Ruth Harriet Louise (January 13, 1903 - 1940) was an American professional photographer, the first woman photographer active in Hollywood; she ran Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...

's portrait studio from 1925 to 1930.

Career

When Louise was hired by M.G.M. as chief portrait photographer in the summer of 1925, she was twenty-two years old, and the only woman working as a portrait photographer for the Hollywood studios. In a career that lasted only five years, Louise photographed all the stars, contract players, and many of the hopefuls who passed through the studio's front gates, including Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...

, Lon Chaney

Lon Chaney, Sr.

Lon Chaney , nicknamed "The Man of a Thousand Faces," was an American actor during the age of silent films. He was one of the most versatile and powerful actors of early cinema...

, John Gilbert

John Gilbert (actor)

John Gilbert was an American actor and a major star of the silent film era.Known as "the great lover," he rivaled even Rudolph Valentino as a box office draw...

, Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....

, Marion Davies

Marion Davies

Marion Davies was an American film actress. Davies is best remembered for her relationship with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, as her high-profile social life often obscured her professional career....

, and Norma Shearer

Norma Shearer

Edith Norma Shearer was a Canadian-American actress. Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in North America from the mid-1920s through the 1930s...

. It is estimated that she took more than 100,000 photos during her tenure at MGM. Today she is considered an equal with George Hurrell

George Hurrell

George Hurrell was a photographer who made a significant contribution to the image of glamour presented by Hollywood during the 1930s and 1940s.-Early life:...

 Sr. and other renowned glamour photographers of the era.

Family

Ruth Harriet Louise was born in New York City and reared in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She was the daughter of a rabbi. Retired from MGM in 1930, to marry director Leigh Jason

Leigh Jason

Leigh Jason was an American film director and sceeenwriter. He was born in New York, New York, and died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles.-Filmography:* The Price of Fear * Wolves of the City...

, Louise died in 1940 of complications from childbirth. Her brother was director Mark Sandrich

Mark Sandrich

Mark Sandrich was a Jewish American film director, writer and producer.Sandrich was an engineering student at Columbia University when he began in the film business by accident. While visiting a friend on a film set, he saw that the director had a problem in setting up a shot; Sandrich offered...

, who directed some of the great Fred Astaire

Fred Astaire

Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...

 & Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....

 musicals, and she was a cousin of silent-film actress Carmel Myers

Carmel Myers

Carmel Myers was an American actress who worked chiefly in silent movies.Myers was born in San Francisco, the daughter of an Australian rabbi and Austrian Jewish mother. Her father became well-connected with California's emerging film industry, and introduced her to film pioneer D. W. Griffith,...

.

External links

• The Ruth Harriet Louise Collection

• Ruth Harriet Louise on Flickr.
• Greta Garbo and Louise: When they met...
• Greta Garbo photographs by Ruth Harriet Louise.