Mitzi

Mitzi Hajos (1889-1970), best known for the operetta SARI (1914 and 1930).

Newlyweds

Frederick Worlock (1886-1973) and Elsie Ferguson. They met on Broadway while appearing in THE MOON-FLOWER (1924) and married that year.

Lucille Chalfonte

Lucille Chalfonte (Lucille Collins McStay Hoff, 1891-1932), photographed by Nickolas Muray for one of Andrés de Segurola's "Artistic Mornings" at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.

Ethel Barrymore

Ethel Barrymore (Ethel Mae Blythe, 1879-1959), four times nominated for an Academy Award, winner of the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for NONE BUT THE LONELY HEART(1944).

Margaret Vale

Margaret Vale appeared in two Broadway shows between 1914 and 1916. She was also featured in films from 1915; a Margaret Vale was still working, perhaps uncredited, as late as 1937, in Reginald Denny’s SUNDAY NIGHT AT THE TROCADERO.

Ballet Doris Niles

Doris Niles (Doris Jones, 1905-1998, at the back in the center, holding the guitar) with members of Ballet Doris Niles; in 1929 the company was based in Steinway Hall on West Fifty-seventh Street in Manhattan.

In this period Muray’s studio was located nearby at the new Park Central Hotel.

Nickolas Muray Day

“Alan Dinehart, who plays opposite Florence Reed in THE MIRAGE [1920-21], Edgar Selwyn’s much discussed play in the Times Square Theatre.” 

Photo by Nickolas Muray (Miklós Mandl, 1892-1965)

A photo by D. Jay Culver (1902-1968)

When I started collecting photographs in a serious way, about ten years ago, one of the best resources I found was the erstwhile Culver Collection, available at an enormous online site offering vintage prints for sale at quite reasonable prices. As I recall, the collection’s curators had prioritized identifying the subject, quite reasonably, over the photographer … which meant that if you recognized the photographer’s style, or a run of images seen elsewhere on the site, you could pick up things like photos by Nickolas Muray. 

Another thing I liked about the collection, which had been a press agency in its heyday, was that one could often trace the history of the print from the penciled notes and the press stamps on the reverse. Between the low prices and the epic scale of the place, I was in heaven!

Of course, one day the flood slowed to a trickle, and quite suddenly — after I had paid for, but not received, a batch of photos — the site closed for business and became unreachable. I will attach a link to the BusinessWire story that described what happened next, although I don’t know what actually became of all that lovely photographic history…