Bebe Daniels Beautebox tin

Throughout her 50-year career, glamorous American actor Bebe Daniels starred in an impressive 230 films. She is depicted on this novelty Beautebox tin by Canco, which speaks to her level of fame. Melbourne-born artist Henry Clive painted her likeness, and the tin is a good example of his impressive illustrative skills. After beginning his career as a magician, Clive dabbled as a Hollywood silent film actor and a set designer for Charlie Chaplin before shifting his focus to graphic arts, working in the mediums of pastel and oils.  

By the 1920s Clive was painting some of the biggest stars in Hollywood and became known as the ‘cover girl artist’. His poster art for Rudolph Valentino's The Sheik (1921) is iconic. At age 69 he married his fifth wife, Acquanetta – a B-film actor nicknamed ‘the Venezuelan Volcano’, who was of Arapaho Native American descent.

Bebe Daniels also had Australian connections through appearing in silent films with vaudevillian Snub Pollard from Melbourne. Pollard started acting in Hal Roach comedies from 1915; his most famous role is as an inventor in It’s a Gift (1923), where he drives a magnet-powered car.