by Hans J. Wollstein
biography
Pioneering American silent screen actress Ruth Stonehouse was the first leading lady of Chicago's Essanay Co. She stayed with Essanay for close to four years -- often appearing opposite the era's great matinee-idol Francis X. Bushman -- before seeking greener pastures at the newly inaugurated Universal City. This rambling, somewhat chaotic studio offered Stonehouse the chance to write and direct some of her vehicles, mostly polite situation comedies but also melodramas with intriguing titles such as A Limb of Satan (1917) and The Saintly Sinner (1917). Stonehouse's popularity was on the wane by 1920, and she spent the remainder of her screen career playing fallen women. She retired in 1927.
