Happy Halloween From Hollywood's Past

 In honor of Halloween, here is a look back at some publicity photos from Holllywood's past, that remind us that riding the wave of a trend (even an annual one) to capture some attention is an idea that has been around long before social media. 

 

A couple of things you're likely to notice? 1.Nary a man in sight. While men were often called on to pose for publicity photos, they were more often called in for photos that could be used for multiple occasions, to point up their masculinity, edge and dashing heroics. Typical holiday shots, whether for Thanksgiving, Halloween, and even Christmas, were reserved almost exclusively for women.

Of course, some of this was related to their use as pin-ups, and many of them were obvious opportunities for a "cheesecake" shot. And yet, children were the occasional subjects of Halloween portraits as well, so it's just as likely that the hesitancy to associate a male star with anything that could be conceived of as frivolous or undignified.

While it was perfectly acceptable for B- Movie and serial stars to be "caught" in the act of showering, or for even most highly ranked male stars to be seen lounging at their pool, to go in for a sitting and pose amongst props? Nope. 

This is not to say that the women of Hollywood were treated carelessly. Their images were catered to as much as that of the matinee idols, and each photo conveyed the image they were carefully constructing.  tone of the photo was chosen to convey  The more revealing photos were usually reserved for contract players who had yet to make a real impact, and models/aspiring actresses being shot by independent photographers. In the case of Yvonne DeCarlo, the shot above, available in 1946, was distributed just after DeCarlo had just appeared in Salome, Where She Danced, as the seductive title character, but prior to that she had mostly performed in uncredited roles. 

You may also have noticed that the setups are often quite simple. Many times similar props were distributed to celebrities and in some cases the very same set-up was employed by different stars, as these photos were not intended to have a particularly long lifespan. Even when the set-design is more elaborate, the costumes used were often pieced together using recycled pieces from prior films (just in case the witch's hat in the photo below, featuring Judy Garland in 1941, seems familiar)