THE LOW, SPRAWLING Spanish-style house, hidden by tall hedges along Coldwater Canyon, has been the scene of some of Hollywood's most glamorous parties. The stars who passed through its doors included Tyrone Power, Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Jennifer Jones, Merle Oberon, Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo and Judy Garland. For more than half a century, it has been the home of Jean Howard (above), legendary hostess, professional photographer and chronicler of stars at play when Hollywood was still a small, close-knit town. She has brought together her experiences in "Jean Howard's Hollywood," a book of her photographs from the early 1930s to the early '60s to be published by Harry N. Abrams next month.
Cocktails and Conga Lines - Hostess Jean Howard's Party Shots Caught Hollywood Off Guard in a More Glamorous Age
"I think of Hollywood as a person," says Howard, seated in her living room, which retains the chinoiserie accents and tortoise-shell-paneled pedestals that were the trademarks of Hollywood's premier decorator, former silent star William Haines. "In the '30s, Hollywood was still sort of a teen-ager and was still growing up in the '40s. Hollywood came into its own in the '50s--really achieved its maturity. I call them the Nifty '50s."
Howard, now 78, became a witness to that history when she came to Hollywood from Dallas in 1930 to break into movies. She became a Ziegfeld girl and an MGM starlet but gave up acting after her marriage to super-agent Charles Feldman in 1934. Although they were divorced in 1946, she and Feldman remained friends and continued to host parties together. In the mid-'40s, Howard studied photography at the Art Center in Los Angeles; later, she won assignments from such magazines as Life and Vogue to cover films in production and shot portraits of such great '50s stars as Marilyn Monroe and Grace Kelly. All the while, Howard kept up with her busy international social life as seasoned party-giver and party-goer.
While looking at the photographs in Howard's book, it is difficult not to be dazzled by the sheer glamour of her celebrated subjects, captured so unobtrusively with her camera. She assures you that her friends were as relaxed as they seem in the pictures. It's also difficult to ignore two elements that date the photographs: the omnipresent cigarettes, and the dress, formal even for casual lawn parties. "People dressed reasonably," Howard says. "In those days, men always wore jackets and ties in the evening, and the girls wore cocktail dresses.
