Stoid - Where did you come across this picture?
StG
I am awaiting a reply from willow2us with the man’s identity or at the very least info about how he got this photo and any info he knows. Had to track him down thru three sites, 2 blogs and finally found a way to contact him thru EBay of all places.
From this person’s Facebook page.
I’ve done more color correcting and it does seem, as mentioned earlier, that there was some colorization done or that adjustments were made to the color separations if this was printed in a magazine. That’s most obvious on the people in the back row.
Doesn’t make id easier, but it’s a bit more natural looking.
Could you get willow2us’s address for us? I’d like to drop by and, er, give him a nice, um, present.
This may be a longshot, but while googling “Photoplay Awards” I came up with a link to Sir John Hegarty, described as an ‘advertising legend’. But I couldn’t find how he was related to photoplay. Something about the company he worked for at the time being involved.
However, his photos look very much like an older version of the person in the shot. At the time, he would have been in his mid to late 20’s - hard to tell the age of the guy in the Carson photo.
No dimple in the chin. Mystery man definitely has a dimple.
He does? I can see a very vague dark spot in the color-corrected photo above, but that could be anything from a shadow to a blemish on the original photo. It’s very hard to tell with this level of quality.
Still, I did say he’s a longshot. I still can’t find what connection he had to photoplay, other than that he showed up in my google search. But the features are very close
Maybe not–that could be an artifact.
So why does this challenge grab us all so much? Obviously it does. But it seems like such a silly thing on its face (so to speak).
Is the Mystery Man wearing pirate boots?
Group of recognizable people with one person no one can name. I think this happened with the Sgt. Pepper album, there were a couple people not readily recognized. We think it must be someone that would be known, but as pointed out in this thread it could be someone we’ve never heard of and doesn’t fit in with the group. I wouldn’t be surprised if CNN starts 24 hour coverage trying to identify this guy.
It’s grabbing others. I asked one of my kids who likes stuff like this. He shared it on a FB page focused on 60’s and 70’s celebrities. There are probably a hundred posts on that page, and one of them links back to here. 
Hans Conreid is getting the most votes on the FB page.
Damfino. But I subscribed to this thread just to follow the quest.
Also, there’s the odd situation of this being only one photo of something that should have generated a few (at least). And, too, this event should have generated more of a document trail (even online, given the way a lot of mid-20th century Show Biz material has been uploaded to the Internet).
So, in addition to the 'cool to be the one who IDs the Mystery Man’ factor, there’s also the *‘could this all be a hoax?’ *factor.
Yeah, but for me a hoax will just be a letdown. I’m sure there are others that are sure it’s a hoax and will be happy to hear it. Plus some who will see it as part of the Ultimate Conspiracy.
It’s an old piece of cold war propaganda designed to distract us while we’re quietly taken over by the commies.
For me it’s because when I saw the photo my instant reaction was, “I know that guy!” I’m certain I’ve seen him before. My memory even tells me he’s relatively famous - someone I should know. I’ll bet if I saw a video clip and saw his mannerisms and heard his voice I’d know exactly who he was. It feels like his identity is just slightly out of reach, and that’s maddening.
If the ‘mystery person’ had been some old lady who clearly was just an ‘interesting person’ like so many Carson had on back then, I wouldn’t care one bit.
I had emailed willow2us and asked him the mystery man id but also where he found the pic and any other info attached to it. All I got back was this:
hi, I am the same Lee but no I don’t know who that man is. You are not the first person from FanPop who has asked me about this. I know most of the people in the picture but not him. Sorry
I emailed him again asking where he found the pic. No one answered today at Hollywood Reporter. Some show biz photo archivist somewhere knows who this is.
The larger, color-corrected photo from VernWinterbottom is helpful. Here is another name I have not seen yet–James Arness. Yeah, probably not.
Exactly! I can’t believe how hooked I am over this inconsequential subject myself. I have to pull myself away to get anything done.
Also I think there’s a competitive factor; everyone wants to be the person who figures it out.