Gregory Peck: One of the Greatest Male Stars of Classic Hollywood Cinema

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Born 1916 in San Diego, California, American actor Gregory Peck began appearing in stage productions, acting in over fifty plays and three Broadway productions. He first gained critical success in The Keys of the Kingdom (1944) which earned him his first Academy Award nomination. He starred in a series of successful films, including romantic-drama The Valley of Decision (1944), Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound (1945), and family film The Yearling (1946).

Peck reached global recognition in the 1950s and 1960s, appearing back-to-back in the book-to-film adaptation of Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951) and biblical drama David and Bathsheba (1951). He starred alongside Ava Gardner in The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) and Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday (1953), which earned him a Golden Globe award.

Other notable films in which he appeared include Moby Dick (1956, and its 1998 mini-series), The Guns of Navarone (1961), Cape Fear (1962, and its 1991 remake), The Omen (1976), and The Boys from Brazil (1978). Throughout his career, he often portrayed protagonists with “fiber” within a moral setting. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), an adaptation of the modern classic of the same name which revolved around racial inequality, for which he received universal acclaim.

Peck was one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck among 25 Greatest Male Stars of Classic Hollywood Cinema, ranking him at No. 12. He was also active in politics, challenging the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947 and was regarded as a political opponent by President Richard Nixon. President Lyndon B. Johnson honored Peck with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 for his lifetime humanitarian efforts.

Peck died in his sleep from bronchopneumonia in 2003 at the age of 87. Take a look at these vintage photos to see portrait of a young and handsome Gregory Peck in the 1940s and 1950s.

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Gorgeous Photos of Sharon Tate on the Set of “Eye of the Devil” in 1965

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Eye of the Devil is a 1966 British mystery/horror film with occult and supernatural themes directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Deborah Kerr, David Niven and Sharon Tate.

The film is set in rural France and was filmed at the Château de Hautefort and in England. Eye of the Devil is based on the novel Day of the Arrow by Robin Estridge and was initially titled Thirteen.

These gorgeous photos of American actress Sharon Tate, aged 22, were taken by photographer Philippe Le Tellier. She has just been signed for a co-starring role in the new MGM film, Eye of the Devil, pictured at her flat in Eaton Square, London, Friday 17th September 1965.

Sharon Marie Tate Polanski (née Tate; January 24, 1943 – August 9, 1969) was an American actress and model. During the 1960s, she appeared in advertisements and small television roles before appearing in films as well as working as a model. After receiving positive reviews for her comedic and dramatic acting performances, Tate was hailed as one of Hollywood’s most promising newcomers.

She made her film debut in 1961 as an extra in Barabbas with Anthony Quinn. She next appeared in the horror film Eye of the Devil (1966). Her first major role was as Jennifer North in the 1967 film Valley of the Dolls, which earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination. That year, she also performed in the film The Fearless Vampire Killers, directed by Roman Polanski, whom she married the following year. Tate’s last completed film, 12+1, was released posthumously in 1969.

On August 9, 1969, Tate and four others were murdered by members of the Manson Family, a cult, in the home she shared with Polanski. She was eight-and-a-half months pregnant.

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Fascinating Vintage Meat Ads From the 1930s to 1970s

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It’s always fascinating to compare food advertisings then and now. Back then, pork, beef and chicken were three basic food groups in America, whereas today people have become more conscious of diet and nutrition, which results in the changes in modern selling points: organic, local, healthy and sustainable. Food stylists across social media, of course, had not existed yet, so glistening mounds of meat dripping with gravy and covered with fat were what consumers would see.

Take a look back at these vintage meat ads from old magazines, cookbooks from the 1930s to 1970s:

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Vintage Photos of Women Workers in the Factories in London During World War II

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These women were all training in various London polytechnics to work in munitions factories during the early 1940s.

Women have always worked outside the home but never before in the numbers or with the same impact as they did in World War II. Prior to the war, most of the women that did work were from the lower working classes and many of these were minorities. There were a variety of attitudes towards women in the work force. Some thought they should only have jobs that men didn’t want while others felt women should give up their jobs so unemployed men could have a job. Still others held the view that women from the middle class or above should never lower themselves to go to work.

Around 950,000 British women worked in munitions factories during World War II, making weapons like shells and bullets. Munitions work was often well-paid but involved long hours, sometimes up to seven days a week. Workers were also at serious risk from accidents with dangerous machinery or when working with highly explosive material.

Some munitions workers handled toxic chemicals every day. Those who handled sulphur were nicknamed ‘Canary Girls’, because their skin and hair turned yellow from contact with the chemical.

A machine shop trainee at the Ministry of Labour training centre at Chelsea Polytechnic at work on a milling machine.

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Abolitionist Button, ca. 1850s

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Abolitionist Button is an early photography daguerreotype and gold photographic print created from between the 1840s to the 1850s. It lives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The image is in the public domain, and tagged jewelry and political work.

This miniature daguerreotype shows two hands resting on a book. The photograph is set into a two-piece gold-washed brass frame with a loop on the reverse for sewing to a garment. The case design with its simple, raised ornamental border is typical of the gilt-metal buttons mass-produced from 1830 to 1850 in several New England factories such as the Scovill Manufacturing Company in Waterbury, Connecticut, which also manufactured daguerreotype plates. The button was discovered in the early 1980s in a flea market in Massachusetts.

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Yesterday Today: August 11

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Marilyn Monroe and screenwriter Arthur Miller on set of the film ‘The Misfits’, 1961.

Two little girls reading a board advertising carrots instead of ice lollies, 1941. Wartime shortages made such substitutions a necessity.

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40 Wonderful Portrait Photos of Women Posing With Their Books From the Mid-19th Century

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Women formed a large and increasing part of the new novel-reading public. The traditional discrepancy between male and female literacy rates was narrowed, and finally eliminated by the end of the 19th century. The gap had always been the widest at the lowest end of the social scale.

Perhaps more women than we realize could already read. The signature test, commonly used by historians to measure literacy, hides from view all those who could read, but were still unable to sign their own name. This group was essentially female. The Catholic Church had tried as far as possible to encourage people to read, but not to write. It was useful for parishioners to be able to read the Bible and their catechism, but the ability to write as well might have given peasants an undesirable degree of independence in the eyes of the clergy. Perhaps for this reason, many women could read but not sign or write. In some families, there was a rigid sexual division of literary labour, according to which the women would read to the family, while the men would do the writing and account-keeping.

Although feminist movements at the end of the 18th century had tried to set up precedents for women’s reading, 19th century models for the ideal women concentrated on activity, for instance charity work and above all motherhood. The only reading advocated for women was as part of educating their children or running their households. Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management was first published in 1861. Although novel reading was common among leisured women, it was somewhat looked down on, unless the text was of a serious or ‘improving’ nature.

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50 Amazing Vintage Photos From the 1920s Volume 2

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Four young college men having a picnic in autumn 1927.
Time to Eat, Willimantic, Connecticut, 1926.

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Winter, Fifth Avenue (1893)

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Winter, Fifth Avenue is a black and white photograph taken by Alfred Stieglitz in 1893. The photograph was made at the corner of the Fifth Avenue and the 35th Street in New York. It was one of the first pictures that Stieglitz took using a more practical hand camera after his return from Europe.

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Animals in Daguerreotypes in the Early Years of Photography

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Daguerreotypes, the first commercial form of photography, appeared in America around the year 1839. These were produced by first sensitizing a polished silvered copper plate with iodine vapor, and then exposing the plate to light. The image was developed over hot mercury, fixed, and rinsed. This was a direct positive process, meaning that no negatives were produced, and so each daguerreotype is unique. Daguerreotypes can be easily distinguished from other early photographs by their reflective, mirror-like surface.

Animals are not well represented in daguerreotypes, yet their visage within them is quite informative. The inclusion of animals was inhibited by their penchant for movement, which confounded the capabilities of the daguerreotype. Nonetheless, people sought to incorporate animals into portraits, the result often being a smeared image of the being. Rather than viewing this outcome as a failure, the smeared images should be viewed as theoretically and philosophically insightful.

On the one hand, the smears suggest the frailty of existence during an era in which disease and death were common, a condition that instigated the creation of lasting daguerreotypes. The smears indicate the transient character of life in all ages, a condition that points toward an altered conception of animal ontology. These social and ontological insights have ramifications for present-day relations.

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