Gershwin oddity

Language Mystery Redux: Who Was the Last American to Speak This Way? - The Atlantic

James Fallows makes a fair enough observation, about how the American accent, at least amongst some who were speaking formally, used to have a phony-British aspect to it, which has disappeared.

But that photo of George Gershwin at the top of the article - he had a pretty odd looking face/head, didn't he?  It looks a bit puffy in places you don't expect a face to look that way. Maybe it was re-touched poorly?

Actually, out of all the Google image photos of him, that is just about the worst.    Pity.