Vintage original 6.25 x 8.25 in. US double-weight matte photograph of silent film actor, director, and producer PHILLIPS SMALLEY c.1917.
 
He is depicted in an interior studio shot wearing a black suit with white shirt and posing in front of a dark backdrop. It was inscribed in black ink by Phillips Smalley thusly: "To Dorothy Sadler - with sincere regards - Phillips Smalley." The signature has blended in with the background color but can be more easily seen when viewing the photograph at an angle. It is in very fine- condition with silvering of varying widths around the edges. 
 
*"Wendell Phillips Smalley (August 7, 1865 – May 2, 1939) was an American silent film director and actor. Smalley began his career in vaudeville and acted in more than 200 films between 1910 and his death in 1939. He began directing in 1911 and made more than 300 films by 1921.
 
Smalley was married to actress, writer, director, and producer Lois Weber from April 29, 1904, to 1922. They met in 1904 when Weber was acting in a theater where Smalley was stage manager. In 1908 Smalley and Weber began working for the U.S. division of Gaumont Film Company, where Smalley was an actor, and later a director. He is sometimes listed as a co-director with Lois Weber, and the extent of his contribution to her work is unresolved.
 
Phillips Smalley died in 1939 and is interred next to his second wife Phyllis Lorraine Ephlin in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Hollywood Hills."
*(source: Wikipedia)
 
*He was a director and actor, known for The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1917), The Merchant of Venice (1914) and Captain Courtesy (1915)."
*(source: IMDb)
3RB