Thursday 9 February 2012

Yul love this...


































If you're anywhere Chelsea's The Little Black Gallery between now and 11th February, do drop into this exhibition and drool over the photographs of Audrey Hepburn, Joan Collins, Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren - not to mention Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and (seemingly) half of Hollywood.
     They were taken by Yul Brynner, most famous for his role in Rodgers & Hammerstein's The King & I - but who turns out to have been quite some photographer in his spare time.  Of his friends.  Who include the aforementioned stars.
     He is also, FYI, the cause of one of Jo's most embarrassing moments ever.  As a 19-year-old baby journalist on Woman's World magazine, she was dispatched to The London Palladium for a press conference for The King & I, with an assignment from her editor:  to stand up and ask Yul Brynner if it was true that bald men are sexier.
     She is still recovering from the embarrassment when he replied, in front of 200 journalists, 'Would you like me to show you...?'
     And rather regretting she didn't take him up on his offer, actually.
     Because who wouldn't have loved to have Yul's lens focused on her...?

Yul Brynner is at The Little Black Gallery, 13a Park Walk, London SW10 0AJ