Hollywood Heritage 2024 photos part three

January 03, 2026

The creature from the Black Lagoon

Bob Mitchell's Organ from The Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax Ave

Bob Mitchell (1912-2009)

Last surviving working accompanist from the silent film era.

Los Angeles born Bob Mitchell's first stint as an organist during the silent era began Christmas Day in 1924 at the Strand Theater in Pasadena.

He played for such silent movies as What Price Glory, Beau Geste and Metropolis.

Bob Mitchell would be hired in 1934 as the organist at St. Brendan's Catholic Church where he organized and directed a boys' choir often called the Robert Mitchell Boys Choir which would appear in more than 100 movies. They sang in Going My Way (1944) with Bing Crosby and The Bishop's Wife (1947) with Cary Grant to name just a few. Because many of the choir members were poor, Mitchell was known to have set up private school, paid for braces and sometimes college.

In 1962, Mitchell would become the first house musician at the Dodger Stadium.

Various chairs from theaters that showed silent films. Sorry I didn’t grab the information from the info cards.

A visit with “Laurel and Hardy”

Rudolph Valentino (1895-1926) autograph.

Valentino items.

Before Rudolph Valentino had his famous Falcon Lair home in Benedict Canyon, he had a home at 6776 Wedgewood Place in Whitley Heights he shared with then wife, Natacha Rambova from around 1922-1924. Valentino stilled owned the Whitley Heights home (also called Villa Valentino) until his death. The Whitley Heights home has since been demolished and near the location of where the Hollywood Freeway is today. These two tiles are from his Whitley Heights home.
Even in early cinema, stars earned big bucks for licensing their names and likenesses for a variety of products. Douglas Fairbanks and Rudolph Valentino would have their image used for cigars such as this lovely Valentino cigar box. You too can smoke a cigar like the notable, whose name they bear, as it would be advertised.
A payroll check from when Rudolph Valentino was with Famous Players-Lasky, a studio that solidified his reputation as the "Latin Lover."
Rudolph Valentino Plaque. This was made by the same American sculptor, Roger Noble Burnham, who made the Rudolph Valentino memorial sculpture, "Aspiration" (which can be seen at De Longpre Park). The sculpture was unveiled on what would have been Valentino's 30th birthday on May 6, 1930. Roger Noble Burnham had intended to market these plaques as a novelty; however, Roger fell ill, and these plaques were never mass produced.
This special copy of Day Dreams written by Rudolph Valentino in
1923, was signed to Doris Kenyon who played Lady Mary opposite of Rudolph Valentino in the 1924 movie, Monsieur Beaucaire. Because it was important to Valentino to always stay in character when filming a movie role, he writes: "To Lady Mary, 'A rose lasts but for a day, but its memory is for eternity Beaucaire." The note with the book is signed by the original "Lady in Black," Ditra Flamé.

“Buster Keaton” and his actual camera equipment

Chariot wheel and props from “The Ten Commandments” (1956)

Chest In the throne room of Pharaoh Sethi (Sir Cedric Hardwitke)

In The Ten Commandments (1956). On loan from Claire Bradford.

Sonja Henie exhibit.

Fox Carthay Circle Theatre program

Pioneers of the Grandeur Widescreen Process 1930. William Waddell and John Elms with one of the 70mm Grandeur cameras they developed in 1927, which was used for Fox's THE BIG TRAIL. 1930, starring John Wayne.