Styling the Stars: Lost Treasures from the Twentieth Century Fox Archive

by Angela Cartwright, Tom McLaren, Maureen O'Hara (Foreword)

A stunning collection of behind-the-scenes hair, makeup, and wardrobe continuity photographs from the Twentieth Century Fox archive, Styling the Stars features images of more than 150 actors—such as Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Julie Andrews, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, and Paul Newman—from more than 100 Fox classics, including Miracle on 34th Street, The Sound of Music, Cleopatra, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. 

In 1997 Twentieth Century Fox established an archive of all-but-forgotten production stills taken during the filming of some of their most memorable movies. Published here for the first time, this archive includes hundreds of riveting portraits of Hollywood’s most treasured leading men and women as they were prepped for the camera.

Revered for their indisputable sense of style, the carefully crafted characters portrayed by the likes of Clark Gable, Julie Andrews, and Audrey Hepburn came as the result of meticulous hairstyling, makeup artistry, and lavish costume design. In Hollywood’s trendsetting word of glamour and glitz, continuity photographs ensured that these wardrobe elements remained consistent throughout the filming process. Once fully styled, stars posed for camera-ready continuity shots, which now, decades later, provide a striking record of the evolution of Hollywood fashion and stardom from the 1930s to the early 1970s. Through these long-lost photographs, which were never intended for the public eye, Styling the Stars takes fans of film, fashion, and photography inside the Twentieth Century Fox archive to deliver an intimate look at Hollywood’s Golden Age and beyond.

Written by Angela Cartwright (The Sound of Music, Lost in Space) and Tom McLaren, with a foreword by Maureen O’Hara (Miracle on 34th Street), this collection of candid rarities offers a glimpse into the details of prepping Hollywood’s most iconic personalities, as well as revelatory stories about Twentieth Century Fox classics, such as Planet of the Apes, Cleopatra, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Young Lions, and more. Here you’ll find images of Shirley Temple as she runs a brush through her trademark curls, Marilyn Monroe as she’s styled for her role in Let’s Make It Legal, Cary Grant as he suits up for a swim, and Paul Newman donning a six-shooter, among hundreds of rare, never-before-published photographs. The result is a stunning collector’s volume of film and fashion photography, as well as an invaluable compendium of movie history.

Styling the Stars is now available in paperback for the first time. 

Genres: Nonfiction, Film

304 pages, Paperback

Published April 4, 2017

About the author

Well-known for her youthful roles in The Sound of Music and Lost in Space , Ms. Cartwright is now a mixed-media artist.

Reviews

[Adriana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a wonderful look at the forgotten art form of continuity shots and wardrobe tests of the golden age of Hollywood. They still take pictures for continuity, but the photographs that they used to take in the studio era are as much of an art form as the publicity shots that were released to the public. I loved seeing how the stars were just standing around to show off the wardrobe. It helps that I am a giant fan of classic Hollywood and have seen all the movies mentioned and can identify all the stars, not to mention that I love the work that the customing department at the studios did.
My only nitpick is that I would have loved to read more from the perspective of those actually taking the photographs (which I understand might be pretty much impossible to identify) or from those who worked in the wardrobe and hair & makeup departments.

[Bookish · Rating 5 out of 5]

In addition to the wonderful photographs, there are little notes from some of the stars. This is a must-read for fans of the golden age of Hollywood.