The fourteenth of Lionel: All the world's a stage (play)

For this blog post, I thought I'd revisit images of Mr. B on Broadway, all from before his first MGM studio film, The Barrier, which led to him signing the lifetime contract with them and heading off to Cali-for-NI-a.  Some are relatively obscure, like The Claw; some are very well known, like The Jest. Either way, enjoy this visual walk down Broadway with me and Mr. B!

1897, my friends

 

A pretty persistent hit in the late Victorian period. Maurice Barrymore apparently toured in it as well!

In The Mummy & the Hummingbird, a galvanizing characterization for Mr. B

A wee young man, prior to marriage to Doris Rankin and France

 

The Brothers Barrymore in 1917, while doing Peter Ibbetson together

 

Lionel as Neri Chiaramantesi

John as Giannetto

All the above are my color edits

Macbeth

I own this one

With Irene Fenwick in Laugh, Clown, Laugh

1925 play, not successful

1920 play

The Letter of the Law

With 1st wife Doris Rankin, The Letter of the Law

The Claw

Crop and color edit by me, from Laugh, Clown, Laugh

And oh my, as Abdulla in The Fires of Fate, 1909, on his return from 3 years in France playing at art:

Mr. B left the play shortly after it moved to a new theater, after about 28 performances, citing "health problems", but admitting later he'd developed a terror of performing, probably while in France when he didn't

 Happy 14th of Lionel Barrymore!