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1-4 of 4
- Director
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Irving Klaw was a true pioneer in the world of bondage fetish photography whose pictures and movies of the legendary Bettie Page played a principal role in establishing Page as a major pin-up icon. Klaw was born on November 9, 1910, in Brooklyn, New York City. After working four unsuccessful years as a furrier, Irving and his sister Paula opened a secondhand bookstore in Manhattan in the late 1930s. Klaw began selling movie-star stills and lobby photo cards in his store after he noticed that teenagers were tearing out photos in his movie magazines. He eventually stopped selling books altogether and moved the store from the basement to a street-level store front. He renamed the place Movie Star News and dubbed himself the Pin-Up King. Irving also began a highly lucrative international mail order business that specialized in selling cheesecake photos of movie stars. In the late 1940s, Klaw started taking bondage fetish pictures of beautiful women. His first bondage fetish model was Lili Dawn. Moreover, Klaw and his sister Paula also took photos of such famous burlesque dancers as Lili St. Cyr, Tempest Storm, Baby Lake, and Blaze Starr. Irving rented the third floor over Movie Star News and turned it into a shooting studio. Klaw's photos of Bettie Page proved to be especially popular and successful. In the mid 1950s, Irving directed the burlesque features Varietease (1954), Teaserama (1955), and Buxom Beautease (1956). In addition, he made many 8mm and 16 mm black-and-white adult film loops; a fair share of these shorts featured Bettie Page. In 1955, Klaw was brought before the Senate Subcommittee on Obscene and Pornographic Materials. He also had his phones bugged, and his mail was often intercepted by the FBI. In 1963, Irving produced the films Intimate Diary of Artists' Models (1963) and Nature's Sweethearts (1963) (he also co-directed the latter movie). However, Klaw, nonetheless, still eventually quit the business and burned up to 80% of his negatives due to heavy social pressure and constant persecution by the government. Irving Klaw died at age 55 due to complications from untreated appendicitis on September 3, 1966. He was survived by his sons Arthur and Jeffrey. His nephew Ira Kramer now runs Movie Star News in New York City.- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Constantin Bakaleinikoff was born in Moscow in 1896 and studied music at the Moscow Conservatory. Trained as a violoncellist and conductor, he formed a trio with fellow young conservatory graduates and toured Russia, until enlistment in the infantry during World War I forced a temporary stop to his career. Along with his (also musical) brothers Mischa and Vladimir, Constantine fled from Russia during the October Revolution of 1917 and resettled in the United States, after travelling through Asia. Once established in Los Angeles, his talent was soon recognized. Within a year, he conducted the L.A. Philharmonic, and, subsequently, became musical director of several noted theatre orchestras in the area, including the Mayan, the Eqyptian and the Criterion. In 1923, he married the actress Fritzi Ridgeway. His major breakthrough came four years later, in the shape of an appointment to conduct the prestigious new million dollar Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
From 1929, Constantine worked in the film industry as orchestrator and occasional composer, primarily for documentary short subjects. After stints at MGM, Paramount and Columbia, he secured a contract with RKO in 1940. He remained with that studio for the remaining 17 years of its existence, usually billing himself as 'C.Bakaleinikoff'. Almost all of his work was as musical director, and much of it, in conjunction with the prolific composer Roy Webb. He is best remembered for orchestrating None But the Lonely Heart (1944) (which earned him an Oscar nomination) and Alfred Hitchcock's classic spy thriller Notorious (1946). He also worked on many of RKO's seminal Val Lewton horror films, notably Cat People (1942), I Walked with a Zombie (1943) and The Body Snatcher (1945). When not working on the sound stages, Constantine continued to front theatre orchestras, as well as conduct at the Hollywood Bowl.- Cécile Sorel was born on 7 September 1873 in Paris, France. She was an actress, known for La Tosca (1909), The Pearls of the Crown (1937) and L'an 40 (1941). She was married to Guillaume de Sax. She died on 3 September 1966 in Trouville-sur-Mer, Calvados, France.
- Helen Thigpen was born in 1912 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. She was an actress, known for Porgy and Bess (1959) and The Tonight Show (1953). She died on 3 September 1966 in Los Angeles, California, USA.