Roman Freulich - Studio Portrait of Tala Birell AP1484

 Hardly remembered today, this astonishingly beautiful woman, in some ways a cross between both Garbo and Dietrich, passed through Hollywood in the 30s and 40s, and we are left with a few films and some gorgeous images. Measures 10 1/2" x 13 1/2". Roman Freulich was born in Poland and at age 14 immigrated to the United States to join his brothers. Freulich trained with New York photographer Samuel Lumiere. In the mid-1920s Freulich moved to Hollywood, where his brother Jack was a portrait photographer at Universal Pictures. Roman Freulich became a still photographer at Universal, shooting many of their major stars. He remained at Universal until 1944 when he was offered a position at Republic Studios as head of its still department. In the late 1950s, after Republic ceased production, Freulich freelanced, mostly for United Artists, until the mid-1960s. Natalie Bierl, known as Tala Birell (1907, Bucharest - Romania; 1958, Landsthul - Germany), nickname Talusha, was born to a German coup