Abbe, James

July 17, 1883 - November 1, 1973

a pioneer photojournalist and later a television columnist for the Oakland Tribune, was born in Alfred, Maine in July 17,1883 and died in San Francisco in 1973. He was 90.

He grew up in Virginia and worked for newspapers and magazines, photographing many of the stars and political leaders of New York, Paris, London, Berlin, Madrid, and Moscow in the 1920s and 30s.

His portraits of Charlie Chaplin, Tyrone Power, Gloria Swanson, Cecil B. De Mille, and others were famous. 

But he went on to cover breaking news, recording the Spanish Civil War, the Nazis' rise to power, and events in the Soviet Union. His 1932 portrait of Joseph Stalin was used to stop rumors that the dictator was dead. Many of Abbe's works are owned by major museums.

By the 1940s, Abbe had become a radio broadcaster in San Francisco, and in 1950 he was one of the nation's first television columnists, writing for the Oakland Tribune until 1962 when he retired at 80. He was the author of I Photograph Russia (1934). Stars of the Twenties, a collection of his work, was posthumously published in 1975.