Victor Potel's Paintings
Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2015 7:06 am
While digging through old periodicals in my ongoing search for any new snippet of info regarding Henry Lehrman, I came across several articles that talk about Victor Potel's painting abilities, and one piece in particular. The following is from Lee Shippey's "Lee Side 'o L.A.," Los Angeles Times, 04/24/1939, p.A4:
The Original Mack Sennetts
Humorists have said there must have been 1,000,000 passengers on the Mayflower, to judge by the number of people now claiming that their ancestors came over on it, and that there must have been at least 500,000 members of the original Floradora sextet. Often in Hollywood it seems that there must have been about that many comedians in the original Mack Sennett studio, which, in Movieland, compares with the Mayflower. For that reason a picture just painted by Victor Potel, who was a comic in the original Mack Sennett studio at Edendale, should be of great historic value. For Victor has painted some 68 persons into the picture, all of whom were prominent in the activities of the studio while he was there. In the picture are some of the stunts for which the studio was famous. Custard pies are being hurled, bathing beauties are being photographed and comic cops are performing.
How Good Is Your Memory?
It is interesting to study this picture of Potel’s, to see how some of those pictured have progressed while others have passed, or nearly passed, out of the picture world. Among those pictured are Raymond Griffith, Mal St. Clair, Eddie Sutherland, Harry Langdon, Charlie Chaplin, Henry Lehrman, Ed and Tom Kennedy, Slim Summerville, Polly Moran, Ben Turpin, Charlie Murray, Andy Clyde, Al St. John, Charles Heinie Conklin, Chester Conklin, Eddie Gibbon [sic], James Finlayson, Jack Richardson, Glen Cavender, Dot Farley, Ford Sterling, Vernon Dent, George O’Hara, Louise Fazenda, Douglas Girard, Gloria Swanson, Hank Mann, Dale Fuller, Billy Bevan, Phyllis Haver, Blanche Payson, George Gray, Ted Stanhope, Mary Ann Jackson, George Jeske, Johnnie Rand and Potel himself. Mack Sennett is shown, of course. And there are faces we thought we never could forget but which some of us have forgotten—Mabel Normand, Fatty Arbuckle, Fre Mace, Jack Cooper, Lige Cromley, Harry McCoy, Hugh Fay, Wayland Trask, George Binns, Kalla Pasha, Pat Kelly, Billy Armstrong, Harry Barber, Sid Smith and Al Cook.
If your face should be in that picture and isn’t, you’d better see Victor about it for there may be a time when it will be important in the history of the most remarkable industry in the world. Think what it would have meant if those who came over on the Mayflower had posed for a group photograph just after landing. This picture of Potel’s is so complete that it even shows Teddy, the Great Dane, and Pepper, the cat.
Another article - Lucie Neville's "In Hollywood," The Poughkeepsie Star-Enterprise, 06/03/1947 - goes on to say that the painting hung on the wall of director Preston Sturges' restauarant, "and all the people still living (except Chaplin), autographed the frame." Does anyone know if this painting still exists and, if so, has anyone actually seen it? Neville stated that the "faces are only an inch or so high but startlingly accurate."
Advance apologies if this topic has already appeared somewhere here or at another site.
The Original Mack Sennetts
Humorists have said there must have been 1,000,000 passengers on the Mayflower, to judge by the number of people now claiming that their ancestors came over on it, and that there must have been at least 500,000 members of the original Floradora sextet. Often in Hollywood it seems that there must have been about that many comedians in the original Mack Sennett studio, which, in Movieland, compares with the Mayflower. For that reason a picture just painted by Victor Potel, who was a comic in the original Mack Sennett studio at Edendale, should be of great historic value. For Victor has painted some 68 persons into the picture, all of whom were prominent in the activities of the studio while he was there. In the picture are some of the stunts for which the studio was famous. Custard pies are being hurled, bathing beauties are being photographed and comic cops are performing.
How Good Is Your Memory?
It is interesting to study this picture of Potel’s, to see how some of those pictured have progressed while others have passed, or nearly passed, out of the picture world. Among those pictured are Raymond Griffith, Mal St. Clair, Eddie Sutherland, Harry Langdon, Charlie Chaplin, Henry Lehrman, Ed and Tom Kennedy, Slim Summerville, Polly Moran, Ben Turpin, Charlie Murray, Andy Clyde, Al St. John, Charles Heinie Conklin, Chester Conklin, Eddie Gibbon [sic], James Finlayson, Jack Richardson, Glen Cavender, Dot Farley, Ford Sterling, Vernon Dent, George O’Hara, Louise Fazenda, Douglas Girard, Gloria Swanson, Hank Mann, Dale Fuller, Billy Bevan, Phyllis Haver, Blanche Payson, George Gray, Ted Stanhope, Mary Ann Jackson, George Jeske, Johnnie Rand and Potel himself. Mack Sennett is shown, of course. And there are faces we thought we never could forget but which some of us have forgotten—Mabel Normand, Fatty Arbuckle, Fre Mace, Jack Cooper, Lige Cromley, Harry McCoy, Hugh Fay, Wayland Trask, George Binns, Kalla Pasha, Pat Kelly, Billy Armstrong, Harry Barber, Sid Smith and Al Cook.
If your face should be in that picture and isn’t, you’d better see Victor about it for there may be a time when it will be important in the history of the most remarkable industry in the world. Think what it would have meant if those who came over on the Mayflower had posed for a group photograph just after landing. This picture of Potel’s is so complete that it even shows Teddy, the Great Dane, and Pepper, the cat.
Another article - Lucie Neville's "In Hollywood," The Poughkeepsie Star-Enterprise, 06/03/1947 - goes on to say that the painting hung on the wall of director Preston Sturges' restauarant, "and all the people still living (except Chaplin), autographed the frame." Does anyone know if this painting still exists and, if so, has anyone actually seen it? Neville stated that the "faces are only an inch or so high but startlingly accurate."
Advance apologies if this topic has already appeared somewhere here or at another site.