See Rare Photos of a Young Michael Jackson in 1978, During a Photo Shoot on a Private Lake in Westlake Village

On a private lake in Westlake Village, Michael Jackson, not yet 19, was relaxed, smiling and polite as he and his brothers chatted on the dock and tooled around on an electric boat during a daylong photo shoot.

Having just left Motown and begun a new relationship with Epic Records, the Jackson 5 music group was preparing for the release of its first album on Epic, titled Destiny.

“They were very excited about a new level of their career, new opportunities,” photographer Gregg Cobarr recalled of the Jackson brothers and little sister Janet, making her public debut at the shoot on that warm summer day in August 1978.

Hired by Epic for the promotional shoot, Cobarr had done countless others like it for music industry clients including Columbia, Epic and Capitol Records, RCA, Curb and Warner Bros. For many years later, Cobarr still can recall details about the day, and about the very special young man he encountered in Michael Jackson.

“He had such a kind, sensitive, fun and charismatic nature,” Cobarr said. “It made a lasting impression.”

“We took a lot of photos that day. Some in color, some in black and white, and it was just a great day together. They were very professional and at the same time, they were able to be themselves. We took some really classic photos together that resonated with the time, and represented the class of The Jacksons. The photos were classy and so were they.”

A few of the photos from that day were used in promotional materials, but the vast majority never saw the light of day.

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Portraits of Couples, Gangs, Children, Friends, and Carnival People at California County Fairs in the Late 1970s

Back in the 1970s, a young man went to work for a carnival concessionaire who, each summer, took a portable photo studio on the road to county fairs across California and the west. For a few dollars, you could have a portrait-sized or larger photo of you and your loved-one to frame and put up on the wall, in only 15 minutes. Pre-digital, it was a good deal.

But what kind of people had their portraits taken at county fairs? People without a lot of money. People who lived on the fringes. People whose life stories were written on their faces. But they wanted a record of who they were, that they could specify and dictate themselves, and they got that at the county fair.

These portraits were made by the young man named Mikkel Aaland in a portable studio that was hauled from fair to fair between 1976 and 1980. The studio was complete with darkroom and a shooting stage and it took a crew of three to run it: a shooter, a front person to handle customers and a darkroom person to develop and print the 4×5 inch negative.

“Because our prices were so reasonable, we often had lines of customers that lasted from ten in the morning to midnight,” Aaland said. “To give you an idea of our volume: on a busy day in Pleasanton, I shot over 450 portraits, averaging three people per print, meaning 1,350 mostly smiling faces.”

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Pictures of Young Women Doing the Limbo Dance at a Los Angeles Night Club, California in 1964

The Límbó (Limmm-Bó) is a unique dance and is also known as the “Under Stick Dance.” The limbo dance, originally a ritual performed at ‘wakes’ in Trinidad from the mid or late 19th century, does not appear to have any roots in West Africa where most African traditions within the diaspora have emerged.

It is believe, that the people of Trinidad during this dance portrayed going down in the hold of a slave ship which carried them off into slavery. No matter how they twist or turn squirmed or arched they would go deeper and deeper, some would make it, some would not. The dextrous position had to be retained because the space between the upper deck and floor was narrow, designed for packing and not standing, hence it asically they were going into Limbo.

The dance was popularized in the 1950s by dance pioneer Julia Edwards (known as the First Lady of Limbo) and her company which appeared in several films, in particular Fire Down Below (1957), and toured widely in the Caribbean, Europe, North America, South America, Asia, and Africa in the 1960s and later. Here, below are some interesting photographs of young women doing the limbo dance at a Los Angeles night club in 1964:

(Photos by Earl Leaf/Getty Images)

A Native American Man (Shoshone) Looking at the Central Pacific Railroad, ca. 1860s

In this photograph by Alfred Hart taken between 1865–1869, a Native American man looks down upon a newly completed section of the Transcontinental Railroad, 435 miles from Sacramento, California.

As official photographer of the Central Pacific Railroad, Alfred A. Hart (1816–1908) spent five years documenting the construction of this legendary railroad from Sacramento, California, to Promontory Summit, Utah. Between 1864 and 1869, Hart accompanied the engineers and crews as they made their way across valleys, deserts, and mountains, building trestles, digging tunnels, and constructing enormous embankments. The Central Pacific Railroad maintained a high regard for Hart’s role as photographer, allowing him to stop trains and work crews for the time needed to set up his camera and make his photographs.

Hart was the official photographer of the western half of the first transcontinental railroad, for which he took 364 historic stereoviews of the railroad construction in the 1860s. Hart sold his negatives to Carleton Watkins, who continued to publish the CPRR stereoviews in the 1870s.

Though he is most known for his images of the first transcontinental railroad, Hart did not consider himself a photographer. He trained as a painter in New England and began his career painting portraits and religious panoramas. After his photographic work for the railroad ceased to be profitable, he returned to painting, though he seems not to have achieved critical success in this media. He spent his last years in poverty, receiving help from his son and daughter until his death, a few days before his ninety-second birthday.

Indian viewing railroad from top of Palisades. 435 miles from Sacramento. (Library of Congress)

For many, completing the Transcontinental Railroad symbolized achievement and national unity—yet it was built with mostly immigrant labor.

Building the Transcontinental Railroad presented both physical and monetary challenges. Even with huge government subsidies, the railroad companies had to raise millions of dollars to cover construction costs. Directors skimmed millions off the construction and became rich. Operating the enterprise was often less profitable.

The backbreaking work of grading the bed and laying the track required thousands of workers, who were poorly paid. Building west from Nebraska, the Union Pacific hired Irish immigrants and Civil War veterans. The Central Pacific Railroad Company, building from California, hired Chinese migrants. In the center, Mormon laborers worked for both lines.

Railroads provided employment for immigrant workers, opportunities for investors, and a means for farmers to seize new lands. But these new transportation routes also carried settlers. 

Lakota, Shoshone, Cheyenne and other tribes fiercely resisted the railroad as it encroached on indigenous communities. The Pawnee worked with the railroad, seeing benefits to the partnership. Farmer, miners, and even tourists changed the landscape, destroying wildlife and habitats.

The Shoshone were among some of the Native peoples who resisted as the Transcontinental Railroad, aided by U.S. Army troops, pressed into their lands. Both the railroad and the settlers who used it threatened Native peoples’ ways of life and sovereignty.

Chris Christensen’s Top Secret Houseboat, 1975

Anchored in Los Angeles Harbor, Chris Christensen’s Top Secret houseboat was shaped like a flying saucer.  It looked like two pie plates pressed together.

(Photo by Mary Frampton/Los Angeles Times)

“I lived on a friend’s new sailboat and I found things wrong with it,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “I decided I was going to build something that had a lot of room and lots of comfort.”

What resulted was the Top Secret, since Christensen wanted not only room, but also “something  no one else had.” It’s 40 feet in diameter, made of fiberglass, diesel powered and seaworthy, according to Christensen. “It’s very good, except in a blow,” he said. “It moves with very little effort. The hull only displaces seven inches of water.”

Christensen did most of his displacing in the waters off Southern California and the Baja coast, radioing ahead whenever he tied up for the night.

“I always let them know I’m coming, especially in Mexico. They might send the gunboats out, otherwise, thinking I’m from outer space,” said Christensen quite seriously.

David Bowie and Elizabeth Taylor Sharing a Cigarette in Beverly Hills, 1975

It was the first time they’d met.

In 1975, Elizabeth Taylor had hatched a plan: She wanted Bowie to audition for a role in her movie, The Blue Bird, which was due out the next year. So she asked her good friend, photographer and Faye Dunaway ex Terry O’Neill, to set up a meeting.

The noted British lensman arranged a get-together at director George Cukor’s house in Beverly Hills, to which the gender-bending musical mastermind showed up two hours late. And, as one can imagine, Dame Taylor was not a lady who liked to be kept waiting.

“Liz was pretty annoyed and on the verge of leaving,” O’Neill recalled. “But we managed to persuade her to stay.”

To break the ice when Bowie finally arrived, O’Neill started snapping photos, which resulted in the now-iconic series of the unlikely duo sharing a cigarette. Taylor got over Bowie’s lateness, though he didn’t end up in her film after all. And still today, the linen keyhole tunic and felt fedora she wore to take a business meeting shows us how understatedly cool the movie star was away from her sequins and shoulder pads.

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27 Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Menlo Park in the 1960s and ’70s

Menlo Park is a city located at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; and Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City to the west.

Menlo Park is one of the most educated cities in California and the United States; nearly 70% of residents over the age of 25 have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher. The city is home to the corporate headquarters of Facebook, and is where Google and Round Table Pizza were founded.

These amazing vintage photos from Menlo Park Planning that show street scenes of Menlo Park in the 1960s and 1970s.

El Camino Real at Santa Cruz Avenue, 1968

Santa Cruz Avenue at El Camino Real, 1968

800-830 Menlo Avenue, 1969

Menlo Toy & Party Shop/Gindele Pet Shop, 1969

Bank of America, Santa Cruz Avenue, 1970

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Actress Wanda Hendrix Visiting Mildred Alexander’s Motel for Cats in San Francisco, 1947

Mildred Alexander gave new meaning to the term “cathouse!” She operated a Sherman Oaks cat motel with 30 units that took up nearly an acre of ground.

Each feline was housed in a little bungalow and provided with a customized menu that might include lobster or ice water in crystal goblets. Adult cats had barrel beds while others were furnished with kitten cribs.

Each blue and white cat bungalow has its own recreation hall. The inside of the rooms will have electrical lights and will be heated in the winter. During the summer, cats will enjoy bunks with sun and breeze.

Photos of Great Dane “Thor” Riding Around in Sports Car With Mistress, 1961

Woman driving sports car around Hollywood with Thor the Great Dane riding shotgun in California, 1961. The photographs were taken by legendary Life magazine staff photographer Ralph (Rudy) Crane, who traveled with a stepladder and usually had three cameras strung around his neck.

The German-born Crane, who drew as much attention as the fine pictures he shot over several decades, had retired to Switzerland years ago but continued to work for Time Inc. publications. He was known as a versatile photographer at home in any setting–whether chronicling the diversity and magnificence of California for a special issue when the state became the most populous in the nation in the late 1950s, or focusing on a Mississippi plantation to illustrate segregation in the Deep South. He was equally adept at shooting color and black-and-white, news, still life’s and personalities.

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Tender Shots of East Los Angeles Gang El Hoyo Maravilla by Janette Beckman in 1983

In 1983, British photographer Janette Beckman was in Los Angeles documenting the burgeoning West Coast punk scene. Browsing through the LA Weekly, she became fascinated with an article about El Hoyo Maravilla (HM), a Mexican-American street gang based in East Los Angeles.

“There were no photos to illustrate the story,” Beckman recalls. “After reading the article in the LA Weekly I tracked the writer down and persuaded him to take me to the ‘Hoyo Maravilla Park’ and introduce me… I just wanted to document the East Los Angeles culture and style. It was a part of Los Angeles that no one seemed to acknowledge. Back in the day, before the internet, if you thought of Los Angeles it was Hollywood, the movies, Beverly Hills, and the music scene.”

“Everyone had their poses down; they reminded me of the punks and New York B-Boys. One day, I asked a kid, ‘What is that teardrop tattoo under your eye?’ and he told me, ‘That means I’ve been in jail.’ They were badass but I didn’t know. To me, they were just kids. I saw the beauty in them.”

These ten shots were taken by Janette Beckman that show portraits of members of the East Los Angeles gang El Hoyo Maravilla in 1983.

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Dorothy Sebastian and Joan Crawford at Santa Monica Beach, 1927

Publicity shots of Joan Crawford and Dorothy Sebastian having fun on the beach in Santa Monica, California, in 1927. The photographs were taken by Don Gillum.

The two had worked together in the hit film Our Dancing Daughters (1928) and would again in Our Blushing Brides (1930).