The Joy Girl

The most talked-about Borden in my tree is Lizzie. Forever memorialized in a gruesome nursery rhyme, public opinion would have her go down in history as a murderess.

But Lizzie Borden was acquitted. In 1892 she was found not guilty by a court of law. After the trial she was free to collect her considerable inheritance and she bought a big house in her hometown of Fall River, Massachusetts. She lived there with her sister, Emma, and she changed her name to Lizbeth.

Other famous Bordens in my tree include Canadian Prime Minister Robert Borden, and Gail Borden, founder of Borden Dairy.

And then there's Olive Borden, star of the silent screen.

Olive's father, Harry Robinson Borden, died when she was a baby. Her mother, Sibbie, struggled to make ends meet, but when her only daughter became a Sennett Bathing Beauty, at the age of 15 in 1922, it was a financial win for the duo. Sibbie relished being a stage mom and must have been overjoyed when Olive was named a WAMPAS Baby Star of 1925.

In 1926 Olive made eleven films, among them 3 Bad Men and Fig Leaves. She was as famous as it gets, a top paid star, earning $1500 a week. In 1927 she was nicknamed The Joy Girl, after starring in film of same name.

But she had difficulty transitioning to talkies and rumour had it that she was hard to work with. She walked out on her studio when they tried to reduce her paycheque by 50 bucks.

Her last film was released in 1934. Called Chloe, Love Is Calling You (or simply Chloe), it's a pre-Code drama directed by Marshall Neilan, with whom Olive had an affair. Some say that this once-lost film "is so bad it should've stayed lost”. I'm inclined to agree, mainly because it's so unrelentingly racist that it's not even watchable as some kind of history lesson.

At any rate, it was her cinematic swansong. Sibbie had helped to spend much of her kid's earnings on their lavish lifestyle: limos. furs, servants, jewels. Broke and drinking too much, Olive tried her hand at the waning vaudeville circuit but the depression meant jobs of any kind were scarce. Eventually she got hired as a mail carrier, then as a nurse’s aid.

In December 1942, Borden joined the Women's Auxilliary Army Corp aka the WACs (the only non-nurse corps where women could serve at the time). She became an ambulance driver and received an army citation for bravery in an incident involving an enemy ammunition truck. After an honourable discharge she tried to revive her film career but it was a no go.

Her final years were spent at the Sunshine Mission, a home for impoverished women, on LA's skid row. Her mom had worked there for several years and was able to secure her daughter work and shelter.

Unlike her fourth cousin (Lizzie/Lizbeth) Olive was largely forgotten. They both died of pneumonia, but 20 years apart: Lizbeth in 1927, Olive in 1947. Lizzie was 66, Olive was 40. As far as I know the two never met, possibly because Lizbeth was not very desirable as an acquaintance, let alone a relative.

At the height of her success, Olive was celebrated as The Joy Girl, while Lizze would forever be reviled as a murderess. The latter's Fall River home, where her parents met their tragic end, is now a B&B and museum called the Lizzie Borden House. In 1958, Olive was one of the first eight stars to be chosen for the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

There are many Bordens in my tree, this has been two of them.

Here's another:

Thanks for reading!