Just got word that Carla Laemmle passed away yesterday. Her passing severs one of the last links to a great age.
Born in 1909, she was the niece of Universal Studios founder Carl Laemmle, and appeared in a small number of late silent and early talking pictures, usually as an uncredited extra. In recent years she had become the sole surviving person who who had worked on any of her films and was in great demand as a talking head in documentaries and DVD extra features…and even a handful of recent acting roles! (The first leg of her career ended in 1939). She appeared in two great horror classics: The Phantom of the Opera (1925) and Dracula (1931); a couple of silent adaptations of Uncle Tom’s Cabin; and some important early movie musicals: The Broadway Melody (1929), The Hollywood Revue of 1929, and The King of Jazz (1930), and a few other features as well.
(Travalanche) 