Russell Ball

Russell Ball (24 March 1891 – 12 June 1942) was a studio glamour photographer who made stills for films and portraits of Hollywood film stars including Jean Harlow, Greta Garbo, Louise Brooks, Mary Pickford, Esther Ralston and Carol Dempster.[1][2][3][4][5]

Russell Ball at work, 1931. Picture Post Magazine

Life

Russell Earp Ball was born in Philadelphia. His father died while Russell was still a teenager; by 1910 Russell was working as a salesman for the Gas Light Manufacturing Company. He moved to New York and on 1 February 1912 he married the film journalist Gladys Hall,[6] with whom he had two children, while working as a newspaper photographer. By 1917 he was working as a photographer, and by 1920 he had specialised into making portrait publicity stills for films, among others for the Shubert Organization. After working independently for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925 (on the East Coast),[7] he opened his own studio at 9528 Brighton Way, Beverly Hills to work for private patrons and celebrities at the end of the 1920s.[8][9]

• 
  Louise Brooks, 1920s
• 
  Carol Dempster, 1920s
• 
  Esther Ralston in Sadie McKee, 1934
• 
  Greta Garbo, 1925
• 
  Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald in Rose Marie, 1936
• 
  Phyllis Haver, 1928
• 
  Doris Kenyon, 1928
• 
  Natacha Rambova (Mrs Valentino), 1924
• 
  Gloria Swanson, 1923
• 
  Estelle Taylor, 1930
• 
  Rudolph Valentino as a native American chief, 1923

References

1. "A group of original photos and negatives of Mary Pickford taken by Russell Ball". Bonhams. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
2. "Los Grandes Fotografos". Los Grandes Fotografos. 3 August 2017. Elmer Russell Ball (53 photographs)
3. "Elmer Russell Ball". IMDB. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
4. Elvehjem Museum of Art (1987). Hollywood Glamour, 1924-1956: Selected Portraits from the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. Chazen Museum of Art. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-932900-15-9.
5. Keating, Patrick (2017). "Artifice and Atmosphere: The Visual Culture of Hollywood Glamour Photography, 1930–1935". Film History. Indiana University Press. 29 (3): 105–135. doi:10.2979/filmhistory.29.3.05. ISSN 0892-2160. JSTOR 10.2979/filmhistory.29.3.05. S2CID 191641256.
6. Slide, Anthony (2010-02-26). Inside the Hollywood Fan Magazine: A History of Star Makers, Fabricators, and Gossip Mongers. Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-60473-414-0.
7. Shields, David S. (2013-06-18). Still: American Silent Motion Picture Photography. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-01343-5.
8. Harnisch, L. M. (18 July 2016). "Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Russell Ball — An Eye for Glamour". Los Angeles Daily Mirror.
9. Hall, Barbara (2016). Jane Gaines; Radha Vatsal; Monica Dall'Asta (eds.). "Gladys Hall". Women Film Pioneers Project. Columbia University Libraries. doi:10.7916/d8-1z95-5v19.

Further reading

• Kobal, John (1980). The Art of the Great Hollywood Portrait Photographer. New York: Knopf.