The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1914-09-01
JOIN A MOVIE COMP ANY
FRANCES AND ALAIDA PARKS
LEAVE FOR CALIFORNIA.

Twelve and Four Years of Age, Will
Become Members of Company in
Which Children Play Parts.
The Atlanta Journal of Sunday
printed an illustrated sketch of little
Frances Craven and Alaida Guyton
Parks, who have gone to Los An
geles, Cal, to become heroines in a
movie company in which children
play the principal parts. They are
the twelve and four-year-old daugh-
tiers of Mr.. and Mrs. Frank l.. Parks,
formerly of Dawson, and the Jour
nails article was read with interest
here. 1t was in part as follows:
I'm far off California with Ford
Sterling's troupe of children of the
movies Frances Craven Parks, of At
lanta, and her little sister, Alaida
Guyton Parks, are adventuring to
seek fame and fortune as heroines
of the silent drama.
They left Atlanta last week 70
make their home near Los Angeles.
Soon we may expect them back, not
their very selves, but their faces and
forms on the rolling films at local
motion picture theatres.
Theirs is no sudden determine
ton. Since she was old enough 20
walk and talk Frances has been
trained for the stage, and now, at the
age of twelve, her talent, her ability,
her success, all are such as to insure
her a wondrous future in the field
she has herself chosen.
and Alaida Guyton, who is only
four and cannot of course boast of
long or varied experience, yet has
her ambitions, foremost of which is
to be like sister and become movie
star.
"While these two little maids have
inherited much of their talent from
their mother, while they have been
her scholars in dancing, elocution
and acting, while she has accompa-
MED them on their long journey, it
was themselves, or rather Frances,
who decided their profession.
They wanted her for vaudeville.
One manager made her standing
offer for position in his circuit. Miss
Wakefield, who played recently at
the Forsyth, wished to put her on
the stage as her own protege. There
were others who came with tempting
bids. Even grand opera for while
presented distant possibilities.
But the movies won.
Her Ancestry.
"Most Atlanta folks have heard of
Frances Craven Parks, for though
she is but twelve years old she has
won her laurels locally as consum-
mate entertainer in songs and dances
where her charm was as vivid as her
modesty was marked.
Descended from an old Hugenot
family, she was born in Dawson, Ga,
but has lived nearly all her life in
Atlanta. Her grandfather was T. A.
Craven, a noted Alabama educator
and for many years superintendent
| of schools in that state. From him
and her mother she has inherited
literary talents which are as great
as her histrionic impulses.
''Mrs. Frank L. Parks, her mother,
is a graduate of Vanderbilt Univer-
sity. There she studied elocution
under Prof. A. H. Merrill, famous
teacher. For long time she was a
| star on the AIkahest Lyceum course,
where her negro dialect work rece'v-
ed the highest praise.
"As for Alaida Guyton, her four
years have been precocious ones. She
is a tiny tot, a cluster of curls, big
brown eyes, white fluffy dresses and
white-socked legs; but she can speak
her own piece with the best of them.
while the make and the tango are
] rudimentary to her"