Although Moore was a huge star in her day, approximately half of her films are now considered lost, including her first talking picture from 1929.

After her film career, Moore maintained her wealth through astute investments, becoming a partner of Merrill Lynch.

She wanted to be a second Lillian Gish but instead, she found herself playing heroines in Westerns with stars such as Tom Mix.

She and her brother began their own stock company, reputedly performing on a stage created from a piano packing crate.

Her aunts, who doted on her, indulged her other great passion and often bought her miniature furniture on their many trips, with which she furnished the first of a succession of dollhouses.

[9] Essanay Studios was within walking distance of the Northwestern L, which ran right past the Howey residence.

One story has it that she got into the Essanay studios and waited in line to be an extra with Helen Ferguson: in an interview with Kevin Brownlow many years later, Ferguson told a story that substantially confirmed many details of the claim, though it is not certain whether she was referring to Moore's stints as a background extra (if she really was one) or to her film test there prior to her departure for Hollywood in November 1917.

Film producer D. W. Griffith was in debt to Howey, who had helped him to get both The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance through the Chicago censorship board.

The Bad Boy was released on February 18, and featured Robert Harron, Richard Cummings, Josephine Crowell, and Mildred Harris (who would later become Charles Chaplin's first wife).

filmed in part in the vicinity of the Seven Oaks (a popular location for productions that required dramatic vistas).

The film's scenario was written by Wilfred Lucas from a story by Al Jennings, the famous outlaw who had been freed from jail by presidential pardon by Theodore Roosevelt in 1907.

beats futilely on a bolted door, a panic-stricken little human animal, who had not known before that there was aught but kindness in the world."

The Busher was an H. Ince Productions-Famous Players–Lasky production; it was a baseball film whose hero was played by Charles Ray.

The next stage of her career was with the Christie Film Company, a move she made when she decided she needed comic training.

Before mid-year, she had signed a contract with First National Pictures, and her first two films were slated to be The Huntress and Flaming Youth.

The controversial story put Moore in focus as a flapper, but after Clara Bow took the stage in Black Oxen in December, she gradually lost her momentum.

Through the Dark, originally shot under the name Daughter of Mother McGinn, was released during the height of the Flaming Youth furor in January 1924.

By the late 1920s, she had accomplished dramatic roles in films such as So Big, where Moore aged through a stretch of decades, and was also well received in light comedies such as Irene.

This was followed by Irene (another musical in the style of the very popular Sally) and Ella Cinders, a straight comedy that featured a cameo appearance by comedian Harry Langdon.

It is rumored that John McCormick was about to be fired for his drinking and that she left as a means of leveraging her husband back into a position at First National.

Prior to its release, Warner Bros. had taken control of First National and were less than interested in maintaining the terms of her contract until the numbers started to roll in for Lilac Time.

The film was such a hit that Moore managed to retain generous terms in her next contract and her husband as her producer.

[15] The interior of The Colleen Moore Dollhouse, designed by Harold Grieve, features miniature bear skin rugs and detailed furniture and art.

The first dollhouse, she wrote in her autobiography Silent Star (1968), evolved from a cabinet that held her collection of miniature furniture.

The third house was possibly given to the daughter of Moore's good friend, author Adela Rogers St. Johns.

Throughout her life she also maintained close friendships with other colleagues from the silent film era, such as King Vidor and Mary Pickford.

She published two books in the late 1960s, How Women Can Make Money in the Stock Market (1969) and her autobiography, Silent Star: Colleen Moore Talks About Her Hollywood (1968).

In that book she is recalled as having been a successful real estate broker in Chicago and partner in the investment firm Merrill Lynch after her film career.

In her later years she would frequently attend film festivals, and was a popular interview subject always willing to discuss her Hollywood career.

[2] For her contributions to the motion picture industry, Colleen Moore has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1551 Vine Street.