Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898–1995)

Alfred Eisenstadt was one of the original photographers for LIFE Magazine. This book collects posed and candid portraits of celebrities from the 1930s to the 1970s. Eisenstadt also for decades kept autograph books which his subjects would sign and write a few comments; these are reproduced here alongside the photographs. A nice concept, but the subjects' handwriting is often so hard to decipher that it's a distraction from the excellent photographs. Among the celebrities portrayed are George Bernard Shaw, Hitler and Mussolini (the word "celebrity" hardly applies here), Marlene Dietrich, Walt Disney, Sinclair Lewis, Helen Hayes, Katharine Hepburn, Mickey Rooney, Tyrone Power, Bette Davis, Shirley Temple, Kate Smith, the Kennedys, Jackie Gleason, Milton Berle, Charlie Chaplin, Robert Frost, Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, and many others, some of whom I had not heard of but were apparently well-known in their times. An excellent collection of photographs by one of the more important and influential photographers of the last century.… (altro)