Monday, February 13, 2012

JUMPING COMEDIANS!


Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis
Beginning in the early fifties, renowned LIFE magazine photographer Philippe Halsman would ask his portrait subjects to pose "jumping" for his camera for a series of photographs he called "Jumpology".  He managed to amass 178 photos of movies stars, politicians, statesmen, dancers, artists and comedians all posed in the act of defied gravity. The photos were collected in "The Jump Book", published by Simon & Schuster in 1959. The book is long out of print.

Here are the "Jumpology" photos of the comedians/comic actors/comic performers, all captured in mid air:

Original ad for "The Jump Book"

Danny Kaye
Phil Silvers
Milton Berle

Milton Berle

Ray Bolger

Ray Bolger
Philippe Halsman with Ray Bolger
Jackie Gleason
Bob Hope
Martin & Lewis

Martin & Lewis
Harold Lloyd

Fernandel
Groucho Marx

Groucho Marx
Shirley MacLaine
Jacques Tati

Jimmy Durante
Peter Ustinov
Donald O'Connor
Lucille Ball

Dennis Day

Liberace
J. Fred Muggs
Richard Nixon

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8 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 13, 2012 at 1:50 PM

    This is wonderful stuff. It's typical of the Fifties to take such a simple, elegant idea and do something so great with it. Today it would be done with Photoshop and the celebrities would be Lady Gaga and Justin Beiber. No class.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mike LynchFebruary 13, 2012 at 3:53 PM

    This is my favorite blog now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Drew FriedmanFebruary 14, 2012 at 1:49 PM

    Why is this so fascinating? The simple act of jumping leads to incredible moments. Crazy. Love it

    From the Honorable Judge Howard Stern

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  4. Miss LisaFebruary 14, 2012 at 3:42 PM

    Yeah! There's one of Marilyn Monroe from this project and she looks all bubbly-Marilyn but her fists are really tightly clenched. LIFE reprinted some of these when I was a kid and they're really cool--thanks! http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/24/arts/design/24halsman.html

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  5. Miss LisaFebruary 14, 2012 at 3:44 PM

    More. Wow--some of these...
    http://www.buzzfeed.com/howto/how-to-jump-like-marilyn-monroe-1abi

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  6. mike fontanelliFebruary 22, 2012 at 3:33 AM

    I echo Dancin' Dave. I think Ray Bolger was born in that pose, btw.

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  7. mike fontanelliFebruary 22, 2012 at 4:09 AM

    ...I'll echo Mike Lynch, too. I bet I know how they got Liberace to do that - they just showed him a naked man. That's my all-time favorite picture of Martin and Lewis. I think Jerry was born in that pose, too. Man, everything Nixon ever did looked awkward...

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  8. UnknownMarch 28, 2013 at 12:47 PM

    Wonderful jumping comedians images indeed!! It's nice to see how nicely at fifties time photographer have managed to capture such quality photos, despite in the pictures there is no vibrating illusion as well. Enormous job! Thanks.
    famous comedians

    ReplyDelete

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