Martha Sleeper - From actress to designer

I presented two silent movies with the actress Martha Sleeper here before, "Mum's the Word" and "Sure-Mike!". I liked both of them and I really liked Sleeper (with whom I share the birthday, by the way), so there are more of her films on my list.
In the second post I mentioned her interesting career...s.
I don't know about you, but I'm curious sometimes about what an actress or actor has done after leaving film, and Sleeper's story really surprised me, also as a jewelry artisan.

Sleeper in 1935,
public domain via Wikimedia

Martha Sleeper was born in 1910 (some sources say 1907, but I choose to believe the Lake Bluff History Museum because she was born in Lake Bluff.
Sleeper, who came from a family connected with arts in different ways, started acting in silent movies when she was 13 and was in film until 1936, with one last appearance in "The Bells of St. Mary's" in 1945 as a favor to her former director Leo McCarey.
Unhappy with getting supporting roles as the woman losing her man to the leading lady of the film, she left Hollywood with her husband to go to New York and become a stage actress for many years.
That's also when she turned her hobby of creating jewelry from bakelite, wood, and metal for herself into a lucrative side business.

Ad from "The Birmingham
News", March 26, 1939,
page 43

Martha Sleeper said in an interview with the "Washington Post" in 1941: "In the last war women went wild for exotic hats to add gaiety, but with the present hatless vogue women are now turning to jewelry to give them a lift."

Picture from the article in "Collier's Week"

Her designs were colorful, unusual, and whimsical - matchsticks, bugs and other animals, flowers, masks, fruit, and whatnot - and according to a story published in "Collier's Weekly" in 1938 (which you can find here) 200,000 pieces sold in the first year. A name for them back then was "lapel gadgets" which earned Sleeper the title "Gadget Girl".
Her items are sought after collectibles today and much more expensive than they used to be.

Bracelet and brooch (sold at Doyle Auctions)

If you think the story stops here now, you are wrong.
In 1949, Sleeper and her second husband went on vacation. As part of the cruise, they visited Puerto Rico, fell in love with the island, sold their house over the phone and stayed.
By now, she had enough of designing jewelry, though. So she started her third career as a fashion designer.
She opened a boutique in San Juan - "Martha Sleeper Creates" - where she sold her designs which had been locally produced, dresses, muumuus, blouses, skirts, but also accessories.
Later her designs, which are also collectibles now, were also exported to neighboring islands and the US mainland.

Picture by Jumblelaya Vintage
Clothing Shop

When she retired in 1969, she and her third husband moved to his small plantation outside of Charleston, SC, where she died in 1983.

What a talented and beautiful lady!
I would read her biography in a heartbeat if there was one.
Instead I will have to watch more of her movies (maybe even a talkie 😮) and look round the web for her designs.


Main sources:

1. Deanna Dahlsad: Merry Martha Sleeper Jewelry & Fashions. On: Inherited Values, December 24, 2010
2. Maggie Wilds: Martha Sleeper: Vintage Fashion with Wit & Color. On: Vintage Fashion Guild
3. Jessica Wahl: Miss Martha Sleeper. On: Silence is Platinum, January 5, 2014