Like Norma Jeane Baker or Lizzy Grant, Lauren Bacall wasn’t born with a roll-off-the-tongue fame-ready name. Born Betty Joan Perske, then changing to Betty Bacall after her parents divorced, she became Lauren only when she starred her first film – 1944’s To Have and Have Not – for which these hair and makeup tests were taken.
Beautifully styled in four different ways, you can view larger images of each after the break.
To Have and Have Not (1944) was director Howard Hawks’ wartime adventure masterpiece – a minor film classic loosely based upon part of Ernest Hemingway’s 1937 novel of the same name. Jules Furthman and William Faulkner partnered their talents to write the screenplay, retaining some of the sharp dialogue from the book.
Warner Bros. Studios decided that it needed a sequel in an exotic locale to follow up their earlier success of Casablanca (1942), so they chose this similar vehicle with comparable ingredients: an exotic locale in the Caribbean (WWII Martinique), an unmarried ex-patriate American (a charter-boat captain who is tough, sardonic, and politically apathetic – at first), a romantic love interest to create on-screen electricity, Free French (Gaullist) resistance fighters, a Vichy/Gestapo police captain, a cafe/bar and a piano player.
And this film paired an unhappily-married Humphrey Bogart and young Lauren Bacall for the first time (this was Lauren Bacall’s startling movie debut at 19 years of age), leading to one of Hollywood’s most enduring romances. The couple actually fell in love together while making the film – and were married shortly afterwards in 1945. Taglines advertised Bacall as a self-reliant lead who could play opposite Bogey:
“The ONLY kind of woman for his kind of man.”
“AT LAST! Bogart makes love to his kind of woman.”
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio (born November 11, 1974) is an American actor and film producer. Known for his work in biopics and period films, he is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and three Golden Globe Awards. As of 2019, his films have grossed over $7.2 billion worldwide, and he has been placed eight times in annual rankings of the world’s highest-paid actors.
Born in Los Angeles, DiCaprio began his career in the late 1980s by appearing in television commercials. In the early 1990s, he had recurring roles in various television shows, such as the sitcom Parenthood, and had his first major film part as author Tobias Wolff in This Boy’s Life (1993). At age 19, he received critical acclaim and his first Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for his performance as a developmentally disabled boy in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993). He achieved international stardom with the star-crossed romances Romeo + Juliet (1996) and Titanic (1997). After the latter became the highest-grossing film at the time, he reduced his workload for a few years. In an attempt to shed his image of a romantic hero, DiCaprio sought roles in other genres, including crime drama in Catch Me If You Can (2002) and Gangs of New York (2002); the latter marked the first of his many successful collaborations with director Martin Scorsese.
DiCaprio portrayed Howard Hughes in The Aviator (2004) and received acclaim for his performances in the political thriller Blood Diamond (2006), the crime drama The Departed (2006), and the romantic drama Revolutionary Road (2008). In the following decade, DiCaprio starred in several high-profile directors’ projects, including the science fiction thriller Inception (2010), the western Django Unchained (2012), the biopic The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), the survival drama The Revenant (2015), for which he won an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and the comedy-drama Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), all of which were critical and commercial successes.
DiCaprio is the founder of Appian Way Productions, a production company that has produced some of his films and the documentary series Greensburg (2008–2010), and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting environmental awareness. He regularly supports charitable causes and has produced several documentaries on the environment. In 2005, he was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contributions to the arts, and in 2016, he appeared in Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. (Wikipedia)
Below are some adorable snaps of Leonardo DiCaprio as a toddler with his parents in Los Angeles in 1975 and 1976.
Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull (born 29 December 1946) is an English singer, songwriter and actress. She achieved popularity in the 1960s with the release of her hit single “As Tears Go By” and became one of the lead female artists during the British Invasion in the United States.
Born in Hampstead, London, Faithfull began her career in 1964 after attending a Rolling Stones party, where she was discovered by Andrew Loog Oldham. Her debut album Marianne Faithfull (1965) (released simultaneously with her album Come My Way) was a commercial success followed by a number of albums on Decca Records. From 1966 to 1970, she had a highly publicised romantic relationship with Mick Jagger. Her popularity was further enhanced by her film roles, such as those in I’ll Never Forget What’s’isname (1967), The Girl on a Motorcycle (1968), and Hamlet (1969). However, her popularity was overshadowed by personal problems in the 1970s. During that time she was anorexic, homeless, and a heroin addict.
Noted for her distinctive voice, Faithfull’s previously melodic and higher-registered vocals (which were prevalent throughout her career in the 1960s) were affected by severe laryngitis, coupled with persistent drug abuse during the 1970s, permanently altering her voice, leaving it raspy, cracked and lower in pitch. This new sound was praised as “whisky soaked” by some critics and seen as having helped to capture the raw emotions expressed in Faithfull’s music.
After a long commercial absence, Faithfull made a comeback with the 1979 release of her critically acclaimed album Broken English. The album was a commercial success and marked a resurgence of her musical career. Broken English earned Faithfull a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance and is often regarded as her “definitive recording”. She followed this with a series of albums, including Dangerous Acquaintances (1981), A Child’s Adventure (1983), and Strange Weather (1987). Faithfull also wrote three books about her life: Faithfull: An Autobiography (1994), Memories, Dreams & Reflections (2007), and Marianne Faithfull: A Life on Record (2014).
Faithfull is listed on VH1’s “100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll” list. She received the World Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2009 Women’s World Awards and was made a Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the government of France. (Wikipedia)
Marianne Faithfull during the filming of “The Girl On A Motorcycle”, late 1967.Marianne Faithfull and Mick Jagger in Heidelberg, Germany where Marianne was filming “The Girl On A Motorcycle” in late 1967.Marianne Faithfull backstage at Sanremo Music Festival | January 26th-28th, 1967Marianne Faithfull and Mick Jagger in Sanremo, Italy. January 1967Marianne Faithfull and Mick Jagger in Sanremo, Italy. January 1967Marianne Faithfull going to court the day after a drug raid at her and Mick Jagger’s residence at Cheyne Walk, May 1969.Marianne Faithfull backstage in Doncaster, 1964.Marianne Faithfull, 1965.Marianne Faithfull, 1968.Marianne Faithfull recording backup vocals for The Rolling Stones album “Beggars Banquet”, 196818-year-old Marianne Faithfull photographed for an article in “The Daily Mail” reporting about her recent engagement to art student John Dunbar, 1965.Marianne Faithfull backstage in Belgium, June 1966.Marianne Faithfull, 1966Marianne Faithfull, 1966Marianne Faithfull in rehearsal for the play “Hamlet”, 1969.Marianne Faithfull in her flat in Lennox Gardens, London, 1967.Marianne Faithfull performing on “Ready Steady Go”, 1965Marianne Faithfull posing for a newspaper article announcing her engagement to Arts Undergraduate John Dunbar, 1965.Marianne Faithfull, 1967Marianne Faithfull at home in London, 1967.Marianne Faithfull in San Remo, Italy, 1967Marianne Faithfull in Amsterdam, 1966.Marianne Faithfull on the set of “The Girl On A Motorcycle”, 1967Marianne Faithfull in front of her childhood home on Milman Road in Reading, 1964.Early promotional photo of Marianne Faithfull for Decca, ca. mid-1964Marianne Faithfull on set of “The Girl On A Motorcycle”, 1967.Marianne Faithfull leaving Mount St. Margaret Hospital in Sydney after recovering from a week-long coma induced by an (accidental) overdose of sleeping pills, 1969.Marianne Faithfull at home, 1967.Marianne Faithfull, 1966Marianne Faithfull at Churchill College, Cambridge, ca. 1965Marianne Faithfull, ca. 1966.Seventeen-year-old Marianne Faithfull posing in one of her first photoshoots in the summer of 1964Marianne Faithfull in the 1960sMarianne Faithfull opening fanmail backstage at San Remo Song Festival, January 1967Marianne Faithfull near her childhood home in Reading, ca. 1964.Marianne Faithfull on French program “Les visiteurs d’un soir”, 1966.Marianne Faithfull, 1964.Marianne Faithfull, 1968Marianne Faithfull in Heidelberg, Germany, 1967.Marianne Faithfull, 1967.Marianne Faithfull, 1965Marianne Faithfull at Heathrow Airport, late 1967Marianne Faithfull on BBC’s music program “Gadzooks!”, June 1965Marianne Faithfull, 1965.Marianne Faithfull above the rooftops of London, 1965.Marianne Faithfull on set of “The Girl On A Motorcycle”, 1967.Marianne Faithfull on set of “The Girl On A Motorcycle”, 1967Marianne Faithfull (and Sara), 1964.Marianne Faithfull, 1967.Marianne Faithfull at the San Remo Song Festival, 1967.
Check out these photographs of Marilyn Monroe about to get her Thanksgiving on back in 1950. Clad in a Pilgrim outfit with a shotgun in tow, the turkey probably wasn’t too happy to be posing with the blonde bombshell.
Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 – August 4, 1962) was an American actress, model and singer. 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 2020) 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)
In 1972 Shelly Nadelman began a ten-year run bartending at one of New York City’s most notorious dives: the Terminal Bar, located across the street from the Port Authority Bus Terminal near Times Square.
For ten years, right up until the bar closed for good in 1982, he shot thousands of black and white photographs, mostly portraits of his customers— neighborhood regulars, drag queens, thrill-seeking tourists, pimps and prostitutes, midtown office workers dropping by before catching a bus home to the suburbs—all of whom found welcome and respite at the Terminal Bar.
“In the beginning it was just the regulars and they were willing and able to be photographed,” Nadelman said in an interview. “Then there were just faces that came in and I knew I wouldn’t see them again. But they looked interesting. I’d say 90 percent of the people were willing to be photographed.” In the early 2000s, his grown son Stefan began sorting, scanning, and printing his dad’s negatives, and very quickly realized that the scene at Terminal Bar had become a historic artifact. That New York was fading fast — it was just about gone, in fact — and Sheldon Nadelman had caught it all. The images were eventually made into a book, Terminal Bar, by Princeton Architectural Press; it brings back to life the 1970s presanitized Times Square, a raucous chapter of the city that never sleeps.
Before bikini era, swimsuits in the 1930s for women were really creative and stylish. These 36 pictures are examples, but now you may no longer see them.
For most people with modest salaries, cars function more as practical tools than as highly-stylized artistic creations. However, the history of auto manufacturing is chock full of oddities, ranging from the ambitious to the beautiful to the mind-bogglingly impractical. Especially in the early days of the automotive industry, many famous and obscure car designers took inspiration from airplanes, submarines, and even James Bond films to craft cars that defied the imagination.
Many of the vehicles were merely concepts that never became mass-produced and accessible to the general public. Yet, even the vehicles that were unrealistic and scantly produced introduced revolutionary concepts that became staple design elements of future cars.
What happens when creators balance aesthetics, functionality, and their personal vision of the future is one reason we love cars. That’s especially true when the results leave us wondering, “How could anyone think this was a good idea?” Here are 15 of the strangest cars ever designed.
1932 Ford Speedster
The 1932 Ford Speedster, packing a flathead V-8 engine, came with a starter button, decades before the feature became standard automotive fare. The low, long roadster was the brainchild of Henry’s son Edsel Ford and designer Eugene Gregorie.
1934 Voisin C-25 Aerodyne
Like many of his peers on this list, designer Gabrielle Voisin started off making airplanes. After World War I, he turned to cars. Only 28 of the 1934 Voisin C-25 Aerodyne were made, one of which won Best in Show at the 2011 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
1935 Bugatti Type 57S Competition Coupe Aerolithe
The original example of the 1935 Bugatti Type 57S Compétition Coupé Aerolithe, which debuted at the Paris Auto Show in 1935, was lost after the unveiling — the popular explanation is that Bugatti disassembled it for parts to make the Type 57 production car that followed.
1936 Stout Scarab
Designer William Stout, who worked as an aircraft engineer before turning to automobiles, was a pioneer in integrating luxury and leisure into transportation. Stout Air Lines is credited with introducing flight attendants and in-flight meals. The Scarab draws on that idea; it’s a road-going diner car powered by a Ford V-8 tucked in the rear of the stretched aluminum body. The brand never took off, partly because at $5,000 (about $90,000 today), the Scarab was more expensive than the Packards and Cadillacs of those days. Fewer than ten were produced.
1941 Chrysler Thunderbolt
The curves on the 1941 Chrysler Thunderbolt were inspired by streamliner trains. The car was among the first to have power windows — Chrysler used hydraulic motors to move them. The fully retractable hardtop and button-operated pop-open headlights were also seminal design features that showed up in cars decades later. It was one of the last Art Deco designs before concepts leaned towards futuristic aesthetics.
1942 Oeuf electrique
The 1942 Oeuf électrique, or electric egg, had three wheels and ran on batteries decades after gasoline became the dominant way to power cars, and decades before Elon Musk decided to make electricity cool again. Its designer, Parisian Paul Arzens, worked as a painter and designed railway locomotives before moving on to cars. The bubble is made of hand-formed aluminum and curved Plexiglass, a novel material at the time.
1947 Norman Timbs Special
No other automobile looks like the 1947 Norman Timbs Special, with its front-mounted cockpit and curves leading to a raindrop tail. Timbs, an Indy racing engineer, made the car with a Buick Straight 8 engine placed at the rear of the chassis. Look to racers like the 1937 Auto Union Type C for indications of Timbs’ inspiration.
1948 Tasco
This 1948 Tasco was made under a short-lived brand called The American Sports Car Company — the car’s name is an acronym for the manufacturer. Gordon Buehrig, formerly of Duesenberg, took design inspiration from World War II fighter planes. The fiberglass covering the front wheels moved with the steering input.
1951 GM LaSabre
The 1951 GM Le Sabre was the first car to sport fins and a wraparound windshield, design elements that became standard in American cars thereafter. The car came with a moisture detector that would automatically raise the convertible’s top if it rained.
1953 General Motors Firebird 1 XP-21
To describe today’s supercars, we fall back on likening the Koenigseggs and Paganis of the world to jet fighters. The 1953 General Motors Firebird I XP-21 was an actual jet fighter, with four wheels, a tail fin, and a bubble cockpit. The turbine engine spun at up to 26,000 rpm to generate a whopping (for the time) 370 horsepower.
1955 Chrysler (Ghia) Streamline X “Gilda”
The 1955 Chrysler (Ghia) Streamline X “Gilda” got its name from a 1946 Rita Hayworth movie. After foregoing a planned jet turbine engine, Italian firm Ghia outfitted the Gilda with a plain 1.5-liter engine made for touring. The design is an antecedent to a short run of Chrysler turbine cars, and the fins tell you it’s from the 1950s.
1956 Buick Centurion
The 1956 Buick Centurion had a back-up camera decades before they appeared in consumer vehicles. Buick emphasized the significance of the car’s advances with the Jetsons-esque clear bubble roof and cockpit, which gave the driver and passengers unobstructed views.
1959 Cadillac Cyclone
See those two black cones where the 1959 Cadillac Cyclone’s headlights should be? Those are the radars for the car’s crash-avoidance system, a technology you might recognize as today’s adaptive cruise control. If the car sensed an approaching object, it would set of a series of warning lights and a high-pitched beep, and car could even automatically apply the brakes.
1970 Ferrari (Pininfarina) 512 S Modulo
Design firm Pininfarina has produced more famous works, but the Ferrari 512 S Modulo car, which it created for the 1970 Geneva Motor Show, didn’t aim for beauty. Designer Paolo Martin put the bizarre body on the chassis of the Ferrari 512S race car.
1970 Lancia (Bertone) Stratos HF Zero
This 1970 Lancia (Bertone) Stratos HF Zero is the concept that led to the seminal Lancia Stratos. Just 33 inches tall, the concept was so short, drivers had to enter through the hinged windshield.
Marilyn Monroe on the set of “The Misfits”, 1960.Pamela Tiffin in a promotional photo for ‘Harper’, 1966A girl photographs Joe Cocker during his performance at Woodstock, 1969.Girl jumping over a wall, Central Park, New York, 1967.Bangladeshi women posing with guns in a village, 1965.John Lennon’s psychedelic Rolls-Royce, 1967Sonny and Cher walk arm-in-arm down the sidewalk, New York City, 1968.Jackie Kennedy during a trip to Ravello, Italy with her sister, 1962.Jimi Hendrix filming Janis Joplin backstage at Winterland, San Francisco, 1968.Child holding his mother’s mini skirt in the street of London, 1968.Janis Joplin’s high school yearbook photo, 1960.John Lennon and his son Julian Lennon posing with a Rolls Royce Phantom V in his house’s garage, 1968.One Question Per Penny, Please – The Mystic Seer, 1960.Cesar Romero as The Joker stands beside a green surfboard with a drawing of his face on it at the beach, 1960s.Boardwalk scene, Atlantic City, June 1960Brigitte Bardot on a bicycle, 1962.Women’s dorm room, 1968.Terraced houses in Liverpool, long since demolished, 1960.Françoise Hardy sitting on a F1 car in 1966.Woman operating the first vending machine in Britain to sell potatoes, 1962.Multiple traffic jams at Woodstock, 1969.Two women gaze at heavy surf while lying on boulders on the coast of Nova Scotia, 1961.The Kennedy Kids at Halloween, 1963A Ringling Brothers Circus elephant walking out of a train car, New York, 1963Street scene in Liverpool, 1962Ice-table: ebb-tide at the beach of Rockanje, the Netherlands, in the severe winter of 1963.Elvis Presley fans in East Berlin, 1960.People reading the newspaper on a bench in the street after the American moon landing, The Netherlands, July 21, 1969.Karl-Marx-Strasse, Berlin, 1960.Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner reading a MAD Magazine, 1967.Wateroverlast in Nijkerk, The Netherlands, December 1960.A man gives a woman a helping hand as she takes a flying leap over a large puddle on the pavement, 1960Paris street scene, 1962A woman stands outside the Adele Ross clothing design store, looking at an anti-miniskirt sign, New York City, August 1966.A swimmobile in New York City, 1960The London underground in the 1960sAli vs. Williams, Houston, Texas, 1966Actress Lee Purcell in the 1960s.Washerwomen in Cullera, Spain, 1964.California Street, San Francisco, 1964Pierre Salinger speaks, Lyndon Johnson preserves his hearing in a campaign, California, 1964O’Connell Street, Dublin, 1969The Kennedy Family at White House on Christmas, 1962Urban scene in São Paulo, 1960People sleeping on a night train in Japan, 1964A woman with twins and a Christmas tree in a stroller, Amsterdam, 1964Marilyn Monroe and Eli Wallach dance while Clark Gable looks on. Photographed on the set of The Misfits (film), 1960.Alfred Hitchcock catching snowflakes during a sleigh ride with his grandchildren, 1960.Janis Joplin performing at The Fillmore, San Francisco, 1968.Children playing on a fire escape, Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York, 1967.
The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term Blitzkrieg, the German word for ‘lightning war’.
The Germans conducted mass air attacks against industrial targets, towns, and cities, beginning with raids on London towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940 (a battle for daylight air superiority between the Luftwaffe and the Royal Air Force over the United Kingdom). By September 1940, the Luftwaffe had lost the Battle of Britain and the German air fleets (Luftflotten) were ordered to attack London, to draw RAF Fighter Command into a battle of annihilation. Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, ordered the new policy on 6 September 1940. From 7 September 1940, London was systematically bombed by the Luftwaffe for 56 of the following 57 days and nights. Most notable was a large daylight attack against London on 15 September.
The Luftwaffe gradually decreased daylight operations in favour of night attacks to evade attacks by the RAF, and the Blitz became a night bombing campaign after October 1940. The Luftwaffe attacked the main Atlantic seaport of Liverpool in the Liverpool Blitz. The North Sea port of Hull, a convenient and easily found target or secondary target for bombers unable to locate their primary targets, suffered the Hull Blitz. The port cities of Bristol, Cardiff, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Southampton, Swansea, Belfast, and Glasgow were also bombed, as were the industrial centres of Birmingham, Coventry, Manchester and Sheffield. More than 40,000 civilians were killed by Luftwaffe bombing during the war, almost half of them in the capital, where more than a million houses were destroyed or damaged.
In early July 1940, the German High Command began planning Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Bombing failed to demoralise the British into surrender or do much damage to the war economy; eight months of bombing never seriously hampered British war production, which continued to increase. The greatest effect was to force the British to disperse the production of aircraft and spare parts. British wartime studies concluded that cities generally took 10 to 15 days to recover when hit severely, but exceptions like Birmingham took three months.
The German air offensive failed because the Luftwaffe High Command (Oberkommando der Luftwaffe, OKL) did not develop a methodical strategy for destroying British war industry. Poor intelligence about British industry and economic efficiency led to OKL concentrating on tactics rather than strategy. The bombing effort was diluted by attacks against several sets of industries instead of constant pressure on the most vital. (Wikipedia)
The bombed site of John Lewis, Oxford Street, London.Nelson’s column with ‘salute the war effort’ signs.Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament in London with barrage balloons in the background, seen from Westminster Bridge.A messenger boy walking past the entrance to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square London.The bomb damaged areas around St Paul’s Cathedral.Mr George Beckett, a volunteer with the British Home Front, uses a power hammer to forge the handle of a file.The Minister for Aircraft Production, the Rt Hon Colonel JJ Llewellyn, MP at his desk.The Auxiliary Territorial Service at an Anti-aircraft gun site in December 1942Lunchtime entertainment in a war workers’ canteen – a view from the audience.Prime Minister Winston Churchill with his chiefs of staff in the garden of 10 Downing Street in May 7, 1945.Two Auxiliary Territorial Service girls operate a mobile power plant on an anti-aircraft gun site at night.A girl guide and a sea ranger selling saving stamps as part of the War Effort.ATS spotter with binoculars at the anti-aircraft command post, with a 3.7 inch anti-aircraft gun in the background.A Civil Defence Warden inspects bomb damaged buildings in Holborn, London.A London messenger boy walking past a bomb site in London.Two women weighing and packing bicarbonate of soda at a chemical factory run by the Ministry of Supply.
Car culture sure ain’t what it used to be. Back in its glory days, the automobile was a triumphant marriage of form and function, beauty and brawn.
Admittedly, the old gas guzzlers of yore were also environmentally-unfriendly dinosaurs… but there’s no harm in dreaming, right? And when it comes to dream machines, the concept cars of the 1950s and 60s are hard to beat. In an era when popular choices like the Ford Thunderbird, the Studebaker Hawk and the Cadillac already embodied the post-war generation’s sense of optimism and space-age possibility, these outrageous vehicles look set to lead a mission to Mars.
General Motors LeSabre (1951)
The Grand Poobah of American concept cars, the LeSabre was named after the US Air Force’s F-86 Sabre fighter jet, and possessed bonafide aeronautical features such as a jet-engine-inspired air intake and dash dials for compass, technometer and altimeter. A dramatically styled aluminium body and super-charged engine heightened the effect. Though it never made production, designer Harley Earl drove his prototype for years, even lending it to General Eisenhower at one point.
Manta Ray (1953)
The LeSabre’s influence looms large on this gold-lacquered vision, created by Californian aviation workers Glen Hire and Vernon Antoine. Hand-building its fibreglass body reportedly caused the duo endless grief, but their suffering paid off. With its low-slung lines, dangerous-looking nose cone and triple-finned rear, the Manta Ray redefines the term ‘traffic-stopper.’
Ghia Streamline X ‘Gilda’ (1955)
Only because it predated the establishment of NASA by three years can we assume there were never any intergalactic plans for the jaw-droppingly futuristic Gilda. But Chrysler certainly had lofty ambitions for the car, enlisting Italian Carrozzeria Ghia to help realise their dream of combining jet-inspired engineering and design. Ironically, when the Gilda was first exhibited in 1955, it was engineless (being too petite to accommodate a turbine engine). But with looks like that, who cares?
Di Dia 150 (1960)
The ultimate passion project, the Di Dia 150 was conceived and hand-built by Detroit menswear designer Andy Di Dia over seven years, costing $93,000 to complete. And no wonder: its metallic, 30-coat paint job gets its sparkle from real crushed diamonds. Swivelling taillights and fins that out-do George Barris’s Batmobile feature among its other flamboyant charms. Singer Bobby Darin famously bought the car in 1961.
El Tiburón (Shark) Roadster (1962)
Few cars are more aptly named than El Tiburón. Sleek and streamlined like an apex predator, this fibreglass wonder looks capable of aquatic as well as land travel. It’s not, but it did prove designer Henry Covington’s point that you don’t need a huge engine if the car’s light and aerodynamic enough (– the Shark’s rear Renault engine was just 19 horsepower). With six roadsters and six coupés built, it was practically mainstream by concept-car standards.
