Marian West(1895-1940)
- Actress
In the summer of 1915, two college co-eds (and cousins) from San Antonio, Texas--Marian West and Kitty McKenna--visited New York City, and fell in with W.C. Fields. Marian, who was active in amateur dramatics, being an accomplished singer, dancer and musician, was "invited to participate in the making of the film" Pool Sharks (1915) ("University Girl Moving Picture Star" [Austin, Tex.] "American-Statesman," 10 October 1915, 20). When the movie played the Crescent Theatre in Austin, management held over the showing of the picture for a second day, so that Marian's friends and neighbors could see her perform. When she graduated from the University of Texas-Austin the following June, her listing in the yearbook (the Cactus)--evidently written by someone who was rather green with envy--stated that "Marian achieved prominence in the flittering drama by falling out of a hammock and busting a billiard cue over some boob's brain." Instead of returning to New York City and trying her luck, Marian remained in Texas, teaching at the Baylor Female College (much later the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor) in Belton, Texas for several years before marrying a member of the family who owned and operated the Denver "Post" newspaper chain and retiring into domesticity.
