BLANCHE SWEET - AUTOGRAPHED INSCRIBED PHOTOGRAPH - HFSID 186181

BLANCHE SWEET
Photograph of the actress shown with Tom Moore in a still from the 1930 film The Woman Racket
Photograph inscribed and signed: "To Pedro Serana/with pleasure/Blanche Sweet". B/w, 10x8. Still from the 1930 film, The Woman Racket, which starred Sweet as speakeasy employee Julia Barnes and co-starred Tom Moore (pictured) as cop Tom Hayes. Above their images, Sweet has written "Self" and "Tom Moore". In 1930, Sweet also starred in Show Girl in Hollywood and The Silver Horde. Blanche Sweet (1896-1986), born Sarah Blanche Sweet, made her first appearance on stage when she was 18 months old, was a dancer by the age of four and began her acting career at the age of 14 with D.W. Griffith at Biograph. Her early films with the studio included The Lonedale Operator (1911) and Judith of Bethulia (1914), before she left Biograph in 1914 to work with Cecil B. DeMille (The Warrens of Virginia, 1915). Best known for the title role in the 1923 film, Anna Christie, Sweet's other film credits include Tess of the D'Ubervilles (1924, directed by her then-husband, Marshall Neilan). Sweet, who made a long list of silent films, appeared in only three "talkies", including Girl in Hollywood (1930) before retiring from films at the age of 34. She returned to the stage, appearing in plays on Broadway and with touring companies. Sweet also worked in radio during the 1930s. After the death of her second (1936-1958) husband, stage co-star Raymond Hackett, Sweet returned to the screen for a final time in the 1959 film, The Five Pennies. Adequate contrast (all writing legible when held at an angle). Lightly creased at blank margins and corners, lightly stained at lower right blank margin. Surface creases and scratches (most not visible head on), light diagonal crease at "Tom". Overall, fine condition.