This photo gives us some insight into how high-glamor portraits were taken during those golden days of the Hollywood studio system. George Hurrell came to MGM in the late 1920s after Ramon Novarro showed Norma Shearer some portraits he’d had done independently. Norma was so struck by them she sought out the photographer. Hurrell became MGM’s leading portraitist until 1932. After a stint at Warner Bros., he opened his photographic studio on 333 Rodeo Dr., Beverly Hills in 1942. Those photos all looked so glamorous but it’s really just a chair, a screen, and a couple of (I assume very carefully placed) lights. One could almost say it was a metaphor for Hollywood in general.