25 Fascinating Photos Capture Street Scenes of Novosibirsk, Russia in the Early 1970s

Founded in 1893 on the Ob River crossing point of the future Trans-Siberian Railway, Novosibirsk is the administrative center of Novosibirsk Oblast in Russia. Located in the southwestern part of Siberia on the banks of the Ob River, it is the third-most populous city in Russia (after Moscow and St. Petersburg) as well as the most populous city in Asian Russia.

Originally named Novonikolayevsk, the city grew rapidly into a major transport, commercial and industrial hub. It was ravaged by the Russian Civil War but recovered during the early Soviet period, and gained its present name in 1926.

Novosibirsk is home to the headquarters of numerous Russian corporations, as well as the world-renowned Novosibirsk Zoo. It is served by Tolmachevo Airport, the busiest airport in Siberia.

These fascinating photos were taken by gcosserat that show street scenes of Novosibirsk in 1971.

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Lovely Pics of Young Deborah Walley in the 1960s

Born 1941 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, American actress Deborah Walley was discovered by agent Joyce Selznick in a performance in a production of Anton Chekov's Three Sisters. This led her to make her Hollywood film debut as Gidget in 1961's Gidget Goes Hawaiian. The film was popular and established Walley as a name among teenage fans.

Walley's work in Gidget Goes Hawaiian brought her the Photoplay Gold Medal Award for Favorite Female Newcomer. She was named Photoplay magazine's ‘Most Popular Actress of 1961’.

Disney hired Walley to play an ingenue in two comedies, Bon Voyage! (1962) and Summer Magic (1963); she sang in the latter.

Walley signed a contract with AIP who cast her as a female lead in some comedies Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), Ski Party (1965), Sergeant Dead Head (1965). She sang in some of these.

Walley's later films included Drag Racer (1971), The Severed Arm (1973) and Benji (1974), the latter an unexpected huge hit. She died of esophageal cancer in 2001, at her home in Sedona, Arizona, aged 59.

Take a look at these lovely photos to see the pure beauty of young Deborah Walley in the 1960s.

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Watch Jack Nicholson Prepping for the Infamous Axe Scene in 'The Shining' (1980)

Here’s behind-the-scenes footage of Jack Nicholson muttering, running in place, and taking practice chops in preparation for the famous “Here’s Johnny!” scene in The Shining.

In the video which has been online since 2011, Nicholson isn’t so much warming up for the scene as he is winding himself up into a frenzy, saying “C’mon, c’mon,” and bouncing up and down as he clenches his fists. You can see him become Jack Torrance right before your eyes, and the transition from “behind the scenes” into actual filming is almost seamless.

The axe wielded by Nicholson in the classic horror film has sold at an auction in London for £170,000, or around $209,000, according to The Independent. The prop sold for four times its original estimated selling price at the Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction.

The Bizarre Story of Oskar Kokoschka and His Life-Size Alma Mahler Doll

Alma Mahler (1879–1964) was a Viennese socialite and arts patron whose infamous romantic life inspired composers, painters, and novelists, including Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius, Franz Werfel, and others. Between her marriages to Mahler (who died in 1911) and Gropius (in 1915), Alma had a turbulent affair with the expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980), who memorialized her in his painting The Bride of the Wind, 1913-14 (just before their relationship ended).

Unable to forget his muse and lover, in July 1918 Kokoschka ordered a life-size doll from the Munich doll-maker Hermine Moos as a substitute for his lost love. It was to be made to look exactly like Alma Mahler.

Hermine Moos working on the faux Alma Mahler.

On July 22 he already returned a model of the head, having checked it and made suggestions as to how the work should proceed. “If you are able to carry out this task as I would wish, to deceive me with such magic that when I see it and touch it imagine that I have the woman of my dreams in front of me, then dear Fräulein Moos, I will be eternally indebted to your skills of invention and your womanly sensitivity as you may already have deduced from the discussion we had.”

Kokoschka provided Moos with many detailed drawings and a life sized oil sketch. On August 20, 1918 he wrote to Moos: “Yesterday I sent a life-size drawing of my beloved and I ask you to copy this most carefully and to transform it into reality. Pay special attention to the dimensions of the head and neck, to the ribcage, the rump and the limbs. And take to heart the contours of body, e.g., the line of the neck to the back, the curve of the belly. Please permit my sense of touch to take pleasure in those places where layers of fat or muscle suddenly give way to a sinewy covering of skin. For the first layer (inside) please use fine, curly horsehair; you must buy an old sofa or something similar; have the horsehair disinfected. Then, over that, a layer of pouches stuffed with down, cottonwool for the seat and breasts. The point of all this for me is an experience which I must be able to embrace!”

Kokoschka’s letter to Hermine Moos.

In December Kokoschka eagerly demanded of Hermine Moos: “Can the mouth be opened? Are there teeth and a tongue inside? I hope.”

The doll was not finished until the second half of February 1919. On February 22 Kokoschka asked to have the doll sent to him. The packing-case arrived. Kokoschka writes: “In a state of feverish anticipation, like Orpheus calling Eurydice back from the Underworld, I freed the effigy of Alma Mahler from its packing. As I lifted it into the light of day, the image of her I had preserved in my memory stirred into life.”

He got his servant to spread rumors about the doll, to give the public impression that she was a real woman, for example, that he had hired a horse and carriage to take her out on sunny days, and rented a box for her at the Opera in order to show her off.

Kokoschka was ultimately disappointed with the result, a clumsy construction of fabric and wood wool. He complained that the shag carpet-like skin was not life-like enough. Despite the doll’s shortcomings, she turned out to be a compliant substitute companion and muse. The live Alma Mahler long gone, Kokoschka started a series of paintings of the doll.

After several moths, despite Kokoschka’s effort, expense and energy, he decided to dispense with the fetish. “I engaged a chamber orchestra from the Opera. The musicians, in formal dress, played in the garden, seated in a Baroque fountain whose waters cooled the warm evening air. A Venetian courtesan, famed for her beauty and wearing a very low-necked dress, insisted on seeing the Silent Woman face to face, supposing her to be a rival. She must have felt like a cat trying to catch a butterfly through a window-pane; she simply could not understand. Reserl paraded the doll as if at a fashion show; the courtesan asked whether I slept with the doll, and whether it looked like anyone I had been in love with... In the course of the Party the doll lost its head and was doused in red wine. We were all drunk.”

The next day, a police patrol happened to glance through the gates, and seeing what was apparently the body of a naked woman covered with blood, they burst into the house suspecting some crime of passion. And for that matter, that’s what it was... “because in that night I had killed Alma...”

Alma Mahler by Oskar Kokoschka, 1912.

The Bride of the Wind or The Tempest, oil on canvas, a self-portrait expressing his unrequited love for Alma Mahler, widow of composer Gustav Mahler, 1914.

Kokoschka’s 1919 painting of his doll, Woman in Blue.

Self-portrait with Doll, 1920. As seen in this self-portrait, Kokoschka’s paintings of the doll would often drift into more sexually suggestive/aggressive themes.

Young Alma Mahler.

Young Oskar Kokoschka, ca. 1910.

Israel in the 1950s Through Amazing Color Pics

When the War of Independence ended, the newly founded State of Israel was home to 872,000 citizens. They included some 700,000 Jews and about 150,000 Moslems, Christians, and Druze.

For Israel, the 1950s were its formative years. It was a decade of concerted national effort to forge a state and nation like any other member of the family of nations. These were years of civil mobilization, mass aliyah, austerity, insecure borders, and hostile neighbors, as well as another war that ended in a victory that was seen as an expression of the young state’s strength and fortitude.

These amazing color pics from Kerst de Jong that show what Israel looked like in the 1950s.

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Pictures of David Bowie and His Wife Angela Bowie Photographed by Terry O’Neill in 1973

Angela described their union as a marriage of convenience. “We got married so that I could work [to get a permit]. I didn't think it would last and David said, before we got married, ‘I'm not really in love with you’ and I thought that's probably a good thing,” she said.

David said about Angela that “living with her is like living with a blow torch.” Their son Duncan Jones was born in 1971. They divorced in 1980. David received custody of their son Duncan who has been estranged from Angela for over 30 years.

After the gag order that was part of their divorce agreement ended, Angela wrote, Backstage Passes: Life on the Wild Side with David Bowie, a memoir about their drug-fueled and openly bisexual marriage.

Here below is a photo set of David Bowie and his wife Angela Bowie photographed by Terry O’Neill in 1973.

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Fascinating Vintage Photos of Buster Keaton Posing With His Dogs in the 1920s and 1930s

Buster Keaton owned several dogs throughout his days. There was Captain, a wedding gift to him and Natalie. He was an ex Police dog, hence the name. Elmer, a character Buster played time and again in his later career, was another of his dogs… in fact there were three Elmers over the years. Then of course there was Luke, his co-star but he belonged to Roscoe Arbuckle’s wife, Minta.

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