The 1935 “Evans’ Auto-Railer” was designed by the Evans Products Company of Plymouth, Michigan. The Company was headed by Edward S. Evans, who was a contemporary of William B. Stout. Evans’ manufactured parts and equipment for: the automotive, railway, freight, and aircraft industries. The company designed, patented and produced a number of products used for shipping new cars by rail, and according to Stout, built the first retractable landing gear used on an airplane.
The “Auto-Railer” (aka Hi-Rail) was designed for commuters to take advantage of both the use of roads and the rail. It consists of front and rear steel pilot railroad wheels attached to a conventional type of bus or truck. The pilot wheels are raised for operation over highways but can be let down when the vehicle reaches the tracks. The vehicle runs on its own tires over the rails with the pilot wheels guiding it along the track. This would be a great way to avoid traffic for public transportation.
Streamline Bus and Car, Evans Motor. Washington, D.C. or vicinity, 1935.
Advertisement from an August 1936 issue of LIFE Magazine.
Fairmont Railway Motors (now Harsco Rail) is often given credit for coming up with the road-rail technology that created "hi-railers" (they spell it "HY-RAIL") in the 1940s, but the various versions of the Evans product had already been in production for years. The car-like one above was known as the M2.
Their largest Auto-Railer (above) was only one of over a dozen diverse products they made for the war effort during WWII.
In 1890, having made a fortune manufacturing plates for still photographs, Antoine Lumière bought a huge 90 hectare / 222 acre plot of land between the station and the waterfront in La Ciotat.
The Villa Lumiere at La CiotatOn this land, which he called the Clos des Plagues, he built a magnificent 36 room château, the Villa Lumière, pictured as it was in the early 19th century, as a summer residence for his family (which was based in Lyon for the rest of the year).
Meanwhile Antoine's two sons, Auguste and Louis, were busy developing their own new invention which they called the "cinématographe": a motion picture camera which also functioned as a developer and projector. They lodged the patent for this device on 30 March 1895 and shot numerous short films, all roughly 50 seconds long, in and around La Ciotat during this period.
These include the famous L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat (The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat), one of the world's first movies. It records a steam train, pictured top left, pulling into La Ciotat from Marseille, with the Lumière Brothers' mother Joséphine (in a tartan cape) and Louis' daughter Suzanne on the platform.
Like most of the Lumières' early shorts, the 50-second silent film consists of a single, unedited real-time view, with the camera carefully positioned so that the train seems to be coming almost directly towards it (according to legend, the first viewers, imagining themselves to be in the path of the locomotive, ducked for cover).
On the centennial celebration of the film's release, film critic Hellmuth Karasek wrote in Der Spiegel:
One short film had a particularly lasting impact; yes, it caused fear, terror, even panic.... It was the film L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de la Ciotat (Arrival of the Train at La Ciotat Station).... Although the cinematographic train was dashing toward the crowded audience in flickering black and white (not in natural colors and natural dimensions), and although the only sound accompanying it was the monotonous clatter of the projector's sprockets engaging into the film's perforation, the spectators felt physically threatened and panicked."
Ever the comedian, Robin Williams was never one to be afraid of doing something new, here he can be seen debuting as the first male cheerleader for the Denver Broncos in 1979.
The late actor briefly joined the Broncos cheering squad in November 1979, donning a white sequined mini-skirt, go-go boots and an orange neckerchief, then prancing in front of a crowd that the Denver Post pegs at around 74,000 people.
In doing so, Williams became the first male Broncos cheerleader in history, and likely the most entertaining Broncos cheerleader of all time, regardless of gender.
Williams pulled the stunt for the 37th episode of “Mork & Mindy,” a comedy show set in nearby Boulder, Colorado, in which Williams plays Mork, an alien sent to investigate Earth. In the episode, Mork joins the squad at the urging of his adoptive sister’s cousin, Nelson, who believes his political career will be aided by Mork’s new gig.
Perhaps inspired by Williams’ antics on the sidelines, the Broncos beat the Patriots 45-10.
Womens styles were elegant and even contemporary. As more and more women bobbed their hair, hats were tighter to the head and the most popular style was the cloche hat. Accessories included beads and necklaces.
This beautiful color film footage will take you back to August 14, 1945 Honolulu, when the first word hit the streets that WWII was over. Military and citizens celebrate joyfully in the streets and old Waikiki.
No commercial color movie film medium other than Kodachrome has survived deterioration for three quarters of a century. This footage, save for easily-remedied color fading and color shift, which has been color corrected using 2009 technology, is virtually unchanged after nearly 70 years.
Germany's Agfachrome movie film from the 1930s and 1940s, for example, was inferior to Kodachrome from the get-go, with present-day surviving Agfa motion picture and photographic color slide film from that era having shifted dramatically in overall color tint toward green. Even Adolf Hitler turned his back on Agfachrome, preferring instead Kodak's products to document his rule. Today's surviving Nazi-era color films were virtually all shot on Kodak's Kodachrome film.
Properly stored Kodachrome, like this footage was shot by a U.S Navy sailor, has survived amazingly well, but it is ultimately beginning to show its age. Common Kodachrome problems due to the passage of time and less-than-ideal storage conditions are often seen as a shift in overall color toward red, and the crackling of the emulsion in a spider-web-like pattern similar to that seen in the glazes on antique pottery, which dulls the overall moving image and allows mildew and emulsion loss to take hold.
Before natural conditions caused by time's passing can diminish this unique record of the euphoria of VJ Day and the wrapping-up of the military's wartime role, this footage deserves and requires the best quality digital scanning, dirt and scratch removal, and color balancing to return it as close to possible to its original 1945 state.
Life Before GHD Hair Straighteners, taken from the reel "Hairdressing" in the British Pathe Film Archive. 1940s hair tutorial for African women, in which various techniques are applied to straight out straighten the lady's hair.
In 1969, a young Danish woman who’s being interviewed by a TV reporter about why she’s traveling alone on foot. She produces some papers to say it’s ok, her parents and the officials have approved hee walking in public. She even procures “a document with a stamp from the local police chief, to verify her story.”
The reporter is worried about her safety and the potential for unwanted harassment, and wonders how she’ll protect herself and... she shows him:
Audrey Hepburn married Mel Ferrer in Bürgenstock, Switzerland on September 25, 1954. The ceremony was held at a local 13th century Protestant church, Bürgenstock Chapel, at the base of the mountain.
The bride wore a white organdie A-line wedding dress with chiffon sleeves by Pierre Balmain and a crown of white flowers in her hair. She accessorized with white opera gloves.
Following the vows, the couple exited the chapel arm in arm and got into a waiting car.
Hepburn and Ferrer were introduced at a party by Hepburn’s co-star in “Roman Holiday”, Gregory Peck.
On July 19, 1957, five military men stood at Ground Zero of an atomic test that was being conducted at the Nevada Test Site. This was the test of a 2KT (kiloton) MB-1 nuclear air-to-air rocket launched from an F-89 Scorpion interceptor. The nuclear missile detonated 10,000 ft above their heads.
A reel-to-reel tape recorder was present to record their experience. You can see and hear the men react to the shock wave moments after the detonation. The sound you hear on this clip is from the original reel to reel tape.
This footage comes from the National Archives. It was shot by the U.S. Air Force to demonstrate the relative safety of a low-grade nuclear exchange in the atmosphere. Two colonels, two majors and a fifth officer agreed to stand right below the blast. Only the cameraman, George Yoshitake, didn't volunteer.
The five volunteers were:
Colonel Sidney Bruce
Lt. Colonel Frank P. Ball (technical advisor to the Steve Canyon tv show)
Major Norman "Bodie" Bodinger
Major John Hughes
Don Lutrel
What Happened To The Guys In The Bomb Video?
According to NPR, from their researches, they quickly discovered that George Yoshitake, the cameraman, was alive. In 2010, he was interviewed in the New York Times and talked about his fellow cameramen who took pictures of atomic bombs. Yoshitake also appeared in some interviews in 2012 with CBS News and The Huffington Post.
Military folks who have died can be found in the Department of Veteran's Affairs Gravesite Locator — and since all the video guys were Army and all World War II veterans, we might find some matches.
Col. Sidney C. Bruce — died in 2005 (age 86)
Lt. Col. Frank P. Ball — died in 2003 (age 83)
Maj. John Hughes — died in 1990 (age 71)
Maj. Norman Bodinger — unclear (not listed in the database), he may still be alive?
Don Lutrel — died 1987 (age 63)
Over the years, the U.S. government has paid some $813 million to more than 16,000 "downwinders" to compensate them for illnesses presumably connected to the bomb testing program. So it is clear that tests like these — often done to demonstrate the safety of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere — were not safe at all.
Filmed in 1932, this very funny clip shows a man testing his American Football helmet invention - he thinks it will prevent fatalities and injuries. He gets some men to kick him in the head and whack him on the head with a baseball bat before he runs head first in to a wall...
WARNING: Do not try this at home. Running into walls or applying pressure to the head, including kicking and hitting it with objects, is highly dangerous, will cause injury and could be fatal, even with the use of a helmet.
The silent footage below, shot in 1932, shows a man with a rifle testing an early version of bulletproof glass by having his wife hold the glass to her face while he shoots at her.
There’s more.
The below image, courtesy of the Dutch National Archives is purportedly of a “Bulletproof glass, demonstration by the best rifle man of the New York police, 1931” which is about the same time and the above and about the same size glass pane.
Finally, there is a patent filed in 1931 by one William E. Nobbe, of Toledo for a composite safety glass sheet of “bullet-proof glass” which was later assigned to the Ford Motor Company.
October 8th was the last time Freddie Mercury performed on stage. At the time, he was terribly ill with AIDS, although he didn't want people to know about it. He announced that fact the day before he died. Being ill he continued to compose and record songs and even took part in making videos.
The footage shows the flamboyant singer, painfully thin from the effects of the HIV virus which would kill him just months later, determined to complete his final video shoot. Mercury is shown applying make-up and checking his image and performance on screen monitors before stepping carefully onto the stage and delivering a solo performance of the band's 1991 single "These Are The Days Of Our Lives". He exits the frame after whispering the final line "I still love you."
Brian May, Queen's guitarist, said of Mercury's final scenes: "At this time, Freddie's becoming weakened by this horrible disease, but he'd throw a couple of vodkas down and prop himself up on the mixing desk and go for it.
"He spent hours and hours in make-up sorting himself out so it'd be OK," May added. "He actually says a kind of goodbye in the video."
Various shots showing industrial process that recycles German army helmet into enamel plated colander. More shots of cooking pots and utensils being made from helmets, factory workers stack them on shelves.
This 1946 German newsreel answers a question we never thought to ask: what happened to all those old Nazi helmets after Germany lost the war?
Naturally some made their way into museums, but with tens of millions of helmets produced during the war, no soldiers left to wear them, and the country’s industry on the brink of collapse, Germany's caretaker government needed to showcase a bit of that old-fashioned Teutonic ingenuity. Their solution: repurposing the helmets into useful objects such as colanders, pots, and other kitchen utensils.
This 1980s ad from Adam & Eve Hair Replacement Center will make you wanna go get some hair plugs, trim your ’stache and have a weird, asexual make out session. Just tell ’em that skeevy guy in the shower sent you.
American historian Douglas Smith who specializes in Soviet history discovered a collection of photographs and videos in the home of Martin Manhoff, a US diplomat who served in USSR, that he took in 1952—1954.
According to Smith, after Manhoff’s wife died he was asked to check the home of a former official for valuable memorabilia. “I was amazed at what I discovered. There are thousand of color photographs taken on the streets of Moscow, Leningrad, Murmansk, Yalta, and at points along the Trans-Siberian Railroad,” Smith says.
The archive also includes unique footage from Joseph Stalin’s funeral — it was taken from the window of the US embassy in Moscow, located in the Hotel National.
Whether shooting Moscow street scenes from a chauffeured car, or writing home about their experiences, Martin Manhoff and his wife Jan were piecing together an intimate, vivid portrait of life behind the Iron Curtain in the early 1950s.
Ostankino Palace, Moscow.
Approaching the Kremlin on Moskvoretskaya naberezhnaya, Moscow.
Driving up Moscow's Bolshaya Nikitskaya ulitsa, with the Stalinist skyscraper on Kudrinskaya ploshchad rising in background.
Driving down Novinsky bulvar, Moscow.
Log-topped housing and ramshackle sheds topped with corrugated steel in Moscow's Tagansky raion.
The BBC has always been known for its highly reputable broadcasts. So it hit that much harder when, in 1957, the BBC crafted a hilarious April Fool’s Day broadcast in which they showed a family in southern Switzerland reaping fresh noodles from the family spaghetti tree.
As unbelievable as it sounds now, spaghetti was, at the time, foreign to most UK residents, and many had no idea the delectable noodles were simply made of flour and water. A number of viewers afterwards contacted the BBC for advice on growing their own spaghetti trees; the BBC told them to “place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.”
It was estimated that 8 million people watched the broadcast the day it aired on April 1, 1957, making it one of the most widespread famous hoaxes in broadcasting history. Decades later, CNN called this broadcast “the biggest hoax that any reputable news establishment ever pulled.”
“The babies get their milk - whether they like it or not!”
A little girl (about 4 or 5 years old) feeding some baby crocodiles. She picks one out of a box and proceeds to feed it with a baby's bottle.
The little girl chastising one of the baby crocs as if it were a dolly. The crocodile doesn’t seem interested in the bottle at all. The little girl chats incessantly to the baby croc. She keeps telling it off and hitting it on the head until eventually it bites her finger! She looks shocked and immediately puts her finger in her mouth. She then says: “Ouch, he hurt me.”
Meet a mermaid who thinks nothing of battling with crocodiles - bare handed!
The man standing behind a fence around the crocodile enclosure. A woman stands beside him. He points out a particular specimen he wants to train. The girl (now in a swimsuit) wades into the pool asking "which one dad?" She grabs the croc and there is a bit of a fight. Various shots of her grappling with the croc. She lifts the crocodile out of the pool saying "Boy, is he heavy!".
Several shots of tattoo artist Jessie Knight drawing bird symbol onto the arm of a young female soldier. The woman grimaces as Miss Knight draws on her arm.
