Life of New Zealand in the 1960s Through Amazing Kodachrome Slides

During the 1960s the arrival of TV and jet airliners shrank our world, and New Zealanders began to express themselves on a range of international issues, including opposition to the Vietnam War.

New Zealand in the 1960s was a relative paradise. There were two million people living in a welfare state. There was no unemployment and about one murder a year. Men worked about 40 hours a week and most women stayed at home to look after the house and children.

The system was geared accordingly and with a State Advances Corporation loan available at 4 per cent interest, most people could attain home ownership, on a full section and be mortgage-free by retirement age.

These amazing Kodachrome slides from Dave’s Old Slides that show what life of New Zealand looked like in the 1960s.

Devon St, New Plymouth, New Zealand, circa 1960

Bath house, Rototura, New Zealand, circa 1960

Bicycles, Moray Place, Dunedin, New Zealand, circa 1960

Moray Place and Filleul Street, Dunedin, New Zealand, circa 1960

Te Kauwhata, New Zealand, circa 1960

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20 Wonderful Color Photos of a Young and Beautiful Debbie Reynolds in the 1950s and 1960s

Debbie Reynolds went on to establish a film career as one of the most popular actresses of her time. Known for an array of musicals in the 1950s, she made a star turn in Singin’ in the Rain (1952), in which she offered a spirited performance opposite Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor. The following decade, Reynolds won the respect of her peers with her title role in the musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown, for which she received an Academy Award nomination.

Debbie Reynolds, in full Mary Frances Reynolds, (April 1, 1932 – December 28, 2016) was an American actress and singer. Her career spanned almost 70 years.

Reynolds’s working-class family moved from Texas to California in the late 1930s. She was spotted by a talent scout when she entered a beauty contest, and she embarked on an acting career while she was still a teenager. In 1948 she made her movie debut in June Bride. She played supporting parts in four musical comedies before her breakthrough role in 1952 as the ingenue who is made into a star in Singin’ in the Rain. Reynolds’s bright-eyed personality charmed movie audiences, who soon claimed her as “America’s Sweetheart.” She became a top box-office attraction during the 1950s.

In 1964 Reynolds earned critical acclaim for The Unsinkable Molly Brown, in which she starred in the title role; she earned an Academy Award nomination for her performance.

Later in her career, Reynolds took on strong matriarchal roles, notably in Albert Brooks’s film Mother (1996); in episodes (1999–2006) of the TV series Will & Grace, as the latter title character’s flamboyant mother; and in the movie Behind the Candelabra (2013), as the mother of the entertainer Liberace.

In 2015 Reynolds received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She died the following year, a day after the sudden and unexpected death of her daughter, Carrie Fisher, who was a noted actress and writer.

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Len and Cub: A Hidden Relationship Brought Into the Light Through Early 20th Century Photographs

Leonard “Len” Keith and Joseph “Cub” Coates fell for each other in early 20th-century New Brunswick, at a time and place where queer relationships were taboo. Their story was almost lost forever—until a collection of tender photographs brought their romance into the light.

Len was born in 1891, and Cub was born 8 years later. They grew up in the rural New Brunswick village of Havelock in the early 20th century. The two were neighbors, and they clearly developed an inseparable relationship. Len was an amateur photographer and automobile enthusiast who went on to own a local garage and poolhall after serving in the First World War. Cub was the son of a farmer, also a veteran of the First World War, a butcher, contractor, and lover of horses.

Their time together is catalogued by Len’s photos, which show that the two shared a mutual love of the outdoors, animals, and adventure. Photographs of Len and Cub on hunting and canoe trips with arms around each other’s shoulders or in bed together make clear the affection they held for each other. Their story is one of the oldest photographic records of a same-sex couple in the Maritimes.

Unfortunately, these adventures would cease when Len was outed as a homosexual by community members in the early 1930s and forced to leave Havelock. Cub, however, remained seemingly untainted by scandal and stayed in Havelock until 1940, when he married Rita Cameron, a nurse born in Chatham, and relocated to Moncton after the Second World War. He would go on to become a prominent figure in New Brunswick’s harness racing circles before his death in 1965. Len never returned to Havelock, residing near Montreal before succumbing to cancer in 1950.

The photos were donated to the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick decades after his death by Havelock resident and local historian, John Corey, who had purchased the albums at the Keith family’s estate sale in 1984. Growing up, John heard stories of Len and Cub from his father, Roy Manford Corey, who had been a classmate of Len’s. When John donated the albums [to the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick] in 2011, he described the pair as “boyfriends”—a term noted by the archivist in the collection’s finding aid. The archivist also noted, after a conversation with John, that Len had been “driven out of town for being a homosexual” by a group of Havelock men. This anecdote is written on an envelope containing a photo of one of the men responsible for Len’s outing.

Len’s photos of their life and tells the story of their relationship against the background of same-sex identity and relationships in rural North America of the early 20th century. Although Len was outed and forced to leave Havelock in the 1930s, the story of Len and Cub is one of love and friendship that challenges contemporary ideas about sex and gender expression in the early 20th century.

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30 Beautiful Photos of Colleen Townsend in the 1940s and ’50s

Born 1928 in Glendale, California, American actress Colleen Townsend began a film career in 1944, appearing in minor roles in several films. By 1946, she was appearing on the cover of magazines, and in 1947, she was signed to a contract by 20th Century Fox. She was the subject of a cover story for Life in 1948, which discussed the way in which major studios groomed and manufactured their stars, using Townsend’s story as an example.

Townsend played a featured role in the film The Walls of Jericho (1948). Her biggest success was in the 1950 film When Willie Comes Marching Home, in which she was paired with Dan Dailey. Again Pioneers (1950), which she wrote, provided her with her first lead role.

In 1950, Townsend left her acting career and married long-time friend Louis H. Evans, Jr. who was a seminary student at the time at San Francisco Theologic Seminary. Rev. Louis H. Evans, Jr. was the founding pastor of Bel Air Presbyterian Church, which began in the Evans home. Bel Air Presbyterian Church exists today as the largest Presbyterian congregation in the Los Angeles area.

Townsend, now billed as Colleen Evans, returned to films briefly, starring in two films produced by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association: Oiltown, U.S.A. (1950) and Souls in Conflict (1955).

Take a look at these beautiful photos to see portraits of young Colleen Townsend in the 1940s and 1950s.

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Vintage French Postcards Honoring April Fool’s Day

The French call April 1 “Poisson d’Avril”, or “April Fish.” French children sometimes tape a picture of a fish on the back of their schoolmates, crying “Poisson d’Avril” when the prank is discovered. Here, a series of two French postcards honoring April Fool’s Day (they both have the same surly, mean expression):

Having a mother in law is a sad thing
If her temperament is especially grating
Look at this one, look at her mug (note: also means pear)
And pity her son-in-law, the poor soul

Your mug, o landlord, doesn’t look promising
We won’t be renting your rooms anymore, that’s for sure!

Kodachrome Slides of the Chicago Railroad Fair in 1949

The Chicago Railroad Fair was an event organized to celebrate and commemorate 100 years of railroad history west of Chicago, Illinois. It was held in Chicago in 1948 and 1949 along the shore of Lake Michigan and is often referred to as “the last great railroad fair” with 39 railroad companies participating. The board of directors for the show was a veritable “Who’s Who” of railroad company executives.

These Kodak Kodachrome slides from Roberto41144 were taken at the Chicago Railroad Fair on October 3, 1949.

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Fat Men’s Clubs Were a Type of Social Club That Peaked in Popularity From the Late 19th to Early 20th Centuries

Fat men’s clubs began in the U.S as early as sometime in the 1860s. Many major cities, like New York and Boston, organized their own charters under umbrella groups like the Northeast and Northwest. Some states, like Utah, had their own autonomous groups. These organizations eventually spread overseas to European countries, too, like Yugoslavia and England. The French Fat Men’s Club was called Les Cent Kilos de Paris. A baseball team, the Fat Men’s Amusement Company, comprised completely of Fat Men’s Club members. At the height of popularity the Northeast chapter is purported to have had over 10,000 members.

In 1903, in a cheery local tavern tucked away in Wells River, Vermont, one of America’s most successful fat men’s clubs was launched. “We’re fat and we’re making the most of it!” was their mantra. “I’ve got to be good-natured; I can’t fight and I can’t run,” was their motto.

The primary requirement for joining one of these clubs was a minimum weight of 200 pounds (91 kg). Other requirements, such as the $1 membership fee, seem trivial. women, however, were not allowed. Clubs had their own secret handshakes and passwords and hosted regular functions and outings. Though much of the clubs’ activities were centered around making the membership feel accepted and accepting of their own stature, fat men’s clubs were really just another way to network. Grand balls, baseball games, international trips, lavish feasts, ice skating, and a myriad of other activities facilitated business and personal relationships with similar men.

Eventually not even having William H. Taft as a member could save these clubs from disappearing. As membership dwindled, some clubs went as far as to forgo the minimum weight requirement. By the 1940s, the fat men’s clubs were no more.