For the past several years, the Motion Picture, Broadcast and Recorded Sound division of Library of Congress has been attempting to solve a set of (SUPER) obscure movie, music and TV stills that were unearthed as part of a much larger (and, thankfully, almost fully identified) collection.
But there remains about two dozen so far unsolved. And of those “unsolveds” perhaps none has proved to be more perplexing than one particular 8x10.
Do you see the woman above? Does she look familiar? Do you know her? Do you know her name!? She’s been nicknamed the “Most Mysterious Woman in the World” for how powerfully elusive her identity is. Ironically, the problem doesn’t seem to be that she doesn’t look familiar (she does), or like anyone, the problem is that she looks like so many!
This is what is known:
She’s quite pretty. She has long, dark hair and (or so it appears) dark eyes. She’s wearing a horizontally striped shirt and is holding onto a fence (or is it a boat?). She is looking away from the camera, away from us. As mentioned, the photo (like all of our other “unsolveds”) was found in a collection of other photos almost exclusively devoted to film and TV. Hence, it is believed that this woman is an actress or an entertainer of some sort. Additionally, on the back of the photo is evidence of where a pink-sheeted press release—no doubt announcing her name and other pertinent details—was once attached which suggests that this wasn’t a “one-off” photo but was mass-produced and sent out to a variety of newspapers and other media probably announcing this actress’s upcoming appearance in a film or on a TV show, etc.
Furthermore, the woman’s long hair and fullness of her hairstyle (i.e. the “bump” to the left of her part) seems to bespeak of the late 1960’s or early 1970’s. (Though I have no guarantee that I’m right on that.) The photo seems to be sort of in soft focus, which is quite fetching but which only increases the difficulty of accurately matching her features.
After being unable to locate a match to this photo in various photo archives or floating around on the web (for example, for sale on eBay or in the Getty archive, etc.), the LC decided to make some educated guesses about her identity and then approached directly an actress (or two) that they thought it might be. But, so far, none of the women contacted and shown the picture has said those magic words, “Yeah, that’s me!”
So far, many actresses have been contacted and, so far, the answer has been, no, the lady in the stripes is not them. So far we know that this photo is NOT: Stephanie Zimbalist, Sherry Jackson, Linda Harrison, Shelley Fabares, Bonnie Bedelia, Diana Canova (despite what one site on the web says), Lucie Arnaz, Sigourney Weaver, Michele Carey, Stephanie Powers, Jean Rainer, Dana Delaney, Lyn Loring, Katherine Ross, Kim Darby or Susan St. James.
Responses are still pending from Anna Maria Alberghetti, Pamela Tiffin, Lesley Ann Warren and Lana Wood and from the estate of Carrie Fisher. (The late Carrie Fisher has been a popular guess for this photo but Fisher was born in 1956 and if this photo is from c. 1970, she would have only been around 14 years old at that time and our mystery woman looks older than 14.)
Some of the other women who have been suggested for the woman in the photo include the actresses Sherry Bain, Ann Prentiss, Gail Hire, Gloria Dell, Linda Marsh, Myrna Fahey, Melinda Fee, Brenda Scott, and Linda Peck, among others.
Of course, the correct answer could also be “none of the above.”
To fully authenticate the woman’s identity it would require either someone telling us, “Yes, that’s me,” or we need to find a newspaper or other publication that actually reproduced this photograph or a different photo with this woman, perhaps posed at a different angle, in the same clothing and/or hairstyle.
It is, of course, quite possible that this woman’s identity will never be solved, though it does seem strange in this day and age of mass communication and global interconnectivity that someone can’t be found who knows who she is. Surely someone knows!
And, if they do, I hope they will let everyone know.
More info: blogs.loc.gov
