Mai Wells

[5] Her mother appeared on stage with Edwin Booth, while her father, a Boston-born great-grandson of Massachusetts governor Samuel Adams, was one of the earliest Coast singers, entertaining in the saloons and music halls with the San Francisco Minstrels.

[9] In 1890, the veteran minstrel entertainer William R. "Billy Birch" Garrison recalled of her father: "In those days we had another excellent man in our company by the name of Sam Wells.

An accomplished singer and dancer, Wells made her first screen appearance in 1912, and worked for such studios as Keystone, Powers, Biograph, Reliance-Majestic, Eclair, Edison and The Oz Film Manufacturing Company, among others.

An all-purpose character actress, Wells specialised in playing spinsters, busy-body neighbors, nagging mothers-in-law and country wives.

[3] Among her nearly 70 film roles are Old Mombi in His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1914); Princess Hatatcha in The Last Egyptian (1914), and Miss Terwilliger in Blondes by Choice (1927).