Gail Kane (born Abigail Kane; July 10, 1885 – February 17, 1966) was an American stage and silent movie actress.
Early years
Kane was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She attended a private school in Newburgh, New York, but eschewed additional education to become an actress. She became a dedicated student of the art of pantomime. She stood 5'7" tall, weighed 142 pounds, and had dark brown hair and eyes.
Theatrical actress
Kane performed at the Lyceum Theatre in Heap Game Watch in January 1914. She had a significant role in Seven Keys To Baldpate Astor, which was staged at the Gaiety Theatre, London, in May 1914. The comedy was brought to the stage by George M. Cohan. She paired with George Nash in The Miracle Man at the Astor Theatre. The play was produced on Broadway in the fall of 1914.
Kane acted in a presentation of The Hyphen Knickerbocker in April 1915. She returned to the stage at the Broadhurst Theatre in July 1920. She was paired with Earle Fox, another actor who had been spending much of his time in movies. They appeared in the comedy Come Seven. The production was an adaptation by Octavus Roy Cohen of stories he had contributed to The Saturday Evening Post. The play was the first ever featuring an entirely caucasian cast in black face.
Lawful Larceny (1922) was a comedy adapted from the writing of Samuel Shipman. It was presented at the Republic Theater, built by Oscar Hammerstein in 1900, at 42nd Street. The players included Kane, Margaret Lawrence, Ida Waterman, and Lowell Sherman.
The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart was staged at the Klaw Theatre, West 45th Street, New York City, in August 1923. The plot concerned amnesia with the setting (fiction) moving from New York to Wyoming and back. Kane, Regina Wallace, Reginald Barlow, and McKay Morris were the principal actors in the drama.
She played Ellen Halpin in the 1925 comedy Loggerheads at the Cherry Lane Theatre. The Booth Theatre produced Paid, written by Sam Forrest, in November 1925. Kane portrayed Mrs John Ramsey in a play which endured for twenty-one performances.
Arrest
Kane was arrested following a performance of The Captive at the Empire Theater on Broadway in February 1927. The production was considered indecent and a violation of Section 1140A of the New York City Criminal Code for its depiction of homosexuality, although the play had been tried and acquitted of immorality a short time earlier by a citizen's play jury. It was in its fifth month of production.
Forty-one arrests were made in total. Two other productions were raided on the same night. They were Sex, playing at Daly's 63rd St. Theater, and The Virgin Man, which was being performed before an audience at the Princess Theater. Among the actors taken to Night Court were Basil Rathbone, Helen Menken, Ann Trevor, Winifred Fraser, John Miltern, and Arthur Lewis. Menken was comforted by Kane as she made her exit after becoming agitated by the glares and explosions of cameras snapping as she stepped out on the sidewalk. "Please make them stop," Menken reportedly exclaimed. Also arrested was Mae West, the star of Sex, and twenty others among a cast of fifty. Authorities promised to repeat the arrests if the plays were not withdrawn or modified to comply with the criminal code.
Movie career
Kane's movie career spanned much of the silent era, beginning with a role as Bonita Canby, in Arizona (1913). In the western she had the third lead, portraying the unfaithful wife of a U.S. Cavalry officer. She co-starred as Jurgis Rudkus's (played by George Nash) wife Ona Lukoszaite in the film adaptation of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle (1914). She starred in Via Wireless (1915) which was adapted from a play by Winchell Smith and Paul Armstrong. The story describes the competition between two men in the invention of a new naval gun. A wealthy man becomes the rival of one of the inventors for the affection of the daughter of an ironmaster. As Frances Durant, Kane is finally given a part worthy of her skill as an actress. One critic described her as a diamond set in brass in her previous films.
Kane was employed by the Mutual Film Corporation of Santa Barbara, California when she made The Upper Crust (1917). Produced by Mutual-American, Edward Pell is cast as Kane's leading man in a comedy replete with humor. Kane is a young Irish woman named Molly O'Toole. She impersonates a wealthy dowager and succeeds in her ruse long enough to enjoy herself and eventually marry the dowager's son.