Gerry Mulligan, 1953

Bob Willoughby was the first "outside" photographer hired by the major Hollywood studios to create photographs for the magazines, and was the link between the filmmakers and major magazines of the time, such as Life and Look. Given an Argus C-3 camera for his twelfth birthday, he was provided with the catalyst for what would become the key to his future. After high school, he studied cinema at night at the USC Cinema Department and design at the Kahn Institute of Art. At the same time he apprenticed with a number of Hollywood photographers gleaning technical and business know-how. His first magazine assignments were for Harper’s Bazaar in the early '50s when famed art director Alexey Brodovitch became aware of his work. His career took off in 1954 when Warner Bros. asked him to photograph Judy Garland’s final scene on the set of A Star Is Born.