BEN LYON - AUTOGRAPHED INSCRIBED PHOTOGRAPH CO-SIGNED BY: BEBE DANIELS - HFSID 326751

BEN LYON and BEBE DANIELS
Loving photograph of Ben Lyon and wife Bebe Daniels signed to a fan in blue ink
Inscribed photograph signed: "To Marilyn Plummer/With our best wishes-/Bebe Daniels", "Ben Lyon", in blue ink, B/w 7¾x9¾. BEN LYON (1901-1979, born in Atlanta, Georgia) was an American actor who starred in films of the silent and early talking era. In Howard Hughes' Hell's Angels (1930), he piloted his own plane. He married Bebe Daniels in 1930. Both moved to England in 1935 and became popular radio and television personalities there. Lyon fought in the Royal Air Force during World War II. After Bebe's death, he married former movie co-star Marian Nixon. In 1946, while working for 20th Century Fox, he organized a color screen test for a young actress named Norma Jean Dougherty, got Dougherty her first contract and suggested a name change to "Marilyn Monroe". Phyllis Virginia "BEBE" DANIELS (1901-1971) broke into silent films at age seven, and played Dorothy in the first film version of The Wizard of Oz in 1910. She moved on to Mack Sennett comedies in the 1910s, Cecil B. DeMille features in the twenties, and musical and other roles in the early talkie era (Rio Rita, 1929; 42nd Street (1933). She and actor husband Ben Lyon moved to England in 1935, becoming popular radio and television personalities there. She wrote much of the dialogue for their long-running BBC program Hi Gang, which continued through the London Blitz of 1940. President Truman later awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom for this wartime contribution. Stained on left margin. Lightly toned. Corners lightly worn and creased. Slightly soiled. Otherwise, fine condition.