William (Bill) Helburn (b. 1924) is an American fashion photographer, and contemporary of Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Francesco Scavullo, and Lillian Bassman. He was at the top of his profession from the early 1950s through the 1960s, with bylined covers and editorial images in the pages of Harper's Bazaar, LIFE, McCall's, and many other magazines.
Classic beauties taken by William Helburn in the 1950s and 1960s
Helburn also worked extensively in advertising, contributing memorable pictures to campaigns designed by such legendary art directors as Gene Federico, Robert Gage, Helmut Krone, and George Lois.
Throughout his career Helburn strove to grab the viewer's attention, contextualizing his models in images that jumped off the page. Helburn's first work in photography came at the close of World War II, when he was part of the team that processed the first pictures of the atom bomb exploding over Hiroshima.
Inspired soon after by then-partner Ted Croner's encounter with model Lisa Fonssagrives posing naked on skis, Helburn entered the fashion world in 1947, shooting neophyte models like Grace Kelly and Tippi Hedren, while studying graphic design with legendary art director Alexey Brodovitch.
Helburn became a successful director of TV Commercials in the early 1980s. He left the industry a decade later to raise his children, and currently resides in New England.
These stunning photos are part of his work that Helburn shot famous beauties in the 1950s and 1960s.
Joanna McCormick, photo by William Helburn, 1951
Dorian Leigh, photo by William Helburn, 1955
Suzy Parker poses lying in a bed with white linens, cosmetic advertisement for Revlon, New York, circa 1955
'Dovima Under the El' ('Dior Creates Cosmopolitan Drama'), photo by William Helburn, 1956
Norman Norell and Dovima wearing his Roman-striped version of his famous sequin evening gown, photo by William Helburn, LIFE, October 8, 1956
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of Croatia. It is located in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately 122 m (400 ft) above sea level.
Zagreb is a city with a rich history dating from the Roman times to the present day. The oldest settlement located in the vicinity of the city was the Roman Andautonia, in today's Ščitarjevo.
The transport connections, concentration of industry, scientific, and research institutions and industrial tradition underlie its leading economic position in Croatia. Zagreb is the seat of the central government, administrative bodies, and almost all government ministries. Almost all of the largest Croatian companies, media, and scientific institutions have their headquarters in the city.
Zagreb is also the most important transport hub in Croatia where Central Europe, the Mediterranean and Southeast Europe meet, making the Zagreb area the centre of the road, rail and air networks of Croatia. It is a city known for its diverse economy, high quality of living, museums, sporting, and entertainment events. Its main branches of economy are high-tech industries and the service sector.
These fascinating color photos from Bo_Mar that captured street scenes of this beautiful city in 1953.
The 1950s bridged the gap between the reserved and conservative styles of the late 1940s and the fun and quirky looks that would define 1960s fashion. Hemlines grew shorter, waistlines wandered up and down, before disappearing completely, and the West seemed obsessed with making up for wartime limitations with excessive glamour and consumerism.
Though not as diverse as many of the decades that would follow it, the 1950s saw a great deal of change in style from beginning to end. With WWII – and the rationing and sensible styles it brought – having coming to an end, the fashion world struggled to find a new look for the world in which it found itself.
Fashion, then, went in two distinct directions. On the one hand, the fashion houses promoted more conformity in how people should dress and look, with elegant but simple styles. On the other hand, teens were responsible for the creation of rebellious subcultures that created unique styles of their own, like Teddy Boys, Greasers, Hepcats, and even Beatniks.
In 1945 Hungarian-Romanian photographer Andre de Dienes met the nineteen-year-old Marilyn Monroe, then called Norma Jeane Baker, who was a model on the books of Emmeline Snively’s Blue Book Model Agency
Norma Jeane had recently separated from her husband, James Dougherty, and told Dienes of her wish to become an actress. Dienes suggested that they go on a road trip to photograph her in the natural landscapes, for which Dienes paid her a flat fee of $200.
Dienes next met her on Labor Day in 1946, with her new name of Marilyn Monroe, they next worked together in 1952, where he shot her at the Bel Air Hotel and 1953, where she telephoned him at 2am, and took him to a darkened street where he used his car headlights to illuminate her, taking pictures her wide-eyed and unmade up. Dienes last saw her alive in June 1961.
These photos were taken by Hungarian-Romanian photographer Andre de Dienes at Bel Air Hotel in 1953, showing the beautiful Marilyn Monroe working out — or not really — and keeping herself in tip-top shape. De Dienes was also among the first photographers who photographed Marilyn during her early modeling days, notably the 1949 pin-up series taken at Long Island’s Tobay Beach in New York.
A beautiful photo collection from Joel Gillespie that shows a beautiful garden of his grandmother Nanny in Columbia, South Carolina in the early 1950s.
“I found a small container old slides in the bottom of an old box of pictures. They are of my grandmother's garden, in the early 1950s.
I was born after these pictures were taken, and grew up in a more matured version of Nanny's Garden, but I can say without hesitation that this was my favorite place in the whole world. I had the privilege of maintaining it for many years, and learned a lot about gardening from my grandmother. This was a special place.”
Nanny and Pop in Backyard Looking up Towards the Michael's House
Nanny and Pop in Flower Bed Between Second and Third Terrace Looking Towards Michaels
Nanny's Backyard - Bottom Terrace
Nanny's Backyard at Creek Looking Across Bridge
Nanny's Backyard from Second Terrace Looking to Houses on Trenholm
Born 1931 in Beirut, Lebanon to an Italian father and a Greek mother, actress and singer Antonella Lualdi grew up fluent in Arabic, French and Italian. She began her career in 1949, after having won a contest for new talents of the cinema magazine Hollywood, in which she was presented as "Signorina X" ("Madam X"), inviting the readers to choose her stage name.
After having starred with Italian actor Franco Interlenghi in several films, Lualdi married him in 1955; the couple had two daughters, Stella and Antonellina, an actress in her own right.
Lualdi appeared in many Italian and French films in the 1950s and 1960s, notably in Claude Autant-Lara's film The Red and the Black in 1954.
In 1974, Lualdi debuted in France as a singer with some success and critical appreciation, then she also debuted on stage with the comedy Le Moulin de la Gallette, with which she toured across several European countries.
These gorgeous photos captured portraits of this beautiful woman from the 1950s and 1960s.
In 1930 Salvador Dalí was looking for a house of his own, he established himself in Portlligat, in the fisherman’s hut that Lídia Noguer had sold him. The house is in fact a cabin with its roof in poor condition, where Lídia’s sons kept their fishing gear. In order to purchase the Portlligat house Dalí used the 20,000 French francs that the Viscount of Noailles, as patron, decided to give Dalí as an advance on a painting that was to end up as The Old Age of William Tell.
Dalí tells us about the difficulties of getting to Portlligat from Paris in his autobiography La Vida Secreta de Salvador Dalí, in which he also speaks about the plan for the house: “Our little house was to consist of a room of about four square metres that was to serve as a dining room, bedroom, studio and an entrance hall. You go up some steps and as you land, three doors open out, taking you to a shower, a toilet and a kitchen of very tight dimensions that you can hardly squeeze in. I wanted it all good and small ̶̶ the smaller the more womblike.”
Referring to his usual residence, Salvador Dalí said: “Portlligat is the place of production, the ideal place for my work. Everything fits to make it so: time goes more slowly and each hour has its proper dimension. There is a geological peacefulness: it is a unique planetary case.”
Over the next four decades, he purchased neighboring cabins, gradually expanding the property into a twisting, labyrinthine villa, packed with artwork and ephemera reflecting his unique obsessions and fixations.
In 1955, photographer Charles Hewitt visited Dalí and his wife/muse/business manager Gala at their home to shoot photos for a Picture Post story entitled “A Day With Salvador Dalí.”
The artist, never one to shy away from a little showmanship, gamely modeled for the camera.
History of swimwear traces the changes in the styles of swimwears over time and between cultures, and touches on the social, religious and legal attitudes to swimming and swimwear.
The '50s was truly the decade of swimwear glamour! Most women however stuck with the one piece swimwear. Except celebrities and pin-up girls, women in this period rarely wore a daring two piece bikini.
Anyway, swimwear is really the best costume to show the beauty of a woman. Here below are 15 classic beauties who knew to rock a swimsuit in the 1950s.
Doris Day, the Academy Award-winning singer of “Que Será, Será” and a Golden Age of Hollywood movie icon, died on Monday (May 13, 2019), at 97 from complications of pneumonia, according to her foundation. Day had an enormously popular entertainment career, and is one of the top ranked female box-office stars of all time. She was one of the last surviving stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Day was born Mary Ann Von Kappelhoff, on April 3, 1922 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Day’s life's work – music, films, and animal advocacy – comprise an enduring legacy. She began her professional singing career at age 15, and she had her first hit, “Sentimental Journey,” with Les Brown’s band. That tune, and her signature “Que Sera Sera,” were her biggest hits.
During her three decades of work in film, Day starred in nearly every genre, not just as a singer/dancer but as an actress with superb comic timing, a natural talent for interpreting a role and a gift for evoking emotion. Her 39 films – many still incredibly popular and shown frequently today – stand as a testament to her talent.
While Day was honored with many awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004 and a Grammy for Lifetime Achievement in 2008, she never won an Oscar, and many film critics and fans have decried the Academy’s overlooking Day’s talents.
“My public image is unshakably that of America’s wholesome virgin, the girl next door, carefree and brimming with happiness. An image, I can assure you, more make-believe than any film part I ever played,” Day told A.E. Hotchner in her memoir, Doris Day: Her Own Story.
Day’s music continues to attract new fans worldwide. The 2011 release of “My Heart,” a compilation of songs never before released, went to No. 1 in the United Kingdom.
By the mid-1970s, she withdrew from the limelight to focus on animal rights and set up the Doris Day Animal League and Doris Day Animal Foundation. In a 2012 interview with “Fresh Air” host Terry Gross, Day admitted that she had about 30 dogs at one point.
“All my life, I have never felt lonely with a dog I loved at my side, no matter how many times I’ve been alone,” she said in her memoir.
As a staunch advocate for animals, she briefly came out of retirement to host a cable TV pet show called “Doris Day’s Best Friends,” which included an emotional reunion with three-time co-star Rock Hudson shortly before his death in 1985.
During her career and retirement, Day always seemed to adhere to the philosophy of her biggest hit, “Que Será, Será,” which she initially opposed as a “kiddie song” but which became her signature tune.
“Que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be; The future’s not ours to see. Que sera, sera, What will be, will be.”
A poodle skirt is a wide swing felt skirt of a solid color displaying a design appliquéd or transferred to the fabric. The design was often a coiffed poodle. Later substitutes for the poodle patch included flamingoes, flowers, and hot rod cars. Hemlines were to the knee or just below it. It quickly became very popular with teenage girls, who wore them at school dances, and as everyday wear.
The skirt originated in 1947 in the United States, and has been popular since the '50s. They were a brief trend that has made an iconic '50s costume ever since.
Girls and teens started the trend by wearing felt circle skirts with an applique of a pink poodle on a silver leash. Other poodle skirt themes included cute animals, funny sayings, cars, cartoon characters, and martini glasses. Poodle skirts were paired with blouses or knit tops, cardigan sweaters, bobby socks and saddle shoes.
Here below is a cool photo collection that show young women in poodle skirt since the 1950s.
