Backflashes

Bruce Jenner, Olympic hero or bit-player step-Dad on reality...

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 09:57:39 -0700

Bruce Jenner, Olympic hero or bit-player step-Dad on reality TV’s Kardashian franchise?

We prefer to remember Bruce in his glory days, winning the gold medal for the decathlon in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Holy hunk! This was what the world’s greatest athlete looked like back then.

Following his Olympic triumph, Jenner famously laid down his javelin, discus and cleats for commercial endorsements like the cover of the Wheaties box and an ill-fated acting career that got him better known for an alleged addiction to Botox and Kardashians.

More on Bruce Jenner, then and now, here.

Gore Vidal, celebrated American writer, has died at age 86. Over...

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:26:20 -0700

Gore Vidal, celebrated American writer, has died at age 86. Over a career that spanned seven decades he penned numerous novels, essays, plays and screenplays.

But what he may be best remembered for, at least by those who remember TV before cable, will be his appearances on TV talk shows.

As Vidal himself once said,

“I never miss a chance to have sex or appear on television.”

They don’t make writers - or personalities - like Gore Vidal anymore. This is an AP photo of Vidal, taken in 1974.

R.I.P. Dr. Sally Ride, America’s first woman in space....

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 08:25:19 -0700

R.I.P. Dr. Sally Ride, America’s first woman in space. When she was part of the 1983 Challenger crew she was also the youngest American to ever enter space. She still is.

And, she is also, apparently the only NASA astronaut to have ever been photographed with a Muppet!

Go to the New York Times to read about Sally Ride’s lifetime accomplishments. She was a true American trailblazer, whose death from pancreatic cancer at 61 was way too soon.

Editta Sherman may be better known as “the Duchess of...

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 16:09:53 -0700

Editta Sherman may be better known as “the Duchess of Carnegie Hall.”

That’s what her neighbor, New York Times Style photographer Bill Cunningham dubbed her in the documentary about his photo taking released last year. But Sherman has had an extensive photo career of her own, beginning in the 1930s. This week, she celebrates her 100th birthday.

As a widow, Sherman raised her four children in her studio above Carnegie Hall, supporting all with her photo work. She typically did family and children’s portraits to pay the bills, but a friendship with actor Frank Morgan (The Wizard of Oz) and her location in New York City led to many more celebrated photo opps with the likes of Henry Fonda, Yul Brunner, Tyrone Power, and yes - even Elvis and Andy (Presley and Warhol, of course).

A very short and interesting exhibit of Sherman’s work is on right now through July 29 at 25 CPW Gallery in New York City. The exhibit re-creates Sherman’s Carnegie Hall studio space, which she was evicted from, along with several other artists, in 2010.

Click here for a more extensive bio and slideshow: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/09/the-duchess-of-carnegie-hall-turns-100/?smid=tw-share

We love a good, juicy, sexy ’70s read. A new book by...

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 10:10:00 -0700

We love a good, juicy, sexy ’70s read. A new book by Christopher Anderson, Mick: The Wild Life and Mad Genius of Jagger, “lays bare the Satanic Majesty’s sexual forays,” including this exclusive excerpt about Jagger’s dalliance with icon David Bowie.

Photos of both stars circa 1973 during their glitter-glam rock phases from the book are shown here.

Forty-four years ago today, Senator Robert Francis Kennedy...

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 14:31:00 -0700

Forty-four years ago today, Senator Robert Francis Kennedy (RFK), was shot and mortally wounded at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. The younger brother of President Kennedy, RFK was contending for his own run for the White House when the assassin’s bullet struck him from behind in the hotel’s kitchen, where he was shaking hands with workers after having just won the California Democratic Primary.

This photo was taken by Bill Eppridge for Time-Life and appeared in LIFE Magazine. The caption read:

“Rigid, semiconscious, his face an ashen mask, Senator Kennedy lies in a pool of his own blood on the concrete floor, a bullet deep in his brain and another in his neck. Juan Romero, a busboy whose hand Kennedy had shaken before the shots, tried to comfort him.”

Eppridge’s photos from that sad night in American history can be viewed here: http://life.time.com/history/behind-the-picture-rfks-assassination/#ixzz1wxNVTdL0

Buzzfeed has put together a collection of the “40 Most...

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 13:49:42 -0700

Buzzfeed has put together a collection of the “40 Most Powerful Photos Ever Taken” over the last 100 years. It’s an eclectic selection of some sure-fire memorable photos that belong in anyone’s Photo Hall of Fame. And then some others that we’re not so sure about. One everyone can agree on though is “Earthrise”. A photo taken by astronaut William Anders during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968.

Click here to see the other 39 photos.

Twenty years ago, in 1992, the New York Times started its...

Sun, 27 May 2012 13:45:00 -0700

Twenty years ago, in 1992, the New York Times started its popular Sunday “Vows” column. Each week, as a supplement to the marriage and engagement announcements, one couple is profiled. The Times has kept pace with reality, and the couple can be gay or straight. They can also be ordinary or super famous.

This Sunday’s Times looks back at some of the more well-known couples first featured in 1992. Some like supermodel Iman and rock legend David Bowie are still together, while others like Paula Abdul and Emilio Estevez had a particularly short shelf-life (two years).

Another couple who has withstood the test of time - Barack and Michelle Obama. Click here to see more photos from 1992.

His name was Wladziu (or Vładziu) Valentino Liberace, but we...

Wed, 16 May 2012 10:48:00 -0700

His name was Wladziu (or Vładziu) Valentino Liberace, but we knew him best by just his last name and flamboyance. He was born on this day, May 16, in 1919, which means he would have been 93 if he were still alive.

Liberace died in 1987, but his career

spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements…. During the 1950s–1970s he was the highest-paid entertainer in the world and embraced a lifestyle of flamboyant excess both on and off the stage [Wikipedia]

How do you let the world’s oldest teenager rest in peace?...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:22:51 -0700

How do you let the world’s oldest teenager rest in peace? When Dick Clark, long-time host of American Bandstand and one of our longest-running on-the-air TV personalities passed away this week at the age of 82, Americans took to the interwebs to laugh, cry, share and snark in a collective show of mass online grief.

Photos seem to be the preferred way to remember a man who spent almost 60 years on our TV screens. Photo tributes are being posted on major online news outlets and blogs no one has ever heard of (like this one!).

We are getting to see some wonderfully candid “from the archives” shots of America’s oldest teenager. This photo belongs to Life magazine, although it is unclear if it was ever published. Dick Clark is to the right.

The photo was taken in 1977 at the American Music Awards in Los Angeles. Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton (left) has just presented Johnny Cash with a trophy for outstanding contributions to musical entertainment. Cash’s wife June Carter Cash looks on. Their son John Carter Cash holds the award.

America’s oldest teenager, Dick Clark, passed away today...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:45:18 -0700

America’s oldest teenager, Dick Clark, passed away today at the age of 82 in Santa Monica. The cause was an apparent heart attack.

Clark continued to ring in the New Year in Times Square as part of New Year’s Rockin’ Eve even after he suffered a stroke 8 years ago.

Just about every American has rung in one New Year with Clark. Others of us grew up watching American Bandstand, the TV show he hosted from 1956 to 1989.

This photo, making the interwebs today as we scramble to offer our online condolences to a man we never met, probably best captures the forever youthfulness of the TV personality we knew.

It was taken in 1952 by photographer Phillippe Halsman and appears in his famous “Jump Book” which shows famous people from Brigid Bardot to Richard Nixon jumping. Yes, jumping in the air, which even for Nixon, is typically an act of joy.

Read more about Halsam and the Jump book here.

Happy 50th Birthday, Mets! This week marks the 50th anniversary...

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:27:00 -0700

Happy 50th Birthday, Mets!

This week marks the 50th anniversary of the inaugural New York Mets season. The Mets played their first major league game on April 11, 1962, which makes them officially a 50-year-old franchise.

When I was growing up in southern Connecticut, which was kind of an honorary extension of New York City, the Mets were newbies not to be taken seriously. They were a team made up of has-beens and peculiar draft choices to fill a National League void left in America’s biggest city by the departure of the Dodgers and Giants to the West Coast. They weren’t going to convert any Yankee fans.

Their first couple of seasons, as anyone with a working knowledge of baseball knows, were disastrous. The 1962 Mets still hold the record for the most losses in a season - 120! They probably could have added two more losses to that column, but those rained out games were never made up.

The Mets had a few things going for them, though. They were managed by the now-doddering Casey Stengel, who a decade earlier had been the genius manager of the Yankees and their 5 consecutive World Series titles (1949-1953), followed by two more in 1956 and 1958. Revered as the Yankee skipper, by 1962 he was “washed up” in Yankee-land, but took his job with the Mets in stride. He talked all-things “Metsie”, even when he was confusing his players names and being misquoted as saying “Can’t anybody here play this game!?”

The Mets were owned by Mrs. Joan Payson - the first woman to ever purchase a baseball franchise with her own money.

Gil Hodges, a huge star with the Brooklyn Dodgers in his prime, was brought back from the West Coast to play first base.

And, the Mets, in addition to their flashy orange and blue colors, had the best theme song (still do).

Sportswriters, gamblers and champions of the underdog (many of whom seemed to live in the newly minted suburbs of Long Island and southern Connecticut) loved the Mets. They made a good story. When they won, they won big. They were proof that not everyone in the New York metro area wants a “sure thing” all the time (the Yankees).

In 1969, after years of “cellar dwelling” and never finishing better than second to last place, a miracle occurred. The Mets won their division, the league championship and the World Series in 5 games over the Baltimore Orioles! They were the Miracle Mets, yes indeed!

My father went to one of the World Series games that year. He’s a St. Louis Cardinals fan, but at World Series time, if the Cards aren’t in it, he roots for the National League team. This meant that he was pulling for the Mets.

Whenever I see this photo, I think of my Dad’s good luck at scoring a ticket to this historic World Series, even though it was Game 4 he went to, not the miraculous Game 5.

As a lifelong Met fan, this has always been one of my favorite photos of the team. No doubt taken by a professional photographer just moments after the Mets win the World Series, it looks like it was snapped with someone’s Instamatic. It perfectly captures what I remember about all of the Mets’ big games at Shea Stadium. Hotdog wrappers on the field, a crazed fan (or two) caught up in the pandemonium (note the one in the rust-colored pants coming in from the outfield), the sheer unbelievability of it all. Guess what, guys? To be a real winner, you have to know what it’s like to lose.

Note: If you know the real source of this photo, please let me know. I’d like to give credit to the photographer and maybe find out more about their experience of taking such an amazing shot.

In the 1960s Walter Matthau played sloppy sportswriter Oscar...

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 14:00:20 -0700

In the 1960s Walter Matthau played sloppy sportswriter Oscar Madison in “The Odd Couple” on both stage and big screen. And, the Mets were Amazin’.

nedhepburn:

Gpoy

aconversationoncool: That moment when The Clash met Warhol.

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 16:56:04 -0700

aconversationoncool:

That moment when The Clash met Warhol.

A little look back at sidewalk surfin’, New York...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:46:59 -0800

A little look back at sidewalk surfin’, New York City-style.

From the lens of Photographer Bill Eppridge and brought to our attention by Retronaut, 1960s NYC goes skating. You get the feeling that someone just pulled up with a truck full of boards, handed them out and looked on as everyone went a little nuts. We can’t pretend we weren’t pulled in by the amazing garms some of these guys are sporting but these images are just about big fun. Respect to all the perfectly turned out ladies who don’t even bat an eyelid as out of control kids hurtle towards their ankles. Images via Life.

life: In 1948 LIFE photographer Martha Holmes captured the most...

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:03:49 -0800

life:

In 1948 LIFE photographer Martha Holmes captured the most cheerful ‘cult’ you’ll ever see — ‘Who was this Cape Cod Cult?’ You may be wondering… Let us introduce you to the Activationists.

Pictured above, Activationists gather at their Provincetown “headquarters” — an enormous piece of driftwood — in 1948.

LIFE.com offers a eulogy for and heartfelt celebration of the short-lived, playful, and (evidently) exhilarating phenomenon. (see more photos here)

life: He had the requisite looks, charm, and talent — but it...

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:01:26 -0800

life:

He had the requisite looks, charm, and talent — but it wasn’t until 1969 that Robert Redford truly broke out, guns blazing, as a Hollywood stud.

That was the year of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and also the year that LIFE photographer John Dominis spent a week with the mustached man’s man, as the star mixed business and pleasure at his homes in Utah and New York.

Only a few of the photos Dominis captured made it into the February 1970 LIFE cover story. Here, LIFE presents an entire series of marvelous, unpublished photos of the Hollywood stud.

Vivian Maier evokes thoughts of Arbus, Weegee as well as other...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:22:00 -0800

Vivian Maier evokes thoughts of Arbus, Weegee as well as other New York City and American city street photographers who flourished and published their photos in their lifetime. Maier might be better known as the “nanny with a camera”, who died just a few years after her massive (100,000 negatives) body of work was discovered in a storage locker.

Late in life, nearly destitute, three children whom she nannied pooled resources to provide her with an apartment and care. They described her as:

…a Socialist, a Feminist, a movie critic, and a tell-it-like-it-is type of person. She learned English by going to theaters, which she loved. She wore a men’s jacket, men’s shoes and a large hat most of the time. She was constantly taking pictures, which she didn’t show anyone…

But that only contributes more to the enigma that is Vivian Maier. Her birthplace and early years have yet to be sorted. Some say she was born in France. Others say she was born in the U.S. - or Austria (the part that is now Hungary). The only thing that seems to be agreed upon is that Maier, born in 1926, traveled between the U.S. and Europe in her early years, and began working as a nanny in New York City around 1951. In 1956 she permanently moved to Chicago, where she continued taking photos throughout the 1990s. She died in 2009.

Read more about the fascinating story of Maier and her photos, and as her story continues to unfold, read about John Maloof, the unlikely street photographer, who unknowingly purchased a first batch of Maier photos and is now her biggest champion.

Photos shown here: A Maier self-portrait (left) coupled with her photo of a glamorous woman out for a night on the town (right).

As freaky as they are fascinating. I came across a group of...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:35:00 -0800

As freaky as they are fascinating. I came across a group of these a few weeks ago. Iconic photos we all know well in their black and white form that have been “colorized”. Makes you a little queasy, doesn’t it? Kind of like the first time you saw those old classic movies colorized by Ted Turner back in the 1980s.

Shown here (two ways) is the classic black and white photo taken in 1968 by Associated Press photographer Eddie Adams during the Vietnam War. It highlighted the senseless violence of this war literally “point blank” as South Vietnam’s chief of police Nguyen Ngoc Loan prepares to shoot a Viet Cong solider in the head.

You can see more of these, including one as far back as Abe Lincoln, who ironically met a similar fate, here.

Miss Peaches, aka Etta James, passed away on January 20, just...

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 08:22:04 -0800

Miss Peaches, aka Etta James, passed away on January 20, just five days shy of her 74th birthday. Her music career spanned six decades and six genres: blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul, gospel and jazz. Her hard-won success achieved by the ’60s was shattered by heroin addiction. Kicking the habit in 1974, she rebuilt her career, only to suffer later in life from dementia, and leukemia - which was the cause of death. You can read her life story on Wikipedia.

Photo source: Etta James, performing in San Jose, CA in 2000. Photo is by Louis Ramirez from his Flickr profile.