Streets of London in 1976

Photos of streets of London in 1976. From Dover along the Coast to Lands End. Then up to Maidenhead. Then to Bath and London.

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Amazing Vintage Photographs of the Atlanta International Pop Festival, 1970

The second Atlanta International Pop Festival was a music festival held in a soybean field adjacent to the Middle Georgia Raceway in Byron, Georgia. Originally scheduled for July 3 to July 5, 1970, it did not finish until near dawn on the 6th. It was the only successor to the first Atlanta International Pop Festival 1969. The event was promoted by Alex Cooley, who had organised the same event the previous year, as well as the Texas International Pop Festival.

Like the Woodstock festival the previous summer, the event was promoted as "three days of peace, love and music." Tickets for the festival were priced at $14. Also like Woodstock, it became an "open event" when the promoter threw open the gates after crowds outside began to tear down the plywood fence that had been erected around the site. An estimated 350,000 to 500,000, and possibly 600,000 people attended.

Performers included The Allman Brothers Band, Jethro Tull (scheduled but did not perform, citing laryngitis), Terry Reid, B.B. King, Procol Harum, Jimi Hendrix, Chambers Brothers, Poco, Grand Funk Railroad, Captain Beefheart(scheduled but canceled), Ravi Shankar, Ten Years After, Johnny Winter, John Sebastian, Mountain, and Spirit. Jimi Hendrix played to the largest American audience of his career, presenting his rendition of the Star Spangled Banner for the fireworks around midnight on the Fourth of July. Local Atlanta bands Radar and the Hampton Grease Band also performed.

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Fabulous Portraits of 18 Famous Flappers in the 1920s

Some famous flappers were role models, either in real life or in the movies or other entertainment venues, and others only became famous later, but all looked wonderful in photographs of the 1920s.

Gilda Gray was not the first to dance the shimmy, but she made it popular nationwide in the 1920s. The young saloon singer went to New York to perform in vaudeville and joined the Ziegfeld Follies in 1922. By then Gray was known as the Shimmy Queen, and made several Hollywood movies between 1919 and 1936.

Zelda Fitgerald was an author and the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Her lifestyle made her a celebrity outside the literary world, and her husband called her “the first American Flapper.” The two were notorious for public partying, and their drunken antics were a staple of society headlines in the 1920s. From 1930 on, Zelda was in and out of mental hospitals for the rest of her life.

Anita Page started her career in silent films and made an easy transition to “talkies” soon after. She cranked out many films between 1925 and 1933, and came out of retirement occasionally to act again until her death in 2008. At that time, she was hailed as the last silent film star.

Dorothy Sebastian went from college to musical theater to Hollywood, where she appeared in films for about fifteen years beginning in 1925. She was married three times (once to Hopalong Cassidy), but was known for her long-term affair with Buster Keaton.

Norma Talmadge was one of the biggest silent film stars ever. Between 1910 and 1930, she acted in 160 films and produced 25! Talmadge was also a smart businesswoman. She and her much older husband, Joseph Schenck, formed the Norma Talmadge Film Corporation in 1917, giving them control over her work. The corporation generated profits way beyond what a film actress of the time could have made.

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1940s Kissing Style: Photo Guide on How To Kiss Correctly, ca. 1942

LIFE magazine published this guide for actors in 1942, but it may still come in handy today.

According to these romantic pictures from the magazine, there are some vital basic steps to follow to achieve the perfect clinch.

First, the how-to guide recommends that kissers should not stand too far apart - pointing out that actors doing this on stage look 'juvenile if they are so stand-offish'.

WRONG: Actors kissing on-stage look too juvenile if they are so stand-offish

RIGHT: Boy and girl should stand close together and not hold each other too tightly

The next thing to remember is not to 'sprawl all over the chair' in a moment of heated passion. This is apparently considered ungraceful and is 'bad technique.'

Instead, the girl should avoid all danger of her sensible skirt riding up by sitting on the arm of a chair while the boy holds her.

WRONG: Sprawling all over the chair is considered ungraceful

RIGHT: Girl should sit on arm of the chair and boy should hold her firmly but lightly

He should do so 'firmly but lightly', the etiquette guide continues.

While some of the strict advice may seem quaint, the instructions from a back issue of LIFE magazine have provoked fierce debate over points of style.

Old Photos of New York's Restaurants

Mott Street, Display window typical Italian restaurant. 1935-1941

Terrace Restaurant of Central Park Zoo Cafeteria, 64th Street near Central Park West. Zoo visitor pause for refreshment beneath sunshades and watch seal tank. 1935-1941

Restaurant exterior Morris Belaief Ekaterinoslaver Restaurant #204. 1916-1920

Four story saloon and restaurant between Hamilton and Lorraine Street. April 5, 1904

New York Boulevard and 146th Road, Meitz Restaurant. November 18, 1941

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Haunting Photographs From an Atomic Bomb Test in the Nevada Desert in 1955

In the spring of 1955, as the Cold War intensified and the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union escalated at a shocking pace, America—as it had many times before—detonated an atomic weapon in the Nevada desert.

The test was not especially noteworthy. The weapon’s “yield” was not dramatically larger or smaller than that of previous A-bombs: the brighter-than-the-sun flash of light, the mushroom cloud and the staggering power unleashed by the weapon were all byproducts familiar to anyone who had either witnessed or paid attention to coverage of earlier tests.

These pictures made in the Nevada desert by LIFE photographer Loomis Dean shortly after a 1955 atomic bomb test. These are not “political” pictures. They are eerily beautiful, unsettling photographs made at the height of the Cold War, when the destructive power of the detonation was jaw-droppingly huge—although miniscule compared to today’s truly terrifying thermonuclear weapons.

In the test, this scorched mannequin indicated that a human at that distance would be burned but alive.

Burned up except for its face, this mannequin was 7,000 feet from the blast.

This lady mannequin’s wig was askew though her a light-colored dress was unburned.

Remains of a house (built for the test more than a mile from ground zero) after an atomic bomb test, Nevada, 1955.

After a nuclear weapon test, Nevada, 1955.

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From Hand-Colored Flushed Cheeks to Charmingly Outdated Feathered Caps, Here Are 50 Delightful Vintage Photo Booth Pictures

Awkward pouts, happily glazed-over eyes, giddy couples and grinning friends — these photo booth pictures are just like yours. Only, they’re not. They’re very old!

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