Audrey Hepburn Shopping with her Pet Deer “ip” in Beverly Hills, Ca, 1958
Captured here: Audrey Hepburn Shopping With Her Pet Deer “ip” In Beverly Hills, Ca, 1958. It was taken in 1958, and like the best archival images it needs almost no explanation — the frame tells its own story.
Audrey Hepburn worked with a young deer while filming the 1959 comedy "Green Mansions," in which her character has a fawn companion. The animal trainer suggested she keep the fawn at home so it would bond with her, and "Pippin" — nicknamed "Ip" — followed her everywhere, including on shopping trips in Beverly Hills that photographer Bob Willoughby documented in a famous series of pictures.
The strangest historical photos are rarely staged jokes — they usually show a real solution to a real problem of their day. Understanding why this scene made sense to the people in it is half the fun of looking at it.
