“Heaven’s Gift” by Annie Benson Müller From the 1930s

Why are these spooky babies wearing different wigs of real human hair?

Perhaps they made you think of Victorian mourning jewelry made from the hair of the deceased? These hairy babies are usually described as post-mortem photographs or mementos of dead children on the utter creepshow that is the internet today. Alas, the true explanation is less macabre, but the result is no less unsettling.⁣⁣

These are all homemade collages using reproductions of a picture called “Heaven’s Gift” by American illustrator Annie Benson Müller, which was mass-produced in the USA through the 1930s. Crafty mamas who couldn’t afford an expensive baby book or studio portraits would glue locks of their baby’s hair and scraps from christening gowns and baby blankets to these cheap illustrations – a loving albeit slightly unsettling keepsake of their beloved babies.⁣⁣

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Individually, these creepy-cute hair babies are not too weird, but put them all together and they start to feel downright ghoulish. No wonder people assume they had a more gruesome meaning! And hey, if the real explanation doesn’t satisfy your dark appetite, just remember: these assemblages were made for babies born in the 1920s and ’30s so technically most of these do use the hair of people who are (now) dead.

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A Group of High School Flapper Girls Pose for Formal Portrait, ca. 1925

The 1920s presented the precursor to the mini skirt as the restricting silhouettes of the 19th century relaxed into more active styles with higher hemlines to accommodate this.

By the 1920s, flapper fashion favored knee-length skirts and dresses. The same spirit of liberation would be the cause of hemlines raising again in the 1960s.

Photos of Doll’s Hospitals From the Mid-20th Century

Back in those days, dolls were expensive so if they could be repaired they were. Children didn’t have hundreds either then, and their doll was real to them had a name, and when they got hurt, needed to go to “hospital” to get fixed up, it’s just Chuck it away now, and get a new one.

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35 Vintage Photos of American Actress Diana Lynn in the 1940s and ’50s

Born 1926 as Dolores Eartha Loehr in in Los Angeles, California, American actress Diana Lynn was considered a child prodigy. She began taking piano lessons at age 4, and by the age of 12 was playing with the Los Angeles Junior Symphony Orchestra.

Lynn made her film debut playing the piano in They Shall Have Music  and was once again back at the keyboard, accompanying Susanna Foster, in There’s Magic in Music. In 1944, she scored an outstanding success in Preston Sturges’ The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek. She appeared in two Henry Aldrich films, and played writer Emily Kimbrough in two films Our Hearts Were Young and Gay and Our Hearts Were Growing Up both co-starring Gail Russell.

After a few more films, Lynn was cast in one of the year’s biggest successes, the comedy My Friend Irma with Marie Wilson as Irma, and Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in their film debuts. The group reprised their roles for the sequel My Friend Irma Goes West, and five years later Lynn was reunited with Martin and Lewis for one of their last films, You’re Never Too Young.

During the 1950s, Lynn acted in a number of films. She also had many TV leading roles during the 1950s, particularly in the middle years of the decade. As a solo pianist, she released at least one single on Capitol Records with backing by the Paul Weston orchestra.

Before filming started on Play It as It Lays, Lynn suffered a stroke and died on December 18, 1971, at the age of 45. She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: for motion pictures, at 1625 Vine Street and for television at 6350 Hollywood Boulevard.

Take a look at these vintage photos to see the beauty of young Diana Lynn in the 1940s and 1950s.

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Amazing Photos of the Third Generation of the Ford Thunderbird (1961-1963)

The third generation of the Ford Thunderbird is a personal luxury car produced by Ford for the 1961 to 1963 model years. It featured new and much sleeker styling (done by Bill Boyer) than the second generation models. Sales were strong, if not quite up to record-breaking 1960, at 73,051 including 10,516 convertibles.

A new, larger 390 cu in (6.4 L) FE-series V8 was the only engine available (in 1961). The Thunderbird was 1961's Indianapolis 500 pace car, and featured prominently in US President John F. Kennedy's inaugural parade, probably aided by the appointment of Ford executive Robert McNamara as Secretary of Defense. It shared some styling cues with the much smaller European Ford Corsair.

It was replaced by the 4th generation Thunderbird for model year 1964. Here is a set of amazing photos of the third generation of the Ford Thunderbird (1961-1963).

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20 Vintage Portraits of a Young and Handsome Christopher Reeve in the Early 1980s

Christopher Reeve had various stage and television roles before becoming the star of Superman and its sequels. In 1995 he became paralyzed from the neck down following a horse-riding accident.

Christopher D’Olier Reeve was born on September 25, 1952, in New York City. He studied at Cornell University and the Juilliard School in New York, before landing roles in the Broadway play A Matter of Gravity, alongside Katharine Hepburn, and the soap opera Love of Life. 

The actor catapulted to stardom when, following a two-year casting search, he was selected to play the titular superhero of Superman (1978). The popularity of the film, and Reeve’s winning portrayals of the Man of Steel and his alter ego, Clark Kent, spawned the release of Superman sequels in 1980, 1983 and 1987.

Beginning in the 1980s, Reeve was an activist for environmental and human-rights causes and for artistic freedom of expression. After the accident, he lobbied for spinal injury research, including human embryonic stem cell research, and for better insurance coverage for people with disabilities. His advocacy work included leading the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation and co-founding the Reeve-Irvine Research Center. Reeve died on October 10, 2004, 15 days after his 52nd birthday.

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Baby Rides in a “Rumble Seat” When Daddy Goes Fishing, 1938

Playing nursemaid is no deterrent to a day’s fishing when you can carry the youngster on your back.

There was no use in staying home with the baby when his wife was away, a Miami man decided. So he rigged up a seat slung over his shoulders for the youngster, attached a sunshade, and now the baby goes along whenever daddy fishes.