These women were all training in various London polytechnics to work in munitions factories during the early 1940s.
Women have always worked outside the home but never before in the numbers or with the same impact as they did in World War II. Prior to the war, most of the women that did work were from the lower working classes and many of these were minorities. There were a variety of attitudes towards women in the work force. Some thought they should only have jobs that men didn’t want while others felt women should give up their jobs so unemployed men could have a job. Still others held the view that women from the middle class or above should never lower themselves to go to work.
Around 950,000 British women worked in munitions factories during World War II, making weapons like shells and bullets. Munitions work was often well-paid but involved long hours, sometimes up to seven days a week. Workers were also at serious risk from accidents with dangerous machinery or when working with highly explosive material.
Some munitions workers handled toxic chemicals every day. Those who handled sulphur were nicknamed ‘Canary Girls’, because their skin and hair turned yellow from contact with the chemical.
A machine shop trainee at the Ministry of Labour training centre at Chelsea Polytechnic at work on a milling machine.
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Cynthia Ann Crawford (born February 20, 1966) is an American model, actress and television personality. During the 1980s and 1990s, she was among the most popular supermodels and a ubiquitous presence on magazine covers and runways, as well as fashion campaigns. She subsequently expanded into acting and business ventures.
Crawford is an icon who’s had a lasting impact on the fashion world. Her All-American look highlighted by a beauty mark on her upper lip became an instant sensation when she hit the scene in 1986. The mother of two has since graced countless magazine covers for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar Elle and stared in major designer campaigns for brands like Chanel, Versace and Calvin Klein.
Crawford helped pioneer ’90s All-American style with simple silhouettes, neutral palettes and comfortable, easy fabrics. Her inimitable and innate sense of style has had a lasting impact on both street style and high fashion. In honor of her milestone birthday, below are 50 of Crawford’s most iconic style moments.
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Niagara river was diverted from Niagara Falls for the first time in 12,000 years to perform maintenance, 1969.
LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin floating over Washington DC, 1928.
A miniature, fully functional replica of a Cadillac that was made for the Royal family of Siam. 1913.
This photo gives a great size comparison of Titanic’s propellers.
Hindenburg flies over Manhattan in 1936.
Ferdinand Porsche showcasing the Volkswagen Beetle to Adolf Hitler. ~1935.
Queen Elizabeth II firing a British L85 battle rifle. Surrey, England,1993.
Einstein’s office at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, photographed on the day of his death, April 18, 1955.
A vending machine that sold already lit cigarettes for a penny. England, 1931.
Babe Ruth shakes hands with U.S. President Warren G. Harding during a game at the Yankees Stadium. April, 1923. Ruth set career records for home runs which totaled at 714!
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This footwear, called “Soles”, made in the Ardèche region of France in the 19th century. The soles are heavy duty shoes whose soles are studded with sharp blades. They were in wood for the sole, leather for the portion covering the foot and metal for the dents.
The soles were used to peel the chestnuts, once the fruit freed from its shell adorned with fearsome spines and after a drying time. Each shoe weighs about 2kg.
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Opened in 1936 by Dick Pope, Sr. and his wife Julie Downing Pope, Cypress Gardens may have been Florida’s first ‘Theme Park.’ After decades of changing ownership and financial troubles, the park was re-opened in 2011 as Legoland Florida, retaining some of the original theme and gardens, but from the 1940s through 2003, Cypress Gardens was dubbed the ‘Waterski Capital of the World’.
Southern belles, water ski stunts, bathing beauties, swimsuits, this collection of photos offers a nice glimpse into 1950s Cypress Gardens.
Clint Eastwood arrived at London’s Heathrow airport on June 1, 1967. He was in the UK for a total of 9 days to promote A Fistful of Dollars. It was of course released some 3 years after it was made, due mainly to copyright problems with Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (1961).
Most pictures from this promotional tour were captured at Heathrow where it was arranged through United Artists for Clint to be photographed with three beauties from the UA publicity department. These three girls, dressed in cowboy hats, ponchos and toy guns were Sue Melody, Sandra Marshall and Anita McGregor.
A Fistful of Dollars is a 1964 Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood in his first leading role, alongside John Wells, Marianne Koch, W. Lukschy, S. Rupp, Jose Calvo, Antonio Prieto, and Joe Edger.[4] The film, an international co-production between Italy, West Germany, and Spain, was filmed on a low budget (reported to be $200,000), and Eastwood was paid $15,000 for his role.
Released in Italy in 1964 and then in the United States in 1967, it initiated the popularity of the Spaghetti Western genre. It was followed by For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, also starring Eastwood. Collectively, the films are known as the “Dollars Trilogy,” or the “Man with No Name Trilogy” after the United Artists publicity campaign referred to Eastwood’s character in all three films as the “Man with No Name.” All three films were later released in sequence in the United States in 1967, catapulting Eastwood into stardom.
The film has been identified as an unofficial remake of the Akira Kurosawa film Yojimbo (1961), which resulted in a successful lawsuit by Toho, Yojimbo’s production company.
As few Spaghetti Westerns had yet been released in the United States, many of the European cast and crew took on American-sounding stage names. A Fistful of Dollars was shot in Spain, mostly near Hoyo de Manzanares close to Madrid, but also (like its two sequels) in the Tabernas Desert and in the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park, both in the province of Almería.
Born 1903 in Syracuse, New York, American actress, dancer and singer Claire Luce starred in many Broadway plays from 1923 until 1952, including costarring with Fred Astaire in the original musical Gay Divorce (1932).
In his autobiography, Astaire credits Luce as the inspiration for his revolutionary ‘Night and Day’ dance routine: “Claire was a beautiful dancer and it was her style that suggested to me the whole pattern of the ‘Night and Day’ dance. This was something entirely different from anything Adele and I had done together. That was what I wanted, an entirely new dancing approach.”
Luce also starred in the Broadway version of Of Mice and Men (1937), written by John Steinbeck and directed by George S. Kaufman. She often appeared on the English stage, played a number of Shakespearean roles during that time and in 1945 scored a big success leading the company at the annual Stratford-on-Avon Memorial Theatre’s summer Shakespeare Festival, particularly as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra.
Her last appearance in London at that time was as Becky Sharp in an adaptation of Thackeray’s Vanity Fair at the Comedy Theatre in 1946. She died in 1989 at the age of 85.
Take a look at these vintage photos to see the beauty of a young Claire Luce in the 1920s and 1930s.
In 20th century automobile print advertising, automakers often depicted their new models in settings that attracted the attention of potential customers and instilled a positive sentiment. Consequently, scenes from the beach, the mountains, the open road, a night out on the town, or even the driveway with the family simply admiring or washing their new pride-and-joy were a few of the popular concepts developed by the auto companies and their advertising agencies.
Many of the ads chosen for this article, however, show none of those inspiring notions. Rather, they generally took a more dramatic approach to elicit interest, with certain elements sometimes nearly overshadowing the vehicle they were attempting to sell. These types of ads were usually only a portion of a larger coordinated campaign, however, that also included a host of more conventional layouts. Nevertheless, they are intriguing.
Take a look the enclosed examples and see how many of them would have piqued your interest and motivated you to learn more about the car that was advertised.
1961 Pontiac Catalina
It’s a daring move to make the cropped photo of the cat that big and the line drawing of the 1961 Pontiac that small in this ad. Though I’d read that the Catalina was named for Santa Catalina Island (typically just called Catalina) off the California coast, and not for a feline, the comparisons are clever.
1962 Pontiac Parisienne
This pun-filled 1962 Pontiac Parisienne “recipe for zestful living” ad goes to 11—Pontiacs that is. Making the spice rack and jars so large relative to the car was a bold step, but no reader will forget the brand, as “Pontiac” is repeated on six of the eight bottles, and five more times below them.
1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray
Chevrolet did it again in 1963 with a giant dog riding shotgun in a Sting Ray. Is this supposed to be a “Made you look!” ad where the implausible attracts your eye? It made us look twice.
1964 Mercury
While many ads of the era portrayed picturesque barns in rolling pastures or as part of colorful autumn backgrounds etc., Mercury took a decidedly different direction with this 1964 ad that presents a barn on fire! Attention –grabbing? Yes. Disturbing? Also yes. Though its purpose was to highlight the adventurous-types that would be drawn to a Mercury, like volunteer firemen, still, very few car ads have shown tragedies, described here as “excitement,” in their backgrounds.
1964 Cadillac
The little girl on the swing looks like she is about to clear the roof of her parents’ 1964 Cadillac with plenty of room to spare. However, if my kid was reaching that height on a swing, I think the expression on my face would show quite a bit more concern than theirs does. (Maybe her image was superimposed onto the Cadillac photo?)
1967 Ford Mustang
It’s all hands and no car in this 1967 Mustang ad. The “Mustang Pledge” included a list of things that the owners promised to do and some they wouldn’t do. The big green hand, a veiled tie-in to the Jolly Green Giant of garden vegetables fame, seems strange today.
1970 Oldsmobile 4-4-2 W-30
The ever-popular Dr. Oldsmobile-themed ads were enjoyably offbeat already, but this one for the 1970 4-4-2 W-30 455 also includes “Elephant Engine Ernie.” Coincidentally, Ernie’s nickname—Elephant—was the same as that earned by the competing 426 Hemi that was optional in Dodges and Plymouths. Additionally, try reading the lettering on the front tire of the 4-4-2.
1970 Plymouth Road Runner
In the right places, for the right reasons. You’ll love it. Again. The loved bird.
1972 Mercury Monterey
For 1972, Mercury went for shock value again. A test to see whether or not a car explodes based on its ride smoothness certainly imparts a sense of danger, despite the fact that no potential buyers would seek out a luxury car to transport nitro carbol with a detonator attached. Additionally, no competing luxury cars were tested to see if they could accomplish the same task, so how do we know the Monterey is better than the competition in this area?
1976 Dodge Aspen R/T
Ski scenes were used in some ads of the era, but this one is “over-the-top.” Wayne Wong, “one of the world’s leading freestyle skiers” was willing to jump over his 1976 Aspen R/T for this ad. The result is a sports tie-in with a stunt component added to increase drama to great effect.
Initially a small market town, Watford is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of London, on the River Colne.
While industry has declined in Watford, its location near London and transport links has attracted several companies to site their headquarters in the town. Cassiobury Park is a public park that was once the manor estate of the Earls of Essex.
This is a series of family photos. The photos were taken by a Mr.E.A. Ife, mostly in the 1920s. They lived in Cassio Road, Watford, and Mr. Ife ran the ‘Post Office Savings Club Photographic Society’ from there (according to the ‘Photograms of the Year’ books for 1920 & 1921!). He was certainly a very fine photographer, and his family seem to have led a particularly happy, and idyllic lifestyle.
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