Movie Star Mystery Photo

Los Angeles Times file photo Update: Our mystery fellow is Daniel Frohman, shown above left with Pola Negri and Jesse Lasky  in a photo dated Oct. 8, 1922. This week’s mystery fellow is the man on the left in the high collar. He’s with two mystery companions.   “I never weep in my beer – it spoils the beer.” – Daniel Frohman.     Just a reminder on how this works: I post the mystery photo on Monday and reveal the answer on Friday ... or on Saturday if I have a hard time picking only five pictures; sometimes it's difficult to choose. To keep the mystery photo from getting lost in the other entries, I move it from Monday to Tuesday to Wednesday, etc., adding a photo every day. I have to approve all comments, so if your guess is posted immediately, that means you're wrong. (And if a wrong guess has already been submitted by someone else, there's no point in submitting it again). If you're right, you will have to wait until Friday. There's no need to submit your guess five times. Once is enough. The only reward is bragging rights.  The answer to last week's mystery star: Anna Sten! New photos after the jump!

Dec. 27, 1940: Daniel Frohman dies at the age of 89.

Los Angeles Times file photo

Update: Douglas Fairbanks and Daniel Frohman in a photo dated July 20, 1923.

Here’s our heavily retouched mystery fellow with a (not in the least) mysterious companion.
Nearly everyone recognized one or both of yesterday’s mystery companions, but Lee Ann, Thom and Megan identified all three people. Nice work! 

Los Angeles Times file photo

Update: June 12, 1936, Daniel Frohman arrives in Los Angeles to supervise the 55th annual Actors Fund Benefit at the Pan-Pacific Auditorium. He’s shaking hands with Leo Carrillo and being greeted by Minna Gombell and Jay Whidden. “Buck, canine actor of the screen, is handing the producer a basket of flowers,” The Times said.

Here’s our mystery fellow in the high collar shaking hands with a mystery companion. There’s also a mystery hat lady and as a bonus, we have a mystery violinist and a mystery dog! Please congratulate Mary Mallory for identifying our mystery fellow and yesterday’s (entirely not) mysterious companion. 

Los Angeles Times file photo

Update: June 18, 1936, Cecil B. De Mille presents Daniel Frohman with a bathtub, “symbolic of De Mille’s success as a producer of lavish motion pictures,” The Times says.

Here’s our mystery guest with a (entirely not) mysterious companion. And yes, he’s be presented with a miniature bathtub. Please congratulate Claire Lockhart for identifying our mystery man.

 

Here’s a close-up of the presentation of the miniature bathtub, a secret Hollywood ritual rarely open to photographers. 

Los Angeles Times file photo
June 22, 1936: “Following her final radio broadcast from Pickfair last night, Mary Pickford, star of radio, state and screen, last night gave a buffet dinner for Daniel Frohman, president of the Actors’ Fund of America. From left, seated: Mrs. D.W. Griffith, wife of veteran director; Irene Hervey, mp actress; Mary Pickford, hostess; Una Merkel, mp actress. Rear row, left to right: D.W. Griffith; Marshall Neilan, mp director; Allan Jones, mp actor; Alexander Leftwich, stage director; Daniel Frohman; Robert Montgomery, mp actor; and Errol Flynn, mp actor. “

I’ve decided to extended the mystery photo by one day. Not because I expect many more folks to recognize our mystery guest – but look at all those the mystery companions!

Los Angeles Times file photo

Aug. 25, 1937: “Daniel Frohman, dean of the American stage, and August Heckscher, well-known philanthropist, both of whose birthdays occurred within a week, were entertained by a double party in New York August 25 given by Fannie Hurst, the novelist. Shown here at party (L to R): Ruth Bryan Owen Rohde, August Heckscher and Daniel Frohman. Mr. Heckscher is 89 and Mr. Frohman is 87.”

Comments

[Anne Papineau]

Gustav von Seyffertitz?

[AryeMichaelBender]

Wow! Always thought Vlad Lenin was short. Maybe he's standing on an Alan Ladd, as apple boxes were once known.

[Mike Hawks]

It may be just two out of three this week. Pola Negri and Jesse Lasky plus the mystery person. Wish me luck with him.

[Rick Scott]

Can't place the main subject, the woman looks like Pola Negri, the man on the right is definately Jesse L. Lasky.

[GregoryMoore]

Don't know the mystery guest. But are the others Pola Negri and Jesse Lasky?

[Randy Skretvedt]

Possibly the pioneer French filmmaker Georges Melies? The man on the right in the top photo is Jesse Lasky; the man with the mustache in the second photo is Douglas Fairbanks; the man on the left in the third photo is Leo Carrillo. I'm frustrated that I don't know who the violinist (likely a bandleader) is!

[Gerald McCann]

Joe Schenk?

[Anne Papineau]

Wilfred Buckland?

[Cold in PHX]

This one is a poser. I see that he's a contemporary of Jesse Lasky, Douglas Fairbanks and Cecil B. DeMille. I suspected that he was a former L.A. mayor or a former Gov/Sen from California. Turned up nothing on both counts. Maybe he headed another studio or was an agent?

[Rick Scott]

Augustine Lumiere?

[Cold in PHX]

Oscar Apfel?

[Dewey Webb]

This guy is a "movie star" (ie, actor/performer)?

[Mary Mallory]

Let's see. Today's there's D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Robert Montgomery, Una Merkel, Errol Flynn.

[Mike Hawks]

I may have better luck identifying the mystery dog this week. Nevertheless, these are the people I know from todays photo. D.W. Griffith and possibly his last wife Evelyn Baldwin, Allan Jones and wife Irene Hervey, Mary Pickford, Robert Montgomery, Errol Flynn and Una Merkel.

[Rinky Dink]

Second from the right in the back row: Robert Montgomery?

Far left in the front row: Loretta Young?

[Anne Papineau]

He's the man in that Twilight Zone episode who dies and puts himself into his favorite Hollywood scenes.

[Stacia]

How does the tub symbolize "De Mille’s success as a producer of lavish motion pictures” though? Is it a reference to Cleopatra or something? That miniature tub has been confusing me for days.

[Cold in PHX]

Ugh! You don't know how close I came to figuring this out. I even looked up the Wikipedia entry on his brother Charles Frohman. Because I knew this guy was related in some way to Famous Players-Lasky. Sigh. Maybe the next one will be Robert Shayne or somebody I know.

[Arye Michael Bender]

Mr. Frohman was portrayed more than once in show biz bios as someone like Florenz Ziegfeld. The impression being that Frohman was some kind of patrician Presbyterian.

Daniel Frohman, from the Daily Mirror pictures, seems to have been born in Vienna. Very courtly and old world, and not a Jewish American from Sandusky, Ohio.

Quite wonderful.

[Sean Frohman]

Hello! My name is Sean Frohman and I am the great great grand nephew of Daniel Frohman. Gustave, Daniels brother, was my great Grandfather. I did no know these photos existed and I am quite happy to have found them here. Thank you so very much. I was amazed to see the coat Daniel is wearing in the photo with Errol Flynn and other motion picture actors . I have that very same coat in my closet! In regards to the very last comment posted on this page, Daniel was indeed born in Sandusky ohio, along with his brothers, Gustave and Charles Frohman. Thier father, Henry Frohman, emmigrated from Darmstadt, Germany in 1845 and settled in Sandusky with my great great grandmother, Barbara (also from Germany).

Thanks you again,
Sean Frohman