Colleen Moore Lost Silent Film Happiness Ahead 1928 Vintage 11x14 Lobby Card

Description

ITEM: This is a vintage and original First National Pictures lobby card advertising the 1928 silent drama film
Happiness Ahead
. The film was directed by William A. Seiter and starred Colleen Moore along with then husband-and-wife, Edmund Lowe and Lilyan Tashman.
In June 1944, Colleen Moore donated the original nitrate print of
Happiness Ahead
and several of her other films to the Museum of Modern Art. However, due to carelessness by the museum staff, the prints were improperly stored and deteriorated within a span of ten years. Consequently, the film is now considered lost. For the remainder of her life, Moore regretted having donated the nitrate prints of her films to the museum.
Small posters on card stock (usually 11" x 14" in a horizontal format), lobby cards were generally produced in sets of eight, intended for display in a theatre's foyer or lobby. A lobby set typically consists of one Title Card (a lobby card of special design usually depicting all key stars, listing credits, and intended to represent the entire film rather than a single scene) and seven Scene Cards (each depicting a scene from the movie). Lobby cards are no longer used in theatres today.
This lobby card measures 14" x 11".
Guaranteed to be 100% vintage and original from Grapefruit Moon Gallery.
More about Colleen Moore:
Silent screen star Colleen Moore became recognized as one of the premier movie flappers of the day, thanks to her Dutch bob hairstyle, daringly short skirts and vibrant performance in "Flaming Youth" (1923). However, because all of her films were shot in black and white, moviegoers were not entirely aware of the elfin actress' most distinctive feature: she possessed one blue eye and one brown eye. Moore began her career in a diverse array of pictures for several short-lived companies before attaining notoriety at First National Films, which produced her biggest hits. At the height of her fame, Moore was one of the highest paid performers in Hollywood, but unlike later flapper icons Clara Bow and Louise Brooks, she was the "safe" one who briefly flirted with danger, but ultimately came back home. Moore stopped making movies before she had even reached middle-age and later generations probably remembered her more for the incredibly elaborate dollhouse she had commissioned during the late 1920s, which went on to tour the United States, delighting children and collectors. Although she retired from the screen over 50 years before she died, Moore earned herself a place in cinematic and cultural lore for her flapper image, which was a potent symbol of the Roaring Twenties and what that new era of societal change represented for the women of America.
Colleen Moore was born Kathleen Morrison on Aug. 19, 1899 in Port Huron, MI. From a very young age, she was obsessed with movies and yearned to become an actress, using a discarded piano crate as a makeshift stage for her own little stock company of fellow children. The response she received from putting on various short performances in her backyard made Moore even more passionate about acting. Thanks to a well-connected relative who was owed a favor by renowned director D.W. Griffith, Moore was invited to Hollywood at age 15 and arrived with her ever-protective grandmother in tow. She made her film debut with a small part in "The Bad Boy" (1917) and had supporting assignments in several other features before getting her first lead role as "Little Orphan Annie" (1918). She received positive notice from critics and worked steadily in comedies, dramas, adventures and Westerns. In 1922, she was announced as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars, a distinction given by that organization to actresses felt to be on the verge of prominence.
Their faith in Moore would be proven spot-on the following year when she was cast in the drama, "Flaming Youth" (1923), about a teenage girl eager to experience an uninhibited lifestyle. While she does indeed take a walk on the wild side, there is no tragedy in the end as Moore learns the error of her ways and decides to lead a more respectable life. While not the first actress to play such a role, Moore's distinctive boyish hairstyle and above-the-knee skirt personified the era's ideal of a flapper, the wild new breed of young woman challenging social confines. With the climatic moral square-up in place to help deflect widespread censure, "Flaming Youth" (which now only exists in a one-reel fragment) turned into a significant box office success, and Moore married the film's producer, John McCormick. Her subsequent pictures, including "The Perfect Flapper" (1924), "Twinkletoes" (1926) and "Naughty but Nice (1927), also resonated with viewers, allowing the actress to negotiate an extremely lucrative contract with First National Films. Now earning ,500 per week and with a line of products bearing her name, Moore was an uncommonly shrewd investor and quickly accumulated a sizeable bank account that allowed her to weather the Great Depression and live in comfort during her golden years. Moore's marriage to McCormick - who developed a pronounced drinking problem and became abusive to her - eventually crumbled and they divorced in 1930.
She was still a box office attraction at the end of the silent era, and successfully transitioned into sound features, but Moore's career was not helped by the decision to take a four-year hiatus from movies to spend time with her next husband, a union that would also be short-lived. This diluting of her public image was compounded by the fact that aside from Preston Sturges' well-regarded drama "The Power and the Glory" (1933), the films were rather forgettable and did only modest business. Looking to move away from the sort of light comedies that brought her fame and further demonstrate her ability with dramatic roles, Moore took on the part of Hester Prynne, the beleaguered heroine of "The Scarlet Letter" (1934). While the independently produced adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel was quite faithful to its source, the film was made quickly and fairly cheaply and performed below expectations. In the wake of this disappointment and tired of the many long and arduous days she had spent on sets for nearly two decades, Moore decided to retire from film.
Even more so than most little girls, Moore had been an ardent admirer of dolls and at the height of her success in 1928, she threw herself into the construction of an eight-foot-tall dollhouse that she hoped would be the ultimate representation of a fairytale fantasy castle. A remarkable piece of craftsmanship, the structure was designed by noted artisans (including some movie industry personnel), featured genuine rubies, emeralds and diamonds in segments, and was in construction for seven years. By the time of its completion, the dollhouse - which consisted of 200 separate pieces and over 2,000 miniature components - had cost almost a half million dollars and was 81 square feet in size. Moore sent it out on a four year tour of major department stores throughout the country as a way of raising money for needy children, collecting 0,000 for various charities.
Starting in 1949, Moore's dollhouse was on display at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry and in 1976, she officially donated it to the institution, where it remained a major tourist attraction. The actress was awarded a star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 and her biography, Silent Star, hit stores in 1968, with Moore going on a 50-city promotional tour in support. She also penned How Women Can Make Money in the Stock Market the following year and a book celebrating her famous creation, Colleen Moore's Doll House, was published in 1979. Moore was also one of the Golden Age stars interviewed in the British documentary miniseries "Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film" (1980). Unfortunately, a significant number of her more than 60 films were lost as the nitrate film stock utilized during that period was not properly preserved and the negatives and prints disintegrated. Moore died of cancer on Jan. 25, 1988.
TCM | Turner Classic Movies Biography By John Charles
More about Edmund Lowe:
Tall, athletic leading man, the son of a judge. Lowe was initially slated for the priesthood but switched career paths on several occasions, at one time studying law, then teaching English and elocution. The latter led to his involvement in the acting profession. After briefly appearing in vaudeville, he joined the Oliver Morosco stock company in 1911 and made his Broadway debut six years later in 'The Brat'. Motion pictures soon beckoned, and, with his imposing physique and debonair manner, he quickly rose to becoming a popular matinée idol, the Tuxedo-attired star of such A-grade productions as East of Suez (1925).
In 1926, Lowe was cast, against type, in the role he would be identified with for the remainder of his career: that of the brash and profane Sergeant Harry Quirt in Maxwell Anderson's World War I drama What Price Glory (1926). He also featured in several sequels, invariably co-starring his on-screen adversary Victor McLaglen. After that, Lowe alternated between romantic lead (such as Dinner at Eight (1933)) and tough guy. In the latter category, he gave a strong central performance in the role of Specs Green in Dillinger (1945), one of the slickest productions turned out by little poverty row studio Monogram. The film elicited complaints from a few meekly-inclined civic groups and was even banned in Chicago for two years because of its 'brutal, sensational subject matter'. Irrespectively, it was a winner at the box office.
Edmund Lowe remained much sought-after by producers, having eased effortlessly into supporting roles once his days as a star were over. He worked under contract at 20th Century Fox (1924-27, 1929-32, 1934-35), Paramount (1932-33), MGM (1936) and Universal (1938-39). From the 1940's, he still played leads for smaller studios, free-lanced and later acted in television. Late in his career, he starred in his own half-hour series, Front Page Detective (1951), as a sleuthing newspaper columnist. In private life, Lowe had a reputation for impeccable attire and sartorial elegance. Not as well remembered today as he deserves to be, he is nonetheless immortalized with a star on the 'Walk of Fame' on Hollywood Boulevard.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: I.S.Mowis
More about Robert Elliott:
Richard Robert Elliott (October 9, 1879 – November 15, 1951) was an American character actor who appeared in 102 Hollywood films and television shows from 1916 to 1951.
He was born Richard Robert Elliott[citation needed] in 1879 in Columbus, Ohio. Most of his main roles were in the silent era, in the sound era he mostly performed in supporting roles and bit parts. On the stage he originated the Sergeant O'Hara character opposite Jeanne Eagels in Somerset Maugham's play Rain (1922).
Active in films from 1916, Elliott played Detective Crosby in the 1928 feature Lights of New York, the first all-talking sound film. One of his most notable roles was that of a Yankee officer playing cards with Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) in the film Gone With the Wind. The officer says of Rhett, "It's hard to be strict with a man who loses money so pleasantly."
Robert Elliott was married to Ruth Thorp (1889–1971) from 1920 until his death in 1951, aged 72, in Los Angeles, California.
Biography From Wikipedia