WAMPAS org, Wikimedia Commons
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29. She Was A Baby Star
Lucille Ricksen appeared in the 1924 “Baby Stars” along with 13 other actresses, all blooming young women of the silver screen—and except one, all nearly a decade older than young Ricksen. If the public truly knew how old Ricksen was, they might have had questions. Fortunately, Hollywood had a nifty solution to their problem.
File:WAMPAS 1924 screen424.jpg
Screenland Magazine, Wikimedia Commons
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30. Her Age Is Questionable
Ricksen’s birth certificate states her birth year as 1910. However, without that official document, asserting Ricksen’s exact age and date of birth becomes complicated. Around the time of her meteoric rise to the top, Hollywood started bumping up Ricksen’s age. How many sins was Hollywood trying to hide with this “little white lie”?
File:Lucille Ricksen Evans1.png
Nelson Evans, Wikimedia Commons
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31. She Aged Overnight
Suddenly, Lucille Ricksen became 16 or 17 when only a week, month, or year ago she was 12 or 13. She started as “The youngest leading lady on screen”, a moniker worth bragging about, and then suddenly, Hollywood felt some shame about how they were treating this child. Yet, somehow, her age stopped being the strangest part of her headlines.
File:Lucille Ricksen – 25 Aug 1921 Duluth Herald.jpg
Unknown photographer, Wikimedia Commons
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32. She Had A Strange Announcement
Ricksen made a shocking and confusing headline that had nothing to do with her age. Headline may be a stretch, as The Billboard actually buried the “announcement” in the middle of the paper under “Marriages In the Profession”. In December 1923, a report appeared in The Billboard so absurd that it’s been forgotten by most of history.
File:Billboard02 10thAnniv.jpg
Billboard Magazine, Wikimedia Commons
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33. She May Have Gotten Married
The Billboard announced that Ricksen, only 13 at the time, had married her previous co-star, 35-year-old Sydney Chaplin. Ricksen and Chaplin had filmed another film together, Galloping Fish, set to be released later in 1924. Did this announcement signify the press getting reality and fiction mixed up, or had something more sinister happened?
File:Galloping Fish (1924).jpg
Thomas H. Ince Corporation / First National Pictures, Wikimedia Commons
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34. She Enticed Gossip
No marriage certificate exists for this marriage, likely because Chaplin was already married and had been for nearly 20 years. The reporting of their “marriage” surely was a misprint born out of gossip at the time. Yet, that gossip pulling this child closer to a grown man hid an even darker truth from the public.
File:The Man on the Box (1925) – 1.jpg
Warner Bros., Wikimedia Commons
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35. She Couldn’t Keep Going
Galloping Fish held a dark significance in Ricksen’s life that had nothing to do with Sydney Chaplin, or so most assume. During Galloping Fish, Ricksen began to show signs of illness. Unsurprisingly, as she had just finished her stint of 10 films in seven months. The young girl was simply tired. She just needed rest, and she’d be good as new, right?
File:The Galloping Fish (1924) – 2.jpg
Thomas H. Ince Corporation / First National Pictures, Wikimedia Commons
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36. Her Mother Finally Stepped In
Finally, Ricksen’s mother stepped up and did something good for her daughter—though whether it was for the benefit of her daughter or her primary source of income is impossible to say. As 1924 came to an end, Ingeborg finally cut Hollywood off from her daughter. A little rest was all that Ricksen needed to recover… probably.
File:Girl Who Ran Wild lobby card.jpg
Universal Pictures, Wikimedia Commons
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37. She Couldn’t Hide The Truth
As much as Ingeborg wished to keep Hollywood out of her daughter’s life during this portion of her tale, it proved a beast Ingeborg couldn’t control. Hollywood continued to offer her roles, but Ingeborg had to deny them, insisting that it was a “Nervous breakdown—that’s all”.
However, in Hollywood, rumors began to fly.
File:The Denial (SAYRE 14225).jpg
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
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38. She Might’ve Gotten In Trouble
Most agree that Galloping Fish was the film in which Ricksen’s illness first originated. The filming of this occurred around the same time that the strange rumors about Syd Chaplin arose. Gossip mongers will always put two and two together and come to the most scandalous of solutions; in this case, they pointed the finger right at Chaplin.
File:The Galloping Fish (1924) – 1.jpg
Thomas H. Ince Corporation / First National Pictures, Wikimedia Commons
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39. Her Illness Inspired Gossip
Some sources suggest that the gossipers at the time were whispering that Ricksen’s illness started because of an abortion that Chaplin had insisted on, which led to an infection, which led to Ricksen’s state at the end of 1924. This, while dramatic, is not nearly as heartbreaking as the truth.
File:Sydney CHAPLIN actor 1920.jpg
Motion Picture News, Inc., Wikimedia Commons
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40. She Couldn’t Recover
By early 1925, Ricksen had not recovered from her illness. If anything, she was now worse. Always slight and petite, Ricksen now appeared tragically underweight. Only 14 years of age, the adults in her life had overworked Ricksen, and her body had finally told her that enough was enough. She couldn’t go on any more.
File:The Denial (1925) – 1.jpg
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Wikimedia Commons
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41. Her Prognosis Was Grim
Doctors diagnosed Ricksen with tuberculosis in early 1925. In the opinion of their family doctor, “She crowded too much work into too short a time, and overtaxed her capacities. Other youthful stars have done the same thing”. While other young stars may have done the same, they didn’t suffer in the same way Ricksen did.
File:Edgar Camps Out (1920) – 2.jpg
Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, Wikimedia Commons
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