Life

The golden age of the world’s most popular weekly photography magazine (1936-1972) coincided with Hollywood’s most glamorous decades. Featuring hundreds of meticulously researched and curated images from the vast LIFE archive, capturing “more stars than there are in Heaven,” location shoots, Oscar nights, homes, alluring parties, and more. In November 1936, publisher Henry R. Luce launched LIFE as a photo-led weekly news magazine with a clear purpose: “To see life; to see the world; to eyewitness great events.” Before readers’ attention was consumed by television, LIFE served as their window to the world, and by the late 1940s, it was being read by 1 in 3 Americans. Jean Harlow was the first movie star to appear on a LIFE cover in 1937, and from then until 1972 over 200 covers featured Hollywood-related subjects, illustrating the strength of the bond between LIFE and the film industry. Matching the splendor of the finest Hollywood production, this two-volume epic blockbuster tells the intertwined story of a magazine and an art form that embodied the pinnacle of American imagination. Meticulously researched and curated, it features over 600 images from the magazine’s archives—well over half previously unpublished—and stars icons such as Bette Davis, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, Clark Gable, Steve McQueen, Sophia Loren, Alfred Hitchcock, Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman, Jane Fonda, Brigitte Bardot and many more. LIFE had special access to these celebrities following them on set, to extravagant parties, Oscar nights and at home, providing readers with intimate glimpses of their lives away from the spotlight. Volume 1 (1936-1950s) covers the Golden Age of Hollywood: dashing leading men, glamorous starlets, powerful studio moguls, and opulent lifestyles. Witness how LIFE…