At the last Haversat and Ewing Auction (#40), I was elated to be the only bidder on Lot# 70 [Price w/BP $47.20]:
Movie stills from Houdini’s 1919 [1923] film Haldane of the Secret Service. The movie co-starred Gladys Leslie, Jane Jennings, and Charles Fang. Original studio 8×10’s.
I believe this lot was overlooked, since the stills did not include Houdini and one may have even questioned whether these images were from Haldane, unless you compared the outfits the actor’s were wearing in the stills with the movie itself or other stills:
FWIW: Almost all of the production stills for Houdini’s movie, The Grim Game, contain Houdini, unlike Haldane and his other movies. Years ago, I won an original Lila Lee Terror Island production still on eBay that did not include Houdini, nor was it obvious it was from the movie Terror Island unless you were in the know.
Thought it would be fun to do a post on each of the three co-stars depicted in the stills:
- Gladys Leslie
- JANE JENNINGS
- Charles Fang
Today we look at Jane Jennings via wikipedia:
Jane Jennings was an American actress known for playing older motherly characters. In a 1918 edition of Motion Picture News she is described as a sweet looking little woman. Famous Players was one of the studios where she worked. She is on the cover of the sheet music for That Wonderful Mother of Mine (1918). By the 1925 film Self Defense, she had played 178 mother roles in films.
Note: The stills above depict Jane Jennings as Mrs. Clive Usher, mother of Mr. Usher, who Adele Ormsby was supposed to marry in Haldane of the Secret Service.