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Can you identify the actors in these vintage photos and what movies these are from????
PipestonePete
Posts: 1,925 ✭✭✭✭✭
I recently obtained 13 original vintage movie stills. I think the two Western stills are from the same movie. Maybe Jack Hoxie? The young lady looks like Evelyn Nelson, perhaps. I can't identify anyone in the Arabian scenes or the Navy scene. The photos come from the estate of Oliver Emert who was a set designer in Hollywood and won an Acadamy Award for his work in "To Kill A Mockingbird" . These photos all seem to predate that movie by several decades. Let me know if you recognize the actors or can identify what movie the stills are from. Thanks!
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The numbers at the bottom of the photos should identify the movie they came from.
The first 4 numbers identify the movie, and the numbers after the dash identify the specific photo.
So, on your first photo, the number is "5061-8". 5061 identifies the movie, and the 8 is that photo's number among other photos from the same movie (such as your second photo, numbered "5061-7").
If you can contact a movie historian, they should be able to help you.
Steve
Thanks, Steve. I am doing the research but the going is slow.
None of the actors look familiar to me. The photos/posing look like something from the 1920's. Interesting find.
Great photos. Most seem to be from the silent movie era based on the heavy makeup.
To add:
1) Aren't there apps on the Interwebs that can help ID faces or entire photos (if it is a known image)? I am the last person to know about this stuff but I have heard things...
2) With silent films (if that is what these are from), there are many that are "lost", meaning that we know they were made but there are no known copies existing today. That might complicate things a bit.
Thanks for the suggestion of the app thing, JBK. Unfortunately, I am in the same boat about knowing about those things. I have searched the web and am learning that even if the films haven't been lost over the years it can be a real chore trying to match the photos to the movie. It's a shame, too. I would think that the code numbers on these photos would make identifying them a breeze...but that's just not so.
I am sure I am wrong but I wonder if the Arabian movie actress is Theda Bara.
The picture of the boats almost looks like it is a film crew with their equipment.
I have seen movie still with those types of inventory #s - I assume it is a studio numbering system and I doubt it can be deciphered at this point, unless you could connect a series of stills from a certain movie to a particular # (the similar stills seem to share the same # above).
Tim Mix was a major silent film cowboy - I'd look at him first for the Western ones.
The one of the 3 sailors is bugging me as 1 or 2 of them almost look familiar.
I found a site called https://www.silentfilmstillarchive.com/
It has a code look up section but that kept freezing my phone so be careful...
There is also https://www.silentera.com/info/siteLinks.html but I could not access it from work...
I Googled "identifying silent movie stills"
Another brunette was Lillian Gish.
I read that Tom Mix did a large number of movies (85??) but most were destroyed in a fire. And, for what this is worth, I noticed that in all of the stills I found featuring Tom Mix he was wearing a cowboy hat with a more pointed top than the flatter style that this guy is wearing. The girl in the western still looks like Evelyn Nelson who only appeared in 15 movies before taking her own life. At least two of those movies were westerns done with Jack Hoxie. I have attached an image of her appearing in a western with Jack Hoxie. Might he be the cowboy in the two western stills I posted above?
Yes. coukd be.
While most of the original silent films are gone for good, many of the publicity photos that were made for them are probably still around. That is what these photos were. Is there a source to identify the films based on the numbers found on the photos?
No idea who they are but I'd bet the farm definitely silent movie era teens or twenties? Nice stuff.
COOKIES!
I don't believe that there is a source that encompasses all of the studios. To track the movie title down using the number codes, you ust know what studio the stills originated from to use the number tracking system. Even then, the sources are nowhere near to being complete and many of the
Pictures #2...#3...& #4 are from the 1929 serial "TARZAN THE TIGER" starring Frank Merrill and Natalie Kingston.