I am pleased to share with you all some great news. Google has posted Life Magazine's photo archive on its site. They have posted never-before-published photos and they are amazing. Type in Susan's name in the search box, and you are in for a wonderful surprise. Candid and posed shots of Susan with the boys and Jess. Unbelievable. I couldn't wait to tell you all, but I had a hard time dragging myself away from all these great photos. I am sure Tim will get a kick out of them too, and perhaps he can give us some background info on the Western photos.

Check it out and be prepared to be amazed.

http://images.google.com

Jill

JILL - Thank you, thank you for the information. I am so thrilled to see all these new pictures - 200 of them I believe and I have only seen two or three before (ones in the white blouse). Susan and family were certainly busy on 11th November, 1949 weren't they?

I did spend a lot of time trying to find them as they just wouldn't come up for me but got there eventually.
I am ecstatic really as I will have a lot of work ahead of me getting them printed up. I did go in to see the price but they were $79.99 each - beautifully framed though.

So many of these pictures are so natural and Susan and Jess looked so happy playing with the boys. She looks so beautiful and it will be nice for Tim and Greg and their children to see them too.

What a joy to find these as I know everyone will be delighted to see them and many thanks again for letting us know Jill.

Trish

Aren't they great !! To save time scrolling through pages of previously seen material - if when you use the Google image search screen and the images come up - there is an option field just near the top where you can select image SIZE. I found that by putting in ' Large Images' that all these new Life shots came up within the first few pages - just pages of these new shots and nothing else.

Many thanks Jill.

Kerry

That's really great! I'm gonna check that out now.

Thanks beaucoup for letting us know :P

Hi Trish, Kerry and Desiree:

I am so glad you checked out the site and that you found it as exciting as I did. What a treasure trove of new photos. What I like about them are that many of them are ones that would never have been published because of one thing or another -- Susan's closed eyes in one shot, for example. But that makes them so much more special! The candid nature of these photos made me wonder if there are any family snapshots that might be available somewhere. I can't believe that within the family, no one took photos. Oh well, maybe not.

Jill

Jill, thank you! These are marvelous. The photos of Susan, Jess, and the boys are so touching. I especially think the photos of Susan in those cowboy/cowgirl boots are adorable. These are so rare.. unbelievable! I'll have to work at getting them on the site.

I feel a slideshow coming on!

Thank you so much, Jill.

P.S. Ally , Andy, and Daniel may have already seen these but I'll send them the link, and to Tim also in case he hasn't been around to the board for a while.

I found that if you skip to page 17 of the images, you'll see a black and white photo on the right with "Life" under it.. click to enlarge, and then as Kerry says, the others come up and you can easily access them.

First a big hello to all Susan's admirors here...

And thank you Jill for the astonishing link.

The photos are wonderful,surprising ...almost all of them unknown to me....what a found...

It made me think of the following...Lana Turner 's daughter has just released a superb coffee table book with hundreds of photos ,most of them unpublished before, on her mother 's carreer.

Wouldn't it be great if Tim Barker, could put together a similar tribute to his legendary mother in the form a beautiful photo book?


If you happen to read this Mr.Barker could you think about it?

Coming back on the "Life photo file " on Susan ,it is again a demonstration of her unique natural beauty : fascinating contrast between the sophisticated posed studio like shots with make up and the open air,"freckles" complexion, striking portraits where her hair is spectacular looking .

There must be some colour shots of this session somewhere too....can you imagine how flamboyant her mane would appear ?


It's weird that "Life" did not use any of these shots then...or am I wrong?


Anyway what a treasure these "new photos " are...and I still hope someone may have the idea and the determination to assemble the definitive coffee table photo book with both color and black and white shots and candids on THE redhead of them alll..... :-)


Again Mister Barker,could you think about it?......



Phil.

Phillipe, just this past week I listened to a one hour radio program on blogtalkradio of Cheryl Crane being interviewed about her book. She was delightful and very interesting. I had thought about Tim when I hear Cheryl speaking. I guess that is just an individual and highly personal decision to make, but as I mentioned, I did have the same thought. I will try and find the interview and post the link. I'm sure everyone will enjoy it you are able to access it.

Click the above link. It should take you directly to the Cheryl Crane interview about her new book on her mother, Lana Turner.

BTW, blog talk radio is the coolest of sites.. check it out if you haven't...lots of fun and interesting listening. I have become so addicted to radio during this past election season. I just gave up on the television media except for one cable station.

Jill, all the photos are fabulous and there are some that I have not seen before. I especially love the photo entitled "The Susan Hayward Room" I was very curious and I looked into it further and found out that there is a bread and breakfast inn in New York City called Chelsea Pines Inn and they have been in business for a long time and it is rated very high. I e-mailed them to find out more information about the room; with all the great actress's in the world, I was so excited that they chose Susan to have her own suite, there was so much I wanted to know about the Room, I hope someone will get back to me. Thanks again Jill for sharing your find.
Best Ray

Guys,

Nadia has ALL of my mother's photos. I'm trying to get her together with Ally so Ally can have some of the same. It will involve a lot of scanning. A book, photo or otherwise...Hmmmmm


Tim Barker

Dear Tim Barker,

Thanks for your quick reaction.

It would be FANTASTIC if you could assemble the definitive photo book (color and B/W ) - like Lana Turner's daughter just brillantly did in a great book- on your mother Susan Hayward.


You would make countless of Susan Hayward's admirors happy and moved all over the world as well as all "general" Hollywood golden age fans.


I keep my fingers crossed!

take care

Philippe.

Thanks Jill for letting us know about this site. Those pictures of Susan with her sons are so cool. Can't get enough of it.