A Gallery of 32 Bad Men’s Hairstyles of the 1970s

Men’s 1970s hairstyles were a joy to behold. In the beginning, there was the hair. And some of the hair was bad, but it was small.

As men everywhere worked to improve and increase their lot, however, they stumbled onto some of humankind’s most miraculous innovations: spray, gel, mousse, crimping irons, and of course, the perm. With these new tools, people everywhere suddenly found themselves able to coax their lank, lifeless tresses toward glorious new heights.

There was a variation throughout the 1970s, from long to short, blow-dried and bouffant to spiked and bleached. Overgrown hair, whatever the style, is the look most people associate with the decade. Mustaches and mutton chops were in; even fake facial hair was worn and accepted. It was a hairy decade!

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Gay Men Pose for a Photo While Being Detained at a Police Station in Mexico City, 1935

A set of pictures of Mexicans, purportedly arrested for homosexuality in 1935. It belongs to the collection of the National Photo Library of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in Mexico.

Very little is known about the detainees themselves, except these pictures come from Lecumberri prison in Mexico City.

Up until 1976, gay men were imprisoned in the prison ward J, or Jota. Joto(s) is still a common homophobic slur in Mexico.

Luis Arturo Salmerón, in his article ‘Pride Behind Bars’, covered the photos: “The detainees smile, posed to scandalize the same people who took them prisoner; they look proud before the cameras of the society that represses them.

“Why do they do it? I want to believe – and the images seem to confirm it – that it is their way of resisting, of challenging the society that oppresses them and encloses them, but, as their faces shout at us from the distance of the years, they can not change them.

“They are shouting that there they are, that they can lock them up or kill them, but they will not leave, that they will fight so that society can finally be inclusive and that sexual diversity is not persecuted as a crime.

“We do not know their names, but we can remember their challenging faces as a brief tribute to the thousands of victims of a struggle that in Mexico has made some progress, although it still has a long way to go.”

20 Vintage Photographs Capture Soldiers Getting Haircut During World War I

World War I saw the complete and final death of the beard for the majority of all troops, for the simple reason that if you had a beard – well, you were gonna die because your gas mask wouldn’t seal.

That said, the ‘stache refused to go away and reigned supreme on the Western Front. It was paired with a short, cropped haircut. Why? Because while the ladies love glorious flowing locks, so do lice. And the ratio of lice to available women in the trenches was pretty much 1 billion to one, so off the hair went.

Clean cut, mustached, with nice high collars that made it difficult to look from side to side, the officers of 1918 cut a dashing figure. Well, you know, the ones that weren’t covered in mud.

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Amazing Vintage Photographs of Linemen on Utility Poles at the Turn of 20th Century

Most people don’t think much about the wooden utility poles in their neighborhood. However, they rely on them each day—utility poles support overhead power lines, cable services, streetlights, and other public services in the area. As it happens, these important structures were created by mistake.

In 1843, the United States Congress gave Samuel Morse $30,000 for a demonstration project to prove he could send messages over a distance more quickly and efficiently than the means available at the time. Morse and his partners began laying underground telegraph wires between the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., and a railroad station in Baltimore, a distance of forty miles.

Unfortunately, the wires were defective, and Morse and his partners were running out of time and money. One of Morse’s partners suggested that the quickest way to complete the project would be to string telegraph wires overhead on trees and wooden poles.

On May 24, 1844, thanks to telegraph wires hastily strung on hundreds of wooden utility poles, the phrase “What Hath God Wrought” was successfully telegraphed via Morse code from D.C. to Baltimore and back.

Although the first wooden utility poles were the result of a mistake, they caught on quickly; aside from the Plains, the United States is richly forested, and the raw material for wooden utility poles was readily available. Soon there were thousands of wooden utility poles carrying telegraph signals around the eastern and the western portions of the United States, although the eastern and western networks were not yet connected.

By the early 20th century, these poles were used for telephone and electrical lines in addition to telegraph lines. Today, from wireless voice communications to the internet, they carry much more.

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Vintage Photos of Auto Polo Players Compete With Customized Renault Cars in Vincennes, France, October 1956

A vigorous game of Motor Car Polo, the latest craze to sweep Vincennes, France in 1956. The players leaning out of their customized Renault vehicles to scoop up the ball with lacrosse-style racquets and sweep them towards the goal.

(Photos by P. F. Jentile/BIPs/Getty Images)

Four Penny Coffin: One of the First Homeless Shelters in Victorian London

The four penny coffin or coffin house was one of the first homeless shelters created for the people of central London. It was operated by the Salvation Army during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to provide comfort and aid to its destitute clients.

The Salvation Army operated other homeless shelters in the area. These shelters charged the clients different amounts depending on the amenities offered. At the low end was a penny sit-up, where a homeless client could get food and shelter from the cold in exchange for a penny. He was allowed to sit on a bench all night, but was not allowed to sleep. For an additional penny, there was the "two penny hangover". It was like a penny sit-up except that a rope was placed in front of the bench. The client was allowed to sleep when he leaned on (or hung over) the rope during the night. He was not allowed to lie down flat on his back and sleep.

For four pennies, a homeless client could stay at a coffin house. He received food and shelter. Moreover, he was allowed to lie down flat on his back and sleep in a coffin-shaped wooden box. The client was given a tarpaulin for covering. What made this unique is that it was the cheapest homeless shelter in London at that time that allowed its clients to lie down on their back and sleep. The Salvation Army also offered shelters that allowed its clients to sleep on a bed for a much higher price. Hence, the coffin house was popular because it offered an economical and mid-range solution for homeless clients looking for relief from the cold.

Compared with modern examples, this shelter is considered inadequate. It was, however, considered an inexpensive and compassionate attempt to deal with the relatively new problem of homelessness. This shelter provided relief from the harsh London winters and was viewed by many at the time as having the benefit of attracting new followers to Christianity.

‘Coffin beds’ at a Salvation Army shelter in London.

Men at the four penny coffin, aka coffin house, ca. 1901.

Contemporary newspaper calls this London homeless shelter a “two penny coffin,” 1906.

These rows of “coffins” were the men’s sleeping quarters in London’s Burne Street hostel, ca. 1900.

Salvation Army homeless clients at Blackfriars, ca. 1900.

Mealtime at the in St. Marylebone workhouse, London, ca. 1900.

Vintage Photos of Auto Polo Matches in New York From Early the 1910s

Auto polo was a motorsport invented in the United States with rules and equipment similar to equestrian polo but using automobiles instead of horses. The sport was popular at fairs, exhibitions and sports venues across the United States and several areas in Europe from 1911 until the late 1920s. It was, however, dangerous and carried the risk of injury and death to the participants and spectators, and expensive damage to vehicles.

The official inventor of auto polo is purported to be Ralph “Pappy” Hankinson, a Ford automobile dealer from Topeka who devised the sport as a publicity stunt in 1911 to sell Model T cars. The reported “first” game of auto polo occurred in an alfalfa field in Wichita on July 20, 1912, using four cars and eight players (dubbed the “Red Devils” and the “Gray Ghosts”) and was witnessed by 5,000 people.

While Hankinson is credited with the first widely publicized match and early promotion of the sport, the concept of auto polo is older and was proposed as early as 1902 by Joshua Crane Jr. of the Dedham Polo Club in Boston, with the Patterson Daily Press noting at the time of Crane’s exhibition that the sport was “not likely to become very popular.”

Auto polo was also first played in New York City inside a regimental armory building in 1908 or 1909. The popularity of the sport increased after its debut in July 1912, with multiple auto polo leagues founded across the country under the guidance of the Auto Polo Association. The first large-scale exhibition of auto polo in the eastern United States was held on November 22, 1912, at League Stadium in Washington, D.C. Another exhibition was staged the following day at Hilltop Park in New York.

(Photos: Library of Congress)

Gorgeous Color Vintage Photos of a Young Robert Redford in the ‘60s

Appearing on stage in the late 1950s, Robert Redford's television career began in 1960, including an appearance on The Twilight Zone in 1962. He earned an Emmy nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Voice of Charlie Pont (1962). His biggest Broadway success was as the stuffy newlywed husband in Barefoot in the Park (1963).

Redford had his screen debut in a minor role in Tall Story (1960). He had a larger role in War Hunt (1962), his second film. Redford won a Golden Globes for best new star for his role in Inside Daisy Clover (1965) alongside Natalie Wood, whom he would rejoin in This Property Is Condemned (1966). In this decade he teamed with Jane Fonda two times in The Chase (1966) and in the popular big-screen version of Barefoot in the Park (1967).

Redford was paired with Paul Newman for the first time in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). The film was a huge success and made him a major bankable star, cementing his screen image as an intelligent, reliable, sometimes sardonic good guy. Even though Redford did not receive an Academy Award or Golden Globe nomination, he eventually won a British Academy of Film and Television Award for his role as the Sundance Kid and his parts in Downhill Racer (1969) and Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969).

Take a look back at the handsome young actor in the 1960s through 22 gorgeous vintage color portraits:

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30 Vintage Portrait Photos of Cornel Wilde in the 1940s and ’50s

Born 1912 as Kornél Lajos Weisz in Privigye, Kingdom of Hungary (now Prievidza, Slovakia), Hungarian-American actor Cornel Wilde began made his Broadway debut in 1935 in Moon Over Mulberry Street. He also appeared in Love Is Not So Simple, Daughters of Etreus, and Having Wonderful Time.

Wilde was then signed by 20th Century Fox who gave him a good role in a B picture The Perfect Snob (1941). It was followed by a war movie Manila Calling (1942). He was the romantic male lead in Life Begins at Eight-Thirty (1942), and supported Sonja Henie in Wintertime (1943).

By the mid-1940s, Wilde was a major leading man. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in 1945’s A Song to Remember.

In the 1950s, Wilde moved to writing, producing and directing films, and still continued his career as an actor. He died of leukemia in 1989, three days after his 77th birthday. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Cornel Wilde has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1635 Vine Street.

Take a look at these vintage photos to see portrait of Cornel Wilde in the 1940s and 1950s.

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30 Lovely Photos of Freddie Bartholomew as a Kid in the 1930s

Born in 1924 in Harlesden, London, English-American actor Freddie Bartholomew was a precocious actor and was reciting and performing from age three, and became very popular in 1930s Hollywood films.

Bartholomew was one of the most famous child actors of all time. His most famous starring roles are in Captains Courageous (1937) and Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936). For the title role of MGM’s David Copperfield (1935), he immigrated to the United States at the age of 10 in 1934, and became an American citizen in 1943 following World War II military service.

In adulthood, after World War II service, his film career dwindled rapidly, and Bartholomew switched from performing to directing and producing in the medium of television.

Suffering from emphysema, Bartholomew retired from television by the late 1980s. He died from heart failure in Sarasota, Florida in 1992 at the age of 67.

Bartholomew placed his handprints, footprints, and signature in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in 1936. In 1960, he received a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6663 Hollywood Boulevard for his contributions to the film industry.

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