{{Short description|American photographer (1891–1942)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2024}} {{Infobox person | name = Russell Ball | image = Russell Ball at work 1931.jpg | caption = Russell Ball at work in 1931.<br/>''Picture Post'' magazine | birth_date = {{Birth date|1891|3|24|mf=y}} | birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1942|6|12|1891|3|24|mf=y}} | resting_place = West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, U.S. | occupation = Photographer | spouse = Gladys Hall }} '''Russell Earp Ball''' (November 24, 1891 – June 12, 1942) was an American photographer who made film stills for the Hollywood (film industry) and photographic portraits of many of the film stars of the 1920s and 1930s.
==Early life== Ball was born in Philadelphia on March 24, 1891. He began to learn photography at the age of 12. In 1910, after the death of his father, he worked as a salesman for the Gas Light Manufacturing Company to support his mother.<ref name=Harnisch>{{cite web |last1=Harnisch |first1=Larry |title=Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Russell Ball - An Eye for Glamour |url=https://ladailymirror.com/2016/07/18/mary-mallory-hollywood-heights-russell-ball-an-eye-for-glamour/ |website=ladailymirror.com |publisher=The Daily Mirror |access-date=17 June 2025}}</ref> He moved to New York and on February 1, 1912, he married the film journalist Gladys Hall,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Slide|first=Anthony|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5hDG6auRCJ4C|title=Inside the Hollywood Fan Magazine: A History of Star Makers, Fabricators, and Gossip Mongers|page=37|date=February 26, 2010|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1-60473-414-0|language=en}}</ref> with whom he had two children, while working as a newspaper photographer.<ref name=Harnisch/>
==Career== He established his reputation as a photographer in the New York working in Broadway theatre in 1923. He specialized in making stills and portraits for the Shubert Organization.{{sfn|Shields|2013|p=339}} He worked as an independent celebrity photographer and shot for Photoplay magazine and Motion Picture Magazine.<ref name=Harnisch/>
His photography style caught the interest of Rudolph Valentino and Ball was hired to shoot portraits of Valentino and his wife, Natacha Rambova, as well as film stills for Valentino's movie ''Monsieur Beaucaire''. He also photographed Gloria Swanson for her film ''Zara''.<ref name=Harnisch/>
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) was impressed with his work and hired him as an independent consultant on the East Coast. He photographed Greta Garbo in New York when she first arrived from Sweden. Ball moved to Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles with his family in the late 1920s and continued to work as an independent photographer for magazines and stars such as Warner Baxter and Lila Lee. He shot the film stills and portraits for Gloria Swanson's film ''What a Widow!''.<ref name=Harnisch/> He also worked for Paramount, Caddo, and MGM on the West Coast.{{sfn|Shields|2013|p=336}}
He wrote an article in Picture Play magazine about making celebrity portraits. He gave one word descriptions for some of the famous subjects of his photography. He described Lilyan Tashman as "crystal"; Laura La Plante as "dovelike"; Estelle Taylor as "exotic"; and Evelyn Brent as "mysterious".<ref name=Harnisch/>
He opened his own studio at 9528 Brighton Way, Beverly Hills to work for private patrons and celebrities at the end of the 1920s.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Hall |first=Barbara |editor1=Jane Gaines |title=Gladys Hall |editor2=Radha Vatsal |editor3=Monica Dall'Asta |journal=Women Film Pioneers Project |publisher=Columbia University Libraries |date=2016 |url=https://wfpp.cdrs.columbia.edu/pioneer/gladys-hall/ |doi=10.7916/d8-1z95-5v19}} <!--with citations--></ref> His famous clientele included John Boles,<ref name=Harnisch/> Louise Brooks, Ruth Chatterton,<ref name=vintage/> Carol Dempster, Mary Eaton, Madge Evans,<ref name=Getty/> Ann Harding,<ref name=vintage>{{cite web |title=Classic Beauties Taken by Russell Ball in the Early 20th Century |url=https://www.vintag.es/2021/05/russell-ball.html |website=www.vintag.es |publisher=Vintage Everyday |access-date=18 June 2025}}</ref> Jean Harlow,<ref name=vintage/> Phyllis Haver, Doris Kenyon,<ref name=Harnisch/> Jeanette MacDonald,<ref name=vintage/> Florine McKinney,<ref name=Getty>{{cite web |title=Russell Ball |url=https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/person/104NVN |website=www.getty.edu |publisher=Getty |access-date=18 June 2025}}</ref> Mary Pickford,<ref>{{cite web |title=A group of original photos and negatives of Mary Pickford taken by Russell Ball |url=https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/24838/lot/390/?category=list |publisher=Bonhams |accessdate=November 28, 2019}}</ref> Esther Ralston,<ref name=vintage/> and Norma Talmadge.<ref>{{cite web |title=Norma Talmadge 8 Russell Ball Photographs From "The Woman Disputed" 1928, Outstanding Vintage |url=https://www.universityarchives.com/auction-lot/norma-talmadge-8-russell-ball-photographs-from-t_CFC4889982 |website=www.universityarchives.com |publisher=University Companies, Inc. |access-date=18 June 2025}}</ref><ref name="Art1987">{{cite book |author=Elvehjem Museum of Art |title=Hollywood Glamour, 1924-1956: Selected Portraits from the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxal5DpXqFcC&pg=PR10 |year=1987 |publisher=Chazen Museum of Art |isbn=978-0-932900-15-9 |page=10}}</ref><ref name="Indiana University Press 2017 p=105">{{cite journal |last=Keating |first=Patrick | title=Artifice and Atmosphere: The Visual Culture of Hollywood Glamour Photography, 1930–1935 | journal=Film History | publisher=Indiana University Press | volume=29 | issue=3 | year=2017 |pages=105–135 | issn=0892-2160 | doi=10.2979/filmhistory.29.3.05 | jstor=10.2979/filmhistory.29.3.05 |s2cid=191641256 }}</ref>
==Death and legacy== He died on June 12, 1942, of a heart attack<ref name=Harnisch/> and was interred at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.<ref>{{cite web |title=Russell Earp Ball |url=https://remembermyjourney.com/memorials/russell-earp-ball?id=OkoWgxZk |website=remembermyjourney.com |publisher=webCemeteries |access-date=17 June 2025}}</ref>
His work was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art from December 5, 1980, to February 28, 1981, as part of the exhibition ''Hollywood Portrait Photographers 1921-1941''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Russel Ball American, 1891-1942 |url=https://www.moma.org/artists/64663-russell-ball |website=www.moma.org |publisher=The Museum of Modern Art |access-date=17 June 2025}}</ref>
==Images== <gallery mode="packed" heights="175"> File:Louise_Brooks_Ball.jpg|Louise Brooks, 1920s File:Carol Dempster Ball.jpg|Carol Dempster, 1920s File:Esther Ralston Sadie McKee.jpg|Esther Ralston in ''Sadie McKee'', 1934 File:Garbo Ball 1925.jpg|Greta Garbo, 1925 File:Rose_Marie_film_1936.jpg|Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald in ''Rose Marie'', 1936 File:Phyllis Haver by Russell Ball 1928.jpg|Phyllis Haver, 1928 File:Doris Kenyon by Russell Ball 1928.jpg|Doris Kenyon, 1928 File:Natacha Rambova (Mrs Valentino) by Russell Ball 1924.jpg|Natacha Rambova (Mrs Valentino), 1924 File:Gloria Swanson by Russell Ball 1923.jpg|Gloria Swanson, 1923 File:Estelle Taylor by Russell Ball 1930.jpg|Estelle Taylor, 1930 File:Rudolph Valentino as a native American chief by Russell Ball 1923.jpg|Rudolph Valentino as a native American chief, 1923 </gallery>
==References== '''Citations''' {{reflist}}
'''Sources''' * {{cite book | last = Shields | first = David | year = 2013 | title = Still: American Silent Motion Picture Photography | publisher = University of Chicago Press | isbn = 978-0-226-01343-5 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-oEbI_9aH2YC }}
==Further reading== * {{cite book |last1=Kobal |first1=John |title=The Art of the Great Hollywood Portrait Photographer |date=1980 |publisher=Knopf |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/artofgreathollyw0000koba/mode/2up}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ball, Russell}} Category:1891 births Category:1942 deaths Category:20th-century American photographers Category:American photojournalists Category:American portrait photographers Category:Movie stills photographers Category:Photographers from Los Angeles Category:Photographers from Philadelphia