Kline Poster Co.

Last year, EFSP did a series of 11 American postcards with painted portraits of American, early silent film actresses. This colour series was published by the Kline Poster Co. Inc. of Philadelphia and must have been produced around 1915. The actresses worked for such American studios as Essanay, Pallas, Metro, Fox and Lasky, and they were among America's first film stars. But Kline also published beautiful postcards of male stars in this interesting series.


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila. Illustration: Lasky-Paramount.

Sessue Hayakawa (1889–1973) was a Japanese actor who starred in more than 80 American, Japanese, French, German, and British films. He was the first Asian actor to find stardom first in Hollywood and later in Europe. His 'broodingly handsome' good looks and typecasting as a sinister villain with sexual dominance made him a heartthrob among female audiences in the 1910s and early 1920s. Nowadays he is best remembered for his Oscar-nominated turn as Japanese POW camp commander Saito in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957).


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila.

William S. Hart (1864-1946) was an American silent film actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. He entered films in 1914 where, after playing supporting roles in two short films, he achieved stardom as the lead in The Bargain (Reginald Barker, 1914), his first Western. He became the foremost Western star of the silent era who played characters with honor and integrity. Hart was particularly interested in making realistic Westerns, and his films are noted for their authentic costumes and props. Hart also had an extraordinary acting ability, honed on Shakespearean theatre stages in the United States and England.


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila.

Edwin Stevens (1860-1923) was an American stage and film actor. He also directed several films during the silent era. He started in the theatre in 1896, worked in about twenty plays, acted in 45 films between 1916 and 1923, and directed seven between 1916 and 1917.


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila. Image: Universal.

Francis Ford (1881-1953) was an American actor and director of the silent era. He was the elder brother and mentor of director John Ford. He also appeared in many of the latter's movies, including Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) and The Quiet Man (1952). Ford may have acted in over 400 films, with many of his early credits poorly documented and probably lost.


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila. Image: Brady-World Star. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Carlyle Blackwell (1884-1955) was a popular American matinée idol and occasional director of the silent cinema. Debonair and darkly handsome, he made his debut with Vitagraph Studios in Uncle Tom's Cabin (J. Stuart Blackton, 1910) and was seldom out of work as a romantic lead, progressing from one- and two-reelers to feature films by 1914.


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila. Image: Metro.

Harold Lockwood (1887-1918) was an American silent film actor, director, and producer. During the 1910s, he was one of the most popular matinee idols and formed with May Allison one of the earliest screen romantic teams. He worked for such companies as Nestor, Selig, Flying A, Famous Players, and Metro. Unfortunately, Lockwood became a victim of the worldwide flu epidemic of 1918 and died at the age of 31.


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila.

Charles Ray (1891-1943) was an American actor, scriptwriter, and director of the silent screen, who knew a parabole from rags to riches and back again. He worked for Paramount, his own company, United Artists and MGM. In the late 1910s and early 1920s, he was a very popular actor and one of Hollywood's best-paid stars.


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila. Image: Triangle.

American actress Bessie Barriscale (1884-1965) was a silent movie star in the 1910s. Hollywood marketed her as the "girl with the biggest eyes". Barriscale became one of the highest-paid actresses of the time.


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila.

American Hazel Dawn (1890-1988) was a celebrated singer and actress in the early decades of the century. In 1911, Dawn rose to fame in the Broadway production of 'The Pink Lady', which ran for over 300 performances and earned Dawn the eponymous nickname. She performed extensively on Broadway and from 1914 on, she starred in 13 films.


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila. Image: Pallas / Paramount.

American silent screen actress Myrtle Stedman (1885-1938) was known as 'the girl with the pearly eyes'. In 1911, Myrtle and husband Marshall Stedman were signed by the Selig Polyscope Co. Myrtle was a leading lady in silent films of the 1910s and early 1920s for such companies as Bosworth and Pallas and later, she became a character actress.


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila. Image: Morosco-Paramount.

Constance Collier (1878–1955) was an English stage and film actress and later one of Hollywood's premiere drama and voice coaches. In a career that covered six decades, she evolved into one of London’s and Broadway’s finest tragediennes. Although she appeared in a number of silent British and American films, her career in the cinema got really on steam in her senior years when Collier appeared in well-regarded supporting roles in more than twenty Hollywood productions.


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila. Image: Universal.

Marie Walcamp (1894-1936) was one of Hollywood's most popular serial Queens of the silent film era. The blonde Ohio girl became an action heroine in many serials, including Westerns, in which she often appeared with Eddie Polo.


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila. Image: Metro.

May Allison (1890-1989) was an American actress whose greatest success was achieved in the early part of the 20th century in silent films, although she also appeared on stage.


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila. Image: Fox.

Genevieve Hamper (1888-1971) was an American stage actress who also starred in seven silent films. She often appeared on stage and in early silent films with her much older husband Robert B. Mantell.


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila. Image: Lasky / Paramount.

Fannie Ward, a.k.a. Fanny Ward (1871–1952) was a star of light comedies on Broadway and in vaudeville. Internationally famous, she was at the height of her career in the first decade of the 20th century. Later she was 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.


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila. Image: Essanay.

Edna Mayo (1895-1970) was an American actress of the silent film era. She was on stage from 1906 and prominent in films with Essanay between 1914 and 1918.


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila. Image: Lasky / Paramount.

Cleo Ridgely (1893-1962) was a New York chorus girl, who became a modern, sporty silent screen lady of the 1910s. In a Kalem series of shorts, she starred as Jean, the Girl Detective.


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila. Image: Metro.

Wide-eyed, brunette Beverly Bayne (1894-1982) was an American silent film actress who began her career in 1910 at the Essanay Studios in Chicago. With Francis X. Bushman, she formed the most successful romantic couple of the early cinema. They appeared together in 24 films.


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila. Image: Fox.

Austrian born, American actress Bertha Kalich (1874-1939) was known for her majestic bearing, great beauty, and fine diction. She started her career as an entertainer in Eastern Europe. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, she became one of the 'larger-than-life' figures that dominated New York stages during the Golden Age' of American Yiddish Theatre. Kalich was the first female actor to make the transition from the Yiddish to the English stage. During the 1910s she became one of the stars of Fox Film.


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila. Image: Fox.

Claire Whitney (1890-1969) was an American stage and film actress who appeared between 1912 and 1949 in 111 films for companies like Solax and later Fox. Only 21 of these films survive, as most have been lost.


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila. Image: Metro.

American actress Ethel Barrymore (1879-1959) was a member of the Barrymore family of actors. Her career as a stage, screen and radio actress spanned six decades, and she was regarded as "The First Lady of the American Theatre". She made 15 silent pictures between 1914 and 1919, most of them for the Metro Pictures studio.


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila. Image: Universal.

American actress Mary Fuller (1988-1973) started her film career at Vitagraph and had her breakthrough at Edison. At Universal, Fuller became a major early film star who rivalled Mary Pickford in popularity. In 1917, she left the film industry and ended her life in a mental hospital.


American postcard by Kline Poster Co. Inc., Phila.

Olga Petrova (1884-1977) was a British-American actress, screenwriter and playwright. During her seven years in film, Petrova appeared in more than two dozen films and wrote the script for several others.

If you like to read more background info about the actresses and actors, double click on the postcards or read their bios in our Flickr album on the Kline Poster Co. or see EFSP's post of last year on the Kline Poster Co.