Juanita Hansen

Juanita Hansen's career goes back to at least 1915, and she worked for D.W. Griffith before becoming one of Mack Sennett's "Bathing Beauties." Sennett was so struck by her beauty that he often featured her over the other girls, which caused some friction among them. That could well be the reason she left Sennett in 1918 for Universal, where she began doing straight dramatic roles rather then the slapstick comedy of the Sennett one- and two-reelers. She soon began performing in Universal's serials, and from there she went on to do serials for William Nicholas Selig, Warners and Pathe, among others. Before long her success brought her a contract for $1500 a week - a huge salary in those days - but it also brought her a penchant for fast cars (she was being constantly arrested for speeding), all-night partying and, worst of all, a taste for cocaine, to which she soon became addicted. Her drug use caused Pathe no end of trouble and she had difficulty finishing the studio's 1921 serial The Yellow Arm (1921). When it was finally completed, over schedule and over budget, the company dropped her. After a few small roles in independent films, she found herself unemployable. She was next heard from in 1928, after apparently cleaning herself up and getting off drugs, when she was hired for a Broadway play. However, an accident in the hotel where she was staying resulted in her being burned with scalding-hot water, and to ease the pain she was given morphine - to which she became almost immediately addicted. Although she received a large settlement from the hotel, much of the money she got went for lawyers and hospital bills, and either drugs or drug cures. She went back and forth between bouts of drug use and sobriety, and by 1934, having apparently cleaned up again, she began lecturing at carnivals and traveling shows on the evils of drug abuse. Her life took another turn for the worse in 1941, when she attempted suicide by an overdose of sleeping pills. She finally gave up all hopes of resuming her career, took a job as a clerk for a railroad, and died of a heart attack in 1961.