Multiple exposure photograph of LIFE photographer Marie Hansen handling a camera, running & crouching as she would do on assignment. (Photo by Gjon Mili/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)
LIFE’S third female staff photographer, Marie Hansen (c. 1918-1969) covered the White House, politics and Hollywood. MGM producer Joe Pasternak was so taken with her that he wanted to make a movie based on her ‘exotic’ identity: the woman photojournalist. Pasternak persuaded Hansen to take a screen test in which she smooched with film star Walter Pidgeon. However, she turned down a movie studio contract because she felt more comfortable on the other side of the lens.
—Adapted from The Great LIFE Photographers
Congressmen posing on the front steps of the Capitol Building. (Photo by Marie Hansen/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)
Children playing on the beach, 1946. (Photo by Marie Hansen/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)
Huge crowd gathered in the surf and amp; at the beach in front of Coney Island Amusement Park. (Photo by Marie Hansen/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)
