Tod Browning's Hollywood archive sells for $94,000

The personal photo archive of early Hollywood director Tod Browning realised $93,750 at Bonhams New York on November 30.

It was the lead lot of the "TCM Presents…Lights, Camera, Action!" sale, which featured a wealth of pieces from the industry's golden age.


Tod Browning was a pioneering early director  

Browning (1880-1962) was an auteur responsible for some of the strangest movies of the 1920s and 1930s, including Dracula (1931) and Freaks (1932).

The latter, a film about a group of circus freaks who exact terrible revenge on their tormentors, was so "out there" that it hobbled his career.

It was rediscovered in the 1960s and became a cult classic.

Around 1,700 photographs were included in the lot, many taken on the sets of films that have long since been lost.

The auction house explained prior to the sale: "An archive of this scope from a Golden Age Hollywood horror filmmaker of Browning's stature is virtually unheard-of.

"It is extraordinary in many ways, beginning with its sheer size…

"Also exceptional is the photographs' overall condition: many show very little wear and appear to have barely been handled in decades."

Meanwhile, a mask Clayton Moore wore in his iconic role as the Lone Ranger realised $50,000.

It's slightly smaller than his usual mask. Clayton wore it while performing stunts.

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