Every now and again you run across what I tend to think is the rare item. Many times you really have to search and many times you come up empty handed but every now and then your daily searching really pays off in a big way.
E-bay can be such a wonderful source for finding items and especially those items you do not see every day and with a world wide market place of buying and selling there is no telling what somebody can find.
Larry Semon was a prolific director of Silent movies as well as an actor in them. His career as a director lasted from 1915-1928 and included the 1925 Silent Movie version of the "Wizard Of Oz". Larry worked with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in the years before they were a joint act.
Larry's father was Zera the Great, a professional magician. Semon came to filming after working as a cartoonist for the New York Sun. Hired by Vitagraph as a writer and director of comedy shorts, he began staffing his one and two reelers by 1917. Playing a pasty-faced, baggy pants idiot, he gained an
international reputation and at his peak rivaled the popularity of Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd.
His films frequently co-starred Oliver Hardy (as the heavy) and starlets Lucille Carlisle and Dorothy Dwan, each of whom Semon married. Due to his constant disregard for strict production budgets, Vitagraph fired Semon in 1922. He went on to make a few big-budget, feature-length films, but they were relatively unsuccessful.
In 1927, he tried to revitalize his flagging career by playing a serious part in Von Sternberg's drama "Underworld", but was again unsuccessful. Larry Semon died in March the following year after suffering from pneumonia.
The photograph is an original film studio gelatin photograph from around the late 1910's to possibly early 1920's. The photographer's name is in the left lower area of the photo and is marked WITZEL LA. The photograph measures about 5 x 7 and has the original border margins. This was the only time I have seen to this date an autograph photograph of Larry Semon and being the die-hard Wizard Of Oz fan that I am I had to have it---- $123.00 later I am very proud to say it hangs in my Oz room along with a reproduction poster of Larry as the Scarecrow in Oz.
E-bay can be such a wonderful source for finding items and especially those items you do not see every day and with a world wide market place of buying and selling there is no telling what somebody can find.
Larry Semon was a prolific director of Silent movies as well as an actor in them. His career as a director lasted from 1915-1928 and included the 1925 Silent Movie version of the "Wizard Of Oz". Larry worked with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in the years before they were a joint act.
Larry's father was Zera the Great, a professional magician. Semon came to filming after working as a cartoonist for the New York Sun. Hired by Vitagraph as a writer and director of comedy shorts, he began staffing his one and two reelers by 1917. Playing a pasty-faced, baggy pants idiot, he gained an
international reputation and at his peak rivaled the popularity of Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd.His films frequently co-starred Oliver Hardy (as the heavy) and starlets Lucille Carlisle and Dorothy Dwan, each of whom Semon married. Due to his constant disregard for strict production budgets, Vitagraph fired Semon in 1922. He went on to make a few big-budget, feature-length films, but they were relatively unsuccessful.
In 1927, he tried to revitalize his flagging career by playing a serious part in Von Sternberg's drama "Underworld", but was again unsuccessful. Larry Semon died in March the following year after suffering from pneumonia.
The photograph is an original film studio gelatin photograph from around the late 1910's to possibly early 1920's. The photographer's name is in the left lower area of the photo and is marked WITZEL LA. The photograph measures about 5 x 7 and has the original border margins. This was the only time I have seen to this date an autograph photograph of Larry Semon and being the die-hard Wizard Of Oz fan that I am I had to have it---- $123.00 later I am very proud to say it hangs in my Oz room along with a reproduction poster of Larry as the Scarecrow in Oz.
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