Russ Meyer - Early Years

Early Years

Russ Meyer was born in San Leandro, California to William Arthur Meyer, a German-American Oakland police officer, and his wife Lydia Lucinda Hauck. His parents divorced shortly after he was born, and Meyer was to have virtually no contact with his father during his life. When he was fourteen years old, his mother pawned her wedding ring in order to buy him an 8mm film camera. He made a number of amateur films at the age of 15, and served during World War II as a U.S. Army combat cameraman for the 166th Signal Photo Company. In the Army Meyer forged his strongest friendships, and he would later ask many of his fellow combat cameramen to work on his films. Much of Meyer's work during World War II can be seen in newsreels and in the film Patton (1971). On his return to civilian life, he was unable to secure cinematography work in Hollywood due to a dearth of industry connections. He made industrial films, freelanced as a still photographer for mainstream films (he did the still photography for Giant), and became a well known glamour photographer whose work included some of the initial shoots for Hugh Hefner's Playboy magazine. Meyer would go on to shoot three Playboy centerfolds during the magazine's early years, one of his wife Eve Meyer in 1955. He also shot a pictorial of then-wife Edy Williams in March 1973.