Scarce vintage 8x10-inch sepia-tone portrait in comedic costume, with his trademark walrus mustache, boldly signed and inscribed in black fountain pen in the 1920s. In fine condition for its age, with chips to the upper and lower right-hand corners; a stain to the upper left-hand corner; and flecks of soiling along the upper and lower edges. In 1913, pint-sized character actor Chester Conklin left a successful career as a Barnum circus clown to appear in nearly a hundred Keystone comedy shorts, invariably sporting an enormous walrus mustache to conceal his youthful appearance.  Legend has it that the actor helped Keystone novice Charlie Chaplin put together his famous Tramp costume; true or not, it is a fact that Chaplin kept his crony on year-round payroll for his later productions Modern Times (1936) and The Great Dictator (1940). After leaving Keystone, Conklin remained a popular comedian at the Fox and Sunshine Studios and, in the late 1920s, was teamed with W.C. Fields for a brief series of feature films at Paramount.  In talkies, the actor typically appeared in bits in features and supporting parts in two-reelers; he also showed up in such nostalgic retrospectives as Hollywood Cavalcade (1939) and The Perils of Pauline (1947).  At his lowest professional ebb, in the 1950s, the aging comic genius made ends meet as a department store Santa Claus.  He made four contributions to the horror, sci-fi and fantasy genres:  The Phantom of the Opera (1925), with Lon Chaney, Sr.; House of Horror (1928); I Married a Witch (1942); and The Beast with a Million Eyes (1955).