Eugene Robert Richee headed Paramount’s portrait studio from its
inception and he worked with a talented coterie of associates
including William Walling and Don English. Richee remains the least
examined among the top Hollywood photographers although he was one of
the finest – one needs to look no further than his sensational
portraits of Paramount stars Anna Mae Wong , Clara Bow , Louise Brooks
and Marlene Dietrich as evidence. Even a tireless researcher like
Kobal had difficulty uncovering biographical information about Richee
and it is only after Kobal’s death that a few details have emerged
about Richee’s life including his 1896 birth in Colorado. He started
at Paramount in 1921 and stayed for twenty years after which he left
he left to take a job at Warner Brothers. Richee died in 1972 just
before Kobal began exploring seriously the careers of Hollywood
portrait photographers. Like Ruth Harriet Louise, Richee left scant
biographical information behind but, again like Louise, he left a
corpus of extraordinary work that may be seen as emblematic of the
best of Hollywood photography. Richee’s most famous work is a 1928
portrait of Louise Brooks wearing a long string of pearls.