Bow - Lipped Flapper Sweetheart Madge Bellamy 1920s MM Autrey Photograph
Item History & Price
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ITEM: This is a 1920s vintage and original Max Munn Autrey studio portrait photograph of silent film actress Madge Bellamy. The star is a stylish flapper sweetheart in this fashionable glamour view that highlights her dark red, bow shaped lips and garden hat with large brim that comes down over her brunette, bobbed hair.
A popular leading lady in the 1920s, Bellamy's career declined with the introduction of sound and ended completely following a romantic scandal in 1943 when she was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon after firing at her former lover, wealthy lumber executive Albert Stanwood Murphy, three times.
Measures 8" x 10" on a glossy, double weight paper stock with keybook punch holes in the top of the photo.
Autrey's blind stamp in the bottom right corner of the photo. Fox Films ink stamp on verso.
CONDITION: This photograph is in fine condition with light, 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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Madge was born as Margaret Philpott in Texas. She got her start in theater working with a stock company in Denver. Put under a personal contract by a Broadway producer, Madge got her big break when she replaced Helen Hayes in the Broadway play "Dear Brutus". Her success as a stage actress led to her being signed by Fox Pictures. After appearing in a number of movies in the early 20's, Madge was best remembered for her performances in 'Lorna Doone (1922)' and 'The Iron Horse (1924)'. A strong will contrasted the screen image of innocence and led to disagreements over roles by the late 20's. Madge had been cast in a number of movies each year and was in Fox's first dialogue feature 'Mother Knows Best (1928)'. But her refusal to work in the film 'The Trial of Mary Dugan', which was bought expressly for her, led to her contract with Fox being terminated. It would be 3 years until she returned to the screen in the cult favorite 'White Zombie (1932)' with Bela Lugosi, but her career was not going anywhere as Madge was just one of those old silent stars. For the next few years, she appeared in a small number of low budget films and by 1936 her film career was over. In 1943, she would again appear in the headlines when she shot her lover, millionaire A. Stanford Murphy after he jilted her to marry another woman. She did marry two other men, Carlos Bellamy, whose last name she kept, and then to Logan F. Metcalf. Both marriages ended in divorce. She has no children.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tony Fontana
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