Robert De Niro and Kirk Douglas, photographed by Dafydd Jones at Steve Tisch and Graydon Carter’s Oscar party at Morton’s, in Los Angeles, 1994.

*Top,* Kevin Meaney reporting outside the Oscar party at Morton’s, 1995; *above,* Leonardo DiCaprio, Sharon Stone, and Ellen Barkin at the Oscar party, 1994.

Jill Vandenberg and Tony Curtis at the Beverly Hills Hotel’s reopening party, 1995.

David Hockney and the model Tina Chow at the book party for James Watters’s memoir, Los Angeles, 1989.

*Top,* Jack Nicholson, Swifty Lazar, and Elizabeth Taylor at Lazar’s last Oscar party, at Spago, 1993; *above,* Prince arriving at the Oscar party, 1994.

Bob Colacello and Anjelica Huston at a *Vanity Fair* benefit in Los Angeles, 1990.

*Top,* guests’ Rolls-Royces parked outside the Beverly Hills Hotel’s reopening party; *above,* valet-parking attendants, 1989.

Donatella Versace and Elton John outside a Planet Hollywood restaurant, 1989.

Anna Nicole Smith outside the Oscar party, 1994.

*Top,* Satsuki Mitchell and Daniel Craig at the Oscar party at the Sunset Tower Hotel, 2009; *above,* Baz Bamigboye and Kate Winslet at the Oscar party, 2009.

Rosie Perez and Marisa Tomei at the Oscar party, 1993.

Once upon a Time in Hollywood

De Niro! Prince! Madonna! From Oscar parties to parking lots, Dafydd Jones’s L.A. photos capture a bygone era

In the early 1990s, the English photographer Dafydd Jones was in New York shooting penthouse dinner parties and galas. And he was good at it. According to AIR MAIL Co-Editor Graydon Carter, “the best party photographers, and their numbers are few, are like snipers. Dafydd Jones is the sniper’s sniper—the best of the best.”

In 1992, Jones entered new territory: Swifty Lazar’s Oscar party, at Spago, a fashionable Beverly Hills restaurant. He was nervous. This was the Oscar party, where stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Barry Diller, Warren Beatty, and Jack Nicholson mingled over hors d’oeuvres.