Elsie Tarron

Biography

Elsie Tarron was born Elsie Maud Hamilton on September 30, 1903, in London, England. She was a beautiful teenager who loved to dance and dreamed of becoming an actress. Eventually she moved to Hollywood and started entering beauty contests. When she was nineteen Elsie was chosen to be one of Mack Sennett's bathing beauties. She posed for countless cheesecake photos along with other starlets including Thelma Hill and Hazel Williams. The girls became close friends and formed a club called "The Little Dippers". Elsie was chosen to be their President. In 1923 she began working as an extra in Mack Sennett's comedies. Over the next two years she appeared in more than a dozen short films. Her parts gradually started getting bigger and she was given featured roles in The Lost Soul (1927) and High and Dizzy (1927). She signed a contract with F.B.O. studios and starred in the western Cyclone of the Range (1927). Unfortunately her success didn't last long and by 1929 she was back to playing bit parts. She retired from making movies and married actor Andy Clyde on September 23, 1932. They had worked together in the films The Lion's Whiskers (1925) and A Taxi Scandal (1928). The couple bought a large mansion nicknamed "Clyde Manor" where they grew their own strawberries. Elsie enjoyed being a housewife and spent a lot of time playing golf with her husband. In 1935 they had a son named John Allan Clyde. Tragically John died when he was just nine years old. Elsie and Andy remained together until his death on May 18, 1967. A few months later she married 73-year-old actor George Gray ("Sloppy"). She had worked with him at the Sennett studios and he had been one of her husband's closest friends. Sadly George passed away just four weeks after their wedding. Elsie continued to live quietly in Los Angeles where she shared an apartment with Ruth Hiatt, another Sennett bathing beauty. She passed away from natural causes on October 24, 1990 at the age of 87.