Ann Blyth Halloween Photo Shoot

Ann Blyth in a rather surreal Halloween-themed publicity pose from the fertile mind of, probably, Ray Jones at the Universal publicity stills department.  Ann's just a teen in this photo, so it may have been one of her earliest during her seven-year contract.

Keeping their stable of talent in the public eye was the main job of the publicity stills department, and in an era of a hundreds of print magazines and newspapers, Hollywood was only too happy to keep them supplied with filler.

Ann Blyth - portrait in profile

Another stunning example of the light-sculpted glamorous portrait photos for which Hollywood publicity departments were famous.  Ann Blyth, like other stars, spent hours in front of the still cameras as well as the movie cameras.  This was taken in 1948 during her Universal studio period, quite likely by the master, Ray Jones.

From my book, Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star.:


Black and white photography perhaps reached its zenith as creative art form in the Hollywood studios—but especially still photography that sculpted the stars images with light and shadow and glamorized them as persons of almost supernatural beauty.  One of the very best of the artists was photographer Ray Jones, head of the Stills Photo unit of the Publicity Department at Ann’s home studio of Universal...

There were three dressing rooms in his studio where the stars were prepared for their photo shoots: for body makeup, for face and hair, and for clothes.  Grips worked under Jones’ direction to set the lights and enormous 8 x 10 view camera....

Ann Blyth recalled for the author that photo sessions usually lasted all day, and along with other stars, complimented Ray Jones on his ability to put his subjects at ease, to inspire their confidence.  They were placing their image, and whatever insecurity or doubtfulness they brought with them to the photo shoot, in his capable hands.

Ann Blyth as Lady Liberty

Ann Blyth posed as the Statue of Liberty certainly fits the theme of America's Independence Day celebrations this week.  

We've recently looked at candid publicity photos taken by her home studio, Universal, showing Ann at home, but this photo above represents another part of the publicity chore: innumerable photo sessions in the studio with the actor or actress posed in any number of whimsical scenarios.  One of the most popular, or notorious, were the holiday-themed shots.

Teresa Wright, as we mentioned at my Another Old Movie Blog, famously put in her contract that she refused to do any silly photos with Easter bunnies, Thanksgiving Turkeys, or 4th of July rockets.  While Ann Blyth was cooperative with her studio, she, for her part, declined to do "cheesecake" photos, which seemed to be enormously popular with the studio photographers.  Ray Jones was head of the stills department at Universal.  From my book Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star.:

There were three dressing rooms in his studio where the stars were prepared for their photo shoots: for body makeup, for face and hair, and for clothes.  Grips worked under Jones’ direction to set the lights and enormous 8 x 10 view camera.

Ann Blyth recalled for the author that photo sessions usually lasted all day, and along with other stars, complimented Ray Jones on his ability to put his subjects at ease, to inspire their confidence.  They were placing their image, and whatever insecurity or doubtfulness they brought with them to the photo shoot, in his capable hands.

Jones remarked in a 1952 interview about photographing starlets:

“Of the current crop, Ann Blyth has the most perfect face to photograph.  She also has one of the best figures, but she won’t let me do cheesecake of her.”

Indeed, we might note of the photo above that Ann's picture as Lady Liberty is certainly not cheesecake, but more interestingly, beyond holding the famous position of the statue, she appears to be deeply focused in the moment of the representation.  She's not just posing; she's acting.

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The audio book for Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. is now for sale on Audible.com, and on Amazon and iTunes.

Also in paperback and eBook from Amazon.

Also in paperback from CreateSpace, and from my Etsy shop: LynchTwinsPublishing.

Early Studio Publicty Portrait by Ray Jones

This could be one of the earliest studio publicity headshots of Ann Blyth, taken in 1943 by Universal studio photographer Ray Jones.  She is about fifteen years old here, and had recently joined the studio ranks after concluding the nation-wide tour in Watch on the Rhine.

From my book, Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star.:


Black and white photography perhaps reached its zenith as creative art form in the Hollywood studios—but especially still photography that sculpted the stars images with light and shadow and glamorized them as persons of almost supernatural beauty.  One of the very best of the artists was photographer Ray Jones, head of the Stills Photo unit of the Publicity Department at Ann’s home studio of Universal.  An excellent survey of his work and the function of a studio portrait photographer is discussed in author Tom Zimmerman’s Light and Illusion – The Hollywood Portraits of Ray Jones.  The author describes Jones’ studio in the Stills Building on the Universal lot, where he was in charge of a staff of fifty-four people. 

 There were three dressing rooms in his studio where the stars were prepared for their photo shoots: for body makeup, for face and hair, and for clothes.  Grips worked under Jones’ direction to set the lights and enormous 8 x 10 view camera.

 Ann Blyth recalled for the author that photo sessions usually lasted all day, and along with other stars, complimented Ray Jones on his ability to put his subjects at ease, to inspire their confidence.  They were placing their image, and whatever insecurity or doubtfulness they brought with them to the photo shoot, in his capable hands.

 Jones remarked in a 1952 interview about photographing starlets:

“Of the current crop, Ann Blyth has the most perfect face to photograph.  She also has one of the best figures, but she won’t let me do cheesecake of her.”

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The audio book for Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. is now for sale on Audible.com, and on Amazon and iTunes.

Also in paperback and eBook from Amazon.