Edwin Bower Hesser papers, 1917-1958, bulk 1920-1950

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Summary

Creators:
Hesser, Edwin Bower
Abstract:
Edwin Bower Hesser (1893-1962) was a prominent photographer who worked in New York and Los Angeles during the golden age of Hollywood and developed his own color photography system known as Hessercolor. The bulk of the collection consists of photographic materials such as negatives, prints, transparencies, and periodicals featuring Hesser's work. The collection also includes paper materials, such as miscellaneous manuscripts, business papers and journals.
Extent:
14.25 Linear Feet (28 boxes and 30 oversize boxes)
Language:
Materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Edwin Bower Hesser Papers (Collection Number 1071). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection consists of Edwin Bower Hesser's negatives, assorted paper materials, transparencies, and photographic prints documenting his 40-year career as a photographer and inventor. Of particular interest are photographic prints of Hollywood personalities such as Mary Astor, Joan Blondell, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Loretta Young, Claudette Colbert, Lupe Valez, Janet Gaynor, and Joan Crawford (among many others); prints of the experimental coloring process "Hessercolor"; prints of semi-nude, nude, and erotic modeling; hand colored prints; Hesser's periodical Arts Monthly Pictorial; and assorted advertising and modeling transparencies and prints. The collection also contains a voluminous assortment of negatives of portraits and head shots, as well as miscellaneous manuscript materials such as letters, photographic elements and writings by Eve Hesser, workbooks, inventions, photo shoot posing ideas, periodicals, and documentation related to the development and patent of the Hessercolor process.

Biographical / historical:

Edwin Bower Hesser was born Karl Edwin Hesser on April 23, 1893 in Jersey City, New Jersey. Born into a theatrical family with a theatrical company manager as a father and an art teacher as a mother, Hesser became involved in theatre, drawing, sculpture, painting, and commercial photography at the age of 17. In 1914, he married Rhea May Reed in Aberdeen, South Dakota while managing a theatrical troupe. In 1917, Hesser wrote the story for a theatrical film entitled For the Freedom of the World and wrote, produced, and directed The Triumph of Venus that same year.

In 1918, Hesser was commissioned as Captain in the Photographic Section of the U.S. Army Signal Corps where he reorganized the motion picture photographic division of the Army. Later that year, Hesser received an honorable discharge and moved to New York City. He also separated from his wife Rhea, who later divorced him in 1920. Hesser was employed as a writer and producer by First National Pictures, and then started his own independent photographic studio. Hesser moved to Los Angeles in 1920 to continue to work for First National Pictures, where he became the portrait photographer for the studio's stars (he still maintained his photo studio in New York). That same year, he also started up a second independent photography studio in Los Angeles while working as a photographer for the L.A. Examiner.

In his independent photography studios Hesser focused mainly on calendar pictures and art illustrations for major photographic magazines, and continued his portraiture work of theatrical and Hollywood personalities. In 1925, he began his own magazine entitled Arts Monthly Pictorial, which featured his photographic work of nude and semi-nude women. He married his second wife, Margaret Watts, in 1931, but she left and divorced him in 1933 to marry Ridgeway Callow. On July 1, 1934, Hesser married his former model Eve, who became a major collaborator in his photographic business. Eve's father, Clarence Cunningham, became the chief financier of Hesser's business and helped him finance the development of his own three-color system known as Hessercolor. This color system involved three separate negatives that captured three color values. Gelatin prints (yellow, cyan, and magenta) were then made from the negatives and layered together to create one color print. Hessercolor was used on the sets of early Technicolor films such as La Cucaracha (1934) and Becky Sharp (1935).

After loosing the battle to Kodak for the use of his color system in World War II photography, Hesser's career began to focus on war-time inventions such as an aerial color camera and water and flame proof insulation for military airplanes. He continued his magazine and fashion photography into the 1940s, shooting on Kodachrome, and also began to do family and individual portraiture for hire. Throughout his life, Hesser experienced numerous health problems. He died August 7, 1962.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Wien, Sales, and Kaplan, 1969.
Processing information:

The collection was minimally processed by Manuscripts Division staf, late 1970s. Reprocessed by Timothy Holland and Christopher Lane with assistance from Laurel McPhee in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), 2006. This included foldering materials, writing descriptions, and adding series and subseries levels to enhance access to the materials and create a finding aid.

Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.

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Arrangement:

Arranged in the following series:

  1. Negatives, ca. 1920-1946 (13.5 boxes, 0.5 oversize box), subseries A-B as follows:
    • A. Named subjects
    • B. Anonymous subjects
  2. Assorted paper materials, 1917-1958 (6.5 boxes, 4.5 oversize boxes), subseries A-C as follows:
    • A. Miscellaneous
    • B. Periodicals
    • C. Posing ideas
  3. Color transparencies (1.5 boxes)
  4. Hollywood personalities, ca. 1925-1938 (0.5 box, 2 oversize boxes)
  5. Prints, ca. 1920-1945 (6 boxes, 19 oversize boxes), subseries A-D as follows:
    • A. Large Hessercolor
    • B. Large black and white
    • C. Small black and white
    • D. Small Hessercolor.

Physical location:
Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

Material in box 55 contain cellulose nitrate photographic negatives unavailable for access. These nitrate negatives must be digitized in order to be available for access. Please contact Special Collections reference (spec-coll@library.ucla.edu) for more information.

Terms of access:

Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Edwin Bower Hesser Papers (Collection Number 1071). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Location of this collection:
A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
Contact:
(310) 825-4988
AskLSC@library.ucla.edu
Website