Who doesn't love a dog in spectacles?

December 22, 2011 2:06 PM

I've become mildly obsessed with a photo of Cary Grant reading a script with a poodle that he's equipped with glasses. I want a print of it.

It's this one. I can find any number of copies of it all over tumblr by searching for, say, "cary grant poodle glasses." But I can't seem to track down a source, and what I'd really like is an actual print I could frame and hang above my desk, so that I never forget to look totally awesome and completely intensely serious while doing utterly silly things. But adding "print" to searches gets me nothing; all I can find are endless tumblr and pinterest entries. Anyone know where it comes from, or where, ideally, I could buy it?

posted by Tomorrowful to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

That tumblr you linked credits Photoplay magazine, which is no longer in publication. You might try to contact the tumblr - I assume they scanned the photo themselves, since they credited it to the magazine. Some 1932 issue, page 37.
posted by iconomy at 2:31 PM on December 22, 2011

So, Hollywood has a number of 'photo houses'. This one has a number of photos of Cary, but not the one you are specifically looking for - however I bet they could either get it for you or tell you where to get one.
posted by ladyriffraff at 2:32 PM on December 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

If you can figure out which issue it appeared in, an eBay saved search should let you know when physical copy of the magazine comes up for sale. You can then frame that or scan and duplicate it. The quality won't be as good as a print taken from the negative or an original print, but it will almost certainly be better than what you'd get from printing the tumblr JPG.
posted by caek at 2:40 PM on December 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

Photoplay might not have taken the photo--looks like a publicity shot from the studios. The corner number isn't the date, it's the studio's numbering system. Grant didn't have silver hair in '32.

You can buy it from PhotoShelter.
posted by Ideefixe at 2:48 PM on December 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Ideefixe: PhotoShelter offers it as a low-rez scan (765x1024, not even remotely close to print-size) and all of their options when I go to Add to Cart are corporate-centric; I can get the price down as low as $250 but I'm pretty sure that's to buy the rights to use the jpeg, not to purchase a physical print (or, for that matter, a print-size-friendly image).
posted by Tomorrowful at 3:14 PM on December 22, 2011

Well, you could email the guy at [e-mail] and ask how you can get a print.

Or you could try emailing the Academy Library and seeing if they have it in the Cary Grant photo files, and buying a print from them.

Or look around on the internet for a big version you can print out--email [e-mail] to see where he/she got the one posted.
posted by Ideefixe at 3:29 PM on December 22, 2011

If you're still in Philly, it looks like the central branch of the Free Library has back issues of Photoplay on microforms, if you want to browse them and see if the photo was actually published.
posted by carter at 5:38 PM on December 22, 2011 [1 favorite]