Florence Meyer Homolka (January 22, 1911 – November 27, 1962) was an American portrait photographer and socialite. She was married to the actor Oscar Homolka.
Florence Meyer Homolka | |
|---|---|
 Photo of Meyer by Man Ray | |
| Born | Florence Meyer January 22, 1911 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | November 27, 1962 (aged 51) Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Portrait photographer and socialite |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Parents |
|
| Relatives | Katharine Graham (sister) Marc Eugene Meyer (grandfather) Joseph Newmark (great-grandfather) |
Early life and education
editShe was born in New York City, the eldest daughter of Eugene Meyer (1875–1959), future publisher of the Washington Post, and Agnes Elizabeth (Ernst) Meyer (1887–1970).[1] Along with her four siblings, she was baptized as a Lutheran but attended an Episcopal church.[2]
She attended the Madeira School[3] and Bryn Mawr College,[1] graduated from Radcliffe College.[4]
Photography
editMeyer photographed numerous artists, playwrights, actors, writers, composers, musicians, statesmen, film stars, and other celebrities of her day. Her work included portraits of Van Cliburn,[5] James Agee, Thomas Mann, Constantin Brâncuși, Charlie Chaplin, Judy Garland, Vladimir Horowitz, Lion Feuchtwanger, Arnold Schoenberg, Christopher Isherwood and of fellow photographers Edward Steichen, Walker Evans, and Brassaï.[6]
Meyer was a close friend and protégée of Man Ray, and in 1946 took the photographs for the double wedding portraits of Man Ray and Juliet Browner, and Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning.[7] Meyer exhibited her photographs at the Palos Verdes Art Gallery in 1950[8] and at Los Angeles City Hall in 1952.[9]
Meyer played the Juggler and the Priestess of the Golden Calf in the original Broadway cast of Kurt Weill's The Eternal Road (1937).[4] She was the author of Focus on Art, published posthumously in 1962, with a foreword by Aldous Huxley.[10]
Personal life
editIn 1939, Meyer married the widowed Austrian character actor Oscar Homolka (1898–1978).[4][11] They had two sons, Vincent and Laurence. They divorced in 1946,[12] but the financial details of the divorce were contested as late as 1952.[13] She died from a respiratory attack in Santa Monica in 1962, at the age of 51.[14]
References
edit- ^ a b "Florence Meyer is Debutante". The San Francisco Examiner. January 2, 1929. p. 16. Retrieved December 26, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Zweigenhaft, Richard L. and G. William Domhoff The New CEOs : Women, African American, Latino, and Asian American Leaders of Fortune 500 Companies Published: March 18, 2014 |Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
- ^ "Wedding in Mt. Kisco for Florence Meyer; Publisher's Daughter Is Bride of Oscar Homolka, Actor". The New York Times. August 22, 1939. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
- ^ a b c "Florence Meyer Married to Actor at Parents' Home". Poughkeepsie Eagle-News. August 22, 1939. p. 5. Retrieved December 26, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Homolka, Florence Meyer (c. 1958). "Van Cliburn" (photograph), National Portrait Gallery.
- ^ "Florence Meyer (Homolka) by Man Ray". Getty Collection Online. October 25, 1946. Retrieved July 31, 2015.
- ^ La Force, Thessaly (May 20, 2021). "When Two Artists Meet, and Then Marry". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
- ^ "Exhibit Tea". Palos Verdes Peninsula News. November 16, 1950. p. 1. Retrieved December 26, 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
- ^ "Photo Exhibit To Open Monday At Tower Gallery". Palos Verdes Peninsula News. July 24, 1952. p. 6. Retrieved December 26, 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
- ^ Homolka, Florence (1962). Focus on Art. I. Obolensky. ISBN 978-0-8392-1034-4.
- ^ "Actor Weds Florence Meyer". The Daily Item. August 22, 1939. p. 6. Retrieved December 26, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Hubby Didn't Want to be Married". Daily News. August 10, 1946. p. 52. Retrieved December 26, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Actor Homolka, ex-wife settle suit". Daily News. May 3, 1952. p. 6. Retrieved December 26, 2022 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
- ^ "Mrs. Florence Homolka, 51, Daughter of Eugene Meyer". The New York Times. November 28, 1962. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
External links
edit- Getty Museum biography
- Florence Meyer at IMDb
- Florence Meyer at Playbill Vault
- Man Ray (1946), "Vincent, Florence, Larry Homolka" (photograph), Centre Pompidou
