Stars and Cars illustrated book
Twelve cylinders in Arcadia
Grace Kelly, icon of the Cote d’Azur, in reverse
© Edward Quinn Archive / Courtesy Photography Monika Mohr Galerie
The French Riviera was the “spot” for the “in crowd” in the “Fifties”. Chic, sunny, elegant and dirt cheap for the Americans. There Edward Quinn staged the “Darlings” of the era in appropriate means of transport.
Edward Quinn in his fifties was what would be called a noble paparazzo today: he photographed celebrities. In his book “Stars and Cars of the Fifties” he portrayed over 200 illustrious moments of former A-actors and their cars. Who or what was more important to him as a motif, engine or model, cannot be clearly clarified on the basis of the photos.
It was a time when people weren’t yet walking around in the streets in training clothes. The women squeezed into tight skirts and pointed shoes and brushed on make-up every day as for the big gala. Men wore coats and leather shoes and a hat. In retrospect, this period is called the “Fifties” and by that one does not mean post-war Germany with its remains and ruins of a Third Reich, but rather the golden age of the victorious powers, above all the Americans.
Big train station in low-cost Europe
Quinn wasn’t just any celebrity clipper, he was an artist in his profession. His photos are photographed in dynamic black and white and designed with high contrast values. He didn’t need to ambush the celebrities at airports and yachts, they came voluntarily into the setting that served as a background for his photos: on the Cote d’Azur.
The French Riviera was the “spot” for the “in crowd” in the “Fifties”. Chic, sunny, elegant, and cheap for the Americans. The stable dollar made a trip to Europe a low-budget affair. The first edition of Edward Quinn’s life’s work was published in 1980 under the name “Riviera Cocktail”.
Jürgen Lewandowski, former car editor of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” and car fan who enjoys the nostalgic luxury life, wrote a foreword to the photos that were published again. Lewandowski sees in the photos an imaginary paradise, an arcadia of the motorist depicted, where beautiful people drive around in beautiful convertibles in a beautiful landscape. The more cylinders, the more fascinating.
The “darlings” of the tabloids did not travel alone to the south of France so that Edward Quinn could photograph them. Even then, the film festival was legendary and countless films were shot under the sun and palm trees at the foot of the “Alpes Maritimes”, the sea Alps. Some of them made history, such as “High Society” with the music of Cole Porter, where Grace Kelly met and fell in love with Prince Rainier of Monaco, and later ruled over the entire region as Princess Gracia Patricia from an operetta state. Or Hitchcock’s film “Above the Roofs of Nice”, which gives an insight into the lifestyle of the super-rich and is just as elegantly staged as Grace Kelly and Gary Grant are dressed.
In addition to traveling to filming or a film festival, there were two other reasons for staying on the Cote d´Azur. One resided there all the time, like Picasso or Brigitte Bardot, or one spent the summer vacation in one of the numerous villas by the sea or in one of the stylish grand hotels such as Onassis, the Shah of Persia or Farouk, the former king of Egypt. Rita Hayworth, temporarily wife of Prince Ali Khan, also enjoyed a “chateau” as a holiday home.
Of course, it’s also about the cars. The illustrated book tells of a time when an actor did not earn 20 million per film. When a car still had cult value for a star and when a Spider California 250 GT from Ferrari gave the young Alain Delon a dignified and congenial setting.
The only means of transport accepted by the stars alongside the Cadillacs, Porsches, Ferraris, Chevrolets, Mercedes and Rolls Royce was the Vespa. With this, the Vespa driver showed a mobile nonconformity and, even without the necessary wealth, a sense of the art of living and, secondly, the super-rich could cheat traffic and paparazzi on a Vespa and simply bypass traffic jams and obstacles.