1953 Beverly Hills Session Sadness: The Last Photographs of Marilyn Monroe Taken by Andre de Dienes

This session was to be the last one between Marilyn Monroe by Andre de Dienes, even though he asked to take photos of her several years later. Marilyn suffered from insomnia throughout her adult life. One night yet again in 1953 when she couldn’t sleep she called Andre de Dienes who came and took these poignant photos.

She proposed that they meet to take pictures somewhere in a dark valley in Beverly Hills. Without a flash or professional lighting, he lit Marilyn’s face with the headlight of his car. This was the first time that de Dienes “came face to face with the dark side of Marilyn.”

“She was alone, unhappy, on the edge of despair,” de Dienes said. “She wanted me to come and fetch her. She suggested we could take a series of photos with one of the darkened streets of Beverly Hills as a backdrop.”

Although they stayed in touch until her death in 1962, that night in Beverley Hills was the last time he ever photographed her.

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Photos of Tippi Hedren During the Filming of ‘Marnie’ (1964)

Marnie is a 1964 American psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The screenplay by Jay Presson Allen was based on the 1961 novel of the same name by writer Winston Graham. The film stars Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery.

The music was composed by Bernard Herrmann, his last of seven critically acclaimed film scores for Hitchcock. Marnie also marked the end of Hitchcock’s collaborations with cinematographer Robert Burks (his 12th film for Hitchcock) and editor George Tomasini (who died later in the year).

The film was a moderate box office success; it grossed $7 million in theatres on a budget of $3 million. In North America, it earned estimated rentals of $3,250,000. Marnie was the 22nd highest-grossing film of 1964.

These vintage photos captured portrait of Tippi Hedren during the filming of Marnie in 1964.

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Wonder Woman on a Skateboard in “Skateboard Wiz” (1978)

Wonder Woman (Lynda Carter) does a spin change into a skateboard outfit that consists of a helmet, elbow pads, and knee pads. Then, on skateboard, she chases some bad guys in a car. Clip is from the TV show “Wonder Woman” titled “Skateboard Wiz” (1978).

“Skateboard Wiz” is the eighth episode of season three of the superhero fantasy series The New Adventures of Wonder Woman and the forty-fourth episode of the series overall. It was directed by Leslie H. Martinson with a script written by Alan Brennert. It first aired on CBS on Friday, November 24, 1978.

This is the only episode in which Wonder Woman uses a skateboard (to catch up with the henchmen’s car as they try to escape), and the only appearance of her skateboarding costume (which adds gloves, elbow pads, knee pads, and a helmet with her crest to her regular costume). The red skateboard helmet is much different from her gold motorcycle helmet. Lynda is initially shown wearing her usual high-heeled boots, but subsequent shots of her skateboarding stunt double all show her wearing flats.

Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter learning to skateboard with some guest stars in the season three episode “Skateboard Whiz”.

35 Beautiful Photos of Faith Domergue in the 1940s and ’50s

Born 1924 or 1925 in New Orleans, Louisiana, American actress Faith Domergue made her first on-screen appearance with an uncredited walk-on role in Blues in the Night (1941). She was signed to a contract with Hughes’ RKO Radio Pictures and cast as the lead in the studio’s thriller Vendetta, which had a troubled four-year production before finally being released in 1950.

Domergue appeared in science fiction and horror pictures, such as Cult of the Cobra, This Island Earth, It Came from Beneath the Sea, and The Atomic Man, all released in 1955, earning her a reputation as an early “scream queen”. Her later career consisted of B movies, television guest roles, and European productions.

Domergue spent her later years in retirement in Palo Alto, California. She died from an unspecified cancer in 1999, in Santa Barbara, at age 74. Take a look at these vintage photos to see the beauty of young Faith Domergue in the 1940s and 1950s.

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Striking Photos Documented Life of African-Americans in Chicago's South Side in 1941

The Great Migrations from 1910 to 1960 brought millions of African-Americans from the rural South to Chicago, where they became an urban population. The mass exodus radically transformed Chicago, both politically and culturally.

For many fleeing the segregation, disenfranchisement and increasing racist violence of the Jim Crow South, the industrial hub of Chicago, with thousands of jobs in steel mills, railroads, meatpacking plants, and the automobile industry, offered the best prospects for self-determination.

The masses of new migrants arriving in the cities captured public attention, and urban white northerners started to get worried, as their neighborhoods rapidly changed. New arrivals encountered territorial resistance from entrenched white ethnic groups, particularly Irish-Americans. That, combined with racist housing covenants, led to the de facto segregation of African-Americans into a narrow strip of run-down neighborhoods on the city’s South Side which came to be called the “Black Belt.”

Despite these obstacles, African-Americans managed to shape the South Side into one of the urban capitals of black America.

In the spring of 1941, Farm Security Administration photographer Edwin Rosskam visited the Black Belt. Rosskam, with Richard Wright as a guide, spent three weeks photographing the city's South Side, from Maxwell Street through the impoverished "kitchenette" neighborhoods to wealthier areas near 47th street.

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March 27, 1977: 583 People Died When Two Boeing 747 Aircrafts Collided on the Runway in Tenerife, Spain

On March 27, 1977, two Boeing 747 passenger jets, operating KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736, collided on the runway at Los Rodeos Airport (now Tenerife North Airport) on the Spanish island of Tenerife. Resulting in 583 fatalities, the Tenerife airport disaster is the deadliest accident in aviation history.

A terrorist incident at Gran Canaria Airport had caused many flights to be diverted to Los Rodeos, including the two aircraft involved in the accident. The airport quickly became congested with parked airplanes blocking the only taxiway and forcing departing aircraft to taxi on the runway instead. Patches of thick fog were drifting across the airfield; hence visibility was greatly reduced for pilots and the control tower.

Immediately after lining up with the runway, the KLM pilot advanced the throttles and the aircraft started to move forward. The co-pilot advised the captain that ATC clearance had not yet been given, and Captain Veldhuyzen van Zanten responded, “I know that. Go ahead, ask.” Meurs then radioed the tower that they were “ready for takeoff” and “waiting for our ATC clearance.” The KLM crew then received instructions which specified the route that the aircraft was to follow after takeoff. The instructions used the word “takeoff,” but did not include an explicit statement that they were cleared for takeoff.

Meurs read the flight clearance back to the controller, completing the readback with the statement: “We are now at takeoff.” Captain Veldhuyzen van Zanten interrupted the co-pilot’s read-back with the comment, “We’re going.”

The controller, who could not see the runway due to the fog, initially responded with “OK” (terminology which is nonstandard), which reinforced the KLM captain’s misinterpretation that they had takeoff clearance. The controller’s response of “OK” to the co-pilot’s nonstandard statement that they were “now at takeoff” was likely due to his misinterpretation that they were in takeoff position and ready to begin the roll when takeoff clearance was received, but not in the process of taking off. The controller then immediately added “stand by for takeoff, I will call you,” indicating that he had not intended the clearance to be interpreted as a takeoff clearance.

A simultaneous radio call from the Pan Am crew caused mutual interference on the radio frequency, which was audible in the KLM cockpit as a three-second-long whistling sound (or heterodyne). This caused the KLM crew to miss the crucial latter portion of the tower’s response. The Pan Am crew’s transmission was “We’re still taxiing down the runway, the Clipper 1736!” This message was also blocked by the interference and inaudible to the KLM crew. Either message, if heard in the KLM cockpit, would have alerted the crew to the situation and given them time to abort the takeoff attempt.

Due to the fog, neither crew was able to see the other plane on the runway ahead of them. In addition, neither of the aircraft could be seen from the control tower, and the airport was not equipped with ground radar.

After the KLM plane had started its takeoff roll, the tower instructed the Pan Am crew to “report when runway clear.” The Pan Am crew replied: “OK, we’ll report when we’re clear.” On hearing this, the KLM flight engineer expressed his concern about the Pan Am not being clear of the runway by asking the pilots in his own cockpit, “Is he not clear, that Pan American?” Veldhuyzen van Zanten emphatically replied “Oh, yes!” and continued with the takeoff.

Moments later, the Pan Am crew spotted the KLM’s landing lights through the fog. When it became clear that the KLM was approaching at takeoff speed, Grubbs exclaimed, “Goddamn, that son-of-a-bitch is coming straight at us!” while the co-pilot Robert Bragg yelled, “Get off! Get off! Get off!". The Pan Am crew applied full power to the throttles and took a sharp left turn towards the grass in an attempt to avoid a collision. By the time the KLM pilots saw the Pan Am, they were already traveling too fast to stop. In desperation the pilots prematurely rotated the aircraft and attempted to clear the Pan Am by climbing away. The KLM was within 330 ft of the Pan Am when it left the ground. Its nose gear cleared the Pan Am, but the engines, lower fuselage and main landing gear struck the upper right side of the Pan Am’s fuselage at approximately 140 knots.

Both airplanes were destroyed. All 234 passengers and 14 crew members in the KLM plane died, as did 326 passengers and nine crew members aboard the Pan Am, primarily due to the fire and explosions resulting from the fuel spilled and ignited in the impact. The other 54 passengers and seven crew members aboard the Pan Am aircraft survived, including the captain, first officer and flight engineer.

The subsequent investigation by Spanish authorities concluded that the primary cause of the accident was the KLM captain’s decision to take off in the mistaken belief that a takeoff clearance from air traffic control (ATC) had been issued. Dutch investigators placed a greater emphasis on a mutual misunderstanding in radio communications between the KLM crew and ATC, but ultimately KLM admitted that their crew was responsible for the accident and the airline agreed to financially compensate the relatives of all of the victims.

The disaster had a lasting influence on the industry, highlighting in particular the vital importance of using standardized phraseology in radio communications. Cockpit procedures were also reviewed, contributing to the establishment of crew resource management as a fundamental part of airline pilots’ training.

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30 Vintage Photos of Hicksville, New York in the Mid-1960s

Hicksville is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. The population of the CDP was 41,547 at the 2010 census. The area is served by the Hicksville Post Office and the Hicksville School District.

Valentine Hicks, son-in-law of nationally famous abolitionist and Quaker preacher Elias Hicks, and eventual president of the Long Island Railroad bought land in the village in 1834 and turned it into a station stop on the LIRR in 1837. The station became a depot for produce, particularly cucumbers for a Heinz Company plant. After a blight destroyed the cucumber crops, the farmers grew potatoes. It turned into a bustling New York suburb in the building boom following World War II.

The hamlet is named for Valentine Hicks.

These vintage black and white photos from Michael Dolan that captured street scenes of Hicksville in 1966 and 1967.

Broadway looking south from Marie St. Henry Huettner's Dept. store, built in 1918, is on the right corner, Hicksville, New York, 1966

Most of west side of block between W Nicholai St. and W Marie St. on Broadway, Hicksville, New York, 1966

New Bridge Rd. at corner of Duffy Ave. Top- left is Kasten Store. To the right is the John Kasten house, Hicksville, New York, 1966

NW corner of Broadway and W Cherry St. Dwyer's Inn was the Windsor Hotel in 1902, Hicksville, New York, 1966

SE corner of E Carl St. and Broadway, Hicksville, New York, 1966

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