From Greta Garbo, Louise Brooks, and Jean Harlow, to Marilyn Monroe, Raquel Welch, and Cher, to Halle Berry and a very young Angelina Jolie, the many faces of glamour are on display at the Profiles in History auction house in Calabasas. Beginning Thursday morning, one of the world's largest and best collections of vintage Hollywood and fashion photos will be auctioned off. (Warning: The Profiles in History site includes a few artistic nudes.)
Among the highlights of the Michael H. Epstein and Scott E Schwimer Collection are more than 1,000 photos by George Hurrell, the studio-era photographer whose classic shots of M-G-M stars set the standard for Hollywood glamour. Demonstrating Hurrell's darkroom technique, the auction includes some 500 negatives that reveal how the photographer used retouching to heighten his dramatic lighting and create luminous, perfect skin.
For all his gifts, Hurrell worked only once with the era's biggest star, Greta Garbo, who disliked the silly antics he used to get subjects to relax. She called him a "crazy man" and insisted instead on having her publicity portraits taken by Clarence Sinclair Bull. His work, like Hurrell's, is represented in the auction by both prints and negatives.
Whether wearing simple black with slicked-back hair or lamé tights and an ornate headdress, Garbo always looks composed and self-contained: the famously mysterious Swedish Sphinx. Spanning more than a decade, from The Kiss in 1929 to Two-Faced Woman in 1941, the collection's series of Garbo portraits subtly illustrates the aging of the star's seemingly ageless face.
Bringing glamour imagery closer to the present, the collection includes a massive archive of fashion and celebrity photographs by Harry Langdon, mostly from the 1970s and 1980s. "There must be 5,000 images of Cher that haven't been seen before," says Profiles in History owner Joseph Maddalena.
The most noteworthy Langdon photos are probably those of a sultry 15-year-old Angelina Jolie in her first modeling assignment.
The auctions begin at noon on Friday and Saturday. Online bidders can participate here.
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