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Stars in His Eyes |
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A Poway man photographed Marilyn Monroe, the Beatles and scores of Hollywood celebs — but never published his work. Until now.
LANI CARLSON possesses a valuable autograph or two. In 1934, friend, Horace Mann Junior High classmate and future baseball icon Ted Williams signed Carlson’s yearbook. It’s scrawled in pencil and remains in pristine condition. Just like the business card signed on the back by Harpo Marx. The mostly mute Marx brother even drew a picture of a harp next to his name.
The antique autographs just scrape the surface of a possible gold mine of colorful memorabilia loosely collected in the Poway home of Lani and Daphne Carlson. Married in March 1956, Lani is 90; Daphne is 92. Both are sharper of mind than today’s average teenager. Daphne is slowed by some stomach pains, but that rarely erases the youthful smile from her face. Lani is hard of hearing and needs to point a hearing-aid amplifier at you to hear your questions. But he still ably operates his station wagon, and drives off to pick up a steak dinner before showing a guest his prized collection.
I’d been given a taste of Lani’s photographic treats before the visit to his suburban duplex. But viewing his archival footage gives me the chills. “Whoa” is all I can manage after each picture of Marilyn Monroe pops before my eyes inside an antique Stereo Realist viewer (more on this later). The pictures are from a 1952 party thrown by bandleader Ray Anthony, celebrating a song about Monroe called “Marilyn.”
Lani recalls the fête as if it were last week, not more than half a century ago. Mickey Rooney was on hand — playing drums. Monroe arrived via helicopter. It was months before the movie Niagara, which thrust Monroe into the Hollywood stratosphere, would be released. The blonde starlet wore the same clingy pink dress to the party that she’d shown off in Niagara. Lani had access to parties like these because he was a sound man. His uncle, Albert Stoll, had opened Stoll’s Theatre Supply in the 1920s in downtown San Diego. Lani learned everything he could from three uncles who were in the business and who operated theaters “below Broadway” back in the day. Over the course of a behind-the-scenes-of-show-business career, Lani handled sound at the Santa Anita racetrack, two dozen Rose Bowl games and several Academy Awards ceremonies.
But back in ’52, there he was, face-to-face with Marilyn Monroe.
“I had her all to myself at one point,” says Lani, who speaks loudly and excitedly. “I’d had a couple of shots of bourbon while the helicopter was landing. When she got out, her press guy said, ‘Stay back!’ But I didn’t. I stepped out and said, ‘Chicago Tribune! I have to get this out to AP!’ Man, I’m sure I was drooling. She looked so good in that pink dress. She wasn’t wearing any brassiere.”
Daphne is listening in. “How do you know that?” she asks. Lani can’t hear her. She smiles and adds: “You were highly excited. You probably took a cold shower later.”
“She was at the peak of her career,” continues Lani. “You know, I followed her around for a half-hour to get a shot of her rear end.”
The thing was, Lani wasn’t a photographer for the Chicago Tribune or the Associated Press. He did have a press credential given to him by a friend. And he had basic paparazzi advice: “My friend said, ‘Always step forward and say you have to get the picture out that night.’ ” The stars always seemed to oblige.
But rather than run in newspapers across the nation, Lani’s Who’s Who photos sat tucked away in various corners of his home. Until now.
HIS PHOTO COLLECTION includes color images of Fred Astaire, Ernest Borgnine, Yul Brenner, Doris Day, Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, Liz Taylor and on and on.
The Marilyn photographs are a marquee grouping. Lani shot her and several Academy Awards events with a David White Stereo Realist camera. These heavy, dual-lens cameras create a three-dimensional effect. Remember View Masters, with those wheeled photo disks you click around? The Marilyn photos, when seen through a special viewer, jump right out at you. These one-of-a-kind pictures exude remarkable depth and clarity that can’t be fully reproduced in print. It’s like looking into a museum diorama.
After working for Langevin, ABC and then the Hilton and Caesars resorts in Las Vegas, in 1956 Lani went to work for Capitol Records. In 1965, when the Beatles were promoting their movie Help!, Lani also had his camera at the ready. He has more than a dozen believed-to-be Fab Four exclusives. Lani recalls George Harrison being the nicest Beatle. “He talked to me,” says Lani. “He liked America. And he was interested in the equipment we were using.”
The cameras were never around over the years Lani worked with Elvis Presley. But the stories abound. There was the day it took Elvis 41 takes to record a song for one of his early movies. Another time, Lani accidentally knocked Elvis to the ground just as he was about to take the stage. And once, a diamond ring on The King’s finger snagged a cord and caused the finger to bleed. Someone tossed the ring to Lani while Elvis sought medical attention.
“Nobody came looking for the ring, and my buddies told me to keep it,” says Lani. “But nah, that was probably a $10,000 ring.” He gave it back.
His stories are seemingly unending. Lani grimaces as he recalls tales of show-business folks who tried to stiff him after his friend Dick Powell got him gigs, including bandleader Jimmy Dorsey and ventriloquist Edgar Bergen.
Lani doesn’t know what his photographic memories are worth (not to mention rare sound recordings, including a singing performance by seldom-speaking Harpo Marx, and some offcolor tomfoolery by Bob Hope).
What might he expect to make on the open market? Daphne speaks up, but she’s not very specific. “Just some money,” she says. “I lived through the Depression, and I worked for a dollar a day at a five-and-dime store. But we always spent our money, and we just went everywhere on our boat.”
The Carlsons have befriended Dale Picolla, who just started Bugle Boy Vintage Audio in Normal Heights. Picolla is acting as an agent and working with a legal representative trying to market Lani’s photos.
“The best-case scenario is that we find someone who recognizes the value here,” says Picolla. “Someone with contacts who can capitalize on licensing the images.” He says a single Marilyn image used in an advertising campaign once sold for $150,000.
Lani would like to lend some of his local photos to a historical museum. Most of the Hollywood shots remind him of animated stories. When he thumbs through his San Diego memories, though, the former sound man — who now can barely hear — grows reflective: “You know, back in my eighties, all my buddies were starting to die. So I started looking back in my yearbook. I thought about the lives people led. And with all the careers I’ve had, I thought, ‘I’ve had a pretty interesting life.’ ”
Daphne smiles. “We went to his 50th high school reunion,” she says. “We were driving home and he said, ‘Everybody looks so old.’ I told him, ‘That’s how we look now, too.’ ”
For more images from Lani Carlson’s collection, go to “Web Exclusives” on sandiegomagazine.com. Anyone with interest in Lani Carlson’s photo collection can contact Dale Picolla at 619-599- 5284.
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