Accession Number

2020.007

Description

A black and white press photograph of the seated Edith Day and Pat Somerset. She wearing a light-coloured wrapper with a fur collar and pearl necklace and looking forward, but away from the camera. He is wearing white bow tie with a flower on his lapel, and a pocket handkerchief and is in profile, looking at Day. Verso has a piece of pink paper adhered to the back with press photo caption information in type.

Narrative

This photograph published in syndicated American newspapers in 1922 depicts one of Robert and Joan Dunsmuir’s great grandsons, Patrick Somerset Holme-Sumner (1897-1974).

After the breakdown of his first marriage in Britain, Patrick Holme-Sumner resigned his commission in the British Army and moved to California where he changed his name to Pat Somerset and became a motion-picture actor, and eventually, a Charter Member of the Screen Actors Guild.

Pat Somerset’s emergence as a Hollywood film actor is documented by this early image. It was collected for this reason.

History of Use

Unknown. Purchased from a commercial seller in Tennessee, USA.

Date

October 26 1922

Dimensions

21.5 x 17 cm

Subject/Image

Pat Somerset; Edith Day

Medium

Photographic

Support

Paper, Photographic paper

Inscription

DAY, EDITH

SOMERSET, PAT

OCTOBER 26 1922

WATCH YOUR CREDIT

INTERNATIONAL NEWSREEL PHOTO

A-U52777

ENGLISH STAR OF “ORANGE BLOSSOMS” FACED WITH DEPORTATION.

PAT SOMERSET, ENGLISH ACTOR, AND EDITH DAY, AS THEY APPEARED IN “IRENE” RECENTLY. BOTH ARE NOW STARS IN “ORANGE BLOSSOMS”. SOMERSET, WHO IS ENGLISH, WAS GIVEN A HEARING AT ELLIS ISLAND UPON A WARRANT OF DEPORTATION WHICH HAD BEEN ISSUED FROM THE OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF LABOUR CHARGING HIM WITH “MORAL TURPITUDE”. THE CHARGES INVOLVE THE ACTOR’S RELATIONS WITH EDITH DAY, THE ESTRANGED WIFE OF CARLE CARLETON, WELL-KNOWN THEATRICAL PRODUCER OF NEW YORK. SOMERSET’S WIFE, MARGARET BANNERMAN, SECURED A DIVORCE FROM HIM IN MAY, 1921, NAMING…