vintage everyday

Classic LIFE Magazine Celebrity Photos

2012-02-26T10:41:00.002-08:00

Yankees - Spring Training in Florida, 1961

2012-02-26T09:03:00.001-08:00

In 1961, during spring training in Florida, LIFE gave 25-year-old Yankee shortstop Tony Kubek a camera and asked him to photograph his teammates: Mantle, Berra, Maris, Ford, and the rest of the players on what would, in time, be seen as one of the greatest teams in baseball history.

New York, 1969

2012-02-26T07:54:00.000-08:00

Vintage Mini Skirts & Cars

2012-02-25T09:42:00.005-08:00

Pictures of Debbie Harry in 1970s-80s

2012-02-25T07:38:00.001-08:00

“Hi, it’s Deb. You know, when I woke up this morning I had a realization about myself. I was always Blondie. People always called me Blondie, ever since I was a little kid. What I realized is that at some point I became Dirty Harry. I couldn’t be Blondie anymore, so I became Dirty Harry.”

Debbie Harry, NYC, 1976 – Image © Bob Gruen

Debbie Harry of Blondie, Coney Island, NY, 1977 — Image © Bob Gruen

1978 — Debbie Harry of Blondie — Image by © Martyn Goddard/Corbis

Debbie Harry, New Jersey, 1978 – Image © Bob Gruen New Jersey’s own Debbie Harry is an icon and sex symbol (those dead eyes and daft lips…) of the 1970s Punk / New Wave / Art scene. She originally hailed from Hawthorne and went on to graduate from Centenary College in Hackettstown — all just a long stones’ throw from my own stomping grounds.

1977 — Debbie Harry of Blondie — Image by © Lynn Goldsmith/Corbis

Rare Oscars Rehearsal Photos, 1958

2012-02-25T06:29:00.001-08:00

During Hollywood’s Golden Age, being a star entailed more than just acting: leading men and women had to sing, dance, play it straight, play the clown — in short, they had to know how to entertain.

Little wonder, then, that in 1958, when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences planned its 30th Oscars ceremony — the fifth ever to be televised — it called upon the town’s multi-talented silver-screen icons to do what they did best, and put on barn-burner of a show.

LIFE photographer Leonard McCombe was a fly on the wall that year as stars from Paul Newman and Zsa Zsa Gabor to Kirk Douglas and Mae West dropped in to rehearse for the big event. As it turned out, however, only a handful of McCombe’s marvelous photos were ever published. Until now.

Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster with choreographer Jack Cole, practicing a mock-bitter song-and-dance number called "It's Great Not to Be Nominated"; the tune ribbed many of the year's Oscar contenders.

Inside Los Angeles' RKO Pantages theater, home of the Academy Awards from 1949 through 1959, Janet Leigh and Shirley MacLaine practice a tune.

Zsa Zsa Gabor arrives at the 1958 Oscar rehearsals in pearls and a fur stole.

Paul Newman appears to wait for a cue, as fellow Oscar presenter Doris Day consults with a director (gesturing toward the audience). On the big night itself, Newman's wife Joanne Woodward won Best Actress for The Three Faces of Eve.

Mae West and Rock Hudson snuggle while rehearsing the flirty pop standard, "Baby, It's Cold Outside," as Academy president George Seaton looks on.

Interesting Old Oscar Photos

2012-02-24T10:59:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth Taylor walks through a crowd of admirers at the Oscars in 1961 — the year she won her first Academy Award, for her role in BUtterfield 8.

Grace Kelly and Clark Gable arrive at the 26th annual Academy Awards at the RKO Pantages Theatre in 1954.

Kirk Douglas, elegant in white tie, smiles and waves as he enters the RKO Pantages Theatre in 1954.

Television actress Sandra White laughs while arriving late at the 1953 Academy Awards.

Humphrey Bogart and his wife Lauren Bacall arrive at the 27th annual Academy Awards at the RKO Pantages Theater in 1955.

Rare Photos of 1960s Sex Symbol Brigitte Bardot

2012-02-24T10:36:00.002-08:00

Bonnie & Clyde, Jean-Claude Sauer, ©Paris Match

Lovers, Michou Simon, ©Paris Match

Muse, ©Tirage numérique d’après le tirage original de Sam Lévin – Médiathèque de l’architecture et du patrimoine, France

Star, ©Tirage numérique d’après le tirage original de Sam Lévin – Médiathèque de l’architecture et du patrimoine, France

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1970s Music Billboards on Sunset Boulevard

2012-02-24T10:31:00.002-08:00

These music billboards were photographed on Sunset Boulevard in California between 1974 and 1975.

Unseen Cobain: Rare Photos

2012-02-23T08:50:00.000-08:00

Childhood Photo

Drinking Quik

Kitten

Kurt Cobain meeting William S. Burroughs

John Lennon @ New York 1974 by Bob Gruen

2012-02-23T08:19:00.001-08:00

Bob Gruen (born 1945) is an American photographer known for his rock 'n' roll photographs. Gruen was born in New York City. He began photographing rock stars with Bob Dylan and served as John Lennon's personal photographer during his time in New York City. Gruen is best known for his photograph of Lennon wearing a New York City T-shirt.

Other notable celebrities and rock bands photographed by Gruen include Eric Clapton, Jerry Garcia, Led Zeppelin, Sean Lennon, Yoko Ono, Joe Strummer, The Who, and lately Green Day.

Kodak No.1 Circular Snapshots

2012-02-22T15:46:00.000-08:00

The invention of photography was announced in 1839, but during its first fifty years taking a photograph was a complicated and expensive business. In 1888, all this was to change following the appearance of a camera that was to revolutionise photography. Popular photography can properly be said to have started 120 years ago with the introduction of the Kodak.

The Kodak camera was the invention of an American, George Eastman (1854-1932). It was a simple, leather-covered wooden box – small and light enough to be held in the hands. Taking a photograph with the Kodak was very easy, requiring only three simple actions; turning the key (to wind on the film); pulling the string (to set the shutter); and pressing the button (to take the photograph). There wasn’t even a viewfinder - the camera was simply pointed in the direction of the subject to be photographed. The Kodak produced circular snapshots, two and a half inches in diameter.

The Kodak was sold already loaded with enough paper-based roll film to take one hundred photographs. After the film had been exposed, the entire camera was returned to the factory for the film to be developed and printed. The camera, reloaded with fresh film, was then returned to its owner, together with a set of prints. To sum up the Kodak system, Eastman devised the brilliantly simple sales slogan: ‘You press the button, we do the rest.’

Boy paddling in the sea

Metropolitan railway steam locomotive

Children paddling in the sea

Kingsbury and Neasden station

Children walking with a wheelbarrow

Photos of The Winter of Moscow in 1959 by Carl Mydans

2012-02-22T04:38:00.000-08:00

Jackie Kennedy visits India, 1962

2012-02-22T03:03:00.001-08:00

Beautiful Michèle Morgan's Eyes

2012-02-22T03:00:00.000-08:00

Ham the Astrochimp

2012-02-21T05:16:00.000-08:00

On the morning of January 31, 1961, a 5-year-old chimpanzee named “Ham” ate a breakfast of baby cereal, condensed milk, vitamins, and half an egg. Then the playful 37-pound primate went out into the Cape Canaveral light and made aeronautic history: Aboard a NASA space capsule — traveling almost 160 miles above the Earth — he became the first chimp in space.

The launch’s success helped ratchet up even further the already-frantic contest for scientific supremacy between the U.S. and the Soviet Union — and briefly made Ham something of a star. Five decades after that momentous, 16-minute “headlong trip through outer space’s underbelly” (as TIME characterized Ham’s flight), LIFE presents rare and previously unpublished photographs taken before, during, and after Ham’s wild ride — pictures that capture an era when technology, politics, ideology, and propaganda converged in an era-defining struggle known as the Space Race.

Norweigan Landscapes, 1890-1900

2012-02-21T04:42:00.000-08:00

Anti-American

2012-02-21T02:53:00.003-08:00

Soviet people were protesting and demonstrating on the regular basis but never against their own government. Well, that’s not exactly true. At least a few Soviet people tried to demonstrate and protest against their own government but in most cases were quickly swept up and ended up with lengthy prison sentences, forced psychiatric treatment or, in the best scenario, a house arrest. At the same time anti-American or anti-imperialist demonstrations were encouraged and sometimes mandatory.

Moscow. Soviet youth demonstrating against the war. The large white sign in the center says: "Shame on the Washington Provocateurs" ©A.Shogin 1984.

Russian police keeping order during demonstration against US blockade of Cuba.Signs: "Shame on Aggressors", "Hands Off Cuba" ©Time Inc. Stan Wayman.

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Interesting Retro Pics

2012-02-21T02:06:00.001-08:00

Grooviest Cult Ever on Cape Cod, 1948

2012-02-20T09:24:00.004-08:00

Marilyn Monroe Again - More Beautiful Black & White Portrait Photos

2012-02-20T09:13:00.002-08:00

Pictures of Kurt Cobain Looking Happy

2012-02-19T09:58:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow would have been the 45th birthday of legendary grunge hero Kurt Cobain, who committed suicide at age 27 to the despair of the world at large.

John Thomson’s Street Life in London, 1876

2012-02-19T09:04:00.000-08:00

The Beatles’ Abbey Road Photo Shoot Outtakes

2012-02-19T02:27:00.000-08:00

The Beatles’ iconic (and widely imitated) album cover Abbey Road shows all four band members walking across London’s Abbey Road. At that time The Beatles were recording the majority of their songs and albums at Abbey Road Studios (was then called EMI Studios). On August 8, 1969, Scottish photographer Iain MacMillan captured them simply walking across the street for the album’s cover. The shoot reportedly took just ten minutes but, as you can see, they had walked back and forth across the street before catching that now-famous image. Here is a gallery of outtakes from that legendary photo shoot.

Rare WW II Photos

2012-02-18T09:01:00.000-08:00