SPARTAN OF HOLLYWOOD

aka Konstantine or Constantine

His name was Konstantine (which is sometimes spelled with a C - Constantine). He was originally a dance photographer (ballet). He took a few nudes of some of the dancers but we have no idea who or if they were stars or just the chorus members (probably the latter). He was rumored to be a student of George Platt Lynes (which I doubt, Lynes NEVER let outsiders anywhere near his studio). I assume he was doing fairly well in that field but apparently he had an overwhelming desire to become a "boy" photographer as they were then called. Anyway, he came to Hollywood and somehow met Frederick (Fred) Kovert, who took him on as one of the many, many, many photographers of Kovert Of Hollywood.

Again, much like the notorious Bob Anthony (who never picked up a camera in his life!) the gossip had it Kovert only bought photos or hired other photographers to do the work. One of my friends Cecil (C.C.) Hills was another Kovert photographer and confirmed that Kovert did NO photography. Kovert, BTW, was also an actor (started in SILENT FILMS) and for a time was also a fairly well known drag-queen! Kovert's studio was a store front on Melrose Ave in Hollywood (now West Hollywood) just a couple of blocks East of Fairfax. He had full frontal nudes on the walls as you walked in (like Lon of New York had in his walk-in studio). However, unlike New York, LA was definitely NOT READY for those kinds of displays. He was arrested in '45 or '46. (One of the very first physique photographers to be busted.)

All the photographers (or at least most of them) left and started their own "studios". That was when Konstantine started Spartan. He did take full frontal nudes but was very very discreet about them (you had to "know someone" before he'd show them to you). His little enterprise didn't last all that long and from there everyone he knew lost track of him. Where went, what he did...no one seems to know. Alive? Dead? Again, no one knows. That's all we were able to find out (about Spartan), except that he had absolutely NO CONNECTION to the Spartan Film Company which came much later.