{{Short description|American photographer (1917–2006)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}} {{Infobox person | name = William P. Gottlieb | image = William P. Gottlieb 16181 original.jpg | caption = Gottlieb at WINX radio station, Washington, {{circa|1940}} | birth_name = William Paul Gottlieb | birth_date = January 28, 1917 | birth_place = Brooklyn, New York, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2006|4|23|1917|1|28}} | death_place = Great Neck, New York, U.S. | other_names = | known_for = | education = | employer = | occupation = Photographer, journalist | title = | height = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = | boards = | spouse = | partner = | children = 4 | parents = | relatives = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }} '''William Paul Gottlieb''' (January 28, 1917 – April 23, 2006) was an American photographer and newspaper columnist who is best known for his classic photographs of the leading performers of the Golden Age of American jazz in the 1930s and 1940s. Gottlieb's photographs are among the best known and widely reproduced images of this jazz era.<ref name=nytobit>{{cite news |author=Douglas Martin |title=William Gottlieb, 89, Jazz Photographer |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DEEDC123FF936A15757C0A9609C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all |work=New York Times |date=April 25, 2006 |access-date=October 8, 2010 }}</ref>
Gottlieb took pictures of hundreds of prominent jazz musicians and personalities, typically while they were playing or singing at well-known New York City jazz clubs. His subjects included Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, Earl Hines, Jo Stafford, Thelonious Monk, Stan Kenton, Ray McKinley, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Louis Jordan, Ella Fitzgerald, Toots Thielemans, Cab Calloway, and Benny Carter.<ref name=nytobit/><ref>[http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/website-reviews/14828 Teachinghistory.org]</ref> In accordance with his wishes, Gottlieb's photographs were placed in the public domain in 2010; many are used in Wikipedia and other public domain or freely licensed venues.<ref name="gottlieb gift">{{cite web|title=Photographs from the Golden Age of Jazz The William P. Gottlieb Collection at the Library of Congress|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/gottlieb/gottlieb-copyright.html|publisher=Library of Congress|access-date=November 9, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Rights and Access {{!}} About this Collection {{!}} William P. Gottlieb Collection {{!}} Digital Collections {{!}} Library of Congress |url=https://www.loc.gov/collections/jazz-photography-of-william-p-gottlieb/about-this-collection/rights-and-access/ |access-date=July 16, 2024 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA}}</ref>
==Biography== [[File:Ahmet M. Ertegun, Duke Ellington, William P. Gottlieb, Nesuhi Ertegun, and Dave Stewart, William P. Gottlieb's home, Maryland, 1941 (Delia Potofsky Gottlieb).jpg|thumb|left|260px|''From left'': Ahmet Ertegun, Duke Ellington, Gottlieb, Nesuhi Ertegun, Dave Stuart, and singer Ivie Anderson (''seated'') at Gottlieb's home in Maryland; photograph by Delia Potofsky Gottlieb]]
Gottlieb was born on January 28, 1917, in the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn, and grew up in Bound Brook, New Jersey where his father was in the building and lumber business. He graduated from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1938 with a degree in economics. While at Lehigh, Gottlieb wrote for the weekly campus newspaper and was the editor-in-chief of ''The Lehigh Review''. In his last year of college, he began writing a weekly jazz column for ''The Washington Post''. While writing for the ''Post'', Gottlieb taught economics at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland southwest of Baltimore.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Collection: William P. Gottlieb negatives {{!}} Archival Collections|url=https://archives.lib.umd.edu/repositories/2/resources/815|access-date=July 30, 2020|website=archives.lib.umd.edu}}</ref> After the ''Post'' determined that it would not pay a photographer to accompany Gottlieb on his visits to jazz clubs, Gottlieb borrowed a press camera and began taking pictures for his column.<ref name=nytobit/><ref>[http://www.allaboutjazz.com/gallery/gottlieb.htm William P. Gottlieb] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605224509/http://www.allaboutjazz.com/gallery/gottlieb.htm |date=June 5, 2011 }}, AllAboutJazz, accessed November 9, 2010</ref>
Gottlieb was drafted into the Army Air Corps in 1943 and served as a photography and a classifications officer.<ref name=nytobit/> After World War II, Gottlieb moved to New York City to pursue a career in journalism. He worked as a writer-photographer for ''Down Beat'' magazine and his work appeared frequently in ''Record Changer'', the ''Saturday Review'', and ''Collier's''. In 1948, Gottlieb retired from jazz journalism in order to spend more time with his wife, Delia, and their children. After William left ''Down Beat'', he began working at Curriculum Films, an educational filmstrip company. He founded his own filmstrip company which was later bought by McGraw Hill.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/jazz/gottlieb.html|title=UVA Library|website=www2.lib.virginia.edu|access-date=April 5, 2010|archive-date=July 23, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723204407/http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/jazz/gottlieb.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Many of his filmstrips won awards from the Canadian Film Board and the Educational Film Librarians Association. He also wrote and illustrated children's books including several Golden Books like ''The Four Seasons'', ''Tigers Adventure'', and ''Laddie the Superdog''. He wrote educational books such as ''Science Facts You Won't Believe'' and ''Space Flight''.
[[File:Sy Oliver, New York, N.Y., ca. Sept. 1946 (William P. Gottlieb 06671).jpg|thumb|right|Sy Oliver, September 1946, by William P. Gottlieb]]Apart from his photography career, William Gottlieb also played amateur tennis. He and his son Steven were often ranked the number one father-and-son team on the East Coast, and were twice ranked among the top ten teams in the US.
William Gottlieb was married to Delia Potofsky, the daughter of Jacob Potofsky. They had four children, Barbara, Steven, Richard, and Edward. William died of complications from a stroke on April 23, 2006, in Great Neck, New York.<ref name=nytobit/><ref>{{Cite web |last=Thurber |first=Jon |date=April 25, 2006 |title=William P. Gottlieb, 89; Jazz Journalist's Photos of Performers Captured a Golden Age of Music |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-apr-25-me-gottlieb25-story.html |access-date=June 14, 2024 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Archival records|title=Gottlieb Jazz Photograph Collection|location=Music Division, Library of Congress|description_URL=https://lccn.loc.gov/99401005}} {{Commons category|William P. Gottlieb}} *[https://www.loc.gov/collections/jazz-photography-of-william-p-gottlieb/about-this-collection/ William P. Gottlieb Collection] at the Library of Congress *[http://www.jazzphotos.com Jazzphotos.com] *[https://archive.org/details/brothers_and_sisters_1953 Archive.org] *[http://rs6.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/search?sort=titlesort&view=thumbnail&query=William+P.+Gottlieb+&search_button=GO LOC gallery William P. Gottlieb] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928103218/http://rs6.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/search?sort=titlesort&view=thumbnail&query=William+P.+Gottlieb+&search_button=GO |date=September 28, 2011 }} *[http://www.jerryjazzmusician.com/linernotes/i-view1.html Interviewed William Gottlieb for Jerry Jazz Musician] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713104841/http://www.jerryjazzmusician.com/linernotes/i-view1.html |date=July 13, 2011 }} *[http://www.eteamz.com/bbhshof/ Bound Brook High School Alumni Association and Hall of Fame]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gottlieb, William P.}} Category:1917 births Category:2006 deaths Category:20th-century American photographers Category:Jazz photographers Category:Lehigh University alumni Category:People from Bound Brook, New Jersey