Quote:
Originally Posted by ethereal_reality
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I've no idea which movie was being made. But I'm fascinated by these photos partly because they present kind of a curious threesome of celebrities, as none worked together at any time.
Sid Smith appeared in 17 short subjects in 1922.
Smith was small time comedian who starred in very cheap comedies, many of them built around automobile gags. It makes sense for him to be shooting on location because that would have been extremely inexpensive.
I strongly question whether Barrymore and Von Stroheim actually are in these photos. Both were in the top tier of Hollywood elite at the time. I suppose it is possible that they might have visited the location shoot of a very minor comedian...but it seems unlikely.
Barrymore was a major star who appeared in expensive feature films, including
Sherlock Holmes in 1922 and
Beau Brummel in 1924. And Erich Von Stroheim was busy around this time directing hugely expensive pictures on the back lot of Universal, spending so much money...thousands of dollars for real caviar for a single scene of
Merry-Go-Round...that he was soon fired. When Von Stroheim actually did start shooting on location for
Greed (1924), it was in San Francisco and Oakland.
I'll put forward a couple of alternate theories: first, these are probably just ordinary crew members of a small film company that the photographer mistook for major celebrities. Alternately, the photographer may have purposely mislabeled the photos with the names of major celebrities so as to have some bragging rights over the photos in his album.
But I could be wrong! Anyone else want to chime in here?
(Regardless, I'm still fascinated by the photos, so thanks for posting them ER!)