There’s Cool, and Then There’s Keith

In his wonderful 2010 autobiography Life—hey, nice title—Keith Richards wrote that “We age not by holding on to youth, but by letting ourselves grow and embracing whatever youthful parts remain.”

His philosophy seems to be working, because Keith Richards has moved through the decades with a spirit that remains remarkably untouched by time. He is first and foremost known as a member of The Rolling Stones and for his guitar work on classics such as Sympathy for the Devil. But the unapologetic and unrepentant way he has lived his life has come to be appreciated as its own work of art. It’s why the most popular photo of Richards in the LIFE print store shows him holding not a guitar but a bottle of whiskey.

This collection of performance and paparazzi shots from the 1980s and 1990s captures Richards showing his mastery on stage, and also living the life of a beloved rock star. Included are photos of the breathtaking all-star jam at the 1992 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, in which he shreds on classics such as All Along the Watchtower and Green Onions with the likes of Neil Young, Johnny Cash, Jimmy Page, Little Richard and The Edge, among others.

While offstage, Richards posed for photos with, among others, action star Tom Cruise, fellow rock legend Bruce Springsteen, and President of the United States Donald Trump. When you are as cool as Keith Richards is, everyone wants to be in the frame with you.

Keith Richards took center stage during the Rolling Stones’ ‘Voodoo Lounge’ tour, 1994.

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Rolling Stone band members Mick Jagger (left) and Keith Richards shared a laugh.

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Keith Richards and his father, 1983.

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Keith Richards outside New York’s Danceteria night club, 1980.

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Keith Richards.

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Keith Richards in concert.

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The Rolling Stones, with Bill Wyman, Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts, basked in the cheers.

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Bruce Springsteen and Keith Richards.

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Keith Richards

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Keith Richards

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Actor Tom Cruise (right) chatted with Keith Richards (right) and Ron Wood backstage before a Rolling Stones concert in Las Vegas.

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Keith Richards (right) with (left to right) The Edge, Carlos Santana and John Fogerty at the 1992 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

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Keith Richards, with (left to right) Neil Young, The Edge and Jimmy Page at the 1992 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

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Keith Richards with Johnny Cash, John Fogerty, Little Richard and others at the 1992 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

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Actress Elizabeth Hurley with rock musician Keith Richards and his wife, Patti Hansen, at the premiere of the 1999 film Mickey Blue Eyes, which Ms. Hurley co-produced.

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Keith Richards and wife Patti Hansen with Donald and Melania Trump.

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The Bohemian Life in Big Sur, 1959

Big Sur, located on the Central California coast, has been a touchstone of alternative culture for decades. In the final episode of the television show Mad Men, Don Draper is at a retreat in Big Sur when he achieves his climactic moment of enlightenment (which turns out to be an idea for a Coke ad that commercializes 1960s idealism). Today Big Sur is still home to plenty of resorts and retreats, including the storied Esalen Institute, which offers self-improvement workshops galore at its cliffside perch overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

When LIFE magazine visited Big Sur in 1959, the Esalen Institute was three years from opening, but the coastal community had long been attracting free-thinking types. LIFE’s story was headlined “Rugged, Romantic World Apart: Creative Colony Finds a Haven in California’s Big Sur,” and it offered an explanation of how Big Sur gained its bohemian character:

In 1944 Henry Miller, the once-expatriate novelist whose most famous works (Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn) are banned in the U.S. as pornographic, settled in Big Sur. Around him, living in tents and shacks, clustered a coterie of young rebels who seemed bent on creating what one reporter called “a cult of sex and anarchy.” But the rigors of Big Sur living eventually drove most of the rebels to more easeful surroundings. In their place came a calmer breed; dedicated craftsmen who find they work best far from the urban rat-race; others, still more conventional, who have retired, young and old, to Big Sur’s tranquility.

LIFE’s story is richly illustrated with photos by J.R. Eyerman, and to today’s viewer it can be remarkable how stately most the images are. Sure, Eyerman photographed a few skinny dippers by the shore and captured an outdoor art class drawing a nude model. He also shows a man teaching yoga to his neighbors long before that practice became popular.

But Eyerman’s other photos from Big Sur have a Norman Rockwell-like gentility. A group of musicians play chamber music at home. A retired magazine editor enjoys tea with his friends on the terrace. A group of men gathered at a bar are mostly wearing coats and ties. Granted, one of those men is the aforementioned literary rebel Henry Miller (whose years at Big Sur are commemorated there at the Henry Miller Memorial Library—which is proudly not banning any books on its shelves).

But even the famously licentious novelist told LIFE that BIg Sur at its best was a a place “of grandeur and of eloquent silence.” If there is a common theme to Eyerman’s pictures beyond their location, is it quiet pleasure—the kind that continues to draw visitors to this coastal spot.

Big Sur, California, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Douglas Madsen (rear), a sculptor, instructed his neighbors in yoga in Big Sur, California, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Writer Henry Miller, 67 (second from left), a longtime Big Sur resident whose presence helped lure others there, held court with friends (from left, poet Eric Barker, sculptor Harry Dick Ross, and archaeologist Giles Greville Healey) at the round bar of the Nepenthe Restaurant, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Seating on fallen trees, a group of children listened to 80-odd year old Susan Potter recount tales of Irish folklore, Big Sur, California, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Hermits of New Camaldoli, a Roman Catholic order dedicated to the arts, set up their first monastery outside Italy in Big Sur, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A weekly figure drawing class met outdoors at Lafler Canyon in Big Sur, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Retired American magazine editor and publisher (of Collier’s) William Ludlow Chenery (center) and his wife Margaret shared tea with their guests on the patio of their home in Big Sur, California, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Author and former diplomat Nicholas Roosevelt (left, rear) played cello as he led a chamber music session at his home, Big Sur, California, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

At her Big Sur studio American mosaic artist Louisa Jenkins planned out designs for the ceiling of St. Anne’s Chapel in Palo Alto, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sam Hopkins, 43, rejected the socialite world he grew up in and moved his family to Big Sur, California, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Diners watched dancers on the patio of the Nepenthe Restaurant, Big Sur, California, 1959. The restaurant opened in 1949 after the building was purchased from actors Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth, who had used it as a cabin.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Big Sur, California, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Big Sur, California, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A van drove on the Pacific Coast Highway in Big Sur, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Madonna (and Friends) Striking Poses

In the 1980s and 1990s, Madonna was such a big star that people started comparing her to Marilyn Monroe. Madonna had the hit songs, of course—such as Like a Prayer and Vogue, to name a couple. But as the reigning sex symbol of the MTV generation, she had a a cultural influence that went beyond her album sales.

This collection of photos from the height of her fame shows her on stage but also highlights the company she kept. Here she is pictured with, among others, Warren Beatty (her costar in the movie Dick Tracy and also a one-time flame), Sean Penn (her husband from 1985 to 1989), Rosanna Arquette (her costar in the movie Desperately Seeking Susan), Jellybean Benitez (the DJ who produced Madonna’s early music) and actors Joe Mantegna and Ron Silver (her costars in the 1988 Broadway production of David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow).

This collection also includes a photo of Madonna with Michael Jackson, the rare pop star who could meet her on equal footing. The two attended the 1991 Academy Awards together, which led to breathless speculation that they might actually be a couple. Madonna later told VH1 that their Oscar night date came about in a casual way: “Michael was like, ‘Well, who are you going to go with? I looked at him and said, ‘I don’t know. You want to go?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, that’d be great.’” While their relationship seems to have been mostly friendly and professional, Madonna did say that they kissed at one point, with her playing the initiator.

But even if the reality is that there wasn’t all that much to their relationship—they never made any music together either, despite apparently discussing the possibility—it’s not hard to see why the mere idea of their union gripped the imagination. A relationship could have led to an American version of a royal wedding. Thus does the photo of these two icons attending the Academy Awards remain the best-selling image of Madonna in the LIFE print store.

It is one of many wonderful photos of Madonna in the LIFE archives, and here is a sampling of some favorites. Especially when she was on stage, she could strike a pose like there was nothing to it.

Madonna and Michael Jackson (left) arrived at the Shrine Civic Auditorium for the 63rd Annual Academy Awards ceremony, March 25, 1991.

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Madonna performed at the MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Hall in New York, 1984.

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Singer Madonna with record producer Jellybean Benitez at tge opening of the club Private Eyes, 1984.

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Madonna with Rosanna Arquette, the costar of her 1985 film “Desperately Seeking Susan.”

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Madonna with singer David Lee Roth in the mid 1980s.

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Madonna out for a run with a trainer, 1987.

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Madonna in concert, 1987.

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Madonna with actor Sean Penn, her husband from 1985 to 1989.

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Madonna in concert, 1987.

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Madonna in concert, 1987.

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Madonna with Ron Silver (left) and Joe Mantegna (right), her costars in the Broadway production of the David Mamet play Speed-the-Plow, 1988.

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Madonna in concert, 1988.

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Madonna performed in Los Angeles during her Blonde Ambition tour, 1990.

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Madonna in concert, 1990.

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Madonna with her boyfriend, model Tony Ward, at the premiere of the 1990 film Goodfellas at the Museum of Modern Art; Ward appeared in videos for the Madonna songs “Cherish” and “Justify My Love.”

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Madonna with Rosie O’Donnell, her costar in the 1992 movie A League of Their Own.

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Madonna performed at Madison Square Garden, 1993.

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Former flames Warren Beatty and Madonna at the nightspot Moomba for the premiere party of the 1997 motion picture Two Girls and a Guy.

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Bob Dylan and Madonna in the late 1990s.

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Madonna in concert, 1990.

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Twilight of an Idol: A Portrait of Mickey Mantle in Decline

The greater the athlete, the tougher it is to leave the arena. It was certainly the case for Yankees center fielder Mickey Mantle. A tremendous natural talent, Mantle became a dominant force on the diamond almost as soon as he joined the Yankees in 1951. He would go on to win three MVP awards and the 1956 Triple Crown, all the while making a name for himself with towering home runs. His purported 565-foot moonshot in 1953 gave birth to the phrase “tape-measure home run.” Mantle also delivered big when the stakes were highest, leading the Yankees to seven championships. To this day he still holds World Series records for career home runs (18), RBIs (40) and total bases (123).

While the young Mantle was electrifying, his career was plagued by injuries great and small until, by the time he was in his 30s, his legs were so thoroughly wrapped and bandaged on game days that he literally hobbled to the plate to hit. His heavy drinking also contributed to his physical decline. Mantle wrote in a 1994 story about his drinking habits in Sports Illustrated that he began to lean on alcohol during his second season in the majors, after his father died from Hodgkin’s disease.

The image by LIFE staff photographer John Dominis that is featured in this story was taken in 1965, when Mantle’s skills were clearly slipping. Mantle had just stumbled through a lousy at-bat, and he tossed his helmet in frustration. It is the kind of action shot you rarely see, and one that captures the anguish of a sports hero in decline. It is no surprise that this resonant photo is one of the top sellers in the LIFE print store. 

Dominis’s photo ran with a story in LIFE magazine titled “Last Innings of Greatness.”  The image was taken during a meaningless game midway through the team’s disappointing 1965 season (the Yankees finished below .500 for the first time in 40 years). The story began with with a description of Mantle’s helmet toss and then offered a quote from the fading star: “It isn’t any fun when things are like this,” Mantle told LIFE. “I’m only 33, but I feel like I’m 40.”

Despite his frustrations Mantle kept at it for three more years until 1968, when his batting average slipped to an anemic .237, and that was his last year in the game.

In 1995 Mantle died of liver cancer at age 63. On the occasion of his death, Richard Hoffer wrote an obituary in Sports Illustrated that attempted to explain the meaning of Mantle to those who witnessed his beautiful prime:

For generations of men, he’s the guy, has been the guy, will be the guy. And what does that mean exactly? A woman beseeches Mantle, who survived beyond his baseball career as a kind of corporate greeter, to make an appearance, to surprise her husband. Mantle materializes at some cocktail party, introductions are made, and the husband weeps in the presence of such fantasy made flesh. It means that, exactly.

Dominus’ photo captures the moment of the fantasy coming to an end for the man who was fortunate enough to live it.

Mickey Mantle flings his batting helmet in disgust after a lousy at-bat, Yankee Stadium, 1965.

Mickey Mantle tossed his batting helmet in disgust after a lousy at-bat, Yankee Stadium, 1965.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Jockey Who Was a Granny (and She Was No Novelty Act, Either)

In the 1940s Neva Burright gained attention as a harness-racing grandmother. But by that time she had been competing in the sport for decades, and she had been around horse tracks from the beginning of her life—quite literally

Burright was born on the infield of a racetrack in 1883, and for the rest of her life she stayed close by. She had a 57-year career in horse racing; even after she stopped competing she worked as a timer and a race official. She did all this while being a mother of seven. “I would raise a baby or two and then go back and race some more,” she told LIFE magazine in 1948, in a story headlined “Queen of Racing.”

The photos by LIFE staff photographer Joe Scherschel show a woman who was truly at home at the track. whether racing horses or hanging out with her family in the stables. LIFE’s 1948 story said that Burright “not only spends 18 hours a day training and driving trotting horses at Chicago’s Maywood Park, but she spends the night in one of the barns, with her husband [who was also a harness racer] in the next stall.”

The crowning moment of Burright’s career was in 1943, when she became the first woman to win on harness racing’s Grand Circuit, with a gelding called Luckyette. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch described the joyous scene after her race victory: “…it has been years since we saw so many hats tossed into the air at a race track, and heard so many feminine screeches of satisfaction as when this pleasant white-haired lady demonstrated her skill and the ability of her honest gelding to such a superb degree.”

Neva competed until 1954, and she died in 1958. In 1994 she was inducted into the Harness Racing Hall of Fame.

Competitive harness driver Neva Burright at age 65, in 1948.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Neva Elizabeth Burright, 65, competed as a harness racer at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Harness driver Neva Burright celebrated her 65th birthday at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Harness racer Neva Elizabeth Burright, 65, walking her horse after a morning workout at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Competitive 65-year-old harness racing driver Neva Burright, photographed at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

.Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Neva Elizabeth Burright, 65, held a lead through the midway point of a race at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

.Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Harness racer Neva Burright, 65, mended socks in her stables at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Neva Elizabeth Burright, 65, spoke with two younger female harness drivers at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Harness racer Neva Burright, 65, at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Harness racing grandmother Neva Burright made French toast for breakfast at the race track, 1948.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Harness racing driving Neva Burright, 65, had a whip in hand as she clocked one of her horses at Maywood Park, 1948.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Harness driver Neva Burright, 65, at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Recreating a Masterpiece Painting

Marcel Duchamp arrived on the scene in the early part of the 20th century with brash works intended to upset the art establishment. The most famous of these works were his “ready-mades.” These were store-bought objects which he presented as sculptures simply by placing them on a pedestal. For a major 1917 exhibition in New York, he famously displayed a urinal under the title “Fountain.”

He was part of a movement called Dadaism whose goal was anarchy as much as it was creation. They made a lot of noise for a while. But when LIFE magazine devoted a major story to Duchamp titled “Dada’s Daddy” in 1952, the artist was 64 years old and the movement’s heyday had long since passed. While the influence of Dadaism continued to echo throughout modern art, no one was really practicing Dada anymore—including Duchamp. The LIFE story was sparked by a retrospective being staged in New York, and at the show a woman complained to that Duchamp hadn’t done much since 1923 besides play chess—an assertion to which Duchamp nodded in happy agreement.

But while Duchamp was a “pioneer of nonsense and nihilism,” as LIFE termed him, he showed that he had a cooperative side by posing for LIFE photographer Eliot Elisofon in a stop-motion photo that recreated Duchamp’s early painting, “Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2.” Duchamp not only agreed to play along with someone else’s idea, but seemed to enjoy placing himself under Elisofon’s direction, reportedly joking during the shoot, “Don’t you want me to do it nude?” The resulting image was itself a piece of art, and it is one of the best-sellers in the LIFE print store.

LIFE’s story included a lovely passage which suggested that Duchamp had aged better than the movement he ignited:

Today he seems to regard the complete abandonment of art as in itself an artistic achievement. He has pursued this achievement with admirable tenacity for nearly 30 years, and as a result enjoys an almost oracular position among today’s avant-garde artists, dealers and critics of Manhattan. Duchamp treats them all with the most disarming courtesy and polished charm. He is against more things than he is for. But he seems to believe strongly in two things: esthetics, which in his mind takes the place of religion; and absolute individualism, which is the core of his way of life.

Perhaps it was this respect for esthetics which allowed himself to place his trust in Elisofon. This photo gallery includes Elisofon’s historic shot as well as several of Duchamp’s more conventional appearances before the cameras of LIFE photographers.

Artist Marcel Duchamp walking down a flight of stairs in a multiple exposure image reminiscent of his famous painting "Nude Descending a Staircase." (Photo by Eliot Elisofon/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

Artist Marcel Duchamp walked down a flight of stairs for a multiple exposure image that paid homage to his famous painting “Nude Descending a Staircase,” 1952.

Photo by Eliot Elisofon/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Artist Marcel Duchamp at a chessboard, 1952.

Eliot Elisofon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marcel Duchamp (right, foreground) attended a Texas art show, 1957.

Eliot Elisofon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Artist Marcel Duchamp sat behind his painting on glass, “To Be Looked at With One Eye, Close to, For Almost An Hour,” 1953. The cracks in the glass happened accidentally during transportation, but Duchamp said he felt they improved the painting.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Portrait of artist Marcel Duchamp, 1952.

Eliot Elisofon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Portrait of artist Marcel Duchamp, 1952.

Eliot Elisofon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Portrait of artist Marcel Duchamp, 1952, posing in front of his 1914 painting “Network of Stoppages.”

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Portrait of artist Marcel Duchamp, 1952, posing in front of his 1914 painting “Network of Stoppages.”

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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