A new FDR video & Mr B "collide"

So I recently found out this video had been "discovered" and released by the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library today, after having been donated to them by the tourist who shot the short video. It's of FDR walking at the White House, a very brief clip but one of the only clear indications of how the president walked. I had read about the somewhat rollicking, rolling gait he had in order to walk with a cane, his braces on and with the help of a sturdy aide's arm.

I've long been fascinated by Roosevelt (and Lincoln), and I think his ridiculously accomplished, complicated, occasionally ass-backwards life politically and personally is incredibly interesting. Now, there is a relationship to Lionel Barrymore in all this of course, explained in another post here, but I also wanted to draw attention to this in the TIME article I'm linking (highlighting mine):

He was an active advocate for polio research — and during his first Annual Birthday Ball in 1934 raised $1 million for the cause, telling the country over the radio, “As the representative of hundreds of thousands of crippled children, I accept this tribute” — even as he tried had to maintain signs of physical vitality.

 LINK TO THE TIME MAGAZINE ARTICLE ONLINE, JUNE 28, 2018

I discovered last year Mr B's very clear link to the fundraising in the late 1940s for the then-nascent National Arthritis Research Foundation and his leadership in it. Yes, he denied having arthritis, and I'm going to say yes, he lied.  But that's another blog post, and a later one too. In the meantime, you might look at this brief glimpse of Franklin Roosevelt and ponder many, many things.

And below, a contemporary of his:

It's a strange ol' world.

A little look at makeup through the early years of Mr. B

So Mr. B liked to say he was generally in films and on stage "as is" and bare-faced, but he wore a fair number of wigs, prosthetics, and especially eyebrows in the early years. Given that in the majority of his silent film years he was making several at a time, is it a wonder he had a few scars from makeup and perhaps lights on his face?

Let's have a look at some early film and stage makeup, shall we? After you.

Above are from Drums of Love, where Mr. B was heavily made up (at the same time he was filming Sadie Thompson for 1928 release!)

In A Yaqui Cur, center. MUCH mustache!

 The wonderful Mme. Mandelip in The Devil-Doll

 As John, the "strong man" in The Strong Man's Burden

 Ah, the ill-fated Macbeth on Broadway...

 

 Above two are from The 13th Hour (not Mysterious Island!)

 The little-known and probably not extant Decameron Nights

 Mr. B enjoyed dressing up to play Scrooge

And of course, Mr. B as Rasputin, with his "deer-hunting dog" infested beard he speaks magnificently of in his bio.

He was indeed a man of--well, perhaps a couple dozen faces. Later prosthetics, like in the later 30s and 40s, occasionally made him virtually invisible (I'm thinking of you, The Gorgeous Hussy!)