Page 29 – LIFE

LIFE Goes to a Motorcyle Rally

March 23, 2023March 23, 2023 by Bill Syken

It calls itself as “the world’s oldest motorcycle rally,” and in June 2023 the town of Laconia, New Hampshire will host the 100th edition of its Motorcyle Week.

In 1947 LIFE sent photographer Sam Shere to chronicle an early but already bustling version of the gathering, and the magazine’s story in its Aug. 11, 1947 issue was inspired in part by the growth of cycling as a social activity in the years following World War II. “Today’s 200,000 “bike” riders are organized like so many Panzer units into well-disciplined clubs with costumes,” LIFE wrote. “…To these stalwarts the motorcycle is a white charger, an emblem of knighthood. The gas fumes, the roaring wind, and the staccato snorting of the exhaust enchant them.”

Shere’s photos capture the joyful juxtaposition of leather-clad bikers converging on a quaint New England setting. But the images that stand out most feature cyclists from the Motor Maids of America. The group, dedicated to bringing female motorcyclists together, began in 1940 with a few dozen riders and today boasts a membership of about 1,300. The photos from the Laconia rally include shots of the group’s founder, Dot Robinson, with her 15-year-old-daughter Betty. Their Motor Maids uniforms are both jaunty and a tad formal. They make the Motor Maids look like meter maids gone rogue.

They also help the Laconia rally look like a rollicking good time.

A motorcyle rally in Laconia, New Hampshire, July 1947.

Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Motorcycle rally, Laconia, N.H., 1947.

Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Motorcycle rally Laconia, N.H., 1947.

Sam Shere/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dot Robinson (right), founder of the Motor Maids of America, and her daughter Betty, 15, at a motorcycle rally in Laconia, N.H., 1947.

Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dot Robinson (leftt), founder of the Motor Maids of America, and her daughter Betty, 15, at a motorcycle rally in Laconia, N.H., 1947.

Sam Shere/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Motorcycle rally, Laconia, N.H., 1947.

Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Motorcycle rally, Laconia, N.H., 1947.

Sam Shere/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

At a motorcycle rally in Laconia, N.H. in 1947, some riders wore personalized protective leather belts.

Sam Shere/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

At a motorcycle rally in Laconia, N.H. in 1947, some riders wore personalized protective leather belts.

Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

At a motorcycle rally in Laconia, N.H. in 1947, some riders wore personalized protective leather belts.

Sam Shere/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Motorcycle rally, Laconia, N.H., 1947.

Sam Shere/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A race at the annual motorcycle rally in Laconia, N.H., 1947.

Sam Shere/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Young Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Following His Own Tune

March 20, 2023March 20, 2023 by Bill Syken

It says something about the scale of the accomplishments of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar that, more than 30 years after he retired from playing basketball, he remains a regular presence in the public sphere.

In February 2023 the six-time NBA MVP and six-time NBA champion graciously handed a ceremonial basketball to Lebron James to commemorate James breaking Abdul-Jabbar’s NBA all-time scoring record, which had stood since 1984. Abdul-Jabbar was also a central character in the HBO series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty that debuted in 2022 and has been renewed for a second season (and which Abdul-Jabbar, like many other former Lakers, has criticized for its inaccuracy). Abdul-Jabbar has also gained notice an author and also as an opinion writer, expressing his insights on race and other societal issues.

It was evident that he was not a typical athlete when LIFE profiled Abdul-Jabbar in its Feb. 17, 1967 issue. At that point he was 19 years old and a sophomore at UCLA, and he was still known by his birth name of Lew Alcindor (he would change it after converting to Islam in 1968). This was also before he began wearing his familiar goggles on the court, a protective measure he took after suffering a scratched cornea. It was also before he would lead UCLA to three NCAA championships and a record 71 consecutive wins.

The mood of the LIFE profile is captured by a quote from the young star, “The world wasn’t made for people over six foot two.” (The story gives his height as 7’1 3/8″, though the NBA lists it as 7’2″). The story presents him as a loner who values his privacy and is not at all comfortable with the spotlight. The photos by Bill Ray show a basketball star who, in the course of trying to live an ordinary life, can’t help but stand out because of his size. Abdul-Jabbar towers over his then-girlfriend as they walk around campus. His visit to a music store has the feel of a scene from Gulliver’s Travels. “I wish I could become a musician,” Abdul-Jabbar told LIFE. “That’s the one thing in the world that I would really enjoy.”

Perhaps the most eye-grabbing of Ray’s photos show Abdul-Jabbar shopping for clothing, and getting measured for a pair of dress pants (length: 51 inches). The tailor—who, it must be noted in fairness, seems to have been on the shorter side—needed to stand on a chair to get the Abdul-Jabbar’s measurements. The shop manager quipped to LIFE, “The only pants longer than these are for a redwood tree.”

It’s the kind of not-very-witty joke the cerebral basketball great must have heard a thousand times in his life, and it gives a sense of why, at such a young age, he was already cherishing his privacy.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, UCLA sophomore, 1967.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar gets measured for a pair of dress pants, 1967.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar gets fitted for a pair of pants, 1967.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in a Los Angeles music shop, 1967.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with then-girlfriend Jeri Haywood, a fellow UCLA sophomore, in 1967.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at UCLA in 1967 with then-girlfriend Jeri Haywood, a fellow sophomore.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in action as a UCLA sophomore, 1967.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (No. 33) in action as a UCLA sophomore, 1967.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as a UCLA sophomore, 1967.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in action as a UCLA sophomore, 1967.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Before There Was #VanLife, There Was Trailer Mania

March 17, 2023March 17, 2023 by Bill Syken

The cover story of the Aug. 14, 1970 issue of LIFE magazine highlighted the “Summer Nomads” who hit the road in the latest and greatest recreational vehicles.

The phenomenon was burgeoning then, but it was not new. The history of the RV dates back to 1915, when the Conklin family retrofitted a bus by installing four beds and traveled the country in it. That started a craze which has continued and recently took new form with the #vanlife craze that flourished during the COVID-19 pandemic.

LIFE’s story, titled “Home, Home on the Road,” talked about how travelers in 1970 were flooding America’s national parks, and one big reason for this was the success of the recreational vehicle.

Part of the crush [at national parks] comes from the recent popularity of house trailers, truck-mounted “campers” and van-like motor homes, which can simply be wheeled into place at a campsite. There are more than 2.5 million of these, some of them elegantly furnished, with double beds, television and air conditioning, and many owners freely admit they aren’t nearly so interested in the great outdoors as they are in camaraderie of their fellow wheeled nomads.

The photos by Ralph Crane captured the great variety of mobile homes of that era. The star of the story was the Airstream, a trailer with a distinctive rounded aluminum body that had been around since 1936. Crane chronicled an annual gathering of Airstream devotees in Hershey, Pa., and also group of Airstream users who met in Great Falls, Mont., in advance of taking a group trek through Canada and up to Alaska. The Airstream remains popular today as do the gatherings: the big 2023 rally is slated for Rock Springs, Wyoming.

The story also surveyed other recreational vehicles, noting that what LIFE called “self-contained motor homes” such as the Winnebago were the fastest growing sector of the market.

And the essay included a tricked out van that is a forebear of the sort of vehicles that gained in popularity during the COVID pandemic age as #vanlife become a hot hashtag and more people pursued the dream of living a nomadic life.

Look through these pictures by Ralph Crane, and you’ll see people who used trailers find not just mobility but also community at the same time that they were getting away from it all.

Airstream trailers converged on a campground for a rally in Hershey, Pa., 1970.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scene from a gathering of Airstream uses in Hershey, Pa., 1970.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

George Grening and his wife (right) at an Airstream trailer rally, 1970; they brought their motorcycle along for quick side excursions.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bob Newcomb and his family posed in front of their trailer at an Airstream convention in Hershey, Pa., 1970.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bob Newcomb with a 16-month-old in his trailer, 1970.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Attendees at a trailer rally, 1970.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scene from an Airstream trailer rally, 1970.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

About 10,000 trailer fans converged on Hershey, Pa. for an annual gathering, 1970.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Aerial view of an annual gathering of Airstream travelers in Hershey, Pa., 1970.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Attendees at a trailer rally, 1970.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A group of Airstream travelers gathered in Great Falls, Montana before heading out on a trek across Canada and Alaska, 1970.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This model of trailer was 25 feet long and capable of sleeping up to 11 people, depending on the layout plan. Its cost in 1970 was $5,400.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

From a 1970 LIFE story on the burgeoning popularity of trailer travel.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This wheeled bed by Wheel Mate was designed to be towed by motorcycle or small car. It came with a mattress and folding frame top and cost $480 in 1970.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The tent trailer, described by LIFE in 1970 as a common starter mobile home, cost between $300 and $2,000. The tent collapsed into the trailer for towing, and one model included a pullout kitchen.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This Gypsy Mini-Home was a 1970 example of a converted van; they sold for between $3,000 and $7,000 and included beds for up to five people.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This amphibious unit could slip off its trailer and become a houseboat; it featured wall-to-wall carpeting and cost $10,800 in 1970.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Self-contained motor homes like this one were in 1970 the fastest-growing category of recreational vehicle; this couple played cards in a 36-foot Winnebago that cost $8,500.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

From a 1970 story on the burgeoning popularity of trailer life.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Skirted Subjects: Classic Images from LIFE

March 14, 2023March 14, 2023 by Bill Syken

When talking about skirts, the most obvious point of discussion is their length. This collection of LIFE skirt photographs certainly runs the gamut, from antebellum-style hoop skirts to the thigh-baring minis that made a splash in the later years of the magazine’s original run.

But in addition to revealing a little (or a lot of) leg, these photos of skirts also show something else. They highlight the many different approaches that great photographers can take to a subject.

For instance, the pictures of John Dominis and Carlo Bavagnoli in this collection take a documentary approach to fashion, showing skirt-wearing women as they moved about the world. Then there was Gjon Mili, a master technician who brought models into his studio, where his use of strobe lighting created images that are as striking as they are distinctive.

Then there are photographers such as Nina Leen and Gordon Parks, who took an approach that is somewhere between the two, placing their models out in the world but crafting images that are as stylish as the clothing trends they sought to illustrate.

See for yourself. Like the skirts themselves, the variation adds to the fascination.

Circle skirts, 1950.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

LIFE magazine’s original caption: “Surrounded by a skirt full of her own pretty face, model Norma Richter shows off dress made especially to demonstrate photographic fabrics.”

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A French model showed a small print dress with triple-flounced skirt and long sleeves by designer Jacques Fath, Paris 1951.

Gordon Parks/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Fashion, 1951.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A polka dotted smock top over black skirt by Balenciaga, Paris, 1951.

Gordon Parks/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Model showing skirt featuring three-tiers of ruffles, 1951.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Photo from a story on Big Ten college fashions, Bloomington, Indiana, 1954.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The new skirts of 1947.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Space fashions rushed onto the market in 1957 included skirts, jackets, hats, and balloons with a satellite motif.

Peter Stackpole The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Kansas high school student wore a mini skirt, 1969.

Arthur Schatz/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

In 1950 career girl hostess Joan Wilson wore a cotton circle skirt that retailed for $17.95.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Skirt fashions, 1938.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The New York Look, 1969.

Vernon Merritt III/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

From a story on summer beach fashions, 1950.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fashion shoot, 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C., April 1947.

Martha Holmes/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

From an April 20, 1942, LIFE story about proper skirt-hem lengths.

Nina Leen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

In Columbus, Missiissippi, coffee was served on porch of ante-bellum mansion, Riverview, by young ladies wearing hoop skirts at a party for cadets from the local Army flying school, 1953.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Cotton skirt, New York City, 1941.

Gjon Mili/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Model Dorian Leigh showed off the accordion pleats of a straight-hanging sheer dress (Jane Derby, $250) which could swirl into a ten-yard circle of flesh-colored chiffon, 1950.

Gjon Mili/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A double image from a story on college fashions, 1948.

Gjon Mili/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Employees of Saks Fifth Avenue watching a fashion show promoting midi-length skirts, 1970.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actor Rock Hudson (center) sitting on MGM lot with eight midi-skirted starlets who play opposite him in the Roger Vadim-directed film Pretty Maids All In a Row.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shuttetstock

A women in a miniskirt considered the midi-skirt look, 1970.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Short skirts hit London, 1966

Carlo Bavagnoli/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Short skirts hit the street of London, 1966

Carlo Bavagnoli/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Factory Chic: Overhauling the Overalls

March 9, 2023March 9, 2023 by Bill Syken

In April 1953 about 16 million Americans worked in manufacturing jobs—many more than today, where the number is about 11 million. And roughly a quarter of those workers back then were women.

Enter noted designer Tina Leser, who debuted a fashion line that year for the burgeoning female lunchpail set.

In a story titled “Overhauled Overalls” in its April 13, 1953 issue, LIFE broke down the new look and also the logic behind it:

What to wear to work is not a matter of much choice to the 4.5 million women in U.S. factories. Many work near moving machinery or poisonous dusts and acids, and must wear coveralls, made for safety and comfort but seldom for style. Now designer Tina Leser, who usually concerns herself with how to look elegant at expensive resorts, has taken up the problem of how to look snappy at a workbench. In a group of clothes called Fashion for Industry released in stores this week, Miss Leser presents her solutions. The standard, safe—but usually shapeless—factory coverall appears in practical but neatly fitted and attractive versions…Some designs have pants legs narrowed so that they can be pushed up and hidden under a skirt on the way to work.

The photos for the article, taken by Yale Joel, tell a story not just of a clothing line but of women’s increased prominence in the workforce, with the fashion world looking to address needs beyond the social and domestic realms. Some of the photos were set in the Long Island, N.Y. factory of cosmetics magnate Helena Rubinstein, who is herself a fascinating tale of female entrepreneurship.

The article’s closing line proposed one more feminine touch for the factory: “Miss Leser suggests that instead of the standard tin lunchbox a stylish imported straw basket.”

This Orlon coverall, which retailed for $16.95 with turban, was modeled in the Long Islamd factory of Helena Robenstein’s makeup company, 1953.

Yale Joel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Tina Leser’s factory fashions, 1953.

Yale Joel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This outfit, modelled at Fairchild Aircraft, had an elastic belt and a pocket for tools, which LIFE said made it perfect for sailing and gardening as well as the factory, 1953.

Yale Joel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Tina Leser’s factory fashions, 1953.

Yale Joel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This model’s factory pants were pushed up under her skirt when it was time to clock out, 1953.

Yale Joel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

These coveralls, examples of Tina Leser’s factory chic line, retailed for $7 to $10, 1953.

Yale Joel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Tina Leser’s factory fashions, 1953.

Yale Joel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Female Jockeys Who Broke Down Barriers

March 7, 2023March 7, 2023 by Bill Syken

In 2022 more than a quarter of all jockeys—27.2 percent—were female. That is only true because of the pioneering women of the late 1960s who fought for the right to compete.

In its Dec. 13, 1968 issue LIFE wrote about Penny Ann Early and her battle to break the gender barrier in horse racing. At age 25 she was one of the first women to become a licensed jockey in the U.S. (The first was 1968 Olympic equestrian star Kathryn Kusner, who sued for that right but then suffered a broken leg before she could attempt to race). Early’s battle to get on the track was chronicled for LIFE by photographer Bob Gomel.

When Penny Ann Early attempted to compete at Churchill Downs, male jockeys were so opposed that they boycotted the races she was set to appear in. One male jockey cast the boycott as defending his livelihood. “If you let one woman ride one race, we are all dead,” he told LIFE.

Early told LIFE, “I have nothing against men. Next to horses I like men best. All I want is a chance to race against them. Is that so bad?”

Apparently it was. That issue of LIFE included a startlingly brazen guest editorial from Hall of Fame jockey Bill Hartack. He acknowledged that women had a legal right to ride and criticized the boycotts of Early as a misguided tactic. But Hartack also predicted that once women had the chance to compete, they would fail.

Hartack wrote:

“They’ll find out how tough it is and they’ll give it up. The tracks won’t have to worry about being flooded with women because a female cannot compete against a male doing anything….They might weigh the same as male jockeys, but they aren’t as strong. And as a group, I don’t think their brains are as capable of making fast decisions. Women are also more likely to panic. It’s their nature.”

Hartrack also dreamed up a scenario where women might use sex to get male jockeys to take it easy on them in a race. “If she was sharp enough I might take advantage of the situation myself,” Hartack wrote. “I wouldn’t ease up in the race, but I wouldn’t put it past me to con her into thinking that I would.”

While Early was ultimately unsuccessful in her attempts to break the gender barrier at the track, she did compete against men in another professional sport: basketball. Her battles at Churchill Downs caught the attention of the Kentucky Colonels of the fledging American Basketball Association, and the Colonels signed her to a one-day contract. She checked into a game long enough to receive an inbounds pass while wearing a sweater with the number 3, representing the number of times that male jockeys had boycotted her races.

But it didn’t take long until the gender barrier was broken—by Diane Crump, racing at another track. On February 7, 1969, became the first women to compete in a pari-mutuel race, at Hialeah Park Race Track in Florida, with LIFE photographer George Silk on hand. Her appearance was controversial enough that she needed police protection from the crowd before the race.

Crump finished ninth at Hialeah. Two weeks later she won her first race, and in 1970 she competed in the Kentucky Derby. And she and Early helped clear the path for other groundbreaking jockeys such as Julie Krone, who in 1993 became the first woman to win a Triple Crown race, atop Colonial Affair in the Belmont Stakes.

In an interview with CNN in 2012, Crump modestly said, “I like to think I was a little inroad on the path to equality.”

Jockey Penny Ann Early with her horse Randy in Louisville, Kentucky, 1968.

Bob Gomel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Penny Ann Early, whose attempts to become to first female competitive jockey were met with boycotts, 1968.

Bob Gomel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock