The sisters - rare candids from the late 20's - MYSTERY SOLVED!!

The internet is a GREAT invention. I mean, what in the hell did we do as far as interacting with people from around the world before it? About 24 hours ago I posted this blog and also alerted the members of the WONDERFUL forum Nitrateville as to it being published. In that time the cowboy actor was identified, but more importantly, the two sisters have been identified.

When I initially wrote this blog I had ABSOLUTELY NO idea who the two sisters in the photographs were. I could see that one of the sisters names was "Venezia" but the other I had trouble with. I asked some friends what the mystery name was, and eventually we came back with the same one, "Thalia". On Thursday I published this information and also went over to Nitrateville and asked the members to help me identify some of the people who were pictured but not identified. Never in a million years would I expect Ian Elliot to get back to me and write this:

Louie, is "Thalia" possibly "Italia" or "Ytalia"? The 1930 US census has a Venezia Frandi, recorded age 28, and an Italia Frandi, age 26, living in Los Angeles. Birthplace, Spain; occupation for both, "extra actress".

AMAZING!!! Looking at the name now I see it all plainly before me:

MYSTERY SOLVED!!! A HUGE hat tip to Ian for this information!

A quick google search also found that Venezia Frandi (age 7), Italia Frandi (age 6), Elena Frandi (age 29), and Antonio Frandi (age 41) arrived on Ellis Island on October 21st, 1906 on the ship Liguria. The ship sailed on October 3rd 1906 from Genoa, Italy and that their final destination was Mexico City.

This collection of 40 or so images posted here are all I have, complete and unedited. Some of the stills have captions on the back and anything relevant I included as a caption. Mostly, though, on the back is written the sister and who the person in the picture is, but on most, nothing is written at all and that's where some of the mystery lies. The photos are trimmed and some written words on the reverse are cut off, so with the translations I can only give what I have access to. So, enough of my ramble, let's meet them:

Italia on the set of "The Loves of Carmen" (1927)

Venezia with an unknown man

literal translation on the back "With many you see your daughter.
Italia
Los Angeles, Calif.
September 12th, 1924"

the sisters on the set of an unknown film

the person who sold me these pictures claimed that this was Rudolph Valentino with one of the sisters, but I don't know enough about Valentino to give an educated guess. Anyone know for sure?

***UPDATE*** Hala over at the wonderful Forget The Talkies! website was the first to contact me and let me know that the man IS NOT Valentino. Since then many others have chimed in with the same consensus.

my personal favorite of the whole bunch where the sisters are alone.

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OK, so here we go with the candids of the sisters on film sets. First off, we have a number of images from the 1927 Fox film "The Loves of Carmen" and here we have three pics of the sisters with female lead Dolores del Rio:

.......with Victor McLaglen lurking in the background

similar to the one at the beginning, here's Italia on the set


three with the film's male lead, Don Alvarado:

on the back "Don Alvarado star of cinema and Mexican nationality"

a couple with Victor McLaglen during a lunch break:

two with the man who directed the film, Raoul Walsh:

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The next round come from the 1927 film "7th Heaven". Here is Venezia with assistant director Lew Borzage (brother of Frank):

2 pictures of the sisters with then star (an future director) David Butler:

Venezia with Charles Farrell:

........and Italia with him, too:

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Next up we have some photos from the 1928 Janet Gaynor & Charles Farrell vehicle "Street Angel". All of the photos on the back mention the filming location being Catalina Island. Here Venezia talks to the film's director Frank Borzage:
Venezia with 3 extras:
the girls with male lead Charles Farrell:

Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell and Venezia:

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Italia with cowboy film star Tim McCoy (tip of the derby to Mr. Penfold over at Nitrateville)

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These come from 1926's "The Silver Treasure". Here the girls are with the guy who plays Sotillo the bandit in the film, Lou Tellegen:

and four of someone the women seem REALLY fond of. The star of the movie, George O'Brien:

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Lon Chaney looks REALLY happy to be photographed on the set of what I believe to be "The Unknown", made in 1927 for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer:

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written on the reverse: "This photograph was taken in "United Studios" when we were working with the lions. The actor that is with me is Charles Howard Meredith. Doesn't it appear that he is very tall? about six feet and two inches.
In this movie you can't see us for anything, so I won't even tell you to say the name.Venezia.
October 24, 1924"

From R. Michael Pyle on Nitrateville: "The photograph of Venezia with Charles Meredith is probably on the set of "In Hollywood with Potash and Perlmutter" (aka "So This Is Hollywood" in UK) released in 1924, directed by Alfred Green." Thank you, Mr. Pyle!

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and to finish up, here we have the girls clowing around with Lou Tellegen again. This time on the set of the Vitagraph Corporation film, "The Redeeming Sin" (1925)

Johnny Mack Brown - for the ladies

Since I usually post photographs here of El Brendel and women, I decided to give my female fans a treat by posting these pictures of Johnny Mack Brown. Most of these stills of the actor come from the time before he made westerns exclusively. The film "70,000 Witnesses" (1932) is represented here in 5 photos (the ones of Johnny in the football uniform) and since I am on vacation now and left my still numbering book at home, I have NO idea where the others are from, so if you know, please pipe in!!

Sexy time Saturday #7 - swimsuit issue

Here we are with another round of everyone's favorite, Sexy time Saturday. This time we have postcards (gleaned from my friend Rich) or some VERY adorable ladies in their great, and sexy, swimsuits.

And yes, I do realize that their names are printed on the postcards themselves. I encoded the names below the photos as clickable links in case you wanted to find out more information about the stars pictured. So sit back, sip a mojito or sangria (like I am doing on vacation), and enjoy these pics!

Estelle Bradley and Marian Shockley

Lita Chevret

Sally Blane

Leila Hyams

Evalyn Knapp

Dorothy Lee

Joan Marsh

Winnie Lightner

Joan Marsh, again

Conchita Montenegro

Lilian Roth

Raquel Torres and Mary Doran

Marion Shilling

Helen Wright (I think the link is the correct one)

Alice White

Large format photo - Charles Ray

Summer is leading me to be a bit lazy, so I have been posting more photos than usual instead of writing. I do have one written post coming after I get back from Capitolfest so look for some new writing in the next two weeks.

This large format still is of Charles Ray from an unknown silent film. If anyone can help with the title, I'd love to know it.

El Brendel - rollerskate FAIL

These shots are pre-production stills from the lost 1930 feature "The Golden Calf" (which I previously blogged about and then offered up some more stills). From left to right we have Richard Keene, El, and the ever wonderful Marjorie White.

It appears El has trouble staying on his feet, but Marjorie seems to have gotten the most hurt in the "end"!

El Brendel comes to Capitolfest!

In 2009, I thought the film going public were lucky when the brains behind Cinefest picked the 1933 El Brendel feature "The Last Trail" to screen last March, but JUST IMAGINE my utter surprise when I got word the SUPERB film festival, Capitolfest, picked El’s flick, “Movietone Follies of 1930” to be included in the schedule at their 7th annual fest to take place August 7th-9th in lovely downtown Rome, New York!! HOO-RAYY!!!

This year will mark my fourth journey to what I consider one of the top film shows in the United States. Billing itself as “a vacation, not a marathon” the leisurely pace of the festival and the fact the films shown are screened in 35mm (with the exception of the “pre-glow” show on Friday night), make this a CERTAIN stop for me every year since I found out about from my friend Rich Finegan.

So just what are they showing this year? Well, if you want to see a full schedule you can go here, but for me here is what I am excited about seeing:

Of course, the big draw for me is the rarely screened “Movietone Follies of 1930” starring this website’s namesake, but also featuring diminutive firecracker Marjorie White in one of her early roles. Miss White is probably best known to the general public today from her final film appearance in The Three Stooges first short for Columbia, 1934’s “Women Haters” (as Larry Fine’s new bride. Marjorie is in the above photo on the right), but film fans know her better for the roles she did at Fox Films which always showed off her wild enthusiasm and sex appeal. Her untimely death in a car accident in 1935 brought her the cult status she enjoys today.

The Charley Chase 1939 short, “The Awful Goof” (a scene above), was one of four shorts the comedian did for Harry Cohn at Columbia that was NOT released in the package distributed by Screen Gems for television in 1959. It is my understanding that this film has only had one other public screening since its original release date.

Since this year’s Capitolfest is a tribute to Boris Karloff, what a better way to honor the man by showing a rarely seen Universal from the same year he made “Frankenstein”. 1931’s “Graft” is not one I can comment on because, frankly, I haven’t seen it and haven’t heard much about it, but I am excited to view it !


The 1928 First National feature, “The Barker” (above) looks enticing from the one still I have for it (YOW-ZA Dorothy Mackaill!). The note on the film, from the Capitolfest website, has a great mini-review from the December 15th, 1928 issue of Harrison’s Reports that states, “The picture has been done exceedingly well. One, in fact, is made to feel as if seeing real people and not mere shadows.” PLUS, it has an early appearance by Douglas Fairbanks Jr., so that should rope you in.

Also on the bill are an assortment of shorts, most famously from the Vitaphone series (including Pat O'Brien in 1930’s “Crimes Square”) and an intriguing mysterious one from Germany’s UFA Studios called “The Eagle’s Nest” that even the people putting on the show don’t know what it is!

I urge anyone who is interested these type of films to try to make the trip to Rome and check the festival out and even if you can’t make it drop them an email and let them know that we ALL appreciate the good work they are doing by sharing these treasures to a whole lot of adoring fans.