Page 22 – LIFE

A Synagogue on Wheels: Serving Far-Flung Congregants By Bus in North Carolina

September 5, 2023September 5, 2023 by Bill Syken

There’s a Yiddish proverb which says, “God gives burdens, also shoulders.” For Rabbi Harold Freedman of North Carolina, he found a solution to his particular burden—Jews spread out across the state with no local place of worship—by keeping his shoulder to the wheel. He drove a bus that had been retrofitted as a synagogue, allowing to him to meet his flock in the communities where they lived.

LIFE wrote about the “circuit-riding rabbi” in its Sept. 19, 1955 issue:

In many of the small communities and rural areas of North Carolina, Jewish families have been remote from synagogues and grown remote from their faith. Now the synagogue comes to them in the form of a specially designed bus which is equipped with everything from a lending library of 60 volumes on Judiasm to a battery-powered eternal light.

The rolling synagogue is driven by Rabbi Harold Friedman, who tours a 1,200-mile circuit each fortnight and stops in 10 different communities to lead religious instruction and conduct services for some 300 families.

The photos by George Skadding show that Freedman’s mobile synagogue, though cozy, was well-appointed, and even contained a small ark. Friedman’s work was underwritten by a group called the North Carolina Association of Jewish Men.

And the good news is that the investment in money and miles paid off. The Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities credits Friedman’s traveling services with inspiring the formation of congregations in three of the communities he visited and reviving flagging congregations in three more.

Rabbi Harold Friedman drove a bus on a circuit around North Carolina to bring religious services to far-flung communities, 1955.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Rabbi Harold Freedman conducted a service in his mobile synagogue that traveled around North Carolina, 1955.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A young student held the torah as Rabbi Harold Freedman conducted a children’s class in his mobile synagogue that traveled through North Carolina, serving many communities, 1955.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Rabbi Harold Freedman distributed yarmulkes to be worn in his mobile synagogue that traveled around North Carolina, 1955.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Rabbi Harold Friedman drove a bus on a circuit around North Carolina to bring religious services to far-flung communities, 1955.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Rabbi Harold Friedman, posing at the wheel, drove a bus on a circuit around North Carolina to bring religious services to far-flung communities, 1955.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Rabbi Harold Friedman drove a bus on a circuit around North Carolina to bring religious services to far-flung communities, 1955.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Children waited to be admitted to the mobile synagogue that traveled around North Carolina, 1955.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Rabbi Harold Friedman drove a bus on a circuit around North Carolina to bring religious services to far-flung communities, 1955.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

When Barnard Added Relaxation to its College Curriculum

August 31, 2023August 31, 2023 by Bill Syken

College is said to be more stressful than ever, but even way back in 1954, Barnard College, the all-female sister school of Columbia University, picked up on the anxiousness in its student body and tried to do something about it. The school mandated relaxation classes for its new students.

Here’s how LIFE described what was going on in its Feb. 8, 1954 issue:

Having found that too many students are too tense, Barnard has inaugurated a session in relaxation in its Physical Education Department which every student must attend….Every student gets a chart with relaxing exercises to practice alone and is taught to recognize such symptoms of tension as lip-biting, nail-biting, insomnia, headache and eye-batting (if not premeditated). Barnard considers relaxation so important that other gym courses such as posture correction and rhythmics often end up in a 10-minute relaxing session.

What were the exercises taught to these first-year students? While the word “yoga” does not appear anywhere in the coverage, the photographs by LIFE’s Walter Sanders of Barnard’s relaxation instruction includes poses that will look familiar to anyone who has ever done cat and cow or savasana.

The line in LIFE’s coverage about “posture class” set up a sidebar story on another Barnard ritual. According to the story, Barnard held a posture contest every January for first-year students. In the contest, students walked around the school gym in a circle for a half hour and were pulled out when they started to slump or show other postural flaws.

It’s perhaps not a mystery why the students were a little tense.

The seven stages of the “dropping daisy’ exercise that was part of the relaxation instruction at Barnard College, 1954.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The mandatory relaxation class at Barnard College, 1954.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The relaxation class at Barnard College, 1954.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Relaxation class at Barnard College, 1954.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Relaxation instruction at Barnard College, 1954.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Relaxation class at Barnard College, 1954.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from a posture class at Barnard College, where students doing leg lowering exercises to strengthen their abdomens, 1954.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scene from a posture class at Barnard College, 1954.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The posture class at Barnard College included students hanging on bars to correct uneven shoulders, 1954.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gym instructor Patty Smyth (pointing) of Sarah Lawrence College helped judge the January posture competition at Barnard College, 1954.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

During a posture competition at Barnard College, contestants walking in a circle for half an hour, and were eliminated when their posture faltered, 1954.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Wolverine Football in the Days of the “Michigan Spinner”

August 28, 2023August 28, 2023 by Bill Syken

The best thing about college football is anything having to do with the game itself. People who follow the game will endure endless news items about players changing teams and teams changing conferences and the playoff format being tweaked because what happens on the field on Saturday afternoons and evenings makes it all worth it. This set of photos by Francis Miller from the practice fields of the Michigan football team in 1949 is a reminder of what makes the game such a delight for so many.

The Wolverine football program was a big deal then as it is now—in 1949 they were defending national champions—and the team was already using its signature winged helmet design. But otherwise, these pictures look like they could come from a high school practice, given how refreshingly small in scale the Michigan football operation was then. The players themselves are also relatively small in scale, as this was the days before dietary and training methods turned players into behemoths.

Miller’s most fun image was a composite photograph that illustrated Michigan’s signature play at the time, which LIFE called the “Michigan spinner.” The photo combined six different images of fullback Don Dufek in an attempt to show all the options the ballhandler had for either running, handling off to a teammate or throwing a jump pass.

LIFE wrote of the signature play in its Oct. 3, 1949 issue, “There is no great mystery about how the spinner works—the mystery for the opposing team is in trying to locate the ball, which is handed around from back to back. This has led to a favorite Ann Arbor epigram: “Everybody handles the ball at Michigan except the Dean of Agriculture, and he’s at Michigan State.”

Eventually opposing defenses did figure out how to unspin the spinner. In the first game after that issue came out, Michigan had its 25-game winning streak broken as the Wolverines lost to Army 21-7. They would end the season 6-2-1 and 7th in the AP poll.

This composite of six images of fullback Donald Dufek was meant to demonstrate the options available in the “Michigan Spinner,” the signature play of Michigan football in 1949.

Francis Miller/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Michigan football practice, 1949.

Francis Miller/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Michigan football practice, 1949; the heart of the Wolverine offense was a multi-option play called the Michigan Spinner.

Francis Miller/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Michigan football practice, 1949.

Francis Miller/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Michigan football practice, 1949; the heart of the Michigan offense was a play called the “Michigan Spinner” which was loaded with options for running and passing the ball.

Francis Miller/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Michigan football practice, 1949.

Francis Miller/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Michigan football practice, 1949; the team was coached by Wolverines legend Bennie Oosterbaan.

Francis Miller/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Michigan football backfield stars (left to right) Richard Kempthorn, Leo Koceski, and Charles Ortmann in 1949.

Francis Miller/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Walter Teninga, running back and kicker for Michigan football, 1949.

Francis Miller/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Wally Teninga at a Michigan practice, 1949; that season he would boot a 69-yard punt, throw a touchdown pass, and force and recover a fumble on defense.

Francis Miller/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Michigan football practice, 1949.

Francis Miller/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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

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