Bob: One of the Favorite Women’s Hairstyles in the 1920s

‘Bobs’—short hairstyles cut straight around the head, usually around jaw-level—were sported by a few women in the 1910s (most notably by designer Coco Chanel, dancer Irene Castle, and actress/singer Polaire). The antithesis of the long, pinned-up or braided hairstyles that had dominated Western women's fashion for nearly seven centuries, bobbed hair was at first a daring symbol of feminism and individuality. The look, however, gained widespread appeal in the 1920s as film stars like Gloria Swanson, Clara Bow, and Louise Brooks popularized the style.

In general, women’s hairstyles in the 1920s aspired to be exotic and sleek, with hair worn close to the head. If one had long hair, it was pulled back in a small, low chignon. Bobs were cut in tapered layers so that the hair would lie as flat as possible.

By the mid-1920s, the fad of ‘bobbing’ had arrived in the mainstream. There were short, boyish bobs (like Josephine Baker’s ‘Eton crop’) and even ‘faux’ bobs (long hair deceptively pinned up—see Lillian Gish). The bob of choice for much of the 1920s was the ‘shingle’—a bob that covered the ears, but was cut shorter in a v-shape at the nape of the neck. Screen actress Louise Brooks popularized the shingle, and women flocked to their local barber shop to obtain the look.

Here below is a set of vintage photos that shows women with their bob hairstyles in the 1920s.

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18 Amazing Vintage Photographs of Bourbon Street, New Orleans in 1957

Whether or not you’ve been to New Orleans, the party and food capital of Louisiana and perhaps the U.S., you’ve probably heard of Bourbon Street. Bourbon Street is a historic street in the heart of the French Quarter of New Orleans. Extending thirteen blocks from Canal Street to Esplanade Avenue, Bourbon Street is famous for its many bars and strip clubs.

The French claimed Louisiana in the 1690s, and Jean Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville was appointed Director General in charge of developing a colony in the territory. He founded New Orleans in 1718. In 1721, the royal engineer Adrien de Pauger designed the city’s street layout. He named the streets after French royal houses and Catholic saints. He paid homage to France’s ruling family, the House of Bourbon, with the naming of Bourbon Street.

The French Quarter was central to this image of cultural legacy and became the best-known part of the city. Recent arrivals in New Orleans criticized the perceived loose morals of the Creoles, a perception that drew many travelers to New Orleans to drink, gamble and visit the city’s brothels, beginning in the 1880s.

Bourbon Street was a premier residential area prior to 1900. This changed in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when the Storyville red-light district was constructed on Basin Street adjacent to the French Quarter. The area became known for prostitution, gambling and vaudeville acts. Jazz is said to have developed here, with artists such as King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton providing musical entertainment at the brothels.

Before World War II, the French Quarter was emerging as a major asset to the city’s economy. While there was an interest in historic districts at the time, developers pressured to modernize the city. Simultaneously, with the wartime influx of people, property owners opened adult-centered nightclubs to capitalize on the city’s risqué image. Wartime Bourbon Street was memorably depicted in Erle Stanley Gardner’s detective novel “Owls Don’t Blink”. After the war, Bourbon Street became the new Storyville in terms of reputation. By the 1940s and 1950s, nightclubs lined Bourbon Street. Over 50 different burlesque shows, striptease acts and exotic dancers could be found.

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Studebaker Ads in Kodak Color Film, 1937

In 1937-38, Studebaker’s advertisers decided to take full advantage of the possibilities of color photography developed and implemented by Kodak. It turned out very lively and unusual.

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30 Vintage Photos of Julie Harris in the 1950s and ’60s

Born 1925 in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, American actress Julie Harris debuted on Broadway in 1945, against the wishes of her mother, who wanted her to be a society debutante. Harris was acclaimed for her performance as an isolated 12-year-old girl in the 1950 play The Member of the Wedding, a role she reprised in the 1952 film of the same name, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 1951, her range was demonstrated as Sally Bowles in the original production of I Am a Camera, for which she won her first Tony award. She subsequently appeared in the 1955 film version.

Harris gave acclaimed performances in films including The Haunting (1963), and Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), in which she played opposite Marlon Brando. In addition to her Tony award for I Am a Camera (1951), she won Tonys for The Lark (1956), Forty Carats (1969), The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (1973), and The Belle of Amherst (1977). She was also a Grammy Award winner and a three time Emmy Award winner.

Harris was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1979, received the National Medal of Arts in 1994, and the 2002 Special Lifetime Achievement Tony Award. She died in 2013 of congestive heart failure at her home in West Chatham, Massachusetts, aged 87.

Take a look at these vintage photos to see portraits of a young Julie Harris in the 1950s and 1960s.

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Stage Entering Red Mountain Town, Ouray County, Colorado, ca. 1885

This photograph of what appears to be an open-topped stage descending into Red Mountain was taken by legendary Western photographer William Henry Jackson (1843–1942) around 1885.

At 11,300 feet above sea level, built in terrain that could be rocky and rugged, marshy and muddy, frozen and buried in twenty-foot-deep snows, Red Mountain Town was never destined to become a long-lived town –– although to judge by some of the architecture of its later buildings, there were certainly people who wished otherwise.

In the late 1870s, miners began establishing camps in the Red Mountain District between Ouray and Silverton on both the north and south sides of Red Mountain Pass. Many of the camps were as ephemeral as the will-o-wisp, but after John Robinson discovered the Yankee Girl Mine in the district in 1882, a boom was spurred, and towns and camps seemed to sprout like mushrooms after a heavy rain. These included Sweetville; Red Mountain City, which was later renamed Congress; Rogerville, also known as Rogersville; Albany; Hudson, later called Barilla; Park City; Chattanooga; Guston; Ironton; and Red Mountain. By 1883, there were nearly forty producing silver mines in the Red Mountain District –– an area of less than eight square miles.

Red Mountain began life in the spring of 1879 as Sky City. It was soon moved when the summer thaw revealed that the town had been built in swampy soil. It was renamed Red Mountain Town after the move, and, after Red Mountain City’s name was changed to Congress by the Post Office, Red Mountain Town became known simply as Red Mountain. Mines around Red Mountain, most notably the National Belle, employed hundreds of miners, and the town was home to around a thousand people at its peak. The Red Mountain District altogether is thought to have a population of around 10,000.

By 1890, the population had declined to 598, but the town still maintained a telephone office, post office, a jail, two newspapers, numerous saloons, and a schoolhouse for the miners’ children. A great fire in August 1892 burned all of the (by then rather lovely) buildings on Main Street. Only the rail depot and the jail survived. The people largely rebuilt. But the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act and the Panic of 1893 nearly ended the Red Mountain and the entire Red Mountain District. Many mines closed, including Red Mountain Town’s all-important National Belle Mine.

Then another fire swept through in 1895. Only forty people still lived in town the following year. The nearby Guston Mine closed in 1897, reducing employment opportunities to almost nothing. Then railroad pulled out. By 1899, there were only twelve people living in Red Mountain Town.

The mines were consolidated and started up again in 1901, but they never really became profitable again. Yet the Red Mountain District remains the second greatest silver district (behind Leadville) in Colorado history.

(via Historical Photos of Fruita & Western Colorado)

35 Vintage Photos Show ’50s Wedding Styles

Fashion in the 1950s remained fluid, and women donned suits with belts over straight skirts. It was also an homage to the 1920s, with frills, lace, and floral dominating most runways. The most significant aspect of this era was that people were beginning to experiment and become free in their fashion choices.

This period also brought changes in weddings, particularly the 1950s wedding dresses. Wedding dress designers adopted to the changes made in the fashion world, which was all about glamour and somehow subverting the expectations.

Here is a set of vintage photos that shows wedding styles in the 1950s.

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40 Amazing Vintage Ads for Modess Sanitary Napkins From the 1950s and 1960s

Modess sanitary napkins conducted a famous advertising campaign from the late 1940s to the 1970s in the United States. Usually the only words were “Modess ... because.” Advertising journals of the time occasionally made fun of the series; sometimes they praised it. In a sense, the unfinished phrase summed up the American public’s feelings about menstruation: It’s something it couldn’t talk about!

Nevertheless, these are probably the most elegant ads ever made for menstrual products.

Then-CEO General Robert Wood Johnson came up with the idea while brainstorming ways to boost sales for Modess. His thinking: pair striking photographs of models wearing gorgeous gowns in ornate settings, with a tagline that was as innovative as it was evocative—“Modess … because.”

And unlike other campaigns of the era, the Modess ads let consumers supply their own unique reasons for buying the product, such as “because ... I don’t want anything to stop me from going out to a party” or “because ... I want to look and feel glamorous.”

“These two words helped spare the reader of any self-consciousness around the topic of feminine hygiene, providing dignity around what was not an easily discussed subject in society at that time,” says Margaret Gurowitz, Johnson & Johnson’s in-house historian. “In this way, the ads were as aspirational as they were chic. They spoke to women’s strength, confidence and self-expression.”

To bring the campaign to life, Johnson & Johnson commissioned the likes of Leigh and Parker to don one-of-a-kind dresses by Dior, James and other designers. The company then tapped top cameramen of the day—including Beaton, Green and Sarra—to photograph the models in striking locations, from Park Avenue mansions in New York City to palaces and museums across Europe.

The result? Sales soared, and the campaign ran well into the 1970s.

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