M.G.M. Messenger Girls

Lot 128 is one of a series of 35 photographs, taken by Ruth Orkin in 1948 for This Week magazine, on life as an M.G.M. messenger girl. As a former messenger herself, Orkin determined to "show the less glamorous side of the studio from the perspective of a former messenger girl with the eye of a professional photographer. I was tired of seeing one magazine or another dwelling on nothing but the glamor and the action." The photograph depicts the messenger room bulletin board festooned with a number of the stars' autographed publicity shots. According to Orkin, the girls were neither permitted to photograph the stars nor ask for their autographs, but celebrities would often give the girls signed shots of themselves.