Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/461818
photography by getty images Model Valerie Thon was just one of the notables who posed for Maurice and Seymour Zeldman in their famed Streeterville studio. Brothers Maurice and Seymour Zeldman emigrated from Russia to Chicago as teenagers, and the budding photographers didn't waste any time pursuing their American dream, combining their names to open Maurice Seymour Studio on top of the St. Clair Hotel in 1929. Thanks to their shared talent behind the lens, the brothers' Streeterville hotel studio soon became a Hollywood haven filled with celebrities and fashion icons like Harry Belafonte, Bob Hope, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, and prima ballerina Alicia Markova as well as renowned models of the day, like Valerie Thon. "It was a show-business hotel, and all the celebrities playing at the clubs wanted to get their photo taken at Dad's studio," says 78-year-old Ron Seymour, the younger son of Maurice Zeldman, an established photographer in his own right who until recently lived and worked in Wicker Park. What remains of the historic studio—originally called The Roof Garden penthouse suite and which later housed the Chicago Press Club inside the hotel at 162 East Ohio (now called Inn of Chicago)—is an open terrace and seven remodeled suites on the building's 22nd floor. As Seymour remembers it, "When you got off the elevator, their stu- dio was to the left and to the right was a garden, rooftop bar, and tables. There was always a cocktail party, and it was always very glamorous." When Seymour Zeldman later moved to New York, both men legally changed their names to Maurice Seymour, each continuing to photograph under the same name. Even today, Seymour says he can't tell if a photo was shot by his father or his uncle, since their styles mirrored each other. "What set them apart from other photographers was their dramatic lighting," Seymour says. The brothers shot using "hot lights" (continuous lights that don't f lash), backlighting their subjects, as their 8x10-view revolving-back camera could capture a more dramatic, iconic look that, decades later, celebrities still love. Notes Seymour, who owns the copyright to all the brothers' remaining photo- graphs, "I constantly get calls from people about the photographs they made." It's a testament to the Zeldmans that, although the Maurice Seymour Studio is a thing of the past, its legacy is alive and well. MA Pretty as a Picture More than 85 years ago, the Maurice seyMour studio Made its Mark on the fashion scene by capturing chicago's Most glaMorous MoMents. by dawn reiss 12 michiganavemag.com FRONT RUNNER