Alfred Cheney Johnston is most well-known for his photographs of the girls who performed in the Ziegfeld Follies in the 1910s and 20s. Here are some of his more risqué photos of the girls, including one of Gloria Swanson. They probably aren’t particularly suitable for viewing at work, depending on how open-minded your boss is about nudity!
I wonder where these photos would have been published. I imagine they’re a bit too risqué for use in any magazines of the time, so perhaps they were just used for saucy postcards. Anyone know?
Above:
Caryl Bergman, Ziegfeld Follies girl
Ziegfeld girl Dorothy Flood with a mirror
Gloria Swanson photographed by Johnston in 1919
Hazel Forbes (nee Hazel Froidevoux), Miss Long Island, Miss United States in the Paris International Beauty Pageant of 1926 (at age 16), Ziegfeld girl, actress, dancer and millionairess.
Woman with camera. Photo by Alfred Cheney Johnston, 1920 or before
Portrait of Virginia Biddle, 1927
Image source 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and copyright: This media file is in the public domain in the United States. 8, This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
I have an 8×10 frame that has a 5×7 mirror on it that was given to me. What majes this piece so unique is that the mirror is surrounded by 12 nude photos if a the same woman from the 1920’s, i think. I know nothing about it other than the fact that my ex-wife hated it and that my ex-girlfriend got it from Donna Karen of New York (DKNY). Yes thee Donna Karen. She was gonna sell it for $75 at a garage sale in the not so splendid condition it’s in. I just wabt to know more about it. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you for your time
Johnston’s nudes weren’t published during his lifetime. He kept them in his personal collection (though he may have shared them privately with Flo Ziegfeld and a few others). Most were never made public until after his death in the early 1970s.
I miss the bush