The Marco Island Historical Museum is the site this summer of “Backstage Hollywood: The Photographs of Bob Willoughby.” Featuring photographs from the sets of 17 iconic Hollywood films, the exhibit delivers an insider’s look at some of the greatest stars of old Hollywood in their backstage moments.
Willoughby is widely recognized as a 20th century photography pioneer. His career took off in 1954 when Life magazine published a feature with over a dozen of his candid photographs of Judy Garland working on set. After that, the studios regularly invited Willoughby to take photos on film sets like Marilyn Monroe’s “Let’s Make Love,” Audrey Hepburn’s “My Fair Lady” and Mia Farrow’s “Rosemary’s Baby.”
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“Backstage Hollywood” is a traveling exhibit organized by Mid-America Arts Alliance.
The exhibition opened June 17 and runs through Aug. 9, with a free reception from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on June 24.
Willoughby’s photographs have become instantly recognizable, featuring naturalistic images of actors and directors in intimate moments of vulnerability.
While Willoughby is best known for his Hollywood photographs, he had already made an astonishing series of jazz musicians. Willoughby had a huge appreciation of jazz both in its technical aspects and its ability to raise the roof in performance. He had a masterful feel for the character of the artists, and he was able to convey it even in the difficult lighting conditions of recording studios and stage.
Responding to the many logistical challenges of working on film sets, he was a technological innovator, creating the silent blimp for 35mm still cameras so that he could photograph silently on set, capturing intimate moments of the stars.
Willoughby was awarded the Lucie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Still Photography in New York in 2004.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood honored Willoughby with a major retrospective exhibition of his work.
His photographs are in permanent collections across the United States and Europe, including The National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.; The National Portrait Gallery in London; The National Museum of Photography in Bradford, UK; Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris; The Museum of Modern Art, Film Department in New York; The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills; The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; The Tate Gallery Collection in London; Théâtre de la Photographie et de l’Image inNice; and Musée de la Photographie in Charleroi, Belgium.
The Marco Island Historical Museum is located at 180 S. Heathwood Drive. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free and the site is fully ADA compliant and accessible to all visitors.
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.