Robert Englund and the Makeup Process for Becoming Freddy Krueger in “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (1984)

Transforming Robert Englund into Freddy Krueger for Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) was a landmark achievement in practical special effects makeup, designed by David B. Miller. The process took around 3 to 3.5 hours every morning in the makeup chair, followed by nearly an hour of painstaking removal at the end of each shooting day.

Craven wanted Krueger’s severe burn scars to look raw and realistic rather than like a standard Halloween rubber mask. Miller drew inspiration from real medical photographs of third-degree burn victims at UCLA Medical Center, combined with an unexpected source: pizza. Miller reportedly noticed how melted cheese stretched and bubbled over tomato sauce, mimicking exposed muscle and tissue beneath charred skin.

“The final design for Freddy was based on a pepperoni pizza,” David Miller on what inspired his makeup for Robert Englund. “I was at a restaurant one night, and I was having pizza and I was just kind of deep in thought. I started playing around with the cheese, putting it around the pepperoni, and actually made Freddy’s face on the pizza.”

Unlike a single pull-over rubber mask, which would obscure facial expressions, Miller engineered a segmented foam latex system to preserve Englund’s mobility and dramatic performances. The mask consisted of four separate foam latex appliances—the forehead/bald cap, the lower face/jaw piece, and two cheek components. Because the pieces were glued directly to Englund’s face using medical-grade spirit gum, every furrow of his brow, grin, and sneer moved organically with the latex. Miller used liquid latex and cab-o-sil filler to smooth out the edges where the pieces met Englund’s natural skin around the eyes and neck.

Once the foam pieces were bonded, Miller hand-painted the intricate burn textures. Acrylic and rubber-based paints were stippled on in deep reds, raw purples, dark browns, and sickly yellows to convey oozing, unhealed flesh. Englund wore a milky, distorted contact lens in one eye to enhance Krueger’s asymmetrical, grotesque appearance. Custom yellowed, rotting acrylic teeth were fitted to ruin his natural bite and force a distinct, menacing sneer.

The grueling makeup process played a key role in how Englund developed Freddy’s physical presence. Spending hours glued into hot, suffocating foam latex forced Englund to adopt sharp, exaggerated neck tilts, a menacing posture, and a theatrical swagger to project emotion through the heavy prosthetics.

“When Robert was done for the day, as soon as they yelled cut, he would just start ripping at the pieces and throw them behind him as he would walk to the makeup room (...) by the time he’d get there, half his makeup was off already. And there’d be people walking behind him with plastic bags picking up the pieces.”

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Margery Booth, a British Opera Singer Who Emigrated to Germany During WWII and Became a Spy

Margery Booth, also known as Margery Kallus, was a British-born opera singer who lived a double life as a daring MI6 wartime spy, successfully filtering Nazi intelligence to Great Britain while performing for Adolf Hitler’s inner circle. Despite her immense bravery, she remained largely uncelebrated and forgotten for decades after World War II.

Born on January 25, 1906, in Wigan, Lancashire, Margery Myers Booth possessed a remarkable operatic voice. After training at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, she eventually married Dr Egon Strohmand, from a brewing family in the Black Forest, and moved to Germany in the 1930s.

Margery and Egon on their wedding day in 1936 with Terry her pet dog.

Performing under her married name, her talent as a mezzo-soprano led her straight to the prestigious Berlin State Opera. Her performances heavily charmed the Nazi leadership. Adolf Hitler became a personal fan, famously sending her 200 red roses wrapped in a swastika sash after watching her perform at Bayreuth.

When World War II broke out, Booth weaponized her proximity to high-ranking Nazi officials to work as an undercover agent for British Intelligence (MI6). Her intelligence work involved. She regularly smuggled high-level military data and ciphers out of Berlin. On at least one occasion, a British officer slipped secret documents to her moments before a show; she hid the papers in her underwear and went on stage to sing directly for Hitler.

The Nazis allowed her to perform for British prisoners of war at camps like Stalag IIID to boost morale or entice them into joining the British Free Corps (a Nazi propaganda unit). Instead, Booth partnered with a captured British soldier, Quartermaster Sergeant John Brown, who was pretending to be a Nazi sympathizer. Together, they compiled records of British traitors working for Germany. In addition to espionage, Booth used her Berlin flat to hide a Jewish woman and help escaped British airmen.

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China in 1900: 30 Rare Photos From a German Soldier’s Album

These rare photographs, taken from the personal album of a German soldier, offer a unique and intimate glimpse into everyday life in China around 1900.

Captured during a turbulent period of political change and foreign presence, the images show streets, markets, local people, architecture, and daily routines with a documentary honesty rarely seen in official records of the time.

From traditional scenes of village life to the growing influence of Western presence, the album preserves a valuable visual record of China at the turn of the 20th century through the eyes of an ordinary outsider.

Chinese opera performance costumes, China, circa 1900

Probably a courtesan, China, circa 1900

Typical Han Chinese women's clothing and headwear (probably a courtesan), China, circa 1900

Typical Han Chinese women's clothing and headwear (probably courtesans), China, circa 1900

Two Chinese girls, circa 1900

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In 1972, a Man From Dublin Attempted to Drink 20 Pints of Guinness in One Sitting to Enter the Guinness Book of Records

On March 15, 1972, a 42-year-old Dubliner named Jack Lynch set out to immortalize his name in the Guinness Book of Records. He took on the audacious challenge of consuming 20 pints, nearly 11 liters, of the heavy, filling Irish stout in one continuous session.

The event took place at Grainger’s Pub on Great Strand Street in Dublin. A massive, lively crowd packed into the pub to cheer him on, turning the record attempt into a night of incredible “craic” (fun and entertainment). Despite his determined effort and the roaring support of the packed house, Lynch did not officially complete the challenge and failed to secure a spot in the record books.

Because Guinness is notoriously thick and filling, consuming that volume in a single sitting proved to be too grueling of a task. Even though he fell short of the official milestone, the highly publicized event cemented his name in local history. Decades later, his grand attempt is still widely celebrated and shared across social platforms alongside other famous Irish pub myths, such as the legend of “Pintman” Paddy Losty.

William Strang: Master of Scottish Etching and Portraiture

William Strang (1859–1921) was a Scottish painter, etcher, and printmaker celebrated for his powerful draughtsmanship and expressive portraits. Born in Dumbarton, he studied at the the Slade School of Fine Art in London under Alphonse Legros, who strongly influenced his mastery of etching.

Strang first gained recognition for his detailed and atmospheric prints, later turning increasingly to painting and portraiture. He created striking likenesses of literary figures such as Thomas Hardy and Rudyard Kipling, combining technical precision with psychological depth.

Today, Strang is remembered as one of the most accomplished British printmakers and portrait artists of his generation. These powerful works showcase William Strang’s exceptional skill as both an etcher and portraitist, capturing the character and intensity of his subjects with lasting force.

A Belgian Peasant Girl

Bacchante

Bank Holiday

Cynthia

Dr Warre-Cornish, Vice-Provost of Eton College

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Before 9/11: Bomb Exploded Under the World Trade Center in 1993

The 1993 World Trade Center bombing occurred on February 26, 1993, when terrorists detonated a massive truck bomb in the underground parking garage beneath the North Tower in New York City. The attack killed six people, including a pregnant woman, injured over 1,000 others, and forced the evacuation of roughly 50,000 workers from the complex.

Mastermind Ramzi Yousef packed a rented Ryder van with roughly 1,200 to 1,500 pounds of urea nitrate explosives enhanced with hydrogen gas. His goal was to compromise the North Tower’s foundation so violently that it would collapse into the South Tower, potentially killing up to 250,000 civilians.

The explosion detonated at 12:18 p.m., tearing a crater roughly 100 to 150 feet wide and several stories deep into the basement parking structure. While the structural integrity of the buildings held, heavy smoke rushed up the elevator shafts and stairwells, trapping thousands in darkness during a grueling multi-hour rescue effort. The six casualties were local workers and Port Authority employees: John DiGiovanni, Robert Kirkpatrick, Stephen Knapp, Wilfredo Mercado, Monica Rodriguez Smith (who was pregnant), and William Macko. They are honored at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum.

Investigators sifted through thousands of tons of rubble to locate a blown-apart piece of wreckage containing a vehicle identification number (VIN). The VIN was traced to a van reported stolen by Mohammed Salameh. The FBI arrested Salameh when he foolishly returned to a Jersey City rental agency to try and reclaim his $400 cash rental deposit. Ramzi Yousef fled the country but was tracked down by federal agents in Islamabad, Pakistan, in 1995. Yousef and five other co-conspirators, including the van driver Eyad Ismoil, Mahmud Abouhalima, Ahmad Ajaj, Nidal Ayyad, and Mohammed Salameh, were captured, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. One suspect, Abdul Rahman Yasin, remains at large.

The 1993 bombing serves as a historic precursor to the catastrophic attacks of September 11, 2001. Ramzi Yousef's uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, would later become the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks, executing his nephew’s original objective of bringing down the Twin Towers using commercial airplanes instead of a truck bomb.

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Mechanized Gorilla Headgear Worn by Ray ‘Crash’ Corrigan in “White Pongo” (1945)

The mechanized gorilla teeth and head gear worn by Hollywood actor and gorilla impersonator Ray “Crash” Corrigan in the movie White Pongo (PRC Pictures, 1945) represents an early, groundbreaking milestone in special effects and animatronics. Measuring roughly 9 by 14 inches, this internal rig allowed Corrigan to breathe dynamic, terrifying facial expressions into his custom-built rubber gorilla suits.

Instead of a static mask, the device used a highly detailed system of levers and armatures to mimic real muscle movements. The rig consisted of a metal headband and sidebars attached directly to a moving jawpiece. The jawpiece was outfitted with highly realistic, menacing resin teeth and gums. Thin mechanical wires and levers were fastened around the performer’s face beneath the heavy rubber mask. When Corrigan moved his own jaw and cheeks, the mechanical linkages would sync with his movements. This made the outer gorilla suit's mouth open, lips snarl, and nostrils snort on command.

While the bare metal armature looks incredibly eerie and skeletal on its own, this 1945 invention laid the baseline logic for modern creature suits. Mid-century monster icons like Ray “Crash” Corrigan built their own suits to maximize realism, pioneering techniques that legendary effects studios, like the Stan Winston School, later perfected for blockbusters like Congo and Jurassic Park.