BLANCHE SWEET : SILENT FILM ACTRESS : 161 FILM CREDITS : BY FRED HARTSOOK : 1917

Blanche Sweet (1896-1986) was an American silent film actress. Her mother was a dancer and her father was a wine merchant. Blanche began show business at an early age. At age four she was performing with a touring company with stars, Marie Burroughs and Maurice Barrymore. At age thirteen, she was working at Biograph Studios under contract with D. W. Griffith. She became known as “The Biograph Blonde”. In 1914, Sweet moved to Paramount (Famous Players – Lasky). Paramount had offered her more money than Biograph could pay. During the 1910’s, Sweet appeared in several prominet film roles and kept her place as a popular leading lady. She played in a number of Cecil B. DeMille films. She and Marshall Neilan (actor, director, producer, screen writer) had an affair which led to Neilan obtaining a divorce and marrying young Blanche. She was about 16 years old. The marriage ended in 1929 because Neilan was an alleged philanderer. When “talkies” began, Sweets career suffered causing her to retire in 1930. The IMDb lists 161 film credits in Blanche’s filmography. Her post film career included radio work and non major Broadway roles. When job offers dissipated, she began working in a Los Angeles department store. She later worked with historians and gave lectures about the early days of Hollywood. This photo portrait of Miss Sweet was taken by American photographer, Fred Hartsook (1876-1930). He owned a chain of California studios described as “the largest photographic business in the world” at that time. The photo was taken circa 1917. Hartsook photographed many silent film stars as well as Woodrow Wilson during his Presidency. This vintage postcard’s AZO stamp box indicates that the postcard was published sometime between 1910 and 1930. This postcard is in very good condition (see scans).

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BAND MEMBER AND HIS CLARINET IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH

CLARINET MAN

This large format cabinet card features a thick bearded man wearing a band or fraternal uniform holding a clarinet at his side. His uniform suggests that he is a member of a band or a fraternal organization. He is wearing a bag strapped over his left shoulder. Could that bag be his clarinet case? This photograph was produced by the Newcomb studio in Salt Lake City, Utah. Photographer Scott Newcomb operated out of the 162 South Main Street address listed on the bottom of this cabinet card. According to reference site Langdon Road, Scott Newcomb was a photographer in Salt Lake from the 1890s until 1905. A photographer named Marion W. Newcomb (1851-?) also was active at an unknown address in Salt Lake City during the cabinet card era. It is likely that the two men were relatives as one source noted that a female photographer, Flossie Newcomb, was from a family of photographers in Salt Lake City. Flossie operated her own studio in Vernal, Utah in 1906 and married noted photographer Fred Hartsook.