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Wallace Beery was a major MGM star from the 1910s to the 1940s. He was born in 1885, and in 1902, at the age of 16, he joined the Ringling Brothers Circus as an elephant trainer's assistant, but he left two years later, after he was clawed by a leopard. He went to New York, where he became a leading man in musicals, both on Broadway and in traveling companies. In 1913, he went to Hollywood and got his big break the following year in a bizarre way. He was the lead actor in a series of "Sweedie" comedies, about a hulking Swedish maid, and Beery dressed as a woman to play the part! Young Gloria Swanson appeared in one of those comedies, and Beery swept her off her feet and married her the following year, and they had one of the most famous unhappy marriages, divorcing 3 years later. Beery started playing hulking villains, including in many famous adventure films such as "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse", and "The Sea Hawk", and he was King Richard in the silent "Robin Hood". In 1926, he returned to comedy, including many with Raymond Hatton. He seemed washed up when sound came in, even though he had an interesting speaking voice. MGM's Irving Thalberg signed him to a contract, and he had his greatest success in the very early 1930s, including in "The Big House" (where he was nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award), "Min and Bill", "The Champ" (where he won the Best Actor Academy Award), and "Treasure Island" (where he played Long John Silver). He had successful romantic comedies with Marie Dressler (including "Min and Bill"), but she passed away in 1934. In the 1940s, he had another series of comedies with Marjorie Main. He continued working all the way until he passed away in 1949 at the age of 64. He sure packed a lot of living into those 64 years! His brother was Noah Beery Sr., a successful silent actor, and his nephew was Noah Beery Jr.

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Important Added Info: Note that starting in the very early 1910s (around 1912, when studios realized that people were more likely to go to a movie if it had a star they liked in it), studios created sets of special "personality" posters, which theaters that showed their movies could hang in their lobbies. These had a big advantage over posters for specific movies, because they could be used whenever a movie with that star was shown, which meant they could be used over and over! Because studios realized this, they made these posters on a high quality paper stock, sometimes with a "linen" texture, and sometimes with elaborate border designs, and almost always with great quality color printing. They almost always measured exactly 22" x 28", the same as "half-sheets" (which were then known as "displays", except that they were taller than they were wide, and that the images almost always had a "full bleed", meaning that there were no blank borders. They almost always showed a head and shoulders image of the star, and the image on these posters is often very close to actual life-size! They almost always have the name of the star and the studio they worked for at the bottom. Even though there were many sets of these from many studios over a period of approximately 30 years (they were rarely made after the early 1940s), very few survive, likely partially due to World War II paper drives, and partially due to the fact that they were never folded and the paper they were made of sometimes aged poorly. We at eMoviePoster.com were just consigned a very special collection of 99 of these "personality" posters, which we are auctioning in separate auctions. They were collected starting in the mid 1980s, and the collector who assembled this collection tried to "upgrade" condition whenever possible over the years, so many of them are in excellent condition (sometimes likely the best surviving example), and on the ones where they are in lesser condition, it is because the collector never could find one in better condition! Now he has consigned them to us, and they will find new owners. If they were kept together, they would surely make an incredible display for the walls of any place where lots of people gather, like a museum, a restaurant, or any similar place. Of course, it is more likely that these will find many, many separate new homes, but we hope that they end up publicly displayed wherever they end up!

Note that MGM became a major studio after its creation (through merger) in 1924, and at some point in the 1920s, they created two different sets of personality posters to promote their stars, and in the 1930s, when they had "more stars than there are in Heaven", they created four more sets! You can tell the sets apart in two ways. One is that all of the posters from a set have the same border design and the stars and studio names are written in the same font and layout. The other is that you can look at the age of the star in the image (although that might possibly be deceptive, because they might have sometimes used a slightly younger version of a star!). The MGM sets were likely made every two to three years, and some major stars carried over from set to set, but with the passing years, some stars would be dropped and new stars added. These posters are extremely rare as it is likely few theaters ordered them, and fewer still saved them, and in addition, they could be easily torn, and if they were not stored carefully, they would become fragile, and it is likely many were damaged and discarded for that reason! Note that the high quality paper stock these posters were printed on does not always age very well, and can become fragile (usually resulting in chips around the edges of the poster). Because of their fragile nature and their age, we intend to send all of these personality posters in large flat packages, and never roll them into tubes (unless the buyer insists)! PLEASE DO NOT BID ON THIS POSTER, UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO PAY THE COST OF SHIPPING IT IN A LARGE FLAT PACKAGE!

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