Anita Louise

Louise was born on January 9, 1915, in New York City, the daughter of Louis and Ann Fremault. She attended the Professional Children's School. She made her acting debut on Broadway at the age of seven, in Peter Ibbetson. Louise appeared in the 1922 film Down to the Sea in Ships. She made her first credited screen debut at the age of nine in the film The Sixth Commandment (1924). In 1929, Louise dropped her surname, billing herself only by first and second names. In the same 1937 St. Louis Star-Times interview referenced above, she is quoted as saying: "When I was nine...Mother and I walked out of the Bristol Hotel in Vienna and I was lifted off my feet by a man, who ran a few steps and threw me, bodily, into a waiting automobile...two hotel attaches came to the rescue...The hotel manager warned my mother that thirty children had been seized and hurried across the Italian frontier where they were sold...later to become white slaves when old enough." As her stature in Hollywood grew, she was named a WAMPAS Baby Star. Her reputation was enhanced by her role as Hollywood society hostess, with her parties attended by the elite of Hollywood and widely and regularly reported in the news media. Among her film successes were Madame Du Barry (1934), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), The Story of Louis Pasteur (1935), Anthony Adverse (1936), Marie Antoinette (1938), The Sisters (1938), and The Little Princess (1939). By the 1940s, she was reduced to mostly secondary roles, and her film career started to slow. Some of her films during this time are Casanova Brown (1944), Nine Girls (1944), The Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1946), Blondie's Big Moment (1947), and Bulldog Drummond at Bay (1947). Her last appearance in movies was in the 1952 war film Retreat, Hell! Reduced to minor roles, she acted infrequently until the advent of television in the 1950s provided her with further opportunities. She played Nell McLaughlin in the television series My Friend Flicka from 1956 to 1957, with co-stars Johnny Washbrook, Gene Evans, and Frank Ferguson. She was substitute host of The Loretta Young Show (1953) when Loretta Young was recuperating from surgery. In 1957, she was host of Theater Time on ABC-TV.: 1068  Other shows which she hosted included The United States Steel Hour (1962) and Playhouse 90 (1957). Her last television appearance was in a 1970 episode of the Mod Squad.