Get into the booth! - Willy Michel and his Photomaton, circa 1932-53

 

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.

Marlène fait une entrée... et une sortie

Arriving.

Dietrich was what they used to call a star. Just as much in public as on the screen. And her "real life" seemed to be all about the glamorous entrance or exit. To and from planes, trains, automobiles, or ocean liners. Or just walking into a party or leaving the theater. Whether coming or going, Dietrich was always ready for the camera; she was prepared to be seen. 

Departing.
(Seated next to her is her hairdresser and close friend Nellie Manley.)

And for almost five decades until, with age and health problems, she no longer felt able to summon the glamorous, "ageless" illusion, before she shut herself away in her Paris apartment to spend the last thirteen years of her life, there was always a camera pointed in her direction. As she knew there always would be. The candid images here are in roughly chronological order, dating from her Hollywood-bound departure from Berlin in 1930 until 1965 when, still the star, she was the center of a Manchester crowd's frenzied attentions.

With her husband and French manager. 
(This image is frequently captioned as Dietrich being arrested in Paris for wearing pants, something that never happened.)

The same as above.

The original print has been altered, crop marks added, for publication purposes.

With Nellie Manley.

With Noël Coward.

In costume for "Knight Without Armour." With Nellie Manley.

With Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

With Josef von Sternberg.

With Henry Fonda.

With Tyrone Power and his then wife, Annabella.

With Jean Gabin.

With her daughter, Maria Riva.

With Noël Coward.

With Noël Coward.

With Jean Marais.

With Jean-Pierre Aumont and Jean Cocteau.

At Edith Piaf's funeral.

With Hildegard Nef.