Manpower Portrait


Warner Bros. publicity portrait of Joyce as a prostitute (could she be anything else in that getup?) in 1941's Manpower.

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I need to do Google image searches on Joyce Compton more often. Although many of the results are commonly circulated publicity shots, occasionally some rarely seen photos come up. For example ... From a Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy fan site - a racy shot with Jeanette and Joyce (and Sally Blane at center) in the partially lost 1931 Fox production Annabelle's Affairs : From Film Noir Photos , a casual shot of Joyce standing in front of a rather dangerous looking succulent in 1925: From the site of author Michael Ankerich ( The Real Joyce Compton ), another 1920s publicity portrait with Joyce taking on a classic pose in a bolero hat: From eclectic weblog Curiosity Killed The Cat , a shot of Joyce stiking a most flapper-esque pose: From Golden Age Autographs , a signed photo from 1938's Artists and Models Abroad . This photo session produced a lot of great ones, but this is a new one for me: Finally, from Flickr user le beau monde , a candid photo of silent queen Clara Bow...
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Picture it: Hollywood, California, sometime in 1997. I'm a tourist on my first trip to the iconic Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard. Me and my boyfriend take a detour into a little autograph and memorabilia store called STARWORLD. Although they have an impressive array of signed, framed photos on the walls, my eye is drawn to a little box on the floor marked “Clearance.” I crouch down and leaf through the glossy 8 by 10s in the box, seeing a bunch of has-beens, never was-es and forgotten child actors from the ’70s and ’80s. Near the bottom, however, I spy a diamond in the rough—an autograph from my favorite “dumb blonde” of Hollywood’s Golden Era, Joyce Compton. In the photo, she is wearing a chiffon dress with a spray of fake lilacs on the bodice, a lacy negligee partically obscured by sheer layers of gown fabric. Joyce’s curly handwriting matches her blonde hair, and it matched the images I recalled from old movies—cute and bubbly. Priced at seven dollars, it became my first ...
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