Yesterday Today

30 Stunning Vintage Photos of Anna May Wong in the 1930s

Anna May Wong (born Wong Liu Tsong) was an American actress, considered to be the first Chinese American Hollywood movie star, as well as the first Chinese American actress to gain international recognition. Wong became interested in movies at a very young age and decided to pursue a film career. During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color, and in the swashbuckler epic fantasy The Thief of Bagdad (1924). By 1924, Wong had achieved international stardom and became a fashion icon.

Wong spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work. She was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931), Shanghai Express (1932). In 1935, Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role of the Chinese character in the film version of The Good Earth (1937), as she was deemed “too Chinese to play a Chinese” by the studio. Instead, they offered her a supporting role of Lotus, the seductress, but she refused on principle. Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her family’s ancestral village and studying Chinese culture.

In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, portraying Chinese and Chinese Americans in a positive light, including Daughter of Shanghai (1937), King of Chinatown (1939), and Island of Lost Men (1939). Take a look back at the beautiful actress in the 1930s through 30 stunning vintage black-and-white photographs:

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30 Amazing Photos Show Street Scenes of Amsterdam During the 1930s

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Amsterdam is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands. It is colloquially referred to as the “Venice of the North”, attributed by the large number of canals which form a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Amsterdam is well known for its nightlife and festival activity; with several of its nightclubs (Melkweg, Paradiso) among the world’s most famous. Primarily known for its artistic heritage, elaborate canal system and narrow houses with gabled façades; well-preserved legacies of the city’s 17th-century Golden Age. Cycling is also key to the city’s character, and there are numerous bike paths.

The Port of Amsterdam is the fifth largest in Europe. The KLM hub and Amsterdam’s main airport, Schiphol, is the Netherlands’ busiest airport as well as the third busiest in Europe and 11th busiest airport in the world. The Dutch capital is considered one of the most multicultural cities in the world, with at least 177 nationalities represented.

These rare vintage photos show what street scenes of Amsterdam looked like in the 1930s.

Rapenburg, Amsterdam, 1930

Abolitionist Button, ca. 1850s

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Abolitionist Button is an early photography daguerreotype and gold photographic print created from between the 1840s to the 1850s. It lives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The image is in the public domain, and tagged jewelry and political work.

This miniature daguerreotype shows two hands resting on a book. The photograph is set into a two-piece gold-washed brass frame with a loop on the reverse for sewing to a garment. The case design with its simple, raised ornamental border is typical of the gilt-metal buttons mass-produced from 1830 to 1850 in several New England factories such as the Scovill Manufacturing Company in Waterbury, Connecticut, which also manufactured daguerreotype plates. The button was discovered in the early 1980s in a flea market in Massachusetts.

Beautiful Photos of the 1956 Buick Centurion Concept

Developed for and debuted at the 1956 Motorama, the Buick Centurion’s futuristic design has been beloved for decades. With many features considered “new” today, this car was certainly ahead of its time.

Buick enthusiasts will recognize the “sweep-spear” chrome on the Centurion as being similar to the 1957 Buicks. They might even recognize the rear fins as being like those on the 1959 models. The rest of the car, however, is one of a kind.

The Centurion uses a freestanding speedometer, with a fixed indicator and rotation dial. A television camera, mounted just above the tail cone, projects images from the rear of the car to a screen on the dash, thus eliminating the need for a rear view mirror. Centurion’s “wings,” tail cone, and canopy top reflect the influence that aircraft design had on many of GM’s designers.

Here below is a set of beautiful photos of the 1956 Buick Centurion Concept.

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Yesterday Today: September 2

A 6 year old Chimney Sweep photographed before child labor laws were put into effect, 1934.

At the ripe age of 137, White Wolf a.k.a. Chief John Smith is considered the oldest Native American to have ever lived, 1785-1922.

In the 1950’s, Black Musicians were often limited to small nightclubs. The Mocambo, a popular night club in West Hollywood, would not book Ella Fitzgerald until Marilyn Monroe promised to sit in the front row for every one of Ella’s performances. Marilyn remained true to her word.

The 1959 Cadillac Bicycle.

A young boy patiently waiting for his birthday gift from poppa, ca. 1929

In 1979 Robin Williams became the first ever male cheerleader for the Denver Broncos football team.

The California High School scene back in 1969.

Aerosmith, 1971

A Teenage Metallica, 1982

Black Sabbath, 1968

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Extraordinary Aerial Photographs of London From the 1920s

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Creating spectacular images in the face of technical and physical adversity, Captain Alfred G Buckham (1879-1956) was the foremost aerial photographer of his day. Between 1908 to the early 1930s, Buckham created aerial portraits that are awe-inspiring, poetic and works of technical brilliance.

During the First World War he was Captain in the Royal Naval Air Service. However, by 1919 he was discharged as disabled, the result of nine crashes that left him breathing through a tube in his neck for the rest of his life – but that didn’t stop him risking loss of consciousness to capture spectacular images.

These extraordinary aerial shots of London were taken by Buckham in the 1920s with a heavy plate camera, leaning perilously out of the aeroplane, as he told, “I always stand up to make an exposure and, taking the precaution to tie my right leg to the seat, I am free to move about rapidly, and easily, in any desired direction; and loop the loop and indulge in other such delights, with perfect safety.”

Pictures of 1952 Executive Flagship, the World’s Most Exciting Mobile Home

The Pan-American division of Mid-States Corporation built the Executive Flagship, the world’s most complete and exciting mobile home and office. Mid-States was a large trailer manufacturer so this one-of-a-kind mobile home was a perfect rolling advertisement for the company.

The Executive Flagship was designed by the company president William B. MacDonald. It was a 65-foot long, self-powered articulating mobile home with 10 wheels weighing in at 18 tons.

The front motorhome unit had a 26-foot wheelbase and held the more important things like the kitchen and bathroom. The back section, the actual mobile home, was similar to an articulated 5th wheel unit and had all the fun stuff: an observation lounge, a sun deck that could withstand a helicopter landing, a portable six-foot-deep inflatable swimming pool with a diving board, an extendable sundeck, air-conditioned dining nook, and bar. It was the ultimate party (and work) mobile.

The Executive Flagship had everything!

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Yesterday Today: September 1

An Indian sitting on an Indian, 1918

A 23 year old John Wayne, 1930

Two Armenian women pose with their rifles before going to war against the Ottoman Empire, 1895

The gravesites of a Catholic woman and her Protestant husband, who were not allowed to be buried together under their religion, Holland, 1888

Judy Garland and some Munchkins taking a break during filming of ‘The Wizard of Oz, 1938

One of the most iconic photographs ever taken.
Bob Hope, John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra, circa. 1975

Stevie Nicks, 1975

Check out this Ice-Cold Whisky Dispenser from the 1950’s! For a short period of time, these were very popular in office buildings.

Rare photo of Jimi Hendrix jammin’ with The Monkees, 1967

The notorious criminals Bonnie & Clyde photographed in 1933

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30 Elegant Portraits of Victorian Beauties in Tight Corsets

The corset has been an indispensable supportive undergarment for women, in Europe for several centuries, evolving as fashion trends have changed and being known, depending on era and geography, as a pair of bodies, stays and corsets. The appearance of the garment represented a change from people wearing clothes to fit their bodies to changing the shape of their bodies to support and fit their fashionable clothing.

A “pair of bodies” or stays, the supportive garments that predated corsets, first became popular in sixteenth-century Europe, with corsets reaching the zenith of its popularity in the Victorian era. While the corset has typically been worn as an undergarment, it has occasionally been used as an outer-garment; stays as outer-garments can be seen in the national dress of many European countries.

Here below is a set of elegant photos that shows Victorian beauties wearing tight corsets.

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Beautiful Vintage Color Photos of West Berlin in Summer 1953

Kurfurstendam

After the end of the war, Germany was on its way to rebuild. A divided microcosm of the Cold War by the 1950s, West Berlin, however, was able to emerge from the severe rubble and successfully transformed into a “showcase of the West” from the economic miracle.