Classic Hollywood #91 – Unpublished Snapshots of the Stars 1948-49

A Fan Takes Snapshots Of Hollywood’s Big Stars 1948-49

Ava Gardner

You never know who you will see when you’re in Hollywood. Luckily your phone is a camera and you can annoyingly go up to any semi-celebrity you see and ask them to take a selfie with you. Some celebs will grudgingly comply. Others, usually stars besieged constantly by paparazzi will run to avoid you.

Before the ubiquitous cell phone camera made everyone a photographer, a conscious effort to carry a camera around had to be made. Few did.

So during 1948-1949, some starstruck fan carried around their portable camera and waited.  Whoever took these photographs must have spent a lot of time around Hollywood’s clubs and movie studios in order to get these shots. Apparently this person had access to some places that are normally off-limits to the public like the studio parking lot.

I especially enjoy the fact that the stars generally stopped what they were doing and took a second to pose. The stars at least back then knew who paid to see their films- their fans. So you take a second smile and let your picture be taken.

Here is Hollywood out of costume just being themselves. Outside the studio, at nightclubs, arriving at restaurants, on the street.  While the photos are not of great quality they are important because they are previously unpublished and capture some of the big stars of the era.

The photos were assembled in one large photo book and stored away for half a century, then auctioned. Here are some of the highlights.

Elizabeth Taylor

Doris Day

Gig Young

Jane Powell

Frank Sinatra

Dana Andrews

June Haver

Richard Conte

Van Heflin

Ginger Rogers

Clark Gable

Kirk Douglas

Susan Hayward

John Garfield

Jane Wyman

Lana Turner

Abbott & Costello

Patricia Neal

 

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