Movieland Mystery Photo

Posted on November 22, 2013 by lmharnisch

Nov. 22, 2013, Mystery Photo

And for Friday, a mystery chap, courtesy of Christopher McPherson.

Thursday’s mystery guest, Alice Joyce, was identified by Laura, Mary Mallory, Eve Golden, Joan Myers, Bob Hansen, Kent, Mike Hawks and Maedez. Congrats!

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About lmharnisch

I am retired from the Los Angeles Times
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21 Responses to Movieland Mystery Photo

  1. Gregory Moore's avatar Gregory Moore says:
    November 22, 2013 at 7:17 am

    Nick Stuart!!

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  2. DeweyWebb's avatar DeweyWebb says:
    November 22, 2013 at 7:18 am

    Wink Martindale Sr.

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  4. Patrick's avatar Patrick says:
    November 22, 2013 at 8:34 am

    Friday = Nick Stuart, bandleader and perennial college boy in the movies.

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  5. June Blanchard's avatar June Blanchard says:
    November 22, 2013 at 9:28 am

    William Haines?

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  6. Mike Hawks's avatar Mike Hawks says:
    November 22, 2013 at 10:09 am

    Nick Stuart

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  7. Laura's avatar Laura says:
    November 22, 2013 at 10:25 am

    Nick Stuart

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  9. Suzanne Annette Stone's avatar Suzanne Annette Stone says:
    November 22, 2013 at 2:39 pm

    Marian Michael Morrison, AKA John Wayne?

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  10. Gregory Moore's avatar Gregory Moore says:
    November 22, 2013 at 4:59 pm

    I’m fairly sure this photo of Nick Stuart was taken by Lansing Brown–the portrait photographer/best friend of Russ Columbo–who accidentally shot Columbo to death in 1934. I have another Stuart portrait that looks similar to this sitting that does have the Brown stamp on it. Wonder whether your picture has his stamp as well?

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    • lmharnisch's avatar lmharnisch says:
      November 23, 2013 at 7:15 am

      Right you are. Let me take a look at the scan.

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    • lmharnisch's avatar lmharnisch says:
      November 23, 2013 at 7:22 am

      Strangely enough, I don’t seen any mark at all on the scan, which is quite curious. I would imagine that whatever studio took the portrait would have marked it. For all I know, this was a mass-market photo for fans that might not have had a mark, or had the mark removed before mass duplication.

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  11. Mary Mallory's avatar Mary Mallory says:
    November 23, 2013 at 7:49 am

    There were different kinds of marks. On the verso (back), photographers would stamp their name in ink. Sometimes there are also stamps from the studio, or that from the Production Code, saying the image passed. On the recto (front), photographers could emboss their names into the white border of their prints, actually sign their name in ink on the print itself, or sign the negative in black ink, which reads white when printed.

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  12. Don Danard's avatar Don Danard says:
    November 23, 2013 at 12:24 pm

    Re the comment about Russ Columbo. I was always under the impression that Columbo accidentally shot himself. I haven’t delved into the story but this is the first time I’ve read that someone else shot him. So Larry, there’s the next thing for you dig into!!

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  13. Don Danard's avatar Don Danard says:
    November 24, 2013 at 7:57 am

    Regarding Russ Columbo. Just looked up the story about his death and according to that, he didn’t shoot himself, it was accidental. So I stand corrected.

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  14. Gregory Moore's avatar Gregory Moore says:
    November 25, 2013 at 3:55 am

    As a dedicated “Russ Columbologist” (I wrote and produced the ‘unofficial’ Columbo 100th Centenary celebration in NYC in 2008), the tragically brief life of Russ Columbo, to me, is one of the most interesting tales ever to come out of Hollywood, and yet–though he stood poised on the precipice of major stardom in 1934, when his best friend, photographer Lansing Brown, accidentally shot him in the face with an antique dueling pistol–today, his tale is nearly forgotten today. Two days before his untimely death (at the age of 26), he attended the premiere (at the Hollywood Pantages Theater) of his first “above-the-title”-billed film (a minor Universal Studios musical called “Wake Up and Dream”) with his steady girlfriend (some said, fiancee), Carole Lombard. He had his own weekly radio show, had toured the country with his own orchestra and was considered to be Bing Crosby’s neck-and-neck rival (the tabloids of the day invented a bitter rivalry between the two, called “The Battle of the Baritones”–though, in fact, they were friends–and Crosby even served as one of Columbo’s pallbearers at his hugely attended funeral at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament on Sunset Boulevard. Conspiracy theories have been proffered through the years–including the most prevalent one, that Crosby himself had him “rubbed out”–but after much research (on both Coasts), I’m convinced it was nothing more than a mindless accident. His short life was touched at almost every turn with enormous tragedy (the ‘final’ one, of course, being Lombard’s own tragic death 8 years later) and fascinating sidebars–including the fact that his own sickly, elderly mother was never told of his death, though she survived him by 10 years (!). The surviving Columbo (nee Colombo) children created elaborate ruses to fool her into believing that he was on an “extended European tour”. They even staged fake radio programs, playing his records, and sending faked postcards to her, supposedly from Russ and Carole from around the world–a ruse in which Lombard was complicit as well. If you’re into obscure, fascinating tales of Hollywood (and if you’re reading this, you likely are!), do a little Googling of Russ Columbo. I’m amazed a film of his life has never been made!

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