Living Large ─ Wilna Hervey and Nan Mason

Living Large: Wilna Hervey and Nan Mason by noted silent film historian Joseph P. Eckhardt is by turns a rollicking dual biography and a sweet love story. Wilna Hervey, a six-foot-three-inch, three-hundred-pound heiress, won the role of “The Powerful Katrinka” in the Toonerville Trolley comedies of the early nineteen-twenties because of her impressive size. Her evocation of Katrinka was so successful that it became a permanent part of her identity. While filming on location in the Philadelphia suburbs, Wilna Hervey met Nan Mason, the surprisingly tall daughter of her Toonerville co-star, Dan Mason. Wilna and Nan became inseparable friends and ultimately, life partners. When Wilna’s cinema work began to wane, she and Nan decided to pursue careers as artists in the famed artists’ colony at Woodstock, New York. As artists, the two evolved into accomplished and imaginative talents exploring a wide variety of genres over the course of their long careers. As a same-sex couple, living in one of the few American communities where they could comfortably be themselves, “the Big Girls,” as they were known locally, carved out extraordinary creative lives. Uninterested in defining themselves except as artists, they lived a free and joyous existence, fully participating in the life of their community. They hosted some of the wildest parties ever seen in the Catskills and used their legendary “full moon” soirees to raise money for such local causes as the Woodstock Library and the children’s health center. Along the way they befriended such notables as the film director, Frank Capra; photographer Edward Weston; portrait artist Eugene Speicher; the Whitney Museum’s Juliana Force; painters Henry Lee McFee, William Pachner and Charles Rosen; and legendary children’s book illustrators Maud and Miska Petersham.Wilna and Nan’s fifty-nine year partnership was defined not only by the remarkable variety of things they accomplished—or were at least willing to attempt—but also by their steadfast devotion to living life for all it was worth. Never apart from the fall of 1923 until Wilna’s death in the spring of 1979, the two women inspired, encouraged, assisted, teased, protected, comforted, amused and loved each other with the same enthusiasm that they brought to bear in all aspects of their lives.

Joseph P. Eckhardt holds the title of Emeritus Professor of History at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, where he taught history and art history from 1968 until his retirement in 2007. H is first book, The King of the Movies: Film Pioneer Siegmund Lubin, was published in 1997. He has also authored numerous articles on the early film industry and hosts the annual Betzwood Film Festival at Montgomery County Community College.Following his retirement from full-time teaching, Eckhardt spent four years exploring the life and work of the nineteenth-century American historical painter William T. Trego. His research led to the first-ever retrospective exhibition of Trego’s work, at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, in 2011. In conjunction with the exhibition, Eckhardt published a full-length biography of this nearly forgotten artist, So Bravely and So Well: The Life and Work of William T. Trego, and an online catalogue raisonne of Trego’s work.Living Large: Wilna Hervey and Nan Mason was born of Eckhardt’s interest in the silent Toonerville Trolley comedies made at the Betzwood studio in the Philadelphia suburbs. While searching for more information about the Amazonian actress who played “The Powerful Katrinka,” Eckhardt uncovered an offbeat romantic tale as good as the plot of any movie. He decided that the story of this loveable and eccentric thespian-turned-artist and her life companion was a tale worth telling.