Pauline Johnson

Before she became known as Pauline Johnson, she was Kate — or Kitty — Johnson, a Newcastle girl born into a large family in the city.

Her story is one of those discoveries that makes archival research so rewarding. A few census entries, military records, newspaper reports and film records can transform a name into a person and reveal a life that might otherwise have been forgotten.

Pauline Johnson was the great aunt of Gosforth resident Catherine Wardell. She was born in Newcastle in 1899, became a successful silent-movie actress during the 1920s and appeared in more than 20 films.

Her story takes us from a crowded family home on Haymarket to the world of British cinema, and eventually to Australia.

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The Silent Movies

The story of Pauline Johnson (neé Kate – Kitty) a Newcastle Girl who rose to fame in the 1920’s in Silent movies.

From Kate Johnson to Pauline Johnson

Kate Johnson was born on 3 November 1899, the third youngest of nine children of Richard Johnson, a Newcastle gunmaker, and his wife Catherine.

The family were living at 11 Haymarket in Newcastle. Kate was known as Kitty to her family and friends, but she would later adopt the stage name Pauline Johnson.

Many members of the Johnson family later worked for Hardy’s of Alnwick, the well-known fishing-tackle manufacturer, in occupations including gun making, reel and rod making and fishing-fly tying.

The census records give us a glimpse of the family’s circumstances.

By 1901, the Johnson family had moved next door to 9 Haymarket. The property was occupied by several families and the Johnsons had just three rooms for their family of nine.

By 1911, the family had moved again, this time to 74 Sandyford Road. There were now two further children, yet the family still had only three rooms between them.

It was also at this stage that we begin to see something of the family’s performing talents.

Two of Kate’s older sisters, Lilian and Isobel, were listed as professional dancers. They were known to have been part of a dance troupe which occasionally included Kate. The sisters danced together in France after the First World War and in the early 1920s, as well as in England.

From wartime service to the film world

While living in Newcastle, Kate initially worked as a typist.

During the First World War she joined the WAAC, which soon afterwards became the WRAF, at St Leonards, Hastings.

An article in the British film journal The Bioscope in 1920 stated that Kate had joined up at the age of 15. Her WRAF record, however, shows that she actually joined in December 1917, when she had just turned 18.

Kate claimed to have achieved the rank of Sergeant while serving on the staff of the Cadet Brigade in Hastings. Her record shows a promotion to ‘forewoman’, which may have given rise to her claim, as ‘forewoman’ was the WAAC equivalent of an NCO.

She was later moved to the London Recruiting Office for the WRAF and was discharged on compassionate grounds in August 1919.

It was not long afterwards that Kate’s life took a very different direction.

Her first film: Bookworms

One day, Kate turned up at Gainsborough Studios looking for work as a film extra.

Instead, she was chosen for a role in Adrian Brunel’s silent film Bookworms, released in 1920, where she appeared opposite Leslie Howard.

Howard was just beginning his illustrious film career. He would later become a renowned actor, best remembered for his role as Ashley Wilkes in Gone With The Wind.

Howard and Brunel had recently established their own film company, Minerva Films. The company ultimately failed when production costs outstripped the income from its films. Many of their scripts were written by A. A. Milne, later famous as the author of Winnie-the-Pooh.

Kate adopted the stage name Pauline Johnson and was managed by Bramlin’s Agency. The agency had been established by John (Jack) Meredith Payne, Adrian Brunel and Bertram Jacobs and had a reputation as an agency run ‘by film-men for film-men’.

Pauline’s film career was now underway.

She appeared in The Great Gay Road in 1920 and was subsequently selected to play the heroine, Blanchette, in the French film of the same name in 1921, made by René Hervil.

Pauline barely spoke a word of French, but fortunately this mattered little in the silent-movie era.

She went on to appear in lead roles in several Walter Forde silent-movie comedies and other silent films.

Overall, Pauline made more than 20 films during the 1920s. Many were comedies and she was often cast in leading roles. She became well known and appeared frequently in the press in Britain and Australia.

Pauline Johnson in the press

Pauline’s life as a film actress brought her a very different kind of public attention from the life she had known in Newcastle.

In August 1922, the Evening Telegraph reported an unusual incident at Hastings.

Pauline had taken a small dinghy some distance out to sea. When she turned the boat around to return to shore, she found that, despite rowing ‘with all her might’, the boat was making no progress towards land.

With no other boats around, she decided to go with the current and head towards the shore. She eventually arrived several miles further down the coast, somewhat exhausted.

It is difficult to know exactly what lay behind the story. It looks rather like a press stunt designed to attract attention, perhaps a case of ‘anything that would get her name in the news’.

Pauline was also very keen on motor racing, particularly motorcycle speedway, which had grown rapidly in popularity during the 1920s.

She clearly spent time around some of the stars of speedway and may have had relationships with some of them, particularly Billy Lamont, a well-known speedway rider.

The Flying Scotsman

One of Pauline Johnson’s most notable films was The Flying Scotsman, released in 1929.

She played a leading role alongside Moore Marriott and Alec Hurley. The cast also included a young and then relatively unknown Welsh actor, Ray Milland, appearing in only his second film. Milland would later achieve considerable international fame.

The Flying Scotsman was associated with the transition from silent cinema into the talkie era, with sound added to the latter part of the film. It was one of the first British talking pictures.

The film was notable for the dangerous stunts performed by its cast.

The steam engine used for the film was loaned to the production by the LNER, which also provided the use of a loop of rural Hertfordshire railway line for four consecutive weekends.

One stunt almost resulted in tragedy. Ray Milland would have been decapitated had he not reacted very quickly. After the incident, he refused to take part in any further scenes dangling from the side of the engine.

Pauline herself was expected to take considerable risks.

In an interview, the director explained that Miss Johnson would open a door and clamber along the side of the train while she was filmed from a specially built stage.

When asked how fast the train would travel, the answer was seventy or eighty miles an hour.

Pauline simply powdered her nose.

When asked whether she was insured, she replied that she was not.

“Me insured?” said Miss Johnson. “No I’m not insured. What good would that do me if the worst happened?”

She then laughed merrily.

The film remains remarkable for the real and dangerous stunts performed by its cast. Pauline Johnson climbed along the side of a moving train at high speed — while wearing high heels.

There were no stuntmen around at the time. The cast did their own stunts.

A new life in Australia

By 1929 Pauline had completed her filming commitments and was ready for another change.

On 30 October 1929, she travelled to Australia to visit her older sister Lily and her husband, Charles Olliver. She was accompanied by her mother, Catherine (Kate) Johnson.

They travelled aboard the Jervis Bay, operated by the Aberdeen and Commonwealth Steamship Line.

Several well-known speedway riders were also aboard, including Billy Lamont and several others returning home to Australia.

For Pauline Johnson, the journey marked the beginning of another chapter in a life that had already taken her a remarkable distance from the crowded Newcastle home where she had begun.

From a Newcastle address to the silver screen

What makes Pauline Johnson’s story so fascinating is not simply that she became a film actress.

It is the journey that the records allow us to trace.

At the beginning, there is Kate Johnson: a child living with her large family at 11 Haymarket, then 9 Haymarket and later 74 Sandyford Road.

There are the census records, showing the family’s changing circumstances. There are her wartime records, revealing details of her service. Then come newspapers, film records and accounts of the extraordinary stunts she performed.

Piece by piece, an ordinary Newcastle family history opens into something much bigger.

Pauline Johnson may have been forgotten by many, but the archives still hold the story of the Newcastle girl who became a silent-movie star.

Want to discover more?

This is our edited version of Pauline Johnson’s story. The full research includes family photographs, a filmography, details of Pauline’s career as a racing driver and the story of her life in Australia.

[Read the full Pauline Johnson research]

At Discovering Heritage, this is what we love about archival research. A house, an address or a name can be the starting point for a much bigger story.

You never quite know what you will find when you start looking behind the records.

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Research by the late David Wardell, published with permission by Discovering Heritage.