This Was No Woodstock: Inside a Music Festival Disaster

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The Woodstock music festival was one of the signature moments the 1960s. Site owner Max Yasgur, a farmer and the concert site owner, memorably declared that the gathering proved that “a half a million young people can get together and have three days of fun and music and have nothing but fun and music.”

Woodstock’s success naturally inspired imitators, but the magic was hard to recapture. The Altamont concert later that year famously turned deadly when a member of Hell’s Angels, who had been hired for security, stabbed an audience member near the stage as the Rolling Stones performed.

Another music festival, the Celebration of Life in June 1971, is not as well-remembered as Altamont, but it was such a disaster that it helped put an end to the music festivals for a while.

The Celebration of Life had to change locations three times due to local resistance before finding a last-minute home on a remote tract of land in McCrea, Louisiana, about 60 miles north of Baton Rouge. The festival was scheduled for eight days but started late and shut down halfway through, with the IRS placing a tax lien that froze the organizers’ bank accounts. Performers who did get on the stage included Chuck Berry, the Stephen Stills Band, and Ike & Tina Turner. But others who had been promoted on the bill but never made the stage included Pink Floyd, the Beach Boys, the Allman Brothers and Miles Davis.

Most tragically, multiple attendees drowned in a river that bordered the festival site while seeking refuge from Louisiana’s summer heat.

Here’s what LIFE magazine wrote about the event, in a story headlined “Perhaps the last of the rock festival fiascos“:

Even before it opened, last week’s rock festival in McCrea, La., was a disaster. The stage collapsed while it was under construction, and when it was fixed, the sound system failed. Most of the previously advertised talent didn’t show up, food was overpriced, water was scarce, and sanitation facilities inadequate. The temperature soared over 100 degrees. Within four days there had been five deaths—four drownings and a drug overdose—and what the crowd wanted most was to go home.

While some later reports lowered the number of confirmed deaths to two, this was a brutal event by any accounting.

LIFE staff photographer Bill Ray appears to have arrived in McCrea after the music stopped, but he captured some of the aftermath of the Celebration of Life, including concertgoers, many of them nude, trying to cool down in the river. Ray also took many shots of people looking to hitch a ride home, holding up signs requesting transport to such locations as Virginia, Miami and New Mexico—a testament to how far people had traveled to get there. The happiest images he shot were of people who had been picked up and were on their way home.

In 2013 a 32-minute documentary called McCrea 1971 reviewed what went wrong with Celebration of Life, and the problems began with its hasty setup. In one historic clip a promoter said, “It takes about a month to set up a festival, but we’ll try to do it in about three days.” A local who attended the festival talked about the folly of festival goers swimming in a river that people from the area knew to be a “death trap.” He said, “I know of no one I have ever met who would willingly get in and swim in the Atchafalaya River.”

In 2018 Rolling Stone magazine ran its own retrospective on the Celebration of Life and talked about how out of hand things got. Because of the heat performances that were originally planned to start during the day shifted to the overnight, leaving attendees with nothing to do all day. Makeshift boulevards called “Smack Street” and “Cocaine Alley” cropped up on the festival site. Stunningly, given what happened at Altamont, festival organizers hired the Galloping Goose Motorcycle Club for security and its members reportedly became abusive with attendees.

LIFE magazine’s wish that music festivals go away for a while came to fruition. And while festivals have made a major comeback in recent years, they now look very different, with stronger organizations behind them. Some complain about how corporate they have become, with special bleachers for VIPs and so on. However you feel about that, it’s worth remembering that a more loosely organized gathering can come with its own hazards—sometimes big ones.

The ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival, after several late location changes, took place in McCrea, Louisiana, 1971.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Concertgoers sought relief from the sweltering heat at the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana, 1971.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Concertgoers sought relief from the sweltering heat at the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana, 1971.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrea, Louisiana, 1971.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Concertgoers looked for rides home after the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana was cut short, 1971.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrea, Louisiana, 1971.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Concertgoers looked for rides home after the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana was cut short, 1971.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Concertgoers looked for rides home after the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana was cut short, 1971.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Concertgoers looked for rides home after the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana was cut short, 1971.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Concertgoers looked for rides home after the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana was cut short, 1971.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Concertgoers looked for rides home after the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana was cut short, 1971.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Concertgoers looked for rides home after the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana was cut short, 1971.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Concertgoers looked for rides home after the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana was cut short, 1971.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Concertgoers looked for rides home after the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana was cut short, 1971.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Concertgoers caught a ride home after the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana was cut short, 1971.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Concertgoers caught a ride home after the ill-fated Celebration of Life music festival in McCrae, Louisiana was cut short, 1971.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Original ‘Thomas Crown Affair’: Talk About A Steamy Set

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In 2027 Michael B. Jordan will direct and star in the second remake of the 1968 movie The Thomas Crown Affair. The story is about a wealthy thief who pulls daring heists, and the romance that develops between him and a female investigator. Jordan, who won an Academy Award in 2026 for his performance in Sinners, has been wanting to play Thomas Crown since 2016.

LIFE staff photographer Bill Ray was on the set of the original movie, and he captured the chemistry that Jordan will be aspiring to equal.

The first movie starred Steve McQueen, an iconic actor who is the subject of the three best-selling images in the LIFE photo store. His opposite number in their cat-and-mouse pursuit was Faye Dunaway, who was coming off a star-making performance in Bonnie and Clyde. McQueen and Dunaway’s scene together in a sauna was the centerpiece of Bill Ray’s photo shoot.

But while the actors were prominent in the photos that ran in LIFE, the star of the accompanying article was director Norman Jewison, who was a hot property at the time because his previous movie, In the Heat of the Night, had just won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Jewison was in his first decade of what would be a long Hollywood career that included such films as Moonstruck (1987) and The Hurricane (1999). LIFE honored Jewison’s prowess with an article formatted as if it were the script for a documentary about him.

For instance, the article included in its “dialogue” this quote from Jewison as he was in the process of directing Dunaway and McQueen in one of the movie’s steamier scenes:

The script calls for “chess with sex.” I like that…Faye, you are playing chess, but there is another game going on. Without thinking, your right hand goes up your left arm, lightly caressing, to your throat…Steve, let’s see your eyes follow her hand…You’re up to the shoulder, across to the neck. She looks up and catches you watching. (Jewison laughs). Good. You’re embarrassed. You smile and look down. Great!

The stars of the movie had relatively few lines in the LIFE story. Dunaway said of Jewison, “He’s the only man I’ve ever known who has no hostility in him. He’s all love.” McQueen, complaining about how long Jewison kept him on set in pursuit of a scene, said “I hate him, but I love him.”

Michael B. Jordan talked about his Crown remake at CinemaCon in April 2026. Jordan, who will be co-starring with Adria Arjona, said that he initially fell in love with the story from the 1999 version that starred Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo. But he had also studied the original and said, “McQueen brought this effortless cool, this rebellious edge. He didn’t just steal. He made a statement.”

Faye Dunaway (seated) and director Norman Frederick Jewison on the set of ‘The Thomas Crown Affair,’ 1967.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway during the filming of ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’, 1967.

Bill Ray/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Faye Dunaway and Steve McQueen on the set of`The Thomas Crown Affair,’ 1967.

Bill Ray/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Faye Dunaway;Norman Jewison;Steve Mcqueen

Bill Ray/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Director Norman Frederick Jewison (left) with actors Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway during the filming of ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ 1967.

Bill Ray/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Norman Jewison directed Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway in the 1967 crime caper ‘The Thomas Crown Affair,’ 1967.

Bill Ray/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Faye Dunaway and Steve McQueen on the set of`The Thomas Crown Affair,’ 1967.

Bill Ray/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Faye Dunaway and Steve McQueen on the set of`The Thomas Crown Affair,’ 1967.

Bill Ray/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Faye Dunaway and Steve McQueen on the set of`The Thomas Crown Affair,’ 1967.

Bill Ray/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Faye Dunaway and Steve McQueen on the set of`The Thomas Crown Affair,’ 1967.

Bill Ray/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Faye Dunaway and Steve McQueen on the set of`The Thomas Crown Affair,’ 1967.

Bill Ray/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Director Norman Frederick Jewison (left) with actors Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway during the filming of ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ 1967.

Bill Ray/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Director Norman Frederick Jewison (left) with actors Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway during the filming of ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ 1967.

Bill Ray/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Director Norman Frederick Jewison (left) with actors Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway during the filming of ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ 1967.

Bill Ray/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Director Norman Frederick Jewison (left) with actors Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway during the filming of ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ 1967.

Bill Ray/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Director Norman Frederick Jewison (left) with actors Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway during the filming of ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ 1967.

Bill Ray/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Director Norman Frederick Jewison (left) with actors Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway during the filming of ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ 1967.

Bill Ray/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Life of A Salesman

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Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman came out in 1949. The play was about a common man, Willy Loman, lost in the American dream, and its exhortation was that “attention must be paid” to such a person.

Among those who heeded the call was Cornell Capa, staff photographer for LIFE magazine. He produced a photo essay about a real-life salesman, Robert Brooks, as he went on a four-week tour through the Midwest, peddling a line of umbrellas for L.P. Henryson Inc. of New York.

Brooks’s circumstances weren’t completely identical to those of Miller’s protagonist. Willy’s sons were fully grown, for example, while Brooks’ daughter was not yet two years old. But they were both salesmen, and Capa’s story documented the stresses of a job, including the pressure of living on commissions and the isolation of life on the road.

Brooks’ tour that took him from his home in Long Island, N.Y., out to Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Chicago and Detroit. He traveled by train, and made this tour four times a year. LIFE said that Brooks was doing better than most of the three million “outdoor salesmen” working in America back then. But still, he had to front his own expenses and only earned money from completed sales. That year he faced a difficult marketplace in which shoppers were looking to economize. A buyer in Cincinnati rejected all Brooks’ higher-priced umbrellas, asking “What have you got, honey, that I can sell at $4.98?”

Brooks’ job also took an emotional toll. As LIFE put it, “Wherever he goes, he takes his loneliness with him.” When Brooks arrived in his Chicago hotel and found three letters from his wife waiting at the front desk, he went to his room and ripped open the letters before even taking off his raincoat. While he did find some camaraderie during his travels, either from fellow salespeople or visits with old friends, LIFE said “Brooks gets homesick as soon as he hits the road.”

Toward the end of the trip, Capa photographed Brooks standing outside a theater showing the movie Dead Man’s Gold, a negligible Western starring Lash La Rue. Brooks had already seen all of Hollywood’s major releases during his trip, so this was how he looked to pass the evening.

For the trip Brooks netted $2,600 (or about $35,000 in today’s money). LIFE assured its readers that this payday was not as good as it sounded, in part because of the uncertain nature of his profession: “Before making another trip he must wait (meanwhile living on the proceeds of the last one) until the market has renewed itself. And next time he may find the buyers so far up off their knees that they will ask “What have you got, honey, that I can sell for 98 cents?”

Traveling salesman Robert Brooks says goodbye to his wife Carol before headed out on the road for four weeks to sell umbrellas, 1949.

Cornell Capa/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Robert Brooks says goodbye to his 19-month-old daughter Liza before headed out for a four-week sales trip, 1949.

Cornell Capa/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

On the first stop of his four-week sales trip across the Midwest, Robert Brooks promoted his line of umbrellas to buyers in Cincinnati, 1949.

Cornell Capa/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

In Indianapolis traveling umbrella salesman Robert Brooks waiting a half hour to be seen by a buyer during a four-week tour of the Midwest, 1949.

Cornell Capa/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

During a four-week sales tour traveling umbrella salesman Robert Brooks visited with a friend in Indianapolis he knew from service in World War II, 1949.

Cornell Capa/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Traveling umbrella salesman Robert Brooks slept on the train as he rides from Indianapolis to St. Louis as part of a four-week tour, 1949.

Cornell Capa/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Umbrella sales Robert Brooks, on the St. Louis stop of a four-week road trip across the Midwest, checked out a model being offered by his competition.

Cornell Capa/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Traveling salesman Robert Brooks, worn out and bored during a four-week tour of the Midwest, arrived at the St. Louis train station, 1949.

Cornell Capa/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Traveling salesman Robert Brooks had cocktails with a department store buyer in St. Louis during a four-week sales tour of the Midwest, 1949.

Cornell Capa/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Umbrella salesman Robert Brooks went to bed surrounded by samples during the St. Louis stop of a four-week road trip through the Midwest, 1949.

Cornell Capa/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Alone in the club car of a train going from St. Louis to Chicago, traveling umbrella salesman Robert Brooks showed weariness during his four-week tour of the Midwest, 1949.

Cornell Capa/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Traveling umbrella salesmen Robert Brooks didn’t wait to take off his coat before reading three letters from his wife that were waiting for him when he arrived at his hotel in Chicago as part of a four-week sales tour, 1949.

Cornell Capa/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Traveling salesman Robert Brooks made one of a series of sales calls with buyers during his four-week tour of the Midwest, 1949.

Cornell Capa/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Traveling salesman Robert Brooks found company with other traveling salespeople during a stop in Chicago on his four-week tour of the Midwest, 1949.

Cornell Capa/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Robert Brooks, in the latter stages of a four-week sales trip, looked for entertainment on a dull night in Detroit; turning to lower grade cinema because on his trip he has already seen all the major releases, 1949.

Cornell Capa/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bourke-White’s Images of the Northwest Territories, 1937

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The archetype of the LIFE photographer was a combination of artist and adventurer. That ideal was celebrated in the form of Sean Penn’s character in the 2013 film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, but in real life no one embodied it better than Margaret Bourke-White.

Bourke-White was one of the magazine’s original four staff photographers, and her adventurous spirit was on display in LIFE’s Oct. 25, 1937 issue, which featured two related stories from her. The first, which began on page 40, was headlined “A 10,000-Mile Tour of Canada’s Northwest with Lord Tweedsmuir.” She had traveled along with Canada’s governor general as he visited remote communities in the Northwest Territories.

Bourke-White’s second story in that issue, which began on page 119, was also set in Canada’s Northwest Territories, but in that one the photographer briefly became a subject. She was on a separate tour with Archibald Fleming, the Anglican Church’s first-ever Bishop of the Arctic, when their small plane encountered heavy fog and had to make an unplanned landing in an unpopulated location. Bourke-White was the lone woman in the traveling party of five, and she pitched in to gather driftwood to build a fire while they waited who-knows-how-long for the fog to clear. That was typical of the hardiness she demonstrated throughout her career.

Bourke-White’s willingness to go the distance in the Northwest Territories resulted in an intimate portrait of the lives of indigenous people in one of the most remote locations in North America. Her photo essays in that 1937 issue, which include shots of Inuit people at their homes and at a Hudson’s Bay Company trading post, document an ancient culture being touched by outside forces, and are the reason LIFE photographers like her were always up for a journey, no matter how arduous.

LIFE photographer Margaret Bourke-White gathered driftwood for a fire after her plane made a forced landing due to fog in the Canadian Arctic, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

After a forced landing due to fog in the Canadian Arctic, members of the traveling party of Archbishop Archibald Fleming studied maps to determine their whereabouts, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Rev. Archibald Fleming served as the Anglican Church’s first-ever Archbishop of the Arctic, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Inuit people arrived by boat to meet the plane of Rev. Archibald Fleming, Anglican Bishop of the Arctic, in the Northwest Territories, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Inuit people greeted Rev. Archibald Fleming, Anglican Bishop of the Arctic, after his landing in the Northwest Territories, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A priest played during vespers in the Church of St. Theresa, Fort Norman, Northwest Territories, Canada, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An aerial view of Aklavik, a town on the Mackenzie River delta in the Northwest Territories of Canada, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Canada’s governor general, Lord Tweedsmuir, looked at a map of his domain made of moosehide and embroidered with silk that was given to him by the townsfolk of Fort Simpson in the Northwest Territories, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

In Kugluktuk (then known as Coppermine) people gathered outside the Hudson’s Bay Company trading post, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An Inuit person traded wolverine fur for flour, baking soda, tallow, butter, jam and tobacco at the Hudson’s Bay Company store in Kugluktuk (then known as Coppermine) in the Northwest Territories, 1947.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Furs at the Hudson’s Bay store in the Northwest Territories, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

White fox pelts at the Hudson’s Bay Company store in the Northwest Territories, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Inuit children at the Sacred Heart school in the tiny town of Fort Providence in the Northwest Territories awaited a visit from Canada’s governor general and the chance to perform a dance they had spent months rehearsing, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The sisters of the Sacred Heart School harmonized along with an organ in Fort Providence, Northwest Territories, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This Inuit family enjoyed such modern conveniences as a victrola, a sewing machine, and a coal-burning stove in their tent, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Portrait of an Inuit mother and her child in Kugluktuk (then known as Coppermine), Northwest Territories, Canada, 1937.

.Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An unidentified Inuit couple in Kugluktuk (then known as Coppermine), Northwest Territories, Canada, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An Inuit mother tended to her child in Canada’s Northwest Territories, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from Inuit life in Canada’s Northwest Territories, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bourke-White: Finding Wonder in a Paper Mill, 1937

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Margaret Bourke-White was already seen as a major talent in photojournalism when she was hired as one of the first four staff photographers at LIFE magazine. She quickly demonstrated her abilities when she shot the first cover story in the magazine’s history, on the building of Fort Peck Dam.

The magazine was in its second year when Bourke-White undertook a major photo essay on the manufacturing of newsprint. She followed the process from the beginning, with lumberjacks moving felled trees downriver to the paper mill, where the wood was pulverized and treated and turned into the stuff that newspapers were printed on. The photo essay ran in LIFE with the headline “Portfolio on Paper: Driving Logs from Forest to Factory“

Why was LIFE interested in this process? Well, in 1937 the demand for newsprint was skyrocketing because of the newspaper industry was in its heyday. The U.S. had 2,084 daily newspapers that year, compared to 938 in 2025.

Bourke-White captured all the mechanical details involved in the making of newsprint. But with her artistic eye Bourke-White also made photos that went beyond the documentation of an industrial process. Some of the images fascinate because of the scale, as humans seem dwarfed first by the log piles and then the industrial machinery that turned the logs into newsprint. Bourke-White also captures details such as the spikes in a lumberback’s boots that help him maintain his balance atop waterborne logs, or the patterns created by freshly made newsprint hanging to dry.

If you enjoy this story and want to further appreciate—or possibly own—more of Bourke-White’s work, see some of her most famous images in the LIFE photo store.

A worker prepares logs to be moved downstream to a peper mill, 1937. The International Paper Company either owned or leased 20,000,000 acres of forestland in Canada’s Upper Gatineau region.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Spiked boots and a form of grappling hook known as a peavey were the favored tools of loggers guiding felled trees over the water, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Workers formed a boom in Wahwati Creek in Canada by chaining logs together; when the boom was full, it would be carried downriver by a tugboat, 1937. formed by combining several logs together being filled by loggers floating other logs into it in preparation for travel down Wahwati Creek to the paper processing mill.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Lumberjacks working on a jam of logs on their way to the International Paper Company, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Massive collections of logs, called booms, were tugged downriver to a paper mill as part of the process of making newsprint, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Loggers worked to move logs downstream to a paper mill, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Workers managed logs on their way to be milled, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A worked sprayed water on a massive store of logs to keep them from catching fire before they could be processed at a lumber mill, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Images from Margaret Bourke-White’s photo essay about the process of turning timber into newsprint, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

At a paper mill wood that has been pulverized and treated with chemicals is spread out into sheets and on its way to becoming newsprint, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

At a paper mill pulverized wood is turned into newsprint, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

At a paper mill freshly made newsprint hangs to dry, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paper being processed at the International Paper Company, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Images from Margaret Bourke-White’s photo essay about the process of turning timber into newsprint, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

At a paper mill workers handled 20-foot-wide rolls of freshly made newsprint, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Workers at a paper mill handle a freshly made 20-foot-wide roll of newsprint, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

At a paper mill an inspector fanned sheets of finished stock to check for flaws, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Finished rolls of newsprint, weighing 1,400 pounds each, are ready to be shipped from the International Paper Company, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Finished rolls of newsprint are ready to be shipped from the International Paper Company, 1937.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Making of a Mermaid, 1948

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The concept of the mermaid has been around since at least the 14th century, and this beloved creature has shown up in dozens of movies, including Splash and The Little Mermaid. LIFE was there in 1948 when Hollywood took its first stab at making a mermaid look real.

The movie was a 1948 summer release called Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid, which was a light romance about a man who goes fishing and makes an unexpected catch. The mermaid was played by Ann Blyth, who had been nominated for an Academy Award a couple years earlier for her supporting role in Mildred Pierce. In February 1948 LIFE devoted a story to the making of a custom-fitted tail for Blyth. The story’s headline announced that this tail cost $18,000 (or about a $250,000 in 2026 dollars) and called its creation “the most ambitious make-up job ever to be performed on the nether extremities of an actress.”

The brains behind the tail was Bud Westmore, a Hollywood makeup legend who would also be featured in LIFE for his work on another semi-aquatic figure, The Creature from the Black Lagoon. For the mermaid’s tail Westmore made a plaster-of-Paris mold directly from Blyth’s body. He then encased the resulting model in rubber and carved the tail. LIFE staff photographer Allan Grant documented every step in the process.

And when it came time for Blyth to get into the water on the movie set, another LIFE photographer, Loomis Dean, was there to take pictures.

Unfortunately when the movie actually came out, LIFE’s film critic was not so impressed. A group review of Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid and two other summer releases was headlined, “Three expensive movies aim at fantasy and miss it by a mile.” The quality of the tail was not remarked upon at all.

It’s a sentiment all too familiar to modern moviegoers. Special effects can be spectacular, but the story still needs to work. A tail can be great and the movie can still flounder.

Actress Ann Blyth had her legs coated in grease before a plaster mold was made of her legs as part of the crafting of a state-of-the-art mermaid’s tail for the 1948 film “Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid.”

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Makeup artists crafted a mermaid’s tail for actress Ann Blyth for the film “Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid,” 1948.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Master makeup artist Bud Westmore fitted rubber to a plastic mold while making a tail for actress Ann Blyth in the 1948 movie “Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid.”

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ann Blyth showed off the custom-made, $18,000 tail she wore in the 1948 film “Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid.”

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ann Blyth showed off the custom-made, $18,000 tail she wore in the 1948 film “Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid.”

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ann Blyth starred in the 1948 film “Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid.”

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ann Blyth and William Powell starred in the 1948 film “Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid.”

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ann Blyth starred in the 1948 film “Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid.”

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ann Blyth starred in the 1948 film “Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid.”

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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