The Glendale Historical Society is hosting a webinar tonight, Thursday, May 13 at 7 p.m. with Julie (Ackerman) Anderson, presenting her new book “The Golden Age of Hollywood Through the Lens of Joe Ackerman.”

Register by visiting https://glendalehistorical.org/ackerman. This free event is complimentary but registration is necessary.

Julie’s father, Joe Ackerman, moved to Glendale in the 1940s and started collecting autographs and celebrity photos that he took himself over several decades, amassing a huge collection. For the past 10 years, the collection has resided at the Hollywood Museum and is considered one of the greatest autograph collections in the world. 

Julie will tell the story about her father and share images from his collection, including several black-and-white pictures that have never been published before of the stars. “The Golden Age of Hollywood Through the Lens of Joe Ackerman” was a 15-year project that started as a collaboration between Julie and her mother, Marian Ackerman, after Joe’s passing. This is a rare look into the Golden Age of Hollywood through Joe’s camera lens.

Julie Ackerman Anderson was born and raised in Glendale and attended Glendale High School where she received an art scholarship to Glendale College. During her studies she took a history of film class that piqued her interest in all that was “Hollywood” during the Golden Age. It was a passion that has stayed with her through a career in meeting and event planning and as a director of Sales and Marketing in the hospitality industry. 

It was not until after her father passed that Julie and her mother decided to memorialize her father and his collection. With Julie’s knowledge of “old Hollywood” and her mother’s memories and adventures with her father, they started their book writing journey exploring, researching and categorizing Joe’s treasure trove of thousands of photos and autographs. 

When Marian passed away in 2009, Julie took a break from the project to concentrate on her growing pet sitting business. Working intermittently, she completed and self-published her book in 2019. Julie currently resides in Southern California.