Former Hollywood starlet’s book studies fashion

Friday, Dec. 1, 2000 | 11:38 a.m.

What: "The Way We Wore: Styles of the '30s and '40s and Our Would Since" booksigning by author Marsha Hunt

When: 6-8 p.m. today.

Where: Borders Book Shop & Cafe, 2323 S. Decatur Blvd.

Cost: Free.

Information: Call 258-0999.

Black-and-white photographs of Marsha Hunt grace most of the pages of a book she completed in 1996, revealing a young woman of poise and beauty.

"The Way We Wore: Styles of the 1930s and '40s and our World Since Then" (Fallbrook Publishing, $49.95) is a 438-page volume that gives those with an insatiable thirst for all things Hollywood a sip of its "Golden Age."

During those years Hunt worked in the movie factories that churned out a steady stream of films -- some of them memorable, some of them forgettable, but all of them exciting to a young girl who left a high-fashion modeling career in New York City at the age of 17 to seek her fortune out West.

During a span of more than 20 years Hunt appeared in 60-plus films. The first was "The Virginia Judge" (1935). Most of the titles only film buffs would know today, movies such as "Murder Goes to College" (1937), "The Hardys Ride High" (1939) and "Ellery Queen, Master Detective" (1940).

Now 82, her hearing and eyesight failing, Hunt proves she still is a trouper.

She will be at Borders Book Shop & Cafe on South Decatur Boulevard tonight to sign copies of the third printing of her book.

The coffee-table publication focuses on hundreds of pictures taken of Hunt modeling clothes between making movies. Many of the photographs include some of the biggest stars of that period, such as William Powell, Van Johnson and Robert Cummings.

While "The Way We Wore" is primarily a statement about fashion, it also speaks to the world of fantasy.

Hunt rubbed elbows with every major Hollywood star who worked at MGM and Paramount -- the two studios where she spent much of her first 10 years in the business.

During a telephone conversation from her Sherman Oaks, Calif., home (where she has lived for almost 50 years), Hunt pointed out that she was "in Hollywood, but not of Hollywood. I was never in the social scene as much as some. I began as a minor, at the age of 17, and never became the party girl that a lot of people were."

But she wasn't a complete wallflower. Her first social engagement shortly after moving to Hollywood was a party at the home of Charles and Pat Boyer. Among those there were Irene Dunne, Myrna Loy, Ginger Rogers, Merle Oberon, Claudette Colbert, Randolph Scott, Gary Cooper, Fred MacMurray, Ronald Colman and Cary Grant.

"There was a houseful of legendary people there. That was very heady wine for a 17-year-old," she said.

Although she shared working space with some of the greats (Lionel Barrymore and Katharine Hepburn among the hundreds), she did not socialize with many.

"I was lucky to have been the most active in the Golden Age," she said. "The major studios were like separate towns. You were more apt to know your fellow contract players at your own studio than others.

"I passed Mae West and Marlene Dietrich on the lot. They were legendary ladies, but I was never introduced to them and I never worked with them. But I passed them daily.

"There was a sense of fellowship among the stars, even if we didn't know each other."

And the star status opened many doors, putting her in contact with presidents (Franklin Roosevelt) and other powerful figures in Washington, D.C., such as FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (before the world learned he had his own fashion statement going on in his closet).

The book includes the war years, when she became involved in the war effort, dancing in canteens with soldiers leaving for battle, raising funds and trying to keep up the morale of the military.

And it includes the post-war years when she, her late husband (author Robert Presnell Jr.) and others lashed out against the House Un-American Activities Committee, which was trying to ferret out Communists in Hollywood and caused the blacklisting of many writers and actors.

"On so many levels, this is an interesting book," Hunt said. "The quality of the pictures is extraordinary by today's standards. Everything is carefully lighted, and only one picture was taken in those days. There was no need for this rapid-fire machine gun thing they do today. Fashion sitting, half a century ago, was really an art done with painstaking care."

Something that won't be found between the covers of the book is what went on between the covers of the celebrities. Though she may know a lot, she isn't telling. Hunt believes it would be too unrefined, too undignified for her to stoop to the level of gossip.

Nor will there be any negative comments about Hollywood, past or present. However, she admitted she doesn't see much to like about most of today's films.

There are exceptions, but she said most of them are about high-tech special effects and sensationalism.

"They have very little to do with the human condition, the human aspiration," she said. "I don't think people making films today pay any attention to the effect on human behavior. Shock and schlock, that's what so many movies are about today."

She misses the ideals and the sentimentalism of the Golden Age.

"I plead guilty to being an idealist," she said. "We need at least a sprinkling of the Polyannas."

Jerry Fink

is an Accent feature writer. Reach him at jerry@lasvegassun.com or 259-4058.