Dark-eyed and distant Alma Rubens was one of the first female stars of the early feature film industry in the 1910s. She was a major star by 1920, but before the decade was over her screen career was marked and marred by cocaine abuse. She died in 1931 at age 33 - a Hollywood beauty, a casualty of Hollywood
snow,
yet much more. As an actress she was versatile, demonstrating a talent that was ahead of its time with her gentle and subtle expressions. This book contains Rubens’s autobiography, a text titled
This Bright World Again
that was serialized in a
New York
newspaper in 1931. Ghost-written or not or somewhere in between, this long forgotten document deals with Rubens’s addiction and despair. In addition, a new biography of Rubens takes the reader from her birth in San Francisco through an impoverished upbringing, three short-lived marriages, and her career in pictures for Triangle Film, Cosmopolitan, Fox and other production companies. The story of her film career mingles with a story of desperate drug addiction that led to hospital stays, violence and deception. A filmography lists her credits from 1913 to 1929. Appendices offer fan magazine articles, news articles addressing her drug abuse, items on her death and funeral, and an advertisement for her autobiography.