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Photographs from Harold Lloyd’s ‘Rogues’ Gallery’ to Cross Block at Julien’s

Harold Lloyd, maybe most recognized from the iconic image taken from his film “Safety Last”—in which he hangs from a clock face high on a skyscraper—collected inscribed photographs from celebrities of the 1920s and ’30s. That collection will be up for auction on Sept. 23 at Julien’s Auctions.
Harold Lloyd, maybe most recognized from the iconic image taken from his film “Safety Last”—in which he hangs from a clock face high on a skyscraper—collected inscribed photographs from celebrities of the 1920s and ’30s. That collection will be up for auction on Sept. 23 at Julien’s Auctions.

On September 23, 2016, Julien’s Auctions will have the privilege of auctioning the photographs of Harold Lloyd’s Rogues’ Gallery. The images, personally inscribed to Lloyd, are a Who’s Who of the 1920s and 30s. The photographs include athletes, presidents, personalities of the day, as well as Lloyd’s professional friends including actors, directors and studio heads.

Lloyd began collecting signed photographs in 1927. In 1937, Lloyd’s wife Mildred Davis Lloyd and her good friend Marion Davies concocted a plan for a Christmas present that would extend his collection. Mrs. Lloyd and Davies asked Lloyd’s friends to send their favorite portraits of themselves, inscribed to Harold. Hundreds of these gifts poured in for Lloyd and eventually lined the hall of a tunnel passageway in Lloyd’s Greenacres mansion in Beverly Hills that became known as the Rogues’ Gallery.

Harold Lloyd looking at his collection
Harold Lloyd perusing his collection in what became known as Rogues’ Gallery.

Lloyd was once the most popular comedian in film; a silent film star who embodied “the everyman” and “the boy next door,” in his horn-rimmed glasses. Many remember Lloyd from the iconic image taken from his film Safety Last, in which he hangs from a clock face high on a skyscraper. The image earned Lloyd the moniker of “The Man on the Clock.” As an actor, Lloyd was prolific, he performed in over 200 comedies and, at one time, he was more popular and better paid than his contemporaries, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. By the mid-1920s Lloyd was a millionaire and owned his own film studio.

The Lloyd’s built their luxurious Greenacres estate in the late 1920s. It contained 44 rooms in 32,000 square feet and cost more than two million dollars to build, making it the most expensive celebrity estate built in its time. According to biographer Tom Dardis, Greenacres employed nine indoor staff, including a cook, assistants, nurses and a houseboy and an outdoor staff of a pool boy, two chauffeurs and 18 gardeners. The house was designed with an underground tunnel that led from the main house to the game room. Harold had once planned to build a bowling alley there, but instead, the passageway became the Rogues’ Gallery.

Contemporary bidders may not be familiar with the luminaries of the 1920s and 30s who are represented in the gallery, or of their connection to Lloyd.   Here is a partial history and a few stories behind some of the faces in the gallery:

Babe Ruth – In 1928, Ruth appeared in Lloyd’s last silent film Speedy. Speedy was not only the name of Lloyd’s character in this film, it was an actual nickname of Lloyd’s.

Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth

Hal Roach – The pair met when they were both working as film extras. Roach eventually opened his own studio and produced or directed numerous Lloyd films.

Thomas Edison – Edison Studios, led by Thomas Edison, provided Harold Lloyd’s first on-camera acting experience. Lloyd appeared on screen for four seconds and earned $3 for his work. The film, The Old Monk’s Tale, was released on February 15, 1913.

Harry Blackstone – Lloyd was a lover of magic, hypnotism in particular. Sleight of hand tricks appear in many of his films. Not only did he hold meetings for magicians at Greenacres, he also created the character “Clayton the Great” in 1937 for a show titled “The Mental Marvels in Crystal Gazing Supreme.”

Feg Murray – Author and illustrator of the cartoon Seein’ Stars. Lloyd was featured in Murray’s cartoon in the 1930s.

Colleen Moore – One of the silent film era’s biggest stars. She popularized the ‘flapper’ character onscreen. Also a close friend of the Lloyd’s and guest at Greenacres.

Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford – Film industry friends who also tried to bring Lloyd to join them at their new studio, United Artists.

Gloria Swanson – Around 1915, dance competitions were the rage in Hollywood. Lloyd, with co-star Bebe Daniels, regularly competed against Swanson and her partner, husband Wallace Beery.

Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson

Sterling Holloway – A frequent guest at Lloyd’s Greenacres home. Holloway also appeared in Lloyd’s 1938 film Professor Beware with actress Phyllis Welch, who also appears in the Rogues Gallery.

Sonja Henie – Lloyd met Henie in 1933 while on vacation in Europe. At the time, Henie was a prize-winning skater soon to become a Hollywood star.

Marion Davies – Appears twice in the Rogues’ Gallery, which is appropriate, as she was the co-creator of the gallery when she assisted Lloyd’s wife Mildred to obtain the signed photographs. One of her photographs is inscribed “It’s nice to be included in your ‘friendship gallery’.”

Marion Davies, a close friend of Lloyd, assisted in creating the gallery of photographs.
Marion Davies, a close friend of Lloyd, assisted in creating the gallery of photographs.

Grace Bradley – Appeared in Lloyd’s 1934 film The Cat’s Paw. Lloyd bought the rights to the Clarence Budington Kelland novel in the midst of a tumultuous economy and the shift to ‘talkies’ in the film industry.   It was to be a ‘straight film’ without the gags he had performed for the previous two decades. A musical number was written just for Bradley to perform in the film.

Una Merkel – Starred as Lloyd’s leading lady in The Cat’s Paw. Merkel has inscribed her photograph with a reference to Ling Po, the fictitious Chinese philosopher from the film.

Louella Parsons – Lloyd was interviewed by Parsons and also appeared as a subject in her gossip column. It is reported Parsons and Hedda Hopper called a truce for the day when they both attended Lloyd’s daughter Gloria’s wedding. In a 1928 interview with Parsons, Lloyd said he thought sound in films was doomed.

Malcom St. Clair – Whose photograph in the gallery features a hand drawn cartoon of himself, directed Lloyd’s first sound feature, Welcome Danger in 1929.

Jack Warner – Lloyd’s Greenacres estate was next door to Warner’s. Both men had nine-hole golf courses on their property allowing their friends and guests to play a full eighteen holes.

Robert Wagner – Met Lloyd through Gloria, Lloyd’s daughter, and became a family friend. He said of Lloyd, “Harold was always available. He encouraged me to pursue a career in the movies, just as he did with other young actors like Tab Hunter and Debbie Reynolds.”

Aimee Semple McPherson – A Los Angeles-based evangelist and founder of Foursquare Church. Lloyd mentions her church in his biography, American Comedy.

Photographers included in the gallery: George Hurrell, Clarence Sinclair Bull, Eugene Robert Richee, Maurice Seymour, Ernest A. Bachrach, Ruth Harriet Louise, A.L. Schafer, Irving L. Rose and Laszlo Willinger, among others.

This amazing collection has been displayed at the Academy of Motion Pictures and at the Telluride Film Festival. The auction of The Rogues Gallery will take place on September 23, 2016. Register to bid with Julien’s Auctions at www.juliensauctions.com or by calling 310.836.1818.

Literature:
Information provided by the Estate of Harold Lloyd
American Comedy by Harold Lloyd
Harold Lloyd: Magic in a Pair of Horn-Rimmed Glasses by Annette D’Agostino Lloyd
Harold Lloyd Master Comedian by Jeffrey Vance
Harold Lloyd The Man on the Clock by Tom Dardis

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