As a teenaged neophyte, Murray Garrett's first professional assignment was to cover Eleanor Roosevelt and labor leader Phillip Murray, president of the CIO, attending a musical play in Newark, New Jersey.

From that auspicious beginning, until he hung up his cameras, Garrett worked with and personally interacted with celebrities in the worlds of show business, sports, politics, the arts and sciences...a list of which would even turn fellow Brooklynite Larry King green with envy.

In 1941, working part time, after high school, Garrett started his career in New York City working for Graphic House, Inc., a leading photographic agency. Starting as the assistant to legendary theatrical photographer, Eileen Darby, with her, Garrett covered such Broadway hits as "Oklahoma", "Carousel", "Stalag 17", "On The Town" and scores of others. In 1946 Graphic House, Inc. opened a west coast office. Garrett was selected to go to Hollywood to set up a mirror image of the firm's New York office. In less than a year after his arrival in Hollywood, Garrett became bureau chief for that office and was completing photographic assignments for just about every major publication. An assignment to "cover" a Bob Hope tour, which included Hope's radio show emanating from a military installation, resulted in being a turning point in Garrett's career. Hope was so pleased with Garrett's photographs of the tour and Garrett's unique ability to work in an efficient, unobtrusive manner, that he requested Garrett to cover all of his radio shows. For the next 25 years, Garrett covered all of Hope's domestic radio and TV activities.

In the early fifties, as Garrett's talent and services were recognized by more celebrities, their PR firms and production companies, Garrett, with Graphic House remaining as his agent, went out on his own. He formed the firm Garrett-Howard, Inc., with life long friend, portrait photographer Gene Howard (a former vocalist with Stan Kenton and Gene Krupa) as his partner. In a very short time they became one of the most successful photographic concerns in Hollywood, offering both candid and studio photographic services to publications, the entertainment industry, as well as filling a very special niche...covering personal events for their celebrity clients. Garrett exclusively handled Frank Sinatra's private, surprise 21st birthday party for Natalie Wood. Garrett was the only photographer hired to cover Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton's outing in a chartered helicopter to Disneyland where they had the use of Walt Disney's personal apartment. At Bob Hope's daughter's wedding, where for security reasons, Garrett was the only photographer cleared to be in the church filled with dignitaries from the Armed Services and the government, as well as Hollywood.
In the sixties, Leo Monahan, now a world renowned illustrator joined Garrett-Howard as a partner and art director and the firm's name became Studio Five, Incorporated. Almost overnight Studio Five became the leading firm in design and photography, catering to the entertainment industry. Studio Five worked for just about every major studio and record label in the United States. In peak years they would create as many as three hundred and fifty record album covers a year. During this period, Garrett was nominated and elected to serve on the west coast Board of Directors of NARAS (National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences).

In January of 1989, Garrett was honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, at their national headquarters in Beverly Hills, California. There, a gala reception was held to introduce a retrospective of Garrett's photographs to more than two hundred Academy members and guests. The exhibit remained on display at the Academy headquarters for more than sixty days.

Responding to the suggestions of friends and business associates who viewed his most remarkable collection of photographs, Garrett published his first book entitled "HOLLYWOOD CANDID, A Photographer Remembers". The book is published by Harry N. Abrams, Inc., the foremost publisher of photographic art books in the world. The book was released in the fall of 2000 and contains Garrett's anecdotal commentary along with his photographs depicting some of the world's most fascinating people. In it's third printing it is the most successful "art" book that Abrams has published.

For the past several years Garrett, utilizing his photographs and writings from his book, has been a featured speaker at OASIS in Los Angeles. Oasis is a non-profit, national education organization with 400,000 members dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for older adults. Garrett spins tales of the hay days of Hollywood and its stars in a series of classes called "Hollywood's Magic Moments". Garrett has also been a featured speaker at the Hollywood Press Club and is presently preparing for a new semester at Oasis as well as a national book tour.