Betty Compson The Time, The Place And The Girl 1929 Playful Jazz Age Photograph
Item History & Price
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ITEM: This is a vintage and original production still photograph from the 1929 Warner Bros. musical film The Time, the Place and the Girl. The film stars Betty Compson who is the picture of Roaring Twenties jazz baby flapper cutie as she strums on a ukulele in this playful still with her costar, silent film comic Bert Roach. Since the 1970s, the film has been considered lost, with only its soundtrack remaining.
An actress and a film producer, Betty Compson was most famous during the silent film and early sound era. She is best known for her performances in The Docks of New York and The Barker, the latter earning her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Measures 10" x 7.75" on a glossy, double weight paper stock.
Previous collector's ink stamp and various handwritten notations on verso.
CONDITION: This photograph is in fine condition with softening and creasing at the corners, light edge wear, and general storage/handling wear. Please use the included images as a conditional guide.
Guaranteed to be 100% vintage and original from Grapefruit Moon Gallery.
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A mining engineer's daughter, blond, blue-eyed Betty Compson began in show business playing violin in a Salt Lake City vaudeville establishment for $15 a week. Following that, she went on tour, accompanied by her mother, with an act called 'the Vagabond Violinist'. Aged eighteen, she appeared on the Alexander Pantages Theatre Circuit, again doing her violin solo vaudeville routine, and was spotted there by comedy producer Al Christie. Christie quickly changed her stage name from Eleanor to Betty. For the next few years, she turned out a steady stream of one-reel and two-reel slapstick comedies, frequently paired with Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle.
In 1919, Betty was signed by writer-director George Loane Tucker to co-star opposite Lon Chaney as Rose in The Miracle Man (1919). The film was a huge critical and financial success and established Betty Compson as a major star at Paramount (under contract from 1921 to 1925). One of the more highly paid performers of the silent screen, her weekly earnings exceeded $5000 a week at the peak of her career. She came to own a fleet of luxury limousines and was able to move from a bungalow in the hills overlooking Hollywood to an expensive mansion on Hollywood Boulevard. From 1921, Betty also owned her own production company. She went on to make several films in England between 1923 and 1924 for the director Graham Cutts.
During the late 1920's, Betty appeared in a variety of dramatic and comedic roles. She received good reviews acting opposite George Bancroft as a waterfront prostitute in The Docks of New York (1928), and was even nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of a carnival girl in The Barker (1928). She gave a touching performance in The Great Gabbo (1929), directed by her then husband James Cruze, as the assistant of a demented ventriloquist (Erich von Stroheim), with whom she is unhappily in love. That same year, she appeared in RKO's first sound film, Street Girl (1929), and was briefly under contract to that studio, cast in so-called 'women's pictures' such as The Lady Refuses (1931) and Three Who Loved (1931).
The stature of her roles began to diminish from the mid 1930s, though she continued to act in character parts until 1948. Betty's personal fortunes also declined. This came about primarily as a result of her marital contract to the alcoholic Cruze, whom she had divorced in 1929. For several years, Cruze had failed to pay his income tax and Betty (linked financially to Cruze) ended up being sued by the federal government to the tune of $150, 000. This forced her to sell her Hollywood villa, her cars and her antiques. In later years, Betty Compson developed her own cosmetics label and ran a business in California producing personalized ashtrays for the hospitality industry.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: I.S.Mowis
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Chubby silent film comic Bert Roach began on the New York stage at the age of 17. In 1911, he headlined in the two-act musical farce Louisiana Lou and then spent several years in stock as a lead tenor. Two years later, he made his screen debut at Keystone in Mack Sennett's Fatty's Magic Pants (1914). From then on, he remained busily engaged as a utility player, tallying up an impressive 350-plus acting credits. Often sporting an oversized Germanic moustache, Bert was a natural for silent slapstick. He had recurring roles in several Alice Howell vehicles at Universal in the mid-20s. In early talkies, he was employed by both Al Christie and Hal Roach (no relation) where he often showed his penchant for playing inebriates. He also had a good line in looking scared out of his wits, which he demonstrated to effect in Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932). On rare occasions, he was featured support in A-grade product like San Francisco (1936) (Freddie Duane) or The Man in the Iron Mask (1939) (Athos). For the most part, however, he was merely glimpsed in the background as nameless bartenders, stage hands, drunks and 'fat men'. Bert was one of many veteran silent comics who came together in 1947 to appear in the (inaccurate) Pearl White biopic The Perils of Pauline (1947), starring Betty Hutton.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: I.S.Mowis
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