Cringeworthy: Matching Family Sweaters of the ‘60s

The trend for wearing matching family clothes was undeniably a huge thing among families in the past, as you clearly can see numerous cringeworthy memes about it.

Take a look at these wool-clad families modeling their matching sweaters through 20 intensely awkward vintage photographs from the sixties:

See more»

Yul Brynner: One of the First Russian-American Film Stars

Born 1920 as Yuliy Borisovich Briner in the city of Vladivostok, Russian-American actor, singer, and director Yul Brynner had his first Broadway performance with a small part in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in 1941. He found little acting work during the next few years, but among other acting stints, he co-starred in a 1946 production of Lute Song. He also did some modeling work and was photographed nude by George Platt Lynes.

Brynner was best known for his portrayal of King Mongkut in the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical The King and I, for which he won two Tony Awards, and later an Academy Award for Best Actor for the film adaptation. He played the role 4,625 times on stage and became known for his shaved head, which he maintained as a personal trademark long after adopting it for The King and I.

Brynner was also well-known as the gunman Chris Adams in The Magnificent Seven (1960) and its first sequel Return of the Seven, along with roles as the android “The Gunslinger” in Westworld (1973), and its sequel Futureworld (1976). In addition to his film credits, he also worked as a model and photographer and was the author of several books.

Considered one of the first Russian-American film stars, Brynner was honored with a ceremony to put his handprints in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood in 1956, and also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. He received the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Ramesses II in the Cecil B. DeMille epic The Ten Commandments (1956) and General Bounine in the film Anastasia (also 1956).

Brynner died of lung cancer in 1985 at New York Hospital at the age of 65. Take a look at these vintage photos to see portrait of a young and handsome Yul Brynner.

See more»

Kate Bush With a Yellow Ferrari in Italy, 1978

It’s January 1978, and Kate Bush has escaped the rain and wind of the British winter to go on a photo shoot in the Italian sun. And while the stunning singer may be the focus of the shoot, the yellow 308 GTS behind her is stealing the spotlight.

Even though her debut song, “Wuthering Heights,” was launched mere days ago, 19-year-old Kate Bush already has the confidence and determination of a seasoned veteran as she strikes a power pose in front of the Prancing Horse behind her, which made its own debut just a few months prior. This no-holds-barred attitude will serve beneficial for Kate, as she will go on to have a successful music career, becoming the first woman to reach number one in the UK charts with a self-penned song (“Wuthering Heights”) and five top 10 hits, including “Running Up That Hill”, “Don’t Give Up”, and “King of the Mountain”. While her yellow counterpart will see equal success within the car scene, being produced for three years, with 3,219 made — a 50% increase over its 308 GTB counterpart — and finding a special place in the hearts of many tifosi.

(Photo: Angelo Deligio / Mondadori Portfolio / Getty Images, via Classic Driver Magazine)

Color Snapshots of People Posing With Their Cars in the 1950s

The post-World War II era brought a wide range of new technologies to the automobile consumer, and a host of problems for the independent automobile manufacturers.

The industry was maturing in an era of rapid technological change; mass production and the benefits from economies of scale led to innovative designs and greater profits, but stiff competition between the automakers.

By the end of the decade, the industry had reshaped itself into the Big Three, Studebaker, and AMC. The age of small independent automakers was nearly over, as most of them either consolidated or went out of business.

A number of innovations were either invented or improved sufficiently to allow for mass production during the decade: air conditioning, automatic transmission, power steering, power brakes, seat belts and arguably the most influential change in automotive history, the overhead-valve V8 engine. The horsepower race had begun, laying the foundation for the muscle car era.

Here below is a set of color photos from Steve Given that shows people posing with their cars in the 1950s.

A family pose with a 1946 Pontiac Streamliner, circa early 1950s

A de-badged Oldsmobile Rocket 88 during the 1950s

A family and their Wartburg in Veszprém, Hungary during the 1950s

Buick, registered to California during the early 1950s

Ford, somewhere in Virginia during 1950

See more»

Farrah Fawcett Attending the “Celebrity Battle of the Sexes” Tennis Tournament in Mission Viejo, California, 1977

Actress Farrah Fawcett attends the taping of “Celebrity Battle of the Sexes” tennis tournament on April 3, 1977 at Marguerite Park in Mission Viejo, California. She teams her tanned limbs and tomboy-ish Adidas shorts and T-shirt with a silk scarf for a touch of glamour.

Hollywood stars compete in a series of athletic events, men versus the ladies, to prove who was the superior sex. This special game show and those that followed each six-months at CBS, was an evolution from the station’s “Challenge of the Sexes” (1976), which had cast everyday people, and “Battle of the Network Stars” (1976).

In tennis, “Battle of the Sexes” describes various exhibition matches played between a man and a woman, or a doubles match between two men and two women in one case. The term is most famously used for an internationally televised match in 1973 held at the Houston Astrodome between 55 year-old Bobby Riggs and 29 year-old Billie Jean King, which King won in three sets. The match was viewed by an estimated fifty million people in the United States and ninety million worldwide

Two other matches commonly referred to as a “battle of the sexes” include one held four months earlier in 1973 between Riggs and Margaret Court over the best of three sets, and one in 1992 between Jimmy Connors and Martina Navratilova over the best of three sets, with hybrid rules favoring the female player dubbed “The Battle of Champions.”

At least eight other exhibition matches have been played between notable male and female tennis players starting in 1888, though only some of them were referred to at the time as a “battle of the sexes.”

See more»

35 Beautiful Photos of Swedish Actress Märta Torén During Her Brief Career

Born 1925 in Stockholm, Swedish actress Märta Torén began her career on the stage after studying at the Stockholm Royal Dramatic Theater’s Dramatens elevskolaand, and from 1947 she appeared in films.

Torén appeared on the cover of the June 13 issue of Life magazine in 1949. She appeared in 11 American film productions during her brief career. One of her roles was opposite Humphrey Bogart in Sirocco (1951), and she also co-starred with Dana Andrews in Assignment – Paris! (1952).

On 19 February 1957, Torén died from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 31. She had been stricken less than 48 hours earlier after performing in a play in Stockholm.

Take a look at these vintage photos to see the beauty of Märta Torén in the 1940s and 1950s.

See more»

Portraits of Wild Bill Hickok, the Most Famous of All Western Gunfighters

James Butler Hickok (May 27, 1837 – August 2, 1876), better known as “Wild Bill” Hickok, was a folk hero of the American Old West known for his life on the frontier as a soldier, scout, lawman, gambler, showman, and actor, and for his involvement in many famous gunfights. He earned a great deal of notoriety in his own time, much of it bolstered by the many outlandish and often fabricated tales he told about himself. Some contemporaneous reports of his exploits are known to be fictitious, but they remain the basis of much of his fame and reputation.

Hickok was born and raised on a farm in northern Illinois at a time when lawlessness and vigilante activity was rampant because of the influence of the “Banditti of the Prairie.” Drawn to this ruffian lifestyle, he headed west at age 18 as a fugitive from justice, working as a stagecoach driver and later as a lawman in the frontier territories of Kansas and Nebraska. He fought and spied for the Union Army during the American Civil War and gained publicity after the war as a scout, marksman, actor, and professional gambler. He was involved in several notable shootouts during the course of his life.

In 1876, Hickok was shot and killed while playing poker in a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory (present-day South Dakota) by Jack McCall, an unsuccessful gambler. The hand of cards which he supposedly held at the time of his death has become known as the dead man’s hand: two pairs; black aces and eights.

Hickok remains a popular figure of frontier history. Many historic sites and monuments commemorate his life, and he has been depicted numerous times in literature, film, and television. He is chiefly portrayed as a protagonist, although historical accounts of his actions are often controversial, and much of his career is known to have been exaggerated both by himself and by contemporary mythmakers. While Hickok claimed to have killed numerous named and unnamed gunmen in his lifetime, his career as a gunfighter only lasted from 1861 to 1871. According to Joseph G. Rosa, Hickok’s biographer and the foremost authority on Wild Bill, Hickok killed only six or seven men in gunfights.

Portrait of a young James Butler Hickok, aka “Wild Bill” Hickok.

James B. Hickok in the 1860s, during his pre-gunfighter days.

Hickok in his days as a Cavalry Scout around 1869.

Wild Bill Hickock, between 1868 and 1870.

Carte de Visite of Wild Bill Hickok, ca. 1874.

See more»