Beulah Booker

Biography

Beulah Booker was born in Silverton, Colorado to William E. Booker and Marguerite (Gretchen) Brendel Booker. Her father was an engineer for the Silverton-Durango railway. She had one sibling, her older brother Lawrence A. Booker. Beulah's mother had dreams of her daughter becoming an actress, and took her to Los Angeles when Beulah was a young girl. They came back to Colorado periodically for visits, but became permanent residents of California. Ms. Booker played key roles in several silent motion pictures, both shorts and full-length features. Among those, she played Buster Keaton's love-interest in his first full-length feature film, "The Saphead." By 1925, she had left the entertainment business and begun a new career as a real estate broker. She mentioned in a letter to family back in Colorado that because of her former career as an actress, she was well known in L. A., and had entrée into all the finest homes and properties in the area as a realtor. Ms. Booker was married briefly at a young age to screenwriter, Kenneth O'Hara, and later married Thomas O'Farrell.