A superb vintage original 7 1/2 x 9 1/2 double weight Witzel of LA photo of beautiful Mary Miles Minter in a seductive cheesecake pose, c. Near mint, easily the sexiest photo we’ve seen of the tragic star who was involved in an affair with the murdered director William Desmond Taylor in 1922, becoming a sensational murder suspect in a scandal that destroyed her career and badly hurt the career of Mabel Normand who was also having an affair with the director. Most believe the killer was Minter’s controlling mother who also may have been one of Taylor’s lovers. The unsolved murder of Taylor remains the most intriguing of all the murder scandals of early Hollywood in the silent movie era. The Hollywood pinup which began with Mack Sennett’s famous “Bathing Beauties” reached its zenith in WWII. Evelyn Keyes, one of the most popular of the WWII era pinup girls, wrote in “Scarlett O’Hara’s Younger Sister”: It was our patriotic duty to answer the gallant servicemen… With pinup pictures, the nakedest the Hays Office would allow… We females spent hours posing in bathing suits, negligees and shorts, jumping out of candy boxes for Valentine’s Day. The pinup would endure through the Korean War and into the 1950s, when the more aggressive Men’s magazines made them seem quaint and old fashioned. Today these photos, also known as “Cheesecake” are valuable collectors items symbolizing a time of more innocent glamour and beauty. The item “Tragic MARY MILES MINTER vintage sexy risque DBW c1920 leggy Witzel pinup photo” is in sale since Wednesday, August 15, 2018. This item is in the category “Entertainment Memorabilia\Movie Memorabilia\Photographs\Pre-1940\Black & White”. The seller is “malibran” and is located in Culver City, California. This item can be shipped worldwide.
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