LIFE

The Devil You Don’t Know: Fashion Editor Carmel Snow

September 17, 2025September 17, 2025 by Bill Syken

The archetype of the powerful fashion editor was cemented in popular culture by the book and subsequent movie The Devil Wears Prada, which featured a character who was named Miranda Priestly but was inspired by legendary Vogue editor Anna Wintour.

While none of her former assistants wrote thinly veiled novels about her, Carmel Snow was the Miranda Priestly of an earlier era. Snow led the fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar for nearly a quarter century, from 1934 to 1958. If her name doesn’t sound familiar, it’s because the idea of an iconic magazine editor was a relatively new one back in her day. In a 2005 biography about Snow titled A Dash of Daring, fashion photographer Richard Avedon talked about why Snow wasn’t more of a household name. “She was older, right?” he said. “And she died before stardom was the thing.”

But Snow was enough of a power player that LIFE photographer Walter Sanders made her the subject of a photo essay which, viewed today, looks like storyboards for The Devil Wears Prada (minus the focus on the assistants, who remain unidentified). But other fashion stars who show up in the frames include Cristobal Balenciaga and Coco Chanel (in some photos wearing scene-stealing headwear). Another notable figure in the images is Diane Vreeland, who worked under Snow at Harper’s Bazaar and would later become editor-in-chief at Vogue. If today Vreeland’s name resonates somewhat more than Snow, it’s both because she is more recent and her platform, Vogue, has only gained in prominence relative to Harper’s Bazaar.

And, not to oversell the importance of LIFE, but it didn’t help that Sanders’ photos of Carmel Snow were shot for a story that never ran.

Carmel Snow, editor of Harper’s Bazaar, met with Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, 1952.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Carmel Snow, editor of Harper’s Bazaar, met with Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, 1953.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Carmel Snow, editor of Harper’s Bazaar, met with Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, 1952.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Carmel Snow (center), editor of Harper’s Bazaar, and the magazine’s fashion editor, Diane Vreeland (left), at work in the magazine’s offices, 1952.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Carmel Snow (left), editor of Harper’s Bazaar, and the magazine’s fashion editor, Diane Vreeland (right), at work in the magazine’s offices, 1952.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Carmel Snow (center), editor of Harper’s Bazaar, at work in her office, 1952.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Carmel Snow. (seated at desk), editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar, worked on the layout of an upcoming issue, 1952.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Carmel Snow, editor of Harper’s Bazaar, works on an upcoming issue, 1952.

Man holding a newspaper beside Carmel Snow, December 1952

Carmel Snow, editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar, works on an upcoming issue, 1952.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Carmel Snow (second from left), editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar, at work with designer Cristobal Balenciaga (second from right), 1952.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fashion designer Cristobal Balenciaga and Carmel Snow, editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar, looked at a model during fashion designers meeting, December 1952.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fashion designer Cristobal Balenciaga and Carmel Snow, editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar, shopped together in New York City, 1952.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fashion designer Cristobal Balenciaga pointed out something to Carmel Snow, editor of Harper’s Bazaar in an unidentified shop in New York City, 1952.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

When the Movies Got Smaller

September 15, 2025September 15, 2025 by Bill Syken

One of the most famous lines in the 1950 cinema classic Sunset Boulevard is uttered by actress Gloria Swanson, who starred as former silent film star Norma Desmond. When the male lead, played by William Holden, meets her and recognizes her as a former movie queen, he comments, “You used to be big.” She responds, “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.”

So it was fitting that Swanson came by to pose for a photo when the Roxy movie theater was being demolished in 1960. The Roxy was the largest movie theater in the world when it opened in 1927, and it could seat about 6,000 people. With the Roxy being torn down, now the movie houses were getting smaller.

Beyond the poetic resonance, Swanson also had a direct connection to history of the Roxy. Her silent film The Love of Sunya was the first movie to play there, and she was in the audience for the film’s premiere, and had carved her name into the theater’s dome.

When Swanson returned for the demolition, she played to the drama of the moment for a photo by LIFE staff photographer Eliot Elisofon. The magazine’s story, headlined “Swan Song For a Famous Theater” was a short one but captured Swanson, then 61 years old, playing the role of movie star to the hilt:

The famous theater, its day done, is now being torn down, and last month Miss Swanson came back for a last look at the ruins. A wry and witty woman, she remarked, “Wherever I go I hear people saying `Is it” or “Isn’t it?’ and once I heard a man say, “It is. It is the original. ‘” When, gowned in a Jean Louis sheath, a feathery boa and $170,000 in jewels, she swept up to the Roxy in a Rolls Royce, crowds gathered and she could hear again, “Is it, or isn’t it.?” Perhaps she also heard the man who said loudly, “It is, and it’s looking better than ever.”

The Roxy, which cost about $12 million to build back in 1927—that’s more than $200 million in today’s dollars—was more than a movie theater. The space also hosted big stage shows, which meant that it had dressing rooms, rehearsal rooms, and a pipe organ. Also included was an infirmary and a menagerie to accommodate animal performers.

In addition to the photos that Elisofon took of Swanson, this collection also includes a couple photos of the Roxy’s demolition taken by another LIFE staff photographer, Ralph Morse. The Roxy may have had a special place in the hearts of people who worked at LIFE magazine because the theater was located at 153 W. 50th Street, which is just down the block from the old Time-Life building, where the magazine was headquartered. So it’s likely that LIFE staffers caught many shows there, perhaps even sneaking out of the office for an afternoon movie break.

The demolition meant goodbye to all that.

Actress Gloria Swanson posed on the site of old Roxy Theater in New York as it was being destroyed. Her silent movie The Love of Sunya was the first movie to play at the Roxy when it opened in 1927.

Eliot Elisofon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gloria Swanson arrived to pose at the Roxy theater as it was being town down, 1960.

Eliot Elisofon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gloria Swanson posed at the Roxy theater as it was being town down, New York City, 1960.

Eliot Elisofon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gloria Swanson posed at the Roxy, once the largest movie theater in the world, as it was being town down, New York City, 1960.

Eliot Elisofon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Roxy Theater, once the world’s largest movie theater, was torn down in 1960.

Eliot Elisofon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Roxy Theater, once the world’s largest movie theater, was torn down in 1960, New York City.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Proper Teenagers in a Post-War World

September 10, 2025September 10, 2025 by Bill Syken

After the hard lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic finally loosened up, many people—and especially teenagers who had their school years interrupted—talked about wanting to make up for lost time. The phrase “hot girl summer” may have originated in 2019 with a song by Megan Thee Stallion, but it came up again frequently when vaccines became available and public spaces opened back up again.

That more recent history something to keep in mind when considering a 1947 photo essay by staff photographer Nina Leen about teenagers in the years immediately after World War II. As described by LIFE, those teenagers were pretty much the opposite of the COVID kids.

The 1947 photo essay by Leen centered on a pair 17-year-old identical twins named Betty and Barbara Bounds. The point of choosing identical twins as the main subject may have been to add an element of symmetry to a story about how young people had become fastidious about their appearance.

According to LIFE’s story, headlined “Tulsa Twins: They Show How Much the Teenage World Has Changed,” young people after World War II aspired to be being dignified and proper:

In 1944 when Betty and Barbara Bounds, who are identical twins, entered Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, their clothes were sloppy; hot music was the rage and the general behavior of the world was somewhat footloose….Today the teenage world of Betty and Barbara is entirely different. Their clothes are feminine and fastidious; sweet music has replaced hot licks and the general tone of the teenage life is more decorous. The reason for this may be all tied up with the U.S. transition to peace or merely an adolescent desire for something new.

Going with the idea that the teenage trends were a reaction to the war, the motivation behind it underlines the key difference between the pandemic lockdowns and the deprivations of World War II on the domestic front. The pandemic restrictions robbed young people of social opportunities. Whereas the World War II and the rationing of goods meant that teenagers at home were limited less by where they could go than what they could have.

Leen used the mood of the day to create these idealized images of youth. The photo of the Bounds sisters at a dance is as dreamy a picture of teenage life as you will find anywhere.

Teenagers at a party in 1947 in Tulsa, Oklahoma; LIFE reported that these kids “munch doughnuts and sip cokes whenever they are not dancing with serious faces to sentimental music.”

Nina Leen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Tulsa twins Betty and Barbara Bounds, 1947.

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock images

Tulsa twins Betty and Barbara Bounds with their parents, 1947.

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock images

Tulsa twins Betty and Barbara Bounds, 1947.

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock images

Tulsa twins Betty and Barbara Bounds at ballet class, 1947. A LIFE photo essay highlighted the twins as examples of the decorous lifestyle choices being made by teenagers in the days after World War II.

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock images

Tulsa twins Betty and Barbara Bounds, 1947.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Tulsa twins Betty and Barbara Bounds spoke with a friend, 1947.

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock images

Barbara Bounds, 17, and friend work on the mixture for a fudge cake, Tulsa, 1947.

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock images

Tulsa twins Betty and Barbara Bounds, 1947.

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock images

Teenage life in Tulsa, 1947.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A teenage girl in Tulsa, Oklahoma used nail polish to decorate her sunglass frames, 1947.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Betty Bounds, with real gardenias in her hair, wore a full-skirted evening dress embellished with an artificial gardenia while waiting at door for her date, Tulsa, 1947.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

They Don’t Make Them Like This Anymore

September 8, 2025September 8, 2025 by Bill Syken

The photos from the set of the movie Creature From the Black Lagoon are a window into the world of what monster movies looked like in the days before CGI. The film was a major production in its day, and the main object of terror—and an effective one—was a dude in a costume.

The movie, which was shown in 3-D, cost $550,000 to make (a little over $6 million in 2025 dollars), and people generally liked it. The American Film Institute writes writes, “At the time of its release, Creature from the Black Lagoon enjoyed critical and popular success, and has since gained status as one of the most important science-fiction films of the era, with the Gill Man emerging as one of the genre’s most iconic monsters.”

LIFE’s object of interest on the Florida set was not in fact Gill Man, but rather the movie’s lead actress, Julia Adams. The photos were taken for a story headlined “Julia in Jeopardy,” and was about how Adams was always playing women in danger. “Julie’s current opus is Creature From the Black Lagoon, a science fictioner in which she hoped her perils would end and her acting begin,” LIFE wrote. “But she swallowed up her disappointment when she wound up in the arms of a 6-foot, 5-inch Gill Man, who keeps her amply jeopardized, most of the time under water.”

The images by LIFE staff photographer Edward Clark capture Gill Man carrying off Clark in what is supposed to be the Amazon jungle. A secondary figures who pops up in one of Clark’s images is Bud Westmore, who was one of Hollywood’s grand wizards of makeup and worked on more than 400 films, including another movie whose set LIFE visited, Spartacus.

And while the headline of this story is “They Don’t Make Them Like This Anymore,” plenty have wanted to take their shot. The list of directors who have tried to remake Creature from the Black Lagoon includes some impressive names: John Landis, John Carpenter, Ivan Reitman, and Guillermo del Toro among others. In 2024 Australian director James Wan was the latest to be attached to a Creature remake.

Makeup artist Jack Kevan assisted with Gill Man’s costume on the set of the movie ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’, 1953.

Edward Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Lead actress Julie Adams on the set of the movie ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’, with the creature lurking in the background, 1953.

Edward Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

“Gill Man” carried actress Julie Adams on the set of the movie ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon,’ 1953.

Edward Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actress Julia Adams is carried by “Gill Man”, the titular creature of the movie “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” 1953.

Edward Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actress Julia Adams is carried by Gill Man on the set of the movie Creature from the Black Lagoon, 1953

Edward Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from the movie ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’ starring Julia Adams, 1953.

Edward Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gill Man emerged from the water on the set of the movie “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” 1953.

Edward Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Universal makeup department chief Bud Westmore (left), rowing on the set of the movie “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” 1953.

Edward Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An Unexpected Tribute to Family Life

September 4, 2025September 4, 2025 by Bill Syken

In 1948 LIFE ran a big story with an alarming headline: “The American Family in Trouble.”

Even though the story ran nearly eighty years ago, the threats that it named might sound familiar today. Divorce rates were rising. Movies and advertising were creating unrealistic expectations and thus sowing discontent. But the real issue, the story claimed, was that family members didn’t do things together anymore. The ideal family situation that LIFE presented in this story was the family farm, in which all members contributed to a common enterprise. The modern reality, on the other hand, was a family in which its members went off in different directions.

This passage gives a sense of the story’s tone:

Today the forces of social change have broken down the family. It is now tiny—a husband, a wife, and one or two children. Its members do little more than eat or sleep together. They buy everything—food, laundry, entertainment—and produce nothing but the money for these purchases. The outward pull of movies, automobiles, bridge club, and Elks constantly threatens what little family unity remains.

The fact that the societal ills listed above include bridge playing and the Elks is a hint to what is remarkable about this story when viewed from the vantage point of the 21st century, which is that most of the “troubles” seem pleasantly quaint. One photo shows family members in their living room looking at the looming threat that was their rotary phone, waiting to hear if one of them might be called away.

In fact the photos look like less like a comparison of good vs. bad and more like a tribute to family life in its many forms.

For the story LIFE staff photographer Nina Leen followed three different types of families. The first was a farming family in the Ozarks in which everyone was pitching in together, right down to granny mending jeans on the front porch. The second family, based in Enid, Oklahoma, represented a “domestic” middle ground—the grandparents were only four blocks away and could still come over to read stories to their grandchildren, and when the teenage daughter went shopping for a bathing suit, all the women in the family came along to give their opinion.

Finally, Leen followed a family from Manhasset, N.Y., that exemplified what LIFE called the “atomistic” family (it would more commonly be termed “nuclear family“), in which the unit was comparatively small—two parents, two kids—everyone was going in their own direction. Dad travelled for work, mom was involved in her clubs, and their 14-year-old son hung out with his friends around town and his sister earned money by babysitting for neighbors when those parents were away.

Part of the reason that life in all three of these families looks beautiful is that Nina Leen takes beautiful photographs. (She also took images from foster homes for this story that have their own charm.) But to the modern eye scenes from all three of these family situations are capable of inspiring nostalgia—whether they show a family fishing expedition, a grandfather doing yard work with his grandson, or an “atomistic” 14-year-old hanging out with his friends at the diner. Leen’s shots of the teenage boy fending for himself look like stills from a classic coming-of-age movie.

LIFE’s story did include a dissenting view from an expert who argued that individuals gaining separation from their families can be a good thing. A professor from Vassar named Joseph Kirk Folsom told LIFE that the loosening of family ties was in fact a sign that America was living up to the American ideal of personal freedom. “If the family as a unit is to be so sacrosanct as to stand in the way of allowing a growing child to develop his own contacts freely, to roam in search of fresh private experiences and to strike out when he is ready to conquer his share of the world—then it has ceased to fulfill the functions for which it is intended in a democratic society,” Folsom said.

And of course family life is not always uplifting for everyone. The famous opening line of Leo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” acknowledges that there are an infinite number of ways that home life can go wrong.

There’s an argument that the one way happy families are alike has nothing to do with engaging in a common enterprise, but rather supporting its members on their own path, wherever that leads.

The Russell family, posing together in 1948, had worked their farm in the Ozarks town of Belleview, Mo., for 125 years.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes from a family farm in the Ozarks, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A family farm in the Ozarks, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

At the Russell family farm in Belleville, Mo., mending shoes was one element of a 14-hour workday.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes of family life in the Ozarks, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shuttetstock

A grandmother mended jeans on the porch of the family farm in the Ozarks, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes from a story on family life, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Frantz family of Enid, Oklahoma attended church together, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Harry Frantz Jr. and his family sitting on the lawn in Enid, Oklahoma; Harry lived just four blocks from his parents, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shuttetstock

Harry Frantz teaches his grandson, who lived just four blocks away, about gardening in Enid, Oklahoma, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Men of the Frantz family of Enid, Oklahoma, fished together, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Harry Frantz read to his grandchildren; he was a regular presence in their lives because he lived only four blocks away, Enid, Oklahoma, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shuttetstock

Scenes from a story on family life, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Members of the Frantz family of Enid, Oklahoma all went together when one of them wanted to buy a swimsuit, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes from a story on family life, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Parker family enjoys a picnic lunch together in Manhasset, N.Y., 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Parker family dines together without dad, who is away on a business trip, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mrs. Parker chatted over tea with other members her social club, Long Island, N.Y., 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A youth baseball game in Long Island, N.Y., 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Cary Parker, 14, spent time with friends in Long Island, N.Y., 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Taking the dog out for a walk gave a restless 14-year-old boy an opportunity to meet up with friends, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Martha Parker (left), at age 11, was often out of the house at night working baby-sitting jobs like this one, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Packer family in Long Island, N.Y. waited for the phone to ring and possibly call one of them away to an outside activity, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The tendency to daydream and imagine an unrealistic ideal, as inspired by advertising, films, and radio serials, was portrayed in a 1948 LIFE story as an enemy of family life.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sidney Hauser, 11, needed to spend two years in foster care because of an illness in the family, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This day nursery tended to kids whose parents worked, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Anatomy of a Hitter: Gjon Mili Photographs Ted Williams

August 26, 2025August 26, 2025 by Bill Syken

In 1941 Ted Williams, 22, was the center of attention in the baseball world as he pursued a .400 batting average, which was at the time a rare feat (instead of impossible, as it has seemingly become). The Red Sox outfielder famously pursued the goal that year in a manner which affirmed not only his skill at the plate but also his character.

With Boston set to play a double-header on the final day of the season, Williams’ batting average was .3996—which, under the rules of baseball, would have been rounded up to .400 to give him the mark. Boston’s manager, Joe Cronin, offered Williams the chance to sit out and protect his average, but Williams chose to play both games of the double-header. An entirely respectable day at the plate—say, 2-for-7—could have dropped his average by crucial thousandths of a percentage point, but Williams took the risk. He played both games and had six hits in eight at bats, elevating his season average to .406—no rounding needed.

His bold decision has gained significance over time because, all these decades later, Williams is the last batter to ever hit .400. No one has done it since.

Even before that historic season was over, though, LIFE had placed Williams among baseball’s elite. In its Sept. 1, 1941 issue the magazine ran a story titled “Williams of Red Sox is Best Hitter” that attempted to explain what made this young man so special.

Williams is a great hitter for three reasons: eyes, wrists and forearms. He has what ballplayers call “camera eyes” which allow him to focus in on a pitched ball as it zooms down its 60-foot path from the pitcher’s hand, accurately judge its intended path across the plate, and reach for it. He even claims he can see the ball and bat meet. The rest of his formula is to never stop swinging. On and off the field he consistently wields a bat to keep the spring in his powerful wrists. Even when he is in the outfield he sometimes keeps waving his arms in a batting arc. And, more than most other great batters, he keeps his body out of his swing, puts all his drive into his forearms.

LIFE illustrated its story with studio photographs by Gjon Mili, in something of a meeting of the masters. This LIFE collection of Mili’s studio work features his stop-motion images of drummer Gene Krupa, actor/dancer Martha Kelly and artist Pablo Picasso. The inclusion of Ted Williams of their company is a telling tribute to his mastery of the art of hitting. Williams posed shirtless, which underlined that Williams relied on technique rather than muscle. The 6’3″, 175-pound Williams was skinny enough that the press nicknamed him “Toothpick Ted” and “The Boston Stringbean.”

In addition to Mili’s portraits of Williams from the 1941 season, this collection includes a few other images that LIFE shot over the years of Williams in uniform. Pay special attention to the last image, taken by George Silk, which shows Williams in spring training in 1956, talking to a young player named Gordie Windhorn.

Williams was by that time a 12-time All-Star, while Windhorn was a young journeyman who was passing through Red Sox camp and would not make the roster. But Silk’s photo captures the serious and respectful way that Williams treated Windhorn, because they were talking about his favorite subject, which was hitting.

While Mili’s photos capture Williams technique and physique, that last shot hints at his obsession with his craft.

Ted Williams demonstrated his batting stroke in the studio of LIFE photographer Gjon Mili, 1947.

Gjon Mili/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Red Sox outfielder Ted Williams, 22, showed off his powerful baseball swing for photographer Gjon Mili, 1941.

Gjon Mili/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ted Williams demonstrated his batting stroke in the studio of LIFE photographer Gjon Mili, 1947.

Gjon Mili/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Red Sox outfielder Ted Williams, 22, showed off his powerful baseball swing for photographer Gjon Mili, 1941.

Gjon Mili/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Red Sox outfielder Ted Williams, 22, demonstrated his grip on the bat for photographer Gjon Mili, 1941.

Gjon Mili/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ted Williams sat on the bench with his Red Sox teammates, 1946.

Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Red Sox great Ted Williams took the field, 1946.

Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ted Williams took batting practice, 1948.

Frank Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox spoke with teammate Gordie Windhorn about the art of hitting during spring training in Sarasota, Fla., 1956.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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The Devil You Don’t Know: Fashion Editor Carmel Snow

When the Movies Got Smaller

Proper Teenagers in a Post-War World

They Don’t Make Them Like This Anymore

An Unexpected Tribute to Family Life

Anatomy of a Hitter: Gjon Mili Photographs Ted Williams

The Devil You Don’t Know: Fashion Editor Carmel Snow

When the Movies Got Smaller

They Don’t Make Them Like This Anymore

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