Philippe Petit, a 21-year-old professional tightrope walker, was living in Paris when he decided to execute his first major performance at Notre Dame on June 26, 1971. He crossed between the two towers of the cathedral, taking a break to casually lie down on the wire and juggle several clubs. He was arrested thereafter, but Petit was hooked on the thrill and knew that the walk at Notre Dame wouldn’t be his last.
Several decades after Notre Dame, Petit strung up his wires to another famous Parisian landmark: the Eiffel Tower. But he wasn’t arrested this time because the stunt was commissioned by the mayor of Paris to celebrate the 200th anniversary of The Declaration of the Rights of Man.
At an early age, Petit discovered magic and juggling. He loved to climb, and at 16, he took his first steps on a tightrope wire. He told a reporter, “Within one year, I taught myself to do all the things you could do on a wire. I learned the backward somersault, the front somersault, the unicycle, the bicycle, the chair on the wire, jumping through hoops. But I thought, “What is the big deal here? It looks almost ugly.” So I started to discard those tricks and to reinvent my art.” Petit became known to New Yorkers in the early 1970s for his frequent tightrope-walking performances and magic shows in the city parks, especially Washington Square Park. Petit’s most famous performance was in August 1974, conducted on a wire between the roofs of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, a quarter mile above the ground.
If the 1920s was considered the boom for women clothing fashion, the 1930s was the period of hat styles. They were not only beautiful, unique but also diversity of styles. Let’s see these 81 beautiful hats for women and choose your best one.
Joan Jett (born Joan Marie Larkin, September 22, 1958) is an American rock singer, songwriter, composer, musician, record producer, and actress. Jett is best known for her work as the frontwoman of her band Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, and for earlier founding and performing with the Runaways, which recorded and released the hit song “Cherry Bomb”. With The Blackhearts, Jett is known for her rendition of the song “I Love Rock ‘n Roll” which was number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks in 1982. Jett’s other notable songs include “Bad Reputation”, “Crimson and Clover”, “Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)”, “Light of Day”, “I Hate Myself for Loving You” and “Dirty Deeds”.
Jett has a mezzo-soprano vocal range. She has three albums that have been certified platinum or gold. She has been described as “the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll”. In 2015, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Jett lives in Long Beach, New York, and has been a New York resident since the late 1970s. (Wikipedia)
Construction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge began with the groundbreaking ceremony on July 9, 1933. Discussion of connecting both sides of the Bay with a bridge began in the early part of the 20th century.
In 1929, the California Legislature established the California Toll Bridge Authority with the responsibility of connecting the counties of San Francisco and Alameda with a bridge. The construction of the bridge continued through the Great Depression employing many workers on both sides of the Bay.
The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened to traffic on November 12, 1936 at 12:30 p.m. Celebrations included a boat parade, Navy air show, yacht regatta, Navy ship race, air parade of China Clippers and lasted for five days.
Train service across the Bay Bridge began on September 23, 1938 and ended in April 1958. The upper deck carried three lanes of automobile traffic in each direction, while the lower deck carried three lanes of truck and auto traffic on the north side and two railroad tracks on the south side.
The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge continues to be well-known landmark of the San Francisco Bay Area.
A historical photo collection from San Francisco Public Library that shows construction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in the 1930s.
President Herbert Hoover, Governor James Rolph and beauty pageant winners pose at Bay Bridge groundbreaking ceremony on Yerba Buena Island, July 9, 1933San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge east span under construction, circa 1934Workers posing with reinforcing bars during construction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, September 26, 1934Aerial view looking west toward San Francisco showing towers, anchorage, and Yerba Buena Island span being erected for San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, March 1, 1935Aerial view of east end of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge under construction, June 7, 1935Men working on cables during construction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, circa 1935San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge, Construction – giant squeezer at work, circa 1935View of San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge cantilever span nearing completion, circa 1935View of Southern Pacific Golden Gate ferry passing under the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge during construction, November 29, 1935View of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge while under construction showing suspension bridge catwalk extending from Rincon Hill, June 18, 1935View of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge while under construction, circa 1935Workers pressing cable for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, 1935Workmen assemble piece of the cantilever section of Bay Bridge, circa 1935Working inside Yerba Buena Island tunnel during San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge construction, September 12, 1935Aerial view from the tower of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge during construction, June 24, 1936Aerial view of San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge span under construction, 1936First section of Bay Bridge is moved into place, January 21, 1936View from roadway of completed cantilever section of Bay Bridge, November 11, 1936View of the cantilever section of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge looking east from Yerba Buena Island, circa 1936Workers lay decking on San Francisco span of Bay Bridge, June 22, 1936San Francisco Bay Bridge Opening Celebration as viewed from Four Fifty Sutter, November 12, 1936People celebrating opening day of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, November 12, 1936Two women and a balloon-man, participants of San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opening day parade, 1936California Highway Patrol officers pose on Bay Bridge, March 27, 1937First electric train crossing the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, September 23, 1938Control room for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge electric railway system, January 13, 1939
Paris is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 34th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of the world’s major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, gastronomy, science, and arts, and has sometimes been referred to as the capital of the world. The City of Paris is the centre and seat of government of the region and province of Île-de-France, or Paris Region, with an estimated population of 12,997,058 in 2020, or about 18% of the population of France, making it in 2020 the second largest metropolitan area in the OECD, and 14th largest in the world in 2015. The Paris Region had a GDP of €709 billion ($808 billion) in 2017. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit Worldwide Cost of Living Survey, in 2021 Paris was the city with the second-highest cost of living in the world, tied with Singapore, and after Tel Aviv.
Paris is a major railway, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports: Paris–Charles de Gaulle (the second-busiest airport in Europe) and Paris–Orly. Opened in 1900, the city’s subway system, the Paris Métro, serves 5.23 million passengers daily; it is the second-busiest metro system in Europe after the Moscow Metro. Gare du Nord is the 24th-busiest railway station in the world and the busiest located outside Japan, with 262 million passengers in 2015. Paris is especially known for its museums and architectural landmarks: the Louvre received 2.8 million visitors in 2021, despite the long museum closings caused by the COVID-19 virus. The Musée d’Orsay, Musée Marmottan Monet and Musée de l’Orangerie are noted for their collections of French Impressionist art. The Pompidou Centre Musée National d’Art Moderne has the largest collection of modern and contemporary art in Europe. The Musée Rodin and Musée Picasso exhibit the works of two noted Parisians. The historical district along the Seine in the city centre has been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991; popular landmarks there include the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris on the Île de la Cité, now closed for renovation after the 15 April 2019 fire. Other popular tourist sites include the Gothic royal chapel of Sainte-Chapelle, also on the Île de la Cité; the Eiffel Tower, constructed for the Paris Universal Exposition of 1889; the Grand Palais and Petit Palais, built for the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900; the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Élysées, and the hill of Montmartre with its artistic history and its Basilica of Sacré-Coeur.
Paris hosts several United Nations organisations: the UNESCO, the Young Engineers / Future Leaders, the World Federation of Engineering Organizations, and other international organisations such as the OECD, the OECD Development Centre, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, the International Energy Agency, the International Federation for Human Rights, the International Organisation of La Francophonie; along with European bodies such as the European Space Agency, the European Banking Authority or the European Securities and Markets Authority. Other international organisations were founded in Paris such as the CIMAC in 1951 (International Council on Combustion Engines | Conseil International des Machines à Combustion), or the modern Olympic Games in 1894 which was then moved to Lausanne, Switzerland.
Tourism recovered in the Paris region in 2021, increasing to 22.6 million visitors, thirty percent more than in 2020, but still well below 2019 levels. The number of visitors from the United States increased by 237 percent over 2020. Museums re-opened in 2021, with limitations on the number of visitors at a time and a requirement that visitors wear masks.
The football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris. The 80,000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros. The city hosted the Olympic Games in 1900, 1924 and will host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The 1938 and 1998 FIFA World Cups, the 2007 Rugby World Cup, as well as the 1960, 1984 and 2016 UEFA European Championships were also held in the city. Every July, the Tour de France bicycle race finishes on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris. (Wikipedia)
A cool photo collection shows what the inside of hotels and resorts in New York looked like from the 1950s and 1960s.
Utopia Lodge, New YorkValeria Resort Oscawana, Westchester County, New YorkValley View House in Kenoza Lake, New YorkVilla Leone Resort lounge, New YorkBeachleys Motel, Barnveld, New YorkCaptain Thompsons Motor Lodge, Alexandria Bay, New YorkEdgewood Resort Room, Alexandria Bay, New YorkGrossinger’s Terrace Room, New YorkGuests at Pool, Western View Hotel, New YorkHerkimer Motel Interior, Herkimer, New YorkHomowack Motel, Spring Glen, New YorkHotel Aberdeen, New YorkHotel Iroquois Interior, New York City, NYGuests at Pool, Western View Hotel, New YorkKiamesha Lake Concord Pool, New YorkKiamesha Lake indoor pool at Concord Hotel, New YorkKiamesha Lake Sports Resort Concord Hotel, New YorkKirby’s Motel, Rochester, New YorkKirby’s Motel, Rochester, New YorkNew Roxy Hotel Lounge, New YorkNew Yorker Building at Schenk’s Paramount Hotel in South FallsburgNewman’s Villa Playground, Loch Sheldrake, New YorkNorthway Motel & Pool Albany, Schenectady, New YorkPenny Point Motel Hampton Bays, Long Island, New YorkPool and Lobby at the El Dorado, Fallsburg, New YorkPool at the Morningside Hotel, Hurleyville, New YorkPurple Tree Lounge, Rochester, New YorkRed Apple Motel, Tuxedo, New YorkRydin Hy Ranch Resort, Sherman Lake, Warrensburg, New YorkStevensville Country Club Hotel, Swan Lake, New YorkSwimming Pool at Bardow’s Cottages in Monticello, New YorkThe Concord Hotel, Kiamesha Lake, New YorkThe Granit Hotel & Country Club, Kerhonkson, New YorkThomas Motor Lodge, Oswego, New YorkTuckahoe Motel, Yonkers, New York
The Muppets are a group of puppet characters known for an absurdist, burlesque and self-referential style of variety-sketch comedy. Created in 1955 by Jim Henson, they are the namesake for the Disney media franchise that encompasses films, television series, music recordings, print publications, and other media associated with The Muppet Show characters.
The Muppets were the stars of multiple television series and films, including: The Muppet Show (1976–1981), The Muppet Movie (1979), The Great Muppet Caper (1981) and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984). After Henson’s death in 1990, The Muppets continued their presence in television and cinema with Muppets Tonight (1996–1998), a series continuation of The Muppet Show, and three films, The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), Muppet Treasure Island (1996), Muppets From Space (1999), the former two were co-produced with Disney, who sought to acquire the characters since the late 1980s.
In 2004, The Walt Disney Company purchased the rights to The Muppets, and later formed The Muppets Studio, a division created specifically for managing The Muppets franchise. Below is a collection of 28 interesting color photographs of behind the scenes with the Muppets from the 1970s.
The 1967 International and Universal Exposition or Expo 67, as it was commonly known, was a general exhibition, Category One World’s Fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, from April 27 to October 29, 1967. It is considered to be the most successful World’s Fair of the 20th century with the most attendees to that date and 62 nations participating. It also set the single-day attendance record for a world’s fair, with 569,500 visitors on its third day.
Expo 67 was Canada’s main celebration during its centennial year. The fair had been intended to be held in Moscow, to help the Soviet Union celebrate the Russian Revolution’s 50th anniversary; however, for various reasons, the Soviets decided to cancel, and Canada was awarded it in late 1962.
The project was not well supported in Canada at first. It took the determination of Montreal’s mayor, Jean Drapeau, and a new team of managers to guide it past political, physical and temporal hurdles. Defying a computer analysis that said it could not be done, the fair opened on time.
After Expo 67 ended in October 1967, the site and most of the pavilions continued on as an exhibition called Man and His World, open during the summer months from 1968 until 1984. By that time, most of the buildings—which had not been designed to last beyond the original exhibition—had deteriorated and were dismantled. Today, the islands that hosted the world exhibition are mainly used as parkland and for recreational use, with only a few remaining structures from Expo 67 to show that the event was held there. (Wikipedia)
HollandHovercraftIndians of CanadaJapan pavilionJapan pavilionLillian Seymour in front of Le Diplomate MotelMain Entrance Place D’AccueilMini rail stationMini rail viewNetherlandPavilion of Jamaïca on the left, the Britain pavilion in the middle, and the pavilion of Monaco (with the red column) on the rightPicture treePolandRepublic of ChinaSwiss sky rideSwiss sky rideTaller O’Shea, New Golden Garter ‘Show’Thai pavillionThailandThe agora place, near the Canada pavilion, on Notre-Dame islandThe view across the street from St. Joseph’s OratoryThis particular track would enter the Ontario pavilion, on Notre-Dame islandTivoli Garden carouselUSA & USSR pavilionUSSR pavilionVaporetto on canalVermontAtlantic provincesBritain pavilionBritish pubCanadian NationalCanadian PacificDiplomate MotelFrench pavilionFort EdmontonGolden Age ClubGyrotron rideGyrotronGyrotronHabitat buildingUSSRHofbrau Fun House
On July 4th 1962, Richard Meryman began an interview with Marilyn. It will be the last! He wanted some photos with the article but Marilyn wasn’t very happy to do an other sitting. But finally, she agreed to do it in her house.
The photographer was Allan Grant. Those photos are really the last photos of Marilyn Monroe!
Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 – August 4, 1962) was an American actress, singer, and model. Famous for playing comedic “blonde bombshell” characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s and was emblematic of the era’s sexual revolution. She was a top-billed actress for a decade, and her films grossed $200 million (equivalent to $2 billion in 2021) by the time of her death in 1962. Long after her death, Monroe remains a major icon of pop culture. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked her sixth on their list of the greatest female screen legends from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Monroe spent most of her childhood in foster homes and an orphanage; she married at age sixteen. She was working in a factory during World War II when she met a photographer from the First Motion Picture Unit and began a successful pin-up modeling career, which led to short-lived film contracts with 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures. After a series of minor film roles, she signed a new contract with Fox in late 1950. Over the next two years, she became a popular actress with roles in several comedies, including As Young as You Feel and Monkey Business, and in the dramas Clash by Night and Don’t Bother to Knock. She faced a scandal when it was revealed that she had posed for nude photographs prior to becoming a star, but the story did not damage her career and instead resulted in increased interest in her films.
By 1953, Monroe was one of the most marketable Hollywood stars; she had leading roles in the film noir Niagara, which overtly relied on her sex appeal, and the comedies Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and How to Marry a Millionaire, which established her star image as a “dumb blonde”. The same year, her nude images were used as the centerfold and on the cover of the first issue of Playboy. She played a significant role in the creation and management of her public image throughout her career, but she was disappointed when she was typecast and underpaid by the studio. She was briefly suspended in early 1954 for refusing a film project but returned to star in The Seven Year Itch (1955), one of the biggest box office successes of her career.
When the studio was still reluctant to change Monroe’s contract, she founded her own film production company in 1954. She dedicated 1955 to building the company and began studying method acting under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. Later that year, Fox awarded her a new contract, which gave her more control and a larger salary. Her subsequent roles included a critically acclaimed performance in Bus Stop (1956) and her first independent production in The Prince and the Showgirl (1957). She won a Golden Globe for Best Actress for her role in Some Like It Hot (1959), a critical and commercial success. Her last completed film was the drama The Misfits (1961).
Monroe’s troubled private life received much attention. She struggled with addiction and mood disorders. Her marriages to retired baseball star Joe DiMaggio and to playwright Arthur Miller were highly publicized, and both ended in divorce. On August 4, 1962, she died at age 36 from an overdose of barbiturates at her Los Angeles home. Her death was ruled a probable suicide. (Wikipedia)
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just over 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a 50-mile (80 km) estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for two millennia. The City of London, its ancient core and financial centre, was founded by the Romans as Londinium and retains boundaries close to its medieval ones. Since the 19th century, “London” has also referred to the metropolis around this core, historically split between the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire, which largely comprises Greater London, governed by the Greater London Authority. The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has for centuries held the national government and parliament.
As one of the world’s major global cities, London exerts strong influence on its arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, health care, media, tourism, and communications, and has sometimes been called the capital of the world. Its GDP (€801.66 billion in 2017) makes it the biggest urban economy in Europe, and it is one of the major financial centres in the world. In 2019 it had the second-highest number of ultra high-net-worth individuals in Europe after Paris and the second-highest number of billionaires in Europe after Moscow. As of 2021, London has the most millionaires of any city. With Europe’s largest concentration of higher education institutions, it includes Imperial College London in natural and applied sciences, the London School of Economics in social sciences, and the comprehensive University College London. The city is home to the most 5-star hotels of any city in the world. In 2012, London became the first city to host three Summer Olympic Games.
London’s diverse cultures encompass over 300 languages. The mid-2018 population of Greater London of about 9 million[5] made it Europe’s third-most populous city, accounting for 13.4% of the population of the United Kingdom. Greater London Built-up Area is the fourth-most populous in Europe, after Istanbul, Moscow and Paris, with about 9.8 million inhabitants at the 2011 census. The London metropolitan area is the third-most populous in Europe after Istanbul’s and Moscow’s, with about 14 million inhabitants in 2016, granting London the status of a megacity.
London has four World Heritage Sites: the Tower of London; Kew Gardens; the combined Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey, and St Margaret’s Church; and also the historic settlement in Greenwich, where the Royal Observatory, Greenwich defines the Prime Meridian (0° longitude) and Greenwich Mean Time. Other landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Paul’s Cathedral, Tower Bridge, and Trafalgar Square. It has numerous museums, galleries, libraries and sporting venues, including the British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, Tate Modern, British Library, and West End theatres. The London Underground is the oldest rapid transit system in the world. (Wikipedia)
