The Editors of LIFE - LIFE Hidden Hollywood: Rare Images of a Golden Age

ABOVE: A stroboscopic multiple exposure of Alfred Hitchcock directing Teresa Wright in Shadow of a Doubt, 1942. GJON MILI/LIFE/THE PICTURE COLLECTION.

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HIDDEN HOLLYWOOD

Rare Images of a Golden Age

Introduction

By J.I. Baker

ALFRED EISENSTAEDT/LIFE/THE PICTURE COLLECTION

LIFE FIXTURE SOPHIA LOREN and her favorite photographer, Alfred Eisenstaedt, are shown above in 1975. The two shared a friendship that led to great photographs in the pages of the magazine, where Eisie was equally a fixture behind the scenes.

When LIFE as we know it was launched in 1936, movies were firmly ensconced as the countrys predominant popular entertainment. And with such films as Charlie Chaplins Modern Times and Alfred Hitchcocks Sabotage released that year, cinema was well on its way to becoming the 20th-century art form.

However, the industry was still in its youth, if not infancy. The silent film era had ended only a decade earlier, and celebrities had yet to exert their overweening sway as ersatz American royalty. But as the influence of the dream machine grew, LIFE gained unprecedented insider access, fueled by the fact that stars trusted the magazineparticularly its photographers. Sophia Loren, showcased in these pages, had a special connection to staff lensman Alfred Eisenstaedt, for instance. Their relationship was, by all accounts, imbued with a warm affection.

Yet Loren was hardly the only one. Henry Fonda opened his Connecticut retreat to LIFE, revealing a deceptively domestic-looking portrait of a dysfunctional family (he was a famously withholding dad). And Frank Sinatra let LIFE into his raucous world on- and off-stage. We also dropped in on directors Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock; their star Shirley MacLaine; her brother, Warren Beatty; his lovers Jane Fonda, Julie Christie, Natalie Wood... and many, many more.

In LIFEs last issue as a weekly (December 29, 1972), stories about Northern Ireland and Nixon in China were interspersed with pieces on Liza Minnelli (she had emerged that year as an outlandishly engaging performer) and old standby Elizabeth Taylor (she was a grandmother who had just turned 40, but wed been covering her since her teens).

At a time when access to movie stars has become increasingly controlled, its thrilling to revisit an era when intimacy between celebrities and journalists (and thereby readers) was revealing and genuine. In these pages, youll gain access to the world of classic Hollywood luminariestheir sets, mansions, love affairs, families, and friendshipswell before reality TV left nothing to the imagination... except reality.

Though celebrities are the lifeblood of most popular magazines today, the concept wasnt necessarily quick to catch on.

Twenty-three issues after launch, LIFEs first celebrity cover story ran on May 3, 1937, featuring the Platinum Blonde, Jean Harlow. She was followed by another blond movie starHarpo Marx.

Before They Were Famous

Marilyn who? Yes, people asked that question back when the immortal blonde merely twinkled in this galaxy of stars-on-the-verge.

Marilyn Monroe

ED CLARK/LIFE/THE PICTURE COLLECTION

The future legend poses in 1950 in Los Angeless Griffith Park. No, you probably cant see it, but her shirt is embroidered with the letters MM. Norma Jeane Baker, as the actress was known in her youth, was consumed by ambition, probably believing that fame would alleviate the feelings of loss and pain that stemmed from an early life of abuse and neglect.

Most Hollywood overnight successes are, of course, anything but. The leading men who artfully ignore paparazzi while flexing biceps in Tinseltown gyms spent years in cattle calls, hoping to score soap commercials. And the starlets who throw air kisses while navigating red carpets likely lived on bologna sandwiches long before they spent pricey afternoons lunching at the Ivy.

But the transformation from unheralded duckling to celebrity swan is never easy, and it often begins with the stars own life: If she doesnt like her own script, she can rewrite it. If her body and face arent idol-worthy, she can turn to plastic surgery, weightlifting, or kale.

Take a neglected waif like Norma Jeane Baker: After a nose job, some blonde dye, and hip-shaking lessons, the mousy brunette becamevoil!Marilyn Monroe. Or consider a ditch-digger known as Bud, who slithered into a tight T-shirt, stepped onstage in Tennessee Williamss A Streetcar Named Desire, and emerged as Marlon Brando.

Of course, some stars were driven by Svengalismost often, their dearest mommies. Take the case of Elizabeth Taylor, who was born with double eyelashes (the doctor called them a mutation) and violet eyes that were hardly shrinking. Signs that she was born to be a movie star? Maybe. But she was also pushed by her relentless mother, a failed actress. You have a responsibility, Elizabeth, she said. Not just to this family but... to the whole world. Born Natalia Zakharenko, Natalie Wood had a similar path.

Some starslike Kim Novak, the subject of a LIFE story featured hereinwere virtually creations of the old studio system: They were picked and primped and nipped and tucked to create whatever fantasy the public seemed to want. Some of them lasted. Others went back to eating bologna sandwiches.

But they all started somewhere, and in the following pages youll see LIFEs exclusive look at a handful of household names before they found their so-called overnight success.

Marilyn Monroe

J. R. EYERMAN/LIFE/THE PICTURE COLLECTION

At the tender age of 22, the nascent star takes dance lessons, trying to fulfill the aspirations she had nurtured since childhood. I dreamed of myself becoming so beautiful that people would turn to look at me when I passed, she once said. I dreamed of walking proudly in beautiful clothes and being admired by everyone and overhearing words of praise.