akg2-F81-C69-1

The original movie vamp, Theda Bara, in a poster for J. Gordon Edwards' 1917 silent film "Cleopatra".

Photo: akg-images

Album 250495

Charlie Chaplin on the set of his 1925 hit "The Gold Rush".

Photo: United Artists / Album / akg-images

Album 246523

Lillian Gish as the tragic heroine of D. W. Griffiths' 1919 "Broken Blossoms".

Photo: Griffith / United Artists / Album / akg-images

Album 269368

One of the very first films by the Lumière brothers, "The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat", from 1896.

Photo: Lumière Pictures / Album / akg-images

Album 258412

The movie that changed Hollywood: Al Jolson talks and sings in "The Jazz Singer", 1927.

Photo: Warner Brothers / Album / akg-images