52 Vintage Photos Showing Life in America during the 1950s
61 Stunning Photos of Actress Lana Turner during the 1940s
Lana Turner had an acting ability that belied the “Sweater Girl” image MGM thrust upon her, and even many of her directors admitted that they knew she was capable of greatness (check out The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)). Unfortunately, her private life sometimes overshadowed her professional accomplishments.
Lana Turner was born Julia Jean Mildred Francis Turner in Wallace, Idaho. There is some discrepancy as to whether her birth date is February 8, 1920 or 1921. Lana herself said in her autobiography that she was one year younger (1921) than the records showed, but then this was a time where women, especially actresses, tended to “fib” a bit about their age. Most sources agree that 1920 is the correct year of birth. Her parents were Mildred Frances (Cowan) and John Virgil Turner, a miner, both still in their teens when she was born. In 1929, her father was murdered and it was shortly thereafter her mother moved her and the family to California where jobs were “plentiful”. Once she matured into a beautiful young woman, she went after something that would last forever: stardom. She wasn’t found at a drug store counter, like some would have you believe, but that legend persists. She pounded the pavement as other would-be actors and actresses have done, are doing and will continue to do in search of movie roles.
In 1937, Lana entered the movie world, at 17, with small parts in They Won’t Forget (1937), The Great Garrick (1937) and A Star Is Born (1937). These films didn’t bring her a lot of notoriety, but it was a start. In 1938 she had another small part in Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938) starring Mickey Rooney. It was this film that made young men’s hearts all over America flutter at the sight of this alluring and provocative young woman–known as the “Sweater Girl”–and one look at that film could make you understand why: she was one of the most spectacularly beautiful newcomers to grace the screen in years. By the 1940s Lana was firmly entrenched in the film business. She had good roles in such films as Johnny Eager (1941), Somewhere I’ll Find You (1942) and Week-End at the Waldorf (1945). If her career was progressing smoothly, however, her private life was turning into a train wreck, keeping her in the news in a way no one would have wanted.
Without a doubt her private life was a threat to her public career. She was married eight times, twice to Stephen Crane. She also married Ronald Dante, Robert Eaton, Fred May, Lex Barker, Henry Topping and bandleader Artie Shaw. She also battled alcoholism. In yet another scandal, her daughter by Crane, Cheryl Crane, fatally stabbed Lana’s boyfriend, gangster Johnny Stompanato, in 1958. It was a case that would have rivaled the O.J. Simpson murder case. Cheryl was acquitted of the murder charge, with the jury finding that she had been protecting her mother from Stompanato, who was savagely beating her, and ruled it justifiable homicide. These and other incidents interfered with Lana’s career, but she persevered. The release of Imitation of Life (1959), a remake of a 1934 film (Imitation of Life (1934)), was Lana’s comeback vehicle. Her performance as Lora Meredith was flawless as an actress struggling to make it in show business with a young daughter, her housekeeper and the housekeeper’s rebellious daughter. The film was a box-office success and proved beyond a doubt that Lana had not lost her edge.
By the 1960s, however, fewer roles were coming her way with the rise of new and younger stars. She still managed to turn in memorable performances in such films as Portrait in Black (1960) and Bachelor in Paradise (1961). By the next decade the roles were coming in at a trickle. Her last appearance in a big-screen production was in Witches’ Brew (1980). Her final film work came in the acclaimed TV series Falcon Crest (1981) in which she played Jacqueline Perrault from 1982-1983. After all those years as a sex symbol, nothing had changed–Lana was still as beautiful as ever. She died June 25, 1995, in Culver City, California, after a long bout with cancer. She was 75 years old.
57 Amazing Vintage Photos of Las Vegas in the 1950s
40 Incredible Mugshots of Young People
47 Stunning Photos of Actress Julie Christie in the 1960s
Julie Frances Christie (born 14 April 1940) is a British actress. An icon of the “Swinging Sixties”, Christie is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She has appeared in six films ranked in the British Film Institute’s BFI Top 100 British films of the 20th century, and in 1997, she received the BAFTA Fellowship.
Christie’s breakthrough film role was in Billy Liar (1963). She came to international attention for her performances in Darling (1965), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, and Doctor Zhivago (also 1965), the eighth highest-grossing film of all time after adjustment for inflation.
In the following years, she starred in Fahrenheit 451 (1966), Far from the Madding Crowd (1967), Petulia (1968), The Go-Between (1971), McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), for which she received her second Oscar nomination, Don’t Look Now (1973), Shampoo (1975), and Heaven Can Wait (1978).
From the early 1980s, her appearances in mainstream films decreased, though she held cameo roles as Thetis in Wolfgang Petersen’s historical epic Troy and as Madam Rosmerta in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (both 2004). She has continued to receive significant critical recognition for her work, including Oscar nominations for the independent films Afterglow (1997) and Away from Her (2007).
35 Amazing Photos Showing Life of Appalachians in Eastern Kentucky in the Early 1960s
These bleak pictures appear to show America in the grip of the 1920s Great Depression. The reality is that they were taken in the 1960s, in a lonely valley in Eastern Kentucky long forgotten by affluent America. The pictures of Appalachia were taken by photographer John Dominis, and appeared in 1964 issue of LIFE, titled ‘The Valley of Poverty’ — one of the very first substantive reports in any American publication on President Lyndon Johnson’s nascent War on Poverty.
At the time, LIFE was arguably the most influential weekly magazine in the country, and without doubt the most widely read magazine anywhere to regularly publish major photo essays by the world’s premier photojournalists. In that light, LIFE was in a unique position in the early days of Johnson’s administration to not merely tell but to show its readers what was at stake, and what the challenges were, as the new president’s “Great Society” got under way.
As LIFE put it to the magazine’s readers in January 1964:
“In a lonely valley in eastern Kentucky, in the heart of the mountainous region called Appalachia, live an impoverished people whose plight has long been ignored by affluent America. Their homes are shacks without plumbing or sanitation. Their landscape is a man-made desolation of corrugated hills and hollows laced with polluted streams. The people, themselves — often disease-ridden and unschooled — are without jobs and even without hope. Government relief and handouts of surplus food have sustained them on a bare subsistence level for so many years that idleness and relief are now their accepted way of life.”
(Photos: John Dominis—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
18 Interesting Vintage Photos Showing Kids Playing on the Streets of New York City in the 1940s
These interesting black and white photos below were taken by LIFE photographer Ralph Morse around streets of New York City in June, 1947…
(Photos by Ralph Morse/ LIFE archives)
24 Tragic Photos of the Kent State Shootings, 1970
On May 4, 1970, at Ohio’s Kent State University, four American citizens were murdered by their own government. A line of 29 men of the Ohio National Guard marched up before a group of unarmed protesters and opened fire, killing four and wounding nine others. It’s an episode now burned into history as the Kent State Shootings.
The students were calling for peace. They were protesters demonstrating against the Vietnam War and against America’s intention to move into Cambodia. Too many soldiers had died — the protesters thought — many of them students whose names had come up in the draft lottery. The students wanted the killings to stop.
On May 1, 500 students filled the Kent State campus, where they marched and made speeches that terrified some of the people around them. One pulled out a copy of the United States Constitution and burned it, trying to demonstrate how Nixon had violated it – but some didn’t quite understand. Some saw the protestors as a danger.
The protesters continued on for the next few days, with the crowd growing larger. By May 4, the day of the Kent State Massacre, there were 2,000 people on the campus handing out leaflets, making speeches, and standing up to demand peace.
Nervous about what these people would do, the state sent in the National Guard and ordered the demonstrators to disperse. However, they weren’t ready to leave. Some hurled rocks at the National Guardsmen and chased them away. But soon the guardsmen came back, this time with gas masks, tear gas, and rifles.
The National Guardsmen hurled tear gas into the crowd and chased the people who fled. Then, when some demonstrators wouldn’t leave and tried to hurl the tear gas back at them, they pulled out their rifles and opened fire.
“The crackle of the rifle volley cut the suddenly still air,” John Kifner, a New York Times writer who was on the scene, wrote. “It appeared to go on, as a solid volley, for perhaps a full minute or a little longer.” Kifner watched as the students next to him fell to the ground, one shot in the head, another hit in the back, and saw them bleed out onto the concrete of their school parking lot.
“I was a white hippie boy, and then I saw exit wounds from M1 rifles out of the backs of two people I knew,” another witness, Gerald Casale, who would later become a member of the band Devo, recalled. “None of us knew, none of us could have imagined… They shot into a crowd that was running away from them!”
Over the next few days, 4 million people came out in protest of the Kent State Massacre. Anti-Vietnam campaigns became bigger than ever, and the way the US responded to protests changed forever.
This time, the students are ready for them. This student grabs the tear gas canister and throws it right back.
Los Angeles, California. May 5, 1970.
40 Classic Photos of Jim Morrison during the 1960s and Early 1970s
James Douglas Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was an American singer, musician, songwriter and poet, who was the lead vocalist of the rock band the Doors. Due to his wild personality, poetic lyrics, distinctive voice, unpredictable and erratic performances, and the dramatic circumstances surrounding his life and early death, Morrison is regarded by music critics and fans as one of the most iconic and influential frontmen in rock history. Since his death, his fame has endured as one of popular culture’s most rebellious and oft-displayed icons, representing the generation gap and youth counterculture.
Together with pianist Ray Manzarek, Morrison co-founded the Doors in July 1965 in Venice, California. The band spent two years in obscurity until shooting to prominence with their number-one single in the United States, “Light My Fire”, taken from their self-titled debut album. Morrison recorded a total of six studio albums with the Doors, all of which sold well and received critical acclaim. Morrison was well known for improvising spoken word poetry passages while the band played live. Manzarek said Morrison “embodied hippie counterculture rebellion”.
Morrison developed an alcohol dependency in the 1960s, which at times affected his performances on stage. He died unexpectedly in Paris on July 3, 1971 at the age of 27, amid conflicting witness reports. Since no autopsy was performed, the cause of Morrison’s death remains disputed. Though the Doors recorded two more albums after Morrison died, his death severely affected the band’s fortunes, and they split up in 1973. In 1993, Morrison was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Doors.
50 Stunning Photos of Jill St. John in the 1960s
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Born 1940 in Los Angeles, California, American actress Jill St. John began acting on radio at age 6. She made her screen debut in December 1949, at age 9, in the first full-length made-for-TV movie, a production of A Christmas Carol. She was in the TV show Sandy Dreams in 1949. And at age 11, St. John appeared in two episodes of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show.
In May 1957, at age 16, Universal Pictures signed St. John to a contract for seven years starting at $200 a week. Her major studio film debut was in Summer Love (1958). She also appeared on TV in episodes of The Christophers, Schlitz Playhouse, and The DuPont Show of the Month (an adaptation of Junior Miss).
St. John then signed a contract with 20th Century Fox who tried to build her into a star. She appeared in The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker (1959) and Holiday for Lovers (1959), then was put in an adventure movie, The Lost World (1960).
St. John had a key role in Come Blow Your Horn (1963) and received a Golden Globe Award nomination as Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her performance in the film. Her most famous role then was as Tiffany Case, the Bond girl in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever (1971), where she starred opposite Sean Connery. She was the first American to play a Bond girl.
St. John is not just a beautiful woman, she is also very intelligent with an IQ of 162. Take a look at these glamorous pics to see the beauty of young Jill St. John in the 1960s.
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