Erroll Flynn. |
In the summer of 1928, Willy Michel (20 August 1905 - 1 March 1976) began his co-starring role in a series of photo booth portraits that would continue though hundreds of sessions and some twenty years. Michel, a protégé of Henri Martinie’s portrait studio, had the idea to ask of-the-moment French celebrities and visiting artists to join him inside the Photomaton booth he had installed at his photography studio at No. 26 Boulevard des Italiens in Paris. His booth-mates were mostly French music, film, and theater types, nearly all of them completely unknown to a contemporary or modern American audience. I listen to a lot of French recordings from the Twenties to the Forties, so while many of those obscure names are somewhat familiar to me, I thought I'd share some of the images where the names and faces are just a bit more widely known.
Maurice Chevalier. |
Lili Damita. (The current Mrs. Erroll Flynn when the photographs were taken.) |
Bing Crosby. |
Charles Boyer. |
Maria Casarès. |
The great couturier Paul Poiret. |
Arthur Rubenstein. |
Jean-Louis Barrault. |
Jean Marais. |
Cécile Sorel. |
Sessue Hayakawa. |
Edwige Feuillère. |
Erich von Stroheim. |
So cool! Thanks for another great post Stephen.
ReplyDeleteSuch fun! Another wonderful post. Please keep them coming!
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