Anita Page, the lovely, blonde American leading lady who showed supple versatily as an actress in some of MGM's earliest films, including the Oscar®-winning Best Picture The Broadway Melody (1929), the first all-talking musical, died on September 6 of natural causes at her Los Angeles home. She was 98.

She was born as Anita Pomares on August 4, 1910 in Flushing, New York. She started appearing as an extra while in high school for Paramount Studios in Astoria. Dicsovered by keen eyed scouts from MGM talent scouts, Page was offered a contract by the studio in 1927 and promptly relocated to Los Angeles with her family to start her quicksilver movie career.

Almost from the start, Page proved her worth in a string of MGM's earliest hits: the ill-fated flapper holding her own with Joan Crawford in Our Dancing Daughters; Lon Chaney's love interest in While The City Sleeps (both 1928); as the Queenie Mahoney, the hoofer with plenty of male attention in the Oscar®-winning The Broadway Melody; showing her flair for light comedy in a pair of William Haines romancers - Speedway and Navy Blues (all 1929). True, these early talkies from the roaring lion were not as polished as some of the studios later work, but they were well-executed. You could see the high style that would come later and Page can stake a claim of being there when it was all coming together.

The early '30s were still a fruitful time, and she made some films that are well-regarded in the pre-Hays code era of torrid dramas: The Easiest Way (1931) where she shares a love scene with an up and coming Clark Gable; performing with Walter Huston's corrupt judge in Night Court and Warren William's ruthless capatalist in Skyscraper Souls (1932); and the strange, jungle adventure yarn that now has a cult following, Jungle Bride (1933).

By 1933, Page's MGM contract was up and she decided to retire to domestic life. She was first married to songwriter Nacio Herb Brown, but that was a brief union (1934-35). Her second marriage to Naval officer Hershel House lasted from 1936 until his death in 1991. Admirably, Page had no intention of being a retired widow, and she got back in front of the camera. She had an appearance in the pulp thriller Sunset After Dark (1996) and has an upcoming role in the soon to be released Frankenstein Rising (2008). She is survived by her daughter, Linda Sterne.

by Michael T. Toole