40 Glamorous Photos of Classic Beauties Taken by A L “Whitey” Schafer in the 1930s and ’40s

Born 1902 in Salt Lake City, Utah, American photographer A L “Whitey” Schafer moved with his family to Hollywood around 1917. He joined Famous Players-Lasky to work in the stills laboratory, processing prints in 1921.

Classic beauties taken by A L “Whitey” Schafer in the 1930s and ’40s

In 1923, Schafer joined the Thomas Ince Studio, where he shoots stills and occasionally appears in movies. In a 1948 Popular Photography article he recalls, “That was in the days when everybody on the lot was called on to act at times. When we weren’t shooting pictures, we were doing ‘walk-ons’.”

In 1932, Schafer moved to Columbia. In 1935, he succeeded William Fraker (father of “Bud” Fraker) as head of Columbia’s stills photography department, and replaced Eugene Robert Richee as head of Paramount’s stills photography department in 1941.

A L “Whitey” Schafer is considered a leading stills photographer in Hollywood during the 1930s and ’40s. He died in 1951 at the age of 49 when a stove aboard a yacht explodes as he tried to help the owner light it.

These glamorous photos are part of his work that Schafer took portraits of classic beauties in the 1930s and 1940s.

Ann Sothern, circa 1930s

Constance Bennett, circa 1930s

Jean Parker, circa 1930s

Paulette Goddard, 1930

Loretta Young, 1931

Lupe Vélez, circa 1933

Mary Lou Dix, 1935

Dolly Haas, 1936

Dolores del Rio, 1937

Dorothy Lamour, 1937

Ida Lupino, 1937

Jane Wyatt, 1937

Doris Nolan, 1938

Joan Perry, 1938

Katharine Hepburn, 1938

Barbara Stanwyck, 1940

Fay Wray, 1940

Joan Bennett, 1940

Maureen O’Sullivan, 1940

Rosalind Russell, 1940

Ann Miller, 1941

Ingrid Bergman, 1941

Irene Dunne, 1941

Janet Blair, 1941

Jinx Falkenburg, 1941

Marlene Dietrich, 1941

Rita Hayworth, 1941

Susan Hayward, 1941

Vera Zorina, 1942

Anne Baxter, 1943

Veronica Lake, 1943

Ann Savage, 1944

Ella Raines, 1944

Shirley Ann Richards, 1946

Elizabeth Taylor, 1947

Teresa Wright, 1947

Helen Walker, circa 1948

Gloria Swanson, 1949

Hedy Lamarr, 1949

Lucille Ball, 1949