That was a classic era in film... talkies, indeed. It turns out my grandfather, his brother, lived in California in the late years of his life. He is buried in Culver City. Paul had a degree in engineering but went straight to Broadway to pursue acting after graduation. Probably pressured into engineering by my great grandfather. Sure sounds like it. We wonder if after getting out of show biz in '35 if he didn't go to work for Hughes, but all my sister's speculation at this point. She's really been doing some digging. She filled me with information last night for over an hour and a half. I remember about 5 minutes of it
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My grandmother on Dad's side was a Bell. My great great grandfather was C.M. Bell, an early photographer with a studio in Washington, DC. He is known for his photography of Native American chiefs and other notables. If you google C.M. Bell portraits or studio you'll get to see some of his work and or information
http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/coll/c-m...ogloc#overview