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I'm hoping someone here can help me identify a couple of pictures...

Does anyone know if this picture of Colleen Moore was linked to a film, or if it's just a straight-up studio portrait?



How about this image of Marion Davies? The background suggests portrait, but the pose makes it look like a film still.



Any help would be appreciated!

Kristen

Kristin,

The Colleen Moore pose is in the advertising campaign for SYNTHETIC SIN (First National, 1928). A long lost film discovered in Antonio Moreno's Italian vault in 2003. Since then we have been waiting for Warner Brothers or someone to restore this picture, like we were promised clear back in 2006.

The Marion Davies appears to show her in costume for TILLIE THE TOILER (MGM, 1927).

Wonderful, Gagman! Thank you so much for your help!

Gagman-
Not to get off the subject, but please tell me more about Señor Moreno's Italian vault if you don't mind. What else did they find? He had much to do with the Masquers in Hollywood from whose ranks came the founders of the Screen Actors Guild. His home on Yucca was their clubhouse for many years.

NB,

Well, they also found a 35 Millimeter Nitrate print of Colleen's WHY BE GOOD? (1929) in there. Those are really the only two titles that I know about. May have been allot of other stuff in there not connected with Colleen?

Thank you, Gagman. I was sort of interested in the "other stuff". There didn't seem to be an article about this anywhere on the old net. If you don't mind me asking, what was your source?

N B,

Actually, there have been several articles about this. I don't have any direct links handy. Maybe somebody else can help? I'll try to come up with at least one of them. The recovery of SYNTHETIC SIN and WHY BE GOOD? has been brought up dozens of times on this site. Everyone knows that it's a pet peeve of mine that nothing has been done in 6 years. Jeff at the Vita-phone project commented over a year ago that Hugh Hefner turned the project down for funding. A major disappointment. They were pursuing other avenues.

Guys, Ron Hutchinson from The Vitaphone Project here. To set the record straight on this, like any other restoration, the status is tied directly to funding. While without question we want to see these done, any lapse between discovery and actual restoration is solely impacted by available funding --- about $100K. I am sure it will happen and I have some other options in the works. But we must realize that unless someone complaining about the delay wants to come up with the bucks themselves, they should sit tight. I own the disks and can vouch for the fact this is an extremely important film to restore. Something is brewing now, so think good thoughts. WB is always in the forefront of restoration funding and is currently underwriting over 50 new Vitaphone shorts restorations. So please, no criticism of them.

As an analogy, there are about 25 operatic shorts from 1926-29 needing restoration. Since 1992, I frequently get complaints from self-proclaimed opera buffs about why they haven't been restored. The answer is that while individuals have funded nearly 150 Vitaphone vaudeville and bandshorts, not one person, ever, has stepped up to fund an operatic. So I tell them to put their money where their mouth is, or stop complaining!

'Nuff said!

Here is a miss-identification on a web site, unless they think the women are named Ann and Margret:



http://www.amazon.com/Ann-Margret-Wallp ... ic&sr=1-71" target="_blank

Rick

Gagman, thank you for the illumination on Moreno's vault. I saw most of the previous posts, and admire your passion in wanting to see these films restored. Ron, I can appreciate your difficulty in securing funding, especially in this economy and an election year. I would imagine the pool of donors, capable of making these type of commitments is not very large to start with. It's frustrating on both ends. Sony has Charley Chase's Columbia shorts supposedly ready to go, but won't release them because they don't believe an economic situation exists that warrants profitability. I'm glad we have a venue like this to express that our collective frustration.