I have no idea what's going on here. Obviously, that's J. Paul Getty, in the early 1970s, attending a birthday-type party with a gaggle of small children. He is wearing a tiny hat. I assume it is in England, at Sutton Place, where he spent the last years of his life. If some of those are his grandchildren, I assume this is before July 1973, when his 16-year-old grandson John Paul Getty III was kidnapped in Italy, and he refused to pay the $16 million ransom, and the kidnappers chopped off the kid's ear and sent it to him, and he relented, after haggling the ransom down to $2 million, because he wanted to rid the world of the scourge of crime and terrorism. Glad that worked out so well.
Anyway the photo, along with the hat [!], and some other Getty-related ephemera is being sold at auction next week in New York. If you buy it, please do shoot me an email explaining what the hell this was all about.
Apr 28, 2010 - Lot 42: A remarkable group of materials relating to J. Paul Getty, est $3-5,000 [doylenewyork.com]
I'm becoming increasingly obsessed with the story of the fat kid.
I think this is actually a Christmas picture as there are crackers on the table.