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One of the first American motion picture actresses to be exploited in the ever growing number of film magazines, Vedah Bertram was also the first whose sudden death reminded moviegoers that their favorites were real-life human beings and not shadowy figures on a screen. Her real name was Adele Buck, the daughter of a wealthy newspaperman, and her entry into films was made in darkest secrecy. Reportedly, Bronco Billy Anderson, the screen's first cowboy, had seen a photo of the pretty socialite and offered her the position as his leading lady. Buck accepted but changed her name to Vedah Bertram in order to spare her family's feelings. Joining Anderson at his makeshift production facility in Lakeside, CA, Bertram went on to appear in numerous one-reel Westerns bearing such self-explanatory titles as Broncho Billy and the Indian Maid (1912), The Ranch Girl's Mistake (1912), and The Desert Sweetheart (1912). Then, suddenly, she was gone, the victim of an inflamed appendix. Widely reported in the trade press, her death proved doubly shocking to her parents who reputedly had remained unaware of her filmmaking career.