Hollywood Candid: A Photographer Remembers

From Booklist
Reviewed with Raeburn Flerlage's Chicago Blues: As Seen from the Inside.Professional performers are supposed to look good, but none of them scorns a good photographer's help. Flerlage helped blues musicians and Garret, movie stars. In new books, they share some favorite recollections and favorite images.Flerlage's pictures are more famous among blues fans than Garret's are among movie buffs. Why? Simple: they graced the covers of LPs from the foremost blues labels--Chess, Prestige, Testament, Delmark--and appeared in the foremost blues, folk, and jazz magazines. The fans know and love them, which is only right. Flerlage took up photography to shoot the blues, and no one did it better or more comprehensively. He snapped folk bluesmen like Son House and Fred MacDowell, Chicago bluesmen like Little Walter and Howlin' Wolf, big band bluesmen like B. B. King and Bobby Bland, and even soul pioneers like Jackie Wilson and Martha Reeves. He also took pictures of the performers' contexts, onstage and off. He had a terrific eye and terrific luck, such as when he was shooting an interview with John Lee Hooker, who called Muddy Waters to come over, which he did. Flerlage also had the foresight to shoot his interviewing partner, Mike Bloomfield, playing the stars' guitars not long before he became the first white Chicago blues guitar star.Garret, a Hollywood pro from 1946 to 1973, specialized in getting "candid" glimpses of the stars. Culling an archive much bigger than part-timer Flerlage's, Garret fields an album bursting with freshness. Here are Marilyn Monroe, looking ravishingly inadvertent at Grauman's Chinese Theater; Jack Benny in Roman drag, wryly clutching a cigar; Eddie Cantor showing a dance step to 16-year-old Joel Grey; Gary Cooper playing hairdresser for wrestler Gorgeous George; and lots of a Garret favorite, Bob Hope. Like Flerlage, Garret tells a little about the circumstances of certain shoots and what it was like to work with particular stars. Lengthier than Flerlage's comments, Garret's are more pat, too. Since the movies are more popular than the blues, though, Garret's deliberately appealing pictures may catch more eyes than Flerlage's ultimately more valuable volume. \plain\f0\fs17 Ray Olson
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Book Description
"There are photographers, and then there is Murray Garrett. He has a magic eye or a secret device in his camera that captures something different, something special that is missed by other photographers."
-Bob Hope This collection of rare photographs from Hollywood's Golden Era-including never-before-seen shots of Marilyn Monroe, Gary Cooper, Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner, Cary Grant, and other legendary stars-showcases 150 of the best pictures taken by photojournalist Murray Garrett when he was on assignment in Hollywood from 1946 to the 1970s. Some of these shots ran at the time in LIFE, Time, and other national magazines; many are published here for the first time. From a rare shot of Marlon Brando at home snuggling with his cat to a heartwarming photo of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall whispering together at a party, these remarkable pictures, together with Murray Garrett's own comments and reminiscences, give readers a unique behind-the-scenes glimpse of Hollywood in its heyday. MURRAY GARRETT was a professional photographer specializing in show business, first in New York in the early 1940s, then in Hollywood from 1946 until the early 1970s. He was sent on assignment by the best news magazines, including LIFE, Time, and Look, and also worked privately for many directors, film executives, and stars. Now retired, he lives in Sherman Oaks, California. 150 duotone photographs, 9 x 113/4"


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There are photographers, and then there is Murray Garrett. He has a magic eye or a secret device in his camera that captures something different, something special that is missed by other photographers. — Bob Hope


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