Picture Play Magazine (Jul - Dec 1929)

54 The average press photo of President Hoover is anything but flattering or ingratiating. WHAT comes out of the camera when President Hoover's face goes in ordinarily would not make any mother, he she ever so great an optimist, rise and exclaim, "Isn't he grand!" Rather, she probably would be inclined to say, "Well, Herbert's a good boy, anyway, even if he isn't so awfully handsome. Look at his dimple when he smiles ! Isn't it fetching?" But when a photographer who makes pictures of the movie stars takes Mr. Hoover in hand, and uses the magic which seems concealed in camera angles, the President of the United States loses not a whit of his dignity — and gains in attractiveness. If times ever get hard for him and money scarce, there will be jobs for Mr. Hoover in the studios whenever a judge, lawyer, banker, or diplomat is needed for picture roles. He might pass, too, as a secret-service agent, a captain of detectives, or the boss of the Thirteenth Ward. During the heat of the presidential campaign, when Mr. Hoover's loyal supporters were anxious to present their candidate pictoriallv to the electorate, Ruth Harriet Louise, photographer to the stars Tkrougk Dif When President Hoover looks into the result is entirely unlike familiar pictures on the change wrought in B$ A. L. at the Metro-Goldwyn studio, was asked to go to Palo Alto, California, Mr. Hoover's home, to make a series of s*tudies. Pictures were wanted of him as he really is — pictures which would show the passive, virile strength he possesses, the grave yet pleasant personality he holds in repose; the keen and searching eye which seems fo weigh in the balance any one with whom he is conversing. It is not generally known that President Hoover is hard to photograph. His face is somewhat wide, his cheeks full, his head large. He can, and often does, assume an expression which is adamant. A newspaper columnist wrote not long ago, "If I ever sat in a poker game with Cal Coolidge and Herb Hoover, I'd salt away taxi fare before the battle started." Too often Mr. Hoover has been snapped by news photographers looking absolutely expressionless, when in reality his features evince a kindly interest in everything, and in conversation he becomes, at times, almost animated. The task given Ruth Harriet Louise was to catch his moods or thoughts on photographic plates, just as she catches the best expressions of Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Anita Page, John Gilbert, Ramon Novarro, and other players. So Miss Louise took her assistant, Andrew Korff, and her electrician, Tommy Shugrue, and journeyed to the Palo Alto home. "We telephoned from the station upon our arrival," Miss Louise said, in recounting her experience. "Mr. Akerson, Mr. Hoover's secretary, arranged an appointment for one o'clock. We drove out to the big, rambling house situated upon a knoll surrounded by magnificent trees. A few cars were standing in the driveway when we arrived. In front of the veranda was a battered, stripped flivver, evidently the possession of some college chum of young Alvin Hoover. The grounds, the trees, the neighborliness of the callers, the quietude about the place, set at rest immediately the nervousness we had felt as we contemplated our venture. By the side of the home was an old-fashioned garden, with hollyhocks and morning glories and a wealth of California flowers blooming in natural harmony. Ruth Harriet Louise, photographer of the stars, who plied het magic art upon the president.