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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: Personality posters were created in the 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, and early 1940s. All of the major studios created sets of these that usually measured exactly 22" x 28". Most often they were taller than they were wide, but occasionally they would be horizontal. It is interesting to note that the image on these posters is often very close to actual life-size! While at least several hundred different special personality posters were made between the 1910s and early 1940s, few are known to have survived, as few theaters ordered them, and fewer still saved them! There were two sets of personality posters created by Paramount Pictures. One was made in the mid 1920s (on regular "half-sheet-like" paper), and the other was made in the early 1930s (on a linen-like paper), and they continued making them for several years in the mid 1930s. Posters from either of these sets are far more rare than those from MGM (perhaps because they made less of them than MGM did). Note that this poster is very old, and it would not make sense to attempt to roll it, as the paper is fragile enough that rolling it would likely damage it. Therefore we intend to send it in a very large flat package. Please bear that extra shipping cost in mind BEFORE placing a bid on this poster! Note that while this poster is fragile, it is not very fragile! It does need to be handled carefully, but it can absolutely be framed and enjoyed without any worry, or certainly, restoration could be performed.

Note that this item needs to be shipped in an oversized flat package. If it is a size that might ordinarily be rolled in a tube (like a half-sheet), the reason it is in this auction is specifically because we feel it either CAN'T be rolled or because we feel it would be a mistake to roll it, because it might well damage the item. In the case of the few items that could be rolled, we will roll the item in a tube if the new owner insists, but only if they accept that they can't return the item if it is damaged from being rolled. So please bear in mind that this item must be sent in a LARGE flat package (the size of the package will depend on the size of the item), and bear this added expense in mind before placing a bid on it.

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