ISBN: 1883792517 Book review by Amazon.com reprinted with permission
This lush, exquisitely produced collection of black-and-white journalistic photographs offers a fascinating look at Hollywood's glitterati from 1920 to 1970. A freelance anthropologist and photojournalist, Amanda Parsons combed through the archives of the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Mirror and discovered a spate of forgotten photographs remarkable for their realism, intimacy, and candidness. Even before the reign of tabloids, these pictures were considered newsworthy--whether a posed publicity photo of Greer Garson with her MGM contract in hand, or a stolen shot of Rita Hayworth conferring with attorneys just before her divorce from Orson Welles. As Parsons points out in her introduction, then--as now--"the public loved seeing stars look like stars." And indeed, we see plenty of famous faces looking fabulous, including Audrey Hepburn flashing the "OK" sign through the window of an ambulance (after a fall on the set of The Unforgiven), and Maureen O'Hara toasting Marlon Brando on winning a Golden Globe for On the Waterfront. But, as Parsons also notes, fame "brings an attendant high exposure that is not always a pretty picture"--a consequence of which these early stars may not have been fully aware. We see Lou Costello arrested for drunk driving; Lauren Bacall exiting Humphrey Bogart's funeral; Francis Farmer being booked for drunken and disorderly conduct; and the body of Marilyn Monroe wheeled out on a gurney--personal scenes made public that reveal precisely how stardom can leave its subjects out in the cold. An essential, enlightening history exhibit that with each turn of the page arouses what can only be the diverse feelings of a voyeur--excitement, longing, sadness, and the secret shame of wanting to see everything. --Brangien Davis
