40 Beautiful Photos of Alexis Smith in the 1940s and ’50s

Born 1921 in Penticton, British Columbia, Canadian-American actress and singer Alexis Smith had her first credited role in Dive Bomber (1941), playing the female lead opposite Errol Flynn. It was a “decorative” part but the film was very successful. Warners decided to build her up as a star. She had a support role in The Smiling Ghost (1941) and appeared with her future husband Craig Stevens in Steel Against the Sky (1941), the first time she was top billed.

Smith appeared in several major Hollywood films in the 1940s and had a notable career on Broadway in the 1970s, winning a Tony Award in 1972 for the Stephen Sondheim-James Goldman musical Follies. Her last film role was in The Age of Innocence (1993).

Smith died of brain cancer in Los Angeles in 1993, the day after her 72nd birthday. Her final film, The Age of Innocence (1993), was released shortly after her death. Take a look at these vintage photos to see the beauty of young Alexis Smith in the 1940s and 1950s.

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35 Beautiful Photos of Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder Together During Their Relationship

In 1989, Winona first met Johnny Depp. In a noisy crowded party, they fell in love at first sight. At that time, Winona was 17, and Johnny Depp was 26. Winona was an emerging muse of the movie industry, and Johnny Depp was a veteran actor with many excellent roles. Winona was pure and innocent, and Johnny Depp was experienced with two complicated marriages before.

“When I met Johnny, I was pure virgin. He changed that. He was my first everything. My first real kiss. My first real boyfriend. My first fiance. The first guy I have sex with. So he always be in my heart, forever.” – Winona Ryder.

After five months of dating, Johnny Depp proposed to Winona. He said, “I love her more than anything in the world,” and she said, “Our love is very deep.” To prove his love, Johnny tattooed Winona Forever on his right arm. He always mentioned her with sincere words.

In 1993, Johnny Depp and Winona broke up. That once very deep love lasted only four years. Winona collapsed, her heart has broken. There were times when she woke up from a coma, she found everything on fire because of the red cigarette butts in her hands. Although people said that “Winona is beautiful, talented, and has a perfect life”, for her, after leaving her deeply hurt first love, she had nothing left.

A few months after breaking up, Johnny Depp had new relationships with many actresses and supermodels. He changed the tattoo on his arm from ‘Winona Forever’ to ‘Wino Forever’.

These photos captured beautiful moments of Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder during their relationship.

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In 1999, George Harrison Wrote a Letter Explaining Why You Should Have and Play a Ukulele

“The best thing about it for me is it’s just funny music. It’s very lighthearted. It’s hard to play a ukulele banjo without smiling. It tends to lighten your life a bit.” – George Harrison

George Harrison’s legendary career as a guitarist is well documented, and as a member of the Beatles he was of course one of the most influential and popular musicians of the twentieth century. But it’s a lesser known fact that Harrison was also a great ukulele player, and on his untimely passing in November 2001, uke fans the world over mourned the loss of a kindred spirit, for he was a great champion of the instrument.

‘Crackers’ may be the perfect word for Harrison’s uke-philia; he used it himself in the adorable note above from 1999. “Everyone should have and play a ‘UKE.’ It’s so simple to carry with you and it is one instrument you can’t play and not laugh!” He carried his uke with him and gave away ukes to friends whenever he could. “Everyone I know who is into the ukulele is ‘crackers,’ so get yourself a few and enjoy yourselves,” he said. Good advice from a Beatle. This course offers an introduction to playing the ukulele.

His bandmate and friend, Paul McCartney remembered Harrison’s obsession, “Whenever you went round George’s house, after dinner the ukuleles would come out and you’d inevitably find yourself singing all these old numbers.”

Born in Liverpool in 1943, Harrison grew up with the music of Lancashire comedian George Formby, as did all the Beatles. Formby’s huge popularity at the time meant that the sound of the ukulele banjo, and particulary his own rhythmic style of playing, were a familiar part of life. Harrison’s interest in Eastern mystic beliefs (from the mid-1960s onwards) led him to adopt a deep philosophy of self discovery and understanding, so it was only natural that in his later years he would re-explore his earliest musical roots and influences.

In a 1991 interview, Harrison recalled memories of his mother singing George Formby songs at home, and he developed an enthusiasm for Formby and the ukulele that would last for the rest of his life. Harrison attended meetings of the George Formby Society and the Ukulele Society of Great Britain (see picture, below left) and acquired a fine collection of ukes, including the Ludwig banjo-uke once a favourite instrument of Formby himself.

Harrison’s interest in the ukulele was acknowledged publicly in 1995, during the Beatles Anthology project, when he appeared playing the uke in the TV/video documentary series. At the end of the Beatles’ historic single “Free As A Bird” (their first new release for 25 years) George recorded his own small Formby tribute, by giving a brief rendition of Formby’s famous solo from “When I’m Cleaning Windows” at the end of the track, along with a clip of Lennon reciting Formby’s catchphrase “Turned Out Nice Again” - in reverse! The banjo-uke also featured (less prominently) on the single “Real Love” released in 1996.

In the artwork for his newly remastered release of the classic triple album All Things Must Pass in 2001, Harrison included a photo of himself holding a uke, so clearly not only did he have a great passion for the instrument, but he wanted the world to know about it! Throughout his final few years many rumors circulated about a possible new album release from George Harrison, and it seemed likely that the ukulele would figure in such a project. On his untimely death from cancer, it was revealed that much recording work had been done in Harrison’s final months. We now hope that this will be released as a posthumous addition to the already staggering legacy of this truly great man, taken too soon from the world.

35 Portrait Photos of George Brent in the 1930s and ’40s

Born 1904 in Ballinasloe, Ireland, Irish-American actor George Brent made his Broadway debut in director Guthrie McClintic’s The Dover Road. He did numerous plays throughout the 1920s. He moved to Hollywood and made his first film for 20th Century Fox, Under Suspicion (1930).

At Universal, he was seventh billed for Ex-Bad Boy (1931) and fifth for Homicide Squad (1931), then was in the Rin Tin Tin serial The Lightning Warrior (1931) at Mascot Pictures. He was signed by Warner Bros. in 1931, where he played Barbara Stanwyck’s leading man in So Big! (1932). This established him as a leading man for female stars.

Brent is best remembered for the eleven films he made with Bette Davis, which included Jezebel (1938) and Dark Victory (1939). In 1978, he made one last film, the made-for-television production Born Again.

Brent suffered from emphysema and died of natural causes in 1979 in Solana Beach, California. He was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with two stars in 1960. He received a motion-pictures star located at 1709 Vine Street and a second star located at 1612 Vine Street for his work in television.

Take a look at these vintage photos to see portraits of a young George Brent in the 1930s and 1940s.

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Clarence Hailey Long, the Original Marlboro Man

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Leonard McCombe’s image that inspired the Marlboro Man campaign is worth over $15 billion.

The photograph above shows Clarence Hailey Young, a foreman at the JA Ranch in Texas. McCombe had set out on assignment by Life magazine to document the real way of life of these cowboys, dispelling the glamorous image of most Hollywood movies at that time for the harsh and difficult work of ranching reality. 

Something in that 1949 photo must have caught the eye of legendary advertising executive Leo Burnett who later used it as his template for the Marlboro Man. Young’s wrinkled and unshaven face framed by a large cowboy hat and bandana around his neck looked perfect to the ad executive. The fact that he had a lit cigarette on his lips probably convinced Mr. Burnett to choose the cowboy lifestyle for his advertising campaign.

The campaign for Marlboro was meant to include other macho professions, but the cowboy image emerged to be the clear winner. The choice obviously worked for Phillip Morris as the original filtered cigarettes which were first advertised for women as “Mild as May” became the winning ingredient when one tried to picture the place “Where the Flavor is.” Within two years, sales of the cigarette increased three-fold.

Darren Winfield was the first commercial Marlboro Man, with many other actors and real cowboys following in his footsteps. Similarly, many photographers, including Jim Krantz and Sam Abell were commissioned to make the iconic ads.

While most tobacco companies nowadays have shifted their advertising campaigns away from the cowboy image, the original idea has been considered to be one of the most successful ad campaigns of all time. And to think that McCombe’s Marlboro Man shot sparked the idea that would be worth millions of dollars from what was originally a ladies’ cigarette.

Clarence Hailey Long, Jr., often known as C.H. Long (January 9, 1910 – June 29, 1978), was the rugged Texas cowboy sensationalized as the original Marlboro Man. Long, then foreman of the JA Ranch, was catapulted to national attention in 1949, when Life magazine magazine published a series of Leonard McCombe photographs on ranching in the American West. Long was the basis of the popular Marlboro cigarettes advertising campaign for Philip Morris, but other models followed through 1999.

Long was born in Paducah, the seat of Cottle County in the southern Texas Panhandle. He worked on the 320,000-acre (1,300 km2) JA Ranch southeast of Amarillo and originally established by John George Adair, a native of Ireland, and Charles Goodnight, the best known of the Texas cattlemen. During World War II, Long served in the United States Navy in the South Pacific. The then 39-year-old, 150-pound Long was described as a “silent man, unassuming and shy, to the point of bashfulness [with a] face sunburned to the color of saddle leather [with cowpuncher’s] wrinkles radiating from pale blue eyes.” He wore “a ten-gallon Stetson hat, a bandanna around his neck, a bag of Bull Durham tobacco with its yellow string dangling from his pocket, and blue denim, the fabric of the profession.”

Long’s Marlboro photographs led to marriage proposals from across the nation, all of which he rejected. In 1951, at forty, Long wed the former Ellen Theresa Rogers (March 21, 1925 – July 29, 2002), a Massachusetts-born nurse who came to the JA to care for young Cornelia Wadsworth “Ninia” Ritchie, daughter of ranch manager Montgomery Harrison Wadsworth “Montie” Ritchie. The Longs had five sons: Clarence, Roger, Walt, Grant, and John.

His father, C. H. Long, Sr., was in charge of the Hereford herd on the JA, but died when thrown from a bronco. Subsequently, Long Jr. was offered a $20,000 annual contract to advertise beer. His declining of the offer was highlighted in the June 25, 1955, edition of the Baptist Standard newspaper. Long left the JA in 1956.

Long’s tenure at the JA partly paralleled that of Tom Blasingame, known as the oldest cowboy in the American West, having died at the age of ninety-one in 1989, after having worked in ranching for seventy-three years.

Long joked that “If it weren’t for a good horse, a woman would be the sweetest thing in the world.”

The Hectics, the First Band of Freddie Mercury

Before he was the legend. Before he filled arenas with cheering fans and anthemic hits. Before there was Queen, or even Freddie Mercury, there was Farrokh Bulsara, a quiet boy born to Parsi parents in the British protectorate of Zanzibar (now in Tanzania) and dispatched to boarding school in a hill station not far from Bombay.

In 1958, Freddie and four of his friends – Bruce Murray, Derrick Branche, Farang Irani, and Victory Rana – decided to form a band together. They called themselves The Hectics. The school-band was formed while all five were students at St. Peter’s School, Panchgani, an English boarding school in Panchgani, near Bombay (now Mumbai), India.

Inspired by Elvis Presley and Fats Domino, they performed at school events singing versions of well-known rock & roll names, but their music was not well seen in that conservative environment.

But the truth is that, although very introverted by then it was visible that the singer could transcend completely when interpreting and giving voice to the music. Incidentally, his shyness for days has been recalled by his biographer, Lesley-Ann Jones, who described him in an interview as a “very well-educated and respectable” man, but also “very shy”, despite the ease with which was on stage.

It remains to be said that in 1963, he was then 17 years old, when Farrokh left India, towards England, The Hectics ended. The other four members of the group lost touch with their timid vocalist, and only a few years later – according to one of them, Victory Rana – they would recall the discreet Bulsara to the extravagant Mercury upon hearing his unique voice.

In 2016, Rock star’s Panchgani school bandmates recalled ‘Bucky’ in an interview:

Freddie Mercury is considered to have been one of the most flamboyant showmen in rock ‘n’ roll history. Were there any early signs of that in his performances with The Hectics?

Victory Rana: Freddie was very shy, but once he started playing his piano, he became a completely different person. But I don’t remember him as being any kind of showman – not at that age, anyway.

Subash Shah: Yes, Freddie was very shy. But he was also “a born show-off”, and his entire personality would transform once he was performing. To give you one example: one evening, as teenagers, we were walking on a beach in Zanzibar. Music was playing and Freddie spontaneously started to do the twist, the popular dance move of the time. It was such a mesmerizing performance that the next thing we knew was that a group of conservative local girls, wearing burqas, had formed a circle around Freddie and began to twist with him. That was the power of his showmanship, even back then.

Did he display any signs of future greatness back then? Any indications of the shape of things to come?

Victory Rana: To be quite frank, no. Yes, Freddie had a lot of talent, and he was very passionate about his piano playing. But who could say, based on that, that he’d grow up to be the megastar that he became?

Farang Irani: His parents were good solid middle-class Parsis with middle-class values. His father was an accountant in Zanzibar, and he wanted Freddie to become an accountant or a lawyer.

35 Gorgeous Photos of Bonita Granville in the 1930s and ’40s

Born 1923 in Manhattan, New York City, American actress Bonita Granville began her career on the stage at age three. She initially began as a child actress, making her film debut in Westward Passage (1932). She rose to prominence for her role in These Three (1936), which earned her an Academy Award nomination at age fourteen. Her prominence continued with the Nancy Drew film series, and roles in Now, Voyager (1942) and Hitler’s Children (1943).

After marrying Jack Wrather in 1947, Granville transitioned into producing with her husband on series such as Lassie (1959–1973). She also worked as a philanthropist and a businesswoman, most notably owning and operating Disneyland Hotel with her husband. She was appointed to the John F. Kennedy Center Board of Trustees by president Richard Nixon in 1972 and for another term by president Ronald Reagan in 1982.

Granville died in 1988 of lung cancer at Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 65. In addition to her Oscar nomination, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 for her contributions to the film industry. She and her husband were posthumously named Disney Legends in 2011.

Take a look at these gorgeous photos to see the beauty of young Bonita Granville in the 1930s and 1940s.

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Maureen O’Hara With Her Dog “Trip” in a Bowler Hat and Shamrock, 1954

The approach of St. Patrick’s Day and the fact that movie star Maureen O’Hara was born in Dublin resulted in these pictures of Miss O’Hara and her dog “Trip,” in bowler and shamrock, getting ready for the big day on the Hollywood set of The Long Grey Line, in which Miss O’Hara is working, March 13, 1954.

(Photos: AP Photo)

Helen Hayes: The First Lady of American Theatre

Born 1900 in Washington, D.C., American actress Helen Hayes whose career spanned 80 years. She was one of 16 people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award (an EGOT). She was also the first person to win the Triple Crown of Acting; as of December 2020, the only other person to have accomplished both is Rita Moreno. Hayes also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor, from President Ronald Reagan in 1986. In 1988, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

The annual Helen Hayes Awards, which have recognized excellence in professional theatre in greater Washington, DC, since 1984, are her namesake. In 1955, the former Fulton Theatre on 46th Street in New York City’s Theater District was renamed the Helen Hayes Theatre. When that venue was torn down in 1982, the nearby Little Theatre was renamed in her honor. Helen Hayes is regarded as one of the greatest leading ladies of the 20th-century theatre.

Hayes eventually received the nickname “First Lady of American Theatre”. She died in 1993 of congestive heart failure in Nyack, New York. In 2011, she was honored with a US postage stamp. Take a look at these fabulous photos to see the beauty of young Helen Hayes in the 1920s and 1930s.

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Portrait Photos of Ray Milland in the 1930s and ’40s

Born 1907 as Alfred Reginald Jones in Neath, Glamorgan, Welsh-American actor and film director Ray Milland served in the Household Cavalry of the British Army, becoming a proficient marksman, horseman and aeroplane pilot before becoming an actor. He had his first major role in The Flying Scotsman (1929). This led to a nine-month contract with MGM, and he moved to the United States, where he worked as a stock actor.

After being released by MGM, Milland was picked up by Paramount, which used him in a range of lesser speaking parts, usually as an English character. He was loaned to Universal for the Deanna Durbin musical Three Smart Girls (1936), and its success had Milland given a lead role in The Jungle Princess (also 1936) alongside new starlet Dorothy Lamour. The film was a big success and catapulted both to stardom. Milland remained with Paramount for almost 20 years.

Milland appeared in many other notable films, including Easy Living (1937), Beau Geste (1939), Billy Wilder’s The Major and the Minor (1942), The Uninvited (1944), Fritz Lang’s Ministry of Fear (1944), The Big Clock (1948), and The Thief (1952), for which he was nominated for his second Golden Globe, and A Man Alone (1955). After leaving Paramount, he began directing and moved into television acting.

Once Paramount Pictures’ highest-paid actor, Milland co-starred alongside many of the most popular actresses of the time, including Gene Tierney, Jean Arthur, Grace Kelly, Lana Turner, Marlene Dietrich, Maureen O'Hara, Ginger Rogers, Jane Wyman, Loretta Young, and Veronica Lake.

Milland is best remembered for his Academy Award-winning portrayal of an alcoholic writer in Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend (1945) and also for such roles as a sophisticated leading man opposite John Wayne’s corrupt character in Reap the Wild Wind (1942), the murder-plotting husband in Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder (1954), and Oliver Barrett III in Love Story (1970). His last appearances were in The Sea Serpent (1985) and The Gold Key (1985).

Milland died of lung cancer in 1986 at the age of 79. These vintage photos captured portraits of a young and handsome Ray Milland in the 1930s and 1940s.

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Photos of Marlon Brando During the Filming of ‘On the Waterfront’ (1954)

On the Waterfront is a 1954 American crime drama film, directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando and features Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Pat Henning, and Eva Marie Saint in her film debut. The film was suggested by “Crime on the Waterfront” by Malcolm Johnson. It focuses on union violence and corruption amongst longshoremen, while detailing widespread corruption, extortion, and racketeering on the waterfronts of Hoboken, New Jersey.

On the Waterfront was a critical and commercial success. It received twelve Academy Award nominations and won eight, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Brando, Best Supporting Actress for Saint, and Best Director for Kazan. In 1997, it was ranked by the American Film Institute as the eighth-greatest American movie of all time; in AFI's 2007 list, it was ranked 19th.

In 1989, On the Waterfront was one of the first 25 films to be deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

These vintage photos captured portraits of Marlon Brando during the filming of On the Waterfront in 1954.

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