Page 22 – LIFE

Gene Tierney: The Frankness and Courage of the “Laura” Star

August 25, 2023August 25, 2023 by Bill Syken

Gene Tierney is best remembered for her performance in the title role of the 1994 film noir classic Laura, which in 2008 was named one of the ten greatest mystery movies by the American FIlm Institute. She also merits recognition for talking publicly about her mental health struggles long before it came common to do so.

Tierney made her film debut at age 20 in the Fritz Lang western The Return of Frank James, and her star ascended rapidly with the success of Laura and also the 1945 film Leave Her To Heaven, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She married for the first time in 1941, eloping with future fashion star Oleg Cassini, who was then working in Paramount’s costume department. (The couple had two children, the first of whom was born with severe disability that would require lifelong institutionalization. The couple would separate in 1946 and finally divorce in 1952). After separating from Cassini, Tierney had a romance with John F. Kennedy in 1947, though she said he eventually broke it off because she would not fit in with his political ambitions (and in one of history’s odder triangulations, when JFK became president, it was Tierney’s ex-husband, Cassini, who famously designed dresses for Jackie Kennedy).

Tierney’s mental health issues began to interfere with her work in the 1950s, when had to drop out of the production of John Ford’s 1953 film Mogambo, being replaced by Grace Kelly. After finishing production of the 1955 film The Left Hand of God, Tierney took off from acting entirely to seek inpatient treatment that included stays at multiple institutions, shock therapy treatments and days wrapped in icy sheets to control her mood swings. This story includes images by LIFE photographer Francis Miller from when Tierney was discovered to be working anonymously as a sales clerk at a dress shop near Topeka, Kansas, reportedly as part of her therapy.

In 1958 Tierney declared herself ready to act again. Photographer Allan Grant chronicled her return to Hollywood in LIFE’s Sept. 29, 1958 issue. In that story she talked openly about her mental health treatment:

Looking happy, relaxed, and as exotically lovely as ever, Gene Tierney came back to Hollywood last week after four long absent years. Starting at her old studio, 20th Century Fox, which had continued her salary all through her absence, she toured movie lots on which for 18 years and 25 major films she had been one of the brightest stars. She was, she said, “letting people know I am back in town and available for work.” And everywhere she went top executives, actors, carpenters, came hurrying to shake her hand or hug and kiss her and welcome her home.

To those who asked, Gene, who is now 37, spoke with easygoing directness about where she had been—burdened with personal troubles, she had broken down. She had spent one and a half years in the Institute of Living in Hartford, Conn., a mental sanitarium, then gone into seclusion, then had been for eight months at the Karl Messinger mental clinic in Topeka, Kan. “It was a time,” she said, “for rest and quiet and there were many wonderful things—doctors, other patients. And I found a new pleasure in reading. The words began to mean more than ever before,” and she recited Shakespeare’s sonnet, “When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes/I alone beweep my outcast state/and trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries/and look upon myself and curse my fate….” Then she said, “But I was most fortunate. My illness was curable.”

In the photos she was all smiles. But while Tierney did get back to moviemaking, her career over the next few years was marked by stops and starts. By 1964 she had largely retired from acting, returning only on rare occasions. She wrote an autobiography, Self-Portrait, that came out in 1979 and detailed her battles with mental illness. Her final acting role was in the 1980 TV miniseries Scruples.

She married for a second time, to Texas oilman W. Howard Lee in 1960, and they were together in Houston until his death in 1981. Tierney died on Nov. 6, 1991 at age 70.

Gene Tierney during the filming of the 1946 movie Dragonwick.

Walter Sanders/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gene Tierney during the filming of the 1946 movie Dragonwick.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actress Gene Tierney was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1945 film Leave Her to Heaven.

Martha Holmes/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gene Tierney and Jose Ferrer in the 1950 movie Whirlpool.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gene Tierney clerking in a dress store near Topeka, Kansas; she worked there anonymously as part of her mental health treatment.

Frances Miller/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gene Tierney clerking in a dress store near Topeka, Kansas; she worked there anonymously as part of her therapy.

Frances Miller/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Film director George Cukor greeted actress Gene Tierney on her return to Hollywood after taking years off for mental health issues, 1958.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actress Gene Tierney during her return to Hollywood, 1958.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actress Gene Tierney spoke with Joanne Woodward (left) on Tierney’s return to Hollywood in 1958.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gene Tierney visited a film set during her return to Hollywood, 1958.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Leonard Bernstein: The Maestro in LIFE

December 18, 2023August 22, 2023 by Bill Syken

The year 2023 has been a hot one at the cinema for men who were fixtures in LIFE magazine during its original run. This summer moviegoers flocked to see Christopher Nolan’s rendering of the life of Robert Oppenheimer, and now, Bradley Cooper is delivering a biopic of Leonard Bernstein with his Netflix release Maestro on December 20th.

The pages of LIFE chronicled the rise and rise of the legendary conductor. In its Jan. 7, 1957 issue LIFE ran a multi-page story on Bernstein headlined “Busy Time for a Young Maestro.” He was conducting thrice-weekly performances with the New York Philharmonic, while also dividing attention between one musical he had on Broadway, Candide, and another that was on its way and would elevate his star even higher—West Side Story. Bernstein also had ballets on his plate and five records in the pipeline in which he was either the conductor, composer or performer. “It’s perfectly possible to do all the things I have to,” he told LIFE, “but it’s a little hard doing them all at once.” The photos for that story, shot by Alfred Eisenstaedt, also gave a window into Bernstein’s personal life, showing Bernstein and his wife Felicia (played in the film by Carrie Mulligan) at home with their children around the piano.

In 1958 LIFE photographer Gordon Parks captured more memorable images of Bernstein when following him around for that year’s opening for the Philharmonic, including a lovely photo of Bernstein and Felicia dancing at the end of the night.

His further appearances included a 1969 article about Bernstein as he prepared to leave the New York Philharmonic at age 50. This was the end of a major chapter in Bernstein’s career, and the tone of the story, by Thomas Thompson, was elegiac. Here’s how it ended:

John F. Kennedy said, after a gala at the Washington Armory, that there was only one person he would never want to run against. Laurence Olivier once said that if he had the choice to be anyone in the world besides himself, he would choose but one other man. In the last hours of a long night in London, this envy of Kennedy and Olivier sat at a gleaming Steinway in his hotel suite, pounding out private crashing chords, wondering if 50 is halfway, the beginning, the end. This captive of the modern age, this effect and cause, this musician who could perhaps bring back the era of symphonic genius if there were the time but who wonders if there were the time would there also be the genius, this man, Leonard Bernstein, dreams of catching his breath and maybe his life.

Bernstein would in fact keep a busy schedule in the decades after he left the Philharmonic, and up through the last years of his life. His last major event was a historic one: on Christmas Day 1989, in Berlin, he conducted a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, not far from the Brandenburg Gate, to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall. He led his final concert at Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on Aug. 19, 1990. He died on Oct. 14 of that year, from a heart attack, at age 72.

Leonard Bernstein, 1955.

Gordon Parks The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Leonard Bernstein, 1954.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Leonard Bernstein, 1955.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Leonard Bernstein and wife Felicia played pianos at home while their children Alexander (left) and Jamie (third from left) joined in, 1956.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein with his wife, actress Felicia Montealegre, and children Alexander and Jamie, at the piano in their home, 1956.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Leonard Bernstein conducting a rehearsal of the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, 1956.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra during a rehearsal for the ‘Mathis der Maler’ performance on December 20-21, Carnegie Hall, New York, 1956.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein walked past Carnegie Hall, where he would be conducting the New York Philharmonic’s performance of Paul Hindemith’s symphony ‘Mathis der Maler’, December 1956.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Leonard Bernstein talking on the phone at Carnegie Hall after a New York Philharmonic rehearsal, December 1956.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Maestro Leonard Bernstein getting a cologne rubdown from his wife, actress Felicia Montealegre, during intermission for his concert conducting the New York Philharmonic orchestra at Carnegie Hall, 1956.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Stephen Sondheim (left) discussed rehearsal schedules for the Broadway opening of West Side Story with composer Leonard Bernstein (center) and choreographer Jerome Robbins (right), 1957.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Leonard Bernstein on opening night for the New York Philharmonic, 1958.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Conductor Leonard Bernstein (left) talking with composer Jules Styne on opening night for the New York Philharmonic, 1958.

.Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Leonard Bernstein and his wife on the opening night of the New York Philharmonic, 1958.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Leonard Bernstein with his wife Felicia, 1958.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Composer Leonard Bernstein dancing with his wife on opening night for the New York Philharmonic, 1958.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Conductor Leonard Bernstein, 1959.

Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Leonard Bernstein conducting vocal soloists and the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, 1960.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Conductor Leonard Bernstein rehearsed Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony at Carnegie Hall, 1960.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Conductor Leonard Bernstein, First Lady Jackie Kennedy (center) and John D, Rockefeller III (left) at the opening of the Lincoln Center Philharmonic Hall, 1962.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Leonard Bernstein at the podium for the first performance ever at Lincoln Center’s Philharmonic Hall in New York, 1962.

Ralph Morse/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Leonard Bernstein, 1962

Ralph Morse The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Leonard Bernstein, 1967.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Leonard Bernstein, 1968.

Alfrefd Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Decorate Your Home With LIFE’s Classic Photos

February 6, 2025August 16, 2023 by Bill Syken

Thanks to a new partnership, you can now have the highest-quality prints of LIFE’s greatest photos in your home.

The new Lifephotostore.com allows you to order prints of photos by Alfred Eisenstaedt, Nina Leen and the rest of LIFE’s great photographers. The shop is a collaboration between LIFE and ArtPhotoLimited, a leader in print-on-demand artworks. Nicolas Lauret, the company’s CEO, believes his company is perfectly suited to create prints from LIFE’s vaunted archive of photographs.

“These photographs capture powerful moments in history, from cultural milestones to world-changing events, making them highly desirable for collectors and art lovers,” Lauret says. “With their strong storytelling and artistic quality, LIFE images work beautifully as premium, limited-edition prints.”

The LIFE store features a curated collection of more than 600 photos, with many of the best-selling images coming from the worlds of movies, music and sports. Many of the most popular photos are seen in this gallery. The collection also includes LIFE’s most iconic covers. Customers can order prints in various finishes and sizes, from as small as 12 by 8 inches to museum-size prints at 60-by-40 inches.

“What makes the LIFE collection unique is above all its photographers that usually had rare access to pivotal events—from wars to cultural revolutions—giving us first hand views of history,” Lauret says. “Their technical mastery, combined with a deep understanding of human emotion, created timeless visuals that still resonate. LIFE’s images didn’t just document history; they shaped it. In an era before digital saturation, these photos stood as powerful, singular snapshots of the world.I also believe, in a world where AI is more and more visible, human taken/made pictures have even more value. LIFE pictures surf above trends, they are timeless.”

Take a look around the store and see which photos you can have printed for your home, so they can amaze and inspire you every day.

Portrait of actress Marilyn Monroe on patio of her home.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Steve McQueen aims a pistol in his living room.

John Dominis/The LIFE Picture Collection / Shutterstock

Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy conferred with his brother and campaign organizer, Robert Kennedy, in a hotel suite during the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.

Hank Walker/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Award presenters Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly waiting backstage at the RKO Pantages Theatre during the 28th Annual Academy Awards, 1956.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sophia Loren laughing while exchanging jokes during lunch break on a movie set, 1961.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Alberto Giacometti, 1951.

Gordon Parks/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mickey Mantle, Yankee Stadium, 1965.

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jack Nicholson relaxing at home in Los Angeles, 1969.

Arthur Schatz/Life Picture Collection /Shutterstock

Prince on tour for Purple Rain, 1985.

The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Steve McQueen is seen driving a sleek and stylish sports car on the streets of Los Angeles, California in June 1963.

John Dominis / LIFE Picture Collection /Shutterstock

Artist Pablo Picasso using flashlight to make a light drawing in the air.

Gjon Mili/ The LIFE Picture Collection / Shutterstock

Campus Fashion 1951: Cool Chameleon Cottons

August 15, 2023August 15, 2023 by Bill Syken

The Aug. 6, 1951 issue of LIFE featured a back-to-college fashion spread that was all about the fabric. The pictures for the story were shot by LIFE’s legendary photographer Nina Leen, and they highlighted clothes which were light enough to be worn in those early days of the fall semester, when students were still figuring out where their classes were.

Here’s the sales pitch from LIFE’s story, which was headlined “Chameleon Cottons: New Eye-Fooling Fabrics Look Like Anything But What They Are.”

With more body and versatility than their gingham cousins, they are styled to substitute for wool and are a lot cheaper. A canny college shopper can pick cotton for any item in her wardrobe….Since college girls have always found wool uncomfortably warm during the first weeks of school, the smartest students are now likely to appear in fashionable year-round cottons that look like fall but feel like Indian summer.

Some photos show models on what could be a campus, while at least a couple show the young women out on the town. Still others have the models playing with a lively Dalmatian. While it’s the rare college student who takes a dog to college—Bruiser of Legally Blonde is more the exception than the rule—Dalmatians have long been a favorite of fashion photographers.

LIFE’s 1951 take of campus fashion is definitely of its time, both for the conservative nature of the clothes and also the fascination with cotton. This was 1951, and the real fabric revolution of the 1950s, the introduction of polyester and other synthetics, was soon on its way. And while LIFE’s story touted the affordability of cotton, some of the clothes in this shoot were not inexpensive; the quilted jacket cast $25, the equivalent of nearly $300 in 2023. That would be a lot for most college students, and it’s a sign of why cheaper substitutes would prove so popular.

This Peruvian jacket with heavy twill retaining authentic detailing and cost $9; it was featured in a story about campus fashion, 1951.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This quilted jacket ($25) featured ribbing below the elbows; it was featured in a story on college fashions, 1951.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

From a LIFE story on campus fashions featuring chameleon cottons, 1951.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

From a LIFE story on college fashions featuring chameleon cottons, 1951.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This party dress had three separate parts, a blouse and petticoat ($5.95 each) and a black corduroy jumper ($14.95); it was featured in a story on campus fashions, 1951.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

From a LIFE story on college fashions featuring chameleon cottons, 1951.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This $50 cotton town suit with triangular button closings was designed for all-year wear; it was featured in a story on campus fashions, 1951.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

From a LIFE story on college fashions featuring chameleon cottons, 1951.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Stones on the Run: A Death Valley Spectacle

August 8, 2023August 8, 2023 by Bill Syken

In its March 10, 1952 issue LIFE magazine served its readers photos of the “sailing rocks” of the Racetrack Playa, a dry lake bed near Death Valley, California. The stones don’t do anything really wild like zip around in front of people, but they have moved at some point, and we know it by the tracks they have left behind at the Racetrack and also at a few similar locations around the globe. LIFE’s photos by Loomis Dean captured the phenomenon that keeps the Playa Racetrack a tourist destination all these years later.

Here was the setup offered in LIFE, in an article titled “The Case of the Skating Stones”:

On a dry lake bed high in the Panamint Mountains near Death Valley sit several dozen boulders whose peculiar behavior has long been a nightmare to geologists. The boulders, which weigh up to a quarter ton, stand at the ends of long, gouged-out paths which show that they periodically respond to unknown forces and skate about on the flat earthen floor.

LIFE painted the situation as a complete mystery, mentioning disproved theories from everyday folks that attributed the stones’ movement to the lake bed tilting back and forth, or perhaps to “Russians tampering with the magnetic pole.” (This was the early days of the Cold War, mind you). LIFE ended its writeup by saying “The mystery may never be completely solved. When humans observers are about, the stones refuse to budge an inch.”

But since 1952 scientists, when not busy exploring space and inventing cell phones and so forth, did come up with a leading hypothesis, which is that the stones’ skating is likely caused by the movement of thin sheets of ice that can form there in wintertime, with high winds perhaps helping to push stones along.

Though sometimes the stones have moved for reasons that are all too explicable—such as in 2013, when some stones were stolen. A park spokesman expressed both disappointment and confusion at the theft, saying “They don’t seem to understand that outside the Racetrack, these stones have no value.” Other visitors have damaged the site by taking the “Racetrack” name literally and driving their cars on it.

Sometimes human behavior is a mystery all its own.

The “sailing stones” of the Racetrack Playa in Death Valley, California, 1952.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

LIFE’s 1952 story on the sailing stones of Racetrack Playa in Death Valley included this photo of stone-like objects described as “burro droppings” that had likely been moved by the same forces as the stones.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The sailing stones of the Racetrack Playa in Death Valley, California, 1952.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This three-quarter-ton stone left its mark after moving across a dry lake bed in Death Valley, 1952.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

“Sailing stones” left tracks as they drifted across Racetrack Playa in Death Valley, California, 1952.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A small stone left these intricate tracks on the Racetrack Playa in Death Valley, California, 1952.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

LIFE’s 1952 story on the Racetrack Playa described this photo as being from a “ghost experiment,” guessing that an amateur scientist had tied up the rock to keep it from moving, but over time the rope had eventually rotted away.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Summer-Ending, Hand-Harvested Seafood Soiree

September 1, 2023July 31, 2023 by Bill Syken

Who doesn’t want to finish the summer in style? If that was the goal of these Santa Monica lifeguards and their friends, then mission accomplished. The party captured by LIFE photographer Peter Stackpole certainly looks like grand old time, especially because these lifeguards pulled their lunch straight from the ocean.

The story that ran in the Nov. 18, 1940 issue was titled “LIFE Goes to a Lifeguard Party.” The lifeguards and their friends sailed a short ways north to Point Dume for the day, but the story drew on the glamor of their Santa Monica origins, talking about how these young men were responsible for protecting Cary Grant, Norma Shearer, Marion Davies and other movie stars who had beach homes in their territory. The lifeguards were at least connected enough to borrow a boat for their party from actor Arthur Lake, best known for playing Dagwood in the Blondie movies based on the popular comic strip. LIFE’s story described the female party guests as “Aquabelles from the San Francisco Fair,” which seems to reference to a show called Aquacade that had been popular around the country and had set up shop in San Francisco that summer.

A highlight of this lifeguard party was when they took Lake’s boat out, dropped anchor, and began to forage in the Pacific. Here’s how LIFE described the scene:

Diving for abalone, lobster and octopus in beds of entangling kelp is a hazardous sport, hence the Aquabelles stayed on the paddling boards, spotted game by peering into the depths through gas masks (used professionally by the guards when searching for drowning victims) and let their expert hosts do the underwater work….Boys dived for abalone and for spiny lobsters which they captured by grabbing their feelers, yanking them out of their holes. Soon they had enough for lunch.

After securing their catches, the lifeguards went to the shore to boil the seafood and then returned to their sloop to dine.

After eating, they took their boat home to Santa Monica and despite the fine day there was a wistful feeling about summer coming to an end. LIFE’s story closed on this note: “As they sailed home through the slashing sunlight, they realized with quick regret that the day had been brief, the hot golden summer finally fled. Soon winter’s fogs would billow over empty beaches from the sea.”

Santa Monica lifeguards partied at the end of their season, California, 1940.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scene from a season-ending party for Santa Monica lifeguards, 1940.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paddlers gathered over a bed of kelp where they hoped to find lobsters and abalone for the Santa Monica lifeguards’ season-ending party, 1940..

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A member of a lifeguard’s party dove for abalone that would be part of their end-of-summer seafood feast, California, 1940.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The octopus was among the catches of the day for the season-ending party for Santa Monica lifeguards, 1940.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A member of the lifeguard party killed a recently-caught octopus by biting its head, Santa Monica, California, 1940.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Part of the freshly caught lunch at a season-ending party for Santa Monica lifeguards, 1940.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The seafood that had been pulled from the water was cooked on land and then taken back aboard their boat during the Santa Monica lifeguards’ season-closing party, 1940.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Santa Monica lifeguards relaxed after an on-boat lunch of freshly caught seafood during their season-ending party, 1940.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Santa Monica lifeguards and their guests relaxed after lunch aboard a boat at their season-ending party, 1940.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Santa Monica lifeguards sailed home from Point Dume at the close of their season-ending party, 1940.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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Decorate Your Home With LIFE’s Classic Photos

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Stones on the Run: A Death Valley Spectacle

A Summer-Ending, Hand-Harvested Seafood Soiree

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