George Hurrell, my favourite movie star photographer of the Golden Age of Hollywood, worked closely with Joan Crawford through most of her long career. Later on, possibly like the 1950s, he wrote a note to her saying that this photo – out of the thousands he took of her over the decades- was his favourite because she appears so tender, vulnerable, raw, true. I’m paraphrasing something I read wherever I found this photo…

Mary Ellis had a movie, musical theatre, and TV career that spanned from 1918 to 1994 on both sides of the Atlantic but primarily in England.

The photo on top is from “The Little Princess”, 1927