Moving an Apartment Building to Create a Boulevard in Alba Iulia, Romania 1987

During the Romanian communist on May 27, 1987 in the city of Alba lulia an entire apartment building was moved to create space for the impressive Transylvania Boulevard. It was a large, 100-meter-long apartment building, known as Blocul A2. It weighed 7,600 tons and housed 80 families. How did this get made?

The engineers decided to split the structure in two halves. One half was moved on the right side of the boulevard, the other one on the left by digging under the building, putting railways and wheels and moving it 55 meters away with the help of a network of hydraulic jacks placed under the framework that was fixed under the structure to support its weight.

The whole operation took place without any incident in less than six hours. And all this was done without evicting the residents from the building. The building remained connected to all the utilities (water, gas, electricity, telephone and sewage) during the entire moving process. Urban legends say that dozens of residents went out on the balconies to observe the procedure while drinking a coffee or a beer. But there is more, because a housewife decided to place a glass of water on the edge of her balcony and it didn’t spill a drop, demonstrating that the movement was extremely smooth although it was the fastest displacement ever made.

Nicolae Ceaușescu, Romania’s communist leader had an ambitious program of urban planning to carry out during his regime which consisted mainly in the demolition and reconstruction of already existing towns and cities, with the stated goal of turning Romania into a “multilaterally developed socialist society.” In this context one of the city’s big boulevards had to be widened, but the specialists were blocked by an apartment building. Therefore they had to decide between demolishing the entire structure and moving it. But because the cost of repositioning the structure was cheaper than demolishing and rebuilding it from the scratch, they decided to move it.

Eugeniu Iordăchescu, the creator of the “concrete tray,” who took inspiration from “the waiter who carries glasses on a tray without spilling a drop,” was not concerned about an accident occurring despite the block being connected to the electricity, water, and gas networks, and this was because nobody deviated from his plans. There have been no issues with the structural integrity, and the building is still strong and inhabited more than 35 years later.

The project was incident-free, opening the way for the famous and beautiful Transylvania Boulevard, which reveals the path towards the Bell Tower of the Coronation Cathedral of Alba Iulia. A historically significant landmark of Romanian culture and history.

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20 Wonderful Color Portraits of a Young and Beautiful Grace Kelly in the 1950s

Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982), also known as Grace of Monaco, was an American actress and Princess of Monaco as the wife of Prince Rainier III from their marriage on April 18, 1956, until her death in 1982. Prior to her marriage, she achieved stardom in several significant Hollywood films in the early to mid-1950s. She received an Academy Award and three Golden Globe Awards, and was ranked 13th on the American Film Institute’s 25 Greatest Female Stars list.

Kelly began as a theater actress and television performer in New York after studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After her film debut in a minor role in Fourteen Hours (1951), Kelly’s career quickly took off. Her major break came with the female lead role opposite Gary Cooper in the Western classic High Noon (1952). In 1953, her performance in Mogambo alongside Clark Gable earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and her first Academy Award nomination.

1954 was a pivotal year, where she starred in five films, including three for director Alfred Hitchcock: Dial M for Murder, Rear Window (opposite James Stewart), and The Country Girl. Her “deglamorized” portrayal of Georgie Elgin in The Country Girl (1954) won her the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1955. Her collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock, which also included To Catch a Thief (1955) with Cary Grant, solidified her image as the sophisticated and “icy blonde” leading lady.

At the peak of her fame, Kelly’s life took a dramatic turn. While attending the Cannes Film Festival in 1955, she met Prince Rainier III of Monaco. A whirlwind romance ensued, leading to her engagement in January 1956.

On April 19, 1956, Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier in a highly publicized “fairy-tale” wedding that was broadcast globally. At the age of 26, she retired from her acting career to assume her duties as Princess Grace of Monaco. Her final feature film, the musical comedy High Society (1956), was released after her marriage.

Her career in the 1950s, though brief, left an indelible mark on Hollywood, and her transition to royalty only enhanced her enduring legacy as an icon of style, beauty, and grace.

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Bobbie Gentry: The Enigmatic Voice of the American South

Bobbie Gentry (born 1942) is a pioneering American singer-songwriter who gained massive international fame in the late 1960s. She was one of the first female artists in the U.S. to write and produce much of her own material, establishing her as an early figure of empowerment in the music industry.

Her breakthrough came with the haunting 1967 single, “Ode to Billie Joe,” a mysterious, atmospheric Southern Gothic narrative set in her native Mississippi Delta. The song topped the Billboard Pop chart and earned her three Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist. Gentry’s music successfully blended country, folk, and blues styles, distinguished by her rich vocals and evocative storytelling about Southern life.

Though Gentry largely withdrew from public life in the early 1980s, her work remains highly influential, especially her albums like The Delta Sweete. Take a look at these vintage photos to see the beauty of a young Bobbie Gentry in the 1960s and 1970s.

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Snapshots of a Very Young Brigitte Bardot During a Ballet Class in Paris, ca. 1950

Brigitte Bardot at the absolute beginning of what was to be a legendary career. At the time, Bardot was either 15 or 16 (with her birthday September 28, 1934). She was the daughter of a wealthy family and had begun what might have been a career in ballet after enrolling at the Conservatoire de Paris. At this point, she caught the attention of Helene Lazareff, director of the fashion magazine ELLE, where Bardot began to appear as a model for kids’ fashions.

Director Marc Allegret noticed her in ELLE and asked to meet her, after which he shot these photos. Allegret’s assistant at the time was none other than Roger Vadim, who eventually became her director and, for a while, her husband. Allegret then invited her to audition for his upcoming film Les lauriers sont coupés. She did not get the role, but film work was to follow soon, including other films directed by Allegret.

45 Vintage Album Covers From 1960s Vinyl LPs

The 1960s vinyl LP stands as one of the most iconic symbols of 20th-century music culture — a tactile, analog vessel for sound, art, and emotion. Spinning at 33⅓ revolutions per minute, these Long Play records offered listeners a full album’s worth of music, transforming how people experienced sound: not as isolated singles, but as cohesive artistic statements.

The decade saw the LP evolve from mere entertainment to a form of self-expression and cultural identity. Album covers became visual art; liner notes turned into poetry; and musicians began to craft albums as complete experiences rather than collections of songs. From The Beatles and The Rolling Stones to Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, and Aretha Franklin, the 1960s LP defined an era of experimentation, rebellion, and boundless creativity.

More than just packaging, these 1960s album covers captured the spirit of an era: bold, experimental, and endlessly creative.

Bert Kaempfert

Barbra Streisand

Billy Vaughn

Bobbie Gentry Fancy

Cher - 3614 Jackson Highway

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Candid Photographs Capture Daily Life of Teenage Demi Moore in Los Angeles, California, 1977

Demi Moore was born Demetria Gene Guynes on November 11, 1962, in Roswell, New Mexico. Her biological father, Air Force airman Charles Foster Harmon Sr., deserted her then-18-year-old mother, Virginia, after a two-month marriage before Moore’s birth. When Moore was three months old, her mother married Dan Guynes, a newspaper advertising salesman who frequently changed jobs; as a result, the family moved many times.

Moore spent her early childhood in Roswell, and later, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. At age 14, she returned to her hometown of Roswell and lived with her grandmother for six months before relocating to Washington State, where her recently separated mother was residing near Seattle. Several months later, the family moved again to West Hollywood, California, where Moore’s mother took a job working for a magazine distribution company. she attended Fairfax High School there.

In November 1978, Moore moved in with 28-year-old guitarist Tom Dunston, quitting high school in her junior year to work as a receptionist at 20th Century Fox, a job she secured through Dunston’s mother, who was an executive assistant to producer Douglas S. Cramer. She signed with the Elite Modeling Agency, then enrolled in acting classes after being inspired by her next-door neighbor, 17-year-old German starlet Nastassja Kinski. Moore’s first and second roles as a professional actress were guest spots on the TV shows W.E.B. and Kaz, though these were uncredited or small.

Though she wasn’t yet famous, she was already driven, self-reliant, and ambitious, traits that would define her Hollywood rise in the next decade.

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45 Amazing Photos of 18-Year-Old Leonardo DiCaprio on the Set of “This Boy’s Life” (1993)

This Boy’s Life is a 1993 American biographical coming-of-age drama film directed by Michael Caton-Jones. On the set of the film, a young Leonardo DiCaprio was making his first major film appearance. The movie, based on Tobias Wolff’s memoir, was filmed in 1992 and marked DiCaprio’s big-screen debut opposite Robert De Niro and Ellen Barkin. He was chosen for the role after beating out around 400 other young actors.

The real-life dynamic between the young DiCaprio and the seasoned De Niro on set was very professional and, in some ways, mirrored the mentor/rival relationship of their characters. De Niro was reportedly so impressed with DiCaprio’s talent that he recommended him to director Martin Scorsese, which later sparked one of Hollywood’s most enduring collaborations (starting with Gangs of New York).

De Niro reportedly stayed in character as the cruel Dwight Hansen between takes to keep the tension high, a method that likely challenged and brought the best out of the young DiCaprio.

Principal photography began on February 23, 1992, in Vancouver, British Columbia, with the dilapidated house set built in the woods outside the city. Filming also took place for ten days in Concrete, Washington, where crews restored the town’s main street to its 1950s appearance. Many of the town’s citizens were used as extras, and all external scenes in Concrete (and some internal scenes, as well) were shot in and around the town, including the former elementary school buildings and the Concrete High School building. Additional scenes were shot in the La Sal Mountains, and Moab and Salt Lake City, Utah.

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