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57 Amazing Photographs Showing Life in France in the 1930s and 1940s

France, officially the French Republic (French: République française), is a transcontinental country spanning Western Europe and overseas regions and territories in South America and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.[XIII] Including all of its territories, France has twelve time zones, the most of any country. Its metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea; overseas territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and several islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean. Due to its several coastal territories, France has the largest exclusive economic zone in the world. France borders Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Monaco, Italy, Andorra and Spain in Europe, as well as the Netherlands, Suriname and Brazil in the Americas. Its eighteen integral regions (five of which are overseas) span a combined area of 643,801 km2 (248,573 sq mi) and over 67 million people (as of May 2021). France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country’s largest city and main cultural and commercial centre; other major urban areas include Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille and Nice.

Inhabited since the Palaeolithic era, the territory of Metropolitan France was settled by Celtic tribes known as Gauls during the Iron Age. Rome annexed the area in 51 BC, leading to a distinct Gallo-Roman culture that laid the foundation of the French language. The Germanic Franks arrived in 476 and formed the Kingdom of Francia, which became the heartland of the Carolingian Empire. The Treaty of Verdun of 843 partitioned the empire, with West Francia becoming the Kingdom of France in 987.

In the High Middle Ages, France was a powerful but highly decentralised feudal kingdom in which the king’s authority was barely felt. King Philip Augustus achieved remarkable success in the strengthening of royal power and the expansion of his realm, defeating his rivals and doubling its size. By the end of his reign, the kingdom had emerged as the most powerful state in Europe. From the mid-14th to the mid-15th century, France was plunged into a series of dynastic conflicts for the French throne, collectively known as the Hundred Years’ War, and a distinct French identity emerged as a result. The French Renaissance saw art and culture flourish, various wars with rival powers, and the establishment of a global colonial empire, which by the 20th century would become the second-largest in the world. The second half of the 16th century was dominated by religious civil wars between Catholics and Huguenots that severely weakened the country. But France once again emerged as Europe’s dominant cultural, political and military power in the 17th century under Louis XIV following the Thirty Years’ War. Inadequate economic policies, an inequitable taxation system as well as endless wars (notably a defeat in the Seven Years’ War and costly involvement in the American War of Independence), left the kingdom in a precarious economic situation by the end of the 18th century. This precipitated the French Revolution of 1789, which overthrew the absolute monarchy, replaced the Ancien Régime with one of history’s first modern republics and produced the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which expresses the nation’s ideals to this day.

France reached its political and military zenith in the early 19th century under Napoleon Bonaparte, subjugating much of continental Europe and establishing the First French Empire. The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of European and world history. The collapse of the empire initiated a period of relative decline, in which France endured a tumultuous succession of governments until the founding of the French Third Republic during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Subsequent decades saw a period of optimism, cultural and scientific flourishing, as well as economic prosperity known as the Belle Époque. France was one of the major participants of World War I, from which it emerged victorious at great human and economic cost. It was among the Allied powers of the World War II, but was soon occupied by the Axis in 1940. Following liberation in 1944, the short-lived Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War. The current Fifth Republic was formed in 1958 by Charles de Gaulle. Algeria and most French colonies became independent in the 1960s, with the majority retaining close economic and military ties with France.

France retains its centuries-long status as a global centre of art, science and philosophy. It hosts the fifth-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is the world’s leading tourist destination, receiving over 89 million foreign visitors in 2018. France is a developed country with the world’s seventh-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by PPP; in terms of aggregate household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy and human development. It remains a great power in global affairs, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and an official nuclear-weapon state. France is a founding and leading member of the European Union and the Eurozone, as well as a key member of the Group of Seven, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and La Francophonie. (Wikipedia)

Vintage Portraits of People With Their Eyes Shut During Portrait Taking

32 Amazing Photos of Wedding Dresses Worn By Famous Women in the 1950s

**British ballet dancer and actress Moira Shearer, 1950**

**Elizabeth Taylor in ‘Father of the Bride’, 1950**

**Elizabeth Taylor’s first marriage, she wed hotel heir Conrad ‘Nicky’ Hilton in a gown designed by Hollywood costumer Helen Rose, 1950**

**American actress Arlene Dahl and Lex Barker, 1951**

**Chilean actress Felicia Cohn Montealegre married American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, 1951**

**Brigitte Bardot on her first wedding day to Roger Vadim, 1952**

**Esther Williams poses in a wedding dress, 1952**

**Joan Collins at her first wedding to Maxwell Reed , 1952**

**Jacqueline Bouvier married then-U.S. Representative John Fitzgerald ‘Jack’ Kennedy in September 1953 in Newport, Rhode Island.**

**Jacqueline Bouvier on her wedding day, 1953**

**Singer and actress Peggy Lee married husband Brad Dexter in Los Angeles, 1953**

**Actors Fred MacMurray and June Haver married on June 28, 1954 in a simple ceremony in Ojai, California**

**Actress Pier Angeli married singer Vic Damone in November of 1954.**

**Actress Suzan Ball married fellow actor Richard Long in 1954 while battling cancer that had developed in her right leg. Tragically, she passed away just one year later at the age of 21**

**Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer on their wedding day in Burgenstock, Switzerland, 1954**

**Audrey Hepburn on her wedding day, 1954**

**English actors Denholm Elliott and Virginia McKenna married, 1954**

**Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds on their wedding day, 1955**

**Grace Kelly in her wedding dress, 1956**

**Grace Kelly in her wedding gown, 1956**

**Grace Kelly with her wedding party, 1956**

**Lady Anne Glenconner in wedding gown designed by Norman Hartnell on her wedding day, 1956**

**Marilyn Monroe on her wedding day, 1956**

**American actress Jean Seberg married first husband French attorney (and aspiring filmmaker) François Moreuil in 1958 in Seberg’s hometown of Marshalltown, Iowa**

**Hollywood actress Debra Paget married David Street in Los Angeles, California, 1958**

**Jackie Loughery, winner of the first Miss USA pageant, married actor Jack Webb in Los Angeles, California, 1958**

**Jayne Mansfield in her wedding gown for her marriage to Mickey Hargitay, January 13, 1958**

**Singer Ronnie Carroll married actress Millicent Martin, 1958**

**Brigitte Bardot and Jacques Charrier on their wedding day, 1959**

**Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher at their wedding, 1959**

**Julie Andrews on her wedding day, 1959**

20 Beautiful Vintage Photos of Actress Katherine Helmond From Between the Late 1970s and 1980s

Katherine Helmond, the seven-time Emmy-nominated Texas actress who played the feisty, man-crazy mother Mona Robinson on the long-running ABC sitcom Who’s the Boss? died on February 23, 2019 at her Los Angeles home due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease. She was 89.

Born on Galveston Island in Texas on July 5, 1929, Katherine Marie Helmond was the only child of Joseph and Thelma Helmond. Her father was a fireman and her mother a housewife. Her parents divorced a few years after she was born, and she was raised in a strict Roman Catholic tradition by her mother and grandmother.

After her stage debut in As You Like It, Helmond began working in New York in 1955. She later ran a summer theatre in the Catskills for three seasons and taught acting in university theatre programs. She made her television debut in 1962, but would not achieve a high profile until the 1970s. She also acted on stage, earning a Tony nomination for her performance on Broadway in Eugene O’Neill’s The Great God Brown (1973). Other Broadway productions include Private Lives, Don Juan and Mixed Emotions.

Helmond appeared in such feature films as Family Plot (1976) and Brazil (1985), in which she played the mother of Jonathan Pryce’s character. In 1983, she studied at the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop. She went on to direct four episodes of the television series Benson as well as one episode of Who’s the Boss? (1984). She picked up Emmy nominations for her role as Mona Robinson in Who’s the Boss? and as Lois Whelan in Everybody Loves Raymond. She also received acclaim for her stage performance in Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues.

Helmond appeared in The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975) as Emma Borden, the title character’s sister. She appeared in an episode of the short-lived 1976 CBS adventure series, Spencer’s Pilots, starring Gene Evans. Helmond gained prominence as Jessica Tate, the ditzy matriarch of the Tate family in Soap (1977–1981) on ABC. From 1984 to 1992, she played the role of Mona Robinson on the ABC sitcom Who’s the Boss?. The show was a ratings success, running for eight seasons and finishing in the Nielsen ‘Top 10’ four straight years. In 1993, she appeared in one episode of the British version of Who’s the Boss?, The Upper Hand.

From 1995 to 1997, she starred in the ABC sitcom Coach as Doris Sherman, eccentric owner of the fictional Orlando Breakers professional football team. From 1996 to 2004, she had a recurring role on Everybody Loves Raymond as Lois Whelan (Ray Barone’s mother-in-law). On July 25, 2010, she guest-starred on A&E’s The Glades. She also guest starred as Caroline Bellefleur on HBO’s True Blood.

Despite many difficult times on set, Helmond “never fell out of love” with acting. “I felt I blossomed as a person when I got a chance to act,” she said. “It’s been like an incredible marriage that really worked. I enjoyed every minute of it.”

50 Amazing Fashion Photographs From Between the 1930s and 1950s

As a staff photographer for Harper’s Bazaar, Louise Dahl-Wolfe introduced a witty naturalism to the staid conventions of fashion photography and helped pioneer the use of color film.

After studying painting, figure drawing, and design at the San Francisco Institute of Art, Dahl-Wolfe began experimenting with photography in 1921, inspired by Anne Brigman’s photographs. In 1928, Dahl-Wolfe married American sculptor Meyer (Mike) Wolfe and soon established herself as a professional photographer.

Dahl-Wolfe often juxtaposed her models with famous works of art, resulting in surprising and irreverent compositions. Fashion assignments led her to locations around the world, where she posed her models outdoors, in natural light. Throughout this period, Dahl-Wolfe also created striking portrait photographs of society figures and art world celebrities, including authors Carson McCullers and Colette, designer Christian Dior, and sculptor Isamu Noguchi.

(Photos by Louise Dahl-Wolfe)

36 Amazing Photos Showing Children During World War 2

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An untold number of children were touched by the atrocities of World War II. Throughout the war, the proportion of civilian deaths to military deaths is said to have been as high as three to one — and some countries were definitely affected much worse than others.

The country most affected during the war was Poland. More than 6 million people, equal to one-sixth of the country’s pre-war population, died during World War II. All of these victims were predominantly civilian, with a great many of them being children.

However, getting caught up in the maelstrom of war, whether it be a mass execution or a bombing raid were not the only tragic circumstances that Polish children had to worry about. Many of them faced the distinct possibility of being kidnapped by their German oppressors. Under “Generalplan Ost” — the Nazi plan for genocide and ethnic cleansing in Europe — tens of thousands of Polish children were kidnapped and taken to Germany to become “Germanized.”

It has been calculated that over 250,000 Polish children were kidnapped during World War II. It is estimated that nearly 75 percent of these children never made it back home to their families in Poland after the war.

Aside from Poland, a large number of other countries suffered immensely horrifying civilian casualties during World War II. Some of the countries include include the Soviet Union, China, Germany (where an estimated 76,000 children died as a direct result of Allied bombing raids), Japan, India, and the Philippines.

Let us not forget that more than 1 million Jewish children were killed by the Nazis and their allies or packed into ghettos across Eastern Europe. In these ghettos, children often died from starvation and other privations. Those that did not die in the ghettos were either consigned to the death camps to be gassed or were executed and placed in mass graves.

Only those adults and children who were considered productive and useful to the German war effort were spared and even then, their fate was effectively secured by the horrendous working conditions and the miniscule amount of food given to each needed for subsistence. What made these mass killings even worse was the fact that, during the war, most of the world thought that these stories of mass extermination and death camps were propaganda – tales not to be belived.

Many of the most touching photographs that depict children during World War 2 show Britain during the Blitz. A large number of British children were sent away to the countryside as part of the government’s evacuation scheme known as Operation Pied Piper. The evacuation scheme had been touted as a great success in the media but in actual fact, by early 1940, more than 60 percent of children had returned home, just in time to witness the Blitz. All told, at least 5,028 children died during the Blitz.

While historians have tended to focus on other more high profiles topics relating to the Second World War the facy remains that without a doubt, children are the forgotten victims of the war.

**A little girl holds her doll in the rubble of her bomb-damaged home. England. 1940.**

38 Interesting Photos Showing Life in Eskilstuna, Sweden During the Late 1950s

Eskilstuna is a city and the seat of Eskilstuna Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden. The city of Eskilstuna had 67,359 inhabitants in 2015, with a total population of 100,092 inhabitants in Eskilstuna municipality (2014). Eskilstuna has a large Sweden Finn population. The town is located on the River Eskilstunaån, which connects Lake Hjälmaren and Lake Mälaren.

These fascinating photos documented everyday life of Eskilstuna, Sweden in the late 1950s.

Eva Braun’s Life in Pictures: 20 Rarely Seen Photos of Adolf Hitler’s Wife From LIFE Magazine

These photographs from Eva Braun’s personal picture albums reveal new dimensions of the woman who was Adolf Hitler’s longtime girlfriend and, in their last, frantic hours together, his wife. Braun became the central woman in Hitler’s life after the 1931 suicide of Geli Raubal, the future Führer’s 23-year-old niece (and rumored lover).

By all accounts, Eva was an unpretentious companion for the Nazi leader, but also a woman at once frivolous and vain — unsurprising characteristics, perhaps, in a former teenage model, but striking in a figure long associated with the darkest chapters of the 20th century.

Showing Eva Braun relaxing with friends at home and posing glamorously in a swimsuit while on vacation, this collection of rare and previously unseen photos comes from a cache of images confiscated by the U.S. Army in 1945 and brought to light by collector and curator Reinhard Schulz exclusively for LIFE.

Eva and her sister Ilse in a childhood photo, 1913. In later life, Ilse worked for — and had a relationship with — a Jewish surgeon, Dr. Martin Levy Marx, until he emigrated to the United States in 1938.

**Nine-year-old Eva Braun (second from right), with some of her classmates at the Beilngries convent school Beilngries, Germany, 1922.**

**“My first carnival costume” wrote Braun underneath this 1928 photo.**

Eva Braun sitting on a table in the living room at her parent’s house in Munich, Germany, 1929. She was staying with her family after finishing her education at a trade school; later that year, she met Hitler at Hoffmann’s photo studio.

**Eva Braun and friends in the Bavarian Alps, Germany, 1935.**

Eva Braun and an unidentified friend at a house party in Munich, 1935. By all accounts Braun enjoyed these parties and frequently dressed up for them during carnival. She also liked to smoke but only when Hitler was not around.

This 1937 photo of Braun was titled “Me as Al Jolson” and depicts her in blackface as the American actor and singer in his role in The Jazz Singer. Braun was a fan of American movies, including Gone with the Wind.

**Eva Braun in a rowboat on Lake Worthsee near Munich in 1937.**

**Eva Braun (left) and friends on vacation in Bad Godesberg, Germany, 1937.**

**Eva Braun (on floor, at left) and colleagues at the office of Heinrich Hoffmann’s photo agency, Munich, Germany, 1938.**

**Eva Braun (far right) celebrates carnival time at her parents house in Munich, Germany, 1938. Among the group are her mother Franziska Katharina (center) and her sisters Ilse and Margarethe.**

**Braun in her bathing suit near Berchtesgaden, Germany, 1940.**

**Hitler disapproved of some of Braun’s habits such as smoking, wearing makeup, skinny dipping, and nude sunbathing. Here, Braun, in a bathing suit, relaxes by Konigssee lake in 1940.**

**Eva Braun (far right) with her parents, Friedrich “Fritz” and Franziska, and her sisters Ilse (left) and Gretl, 1940.**

**Braun filming with her 16mm camera in 1942. Occasionally, she shot with color film which, years later, proved invaluable to historians as it offered an inside view of Hitler and his entourage.**

**Braun exercising in her bathing suit at Konigssee lake, a few miles from Hitler’s mountaintop retreat, in 1942.**

Eva Braun sits on the terrace at Berghof, Hitler’s home in the Alps, 1942. A photography buff, she took many photos of daily life at Berghof; note the camera by her side. But her life would not long remain so idyllic.

**Braun and Hitler’s German shepherd in 1942.**

**Eva Braun (left) and her younger sister Margarethe “Gretl” Braun in 1943.**

35 Amazing Photos of Famous People When They Were Young

Everyone was young once. It is a hard thing to believe sometimes, but it is true. Which makes it all the more curious to see what famous (or infamous) people looked like during their younger days. Take a look at 35 influential people before they became famous. You may be suprised.

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