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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 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 this poster in a large flat package, so 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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