Fred Fehl

Who was Fred Fehl?

Fred Fehl was an American photographer of Viennese birth and upbringing. He was the cousin of the art historian Philipp Fehl and the inventor and Electrical Engineer Paul Eisler.

Fehl escaped from Vienna in 1939 with the assistance of the company he worked for, went to briefly to London, and then to New York City. The first person in America to make a career of performance photography, for over forty years he covered Broadway as well as dance, opera, and music. He was the permanent photographer of the American Ballet Theatre, the New York City Opera, and the New York City Ballet. His pictures have appeared in the New York Times, major national magazines, and in hundreds of books on theater, dance, and music.

Fehl took photographs of over 1,000 Broadway plays. Included are photographs of Shirley Booth, José Ferrer, Judith Anderson, Maurice Evans, Lilli Palmer, Melvyn Douglas, Louis Calhern, Celeste Holm, Helen Hayes, Henry Fonda, Claude Rains, Beatrice Lillie, Rex Harrison, Ethel Merman, Charles Boyer, John Garfield, Ezio Pinza, Mary Martin, Arlene Francis, Eddie Cantor, Gwen Verdon, and Marlon Brando.