theloudestvoice: Happy birthday Dorothy Devore (June 22, 1899 - September 10, 1976), shown here in Hold Your Breath “…the novelty of a female fly became the basis for the 1924 Al Christie comedy Hold Your Breath, starring Dorothy Devore. Devore’s gender was a means to promote and differentiate the film, as is made clear by the ad copy that billed her as “The Girl Who Outstunts Lloyd” and “A Harold Lloyd in Skirts.” Prerelease hype in the Los Angeles Times stated that ‘theater audiences have grown used to seeing a male star do daredevil stunts,’ but that Harold Lloyd now had a rival in ‘this petite young actress, who climbs about on tall buildings, with all the courage, ease, and abandon of the bespectacled comedian.’” Excerpt from The Thrill Makers: Celebrity, Masculinity, and Stunt Performance. Image scanned from Silent Movies: The Birth of Film and the Triumph of Movie Culture.

theloudestvoice:

Happy birthday Dorothy Devore (June 22, 1899 - September 10, 1976), shown here in Hold Your Breath

“…the novelty of a female fly became the basis for the 1924 Al Christie comedy Hold Your Breath, starring Dorothy Devore. Devore’s gender was a means to promote and differentiate the film, as is made clear by the ad copy that billed her as “The Girl Who Outstunts Lloyd” and “A Harold Lloyd in Skirts.” Prerelease hype in the Los Angeles Times stated that ‘theater audiences have grown used to seeing a male star do daredevil stunts,’ but that Harold Lloyd now had a rival in ‘this petite young actress, who climbs about on tall buildings, with all the courage, ease, and abandon of the bespectacled comedian.’”

Excerpt from The Thrill Makers: Celebrity, Masculinity, and Stunt Performance. Image scanned from Silent Movies: The Birth of Film and the Triumph of Movie Culture.

Will the Oscar go to…..

Let’s face it. We don’t go to an action movie to see the anguish on the hero’s face as the bad guy has off with the dame. We go for the part that comes next: the high-speed chase, the bullet dodging, and the unimaginable leap across great distances and all odds, just in the nick of time, that saves the day.

But rarely do we see the faces of the real women and men who are keeping us on the edges of our seats, much less applaud them at the Oscars.

Stuntman Jack Gill thinks it’s high time we do.


In honor of our brave stuntmen, check out Slate magazine’s list of movie stunts that stuntmen love.

And let’s not forget the actors who go the extra mile to do their own stunts.

So what’s your favorite movie stunt of all time?