What does your signature reveal about you?

This week’s 1920s magazine post is from Movie Weekly, which is a bit more…sensationalist...than Photoplay (and Photoplay is not even that restrained, really).

Well, is it?

From Movie Weekly April 8, 1922. Click here to read the article.

Movie Weekly March 4, 1922 also has a pretty fabulous photo of Rudolph Valentino in his Sheik costume. Actors really stared in those old publicity photos. They’re looking at you, yes, you. Shhh…don’t speak, don’t speak.

And his hands do look large!

On page 6 and 7 of that issue is an article on what the movie stars' signatures reveal about them: 

“Success of Favorite Movie Stars Explained in Their Handwriting”

Click here to see the article more closely.

This is part two of a series! And apparently there will also be a ‘surprise handwriting’ article in an upcoming issue, if you happen to be a graphology enthusiast. The article begins with the classic space-filler found in many undergraduate essays – a definition:

“Fame has many faces. To be famous signifies the recognition of some sort of success achieved.”

Yes…go on…

“And no surer fashion of determining the essential elements which make for high popular acclaim can be found than that which an individual exhibits in handwriting. It is the intimate link between the nerve-action of the hand and the mind.”

I’m not convinced, but I’m willing to be entertained.

The signature of Constance Talmadge (star of films like Happiness a la Mode (1919) and Romance and Arabella (1919)) reveals that “her affections are potent, but her humorous eye would seize the amusing side of anyone who tried to be serious in a motor car.” 

So never drive anywhere with her, I guess.

Rudolph Valentino’s “even, well-poised fist moves ambitiously upwards, gesturing with his rather flamboyant capitals, exclamatory of his intense vitality and the conscious belief in himself.” Apparently, his “advance along the stellar way can be measured by the height of his signature. Very high.” 

This seems…a bit of a stretch?

The signature of Gloria Swanson (the woman standing in the riding pants) has a “virile swing” to match her “vigorous personality”.

Frankly, all of these descriptions sound the same to me! What do you all think? Are you convinced of graphology's vital utility?

Next up: the conclusion of Court of the Veils. For real this time!