Taschen's 'Life. Hollywood': Photos of Marilyn Monroe, Steve McQueen
For almost 45 years, Taschen has served as an invaluable resource for exploring entertainment history. Its books on everything from Stanley Kubrick to the James Bond franchise have delved into their subjects with unprecedented detail, becoming definitive sources of access and information. With the release of the two-volume “Life. Hollywood,” it pays tribute to one of the publications from which Taschen received much of its inspirations, if not its marching orders.
From 1936 to 1972, Life Magazine was one of the world’s most popular photography magazines. Commensurate with that was access to Hollywood and its stars, at a level of intimacy that feels almost unimaginable today. With stories that include shopping excursions with Grace Kelly, behind-the-scenes access on classic films like “The Ten Commandments” and “The Godfather,” the periodical was the first and best opportunity for American to peer behind the glitz and glamour of Tinseltown. Taschen’s 600-page, two-volume set features a treasure trove of images from Life’s extensive archives, along with essays by Justin Humphreys to provide vital context about each subject and the circumstances under which he, she or it was chronicled in its pages.
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Check out an exclusive gallery of images from “Life. Hollywood.” Each is accompanied by a (lightly edited) caption by Humphreys from the book.
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Taschen’s ‘Life. Hollywood’
For almost 45 years, Taschen has served as an invaluable resource for exploring entertainment history. With the release of the two-volume “Life. Hollywood,” it pays tribute to one of the publications from which Taschen received much of its inspirations, if not its marching orders.
The 600-page set features a treasure trove of images from Life’s extensive archives, along with essays by Justin Humphreys to provide vital context about each subject and the circumstances under which he, she or it was chronicled in its pages.
Cecil B. Demille
Wearing his trademark regalia of riding breeches and knee-high boots, the intensely driven and perfectionist’s career stretched from Hollywood’s first feature production, “The Squaw Man” in 1914, to his greatest achievement — “The Ten Commandments” in 1956. “When Cecil B. DeMille directs a movie the result often can be tabulated only on a seismograph,” Life wrote in 1947. Here, he stands at his longtime estate in Hollywood’s Los Feliz district, which Angelina Jolie bought in 2017. Photo: Alfred Eisenstaedt, Hollywood, 1938.
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple’s irrepressible charm in hits like “Curly Top” made her America’s top box office draw from 1934 to 1938. In 1939, Life reflected: “After seven years on the screen she is the veteran of 23 movies, has sung, danced, laughed, cried, worn silk and rags, ridden horses, drilled with soldiers, remained steadily a box office ace.” Photo: Alfred Eisenstaedt, Twentieth Century-Fox Studios, 1936.
Walt Disney
Several times throughout his career, Disney gambled nearly everything he owned on colossal creative risks, including America’s first full-color, feature-length cartoon, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” “We had the family fortune, we had everything wrapped up in Snow White,” Disney told the CBC. “In fact, the banker I think was losing more sleep than I was.” His gamble paid off handsomely—the film was a gigantic hit. Photo: Alfred Eisenstaedt, Walt Disney Studios, 1938.
Bette Davis
During her many years at Warner Bros., Davis’ brassy on-screen persona perfectly mirrored the toughness typical of that studio’s output. With her highly distinctive eyes and mannerisms, and flourishing an ever-present cigarette, she became a megastar playing formidable divas in, among many others, “The Letter” and “All About Eve.” Photo: Loomis Dean, Southern California, 1947.
Maureen O’Hara
The fiery Irish-American O’Hara’s Amazonian physique and red hair won her the nickname “The Queen of Technicolor.” O’Hara starred in a wide variety of films,but she is arguably best remembered for her collaborations with John Ford, holding her own opposite her dear friend John Wayne in classics like “The Quiet Man.” Photo: Peter Stackpole, Los Angeles, 1946.
Charlie Chaplin
In 1943, at 54, Chaplin famously wed playwright Eugene O’Neill’s 18-year-old daughter, Oona. Her father disowned her, but the Chaplins would remain happily married until his death on Christmas Day 1977. Usually publicity-shy, Chaplin opened up his home to Life and allowed them this family portrait: From left, Geraldine, Oona, Victoria (on Oona’s lap), Josephine, Chaplin, and Michael. Photo: W. Eugene Smith, Los Angeles, 1952.
Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli
With her girl-next-door sweetness and angelic voice, Garland won over America in popular musicals including MGM’s “Meet Me in St. Louis” and “Easter Parade” before attaining cinematic immortality as Dorothy Gale in “The Wizard of Oz.” Minnelli, Garland’s only child by director Vincente Minnelli, had an impeccable show biz pedigree, but being the daughter of a superstar like Garland — and comparisons to her mother — would follow her throughout her career. Photo: Martha Holmes, Los Angeles, 1946.
Ingrid Bergman
In Victor Fleming’s “Joan of Arc,” Bergman fulfilled her cherished dream of portraying the courageous martyr, “her favorite historical personage,” Life reported. Although Life acknowledged it was “the most complex and difficult [role] of her career, and she makes it the most moving as well … Not all of the movie is worthy of its leading lady.” Photo: Loomis Dean, Hal Roach Studios, 1948.
Robert Mitchum
Mitchum’s rugged exterior and powerful on-screen presence masked his deeply nuanced facility for acting. Throughout his lengthy career, Mitchum dismissed his movie star image with self-deprecating wise cracks. “I have two acting styles, with and without a horse,” he said in his biography, “Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don’t Care.” Photo: Loomis Dean, Agoura, California, 1947.
Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn
“The hysteria of each shot was a nightmare,” Hepburn wrote in “The Making of the African Queen.” “And there was always the uncertain factor of Bogie and me and whether John [Huston] thought we’d done a scene well.” Going on to become a major critical and financial success upon its release, Variety praised its “unassuming warmth and natural-ness…The story has a documentary feel without any of the detachment usually noted in that particular technique.” Photo: Eliot Elisofon, Congo, Africa, 1951.
Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell
Monroe and Russell between takes of the “Two Little Girls from Little Rock” number in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” This was relatively early in Monroe’s stardom, and Life rather condescendingly noted that “she sings and dances with surprising technical competence.” In her final Life interview in 1962, Monroe recalled Russell being “quite wonderful to me,” but Fox treated her disdainfully. Photo: Ed Clark, Twentieth Century-Fox Studios, 1953.
Grace Kelly
After finishing her whirlwind Manhattan shopping spree, Life wrote of Kelly, “With Grace’s dead pan poodle, Oliver, sitting this one out, bride-to-be packs and packs.” Photo: Lisa Larsen, New York, 1956.
Brigitte Bardot
After becoming an international sex symbol in French films like”…And God Created Woman,” Life remarked on her phenomenal impact: Not since the Statue of Liberty has a French girl let such fires in America.”
Photo: Ralph Crane, Mexico, 1965.
Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte
Longtime friends Poitier and Belafonte were active in the Civil Rights movement and steadfastly supported Martin Luther King, Jr. When Life profiled Poitier in 1959, he expressed acute awareness of what he symbolized for Black Americans: “My best statement is my work as an artist,” he said. Life’s Miller photographed Poitier and Belafonte together at King’s March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Photo: Francis Miller, Washington, D.C., 1963.
Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh
Curtis had a contract with Universal Studios when he announced his engagement to Leigh. Universal was furious, feeling marriage would spoil his bachelor image and alienate his devoted fans. “But,” Life explained, “despite bitter recriminations, threats of banishment back to the Bronx and warnings that his movie career would be kaput, Tony and Janet eloped.” Their stardom remained undimmed, and they subsequently had two daughters, Kelly (left) and Jamie Lee (right). Photo: Allan Grant, Beverly Hills, 1959.
‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’
Universal Studios extended their much-beloved dynasty of movie monsters into the 1950s with the amphibious Gill Man. Here, Adams and Ben Chapman in full scaly costume strike a properly monstrous pose on the Universal lot’s Park Lake. Photo: Universal Studios, 1954.
Steve McQueen
Temperamentally, McQueen and Neile Adams were opposites: He was confrontational, she was amenable. But they shared peculiarly similar backgrounds that led to a deep bond between them. Palm Springs, California, 1963. Photo: John Domini.
Sophia Loren
Of Loren and Ponti’s palatial home, Life enthused: “In everything from its rococo interiors to its vast and casual gardens — with a man-made pond and mechanical waterfall — the villa is as international as a film star’s life and also as warmly and flamboyantly Italian as its owners.” Photo: Alfred Eisenstaedt, near Rome, 1964.
‘Batman’
In 1966, “Batmania” swept America: ABC’s arch, high-camp series starring Adam West, left, as the Caped Crusader became “one of the great sudden successes in entertainment history,” Life wrote. “Adults can take it as a joke or lap it up like kids. Either way, Batman wins.” Photo: Yale Joel, Twentieth Century-Fox Studios, 1966.
Mia Farrow
The daughter of director John Farrow and actress Maureen O’Sullivan, Farrow unsuccessfully attempted to be a nun, then took up acting. As she told Life, “I discovered that only in drama class could I manipulate people, amuse them, even make them notice me through this marvelous game of pretending, where I didn’t have to be me.” Photo: Alfred Eisenstaedt, London, 1967.
Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward
Newman and Woodward made 16 films together throughout their 50-year marriage. “Joanne really gave up her career for me, to stick by me, to make the marriage work,” Newman told Life. Photo: Mark Kauffman, Malibu, California, 1968.
John Wayne
On the Pacific Ocean, Wayne and his son Ethan sail out to his yacht, the Wild Goose II, “a 130-foot converted U.S. minesweeper.” Life described Wayne as “the solid, conservative outdoorsman, knowing exactly what he thinks, who he is and where he is going.” Photo: John Dominis, 1969.
Taschen’s ‘Life. Hollywood’
The two-volume book features 600 pages of photos and almost 40 years of Hollywood history.
