Vintage Stars
Words | Emma Juhasz Big-screen legends bolstered their fame with portraiture photography and John Kobal’s extraordinary collection brings you closer to some of the biggest names in Hollywood THINK OF THE GOLDEN age of Hollywood and the names that spring to mind are the likes of Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne, Lauren Bacall and [...]
Words | Emma Juhasz
Big-screen legends bolstered their fame with
portraiture photography and John Kobal’s
extraordinary collection brings you closer
to some of the biggest names in Hollywood
THINK OF THE GOLDEN age of Hollywood and the names that spring to mind are the
likes of Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne, Lauren Bacall and Audrey Hepburn.
As the stars of the celluloid firmament, they spanned the 1920s to 1950s era. This was an
age where the Hollywood movie industry blossomed and the studios had full control over
their actors, including their publicity. Studio portraits and film stills became a fundamental
means of transforming actors and actresses into cultural and style icons. Leading
photographers such as Clarence Sinclair Bull and Lazlo Willinger captured the stars during
filming and John Kobal, a leading authority on cinema and Hollywood portraits, built a
collection of such images. Along with some pictures from the Michael Hoppen Gallery
archives, they are now the subject of a major sale and exhibition at the Michael Hoppen
Gallery in London. It’s your chance to take a Hollywood legend home with you.
Until 26 January 2008, ‘The Bold & The Beautiful’, Michael Hoppen Gallery, 3 Jubilee
Place, London SW3 3TD, +44 (0)207 352 3649; www.michaelhoppengallery.com
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JAYNE MANSFIELD c.1960 The blonde bombshell’s Hollywood career began with bit parts before she signed a long-term contract with 20th Century Fox in 1956 and won a Golden Globe in 1957 for The Wayward Bus. Like Marilyn Monroe, she died tragically young, in a car accident in 1967 at the age of 34. |
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MARLENE DIETRICH, 1934 The femme fatale was signed to Paramount Studios in the 1930s, as its answer to MGM’s Swedish sensation Greta Garbo. Considered the epitome of androgynous allure, she shocked audiences by making her first appearance in an American film, Morocco, in a trouser suit.. |
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AUDREY HEPBURN, 1961 Raised in Holland during World War II, Hepburn trained as a ballerina but was too malnourished and tall to dance professionally. She turned to acting and played a ballet prodigy in Secret People (1952), before Roman Holiday (1953) won her an Oscar. But it’s for her iconic role as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s that she’s best remembered. |
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CLARK GABLE AND JEAN HARLOW, 1935 MGM often paired Gable with major female leads, most famously alongside Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind (1939) in which he played Rhett Butler. He starred with Jean Harlow in four films and after she died during the making of Saratoga (1937), it was completed using long shots or doubles. |
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MARLON BRANDO, A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951 The screen legend auditioned for James Dean’s part in Rebel Without A Cause, and Dean later admitted that he idolised Brando. A Streetcar Named Desire won him an Oscar nomination, as did his subsequent three film roles. He eventually won an Academy Award for The Godfather (1972). |
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CHARLIE CHAPLIN AND PAULETTE GODDARD, Modern Times, 1936 Born in the East End of London in 1889, Chaplin became one of the most famous actor-directors in the early Hollywood era. His most famous character was The Tramp – a vagrant with gentlemanly manners and a toothbrush moustache who walked with a cane. Modern Times (1936) was his last silent movie and made a star out of Goddard, with whom he had an eight-year artistic and personal relationship. |
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JAMES DEAN, on location for Giant, 1955 The legendary Hollywood pretty boy struggled to find success at first – he made commercials and worked as a parking lot attendant at CBS Studios. After a brief stint in New York working in TV and theatre, he won the role of Jim Stark in East of Eden (1955). He was killed in a car accident in 1955 before his third film, Giant, was even released. He is the only actor to be nominated for two posthumous Oscars. |
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GRACE KELLY, 1956 The actress who became a princess made three films with Alfred Hitchcock, but it was for The Country Girl (1954) that she won an Oscar. At the 1955 Cannes Film Festival, she met Rainier III, The Prince of Monaco. They married a year later in a fairytale wedding, following her final screen performance in High Society. |
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