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Hollywood Studios Used to Own Their Actors and Actresses

Khalid Elhassan January 3, 2022 37 min

Clark Gable in 'Gone With the Wind'. Cultura Estadao

Grace McHugh on the set of ‘Across the Border’. Carnegie Hero Fund Commission

27. The Actress Who Drowned in Quicksand – For Real

Risk and danger have accompanied Hollywood and the film industry from its infancy. One of the earliest deadly tragedies to take place in the midst of a movie’s production, and one of the most unusual ones at that, claimed the lives of an actress and a camera operator on July 1^st, 1914. It occurred on the set of Across the Border, which was filmed in the Arkansas River near Canon City, Colorado. In a freak incident, lead actress Grace McHugh and camera operator Owen Carter drowned in quicksand.

Twenty-six-year-old Grace McHugh had left her home in Golden, Colorado, three weeks earlier, to pursue her dreams of becoming a star. The aspiring actress signed up for a gig with the Colorado Motion Picture Company and was cast in a role for Across the Border, a silent film Western then under production. Little is known about the movie today, other than the deaths on its film set. As seen below, McHugh’s career did not last long and was cut tragically short.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.