"The painter constructs, the photographer discloses." ~ Susan Sontag
This was my quote of the day from ThinkExist.com. Technically it's for "tomorrow" but since I'm tired/can't sleep I got to read it before breakfast.
Oddly, it's reflective of two projects that got me sidetracked from my planned three-day Franchot Writing Fest. One being the photos of Grand View that attracted the attention of some shady character, and the other being an oil-on-canvas mural that I'm researching for an article for my Jean Harlow Platinum Page.
Apparently MGM producer Paul Bern had a mural painted and installed in his home sometime before he married Jean, depicting her and 16 other MGM/Hollywood notables. It's been privately owned for over 70 years and the owner contacted me a couple days ago about getting it some publicity because he's thinking of selling it. This story was too intriguing to turn down, and too much research fun to boot!
I'd never seen or heard about the mural before. It includes, among others, Jean, Irving Thalberg, Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and David & Irene Mayer Selznick. For part of my research I constructed a Rogues Gallery chart of the people depicted. The only person I couldn't find a real life photo of was Paul's secretary Irene Harrison. I can't recall ever seeing a photo of her.
Here's the Bern/Harlow Mural Who's Who link. More details will be posted when the article is published online, but in the meantime if any Hollywood history buff readers have heard of this mural and can point me in the direction of some background material on it, I'd appreciate hearing from you. Thanks!
