Hollywood Candid: A Photographer Remembers [Hardcover]

Murray Garrett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2000

This volume is sure to thrill all those who love classic movies and the great stars. Garrett, who worked in Hollywood from 1946 until the early 1960s, delivers behind-the-scenes photographs and great stories of stars like Cary Grant, Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Gregory Peck, Natalie Wood, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe, and many more.

Editorial Reviews

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
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; First. edition (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810934418
• ISBN-13: 978-0810934412
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 9.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,137,881 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best of Hollywood's Golden Age, October 27, 2000

By 

Steve Solomon (Woodland Hills, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hollywood Candid: A Photographer Remembers (Hardcover)

I have had the priveledge of knowing Murray Garrett for over 25 years as a business associate and friend. I was completely blown away by his incredible talent as a photographer and writer. This book captures a Hollywood that I remember as my home town and really was the entertainment capitol of the world. The pictures are unique, and definitely candid. Murray's comments about the stars shed new insights into the personalities and quirks of some of the most loved and famous celebrities of the era. A beautiful collection of memorys from a man who approaches Hollywood from an honest, compasionate and humorous point of view. Highly recommended.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pre-press, September 24, 2000

By 

Dick Wooley (Cleveland, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hollywood Candid: A Photographer Remembers (Hardcover)

I had the privilege of seeing much of this book in pre-press form and knew it had to be a knockout. The pics are all exceptional but Murray's anecdotes and insight make this much more than a celebrity puff-piece. The finished book is even better than my early predictions. Great stuff!!!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Photographic Treasure, September 27, 2002

By 

Jennifer E. Williams (Fort Worth, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hollywood Candid: A Photographer Remembers (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful compilation of photographs and text taken throughout the years by Murray Garrett. All of the Hollywood golden age stars are featured: Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Jean Simmons, Natalie Wood, Ava Gardner. The photos catch the personal side of the stars, such as the photo of Richard Burton strapped into an airline seat along with his daughter's doll, as well as their entrances into glamourous events. He also adds his personal recollections such as Ava Gardner's love of jokes, off color or not, Eve Arden's love of her daughter, the secrecy of Natalie Wood's 21st birthday party. The stories are fascinating. The pictures are beautiful and unique. I am glad Murray decided to share them with us.