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Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, Betty Davis, Clara Bow, Billie Burke. If you know who these names belong to, then you've had the pleasure of viewing some of the most beautiful vintage eye candy known. These are all actresses who made silent and/or early films.
Was Roger Daltry singing about Lillian Gish in the 1960s song "Pictures of Lilly", a famous Who tune about a young boy crushing on a photo of an early silent film star? He could have been. Who could blame him? Look at that face!
I"m going to get bit politically incorrect here for a minute, but sometimes you have to be truthful. Almost without doubt, the most collectible theme throughout history has been beautiful woman. From statues to paintings, from from movies to star fan photos, the collectors market has had the hots for pretty women.
The latter is what this article most specifically deals with, vintage movie star fan photos. Like many older collectibles, there's a lot of myth and speculation about these 5x7" and 7x9" photos that the stars sent out to fans.
Are they all really hand signed? They look to be. Are there many around, or are they scarce? Which ones are worth more than others and why?
I'm not going to get into those questions here for the following reasons.
First, outside of my admiration for these stars, I'm not really an expert in this field. Oh sure, I've had a lot of silent film collectibles, and I do love old paper, but I thought I'd serve my readers much better by putting you in the hands of someone who is much more able to provide useful information in this field, a friend of mine named Cliff Aliperti.
Cliff has one of the best sites on vintage ephemera that I've ever seen. At Thingsandotherstuff.com, you'll find excellent offerings of vintage fan photos, movie cards, magazines and much more.
Want to know more about this field of collecting before you buy? No problem, Cliff in not stingy with his knowledge. See his video posted below. Movie Collectibles #3 - Movie Fan Photos. In it, you'll find the answers to those questions I dodged 5 paragraphs above.
I was excited to hear Cliff reference in this video, old photos from the San Francisco Examiner, which is the parent to the Examiner.com.
There is so much more Cliff can help you with in this fascinating field of collectibles than he is able to show you in this 9 minute video. To learn more go to www.Thingsandotherstuff.com
If you still haven't gotten enough of your Hollywood fix, then you need to check out Liz Barrett's column. Don't blame her if your not up to speed on today's happenings in Hollywood. She has a unique, fresh perspective as the Celebrity News Examiner, that will amuse, delight and shock you, sometimes in the same article!
Thanks for reading,
AW
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