Tweet Bird Kissing. It's not just for Lillian Gish.

The thread's list so far:

1909 - TENDER HEARTS - James Kirkwood and Mary Pickford
1910s - Bebe Daniels photo on eBay.
1913 - THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII - Fernanda Negri Pouget and bird; also sorceress and lizard
1915 - BIRTH OF A NATION - Lillian Gish
1915 - A HUMAN HAND’S TRIUMPH - Mae Busch
1916 - INTOLERANCE/THE FALL OF BABYLON - Constance Talmadge and goat
1916 - New York Times - Dale Fuller & a raven
1916 - SNOW WHITE - Marguerite Clark
1918 - STELLA MARIS - Mary Pickford
1924 - GREED - Gibson Gowland
1925 - BEN-HUR - May McAvoy
1925 (circa) - Le Canard
1925 - Liberty magazine - Betty Bronson
1926 - FEU MATHIAS PASCAL - Lois Moran
1926 - TIME FLIES (short) - Lupino Lane
1928 - SHOOTING STARS - Annette Benson
1929 - LAILA - Mona Mårtensson and a reindeer
1930s - Thelma Todd posed with bird
1937 - SNOW WHITE - during “One Song”
1962 - BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ - Burt Lancaster
1964 - MARY POPPINS - Jane Darwell

Rick

1921 SEVEN YEARS BAD LUCK - Thelma Percy

The 1910 Italia Production La Sposa del Nilo has Fernanda Negri Pouget kiss a pigeon.... actually a white dove.

Bob

From- Greed-directed by Erich Von Stroheim.

The bird kissing scene precedes the one where McTeague throws the guy down a steep cliff for hurting his bird. After the cliff scene the title card reads something like, 'and this is what McTeague was like'. An indication of the kind of dynamite that lay under the central character of this incredible film.

That scene is bookended by one of the final scenes. Stuck in Death Valley, handcuffed to the dead Marcus and therefore doomed himself, McTeague unveils the bird he has been hauling everywhere, kisses it again, and tries to set it free. It promptly drops dead from thirst and heat.

Any other film bookended by matching bird-kissing-means-death shots? If not, chalk up another brilliant innovation to von Stroheim...

Jim

1923 - The House of Mystery* - in part one Hélène Darly kisses some white birds.

* Just arrived today from Flicker Alley.

Rick

Bird kissing advice from the CDC.
http://io9.com/actual-cdc-warning-to-fa ... 1718226700" target="_blank

I believe I spotted an attempted bird-kissing in von Stroheim's Blind Husbands (1919). Along with Greed, that makes him a serial offender.

Annette Benson gets the bird in Shooting Stars, a new BFI restoration....

Ok, i just checked When a Man Loves, and Dolores Costello does briefly kiss a dove.


greta

She's a serial offender. Last night I spotted her sneaking a quick peck on a bird in Old San Francisco.

Jim

It's OK I guess, but I do not like those open beak kisses. Also, female gulls seem to think they're favoring you when they regurgitate right in the midst of things. Did this perhaps give Dale Fuller her perpetual scowl?

In Anna Pavlova's home movies (for the DUMB GIRL OF PORTICI release), Anna kisses some Javanese birds. She was very, VERY into animals.

It's OK I guess, but I do not like those open beak kisses. Also, female gulls seem to think they're favoring you when they regurgitate right in the midst of things. Did this perhaps give Dale Fuller her perpetual scowl?

One way or another, you'll get a meal out of those birds.

Jim

After Lillian left MGM in 1928, the mantle of chief bird kisser was passed on to a beautiful young contract player whose kisses proved not solely reserved for fowl.

Is that a baby ostrich or rhea? That's bizarre!

greta

Yes, and that's Dorothy Sebastian, which is odder still.

Yes, and that's Dorothy Sebastian, which is odder still.

Well, once you've kissed Buster Keaton...

Jim

Yes, and that's Dorothy Sebastian, which is odder still.

Well, once you've kissed Buster Keaton...

Jim

Yes.

In the unhappy aftermath of that folie a deux, she confided, off record, to Adela Rogers St.Johns, "Kissing is for the birds!"

No one took her literally, but then ...

Helen of the Four Gates (1920) if you count ducks.

Bob

In Linda (1929), Linda (Helen Foster) spots a little bird which has fallen from the nest.
She gives it a kiss before attempting to return it.

The movie also stars Warner Baxter and Noah Beery.

Rick

The movie also stars Warner Baxter and Noah Beery.

And does she kiss either of those birds?

One can be pretty sure it was the high risk behaviors of these silent film actresses that first caused Avian Flu to be introduced into our species.

The movie also stars Warner Baxter and Noah Beery.

And does she kiss either of those birds?

Well, yes, yes she does. Both of them! …and has Noah's child!

Rick