The Titanic survivor who starred in the first movie about the disaster
Long before James Cameron, silent movie star Dorothy Gibson created a Titanic epic...
Our new online course, The Titanic: History and Legacy, starts February 2025. While you wait, here’s a little story about the first Titanic film…
RMS Titanic famously sank during its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City after hitting an iceberg on 15 April 1912. The loss of life was enormous, with over 1500 people dying as a consequence.
One of the most well-known survivors of the disaster was twenty-two-year-old silent movie actress, Dorothy Gibson. Born in 1889, Gibson started out in theatre where she performed as a singer and dancer in a number of vaudeville shows and the Broadway production of Charles Frohman's The Dairymaids, before signing with Independent Moving Pictures Company. By 1912, she had appeared in a handful of Éclair Studios movies, filmed at their base in New Jersey (it would be another few years before Hollywood superseded New Jersey as the centre of moviemaking in America).
On 10 April 1912, she and her mother Pauline boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg, after spending several weeks holidaying in Italy. They boarded as First Class passengers and spent the evening of 15th April playing bridge in the First Class Lounge with some friends they’d made during the voyage. At around 11.40pm Dorothy reportedly heard an almighty crunch and crash as the ship collided with the iceberg, and then saw the ship going ‘lopsided’. She and her mother escaped on the first lifeboat to leave the ship (Lifeboat 7) and were eventually rescued, along with the other 700+ survivors, by the RMS Carpathia, which carried them to New York.
The story about the sinking became a media sensation and studios were eager to cash in. On her arrival to New York, Dorothy’s manager urged her to star in a movie about the disaster. The picture, Saved From The Titanic, was put together at lightning speed. Gibson not only starred in it, but wrote the screenplay and even wore the very same dress she’d worn to escape the real ship. Released just a month after the sinking, the film was a huge success. Sadly, it was lost to a fire at Eclair Studios in 1914. All we have now, unless something else turns up, are a few stills and movie posters.
Gibson’s life after the Titanic disaster was one of many dark twists and turns. She retired from movies soon after, but continued to perform on stage and married the co-founder of Universal Pictures. With the approach of WWII, she allegedly became a Nazi sympathizer and possible spy. Then, in 1944, she was arrested as an anti-fascist agitator and imprisoned in Milan. Aided by the Italian resistance, she escaped and eventually died of a stroke at the Ritz in Paris in 1946.
To explore more of the history and legacy of the Titanic, sign up to our brand new 4-week online course, THE TITANIC: HISTORY AND LEGACY. Lead by a team of expert tutors, including Gareth Russell, Prof. Stephanie Barczewski, Prof. Mark Glancy and Duncan Barrett.
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