Linda Johnson Rice on AllMovie

A slightly ludicrous screen vamp from Ohio, Madlaine Traverse (born Businsky) was educated in Europe. A performer from the age of 12, Traverse was a featured artist at Cohen's Grand Opera House in Chicago and at the Gaiety in New York prior to making her screen debut opposite stage star Carlotta Nillson in the melodrama Leah Kleschna (1913). She briefly menaced Grace Darmond in the serial The Shielding Shadow (1916) and played Mary Pickford's careless mother in The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917) before reaching stardom playing suffering women with dubious pasts in films with titles like The Caillaux Case, Danger Zone (1919) , Gambling In Souls (1919), and Snares of Paris (1919). This kind of fare went out of fashion at the dawn of a new decade, however, and Traverse left films in 1920.