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)

Enjoy the Benefits of a Cordless Massager

If you’re looking for an innocent gift for the sis or girlfriend, here it is. Every girl loves a cordless massage gadget! They’ll love it because it relieves all that muscle stress and tension, and a thoughtful gift like this one is sure to relieve any of that social tension you might have.

There are 3 models of this cordless massager; the deluxe size is 10”, the regular size is 7” and the mini massager is 4.5”.

From the ad’s text:

“Deep gentle penetrating vibrations from battery-operated massager soothe neck, shoulder muscles, arms, legs and tired feet. Helps stimulate skin to a new radiance when used with your favorite creams and lotions. Revitalizing vibrations bring satisfying relaxation; relief from aches and pains and stimulates circulation. Cordless massager comes in 3 models. Uses standard size batteries (not included) available everywhere.”

Pipe for Two, 1949

George Braunsdorf, left, 6 feet 4 inches and Joe Damone, 5 feet 1 inch, demonstrate a pipe called the “Double Ender” in New York, June 2, 1949.

(Ed Ford/AP Photo)

According to its manufacturer, the pipe was designed as a means of conserving tobacco by a couple of pipe smokers down on their luck, or, sharing a smoke at a ball game.

Double the Hitchcock, Double the Fun?

Some behind the scenes photos of Alfred Hitchcock holding a plaster dummy head of himself on the set of Frenzy (1972).

Frenzy was the third and final film that Hitchcock made in Britain after he moved to Hollywood in 1939. The other two were Under Capricorn (1949) and Stage Fright (1950). The last film he made in Britain before his move to America was Jamaica Inn (1939). Frenzy was screened at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival, but it was not entered into the main competition.

Alfred Hitchcock’s cameo appearance can be seen three minutes into the film in the center of a crowd scene, wearing a bowler hat. Teaser trailers show a Hitchcock-like dummy floating in the River Thames and Hitchcock introducing the audience to Covent Garden via the fourth wall.

Crazy Double-Faced Swimming Caps of the Late 1950s

These vintage crazy swimming caps were invented by a Long Island housewife, Betty Geib, to amuse her children. After they flew off the rack at a church bazaar, she started a new business, Betty Darling, selling her wares for $3 to $6.

The caps featured indeed funny masklike faces and motifs including a sea serpent, a black cat, and a sunflower, decorating the back of the head and creating a fun effect when you saw a wearer donning one.

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“The Curtain Lecture – Mrs. Henpeck Opens It.”

“Curtain Lecture” is a very old term for the tendency of a nagging wife to wait until her husband comes to bed before launching a verbal attack on him. The curtain, of course, was the heavy drapery that surrounded the marriage bed in olden times, and continued in use through the era of Charles Dickens. “Besides what endless brawls by wives are bred, / The curtain lecture makes a mournful bed,” wrote the English poet John Dryden (1631-1700).

In the early 1800s, the British wit Douglas Jerrold wrote a fictional series for the English humor magazine, Punch, called “Mrs. Caudle’s Curtain Lectures.” In 1846, the pieces were gathered in book form under that title. Several of Mrs. Caudle’s scoldings were prompted by her husband’s attempts to sneak into bed undetected, after returning late from a night of carousing.

That seems to be the situation in this old stereo photo above, “The Curtain Lecture –– Mrs. Henpeck opens it.” Note that Mr. Henpeck’s shoes, top hat and suit jacket have been removed and rest on the floor at the foot of the bed, and he has attempted to keep a low profile by crouching there, on his knees. Unfortunately, Mrs. H. has awakened before he is able to remove the rest of his garments and slither in beside her. (In reality, this would have happened in the dark, but then there would have been no photo.)

Incidentally, Mrs. Henpeck’s knees appear to be warmed by a Jacquard coverlet. These bedspreads were an elegant feature of 19th century middle-class life, many of them woven in small factories in Palmyra and other communities of Upstate New York. (Also in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.) These are avidly sought on the antiques market, and prized by collectors of Americana.

Certainly it is possible for the Mr. Henpeck portrayed here to be the father of that baby. It is perhaps less likely for this Mrs. Henpeck to be the mother, but not impossible.

30 Funny Vintage Tobacco Ads by Benson & Hedges From Between the Late 1960s and 1970s

Benson & Hedges was founded in London in 1873 by Richard Benson and William Hedges as Benson and Hedges Ltd. Alfred Paget Hedges succeeded his father in the business in 1885, the same year which Richard Benson left the business. The 1900s saw branches of Benson & Hedges Ltd. opening in the United States and Canada. In 1928, the American branch became independent, and was bought by Philip Morris in 1958. Benson & Hedges Ltd in the UK was acquired by the Gallaher Group in 1955.

A Royal Warrant was issued to the British company in 1878, after the required five years of supply to the Royal Family. This was the brand of cigarettes preferred by King George VI, who was famed for his heavy cigarette smoking. The royal warrant was revoked in 1999 due to a “lack of demand in the royal households”. The Warrant seal, which had previously been on the flip lid of the box, was removed.

In July 1968, Philip Morris released Virginia Slims which were a spin-off of Benson & Hedges intended to be sold to women. They were sold during a period of time where society was beginning to realize the dangers of smoking. Therefore, they were a thinner and more “elegant” alternative to regular cigarettes.

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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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30 Humorous Comic Fat Lady Postcards by Donald McGill From the Early 20th Century

Donald McGill (January 28, 1875 – October 13, 1962) was an English graphic artist whose name has become synonymous with the genre of saucy postcards, particularly associated with the seaside (though they were sold throughout the UK). The cards mostly feature an array of attractive young women, fat old ladies, drunken middle-aged men, honeymoon couples and vicars. He has been called “the king of the saucy postcard,” and his work is collected and appreciated for his artistic skill, its power of social observation and earthy sense of humor. Even at the height of his fame he only earned three guineas a design, but today his original artwork can fetch thousands of pounds.

McGill spent virtually the whole of his career creating the distinctive color-washed drawings which were then reproduced as postcards. He ranked his output according to their vulgarity as mild, medium and strong, with strong being much the best sellers. His family, however, was steadfastly respectable. He said of his two daughters, “They ran like stags whenever they passed a comic postcard shop.”

During the First World War he produced anti-German propaganda in the form of humorous postcards. They reflected on the war from the opinion, as he saw it, of the men serving, and the realities facing their families at home. Cards dealing with the so-called “home front” covered issues such as rationing, home service, war profiteers, spy scares and interned aliens. Recruitment and “slackers” were other topics covered.

In 1941, author George Orwell wrote an essay on McGill’s work entitled “The Art of Donald McGill”. Orwell concluded that in spite of the vulgarity and the low artistic merits of the cards, he would be sorry to see them go.

Approaching 80, McGill fell foul of several local censorship committees, which culminated in a major trial in Lincoln on July 15, 1954 for breaking the Obscene Publications Act 1857. He was found guilty and fined £50 with £25 costs. The wider result was a devastating blow to the saucy postcard industry; many postcards were destroyed as a result, and retailers cancelled orders. Several of the smaller companies were made bankrupt, as they had traded on very small margins.

In the late 1950s, the level of censorship eased off and the market recovered. In 1957, McGill gave evidence before a House of Commons select committee set up to amend the 1857 Act.

McGill produced an estimated 12,000 designs, of which 200 million copies are estimated to have been printed. He died in 1962 with all his designs for the 1963 season already prepared. He was buried in Streatham Park Cemetery in an unmarked grave. Despite their wide circulation, McGill earned no royalties from his designs; in his will, his estate was valued at just £735.

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Political Satire Tintype From the Late 19th Century

How can a picture of President Grover Cleveland, a man in a dress, and a man with a fake mustache and beard be related?

According to Beverly’s Flickr, it is political satire referencing the annexation of Hawaii! President Benjamin Harrison (the man with the fake beard) had Congress annex the Hawaiian islands after a 1893 bloodless revolution. The man in the dress (muumuu) represents the Queen of Hawaii, Liliuokalani.

When Cleveland (the drawing on the wall) was elected he recommended that the monarchy be restored, which Congress rejected. These were the three individuals most involved in this historic event.

Young Couple Wearing a Two-in-One Suit at the Bal de la Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, 1931

Here, two men are shown wearing a two-in-one suit at the Bal de la Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, Paris. This photo was taken by famed Hungarian-French photographer Brassai in 1931.

(© The Brassaï Estate)

Paris is intriguing in that it is less about homosexual practice and more about making public the secret social rituals of the homosexual subculture of the 1930s. It is a documentary statement of the ordinary private conduct. Brassai does not judge his subjects but simply presents them as they present themselves to one another.

Born Gyula Halász (1899-1984) he took the French pseudonym, Brassaï, in honor of his Hungarian hometown in Brassó, Transylvania. The young artist moved to Paris where he intended to paint, but took up photography when he recognized the camera’s inimitable ability to capture the light in the dark, and the way it revealed itself on silver gelatin paper. These images, which earned him the title of “the eye of Paris” on an essay by Henry Miller, gave Brassaï instant entrée to café society and the haute monde, to the glorious glamour and decadence that was Paris between the World Wars. In this fleeting moment of history, Brassaï captured it all.

The Bal de la Montagne Sainte-Geneviève is a dance hall from another era located on a hill above the Sorbonne in Paris, France. Inside, couples move together across the dance floor. Everyone dresses in their finest; a big band is on stage, and; the floor is always mobbed and throbbing with dancers.

(© The Brassaï Estate)

Photos of Liam Gallagher (Oasis) and Damon Albarn (Blur) Playing Soccer at a Charity Match in 1996

Pop legends Liam Gallagher and Damon Albarn go eyeball-to-eyeball as a crowd of adoring fans look on.

The Oasis frontman, dressed in a trademark bucket hat, is seen leaning into his southern rival with a stern look on his face. With his shaggy hair falling on his long sleeved shirt, the Wonderwall singer appears ready to go for Damon - either with a cutting remark or a rough challenge. But with an equally ludicrous hat on his head, Blur Damon stands up to Liam and refuses to back down. While it is a scene that could have come at any of the raucous awards shows the two warring bands, the image in fact was taken at a charity soccer match in 1996.

The two bands had been at each other’s throats for months as the feud played out in the press and then they came together on the soccer pitch at Mile End stadium in east London. And as it turns out, the two superstars had a surprise in stall for those watching from the stands as they came out hand in hand - before joker Liam pulled Damon's shorts down.

Liam famously said “Being a lad is what I’m about. I can tell you who isn’t a lad: anyone from Blur.” He recently added that he listens to Blur and that “I don’t mind Damon. He’s alright. I think he’s very talented. I mean he’s a boring f**ker and that. But then I would be an’all, hanging around with Noel.”

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Funny Vintage Postcards Depict People Falling From Donkeys in Le Plessis-Robinson, France, ca. 1900

Le Plessis-Robinson is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 10.5 km (6.5 mi) from the center of Paris. It was first mentioned in 839 as Plessiacus apud Castanetum, meaning plessis near Castanetum. A plessis was a village surrounded by a fence made of branches.

In 1112 the village church was founded, of which the romanesque tower still survives as the oldest monument of Le Plessis. At the end of the 12th the village was renamed Le Plessis-Raoul, after the local lord Raoul, chamberlain of king Philip II of France. In 1407 it came into the hands of Jean Piquet de La Haye, who built a castle in the village, now called Le Plessis-Piquet. In 1614 a monastery of the Congregation of the Feuillants was built in the village.

In 1682 Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Minister of Finances under Louis XIV had a pond dug which fed the fountains of the nearby Château de Sceaux. Pierre de Montesquiou d'Artagnan purchased the estate in 1699, and expanded the gardens. In 1790, as a result of the French Revolution, Antoine Moullé was elected the first mayor of Le Plessis.

The commune was renamed Le Plessis-Liberté. The monastery was nationalized and demolished. The commune was renamed back to Le Plessis-Piquet in 1801. In 1848, a guinguette (cabaret) was established in the area as a suite of interconnected tree houses. It was named Le grand Robinson after the tree house described in Swiss Family Robinson, a novel itself named after Robinson Crusoe. Several other popular establishments arose in the area, and remained popular until the 1960s.

In 1909, the commune of Le Plessis-Piquet was officially renamed Le Plessis-Robinson, after Le grand Robinson. In 1854, Louis Hachette bought the castle and the grounds. He later became the mayor of Le Plessis-Piquet and a city councillor. The village and the castle were ruined in the War of 1870, but the castle was rebuilt by the Hachette family.

Here, these vintage postcards depicting people of Le Plessis-Robinson falling from their donkeys ca. 1900:

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