Gary Cooper: Off Camera
A Look Inside
Why yet another book about Hollywood?
So many people have constantly asked me “ What was it like growing up in Hollywood” and the variation…"What was it like being Gary Cooper’s daughter?” Frankly I know what people want to hear is the “gossip”, and that is not the book I would ever write. I respect my family and their friends and their privacy — public figures that they were. I felt it was not up to me to tell all I know. But I did feel it was up to me to tell our family story and to show that there is the possibility of a positive, high profile family story.
As my Fathers life was one of pictures, of images, what better way to try to communicate and share some of the incredible parts of that life with pictures. Thanks to my Mother’s great discipline and great "eye” with a camera, she started keeping photo albums - carefully labeled, from the time before their marriage in 1933 going forward through my fathers death in 1961.So this book is in large part hers, thanks to the ways she captured our lives at home, traveling, dressed up and dressed down, Rocky (Veronica) kept this visual journal and journey through the many years of fame and fun, family and friends, adventures and travels… the beginning of their life together and the completion of it…
There are several professional photographers which are gratefully acknowledged in this back of the book, and my thanks to Bobbi Baker Burrows for helping me with Life magazine archives which she so beautifully and creatively ran. Cameras capture our moments in time—of joy and of difficulty, and we should not forget any of it if we want to try to be truthful. I can’t believe the years condensed into these pages. And don’t we all have a twinge when we see our own family personal photos?
Gary Cooper off camera was a beautiful human being both externally (obvious) and internally. How blessed I was to have had a father and mother who create the most incredible, exciting and solid atmosphere for a child to grow up in—and that in the middle of all the "Hollywood Hoopla'', fame and streets awash with mixed values. Theirs never wavered, and I hoped this book would share a little of the sense of the best that that kind of life is capable of being.
Family! We were very close and always grateful for the gifts that had been given from above.
“Never forget”, my Father would say, “Life doesn’t owe you a Goddamn thing!” "Work and give back in your own way as best you can”.
I have daily gratitude for all those gifts. Especially the gift of real Love.
Maria Cooper Janis
What daughter wouldn’t love that sweet moment captured in time? It was on the location set of the iconic western movie "High Noon." My father is in costume as the Marshall of Hadleyville . The cast and crew were taking a much needed ‘break in shooting after a long, hot, dusty day. My father strolled over to a little ice creme vendor cart and shared this cooling treat with his teen age daughter—me!!
A favorite photo taken by my great uncle Cedric Gibbons – the Art Director of MGM for 36 years (and the person who designed the OSCAR). My father is young, handsome, with the sensitivity that was characteristic of his acting already showing in his face. According to his mother, Alice Cooper, his looks harked back to a cousin in England. They obviously shared the good looks gene, but not sadly the good health one. Cousin Cooper died at age 104 and only because he stepped on a nail and got tetanus poisoning… My father, not so lucky, died at age 60 from smoking!
Ernest Hemingway, my mother Rocky, and father.
The famous Slim Aarons photo, "The Kings of Hollywood." Taken at New Years Eve celebration at Romanoff's restaurant.
Moments to remember of our meetings with Pablo Picasso and the “charged” energy around him. Here, he's signing one of his ceramic lamp designs which he then gave to my mother.
What an evening at home was like in our favorite corner of a very large living room where we relaxed, watched television, talked and played with our 4 footed friends, one of whom you see showing off for my father, while my mother and I worked on needlepoint pillows.
A family portrait. My mother organized this photo shoot at home as we never had a formal “family “ picture even with all the thousands of images taken. We knew my father was seriously ill, but this picture captured a moment of our unique and wonderful life together.
Being out in nature or behind the wheel of his favorite cars was when Gary Cooper was at his happiest. This special “souped up” Jaguar was part of his stable.
Did I realize how scary what he did for a living was? Guess that's why I was not allowed to see my father in a movie until I was 7 years old. He did a majority of his own stunts and was a beautiful rider.
A party at home. We all had the great pleasure of hearing Sammy Davis Jr. serenade us after dinner. He had recently moved to Hollywood and in this photo joined in an after dinner jam session that often happened around our piano —making music with some of our friends like Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra or Tony Martin.
Can you guess which young man is Gary? (He was still called Frank James Cooper at the time this photo was taken.)
We always had dogs and other animals. It was like a little farm in Brentwood of old; circa 1936.
A favorite weekend getaway: riding on the beaches near Malibu. They kept the horses up in the hills and it was a welcome gallop on the sand at the edge of the surf. It looks like my mother was enjoying the special attention of her husband.
I see this photo and actually remember the moment as we sat on the stones and looked out over the beginnings of the Grand Canyon.
Arno, our beloved boxer, a sweetheart. Notice my father is wearing his favorite shoes - the Indian moccasins he made for himself and for my mother and I.
Sketching with my father on the rocks near Antibes in the south of France. I loved when we were both able to sit together and draw.
Sketching my father while he was waiting for his next shot while filming his last movie in London, The Naked Edge.
One of our “family concerts.” The harmonica sound obviously got to Arno and Gretel’s ears and made them compete for the loudest howl!
Tony Quinn and my father having a ball on location.
My 21st birthday. A family birthday tradition for me from my mother and father: a bouquet of Lilly of the valley and sweetheart roses.
Father speaking to the troops in the South Pacific during WW2. They all wanted him to recite the baseball great Lou Gehrig’s famous farewell speech.
My father sitting by the river that ran through the bottom of his family’s ranch. I wonder what his memories were bringing into focus.
A special moment in all our lives — an audience with Pope Pius the 12th.
One of our wonderful family vacations visiting the magnificent Parthenon in Greece. We were always prepared, camera in hand, for special moments of beauty to capture.
Gary Cooper and Avril Harriman – future Gov. of NYC, but then responsible for starting the famed resort of Sun Valley. He and my father wearing their “Swiss Baggies.” Not exactly the GQ fashion standards of skiing today!
My father and Pablo Picasso having fun teasing everybody by wearing their funny glasses. Picasso liked to challenge guests to “joke “ around.
My mother took up surfing guided by her friend, the English actor Peter Lawford. Through his young surfing friends who developed the lightweight fiberglass surfboards, we all were able to carry this new era of boards ourselves.
