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Widow by Proxy

1919 film by Walter Edwards

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ17131071 ↗
Source-derived summary

Widow by Proxy is a 1919 American silent romantic comedy film produced by Famous Players–Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is based on a 1913 Broadway play by Catherine Chisholm Cushing that starred May Irwin. Julia Crawford Ivers provided the scenario and her son James Van Trees was one of the cinematographers. It is not known whether the film currently survives.

Cast

Marguerite Clark as Gloria Grey

Agnes Vernon as Dolores Pennington (credited as Brownie Vernon)

Gertrude Norman as Sophronia Pennington

Gertrude Claire as Angelica Pennington

Nigel Barrie as Lt.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Widow by Proxy” is 1919 film by Walter Edwards. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Widow, Proxy and film, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1919, 1913—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1919-09-28. For this dossier, Widow, Proxy and film is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “1919 film by Walter Edwards” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17131071. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1919 and 1913.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Widow by Proxy”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Widow by Proxy primary sources, Widow by Proxy archive and Widow research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Widow by Proxy”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Widow by Proxy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.