George Hodel and Juliet Man Ray Letters: 1980s Correspondence and a Meeting in Paris

February 7, 2018
Los Angeles, California

“Je me souviens des jours ancients, et je pleure.”   “I remember the old days, and I cry.”

George Hodel in his letter to Juliet Man Ray dated 27 July 1983

Prior to this article, the last public documented communication between the Man Ray’s and George Hodel occurred in the early 1950s and was the postcard response to George from their home in Paris.  (Shown below)  A copy  of which was published in my original investigation, Black Dahlia Avenger (Arcade 2003)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Man Ray photo of Juliet and Dorothy “Dorero” Hodel taken in Hollywood in 1944

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DR. GEORGE HILL HODEL’S JULIET MAN RAY LETTERS  (First Public Publication)

 

In November 1976, Man Ray died in Paris at the age of 86.  His wife, and muse, Juliet then 65, survived him by fifteen years dying in Paris in 1991.

 In October 1980 some four years after Man Ray’s death, Dr. George Hill Hodel, who had been a close personal friend to both  during their “Hollywood Years” (1940-1951) wrote the following letter to Juliet at her home in Paris.

 

Letter 1-  Request for authentication of Man Ray Gift to GHH  (August 7, 1980)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copy of authentication which accompanied letter and was signed by Juliet and returned to GHH in 1980.

 

Letter No. 2-  Mailed to Juliet in Paris on October 6, 1980. (Request for appraisal of Man Ray sculpture)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Letter No. 3   (Two-page letter mailed to Juliet on July 27, 1983 from GHH Penthouse Suite on Manila Bay)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Je me souviens des jours ancients, et je pleure.”  “I remember the old days, and I cry.”
Translation of GHH French statement to Juliet in Letter No.3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Letter No. 4  (February 25, 1984, Mailed to Juliet in Paris from GHH Manila penthouse)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Letter No. 5  (March 25, 1984, mailed to Juliet from Hotel Intercontinental Paris)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In these letters to Juliet GHH states his belief that Filipino artist, Fernando Modesto is destined to become “The Picasso of the East” and has gifted her more than three dozen of his works, clearly hoping for a personal endorsement from Juliet and hopes for a blessing from her artist and gallerist friends in Paris.

(By 1984, GHH had acquired more than 1500 separate drawings and sketches from Modesto, which he had collected through the years.  Many of the works were erotica. I describe “Modesto’s Lovers” in detail in Black Dahlia Avenger which is clearly a macabre reproduction/imitation of Man Ray’s Les Amoureux, The Lovers.  As reported in BDA, June Hodel informed me that George and she hand delivered copies of the Modesto drawings to Juliet when they met in Paris.

This conflicts with my original investigation in BDA where I mention the George/June’s visit to Juliet but believed it occurred after the Modesto Lovers was created which I incorrectly read and  dated as “1986.”

This contradiction in dates has caused me to reexamine the low-resolution photograph I took at June’s apartment back in 1999, a month after my father’s death when I was assisting her to try and catalog the massive Modesto collection.

 In reviewing the drawing, I now see I apparently misread the date which appears to be 1982, just two years BEFORE George and June’s visit with Juliet in Paris. 

Either way, it does not affect what the Modesto Lovers drawing depicts, which, to my eye, is an alternate and highly violent and erotic and macabre version of Man Ray’s original.

In Modesto’s replication, we are shown a much darker theme.  Man Ray’s “Lovers” now have become violent in the extreme.

The woman’s lipstick now appears to be dripping blood, with three erect male phalluses overhead backgrounded with a woman’s vagina and ejaculations. (Male spermatozoa.)  The drawing has been transformed into Sexual Violence and Rape.

 Modesto Lover’s drawing (now believed signed in 1982) compared to Man Ray’s original Les Amoureux (Lovers) 1932

SKH Note:

The  1948 sculpture that GHH refers to in his letters to Juliet which he states was gifted to him from that Man Ray , who called it ” The Eye of the I” was originally exhibited in 1944 as “L’Oculiste”.  The sculpture was put up for auction (Butterfield and Butterfield)  by GHH and June just prior to his death in 1999. Asking price, “$30,000 to $50,000.”  See Butterfield’s full description below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 9, 2018, Update to post:

Received below observation/sourcing from my good friend Mssr. Yves Person in Paris just now. Yves, of course, was the high school teacher that “cracked the code” on the Ogham cipher as published in Most Evil II. (Rare Bird Books 2015)

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