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Wings, the 1927 William A. Wellman silent/talking World War I (WWI) military airplane aviation romantic thriller melodrama ("To those young warriors of the sky whose wings are folded about them forever in this motion picture is reverently dedicated."; "Story by John Monk Saunders"; winner of the Best Picture Academy Award) starring Clara Bow, Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, Richard Arlen, Arlette Marchal, Gary Cooper (in one of his first major roles!), Jobyna Ralston, El Brendel, Richard Tucker, and Roscoe Karns. Note that Arlette Marchal was a French actress who had some success in American silent films. She was fourth billed when this movie was first released in 1927, but likely she had great trouble speaking English, because when the movie had dialogue added in 1929, she was no longer billed at all! Also note that Clara Bow was the most famous "flapper girl" of the mid to late 1920s (she became known as "The It Girl" after the character she played based on the popular novel by Elinor Glyn). She had a major role in Wings, and was Paramount's biggest star at that time. But she had a notorious private life and seemingly "settled down" when she married cowboy star Rex Bell in 1931 (she had two children and she retired from movies), but sadly in 1949 she went into a mental institution after a failed suicide attempt (she had had psychiatric issues for quite some time) and she was released but never returned to her family, and lived alone until her death in 1965.
NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography.

Important Added Info: Note that this classic movie premiered in 1927 as a silent movie with a synchronized soundtrack, which was mostly just sound effects of the planes shooting, and continued in first release until the beginning of 1929. At that time, a second set of posters were created promoting Gary Cooper as a fourth "lead" (even though he had a minor role), and also adding references to sound to the posters ("HEAR! The thrilling DRONE of the propellers, the ZOOMING of the planes, the RAT TAT TAT of the guns", and they also put "a Paramount SOUND Picture" prominently on the poster as well!), even though it appears that no actual additional sound effects were added (apparently this was done because by early 1929, people were avoiding silent movies, and the producers of the movie wanted to deceive the public!). Later in 1929, all new posters were prepared, and the "now with sound" references were deleted from these 1929 posters, and Gary Cooper was again given equal billing to the top three stars. Given that the movie was in its first release throughout those three years, some people view posters from all three releases as "first release", while some purists insist that only the very first set of posters from 1927 are "first release". Some of what we have written above is guesswork based on the posters that have surfaced, but we hope to learn additional information that clears up this fascinating mystery of early Hollywood ("Wings" was, of course, the winner of the first Best Picture Academy Award; well, kind of, because the award was "split" between "Wings" and "Sunrise", and yet "Wings" is almost always mentioned as the first winner!). If anyone has additional information about any of the above, please e-mail us and we will post it here.

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