Quite amazing 11x14-inch black and white portrait, boldly signed and inscribed in black fountain pen at the very outset of his film career in the late 1920s. In good condition for its age, with minor edgewear, and the best example we have ever acquired. Silent screen heartthrob Richard Arlen earned a measure of screen immortality by costarring with Buddy Rogers and Clara Bow in the first-ever Oscar-winning picture, Wings (1927). He retained his popularity throughout the 1930s and 1940s, memorable in the horror, sci-fi and fantasy flicks Island of Lost Souls (1932), The Lady and the Monster (1944) and The Phantom Speaks (1945), but when roles became harder to come by in the following decade, he almost entirely abandoned acting, wisely investing in numerous business ventures.