A Member Section curated by Michael Leake
We all know some of our favorite actors and remember them in some of our best-liked films. But have you seen them when they had just begun their careers? Have you seen their early work, before they had developed their personal style? Or did they have it from the beginning?
Scarecrow member Michael Leake has assembled the early work of actresses and actors who have long been considered among the best known. Some of them were considered for awards from the beginning. For others it is fun to watch early gems of performance, not unlike the way one delights in watching their brand-new puppy gambolling about the house. In the beginning you know that they are fun, but you can only imagine what they will become as they grow up. For a few, like Jimmy Steward, Henry Fonda, Clark Gable and Robert Young, you can see them in their first time on screen.
The late 1920s and 1930s were the advent of sound in film, “the talkies”, and perhaps this is rightly considered the golden age of film; with so much new technology, there was much experimenting and inventing of skills, styles and techniques in story telling and camera work. However, Scarecrow’s collection includes some of the work done at the end of the silent era when people like Dietrich, Crawford, and Lombard were still quite young. Were these walk-on parts, or can you already see in them what was to bring years of delight in their future work. Take a look at Jean Harlow in her 1929 film, “Why Be Good?”. This comedy has only synchronized sound, no dialog, but it is amusing. Can you see the early Jean?
