Nevadan Edna Purviance went from Silver State to silver screen

Edna Purviance was just a girl from Paradise Valley when Charlie Chaplin strolled into Tate’s Cafe in San Francisco and started talking.

By the time he finished getting her attention, Nevada native Purviance was not only on his arm but on her way to silent movie stardom as the femme fatale in several of Chaplin’s enormously popular flicks.

Although Las Vegas and Reno have long been known as great settings for Hollywood blockbusters, and the state has produced its share of leading ladies and gentlemen, during the heyday of silent film Purviance was a star in her own satellite.

“Edna Purviance is an entertainment star before Nevada really had entertainment stars,” UNLV history professor and author Michael Green said. “It’s a reminder that there was a lot going on long before the Rat Pack and the great times on the Strip.”

Of course, it never hurt to be the sweetheart of a world-renowned actor.

Purviance was a featured face in Chaplin’s classic “The Kid.” More than 30 film appearances would follow, and her name became known far and wide. She had a more substantial role in “A Woman of Paris,” her last film with Chaplin, who suffered from a terminally roaming eye.

Although tribute blog sites note that Purviance never quite recovered from her romance with Chaplin, he kept her on salary throughout the remainder of his career.

In “Chaplin: A Life,” Stephen Weissman calls Purviance the actor’s “first great love.” There would be more to follow.

But Purviance was more than a paramour with a comely profile. She appears to have inspired Chaplin to grow his little tramp character into something more than a hapless prankster and pratfall artist. Thanks to their genuine affection for each other, Weissman writes, there was a softening of the character that made him all the more appealing to the masses.

“From the start of their professional association in 1915, her warmhearted Edna character inspired the little tramp to become much more sensitive and mature,” Weissman observes. “An increasingly moonstruck and poetic Charlie became much more lovable and sympathetic to film audiences.”

Born Oct. 21, 1895, in the Humboldt County cow town, Purviance took an unlikely route to stardom. Her family left Paradise for Lovelock when she was 3, and at 13 she was sent to a business college in San Francisco. At 19, she was working as a stenographer when she caught Chaplin’s fancy.

Although she landed a couple of speaking roles, Purviance failed to make the transition from silent films. She suffered from throat cancer late in her life and died Jan. 11, 1958.

Nevada’s first film star has yet to have her own star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.