Mystery Hollywood/'Zelda Fitzgerald' Footage

[Brooksie]

The local media in Baltimore are reporting that new footage that may possibly be of Zelda Fitzgerald has recently been discovered and restored.

The footage has a solid provenance - it comes from the collection of Scott and Zelda's daughter Scottie - but setting aside the question of whether Zelda actually features (the experts are divided; I consider it unlikely), what might interest folks here is the theory that it was shot during an early, ill-fated Hollywood jaunt of Scott's in 1927.

Yes, I'm as sceptical as you (I've already spotted a Yellow Cab company logo, which I understood to be an East Coast company, and the internet is full of people who confidently assert that every blonde is Mary Pickford) - however, some of the locations are at least recognisable enough to be identifiable.

The story, and a link to the footage, is available at https://baltimorefishbowl.com/stories/f ... -for-sure/.

[s.w.a.c.]

Yellow Cab started in Chicago, but the company was operating in San Francisco by the early '20s. Not sure about Los Angeles.

It does look a lot like Zelda, in that scene with the Yellow Cab though (and potentially Louis B. Mayer). I wonder who the charming woman with the ukulele is? She's got a lot of moxie!

EDIT: the article linked to above suggests it might be Lillian Gish, but I don't think it looks anything like her.

[R Michael Pyle]

Definitely NOT Gish. In fact, the idea is absurd.

[Robert Moulton]

I asked John Bengtson (who else?) to weigh in on this on Facebook, and he replied:

This was filmed at the Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire - that's the entrance to the Gaylord Apartments across the street.

[s.w.a.c.]

I asked John Bengtson (who else?) to weigh in on this on Facebook, and he replied:

This was filmed at the Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire - that's the entrance to the Gaylord Apartments across the street.

I was just about to make a "Paging John Bengston" post, shoulda known that he would already be on the case.

Here's the spot now:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/3400+ ... 118.297692

[s.w.a.c.]

Might that be the grounds of the Ambassador at the start of the film then?

[Brooksie]

The Ambassador Hotel is also suggested by a visitor to the page that hosts the video (https://www.instagram.com/p/BokI0SjBjuQ ... atch_again). The Fitzgeralds are known to have visited it during 1927, so it seems like a safe bet.

The same visitor asserts that the woman with the ukulele is Carmel Myers. I'm not as confident that it is, but I could be persuaded. If the footage did feature some famous faces, it would explain why it was kept by the Fitzgeralds, even if Zelda is not one of them.

One thing's for sure - there isn't a Gish within ten miles of this footage. I suspect this is a case of the Ebay curse. Yes, folks - every dark-haired flapper is Louise Brooks!

[s.w.a.c.]

The same visitor asserts that the woman with the ukulele is Carmel Myers. I'm not as confident that it is, but I could be persuaded.

Apparently she did have a thing for the ukulele...

[Brooksie]

I've just found my copy of Crazy Sundays, Aaron Latham's record of Fitzgerald's Hollywood adventures, and come across this:

"The Fitzgeralds moved into the fashionable Ambassador Hotel, where they shared a four-apartment bungalow with John Barrymore, author Carl Van Vechten, and their old friend Carmel Myers [whom they had first met on the set of Ben-Hur in Rome]"

So it looks like we have a match. It is possible that the fellow on the left in the third fragment is Van Vechten, but it's impossible to say for certain.

[s.w.a.c.]

So it looks like we have a match. It is possible that the fellow on the left in the third fragment is Van Vechten, but it's impossible to say for certain.

It's possible, but you never get a good enough look at his face.

[s.w.a.c.]

Carmel was seriously hooked on the ukulele! She gets it out early in this episode of her 1951 DuMont Network talk show. And she has a lovely voice to boot.