I Want to Go to Veronica Lake, Part II

Just found these portraits of Little by Little(hales) favorite Veronica Lake on Mr. Door Trees' fine blog, Golden Age Comic Book Stories. I'm not sure who shot them, perhaps George Hurrell. Photographers like Hurrell, Ernest Bachrach, Ted Allan, Clarence Bull, and several others created near- flawless images of the stars, especially the women. They were portrayed far more glamorously than in their movies, and they knew it. A photosession with Hurrell was as important to some stars as a screen test with, say, George Cukor .

These photographers created an indelible vocabulary: a large spot for the back- light, small soft spots on the face, contoured make-up, provocative poses like impossible back- arching or the cleavage- enhancing shrug of the shoulders, and sensual backgrounds. This vocabulary is still used today in Playboy and Maxim magazine. The lighting may have flattened, mostly because selective spot lighting isn't as effective in color as it was in black and white, otherwise, the essential language hasn't changed.

Enough words.