Sold by House of Mirth Photos, Easthampton, MA, U.S.A.
Association Member:
AbeBooks Seller since January 3, 2020
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
An archive of 380+ photographs from the family of Kirk Douglas, including: - snapshots & press photographs of Kirk Douglas, his wife, childhood pictures of Michael Douglas & Joel Douglas - snapshots & photographs of the family of Kirk Douglas' sister Betty Demsky Simon and her husband Lou - early Kirk Douglas publicity shots - a photo signed by Kirk Douglas to his sister Betty Demsky Simon and her husband Lou. Most of the photos are Black & White with a few in color. Many photos are loose. About 100 photos are in a circa 1920s/30s photo album. There are also approximately 80 photos glued to a few loose album pages. There are over 30 vintage press and publicity shots of Kirk Douglas, including some rare ones. There are about twenty 8"x 10" photographs of Douglas interacting with his family: frolicking with his wife in a swimming pool; kissing an unidentified blonde starlet; his wife and third son, Peter, visiting the set of Vikings (1958); holding Peter aloft like a trophy; a professionally "touched-up" photo, with the paint evident along his jawline and above his head; a moment of levity on the set of Young Man with a Horn (1950); a particularly lovely photo of Kirk, in his military outfit from Paths of Glory, with his mother - after whom he named his production company 'Bryna'. Some of the films covered in the press photos include: Detective Story; Champion; The Big Trees; My Dear Secretary; The Glass Menagerie; The Walls of Jericho; Ace in the Hole; The Strange Love of Martha Ivers; A Letter to Three Wives. In the case of the last two listed, his first and his seventh, the presence of bigger stars prevented him from getting top billing. Particularly nice are the photos with Jane Wyman in shared scenes from the Glass Menagerie. One gets the sense from this part of the collection just how quickly his star rose; by his eighth film, Champion - a boxing picture - he was a leading man, and he elevated the movie above the clichés of the form well enough to make it a hit - and receive the first of his three Academy Award nominations. His ambitions were bigger, though - he was a famously impatient man - and by the mid-1950s he'd established his own exceptionally successful production company, responsible for numerous historically important films - including Spartacus (1960), the film that broke the Hollywood blacklist. Also included are two manila envelopes, addressed to Mrs. Kirk Douglas, from Universal Pictures on Park Avenue in New York City, with various photographs. One contains a two-page interview with Anne Buydens about her husband, part of the press kit for Spartacus (1960). A typed itinerary, involving a trip to Las Vegas to attend shows by (and possibly perform with) Red Skelton at the Sahara, Mitzi Gaynor at the Flamingo, and George Burns at the Sands. A notation in the corner indicates that he might meet up with son Michael in Los Angeles to attend the Dodgers game, which would seem to place this schedule in 1961. All the different elements of this collection have been placed in a large sleek protective binder. This is a treasure trove of personal and professional photos from a Hollywood legend.
Seller Inventory # 1071
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