Louella Maxam

Maxam performed in at least 13 of Tom Mix's films.[3][lower-alpha 2] In one of those Westerns, A Child of the Prairie, Maxam's own three-and-a-half-year-old daughter Norma is featured and identified in 1915 trade publications as a "Los Angeles product" and "the youngest member of the Selig Polyscope Company of players".[7][8][lower-alpha 3] In its April 23 issue that year, The Photoplayers' Weekly describes "Baby Norma Maxam" on the set:

She is at the studio on every possible occasion and is beloved and petted by all the cowboys, whom she loves in return...she is too fearless around horses and all animals. While working in "A Child of The Prairie," she gave the company a fright by grabbing hold of the tail of the big horse Mr. Mix was riding, just as he was about to dash into a scene....[7][lower-alpha 4]

Also in April 1915, the Chicago-based trade journal Motography reviewed another Tom Mix Western, The Conversion of Smiling Tom. In its assessment of the short, the publication recognizes Maxam's contributions to the growing quality of the cowboy star's films. "Mix", states Motography, "is ably supported by Louella Maxam" as Smiling Tom's love interest.[9] The journal then adds, "These two players and the others appearing in supporting roles make the film a convincing one by their acting."[9] In addition to the media's recognition of her acting talent, The Photoplayers' Weekly credited her professional success, especially in Westerns, to additional attributes she possessed, namely "her absolute lack of fear" in performing stunts and her excellent "horsewomanship".[10]

Maxam's association with Tom Mix continued to increase her popularity with moviegoers. Photoplayers' Weekly once again highlights Maxam in its July 8, 1915, issue, featuring a portrait of the actress on its front cover, an image that carries the tagline "Star of Western Dramas and Comedies". Yet, despite her screen success with Mix, she declined the offer in the summer of 1915 to relocate from California to work at new studio in Las Vegas, New Mexico, one being constructed specifically for the production of the cowboy star's lucrative films.[10] "Miss Louella Maxam", Photoplayers' Weekly reported, "one of the best known leading women in screen dramas of western life, refuses to sacrifice her home in Glendale, which is the reason she did not accompany Thomas Mix." The Los Angeles publication then added, "the talented young women is considering other offers".[10]

Later in 1915, after declining the move to New Mexico and leaving Selig, Maxam began working for Universal, performing there in Her Prey, Manna, The Phantom Fortune, The Measure of Leon Du Bray, and The Fair God of Sun Island, which was filmed on location at Laguna Beach.[11] In late November, Louella spent two weeks on location again with other "Universalites" in the snowy "Bear Lake regions" of Southern California filming and co-starring with Sydney Ayres in John o' the Mountains, a three-reel "Canadian Northwest" drama written by F. McGrew Willis.[12][13]

Maxam as "Nell" with Edgar Kennedy as "Diamond Dan" in the Keystone two-reel short His Bitter Pill, 1916

In January 1916, after completing John o' the Mountains and The Sting of Conscience for Universal, Maxam signed a contract with Keystone Studios to be in a series of shorts.[14][15] One of those releases is His Bitter Pill, a parody of Western films in which she co-stars with Mack Swain.[16][17] In May 1916, Keystone "loaned" Maxam to Signal Film Corporation so she could accompany her husband, fellow actor William Burton, to Honolulu and Hilo, Hawaii, to film the five-reeler The Diamond Runners.[18] Maxam resumed her work at Keystone by late July and was cast in His Lying Heart, Vampire Ambrose, and Ambrose's Rapid Rise.[19] While filming Ambrose's Rapid Rise, in a scene of a burning schoolhouse, the hair of actor Tom Kennedy caught fire. It is reported that when Maxam noticed "the cruel flames were licking up locks from his noble brow, she made a dash at him with a bucket of water and put him out."[20] After that short's release in September 1916, Motion Picture News published an extensive "Motion Picture Studio Directory" in which Maxam's entry includes information about her life, some of her films, leisure activities, physical traits, and even her home address:

MAXAM, Louella, leading woman, Keystone...Recreations, riding, swimming, all out-door sports, music, and domestic science. Hght., 5 ft. 6 in., wght., 130; blonde hair, blue eyes. Home ad., 138 E. 2nd st., Glendale, Cal. Studio ad., Keystone, Los Angeles, Cal.[6]

Maxam's contract with Keystone was a relatively brief one. In early November 1916, shortly after Motion Picture News published the noted directory, Motography announced she had left Keystone "to join her husband [Brunton], who is one of the Signal players."[21] The widely read fan magazine Photoplay subsequently offered a less discreet explanation for Maxam's separation from Keystone, reporting that she was "axed" as part of cost-cutting measures and widespread restructuring within the motion picture industry:

The retrenchment axe was swung with vigor at many of the studios during [October], the casualties having been very large at American in Santa Barbara and at Keystone. Harry Gribbon and Louella Maxam were among the victims at the latter....[22]

After leaving Keystone, Maxam returned to Selig and was cast in Only a Rose, Out of the Shadows, Paradise for a Day, and in several other shorts through mid-1917, mostly in minor roles.[23] One of the few co-starring credits she had at Selig during those months was in Won in the Stretch, a one-reeler.[24] Possibly in a move to obtain work again in longer, more complex films, Maxam accepted roles in several five-reel productions with the American Film Company and Triangle Film Corporation during the latter half of 1917 and 1918. In one of those films, Because of a Woman, Maxam is one of three major supporting characters. Peter Milne, film critic for Motion Picture News, gives a rather vague assessment of the actors' performances in his September 22, 1917, review: "The principal roles are handled by Jack Livingston, Louella Maxam and George Ches[e]bro, a trio who distinguish themselves averagely."[25][26]

For the American Film Company, Maxam performed with J. Gordon Russell in portraying a poor starving couple in The Mantle of Charity, a five-reeler initially released for preview in September 1918.[27][28] In the Western Deuce Duncan, another five-reeler released in November 1918, she co-stars with William Desmond.[29][30] The influential entertainment paper Variety gives that film a mixed review, as it does the performance of "Luella Maxim": "Miss Maxim...makes a pleasing appearance and acts with intelligence, although she could get more out of her part than she does."[31]

Louella, also billed as Lola Maxam, performed her final roles co-starring in a series of Westerns produced in 1919 and 1920 by Canyon Pictures Corporation, films that include The Two Doyles, The Desert Rat, and Brother Bill. The lead in those two-reelers was Franklyn Farnum, who in the decade after World War I became another cowboy star of Hollywood.[3] In October 1920—after Maxam's co-starring role with Farnum in Vengeance and the Girl—trade publications advertised six more of Canyon's popular Westerns.[32] Other actresses, however, were cast in those films, including Helene Chadwick and Mary Anderson. Maxam left the film industry by 1921, a departure date that is corroborated by her complete absence from the 1921 edition of the Motion Picture Studio Directory and Trade Annual.[33] One 2019 online reference includes Maxam, without a cited source, as a cast member in the May 1921 Canyon release The Raiders, a lost film that starred Farnum and Claire Windsor.[34][35] Yet, no review, cast listing, or news item alluding to Maxam's participation in The Raiders has been found in a 1921 film-industry publication.[36] In fact, in its disparaging review of The Raiders in July that year, Variety refers to only "the lone woman [Claire Windsor] of the cast".[37]