Louise Brooks Vintage KODAK Photo (39+years old) by Richee 8x10 inches

Vintage photo of American actress Louise Brooks wearing a long pearl necklace that stands out against a black background, 1928 by Eugene Robert Richee. I've owned this since 1985, so it's over 39 years old at least, so it's definitely vintage, my best guess is that it's from 1970s-early1980s. Printed on KODAK Photographic paper - stamped all over the verso.

Very rare vintage photo which has been in a frame for all this time. All items are from smoke free home. During the film industry's rapid development in the early part of the 20th century, the demand for publicity photos increased.

Audiences were hungry for images of screen idols such as Greta Garbo, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Rudolph Valentino and Lillian Gish. Studios wanted to retain control over the public image of their stars, so they set up their own specialised and well-equipped photography departments. Many photographers made their name shooting promotional portraits for fan magazines and posters.

Their job was to create idealised images of leading actors and make them appear glamorous and physically flawless. These photographers included George Hurrell and Ruth Harriet Louise at MGM, Jack Freulich at Universal Studios and Eugene Robert Richee at Paramount Pictures. In 1928, the Colorado-born Richee was a 32-year-old photographer who had worked for Paramount for seven years. During his career he had shot portraits of all the studio's major stars, including Clara Bow, known as'The It Girl', and Fay Wray, who later starred in the original. Richee was known for being both painstaking and technically inventive in his work, and he became one of the most accomplished movie-studio photographers working at that time.

He skilfully used the cumbersome, large-format 10x8in studio cameras of the period and was meticulous in his placement of lights. He was also known to sometimes include light-reflecting props made of plastic or glass to give additional radiance to his subjects. One of the stars he photographed most frequently was Louise Brooks. Brooks, born in 1906, became an icon of the silent film era and was later described by the critic Kenneth Tynan as'the most seductive, sexual image of woman ever committed to celluloid'.

She had begun her career as a dancer and was signed by Paramount in 1925. She was particularly known for her distinctive and stylish'bob' hairstyle, pale skin and smouldering brown eyes.

By 1928 she had appeared in 12 films and had achieved celebrity status, with numerous famous friends including the millionaire newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. Her appearance inspired many other women to adopt the bob haircut, which became a popular style in the late 1920s and early'30s. Marilyn Monroe owned items such as bag, lipstick, makeup... The Personal Property of Marilyn Monroe...

Also hundreds of other Marilyn items such as original press photos, magazines etc.