Melbourne Spurr was an American photographer known for his stunning celebrity portraits. After arriving in Hollywood around 1917, he began taking portraits of the early stars for noted photographer Fred Hartsook. In his work at the Hartsook studio, Spurr photographed Mary Pickford, and she was so impressed that she helped launch his career as a Hollywood portrait photographer. In the mid-1920s, he had become one of the most renowned celebrity portraitists in the world.
However, the major movie studios mandated that their stars could only be photographed by their photographers by this time. Spurr kept his studio and eventually was replaced by people like George Hurrell, Clarence Sinclair Bull, Eugene Robert Richee and others who worked for the big studios. Spurr spent a decade in Hollywood – the “Roaring 20s” – but then moved on to document US presidents, artists, writers and dancers.
Here are some glamorous photos of Hollywood celebrities in the early 1900s by Melbourne Spurr.
