Arnold Daly

Biography

Brooklyn welcomed Arnold Daly on 4 October 1875, and by his early twenties he had already traded the borough’s cobblestones for greasepaint and footlights. As actor-producer he steered the serial-thriller craze, sending audiences cliff-hanging with *The Exploits of Elaine* (1914) and its swift sequel *The New Exploits of Elaine* (1915); a few years later he saluted the flag—and the box office—with the patriotic feature *My Own United States* (1918). Offstage he doubled the name Mary Blythe in his life story: first as wife, then—after a brief dissolve—as bride once again. The curtain fell on 13 January 1927 in New York City, the same metropolis that had first applauded the boy from Brooklyn.