Glamour of the Gods: Hollywood Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery, London

7 July – 23 October 2011

A fascinating behind-the-scenes look at stars and celebrity glamour before paparazzi, before Photoshop (but not without retouching!) in 1920-1960, Hollywood’s golden age. Before the concept of paparazzi, fans and the press had to wait for the latest photographs, unimaginable in today’s world.

Alfred Hitchcock with the MGM lion, 1958 by Clarence Sinclair Bull

The National Gallery’s show features 70 portraits from this time period, many of them publicity shots and up until now never exhibited in the UK, which not just marketed stars and the glamour of Hollywood but played an important role in their creation.

Clark Gable and Joan Crawford for Dancing Lady, 1933 by George Hurrell

Featuring Rita Hayworth, Elizabeth Taylor, Louise Brooks, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, Marlon Brando, Rock Hudson and many more.

Marilyn Monroe, 1952 by Ernest Bachrach

All are part of the vast John Kobal Foundation collection, the founder of which was one of the first to see the value of these shots and to collect them as well as the original negatives. As a film historian, he recognized these studio system photographers, such as Eugene Robert Richee, George Hurrell, Clarence Sinclair Bull, Laszlo Willinger, Robert Coburn, William Walling and Ted Allan, as artists and dedicated his career to documenting and putting names to the oft-uncredited scene stills.

Clarence Sinclair Bull photographing Clarke Gable and Vivien Leigh for Gone with the Wind, 1939 by Fred Parrish

One aspect that Kobal found so fascinating about these photos was that they revealed sides of the stars’ personalities previously concealed in their film work, freed from the constraints of the script, other actors and the director’s vision. What appealed to him, the original recipients of the photos, and to the spectators of this exhibition, is the purity of the actor, the star quality, in these photographs.

‘If you are in the business of being photographed, you must like to have your picture taken, otherwise you shouldn’t be doing it. It’s part of your job.’

- Katharine Hepburn

All Images © the John Kobal Foundation