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Here’s another mystery photo I found in Mack Sennett’s file. Update: Alas, these young women aren’t identified on the back of the photo. It was supposedly published in The Times on June 27, 1948, and dates from 1922, but I can’t locate the picture in The Times’ archival pages on ProQuest, so I'm guessing that it was pulled from later editions. The photo appears several places on the Net, but none of them has any identification. I also went through Google’s news archives for 1922, but couldn’t find anything. A true mystery photo! On the jump, Edward Cline describes the origins of Sennett’s Bathing Beauties in a Feb. 26, 1924, Times story. As with the Keystone Kops, it was an accident (Sennett tried to slip his actors into a Shriners parade for some comedy scenes and was chased by the police). Update 2: I’m always impressed by the knowledge and dedication of the Daily Mirror “brain trust.” Mary Mallory writes: Checked almost 30 envelopes of photos of Sennett bathing beauties, and we don't have that one. I saw Brent Walker last night, and he says he doesn't really have any idea either. Thanks, Mary! |
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ladailymirror.com 
many stars got their start as Mack Sennett’s bathing beauties. The seated girl looks like Gloria Swanson or “too perfect” Barbara LaMarr
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4th from left, mae murray?
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Definitely Gloria Swanson in her early life as a Sennett beauty. Mack sure had the eye for life’s two most important qualities. Laughter and form.
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None of these people are Gloria Swanson, LaMarr, or Murray. LaMarr and Murray never worked for Sennett.
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That’s not Swanson. This is her as a Beauty with Marie Prevost:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_94wGm5Prdv0/Sn-I-es8r5I/AAAAAAAAEPQ/_VVep1j-j3g/s400/Marie+Prevost+Gloria++Swanson.jpg
And here with Phyllis Haver:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_99U_pO3l2-Y/SmOswctSpsI/AAAAAAAABr0/XpdxgQrtWFE/s400/gloriaswansonPhyllishaver1917.jpg
None of these Beauties are the more famous ones, as far as I can tell — with the caveat that identifying the Beauties is really hard.
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Argh, this is tough. These are all WILD guesses. You’d better have the answers for these! *shakes fist in mock rage*
1st She looks familiar, but I have no idea who it is. Darn that apple!
2nd Marcel Morell? Myrtle Lind?
She’s hard to see, but the 3rd MIGHT be Gonda Durand. The only pics I have seen of her are in a swimming cap, so it’s hard to tell.
The 4th Beauty looks like Josephine Banks or Maude Wayne.
It’s possible that the 5th one (middle in the 2nd enlargement) is Marie Prevost, but I really really doubt it. Could be Myrtle Lind or Harriet Hammond with her hair up and dark.
The 6th really looks like Evelyn Fransciso. She’s the one I’m most certain about, comparatively speaking.
The one on the ground might be Edith Valk.
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Perhaps if you sent the photo to the Herrick Library, they might have something:
http://www.oscars.org/library/index.html
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Looking at the background, it appears that the shot was taken along Pacific Coast Highway and what could be a spot somewhere between Sunset Blvd. and Malibu Beach. More than likely, closer to the area what is now Topanga Canyon Blvd.
BTW. One of these lovely ladies bears a striking resemblence to Loretta Young.
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Alas, these young women aren’t identified on the back of the photo.
Noooo! I didn’t have a lot of hope, but a girl’s gotta dream.
Also, that Shriner’s story never gets old. It’s funnier than half of Sennett’s comedies.
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The background certainly could be PCH, but with the absence of any ocean and its proximity to the Sennett Studios the location could be an early incarnation of the Silver Lake reservoir substituting for the beach.
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found another shot of the seated girl. in the linked photo, she is second from the left. http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/3224952/Hulton-Archive
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