Last week, the organization called Profiles in History held an auction from the working archive of Michael H. Epstein and Scott E. Schwimer collection of Vintage Glamour Photography. The auction contained pictures and negatives (WTH is a negative? OK, I know what a negative is but in this era of digital imagery, I thought I’d toss out some humor.).
Harry Langdon was a glamour photographer and his collection was a subset of this auction and that subset brought in the highest bid of the event.
Langdon’s material contained photos from the mid 60′s to 2008 and included photos of:
- Angelina Jolie,
- Jon-Erik Hexum,
- Raquel Welch,
- Halle Berry,
- Richard Burton,
- George Clooney (beginning of career),
- Farrah Fawcett,
- Cary Grant,
- Heather Locklear,
- Sophia Loren,
- President Ronald Reagan,
- Diana Ross andthe Supremes,
- Arnold Schwarzenegger,
- Frank Sinatra, and
- Will Smith
amongst others.
Check out some of the crazy top winning bids!
- $122,400: Harry Langdon working archive of photographs and negatives from mid-1960s to 2008
- $60,000: Jean Harlow Bear Rug Portfolio camera negative by George Hurrell for Vanity Fair.
- $54,000: Collection of 1000+ Hollywood autographs & signed photos
- $27,000: Archive of later portraits and scenes printed by Clarence Sinclair Bull, George Hurrell and Mark A. Vieira
- $21,600: Collection of Hollywood, musician and criminal autographs
- $19,200: Marlene Dietrich portrait by Edward Steichen for Vanity Fair.
- $19,200: Portrait of Irises by Robert Mapplethorpe
- $16,800: Veronica Lake camera negative from I Wanted Wings by George Hurrell
- $16,800: Louise Brooks custom portrait by Hal Phyfe
- $16,800: Ramon Novarro oversize custom portrait from Devil-May-Care by George Hurrell
- $15,600: Jean Harlow Bear Rug portrait by George Hurrell for Vanity Fair
- $14,400 Carole Lombard oversize gallery portrait by Otto Dyar
- $14,400: Archive of artist, photographer and literary autographs
- $13,200: Ramon Novarro oversize custom portrait from Devil-May-Care by George Hurrell
- $13,200 Pina Di Cola archive of life work
- $12,000: Rita Hayworth camera negative from Cover Girl by Robert Coburn
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A portion of the proceeds from this auction will benefit many charitable organizations Messrs. Epstein and Schwimer passionately support, including the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center and The Trevor Project.
The next auction that PROFILES IN HISTORY event will have props, costumes and set pieces from ABC’s Lost. (Ouch. If you were one of those fans secretly hoping your fave show would go one by some fluke, nothing says it’s done better than an auction of the show’s props! But seriously… Lost? Are we going to see lots of palm trees, coconuts and Hawaiian beach sand? Maybe some pieces from the wedding… uh ho, did that just come out?)
