ANTIQUE PHOTOGRAPHS HAND SIGNED BY SILENT FILM STAR?

I found these antique photographs at a local thrift store today. 2 are hand signed by the subject, I think (It's signed Ira; which is more a man's name but maybe not back then?)- who is she? It's dated 1923, so I'm thinking maybe a silent film star because of how she poses & is dressed?

The other one - of a nude - has a 1899 copyright date & the photographer's name?
Thank you for any info!

 

I think they are both to Ira and are signed by someone named Gene (who is probably the sitter.)

 

Looks like they are inscribed to a man named Ira - for all that he means - from someone named Gene.

 

I think Gene & Ira were lovers !!!

 

Her name *might* be Gene' (with accent mark at the end). Maybe.

She may not have been a star... but could have been a stage performer, or model, or perhaps a film actress. Obviously she loved Ira!

 

I'm betting that her real name was a French one - Genevieve, Geneva something like those.

 

Gene Stratton-Porter...

 

Nice idea, silverthwait, but I don't think so. In 1923 she would have been 60 years old.

 

And it's not Gene Tierney, either.

 

Genevieve perhaps. One of the top 100 girls names around turn of century. Can't find anything about NY photographer Koch. Perhaps someone else will have better luck.

Debora

 

Wonder whether Gene was slightly misquoting from this 1923 recording:

https://www.discogs.com/Carl-Fenton...Gift-Of-Roses-A-Wonderful-One/release/6303849

 

Thank you guys!

 

I think those first two are two different women. The noses do not compare.

 

But the philtrums and the handwriting do. Think it's just the difference between angles the photos were taken from.

 

INH, good ID on the nude.

 

Good find -- Quite likely, I think!

 

Doesn't the handwriting look the same, yet one is from Gene to Ira, and the other from Ira to Gene. Shouldn't there be two different hands?

I don't agree that these are the same person from different angles. The shapes of those noses decidedly differ.

 

I sort of have prosopagnosia, so won't argue that point, but the inscriptions are both from Gene to Ira. The first one should be read: [To] Ira, and all that he means to [signed] Gene.

 

It's a bit weird:
Love Sends a Little Gift of Roses Lyrics
Take thou my gift,
my offering of roses,
Cull’d from my garden,
sweet with twilight dew;

If just one flow’r upon your breast reposes
Life shall for ever hold no rose but you.
Millions of wond’rous schemes.

Chorus:

Love sends a little gift of roses,
Breathing a pray’r unto my posies,
Torn from my heart as twilight closes,
Asking this,
only this,
One heart to grow a little tender,
Two eyes to glow with love’s own splendour,
Two lips to give in sweet surrender,
Just a kiss,
Just a kiss.

Second Verse

Take thou my gift,
and be it joy or sorrow,
Think ere my roses fade and fall apart;

With each sweet bloom that you may scorn tomorrow,
I send to you for joy or pain my heart.