C e leb ri l

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SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to the Jewish News

I

f Albert Einstein thought the best photo
ever taken of him was done by Philippe
Halsman, perhaps it's because the famed
photographer had the deepest understand-
ing of Einstein's character.
Einstein rescued Halsman — perhaps saved
Halsman's life — twice.
The first time occurred in 1930, two years after
Halsman went on an Austrian hiking trip with his
father, Max Halsman, who fell and died during
that outing. The son was quickly accused and con-
victed of murder without evidence or motive
because of the anti-Semitic court environment.
Only with the intervention of Einstein and other
influential Jews was the sentence commuted.
The second incident took place in 1940, when
Halsman was living in France and threatened by
the Nazis. Halsman, born in Latvia, could not get a
visa to enter the United States until Einstein inter-
ceded in his behalf.
"Einstein, in his later years, kept his Halsman
portrait on his living room piano and always
referred to it as his favorite photograph," says Julie
Mellby, associate curator of graphic art at the
Toledo Museum of Art, where an exhibit of
Halsman's celebrity images will be shown Nov. 14-
Jan. 9. Besides including the Einstein photo, the

Top right• . Paul Newman and
Joanne Woodward (1963)
Left to right, center: Woody Allen (1969);
Barbra Streisand (1965); Lauren Bacall (1944);
Sammy Davis Jr. (1955)
Above: Sid Caesar (1950)
Left: Groucho Marx (1952)
"Every face I see seems to hide — and sometimes,
fleetingly, to reveal — the mystery of another
human being. Capturing this revelation became
the goal and passion of my life," wrote Halsman.

11/12
1999

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