1920s

Vintage: Pandora’s Box (1929)

8 April 2019 0

Pandora’s Box is a 1929 German silent melodrama film based on Frank Wedekind’s plays Erdgeist (Earth Spirit, 1895) and Die Büchse der Pandora (1904). Lulu (Louise Brooks) is the mistress of a respected, middle-aged newspaper publisher, Dr. Ludwig Schön (Fritz Kortner). One day, she is delighted when an old man, her “first patron”, Schigolch (Carl Goetz), shows up at the…

Vintage: Portraits of Bebe Daniels – Silent Movie Star

5 April 2019 0

Bebe Daniels (1901 – 1971) was an American actress. In the 1920s, Daniels was under contract with Paramount Pictures. She made the transition from child star to adult in Hollywood by 1922 and by 1924 was playing opposite Rudolph Valentino in Monsieur Beaucaire. Following this she was cast in a number of light popular films, namely Miss Bluebeard, The Manicure…

Vintage: The Wind (1928)

2 April 2019 0

The Wind is a 1928 pre-code American silent romantic drama film directed by Victor Sjöström. An impoverished young woman named Letty Mason (Lillian Gish) travels west by train from Virginia to live at her cousin Beverly’s isolated ranch in Sweetwater, Texas. On the way, she is bothered by the constantly blowing wind. Fellow passenger and cattle buyer Wirt Roddy (Montagu…

Vintage: Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

27 March 2019 0

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans is a 1927 American silent romantic comedy-drama directed by German director F. W. Murnau (in his American film debut) and starring George O’Brien, Janet Gaynor, and Margaret Livingston. A vacationing Woman from the City (Margaret Livingston) lingers in a lakeside town for weeks. After dark, she goes to a farmhouse where the Man (George…

Vintage: The General (1926)

22 March 2019 0

The General is a 1926 American silent comedy film released by United Artists. Western & Atlantic Railroad train engineer Johnnie Gray (Buster Keaton) is in Marietta, Georgia to see one of the two loves of his life, his fiancée Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack)—the other being his locomotive, The General—when the American Civil War breaks out. He hurries to be first…

Vintage: Portraits of Dorothy Gish – Silent Movie Star

5 March 2019 0

Dorothy Gish (1898 – 1968) was an American actress. In Hearts of the World (1918), a film about World War I and the devastation of France, Dorothy found her first foothold, striking a personal hit in a comedy role that captured the essence of her sense of humor. As the “little disturber”, a street singer, her performance was the comic…

Vintage: American Beauty Queens (1920s)

21 February 2019 0

Beauty contests became more popular in the 1880s. In 1888, the title of ‘beauty queen’ was awarded to an 18-year-old Creole contestant at a pageant in Spa, Belgium. All participants had to supply a photograph and a short description of themselves to be eligible to enter and a final selection of 21 was judged by a formal panel. Such events…

Vintage: Carnival Costumes in Berlin (1928)

17 February 2019 0

While Germany’s carnival traditions are mostly celebrated in the predominantly Roman Catholic southern and western parts of the country, the Protestant North traditionally knows a festival under the Low Saxon names Fastelavend, Fastelabend and Fastlaam. This name has been imported to Denmark as Fastelavn and is related to Vastenoavond in the Low-Saxon-speaking parts of the Netherlands. It is traditionally connected…

Vintage: Portraits of Marion Davies – Silent Movie Star

5 February 2019 0

Marion Davies (1897 – 1961) was an American film actress. By the mid-1920s, however, Davies’ career was often overshadowed by her relationship with William Randolph Hearst and their social life at San Simeon and Ocean House in Santa Monica. The latter was dubbed by Colleen Moore “the biggest house on the beach—the beach between San Diego and Vancouver”. According to…

Vintage: Bugatti Cars (1920s and 1930s)

3 February 2019 0

Founder Ettore Bugatti was born in Milan, Italy, and the automobile company that bears his name was founded in 1909 in Molsheim located in the Alsace region which was part of the German Empire from 1871 to 1919. The company was known both for the level of detail of its engineering in its automobiles, and for the artistic manner in…

Vintage: Marlene Dietrich, Leni Riefenstahl and Anna May Wong at the Pierre Ball in Berlin, 1928

1 February 2019 0

Two beautiful and ambitious Berliners, born just eight months apart—Marie Magdalene Dietrich, on December 27, 1901; Bertha Helene Amalie Riefenstahl, on August 22, 1902—both bound to shape the fantasies and touch the histories of their time. Two girls growing up amid the fear and chaos of the Great War, two artists committed to impossible ideals of physical beauty, two women…

Vintage: Portraits of Fay Wray (1920s)

18 January 2019 0

Fay Wray (1907 – 2004) was a Canadian-American actress most noted for starring as Ann Darrow in the 1933 film King Kong. In 1923, Wray appeared in her first film at the age of 16, when she landed a role in a short historical film sponsored by a local newspaper. In the 1920s, Wray landed a major role in the…

Vintage: Portraits of Gloria Swanson – Silent Movie Star

5 January 2019 0

Gloria Swanson (1899 – 1983) was a star in the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille. Throughout the 1920s, Swanson was Hollywood’s top box office magnet. Swanson starred in dozens of silent films and was nominated for the first Academy Award in the Best Actress category. She…

Vintage: Clémentine Delait – French bearded lady

19 December 2018 0

Clémentine Delait (1865 – 1939) was a French bearded lady who kept a café. Delait and her husband kept a café in Thaon-les-Vosges, in Lorraine, France. According to later accounts, Clémentine Delait visited a carnival, saw a bearded woman with some stubble and boasted that she could grow a better beard herself. Her husband bet 500 francs to back her.…

Vintage: Portraits of Mary Pickford – Silent Movie Star

15 December 2018 0

Mary Pickford (1892 – 1979) was known in her prime as “America’s Sweetheart” and the “girl with the curls”. She was one of the Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood and a significant figure in the development of film acting. Pickford was one of the earliest stars to be billed under her own name, and was one of the most popular…

Vintage: Everyday Life in China (1921)

29 November 2018 0

These found photos from motohakone who bought at a flea market in Cannes, France in 1982. Photos were taken by a French speaking person when he made a trip to China (Shanghai, Suzhou, and Beijing) in October 1921. via motohakone

Vintage: Portraits of Clara Bow – Silent Movie Star

25 October 2018 0

Clara Bow (1905 – 1965) was an American actress who rose to stardom in silent film during the 1920s and successfully made the transition to “talkies” after 1927. Bow appeared in 46 silent films and 11 talkies.

Vintage: Portraits of Lucette Desmoulins by Biederer Brothers (1920s)

17 October 2018 0

Lucette Desmoulins was a French actress known for a few movies: Le bossu (1934), Un soir de réveillon (1933) and 77 rue Chalgrin (1931). She also appeared in muscials: Ma Femme (1927), Flossie (1929), Arsène Lupin, banquier (1930), Un soir de réveillon (1932), Loulou et ses boys (1933). Below her photos when she posed for Jacques and Charles Biederer.

Vintage: Portraits of Rudolph Valentino (1920s)

10 October 2018 0

Rudolph Valentino, byname of Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina d’Antonguolla, Alfonso also spelled Alfonzo, Raffaello also spelled Raffaelo, Pierre also spelled Pietro, and Filibert also spelled Filiberto (1895 – 1926), Italian-born American actor who was idolized as the “Great Lover” of the 1920s. When Guglielmi was 11, his father, a veterinarian, died from malaria. After being rejected…