20 Amazing Vintage Photos of Sean Connery When He Was Young

From humble beginnings as a school dropout, Sean Connery (born August 25, 1930, Edinburgh, Scotland) became a major movie star at the age of thirty-two, when he was cast as the sophisticated secret agent James Bond. Connery went on to distinguish himself in a number of major motion pictures, including his Oscar-winning performance in The Untouchables. With more than sixty movies to his credit, Connery has become one of the world's most prominent movie stars.

After a three-year stint in the navy and a series of odd jobs, Connery became a model for student artists and men’s fashion catalogs. He represented Scotland in the 1953 Mr. Universe contest (he finished third in the tall-man’s division), which in turn led to work as an extra in stage productions.

In 1962 Connery was cast in the role of James Bond, Agent 007 of the British Secret Intelligence Service, in the screen adaptation of Ian Fleming’s spy thriller Dr. No. The immense success of the film and its immediate sequels, From Russia with Love (1963) and Goldfinger (1964), established the James Bond films as a worldwide phenomenon and Connery as an international celebrity. Not wanting to be typecast as the superspy, Connery continued to take other acting roles, notably in Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological thriller Marnie (1964). After completing the next two James Bond films, Thunderball (1965) and You Only Live Twice (1967), Connery renounced the role of Bond. Four years later, however, he was persuaded to return to the role for Diamonds Are Forever (1971), which he declared was his last movie as Bond.

He spent the 1970s playing mostly in period dramas and science-fiction films, the best among them being The Molly Maguires (1970), Zardoz (1974), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), The Wind and the Lion (1975), Robin and Marian (1976), and The First Great Train Robbery (1979; also released as The Great Train Robbery). In 1981 he made a memorable appearance as King Agamemnon in Terry Gilliam’s time-travel fantasy Time Bandits, and two years later he delighted Bond fans by returning to the role of 007 in the slyly titled Never Say Never Again (1983).

Connery officially retired from acting following his appearance in the film adaptation (2003) of the comic-book series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, though he went on to perform various voice roles. Connery received a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime achievement in 1999 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2000. In addition to his film work, Connery was an outspoken advocate of Scottish independence, strongly supporting the Scottish National Party.

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Beautiful Publicity Stills of Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle in ‘My Fair Lady’

My Fair Lady is a 1964 musical drama film directed by George Cukor and starred Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway, Gladys Cooper and Wilfrid Hyde-White. The story centers around Eliza Doolittle, a poor Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from Henry Higgins, an arrogant phonetics professor, so that she may pass as a lady and be able to work in a flower shop. It was a notable critical and commercial success, with eight Academy Awards won, including Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role and Best Director.

Here is a stunning collection of publicity stills of Audrey Hepburn in Eliza’s costumes in the film, designed and taken by the renowned costume designer and photographer Cecil Beaton himself:

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Italian Classic Beauty: 50 Glamorous Photos of Elsa Martinelli in the 1950s and 1960s

Born 1935 as Elisa Tia in Grosseto, Tuscany, Italian actress and fashion model Elsa Martinelli moved to Rome with her family and was discovered by Roberto Capucci who introduced her to the world of fashion in 1953.

Martinelli became a model and began playing small roles in films. She appeared in Claude Autant-Lara's Le Rouge et le Noir (1954), but her first important film role came the following year with The Indian Fighter opposite Kirk Douglas, who claimed to have spotted her on a magazine cover and hired her for his production company, Bryna Productions.

In 1956 she won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 6th Berlin International Film Festival for playing the title role in Mario Monicelli's Donatella.

From the mid-1950s through the late 1960s, she divided her time between Europe and the United States, appearing in films such as Four Girls in Town (1957), Manuela (1957), Prisoner of the Volga (1959), Hatari! (1962), The Pigeon That Took Rome (1962), The Trial (1962), The V.I.P.s (1963), Rampage (1963), Woman Times Seven (1967), and Candy (1968).

From the late 1960s, she worked in Europe in mostly foreign language productions. Her last English language role was as Carla the Agent in Once Upon a Crime (1992). Her final acting appearance was in the 2005 European television series Orgoglio as the Duchessa di Monteforte.

Martinelli died of cancer in Rome in 2017, at the age of 82.

Take a look at these glamorous photos to see the beauty of young Elsa Martinelli in the 1950s and 1960s.

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Beautiful Photos Show Exterior and Interior of an Illinois House in the Mid-1960s

A beautiful photo collection from the Huebner family that shows exterior and interior of a house at 316 Grove Street, Normal, Illinois, where they lived from 1964 to 1968.

Todd and Karla behind the house on Grove Street, Normal, IL, January 1965. Photo by Walter Lamb

Karla, Wayne (with the Praktiflex FX), Dolores, and Todd in front of the house on Grove Street, Normal, IL, spring/summer 1965. Photo by Walter Lamb

Wayne and the Mercedes 220 outside the house on Grove Street, Normal, IL, July-August 1966

The Mercedes 250S in the driveway of the house on Grove Street, Normal, IL, winter 1967-68

The house on Grove Street, Normal, IL, winter 1967-68

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Back When Women Wanted to Get Fat: 26 Funny Vintage Ads Promoting Weight Gain for Women From Between the 1930s and 1950s

Believe it or not, in these thin-obsessed times, there were small pockets of history in which the messaging to women was not “don’t eat, be forever small”, but rather, curvy is better, so gain some pounds dammit and be more attractive.

According to Pretty Sweet, America currently has a $66 billon weight loss industry. That’s 66 billion with a “b” spent by Americans each year in a usually unsuccessful attempt to lose weight with brands like Weight Watchers and Nutrisystem. Even more surprising might be that back in the day there used to be a thriving weight gain industry.

It’s true, supplement brands like WATE-ON told women that skinny was out and they needed to gain weight to attract men. In fact, much of the time time the secret of their weight gain product was “ironized yeast.”

Below are some of the best vintage advertisements promising women weight gain from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Also, the women in these old ads were by no means “obese,” but certainly are “overweight” compared to today’s magazine models.

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Half Man, Half Bull: Ridiculously Interesting Photos of Pablo Picasso in Minotaur Mask, Côte d'Azur, 1949

Born in 1881 in the Spanish port of Malaga, Picasso was immersed in a Mediterranean culture that both venerated and fought and killed the bull. The corrida was an integral part of his life and it had a lasting effect on him.

Matadors, picadors, horses and bulls are recurring subjects in his work but there is more to it than that, for Picasso identified with the Minotaur. As he said: “If all the ways I have been along were marked on a map and joined up with a line, it might represent a Minotaur.”

Like the mythical bull-man, he was a big beast who could not be tamed and whose animal magnetism attracted women in droves. He carried them back into his labyrinth where he enjoyed them — but could he ever find his way out again?

“The Minotaur keeps his women lavishly but he reigns by terror and they’re glad to see him killed,” said Picasso (quoted in Life with Picasso, 1964, by Francoise Gilot and Carlton Lake).

In 1949, photographer Gjon Mili first visited Picasso at Vallauris, in the South of France and took a series of portraits of the artist in minotaur mask on the beach. According to LIFE, Picasso made paper cut-outs, then had the patterns transferred to sheet metal which he folded into animals with lively personalities, turning his paper-thin material into surprisingly substantial works of art.

Mili would revisit Picasso again through the years, each time encountering yet another side of the man while also documenting the artwork that seemed to pour forth in an unending torrent from Picasso’s tireless imagination.

(Photos: Gjon Mili—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

50 Charming Color Photos Show Fashion Trend of the ‘50s Ladies

Women dressed “smartly’ in the fifties. The 1950s fashion women’s dresses were all about good grooming and a tailored look, these attributes were prized.

Although never provocative 1950s women’s dresses could be very seductive. The skirt part of this dress is in the pencil style. The object here is to attain an hourglass, or figure eight, body shape.

Additional, capri pants, high waisted jeans, or even shorts were also favorite choices of women in this period.

Take a look at these old color pics to see what women's fashion trend looked like in the 1950s.

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