Vintage original 8 x 10 in. US double-weight matte photograph of silent film actor HOWARD GAYE c.1915.
 
Taken during his association with the Triangle Film Company's "Fine Arts" brand headed by D.W. Griffith, he is depicted in an interior publicity shot taken by the acclaimed Hollywood photographer, Gerald D. Carpenter. This example was unused and is in very fine- condition with a "Triangle-Fine Arts" studio stamp in light purple ink on the verso.
 
*"Howard Gaye (23 May 1878 – 26 December 1955) was a British actor who worked mainly in the United States. He acted in 27 silent films, including D. W. Griffith's epics The Birth of a Nation (1915) as Robert E. Lee and Intolerance (1916) as Jesus Christ. Gaye also directed films for Mena. In the early 1920s, Gaye taught acting at the Howard Gaye Studio of Screen Acting Technique. He said that even experienced stage actors needed to learn certain techniques if they wanted to adapt to acting in films.
 
Mann [Gaye] was charged with violating the Mann Act in May 1923. A federal complaint charged that he took "Fanchon Duncan, said to be a movie-struck girl" to England, brought her back to the United States, and then deserted her. He was released under $2,500 bond."
*(source: Wikipedia)
 
*"The Witzel Studios was founded in Los Angeles by photographer Albert Walter Witzel (1879–1929) in 1909 and within a few years had become one of the city’s foremost portrait studios. The rise of the business paralleled the emergence of the film industry following its relocation from the east coast, and Witzel was soon in demand from Hollywood studios seeking to create interest in movies by circulating promo shots of their stars. Distinguished by moody lighting and dramatic poses and settings, Witzel’s photos soon set the tone for Hollywood studio photography and, from the mid-1910s, they featured frequently in fan magazines like Photoplay, becoming an important promotional and publicity tool. Witzel occasionally worked on assignment for the big picture studios, photographing many silent film luminaries including Theda Bara and Charlie Chaplin. Witzel’s business began to decline in the 1920s, by which time the relentless publicity machine had resulted in movie studios employing their own teams of photographers. Witzel Studios folded following Albert Witzel’s death in 1929."
*(source: National Portrait Gallery; portrait.gov.au)
 
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