Gary Lewis
Gary Lewis was born Gary Louis Aloian in St. Louis, Missouri in
1952. He was struck by the bright lights of Tinseltown at a very early age. He
visited Hollywood with his mother and her girlfriend, an avid starstruck
scatterbrain who thought she could be the next Clara Bow or Marilyn Monroe.
Around age 5, Gary's mother and her friend took him to The Garden Of Allah
Hotel on the Sunset Strip, famed haunt of the most elusive film stars and owned
by Alla Nazimova silent screen goddess. After touring the bungalows on the
property, Gary got his first view of a nude woman at the pool and was
then whisked away from the hotel and back to St. Louis. But Gary was now
starstruck himself. Visiting Hollywood at 10, he marveled at Disneyland. A
couple of years later at age 12 he met Natalie Wood on the Santa Monica Pier
filming, Inside Daisy Clover, and became a lifelong friend of Natalie's.
An ecstatic Gary received photos that Natalie sent him when her first daughter,
Natasha was born returning home from high school in St. Louis. Gary was now
definitely celebrity crazy taking photos everytime he visited Los Angeles.
Back in St. Louis, he attended St. Louis University High School (SLUH) but
realizing he was 210 pounds and in his opinion TOO FAT for Hollywood, he went
on a crash diet and within four months weighed in at 98 pounds. He could now
fit in the designer clothes in the windows of expensive stores on Rodeo Drive,
but little did he or anyone realize not only was he the first anorexic, before
anyone knew the word, but actually was the first MALE anorexic not talked about
even today except in movies with Matthew McConaughey or Christian Bale where
they were required to lose extreme amounts of weight. Now feeling like
he was a better fit for Hollywood, Gary played hookey from grade school
going to Ann-Margret's 1967 opening at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas and
Elvis's 1968 opening at the International Hotel also in Sin City. Lewis played
hookey throughout grade school and high school always getting those notes from
home that sickness was the cause of his truancy. Upon graduating from high
school in St. Louis, Gary picked a Jesuit college, Loyola University in
Westchester by LAX to attend so he could be closer to his celebrity subjects.
After becoming friends with Nancy Anderson, west coast editor for Photoplay
Magazine, during his jaunts to Hollywood, he was now getting assignments from
Photoplay shooting home layouts of celebrities and his photos graced the covers
and inside pages of the magazine. Gary had also become quite adept at spying on
celebrities and delighted in taking long lens photos of stars such as Elvis
& Priscilla Presley, Steve McQueen, Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, etc.
without their knowledge becoming one of the very first known paparazzi. One star
knew Lewis had incriminating photos and even sent hired goons to relinquish the
photos. Gary didn't comply. Lewis whose photos appeared in Rolling Stone when
it was just a newspaper, almost got John Lennon deported back to England after
Lennon roughed him up outside the Troubadour nightclub in West Hollywood. Later
Lewis became the ever present scathing rant of Starsky & Hutch's,
David Soul in a TV Guide cover story. However on the flip side of the coin,
Bruce Springsteen would sing Lewis's praises even called him his Paparazzi Pal.
Rona Barrett, gossip queen in the 60's and 70's Hollywood, took notice of Lewis
and used him to write juicy celebrity stories with photos to go along with the
articles. During this time, Lewis became the personal photographer of Roger
Davis who starred in the television series Dark Shadows, replaced Peter
Duel in Alias Smith & Jones when Pete committed suicide on New Year's Eve,
1971, and was Jaclyn Smith's first husband when she was known only as the Breck
Girl.Getting. Blindsided with trying to attend classes at Loyola
University and always on call for a celebrity stakeout or shooting photos on
the soundstages of L.A. or on remote locations, college came to an end after
two years. Now Lewis could concentrate on what he loved the most, celebrities.
Lewis between supplying gossip and photos to Rona Barrett for her
Metromedia channel 11 television show and her fan magazines, working with
Photoplay Magazine, and shooting on film sets had a lot on his plate. Gary
later became Lindsay Wagner's photographer at Universal on Bionic Woman and her
television special, Another Side Of Me in the mid-seventies to early 80's. In
the mid-eighties the Hollywood of fan magzines took a backseat and Lewis became
a lone wolf continuing to represent his own photos for sale but branching out
into television shows. Lewis's photos can be seen in many E! Entertainment True
Hollywood Stories and E! even did a spotlight segment highlighting Lewis and
his photography and selling skills. Presently Lewis still shoots photos,
reluctantly a lot of times since he no longer feels that star magnetism and
charisma in the personalities he is forced to photograph. He is quite saddened
by the turn the film business has taken. However, Gary Lewis relished his life
today for the mere fact he has had the honor to meet and photograph so many
truly great celebrities and even became friends with a few. Celebrities who had
humility and kindness not only to their co-workers but also their fans. How
refreshing those great celebrities had no plastic surgery, piercings, or
tattoos. Lewis would be the first to tell you he's had a helluva life and he
wouldn't trade it for anything.
See all photos by Gary Lewis