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Harold Lloyd was born in Burchard, Nebraska, USA in 1893. His parents divorced when he was small (odd at that time) and he lived with his father (more odd). In 1912, they moved to California, and Harold, who had acted in community theater got a job at the Thomas Edison studio. He met fellow actor (and sometime director) Hal Roach, and when Roach got an inheritance and was able to buy part of a studio in 1913, Lloyd went with him. The following year he met Bebe Daniels, and the two became a team, both onscreen and off. In 1915, Lloyd created the Lonesome Luke character (essentially a rip-off of Chaplin's Tramp character) and between 1915 and 1917 made over 60 one-reel shorts. In 1918, Lloyd created a new character, with trademark horn rimmed glasses (Roach would later take credit for creating the character!). In 1919, Lloyd was injured performing one of his many dangerous stunts when a prop bomb exploded, and he lost his right thumb and forefinger (he would wear prosthetic fingers the rest of his life). Also in 1919, Daniels and Lloyd split up romantically and professionally, although they remained good friends the rest of their lives. In 1921, Lloyd made his feature movie, A Sailor-Made Man, followed by Grandma's Boy, and both were huge hits. Lloyd soon split from Roach and started producing his own movies, distributing them through Paramount, and he made a fortune from them. Lloyd had many hits through the 1920s (he made more movies than Chaplin or Keaton, and they grossed more money overall). He had married in 1923, and had two children, and he used some of the vast amount of money he made to build his own studio and an immense estate, called Greenacres, with 44 rooms, 26 bathrooms, 12 fountains, 12 gardens, and a nine hole golf course. Lloyd had always been eccentric, and his huge wealth allowed him to explore many odd hobbies, including stereopticon-like three-dimensional slides, and he had hundreds of thousands of them made, many of pretty naked (and near-naked) young women! When sound came to movies, Lloyd had trouble adapting, and each of his sound movies were less and less successful, until he pretty much retired in 1938. He spent much of his time on his charity work, and on his odd hobbies. He made the unfortunate move of not allowing his movies to be distributed or shown on TV for many years, which (like Will Rogers) helped to largely cause him to be forgotten by later generations. Worse yet, a nitrate fire in Lloyd's vault caused most of his early movies to become permanently "lost". When Lloyd passed away in 1971 at the age of 77, he was one of the richest men in Hollywood, but he was largely forgotten except by film buffs. But in recent years, he has been "re-discovered" and it is generally accepted that Lloyd was one of the three giants of silent comedy, fully the equal of Chaplin and Keaton! His best movies hold up exceedingly well, and I highly recommend seeking them out.

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Important Added Info: Note that this is a MOST unusual poster, for two reasons. First off, it is a "stock one-sheet" that Paramount Pictures made for theaters showing Harold Lloyd movies. While there were many 22x28 "personality posters" made at this time, there were very few stock one-sheets like this made at this time, and we have never before auctioned this really cool poster. But it is also very unusual for a second reason. Sometimes when posters were kraftbacked (see below), the company that did the kraftbacking would fold over extra brown paper to the front on each border. But in THIS case, this was not done. Instead, they used a REALLY cool paper tape that has a wonderful gold pattern printed on it (with a kind of gold foil paint), and they put a piece of that special paper tape over each border, making it look like the poster was "framed"! One could certainly have this border tape removed and have the poster removed from the kraftbacking, but I could certainly understand one choosing to keep this super cool tape (but of course that will be the choice of the buyer of this ultra-rare poster!) Note also that this poster has been trimmed and it now measures 26 1/4" x 40 1/2" [67 x 103 cm]. Also note that this poster has been kraftbacked, which means it was backed onto a brown paper soon after it was printed (this process is called "kraft-backing", and posters with it are called "kraft-backed"). One could have it professionally removed from the kraft paper and linenbacked, and it would look great!

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