1928 Beggars of Life Lobby Card with Wallace Beery
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beggars_of_Life#:~:text=Beggars%20of%20Life%20is%20an,as%20Brooks's%20best%20American%20movie.
Beggars of Life is an American film directed by William Wellman and starring Wallace Beery and Richard Arlen as hobos, and Louise Brooks as a young
woman who dresses as a young man and flees the law. The film is regarded as Brooks's best American movie.
[1]
The actress recounted her memories of working on the film in her essay, “On Location with Billy Wellman,” which is included in her 1982 book, Lulu in
Hollywood.
[2]
Beggars of Life was released as both a silent and sound film (the latter with added music, sound effects, and dialogue) in September 1928. The sound
sequences, which included train noises and Beery singing a song, are now considered lost. This was Paramount's first feature with spoken dialogue and the
first time Beery's voice was recorded for a film, although Beery's spoken dialogue was limited. Today, only the silent version of Beggars of Life is known to
survive.
[3][4]
The film is based on Outside Looking In, a stage play by Maxwell Anderson adapted from Jim Tully’s 1924 autobiographical book, Beggars of Life. The play
debuted September 7, 1925 at the Greenwich Village Theater. Among those who attended a performance was Charlie Chaplin, who was accompanied by
Louise Brooks. Paramount purchased the rights to Tully's book and Anderson's play in early 1928.
[5]
Arlen and Brooks had appeared together the previous year in Rolled Stockings, which is considered a lost film. Beery and Brooks had appeared together
the previous year in Now We're in the Air, which was considered a lost film until 2016 when an incomplete copy was found in Czech Republic.
[6][7]
In 2017, the best surviving copy of Beggars of Life was released on DVD and Blu-ray by Kino Lorber.