Allure of Beauty: Unforgettable faces of 1950s movie stars

The author brings the portraits of the some of the best pre-sixties era when “star-system” reined supreme and generated movie idols that reflected the fantasies of moviegoers (1). Fifties also dominated the radiant pictures of Marilyn Monroe delighting in her presence, her lips parted, and her skirt bellowing high from the happy exhaust of a world at her feet. The skills of photographers and the portrait they created is an illustration of her success in picture and pose marketing. She is also a fine example human beauty at its best that was celebrated as a work of art across the globe. My personal favorites are; Marilyn Monroe (1956) for Twentieth Century Fox and 1957 picture for WB. Many photos of this book were originally spread across covers and pages of magazines and newspapers.

The style, fashion, and the technical side of the photography captured the mood and persona that generated the magical appeal for an average moviegoer. The job of the photographers was to treat their subjects as gods of love & allure, and reincarnation of perfection. Every care was taken to highlight the glazed lips parting seductively; poses that help expose the breasts, waved hair spilling over a bed of fur that came out of an exotic animal. They were iconic and movie bosses expected that they are to be adored and pictures collected like work of arts and follow their work in films. These were central to the idea of glamour pictures both from the point of the studio and also the leading ladies of Hollywood.

In the book published on the portraits of 1930s Hollywood stars, the author shows the portraits of mainly female stars of Hollywood, but in this book he has published more pictures of male actors as well.

My personal favorite portraits are the following:

Deborah Kerr (very majestic pose) (1952); Ginger Rogers (gorgeous photo) (1953) for WB; Virginia Mayo (1953) for WB; Lana Turner (1955) for Twentieth Century Fox; Zsa Zsa Gabor (beautiful photo)(1954) for Paramount; Shirley MacLaine (very petite picture) (1955) for Paramount; Grace Kelly (gorgeous photo)(1954) for Paramount; Kim Novak (1956) for Columbia; and Joanne Woodward (1957) for Twentieth Century Fox. The pictures of Tony Curtis, Robert Wagner, Charlton Heston, and Rock Hudson are also great portraits taken for the promotion of various movies by the studios.  

1.      Film-star portraits of the fifties: 163 glamour photos, John Kobal, Dover Publications, NY 1980