*Clarence S. Bull with Ava Gardner, May 9, 1955. [2022.005A.0923 THM]*

Clarence Sinclair Bull, a world-renowned photographer, was born in Sun River, Montana in 1896. From humble beginnings, he rose to be the head of the photograph department at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in Hollywood. In an interview with the Great Falls Tribune in 1964, Bull told of his journey from ranch kid to shooting stars:

“Before we left the ranch I was exposed to photography. An aunt from Glendive came to visit us when I was about 10 years old. We had a partly completed house, with a ladder fastened to the front. She took some pictures of the place. When they came back, the ladder was gone. That got me. I hadn’t heard about retouching.”

Bull completed grade school in Sun River and went to high school in Great Falls. In high school, Bull sold Saturday Evening Post and other magazines to earn money to buy his first camera from the Murphy-Maclay Hardware store in Great Falls.

“First thing I photographed was a ladder against a building, but the ladder was still there when I the prints, I still hadn’t heard of about retouching. After school hours in Great Falls, I did chores for the Ridgley Calendar Co. which was printing Charlie Russell’s paintings. I met Russell, who encouraged me to paint or sketch, but we both gave up.”

*Charles M. Russell seated next to Will Rogers, 1921, photo by Clarence Sinclair Bull. [2022.005A.0612 THM]*

When he graduated, he then went to the University of Michigan. There he worked for a photographer. He bought a Graflex camera and on vacations in Sun River would make money from taking action shots.

“I had learned how to operate a motion picture camera. In fact, I was tossed off the football field at the University of Michigan for going out with the players to cover the game. But I was given a $75 bonus for my shots. That sold me on photography.”

A friend recommended he go out to Hollywood, and he became a cameraman for the old Metro Co. Studios. When a merger formed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Co. he was offered the still photo department. He ran the department for the next 30 years until his retirement in 1961. During that time, he also invented and maid improvements on existing photographic equipment like a new type of lens shade, an improved shutter synchronizer, a camera monostand, a film washing machine, a negative numbering and identifying system and a color background process.

After his retirement, Bull put out a book in 1968, “The Faces of Hollywood,” and was working on a second when he passed in 1979.