RARE LINA BASQUETTE 1920S MELBOURNE SPURR CLOSE UP PORTRAIT SOPHISTICATED SEPIA

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RARE LINA BASQUETTE 1920S MELBOURNE SPURR CLOSE UP PORTRAIT SOPHISTICATED SEPIA:
$63.35

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ITEM: You are offerding on a 1920s scarce silver gelatin original photograph by Melbourne Spurr. A lovely close up portrait featuring a subdued pensive absolutely exquisite view of Lina Basquette, the gossip column staple who was known for her hard partying ways with It Girl Clara Bow. These original Melbourne Spurr offerings are exceedingly hard to come by. A silent film era blindstamped and verso inkstamped masterwork. This is as beautiful shot that shows off her solemn side as she gives a far away pensive over the shoulder gaze slightly away from the camera.
Measures 7 3/4\" x 9 3/4\" with margins.
We have come into a large collection of fantastic silent and early talkie film art deco Hollywood photography and multiple wins will ship for no additional cost. CONDITION: This vintage film still is in fine condition with some very light handling wear. Lena Copeland BasketteMini BiographyJournalistAdela Rogers St. Johnsonce dubbed Lina Basquette \"The Screen Tragedy Girl.\" In retrospect, Lina\'s private life bore a similar description. While six of her eight marriages ended up \"I Don\'ts\" (she was widowed twice), she would also have to contend with a flurry of legal confrontations, stormy affairs andsuicideattempts. Once she gave a fond farewell to her entertainment career in the late 1930s, her life literally went to the dogs.The full-faced, raven-haired California-born actress was christened Lena Baskette, the daughter of Frank Baskette, a drug store owner. Lina trained in dance while very young and at the San Francisco World\'s Fair of 1915, the eight-year-old was featured as a baby ballerina for the Victor Talking Machine Company\'s exhibition. Movie makerCarl Laemmlesaw her perform and signed her to a long-term contract with his Universal Pictures company at $50 a week. Lina headlined her very own short programs, the \"Lena Baskette Featurettes,\" between 1916-1917, and also garnered young leads in a number of full-length features includingWhat Love Can Do(1916),Shoes(1916),A Prince for a Day(1917),The Weaker Vessel(1919) and, more notably,Penrod(1922).In 1916, Lena\'s father died and mother Gladys remarried. Gladys and her new husband, dance directorErnest Belcher, had a daughter together who became Lena\'s half-sister and future dancing starMarge Champion. Lena\'s mother was an avid stage mother and eventually, with Belcher\'s help, managed to prod Lena into the Ziegfeld Follies of 1923. She stayed with the Follies for a couple of years. Billed third as \"America\'s Prima Ballerina,\" Lena\'s marquee name was changed to the more exotic spelling of \"Lina Basquette.\" Her act was caught by the legendary Russian ballerinaAnna Pavlova, who offered to take on Lina as her Lina\'s mother nixed the offer, wishing to make bigger bucks for her daughter with the Follies and other shows,Texas Guinan\'s notorious speakeasies notwithstanding.At age 18, Lina married 38-year-old Warner Bros. mogulSam Warner. Lina greatly influenced Warner to pursue sound pictures and even encouraged him to starAl JolsoninThe Jazz Singer(1927). Sam died unexpectedly at age 40 of a brain hemorrhage the night before the film\'s premiere. This heartbreak jump-started an avalanche of problems for Lina. She not only became embroiled in a series of legal battles with her in-laws over her husband\'s estate, she lost custody of her daughter Lita in the process. She would not see her daughter for another 30 years. This crisis led to Lina\'s first attempt atsuicide.Lina valiantly returned to films and made such silents asRanger of the North(1927),The Noose(1928) andWheel of Chance(1928), while scoring two noteworthy roles inFrank Capra\'sThe Younger Generation(1929) andCecil B. DeMille\'sThe Godless Girl(1929). In the latter she played an avowed atheist. This powerful film should have made Lina a sultry star had it not been released as a silent film right at the advent of talkies.Within a very short time Lina married twice more -- a quickie union to cameramanJ. Peverell Marley, and in 1931 the widow (once again) of third husband, actor Ray Hallam, who suddenly died at the age of 26 after only a few months of wedded bliss. Lina subsequently started up a highly publicized affair with famed boxerJack Dempsey. Their stormy breakup led to her secondsuicidetry and a rebound marriage to his personal trainer Theodore Hayes in December of 1931. This fourth marriage was not valid as it was discovered that Hayes was already married. The couple remarried in 1933 and had a son, Edward Alvin, in 1934 before divorcing the following year.At this juncture Lina\'s private life received more interest from the public than her films. Her career had down-sized to \"B\" westerns opposite such stars asBuck JonesandHoot Gibsonand a few mellers here and there. After touring the stages of Australia, New Zealand and various South African cities in the plays \"Private Lives,\" \"Black Limelight\" and \"Idiot\'s Delight\" in 1938 and 1939, and after appearing in the filmsRose of the Rio Grande(1938),Four Men and a Prayer(1938) andA Night for Crime(1943), she called it quits.Misfortune, however, continued to follow her. In August of 1943 she brought up assault and rape charges against a 22-year-old Army GI. The soldier was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in the brig. Completely retired, she found emotional solace with her new post-war profession -- the breeding and handling of Great Danes. In 1949, she became the owner of Honey Hollow Kennels, a 25 acre estate in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. There she bred and raised champion dogs for best-in-shows and also became a respected judge. More marriages came and fell by the wasteside and at least one of her later unions lost out to an either/or ultimatum with her Great Danes. Lina also wrote the non-fiction book \"Your Great Dane\" in 1972. She moved to Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1975 and lived there until her death of lymphoma at age 87 on September 30, 1994.Out of nowhere, the octogenarian grandmother had one last chance to bask in the limelight when she was touchingly cast as Nada inDaniel Boyd\'s independent featureParadise Park(1991) playing an Appalachian trailer park granny who dreams that God is coming and granting a wish on all its residents. The film also featured country music starsPorter WagonerandJohnny PayCheck. Boyd had met the actress at a West Virginia film festival.