Chariot of 1938 Ben Hur Drawn by Four Motorcycles

For the Ben Hur of the motor age, no four-horse team would do. Instead, the charioteer–stunting in a sports festival sponsored by a Potsdam regiment in Germany–rides on a rubber-tired chariot drawn by four motorcycles in 1938.

“Reins” in the driver’s hands lead to the handlebars of all four “bikes,” which are harnessed together by three horizontal bars. The har-ness recalls certain farm tractors which are controlled by reins.

Charioteer in German sports festival drives four motorcycles with reins.

50 Amazing Photographs Capture Daily Life on Bangkok’s Chao Phraya River From the Early 1950s

The Chao Phraya River is an iconic symbol of Bangkok and a life-giver to Thailand’s various provinces through which it flows. The ‘River of Kings’ has a rich history, acting as a gateway to some of the capital’s most prestigious attractions.

The importance of the Chao Phraya River stretches as far back as the 15th century. Settlers chose the area that is now Bangkok for its fertile lands (it was once a swamp, after all), in addition to its strategic position close to the river’s mouth. The Thai capital was later relocated from Ayutthaya to the Chao Phraya’s western banks (modern-day Thonburi), and later still to the opposite side of the water. Both settlements were ultimately joined as one larger capital, now known as Bangkok (or Krung Thep in Thai).

Modern-day development across Bangkok has evolved the landscape along the river beyond recognition. Authorities have evicted numerous communities along the river in Bangkok during recent years, alleged to have been illegally occupying land. This is to make way for the controversial development of an enormous riverside promenade, stretching all the way from the Rama 7 Bridge in the north to Phra Pinklao Bridge towards the south.

Here, a gallery of 50 amazing photographs of life on the Chao Phraya river taken by Dmitri Kessel for LIFE magazine from the early 1950s.

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36 Vintage Snapshots of People in Their Kitchens From the 1960s

The 1960s were all about innovation and eclectic style. The mid-century modern look was still going strong and folks were eager to add pops of color throughout their home decor.

The 1960s marked the beginning of when kitchens became more than just a place to prepare food. Instead, kitchens turned into the center of the home, a room where families and friends gathered not just to make dinner, but to eat it, too.

Kitchens were open and spacious and just as functional as they were beautiful. Take a look at these vintage photos to see what kitchens looked like in the 1960s.

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Two Rare Color Photographs of Mark Twain Late in His Life in 1908

Alvin Langdon Coburn (1882–1966) was an early 20th century photographer who became a key figure in the development of American pictorialism. He became the first major photographer to emphasize the visual potential of elevated viewpoints and later made some of the first completely abstract photographs.

The years 1906–07 were some of the most prolific and important for Coburn. He began 1906 by having one-man shows at the Royal Photographic Society and at the Liverpool Amateur Photographic Association. In July five more gravures were published in Camera Work (No. 15). At the same time he began to study photogravure printing at the London County Council School of Photo-Engraving. It was during this time that Coburn made one of his most famous portraits, that of George Bernard Shaw posing nude as Rodin’s The Thinker.

In the summer he cruised round the Mediterranean and traveled to Paris, Rome and Venice in the fall while working on frontispieces for an American edition of Henry James’ novels. While in Paris he saw Steichen’s Autochrome color photographs and learned the process from him. Here, Mark Twain was photographed in color by Alvin Langdon Coburn using the newly created Autochrome system in 1908:

Photograph of Mark Twain late in his life, 1908.

Mark Twain photographed wearing his Oxford University Academic robes at his home in Redding, Connecticut, 1908.

Singer Can Hear Voice as Audience Hears It, 1934

So that would-be singers may hear themselves as others hear them, a Los Angeles voice teacher and former grand opera singer has invented and patented a voice reflector, in 1934. Fitted around the pupil’s neck like a collar, as shown above, its convolutions carry a part of the singer’s tones back to her own ears.

According to the inventor, his device will enable singers or public speakers to detect and correct faults in tone, volume, and diction during a few hours’ practice, since they may hear in this way exactly how their voices in singing or speaking would sound to an audience.

35 Portrait Photos of Joel McCrea in the 1940s and ’50s

Born 1905 in South Pasadena, California, American actor Joel McCrea appeared in over one hundred films, starring in over eighty, among them Alfred Hitchcock’s espionage thriller Foreign Correspondent (1940), Preston Sturges’ comedy classics Sullivan’s Travels (1941), and The Palm Beach Story (1942), the romance film Bird of Paradise (1932), the adventure classic The Most Dangerous Game (1932), Gregory La Cava’s bawdy comedy Bed of Roses (1933), George Stevens’ six-time Academy Award nominated romantic comedy The More the Merrier (1943), William Wyler’s These Three, Come and Get It (both 1936) and Dead End (1937), Howard Hawks’ Barbary Coast (1935), and a number of western films, including Wichita (1955) as Wyatt Earp and Sam Peckinpah’s Ride the High Country (1962), opposite Randolph Scott.

McCrea had his career spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and Westerns, for which he became best known. He starred in a total of three Best Picture Oscar nominees: Dead End (1937), Foreign Correspondent (1940), and The More the Merrier (1943).

With the exception of the British thriller Rough Shoot (1953) and film noir Hollywood Story (1951), McCrea appeared in Western films exclusively from 1946 until his retirement in 1976. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6901 Hollywood Blvd. and another star at 6241 Hollywood Blvd. for his contribution to radio.

McCrea died in 1990 in Woodland Hills, California from pneumonia, at the age of 84. Take a look at these vintage photos to see portraits of a young and handsome Joel McCrea in the 1940s and 1950s.

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Beautiful Kodachrome Photos Capture Street Scenes of Paris in 1960

These fascinating pictures were taken by Charles Weever Cushman, an amateur photographer, during his 5-day trip to the French capital. Cushman arrived in Paris on Sunday, May 8 1960 and began to record his journey around the city with his camera and rolls of Kodachrome film for the next four days.

Take a look at these 30 beautiful Kodachrome photographs of Paris taken by Cushman in 1960:

News stand Paris Rue Marignan and Champs Elysee

Rue DesCartes

Rue de la Montagne, Saint Geneviere

View north from Pont Neuf.

Barge in Seine

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Cover Photos of the Picture Post During Its Time

Picture Post was a photojournalistic magazine published in the United Kingdom from 1938 to 1957. It is considered a pioneering example of photojournalism and was an immediate success, selling 1,700,000 copies a week after only two months. It has been called the UK’s equivalent of Life magazine.

Picture Post covers

The magazine’s editorial stance was liberal, anti-Fascist and populist and from its inception, Picture Post campaigned against the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany. In the 26 November 1938 issue, a picture story was run entitled “Back to the Middle Ages”: Photographs of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Göring were contrasted with the faces of those scientists, writers and actors they were persecuting.

Here below is a set of vintage photos that shows Picture Post covers from between the 1930s and 1950s.

No.1, Picture Post, October 1st, 1938

The Queen’s Dressmaker, Picture Post, November 19th, 1938

Eastenders at War, Picture Post, September 28th, 1940

A Plan To Save India, Picture Post, February 28th, 1942

Carla Lehmann, Picture Post, July 11th, 1942

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“I’ll Do It Myself!” – Josephine Cochran, the Inventor of the Automatic Dishwasher

Josephine Cochrane (1839–1913) was an American inventor who was the inventor of the first commercially successful automatic dishwasher, which she designed in the shed behind her home; she then constructed it engaging the assistance of mechanic George Butters, who became one of her first employees. She is claimed to have said “If nobody else is going to invent a dish washing machine, I’ll do it myself!” Once her patent issued on December 28, 1886, she founded Garis-Cochrane Manufacturing Company to manufacture her machines.

Cochrane showed her new machine at the World’s Colombian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 where nine Garis-Cochran washers were installed in the restaurants and pavilions of the fair and was met with interest from restaurants and hotels, where hot water access was not an issue. She won the highest prize for “best mechanical construction, durability and adaptation to its line of work” at the Fair. Garis-Cochran Manufacturing Company, which built both hand and power operated dishwashers, grew through a focus on hotels and other commercial customers and was renamed as Cochran’s Crescent Washing Machine Company in 1897.

Cochran’s Crescent Washing Machine Company became part of KitchenAid through acquisition by Hobart Manufacturing Company after Cochran’s death in 1913, who first grew the commercial business, and in 1949, the first KitchenAid dishwasher based on Cochran’s design was introduced to the public.

By the 1950s, most households had access to hot water which had been limited in the past and cultural attitudes regarding the role of women were shifting so the consumer home market opened for dishwashers in the 1950s.

Stamp of Romania, 2013.

Cochran was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006 for patent 355,139 issued on December 28, 1886, for her invention of the dishwasher.

The Paternoster: The Non-Stop Europe’s Doorless Elevator

A paternoster is a passenger elevator which consists of a chain of open compartments (each usually designed for two people) that move slowly in a loop up and down inside a building without stopping. Passengers can step on or off at any floor they like. The same technique is also used for filing cabinets to store large amounts of (paper) documents or for small spare parts. The much smaller belt manlift which consists of an endless belt with steps and rungs but no compartments is also sometimes called a paternoster.

The name paternoster (“Our Father”, the first two words of the Lord’s Prayer in Latin) was originally applied to the device because the elevator is in the form of a loop and is thus similar to rosary beads used as an aid in reciting prayers.

The construction of new paternosters was stopped in the mid-1970s out of concern for safety, but public sentiment has kept many of the remaining examples open. By far most remaining paternosters are in Europe, with 230 examples in Germany, and 68 in the Czech Republic. Only three have been identified outside Europe: one in Malaysia, one in Sri Lanka and another in Peru.

Peter Ellis installed the first elevators that could be described as paternoster lifts in Oriel Chambers in Liverpool in 1868. Another was used in 1876 to transport parcels at the General Post Office in London. In 1877, British engineer Peter Hart obtained a patent on the first paternoster. In 1884, the engineering firm of J & E Hall of Dartford, Kent, installed its first “Cyclic Elevator”, using Hart’s patent, in a London office block.

The newly built Dovenhof in Hamburg was inaugurated in 1886. The prototype of the Hamburg office buildings equipped with the latest technology also had a paternoster. This first system outside of Great Britain already had the technology that would later become common, but was still driven by steam power like the British systems. The highest paternoster lift in the world was located in Stuttgart in the 16-floor Tagblatt tower, which was completed in 1927.

Paternosters were popular throughout the first half of the 20th century because they could carry more passengers than ordinary elevators. They were more common in continental Europe, especially in public buildings, than in the United Kingdom. They are relatively slow elevators, typically traveling at about 30 cm per second (approx. 1 ft per second), to facilitate getting on and off.

Italy in the Late 1950s Through Fascinating Black and White Photos

This series of photos were taken by American photographer Lester Gediman “when I went back to Florence in 1958-59 to work at SMA, a Florentine radar company. They were made during siesta long lunch hours or weekends in Florence and surrounding towns.”

“A few were taken in Spoleto during the 2nd Festival of Two Worlds in summer of 1959 and at the Milan Trade Fair the same year.”

“My wife, Claudia, and our son, Marc, are seen at the end of the set.”

Eyes left, Florence, 1959

A nun in a hurry somewhere, heading toward the Arno, Florence, 1958

A pair of carabinieri (military police) patrol near the Uffizi gallery, Florence, 1958

A weekend hobby being practiced in a Florentine street, 1958-59

Afternoon edition, Florence, 1958

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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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