Loraine J. Rice ~ Actress - Model

Talent Enterprises was a local talent agency owned by Ruth Foreman. It would be another ten years or so before Miam Vice really put North Miami's motion picture and television prodection facilities on the map but Ivan Tors Studios had buit a huge sound stage, another one was about a mile away, and we had movie equipment rental companies an recording studios, even a film lab.

That all meant that a lot of folks had dreams of becoming a star! They'd sign with a talent agency and then have to get a composite with a bunch of photographs showing them in various outfits and locations. I was one of the photographers Ruth Foreman used to refer them to. Lorraine had hers made up at a print shop, an accordian fold affair comprising six pages. Most weren't nearly as fancy.

Along the way I picked up a couple of bit parts but my movie career went noplace. Very few ever do.

The North Miami Strangler?

Actually they were both actors. I shot this in the field behind Ruth Foreman's Playhouse on N.E. 123rd St. here in North Miami. She had a theater there, including a childrens' theater, and also ran a talent agency for models and actors. I was hired to shoot some pictures for this guy's portfolio. After nearly forty years my memory is a bit hazy on details but I seem to recall that he was trying out for a part in a movie where he'd be playing a character similar to this. The girl also wanted some photos for her portfolio I have no idea what happened to the two of them.

The theater is just memories now. Ruth Foreman died twenty years ago this week. She was well enough known to warrant an obituary in the New York Times http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE5DD153CF937A15752C1A96E948260

I was always fascinated by ultra wide angle lenses and used a 19mm Canon lens on my Leica for this shot. This was scanned off of a print I made back then, and I have to say that today's Tri-X has changed a lot over the years from what it used to be. It's a lot less grainy than it was years ago, but you don't really notice the difference when they claim "New! Improved!" every year or two. The cumulative changes sure add up though. Tri-X today sure ain't your Daddy's Tri-X.