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Joan Lowell was born inBerkeley on November 23rd, 1902 as Helen Wagner. Her film career began in 1919at Goldwyn Studios, where she worked as an extra. She can be spotted inSoulsfor Sale(1923), a delightful comedy-drama about the movie business. AfterSoulsfor Sale,Joan appeared in a handful of films, and her career seemed tobe going places. In 1925 an uncredited Joan plays a friend of the film'sheroine in Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush. This was Joan Lowell's lastfilm work for almost a decade. In 1927, she married playwright ThompsonBuchanan, but the marriage barely lasted two years. After divorcing Buchanan, she penned her infamous 'autobiography',Cradle of the Deep, a Bookof the Month club selection that shifted over 100,000 copies. D. W. Griffith waseager to produce a big screen adaptation ofCradle, but when thetruth came out his plans went by the wayside. Joan later sold the film rightsto tiny Van Beuren Studios. The result was 1934'sAdventure Girl,an outrageous road-show feature shot on location in Guatemala. Joan narratesand appears on screen as a feisty gal eager to plunge into the jungles ofCentral America in search of lost cities and forgotten treasures. Aside from her filmcareer, Joan Lowell worked as a tabloid reporter and continued to write books-includingReporter Gal (1933) and Promised Land (1952). In addition towriting, she ran a large coffee plantation in Brazil from 1936 until her deathin 1967.
