Born 1910 as Erzsébet Berindey in Budapest, Hungarian actress Steffi Duna started dancing at the age of nine and first attracted attention as a thirteen-year-old ballet dancer in Europe. She made her first stage appearance performing dramatized fairy tales at the Children’s Theater of Budapest.
Duna made her film debut in The Indiscretions of Eve (1932) in the starring role. Signed by RKO Radio Pictures, Duna played “Guninana”, the Eskimo wife of Francis Lederer, in Man of Two Worlds (1934). In 1936, she played the part of Nedda in the British film version of Pagliacci, starring Richard Tauber.
Films in which Duna played lead roles, such as Panama Lady (1939) with Lucille Ball, were popular but did not make her a major star. Her best remembered films include Anthony Adverse (1936) and Waterloo Bridge (1940).
Duna retired from acting in 1940 and died in 1992 of cancer at her home in Beverly Hills, aged 82. These beautiful photos captured portrait of a young Steffi Duna during her short career.
The 1960s (pronounced “nineteen-sixties”, shortened to the “’60s” or the “Sixties”) was a decade that began 1 January 1960 and ended December 31, 1969.
In the United States and other Western countries, the Sixties is noted for its counterculture. There was a revolution in social norms, including clothing, music (such as the Altamont Free Concert), drugs, dress, sexuality, formalities, civil rights, precepts of military duty, and schooling. Others denounce the decade as one of irresponsible excess, flamboyance, the decay of social order, and the fall or relaxation of social taboos. A wide range of music emerged; from popular music inspired by and including the Beatles (in the United States known as the British Invasion), the folk music revival, to the poetic lyrics of Bob Dylan. In the United States the Sixties were also called the “cultural decade” while in the United Kingdom (especially London) it was called the Swinging Sixties.
Organizations such as those present at May 1968, the German Red Army Faction, and the Japanese Zengakuren tested liberal democracy’s ability to help people left out of society in the post-industrial age hybrid capitalist economies. In the United Kingdom, the Labour Party gained power in 1964 with Harold Wilson as Prime Minister through most of the decade. In France, the protests of 1968 led to President Charles de Gaulle temporarily fleeing the country. Italy formed its first left-of-center government in March 1962 with a coalition of Christian Democrats, Social Democrats, and moderate Republicans. When Aldo Moro became Prime Minister in 1963, Socialists joined the ruling block too. Soviet leaders during the decade were Nikita Khrushchev until 1964 and Leonid Brezhnev. In Brazil, João Goulart became president after Jânio Quadros resigned.
The United States had three presidents; Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Eisenhower was near the end of his term, while Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Kennedy had wanted a Keynesian and staunch anti-communist social reforms. These were passed under Johnson including civil rights for African Americans and healthcare for the elderly and the poor. Despite his large-scale Great Society programs, Johnson was increasingly disliked by the New Left at home and abroad. For some, May 1968 meant the end of traditional collective action and the beginning of a new era to be dominated mainly by the so-called new social movements.
After President Kennedy’s assassination, direct tensions between the superpower countries of US and Soviet Union developed into a contest with proxy wars, insurgency funding, puppet governments and other overall influence mainly in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. This “Cold War” dominated the world’s geopolitics during the decade. In Africa was in a period of radical political change as 32 countries gained independence from their European colonial rulers. The heavy-handed American role in the Vietnam War lead to an anti-Vietnam War movement with outraged student protestors around the globe.
By the end of the 1950s, post-war reconstructed Europe and began an economic boom. World War II had closed up social classes with remnants of the old feudal gentry disappearing. A developing upper-working-class (a newly redefined middle-class) in Western Europe could afford a radio, television, refrigerator and motor vehicles. The Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries were improving quickly after rebuilding from WWII. Real GDP growth averaged 6% a year during the second half of the decade; overall worldwide economic prospered in the 1960s with expansion of the middle class and the increase of new domestic technology. (Wikipedia)
Alan Shepard waits to become the first American in space, Cape Canaveral, 1961.Dummy pilot and seat soar, as engineers test a catapult escape system in Arizona, March 1963.Marine infantry in Taiwan practice using flame throwers in a simulated battle, January 1969.Two women gaze at heavy surf while lying on boulders on the coast of Nova Scotia, December 1961.Neon signs blur the night scene as marines walk on the street in San Diego, California, July 1969.Children play outside a Hudson Bay Company store in Ontario, Canada, 1963.A railway encircles thirty-five blocks of shops, offices, and hotels in Chicago, June 1967.Irish Guards remain at attention after one guardsman faints in London, England, June 1966.Cat and white rat abide in peace. When different species grow up together, they often lose their enmity, April 1964.Martin Luther King Jr. speaks at a rally for the Chicago Freedom Movement at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois on July 10, 1966.Vietnamese monk Thich Quang Duc immolates himself in protest of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem’s violent persecution of Buddhists. Saigon. June 11, 1963.Ecstatic fans give in to the music at the Isle of Wight festival. 1969.In late July 1964, police beat a man during the Harlem riots sparked by the questionable shooting of a 15-year-old African-American boy by a police officer.Jimi Hendrix performs at California’s Monterey International Pop Festival on June 18, 1967.A young hippie sits cross-legged in a New York City park. 1969.On March 26, 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, the decade’s two most prominent civil rights leaders, shared their only meeting.A U.S. helicopter pilot runs from his aircraft after Vietnamese forces shoot it down in early 1965.Muhammad Ali knocks out Sonny Liston after a one-minute-long championship match in Lewiston, Maine on May 25, 1965.Ed White floats just outside the Gemini 4 capsule hatch on June 3, 1965. This made White the first American to ever perform a spacewalk, which lasted 23 minutes.On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn.American forces interrogate a Viet Cong prisoner near Thuong during the Vietnam War. 1960sA female demonstrator offers a flower to military police on guard at the Pentagon during an anti-Vietnam demonstration. 1960sOn June 5, 1968, Sirhan Sirhan assassinated Senator Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles.Smoke break, Vernon and Central Avenues, Los Angeles, 1965.The expressions on the faces of Elizabeth Taylor and husband Eddie Fisher watching a boxing match, 1960.New York firemen play a game after putting out a fire that broke out in a billiard parlor, 1969.Rod Serling narrating “The Twilight Zone” in 1964.Groucho Marx dances with a 22 year-old Diana Ross at a barbecue hosted by Bobby Darin at his Bel Air home. 1966Dinosaurs transported on the Hudson River, on their way to the 1964 World’s Fair.Clint Eastwood skateboarding around Rome, Italy. 1963An 18 year-old Annette Funicello with her mom Virginia at their Encino home. 1960Sophia Loren gazes at the ‘Mona Lisa’ while visiting the Louvre in 1964.A young woman at work in a textile factory in Russia, 1960.Liza Minnelli in 1969.Marilyn Monroe during hair tests for ‘The Misfits,’ 1960.A performer backstage at Ringling Brothers Circus in Baltimore, Maryland, 1966.Natalie Wood, 1960s.Steve McQueen, Bullitt, 1968.Ford Cougar, 1962.New York fashion, 1969Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand from the television series Star Trek (1966)Downtown London, 1960sPrincess Margaret, Princess Anne, and the Queen Mother attended the investiture of Prince Charles (1969)Little girls racing their sheep (1969)Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton take a smoke break between their performances. (1967)Waiting in a terminal to ride the Greyhound Bus (1960s)This infamous toy was introduced in 1960 and is still just as popular today.The Beatles stop to get gas for their van while on tour in 1963.Audition day for the part of a black cat in a film. Hollywood, 1961
A charabanc is a type of horse-drawn vehicle or early motor coach, usually open-topped, common in Britain during the early part of the 20th century. It has “benched seats arranged in rows, looking forward, commonly used for large parties, whether as public conveyances or for excursions”.
Charabancs were especially popular for sight-seeing or “works outings” to the country or the seaside, organized by businesses once a year. The name derives from the French char à bancs (“carriage with wooden benches”), the vehicle having originated in France in the early 19th century.
Although the vehicle has not been common on the roads since the 1920s, a few signs survive from the era. The word is in common usage especially in Northern England in a jocular way referring to works outings by coach.
Here below is a set of fascinating photos that shows people in charabancs from the early 20th century.
Back in the 1970s, a young man went to work for a carnival concessionaire who, each summer, took a portable photo studio on the road to county fairs across California and the west. For a few dollars, you could have a portrait-sized or larger photo of you and your loved-one to frame and put up on the wall, in only 15 minutes. Pre-digital, it was a good deal.
But what kind of people had their portraits taken at county fairs? People without a lot of money. People who lived on the fringes. People whose life stories were written on their faces. But they wanted a record of who they were, that they could specify and dictate themselves, and they got that at the county fair.
These portraits were made by the young man named Mikkel Aaland in a portable studio that was hauled from fair to fair between 1976 and 1980. The studio was complete with darkroom and a shooting stage and it took a crew of three to run it: a shooter, a front person to handle customers and a darkroom person to develop and print the 4×5 inch negative.
“Because our prices were so reasonable, we often had lines of customers that lasted from ten in the morning to midnight,” Aaland said. “To give you an idea of our volume: on a busy day in Pleasanton, I shot over 450 portraits, averaging three people per print, meaning 1,350 mostly smiling faces.”
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In late 1887, Calamity Jane Canary and cowboy Teddy Blue Abbott, wearing each other’s hats, shared drinks at a saloon in Gilt Edge, Montana, where she was living for the winter.
Teddy Blue, who lived nearby on his Three Deuce Ranch, had come to town to repay her 50 cents, which he had borrowed in Miles City in 1883.
Martha Jane Cannary (May 1, 1852 – August 1, 1903), better known as Calamity Jane, was an American frontierswoman, sharpshooter, and raconteur. In addition to many exploits she was known for being an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok. Late in her life, she appeared in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show and at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. She is said to have exhibited compassion to others, especially to the sick and needy. This facet of her character contrasted with her daredevil ways and helped to make her a noted frontier figure. She was also known for her habit of wearing men’s attire.
Edward Charles Abbott was born in England—but he became the prototypical American cowboy. His family moved to Texas when he was a boy; he later helped move a cattle herd to Nebraska. He later moved to Montana, where he became a rancher and an influential member of the stockgrowers association.
Abbott—who was called Teddy Blue—is best known for his remarkable chronicle of cowboy life, We Pointed Them North. It came out in 1939, just a few days before he died at age 78.
Buenos Aires, officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (Spanish: Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South America’s southeastern coast. “Buenos Aires” can be translated as “fair winds” or “good airs”, but the former was the meaning intended by the founders in the 16th century, by the use of the original name “Real de Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre”, named after the Madonna of Bonaria in Sardinia, Italy.
The city of Buenos Aires is neither part of Buenos Aires Province nor the Province’s capital; rather, it is an autonomous district. In 1880, after decades of political infighting, Buenos Aires was federalized and removed from Buenos Aires Province. The city limits were enlarged to include the towns of Belgrano and Flores; both are now neighborhoods of the city. The 1994 constitutional amendment granted the city autonomy, hence its formal name of Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Its citizens first elected a Chief of Government in 1996; previously, the Mayor was directly appointed by the President of Argentina.
The Greater Buenos Aires conurbation, which also includes several Buenos Aires Province districts, constitutes the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas, with a population of around 15.6 million. It is also the second largest city south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Buenos Aires’ quality of life was ranked 91st in the world in 2018, being one of the best in Latin America. In 2012, it was the most visited city in South America, and the second-most visited city of Latin America.
It is known for its preserved eclectic European architecture[13] and rich cultural life. It is a multicultural city that is home to multiple ethnic and religious groups, contributing to its culture as well as to the dialect spoken in the city and in some other parts of the country. This is because since the 19th century, the city, and the country in general, has been a major recipient of millions of immigrants from all over the world, making it a melting pot where several ethnic groups live together. Thus, Buenos Aires is considered one of the most diverse cities of the Americas. Buenos Aires held the 1st FIBA World Championship in 1950 and 11th FIBA World Championship in 1990, the 1st Pan American Games in 1951, was the site of two venues in the 1978 FIFA World Cup and one in the 1982 FIVB Men’s World Championship. Most recently, Buenos Aires had a venue in the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship and in the 2002 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship, hosted the 125th IOC Session in 2013, the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics and the 2018 G20 summit. (Wikipedia)
Though the history of color photography dates back more than a hundred years, the production and publication of color enlargements (photopositives) has only been widespread since the 1940s, when color film first entered mass use. These fascinating color photographs were taken by an unknown photographer using Agfacolor, they show everyday life in Budapest in 1939, just before the Second World War.
Agfacolor was the name of a series of color film products made by Agfa of Germany. The first Agfacolor, introduced in 1932, was a film-based version of their Agfa-Farbenplatte (Agfa color plate), a “screen plate” product similar to the French Autochrome. In late 1936 Agfa introduced Agfacolor Neu (New Agfacolor), a pioneering color film of the general type still in use today.
The new Agfacolor was originally a reversal film used for making “slides”, home movies and short documentaries. By 1939 it had also been adapted into a negative film and a print film for use by the German motion picture industry. After World War II, the Agfacolor brand was applied to several varieties of color negative film for still photography, in which the negatives were used to make color prints on paper. The reversal film was then marketed as Agfachrome. These films use Color Developing Agent 1 in their color developer.
Budapest is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on Danube river; the city has an estimated population of 1,752,286 over a land area of about 525 square kilometres (203 square miles). Budapest, which is both a city and county, forms the centre of the Budapest metropolitan area, which has an area of 7,626 square kilometres (2,944 square miles) and a population of 3,303,786, comprising 33% of the population of Hungary.
The history of Budapest began when an early Celtic settlement transformed into the Roman town of Aquincum, the capital of Lower Pannonia. The Hungarians arrived in the territory in the late 9th century, but the area was pillaged by the Mongols in 1241–42. Re-established Buda became one of the centres of Renaissance humanist culture by the 15th century. The Battle of Mohács, in 1526, was followed by nearly 150 years of Ottoman rule. After the reconquest of Buda in 1686, the region entered a new age of prosperity, with Pest-Buda becoming a global city after the unification of Buda, Óbuda and Pest on 17 November 1873, with the name ‘Budapest’ given to the new capital. Budapest also became the co-capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a great power that dissolved in 1918, following World War I. The city was the focal point of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, the Battle of Budapest in 1945, as well as the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
Budapest is a Beta + global city with strengths in commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education and entertainment. Hungary’s financial centre, it is the second richest capital and city in the region after Bucharest. Budapest is the headquarters of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, the European Police College and the first foreign office of the China Investment Promotion Agency. Over 40 colleges and universities are located in Budapest, including the Eötvös Loránd University, the Corvinus University, Semmelweis University, University of Veterinary Medicine Budapest and the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. Opened in 1896, the city’s subway system, the Budapest Metro, serves 1.27 million, while the Budapest Tram Network serves 1.08 million passengers daily.
The central area of Budapest along the Danube River is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has several notable monuments of classical architecture, including the Hungarian Parliament and the Buda Castle. The city also has around 80 geothermal springs, the largest thermal water cave system, second largest synagogue, and third largest Parliament building in the world. Budapest attracts around 12 million international tourists per year, making it a highly popular destination in Europe. It also topped the Best European Destinations 2020 list by Big7Media. Budapest also ranks as the third-best European city in a similar poll conducted by Which?. (Wikipedia)
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