American Arcade card by Ex. Sup. Co. (Exhibition Supply Company), Chicago, Ill. Photo: Pathé.

American actor Jay Wilsey (1895-1961) was a star of the silent Western and later appeared in B to Z Westerns. His first studio called him 'Buffalo Bill Jr.', although he had no connection whatsoever with the real Buffalo Bill, William F. Cody. Wilsey appeared in nearly 100 films between 1924 and 1944.

Wilbert Jay Wilsey was born in Clark County, Missouri, in 1896. He learned to ride a horse at a very young age, and when he got older he began appearing on the rodeo circuit. In 1924 he found himself in Hollywood and, hearing that producers were looking for good horsemen for Westerns, went looking for work. He wound up under contract to producer Lester F. Scott Jr. and his Action Pictures, a low-budget company that produced mostly Westerns. His first Western was Rarin' to Go (Richard Thorpe, 1924). The company gave him the stage name 'Buffalo Bill Jr.', although he had no connection whatsoever with the real William F. Cody, aka Buffalo Bill. In the silent Westerns Fast and Fearless (Richard Thorpe, 1924), Thundering Romance (Richard Thorpe, 1924), and Bringin' Home the Bacon (Richard Thorpe, 1924), he co-starred with the young Jean Arthur. Thorpe also directed him such Westerns as The Saddle Cyclone (1925), Rawhide (1926), and The Bonanza Buckaroo (1926). Wilsey worked steadily during the silent era, mostly for Lester F. Scott. He also appeared in a couple of non-Westerns for Universal, the serials A Final Reckoning (Ray Taylor, 1928) with Louise Lorraine, and The Pirate of Panama (Ray Taylor, 1929).

When sound came along Jay Wilsey didn't have any trouble making the transition. Along with former colleagues at Action Pictures Buddy Roosevelt and Hal Taliaferro (aka Wally Wales) he worked in Westerns for a succession of low-budget--production companies, such as Big 4, Syndicate, West Coast Pictures, and Cosmos Pictures. Wilsey played for notorious micro-budget producer Victor Adamson in a string of ultra-cheap Westerns that are considered among the worst pictures ever made. Inept and shoddy in every conceivable aspect of filmmaking - the budget on the Adamson Western Lightning Bill (Victor Adamson, 1934) was so low that its title card was misspelled as Lighting Bill and Adamson couldn't afford to have the card redone. The films nevertheless made money because the budgets were so rock-bottom they didn't have to sell all that many tickets in order to make a profit. Wilsey stayed mired at the bottom of the Hollywood food chain, churning out not only cheap features but also even cheaper two-reelers for such quickie producers as William M. Pizor of Imperial Pictures. He also ground out several "Z" westerns for infamous fly-by-night schlockmeister Robert J. Horner. As starring roles in the independent "B" westerns dried up, he took to accepting supporting parts and stunt work in other cowboy stars' Westerns and personal appearances at rodeos and 'wild west' shows. His last film role was in the John Wayne Cold War propaganda piece Big Jim McLain (Edward Ludwig, 1952). Wilsey, unbilled, has a one-line role as a Communist labour organiser. After Wilsey retired, he and his wife, actress Genee Boutell, former actress Jeanette Boutelle, spent much time onboard their 42-foot-long sailboat, the Ruana, which Wilsey had built himself, and sailed all over the Pacific Ocean. Jay Wilsey died of lung cancer in 1961, in Los Angeles.

Sources: Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards..

Tags:   Buffalo Bill, Jr. Buffalo Bill American Actor Western Cowboy Hollywood Movie Star Film Idol Screen Movie Movies Cinema Cine Kino Vintage Card Silent Sepia Pathé Ex. Sup. Co.

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British postcard. (American) Pathé Freres.

Creighton Hale (1882–1965) was an Irish-American stage, screen, and TV actor, whose career spanned more than half a century, from the early 1900s to the end of the 1950s. Born Patrick Fitzgerald in County Cork, Ireland, Hale moved to the US with a troupe of actors and was spotted on Broadway by a Pathé representative. From 1914, Hale worked under his new name at Pathé, having his breakthrough with the serial The Exploits of Elaine (1914), followed by the subsequent Pathé serials The New Exploits of Elaine, The Romance of Elaine, and The Iron Claw. He also provided comic sidenotes to D.W. Griffith's prestigious dramas Way Down East (1920) and Orphans of the Storm (1921), while he was Florence Vidor's unlucky suitor in the comedy The Marriage Circle (Ernst Lubitsch, 1924), the comic hero in the horror comedy The Cat and the Canary (Paul Leni, 1927), and the male lead in Benjamin Christensen's Seven Footprints to Satan (1929), released both as silent film and part-talkie.

Tags:   Pathé Pathé Frères AMerican USA pre-Hollywood New Jersey Fort Lee Vintage Vedette 1910s Postcard Postkarte POstale Postkaart Postal Picture Cinema Carte Cartolina Cine Carte Postale Card Celebrity Costume Film Film Star Movies Movie Star Muet Muto Star Screen Silent SChauspieler Stummfilm Ansichtkaart Ansichtskarte Actor Acteur Attore Creighton Hale

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French postcard by Edition Pathe Frères. Caption: M. Charles Arling.

Charles Arling (1880–1922) was a Canadian actor of the silent era. He appeared in 132 American films between 1909 and 1922.

Charles Arling was born Charles E. Parr in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on 22 August 1880. In 1909 he started to work as supporting actor at American Biograph in New York, and was directed by D.W. Griffith in e.g. The Open Gate (1909), In Little Italy (1909), In 1910 he also started to work at IMP (Independent Moving Pictures), where he had the lead in various comedies and dramas in 1910-1911, some also with King Baggot. While the first films at IMP were by unknown directors, later ones were by Thomas Ince and starred Mary Pickford and her husband Owen Moore. In 1911 Arling moved to the American Pathé company, where he was the male lead in avalanche of short dramas, comedies, thrillers and westerns, starting with the thriller Saved by Telegraphy (1911). At Pathé, he was at times directed by the first Native American film director James Young Deer, e.g. in the early western A Western Courtship (1911), but many of Arling's films were by unknown directors, such as Short-Lived Happiness (1911). From mid-1911, Arling acted in several Pathé-shorts directed by George LeSoir, with Pearl White and Henry B. Walthall as co-actors. In 1912 Leopold Wharton directed Arling in several short dramas and comedies. In 1913 Arling often acted opposite Gwendolyn Pates in comedies and dramas shot at Pathé. Until the end of 1914, Arling continued to act in a large string of shorts and then moved over to Keystone, where he worked as of early 1915. At Keystone, Arling worked with comedians such as Fatty Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, Ford Sterling, Chester Conklin, and Polly Moran.

Early 1916 Arling moved to Jesse Lasky, to play in his first feature, The Selfish Woman, starring Wallace Reid and Cleo Ridgely, and directed by E. Mason Hopper. Arling played a father who tries to steal the job from his own son (Reid). Ridgely is the society lady, whom Reid marries. She first plots against him, but he wins her over and together they fight against those plotting to destroy Tom's work. In 1917 Arling acted in a series of comical shorts at Fox (e.g. with Hank Mann), but he also acted in features at Fox, Bernstein Pictures, and in particular Jesse Lasky, where he acted in films by William Desmond Taylor and starring Jack Pickford. Arling wandered from one studio to another in the late teens, including Metro Pictures, William S. Hart Productions, National, Fox and Lasky. he also played the male lead in the Nell Shipman movie, Back to God's Country (1919), based on the novel Wapi the Walrus by James Oliver Curwood. The film was shot on location in California and Idaho in the US and in Alberta in Canada. Arling played the evil captain (he often played elderly bad guys), who has killed Shipman's father. As her husband is unable to protect her, she has to put up her own fight and concoct her own ruses.

In the early 1920s Arling kept being busy acting in feature films at various companies (Goldwyn, Selznick, Louis B. Mayer, Universal) and with directors such as Marshall Neilan (In Old Kentucky, 1919), King Vidor (The Jack-Knife Man, 1920), B. Reeves Eason (the Harry Carey western Blue Streak McCoy, 1920), and Jack Conway (A Daughter of the Law, 1921 starring Carmel Myers). Charles Arling's last performance was in Her Night of Nights (Hobart Henley, 1922), starring Marie Prevost. Arling died on 21 April 1922 from pneumonia at the age of 46 in Los Angeles. He acted in 132 films, of which 30 were features.

Sources: English Wikipedia, IMDB.

Tags:   Pathé Pathé Frères AMerican USA pre-Hollywood New Jersey Fort Lee Vintage Vedette 1910s Postcard Postkarte POstale Postkaart Postal Picture Cinema Carte Cartolina Cine Carte Postale Card Celebrity Costume Film Film Star Movies Movie Star Muet Muto Star Screen Silent SChauspieler Stummfilm Ansichtkaart Ansichtskarte Actor Acteur Attore Charles Arling

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French postcard by Edition Pathé Frères. Caption: M. William Gavanaugh.

William Cavanaugh (1874-1936), misspelt on this card as Gavanaugh, was an American actor, who in the early 1910s played at the American studio of Pathé Frères in Fort Lee, New Jersey. However, compared to existing photos on IMDB, e.g. www.imdb.com/title/tt0233435/mediaviewer/rm2325929984, I would not be surprised if the man on this card is James Young Deer (1876-1946), whose ancestry is of the Nanticoke people of Delaware, and who became an early film actor, director, writer, and producer. Young Deer is believed to be the first Native American filmmaker/ producer in Hollywood. After Pathé was criticized for its lack of realism in its Eastcoast westerns, Young Deer was sent to Edendale, Los Angeles, to make Indian-themed films there. According to English Wikipedia, Young Deer acted in, wrote, or directed approximately 150 silent movies at Pathé's West Coast Studio. Young Deer eventually ran the company's West Coast Studio operations in Edendale. His wife Red Wing acted in many of his films.

Update 26 March 2023:

Marlene Pilaete: "You will soon (24 April 2023) read in my post on EFSP why Young Deer cannot be called a Native American filmmaker/producer. I don’t know why several websites still call him Native American. I assume they don’t know his family history, which was complex and fascinating. By calling him Native American, they totally erase an important and very large part of his ancestry." Link: filmstarpostcards.blogspot.com/2023/04/la-collectionneuse...

Tags:   Pathé Pathé Frères AMerican USA pre-Hollywood New Jersey Fort Lee Vintage Vedette 1910s Postcard Postkarte POstale Postkaart Postal Picture Cinema Carte Cartolina Cine Carte Postale Card Celebrity Costume Film Film Star Movies Movie Star Muet Muto Star Screen Silent SChauspieler Stummfilm Ansichtkaart Ansichtskarte Actor Acteur Attore William Cavanaugh Indian James Young Deer Nanticoke Native American traditional warbonnet trailer warbonnet

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British postcard in the Cinema Stars series by Lilywhite Ltd., no. C.M. 19. Photo: Pathé. Ward's name is misspelled on this card.

Fannie Ward, a.k.a. Fanny Ward (1872–1952) was an American actress of stage and screen, known for The Cheat (1915), a sexually- and racially-charged silent film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. In the late 1910s she did a series of films for Astra Films, released by Pathé Exchange.

Tags:   Fannie Ward Fanny Ward Fannie Fanny Ward American Actress Actrice Hollywood Movie Star Film Cinema Cine Kino Picture Screen Movie Movies Filmster Star Vintage Vedette Postcard Postkarte POstale Postkaart Postal Tarjet Carte Cartolina Carte Postale Card Celebrity Costume Film Star Ansichtkaart Ansichtskarte Pathé Lilywhite colored coloured British Britain UK USA 1910s attrice Schauspielerin colour color

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