The Touring Car of the Future, 1905

Fast-forward to the turn of the century and automobile manufacturing was increasing steadily. Couple that with wealthy Americans’ increasing appetite for travel across the States and US travelers were in need of a new breed of motorcar.

This 1905 sketch by Albert Levering – titled “The touring car of the future” – is tongue-in-cheek, but it signals a want for a new vehicle that offers explorers everything they need on the road.

Illustration shows a huge triple-decker touring vehicle with “Dining Hall, Kitchen, Servants Hall, High Finance and Recuperation Apartment, State Rooms, Hair Dressing Studio, Gossip Den, Nursery [and] to Gymnasium on the roof,” traveling down a dirt road in the countryside.

1700s Ladies: The Oldest Generation of Women to Be Photographed

Daguerreotype was the first publicly available photographic process; it was widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. The daguerreotype produced a positive image on a silver surface. It was invented by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre in 1835 and became publicly available in 1839.

This led to the first photographic portrait studio opening in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1842, which brought portraiture into widespread use across America and Europe. The daguerreotypists were soon joined by photographers who used calotypes (paper negatives) to create portraits of their customers at studios or at home.

This practice continued until around 1850, when ambrotypes were introduced as an alternative to wet collodion paper negatives (though they had been around since 1854).

Here below is a set of amazing photos from Jesse Cress that shows studio portraits of women who were born from the 1700s.

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28 Vintage Photos of Jackie Shane, Transgender Pioneer of 1960s Soul Music

Jackie Shane (May 15, 1940 – February 21, 2019) combined the frenetic pace of rock and roll with the soulful energy of R&B to become one of the city’s most memorable performers of the 1960s. During shows at bars like the Saphire Tavern in the Financial District, Shane established a fearless persona that remained in the hearts and minds of the patrons long after last call. And between musical numbers, Shane celebrated her gender and sexuality with a confidence you would expect from someone in the 21st century, not 1968.

“I was just being me,” she said. “I never tried to explain myself to anyone — they never explained themselves to me.”

Growing up in Nashville, Tennessee during the 1940s and 1950s, Shane witnessed the birth and evolution of rock and roll as it spread around nightclubs across the United States. While still in her late teens, she moved to Montreal and joined fellow African-American musician Frank Motley and his backing “Motley Crew” band as a vocalist. They eventually settled in Toronto and established themselves as regulars of the nightclub circuit.

At the same time as Shane’s debut on the Toronto stage, musicians from across Canada and North America packed into sleepless taverns of Yorkville and the seedy cafes located along Yonge Street. Like Shane, musicians like Ronnie Hawkins moved to Toronto from America’s Deep South. A native of Arkansas, Hawkins was a regular at Yonge Street’s Le Coq D’Or and was instrumental in kickstarting the careers of Canadian icons Gordon Lightfoot and The Band. Meanwhile, future folk superstars like Joni Mitchell and Neil Young packed Yorkville’s coffee houses into the early hours of the morning.

But for all the similarities to the Canadian pop culture icons we know today, Jackie Shane’s impact is rarely included among them. While most performers hoped to get their big break in Toronto’s nightclubs, Shane’s success only extended beyond Toronto for a brief moment, even as her collaborations with local R&B musicians brought her to the cusp of stardom. Partnering with fellow American musician Frank Motley, known for playing two trumpets at once, Shane recorded a series of singles, including her most famous hit, “Any Other Way.” At its peak, the single hit position #2 on the local CHUM radio charts.

For all the original hits and covers she made her own, Jackie’s “Any Other Way” is perhaps the song that represents her story the best. The cover of the William Bell hit peaked at #2 on the CHUM countdown and hit #124 on Billboard’s heatseeker chart. In the chorus, she sings: “Tell her that I’m happy, tell her that I’m gay, tell her I wouldn’t have it any other way.” This lyric is doubly interesting given the dual meaning of the term ‘gay’ in common parlance at the time. In fact, Shane’s music included terms and expressions unique to Toronto’s active but mostly underground LGBTQ2+ community. Though the lyrics were originally not a reference to her sexuality, Shane subverted the original meaning of the song to reflect her identity.

Certainly, Jackie Shane’s uncompromising statement opposed the general public sentiment surrounding her. While some understood and supported her after witnessing her live, others couldn’t help but take issue with Shane’s gender. One reader wrote to the Toronto Daily Star asking if she was a man or a woman, only to have a journalist personally follow up with Shane. In 1967, one of Shane’s performances at the Saphire was turned into a live album, Jackie Shane Live. Peppered with double entendres that hint at her sexual orientation, the live album showcases the importance of coded language in the face of bigotry. As one of the most vivid mementoes we have of her music, Shane interweaves her musical numbers with monologues as poignant today as they were back then. During Shane’s performance of “Money”, she sends a clear message to her haters about getting judged.

That being said, fellow band members observed general praise from Black Toronto audiences. In the book Any Other Way: How Toronto Got Queer, writer Steven Maynard pointed out that “appreciation might have started with Jackie’s undeniable musical talent, but the Black community took Jackie at face value or, better, with her face on. The Reverend Larry Ellis, former bass player for Frank Motley and His Motley Crew (as the band was known before the mid-sixties), explained that Jackie ‘didn’t hide that he was gay…People were falling in love with him knowing he was gay.’” 

 

After the single’s success on the local charts, Jackie Shane continued to perform in downtown Toronto, but in 1971, she suddenly left Toronto’s music scene was almost never heard from again. For decades, speculation abounded as to why Shane disappeared from Toronto’s smoky barrooms, but in reality, she had grown weary of the life and wanted to spend more time with her mother, with whom she shared a close friendship.

Only with the 2010 release of a CBC radio production by Elaine Banks did Shane return to the limelight. Her whereabouts unknown for nearly 40 years, Shane turned out to be living quietly in Nashville, Tennessee. In those four decades, Toronto’s LGBTQ2+ community fought a number of battles to gain the recognition and respect they deserved, including the infamous Bathhouse Riots in 1981, as well as an extended war of attrition to recognize the severity of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. During the same time period, however, venues catering to queer clientele fostered Toronto’s emerging musical scenes, including its punk and new wave offerings. Along with the radio production, the aptly-titled book Any Other Way, a series of essays on Toronto’s queer history, featured two essays on Shane.

But Shane is slowly receiving her due. In 2017, a local artist named Adrian Hayles adorned the side of the Toronto Community Housing Building at 423 Yonge St. with a giant mural celebrating Yonge Street’s profound musical heritage. Hayles included Shane among the icons. Other media, including a career-spanning anthology by the Chicago-based Numero Group reissue label, are quickly reviving her mainstream appeal and reframing Shane as the local icon she truly was.

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35 Vintage Photos Capture Street Scenes of Vienna in 1900

Vienna in the early 1900s was a vibrant and dynamic city, often regarded as the cultural and intellectual epicenter of Europe. This period, often referred to as “Fin de Siècle” Vienna, was marked by significant advancements in the arts, sciences, and philosophy.

Street scenes in early 1900s Vienna featured grand architecture along the Ringstraße, bustling with horse-drawn carriages, trams, and early automobiles. The streets were lively with a diverse population, including elegantly dressed citizens, workers, and a mix of ethnic communities, reflecting the city’s multicultural character.

Here below is a set of vintage photos that shows street scenes of Vienna in 1900.

Vienna. Alsarstrasse, 1900

Vienna. Altes Rathaus, 1900

Vienna. Augustinerstrasse, 1900

Vienna. Franz-Josefs-Kai, 1900

Vienna. Freyung, 1900

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A Gallery of 50 Amazing Behind the Scenes Photographs From the Making of “A Clockwork Orange” (1971)

Hailed as one of the greatest movies ever made while also standing out as one of the most controversially violent movies ever made, Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of Anthony Burgess’ novel A Clockwork Orange still has the ability to shock half a century after it hit theaters (in a select few countries, as it was banned in a lot of places).

Anthony Burgess sold the film rights of his novel for $500 (equivalent to $5,000 in toay), shortly after its publication in 1962. Originally, the film was projected to star the rock band The Rolling Stones, with the band’s lead singer Mick Jagger expressing interest in playing the lead role of Alex, and British filmmaker Ken Russell attached to direct. However, this never came to fruition due to problems with the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), and the rights ultimately fell to Kubrick.

McDowell was chosen for the role of Alex after Kubrick saw him in the film if.... (1968). When asking why he was picked for the role, Kubrick told him: “You can exude intelligence on the screen.” He also helped Kubrick on the uniform of Alex’s gang, when he showed Kubrick the cricket whites he had. Kubrick asked him to put the box (jockstrap) not under but on top of the costume.

During the filming of the Ludovico technique scene, McDowell scratched a cornea and was temporarily blinded. The doctor standing next to him in the scene, dropping saline solution into Alex’s forced-open eyes, was a real physician present to prevent the actor’s eyes from drying. McDowell also cracked some ribs filming the humiliation stage show. A unique special effect technique was used when Alex jumps out of the window in a suicide attempt, showing the camera approaching the ground from Alex’s point of view. This effect was achieved by dropping a Newman-Sinclair clockwork camera in a box, lens-first, from the third storey of the Corus Hotel. To Kubrick’s surprise, the camera survived six takes.

Kubrick was a perfectionist who researched meticulously, with thousands of photographs taken of potential locations, and many scene takes. He was so meticulous that McDowell stated: “If Kubrick hadn’t been a film director he’d have been a General Chief of Staff of the US Forces. No matter what it is—even if it'’ a question of buying a shampoo it goes through him. He just likes total control.” Filming took place between September 1970 and April 1971. Technically, to achieve and convey the fantastic, dream-like quality of the story, he filmed with extreme wide-angle lenses such as the Kinoptik Tegea 9.8 mm for 35 mm Arriflex cameras.

A Clockwork Orange was a box-office success, grossing $41 million in the United States and about $73 million overseas for a worldwide total of $114 million on a budget of $1.3 million. The film was also successful in the United Kingdom, playing for over a year at the Warner West End in London. After two years of release, the film had earned Warner Bros. rentals of $2.5 million in the United Kingdom and was the number three film for 1973 behind Live and Let Die and The Godfather.

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The First ‘Selfie’ in History of Iran Was Taken by Nasseredin Shah With His Concubines

This historic image is widely considered to be one of the very first selfie photos ever taken in Iran. It features Nasseredin Shah (or Nasser al-Din Shah), the fourth king of the Qajar dynasty, and his wives captured in a mirror of Andaruni (harem).

Born 1831, died 1896. Nasseredin looks at least twenty at the posted picture, so that would put the photo at least around between the 1850s and1860s.

The king had an immense love for photography and was a skilled photographer himself. During his numerous trips to Europe, he acquired the latest cameras and even appointed at least two official court photographers.

Iranian history has been closely intertwined with photography, with the first photographic images appearing in the country in the mid-19th century. 

The first daguerreotype cameras were brought into Iran by request of Mohammad Shah Qajar from Russia and England. Russian cameras, which were a gift from the emperor, arrived first and were brought to Tehran by young Russian diplomat, Nikolay Pavlov, who had previously learned photography for this purpose.

According to the notes of Jules Richard, the first photography in Iran was carried out by mid-December 1842. Iranian Prince Malek Qassem Mirza and Frenchman Jules Richard are among the pioneers who also did photography in Iran via daguerreotype.

Apart from one photo, none of the Iranian daguerreotypes have survived, but some of them, including portraits of Mohammad Shah and Crown Prince Naser al-Din Shah, have been handed over to Kamal-al-Molk, who used them to create painted portraits.

In the early 20th century, with the arrival of modern technology and access to cameras, Iranian photographers began documenting the daily lives of their compatriots in greater detail. Photography, which was before in the serve of the kings and elites, became an essential tool for documenting glimpses of history and culture.

Henri Cassiers: The Most Outstanding Flemish Poster Artist in the Late 19th Century

Born 1858 in Antwerp, Belgian Art Nouveau artist and illustrator Henri Cassiers was largely self-taught as a painter in watercolours, he became a skilful draughtsman. In 1881, he had his first exhibition of paintings, which went well, and gave up on architecture.

After 1881, Cassiers continued to exhibit and to travel. He had successful exhibitions in Brittany, England, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and other countries. He established his focus on commercial illustration, and his work was featured in well-known newspapers, magazines, hotels, restaurants, and resorts.

Some of his most notable work was for Le Patriot Illustré, and his posters include several for the seaside town of De Haan. He also designed postcards.

Cassiers died in 1944, aged 85. Here is some of his work.

A View of Bruges

A Windmill near Volendam

Canal in the South of Flanders

Corner in Flanders

Dutch Sailing Village

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