Soldiers in World War II stuck the pinups on their lockers while female fans swooned over the photos of Frank Sinatra and Gary Cooper. Now Movie Star News, the company that sold classic glossy prints of celebrities, is going out of business and its entire collection of Hollywood photographs is headed for auction, The Associated Press reported. Today, pictures of stars can be downloaded in a heartbeat but in 1939, when Irving Klaw started the business from his Manhattan bookstore, he discovered a huge market for studio photographs. Mr. Klaw essentially invented the pinup and turned the Playboy model Bettie Page into the genre's “Queen†with images of her acting out bondage and sadomasochistic themes.
“He noticed that kids were tearing out the pictures of the movie stars, so he decided to sell their pictures rather than the books,†said Ira Kramer, who took over the business from his mother and his uncle, Mr. Klaw. St uart Scheinman, co-owner of Entertainment Collectibles, based in Las Vegas, bought the collection, which consists primarily of images made between 1939 and 1979. There are original prints and negatives of Marlon Brando, Bette Davis and the Three Stooges as well as scenes from “The Godfather,†“Citizen Kane†and “Gone With the Wind.†He said that the lot, which is being handled by Guernsey's auction house, could be worth as much as $150 million.
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