| Silent screen hero and lead. |
 Above - a 1917 tradepaper ad for William Desmond starring for Triangle Distributing. He was about thirty-nine years old.  Above photo from a 1924 issue of Universal Weekly (available at the Internet Archive). Desmond was in his mid forties when he starred in THE RIDDLE RIDER (Universal, 1924) chapterplay. Theater owners/managers were very positive in their reviews of this serial: "Best serial I ever ran ..." ; "Each chapter is better than the last." ; "... one of the best serials I ever had in my house ..."  Above - trade ad for THE RIDDLE RIDER.  Hoot Gibson was Universal's main western star for season 1924-1925. Universal's other sagebrush heroes for that release season were Jack Hoxie and William Desmond.  (Image courtesy of Joe Tufano) Above from left to right are William Desmond, Nelson McDowell and an unidentified player in one of Desmond's starring silents for Universal (probably the lost/missing serial THE VANISHING RIDER (Universal, 1928)). Desmond was about fifty years old when he did this serial. The unidentified actor on the right reminds me of a youngish Budd Buster. |