London entered the 20th century at the height of its influence as the capital of the largest empire in history, but the new century was to bring many challenges. London was the largest city in the world from about 1825 until it was overtaken by New York City in 1925.
The years between Queen Victoria’s death in 1901 and the start of the First World War in 1914 were years of growth and general prosperity, though the extreme inequalities which had characterized Victorian London continued. By 1900 one out of five Britons lived in London, with the population of roughly 5 million in 1900 rising to over 7 million by 1911.
These 20 amazing photographs below show street scenes of London at the turn of the 20th century. They were taken by an unknown Russian tourist in 1909.
Born 1908 as Dominic Felix Amici, American actor, comedian and vaudevillian Don Ameche became a major radio star in the early 1930s after playing in college shows, stock, and vaudeville, which led to the offer of a movie contract from 20th Century Fox in 1935.
As a handsome, debonair leading man in 40 films over the next 14 years, Ameche starred in comedies, dramas, and musicals. In the 1950s, he worked on Broadway and in television, and was the host of NBC’s International Showtime from 1961 to 1965.
Returning to film work in his later years, Ameche enjoyed a fruitful revival of his career beginning with his role as a villain in Trading Places (1983) and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Cocoon (1985).
Ameche died in 1993 at his son Don, Jr.’s house in Scottsdale, Arizona of prostate cancer at age 85. These vintage photos captured portrait of a young and handsome Don Ameche in the 1930s and 1940s.
The Great Depression and World War II bookended the 1930s, but fashion flourished anyway during this decade. Glamorous Hollywood screen stars inspired new looks for women, men, and even children. Inexpensive fabrics, affordable catalog clothing, and homespun ingenuity let anyone copy styles previously worn by the wealthy.
Men still dressed up nice, sporting fedoras and double-breasted overcoats. The boys wore short shorts and tall socks. Women wore dresses and kept their hair close to their head. Makeup was chic and shoulder pads were very important until the late 1930s.
Although hats were still popular for women, they were gradually becoming less popular. Fashion in the 1930s was just as glamorous as the 1920s, just in a different way. Take a look at these vintage photos to see styles of couples from the 1930s.
Born 1951 in Huron, South Dakota, American actress and singer Cheryl Ladd originally came to Hollywood to begin a career in music (she was known as “Cherie Moor” when she was the singing voice of Melody on Hanna-Barbera’s Josie and the Pussycats animated series, and she also sang on the 1970 album of the same name). However, she soon began to land non-singing roles in commercials and episodic television, including guest appearances on shows such as on The Rookies, The Partridge Family, Police Woman, The Muppet Show, SEARCH and Happy Days.
Ladd’s big acting break came in 1977, when she was cast in the ABC television series Charlie’s Angels as Kris Munroe, replacing star Farrah Fawcett, who left the show after only one season to pursue a movie career. She remained on the show until its cancellation in 1981.
Ladd’s film roles include Purple Hearts (1984), Millennium (1989), Poison Ivy (1992), Permanent Midnight (1998), and Unforgettable (2017). These beautiful photos show fashion styles of a young Cheryl Ladd in the 1970s.
The rollout of General Motors’ broad lineup of “X-Car” compact cars for 1980–which consisted of four separate vehicle lines spread across four brands–was a big event in the American automotive industry. Not surprisingly, GM backed up its ambitious new product initiative with a massive presence in TV and magazine advertising.
The rollout of General Motors’ broad lineup of “X-Car” compact cars for 1980–which consisted of four separate vehicle lines spread across four brands–was a big event in the American automotive industry. Not surprisingly, GM backed up its ambitious new product initiative with a massive presence in TV and magazine advertising.
Though launched almost at the same time in 1979, the Buick Skylark, Chevrolet Citation, Oldsmobile Omega, and Pontiac Phoenix were all 1980 models, and the media blitz lasted throughout that calendar year. Here, a collection of 10 classic automotive print ads from 1980:
1980 Dodge AspenChevrolet Monte CarloDodge AspenFord FairmontInternational ScoutLincoln Continental Mark VIMercury ZephyrOldsmobile OmegaPontiac Grand PrixToyota Celica1980 Volkswagen Pickup Truck
Clint Eastwood (born May 31, 1930) has reinvented himself many times over the course of a career that now stretches back over 60 years, but it’s usually taken time for everyone else to catch up with the changes.
After working as a bit player for years — he first pops up in the uncharacteristic role of a lab technician in the 1955 monster movie Revenge of the Creature — Eastwood found TV stardom as Rowdy Yates on the long-running Western series Rawhide. Then, at a time when TV stars had trouble transitioning to film work, he found movie stardom via an unconventional route, traveling to Europe to appear as a character later known as the Man With No Name in three Westerns by Italian director Sergio Leone: A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
“I wanted to play it with an economy of words and create this whole feeling through attitude and movement. It was just the kind of character I had envisioned for a long time, keep to the mystery and allude to what happened in the past. It came about after the frustration of doing Rawhide for so long. I felt the less he said, the stronger he became and the more he grew in the imagination of the audience.” — Eastwood, on playing the Man with No Name character.
Elected in 1986, Eastwood served for two years as the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. In 2000, Eastwood received the Italian Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion award, honoring his lifetime achievements. Bestowed two of France’s highest civilian honors, he received the Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1994, and the Legion of Honour medal in 2007.
Here, below is a selection of 20 vintage portraits of Clint Eastwood in the 1960s:
Chicago is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the third-most populous in the United States, after New York City and Los Angeles. With a population of 2,746,388 in the 2020 census, it is also the most populous city in the Midwestern United States. As the seat of Cook County (the second-most populous U.S. county), the city is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area, one of the largest in the world.
On the shore of Lake Michigan, Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed. It grew rapidly in the mid-19th century; by 1860, Chicago was the youngest U.S. city to exceed a population of 100,000. The Great Chicago Fire in 1871 destroyed several square miles and left more than 100,000 homeless, but Chicago’s population continued to grow to 503,000 by 1880 and then doubled to more than a million within the decade. The construction boom accelerated population growth throughout the following decades, and by 1900, less than 30 years after the fire, Chicago was the fifth-largest city in the world. Chicago made noted contributions to urban planning and zoning standards, including new construction styles (such as, Chicago School architecture, the development of the City Beautiful Movement, and the steel-framed skyscraper).
Chicago is an international hub for finance, culture, commerce, industry, education, technology, telecommunications, and transportation. It is the site of the creation of the first standardized futures contracts, issued by the Chicago Board of Trade, which today is part of the largest and most diverse derivatives market in the world, generating 20% of all volume in commodities and financial futures alone. O’Hare International Airport is routinely ranked among the world’s top six busiest airports according to tracked data by the Airports Council International. The region also has the largest number of federal highways and is the nation’s railroad hub. The Chicago area has one of the highest gross domestic products (GDP) in the world, generating $689 billion in 2018. The economy of Chicago is diverse, with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. It is home to several Fortune 500 companies, including Abbott Laboratories, AbbVie, Allstate, Archer Daniels Midland, Conagra Brands, Exelon, JLL, Kraft Heinz, McDonald’s, Mondelez International, Motorola Solutions, Sears, United Airlines Holdings, and US Foods, although the city has experienced an exodus of large corporations since 2020.
Chicago’s 58 million tourist visitors in 2018 set a new record. Landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis (Sears) Tower, Grant Park, the Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicago is also home to the Barack Obama Presidential Center being built in Hyde Park on the city’s South Side. Chicago’s culture includes the visual arts, literature, film, theater, comedy (especially improvisational comedy), food, dance (including modern dance and jazz troupes and the Joffrey Ballet), and music (particularly jazz, blues, soul, hip-hop, gospel, and electronic dance music, including house music). Chicago is also the location of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Of the area’s colleges and universities, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago are classified as “highest research” doctoral universities. Chicago has professional sports teams in each of the major professional leagues, including two Major League Baseball teams. (Wikipedia)
A historic photo of Martha Jane Cannary, better known as Calamity Jane, mugging at the grave of James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok in Mt. Moriah Cemetery, Deadwood, South Dakota, ca. 1903.
This photo by J. A. Kumpf, is believed to be from 1903 which would have been shortly before her death. (Library of Congress)
Hickok was shot and killed by Jack McCall on August 2, 1876 while playing poker in a saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota. The hand of cards which he supposedly held at the time of his death has become known as the dead man’s hand: two pairs; black aces and eights.
Cannary claimed to have been married to Hickok and that he was the father of her child. Though Wild Bill and Calamity Jane were certainly acquainted, there is little evidence that would substantiate the claim that they were married.
In 1891 Mount Moriah Cemetery became an official attraction when J.H. Riordan carved a red sandstone bust of Wild Bill and placed it on atop a pedestal on his grave. Souvenir hunters soon began chipping away, removing Bill’s hair and nose. By 1903, when Calamity Jane returned to Deadwood to visit the grave, Wild Bill’s head was completely gone. She died soon afterward, and was buried next to Wild Bill. Some say that this was her dying wish, while others suspect it was a posthumous prank played on Bill by his friends, as some people say that Wild Bill “had no use for her when he was alive.”
Also buried in Mount Moriah are a townful of lesser Deadwood personalities with equally colorful names, such as Potato Creek Johnny, Preacher Smith, and Madam Dora DuFran.
Born 1938 in Eisenstadt, Burgenland, Austrian actress Maria Perschy moved to Germany for more training, leading to a film career after completing her education. Her first major success came with Nasser Asphalt where she played together with Horst Buchholz. Her acting career would eventually take her — by way of France, Italy and the United Kingdom — to Hollywood.
Perschy played in a number of American films, her most notable roles being in the 1962 biopic Freud, the 1964 Rock Hudson comedy, Man’s Favorite Sport?, and the 1964 hit war movie 633 Squadron. Her career in America eventually declined and by the late 1970s her only US appearances were brief roles in TV shows such as Hawaii Five-O and General Hospital.
While shooting in Spain in 1971, Perschy suffered a burn injury from an accident that required several operations before she could resume her career. Perschy returned to her native Austria in 1985 and continued to perform in a series of plays and TV series.
Perschy died of cancer in Vienna in 2004 at the age of 66. Take a look at these gorgeous photos to see the beauty of young Maria Perschy in the 1960s.
In 1900, automobiles weren’t much more impressive than the horse-drawn carriages they were meant to replace. Internal combustion engines offered about 12 horsepower, but they were also loud, dirty, and unreliable. In a public effort to dispel that image—or at least the unreliable part—the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland organized the 1,000 Mile Race of 1900.
London to Edinburgh and back again, 1000 miles in only 20 days, to show just what the motor car could do. The Thousand Mile Trial was a resounding success. More than half of the participants finished and, despite the insistence of some drivers on taking liqueurs with lunch, the only casualties were an unfortunate dog and an ‘unmanageable’ horse.
Between April 23 and May 12, 65 cars raced throughout the UK, pausing during the marathon for four hill climbs and one speed trial. According to a contemporary account of the race in the Brisbane Courrier, the goal was to prove the car was “a serious and trustworthy means of locomotion; not a toy dangerous and troublesome alike to the public and its owner.”
It was an ambitious route. The contestants started in London, crossing through Bristol, Birmingham, and Manchester on the way north to Edinburgh. They hit Newcastle, Sheffield, and Nottingham on the trip back to London, covering roughly 100 miles each day, according to Grace’s Guide, a non-profit project that documents British industrial history.
By all accounts, the race was a success. The Courrier reported that 46 of the cars that started the race made it back to London. Grace’s Guide puts that number at 35, but even that is quite impressive, especially considering the only casualties were one dog and “one unmanageable horse,” which broke its leg in a collision with a car and had to be destroyed. The race was won by Charles Stewart Rolls (as in Rolls-Royce), who drove a 12-horsepower Panhard that topped out at 37.63 mph.
On March 27, 1977, two Boeing 747 passenger jets, operating KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736, collided on the runway at Los Rodeos Airport (now Tenerife North Airport) on the Spanish island of Tenerife. Resulting in 583 fatalities, the Tenerife airport disaster is the deadliest accident in aviation history.
A terrorist incident at Gran Canaria Airport had caused many flights to be diverted to Los Rodeos, including the two aircraft involved in the accident. The airport quickly became congested with parked airplanes blocking the only taxiway and forcing departing aircraft to taxi on the runway instead. Patches of thick fog were drifting across the airfield; hence visibility was greatly reduced for pilots and the control tower.
Immediately after lining up with the runway, the KLM pilot advanced the throttles and the aircraft started to move forward. The co-pilot advised the captain that ATC clearance had not yet been given, and Captain Veldhuyzen van Zanten responded, “I know that. Go ahead, ask.” Meurs then radioed the tower that they were “ready for takeoff” and “waiting for our ATC clearance.” The KLM crew then received instructions which specified the route that the aircraft was to follow after takeoff. The instructions used the word “takeoff,” but did not include an explicit statement that they were cleared for takeoff.
Meurs read the flight clearance back to the controller, completing the readback with the statement: “We are now at takeoff.” Captain Veldhuyzen van Zanten interrupted the co-pilot’s read-back with the comment, “We’re going.”
The controller, who could not see the runway due to the fog, initially responded with “OK” (terminology which is nonstandard), which reinforced the KLM captain’s misinterpretation that they had takeoff clearance. The controller’s response of “OK” to the co-pilot’s nonstandard statement that they were “now at takeoff” was likely due to his misinterpretation that they were in takeoff position and ready to begin the roll when takeoff clearance was received, but not in the process of taking off. The controller then immediately added “stand by for takeoff, I will call you,” indicating that he had not intended the clearance to be interpreted as a takeoff clearance.
A simultaneous radio call from the Pan Am crew caused mutual interference on the radio frequency, which was audible in the KLM cockpit as a three-second-long whistling sound (or heterodyne). This caused the KLM crew to miss the crucial latter portion of the tower’s response. The Pan Am crew’s transmission was “We’re still taxiing down the runway, the Clipper 1736!” This message was also blocked by the interference and inaudible to the KLM crew. Either message, if heard in the KLM cockpit, would have alerted the crew to the situation and given them time to abort the takeoff attempt.
Due to the fog, neither crew was able to see the other plane on the runway ahead of them. In addition, neither of the aircraft could be seen from the control tower, and the airport was not equipped with ground radar.
After the KLM plane had started its takeoff roll, the tower instructed the Pan Am crew to “report when runway clear.” The Pan Am crew replied: “OK, we’ll report when we’re clear.” On hearing this, the KLM flight engineer expressed his concern about the Pan Am not being clear of the runway by asking the pilots in his own cockpit, “Is he not clear, that Pan American?” Veldhuyzen van Zanten emphatically replied “Oh, yes!” and continued with the takeoff.
Moments later, the Pan Am crew spotted the KLM’s landing lights through the fog. When it became clear that the KLM was approaching at takeoff speed, Grubbs exclaimed, “Goddamn, that son-of-a-bitch is coming straight at us!” while the co-pilot Robert Bragg yelled, “Get off! Get off! Get off!”. The Pan Am crew applied full power to the throttles and took a sharp left turn towards the grass in an attempt to avoid a collision. By the time the KLM pilots saw the Pan Am, they were already traveling too fast to stop. In desperation the pilots prematurely rotated the aircraft and attempted to clear the Pan Am by climbing away. The KLM was within 330 ft of the Pan Am when it left the ground. Its nose gear cleared the Pan Am, but the engines, lower fuselage and main landing gear struck the upper right side of the Pan Am’s fuselage at approximately 140 knots.
Both airplanes were destroyed. All 234 passengers and 14 crew members in the KLM plane died, as did 326 passengers and nine crew members aboard the Pan Am, primarily due to the fire and explosions resulting from the fuel spilled and ignited in the impact. The other 54 passengers and seven crew members aboard the Pan Am aircraft survived, including the captain, first officer and flight engineer.
The subsequent investigation by Spanish authorities concluded that the primary cause of the accident was the KLM captain’s decision to take off in the mistaken belief that a takeoff clearance from air traffic control (ATC) had been issued. Dutch investigators placed a greater emphasis on a mutual misunderstanding in radio communications between the KLM crew and ATC, but ultimately KLM admitted that their crew was responsible for the accident and the airline agreed to financially compensate the relatives of all of the victims.
The disaster had a lasting influence on the industry, highlighting in particular the vital importance of using standardized phraseology in radio communications. Cockpit procedures were also reviewed, contributing to the establishment of crew resource management as a fundamental part of airline pilots’ training.
The close of the 1930s had brought with it the start of World War II. It had a profound impact on fashion in the first half of the 1940s, and even after the war had ended.
Fashion during the war was dominated by rationing. Utility clothing and uniforms were the most ubiquitous forms of “fashion” during the war. Squared shoulders, narrow hips, and skirts that ended just below the knee were the height of fashion. Tailored suits were also quite popular.
However, there were also many girls who showed a very cool style of dress during this period with a combination of shorts and crop tops.
When The Terminator hit theaters on October 26, 1984, it took the world by storm. James Cameron’s futuristic thriller redefined both the post-apocalyptic and time-travel sub-genres, while introducing fascinating concepts about the dangers of modern technology. It also cemented Arnold Schwarzenegger’s status as one of the biggest action icons of the 1980s and beyond.
The movie launched the career of James Cameron, who went on to direct the top two box-office earners of all time, Avatar and Titanic. It also boosted Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose monotone delivery and muscle-bound swagger made a cyborg assassin the height of cool.
Schwarzenegger originally read for the part of Kyle Reese. In his fledgling acting career, he had already played the title character in Hercules in New York, and Conan the Barbarian, and naturally wanted to be the hero of The Terminator movie. Although he may have first been put forward for this role by his agent, Cameron was cool on the idea: “I was very negative on the idea of Arnold playing Reese.”
And Schwarzenegger, at lunch with Cameron after his reading, couldn’t stop thinking about the Terminator: “The more I read the script, the more I got fascinated by the Terminator – the bad guy – which I thought was the real cool guy. We were talking along the lines of me playing the heroic character.”
After looking at a mocked up painting that Cameron had made of him as the Terminator, Schwarzenegger had made up his mind: “I am the Terminator, I’m gonna make this call now, I called [Cameron] right away and I said ‘I want to play the Terminator,’ and the deal was made.”
Bugle megaphones were used on military garrisons to help amplify the sound of the bugle. Used in a garrison environment, the megaphone was mounted to a swivel on a post enabling the bugler to play in any direction and the sound to carry further and over a broader area. These pedestals were usually placed near the main flagpole or at garrison headquarters.
A megaphone is usually a portable or hand-held, cone-shaped acoustic horn used to amplify a person’s voice or other sounds and direct it in a given direction. The sound is introduced into the narrow end of the megaphone, by holding it up to the face and speaking into it, and the sound waves radiate out the wide end.
A megaphone increases the volume of sound by increasing the acoustic impedance seen by the vocal cords, matching the impedance of the vocal cords to the air, so that more sound power is radiated. It also serves to direct the sound waves in the direction the horn is pointing. It somewhat distorts the sound of the voice because the frequency response of the megaphone is greater at higher sound frequencies.
Egon Brütsch Fahrzeugbau, usually shortened to Brütsch, was a German automotive design and automaker based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg.
Brütsch were best known for producing many microcar designs, but only produced small numbers of each design and the primary function of the company appears to have been that of the development and promotion of each design to sell licences to manufacture to other companies.
Between 1952 and 1958, eleven different models of car were manufactured by Brütsch, but the total production of all models by the company is believed to be only eighty-one cars.
Many of the bodywork designs were simple two-piece mouldings of polyester reinforced with fiberglass, bonded at a waistline join, which was then covered by a protective strip. Chassis and suspension design was very rudimentary and after a misguided court action in 1956 by Brütsch against a licensee, at least one of Brütsch’s designs was condemned as dangerous. The abbreviated chassis used on the majority of the cars meant that for structural integrity they could not have doors and all these models had low sides to facilitate entry and exit.
Brütsch 200 “Spatz” or Dreirad-Dreisitzer 1954-1955 A 3-seater, 3-wheeled roadster, powered by a single cylinder 191 cc Fichtel & Sachs engine driving through a four speed gearbox. Top speed was around 90 km/h (56 mph) and about five cars were produced. Also built under licence by A. Grünhut & Co of Switzerland with minor changes and sold as the Belcar. Another licence was sold to Alzmetall for production by Harald Friedrich GmbH of Germany, but so many faults were found with the original design that their production model, the Spatz Kabinenroller was fundamentally a different car. Because of this Brütsch took Alzmetall to court to ensure payment of his licence fees but lost the case.
Flanked by his two daughters, Egon Brutsch sits in his new three-wheel car for which he developed a plastic body in Stuttgart, Germany, Oct. 10, 1954.The car seats three persons.Brutsch claimed the car weighs only half as much as a normal metal body.
Cape Town is one of South Africa’s three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest (after Johannesburg). Colloquially named the Mother City, it is the largest city of the Western Cape province, and is managed by the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality. The other two capitals are Pretoria, the executive capital, located in Gauteng, where the Presidency is based, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital in the Free State, where the Supreme Court of Appeal is located.
Cape Town is ranked as a Beta world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. The city is known for its harbour, for its natural setting in the Cape Floristic Region, and for landmarks such as Table Mountain and Cape Point. Cape Town is home to 66% of the Western Cape’s population. In 2014, Cape Town was named the best place in the world to visit by both The New York Times and The Daily Telegraph.
Located on the shore of Table Bay, the City Bowl area of Cape Town, is the oldest urban area in the Western Cape, with a significant cultural heritage. It was founded by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) as a supply station for Dutch ships sailing to East Africa, India, and the Far East. Jan van Riebeeck’s arrival on 6 April 1652 established the VOC Cape Colony, the first permanent European settlement in South Africa. Cape Town outgrew its original purpose as the first European outpost at the Castle of Good Hope, becoming the economic and cultural hub of the Cape Colony. Until the Witwatersrand Gold Rush and the development of Johannesburg, Cape Town was the largest city in southern Africa.
The city has a long coastline on the Atlantic Ocean, which includes False Bay, and extends to the Hottentots Holland mountains in the East. The Table Mountain National Park is within the city boundaries and there are several other nature reserves and marine protected areas within and adjacent to the city, protecting the diverse terrestrial and marine natural environment. (Wikipedia)
Here below is a set of beautiful postcards that shows what Cape Town looked like in the 1960s.
Born 1917 in Brooklyn, New York, American actress Adele Jergens rose to prominence in the late 1930s when she was named “Miss World’s Fairest” at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. In the early 1940s, she briefly worked as a Rockette and was named the number-one showgirl in New York City.
After a few years of working as a model and chorus girl, Jergens landed a movie contract with Columbia Pictures in 1944, with brunette Jergens becoming a blonde.
At the beginning of her career, Jergens had roles in movies in which she was usually cast as a blonde floozy or burlesque dancer, as in Down to Earth starring Rita Hayworth (1947) and The Dark Past starring William Holden (1948). She played Marilyn Monroe’s mother in Ladies of the Chorus (1948) despite being only nine years older than Monroe, played an exotic dancer in Armored Car Robbery, and a criminal’s girl in Try and Get Me (both 1950) and appeared in the movie Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951).
Jergens worked in the 1950s radio show Stand By for Crime as Glamourpuss Carol Curtis with her real-life husband Glenn Langan as Chuck Morgan. She retired from the screen in 1956, and died in 2002, from pneumonia in her Camarillo, California, home. Her death came just four days before her 85th birthday.
Take a look at these glamorous photos to see the beauty of Adele Jergens during her career.
Born 1930 in Charleston, West Virginia, American actress and model Allison Hayes made her film debut in the 1954 comedy Francis Joins the WACS. Her second film, Sign of the Pagan, provided her with an important role in a relatively minor film. Released from her contract, she was signed by Columbia Pictures in 1955.
Chicago Syndicate is her first film for Columbia. Count Three and Pray gave her the role that she later described as the best of her career. Hayes played with Van Heflin, co-starring with Raymond Burr and Joanne Woodward in her debut.
Hayes appeared in films such as Steel Jungle, Mohawk, and Gunslinger (all 1956), but a fall from a horse during the filming of the latter left Hayes with a broken arm and unable to work. After she recovered, she began appearing in supporting roles in television productions.
During 1963 and 1964, Hayes played a continuing role in the General Hospital but by this time her movie career was virtually over.
As her acting career declined, she began to experience severe health problems and was unable to walk without a cane. In severe pain, her usually good-natured personality began to change and she became emotional and volatile, making it difficult for her to secure acting work. She was given a minor role in the 1965 Elvis Presley film Tickle Me, making her final appearances in a guest role on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. in 1967.
Hayes died in 1977 at the University of California Medical Center in San Diego, California, one week before her 47th birthday.
Take a look at these glamorous photos to see the beauty of Allison Hayes in the 1950s.
If you were to conjure an image of typical 1950s fashion, there’s no doubt the visual would be brimming with knee-length skirts and shoulder covering tops.
It was an era, like most before it, of conservative clothing.
The bikini had been invented only a handful of years before, and society was still grappling with the fact hem lines were creeping towards the knee.
And then Vikki Dougan came along.
While actress Veronica Lake is typically assumed to be the muse behind Jessica Rabbit, it was the lesser-known and near-forgotten Vicki Dougan along with her notorious derrrière that really put Jessica on the map. Pin-up girl turned (struggling) actress, Vicki earned herself the nickname, “The Back” in 1950s Hollywood for so often wearing her outrageously provocative backless dresses.
In 1957, the Oakland Tribune wrote a piece about how Dougan’s style, and subsequent rise to prominence, was part of a carefully crafted image created for her by publicity man Milton Weiss.
Initially, he decided to have three backless dresses made for her. He then gave his client the nickname “The Back”, and had her wearing a backless creation in almost all of her public appearances.
His first move was to have three expensive dresses made for her — without backs. He then titled his client “The Back” and had her appear at previews and parties in her plunging creations. Soon local photographers zeroed in on Miss Dougan’s bare spinal column, and gagsters began originating such cracks as, “Vikki Dougan makes the best exits in town.”
Finally Vikki was banned from someone else’s preview party because her backless formal was drawing too much attention. The incident received proper press coverage. Today Vikkie — born Edith Tooker in Brooklyn — is riding toward fame on the strength of her clothes, what there is of them. It’s a trend, all right.
Dougan’s fame would take flight, and she would score roles in various films, photo spreads in prominent magazines such as LIFE as these candid photographs were taken by Ralph Crane in 1957.
According to Messy Nessy Chic, America had somewhat of a love-hate relationship with Vikki and her backside however, and she was often mocked in gossip columns. By 1959, Dougan and her derrière had pretty much disappeared from the Hollywood scene, unable to find work. The daring pin-up girl was forgotten along with so many other names trying to make it in showbiz, until Disney/Touchstone made a little film in 1988 called Who Framed Roger Rabbit? While Dougan received very little recognition as a Jessica Rabbit muse, her trademark style and sex appeal became iconic.
The 1960s were home to a variety of looks, as the early ’60s were more similar to the ’50s, the mid-60s were characterized by mod fashion from London, and the decade closed out as the hippie movement began to make waves.
With all of the different subcultures taking root during this time, it is only natural that we began seeing a wide array of wedding gowns among brides, along with other unique trends.
Three-quarter-length sleeves were common, while cap sleeves were baby steps towards an eventual embrace of sleeveless gowns – still seen as too casual for bridal wear in the 1960s. The rise of miniskirts and mod style meant that short shift dresses were the way to go for an on-trend bride.
Pillbox hats inspired by fashion icon and former First Lady Jackie Kennedy came with attached birdcage veils for a sophisticated and chic way to complete a wedding ensemble.
These fascinating photos show what a wedding looked like in 1962.
Western fashion in the 1920s underwent a modernization. For women, fashion had continued to change away from the extravagant and restrictive styles of the Victorian and Edwardian periods, and towards looser clothing which revealed more of the arms and legs, that had begun at least a decade prior with the rising of hemlines to the ankle and the movement from the S-bend corset to the columnar silhouette of the 1910s.
The 1920s are characterized by two distinct periods of fashion: in the early part of the decade, change was slower, and there was more reluctance to wear the new, revealing popular styles. From 1925, the public more passionately embraced the styles now typically associated with the Roaring Twenties.
These styles continued to characterize fashion until the worldwide depression worsened in 1931.
A set of cool photos that shows what styles of young ladies looked like in the 1920s.
This 1890 photograph is the oldest-known picture of women playing hockey, taken at Rideau Hall in Ottawa. Isobel Stanley, daughter of Lord Stanley, is seen wearing white.
Lord Stanley of Preston’s daughter, Lady Isobel Stanley, was a pioneer in the women’s game and was one of the first females to be photographed using puck and stick (around 1890) on the natural ice rink at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Stanley, Canada’s sixth Governor General, provided the ice for women’s hockey games, transforming a large lawn on the grounds of Rideau Hall into a rink. Better known for his contribution of the challenge trophy later referred to as the Stanley Cup, Lord Stanley played a significant role in the development and growth of Canadian women’s hockey.
Portrait of Lady Isobel Stanley.
There have been disputes over where the first women’s ice hockey game was played in Canada. The Women’s Hockey Association claims that the city of Ottawa, Ontario hosted the first game in 1891. On February 11, 1891, one of the earliest newspaper accounts of a seven-a-side game between women appeared in the Ottawa Citizen.
In the 1890s, women’s ice hockey was introduced at the university level. McGill University’s women’s hockey team debuted in 1894. The University of Toronto and Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario were also some of the earliest Canadian universities to field women’s ice hockey teams. Queens would later discontinue its women’s teams.
A dirndl is a feminine dress which originated in German-speaking areas of the Alps. It is traditionally worn by women and girls in Bavaria (south-eastern Germany), Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Alpine regions of Italy. A dirndl consists of a close-fitting bodice featuring a low neckline, a blouse worn under the bodice, a wide high-waisted skirt and an apron.
The dirndl is regarded as a folk costume (in German Tracht). It developed as the clothing of Alpine peasants between the 16th and 18th centuries. Today it is generally considered the traditional dress for women and girls in German-speaking parts of the Alps, with particular designs associated with different regions.
In the late 19th century, the dirndl was adapted by the upper and middle classes as a fashion mode, and subsequently spread as a mode outside its area of origin. There are many varieties of adaptations from the original folk designs. The dirndl is also worn as an ethnic costume by German diaspora populations in other countries.
Here below is a set of vintage photos that shows portraits of ladies wearing dirndls.
In Kiruna, the sun doesn’t set for 47 days during the summer. This phenomenon, known as midnight sun, is at it’s hight around midsummer, which is always celebrated near the summer solstice.
Kirunavaara is the name of the mountain that the crowd is standing on. Kirunavaara means “mountain of the ptarmigans” in the Sámi language and gave it’s name to the nearby mining town Kiruna. The mountain has changed shape radically over the years due to extensive mining.
Kiruna in Swedish Lapland is a world full of contrasts, colors and light. The period where we have midnight sun is the counterpart to the polar night that we experience in December. The period from late May to the middle of July is an intense period and it has a deep effect on all life when the daylight never ends.
When can I see the midnight sun?
The midnight sun glows in the sky from the 27th of May until the 14th of July. During this period, it never slides below the horizon. The sun is at its lowest at the time 00:40. So the sun is up continuously for 47 days at Kiruna’s latitude. The periods prior to and following that of the midnight sun are also very bright. This is why they usually talk about having 100 days without night.
The midnight sun is the same sun seen during daytime, it just doesn’t go below the horizon. This means that you don’t see a rapid sunset and sunrise. This phenomenon can be experienced anywhere in Kiruna.
Born 1928 as James Scott Bumgarner in Denver, Oklahoma, American actor James Garner starred in several television series over more than five decades, including popular roles such as Bret Maverick in the 1950s Western series Maverick and as Jim Rockford in the 1970s private detective show, The Rockford Files.
Garner played leading roles in more than 50 theatrical films, including The Great Escape (1963) with Steve McQueen, Paddy Chayefsky’s The Americanization of Emily (1964) with Julie Andrews, Grand Prix (1966) with Toshiro Mifune, Marlowe (1969) with Bruce Lee, Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969), Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971), The Castaway Cowboy (1974), and Blake Edwards’s Victor/Victoria (1982) with Julie Andrews, and Murphy’s Romance (1985) with Sally Field, for which he received an Academy Award nomination.
Garner’s career and popularity continued through another decade in movies like Space Cowboys (2000) with Clint Eastwood, Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) with Michael J. Fox and The Notebook (2004) with Gena Rowlands. and his TV sitcom role as Jim Egan in 8 Simple Rules (2003–2005).
Garner died in 2014 at the age of 86. These vintage photos captured portrait of a young and handsome James Garner in the 1940s and 1950s.
Some behind the scenes photos of Alfred Hitchcock holding a plaster dummy head of himself on the set of Frenzy (1972).
Frenzy was the third and final film that Hitchcock made in Britain after he moved to Hollywood in 1939. The other two were Under Capricorn (1949) and Stage Fright (1950). The last film he made in Britain before his move to America was Jamaica Inn (1939). Frenzy was screened at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival, but it was not entered into the main competition.
Alfred Hitchcock’s cameo appearance can be seen three minutes into the film in the center of a crowd scene, wearing a bowler hat. Teaser trailers show a Hitchcock-like dummy floating in the River Thames and Hitchcock introducing the audience to Covent Garden via the fourth wall.
