Born 1933 as Debralee Griffin in Denver, Colorado, American actress and entertainer Debra Paget had her first professional job at age 8, and acquired some stage experience at 13 when she acted in a 1946 production of Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor.
Paget is perhaps best known for her performances in Cecil B. DeMille’s epic The Ten Commandments (1956) and in Love Me Tender (1956) (the film debut of Elvis Presley), and for the risque (for the time) snake dance scene in The Indian Tomb (1959). Her final two films were for Roger Corman at American International Pictures: Tales of Terror (1963) and The Haunted Palace (1963).
Paget did television work throughout her career. Her last performance in this medium came in a December 1965 episode of ABC’s Burke’s Law, starring Gene Barry. She retired from entertainment in 1965, after marrying a wealthy oil executive, by whom she had one son, her only child.
In 1987, the Motion Picture and Television Fund presented Paget with its Golden Boot Award, which is awarded to those actors, writers, directors, and stunt crew who “have contributed so much to the development and preservation of the western tradition in film and television.”
These glamorous color photos that captured portraits of young Debra Paget in the late 1940s and 1950s.
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. It is the second-largest city, urban area and metropolitan area in England and the United Kingdom, with roughly 1.1 million inhabitants within the city area, 2.9 million inhabitants within the urban area and 3.6 million inhabitants within the metropolitan area. The city proper is the most populated English local government district. Birmingham is commonly referred to as the “second city of the United Kingdom”.
Located in the West Midlands county and region in England, approximately 100 miles (160 km) from Central London, Birmingham, as one of the United Kingdom’s major cities, is considered to be the social, cultural, financial, and commercial centre of the Midlands. Distinctively, Birmingham only has small rivers flowing through it, mainly the River Tame and its tributaries River Rea and River Cole – one of the closest main rivers is the Severn, approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of the city centre.
Historically a market town in Warwickshire in the medieval period, Birmingham grew during the 18th century during the Midlands Enlightenment and during the Industrial Revolution, which saw advances in science, technology, and economic development, producing a series of innovations that laid many of the foundations of modern industrial society. By 1791, it was being hailed as “the first manufacturing town in the world”. Birmingham’s distinctive economic profile, with thousands of small workshops practising a wide variety of specialised and highly skilled trades, encouraged exceptional levels of creativity and innovation and provided an economic base for prosperity that was to last into the final quarter of the 20th century. The Watt steam engine was invented in Birmingham.
The resulting high level of social mobility also fostered a culture of political radicalism which, under leaders from Thomas Attwood to Joseph Chamberlain, was to give it a political influence unparalleled in Britain outside London, and a pivotal role in the development of British democracy. From the summer of 1940 to the spring of 1943, Birmingham was bombed heavily by the German Luftwaffe in what is known as the Birmingham Blitz. The damage done to the city’s infrastructure, in addition to a deliberate policy of demolition and new building by planners, led to extensive urban regeneration in subsequent decades.
Birmingham’s economy is now dominated by the service sector. The city is a major international commercial centre and an important transport, retail, events and conference hub. Its metropolitan economy is the second-largest in the United Kingdom with a GDP of $121.1bn (2014), and its five universities make it the largest centre of higher education in the country outside London. Birmingham’s major cultural institutions – the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Birmingham Royal Ballet, the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, the Library of Birmingham and the Barber Institute of Fine Arts – enjoy international reputations, and the city has vibrant and influential grassroots art, music, literary and culinary scenes. The city will host the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Birmingham is the fourth-most visited city in the UK by people from foreign nations. (Wikipedia)
Soho Road near Boulton Road, Handsworth, Birmingham – March 9 1968Bull Ring Market – 15 March 1968Photograph of the demolition of terrace houses, Anderton Street, off Shakespeare Road, Ladywood and children playing – 1968
A bob cut or bob is a short haircut for women (and occasionally men) in which the hair is typically cut straight around the head at about jaw-level, often with a fringe (or “bangs”) at the front. The bob is cut at the level of ears, below the ears or above shoulders.
Began to rarely appear from between the 1900s and 1910s, it was really popular in the 1920s and later. Check out these photos too see what women looked like in bob style from the 1920s.
Buick is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Started by automotive pioneer David Dunbar Buick, it was among the first American marques of automobiles, and was the company that established General Motors in 1908. Before the establishment of General Motors, GM founder William C. Durant had served as Buick’s general manager and major investor.
For much of its existence in the North American market, Buick has been marketed as a premium automobile brand, selling luxury vehicles positioned above GM’s mainstream brands, while below the flagship luxury Cadillac division. Buick’s current target demographic according to The Detroit News is “a successful executive with family.”
After securing its market position in the late 1930s, when junior companion brand Marquette and Cadillac junior brand LaSalle were cancelled, Buick was recognized as an upscale luxury car with a conservative appearance, as opposed to more ostentatious Cadillac and technology-rich, forward-thinking Oldsmobile. During this same time period, many manufacturers were introducing V8 engines in their high-end models, while Buick used a straight-8 for all models starting in 1931. The first Buick V8 was introduced in 1953, then in 1962, the Buick V6 was introduced for the compact Special model. Buick engines, with few exceptions, have always used overhead valves which the company pioneered in the 1904 Buick Model B.
In 2017, Buick sold more than 1.4 million vehicles worldwide, a record for the brand. The main market is now China, where 80% of Buick-branded automobiles are sold. Buicks are also sold in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. (Wikipedia)
Here is a cool photo collection from Dave Gelinas that shows the 1940s and 1950s Buick cars on streets.
1948 Buick – Atlantic City , NJ – Driveway Scene, circa 19491948 Buick Super – Sunoco Gas Station on Wrexham & Sullivant Ave., Columbus, OH circa 19491948 Buick Super Woody Wagon – Ranch Home, circa late 1940s1948 Buick, Boat Dock Scene, circa 19491949 Buick – Mother And Son, circa 1950s1949 Buick- Family Photo, circa early 1950s1949 Buick Roadmaster Convertible, circa 19491949 Buick Super Coupe – Texaco Gas Station, US Route 25E, Park Street & Walnut Street, Pineville, KY, circa 19491949 Buick1950 Buick – Airforce Servicemen Camp Scene, Alabama Plate, circa 19521950 Buick – Grand Union Supermarket, Tupper Lake, New York, circa 19501950 Buick Jet Back – Driveway Scene, Illinois Plate, circa 19521950 Buick Jetback – Civil War Cannon, Illinois, circa 19521950 Buick Roadmaster Convertible – New York Lake Scene, circa 19511950 Buick1950 Buick1951 Buick XP-300, circa 19511951 Buick, circa early 1950s1952 Buick1954 Buick – Long Beach, California, circa 19551954 Buick Special, circa 19541954 Buick1954 Buick1955 Buick – 1955 Chevrolet – 1951 Plymouth – 1949 Oldsmobile – California Plates, circa 19551955 Buick – Autumn Scene, circa 19551955 Buick – Vintage Shell Station, Missouri, circa 19551955 Buick Century – Snow Bank, Glacer Point, May 19641955 Buick Convertible – Wedding Car Scene, circa 19551955 Buick Special – Boston Street Scene, circa 19551955 Buick Special Convertible – Butler Buick – Jackson, Michigan , circa 19551955 Buick Super1955 Buick1956 Buick1956 Buick – Backyard BBQ, Hannibal, MO, circa 19561956 Buick – Driveway Scene, Florida Plate, circa 19591956 Buick – Neighborhood Street Scene – Two Lady Friends1956 Buick – Wash Day1956 Buick Century – Shell Gas Station, Lake Tahoe, circa mid-1950s1956 Buick Century Convertible Parade Car – Parade Queen, Wood River, IL, circa late 1950s1956 Buick Century Estate Wagon1956 Buick Super1956 Buick Super1957 Buick Caballero Station Wagon – Big Hole National Battlefield, Montana, circa 19581957 Buick Caballero1957 Buick Roadmaster – Shell Gas Station, Flint, Michigan, circa 19571957 Buick Super1957 Buick, Pontiac – Columbia State Historic Park in the Gold Rush Country of Northern California1958 Buick- Miss Cover Girl, Mercedes, Texas, March 13, 19581958 Desoto Fireflite – 1956 Buick – Driveway Scene, December 19611959 Buick Indy Pace Car – Indianapolis Motor Speedway, circa 1959
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor DBE (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. She then became the highest paid movie star in the 1960s, remaining a well-known public figure for the rest of her life. In 1999, the American Film Institute named her the seventh-greatest female screen legend of Classic Hollywood cinema.
Born in London to socially prominent American parents, Taylor moved with her family to Los Angeles in 1939. She made her acting debut with a minor role in the Universal Pictures film There’s One Born Every Minute (1942), but the studio ended her contract after a year. She was then signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and became a popular teen star after appearing in National Velvet (1944). She transitioned to mature roles in the 1950s, when she starred in the comedy Father of the Bride (1950) and received critical acclaim for her performance in the drama A Place in the Sun (1951).
Despite being one of MGM’s most bankable stars, Taylor wished to end her career in the early 1950s. She resented the studio’s control and disliked many of the films to which she was assigned. She began receiving more enjoyable roles in the mid-1950s, beginning with the epic drama Giant (1956), and starred in several critically and commercially successful films in the following years. These included two film adaptations of plays by Tennessee Williams: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959); Taylor won a Golden Globe for Best Actress for the latter. Although she disliked her role as a call girl in BUtterfield 8 (1960), her last film for MGM, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.
During the production of the film Cleopatra in 1961, Taylor and co-star Richard Burton began an extramarital affair, which caused a scandal. Despite public disapproval, they continued their relationship and were married in 1964. Dubbed “Liz and Dick” by the media, they starred in 11 films together, including The V.I.P.s (1963), The Sandpiper (1965), The Taming of the Shrew (1967), and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). Taylor received the best reviews of her career for Woolf, winning her second Academy Award and several other awards for her performance. She and Burton divorced in 1974 but reconciled soon after, remarrying in 1975. The second marriage ended in divorce in 1976.
Taylor’s acting career began to decline in the late 1960s, although she continued starring in films until the mid-1970s, after which she focused on supporting the career of her sixth husband, United States Senator John Warner (R-Virginia). In the 1980s, she acted in her first substantial stage roles and in several television films and series. She became the second celebrity to launch a perfume brand, after Sophia Loren. Taylor was one of the first celebrities to take part in HIV/AIDS activism. She co-founded the American Foundation for AIDS Research in 1985 and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation in 1991. From the early 1990s until her death, she dedicated her time to philanthropy, for which she received several accolades, including the Presidential Citizens Medal.
Throughout her career, Taylor’s personal life was the subject of constant media attention. She was married eight times to seven men, converted to Judaism, endured several serious illnesses, and led a jet set lifestyle, including assembling one of the most expensive private collections of jewelry in the world. After many years of ill health, Taylor died from congestive heart failure in 2011, at the age of 79. (Wikipedia)
The 10-year-old Brit lit up the screen in her first film, “There’s One Born Every Minute” in 1942.Elizabeth Taylor, age 10Elizabeth Taylor from “There’s One Born Every Minute” in 1942.Elizabeth Taylor, age 10 in 1942.11- year-old Elizabeth Taylor is shown with Lassie around the time of her performance in “Lassie Comes Home” in Los Angeles, 1943.Elizabeth Taylor in “Lassie Come Home,” 1943.Elizabeth Taylor in “Lassie Come Home,” 1943.Elizabeth Taylor poses in a blouse with a polka dot yoke in 1944.Elizabeth Taylor is seen during the time that she was filming “National Velvet” in 1944.Her role as Velvet Brown in the 1944 smash hit “National Velvet” that made Taylor a star at age 12.Elizabeth Taylor in “National Velvet,” 1944.Taylor captured the nation’s hearts as a jodhpur-rocking girl jockey in “National Velvet,” 1944.Elizabeth Taylor, age 13, poses with her own horse after shooting “National Velvet”Taylor at her desk, 1945.Portrait of Elizabeth Taylor in 1945.In 1945, at age 13 and already a veteran of five films, Elizabeth Taylor signs autographs during a charity cricket match at Los Angeles’ Gilmore Stadium.Taylor, age 13, in her bedroom with pet chipmunk Nibbles, 1945.Taylor signing autographs for her fans at a nightclub in 1946.Elizabeth Taylor, Sept. 1946.Taylor played opposite another four-legged friend in “Courage of Lassie”.Elizabeth Taylor returning to England on the Queen Mary in 1947.With her mother, at home in Los Angeles, 1947.Elizabeth Taylor showing off, frilly two-piece bathing, 1947.Elizabeth Taylor, wearing a plaid shirt and jeans rolled up at the cuff with bare feet, holding a poodle and smiling, 1947.Elizabeth Taylor in 1947, age 15.On the set of “Cynthia,” 1947.Taylor at her home in Los Angeles, 1948.Taylor in London, 1948.Reading Look magazine, 1948.Elizabeth Taylor with Jane Powell in “A Date with Judy,” 1948.Liz Taylor gazes into the distance while wearing an “All America” sweatshirt, 1948.Elizabeth Taylor in 1948.Taylor and her mother, Sara — a former stage actress — in 1948.Liz Taylor, London, 1948.Elizabeth Taylor surrounded by pigeons in Trafalgar Square, London, November 1948.Taylor feeds the pigeons in Trafalgar Square, London in November 1948.An oceanside portrait of Elizabeth Taylor, 1948.Taylor, age 16, works with her tutor on a movie set, 1948.Her fame grew when she portrayed Amy in “Little Women,” 1949.Taylor, age 17, poses with photos of her then-beau, 1946 Heisman trophy winner Glenn Davis, 1949.
Danielle Yvonne Marie Antoinette Darrieux, (1 May 1917 – 17 October 2017) was a French actress of stage, television and film, as well as a singer and dancer.
Beginning in 1931, she appeared in more than 110 films. She was one of France’s great movie stars and her eight-decade career was among the longest in film history.
Darrieux was born in Bordeaux, France, during World War I, the daughter of Marie-Louise (Witkowski) and Jean Darrieux, a medical doctor who was serving in the French Army. Her mother was born in Algeria. Her father died when she was seven years old.
Raised in Paris, she studied the cello at the Conservatoire de Musique. At 14, she won a part in the musical film Le Bal (1931). Her beauty combined with her singing and dancing ability led to numerous other offers; the film Mayerling (1936) brought her to prominence.
In 1935, Darrieux married director/screenwriter Henri Decoin, who encouraged her to try Hollywood. She signed a seven-year contract with Universal Studios to star in The Rage of Paris (1938) opposite Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Afterwards, she elected to return to Paris.
Under the German occupation of France during World War II, Darrieux continued to perform, a decision that was severely criticized by her compatriots. However, it is reported that her brother had been threatened with deportation by Alfred Greven, the German manager of Continental, the only film production company permitted in occupied France. She received a divorce and then fell in love with Porfirio Rubirosa, a Dominican Republic diplomat and notorious womanizer. They married in 1942. His anti-Nazi opinions resulted in his forced residence in Germany. In exchange for Rubirosa’s freedom, Darrieux agreed to make a promotional trip in Berlin. The couple lived in Switzerland until the end of the war, and divorced in 1947. She married scriptwriter Georges Mitsikidès in 1948, and they lived together until his death in 1991.
Darrieux appeared in the MGM musical Rich, Young and Pretty (1951). Joseph L. Mankiewicz lured her back to Hollywood to star in 5 Fingers (1952) with James Mason. Upon returning to France, she appeared in Max Ophüls’ The Earrings of Madame de… (1953) with Charles Boyer, and The Red and the Black (1954) with Gérard Philippe. She starred in Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1955), whose theme of uninhibited sexuality led to its being proscribed by Catholic censors in the United States. She played a supporting role in her last American film, United Artists’ epic Alexander the Great (1956) starring Richard Burton and Claire Bloom.
At the request of director Lewis Gilbert, Darrieux worked in England to shoot The Greengage Summer (1961) with Kenneth More. In 1963, she starred in the romantic comedy La Robe Mauve de Valentine at the Chatelet Theatre in Paris. The play was adapted from the novel by Françoise Sagan.
In Jacques Demy’s film musical The Young Girls of Rochefort (1966) her role was the only one in which a principal actor in any of Demy’s film-musicals sang his or her own musical parts. (All other actors had a separate person dub their singing parts.) During the 1960s, she also was a concert singer.
In 1970, Darrieux replaced Katharine Hepburn in the Broadway musical Coco, based on the life of Coco Chanel, but the play, essentially a showcase for Hepburn, soon folded without her. In 1971 and 1972 she also appeared in the short-lived productions of Ambassador. She worked again with Demy for his film Une chambre en ville (1982), an opera-like musical melodrama reminiscent of the director’s earlier work The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, 1964). Once again, Darrieux provided her own vocals for her songs.
For her long service to the motion picture industry, in 1985 she was given an Honorary César Award. She continued to work, her career spanning eight decades, most recently providing the voice of the protagonist’s grandmother in the animated feature, Persepolis (2007), which deals with the impact of the Islamic revolution on a girl’s life as she grows to adulthood in Iran.
Danielle Darrieux died on 17 October 2017, due to complications from a fall, five months after turning 100 that May. (Wikipedia)
Here below is a black and white photo set that shows the beauty of Danielle Darrieux in the 1930s and 1940s.
There’s something about a blanket of snow that just makes winter feel extra special. In December, workers rushed to their office windows to document the first snowfall of the season.
So how did the country cope with it before the days of snow ploughs? Read on for a selection of the some of the most telling photos charting winter in Britain from the late 1920s to the 1970s.
1926: A policeman directs skiers across a snow-covered road in Hyde Park.1932: A hotel chef in the Scottish village of Braemar takes to his skiis during a lunch break.1935: Arsenal footballers Wilf Copping, Eddie Hapgood, George Male, Ted Drake, and Cliff Bastin, looking fairly grumpy but coping nonetheless.1937: Boys take a tumble at London’s Hampstead Heath.1938: Skiing in Britain became so popular at one time that indoor ski schools started cropping up, this one in London.1939: A milkman makes a delivery to Streatham Grammar school in London.1940: Three skiers hitch a ride from a motor car at Box Hill, Surrey.1942: Two Auxiliary Territorial Service members from the women’s branch of the British Army on their toboggan at a gun site in London.1942: Women labourers employed by Kensington Borough Council clearing snow from the streets.1954: Losing a snowball fight in St James Park, London.A pair of nuns clearly having a jolly good time tobogganing in this undated snap, published by the Manchester Daily Express.1962: A Londoner loses his umbrella to a gust of wind during a particularly rugged winter’s day.1962: In London, a milkman does his morning run on skis.1963: A Mighty Moke vehicle navigating the snow to transport hay.1963: Police and ambulance workers shivering on the touchline at the White Hart Lane football ground.1967: A policeman on Chertsey Road at Twickenham using his radio during a storm.1969: Not a four-legged woman, but a mother taking her little girl to school under the shelter of her coat.1970: British player Raymond Keene (right) at the Hastings International Chess Congress on the snow-covered sea front.1970: An RAC (Royal Automobile Club) patrolman fitting his snowshoes by the side of the road.1978: Families cavort in the snow at Lyndhurst Hill, Southampton.
Bugatti was founded in in 1909 in Molsheim, France by Ettore Bugatti an Italian imigrant. The company produced expensive, and in the case of the Royalle some of the most exclusive bespoke cars in the world. The T35’s and T51’s were amongst the most sucessful voiterette racing cars.
Bugatti also produced aircraft engines and the engines for French rail cars. The badge not only bears the name Bugatti but the initials of Ettore Bugatti with an inverted E.
The death of Ettore Bugatti in 1947 proved to be the end for the marque, and the death of his son Jean Bugatti in 1939 ensured there was not a successor to lead the factory. No more than about 8,000 cars were made. The company struggled financially, and released one last model in the 1950s, before eventually being purchased for its airplane parts business in 1963.
In the 1990s, an Italian entrepreneur revived it as a builder of limited production exclusive sports cars. Today, the name is owned by the Volkswagen Group.
Here is a cool photo collection that shows Bugatti cars in the 1920s and 1930s.
1927 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Coupe Napoleon with with family chauffeur1927 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Prototype body by Packard1927 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Prototype body by Packard1927 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Prototype body by Packard1927 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Prototype body by Packard1927 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Prototype body by Packard1928 Bugatti Type 43 Grand Sport1928 Bugatti Type 43 Grand Sport1929 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Coupe body by Weymann1929 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Coupe body by Weymann1929 Bugatti Type 43 Grand Sport1931 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Limosine body by Park Ward1931 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Limosine body by Park Ward1931 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Limosine body by Park Ward1931 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Victoria Cabriolet body by Weinberger1931 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Victoria Cabriolet body by Weinberger1932 Bugatti Type 41 Roadster Esders1932 Bugatti Type 41 Royale 2-Door Saloon body by Kellner1932 Bugatti Type 41 Royale 2-Door Saloon body by Kellner1932 Bugatti Type 41 Royale 2-Door Saloon body by Kellner1932 Bugatti Type 41 Royale 2-Door Saloon body by Kellner1932 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Berline de Voyage body by Bugatti1932 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Esders Roadster body by Jean Bugatti1932 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Esders Roadster body by Jean Bugatti1932 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Esders Roadster body by Jean Bugatti1932 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Esders Roadster body by Jean Bugatti
