- Cover girls are Dorothy Gish and Betty Compson.
- Both covers are by artist J. Knowles Hare. The covers sure are similar in color and composition, aren’t they? Botticelli rules.
Photoplay Apr.-May 1922-Spring Has Sprung!
Filed under 1920s, Betty Compson, Dorothy Gish, J. Knowles Hare, Photoplay
Photoplay Jan.-Mar. 1922
- Cover girls (l.-r., in order of appearance): Corinne Griffith, Lila Lee, Olga Petrova.
- Love for three oranges? The cover layout that started with the December 1921 issue continues here, with the title and text at the bottom set on orange backgrounds.
- The January Griffith cover artist: Rolf Armstrong.
Filed under 1920s, Corinne Griffith, Lila Lee, Olga Petrova, Photoplay, Rolf Armstrong
Photoplay July-Dec. 1921
- Cover girls (l.-r., in order of appearance): Gloria Swanson, Bebe Daniels, Betty Blythe, Agnes Ayres, Marion Davies, Lillian Gish.
- The November issue tackles the question “Are Women’s Colleges Old Maid Factories? The Results of an Interesting Investigation” by James R. Quirk.
- November also features an article touting the “Future Great Actor, Joseph Schildkraut, a New Griffith Protege.” Schildkraut, the son of actor Rudolf Schildkraut, was starring in Griffith’s Orphans of the Storm with the Gish sisters at the time. His long and illustrious career spanned well into the talkies.
Photoplay Jan.-June 1921
- Cover girls (l.-r., in order of appearance): Mary Thurman, Rubye De Remer, Priscilla Dean, Mary MacLaren, Dorothy Phillips, and appropriately, on the June cover: June Caprice.
- The price is 25 cents and the January cover proclaims “Over 500,000 Circulation”–not too shabby.
Photoplay July-Dec. 1920
In the second half of 1920, exotic hats are the rage!
- Cover girls (l.-r., in order of appearance): Martha Mansfield, Mae Murray, Constance Talmdage, Mary Pickford, Anna Q. Nilsson, Anita Stewart.
- The January 1920 cover featured Norma Talmadge; eight months later kid sis Constance adorns the September 1920 cover.
Photoplay Jan.-June 1920
- Cover girls (l.-r., in order of appearance): Norma Talmadge, Olive Thomas, Alice Joyce, Pearl White, Clara Kimball Young, Katherine MacDonald.
- The March 1920 issue features a cover portrait of Alice Joyce by Rolf Armstrong and the issue’s lead story is titled “If Christ Went to the Movies.”
- Think cinematic superheroes who perform daring feats are new? April 1920’s Pearl White was the serial queen who did her own stunts. She was so popular in 1914’s The Perils of Pauline that a whole slew of starring vehicles were built around her talents and athleticism such as The Exploits of Elaine, (1914-1915), The New Exploits of Elaine (1915), The Romance of Elaine (1915), Pearl of the Army (1916-1917), and other serials. She did a lot of her own feats–driving cars at breakneck speeds and swimming in rushing rivers–in these serials, until the producers realized she was just too valuable a commodity and started using stuntpeople in her place!
Photoplay Nov.-Dec. 1919
The last two Photoplay covers in 1919 featured Lillian Gish and Betty Compson. Gish surely needs no introduction. Her cover is by A. Cheney Johnston.
Compson had just starred in the recently-released The Miracle Man and it proved to be her star-making role. She formed her own production company and continued to work for decades, even testing for the role of Belle Watling in Gone With the Wind.
Filed under 1910s, Alfred Cheney Johnston, Betty Compson, Lillian Gish, Photoplay
Photoplay Aug.-Oct. 1919
- Cover girls (l.-r., in order of appearance): Alice Brady, May Thurman, and Dorothy Dalton.
Filed under 1910s, Alice Brady, Dorothy Dalton, Mary Thurman, Photoplay
Photoplay Apr.-July 1919
- Cover girls (l.-r., in order of appearance): Marjorie Rambeau, Billie Burke, Constance Talmadge, Dorothy Phillips.
- Per the May issue’s table of contents, the cover image of a periwigged Billie Burke is “From the Oil Painting by Alfred Cheney Johnston.”
Photoplay Feb.-Mar. 1919-Opera Assoluta!
Incongruous as it may seem, there were many opera singers who appeared in feature films back when Hollywood was getting started. Yes, back in in the days of the silent silver screen. Celebrated opera singers were internationally known and many had fervent followers, so in the eyes of film producers, they were bankable commodities.
Arguably the most famous of these singers-actors was Geraldine Farrar, a popular American soprano who’d sung at the Metropolitan Opera and across Europe. Young women in particular idolized her and were known as “Gerry-flappers.” Farrar was recruited for film by producer Jesse L. Lasky and in 1915-17 she appeared in several Cecil B. DeMille movies, usually with Wallace Reid as her leading man: Maria Rosa, Carmen, Temptation, Joan the Woman, The Woman God Forgot, and The Devil Stone. Here she is on the cover of the February 1919 issue of Photoplay. 
Not missing a beat, Photoplay then promptly featured Farrar’s chief rival Italian soprano Lina Cavalieri on its March 1919 cover. Cavalieri was known as the most beautiful woman in the world, a title immortalized by the 1956 film of the same name starring Gina Lollobrigida. What–you’ve never heard of that film? Well, you may be familiar with Cavalieri as she is the face featured in artist Piero Fornasetti’s work. I’ll probably showcase his work in a future post, but for now here is Cavalieri on the cover of Photoplay.
The tagline to the cover story for the Cavalieri issue: “The Real-Life Romance of Cavalieri and [Lucien] Muratore.” Muratore was Cavalieri’s tenor husband and they appeared together in the silent films Manon Lescaut (1914) and The Shadow of Her Past (1916). Solo, Cavalieri starred in 1918’s Love’s Conquest and A Woman of Impulse; and in 1919, The Two Brides.
Farrar fans may be interested in checking out my Pinterest board. I’m always on the lookout for more pins of this great singer!
Filed under 1910s, Geraldine Farrar, Lina Cavalieri, Opera, Photoplay, Piero Fornasetti
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