Myrna Loy (34 page)

PLATE 4.
Left to right:
Della Johnson Williams; Myrna’s brother, David; seven-year-old Myrna; and David F. Williams in a Pasadena park in 1912. Courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

PLATE 5. Myrna Williams at age fifteen, 1920. Montana Historical Society.

PLATE 6. In March 1940 Myrna Loy revisits the Williams ranch in Crow Creek Valley and poses in front of a log house built by her grandfather. Montana Historical Society.

PLATE 7. “Fountain of Education,” Venice High School sculpture by Harry F. Winebrenner, 1922. Myrna modeled for the figure “Inspiration.” Los Angeles Herald Examiner Collection, Los Angeles Public Library.

PLATE 8. Myrna Loy and an unidentified dancer in the Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre Prologue to
The Ten Commandments
. Photo by Henry Waxman, 1924. Viewed by Rudolph Valentino and Natacha Rambova, this and other Waxman photos led to Myrna’s first screen test. Courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

PLATE 9. The September 1925 issue of
Motion Picture
magazine introduced Myrna Loy with a question, “Who is she?” She is shown wearing the Adrian-designed costume she wore in
What Price Beauty?
Her first film, it was shot in 1925 but not released by Pathé until 1928. Courtesy of Sunrise Silents.

PLATE 10. Joan Crawford
(second from left)
, still known as Lucille Le Sueur, and Myrna Loy
(second from right)
as dancers in
Pretty Ladies
(MGM, 1925). Photofest.

PLATE 11. Myrna Loy the exotic, in a retouched press photograph.
San Francisco News-Call Bulletin
, Dec. 24, 1926. San Francisco Public Library History Center.

PLATE 12. Cast and crew of
Don Juan
(Warner Bros., 1926), a film with synchronized sound but no audible dialogue.
Standing (left to right):
Myrna Loy, photographer Byron Haskins, Emily Fitzroy, William Koenig, unknown, director Alan Crosland, J. L. Warner, art director Ben Carré, Joseph Swickard, Walter Mayo, Helene Costello, Ern Westmore, assistant director Gordon Hollingshead. Seated: Warner Oland, Estelle Taylor, John Barrymore, Mary Astor, Montagu Love. Courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

PLATE 13. A publicity herald for
The Girl from Chicago
(Warner Bros., 1927). Private collection.

PLATE 14. Tom Wilson, Myrna Loy, and Heinie Conklin in blackface in
Ham and Eggs at the Front
(Warner Bros., 1927). Courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

PLATE 15. Myrna Loy and Conrad Nagel in
State Street Sadie
(Warner Bros., 1928). Private collection.