LUGOSI'S PRIVATE PHOTOS

Bela Lugosi saved a considerable amount of memorabilia from his career and even amassed at least three large scrapbooks which sold at auction on August 10, 2013 for $5,000.

The two photographs below were sold separately last week by Heritage Auctions headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The WHITE ZOMBIE photo sold for $275.00 and THE MYSTERIOUS MR. WONG photo sold for $154.00. Lugosi's Mr. Wong (a villain) was a different character than Karloff's Mr. Wong (a detective).

The stamp on the back indicates they were given to Lugosi by the Don Marlowe Agency. Marlowe had the reputation as an unscrupulous and downright flaky talent agent. For example, in September 1970 he placed an ad in CLASSIC FILM COLLECTOR that read:

Bela Lugosi – For Sale: Screen test Bela Lugosi made for the original Frankenstein. 35mm sound, running time 21 minutes; same scene is shown twice with change in lighting, etc. Between scenes camera was left running and Carl Laemmle Junior, James Whale, Colin Clive and Lugosi can be seen and heard discussing test and wardrobe Lugosi was wearing. Film can be examined and screened before purchase is made. Price: $4,000. Don Marlowe. Hollywood, Calif. 90028

What really makes this stand out as specious is that James Whale was out of the picture when this test shot is made under the direction of Robert Florey. One wonders if this was a flim-flam on the part of Marlowe.

Marlowe is nevertheless is credited with reviving Lugosi's career in the late 1940s. Among other jobs, in one roadshow, before a screening of DRACULA, Lugosi would perform a live reading of Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart".

TOPLESS TOPSTONE

The story goes that the young Judy Crowder had dreams of being a painter, but when a photographer saw her work and then met the artist in person, he had other ideas for her career. With a little coaxing, he talked her into a photo session, the results which appeared in SCENE, December 1960. She was 18-years-old. As a result, Miss Crowder became one more in the long line of glamour models posing for pinups and magazine pictorials in the 60s. The feature also mentions that "she wants to follow her sister, actress Louise Stewart, to Hollywood" (another article names her as Ann Stewart).

During her relatively brief modeling career, Crowder was featured in numerous men's magazines such as FIGURE QUARTERLY Vol. 32 (1961), NUGGET, KNIGHT, HI-LIFE and PICTURE SCOPE.

There is scant biographical information about her and it's mostly found within the pages of said magazines. It was a common practice that the text accompanying the photographs would be largely made up to further titillate the reader. If any of the information is accurate several magazines boasted of her 37-24-36 figure and that she hailed from Taylorville, Illinois. Another magazine went on about how she loved clam chowder (!) and claimed she had 20 different recipes. This is likely made up, all so the writer could use the tagline of her name rhyming with New England's favorite soup (see below) .

Her sister's acting career appeared to have fizzled, and Judy's didn't fare much better. She did guest on an episode of Boris Karloff's THRILLER, so that qualifies her as a THH, a tangential horror hottie! Other than that, her acting career was over. I'm guessing that she went back to painting.

You're probably wondering about now where I'm going with all this. Well, what got Judy Crowder as the topic of this post today is a photo identifying her as wearing one of Keith Ward's Topstone masks sometime in the 1960s. If there's any doubt about the claim, while I was preparing this post, I unearthed a second photo of her with the mask pulled up over her head. No doubt, it's Judy Crowder under it.

From a Topstone mask collection.

Most of her photos are in considerably better taste than many models who posed unabashed in their birthday suits. In this gallery, you can see that she was nevertheless talked into showing a little more.

GEORGE HURRELL: MASTER HOLLYWOOD PHOTOGRAPHER

George Edward Hurrell (June 1, 1904 – May 17, 1992) was born in Illinois. As a young man, he moved from Chicago to Laguna Beach, CA, an artist's colony about an hour's drive south of Los Angeles.

He originally wanted to be a painter, but after dabbling in photography and receiving encouragement from famous fashion photographer Edward Steichen, he decided it offered more of a living.

Ramon Navarro by George Hurrell (1929).

Hurrell became friends with aviator and stunt pilot Florence "Pancho" Barnes. Barnes had a lot of Hollywood connections and she arranged a photoshoot between Hurrell and Ramon Navarro. Navarro was impressed and spread the word. Soon, Hurrell was hired by production chief Irving Thalberg as the head of the portrait photography department at MGM after seeing a series of photos where his wife, Norma Shearer, had been "glamourized" after she requested to appear more provocative than her usual poses.

Norma Shearer by George Hurrell.

Hurrell photographed every star at MGM, including Lon Chaney.

Lon Chaney (without makeup) by George Hurrell.

In 1932, Hurrell left MGM and opened his own studio at 8706 Sunset Boulevard, which he ran until 1938. His clients loved his work, citing their photographs included a "sheen of mystery".

In the 1940's, Hurrell went to work for Warner Bros. where he photographed every star there, including the now-famous shot of Jane Russell.

George Hurrell captured the untamed beauty of Jane Russell.

In the late 1940's, Hurrell signed on with Columbia Pictures and he also opened a new photography studio of his own, this time on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills where he continued to master his art of glamour photography to clients outside of the Hollywood system.

In his later years, Hurrell photographed album covers for various stars, including Tom Waits' FOREIGN AFFAIRS (1977), Fleetwood Mac's MIRAGE (1982) and Queen's THE WORKS (1984).

George Hurrell's photography was virtually unmatched by any of his peers in Hollywood, and there were a lot of them. We have him to thank for helping to immortalize the actors and actresses of Old Hollywood through his images.

Dorothy Lamour.

John Barrymore.

Johnny Weismuller.

Marlene Dietrich.

Myrna Loy.

William Powell.

Articles on George Hurrell published during his career: