Martin Lewis’ New York City in Stunning Etchings

Martin Lewis (June 14, 1881 – February 22, 1962) was an Australian-born American etcher. Lewis left Australia for the United States in 1900 and had his first job in San Francisco, painting stage decorations for William McKinley’s presidential campaign. By 1909, Lewis was living in New York, where he found work in commercial illustration. His earliest known etching is dated 1915. It was during this period that he helped Edward Hopper learn the basics of etching.

In 1920, Lewis traveled to Japan, where for two years he drew and painted and studied Japanese art. The influence of Japanese prints is very evident in Lewis’ prints after that period. In 1924, he returned to etching and produced most of his well-known works between 1925 and 1935. Lewis’ exhibitions in 1927-1928 were successful enough for him to give up commercial work and concentrate entirely on printmaking.

Lewis is most famous for his black and white prints, mostly of night scenes of non-tourists, real-life street scenes of New York City. During the Depression, however, he was forced to leave the city for four years between 1932 and 1936 and move to Newtown, Connecticut. When Lewis was able to return to New York City in 1936, there was no longer a market interested in his work. He taught printmaking at the Art Students League of New York from 1944 until his retirement in 1952. Lewis died largely forgotten in 1962.

Take a look at Lewis’ stunning etchings through 28 pictures below:

New York City

New York City

New York City

Stoops in snow

New York children

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35 Fabulous Photos of Danish Actress Osa Massen in the 1930s and ’40s

Born 1914 as Aase Madsen Iversen in Copenhagen, Danish actress Osa Massen began her career as a newspaper photographer, then became an actress. She first came to the United States in 1937. Her first film was Kidnapped (1935).

Massen notably appeared as Melvyn Douglas’ unfaithful wife dealing with blackmailer Joan Crawford in A Woman’s Face (1941). She also appeared as a mysterious woman with something to hide in Deadline at Dawn (1946). She also starred with Lloyd Bridges in the movie Rocketship X-M (1950), the first space adventure of the post-World War II era.

Later in her career, Massen appeared in guest roles on many television programs. She made three guest appearances on Perry Mason. In 1958, she played Lisa Bannister in “The Case of the Desperate Daughter”, where she was reunited with her “Master Race” daughter Gigi Perreau, and in 1959, she played Sarah Werner in “The Case of the Shattered Dream”.

Her last television role was in 1962 when she played Lisa Pedersen in “The Case of the Tarnished Trademark”. Massen died in 2006, 11 days before her 92nd birthday, in Hollywood, California. Take a look at these fabulous photos to see the beauty of young Osa Massen in the 1930s and 1940s.

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40 Handsome Portrait Photos of Dennis Morgan in the 1930s and ’40s

Born 1908 as Earl Stanley Morner in Prentice, Wisconsin, American actor and singer Dennis Morgan began his career as a radio announcer in Milwaukee and went on to broadcast Green Bay Packers football games. He became a radio singer in Chicago.

Morgan used the acting pseudonym Richard Stanley before adopting the name under which he gained his greatest fame. According to one obituary, he was “a twinkly-eyed handsome charmer with a shy smile and a pleasant tenor voice in carefree and inconsequential Warner Bros musicals of the forties, accompanied by Jack Carson.” Another said, “for all his undoubted star potential, Morgan was perhaps cast once too often as the likeable, clean-cut, easy-going but essentially uncharismatic young man who typically loses his girl to someone more sexually magnetic.” David Shipman said he “was comfortable, good-looking, well-mannered: the antithesis of the gritty Bogart.”

In 1983, Dennis Morgan, along with his film pal, Jack Carson, who had died in 1963, were inducted into the Wisconsin Performing Artists Hall of Fame. That year he was critically injured in a car crash. He died in 1994 of respiratory failure.

Take a look at these vintage photos to see portraits of a young and handsome Dennis Morgan in the 1930s and 1940s.

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35 Gorgeous Photos of Barbara Hale in the 1940s and ’50s

Born 1922 in DeKalb, Illinois, American actress Barbara Hale moved to Hollywood in 1943, and under contract to RKO Radio Pictures, made her first screen appearance (uncredited) in Gildersleeve’s Bad Day. She continued to make small uncredited appearances in films, until her first credited role alongside Frank Sinatra in Higher and Higher (1943).

Hale was best known for her role as legal secretary Della Street in the television series Perry Mason (1957–1966), earning her a 1959 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She reprised the role in 30 Perry Mason made-for-television movies (1985–1995).

Her last on-screen appearance was a TV biographical documentary about Raymond Burr that aired in 2000. Hale died at her home in Sherman Oaks, California in 2017, aged 94.

Take a look at these gorgeous photos to see the beauty of young Barbara Hale in the 1940s and 1950s.

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Beautiful Photos of the Ferrari 166 S

The Ferrari 166 S was a sports racing car built by Ferrari between 1948 and 1953, an evolution of its Colombo V12-powered 125 S racer. It was adapted into a sports car for the street in the form of the 166 Inter.

Only 12 Ferrari 166 S were produced, nine of them with cycle-fenders as the Spyder Corsa. It was soon followed by the updated and highly successful Ferrari 166 MM (Mille Miglia), of which 47 were made from 1948 to 1953. Its early victories in the Targa Florio and Mille Miglia and others in international competition made the manufacturer a serious competitor in the racing industry. Both were later replaced by the 2.3 L 195 S.

Here below is a set of beautiful photos of the Ferrari 166 S.

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22 Vintage Photographs of Clark Gable Served in Uniform, Flew Combat Missions in World War II

Clark Gable was an American hero. Not because of his superstar status where he earned the title “The King Of Hollywood”, but because he gave up that life and put himself in great peril to serve his country in World War II.

He and his wife Carole Lombard were active in the war bonds effort after the US entered the war. Carole was flying back from such a tour to be with Clark when tragedy struck. The plane went down, killing Clark’s wife. Devastated, Gable ultimately decided that he would channel his grief into fighting the enemy firsthand.

He was beyond the age of the draft, Gable sent a telegram directly to President Franklin D Roosevelt asking for a combat assignment. The president replied. “No. Stay where you are.” But Gable would not be deterred.

Although his bosses at MGM and President Roosevelt were against him joining the military, Gable enlisted in the Army Air Force on August 12, 1942 in Los Angeles as a private. He was offered a higher rank, but insisted on starting as a private because he preferred to work his way up like other enlisted soldiers. In so doing, he gave up a salary of $1,500.00 per week, which would be about $25,000 per week in today’s money.

He attended officer candidate school and graduated as a second lieutenant before moving on to aerial gunnery school where he learned to shoot down enemy planes during bombing runs. He was assigned to the 351st Bomb Group at Polebrook, England where he was assigned to create a film to educate up and coming gunners on what they were to expect in combat. Although neither ordered nor expected to do so, Gable flew perilous operational missions over Europe in B-17s to obtain combat film footage. He participated in several extremely dangerous bombing raids over Nazi Germany, each of which is fully documented. According to others in Polebrook, Gable spent many of his leisure days writing letters to the families of fallen soldiers.

It was during his fourth mission that Gable came closest to death. While behind the top turret gunner, the most dangerous place on the aircraft, Gable was almost hit with a 20mm shell that had come up through the flight deck. The shell took off the heel of his boot and passed by his head without exploding. A fellow soldier on the same plane was killed. On another mission, his plane returned riddled with bullet holes.

Although records only show Gable flying five combat missions, veterans of Polebrook recall him flying many more. According to his military brethren, Clark Gable went far beyond his assignment and eagerly participated in going after the Nazis. He sometimes took up the gunnery position himself to fire the .30 caliber machine guns at the enemy.

Gable’s very active support of the war effort must have been quite a threat to the Nazis. Hitler himself, who was a fan of Gable’s films, offered a reward for the capture of the movie star. According to his son John Gable, Clark was worried that Hitler was going to put him in a cage and display him around for propaganda purposes. When they couldn’t capture him, Hitler ordered Hermann Goering to put a death warrant on Gable’s head. Hitler didn’t succeed there either. Gable was never captured and eventually got promoted from second lieutenant to major. For his service, Clark Gable was awarded the American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, Air Medal, and the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), our nation’s highest award for extraordinary aerial achievement. It is awarded to recipients for heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight.

On June 12, 1944, he was discharged from his war duty and returned to Southern California where he continued his reign as the King of Hollywood. The experience changed his outlook on his own personal tragedy. “I saw so much of death and destruction”, he later recalled, “I realized that I hadn’t been singled out for grief – that others were suffering and losing their loved ones just as I lost Ma.”

Clark Gable is an icon that everyone can look up to. He left a legacy which can inspire and uplift veterans and civilians alike.

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Photos of Port Washington Houses in the 1940s

Port Washington is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The hamlet is the anchor community of the Greater Port Washington area.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 5.6 square miles (15 km2), of which 4.2 square miles (11 km2) is land and 1.4 square miles (3.6 km2) (25.22%) is water. The hamlet is bordered on two sides with bodies of water: Manhasset Bay on its western side and Hempstead Harbor on its eastern side.

These amazing photos from Port Washington Public Library that captured houses of Port Washington in the 1940s.

Cape style house, 1941

45 Carlton Avenue, January 1942

18 Overlook Drive, February 1944. This chalet style house in the village of Baxter Estates in Port Washington was owned by Robert Gregory at the time of this photo

20 Central Drive, May 1944. This corner house in the arts and crafts style located in the village of Baxter Estates, Port Washington was owned by the O'Brien's at the time of this photo

June 1945. An ornate entry off the driveway and an unusual weather vane on the peak characterize this unique house

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The Original Design of Mount Rushmore Before Funding Ran Out in 1941

A photograph shows the original design of Mount Rushmore — complete with each leader’s suited bust — before funding ran out in 1941.

Gutzon Borglum’s scale model that was used for carving the colossal sculpture ensemble at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, southwestern South Dakota, U.S.

Located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, Mount Rushmore was originally envisioned by Idaho-born sculptor Gutzon Borglum, who intended each figure to be its own standalone statue complete with detailed clothing from their respective time periods. 

But that’s not exactly how it played out. 

In 1927, President Calvin Coolidge promised federal funding for the project, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon secured full funding under the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Act, but Borglum declined, saying that he would only accept half and match the rest with private donations dollar for dollar. This, as it would later be revealed, was a major oversight. In total, the bill authorized funds up to $250,000 (equivalent to $4 million in 2022).

This is the final version of the plaster model used to carve Mount Rushmore located in the second studio at Mount Rushmore which was built in 1939 and finished in 1940.

As the Depression struck the U.S. in the 1930s, then-Sen. Peter Norbeck of North Dakota worked to maintain that construction would continue through emergency relief programs that were part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, a program aimed at providing jobs to Americans through the construction of infrastructure, among other things. Funds from the New Deal were then matched with money allocated in the original bill. Funding was erratic and unpredictable and when the money ran dry, so did the work.

In the last two years of construction. Borglum traveled to secure funding while his son, Lincoln, would supervise construction. He died in Chicago following surgery on March 6, 1941. His death and the project’s lack of funds, coupled with logistical issues and the impending American involvement in World War II, ultimately led to the project being declared complete on Oct. 31, 1941.

(via Snopes)

30 Portrait Photos of Jack Carson in the 1940s and ’50s

Born 1910 in Carman, Manitoba, Canadian-American actor Jack Carson initially landed bit roles at RKO Radio Pictures in films such as Bringing Up Baby (1938), starring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn.

Carson often played the role of comedic friend in films of the 1940s and 1950s, including The Strawberry Blonde (1941) with James Cagney and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) with Cary Grant. He also acted in dramas such as Mildred Pierce (1945), A Star is Born (1954), and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). He worked for RKO and MGM (where he was cast opposite Myrna Loy and William Powell in Love Crazy, 1941), but most of his notable work was for Warner Bros.

On February 8, 1960, Carson received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the television and radio industry. The television star is located at 1560 Vine Street, the radio star is at 6361 Hollywood Boulevard. He died in Encino in 1963, at age 52. In 1983, he was inducted into the Wisconsin Performing Artists Hall of Fame along with his film pal, Dennis Morgan, who was also from Wisconsin.

These vintage photos captured portraits of Jack Carson in the 1940s and 1950s.

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A Day in the Life of Pennsylvania Miners in 1942

In 1942, Office of War Information photographer John Collier visited the Montour No. 4 Mine of the Pittsburgh Coal Company in Washington County, Pennsylvania.

Montour No. 4 was a mine for bituminous coal, one of the most volatile forms, requiring the miners to vigilantly monitor for the presence of flammable gases.

Collier followed the miners as they moved underground through the near-horizontal drift mine, laying track for machinery, drilling and blasting with dynamite, all the while maintaining caution for possible collapses or explosions.

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