George Hurrell Cover of <i>Law and Order</i>

David · #1 09-02-2009, 02:59 PM

George Hurrell's shot of Lindsey for the cover of Law & Order is on eBay. The supporting text is not entirely clear, but the shot may have been conceived & taken to liken Lindsey to Johnny Weissmuller. Whether planned or not, many of the songs on Law & Order have a skewed-to-pop African beat. Weissmuller played Tarzan in a series of movies in the 1930s in Hollywood.

The jungle has its own law, but Tarzan brings order to his life. By the same token, rock & roll has its own law, but Lindsey has said that he deplores the absence of order in the lives of so many rock stars.

(Factoid: Weissmuller was a champion swimmer before his Hollywood career. Lindsey almost was, & his brother Greg truly was.)

Betsy · #2 09-02-2009, 03:18 PM

David....do you write for Pop Up Video?

MacMan · #3 09-02-2009, 03:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Betsy

David....do you write for Pop Up Video?

LOL

Erin · #4 09-02-2009, 03:41 PM

All I know is that he's creeping me out in that pic.

Betsy · #5 09-02-2009, 04:06 PM

So why does the seller want $20 shipping for an 8 x 10 ?

michelej1 · #6 09-02-2009, 04:22 PM

If Cheetah was in the picture with him, I'd be all over it.

Michele

Nico · #7 09-02-2009, 08:17 PM

Gotta love Lindsey, but he has some scrawny looking arms.

vivfox · #8 09-02-2009, 08:36 PM

It looks to me like he's trying to recreate the cover of Buckingham Nicks. The 1981 version-without you Stevie.

michelej1 · #9 09-02-2009, 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vivfox

It looks to me like he's trying to recreate the cover of Buckingham Nicks. The 1981 version-without you Stevie.

I agree with this. It's funny because someone here discussed how they thought that GOS was an updated version of the L & O cover. When you get the full shot seen in this picture though, you forget about the head seen on the album cover and it doesn't resemble GOS any more at all.

You do think of BN.

Michele

Erin · #10 09-03-2009, 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michelej1

I agree with this. It's funny because someone here discussed how they thought that GOS was an updated version of the L & O cover. When you get the full shot seen in this picture though, you forget about the head seen on the album cover and it doesn't resemble GOS any more at all.

You do think of BN.

Michele

Or someone who had spent too much time in a tanning bed.

michelej1 · #11 09-03-2009, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erin

Or someone who had spent too much time in a tanning bed.

Yeah, I wonder if Lindsey's body looked like that or if it was just the lighting.

Anyway, the look does not remind me of the man or express his personality. More statue than substance. I never thought of Tarzan before (You really need the torso to see that). But I always thought of Adonis.

Michele

David · #12 09-03-2009, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michelej1

Anyway, the look does not remind me of the man or express his personality. More statue than substance. I never thought of Tarzan before (You really need the torso to see that).

Not Tarzan per se -- Johnny Weissmuller photographed by George Hurrell (around 1932).

http://www.alexwaterhousehayward.com...ler-795645.jpg

michelej1 · #13 09-03-2009, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David

Not Tarzan per se -- Johnny Weissmuller photographed by George Hurrell (around 1932).

http://www.alexwaterhousehayward.com...ler-795645.jpg

Aha, it's more self-referential than anything else, it would appear.

Back then, the movie stars were under long contracts and the photographers got to know and work with them over many years. I think that is why some of those pictures seem to illuminate their subject and bring out both the light and dark in their specific personalities. Of course, many of the stars took a hand in the retouching process as well.

Oh well . . . In their first movie, Good Times, Sonny and Cher starred in several small vignettes, one of which cast them as Tarzan and Jane.

Michele

Betsy · #14 09-04-2009, 10:36 PM

I read the Ebay auction after David posted. (FYI Thank you David, & all joking aside, I did enjoy reading your factoids.)

The Weissmuller-Tarzan thing reminded of the PBS program on Annie Liebowitz. She spoke of how and why she posed people the way she did.

That being said...back to the Hurrell photo...the head shot is what ended up on Law & Order, right? So where is the full body shot of the backside of the album?

I was glad the guy was selling the photo cuz I had never seen it before (the full body shot).

There was a guy selling on Ebay about two or three years ago. He was selling the actual art marked photo (for Law & Order) and the lyric sheets (written in LB's handwriting) for each song.

Dodfather · #15 09-05-2009, 04:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David

George Hurrell's shot of Lindsey for the cover of Law & Order is on eBay. The supporting text is not entirely clear, but the shot may have been conceived & taken to liken Lindsey to Johnny Weissmuller. Whether planned or not, many of the songs on Law & Order have a skewed-to-pop African beat. Weissmuller played Tarzan in a series of movies in the 1930s in Hollywood.

The jungle has its own law, but Tarzan brings order to his life. By the same token, rock & roll has its own law, but Lindsey has said that he deplores the absence of order in the lives of so many rock stars.

(Factoid: Weissmuller was a champion swimmer before his Hollywood career. Lindsey almost was, & his brother Greg truly was.)

Am I the only one who hates this photo?! He looks awful and barely recognisable. Same goes for the cropped head shot on Law and Order. He looks plastic, the close up/medium shot was a bad idea! It just seems lazy. A picture of his face. That's it. Big deal. Not nice text/shading or artwork at all. Have to say it's still better than Stevie's Street Angel cover though, haha.