The link to my original piece on Medium.

Everyday, I find lots of images of movie stars on Tumblr, Flickr, Listal and Pinterest that I actually know is not them. I spend lots of time commenting to let them know it’s not them, correcting the images by moving the images from wrong to right and reporting lots of images that I know it’s not them on Listal and they removed it.

On the Internet, we have seen lots of images that claimed to be Marilyn Monroe, but it’s been debunked by Marilyn Remembered and Immortal Marilyn. So then, there is an supposed image (below) of Clara Bow, but, it was actually Madge Bellamy.

Even worse, you can find the image (below) that claimed to be Colette, Musidora, Pola Negri, Nita Naldi or Theda Bara. Later, it turned out to be an Italian silent film actress, Pina Menichelli.

And, finally, we have this two images (below) appeared to be a legendary silent film star Gloria Swanson. After I look up a Facebook comment on The Silent Film Group that stated it was Alice Wilkie, it was confirmed by The Girls in the Chorus that it’s actually Alice.

Alice Wilkie

So here we go, I know that there is Google Reverse Image Search, where you can find the mislabeled image that would confirmed it was not them. I will focus on the image and will investigate the image now.

The Image

The image of allegedly-to-be silent film actress Kathlyn Williams has been appeared on her Wikipedia page, but the question is, what is the image coming from? It was from Welcome to Silent Movies and the picture was dated November 1916. The image has somewhere appeared at the Picture Progress magazine.

Discovery of a Evidence

Later, I came to an inactive Silent Film blog on Tumblr and then there is a poster for an 1920 film, The Way Women Love, starring Rubye de Remer. This poster has the same image and according to Getty Images, the poster was taken in January 1, 1920.

After discovering a poster that has the same image, I realized that this is actually not Kathlyn Williams and this poster would soon confirmed that this is actually Rubye de Remer.

So then there is another poster and also an advertisement for The Way Women Love (1920).

The reason why this image is not Kathlyn Williams.

• Kathlyn Williams was born in May 31, 1879 (according to the 1880 United States Federal Census when she was listed as a one year old), which make her look 37 in 1916, so it’s impossible for this photo (taken in 1919) to be taken in 1916.

• The eyes, a nose and a lip don’t even look like her.

• She was of Norwegian and Welsh descent that come from her mother’s side.

• The poster for The Way Women Love (1920) was created in January 1, 1920 and even the image of Rubye de Remer was taken in 1919, which Kathlyn is 40 years old at the time. The film was later released in December 15, 1920.

• I don’t find Picture Progress magazine anywhere on Google, so it could be an 2000 magazine written about silent film and cinema, but not in 1916.

• There is a lots of photos of Kathlyn Williams in her 30s and 40s.

Finally, here is the Motion Picture November 1916 cover of her.

And here’s the pictures of Kathlyn Williams.

Kathlyn Williams

Aftermath

So it’s important to recognize the people’s face and used Google Image Reverse Search before posting the image of someone we may know it’s not.

So after discovering the poster of The Way Women Love (1920), I contact the owner of Welcome to Silent Movies website to let her know that it’s not Kathlyn, but did not responded to my email soon before my post got published.

Anyway, be careful what you post this image on the Internet and remember, don’t believe everything you read and see on the Internet, because for example, Pinterest has a long history of misidentified images, so does Alamy (Take a look at the mislabeled image that said to be Rudolph Valentino and Nita Naldi in A Sainted Devil (1924) when it’s actually Helena D’Algy) and eBay (when you can find lots of mislabeled images here).

Do your homework before you post this image of the people we may know not is them.