Freddie Mercury in Private: 40 Candid Photographs of the Queen Frontman Behind the Closed Doors

While Freddie Mercury’s public stage persona is well known, less is seen of the star’s life behind closed doors when he relaxed with friends and family backstage at concerts and at his quiet London home.

Queen recorded over fifteen studio albums and were constantly traveling the globe - they toured Japan six times alone - producing more radio-friendly pop music as they evolved, and becoming one of the most popular and enduring bands of the 20th century.

The band’s unusual name - a mix of sexuality and class - was Freddie Mercury’s idea, and speaking to People in 1977, he confirmed: “The whole point was to be pompous and provocative, to prompt speculation and controversy.”

Yet behind their electric on stage personas and incredible star power, Roger Taylor, Brian May, John Deacon and Freddie Mercury were often on the road, traveling from country to country, based in hotel rooms and frequenting backstage venues - living much of their lives away from the spotlight.

Freddie eats a biscuit while studying at Ealing Technical College in London in summer 1969.

Freddie Mercury at his Shepherds Bush flat, London, 1969.

Freddie Mercury pictured relaxing at his Shepherd’s Bush, London flat in 1969.

Freddie Mercury and Brian May in the back of a car, 1974.

Queen posing with actress and Queen Elizabeth II look-alike, Jeannette Charles, September 1974. The group are (left to right) drummer Roger Taylor, guitarist Brian May, bassist John Deacon and singer Freddie Mercury.

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The Faces: Stunning Portrait Photography by Melvin Sokolsky in the 1960s

Born 1933 in New York City, American photographer and film director Melvin Sokolsky had no formal training in photography, but started to use his father's box camera at about the age of ten.

Portrait photography by Melvin Sokolsky in the 1960s

Around 1954, Sokolsky met Robert Denning, who at the time worked with photographer Edgar de Evia, at an East Side gym. “I discovered that Edgar was paid $4000 for a Jell-O ad, and the idea of escaping from my tenement dwelling became an incredible dream and inspiration.”

Though he is best known for his editorial fashion photographs for publications such as Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, and The New York Times, Sokolsky’s work is not limited to that field. Three quarters of his print photography has been for advertising, which does not usually carry a byline. As Sokolsky said in an interview: “I resented the attitude that ‘This is editorial and this is advertising’. I always felt, why dilute it? Why not always go for the full shot?”

Toward the end of the 1960s, Sokolsky worked as both commercial director and cameraman. He did not, however, abandon the world of print photography; in 1972, he was asked to photograph the entire editorial content of McCall's magazine, a first for any photographer.

These stunning photos are part of his work that Sokolsky took portraits of classic beauties from the 1960s.

 Isabella, Match, New York, by Melvin Sokolsky, 1960

Simone d'Aillencourt by Melvin Sokolsky, July 4, 1960

Simone d'Aillencourt by Melvin Sokolsky, Muir Woods, Marin County, California 1960

Simone d'Aillencourt, bare bulb, screen, by Melvin Sokolsky, Harper's Bazaar, 1960

Ivy Nicholson by Melvin Sokolsky, 1961

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Top 20 Most Gorgeous Blonde Bombshells of the 1950s

The 1950s featured the rise of blonde bombshells and their beautiful brunette counterparts. This period was a big decade for film and also big for actresses that became cultural icons.

This is our list of the top 20 most gorgeous blonde bombshells from the 1950s.


1. Marilyn Monroe.

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) was an American actress, model, and singer. Famous for playing comedic “blonde bombshell” characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s and was emblematic of the era's changing attitudes towards sexuality.

Monroe was a top-billed actress for only a decade, but her films grossed $200 million (equivalent to $2 billion in 2019) by the time of her death in 1962. More than half a century later, she continues to be a major popular culture icon.


2. Jayne Mansfield.

Jayne Mansfield

Jayne Mansfield (1933-1967) was an American film, theater, and television actress. She was also a nightclub entertainer and a singer, and one of the early Playboy Playmates.

Mansfield was a major Hollywood sex symbol during the 1950s and early 1960s while under contract at 20th Century Fox. She was also known for her well-publicized personal life and publicity stunts, such as “wardrobe malfunctions”.


3. Anita Ekberg.

Anita Ekberg

Anita Ekberg (1931-2015) was a Swedish actress active in American and European films. She is best known for her role as Sylvia in the Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita (1960). Ekberg worked primarily in Italy, where she became a permanent resident in 1964.


4. Diana Dors.

Diana Dors

Diana Dors (1931-1984) was an English film and television actress and singer. She first came to public notice as a blonde bombshell in the style of American Marilyn Monroe, as promoted by her first husband, Dennis Hamilton, mostly via sex film-comedies and risqué modelling.

Dors showed a genuine talent as a performer on TV, in recordings, and in cabaret, and gained new popularity as a regular chat-show guest. She also gave some well-regarded performances in worthwhile films at different points in her career.


5. Betty Grable.

Betty Grable

Betty Grable (1916-1973) was an American actress, pin-up girl, dancer, model, and singer. Her 42 films during the 1930s and 1940s grossed more than $100 million. For 10 consecutive years (1942–1951), she reigned in the Quigley Poll’s Top 10 box office stars.

The U.S. Treasury Department in 1946 and 1947 listed her as the highest-salaried American woman; she earned more than $3 million during her career.

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Fascinating Vintage Photos of Sidney Poitier in the 1960s

After becoming the first black actor to receive a nomination for an Oscar Best Actor a few years earlier, Sidney Poitier would go on and become the first black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Lilies of the Field (1963). “It is a long journey to this moment,” said Poitier upon accepting his award in 1964. His joy, however, was lessened by his concerns that this prize would hinder him from asking for more substantive roles in the future.

Other films that Poitier also received critical acclaim for were A Raisin in the Sun (1961) and A Patch of Blue (1965). Over the following year after his Oscar win, Poitier worked somewhat little but remained the only major actor of African descent, and the roles presented were typecast for the most part. He reached the commercial peak of his career, became the most successful draw at the box office with three well-received films in 1967: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, To Sir, with Love, and In the Heat of the Night, each dealing with issues of race relations.

Below are 26 vintage photographs capture the actor during the 1960s:

Playing the rumba-drums in Berlin for the premiere of his film 'Porgy and Bess,' 1960. (Keystone)

Signing the Berlin's Golden Book wife Juanita, 1960s. (Harry Croner)

1960s. (Pierluigi Praturlon)

Speaking at a pre-Inaugural gala for President John F. Kennedy, 1961. (Leonard McCombe)

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40 Vintage Color Photos Capture Street Scenes of Taiwan in the Early 1970s

Taiwan is a state in East Asia. Neighbouring states include the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the north-west, Japan to the north-east, and the Philippines to the south.

Taiwan in the early 1970s

The island of Taiwan has an area of 35,808 square kilometers (13,826 sq mi), with mountain ranges dominating the eastern two-thirds and plains in the western third, where its highly urbanised population is concentrated.

Taipei is the capital and largest metropolitan area. Other major cities include Kaohsiung, Taichung, Tainan and Taoyuan. Taiwan is among the most densely populated states, and is the most populous state and largest economy that is not a member of the United Nations.

Taiwan's export-oriented industrial economy is the 21st-largest in the world, with major contributions from steel, machinery, electronics and chemicals manufacturing. Taiwan is a developed country, ranking 15th in GDP per capita. It is ranked highly in terms of political and civil liberties, education, health care and human development.

These vintage color photos were taken by Jim Harrison that show street scenes of Taiwan from 1970 to 1972.

A ‘pedicab’ on street

Children at 1st checkpoint on road to Ta Han San

Country town

Express postman with motorcycle transportation

Fruit stand

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20 Vintage Posters of Rock ’N Roll and R&B Concerts in the 1950s and ’60s

Rock and roll (often written as rock ’n roll) is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s from musical styles such as gospel, jump blues, jazz, boogie woogie, rhythm and blues, and country music.

Rock ’n roll and R&R concert posters in the 1950s and 1960s

While elements of what was to become rock and roll can be heard in blues records from the 1920s and in country records of the 1930s, the genre did not acquire its name until 1954.

The term “rhythm and blues” (abbreviated as R&B) has undergone a number of shifts in meaning. In the early 1950s, it was frequently applied to blues records. Starting in the mid-1950s, after this style of music contributed to the development of rock and roll, the term "R&B" became used to refer to music styles that developed from and incorporated electric blues, as well as gospel and soul music.

In the 1960s, several British rock bands such as the Rolling Stones, the Who and the Animals were referred to and promoted as being R&B bands; posters for the Who’s residency at the Marquee Club in 1964 contained the slogan, “Maximum R&B”. Their mix of rock and roll and R&B is now known as “British rhythm and blues”.

Here below is an amazing set of vintage posters that shows rock ’n roll and R&B concerts in the 1950s and 1960s.

American Legion Hall (Chattanooga, Tennessee), July 4, 1951

Memorial Auditorium (Chattanooga, Tennessee), September 27, 1955

Memorial Auditorium (Chattanooga, Tennessee), August 8, 1957

Memorial Auditorium (Chattanooga, Tennessee), March 18, 1957

Municipal Auditorium (Kansas City, Missouri), November 10, 1957

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The Grizzly Bear Chair Made for American President Andrew Johnson by Seth Kinman, 1865

Everyone knows about the Oval Office, the pictures of past Presidents, the Kennedy Room, the Lincoln Room, but do you know about the Presidential Grizzly Bear Chair?

Made from two grizzly bears captured by California hunter and trapper Seth Kinman. The four legs and claws were those of a huge grizzly and the back and sides ornamented with immense claws. The seat was soft and exceedingly comfortable, but the great feature of the chair was that, by touching a cord, the head of the monster grizzly bear with jaws extended, would dart out in front from under the seat, snapping and gnashing its teeth as natural as life. The chair was presented by Seth to President Andrew Johnson on September 8, 1865. Johnson kept the chair in his White House library, the Yellow Oval Room.

Bear chair and mule skull fiddle made by Seth Kinman and displayed at World Columbian Exhibition, 1893.

Seth Kinman (September 29, 1815 – February 24, 1888) was an early settler of Humboldt County, California, a hunter based in Fort Humboldt, a famous chair maker, and a nationally recognized entertainer. He stood over 6 ft (1.83 m) tall and was known for his hunting prowess and his brutality toward bears and Indians. Kinman claimed to have shot a total of over 800 grizzly bears, and, in a single month, over 50 elk. He was also a hotel keeper, saloon keeper, and a musician who performed for President Lincoln on a fiddle made from the skull of a mule.

Known for his publicity seeking, Kinman appeared as a stereotypical mountain man dressed in buckskins on the U.S. east coast and selling cartes de visites of himself and his famous chairs. The chairs were made from elkhorns and grizzly bear skins and given to U.S. Presidents. Presidents so honored include James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and Rutherford Hayes. He may have had a special relationship with President Lincoln, appearing in at least two of Lincoln's funeral corteges, and claiming to have witnessed Lincoln's assassination.

His autobiography, dictated to a scribe in 1876, was first published in 2010 and is noted for putting “the entertainment value of a story ahead of the strict facts.” His descriptions of events change with his retelling of them. Contemporary journalists and modern writers were clearly aware of the stories contained in the autobiography, “but each chooses which version to accept.”

Photo of Seth Kinman in 1864 by Matthew Brady.

Kinman in the chair he presented to President Andrew Johnson in 1865.

Kinman in the chair he presented to President Andrew Johnson in 1865. Photo by Matthew Brady.

Seth Kinman reclining in Mathew Brady’s studio in Washington, D.C., 1864. Photo includes a bow with arrows, a hatchet, Kinman’s gun “Old Cottonblossum”, some scalps (presumably from Indians), a set of elkhorns, and 2 grizzly bear feet. Kinman sold these photos and many similar ones.

Kinman’s bar in Table Bluff in 1889, with three chairs displayed.