Page 3 – LIFE

The Dawn of Rock: America Finds Its Thrill

June 11, 2024June 11, 2024 by Bill Syken

In its April 18, 1955 issue LIFE magazine reported on—with a fair amount of concern—the onset of the defining evolution of popular music in the 20th century. The story was titled “Rock ‘N Roll: A Frenzied Teenage Music Craze Kicks Up a Big Fuss.“

Here’s how LIFE described what the “big fuss” was all about:

The nation’s teenagers are dancing their way into an enlarging controversy over rock ‘n roll. In New Haven, Connecticut the police chief has put a damper on rock ‘n roll parties and other towns are following suit. Radio networks are worried over questionable lyrics in rock ‘n roll. And some American parents, without quite knowing what it is their kids are up to, are worried that it’s something they shouldn’t be.

But like it or not, rock and roll was here to stay. Standing in the heart of the moment, LIFE saw dancing as a big part of the new music’s appeal. The magazine, grasping to connect this revolutionary moment to the recent past, described rock and roll dancing as “a combination of “the Lindy and the Charleston, and almost anything else.” The story, shot by staff photographers Walter Sanders and Loomis Dean, had more pictures of kids dancing than of musicians performing. One of the shoots took place at the dance studio of Arthur Murray, where kids demonstrated their new moves.

LIFE acknowledged the roots of this new music, saying “The heavy-beat and honking-melody tunes of today’s rock ‘n roll have a clearly defined ancestry in U.S. jazz going back to Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith of 30 years ago.” The broader market was now turning to a style of music that first became popular in the Black community because record companies had been focussing on “mambos and ballads,” and as a result “the country’s teenagers found themselves without snappy dance tunes to their taste.”

Some adults fretted over lyrics that seemed to be laden with innuendo and double meanings. But even as the LIFE article adopted the tone of a worried parent, the pictures in the magazine told another story. The photos showed exuberance and joy. And by today’s standards, everything looks extremely proper. The main concert photos feature the great Fats Domino, who is wearing a suit and playing a grand piano. The young fans are dressed as if they were going to a formal occasion, without any jeans or T-shirts in sight.

It’s mind-boggling to think that a mere 14 years from when this story ran, rock fans would be mucking around in the mud at Woodstock. But there was no stopping it at this point. The revolution was on, and it was coming fast.

Teenagers demonstrated their rock music dance moves for Arthur Murray and his wife, in background, at Murray’s dance studio.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Arthur Murray and wife (in the background to the left) enjoyed a demonstration by teen-agers of rock`n roll dancing, 1955..

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Young dancers from a 1955 story on rock music.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A couple dancing from a story on rock music, 1955.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A young couple danced to rock music, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life PIcture Collection/Shutterstock

Pioneering rock DJ Allen Freed did a show from a studio in Boston, 1955.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A sign for an early rock show presented by pioneering DJ Allan Freed, 1955.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Teenagers danced to rock music being spun by DJ Al Jarvis in the parking lot of a Los Angeles supermarket, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Audience members enjoying Alan Freed’s Easter show at Brooklyn Paramount Theater, 1955.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Saxophonist Herbert Hardesty (center), a member of Fats Domino’s band, let loose at 54 Ballroom in Los Angeles, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fats Domino’s band performed in Los Angeles, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fats Domino’s band rocked out in Los Angeles, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fats Domino in concert in Los Angeles, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fats Domino and his band performed in Los Angeles, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Young dancers from a 1955 story on rock music.

Walter Sanders/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A show from the early days of rock and roll, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Young Actress Restarts Her Life in Postwar Paris

June 5, 2024June 5, 2024 by Bill Syken

World War II was horrible in a lot of ways, and for a lot of people. For Parisians, the war meant four years of German occupation, ending with the city’s liberation in 1944.

That context is important to remember when looking at this photo essay by NIna Leen about aspiring actress Barbara Laage, which appeared in the June 3, 1946 issue of the magazine. This 25-year-old may look like she is living the life of a young bohemian, but she was also one of many attempting to get herself back on track after the war. Laage had fled Paris during the German occupation, and now she was back home and looking to thrive rather than just survive. Or as LIFE put it:

Basically the story of Barbara Laage…is the universal story of an ambitious young career girl. But in this particular case, however, it takes on the complexion of a social document, showing how postwar Paris is living by its wits and keeping up its spirits.

Laage was promising enough of a prospect that when Leen followed her around, the world was already opening up for her. Stylists and clothing designers were giving free services to the up-and-coming stage actress. And this story would not be the last time Laage was photographed for LIFE. Nina Leen also used Laage as a model for a story on swimsuit fashions, and photographed her again when Laage came to the United States to further her acting career. Pictures from those shoots are included in this collection.

It was just the beginning for Laage, who collected 45 film and television credits in the United States and Europe, even sharing the screen with Paul Newman in her supporting role in the 1961 film Paris Blues, an American movie that was a love letter to her old hometown.

Young actress Barbara Laage exercised at a rooftop gymnasium in Paris, 1946.

Nina Leen/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actress Barbara Laage enjoyed ice cream in Paris, 1946.

Nina LeenLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actress Barbara Laage in her Paris apartment, 1946.

Nina LeenLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actress Barbara Laage in Paris, 1946.

Nina LeenLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Paris apartment of Barbara Laage was crammed with books, mostly having to do with the theater, 1946.

Nina LeenLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Barbara Laage received instruction from a more veteran actor, Maurice Escande, backstage at a Paris theater, 1946.

Nina LeenLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actress Barbara Laage rode her bicycle to work in Paris, 1946.

Nina LeenLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actress Barbara Laage arrived at the theater where she was appearing in a play, 1946.

Nina LeenLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Barbara Laage sang in a show called “Quatre Rues,” Paris, 1946.

Nina LeenLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actress Barbara Laage counted out her relatively meager pay after a performance, Paris, 1946.

Nina LeenLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actress Barbara Laage tried on a dress lent to her by the dressmaker Rochas, while her boyfriend held a mirror for her, 1946.

Nina LeenLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actress Barbara Laage received free hairdos in exchange for letting the salon use her image for publicity purposes, Paris, 1946.

Nina LeenLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actress Barbara Laage with dramatist Leopold Marchand, who was writing a play for her, Paris, 1946.

Nina LeenLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actress Barbara Laage at a dinner to which friends are treating her, Paris, 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actress Barbara Laage perused a write-up about her at a Paris newsstand, 1946.

Nina LeenLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actress Barbara Laage, 1946.

Nina LeenLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

French actress Barbara Laage wearing makeshift two-piece bathing suit she cut from one yard of cloth, wading in surf, 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

French actress Barbara Laage in New York City, 1946.

Nina LeenLife Picture Collection/Shutterstock

French actress Barbara Laage in New York City, 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Eisenstadt’s Images of Change in the Pacific Northwest

June 3, 2024June 3, 2024 by Bill Syken

In 1939 LIFE devoted a themed issue to the future of America, and it led off its reporting with a big piece on the Pacific Northwest, which the magazine predicted would be an engine of of growth as the country looked to move past the Great Depression. The region was described by hopefuls as “the last frontier” and “the promised land.” The big change afoot at the moment was the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam, which would became a major new source of power. And the Pacific Northwest in general was hailed for natural resources that were waiting to be tapped, and whose vast expanses were still only lightly populated. LIFE wrote, “Beyond the cities of the coast lie mighty reaches of forest, mountain, valley and river where you may go for miles and miles and see only a thread of railroad track or a lonely settler’s clearing as evidence of man’s presence on the giant earth.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt expertly captured the change that was coming to this Eden. Many of his pictures are striking on their own, from the images of a man at work in a teeming Seattle lumber yard, to dam construction, to the fishermen along the majestic Columbia River, to the characters of rural life. But taken together, Eisenstaedt illustrated what it looks like when civilization comes to the prairie. Consider his image of barefoot boys riding a tricycle alongside a highway that is only going to get busier.

LIFE wrote that these photos of Eisenstein were documenting not just a pivotal moment for the Northwest, but for the Amerca as a whole. The piece ended with this somber message to readers about a country making a fundamental transition:

The old American frontier, where a strong man with an axe and plow could take up free land and make his way regardless of his neighbors, is gone. In the industrial civilization of today and tomorrow, no region, no city, no business, no individual in America will ever be able to prosper alone and independent of the rest. The new frontier is one on which, working together for the common good, American will use their great technical and creative resources to produce the full abundance of which the American land is capable, an abundance which will make the long American Dream of dignity and freedom and equal opportunity for every citizen at last come true.

Fishing on the Columbia River in Oregon, 1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fishing on the Columbia River in Oregon, 1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Life in the Pacific Northwest, 1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Life in the Pacific Northwest, 1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Construction of the Grand Coulee Dam, 1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Grand Coulee, Washington, 1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Grand Coulee, Washington, 1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Life in the Pacific Northwest, 1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Life in the Pacific Northwest, 1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Life in the Pacific Northwest, 1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A post office in the Pacific Northwest, 1939.

Exterior view of a post office in the US Northwest region, 1939.

Life in the Pacific Northwest, 1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Children playing on seesaws in the Pacific Northwest, 1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Life in the Pacific Northwest, 1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A sheep ranch in the Pacific Northwest, 1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Life in the Pacific Northwest, 1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Seattle Cedar Lumber Manufacturing Company, 1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A man at work at the Seattle Cedar Lumber Manufacturing Company, 1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Life in the Pacific Northwest, 1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Seattle, 1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Blue Lake, Washington, 1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A skier at a resort in the Pacific Northwest, 1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Amazing Story Behind “Jumpman”

June 1, 2024May 31, 2024 by Bill Syken

Co Rentmeester took countless memorable photographs during his years as a LIFE photographer, on a wide range of subjects, from the Watts riots to the war in Vietnam to snow monkeys in Japan. But no image of his has reached more people than the one he shot of Michael Jordan back in 1984—and that’s because it inspired the Jumpman logo that now appears on Jordan brand clothing, which generated $6.59 billion in revenue for Nike in 2023.

“I see it ten times a day,” Rentmeester says. But the logo is more a source of irritation than pride, because he believes he was never properly compensated. He sued Nike in a case that in 2018 went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The courts ultimately sided with Nike. So now Rentmeester is taking his argument to the public in a new documentary called Jumpman. The film premieres on June 7 at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

The film recounts in fascinating detail Rentmeester’s fateful 1984 photo shoot with Jordan, which took place on a hillside on the University of North Carolina campus in Chapel Hill. Because Rentmeester still has all the alternate takes with Jordan and also test images he shot with an assistant playing the role of the basketball star, the documentary is able to demonstrate the aesthetic and technical reasons behind Rentmeester’s history-making request to Jordan. Rentmeester asked him to do a ballet leap, going straight up into the air with his legs split, rather than a conventional basketball jump that creates momentum toward the hoop. Rentmeester’s unusual request resulted in a signature image for a man who would go on to become the most famous athlete on the planet.

Soon after that shoot Jordan would begin his NBA journey as a player for the Chicago Bulls, and also as a spokesperson for Nike. As the documentary shows, making use of original documents from back then, Rentmeester received a request from Nike for two slides from that hillside shoot, to use for presentations only, not reproduction. Nike paid Rentmeester $150 for sending the images out on loan. Then, about a month later, Rentmeester traveled to Chicago and was stunned to see an image of Jordan on a billboard, replicating the ballet jump, except in red-and-black Nike gear. “It was like I was hit in the stomach,” he says.

Rentmeester protested to Nike. They responded by offering him $15,000 to use the image for two years, plus the promise to employ him on future advertising shoots, Rentmeester says. He took the deal. At this point in his career he was working as a freelancer, had young children, and was not positioned for a long legal battle with a deep-pocketed corporation. The promised work, he says, never materialized.

Rentmeester only headed back to court in 2014, when he found a lawyer who took on the case pro bono. But a district court ruled against Rentmeester, stating that a pose only received thin protection, and that small differences such as the turn of Jordan’s hand or the angle of his foot were enough to make Nike’s image distinct from the original.

Rentmeester sees that decision as not only an injustice against him but as an insult to the art of photography in general. “I didn’t take the picture. I made the picture,” he says in the documentary. “Obviously they did not make a picture. They took a picture.”

It further irked Rentmeester that his case never came before a jury. He believes a panel of regular people would recognize the truth of what happened.

Jumpman, with a running time of a brisk 22 minutes, was directed by Tom Dey, who has helmed such feature films as Failure to Launch and Shanghai Noon, and who knew this story intimately because he is married to Rentmeester’s daughter Coliena, who is also a photographer.

“Because he is my father-in-law, I’ve lived through this saga at arm’s length over the last two decades,” Dey says. “I could tell that it was exhausting him.” Forty years after that initial photo shoot with Michael Jordan, Dey believed it was time that Rentmeester get credit for his work: “I thought, `If we make a film about this, he can address the court of public opinion, and the public can make up their own minds.”

From June 6 to 11 a related photography exhibit, which covers the Jordan shoot and the rest of Co Rentmeester’s illustrious career, will run in a gallery at 127 Greene Street in New York City.

Co Rentmeester photographed Michael Jordan in Chapel HIll, N.C. for a story on stars of the 1984 Olympics; that shoot would produce the famous Jumpman pose.

Courtesy of Co Rentmeester

A still of photographer Co Rentmeester from the 2024 documentary “Jumpman.”

Courtesy of Co Rentmeester

A still from the 2024 documentary “Jumpman.”

Courtesy of Co Rentmeester

In 1984 Michael Jordan jumped straight up while doing a ballet split on a hillside in Chapel Hill, N.C., with a toy basket staged cannily in front of him, in 1984; the image led to a lawsuit between its photographer, Co Rentmeester, and NIke over the company’s “jumpman” logo.

Courtesy of Co Rentmeester

Heartland Cool: Teenage Boys in Iowa, 1945

May 24, 2024May 24, 2024 by Bill Syken

In its June 11, 1945 issue LIFE photographer Nina Leen went to Des Moines, Iowa to document the world of teenage boys during World War II. What she found was a reassuringly normal slice of heartland life. The headline announced: “Teen-Age Boys: Faced With War, They are Just the Same as They Have Always Been.”

What did that mean, exactly? It meant that these teenage boys, much like their counterparts in more peaceful periods of 20th century America, were chiefly concerned with playing, eating, sleeping, and dating. This was true despite the reality that “The most important fact in the lives of American teenage boys is that they may have to go and fight Japan.”

LIFE elaborated further on what was on the minds of these youngsters:

The old skills are still admired—the ability to swim well, to memorize the names of football heroes, to have a quick wisecrack for the day’s every small event, to be popular. The ancient foibles are still pursued—homework is done in ten minutes. Mother is looked upon as a lovable servant, home is only for eating and sleeping. The greatest talent is an asset for endlessly happy skylarking.

The main way that the war impacted these young men was gas rationing, because it put a crimp in their fascination with cars, although they found ways to get around that. LIFE wrote, “In an almost gasless society, U.S. boys still have their old jalopies. They have found that a half-hour’s fast talking will usually net them an A coupon from dad and that their motors can often be made to run on a kerosene mixture.” The story put forth that the boys clung to their old cars because it helped with another chief interest of teenage boys is Des Moines, which was dating teenage girls in Des Moines.

Three months after this story ran, Japan surrendered, bringing an end to World War II. This meant that these boys were not only staying home but would have plenty of gas in those cars before too long.

Tom Moore, 17, examined the results of his first shave, Des Moines, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A teenage boy reached for a comb as he checked his reflection, Des Moines, Iowa, 1945

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Teenage boys attempted to infiltrate what LIFE called “a hen party,” Des Moines, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Teenager Richard Burns of Des Moines liked to have a cola and half of a box of Cheez-Its before going to bed, Des Moines, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Teenage boys checked out the comic books and magazines at their local drug store, Des Moines, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Teenage boys and girls enjoyed milkshakes at the drug store, Des Moines, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Teenage boys on a Saturday afternoon in Des Moines, Iowa, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Entering through windows was an initiation ritual for a club which called itself “the Molesters,” Des Moines, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A teenage boy in Des Moines, Iowa, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A teenager worked on a smashed fender in a garage in Des Moines, Iowa, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Teenaged boys worked on their 1927 Ford Model T in Des Moines, Iowa, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Teenage boys in Des Moines, Iowa, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A teenage boy received a haircut, Des Moines, Iowa, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A teenage boy in Des Moines, Iowa, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Boys in Des Moines, Iowa, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A teenage boy in Des Moines, Iowa, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Ageless Rolling Stones, Through the Ages

May 21, 2024May 21, 2024 by Bill Syken

The summer of 2024 will be just like the summer of 1964 in at least one regard, and it has nothing to do with the Olympics or any presidential elections. Once again The Rolling Stones will be touring the United States.

Back in 1964 the Stones embarked on their first U.S. tour, in support of their self-titled debut record. Sixty years later they are, astoundingly, back it at. Will the 2024 U.S. tour be the last for band that has brought satisfaction —and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction“—to so many? It certainly could be, although at this it seems unwise to ever question the longevity of a band that has been carrying on this long.

Of course, as the photos in this collection show, the band has changed over the years. In early photos from Walter Daran and LIFE staff photographer John Loengard, the band’s lineup includes Brian Jones, a founding member who would dismissed from the band in 1969 and later drown in a swimming pool. Also shown in photos across the band’s eras is Charlie Watts, the elegant drummer who was there from the beginning and died in 2021.

But all these decades later, frontmen Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are still at it, despite both being 80 years old. Their longevity is a rock and roll miracle, when you think about it, surviving as they have in a business that has a way of chewing people up.

In 2024 the Stones released a new album, their first since 2005 and their 31st studio effort overall, called Hackney Diamonds. What else would they do but get out on the road to support it?

The Rolling Stones performed on The Ed Sullivan Show, 1965.

John Loengard The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Rolling Stones perform on a chandelier-filled set on the ‘Ed Sullivan Show,’ May 2, 1965. From left, guitarists Keith Richards and Brian Jones, singer Mick Jagger, bassist Bill Wyman, and drummer Charlie Watts.

John Loengard/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Drummer Charlie Watts during a Rolling Stones performance at the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in New York, 1966.

Walter Daran/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Brian Jones during a Rolling Stones performance at the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in New York, 1966.

Walter Daran/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock