Voluptuous Pin-Up Bombshell Debra Paget Original 1955 Frank Worth Photograph

Description

ITEM: This is a c. 1955 vintage and original pin-up photograph of 20th Century-Fox contract player Debra Paget. A sexy full length portrait of the actress wearing a one-piece bathing suit and seated on a wicker bench in a pose that perfectly shows off her lissome figure. Photograph by Frank Worth. This photograph comes from the archives of the photographer and is a wonderful piece of Classic Hollywood memorabilia!
Debra Paget is perhaps best known for her performances in Cecil B. DeMille’s epic
The Ten Commandments
(1956) and in
Love Me Tender
(1956) (the film debut of Elvis Presley), and for the risqué (for the time) snake dance scene in
The Indian Tomb
(1959).
Photograph measures 8″ x 10″ on a glossy single weight paper stock. Pencil notations on verso.
Guaranteed to be 100% vintage and original from Grapefruit Moon Gallery.
More about Debra Paget:
A sexy yet invariably sympathetic and demure leading lady of the 1950s, Debra Paget was often cast in exotic roles, such as Native American or South Seas maiden princesses, in a series of fairly routine melodramas and Westerns of the period. A lovely brunette, she had a warm, pleasant and romantic screen image, though for much of her 15 years in the movies she was used for largely decorative purposes, as the obligatory ingenue, romantic partner or second lead.
Paget acquired brief acting experience on the stage while still in her early teens before being signed by 20th Century-Fox. She made a creditable film debut in director Robert Siodmak’s stunning film noir “Cry of the City” (1948) and Fox began building her up. “Broken Arrow” (1950) proved a big popular success: it made Jeff Chandler a star, moved Jimmy Stewart successfully into Westerns, and gave Paget her first prominent and typical role as Sonseeahray, all shot in the Technicolor which became standard for her. “Anne of the Indies” (1951), unfortunately, gave her another typical role: Louis Jourdan’s helpless wife, almost sold into slavery by lusty pirate Jean Peters. Paget did, however, do her level best as the princess who must save her people by jumping into an ever-demanding volcano in a lavish, enjoyably hokey remake of the standard Pacific island fable, “Bird of Paradise” (1951). She continued with Fox until the mid-50s, frequently teamed with either Robert Wagner (“Stars and Stripes Forever” 1952; “Prince Valiant” 1954) or Jeffrey Hunter (“Fourteen Hours” 1951; “Princess of the Nile” 1954). Paget sometimes played second fiddle to more established female stars such as Myrna Loy and Jeanne Crain (“Belles on Their Toes” 1952) or Susan Hayward (“Demetrius and the Gladiators” 1954), or did her best to look good in period garb as the sweep of historical spectacle took over, as with her lovely Cosette in the decent “Les Miserables” (1952).
After parting company from Fox, Paget continued playing such established types as Native Americans (“White Feather” 1955; “The Last Hunt” 1956) or suffering, devoted girlfriends in historical epics, perhaps most notably in Cecil B. DeMille’s remake of “The Ten Commandments” (1956). She formed an attractively sincere couple with Elvis Presley in “Love Me Tender” (1956), but the emphasis was clearly on the rock’n’roll newcomer. Paget eventually made a few films abroad, most notably Fritz Lang’s strange adventure saga “The Indian Tomb” (1960), and finished her Hollywood career with appearances in two stylish period horror offerings from American International Pictures, “Tales of Terror” (1962) and “The Haunted Palace” (1963).
Paget was married for four months to actor and singer David Street in 1958 and was later married to director Budd Boetticher for 22 days. Paget left the entertainment field in 1964 after marrying Louis C Kung, a Chinese-American nephew of Madame Chiang Kai-Shek who was successful in the oil industry.
Biography From: TCM | Turner Classic Movies
More about Frank Worth:
Frank Worth (1923 – 2000) was an American photographer who befriended and photographed many Hollywood actors and actresses between 1939 and 1964. His black and white candid pictures are unusual for the era, when most stars limited themselves to carefully posed glamour portraits. He kept many of his photographs private so that they were not seen until after his death. He was rumored to have been intimate with several of his subjects including Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield; he confirmed his affair with Monroe shortly before his death.
Worth was born in New York City. He became interested in photography in high school. Moving to Hollywood, he was hired to photograph movie stars but quickly became a freelance photographer. He made friends with Rudy Vallee and his wife, who allowed him to live with them and introduced him to other stars. Among his early subjects was Rita Hayworth, then an unknown starlet. Worth became a friend of numerous well known actors and actresses including James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, James Cagney and Pat O’Brien. These friendships plus “a knack for being in the right place at the right time” allowed him to capture unique images of the stars. He was allowed onto the set of classic films such as Rebel Without A Cause and The Seven Year Itch. He filmed Elizabeth Taylor’s first wedding. He also did sports photography and was the original photographer for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
He gradually gave up photography and fell into poverty, but he refused to sell the photographs of the people who had been his friends. After his death in December 2000, his cousin acting as executor found more than 10,000 negatives in his apartment. Eventually a friend realized the possible value of the photos and formed a company to publish them. They were the subject of several heavily publicized exhibitions, including one in London in 2002 which Christie’s auction house described as “the most extraordinary collection of its kind for the past 50 years” and a Sotheby’s exhibition in 2003. The London exhibition was curated by twins Austin and Howard Mutti-Mewse, whose longtime obsession with Hollywood helped them to sort out the long-lost collection.
Biography From: Wikipedia