Gertrude Selby

Gertrude Selby was an American actress who was active in Hollywood in the silent era. She appeared in dozens of films between 1914 and 1920, mostly short comedies.

Gertrude Selby
Born
Gertrude Olga Selby

November 7, 1894
Pennsylvania, USA
DiedJune 22, 1975 (aged 80)
Los Angeles, California, USA
OccupationActress
SpouseTownsend Netcher (div.)

Biography

Gertrude was born in Philadelphia to William Selby and Olga Hansen, and she was educated in New York City.[1] She began her career as a vaudevillian before breaking into the nascent motion picture industry around 1914, working frequently on L-KO comedies.[2][1][3]

In 1919, at age 24, she married wealthy Chicago socialite Townsend Netcher in Beverly Hills after a three-week courtship, against the wishes of Necher's family.[4] The couple divorced in the late 1920s, with Selby filing on the grounds of cruelty.[5][6][7] Netcher later married actress Constance Talmadge.

Selby appears to have retired from acting around the time she married Netcher, and spent several years post-divorce living in Spain with her mother and sister.[8] The three were evacuated from their apartment in Barcelona at the start of the Spanish Civil War.[9] Selby spent time post-Spain in a penthouse in Paris before returning to the United States in the early 1940s at the outbreak of World War II.[10][11] She does not appear to have ever remarried.

Select filmography

References
  1. "The Photoplay Age". The Daily Gazette. 14 Apr 1916. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
  2. "Hitch in Hitch". Chicago Tribune. 6 Sep 1919. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
  3. "LKO Has Famous Group of Girls". Statesman Journal. 4 Dec 1915. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
  4. Lathrop, Monroe (17 Sep 1919). "To Put the Bible in Films". The Kansas City Star. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
  5. "Former Actress Sues". The Birmingham News. 29 Nov 1928. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
  6. "Help Each Other to Divorces". Chicago Tribune. 26 Jan 1929. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
  7. "Mrs. Netcher Gets Divorce for Cruelty". Lincoln Journal Star. 25 Dec 1928. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
  8. McIntyre, O.O. (12 Jun 1933). "New York Day by Day". Journal and Courier. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
  9. "Spanish Civil War Horrors Related by Los Angeles Girl". The Los Angeles Times. 25 Oct 1936. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
  10. Leimert, Lucille (30 Aug 1939). "Chatterbox". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
  11. "Visitor". The Los Angeles Times. 18 Mar 1942. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
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