Norfolk author unveils new book

By Veronica Burns

High heels clicked, martinis were stirred (not shaken), and smoking jackets and glitter were all in evidence at the library book signing for the Robert Dance book on Hollywood photography, Glamour of the Gods. The book, the author’s third foray into Hollywood, is a large and luxurious volume, with some 200 rarely seen portraits of Hollywood stars from 1920 to 1960. The photographs are drawn from the John Kobal Foundation. Kobal was a film historian who acquired and preserved portraits, stills and negatives, ultimately creating a rare and envious archive. In his slide presentation, Dance honored the photographers who took the pictures, calling them “unsung heroes and heroines,” and went on to talk about glamour as not only enchanting or bewitching, but also marketable. Hollywood knew a good sales tool when it saw one, said Dance, and so, “glamour became a potent device to get us to go to the movies.” Glamour was all about selling beauty, and presumably, tickets. Hollywood also paid well, and many serious photographers continued to work for the large studios throughout their careers. Taking portraits at that time was a different procedure than today. “It was slow film and hot lights,” he told his audience, “using one 8 x 10 sheet at a time. Maybe 30 or 40 photos could be taken in an afternoon.” Among the iconic photographs shown to the audience was one of Greta Garbo, taken in 1928 by Ruth Harriet Louise, one of the few female photographers then in business. Paramount actress Louise Brooks became an icon in a 1929 photo, showing her with a lengthy string of pearls threading her fingers, shot by Eugene Robert Richee. Actress Joan Crawford epitomized the working girl, said Dance, and had “a great influence on the fashion of the Twenties and Thirties. She was also one of the hardest-working actresses.” The blondes, Veronica Lake and Betty Grable were also featured, as was Katherine Hepburn, who, it turns out, “had an ambivalent relationship with photographers.” Glamour was not confined to the ladies however. There were also iconic images of matinee idol Gary Cooper (Dance admits he is a favorite), Humphrey Bogart, Johnny Weissmuller (clad in signature loin cloth and standing on a swing). By the Fifties, suggested Dance, “ men had become sex objects.” And perhaps to prove his point, the famous T-shirt-clad duo of James Dean and Marlon Brando appeared on the screen. “All of these portraits,” said Dance in summing up, “just take your breath away.” The books on hand were quickly snatched up and sold, with benefits going to the Norfolk Library.