Maryon Aye was a silent screen actress who signed the first contract with a morality clause and later committed suicide
She was born Maryon Eloise Aye on April 5, 1903 in Chicago, Illinois. Her father, James Haworth Aye, was a wealthy attorney and her mother, Eloise, was a housewife. Maryon had a younger brother named Jimmy. The family moved to Long Beach, California in 1911. At the age of fourteen she was discovered by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. He helped her get a contract at Balboa Studios where she made several films with comedian Frank Kingsley. On March 11, 1918 she married Sherman William Plaskett, a twenty-eight year old cameraman. Just two months after their wedding Sherman joined the U.S. Signal Corps service as an expert photographer. He was severely injured in a plane crash in July of 1918. Sherman contracted Spanish influenza and pneumonia and tragically died on October 5, 1918. Maryon was now a widow at the young age of fifteen. She moved to New York City and was briefly engaged to a wealthy banker.
During the Spring of 1919 she became one of Mack Sennett's bathing beauties. The lovely brunette appeared in several of Sennett's comedies and toured the country making personal appearances. Then she was hired to sing and dance in Bothwell Browne's vaudeville revue. On January 23, 1920 she married Harry D. Wilson, the manager of the revue. The couple returned to Hollywood and Harry started working as a press agent. Maryon costarred with Larry Semon in The Hick and made a series of popular Westerns with Bob Reeves. In October of 1921 she signed a long term movie contract in October of 1921. She became the first Hollywood actor to sign a contract with a morality clause in it. According to the contract she agreed to "at all times conduct herself in public in such a manner as not to subject herself to any great amount of publicity or criticism".
Maryon went on a vaudeville tour with comedian Irving Grossman in 1922. That same year she was chosen to be a WAMPAS Baby Star by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers. It was an award her husband Harry had created to help get her publicity. She was signed by producer Sol Lesser in 1923 and was cast in The Meanest Man In The World. Then she was offered a lucrative five year contract with Truart Pictures. Maryon starred in the films The Last Man On Earth and The Roughneck with George O'Brien. In the Fall of 1924 she was cast in a Los Angeles production of the play White Collars. Her performance as a spoiled flapper got rave reviews and the show ran for more than one thousand performances. She also appeared in a song and dance revue with Leo White. Unfortunately her marriage to Harry ended in 1924. At their divorce trial she claimed he had deserted her and the judge awarded her spousal support of $50 dollars a week.
Maryon had a supporting role the 1926 comedy Irene with Colleen Moore. Unfortunately she wasn't given any other good parts and her movie career stalled. She continued to work in the theater and on the radio. Her performance in the 1927 play The Married Virgin got rave reviews. Then in 1929 she went to San Francisco to star in a production of Flat Tire. After one performance the entire cast were arrested for putting on an "indecent show". Maryon got a small part in the 1930 comedy Up The River. This would be her final film. In 1931 she appeared in the play Bad Girl in Los Angeles. She was heartbroken when her ex-husband Harry D. Wilson died in 1933. That same year her niece Sally Ann passed away at the age of seven. Sadly she began suffering from depression and in May of 1935 she attempted suicide by swallowing poison. On September 22, 1936 she married actor Ross Wilson Forrester. They both quit show business and Ross got a job working as an aircraft inspector.
The couple, who never had children, moved in with her parents. Maryon was inconsolable when her mother Eloise died in 1951. Although she had numerous health problems she dreamed of acting again. She auditioned for a television role and was devastated when she didn't get it. On July 10, 1951 she and Ross went house hunting with their dog. That evening they checked into a Culver City motel. Then she swallowed a handful of bi-chloride of mercury tablets. Before passing out she said "I dropped one of the tablets on the floor and I am afraid the dog will get it." Maryon spent eleven days unconscious in the hospital before dying on July 21, 1951. Tragically she had committed suicide at the age of forty-eight. Ross said that she had a "chronic illness" and that he never took her threats of suicide seriously. Her father, James Aye, told police that he believed she was suffering from uremic poisoning. She was buried next to her mother at Forest Lawn in Glendale, California.
Maryon's death certificate