
Samuel Garza BernsteinGUEST
So, you know, Charlie Chaplin was the little tramp.
Samuel Garza BernsteinGUEST
Mary Pickford was the girl with the golden curls.
Samuel Garza BernsteinGUEST
And at the time, Florence Lawrence was the biograph girl.
Samuel Garza BernsteinGUEST
But she didn't want to be the biograph girl.
Samuel Garza BernsteinGUEST
She wanted to be Florence Lawrence.
Samuel Garza BernsteinGUEST
And Carl Lindley at a company called Independent Motion Picture, Imp, hired her and then agreed that he would let her name be.