Scarce and charming vintage 8x10-inch sepia-tone Universal Pictures publicity portrait by Roman Freulich, warmly signed and inscribed in black fountain pen, probably in the early 1930s.  In fairly good condition, but priced to reflect multiple pinholes to the upper and lower left-hand corners; minor tears to the tips of the upper and lower right-hand corners; gentle tears to the border in two places; and a bit of black paper affixed to the upper right-hand corner.  Rangy, rustic-looking George "Slim" Summerville had one of those malleable mugs that made audiences laugh even before he opened his mouth.  His film career began at age 19, as a pie-hurling Keystone Kop in Mack Sennett silent comedies.  After bit parts in countless slapstick shorts and features, including Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914) with Mabel Normand and Charles Chaplin, he became a star in his own right, cast opposite ZaSu Pitts in a series of comedy shorts and Hoot Gibson in numerous westerns.  The versatile Summerville also made occasional forays into dramatic films, with supporting roles in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), King of Jazz (1930), The Front Page (1931), Captain January (1936), Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938), Tobacco Road (1941), and The Hoodlum Saint (1946).  He died tragically of a stroke at age 53 and his autograph is rather elusive in any format.

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