Silverprint photograph, 10 x 8. Witzel L.A. Studio Photograph. “ Sincerely Yours, William Farnum” Stamp at bottom.
William Farnum (1876 –1953) was an American actor. He was a star of American silent film cinema and became one of the highest-paid actors during that time.
From 1915 to 1952, Farnum devoted his life to motion pictures. While becoming one of the most popular actors in Hollywood, he also became one of the highest-paid, earning $10,000 a week. Farnum's silent pictures Drag Harlan (1920) and If I Were King (1921) survive from his years contracted to Fox Films. Nearly all of Fox's silent films made before 1932 were destroyed in a vault fire in 1937.
Witzel Studios was founded in 1909 in Los Angeles by photographer Albert Walter Witzel (1879–1929). Within a few years had become one of the city’s foremost portrait studios. The rise of the business paralleled the emergence of the film industry following its relocation from the east coast.  Witzel was in demand from Hollywood studios seeking to create interest in movies by circulating promo shots of their stars. Distinguished by moody lighting and dramatic poses and settings, Witzel’s photos soon set the tone for Hollywood studio photography and from the mid-1910s. Witzel occasionally worked on assignment for the big picture studios, photographing many silent film luminaries including Theda Bara and Charlie Chaplin. Witzel’s business began to decline in the 1920s, by which time the movie studios employed  their own teams of photographers. Witzel Studios folded following Albert Witzel’s death in 1929.
Pinholes in all corners, with corresponding light damage to t/r corner.  Light diagonal crease b/r corner, along with a much small one in b/l corner. On back is period pen notation William Farnum in When Man See Blood”, along with ownership name in corner. lf et 336  75.