20 Stunning Portraits of Marlene Dietrich as Maria ‘Angel’ Barker in 1937

Angel is a 1937 American comedy-drama film produced and directed by Ernst Lubitsch from a screenplay by Samson Raphaelson and Frederick Lonsdale. It was adapted by Guy Bolton and Russell Medcraft from the play Angyal by Melchior Lengyel.

Angel was the last film Marlene Dietrich would make under her Paramount contract, which had begun in 1930 with Josef von Sternberg’s Morocco. It was also the last film she would make with costume designer Travis Banton who, along with von Sternberg, had been responsible for creating the Dietrich ‘image’: sculpted cheekbones, immaculate poise and assured sexuality with a dash of feminine mystique thrown in for good measure.

In Angel, she plays Lady Maria, the bored wife of English diplomat Sir Frederick Barker (Herbert Marshall). During an impulsive visit to Paris whilst her husband is away on business she meets a handsome stranger, Anthony Halton (Melvyn Douglas). He takes her to dinner and they finish the evening kissing in a park before she runs away. Back in London she is racked with guilt as, thanks to a fortuitous series of coincides, Anthony comes back into her life.

Although Angel had a respected director and several stars attached, the film was a commercial and critical flop and led to Dietrich being labelled as box-office poison. One of the reasons is a lack of pace – it feels very languorous and, at times, labored – and there’s an uneasy Post-Code morality that places too much emphasis on the sanctity of marriage.

Whilst Dietrich has a commanding screen presence, she struggles to convey the demurity expected of a diplomat’s wife. She’s clearly much more comfortable as the flirty Angel, rather than the trophy wife – and that’s reflected in the quality of the scenes. It must have been difficult for a 1930s audience to feel sympathy for a character caught in a trap of her own making, so that might go some way to explaining lack of interest. Despite these issues, Angel is beautifully shot and Lubitsch captures, almost nostalgically, a European way of life that wouldn’t exist for much longer.

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I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, 1952

The Christmas classic “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” was released in 1952. This family was right on trend with their holiday card that year!

(Photo courtesy of Barbara Larson)

“This is a Christmas card we made with the help of my husband’s uncle Fred, an amateur photographer. It was taken in 1952 when our daughter, Susan, was 3, and son, Dana, was 2. The expressions on their faces show how really astonished they were to see “Mommy kissing Santa Claus”—my husband, Jack. This was around the time the song was so popular.”

“I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” is a Christmas song with music and lyrics by British songwriter Tommie Connor and first recorded by Jimmy Boyd in 1952. The song has since been covered by many artists, with The Ronettes version from 1963 being one of the most famous cover versions.

The original recording by Jimmy Boyd, recorded on July 15, 1952, when he was 13 years old, reached No. 1 on the Billboard pop singles chart in December 1952, and on the Cash Box chart at the beginning of the following year. It later reached Number 3 in the UK Charts when issued there in November 1953. The song was commissioned by Saks Fifth Avenue to promote the store’s Christmas card for the year, which featured an original sketch by artist Perry Barlow, who drew for The New Yorker for many decades.

Riverside-area singer and actor Jimmy Boyd poses for a photo circa 1952. (Photo: Michael Ochs, Archives/Getty Images)

The song describes a scene where a child walks downstairs from his bedroom on Christmas Eve to see his mom kissing “Santa Claus” under the mistletoe. The lyric concludes with the child wondering how his father will react on hearing of the kiss, unaware of the implication that Santa Claus is merely his father in a costume.

A Day in the Life With a Young Jane Fonda in New York City in November 1959

It was the first time Paris Match magazine met Jane Fonda in the living room of her father, Henry Fonda, in New York City, November 1959. The young actress, who received some advices from the legend of The Hellish Pursuit and Twelve Angry Men, has just made her Broadway debut. At the Cort Theater on 48th Street, Jane performed in the play There Was a Little Girl, directed by Joshua Logan. It was latter who would make it appear on the screen. “Jane Fonda will be a star like daddy,” promised Match, in its issue 553:

“The new Hollywood darling is a 22-year-old stranger with an already prestigious name: Jane Fonda, daughter of actor Henry Fonda. She shoots her first film, Tall Story, with the world’s most requested young debut: Tony Perkins. It was the director Joshua Logan who discovered her. For that, he didn’t have to go very far: Logan is a friend of the family. But Jane, independent and athletic, did not want to hear about the cinema. When she lost her mother at the age of twelve, she decided that she would be a painter and came to live in Paris: ‘I can’t stand actors,’ she said, ‘except my father.’ Today, when told that she looks like a famous star, Brigitte Bardot, Jane shakes her blonde hair: ‘No,’ she says, ‘I look like Henry Fonda.’”

Match photographer in New York, Paul Slade, had followed Jane Fonda in her daily life as a young Broadway premiere. Between dancing and rehearsals with her boyfriend, actor and dancer Timmy Everett, Jane took classes at the Actors Studio at Lee Strasberg. The student also had a job at the Hicks & Son restaurant on 5th Avenue to earn some money and invited her friends to dinner in her shared apartment, including Match’s reporter...

Jane Fonda visits her father Henry Fonda in his New York apartment in November 1959.

Jane Fonda visits her father Henry Fonda in his New York apartment in November 1959.

Jane Fonda with her Siamese cat in her New York apartment, November 1959.

Jane Fonda in her New York apartment, November 1959.

Jane Fonda with her Siamese cat in her New York apartment, November 1959.

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The Story Behind the Iconic ‘Queen II’ Album Cover, Which Was Inspired by a Similar Photograph of Marlene Dietrich

Queen II is the second studio album by the British rock band Queen. It was released on March 8, 1974 by EMI Records in the UK and by Elektra Records in the US. Described as “arguably the heaviest Queen album,” Queen II marked the end of the first phase of the band’s career.

The album combines a heavy rock sound with art rock and progressive rock elements, and has been called “a pillar of grandiose, assaultive hard rock” by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The cover of Queen II (1974).

Rock photographer Mick Rock was engaged to create the album’s artwork. In Rock’s words, the band wanted to “graft some of [the trademark] decadent ‘glam’ sensibility” of his previous work with artists such as David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed. According to Rock, Queen were looking to grab people’s attention with the cover, especially since their first album had failed to do so. “They realised that if you could catch people’s eyes you could get them interested in the music.”

The brief he received from the band conceived a black and white theme for the album. The cover features a photograph described by VH1 as “Queen standing in diamond formation, heads tilted back like Easter Island statues” against a black background. The iconic chiaroscuro image of Queen was inspired by a similar photograph of Marlene Dietrich from the 1932 film Shanghai Express.

“And of course no one was ever more ‘glam’ than the divine Ms Dietrich,” Rock quipped. “It was just one of those flashes of inspiration that happens sometimes,” Rock explained. “There was a feeling that [echoing the Dietrich pose] might be pretentious,” but Rock convinced the band otherwise. “It made them look like much bigger a deal than they were at the time, but it was a true reflection of their music.”

“For the concept, I was feeding off the music and the band. They had no doubt they were going to make it big, so I felt it needed to have a certain grand quality. I’d come across a photo of Marlene Dietrich on the set of 1932’s Shanghai Express, and she was under a top light, with hood eyes, arms crossed, fingers spread. I showed Freddie the image and he loved it. So that was sold to the rest of the band as the basic idea.”

A photo of Marlene Dietrich on the set of 1932’s Shanghai Express. (Photographed by Don English)

“At the time, the band didn’t understand what went on in the studio, or about lighting, and I was running up and down on a ladder while they kept running back and forth to look in the mirror. It took a bit of fiddling to get them all arranged right. Brian May brought a veil that we put on his head for some shots, and we tried a few different hand arrangements from Freddie.

“Freddie was ecstatic with it. But there was some debate over whether it should be the white or the black shot that went on the cover. Someone had accused the band of being pretentious. Obviously, Freddie couldn’t give a damn, but it had stuck a bit with the others, and they thought the black shot was too strong, because they were an unknown band, and the black cover made it look like they were already there. But if Freddie wanted something, he could twist the others into it, and eventually they went along with it. And I know they’re glad they did…”

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Santa Claus Town, Canada, 1916

This set of images is devoted to some of the goings-on of Santa and “Santa Claus Town” in Canada, 1916; as pictured by a combination of drawing and composite photography by artist Jennie Walsh.

(Images © The British Library)

Amazing Polaroid Shots Taken by Maripol on the Set of ‘Downtown 81’

In 1977, young stylist and jewelry designer Maripol and her then-boyfriend Edo Bertoglio moved from Paris to New York. The self-described “new pioneers of a decadent decade” fit right into a city that had been abandoned and left to fend for itself, its denizens reveling in the limitless creativity that freedom often brings.

Polaroids taken by Maripol on the original set of Downtown 81.

That December, Bertoglio gave Maripol a Polaroid SX-70 camera for Christmas. Long before digital revolutionized the industry, the Polaroid offered instantaneous results, producing a unique print within minutes.

As art director for Fiorucci, the hottest Italian fashion house of the time, Maripol became a fixture on the scene, collaborating with the likes of Debbie Harry, Grace Jones, Keith Haring, Madonna, Sade, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, who went on to star in Downtown 81, a film she produced and art directed.

“There was a curiosity towards Polaroid. Everyone wanted to know, ‘What is that?’ It’s not like point a camera with a huge lens like Ron Galella. It was more natural,” Maripol recalled.

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Georgia O’Keeffe: A Portrait by Alfred Stieglitz, 1918

Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz first met in person in 1916 when O’Keeffe paid a visit to Gallery 291 to see an exhibition of Marsden Hartley works. At the time, he was 52 years old, married, and a famous, internationally acclaimed photographer, with an avant-garde gallery in Manhattan. She, on the other hand, was 28, unknown and just beginning her professional art career. However, O’Keeffe, ever the striking woman, made an immediate impact on Stieglitz—both artistically and emotionally. The two began a professional and personal relationship, exchanging often daily correspondence.

In a 1917 letter to O’Keeffe, Stieglitz wrote: “How I wanted to photograph you — the hands — the mouth — & eyes — & the enveloped in black body — the touch of white — & the throat — but I didn’t want to break into your time — ”

O’Keeffe first posed for Stieglitz’s camera in the spring of 1917. Over the next twenty years, he made over 300 portraits of her—nude and clothed, performing mundane tasks and posing dramatically in front of her paintings, showing her entire body as well as isolated views of her neck, hands, breasts, and feet.

Alfred Stieglitz. Georgia O’Keeffe: A Portrait, 1918. (Georgia O’Keeffe Museum)

In 1918, the same year this photograph was taken, O’Keeffe accepted Stieglitz’s invitation and moved to New York where he provided her with financial support and arranged for a residence and studio space for her to work. Drawn together by their shared interests and passion, the two began a heated love affair. Stieglitz’s nude photographs of O’Keeffe taken at this time created quite the sensation. One of many the two would experience in their prominent decades long relationship.

Finally, in 1924, Stieglitz divorced his first wife and wed O’Keeffe. The two remained married until his death in 1946.

Stieglitz’s photographs of the young O’Keeffe document in great detail one of the most passionate love stories in the history of modern art.

(via Georgia O’Keeffe Museum)

KISS With Their Parents, 1977

Group photos of KISS at Madison Square Garden backstage together with their parents in 1977:

The Story of Famous Geisha Teruha (aka Chishō Takaoka) and Her Lesbian Love Affair in the USA

Her real name was Tatsuko Takaoka. She was born in Osaka in 1896. It is unclear how, or under what circumstances she made her way to Tokyo but at the age of 13, after a brief training period, she became a Shimbashi Tokyo Geisha, and took the name Teruha [shining leaf].

In 1920, after years of several teenage love affairs, and being a Geisha mistress to at least one of her patrons for 5 years, Teruha got sick of the dead-end road she felt was ruining her youth, and jumped at the chance to marry a stock broker. Thus ended Teruha’s days as a Geisha, at least for a while.

In the spring of 1920, they went to the United States where she ended up making friends with Hollywood actor Sessue Hayakawa. Teruha and her husband traveled all over the country, and it was an exciting time for her. However, the un-exciting part was that her new husband dumped her at whatever hotel they were staying in, and spent his nights out on the town with his buddies –– getting drunk, and chasing women. At least once, he didn’t even come back to the hotel for several days.

But it was Teruha’s fame, and not her husband’s, that preceded her all the way to the ‘Big Apple’. When she arrived in New York City, the people there had prepared a big welcome party for her in a cabaret. Broadway choreographer Michiro Ito hosted the party for Teruha. After the party, 24-year-old Teruha got tired of living at her New York City hotel with a husband who just wanted to go out drinking and womanizing while she was left alone.

Having been a self-educated woman since becoming a Maiko, she decided to take advantage of her stay in America. She left her carousing husband to his wine and women, and headed off on her own, eventually landing at a “Domestic Science School” somewhere out in the suburbs of New York. Teruha stayed in the school dorms while taking courses (and probably learning a lot of English). She also met a very nice girl, and took up something else –– becoming a lesbian. Her lover’s name was Hildegard, and for most of the nine months that Teruha studied, lived, and loved in America on this first trip, it was the love of a woman –– and not a man –– that sustained her.

Portrait of Chishō Takaoka (a geisha and, later Buddhist nun) with her lover Hildegard in New York City, ca. 1920.

Teruha would eventually return to Japan with her husband who didn’t care about her lesbian affair. However, Teruha soon found a man to cheat with to get back at her own cheating husband. She did so with revenge in her heart for all of the womanizing and affairs he was constantly involved in.

However, as all Japanese men know, married men can have all the women they want, but their wives can have nobody but them. That is to say, when he found out about Teruha’s affair with another man, he made life a living hell for her, leading to at least two failed suicide attempts to escape life altogether.

The still married Teruha went back to the USA. From there, she went to London where she once again met up with her old friend, the popular movie star Sessue Hayakawa –– who just “happened to be there.”

What happened between them is not written in words, but Hayakawa told her that she should go and live in Paris. She took his advice, and went to France, where she gave birth to an little girl. Suffice it to say, her husband was not the father. Teruha was now 28 years old.

The Story Behind the Portraits of Ozzy Osbourne in a Pink Tutu, Shot by Mark Weiss for Circus Magazine in 1981

In April 1984, photographer Mark Weiss was assigned to shoot with Ozzy Osbourne for a cover and feature in Circus magazine.

Mark recalled his time with the rock star: “I knew this one would be a blast—news had just come out that Ozzy had bit the head off a dove at a record company meeting the month before. He was in NYC promoting his first solo album Blizzard of Ozz. I spent a few days with Ozzy, shooting him around New York City and at his hotel room at the Plaza where I set up a background for the cover shoot. Circus was planning on using his image on a few different covers as well as in multiple spreads, so we tried a few different looks during the session.

“We just hit it off right from the start with my first shoot with him for the cover of Circus magazine, I was young and didn’t know crap. When I asked him to do something he did it he made it easy for me. He gave me my confidence. He was up for anything... from my first shoot with him in a pink tutu, to a shaved head, dressing up in drag or hoping around in a Easter bunny outfit. When Ozzy needed a new guitar player, I found him one.”

Ozzy Osbourne in a pink tutu, 1981.

Ozzy Osbourne, 1981.

Circus magazine cover, June 1981.

“Ozzy was a great subject. When I asked him to try something, he would always do it, and more. At the time, I didn’t always speak up. One of the things I kept telling him was to lean his head forward, because he had a bit of a double chin when his head was relaxed.

“He couldn’t understand my direction, but instinctively he would lean his head forward to hear me better. Ozzy would keep saying, “What? I can’t hear you, Mark!” So I would yell, “Yes, that’s it!” He would answer, “What’s it? What the fuck are you saying?” It was like an Abbott and Costello routine. We had a good laugh about that.”

Ozzy posing for the 12th Anniversary for Circus magazine, 1981

Ozzy at the Circus magazine office in New York City, 1981

Ozzy Osbourne in the bath at the Palza Hotel, NYC in 1981.

Ozzy Osbourne in the bath at the Palza Hotel, NYC in 1981.

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Evan Dando of the Lemonheads Cross-Dressing With Bjork, November 1993

Waking up in Wolverhampton and traveling to London. Putting on a dress and hanging out with Björk. Soundchecks, interviews, meet and greets, guest spots with support bands and great, celebratory gigs... It’s all in a day’s work for Evan Dando. As the Lemonheads’ leader’s year of success, stress and crack confessions comes to an end we spend a day with the languid love-God, still cool as the pressures increase.

(Photo by Kevin Cummins/Getty Images)

The photo was shot by Kevin Cummins on November 3, 1993 for the cover of the NME Christmas edition, and the idea was to shoot the major stars of the year.

“Evan Dando had been wearing a dress on and off for a year – so we thought it would be quite nice to do a shoot with him wearing a dress and Björk wearing a man’s suit,” said Kevin Cummins.

Evan was really excited to meet Björk, and in his typical style, he was flirting with her on set and offering her copies of his CDs. He even brought a guitar and tried to sing to her. She was blasé and not really bothered about the whole thing.

“Half way through she said to me, “Who is this man again ?” I have shot Björk many times, and she’s always in her own world, but still very focused. I thought it was just brilliant that she was prepared to do the cover shoot when she didn’t even know who Evan Dando was!”