27 Vintage Photos Showing Life in Boston During the 1950s

Although he was born and raised in New York City, American space physicist Jules Aarons (1921-2008) spent the majority of his life in the Boston area. He was known for his study of radio-wave propagation, and a photographer known for his street photography in Boston.

Aarons first became interested in photography as a youth, taking pictures of his family in Rockaway, New York. While pursuing his college degrees and working as a scientist, he continued to develop his craft, taking his camera with him on business trips around the world.

(Photos by Jules Aarons)

37 Behind the Scenes Photos Show Off the Costumes From the 1968 Movie ‘Barbarella’

The 1968 movie Barbarella became known as not only one of Jane Fonda’s most memorable roles, but also the pinnacle of sexy sci-fi costuming. Fonda took on the titular role of Barbarella–a futuristic astronaut in the year 40,000 who is tasked with stopping the evil Durand Durand. Directed by her husband at the time, Roger Vadim, Fonda wears sexy outfits for much of the movie. Despite being a critical and commercial failure at the time of its release, the film has gone on to become a cult classic.

Beyond the laughable sets, ridiculous soundtrack and psychedelic effects there are real influential gems to be mined. Barbarella’s journey is much like a fantasy quest and key concepts like a conscious computer on a ship came before even Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. But all that is beside the point, the truly memorable parts of the movie are the costumes and Jane Fonda underwent eight costume changes in the one film. Like in the 5th Element, Barbarella’s wardrobe for the film was conceived by a fashion designer rather than a typical film or theater costumer.

Jane Fonda’s costumes for the film were the work of Jacques Fonteray and fashion designer Paco Rabanne. Fonteray would later work on films such as Moon Raker and The Party while Rabanne’s fashion forward designs became renowned for their bold details. Influenced by armor as well as the 1960s women’s liberation movement, quite a few of the designs included nontraditional materials.

Before There Were Hippies, There Were Beatniks: 20 Vintage Photos of the Beat Generation During the 1950s & 1960s

Before there were Hippies, there were Beatniks. Beatniks were followers of the Beat Generation – influential poets and authors through the late 1940s to the early ’60s.

Jack Kerouac came up with the “beat generation” concept – the underground, anti-conformist youth gathering in New York that he was a part of. He also related the term to the Biblical beatitudes and the hipster phrase of being “beaten down”. Though at first Beatniks had a prophet-like connotation, the term came to signify a stereotype of people that, as Joyce Johnson (a Beat writer) said: “sold books, sold black turtleneck sweaters and bongos, berets and dark glasses, sold a way of life that seemed like dangerous fun—thus to be either condemned or imitated.”

They were anti-materialistic, soul searching people, open to drugs and a bohemian lifestyle. They hung out in smoky coffeehouses, listened to jazz and blues, were usually proficient in art or poetry, liked to dress in all-black, and had an air of mysteriousness about them. They highly influenced culture of the decades following – Bob Dylan, the Beatles, and Pink Floyd took on Beatnik characteristics and morphed in to free-thinking hippies. Allen Ginsberg led the way for the conversion.

03 Feb 1959, Manhattan, New York, New York, USA — A beatnik woman stands in front of the entrance to the Gaslight Cafe, a center of beatnik poet life, in Greenwich Village, New York.

36 Vintage Photos of Women in Bathing Suits During the 1910s

Despite opposition from some groups, the form-fitting style proved popular. It was not long before swimwear started to shrink further. At first arms were exposed and then legs up to mid-thigh. Necklines receded from around the neck down to around the top of the bosom. The development of new fabrics allowed for new varieties of more comfortable and practical swimwear.

Female swimming was introduced at the 1912 Summer Olympics. Competitors from 17 countries took part, with women from nine countries wearing swimsuits similar to Kellerman’s swimsuit, which were similar to swimsuits worn by the male swimmers.

In 1913, inspired by the breakthrough, the designer Carl Jantzen made the first functional two-piece swimwear, a close-fitting one-piece with shorts on the bottom and short sleeves on top.

The name “swim suit” was coined in 1915 by Jantzen Knitting Mills, a sweater manufacturer who launched a swimwear brand named the Red Diving Girl. The first annual bathing-suit day at New York’s Madison Square Garden in 1916 was a landmark. The swimsuit apron, a design for early swimwear, disappeared by 1918, leaving a tunic covering the shorts.

50 Color Vintage Photographs Showing Amazing Nose Art Painted on Military Aircrafts During World War II

The inscription of art work on military planes dates to World War I, when paintings were usually extravagant company or unit insignia. However, regulations were put in place after the war to stymie the practice.

As the United States entered World War II, nose art regulations were relaxed, or in many cases totally ignored. WWII would become the golden age of aircraft artistry.

Artwork was typically painted on the nose of the plane, and the term “nose art” was coined.

Nose art was a morale booster, and those in daily combat needed that boost. Facing the prospect of death on every flight, the crew deserved all of the encouragement, and smiles, available to them.

The art on the plane unified the crew, and identified it, and made it unique from all of the aircraft in their unit or on their base.

38 Amazing Photos of Women in Go-Go Boots From the Mid-1960s and 1970s

Fashion boots were revived in the early 1960s, although at first they featured fashionable high heels such as the stiletto and kitten heels. The earliest go-go boots were mid-calf, white and flat-heeled.

The term “go-go” is derived from the French expression à gogo, meaning “in abundance, galore”, which is in turn derived from the ancient French word la gogue for “joy, happiness”. The term “go-go” has also been explained as a 1964 back-formation of the 1962 slang term “go”, meaning something that was “all the rage”; the term “go-go dancer” first appeared in 1965. The go-go boot is presumed to have been named after the dance style.

These cool pics that captured women in go-go boots in the mid-1960s and 1970s.

26 Famous Gangsters From The 1920s & 1930s

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The terms “gangster” and “mobster” are mostly used in the United States to refer to members of criminal organizations associated with Prohibition. In 1920, the Eighteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution banned the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol for consumption. Many gangs sold alcohol illegally for profit, and used acute violence to stake turf and protect their interest. Often, police officers and politicians were paid off or extorted to ensure continued operation. Al Capone was one of these notorious gangsters during the Depression era for the Chicago Outfit. Capone would rise to control a major portion of illicit activity such as gambling, prostitution, and bootlegging in Chicago during the early 20th century.

In New York City, by the end of the 1920s, two factions of organized crime had emerged to fight for control of the criminal underworld, one led by Joe Masseria and the other by Salvatore Maranzano. This caused the Castellammarese War, which led to Masseria’s murder in 1931. Maranzano then divided New York City into five families. Maranzano, the first leader of the American Mafia, established the code of conduct for the organization, set up the “family” divisions and structure, and established procedures for resolving disputes. In an unprecedented move, Maranzano set himself up as boss of all bosses and required all families to pay tribute to him. This new role was received negatively, and Maranzano was murdered within six months on the orders of Charles “Lucky” Luciano. Luciano was a former Masseria underling who had switched sides to Maranzano and orchestrated the killing of Masseria. As an alternative to the previous despotic Mafia practice of naming a single Mafia boss as capo di tutti capi, or “boss of all bosses,” Luciano created The Commission in 1931, where the bosses of the most powerful families would have equal say and vote on important matters and solve disputes between families. This group ruled over the National Crime Syndicate and brought in an era of peace and prosperity for the American Mafia.

George “Baby Face” Nelson was a notorious bank robber and killer who operated in the 1920s and 1930s across America.

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