St. Louis native, Vincent Price was much more than just an iconic actor of stage and screen, he was a fantastic chef, rabid art collector, and for those unaware, he even had his own small chain of photography studios. It's really not uncommon to stumble upon abandoned Vincent Price Studio portraits at antique stores located around the greater STL area, or even right there in your own grandparent's photo albums, because as the article provided below states, "VPS served 75% of the high schools, nursing schools, and universities in STL County and Illinois." From the late 40's and well into the latter part of the 60's (possibly longer), VPS was the go-to studio for athletic and social events, club and yearbook, weddings, babies, etc. Here are a couple of lovely examples of two young ladies (from very different decades based on their hair styles), each captured in a beautiful black and white photo, and further preserved within a simple, elegantly designed portrait studio folder bearing Price's legendary name. Yes, it's just one more thing that makes St. Louis, MO one of the coolest cities in the USA.
7 comments:
These are amazing! While I did know St. Louis is one of the coolest cities ever, I did not know any of this. Imagine having a portrait by THE Vincent Price!
It would be interesting to find out if Vincent actually did preform shutterbug duties occasionally. Covering 75% of the St. Louis and east side market seems like a hefty achievement for an actor as busy as he was during this whole time period. In the very least, I hope his photography staff dressed up as Professor Henry Jarrod from House of Wax, —say “cheese” before the school burns down! haha
Having your picture taken in a Vincent Price Studio must have led to some serious bragging rights for a monster kid back then.
Somehow I get the feeling that the Vincent Price Studios didn't create a demand or offer Halloween photos during the month of October. I suspect they wanted to offer professional type photo services rather than cash in on Price's horror fame.
Yeah, from all the VPS examples I’ve ever seen, it’s always been pretty straightforward, run of the mill photo studio type stuff. But the thing you mentioned that had me thinking differently was the idea of people actually going to a studio locationinstead of them coming to the school or the event to take the photos— that’s how it always went down in my school anyway…
"...instead of them coming to the school or the event to take the photos— that’s how it always went down in my school anyway…"
Same with me, I recall photo day from grade school through high school where the photographer came to the school and took the pictures, individually and for the various classes.
I knew Vincent Price was cool--I knew about the art and the cooking and the shrunken heads and the acting--but this portraiture stuff is news to me. My dad did portrait photography. I had no idea he was, in his own way, following in Price's footsteps like so many others. Makes me just a little bit prouder, I guess.
Great post!
The second lady is making the big mistake of showing way too much neck -- you know the kind of movies Price was in! First lady knew better with the high collar (probably filled with garlic!)
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