When photo archivist Michael Ochs brokered a deal to offload his sprawling collection of 20th century iconography to Getty Images in 2007, neither seller nor buyer knew absolutely everything that was included in the transaction. Ochs had a decades-long reputation as the ultimate source of rock ‘n’ roll imagery, but his collection, at the time of its sale, included 3 million vintage prints, proof sheets and negatives. Many hadn’t been seen in decades, and others, presumably, never at all — particularly some shots of Old Hollywood, obtained in countless acquisitions over the decades that built up the Michael Ochs Archive.
“The Earl Leaf collection alone was over 100,000 negatives,” Ochs says of the late beatnik photographer, who shot many unknowns (Marilyn Monroe, Clint Eastwood) before they blew up and Leaf went on to become the house photographer for The Beach Boys.
Getty has scanned, edited, captioned and digitized nearly 400,000 images from the collection since the acquisition, a testament to Ochs’ early awareness that even unassuming images are worth saving. “When I worked for Columbia Records in publicity, I was shocked to see them throwing away old photographs, so I just started taking stuff out of the trash,” he says, still amused that other people’s carelessness led to his unexpected career of hunting down discarded images and buying other collections — including a particularly large one from Tiger Beat publisher Laufer Media. “I invited people to use the photos for free. But, in 1977, Dick Clark sent me a check for $1,000 for giving him some, and I turned it into my business.”
Beastie Boys member Ad-Rock, also known by his given name of Adam Horovitz, used a beer can as a strategically placed fountain while performing with his bandmates during a February 1987 show at the Hollywood Palladium. They’d released the seminal album Licensed to Ill three months earlier and were riding high on the success of the single “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!).”
Photographer Don Paulsen followed Chuck Berry during filming of the singer’s concert film and documentary Let the Good Times Roll, catching this quiet moment backstage at Long Island’s Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on May 6, 1972. Later in the year, the rock ’n’ roll pioneer filmed a second concert for the film, at Detroit’s Cobo Hall.
With only a few uncredited roles and bit parts to his name, a then-26-year-old and relatively unknown Clint Eastwood posed for a series of photos by Leaf while exercising at his Los Angeles home in 1956. (Other images from the shoot confirm he was wearing shorts.)
The Supremes lead singer Diana Ross, pictured sometime in 1965, was at the zenith of her pre-solo success when she was snapped by Don Paulsen while out shopping in New York City. That year saw the group drop three No. 1 tracks on the Billboard Hot 100, including “Stop! In the Name of Love.”
Something of an outlier in the Ochs collection, playwright Edward Albee is captured outside Manhattan’s Martin Beck Theatre (now the Al Hirschfeld Theatre) by Vytas Valaitis after a performance of The Ballad of the Sad Café in 1963. The Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? scribe adapted the play from a novella by Carson McCullers.
Oscar winner Elizabeth Taylor adjusted her makeup during a 1963 portrait session in New York. It was said she later used the blond wig to prank then-husband Richard Burton — the first time they were married — while he was filming Becket.
A proof sheet of David Bowie photos in the 2,000-square-foot cottage Ochs built for his archive behind his Venice home. It’s since been converted into a gym for him and his wife.
Only 18, Jean Seberg received a celebratory parade upon her return to her hometown of Marshalltown, Iowa, in March 1957 — captured by Ed Feingersh. She’d just completed production on her debut film, Joan of Arc drama Saint Joan, a role she’d won after director Otto Preminger conducted a nationwide talent search with 18,000 applicants.
Joan Bradshaw, the former Miss Texas paraded around Hollywood Boulevard for a series of portraits by Earl Leaf in 1953 — accompanied by her poodle, Fifi. Bradshaw became better known for the photo series than for her acting work: a few uncredited parts in features and the role of “Redhead” in 1957’s She Devil.
A year before he knew true chart success by announcing “I Need Love” on sophomore LP Bigger and Deffer, rapper and eventual actor LL Cool J was snapped leaving an unknown concert venue after performing sometime in 1986.
Feingersh snapped this candid moment between the married couple on a country road outside Paris sometime in 1956 — the same year Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer starred in War and Peace alongside Henry Fonda.
No, that’s not actually Las Vegas. Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola was pictured at Zoetrope Studios (now Sunset Las Palmas Studios) in Hollywood during a 1981 press event for his Vegas-set musical drama One from the Heart.
Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn, pictured in 1983, took at dip with their leopard — one of many wild cats they kept — when photographer Michael Montfort visited their Las Vegas home that summer.
The only information on this photo of Dolly Parton is that she was wearing a purple top and it was taken in the 1980s.
Father of Disco Giorgio Moroder, inventor of “the Click” famously heard on Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love,” snapped at some point in the late 1970s.
A then six-year-old Jennifer Aniston was photographed at her family home in 1975.
Coffy actress Pam Grier was photographed at a Los Angeles pool in 1975, one year after releasing one of her most famous films — Foxy Brown.
This story first appeared in the April 24 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
When Hayes arrives this week, although she'll have plenty of familiarizing to do, her core — the players, the most important part of any national team — will largely already be in place.
