Margaret Whistler in Motion Picture News.

Many women made contributions to silent film, often in more than one field. Then as now, some found a job gaining them entry to the profession before moving on toward what they loved or desired. Margaret Whistler began acting in silent movies in the early 1910s, eventually transitioning to her true loves: costuming and wardrobe.

Born July 31, 1888, as Louise Margaret Pepper in Louisville, Kentucky, Whistler grew up in Washington D.C., and attended the Notre Dame Academy there. Records don’t show if she married and gained the last name Whistler, but by the time she gained fame in the moving picture industry during the mid-teens, she called herself Margaret Whistler. The actress also claimed in her 1916 Motion Picture Year Book entry to have played on the stage, vaudeville, and in the circus across the United States and England, and with Bostock’s Trained Animals at Coney Island, though these credits have not been verified. Whistler supposedly entered the movie business in 1911 with the Pennsylvania-based Lubin Film Company before joining Universal in 1912. Her first credits with Universal appear in 1915, where she mostly played character parts, heavies, and second leads in films with stars like Cleo Madison, Lee Moran, and future great Lon Chaney. Continue reading →