They were practical jokers. They were motherly. They were pensive and observant and eager to learn. They invited their friends to see their offices. And they were movie stars. The current exhibition at the Marco Island Historical Museum, “Backstage Hollywood: The Photographs of Bob Willoughby,” shows every facet of them. The exhibition has been a surprise summer blockbuster, and the museum won permission to keep it through Oct. 18 from Exhibits USA, a division of Mid-America Arts Alliance and the National Endowment for the Arts. Even on a Tuesday morning, there was a slow but steady stream of visitors through the exhibition. These are photos of icons, captured at work and play, and a number of them will be familiar to all. “If I’m on the desk and I’m introducing people, one of the things I like to say to them is that even if you have no idea who Bob Willoughby is, you have seen his photos,” Museum Director Rebecca Mazeroski said. “It’s just very beautiful photos, very evocative. And then you can get into the details of the exhibit — of how he actually would have been an inventor, and one of the first people to really be photographing who wasn’t part of the studios. He was being hired by the magazines.” Willoughby got his start on movie sets in a big way, having been hired by Warner Bros. to photograph Judy Garland in the 1954 version of A Star Is Born. Rather than following the traditional studio still photos tradition, Willoughby approached Garland directly, telling her what he hoped to accomplish and asking her to consider him invisible. The result by Willoughby was the first of many Life Magazine cover spreads. In fact, the narrative that explains his big break is among the number of anecdotes and conversations paired with these photos that are just as fascinating as the content. Willoughby likely had to suppress a laugh when Elvis Presley, between takes on Kid Creole in 1958, was introduced to Sophia Loren, who proceeded to jump into his lap and tousle his famous pompadour, much to The King’s embarrassment. Willoughby captured her half-flirtatious, half-motherly gesture in the blackand- white of the era, which suffers only in that the viewer can’t see Elvis blushing. In fact, many of Willoughby’s early photos are in black and white, but finely tuned to nuance, as in a hilarious photo of Elizabeth Taylor, having sunk to the ground as a distraught Southern belle during the filming of Raintree County. In the foreground it is all Taylor in lace and crinoline and porcelain beauty. Behind her, in the distance, stand a group of rapt locals, gawking at the filmmaking process. There are evocative photos, including several of both Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak in The Man With the Golden Arm, and Mia Farrow, somewhat elusive and mysterious on the set of Rosemary’s Baby. Willoughby also caught the tenor of film direction, which, with Mike Nichols’ The Graduate, was anything but the somber scenes that played out in the central character’s misguided life. Du...