I’m kicking off this new month with something fun from the November 1925 issue of Picture-Play Magazine! 107 silent era stars are caricatured here–how many can you name? 20? 50? 104? 6? (Good gravy, I hope it’s more than six!)
When you’re done guessing, click on the “Continue reading” tag to reveal the key!
There’s lots of familiar names here–and some obscure ones, too. George Hackathorne? J. Warren Kerrigan? Even I’m not sure what I could’ve seen them in. No, I won’t cheat and go look at IMDb…yet. (Watch, dozens of George Hackathorne fans are now going to come out of the woodwork and lecture me for not recalling George’s face.) Isn’t it interesting to think that those forgotten names were once famous enough to be recognized in caricature? These are the sort of details that delight me.
And thus, November begins–and it’s going to be quite the smorgasbord of posts, if all goes as planned. I’ll be tackling some tough subjects, reviewing a couple exciting new books and announcing an upcoming event. Here’s one little hint:
And another one:
So drop in any time, and as always, don’t hesitate to share your thoughts! The more discussions, the merrier.
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Silent-ology 
Alas, I didn’t do so hot. 😦 I’m not revealing how many I got, but it was pretty miniscule. In my defense, some of the caricatures don’t seem to be that recognizable (Mabel Normand, e.g.) And a lot of the names I was also unfamiliar with. (Hackathorne was a new one on me, too.) Still a lot of fun to look at. I wonder how long the artist spent creating that?
I’m looking forward to you November posts!
Yeah, I’ll admit this one is pretty tough to figure out! A lot of them I would never recognize no matter what. I was probably being a little too facetious when I wrote this one up. 😀
Someone should have told the artist that caricatures are actually supposed to resemble the people they are lampooning! I only got Mary Pickford and that was a fluke! 😦
😀
I noticed one of the heads had only the eyes showing. I thought, how could you identify anyone with most of the face hidden? Then I discovered it’s Ben Turpin—the eyes are all you need. 😀
If I’d looked closer, I’d have gotten that one.
Got Lon Chaney! I was down to two possibilities for him, and the one I settled on was right. Turns out the other was Buster Keaton
Not too surprisingly, Buster was the first one I picked out! (Naturally.)
I am completely embarrassed but I got a whopping 8….I guessed 9 but Mabel Normand turned out to be someone else. I got Mary and Doug right off! Then it got tough. I Got Colleen Moore, and you have to love where Buster is placed!!!! The Great Profile. A couple of others.
To be fair: not all the caricatures are up to snuff! That’s D.W.? Pishaw! It looks like Paul Simon….now! That’s Lillian Gish? I guess so. That’s Bebe Daniels? I’m watching “Why Change Your Wife?” right now, that’s not the Bebe I know!
Pope Grutch, I tip my hat off to you for getting Lon Chaney!!!! I was specifically on the lookout for him! I say Pope Grutch wins, just for that!
Congrats, Pope! 😀 There’s maybe 10 that aren’t hard to guess, like Doug and Mary, but most of the others are baffling (I got Constance Talmadge purely by a faint hunch),