Historic Pictures

@historic_imagery

@_historicimagery @trucrimehistory Sharing the most powerful and entertaining images in history
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Gia Carangi took the modeling world by storm with her edgy looks and tough-as-nails attitude. But Gia was deeply troubled, and her brash behavior would become her demise. Gia was in high demand, and if it weren’t for her drug addiction and other self-destructive habits, her career would have cemented her legacy alongside famous supermodels like Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, and Cindy Crawford. But what Gia is perhaps best known for is her rapid self-destruction, which ultimately led to her untimely death. On the surface, Gia Carangi seemed to have it all. In the late 70s and 80s, Carangi owned the spotlight and had droves of adoring fans from her high fashion work and appeared on the runways of Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Armani, Versace. The supermodel would go from a $10,000 photo shoot to a “shooting gallery”, or seedy locale where one can shoot up heroin, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Gia Carangi had blackballed herself from New York’s agencies and although magazines gave her several last chances, the model could not pull herself together. One of her final shoots appeared in Vogue in 1982. By the end of that year, Carangi had become so volatile that she couldn’t get booked for jobs. No one wanted to work with the tough-as-nails wild child any longer. In the fall of 1986, Gia Carangi was hospitalized after being found on the street badly beaten and raped. She died of AIDS-related complications on November 18, 1986, at the age of 26 becoming one of the first famous women to die of the disease. Today she is remembered as a cautionary tale and as one of the world’s first supermodels of her generation. Carangi was quoted saying: “Life and death, energy and peace. If I stop today it was still worth it. Even the terrible mistakes that I made and would have unmade if I could. The pains that have burned me and scarred my soul, it was worth it, for having been allowed to walk where I’ve walked, which was to hell on earth, heaven on earth, back again, into, under, far in between, through it, in it, and above.”
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John F. Kennedy with his best friend Lem Billings. John Kennedy and Lem Billings met in 1933 at Choate Rosemary Hall, The teenagers worked together on their class’s yearbook, and Billings became sexually attracted to the handsome young Kennedy. Billings made his desire known while the two were still at school by writing Kennedy a love note on a piece of toilet paper. A startled Kennedy responded to the note by saying, “Please don’t write to me on toilet paper anymore. I’m not that kind of boy.” Although Joe Kennedy, the family patriarch, was reportedly suspicious of Billings’ close relationship with his son, the Kennedy family welcomed Billings into their exclusive family circle. Lem Billings would later confide in friends that his relationship with Kennedy was sexual, to a point, and “included oral sex, with Jack always on the receiving end.” Their arrangement, Quirk says, “enabled Jack to sustain his self-delusion that straight men who received oral sex from other males were really only straights looking for sexual release,” and, “Jack was in love with Lem being in love with him and considered him the ideal follower adorer.” According to Billings’ biographer David Pitts, “Once JFK decided that Billings was his best friend – like it or leave, everybody in the family sort of fell in line with that. The Kennedys were a liberal family and one that tolerated a lot of heterosexual promiscuity as well.” In her memoir, Times To Remember, published eleven years after JFK’s assassination in Dallas in 1963, matriarch Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy wrote that Billings had “remained Jack’s lifelong close friend, confidant, sharer in old memories and new experiences…He has really been part of ‘our family’ since that first time he showed up at our house as one of ‘Jack’s surprises.’” JFK even gave him his own room at The White House Jackie was reportedly upset that her husband spent so much time with Billings and that he often spent the night at the White House. After Kennedy’s assassination, Billings was devastated. Biographer Sally Bedell Smith referred to Billings as “probably the saddest of the Kennedy widows.”
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Jacqueline Susann, Author of Valley of the Dolls. 3:30 A.M. on December 25, 1962, Jacqueline Susann—a fading TV actress with an unemployed husband, an autistic son in a mental hospital, and a lump in her right breast—began to scribble in a notebook. “This is a bad Christmas,” she wrote. “Irving has no job. . . . I am going to the hospital. . . . I don’t think I have [cancer]. I have too much to accomplish. I can’t die without leaving something—something big. . . . I’m Jackie—I have a dream. I think I can write. Let me live to make it!” In her 12 remaining years—the tumor was malignant and a full mastectomy was performed the day after Christmas—Susann more than made good on her dream. Not only did she write Valley of the Dolls (1966)—registered in The Guinness Book of World Records in the 1970s as the best-selling novel of all time (30 million copies sold)—she also became, with her next two novels, The Love Machine (1969) and Once Is Not Enough (1973), the first author ever to have three consecutive books catapult to the No. 1 spot on The New York Times’s best-seller list. No wonder she dared to proclaim to a Boston newspaper critic, who imagined he was hoisting her on her own petard, “Yeah, I think I’ll be remembered . . . as the voice of the 60s. . . . Andy Warhol, the Beatles and me!” “When you’re climbing Mount Everest, nothing is easy. You just take one step at a time, never look back and always keep your eyes glued to the top”
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Sam Cooke during a recording session in Los Angeles, 1960. Sam Cooke, a legend of soul, has been celebrated in nearly every way a musician can. He’s been included in lists of the greatest singers of all time, voted a charter member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and awarded a posthumous lifetime achievement Grammy. Sam was able to bring the spirit of the church to popular music, marking an era of a new sound. Sam had a voice that could tackle every kind of song from ballads to light-hearted, finger popping dance grooves, to raspy rhythm & blues. From 1960 through 1965 Cooke remained a mainstay on the Top 40 chart.
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You’ve been struck by A Smooth Criminal - Michael Jackson,1988.
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Rita Moreno photographed by Loomis Dean for LIFE Magazine, 1954. The last photo was used for the cover. ⠀ “Do you know how I got on the cover in the first place? Oh, it was such a wacky thing. I Love Lucy was enormously popular at the time, sitcoms were just taking hold on television, and the Desilu people decided to go into production with some other shows—including one starring Ray Bolger. It turned out that he just wasn’t right for the medium, and the show didn’t get off the ground—but during rehearsals I happened to be on set one day when a LIFE photographer showed up to chronicle the action. Well, the pictures made it back to the editors at LIFE and, the way I heard it, someone saw me in one of the shots and said, ‘Who’s that girl?’. Next thing I know, LIFE calls me up about a photo shoot. The idea behind Loomis Dean’s pictures—showing me in all sorts of silly poses, pretending to act out this huge gamut of emotions—was ridiculous, but the photos were lovely. And I was happy to be in LIFE. Oh, who am I kidding? I was fucking thrilled.” - Rita Moreno in an interview with LIFE Magazine.
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Elizabeth Taylor achieved equal fame for her humanitarian commitment to the fight against HIV/AIDS which dates from 1984. “I kept seeing all these news reports on this new disease & kept asking myself why no one was doing anything. And then I realized that I was just like them. I wasn’t doing anything to help.” The opportunity to do so came only too soon, when her friend Rock Hudson died of AIDS. Appalled by both the suffering he experienced & the cruel and gratuitous condemnation that befell so many of those affected by the disease, Taylor became determined to speak out against hypocrisy & discrimination & for compassion & care. From then on she lent her voice & indeed her heart & soul to the fight against HIV/AIDS. In 1985, Ms. Taylor joined with Dr. Mathilde Krim & a small group of physicians & scientists to form the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR). As amfAR’s Founding National Chairman, she became the new organization’s principal spokesperson. As a great star & beloved public figure, she attracted enormous attention. As a woman & a mother, her voice touched millions of hearts & minds. Indeed, for many Americans, it was Elizabeth Taylor who brought the issue of HIV/AIDS into the mainstream. Elizabeth Tavlor’s lifetime achievements earned her the French Legion of Honor, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the title of Dame of the British Empire, and most recently, a Presidential Citizens Medal. But for her, the spotlight was always on those in need. As she said, “I have dedicated my efforts ... above all, to the thousands of men, women, and children throughout the world who have died of AIDS, or are currently fighting for their lives.” Elizabeth Taylor took a personal risk in speaking out on the issue of HIV/AIDS-potentially ieopardizing the sine qua non of celebrity, the support of her public. As she herself once said, “Celebrity is not something that comes without responsibility,” & her courageous advocacy of social justice made her a superstar in a class by herself. We honor Elizabeth & are profoundly grateful for her sustained & generous commitment to its lifesaving mission.
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New York City, 1971. Broadway Cinemas.
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Disney Rejection Letter to a Woman, 1938. Disney animator Ward Kimball, who said, “He didn’t trust women or cats,” and she read from a 1938 letter from Disney informing a female job applicant, “Women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing the cartoons for the screen, as that task is performed entirely by young men. For this reason, girls are not considered for the training school. The only work open to women consists of tracing the characters on clear celluloid sheets with India ink, and then, filling in the tracing on the reverse side with paint according to directions.” But women were indeed shut out of animation and confined to inking and painting all over Hollywood in the ’30s. “That was an industry-wide practice,” says one animation expert. “There were, however, a number of women working at [Disney] in a creative capacity during that time, mostly in story development.” In 1941, Walt told male artists working on Dumbo, “If a woman can do the work as well, she is worth as much as a man. The girl artists have the right to expect the same chances for advancement as men, and I honestly believe they may eventually contribute something to this business that men never would or could.” Retta Scott became Disney’s first female animator on 1942’s Bambi, and in the ’40s and ’50s, Mary Blair was art supervisor and color stylist for Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. In 1959, Disney wrote, “Women are the best judges of anything we turn out. Their taste is very important. They are the theatergoers, they are the ones who drag the men in. If the women like it, to heck with the men.”
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San Francisco is home to many iconic sites— Lombard Street, which claims to be the most crooked street in America. With eight hairpin turns and a steep grade attracts its own fair share of tourists who what to drive, bike, or walk down this zigzag road. Let’s look at the birth of the iconic Lombard Street. Prior to the 1920s, all of Lombard Street, was straight. At this time, The folks living on the street wanted to purchase cars just like their friends & family, but the street was too steep & no one wanted to live in a place that wouldn’t allow automobiles. Lombard Street resident Carl Henry, a wealthy insurance & drug company executive. Henry owned several lots on Lombard Street as well as the land surrounding the street itself. He came up with the suggested making the street curve & turn back and forth so cars could travel down the steep street in the same manner as a horse would climb down a big hill—by going side to side. Carl Henry was convinced that his idea for Lombard Street would work. Since Henry owned the land around the street, he got to work on the project. He envisioned the winding street to have a park-like feel to it. So, he first constructed a lily pond & planted a rose garden. He had planned to present the street & park to the city of SF as a gift. His plans stalled when he died unexpectedly. He left his widow with a mountain of debt and she was forced to sell the Lombard Street property to pay her creditors. Peter Bercut, annoyed his neighbors by trimming their hedges & planting flowers along the street. Erosion was a problem as the hill was so steep & the flower beds washed out. Bercut hit upon the perfect solution when he was visiting his native France. In the 1940s, he filled Lombard Street with hydrangeas. The shrub held the soil in place, were low-maintenance, and very beautiful. When a travel photograph of Lombard Street, with its hairpin turns & bright, blooming hydrangeas, was published & made into a postcard in 1961, the unique street became a tourist attraction. One of San Francisco’s most scenic streets & easily the most famous one, Lombard Street still remains one of the most visited & most photographed spots in the city.
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Minoru Yamasaki’s design for the World Trade Center was unveiled to the public with an eight-foot architectural model. The planned complex would feature two 110-story towers (aka the Twin Towers), which would be the world’s new tallest buildings when completed, a 5-acre Plaza at the towers’ base and a group of low-rise buildings, including a hotel, surrounding the Plaza (WTC 3, 5 and 6 were first planned as one superstructure, the design was later changed and the structure was separated into three single buildings: the Vista Hotel (the design was later changed again and the height increased to 22 stories), the Northeast Plaza Building (WTC 5) and the U. S. Customshouse (WTC 6). The complex would also feature an underground parking garage with 2,000 parking spaces and an underground shopping mall with connections to various mass transit facilities including the NYC Subway system and the Port Authority’s PATH trains connecting Manhattan and New Jersey. “I am a firm believer that all people, whatever their color, race or creed, should be recognized for their character and for their contributions to society and the happiness of their families, rather than for their color. I know from personal experience how prejudice and bigotry can affect one’s total thought process. The human race would gain tremendously if we could cleanse ourselves of discrimination in all areas.” -Minoru Yamasaki From “A Life In Architecture,” 1979.
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Swedish Major Eric Bonde smokes a cigarette after being ambushed and shot twice, Congo, 1961.
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