Page 68 - Expanded Photography

Expanded Photography Bob Cotton 68/146
Various photographers: Theda Bara + Anna May Wong + Joan Crawford as Vamps (1917-1925) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theda_Bara
The exotic seductress, the femme fatale, the vamp, was more or less invented by the statuesque Theda Bara - in various films, but really culminating in Cleopatra (above left, 1917). Featured in a variety of extremely risqué costumes in her films, Bara defined most of the early tropes of the vamp (from vampire - the blood-sucking seductress)and became synonymous with this role in her short movie career (1915-1920). Anna May Wong - a later vamp who emerged in the 1920s, epitomised the slender gamine look of that decade. She appeared first (uncredited) with Alla Nazimova in The Red Lantern (1919). It was Anna May Wong who inspired her ex-lover the song-writer Ed Maschwitz, to pen his saraband These Foolish Things in 1936. Joan Crawford starred in silent films from 1925 (es- pecially the highly successful flapper movie Our Dancing Daughters (1928); was successful in her transition to the ‘talkies’ and became a major star in the 1930s, making her last film in 1972. Some of the best photographers of this era - such as George Hurrell, Ruth Harriett Louise, Boris Majdrakov, Edward Steichen, Edward Weston and Waldemar Eide - also played their role, alongside the directors and producers, in making the Vamps world famous.
George Hurrell: MGM publicity portraits of Dorothy Lamour + Susan Hayward + Douglas Fairb- anks Jnr c1930 - c1940. https://georgehurrell.com/