Glamour of the gods

Glamour of the Gods is a survey of Hollywood portraiture from the industry’s golden age, the period from 1920 to 1960. All the photographs are drawn from the extraordinary archive of the John Kobal Foundation in London. John Kobal was the last century’s pre-eminent authority on Hollywood photography and was the first collector and later author who systematically sought to understand photography’s important role in creating and marketing the great stars central to the Hollywood mystique. Garbo, Dietrich, Cooper and Bogart are among the famous faces featured and in many cases these are the career defining images of their era. Most of the reproductions are from the archive’s original vintage prints. Film historian Robert Dance has written about John Kobal’s important place in Hollywood history and offers a lucid overview of the still and portrait photographer’s place in the Hollywood studio system. Critic and historian John Russell Taylor’s introduction draws from his memory of many years of friendship with Kobal.