Vintage 1930s CGC Graded Glamorous Art Deco Photograph Otto Dyar, Drue Leyton
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:1149813 | Size: 10" x 8" |
| Original/Reproduction: Original | Modified Item: No |
| Subject: Drue Leyton | Country/Region of Manufacture: United States |
| Photographer: Otto Dyar |
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ITEM: This is a 1930s vintage and original Fox Film photograph by Otto Dyar of brief Hollywood and stage actress Drue Leyton in a remarkable Art Deco glamour style portrait view. Leyton is a vision in a white ensemble from Rene Hubert as she poses on a love seat with her arms outstretched to create a flowing, draped appearance from her large sleeves. This is an exceptional example of the Golden Age of Hollywood's sumptuous and sophisticated glamour style! This photo has been CGC graded and is stored in a sealed heavy plastic envelope.
The press snipe reads, "This white frosted crepe formal gown has the flare a la mode introduced by the Russian tunic theme and the split skirt, which is featured this season by Rene Hubert, international authority on dress, and now head of Fox Film wardrobe. The costume, worn by Drue Leyton, Fox Film featured player, has a high neck in front with the back décolletage just above the waist line. It is held in place by 'suspenders' attached to the shoulder line. A sash of scarlet silk crepe marks the normal waist line and may be removed to serve as a neck scarf when worn with the coat. The latter is similar to a cape in appearance, due to the very full bishop sleeves, and is three-quarter length. It is made of the same material as the gown."
Measures 10" x 8" on a single weight paper stock.
Photographer's ink stamp, typed studio text, and previous inventory sticker on verso.
CONDITION: Fine condition with what appears to be some light surface wear in the upper right corner.
Guaranteed to be 100% vintage and original from Grapefruit Moon Gallery.
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Drue Leyton (born Dorothy Elizabeth Blackman; 12 June 1903 – 8 February 1997) was an American actress and member of the French Resistance. She also was billed as Freya Leigh.
Leyton was born in California (or Somers, Wisconsin) but lived with her family in Mexico, where her father was a mining engineer. She was educated at the Bennett School for Girls in Millbrook, New York; a school in Lausanne, Switzerland; and at the Sorbonne.
She became an actress after a failed marriage and acted in Green Grow the Lilacs on Broadway and several Charlie Chan films. Her Broadway credits also included Red Harvest (1937), A Hero Is Born (1937), and We Are No Longer Children (1932), for which she was billed as Freya Leigh.
In 1937, Leyton acted in a Works Progress Administration Theatre Project in New York. She went from there to England, where she performed in Golden Boy.
In 1937 Leyton moved to Paris with her future husband Jacques Terrane, a Franco-American actor who died in Syria in 1941 fighting with the Free French forces.
In France, Leyton produced and interviewed people on programs for Radio Mondial, a shortwave radio station operated by France's Ministry of Information. The programs were designed to promote France to an American audience.
Leyton broadcast for the Voice of America while acting in Paris in 1938 and her criticisms of the Nazi regime during these broadcasts earned her a promise of execution announced by Berlin radio. In September 1942, she was arrested by the Nazis after northern and western France came under German occupation — but only because she was an American woman, her true identity unknown to the authorities. She managed to escape from her prison camp with the help of French doctors by feigning cancer. She returned to her home in Barbizon in 1942 and joined the resistance movement, helping 42 downed Allied airmen escape to freedom and hiding others in her home until the war ended. During this period, she was known as Dorothy Tartière, using the real last name of her husband.
Leyton and M. H. Werner wrote about this period in a book The House Near Paris.
Leyton met Tartière in New York in 1937, and they wed in 1938 in London.
On 2 February 1997, Leyton died in Corona del Mar, California.
– Wikipedia
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Otto Dyar was born on July 25, 1892 and began his career at Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation (which, of course, was just shortened to Paramount). She shot many unit, publicity and fashion layouts of stars such as Claudette Colbert, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Shirley Temple, William Powell, Elizabeth Taylor, Anna May Wong, Kay Francis, Madeleine Carroll, Nancy Carroll, Alice Faye, Clara Bow, Loretta Young, Mitzi Green, Gloria Swanson, Cary Grant, Tallulah Bankhead, Louise Brooks, Gary Cooper, and Fay Wray.
He ended up working for other studios and was one of the first photographer's to do an outdoor setting, which was unusual at the time. This was proposed by eventual Paramount photographer John Engstead.
His glamour photographs are as spectacular as any created by the Hollywood photographers of the time, including Hurrell and Bull.
Dyar died at 96 on December 26, 1988 in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Recently, one of his unique portraits of Elizabeth Taylor has been shown at the prestigious National Portrait Gallery in New York. And his originals also sell for in the thousands at auction and are worth every penny!
— Biography From: VintageMovieStarPhotos (dot) blogspot (dot) com
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