When this group of vintage photos arrived I was immediately struck by how similar they were not only in composition but beauty. All of the movie stars pictured here are shown on 8" X 10" promotional still photos from their common home studio, 20th Century Fox, sometime during the 1940's.
These promotional shots weren't necessarily sent out at the exact same time, but as they came from a single private collection I'd imagine they were collected one by one over a semi-limited period.
To further narrow the time that they were originally issued Ann Rutherford worked at MGM through 1942 so that's a good guess at a date on the early end. I know both Tyrone Power and George Montgomery were off the screen in 1944 and 1945 because of their World War II service. Carole Landis committed suicide in 1948 and most of the stars pictured had a little more age of their faces by that late date so that seems a reasonable guess at a potential end date.
1943-1948 then? I'd lean more towards the earlier date based on appearances.
(Do you see how helpful a date stamp on back is now? Even mention of a film title would help. The studio code numbering found in the black band at the bottom right of most photos are often useful, but in most cases you need quite a selection of photos and code numbers for those numbers to be of great help.)
Besides the Ann Rutherford pose the other 20th Century Fox film stars are each shown in a similar manner. Tight shots around their glamorous faces. Really quality shots that I think look even better when taken in altogether as we're about to do below. Enjoy:
These are simply fantastic!! I love Fox in the ’40s and these photos sure show why. 🙂
Best wishes,
Laura
Thanks @6c46afbc58a703991f6026e90f2c0107:disqus I definitely thought they were worth sharing. If I held onto anything that came through here some of these shots would hold an honored place!
I have boxes of these types of photos. My grandfather found them in the garbage on a NJ street back in the 80’s. I don’t know who to go to for information about them. Do you have any ideas? Some of mine date back to the 30’s.
thanks,
Christina
Hi @a663fd61cdd5dd6ae2b73f82008c6fca:disqus — I’ve sent a detailed response to you via e-mail. It’d be better to figure things out through some direct back and forth there.