Jhanak
The wedding album is held together by tape and old binding on my desk. However, it is much more than a family heirloom. It’s a time capsule that brings the Golden Age of Hollywood to life.
The date was June 14, 1959. My mother, rising movie star Barbara Rush, married my father, Warren Cowan, the founder of Rogers & Cowan, which is still Hollywood’s leading PR firm. Their host? Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, who served as matchmakers for the couple and opened their Beverly Hills home for the ceremony.
The guest list read like a marquee: Frank Sinatra traded barbs with Milton Berle; Dean Martin is arranging cigarettes and plates of food at the buffet; Ronald Reagan discussing the menu with Mom.
Barbara Rush and Warren Cowan pose for a photo with their mothers at the estate of Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis in Beverly Hills on their wedding day in 1959. (Claudia Cowan) (Claudia Cowan)
There’s Jack Lemmon signing the marriage license as a witness. Shirley MacLaine doubled over laughing. Doris Day, Edward G. Robinson, Lewis Jordan, Rock Hudson, Peter Lawford and Patricia Kennedy, Jack Benny, Gene Kelly, Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood – all shaking hands with the newlyweds.
These were not just celebrities. They were friends in their prime, with most of their biggest roles still to come. Young, handsome and invincible, he filled the pages with an energy that still shines today. These snapshots freeze the moment Hollywood’s brightest stars united to celebrate love.
Many Hollywood luminaries attended the wedding of Barbara Rush and Warren Cowan. (Claudia Cowan)
This album came to me after Mom died at the age of 97 last Easter. Dad left us in 2008. But flipping through these yellow pages, I was struck by the vibrant life captured within them. Even before I was a prospect, my parents were surrounded by creative, talented friends who were eager to be a part of their special day.
I’m sharing these never-before-seen photos because only by remembering those we have lost, loved and admired, do they live on with us in our hearts.
Claudia Cowan looking at her parents’ wedding album. (Claudia Cowan)
In these fading photographs, they are all always young, always talented, always alive.
Barbara Rush and Warren Cowan were married from 1959 to 1969. (Claudia Cowan)
