The Scarlet Pimpernel 1934 Vintage Merle Oberon Fancy Period Costume Photograph
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:1219036 | Size: 7.75" x 10" |
| Modified Item: No | Subject: Merle Oberon |
| Country/Region of Manufacture: United States | Film: The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) |
| Original/Reproduction: Original |
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ITEM: This is a vintage and original Alexander Korda Production / United Artists production still photograph from the 1934 British adventure film The Scarlet Pimpernel. The film's female lead, Merle Oberon, is pictured here in an elegant dress designed by Oliver Messel. This resplendent period costume features a voluminous skirt, a shawl tied over the shoulders, and a delicate hat placed atop Oberon's flowing raven tresses. An opulent view from the British film that matched all the glamour and luxuriousness of Hollywood films.
The strikingly beautiful Anglo-Indian actress began her career in British films. After some success, she traveled to Hollywood to make films for Samuel Goldwyn. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in "The Dark Angel" (1935). A traffic collision in 1937 caused facial injuries that could have ended her career, but she recovered and remained active in film and television until 1973.
Measures 7.75" x 10" on a glossy single weight paper stock.
Pencil notations on verso.
CONDITION: Fine condition with corner wear as well as general, scattered storage/handling wear throughout. Please use the included images as a conditional guide.
Guaranteed to be 100% vintage and original from Grapefruit Moon Gallery.
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Merle Oberon was born in Bombay, of mixed Welsh-Indian parentage, as Estelle "Queenie" Thompson. According to Michael Korda, she "became a feature of Bombay nightlife while still in her early teens and eventually made her way to England as the girlfriend of a wealthy young Englishman." In early-30s London, Oberon became a star at the famous Cafe de Paris and also the girlfriend of the popular (and somewhat notorious) Grenada-born jazz musician, Leslie "Hutch" Hutchinson.
The three Korda brothers, Alexander, Zoltan and Vincent, were Hungarian Jews who made careers in the movie business, first in London and later in Hollywood. Alexander Korda discovered Queenie in the tea line at the movie studio. He changed her name and cast her as Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII. (1933), the first British picture to be nominated for an Academy Award as Best Picture. Merle Oberon and Alexander Korda married in 1939 and she became the first Lady Korda when he was knighted.
In 1979 Vincent's son Michael Korda, now editor-in-chief at Simon & Schuster, published 'Charmed Lives', a history of the three flamboyant brothers and their actress wives. Twenty years later, in 1999, Michael wrote 'Another Life: A Memoir of Other People'. In the "Memoir" he says that he had been "more than usually circumspect on the subject of Merle" when he wrote 'Charmed Lives', but Merle's lawyer had reviewed the bound galley proofs and called. Korda, faced with a "time-consuming and expensive lawsuit, " took Oberon "virtually out of the book altogether."
In 1985 Michael published a fictionalized biography of his aunt, 'Queenie'.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Wylie Jones J.
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