An interesting picture from 1954 caught my eye.


 At first glance, I thought the symbolism was clear: three young actors climbing the ladder of success. Whenever a photo piques my interest, I dig into its background to learn more about the photographer, and this ladder-to-success theme was indeed the case.


Rock Hudson, at the top, was by then the bigger star. Starting in 1948, he had hit it big that year in Magnificent Obsession. Next in line, Tony Curtis, who began in 1949, was starring in juvenile flicks like The Black Shield of Falworth, Son of Ali Baba, and The Prince Who Was a Thief. For kids my age at the time, he was the best known, simply because we were drawn to his comic-book movies. A good friend of mine, another movie buff, was desperate to see Son of Ali Baba, but being too young to go alone, his parents gave admission money to a neighbouring teenage girl in exchange for her promise to take him. Instead, she took him to Magnificent Obsession, where he was bored witless. Decades later, he still complains about her.


I never became familiar with Robert Wagner, who started in 1943. He remained largely unknown to me until he moved to television in the 1960s. Years later, I caught his 1956 film A Kiss Before Dying and thought both it and he were magnificent.


The photographer was a person who went by one name, Sharland, and took the photo for LIFE. It turned out she was a woman, likely using just her first name because the industry was male-dominated. Sharland Forte photographed world leaders like Nehru as well as Hollywood elite. She might be called a “nepo baby” today, as her father was a “doctor to the stars” who treated top actors of the era.


Strangely, for someone who lived by the camera, she was remarkably private, and little is known of her personal life. I’ve searched the web for a photo of her and found nothing. She seems to be one of those photographers whose work speaks solely for her.Tony and Robert became neighbours in Palm Springs. Here they are a few years later with wives, Natalie Wood and, I think, Janet Leigh.

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