In Focus: The Hollywood Lens of Murray Garrett
The Flashbulbs Of Hollywood

A co-production of BBTFilms and LongShot - This documentary is the second in a series and follows In Focus: A Celebration with Photographer Arthur Griffin - which received a 1st place Telly award for BBTFilms. "In Focus: …Arthur Griffin", hosted by author John Updike – looks at the man who was known as the Ansel Adams of New England. His photographs of Baseball great Ted Williams were the first color images ever shot with commercial Kodak stock. "In Focus: …Murray Garrett" features the life and works of this amazing photojournalist, who in 1940, while still in High School, found himself in the dressing room of Frank Sinatra at the Paramount Theatre in New York. The crowds outside the hall were so thick Sinatra couldn't get out of the building. But Garrett was there, camera in hand; making the first contact with an artist he was to photograph for many years to come.

In 1946, Murray Garrett arrived in Hollywood. His association with Sinatra was rekindled and he went on to work as personal and professional photographer not only to Sinatra, but Bob Hope, Elsa Lanchester, Charles Laughton, Red Skelton, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton among many, many others. The path of Garrett's life in Hollywood had been drawn. He was destined to capture images that stand today as an aide memoir to the golden age of the entertainment industry. His body of work, if only in small part, is preserved in the best selling photo collections 'Hollywood Candid' and 'Hollywood Moments' published by Abrams and Co.

In Focus: The Hollywood Lens Of Murray Garrett features these images, shot by aveteran industry photographer, working from the box seats. In the body of this documentary special for television, we are privy to the first hand stories of his adventures supported by parallel interviews with the stars he captured and a select host of family, friends and colleagues including Honorary Mayor of Hollywood Johnny Grant, Comedian Phyllis Diller, Dick Martin, Beverly Garland, Don Knotts and A.C. Lyles as well as Charles Champlin, Bob Thomas, Terry Moore and Morgan Woodward.

"In Focus: …Murray Garrett is firmly rooted in the perspective that Garrett's work is testimony to an era. Unique to the phenomena known as Hollywood in its heyday... the work of a photojournalistic artist, who was the support structure to this one-of-a-kind industry. It was through Garrett's work that the personal images and the professional image, which the studios created for their stars, were presented to the public. In Murray's own words, "…We added the flashbulbs to the image of Hollywood." And it's true – even today, it's almost impossible to envision the 'glamour' of Hollywood without seeing flashbulbs…The momentary capture of life - the brief bit of 'spotlight' that gave twinkle to the stars in an unobtainable heaven called Hollywood. That spark was created by Murray Garrett. What Jack Warner and Louis B. Mayer did for the public image of such stars as Bette Davis and Joan Crawford – Murray Garrett did for the public image of an industry. A truly amazing, unique, visual and vital contribution to the last century.

...home