A little more info on this lady.
Dave Glass thinks she’s May White. He points out that she plays the owner of a broken window in THE KID. IMDb has her down in that film as “Edna’s maid” — so there’s confusion.
Hang on, I think she might be playing both! So Chaplin was still economising on actors in 1921?
Remember, the IMDb says THIS (above) is May White in A NIGHT IN THE SHOW.
Whereas we think she plays these two parts:
But it still seems possible to me that the name more properly attaches to the more svelte snake charmer. I’ll be looking carefully at the supporting casts of THE COUNT and THE ADVENTURER, in which May’s supposed to appear (as “Large Lady” and “Lady,” per IMDb).
It’s nice that Chaplin didn’t hold the fate of A BURLESQUE ON CARMEN against actors like White and John Rand, who were under contract to Essanay and I guess didn’t have much choice in participating. On the other hand, he never again worked with the principle malefactors, Leo White and Ben Turpin.
May White lived to be ninety — it seems like surely somebody would have spoken to her. A late interview with accompanying photo would clear all of this up.
shadowplay 