Anne Lansing Darling (1915-1991)

Anne Lansing Darling was a Hollywood stock player in the mid-1930s; most of her roles appear to have gone uncredited in the films themselves. Publicity claimed her to be the granddaughter of the founder of Lansingburgh; the actual connection seems to have been that he was her Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandfather. Anne Lansing Darling>Edwin Bradford Darling>Anna Agnes Shaw Darling>Katherine E. Lansing Shaw>William Lansing>Jacob C. Lansing>Cornelius Lansing>Abraham Jacob Lansing (1720-1791).Items in film trade and fan publications suggested she was being developed as a star. According to actress Ann Rutherford, Anne Darling was originally to have been in Waterfront Lady (1935) but walked off to elope with Artie Stebbins thereby terminating her contract whereafter Rutherford was given the role (Fitzgerald 2002). Anne Darling in an interviewed identified a traumatic experience, being made by director James Whale to change her underclothes right on the set of The Bride of Frankenstein, ringed by crew members, despite the fact that her underwear would not be appearing onscreen at all (Mank 1999).

A Darling Miss For the Films
Her name’s Anne Darling and it’s a fitting one, as this picture gives ample proof. That’s a contract the 18-year-old miss is clutching, after it was given court approval in Los Angeles. It calls for seven years of her services in the films, her salary rising to $1250 a week for the final year.
*Manhattan Mercury* **[KS]. May 30, 1934: 2. [Cropped from scan by Ancestry.]**

Face Fortune of Former Watervliet Girl, Signed to Long Movie Contract
Universal Willing to Gamble on Anne Darling Possessing Ability to Go with Screen Personality; to Support Frank Morgan

Because she has the kind of a face that promises to make her a fortune, a Watervliet girl has a long-term movie contract, handed to her by Carl Laemmle, Jr., who is willing to gamble on her histrionics.Anne Lansing Darling is the girl, she's not quite 19 and she looks like a picture. Big, blue eyes, wavy light brown hair, a skin like peaches and cream; height, five feet, three and three-quarter inches; weight, 110. What more could the movies ask?The California courts have to ratify her contact, because she is under age out there, but she has started in with an appearance in "There's Always Tomorrow," supporting the star, Frank Morgan. The title is only temporary, so it may be changed before it is flashed on Albany screens.It may be a little presumptuous for the Albany Area to claim Anne Darling, because she left here to go to Los Angeles, with her grandmother when she was only five years old. Her father, however, still is a resident of Watervliet and Anne was born in Lansingburgh, founded by her grandfather, Abraham Lansing. And that should be excuse. [?]

OF COLONIAL ANCESTRY.

Anne Darling's father is Edwin Bradford Darling, 500 Eighth avenue, Watervliet, a nephew of Frederick E. B. Darling of Troy, president of Darling Products, Inc. On the side of her mother, Katherine Simmons Lansing [sic], Ann is eighth in line of direct descent from Governor Bradford, first governor of Massachusetts.

There is a lilting Janet Gaynorish look about Anne, which makes the press agents immediately attach to her the complement really her name. They call her a "typical refreshingly young and wholesome American girl."Anne was educated in Los Angeles, where she attended the University Training school, LeConte Junior High and Hollywood High school.She rides well, swims well, plays tennis expertly and also is a talented sculptress and designer, they say, and Universal is sure it has a "find."
Times Union. June 5, 1934: B1 cols 5-7.

[Anne Darling's mother's maiden name appears to have been Gertrude Katherine Fitzsimmons.]

DARLING, ANNE

*Times Record.***. August 14, 1935: 6 col 8. [Cropped and edited from Fultonhistory.com]**

Actress. Full name, Anne Lansing Darling; h 5 feet, 3 3/4 inches; light brown hair and blue eyes; w. 110 pounds; b. Lansingburgh, N. Y., July 16, 1915; e. Le Conte Junior High. Hollywood High School, and University Training, Los Angeles. Appeared in amateur productions, studied elocution, and li ballroom dancer. Tested by Universal, signed, appeared in "Great Expectations," "The Mystery of Edwin Drood." "Bride of Frankenstein."
International Motion Picture Almanac. Quigley Publishing Company, 1936. 262.

"The Ann(e) Darling Mystery."
Greenbriar Picture Shows. August 19, 2006.

http://greenbriarpictureshows.blogspot.com/2006/08/anne-darling-mystery-name-ann-or-is-it.html

"Anne Darling (1915-1991)." Internet Movie Database

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0201337/?ref_=nmbio_bio_nm

Anne Darling Mills
Albany Rural Cemetery

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/188241489/anne-mills

Bibliography

Mank, Gregory William.

Women in Horror Films, 1930s.

Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1999. 4-5.Fitzgerald, Michael G. and Boyd Magers.

Ladies of the Western: Interviews with Fifty-One More Actresses from the Silent Era to the Television Westerns of the 1950s and 1960s. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2002. 242-243.