30 Intimate Photobooth Portraits of Couples From the Mid-20th Century

During the mid-20th century (roughly 1940s–1960s), the coin-operated photobooth became a cultural phenomenon, offering couples a unique and spontaneous way to document their relationships. Found in train stations, amusement parks, and drugstores, these small, curtained spaces offered a fleeting moment of privacy and intimacy away from the gaze of society, which was particularly significant for expressing affection.

The resulting photo strips—often black-and-white and printed instantly—were cheap, candid keepsakes. Unlike formal studio portraits, these sequential images captured genuine, playful, or deeply affectionate moments, such as shared kisses, silly faces, or wartime sweethearts capturing a final memory before separation.

For many, the photobooth was a vital “safe space” to memorialize their love, cementing its role as a key artifact of American youth and dating culture. These photobooth portraits remind us that love, at its most genuine, needs no stage or filter — just a fleeting moment, a shared smile, and the quiet click of a camera.

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30 Rare Childhood Photos of Brittany Murphy as You’ve Probably Never Seen Before

Brittany Anne Murphy (November 10, 1977 – December 20, 2009) was an American actress and singer, known for her equal mastery of the comedy and drama genres. She was born at Georgia Baptist Hospital in Atlanta, to Sharon Kathleen Murphy and Angelo Joseph Bertolotti, who divorced when she was three years old. Brittany was raised primarily by her mother, and the two shared an exceptionally close bond throughout her life.

Sharon recognized her daughter’s artistic talent early on. When Brittany was still a child, they moved several times — first within New Jersey, where she grew up in Edison, and later to Los Angeles in the early 1990s so Brittany could pursue acting seriously. Sharon was highly supportive, often described as her daughter’s “biggest cheerleader.”

From a young age, Brittany showed a flair for performing. She took singing, dancing, and acting lessons, joining local theater productions and even performing in musicals. She attended the Vernon Township High School in New Jersey before relocating to California, where she quickly started booking television roles.

By her early teens, Murphy was landing small parts on TV shows such as Murphy Brown and Blossom. Her big break came at age 17 with the film Clueless (1995), but her strong work ethic and determination had already been evident since childhood. She often said she “always knew what she wanted to do” and never let anyone talk her out of it.

Money was often tight when Brittany and her mother lived in New Jersey and later Los Angeles. Sharon worked multiple jobs to support her daughter’s dreams. Despite the challenges, Brittany often credited her mother with giving her unwavering encouragement and love, saying she was raised in a home full of support and creativity, even if they didn’t have much.

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Elvis Presley Posing With a Young Fan at a Gas Station in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, 1956

Not many people know that in 1956, Elvis Presley often stopped for gas at a small station on the corner of Washington and Highway 90 in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Long before he became untouchable, he was simply a young man on the road, pulling up to an ordinary family-owned station like anyone else.

This rare photo captures Nancy Zanca Ryan standing beside Elvis at her father’s station. He was gracious enough to take a photo with the young fan.

To her family, he wasn’t just the rising star on the radio. He was warm, polite, and surprisingly shy when fans gathered around. Each visit became a memory, a quiet reminder that legends often come from simple, human moments.

“He would hide in my grandfather’s bathroom because fans would find out he was there and get excited,”  Nancy recalled. And to make it even better, she said this is his pink car.

Fascinating Photos of Spectators at the 1961 Chicago Memorial Day Parade

The 1961 Chicago Memorial Day parade was part of the city’s annual tradition of honoring fallen members of the U.S. Armed Forces. Held on the Saturday preceding the Memorial Day holiday, the event took place downtown, typically along State Street, and featured a combination of ceremonial observances and public fanfare.

As in other years, the parade included veterans’ groups, active-duty service members, and military cadets (JROTC), alongside community organizations and marching bands. It served as a solemn occasion for Chicago to pause and pay tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of the country, reinforcing the importance of remembrance and service in the early 1960s.

These fascinating photos, taken by Laird Scott, capture spectators at the 1961 Chicago Memorial Day parade on State Street - taken between Randolph and Washington.

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50 Amazing Behind the Scenes Photos From the Making of “Lost in Translation” (2003)

Lost in Translation is a 2003 romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Sofia Coppola. Bill Murray stars as Bob Harris, a fading American movie star who is having a midlife crisis when he travels to Tokyo to promote Suntory whisky. He befriends another disillusioned American, Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), a recent college graduate and married for two years. The film explores themes of alienation and disconnection against a backdrop of cultural displacement in Japan. It does not use mainstream narrative conventions and is atypical in its depiction of romance.

Principal photography began on September 29, 2002, and lasted 27 days. With a tight schedule and a limited $4 million budget, filming was done six days per week, without permits, marked by a “run-and-gun” approach: Coppola was keen to stay mobile with a small crew and minimal equipment. She conducted few rehearsals and kept a flexible schedule, sometimes scrapping filming plans to shoot something she noticed on location if she thought it better served the story. Since the screenplay was sparse, missing details were often addressed during shooting, and Coppola allowed a significant amount of improvisation in dialogue, especially from Murray.

While key crew members were Americans that Coppola invited to Tokyo, most of the crew was hired locally. This proved to be challenging for the production, as most of the Japanese crew could not communicate with Coppola in English, so both sides relied on translations by a bilingual assistant director and a gaffer. The production encountered frequent delays while translations took place and suffered from occasional cultural misunderstandings. Despite this, Coppola said she worked to adapt to a Japanese style of filmmaking, not wanting to impose an approach that her crew was not used to.

Coppola worked closely to visualize the film with her director of photography, Lance Acord. She showed him and other key crew members a book of photographs she created that represented the visual style she wanted to convey in the film. To evoke a sense of isolation in Bob, Coppola and Acord used stationary shots in the hotel and avoided conspicuous camera movements. They also had numerous discussions about shooting on video, but they ultimately decided that film better suited the romantic undertones of the story. Coppola remarked, “Film gives a little bit of a distance, which feels more like a memory to me. Video is more present tense.” Acord believed that new film stocks would reduce the need for excessive lighting, ultimately using Kodak Vision 500T 5263 35 mm stock for night exteriors and Kodak Vision 320T 5277 stock in daylight. Most of the film was shot with an Aaton 35-III camera. For some confined locations where the Aaton would have been too noisy, a Moviecam Compact was used.

Many of the shooting locations were local places of business and public areas at the time of filming, including rooms, bar and swimming pool in the Park Hyatt Tokyo and Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo. Filming also took place at Jōgan-ji (Nakano, Tokyo). The opening scene was done at Yasukuni-dōri in Kabuki-chō. Charlotte’s ride at the subway was taken at Omote-sando Station at the Hanzōmon and Ginza lines platform. The chase scene after the bar and through the Pachinko parlor “Botan” were around Naka-Meguro Station. Brief scenes were also filmed in Kyoto at the Heian Shrine, and Nanzen-ji. The hospital scene was at the Tokyo Medical University. The last scene was done at Chūō-dōri in Nishi-Shinjuku close to Shinjuku train station.

On public streets and subways, the production did not secure filming permits and relied on city bystanders as extras. Coppola described the shooting as “documentary-style” and was worried at times about getting stopped by police, so she kept a minimal crew. In the hotel, the production was not allowed to shoot in public areas until 1 or 2 a.m. to avoid disturbing guests. In the film’s concluding sequence in which Bob and Charlotte make their final goodbyes, Coppola reported being unhappy with the dialogue she had scripted, so Murray improvised the whisper in Johansson’s ear. Too quiet to be understandable, Coppola considered dubbing audio in the scene, but she ultimately decided it was better that it “stays between the two of them.” After production concluded, Coppola supervised 10 weeks of editing by Sarah Flack in New York City.

Lost in Translation premiered on August 29, 2003, at the Telluride Film Festival, and was distributed to American theatres on September 12, 2003. It grossed $118 million worldwide and received acclaim for its writing, directing and performances, though its depiction of Japan and Japanese people was criticized. At the 76th Academy Awards, Lost in Translation won Coppola Best Original Screenplay, and the film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor (Murray). Other accolades won include three BAFTAs and three Golden Globes. It has since been named one of the greatest films of the 2000s and 21st century.

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Rare Childhood Photos of Hedy Lamarr From the 1910s and 1920s

Hedy Lamarr (born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler; November 9, 1914 – January 19, 2000) spent her childhood and adolescence in Vienna, Austria, during the 1910s and 1920s. Her father, Emil Kiesler, was a successful bank director known for his intellect and curiosity about how things worked. Her mother, Gertrud “Trude” Kiesler, was a pianist from an upper-middle-class Jewish family in Budapest. Lamarr was their only child and grew up in a cultured, comfortable home filled with books, art, and music. Her mother encouraged her artistic side, while her father nurtured her scientific curiosity.

From a young age, Lamarr showed extraordinary intelligence and imagination. Her father often took her on long walks, explaining how machines worked, how a printing press functioned, or how car engines operated. These talks would later inspire her inventive mind. She was also fascinated by theater and film, performing small plays at home and showing a strong sense of drama and emotion.

Lamarr received a well-rounded education, studying piano, ballet, and languages, alongside rigorous academic subjects typical of Viennese upper-class schooling. As a teenager in the late 1920s, she attended Max Reinhardt’s acting school in Berlin, one of Europe’s most prestigious institutions for drama, signaling her transition from a bright, inquisitive child to an ambitious young performer.

Growing up in post–World War I Vienna, Hedy witnessed a city both wounded by war and alive with creativity. The arts flourished, and cinema, music, and modernist thought influenced her deeply. By the late 1920s, her beauty and poise caught the attention of European filmmakers, setting her on the path to stardom.

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Dustman Dennis Angel of Notting Hill Wearing a Top Hat to Collect the Rubbish in the Royal Borough of Kensington, 1964

In 1964, Dennis Angel, a dustman from Notting Hill, added an unexpected flourish to his daily rounds in the Royal Borough of Kensington by wearing a top hat on the job. Captured in an iconic photograph by J. Wilds, Angel stood beside his cart in work overalls, crowned with the elegance of formal headwear. The contrast between a refuse collector and a symbol of upper-class refinement drew attention and smiles. It wasn’t a uniform requirement—it was Angel’s personal touch, a subtle blend of humor, pride, and self-expression that transformed an ordinary routine into something memorable.

Notting Hill in the 1960s was a neighborhood in flux, rooted in working-class tradition while evolving into a vibrant mix of cultures and creativity. Angel’s simple act became more than a visual oddity; it made him a local character. Children waved, passersby grinned, and he emerged as a kind of folk hero—an everyday Londoner injecting a hint of theatre into the streets. His top hat lent dignity to a job often overlooked, elevating not only his presence but also the public’s perception of those who quietly kept the city functioning.

The photograph of Dennis Angel endures as more than a quirky snapshot; it conveys a deeper story about individuality, class, and subtle rebellion against societal expectations. In an era of rigid social roles, Angel’s sartorial choice gently subverted norms, showing that self-expression can coexist with everyday work. His image remains a symbol of how quiet confidence, humor, and a touch of elegance can bring grace and charm to even the most routine of occupations.