Teenage actors Gloria Swanson and Bobby Vernon had developed an on-screen chemistry in just three movies for Keystone Studios when August 1916's "The Danger Girl" was released. The two-reeler is the earliest existing film showing the two together.
"The Danger Girl" was the movie Triangle Films was much impressed with when Swanson was looking for a new studio to work. Company executives cited this motion picture as justification in offering her a contract a year after the film came out. The movie also placed the spotlight on the two teenagers as the public began to notice Swanson and Vernon's special acting relationship on the theater screen. "The Danger Girl's" unusual story sees Swanson dressed as a guy in a tuxedo trying to pursue Helen, a worldly sophisticate, in an effort to cox her away from admirer Vernon, who had just broken up with Swanson's sister. "The Danger Girl" allowed Swanson to cross-dress, showing her embracing other women and allowing Helen, thinking Swanson's a man, to plant affectionate kisses on her check, acts that Pre-Code Hollywood permitted.
Swanson's rise to fame began at 15, when the Chicago schoolgirl was hired by Essanay Studios as an extra in 1915. She's seen as an office secretary in Charlie Chaplin's first film for Essanay, "His New Job." Keystone Studio hired her the following year, where she soon married actor Wallace Beery after moving to California with her mother. The March 27, 1916, wedding proved to be short-lived for the 17 year older with the two separating after a few months. Swanson's first movie for Keystone was May 1916's "A Dash of Courage," starring her husband Wallace Beery and young actor Bobby Vernon.
As a Keystone performer for over a year, the 19-year-old Vernon was a daredevil when it came to doing his own stunts, frightening Swanson as the two developed a fan base early on in their film careers. Vernon would become typecast in comedies because of his short 5-foot-2-inch frame, which required him to take numerous pratfalls. In 1929 he underwent a dangerous spine operation and gave up acting in 1933 after 19 years on the screen. Vernon passed away in June 1939 of a heart attack at the age of 42.
Swanson and Vernon parted ways in late 1917, moving on to separate studios. But history will always remember the two as one of the most entertaining couple in early cinema comedies.
