Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Photo Hunting at Cinecon

  Last week I attended my first Cinecon, the long-running movie convention held in Hollywood (this was the 51st one).  While the main focus of the convention is the great films that are shown at the historic Egyptian Theatre, I was equally interested in the dealers rooms, with the hope of finding a few Evans photographs to add to my collection.  Although there were far fewer dealers than one would find at the Cinevent convention here in Columbus, there was one who was selling vintage photos.  Out of the dozens of Evans pictures they had, I purchased seven.  Some I bought because they caught my eye, others because the actor was of interest.

The first one I bought (I made 3 buying trips over the weekend) was this one of Louise Fazenda.  I had been hoping to find a copy of this particular photo, so that's why I got it first.  It most likely dates from 1917-18.


 Another full-body portrait I purchased was this one of Laura La Plante.  This one dates from the beginning of her career when she was working for Christie Studio, again around 1917-18.


For some forgotten reason, I had hoped to find a photo of Pauline Frederick.  Perhaps it was because there's something timeless about her.  In any case, of the two that I found, this is the one I came away with.


Wallace Beery was another one on my want list.  Nothing fancy, but that's a great mustache.


Although I wasn't looking for a photo of Wanda Hawley, it was those ubiquitous pine branches that won me over.  They also appeared in photos of Marie Prevost, Mary Pickford, and Mary Miles Minter, among many others.


The last two I bought for aesthetic reasons.  Evans was at his best when he played with light.  This striking photo of Gladys Brookwell seems to be lit with sunlight.


Finally, here is a photo of Monroe Salisbury in his costume for the movie The Barbarian.  Just one light, but it works perfectly.


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