Waaaay OT: need help from old movie fans

Try going to

and looking up the title of the movie. That should help. I tried to look but shutterfly was having issues. Told me that page was unavailable right now.

Sharon

Dear Liz,

The flash somewhat obscures the man's face, but from the clothing, I can tell you that the picture was done in the l930s. I don't recognize either of them.

Please have an expert examine the drawing before anything is done to it. Often, more damage (and value lost) is done in the restoration process than if it had been left alone.

We often used old movies in my classes for design purposes, and for costuming for our Theatre Department. That doesn't mean that these people weren't actors, just that someone more expert needs to view them.

Good luck!

Teri

Teri, thanks for the info. Strange that you think this was done in the 30s as it was in with my father's art school work from the mid-20's, so we just assumed it was from an assignment he did then in class.

My son picked up the picture today and will be bringing it to a fellow artist who volunteered to help him decide what to do. He is very aware of how to proceed cautiously. He told me that if it looks like it's too fragile to repair, he'll photograph it before storing it carefully and properly. (I won't pretend to know how to do that!) He will then use PhotoShop to make the corrections, make a print of the finished product, and frame that one for display.

Thanks again!

Dear Liz,

I did a little looking around, and I think the woman might be Louise Brooks. She was a dancer, and didn't start making movies until 1930. She spent most of her time in New York, and Europe. I found her at the Louise Brooks Society site. I haven't identified the man yet.

Teri

Liz,

There is also a Classic Movies forum - part of Delphi forums. I go there from time to time and people there are always very helpful.

You maybe can try the free joining up of that forum.

HTH Katherine

Thanks, Katherine. I passed the info on to my son as it's now his project since I no longer have the picture. I appreciate your taking the time to help.

Liz

Teri, Thanks for the help. What a gorgeous face that Louise Brooks had! Not many women could wear their hair like that. But the picture my father drew shows a woman with curls so I'm having a hard time seeing the resemblance. Meanwhile, someone e-mailed me a picture of Leila Hyams, who was a movie star in the 20s. The resemblance is uncany, although she parts her hair on the opposite side. I really do appreciate the time you spent investigating this for me, but from this point, since I am no longer in possession of the picture, I'm going to let my son figure it out. Thanks again!

That would not be definitive, as often photos are printed in reverse in order to make the best composition. I always get a laugh at men's clothing ads which show the buttons on the "wrong" (left) side.

In addition, someone may change the side their hair is parted on for any number of reasons. Through my youth and in high school I parted my hair on my right side. I was in an auto accident and received a scalp injury which resulted in a scar along my old part line. Since then I have parted my hair on my left side.

Beverly

I keep looking at the man in that picture and the eyes especially look like Humphrey Bogart to me. He started on Broadway in the very early 30s and did lite comedy, romance and musical (I somehow can't picture Bogie singing and dancing, but he did.) in the theater before he went to Hollywood and became the 'tough guy'. Some of the old Broadway playbills show a very young Bogie with a fuller face and wavy hair. I found one playbill in a history of NY theater book I have with him in that same pose, only the cheekbones aren't quite the same in your picture. That could just be artistic interpretation by your father however. There's sadly very few pictures of Bogie, on the net, during his career on Broadway and those early pictures I found aren't posed shots and in all he's wearing a hat. I only found 3 in my books that were associated with any early theater work. One was for a musical but it doesn't give a name in the sparse information.

Louise Brooks was one of the first actresses that Bogie worked with, they were an "item" in the fan mags and appeared together at premiers during that era and became life long friends so the two of them together on your picture makes sense. She also wrote quite a bit about Bogie in her books. Here's a site that has a lot of pictures of both Brooks and Bogie, just plug their names in the search.

's another a site that has oodles of pictures and info on the stars of Hollywood in the 1920-30s. Maybe that will help too. The site is sort of a PITA to navigate but you'll find hundreds of studio pictures of the stars of that era. Val

Thank you, Val. Those websites contain such interesting information. I only wish I'd saved all the Photplay magazines I bought in the 40s-50s. Emily

I thought exactly the same thing. The mouth is not right but the rest is.

I think it's Greta Garbo and Ronald Coleman. I'd bet some money, but not a lot.

The eyes look a lot like this picture

Cindy

I'm going to try to respond to everyone's e-mails in one fell swoop!

Val, quite frankly, I have never had an interest in old movie/Broadway stars, but when I saw the picture my first thought was that the man was Humphrey Bogart. I had no idea who the woman was, and that Louise Brooks sure was a looker. On the other hand, Cindy, I do remember that my father thought Greta Garbo was "the cat's pajamas" so to speak. In either case, is it my imagination, or were women more beautiful 70 years ago?

Beverly, just curious, but when you changed your part from the right side to the left, did you also change from a Republican to a Democrat? (Of course you don't have to answer!)

Anyhoo...in conclusion...my son is NOT going to remove the picture from its frame. Both he and his artist friend, as well as my DH's brother who is a professional photographer, all agreed that it would be too risky. Kevin (my son) said that he'll proudly hand the framed picture as is and accept the defects as a natural aging process.

Thanks you all. As we Philadelphians say, Youse guys are great!

Liz

I think more effort was made to look good for photos than today as they were not the everyday occurrence they have now become. We see the images of such stars recorded at their "best" not in workaday clothes - I bet even Greta Garbo could look less than perfect, but the general public never got to see her like that.

Lizzy

No. ;-)