Author Description

Phil Stern, photographer in Hollywood for Life magazine from the 1940s through the 1970s, has over the years captured an extraordinary range of actors, directors, cameramen, and designers - at work, at home, playing, brooding, living. His subjects are the idols of three generations: Burt Lancaster, Spencer Tracy, Frank Sinatra, William Holden, Judy Garland, Sammy Davis, Jr., Lauren Bacall, Bette Davis, John Huston, Tony Curtis, Sophia Loren, Audrey Hepburn, et al., and his easy rapport with them is apparent in these eighty-nine remarkable photographs. Here are: James Dean, beautiful, boyish - giving his motorcycle the once-over with unself-conscious admiration... a discreetly pregnant Marilyn Monroe, striding on the back lot at the Goldwyn Studios, all eyes following her... John Wayne, in unmistakable Wayne silhouette, caught in deep conversation with John Ford... Hedda Hopper, in hat-with-feather extraordinaire, being greeted at a gala by Frank Capra and William Wellman... Gary Cooper with his wife Rocky and daughter Maria, in wet suits and full scuba gear, poolside... Kirk Douglas in cowboy regalia, mid-jump between two horses... a young Sammy Davis dancing, seemingly flying... a serious Groucho... Jean Seberg with Romain Gary, in a quiet moment together... a young Marlon Brando, relaxed, smiling, a man in the crowd. And more... Stern's photographs appear at once familiar and startling - an exemplary glimpse of the Hollywood style now almost forgotten.