A tradition for many years on this blog is to create some unique calendars featuring some of the unique stars from Hollywood’s Golden Age. That used to mean celebrities from the 1920s into the 30s. But in recent years the pool has expanded and now we hear that the “Golden Age” extends well into the 70s, the 80s, and most recently, even the 90s. But here we go back to First Principles and so we celebrate the Golden Age of Great Stars who defined the medium before there was anybody else there.
When we first began this annual celebration, many of the honorees had few films in circulation. And many of those were in poor shape. Today in only about a decade many films have been restored, and can be seen in sparkling Blu-ray quality on big screens. We have much to celebrate so let’s begin our gallery of Great Stars for 2024.
For those among us who would like to draw or paint, but just don’t have the ability even if our life depended on it – I’m raising my hand here – AI or Artificial Intelligence has come to our rescue, at least to some extent. I tried using software called BeFunky and found it very user friendly and basically intuitive. I worked with this software a couple of years ago to publish four graphic novels based on lost silent films. Then I just wanted to convert photos into comic book style art. The project turned out well, comparatively speaking.
After a layoff from using AI software “art” I decided to revisit BeFunky to find out how it handled imitating an oil or a watercolor portrait. The results aren’t bad, maybe not so good either, but for people like me this is undoubtedly my only passport into the realm painting. The software is not entirely automatic, and I can control the amount of “painting” performed by BeFunky. Here are the results so far:
My first subject was the immortal Lon Chaney Sr. using a well-known portrait from LAUGH CLOWN LAUGH (1928):
I actually received a few compliments on my Lon Chaney Facebook page (Lon Chaney Man of 1,000 Faces).
Thus emboldened, I soldiered on with Rudolph Valentino in another well-known portrait from THE SON OF THE SHEIK (1926):
Again, I can report that a few kind souls on my other Facebook page (Silent Films Today) provided kind words for my efforts. Nobody said, “Cease and desist.”
I was encouraged still further so I turned to one of the great opera stars who became quite successful in silent films – Geraldine Farrar. Among her great hit films (now on DVD) are CARMEN (1916) and JOAN THE WOMAN (1917), both directed by Cecil B. DeMille.
I posted this on my third (and last) Facebook page, Early Opera Recordings: 1900-1940. Either people were becoming immune to these images, or I was really finding an audience for my pseudo-paintings.
Grateful for whatever favor I might be finding, I returned to Lon Chaney as my sort of good luck charm and produced this image from his last film (and first and only talkie), THE UNHOLY THREE (1930):
Not wanting to lose my momentum, I turned next to the great German star of silent and sound films, Conrad Veidt (THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1919) and CASABLANCA (1943):
This portrait is from the Technicolor film, THE THEIF OF BAGDAD (1940).
I wanted to be fair to the ladies so I thought the immortal Gloria Swanson would be a good choice. Besides I actually met her once and watched some of her films while seated next to her:
Perhaps a musical comedy star of the stage and films should be recognized so I turned to Al Jolson in an exceptionally smart portrait:
By this point I began thinking that this, whatever you want to call it, may have a future so I decided to encore another interesting image of Conrad Veidt. Here he sports a rather contemporary 2020s beard while reciting his lines from Berlin across a trans-Atlantic telephone hookup with Universal studios in Hollywood. The studio was adding a few “talkie” scenes to his silent, THE LAST PERFORMANCE from 1927, that was being reissued as a “part-talkie” in 1929:
Marion Davies was a Ziegfeld Follies star who became a popular films star in 1917 and was still starring in big films twenty years later. Her long-term relationship with publisher William Randolph Hearst captured the public and long after Marion’s film career ended she was always good copy for the newspapers:
Well, let’s have one more painting of Lon Chaney but this time as himself. We might call this the 1,001st Face:
Perhaps now you’ve been inspired to try your hand – actually to try your PC – and venture into this brave new world of Art. But I feel guilty if I try to sign my name to any of these works. Perhaps I should do what many great authors and artists have done – use a fictious name, sort of a non de plume. I think I’d call myself “Anthony Iaconelli.” Why would I make up a name like that? Simple – I can initial the paintings with that name I would still be truthful. My autograph would read, “AI.”
Since I began this blog many years ago, colorized photos of Old Hollywood have become quite popular, perhaps to the point of being ubiquitous. But there are so many more people on the Internet these days, that I thought I might offer a review of my ultimate image work by combining color with a 3-D effect. I have also noted where a particular film is available on DVD or Blu-ray. These days so many films can be found streaming on the Internet so don’t overlook that resource. Also, please read the “How to Free View” below so you can see the 3-D effect without needing a viewer or special glasses. All you will need is your own two eyes assuming they are in halfway decent working condition.
This painting by the talented Avril Aguirre Aguire has a pronounced 3-D effect so I thought I would process it as a 3-D to find out how it would look. What do you think? This film is available on both DVD and Blu-ray.
The original Rin-Tin-Tin (1918-1932) and his partner Nanette.
Bebe Daniels was a popular silent screen star who made a successful transition to sound films. She and her husband, actor Ben Lyon, moved to England in 1935 and became popular on British radio and films, and later on TV.
Lon Chaney Sr. in perhaps the most famous “lost” film of all time, LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT (1927)
.
A kiss is just a kiss, as they sang in CASABLANCA, but here Greta Garbo and John Gilbert add an almost mythical aura to a memorable romantic film, FLESH AND THE DEVIL. Believe it or not, at this early part of Greta’s career she was cast as a villain. DVD.
This is actually a rare and genuine 3-D photo taken way back in 1928. The film is one of Colleen Moore’s greatest successes, LILAC TIME, which co-starred a young Gary Cooper. That’s director George Fitzmaurice next to Colleen.
A demure Alice Joyce at home about 1920. Alice had a successful career in the silents, made one or two talkies, then retired and became part of the Los Angeles society scene thereafter.
A stunningly dramatic composition from one of the true epics of American film history, BEN-HUR, A TALE OF THE CHRIST (1925). DVD/Blu-ray.
Marion Davies was a popular star in both silent and sound films. Her film career spanned the 1910s through the late 1930s. She was perhaps better known for her offscreen role as the partner of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. He was married but they were so discreet about their relationship that everybody seemed to play along as if it didn’t exist.
Some photos seem to be in 3-D even if we know they’re not. This portrait of Rudolph Valentino is from THE YOUNG RAJAH (1922), one of Rudy’s films that only partially survives but nonetheless is available on DVD. Definitely a tribute to Valentino’s enduring popularity. After all, how many film stars have you heard of that have only a partial film on the market?
On this first day of 2023 we are pleased to unveil our creations: 2023 vintage calendars celebrating the Silent Screen Stars of Old Hollywood in Color. You can take your pick from many different calendars, each honoring a legendary performer from the silent era. First, here is a short video I made displaying many of them. Then below the video are the calendars themselves that you can download and print out. I recommend using legal-sized paper for the best results.
Courtesy of the Internet Archive, this venerable film clip displays a cherished classic 1931 horror film newly enhanced in color. The B/W original may be preferable to some people, including me, but you have to admit that seeing these familiar scenes dressed up in some natural looking color is a 21st century Halloween treat!
Bela Lugosi as a prototype Uber driver takes Dwight Frye on a famous and fateful ride:
Here is my copy of Dracula’s medallion – an authentic replica authorized by Universal Studios. The original disappeared during filming which is why It doesn’t appear on Lugosi during the second half of the film:
And no self-respecting Dracula would go out after dark without his ring:
One more clip to conclude the sequence. The huge sets make this version uniquely effective among vampire films and I regret that later filmmakers didn’t take their inspiration from these designs:
I’ve been wanting to try my hand at colorizing b/w films, but my various efforts were frustrated by software that was beyond my poor comprehension to understand. They say that De-Oldify is the best of the current software but so far it is not “user-friendly” enough for me. I tried out other “consumer-friendly” programs that I could actually figure out but the results were middling. But I discovered that by applying two or even three of them to the same project, a not too bad results could be achieved by combining them.
There are lots of variables including the image quality of the b/w clip, the lighting used, and the need for an abundance of closeups and medium shots. Long shots look simply sepia-toned or worse. But through trial and error I have managed to create a few pleasing clips. Understand that this process has a long, long way to go, especially with the home software market that’s not meant to be professional grade. I have hope for the future but in the meantime, here are some glimpses of where this process is at the moment.
This clip is from the romantic musical comedy, MISSISSIPPI (1935), that stars Bing Crosby, Joan Bennett, and W.C. Fields. I call this clip the “Bing Crosby Fist Fight” because mild-mannered Bing is provoked into duking it out with famous movie tough guy Fred Kohler Sr. Meanwhile, W.C. Fields gets some laughs by just showing up.
Throughout the year I am always colorizing photographs for my three Facebook groups. (Click any of the three here on the right under the listing for “Arliss Archives” and request to join >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
So, in no particular order I offer a parade of notable talented people from the past, all of whom we can see and hear today thanks to the restoration of their films on DVD, Blu-ray, and streaming.
Before the advent of so-called Rock Stars of our time, just who were the celebrities that were treated like the rock stars of today? Believe it or not, the public was first obsessed with opera singers. Film stars would develop a bit later, but among the many superstar opera singers of the early 1900s, none were more popular than soprano Geraldine Farrar. During her summers off from the Metropolitan Opera in New York, she traveled to Los Angeles in her own private railroad car to make films for Cecil B. De Mille. This portrait dates from 1906:
One of her most popular films was De Mille’s JOAN THE WOMAN (1917) where Gerry portrayed Joan of Arc. No, she didn’t sing, she didn’t even speak because it was a silent film. But audiences were mesmerized nevertheless:
A newspaper ad for her 1919 film had quite an eye-catching title:
Perhaps the most popular of rock stars, I mean opera singers, of that time was tenor Enrico Caruso. Yet another star of the Metropolitan Opera along with Farrar, he was recruited for movies in 1918, possibly because of Gerry’s success in that medium. His film debut was in MY COUSIN where he played two roles: a famous opera singer and his poor cousin.
Caruso literally established the standard of the opera star as a mass communications phenomenon. He embraced making records not merely as a sideline but as an important part of his career. It was said that Caruso made records an important commodity much more than records made him important.
Here are two pressbook pages used to help theater owners publicize MY COUSIN:
The Met was an unlikely source for movie stars, but the Ziegfeld Follies was another matter. Where to start: Marion Davies, W.C. Fields, Helen Morgan, Will Rogers, Billie Burke, Eddie Cantor, and many more Follies performers had long and successful film careers. But perhaps the most heartbreaking was Olive Thomas who soared from being a “Ziegfeld Girl” to becoming a major film star in the late 1910s:
Olive married Jack Pickford, Mary Pickford’s brother, in 1916 but their respective film careers kept them from getting away for a honeymoon until the summer of 1920. They sailed for Europe but one night in Paris Olive accidently ingested poison and died a few days later of kidney failure.
Latin actors were especially popular stars in American films of the 1920s. Here are two prominent Mexican actresses early in their careers: Lupe Velez and Dolores Del Rio.
Nobody planned it, but early Hollywood was a multicultural community long before the term was invented. Here is Hungarian Vilma Banky and Italian Rudolph Valentino with director Clarence Brown on the set of THE EAGLE (1925):
Valentino arrived in America in 1913 with not much more than optimism. Within a few years he was attracting attention as a dancer and in films. Rudy’s career blossomed in the early 20s and it seemed that just about everything he did attracted attention. He and his wife Natacha Rambova toured America in 1923 in a dance presentation that was wildly popular ……
….and widely imitated:
Movie star sisters Shirley Mason and Viola Dana raised funds for charity with their dance routine in imitation of the Valentinos.
Polish actress Pola Negri became a popular film star in Germany, then tackled Hollywood with help from some of her German friends who came over such as director Ernst Lubitsch. By the mid-1920s she was an “American” film star and her activities were covered as front-page news:
German film star Conrad Veidt was called “the John Barrymore of Europe.” So when John Barrymore invited him to travel to Hollywood to appear in his new film, THE BELOVED ROGUE in 1926, Veidt happily accepted. Conny – as he was called – made friends quickly in Hollywood and Universal signed him to a three-film contract. Here is a character portrait as the magician who is infatuated with his assistant, Mary Philbin, in THE LAST PERFORMANCE (1929):
But Veidt’s first stint in Hollywood – he returned during World War II to make propaganda films – was capped by the elaborate Gothic horror film, THE MAN WHO LAUGH (1928):
When Veidt returned to Hollywood shortly before his death in 1943, he scored in several war-related films, especially CASABLANCA (1942). Here Conny shares a scene with Claude Rains:
Mabel Normand became the first major female comedian in American films by about 1913. She also directed a number of her films for Mack Sennett and his Keystone studio. Believe or not, she directed Charlie Chaplin in a film during his first year making movies in 1914. Eventually, she focused on acting exclusively and for a number of years before poor health limited her activities, she was one of the most beloved film stars.
Mabel helps build morale during World War I with this 1918 schoolroom pose. Whether she actually drew that image of President Woodrow Wilson is open to speculation, but she focused attention where it needed to be.
Normand was not the only actress-director of that time. Lillian Gish gave it a try once by directing her sister Dorothy in one of her feature films. She never directed again and when she was asked why, she was quoted as saying, “It’s no job for a lady.” Here she is playing Mimi on the set of LA BOHEME (1926) with star John Gilbert on the left and director King Vidor on the right:
Lillian Gish continued to oversee her films more in a producer capacity and was involved in every aspect of filmmaking including set design. This is a stunning portrait of the set in ROMOLA (1924) that literally dwarfs its star. Much of this film was made on location in Italy:
Boris Karloff made plenty of films during the 1920s, but fame eluded him until he played the Monster in FRANKENSTEIN (1931). Lon Chaney Sr., the Man of 1,000 Faces, once advised him to play a character that would make himself memorable to the public. It took Boris a while to accomplish this. Here is one of his attempts circa 1925 in a film that I haven’t been able to identify. Anybody recognize it?
Speaking of Lon Chaney Sr., here is one of his thousand faces in the 1928 film, LAUGH CLOWN LAUGH:
Finally, here is an iconic group photo of some of the most popular silent film stars of the 1910s and 1920s as they appeared in the 1936 film, HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD. No doubt you will notice that most of them still look relatively young in 1936. Well, they were. In some ways, not much has changed in Hollywood during the past decades. A star at 20 and an extra by 30. But many of these former stars skillfully reinvented themselves and did quite well in their later lives:
Who they are:
I hope you enjoyed our tour through times past. They were certainly colorful!
This year we welcome in the New Year by focusing on many of the great Stars of the Silent Screen. How do you obtain any (or all) of these? That’s easy – just print them out on your favorite printer. At full size they make nice wall calendars or shrink them down a bit and they work very well as stylish bookmarks. And they’re also neat just to look at! Enjoy and please accept my best wishes for a wonderful 2022.
Now here they come!
By the way, the reference to “Silent Films Today” is the name of my Facebook group. Membership is by request so if you’d like to join please search FB for our group by name and ask to join. Thanks.
Finally, the 12-month template I used here is from an original vintage calendar for 1927. Why 1927? Because the days of the week in ’27 were the same as 2022. Think of it as recycling Time.
If there’s one thing that is more indestructible in film history than Count Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, and the Phantom of the Opera, it has to be the films themselves. With every innovation in home entertainment, these Universal Pictures monsters were in the forefront – from the old days of broadcast TV, then VHS, and then DVDs, more recently Blu-ray, and most recently, 4K transfers, not to mention video streaming – these guys just won’t go away.
And as familiar as many of us are with these classics through repeated viewings, it may come as a surprise that there were some scenes filmed but left on the proverbial cutting room floor. For this Halloween I thought we would marvel and be mystified with these “orphan” sequences that were deemed unsuitable for the finished product for one reason or another.
Alas, the sequences themselves no longer exist but a number of 8×10-inch stills have survived to hint at what was deleted. Our tour begins in 1923 and ends in 1935. I have taken the liberty of creating color version of these great B&W photos much in the same way that the old Hollywood studios themselves turned their b/w photos into the glorious colorized lobby cards.
[SUGGESTION: if you are viewing these photos on an iphone or ipad, I urge you to switch to a full-screen monitor to fully appreciate the clarity and detail of the images.]
Let’s began with a curious scene from Lon Chaney, Sr.’s THE HUNCHBACKOF NOTRE DAME (1923), based on the classic novel by Victor Hugo. This film has been recently restored by Universal on Blu-ray and 4K. This scene was included in the original “Road Show” exhibitions in major cities when the film was first released. Later, when released to local neighborhood theatres, the movie was shortened and among the excised footage was this touching scene where Quasimodo (Chaney) attempts to buy some clothes for Esmeralda (Patsy Ruth Miller). His efforts don’t go well with the shopkeeper and he ends up attacking the man:
Next we return to 1925 and the film that many regard as the granddaddy of American horror films: THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Again, Lon Chaney, Sr. created an unforgettable character that, like HUNCHBACK, was based on a hugely successful novel by another Frenchman, Gaston Leroux. The filming was a muddle and many scenes were discarded after preview audiences reacted unfavorably. Among the deleted scenes is this one below where Christine Daae (Mary Philbin) and Raoul (Norman Kerry) meet secretly in a cemetery. Things do not go as planned as you can see, and we know that eventually even the Erik the Phantom (Chaney, of course) shows up:
It seems that there were problems in deciding who the Phantom’s victims should be. In this discarded scene, Erik strikes among the opera patrons as one of the stagehands, Simon Buquet (Gibson Gowland), is found dead on the Grand Staircase in the lobby. In the finished work, Simon not only survives, but leads the angry mob to invade the Phantom’s underground lair and force him out to a watery grave.
On a lighter note, scenes showing playboy Raoul De Chagney (Norman Kerry) flirting with the ballerinas were likewise cut:
Even creating a satisfying ending for PHANTOM proved difficult. The two photos below show the unused ending, inspired by the novel’s ending, where poor Erik dies of a broken heart. An action ending was substituted:
MGM gave the nascent horror film genre a try during the silent era with LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT (1927), perhaps the most famous “lost film” of all time. This film was a vehicle for Lon Chaney. Sr. who plays a dual role in this murder mystery where one of the suspects is a vampire(!). Since the film can no longer be viewed, we have as a guide the existing continuity script that showed film editors how to assemble copies of the film back in ’27. Only shots that actually were used in the final edit are listed in the continuity script so photos of scenes not listed were likely cut. Here’s an atmospheric photo of Chaney as the vampire (aka “the man in the beaver hat”) and Edna Tichenor as a “bat girl,” which may simply be a posed photo or an actual scene that was cut:
American “horror” films of the silent era – the genre really was not established during that time – always explained away the supernatural events as caused by scheming humans. But the late 1920s play, DRACULA, based on the 1897 novel by Bram Stoker, didn’t flinch and insisted right to the end that vampires were real. With Bela Lugosi in the title role, American audiences needed very little convincing. The 1931 Universal film followed this construct and the first genuine American horror film dealing with the supernatural was created. A number of scenes were filmed but not included in the final cut. Among the most interesting are detailed sets, or likely scale models, of Castle Dracula and a nearby village that were not used in the film:
Perhaps this is a way station near the Borgo Pass for the coach that is taking poor Renfield to meet the Count, likewise cut:
Boris Karloff soon joined Bela Lugosi as a major star of the horror genre as the result of his playing the Monster in FRANKENSTEIN (1931). Karloff’s follow-up film for Universal was THE MUMMY (1932), which seemed to combine the ideas of DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN to create an entirely new story of a long-dead Egyptian mummy who is restored to life by a magic incantation. Again, the audience was not spared by a last-minute “explanation” and the film created some real controversy in its depiction of reincarnation. The revived Karloff, after being dead for 3700 years, only wanted to find his lost love from antiquity, played by Zita Johann. In this photo from a scene cut from the film, we see Karloff and Zita in the throes of passion in ancient Egypt. It would end badly for them:
Our final film for this Halloween review is one of the finest – and abundantly edited – among all the classic horror film. It is a sequel that is generally considered superior to the original film, BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935). There are many, many production stills suggesting many cut scenes. Most involved subplots that Universal decided to drop because they only complicated the plot line and added unnecessary footage to the film. Here’s an assortment among many deletions. First, here’s a nice portrait of Ann Darling, the shepherdess who is barely seen in the film. She is almost frightened to death by the Monster until two hunters drive him away:
In a jettisoned subplot, after the Monster escapes from jail and runs amuck, a little girl is found slain, among others. Suspicions fall upon the Monster. Indeed, the audience is left to assume that too. But the real killer is Karl, played by Dwight Frye, for reasons never made clear because the subplot was dropped:
Another dropped subplot involved the idea of using Elizabeth’s heart (Valerie Hobson), the fiance of Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive), to implant in the Bride. It sounds absurd but this photo shows the kidnapped Elizabeth (to secure Henry’s cooperation) being approached by Karl with a very visible knife in his hand. This idea was dropped but in the finished film Karl murders an unfortunate young woman to obtain her heart:
Finally, here is a unique photo of the Bride herself, memorably played by Elsa Lanchester. Obviously, this is not a cut scene but I included this not only because it has Elsa’s autograph, but because it also has her sketch of her character.
I hope you enjoyed this tour in a true “cinematic crypt” of unseen scenes from these classic films.
Today marks the 95th anniversary of the death of Rudolph Valentino in New York City at the age of 31. He was on across-country tour promoting the release of his new film, SON OF THE SHEIK. The huge public reaction to Rudy’s death was unprecedented and is generally regarded as the first mass media response to the death of a celebrity. The commemoration of Valentino’s passing continues to make news every year now well into the 21st century.
Here is a video I made for a song that was written within weeks of Rudy’s death. No doubt it captured the mood of the public:
OLD HOLLYWOOD IN COLOR 