It’s 1917, Who’s Your Favorite Film Star?

I recently purchased the February 1917 issue of Motion Picture Magazine and was pleasantly surprised to find detailed results of a popularity fan poll inside.

Motion Picture Magazine claims over a million fans voted, and I don’t doubt that they did. These fan polls were popular in the early days, but these results seem very detailed and judging by the number of voters this appears to have been quite a serious poll.

It’s not mentioned in the issue, but looking at the results I would guess that the fans voted for more than just their single favorite star. Maybe a top five or ten instead, with points rewarded based on rankings.

I say this for a few reasons, one of which is every vote total is a multiple of five. Also, if it were one-voter/one-vote, I’d expect the top few selections to have several more votes (I’m talking in the hundreds of thousands). Plus can you really see 66,000-plus people taking Fannie Ward with their one and only choice, or even 34,000-plus going with Hobart Henley? No way.

Also, the poll looks biased against both comedians and Biograph stars, who perhaps didn’t have the fame of some of their counterparts yet due to their later billing. This is just a guess, but for Mae Marsh and Lillian Gish to rank as low as they do so recently after The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance seems strange to me.

I’m sure there are other biases to take into account as well, some obvious, some less obvious. For example, I’m sure whoever was on the cover of the issue containing the ballot or announcement saw a little boost just due to that presence.

This is definitely not perfect, but it’s certainly a great way to get an idea of the general popularity of the stars during this particular instance in time, say late 1916 due to publication lead time, and how the hardcore fans who read and subscribed to the fan magazines felt about them.

To the top two winners Motion Picture Magazine awarded paintings of themselves by Leo Sielke, Jr (the same illustrator responsible for the Wallace Reid cover from this issue), which the magazine also announced would be future covers as soon as they were ready to go.

To the rest of the top ten went “a handsomely engraved and engrossed certificate,” while the bottom ninety also will receive engraved certificates.

All I can say is, Poor Richard Stanton and Louise Glaum! Uh, that will make more sense when you reach the bottom of the list.

Here are the top 100 (well, 102) popular stars of 1917 along with their vote totals. Enjoy:

Film Star by Rank	Vote Total
1. Mary Pickford	462,190
2. Francis X. Bushman	411,800
3. Marguerite Clark	410,820
4. Warren Kerrigan	358,320
5. Pearl White	310,690
6. Theda Bara	294,035
7. Anita Stewart	283,460
8. Henry B. Walthall	271,740
9. Edward Earle	268,760
10. Wallace Reid	268,525
11. Harold Lockwood	267,905
12. William Sherwood	264,665
13. William S. Hart	263,215
14. Earle Williams	251,610
15. Grace Cunard	246,190
16. Ruth Roland	244,935
17. William Farnum	241,580
18. Pauline Frederick	151,210
19. Beverly Bayne	147,140
20. Dustin Farnum	146,560
21. Blanche Sweet	146,465
22. Mary Fuller	144,530
23. Mary Miles Minter	138,430
24. Carlyle Blackwell	136,345
25. Crane Wilbur	135,825
26. Robert Warwick	134,795
27. Marguerite Snow	132,020
28. Florence LaBadie	128,820
29. Creighton Hale	127,760
30. Olga Petrova	125,940
31. Nell Craig	125,450
32. Norma Talmadge	119,655
33. Lillian Gish	113,130
34. Francis Ford	107,120
35. Charles Chaplin	105,325
36. Clara K. Young	102,705
37. Cleo Madison	101,245
38. Ella Hall	101,090
39. Edith Storey	100,475
40. Antonio Moreno	100,465
41. Bryant Washburn	100,405
42. Douglas Fairbanks	99,250
43. Marguerite Courtot	97,930
44. Alexander Gaden	96,040
45. Alice Joyce	91,185
46. Geraldine Farrar	89,910
47. Harris Gordon	88,940
48. Tom Forman	88,350
49. Cleo Ridgely	87,955
50. Romaine Fielding	87,560
51. House Peters	87,140
52. Edward Coxen	86,165
53. Kathlyn Williams	84,765
54. Mae Marsh	83,200
55. Herbert Rawlinson	81,320
56. Henry King	80,965
57. Al Ray	80,330
58. Edna Mayo	80,110
59. May Allison	70,960
60. Thomas Meighan	69,110
61. Lillian Walker	68,360
62. Dorothy Gish	68,325
63. Anna Little	67,870
64. Naomi Childers	67,420
65. Irving Cummings	66,860
66. Owen Moore	66,250
67. Bessie Barriscale	66,030
68. Fannie Ward	66,015
69. Nellie Anderson	65,785
70. Jane Novak	65,525
71. Mary Anderson	65,040
72. Billie Burke	54,855
73. Violet Mersereau	54,200
74. Viola Dana	51,965
75. Ethel Clayton	50,155
76. Jean Sothern	48,135
77. Ruth Stonehouse	45,925
78. Robert Mantell	44,600
79. Lottie Pickford	44,225
80. King Baggot	41,150
81. Hazel Dawn	40,185
82. Frank Mayo	38,295
83. William Courtleigh	36,600
84. Mabel Normand	35,730
85. Earle Fox	35,035
86. Margarita Fischer	34,835
87. Hobart Henley	34,535
88. Maurice Costello	34,005
89. Charles Ray	33,620
90. Dorothy Kelly	33,210
91. Harry Northrup	33,100
92. Vera Sisson	32,340
93. Marie Newton	30,680
94. Helen Holmes	30,235
95. William Garwood	29,740
96. Mae Murray	26,805
97. Marie Doro	26,110
98. Edwin August	25,730
99. Vivian Rich	24,035
100. E.K. Lincoln	23,705
101. Richard Stanton	22,030
102. Louise Glaum	20,930

Another feature on this site takes a look at the 53 Most Popular Movie Stars as reported in the January 1936 issue of The American Magazine.