Worth Keeping As a freelance photographer during Hollywood's Golden Age, Frank Worth befriended many of the stars he snapped at parties, on movie sets and at play. But he stored away many of his best shots as private mementos until the day he died. Only now are this largely unknown artist's remarkable images finally coming to light. By Andre Chautard With his gregarious, big-hearted, outsize personality, photographer Frank Worth befriended Hollywood's biggest names in the 1940s and 1950s, gaining access to their most private moments. He bonded with James Dean over their mutual love of fast cars, hung out with Sinatra and the Rat Pack, took photos at Elizabeth Taylor's first wedding and charmed a young Marilyn Monroe (even, he said, into bed). He photographed the stars at work, at home and at play, from glitzy parties and awards shows to casual outings at Dodger Stadium and trips to Las Vegas. These weren't the cloak-and-dagger stalkerazzi photos of today; the stars enjoyed Worth's company and he had an instinctual knack for getting them to let their guards down, comfortable enough so that he could snap Rita Hayworth sunbathing in her garden or James Dean talking on the phone while taking a whiz. Worth amassed an intimate pictorial history of Hollywood in the boxes strewn about his cramped apartment in West Hollywood--and that's where they remained, almost all unseen by the public, until he died at age 77 in 2000, close to penniless. He was called a dreamer, an enigma, even a lunatic by family members who wondered why he didn't sell or exhibit the photographs that could have brought him worldwide renown and a financial windfall. But Worth considered these stars his friends and the photographs personal mementos that, if published, would be betraying a trust, even though many of the subjects had died years ago. And, although it turned out to be his lifelong profession, Worth didn't want to be known as a photographer; he harbored visions of becoming a director, even shooting footage of famous friends like Jerry Lewis and Shirley Jones for a movie that was never completed. After his death, Worth's family decided that these remarkable photos deserve to be seen by Hollywood enthusiasts everywhere for the treasures they are, although at first even they didn't realize the size and scope of the collection Worth had spirited away. His cousin, Stuart Harris, who had been named the executor of Worth's estate, found as many as 10,000 negatives (mostly black-and-white, but some in color) among the jumbled mess Worth left behind and called upon a friend, Norman Solomon, who had produced a Helmut Newton show in Paris, to see if they had any value. Solomon, who had palled around with Worth a few times in Los Angeles 20 years ago, sent them to be processed in London, and what came back astounded them. "Frank talked about all the people he knew and I was kind of numb to that talk because most people in L.A. talk like that," Solomon says. Upon seeing the photos, "I was amazed because he actually knew all the people he said he knew." A limited selection of the photos was exhibited in London and Beverly Hills several years ago, but now International Images, the company Solomon founded, is making individual prints and limited-edition box sets of Worth's photos available for purchase, with plans for an exhibition at Hollywood's ArcLight Cinemas this fall and a store to open in London in the future. Over the next five years, International Images will stagger the release of the top 500 of Worth's images. Brooklyn-born-and-raised, Worth developed an interest in photography at a young age, and just out of high school he went to work for William Randolph Hearst's International News Service, capturing shots of celebrities as they disembarked at New York City's Grand Central Terminal. He moved to Los Angeles in the late 1930s and joined the Hollywood Photographers Guild, his press pass granting him entree not just to the premieres of films like Rear Window and My Fair Lady, but to the ritziest parties and nightclubs around town, where his charm endeared him to celebs happy to see a friendly face at events, at times even requesting his presence. Yes, Worth had a flair for getting into the right place at the right time, but he also created some striking compositions, impressive for a self-taught photographer. "He had a keen eye for beauty and a remarkable talent for translating that beauty onto film," Mamie Van Doren once said. "All of us who were photographed by Frank owe him a huge debt." Indeed, Worth liked to help young actors that he thought showed promise; he photographed Monroe and Hayworth at the beginning of their careers and introduced Jayne Mansfield around town, helping her to land a part in 1954's Female Jungle. "She never forgot it and would try and seek me out whenever she attended a premiere or a party in order to give me her best look of the evening," Worth was quoted as saying in 1987. He befriended Dean in the parking lot of Schwab's Pharmacy, mistaking him for a struggling actor and unaware that Dean's film East of Eden was about to open. Dean appreciated Worth's genuineness and invited him onto the set of Giant, where he snapped photos of Dean, Taylor and Rock Hudson in playful lasso practice. It was only in the last years of his life that Worth admitted to what friends had suspected and what correspondence found among his belongings seems to bear out: that he had had an affair with Monroe. ("Dear Frank," reads one of the suggestive letters, "It was nice having you in me. Love, Marilyn.") The romance apparently fizzled after Monroe left for England to shoot 1957's The Prince and the Showgirl and Worth stayed behind in L.A. because he landed a magazine contract. Although short, stocky and not exactly leading-man-handsome, the flirtatious Worth was described as "catnip to women" by Van Doren and was linked to Mansfield as well. Worth's days as a Hollywood shutterbug came to an end soon after his cherished Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1958; Sinatra introduced Worth to Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley and he became the team's official photographer. A baseball fanatic, he stuck mainly to sports photography in the ensuing years, even selling tickets at Dodger Stadium to supplement his income as he lived out his later years. Worth's ambition in life may not have been to be a photographer, but he leaves behind a legacy that most photographers could only aspire to. To see more Frank Worth photos and for information on purchasing prints, visit www.internationalimages.com. To read more, pick up the September/October 2006 issue of Hollywood Life.

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