(via tracylord)
Jean Harlow photographed by Clarence Sinclair Bull, February 1934.
She had a very winsome, childlike quality to her, a certain innocence that plays against the sexuality that is very unique and stops her from being one-note. — Darrell Rooney
Jean Harlow photographed by George Hurrell in 1934 for the production of Jack Conway’s Born to Be Kissed (later released as The Girl From Missouri). Hurrell said of Harlow’s partial nudity: “She would just drop her dress and be nude underneath! Not in a seductive way; she just had no shame or inhibition about her body.” By the time the film was released in 1934, the Production Code was in force, and so the suggestive photo was never released.
(via stardustmelody)
As the reigning sex queen of the throbbing Thirties Jean Harlow’s crown of platinum blond hair was a glory no other star ever matched. Extremely difficult to photograph I was the only lensman to catch its natural silken sheen and, oddly enough, due to the emergency use of a surgeon’s operating lamp. To keep its platinum quality required meticulous care in lighting. Other photographers had “over” lighted it. The prints showed her hair as a burned-up snow white blob. Jean Harlow was the considerate and thoughtful star I ever worked with. She would always be doing “little” things that in someone else would turn up as a “production.” She loved people and despite recent comments she never hated anyone. Her biggest weakness — she loved too much. I never used the light on anyone but Jean Harlow. I called it “Harlow’s Halo.” And when other stars came to pose or directors and producers to browse among my files of portraits, I always hid it wondering if someday the head of property department might be still on the hunt for his missing surgeon’s light. —Clarence Sinclair Bull
