44 Amazing Photos of The Beatles at the Premiere of the Animated Film ‘Yellow Submarine’ in London, 1968
52 Stunning Vintage Photographs of Bessie Love During the 1920s
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Bessie Love, born Juanita Horton on September 10, 1898, in Midland, Texas, was a prominent actress during the 1920s. Her career began in the silent film era, and she quickly became known for her roles as innocent young girls and wholesome leading ladies. Love’s petite frame and delicate features made her a perfect fit for the flapper image that was popular during the Roaring Twenties. Her performances captivated audiences and solidified her status as one of the era’s most beloved actresses.
Love’s journey to stardom began when she moved to Hollywood with her family. She was discovered by pioneering film director D.W. Griffith, who placed her under personal contract. Griffith’s associate, Frank Woods, gave her the stage name Bessie Love, believing it would be easy for audiences to remember and pronounce. Love’s early roles in films such as “The Flying Torpedo” (1916) and “The Good Bad-Man” (1916) showcased her talent and versatility, paving the way for her successful career in the 1920s1.
During the 1920s, Love starred in numerous films that highlighted her acting prowess. One of her most notable performances was in “The Broadway Melody” (1929), a musical film that earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. This film was significant not only for Love’s career but also for the film industry, as it was one of the first sound films to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Love’s ability to transition from silent films to talkies demonstrated her adaptability and ensured her continued success in the evolving industry.
In addition to her work in “The Broadway Melody,” Love appeared in other successful films throughout the decade. Her roles in “The Matinee Idol” (1928) and “The Lost World” (1925) further cemented her reputation as a talented and versatile actress. Love’s performances were often praised for their authenticity and emotional depth, making her a favorite among both audiences and critics. Her ability to convey complex emotions with subtlety and grace set her apart from many of her contemporaries.
Despite her success, Love faced challenges in her personal life. She married film producer William Hawks in 1929, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1936. The pressures of maintaining a successful career in Hollywood, coupled with the demands of her personal life, took a toll on Love. However, she remained resilient and continued to work in the film industry, even as the popularity of silent films waned and talkies became the norm.
As the 1920s came to a close, Love’s career began to decline. The advent of sound films brought new challenges, and many silent film stars struggled to adapt. However, Love’s talent and determination allowed her to continue working in the industry, albeit in smaller roles. She eventually moved to England, where she continued to act in films, theatre, and television until her retirement.
Bessie Love’s contributions to the film industry during the 1920s were significant. Her performances in both silent and sound films showcased her versatility and talent, making her one of the era’s most beloved actresses. Despite the challenges she faced, Love’s resilience and dedication to her craft ensured her lasting legacy in Hollywood history. Her work continues to be celebrated by film enthusiasts and historians, who recognize her as a pioneering figure in the early days of cinema.
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48 Vintage Photos Showing Life in Berlin in 1946
When Hitler was defeated by the Allies in World War II, he left behind almost no post-war plans. It had been tantamount to treason under the Nazi regime to even mention the possibility of defeat, and by the end, practically every single resource available had been poured into the war effort. What remained after Germany’s surrender was a grieving populace mourning the loss of millions of their people and a countryside that had been shelled, bombed, and trampled by tanks and troops for years.
Life in post-war Germany was very, very difficult for a very long time, and the country’s rise out of that brutal era has its own word in the German language. They call it the “Wirtschaftswunder,” which translates to the “Economic Miracle.”
Their situation after the defeat of the Nazis was so dire that nothing short of a miracle – and the back-breaking efforts of the Allies and the hardy Berliners themselves – could have saved the country. It was also one of the most unprecedented situations in world history; no cities have been through anything quite like Germany after World War II.
These amazing photos show what Berlin, the German capital looked like in 1946, just after WWII.
47 Vintage Photos of People Wearing Bell-Bottom Pants from the 1970s
60 Vintage Photos Showing Street Life in Belfast During the Early 1910s
These photographs come from the Belfast Corporation archive and were taken by Alexander Hogg (1870–1939). The photographs show various properties, mainly older houses, to be demolished or otherwise affected by improvement schemes undertaken by the Corporation under the Belfast Improvement Order (1910) and the Belfast Corporation Act (1911).
Although focused on the properties, the photographs contain an interesting record of street life in Belfast, including inner city areas, the suburbs and the commercial centre, before and in the early years of the Great War. Most include people, particularly children, generally arranged in groups in the foreground of the scene. They also give a vivid impression of the quality of the housing stock in these areas.
Locations covered include: Little York Street; Millfield (including Gardiner Street, Brown Street and Boundary Street); mid Shankill (Hemsworth Street); Grovenor Road (Stanley Street); Hamill Street; Barrack Street; and Lower Falls (Christian Place); Mill Street; King Street; Divis Street; Manor Street; Crimea Street; Tate’s Avenue; Chichester Street; Victoria Street; Cromac Square; Shankill Road; Woodvale Road and Antrim Road.
40 Beautiful Photos Showing Women From the 1950s
50 Amazing Vintage Photos Showing Paris During the 1950s
Born 1920 in the Amsterdam working-class district called ‘de Jordaan’, Dutch photographer Kees Scherer began working as a freelance photographer and reached the pinnacle of photojournalism with high-profile reports about the flood disaster in the province of Zeeland (1953) and the Hungarian uprising (1956), shortly after WWII.
Scherer initiated World Press Photo in 1955 with Bram Wisman. In addition to his extensive work in color, Scherer’s early work in black and white has also been receiving increasing attention in recent years. He depicted his favourite cities in exhaustive detail, namely Paris, New York, and especially Amsterdam.
Scherer died in 1993 at the age of 73.
These amazing black and white photos are part of Scherer’s work that documented everyday life of Paris in the 1950s.
(Photo © Kees Scherer)
30 Vintage Photos of Bakery and Bread Trucks From Between the 1930s and 1950s
From between the 1930s and 1950s, in the days when the borough’s housewives placed orders for milk and baked goods, and union drivers in uniform delivered them. The bakeries sent trucks door to door, offering the same middle-American fare that mid century children across the nation were raised on.
(Photos © Dave Gelinas)
44 Vintage Photographs of Bathing Machines From the Victorian Era
The bathing machine was a device, popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, to allow people to change out of their usual clothes, possibly change into swimwear and then wade in the ocean at beaches. Bathing machines were roofed and walled wooden carts rolled into the sea. Some had solid wooden walls; others had canvas walls over a wooden frame.
According to some sources, the bathing machine was developed in 1750 in Margate, Kent, though this may relate primarily to the “modesty hood” (bathing costumes were not yet common and most people bathed naked).
Bathing machines were most common in the United Kingdom and parts of the British Empire with a British population, but were also used in France, Germany, the United States, Mexico, and other nations. Legal segregation of bathing areas in Britain ended in 1901, and the bathing machine declined rapidly. By the start of the 1920s bathing machines were almost extinct, even on beaches catering to an older clientele.
The bathing machines remained in active use on English beaches until the 1890s, when they began to be parked on the beach. They were then used as stationary changing rooms for a number of years. Most of them had disappeared in the United Kingdom by 1914.
66 Beautiful Vintage Photos of Actress Barbara Stanwyck from the 1920s to the 1940s
Barbara Stanwyck (born Ruby Catherine Stevens; July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990) was an American actress, model, and dancer. A stage, film, and television star, she was known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional for her strong, realistic screen presence. A favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang, and Frank Capra, she made 85 films in 38 years before turning to television.
Stanwyck made her debut on stage in the chorus as a Ziegfeld girl in 1923, at age 16, and within a few years was acting in plays. Her first lead role, which was in the hit Burlesque (1927), gained praise and established her as a Broadway star. In 1929, she began acting in talking pictures, receiving her major break when Frank Capra chose her for his romantic drama Ladies of Leisure (1930), which led to additional leading roles. The ones that further launched her career and increased her profile were Night Nurse, Baby Face, and the controversial The Bitter Tea of General Yen.
In 1937, she had the title role in Stella Dallas and received her first Academy Award nomination for best actress. In 1939, she starred as the lead in Union Pacific the first ever film to ever win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1941, she starred in two successful screwball comedies: Ball of Fire with Gary Cooper, and The Lady Eve with Henry Fonda. She received her second Academy Award nomination for Ball of Fire, and in the decades since its release The Lady Eve has come to be regarded as a comedic classic with Stanwyck’s performance called one of the best in American comedy. Other successful films during this era of her career are Meet John Doe (1940) and You Belong to Me (1941), both of which where she again starred alongside Cooper and Fonda respectively.
By 1944, Stanwyck had become the highest-paid woman in the United States. She starred alongside Fred MacMurray in the seminal film noir Double Indemnity (1944), playing the smoldering wife who persuades MacMurray’s insurance salesman to kill her husband. Described as one of the ultimate portrayals of villainy, it is widely thought that Stanwyck should have won the Academy Award for Best Actress rather than being just nominated. In 1945, she starred in the hit film Christmas in Connecticut. She later received critical acclaim for her performance in the 1947 film The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. She garnered her last Oscar nomination for her lead performance as an invalid wife overhearing her own murder plot in the thriller film noir, Sorry, Wrong Number (1948).
Throughout the 1950s, she starred in a long string of highly successful films and they are Titanic (1953), All I Desire (1953), Executive Suite (1954) and There’s Always Tomorrow (1956). But her career declined soon after the end of the decade, therefore she moved into television in the 1960s, where she won three Emmy Awards – for The Barbara Stanwyck Show (1961), the western series The Big Valley (1966), and miniseries The Thorn Birds (1983).
She received an Honorary Oscar in 1982, the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1986 and was the recipient of several other honorary lifetime awards. She was ranked as the 11th greatest female star of classic American cinema by the American Film Institute. An orphan at the age of four, and partially raised in foster homes, she always worked; one of her directors, Jacques Tourneur, said of Stanwyck, “She only lives for two things, and both of them are work.”
Stanwyck died on January 20, 1990, aged 82, of congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) at Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California. She had indicated that she wanted no funeral service. In accordance with her wishes, her remains were cremated and the ashes scattered from a helicopter over Lone Pine, California, where she had made some of her western films.
