Shirley Bassey: One of the Most Popular Female Vocalists in Britain

Born 1937 in Cardiff, Welsh singer Shirley Bassey began performing as a teenager in 1953. In 1959, she became the first Welsh person to gain a number-one single on the UK Singles Chart. In the following decades, Bassey amassed 27 Top 40 hits in the UK, including 2 number-ones. She became well-known for recording the soundtrack theme songs of the James Bond films Goldfinger (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), and Moonraker (1979).

Bassey is best known for her career longevity, powerful voice. In 2020, she became the first female artist to chart an album in the Top 40 of the UK Albums Chart in seven consecutive decades with her album I Owe It All To You.

Bassey has also had numerous BBC television specials and she hosted her own variety series Shirley Bassey. In 2011, BBC aired the television movie Shirley, based on Bassey’s life and career.

Bassey received the first award for Best British Female Solo Artist at the 1st Brit Awards in 1977. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the performing arts in 1999. In 2003, she was ranked among the “100 Great Black Britons”. Her song “Goldfinger” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008.

Take a look at these vintage photos to see portraits of a young and beautiful Shirley Bassey in the 1950s and 1960s.

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30 Vintage Photos Show Curtain Styles of Our Houses in the 1960s

The Sixties were a time of enormous change, both technologically and socially. American culture was also focused on a younger generation that was busy rebelling against long-established traditions. This rebellion had a huge impact on fashion, music and home décor. Everything became more dynamic, graphic and colorful.

Colors were inspired by nature. Green, gold, orange and yellow were very popular and could be found on everything from clothes to home décor, and even cars. Previous eras had similar popular colors, but in the ’60s they were pumped up to vibrant hues. Psychedelic colors played off one another for maximum impact.

Tie-dye, psychedelic, paisley and floral fabrics were popular. The more colorful the fabrics, the better, seen with larger sized, stylized flowers and brighter colors than ever before. Neon colors created a very modern look.

The hippie look consisted of ethnic prints like Indian fabrics made of cotton. Indian saris were used as bedspreads, curtains and wall hangings. Take a look at these vintage photos to see what curtain styles looked like in ’60s houses.

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25 Amazing Color Photos Capture Street Scenes of San Francisco in 1967

Urban planning projects of San Francisco in the 1950s and 1960s involved widespread destruction and redevelopment of west-side neighborhoods and the construction of new freeways, of which only a series of short segments were built before being halted by citizen-led opposition.

The onset of containerization made San Francisco’s small piers obsolete, and cargo activity moved to the larger Port of Oakland. The city began to lose industrial jobs and turned to tourism as the most important segment of its economy.

The suburbs experienced rapid growth, and San Francisco underwent significant demographic change, as large segments of the white population left the city, supplanted by an increasing wave of immigration from Asia and Latin America. From 1950 to 1980, the city lost over 10 percent of its population.

Over this period, San Francisco became a magnet for America's counterculture. Beat Generation writers fueled the San Francisco Renaissance and centered on the North Beach neighborhood in the 1950s. Hippies flocked to Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s, reaching a peak with the 1967 Summer of Love.

These amazing color photos were taken by JFCiesla that show street scenes of San Francisco in 1967.

California Street, San Francisco, 1967

Cable car 521 at Hyde and Washington Streets, San Francisco, 1967

California Street and Powell Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco, 1967

California Street view on Market Street to Ferry Terminal, San Francisco, 1967

Grant Avenue and California Street, San Francisco, 1967

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Fascinating Vintage Stills of Robert Redford and Jane Fonda in 'Barefoot in the Park'

Barefoot in the Park is a 1967 American romantic comedy film directed by Gene Saks from a screenplay by Neil Simon, adapted from his 1963 play of the same name, starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda as a young newlywed couple. Paul, a conservative lawyer, marries the vivacious Corie, but their highly passionate relationship descends into comical discord in a five-flight New York City walk-up apartment.

Barefoot in the Park was released on May 25, 1967, to critical and commercial success, with critics praising its adaptation, light-hearted tone, and cast performances. The film grossed $30 million worldwide on a $2 million budget. For their performances in the film, Mildred Natwick was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and Fonda was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress.

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Amazing Photos of the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair

The 1964/1965 New York World’s Fair was a world’s fair that held over 140 pavilions and 110 restaurants, representing 80 nations (hosted by 37), 24 US states, and over 45 corporations with the goal and result of building exhibits or attractions at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City. The immense fair covered 646 acres (2.61 km2) on half the park, with numerous pools or fountains, and an amusement park with rides near the lake.

These amazing photos were taken by JFCiesla and his good friend William J. Armstrong of the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair at Flushing Meadow, New York.

“It is interesting to look back to what now is over a half century; at the displays, and how life was like back then. It is interesting to see how the average person dressed as he/she went to the Fair. Far more men in suits and women in dresses.”

Flags at New York World's Fair

New York World's Fair

Fall Flowers

7Up Sign

Amphibicar

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Miss Moon Maid of 1965

In 1965 there was a nation-wide contest to find a “real-life” Moon Maid. It was sponsored by the strip's syndicate, and the final judging took place in Hollywood, CA. The winner was apparently 19-year-old Sheila Hanson, who was a student at the University of Mississippi at the time.

Moon Maid is a fictional alien character from the Dick Tracy comic strip, created in 1964 by Chester Gould.

Mysta, aka “Moon Maid”, was the daughter of the Moon Governor and his wife, and was the first known visitor from the Moon to Earth. She first appeared after she secretly boarded a Space Coupe on the moon and flew back to Earth with Diet Smith. Upon discovering the beautiful stowaway, Diet called Dick Tracy and Lizz to his plant to meet the alien woman. Tracy immediately dubbed her “Moon Maid”, and the name stuck.

Moon Maid had shoulder-length platinum-blonde hair. She had horns/antennae and very large eyes, as was typical among her people. She typically wore a sleeveless and strapless black leotard, thigh high boots, and a pearl choker necklace. She also wore long gloves occasionally.

Portraits of Twiggy Taken by Ron Burton for the Mirror and Herald in 1966

Twiggy was a British cultural icon and a prominent teenaged model during the swinging ’60s in London.

Twiggy was initially known for her thin build and the androgynous appearance considered to result from her big eyes, long eyelashes, and short hair. She was named “The Face of 1966” by the Daily Express and voted British Woman of the Year.

By 1967, Twiggy had modelled in France, Japan, and the US, and had landed on the covers of Vogue and The Tatler. Her fame had spread worldwide.

These vintage photos are beautiful portraits of Twiggy taken by Ron Burton in London for The Mirror and Herald in October 1966.

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Beautiful Photos of the Chrysler Turbine Car

The Chrysler Turbine Car is an experimental two-door hardtop coupe powered by a turbine engine and manufactured by Chrysler from 1963–1964. The bodywork was constructed by Italian design studio Carrozzeria Ghia and Chrysler completed the final assembly in Detroit. A total of 55 cars were manufactured: five prototypes and a limited run of 50 cars for a public user program. All have a signature metallic paint named “turbine bronze”, roughly the color of root beer. The car was styled by Elwood Engel and the Chrysler studios and featured power brakes, power steering, and a TorqueFlite transmission.

The Chrysler turbine engine program that produced the Turbine Car began during the late 1930s and created prototypes that completed long-distance trips in the 1950s and early 1960s. The A-831 engines that powered the Ghia-designed Turbine Car could operate on many fuels, required less maintenance, and lasted longer than conventional piston engines, although they were much more expensive to produce.

After testing, Chrysler conducted a user program from October 1963 to January 1966 that involved 203 drivers in 133 cities in the United States cumulatively driving more than one million miles (1.6 million km). The program helped the company determine problems with the cars, notably with their complicated starting procedure, relatively unimpressive acceleration, and sub-par fuel economy and noise. The experience also revealed advantages of the turbine engines, including their remarkable durability, smooth operation, and relatively modest maintenance requirements.

After the user program ended in 1966, Chrysler reclaimed the cars and destroyed all but nine; Chrysler kept two cars, six are displayed at museums in the United States, and one is in a private collection. Chrysler’s turbine engine program ended in 1979, largely due to the failure of the engines to meet government emissions regulations, relatively poor fuel economy, and as a condition of receiving a government loan in 1979.

Here below is a set of beautiful photos of the Chrysler Turbine Car.

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Historic Photographs Capture the Training of Ham the Chimp and Other Astrochimps in 1961

Well before the USSR launched the world’s first artificial satellite, in 1957, and obviously long before the U.S. put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon, Americans and Soviets used animals to test the rigors and dangers that humans might face in outer space. Mice, rhesus monkeys, dogs—all sorts of creatures blasted off from the surface of the Earth strapped atop rockets and locked in test planes. Many suffered injury; not a few of them died.

Ham and his cohorts were picked for the Mercury program over other hominids (gorillas and orangutans) because they were smaller and could fit in the Mercury capsule and also because “chimpanzees have physical and mental characteristics similar to man,” as LIFE pointed out in its Feb. 10 1961 issue.

The most famous of the Mercury chimps, due to his landmark January 1961 flight, Ham was not publicly called Ham when he went into space. That name—an acronym for Holloman Aerospace Medical Center—was only widely used when he returned safely to earth.

The training of Ham and other astrochimps was a scaled-down version of the human astronauts’. After curing them of jungle diseases and parasites, a special corps of veterinarians … kept track of their skeletal development by periodic X-ray exams, and gave them regular heart, muscle, and ear-nose-and-throat check-ups.

All are pre-adolescents amenable to teaching. All are active, bright, and light in weight — some flunked out of the program by growing to over 50 pounds in weight. While America relied on chimps and other primates—rhesus monkeys, for example—as suborbital test subjects in the 1950s and early 1960s, the Soviets commonly used dogs.

The astrochimps were not trained to “pilot” space capsules, but instead to perform routine tasks during suborbital flights, and to act, in the most elemental way, as test subjects facing little-known physical and psychological perils ahead of their human counterparts in the Mercury program and beyond.

Ham the astrochimp after his historic 1961 suborbital flight.

The rocket sled at Holloman Air Force Base, 1960.

An astrochimp in training, 1960.

A hug and a pat were exchanged in a moment of fond reassurance.

An astrochimp in training.

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Wonderful Nature of Alaska in 1969 Through Beautiful Photos

Alaska is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., it borders the Canadian province of British Columbia and the territory of Yukon to the east and share a maritime border with the Russian Federation’s Chukotka Autonomous Okrug to the west, just across the Bering Strait. To the north are the Chukchi and Beaufort seas of the Arctic Ocean, while the Pacific Ocean lies to the south and southwest.

Alaska is by far the largest U.S. state by area, comprising more total area than the next three largest states (Texas, California, and Montana) combined. It is the third-least populous and the most sparsely populated state. Approximately half of Alaska’s residents live within the Anchorage metropolitan area. The state capital of Juneau is the second-largest city in the United States by area, comprising more territory than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware. The former capital of Alaska, Sitka, is the largest U.S. city by area.

While it has one of the smallest state economies in the country, Alaska’s per capita income is among the highest, owing to a diversified economy dominated by fishing, natural gas, and oil, all of which it has in abundance. United States armed forces bases and tourism are also a significant part of the economy; more than half the state is federally owned public land, including a multitude of national forests, national parks, and wildlife refuges.

The indigenous population of Alaska is proportionally the highest of any U.S. state, at over 15 percent. Close to two dozen native languages are spoken, and Alaskan Natives exercise considerable influence in local and state politics.

These beautiful photos were taken by then 15-year-old photographer Harold Slatore when he spent a few weeks on the roads of Alaska in 1969.

Portage Glacier, near Anchorage, Alaska, 1969

Portage Glacier, near Anchorage, Alaska, 1969

Mendenhall Glacier, near Juneau, Alaska, 1969

Mendenhall Glacier, near Juneau, Alaska, 1969

Mendenhall River, Alaska, 1969

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