Betty Grable
Frank Powolny / 20th Century Fox · 1943
- Photographer
- Frank Powolny / 20th Century Fox
- Dated
- 1943
- Medium
- Studio photograph
- Reuse
- Public domain in the US
20th Century Fox publicity photograph, 1943Source record & reuse status
A 1943 publicity portrait of Betty Grable by Frank Powolny at 20th Century Fox. She is turned away from the camera and looks back over her shoulder. Powolny ran studio portraiture at Fox, and this sitting is the working method behind the images that were later cut out and pinned up.
The pose and what it costs
Looking back over a shoulder is a controlled trick: it gives the camera a face and the body a direction at the same time, and it requires the subject to hold a position that is not natural to stand in. The lighting is soft, the background is neutral, and nothing in the frame is a prop. The picture is about the turn.
Studio publicity of this kind was printed in quantity and sent to theatres and magazines. The image was never meant to be unique, which is the practical difference between a pin-up and a portrait.
What the source record does and does not say
The file page credits Frank Powolny and 20th Century Fox and records the photograph as public domain in the United States because copyright was not renewed. Biographical dates for Powolny are unreliable in wide circulation: references often give 1891–1964, while the record used by the file page gives 1901–1986. This page therefore states no life dates for him.
The same caution applies to the model's name in some file titles elsewhere in this collection, where a name in a title does not match the date on the record.
