A Beautiful Prison
Juliet Browner
It’s been a while, so I thought I would share a small glimpse of a work-in-progress.
In the autumn of 1940, the Surrealist photographer Man Ray found himself in flux. On 14 June of that year, Paris, where he had lived and worked since July 1921, had fallen to Nazi occupation. No longer safe in his adopted homeland, Man Ray returned to America and the security of being on home ground. The ‘enforced vacation’ would provide space to reduce his work commitments and time to focus on his fine artwork, something he had been striving to achieve and balance for quite some time. What better place to do so than Los Angeles?
When news travelled that Man Ray was heading West, an acquaintance called Elsa Miller asked Man Ray if he would be kind enough to check in on her friend while he was in the city. Pushing her friend’s telephone number into his hands, the photographer obliged. Elsa Miller informed Man Ray that her friend, a fellow dancer who had ventured West to become an actor, was at her wit’s end, destitute, alone and desperate for work. As an experienced artist’s model, maybe the famed photographer could offer her some employment to fund her journey back East? The friend’s name was Juliet Browner.
Arriving in Downtown Los Angeles at nightfall in October 1940, Man Ray was unsure what to make of the city. Initial impressions included his reaction that Hollywood was ‘oppressive, brutal, yet fascinating, and little more than a frontier town.’ In a letter to his sister, Elsie, he wrote that ‘California is a beautiful prison.’ Despite his reservations, bolstered by the thought this would only be a brief and temporary stay (he would live in Los Angeles for eleven years, 1940 - 1951), Man Ray soon settled into his new lodgings at the Lido Hotel at Wilcox, Hollywood. Warming to his new environment and embracing the city for the first time in a while, the photographer felt relaxed, rejuvenated and creatively inspired.
The day after arriving in town, Man Ray called Browner, and the two met in a Jazz Nightclub. The newcomers on the scene, who considered themselves outcasts in a strange land, found kinship in one other and a security that each had been lacking. In Browner, the Brooklyn-born Martha Graham trained dancer, a first-generation daughter of Romanian-Jewish lineage, Man Ray had met someone to balance and smooth his famous gruff demeanour. In contrast, the younger woman deeply respected and admired the older photographer. ‘Juliet was a welcome change—she was in and of the present time and place. Neil Baldwin, Man Ray’s biographer, has noted. ‘Her freshness drew them together quickly. She, too, was adrift in a strange city and in search of a feeling of connectedness.’
The couple moved into the same building, the Château des Fleurs, located at 6626 Franklin Ave at Cherokee Avenue but took separate apartments. But renting different places soon became a tiresome pretence and somewhat weary for the couple growing increasingly close. By early 1941 the couple has found an apartment at 1245 Vine Street in the heart of Hollywood.
It was a serene and relaxing time for the couple. In a 1945 image of Browner titled Juliet Dancing, Browner is shown in motion: the hazy, soft-focus of the lens reflecting the featherlike recollection of their meeting. Juliet appears intentionally out of focus with her head back and legs in movement, uncontained and soft. She is an apparition in flight. It recalls the feathered dress Ginger Rogers wore while dancing with Fred Astaire in 1935’s Top Hat, plumes softly falling from her body as she flew across the screen. The Van Nest Polglaise and Carroll Clark’s ostrich dress has become equally as renowned as the Academy Award-nominated Cheek to Cheek heard playing during this iconic moment. It reminds us of the feathers and plumes worn by Leonor Fini, still noted for her theatrical sartorial flair but whose influence frequently goes unnoticed in the film world. Juliet would also appear in Man Ray’s home video short, titled, appropriately, Juliet (1940).
Yet, in giving herself so wholly to Man Ray, it is curious to contemplate whether Browner felt a loss of autonomy in giving over her entire self, and her ambition, to her new partner. The young woman had built up a steely determination auditioning over the years but was also known for her amiable disposition. ‘Juliet came to Man Ray with an instinctive admiration for him’, Baldwin notes. ‘Whatever sense of autonomy she possessed was immediately invested in him. Whatever strength of will she may have built up, she immediately gave over to him. As a model, she was superb—pliant, agreeable, always available to confirm his wish.’ While remembered as a muse, model, and friend, what else do we know of Juliet Browner, especially during these Hollywood years, when she was photographed numerous times by Man Ray, Lee Miller, and Florence Homolka?
Juliet Browner has fascinated me for ages, and she’s someone I would love to get a firmer hold on. We have access to multiple portraits of her — including the famous 1946 Hollywood double-wedding with Dorothea Tanning and Max Ernst taken by Florence Homolka — by various photographers, but we hardly think or talk about her independently. For years I've wanted to uncover more about Browner: her life, her dancing, the LA years. Who she was. A lot depends on if she wants to be found in the labyrinthine tale of Man Ray’s Hollywood. I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for signs.
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