Marjorie Augusta Gateson (January 17, 1891 â€" April 17, 1977) was an
American stage and film actress.Gateson was born in Brooklyn, New
York, to Augusta and Daniel Gateson. Her maternal grandfather and
brother were clergymen; Some sources state her father was one too, but
Axel Nissen in his book Mothers, Mammies and Old Maids: Twenty-Five
Character Actresses of Golden Age Hollywood writes that he was a
contractor. She attended the Packer Collegiate Institute and the
Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, the latter being where her mother
taught elocution. She believed her mother had "an inner longing for
the stage", which she passed on to Marjorie, along with diction and
poise.Gateson's musical schooling helped her land a job in the chorus
in a play called The Pink Lady. She made her Broadway debut at the age
of 21 in the chorus of the musical The Dove of Peace on November 4,
1912; the show closed after 12 performances. During the much longer
run of her next Broadway play, The Little Cafe (November 12, 1913 â€"
March 14, 1914), she played several of the characters. In 1917's
Broadway musical Have a Heart, she sang two songs. She performed in
musical comedies for another decade, ending with Oh, Ernest! (1927),
but also appeared in non-musical comedies and dramas. After the
Broadway comedy As Good as New in 1930, she set out for
Hollywood.Gateson made her film debut in 1931, after more than two
decades on the stage, playing secondary character roles as women of
wealth and breeding, who were often haughty and aloof. She is perhaps
best known as the society matron who attempts to thwart Mae West's
character's plans for social climbing in the 1935 film Goin' to Town,
and as a rather kinder socialite whom Harold Lloyd teaches to box in
1936's The Milky Way.
American stage and film actress.Gateson was born in Brooklyn, New
York, to Augusta and Daniel Gateson. Her maternal grandfather and
brother were clergymen; Some sources state her father was one too, but
Axel Nissen in his book Mothers, Mammies and Old Maids: Twenty-Five
Character Actresses of Golden Age Hollywood writes that he was a
contractor. She attended the Packer Collegiate Institute and the
Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, the latter being where her mother
taught elocution. She believed her mother had "an inner longing for
the stage", which she passed on to Marjorie, along with diction and
poise.Gateson's musical schooling helped her land a job in the chorus
in a play called The Pink Lady. She made her Broadway debut at the age
of 21 in the chorus of the musical The Dove of Peace on November 4,
1912; the show closed after 12 performances. During the much longer
run of her next Broadway play, The Little Cafe (November 12, 1913 â€"
March 14, 1914), she played several of the characters. In 1917's
Broadway musical Have a Heart, she sang two songs. She performed in
musical comedies for another decade, ending with Oh, Ernest! (1927),
but also appeared in non-musical comedies and dramas. After the
Broadway comedy As Good as New in 1930, she set out for
Hollywood.Gateson made her film debut in 1931, after more than two
decades on the stage, playing secondary character roles as women of
wealth and breeding, who were often haughty and aloof. She is perhaps
best known as the society matron who attempts to thwart Mae West's
character's plans for social climbing in the 1935 film Goin' to Town,
and as a rather kinder socialite whom Harold Lloyd teaches to box in
1936's The Milky Way.
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