Photographer Kango Takamura's personal career scrapbook....

Description

Photographer Kango Takamura's personal career scrapbook. Japanese-American photographer Kango Takamura began his Hollywood industry career in the Paramount-Astoria studios in New York, shortly before their closure with principal operations relocating to Los Angeles. Takamura relocated as well (with just a letter of recommendation in hand) which secured him a photography-department position at RKO, working under master Ernest Bachrach, with one of his first big assignments as assistant on King Kong. Apart from an inconvenient and seriously undeserved internment at Manzanar relocation (aka "concentration") camp, Takamura spent most of three decades in Hollywood publicity photography. Offered here is his personal career scrapbook of the entire time from his beginning up to just prior to internment, including a (25+) signed and lovingly inscribed photos from Hollywood celebrities, studio executives, and many of his fellow great glamour-age photographers. Signed and/or inscribed photos include Ginger Rogers, Richard Dix, Bobby Breen, James Gleason, Joe Biroc, Jack Oakie, William Powell, Florence Lake, Florence Vidor, Keye Luke, Toshia Mori, Tamaki Miura, Margaret Stevenson, Zasu Pitts and Phil Huston, award-winning cinematographer Eddie Cronjager, photographers Robert Coburn, George Hommel, Alexander Kahle and Gaston Longet, and producer/director Hunt Stromberg. Also includes (30+) unsigned vintage celebrity portraits, including Shirley Temple, Gary Cooper (with Takamura together), Spencer Tracy, Barbara Stanwyck, Ann Harding, Dolores del Rio, William Wellman, Maurice Chevalier, Warner Baxter and others. Majority of photos and signatures are from the first few years of Takamura's career. Scrapbook covers separated from age and handling and several interior pages have lost their original contents, yet remaining photos are beautifully protected and quite remarkable as a film-historical archive. Very good to fine condition overall.

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