Esther Ralston height - How tall is Esther Ralston?

Profiled in "Speaking of Silents: First Ladies of the Screen" by William Drew, 1997.

Forced to find work outside of the world of entertainment, she was occasionally glimpsed on TV in the 1950s and early 1960s. In the ensuing years she found herself employed as a department store salesperson and talent executive.

After supporting roles in Tin Pan Alley (1940) and San Francisco Docks (1940), Esther retired from the big screen and thereafter appeared on stage and in radio soaps. She earned her fortune from investments but eventually lost that fortune due to the stock market crash.

She also found occasional favor in England, appearing opposite Basil Rathbone in After the Ball (1932) and Conrad Veidt in Rome Express (1932).

Appearing in close to 100 films over a nearly 30-year period of time, she made several of them for Paramount and MGM come the advent of sound, including her first talkie The Sawdust Paradise (1928); the title role in The Case of Lena Smith (1929) a "lost" film directed by Josef von Sternberg; Betrayal (1929) starring Emil Jannings and Gary Cooper, and the romantic musical The Prodigal (1931) opposite Metropolitan opera star Lawrence Tibbett.

Projected as wholesome but fun-loving, Maine-born leading lady Esther Ralston enjoyed a prime silent age career and, at her peak, was packaged and publicized as "The American Venus" by none other than that of showman Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. after appearing as a dazzling beauty queen in the film of the same name (The American Venus (1926)). A decade later, the blonde beauty's career, however, had tapered off.

Darling in the silent classic Peter Pan (1924) and as the Fairy Godmother in A Kiss for Cinderella (1925).

They both had roles in the Mark Twain classic Huckleberry Finn (1920).

Esther confirmed her first appearance before motion picture cameras was in _The Deep Purple (1915)_, filmed at the World Studios in New Jersey. Afterwards, she appeared with her family in live theatre productions at the smaller venues, eventually crossing the continent and finding themselves in Los Angeles; as early as 1918 she and her brothers began finding extra work at Universal City .

Her lesser known younger brother Howard Ralston (1904-1992) also worked as an actor on the silent screen.

Christened Esther Worth in 1902, Ms. Ralston endured a "born in a trunk" existence as the child of parents who graced the burlesque, carnival and vaudeville circuits. By the time she was 2, she had become a part of the family act (which included four brothers) with the billing now extended to "The Ralston Family with Baby Esther, America's Youngest Juliet. "Esther broke into silent films as a teen and, after several unbilled roles, went on to become one of filmdom's highest-paid silent stars in scores of dramas, comedies and westerns (the last mentioned notably opposite Hoot Gibson and Tom Mix). Outside of her "American Venus" lead, her more familiar earlier roles were as Mrs.