the artist represented him as an example of 'one of the world's freest of thinkers.' Man Ray worshiped what he believed was Sade's complete freedom from convention, from the morals society imposes, and even from the constraints of literary taste. It is believed that while in Paris in the early 1920s, Man Ray was asked to photograph, for preservation purposes, a rare original handwritten manuscript by Sade entitled
Man Ray's fame increased as his camera lens continued to capture many of the world's rich and famous personalities, including Virginia Woolf, Henri Matisse, Coco Chanel, Henry Miller, Salvador Dali, and Pablo Picasso. Portraits, however, while a nice source of income, were not really what Man Ray claimed to be about. He was an artist, a very special artist. But now, with the shadow of war lengthening across Europe, he felt it was time to go home.
After his successful one-man show in Los Angeles in 1935, Man Ray decided to settle in L.A. Perhaps he was also attracted to the home of the film industry because he had experimented in filmmaking in Paris. He arrived in Hollywood in November 1940. His artistic return was not auspicious. In 1941, he had a museum show in L.A. that was not well received. The
Man Ray's reverence for Sade is documented again and again throughout his works. A 1933 silver-print photograph entitled
To say that Man Ray was a devoted sadist, both aesthetically and philosophically, is an understatement. He never made any attempt to conceal his beliefs regarding the subjugation and humiliation of women. On the contrary, he revelled in depicting them as objects and playthings for the true sensualist because, like Sade, he believed women exist for man's pleasure, which is only enhanced through the humiliation, degradation, and infliction of pain upon them.
Exactly where and how Man Ray and Juliet met Mother and Father I do not know. Most likely they met shortly after his arrival from France, although one unconfirmed report has it that Father originally met Man Ray in New York when he was living and visiting Mother and John Huston in the Village in 1928.
That these four — Man Ray, Juliet, George, and Dorero — would meet was almost inevitable. They were all sensualists; their own likes and strong desires must have drawn them as moths to the same single flame of passion. To Father life itself was surreal, a dream in which each man made up and lived by his own rules and within his own world. Like the sinister Aleister Crowley's 'Black Magician' from the turn of the twentieth century, my hither conducted his life according to the dictum 'Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.'
The first of our family photographs by Man Ray that I am aware of were taken in 1944, when we lived on Valentine Street in Elysian Park, the neighborhood where Dodger Stadium stands today, just a hardball throw from downtown. From 1945 until the fall of 1949, both Man Ray and Juliet were regular partygoers at the Franklin House, where Dad's guests could relax and indulge themselves in cocktails, a courtesan, or plenty of cocaine.
During these years, Man Ray took a number of photographs at the Franklin House and several formally posed portraits of my mother at his residence-studio on Vine Street, just a few blocks away and directly across the street from the landmark Hollywood Ranch Market. In some of these photographs Mother was alone; in others, she posed with Juliet. In 1946, Man Ray gave Mother and Dad a self-portrait as a gift, which he would later use as the cover for his autobiography,
His inscription to my parents on the photograph reads:
To Dorero and George — and my homage as I am pleased when I am asked for my phiz — so much more than when I am asked for a portrait of a greater celebrity. I celebrate you.
Man
In 1947, just a few months after the murder of Elizabeth Short and while the investigation was at its most heated, Man Ray left Hollywood for Paris. He later returned and remained in Hollywood through 1950, when both he and Juliet returned to Paris and established permanent residence there until his death in November 1976.
The influence of Man Ray on George Hodel cannot be underestimated. Already an amateur photographer of some note, my father admired and looked up to the world-famous Man Ray. Despite his plethora of professions and accomplishments, in his heart of hearts, George Hodel aspired to be an artist.
* After building the Sowden home in 1926, Lloyd Wright's next architectural endeavor (1927-28) would be to design the prototype shells for what has become one of Los Angeles's most recognizable icons, the Hollywood Bowl. This magnificent amphitheater is located only two miles west of the Franklin House.
The Hollywood Scandal
DESPITE HER FOURTEEN YEARS, our half-sister Tamar could have doubled for the young Marilyn Monroe, who the following year would launch her career in John Huston's
What was most striking about Tamar was her physical maturity. She easily passed for someone in her early twenties. And that's exactly how she acted. Bright and strong-willed, she hungered for attention and affection and sought it any way she could find it, particularly by being seductive with boys and men. She had become too much for her mother to handle, 'uncontrollable and incorrigible and it was time for her father to take over,' as her mother put it. So Tamar came to L.A. and became part of the family. By the end of 1949, life, as we had known and enjoyed it, was over.
The floating sounds of people partying across the courtyard from my room at the Franklin House grew louder night after night during the summer of 1949. So did the sound of my parents fighting: their raised voices would echo through the corridors at night.
Then suddenly, on October 1, 1949, Tamar ran away from the Franklin House and disappeared. Dad tried to search for her privately at first, contacting her friends and schoolmates and visiting her known hangouts to see if anyone had seen her. But after coming up empty, Dad was forced to notify the police. A formal missing persons report was filed and two days later she was found hiding at a girlfriend's home.
