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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (May 21, 1922)
8 'a m Sliitwm 'im0 1 MOT 'fiw C f I mm illilif PC, -4- .lit 'IP pmmmm 'George Walsh in Four Poses Which Are No! Mere Poses. hnt In dicative of His Athletic Prowess Does the Swimmer Picture Symbolize Another Plunge Into the Sea of Matrimony? ttf 'V V'W The Champion Runncr-Up to a Dozen World's Champions George Walsh Is a crack baseball player and was a member of the Brooklyn National League baseball team. He was a star back on Fordham University football team. He did a hundred yards In ten seconds and has done It since several times. He la known as the best swimmer and diver In moving pictures. On a cross-country run where he was being paced by a horse he broke an American record. He is a shot-putter, a discus thrower, an expert oarsman, an adept horseman, and, ac cording to Jack Dempsey. Is the one man he paired with when training for the Carpentier fight who would give him any trouble. V He Is claimed to be the world's greatest all around athlete. mums plgp m V V 9 illlllilli 'A 'it ! The Radiant Blonde Beauty of Seena Owen "The Viking's Daughter," Who "Sends Men Shouting to Perform M agnif iceni Deeds." THE next time Seena Owen gets married, if her rueful messages to her friends can be believed, site la going to pick out an amiable, substantial and home-loving green-grocer or some body eise equally undistinguished. Fail ing that, she will at least confine herself to a man who can do only one thing well. She lias had enough of versatility for she married one of the greatest all-round athletes America has ever produced and found out, to her satisfaction, anyhow, that champions are not made to be hus bands. On the verge of cutting herself loose from George Walsh, her husband, she is ready to tell the world that charming a champion is one thing and holding a champion quite another. But getting loose from her husband is not an easy task. In her divorce suit Miss Owen charged that her husband was lured away from" lier by Estelle Taylor, known to film fans as "The Sunshine Girl" an ironic soubri quet, says Miss Owen and now the Sun shine Girl has gone into court herself. She has sued Miss Owen for $200,000, charging defamation of character. Matched Perfectly Physically. Though Miss Owen and George Walsh are both full-blown physical types; they are direct opposites in complexion and temperament. Mr. Walsh is a brunette with black hair, brown eyes and a f,ood man racial characteristics of the tem peramental, volatile "black Irish." Miss Owen is pure Nordic. She was born of Dan.sb parents in Spokane, Wash., and, after attending a girls' school in Copen hagen, returned to the United States for a stage career. Around the movie lots she is known variously as "The Scanda hoovian Princess," "The Viking's Daugh ter" and "Brunhilde." A celebrated novelist who was taking a brief flyer in the films dubbed her "Gudrid the Fair," after one of Maurice Hewlett's heroines. For Seena, like Gudrid, is a golden crea ture who sends men shouting into the night fired with the ambition to perforin magnificent deads. All of these descriptive soubriquets are inspired by her Scandinavian origin and Ler extremely fair hair and complexion. She is of the north and her name is really Signe Auen, though the pronuncia tion is the same as the Americanized ver sion that she adopted for film purposes. Seena Owen and George walsn met and married each other in 1916.: Miss Owen, at that time, was already firmly estab lished as a film star. . Walsh was prac tically a new-comer. There are several in Hollywood who recall that meeting Walsh was fascinated with Miss Owen the first time be saw her. One day, when he was still a stranger to her, he was watching her photographers shoot part of an adventure film in which Miss Owen was being starred, A horse she was rid ing suddenly became unmanageable and bolter5 for the end of the lot. Walsh instantly started after her on foot. Though he had to run practically the same distance as the horse, he finally Hi 1 FKIiW1 V ft 1 m w 1. w . . m mum Seena Owen Says Sporting Stars Don't Stay Put and ' A She Tells Why She Is Bringing Action Against One Who Outran a Horse to Win Her! liiw iSOt li mm i V.S-:5;::- SIB v.- J1 MM &3 Bm 1 ' At itW, -' 4.'-ik ff IIIII S::s:Sa!:eSi:iSSKBS At 1 Estelle Taylor, "The Sunshine Girl" Who Loomed on George Walsh's Domestic Horizon with Siren4ike Allurement', Mrs. Walsh Charges. Estelle Has Brought a Counter-suit Against Seena for Defama tion of Character. overtook the startled animal, seized him by the bit and, digging his heels in the ground, threw him back on his haunches. It was a sensational exhibition both of Ileetness and of strength. The photog rapher ground away all during the episode and the film, when cast up in the projecting room, showed it to be an even more remarkable feat than it had first appeared. - i First Few Years Very Happy. "How strong you are!" gasped, Miss Owen, when he had lifted her to the ground. "I keep in traipingi" replied George, modestly. He lost no time from then on. And the wedding took place not long afterward in Chicago amid the acclaim of their friends and the rhapsodies of the press agents. Everybody said it was a perfect match.' ' The first few years of their married life seemed to justify this statement. They publicly professed to be very happy. Miss Owen became lovelier than ever and held fast to her popularity with her pub lic. Walsh went in for the "red-blooded" types of film plays and achiered a marked success as a virile type of hero. , His training as an all-around athlete .stood him in good stead. He was one of the fw stars in pictures who didn't use a double when some hazardous athletic stunt had to be performed. George Walsh went into pictures short ly after starring on the Fordham uni versity football team. During his col legiate days and throughout his film career Walsh steadily maintained his brilliance as an athletic champion. There is only one sport that doesn't In terest him. That's golf. . "I'm like Chauncey Depew," he said once. "I'm not old enough for golf." It was' not long ago that reports began to spread among the motion-picture col ony, that Walsh and Estelle Taylor were in love with each other. This came as a surprise not only because Walsh and his wife were supposed to be unusually happy but because Walsh was apparently too busy keeping in training to go in for any of the celebrated Hollywood parties. True enough, Estelle Taylor, on several occasions, had expressed great admiration for Walsh's strength and good looks. But then, for that matter, so had a number of other girls. Then it became known that the Walshes were not living with each other. When Seena-Owen went east to appear in Cos mopolitan's version of Fannie Hurst's Fordham University Walsh Was a Star Shot-patter, Yet Never Lost the Grace Which that Strenuous Athletia Sport Of ten Destroys. drama, "Back Pay," Walsh remained in California. Miss Taylor was also there and. the story went about that Walsh and Miss Owen had already been divorced by secret process and that Walsh and the "Sunshine Girl" would go to the altar. Then came the divorce suit. Miss Owen asked for a complete divorce on the ground of infidelity, naming Estelle Taylor. When she applied for alimony she asked for a part of Walsh's estate, which she declared was worth $50,000, and for custody of their daughter Patricia. His salary, she said, was $1500 a week. She charged that he had been living at Miss Taylor's house in Hollywood. Walsh filed a counter suit charging that his wife had deserted him. In his petition he outlined what he claimed to be his status in life. His salary, he said, was $500 a week and not $1500. He had not accumulated a $50,000 estate. His wife did not help him support the family. He remained at home evenings, went to bed early so as to be fit for his next day's work. While thus remaining at home he looked after his daughter Patricia, aged 5. He tiit not been interested in any other woman, partiodlarly Estelle Taylor. And he had been, he said, the target for a flatiron nurled at him while shaving. Walsh said the domestic dissensions began soon after the birth of their daugh ter and that the climax came when Mrs. Walsh deserted him, which, he says, was in New York March 1, 1918. The cross-complaint described a prop prty settlement made January 24, 1920, whereby the wife released him from all monetary obligations in consideration of $5000. Walsh said he tried to dissuade his wife from continuing in the movies after the birth of their daughter,
