I love all the decorative efforts on the Maude Fealy postcards, and many others, as well. Maybe this heightened the value of the cards? Would people buy the same pose, presented in different way? I’m always pretty excited when I run across a new one. Look at those eyes. I don’t know if her eyes are really blue, but I think so.
Many times, postcard makers would have sections of a postcard hand colored. They don’t really seem to make the photos more life like, but the addition of color must have been serendipitous in the pre-color days. Some of them I really like, but in others I find the colors a maddening distraction. As if Maude wasn’t beautiful enough!!!
Not sure when this was taken, or how old Maude was, but she looks around fifty-ish. Still attactive, don’t you think?
I’m not really sure Maude met any of these women. The postcard makers would cut and past different models into one photos. Here is another:
I think Maude is always the most beautiful. Others are fair, she is the fairest.
Maude Fealy starred in this three-reel presentation from the pioneering Thanhouser company of New Rochelle, NY. Despite the fact that she finds him repugnant, the King of Rurilia (Arthur Bauer) orders his niece, Princess Priscilla (Fealy), to marry Prince Wilhelm of nearby Ogram (David H. Thompson). When Priscilla demurs, the king has her imprisoned but she manages to escape to America and obtain the position of maid to a socially prominent woman (Lila Chester). The latter, however, takes umbrage when her brother (Harry Benham) falls in love with what they both believe to be a lowly maid, but Priscilla has the last laugh at a lavish party when she appears in all her royal splendor to accept the young man’s marriage proposal. Several critics of the day remarked on the resemblance of Runaway Princess to the then-popular stage play Such a Little Queen and found the settings rather scanty. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
