SKU: PC-HARTWMS-001

Vintage original 3.5 x 5.5 in. (8.9 x 14 cm.) color-tinted postcard, c.1918, with an embossed outer border of a vine pattern featuring silent film western star William S. Hart. He is shown wearing a dark suit with a green tie and is posing in front of an interior studio backdrop. This vintage original postcard was printed in Britain and is unused and in very fine condition with no visible flaws. A storybook hero, the original screen cowboy, ever forthright and honest, even when (as was often the case) he played a villain. Hart lived for a while in Dakota Territory, then worked as a postal clerk in New York City. In 1888, he began to study acting. In 1899, he created the role of Messala in "Ben-Hur" and received excellent reviews for his lead part in the stage production of "The Virginian" (1907). His first film was a two-reeler, "His Hour of Manhood" (1914). In 1915, he signed a contract with Thomas H. Ince and joined Ince's Triangle Film Company where he made one of his greatest westerns, "Hell's Hinges" (1916). Two years later, he followed Ince to Famous Players-Lasky and received a very lucrative contract from Adolph Zukor. His career began to dwindle in the early twenties due to the publicity surrounding a dismissed paternity suit. He made his last film, "Tumbleweeds" (1925) for United Artists and retired to a ranch in Newhall, CA. By that time audiences were more interested in the antics of a Tom Mix or Hoot Gibson than the victorian moralizing of W.S. Hart. Hart is buried in Greenwood cemetery, NY.