The Spirit of America: 40 Stunning Portraits of Gertrude Olmstead in the 1920s

Gertrude Olmstead (November 13, 1897 – January 18, 1975) was a prolific American silent film actress who appeared in 56 films between 1920 and 1929. Her entire screen career took place during the 1920s, where she became known for playing sweet, conventional heroines opposite some of Hollywood’s biggest male stars.

After winning a 1920 beauty contest out of 5,900 entrants to represent “The Spirit of America” at the Elks Club national convention, she won a $10,000 one-year contract with Universal Pictures. She debuted in Tipped Off (1920) and gained her first credited role in The Fox (1921), quickly becoming a frequent leading lady in westerns starring Hoot Gibson. Her highest-profile role came in 1925 when she starred opposite Rudolph Valentino in the drama Cobra.

After moving to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), she worked alongside major icons including Lon Chaney (The Monster, Mr. Wu), Greta Garbo (Torrent), and John Gilbert, as well as director John Ford (Cameo Kirby).

In 1926, she married prominent MGM director Robert Z. Leonard, and the two remained together until his death in 1968.

Like many silent-era stars, her career slowed with the arrival of “talkies” in the late 1920s. Comfortably married and no longer needing to work, she retired from acting in 1929 following appearances in The Time, the Place and the Girl and The Show of Shows.

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Before the Supermodels, There Was Veruschka

Veruschka (born Vera Gottliebe Anna Gräfin von Lehndorff-Steinort in 1939) was one of the most distinctive and influential models of the 1960s. Tall, aristocratic, and strikingly unconventional, she rose to international fame after being discovered in Florence and quickly became a favorite of major fashion magazines and photographers.

With her dramatic presence and artistic approach to modeling, Veruschka helped redefine what a fashion model could be long before the term “supermodel” entered popular culture. Her appearance in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up (1966) further cemented her status as a cultural icon of the era.

Beyond fashion, Veruschka later worked as an actress and performance artist, continuing to explore image and identity throughout her career. These iconic photos capture the striking beauty, presence, and pioneering spirit of Veruschka, the model who came before the supermodels.

Veruschka in gold dots on ebony, hooded evening pajamas by Pauline Trigere, photo by Henry Clarke in the Jas Mandir at Amber, India, Vogue, December 1, 1964

Veruschka in sun-fired orange evening pajamas of jersey by Shannon Rodgers for Jerry Silverman, photo by Henry Clarke at the tomb of Itimad-ud-Daula, Vogue, December 1, 1964

Veruschka photographed by Johnny Moncada in Sardinia, 1964

Veruschka wearing an ivory chiffon wool jersey fantasy dress and turban, standing in front of the Goddress Chamunda in the Hall of Heroes, Jodhpur, India, photo by Henry Clarke, December 1964

Veruschka, photo by Tony Vaccaro, 1964

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Filippo Romoli: Master of Italian Art Deco Posters

Born in Savona and later based in Genoa, prominent Italian illustrator and poster artist Filippo Romoli (1901–1969) began his career in the mid-1920s at the Barabino & Graeve graphic company. He was a known for his elegant Art Deco style and contributions to tourism and commercial advertising.

Romoli specialized in travel posters promoting Italian seaside resorts, cultural events, and transportation companies, creating bold, colorful compositions that captured the glamour and optimism of the interwar period. His work often featured stylized figures, dynamic compositions, and a refined sense of light and color influenced by both Art Deco and Italian Novecento aesthetics. Beyond tourism, he also designed advertising for industrial and food companies.

Romoli is remembered as one of the leading Italian poster artists of the twentieth century. These striking vintage posters showcase the refined style and visual charm of Filippo Romoli, a true master of Italian Art Deco design.

Calzaturificio Ocrea Genova, 1927

Diana Park, Alassio, 1929

Stagione Giugno Settembre, Alassio, 1929

Varazze, La Spiaggia Preferita, 1929

Genova e la Riviera Ligure, circa 1930

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Kathy Ireland Photographed by John G. Zimmerma for the 1987 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue

These iconic photos of supermodel Kathy Ireland for the 1987 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue were captured by legendary photographer John G. Zimmerman on September 24, 1986, in the Dominican Republic.

One of the most memorable images from this session features Ireland combining 1980s glamour with the Dominican Republic’s deep passion for baseball. She posed holding a baseball bat while wearing a white one-piece swimsuit, sneakers, and a New York Mets cap.

The shoots took place in Santo Domingo and surrounding coastal areas, featuring striking backdrops of rocky beaches and local architecture. In the original magazine layout, one of the primary images actually featured Canadian model Monika Schnarre alongside Ireland. Schnarre was intentionally styled to be blurry in the background, which is why she is typically cropped out of modern internet reposts.

This photoshoot took place early in Ireland’s historic run with the magazine, where she ultimately appeared in 13 consecutive swimsuit editions. The massive popularity of her early shoots, including this 1987 feature, paved the way for her record-breaking 1989 25th-anniversary cover and helped launch her into a billion-dollar business career.

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How They Built the Titanic for the Movie

This video captures the monumental, behind-the-scenes production process used to bring James Cameron’s 1997 cinematic masterpiece, Titanic, to life. Before CGI dominated Hollywood, the production relied heavily on massive practical engineering, custom-built facilities, and hyper-detailed physical models to recreate the ill-fated ocean liner.

20th Century Fox purchased 40 acres of oceanfront land in Rosarito, Mexico, to build a brand-new production facility known as Fox Baja Studios (now Baja Studios).

The beginning of the video shows heavy construction vehicles excavating the coastline. This was to build a massive 17-million-gallon horizon water tank specifically designed to make the ship look like it was sitting out in the open ocean. Inside this tank, engineers and welders built a 775-foot-long, near-full-scale (90%) replica of the Titanic’s exterior.

To save millions of dollars, they only constructed the starboard (right) side of the ship. If a scene required the port side, Cameron simply reversed the film orientation and flipped all the physical signage and costumes. The set featured functioning smoke funnels as tall as a five-story building, hundreds of portholes, and over 3,000 light fixtures wired across 30 miles of cabling to perfectly illuminate the actors during night shoots.

The later half of the video transitions to a different filmmaking technique, detailed miniature replicas used for sweeping ocean shots. For wide shots of the Titanic cruising across the Atlantic, the visual effects crew built a 1:20 scale model measuring roughly 45 feet long.

Built with wooden hulls, brass fittings, and working smokestacks, these miniatures were placed on tracks inside smaller, controlled wave tanks. Filmmakers shot them using high-speed cameras in slow motion. This technique created realistic water displacement and wakes, making a miniature object appear to have the massive weight and scale of a real ocean liner on screen.

30 Rarely Seen Photos of a Lovely Grace Kelly as a Child in the 1930s

Born on November 12, 1929, Grace Kelly spent the 1930s growing up in an affluent, fiercely competitive, and tightly knit Irish-German Catholic family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While much of the United States struggled through the Great Depression, Grace’s childhood was insulated by wealth, athletic prestige, and strict discipline.

Grace lived in a sprawling, three-story brick Colonial home at 3901 Henry Avenue in Philadelphia’s East Falls neighborhood, built by her father in 1929. Summers were spent at the family’s beach house in Ocean City, New Jersey. Her father, John B. “Jack” Kelly Sr., was a self-made brickwork millionaire and a three-time Olympic gold medalist in rowing. Her mother, Margaret Majer, was the first woman to coach women’s athletics at the University of Pennsylvania. Together, they ran a structured household that prized physical fitness, punctuality, and winning.

Grace was the third of four children, sandwiched between older siblings Margaret (“Peggy”) and John Jr. (“Kell”), and younger sister Elizabeth (“Lizanne”). Because her father heavily favored her athletic older brother and outgoing older sister, Grace was often viewed as the quiet, fragile, and overlooked sibling. Unlike her robust, sports-obsessed siblings, young Grace suffered from frequent colds, sinus infections, and asthma. She was also severely nearsighted, though she hated wearing her glasses. Because she was often kept indoors, she retreated into books, daydreaming, and dressing up.

She began her education at St. Bridget’s Parish school (where she was also baptized) before transferring to Ravenhill Academy, a private Catholic girls’ school overseen by the Sisters of the Assumption. There, she learned poise, etiquette, and began participating in school plays and charity fashion shows. Despite her father’s dismissive attitude toward show business, theatrical talent ran deep in the family. Her uncle Walter C. Kelly was a well-known vaudeville star, and her uncle George Kelly was a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and director.

By the end of the 1930s, Grace was already writing short plays, staging puppet shows at home, and gravitating toward the local East Falls theater group, the Old Academy Players, where she would make her stage debut at age twelve. Here’s a collection of 30 rarely seen photos of Grace Kelly when she was a child in the 1930s.

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Rebecca De Mornay: The Intense Beauty of 1980s and ’90s Cinema

Rebecca De Mornay (born 1959) is an American actress known for her striking presence and intense performances in film and television. She rose to fame with her breakthrough role as the seductive call girl Lana in Risky Business (1983) opposite Tom Cruise.

Throughout the 1980s and ’90s, De Mornay delivered memorable performances in films such as Runaway Train, Backdraft, and most notably The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992), in which she played a chilling and complex villain. She brought a blend of elegance, vulnerability, and quiet intensity to her roles, making her one of the distinctive leading women of her generation.

De Mornay continued working in both film and television, including a notable role in the series Jessica Jones. These classic photos capture the beauty, intensity, and screen presence of Rebecca De Mornay at the height of her career.

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