100 years ago today – Personality Portraits

100 years ago today, readers of the Salt Lake Telegram would have seen this ad prominently displayed in the paper:

This ad celebrates photographer Ida Wilcox’s partnership with the Pantages movie theatre for its upcoming “Baby Peggy’s Twin” contest. Instructions for the contest told potential contestants to get their photo taken for free at the Wilcox studio in order to enter. The contest offered valuable prizes and was quite a big deal; I mean, it even featured an appearance by Baby Peggy herself, who was coming to pick the winner!

(BTW, Baby Peggy was a popular child movie star in the 1920s; the studio organized these contests all over the country in the mid 1920s).

In an article the night after the big event, it is revealed that more than 200 (!) kids had shown up at Ida Wilcox’s studio in the days before the contest in oder to get their portraits taken for the contest. This was a far greater number than poor Miss Wilcox could possibly handle in the time allotted. So, the organizers quickly came up with a different plan. Rather than having to get their photo taken by Miss Wilcox beforehand, all 200+ kids were invited to appear on stage the night of the contest. Then, the audience was asked to vote on them one by one – and the one who got the most applause was selected as the winner (Salt Lake Telegram, Oct 8, 1924).

Baby Peggy, on hand to crown the winner, commented that the winner, one Miss Mary Alice Baker, (aged five and a half years old) resembled her more than anyone she had ever met. Baby Peggy said that, as a result, little Mary Alice Baker could easily pass for her twin! (Goodwin’s Weekly: A Thinking Paper for Thinking People, Oct 11, 1924.)

Now, the only photo of the contest that I found online is a very poor quality digital scan of the article in the Salt Lake Telegram. Unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible to make out Miss Baker’s features in this washed out scan of the photom but here it is in any case:

There’s nothing I can do to fix that image with in my “digital darkroom”, unfortunately. Ah well. We’ll just have to rely on Baby Peggy’s assessment that Miss Mary Alice Baker really looked a lot like Baby Peggy.

Anyway, let’s get back to talking about the photographer Ida Wilcox for a moment. It’s interesting to note that throughout her career, she does a big trade in taking photos of — and getting her name linked to — local celebrities, including both local stars, and also national stars who have local Salt Lake City ties. For example, this photo by Ida Wilcox of silent-film star Marion Mack appeared in publications in 1926:

Another celebrity that Ida Wilcox used in some of her studio promotions was a child music sensation, Master Raymond S. Baird (also known as “Little Sousa”). Master Baird started in Salt Lake City but became nationally well-known.

In August 1924, Baird performed in Salt Lake City before setting off on one of his many national tour. The following ad by Ida Wilcox celebrates that she had struck an exclusive deal with him for that tour:

BTW, Master Baird (“Little Sousa”) was a child prodigy who played musical instruments and led orchestras of adult musicians. Wilcox’s ad in August of 1924 was just one of many ads taken out by local businesses that tied in some way to “Little Sousa” and his 1924 tour. Here’s a look at the full page of ads related to Master Baird (Ida’s ad is in the middle on the right):

Note that there’s no photo credit for the photo of “Little Sousa” with the saxophone in the middle of that page. Unfortunately, I haven’t yet tracked down a photo of Master Baird that I can say for certain was taken Ida Wilcox. Apparently none of those photos made it into the newspapers, or if they did, the newpapers failed to give her photo credit. Ah well.

But I can tell you that Miss Wilcox was no slouch in general when it came to getting her photos and her studio mentioned in the newspaper – she was a real marketing whiz. Back when she first opened her studio in 1918, she managed to get herself a nice writeup in the paper, complete with photos of the interior of her studio. Below is the headline and the photos that accompanied a very long large article about her newly opened studio:

Her very first ad in 1918 offers discounts to a conference happening in Salt Lake City in the fall of 1918. Just like in 1924, her 1918 ad is part of a full page of ads by local businesses, all of whom were offering discounts to the conference attendees, offering deals similar to the ones Wilcox is offering. Below is just her ad from 1918:

Of course, in addition to all of this, Miss Wilcox also does a steady business taking photos of regular folks, too, including photos of society women, students, etc. Many of these types of photos regularly appear in the newspaper:

Students could come from local school of all types; I ran across this page in the newspaper of photos of a graduating class of student nurses:

Ida Wilcox also won some awards from various photographic societies over the years, too, getting recognition for her “artistic” side as well.:

So today we celebrate the many photographic achievements of Ida Wilcox, an accomplished early women photographer in Salt Lake City, Utah, who ran her studio for nearly 30 years, from 1918 until her death in 1947. A master of marketing her studio in general, Miss Wilcox was often able to showcase her photography by getting a tie-in to local events … including the “Baby Peggy Twin” contest, advertised by the Ida Wilcox studio 100 years ago today.

---

PS. In case you’re curious: you can hear Raymond Baird as an adult playing the saxophone in this 1937 recording I found on Internet Archive. As an adult, Raymond Baird moved to Hollywood and had a brief career in the movies.