Here’s A Mystery: Why Did Arthur Conan Doyle’s Son Dress Up Like a Knight?

The March 22, 1948 issue of LIFE featured a story titled “Escapists in Armor: Two Bored British Gentlemen Battle to Bring Back the Days of Chivalry.” The bored gentlemen were interesting in part because of their willingness to cavort in front of the camera in full armor, but also because one of the jousters had a famous name: He was Adrian Conan Doyle, the son of Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes.

Adrian Conan Doyle, when not tending to his father’s literary estate, made the most of his leisure time. He was described as a “big-game hunter, fisherman, zoologist, explorer, and author” in his 1970 New York Times obituary.

In LIFE’s story about Adrian’s jousting habit, illustrated with photos by Mark Kauffman, Doyle and Ash explained that for them, this was a kind of rebellion: “To Doyle and Ash this retreat to the medieval way of life expressed their disgust with modern civilization, politics, the Labor government and contemporary British sports. (“It’s better,’ said Ash, “than kicking a leather pudding around.”)

The jousting session that Kauffman captured was picturesque, but also a fiasco at times. “Doyle had difficulty cramming his 6-foot frame into his 91-pound armor,” the story said. And during the joust, one of Adrian’s straps broke, and wife had to step in and make repairs.

The pastime was also obviously a luxury that Conan Doyle was able to indulge because of the success of his father. Though he and his friend told LIFE that a budget version of knight cosplaying was accessible for everyone:

“For other escapists less well financed Doyle and Ash suggested the substitution of quarter staves,” the story said. “This requires only a pair of wooden clubs, a cooperative friend, and a fondness for being beaten senseless under a greenwood tree.”

A thought: Even though Adrian claimed to long for medieval times, he was a singularly modern creature. Were he around today—and with the famous name, the family fortune, the penchant for stunts and an obvious comfort in front of the camera—it’s not hard to imagine that he would have been a reality star. All the Sherlock Holmes stories falling into public domain in 2023 would only have added to the drama.

Adrian Conan Doyle, son of Arthur Conan Doyle (seen in the portrait), with his armor collection, 1948.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Adrian Conan Doyle, son of Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle, also liked to collect keys, 1948.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Adrian Conan Doyle and friend Douglas Ash, who enjoyed dressing in armor and jousting, 1948.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Adrian Conan Doyle and friend Douglas Ash jousted on a wooden bridge in full armor suits, 1948.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Adrian Conan Doyle needed help from his wife after a strap on his armor suit broke during a jousting match, 1948.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Adrian Conan Doyle with his wife during a jousting day, 1948.

Mark Kauffman/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Adrian Conan Doyle and friend Douglas Ash, wearing plated armor for a recreational joust, 1948.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Adrian Conan Doyle and friend Douglas Ash jousted in suits of armor, 1948.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Adrian Conan Doyle and Douglas Ash toasted each other with a glass of wine after their jousting match, 1948.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Adrian Conan Doyle, son of Arthur Conan Doyle, 1948.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

New Year’s Football in Wartime Italy: The Story of the Spaghetti Bowl

In January 1945 the U.S. Army decided that it wanted to give its troops in Italy a taste of a back-home tradition—football on New Year’s Day. And that’s how the Spaghetti Bowl came to be.

In the game, a team from the Fifth Army took on members of the 12th Air Force at a stadium in Florence, Italy. Though the game was, according to LIFE’s report in its Jan. 26, 1945 issue, “only three hours’ jeep ride from the front,” it looked an awful lot like what football fans were experiencing that same day at the college bowl games back home:

The audience of 25,000 GIs, WACs and Army nurses got hot dogs and a complete USO show between the halves. They cheered two pretty Bowl queens and booed when the drum majorette tried to cover her legs from the cold. They were serenaded by two 36-piece bands. They chanted “We want a touchdown” at the Fifth Army’s team, which called itself “The Krautclouters.”

The Army team, which included one player with NFL experience—Cecil Sturgeon, who had played offensive tackle with the Philadelphia Eagles before the war—won the exhibition 20-0. The Spaghetti Bowl was not a unique occurrence, as the military staged a number of footbell games in Europe for the entertainment of its soldiers abroad. On the same day as the Spaghetti Bowl, the Army also had three other games going: the Riviera Bowl in Marseille, the Coffee Bowl in London and the Potato Bowl in Belfast.

The photos of the Spaghetti Bowl were taken by LIFE’s estimable Margaret Bourke-White, and they capture the pageantry that was meant to replicate the joys of the American football. But the reminders of war remained close by. LIFE said that the “the game was played under the cover of P-38s because the Luftwaffe had promised to come to the game too” and noted that the festivities were a respite from the grim task of fighting through the winter in the snowy mountains of Northern Italy. The story termed that mission the war’s “forgotten front” because its chief strategic purpose was to occupy German forces that would otherwise be slowing down the more glorious mission: the Allied drive into Germany.

The issue of LIFE in which the Spaghetti bowl appeared featured on its cover a wounded soldier. That is a reminder of the reality from which the football game served as a distraction.

An aerial view of Berta Municipal Stadium in Florence, Italy where the Spaghetti Bowl took place, January 1945.

Margaret Bourke-White/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Drum majorette Peggy Jean Roan, a USO entertainer, performed during a football game between the 5th Army and the 12th Air Force teams.

Margaret Bourke-White/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A member of the Women in the Air Force rode on a float made by decorating a jeep with a propellor during the Spaghetti Bowl in Florence, Italy, 1945.

Margaret Bourke-White/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A crowd of 25,000 at the Spaghetti Bowl, a football game between the 5th Army and the 12th Air Force, in Florence, Italy, 1945.

Margaret Bourke-White/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Teams from the 5th Army and the 12th Air Force competed at the Spaghetti Bowl in Florence, Italy, Jan. 1945.

Margaret Bourke-White/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A crowd of 25,000 at the Spaghetti Bowl, a football game between the 5th Army and the 12th Air Force, in Florence, Italy, 1945.

Margaret Bourke-White/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Teams from the 5th Army and the 12th Air Force competed at the Spaghetti Bowl in Florence, Italy, Jan. 1945.

Margaret Bourke-White/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Edward Shanks, a fullback for the Army football team, posed with drum majorette Peggy Jean Roan, a USO entertainer, at the Berta Stadium in Florence, Italy, during the Spaghetti Bowl, 1945.

Margaret Bourke-White/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from the Spaghetti Bowl, a football game between the 5th Army and the 12th Air Force, in Florence, Italy 1945.

Margaret Bourke-White/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Entertainment during the Spaghetti Bowl football game in Florence, Italy, 1945.

Margaret Bourke-White/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A crowd of 25,000 at the Spaghetti Bowl, a football game between the 5th Army and the 12th Air Force, in Florence, Italy, 1945.

Margaret Bourke-White/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Peggy Jean Roan of the U.S.O. entertained during the Spaghetti Bowl, a football game between the 5th Army and 12th Air Force in Florence, Italy, 1945.

Margaret Bourke-White/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Miracle on 34th Street: The Perfect Christmas Movie

The following is from LIFE’s new special issue about Miracle on 34th Street, available at newsstands and online:

One of the defining moments of the 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street comes early on, after Kris Kringle has been hired by Macy’s to be the department store’s Santa. The Macy’s toy department manager doesn’t recognize Kris as the real thing, but he sees the potential to make money off him. “I just know with that man on the throne, my toy department will sell more toys than it ever has,” Julian Shellhammer says. “He’s a born salesman. I just feel it.” 

He’s not wrong, either. But Shellhammer goes too far when he gives Kris a list of overstocked toys to push on the children. “Now you’ll find that a great many children will be undecided as to what they want for Christmas,” Shellhammer counsels. “When that happens, you immediately suggest one of these items.” 

At this moment, viewers see a clear divide between Kringle and Shellhammer. Although Kringle has already embraced holiday shopping—playing the role of Santa in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and accepting a job at the department store behemoth—we now see where Kringle draws the line. “Imagine making a child take something he doesn’t want just because [Shellhammer] bought too many of the wrong toys,” Kringle muses as he rips up the list. “That’s what I’ve been fighting against for years—the way they commercialize Christmas.”

When the movie came out in 1947, the commercialization of Christmas had been going on for some time. The holiday shopping season was firmly entrenched in American society. Shoppers hit department stores en masse, and holiday spending became a key driver of the consumer economy. One sign of the gathering frenzy had come in 1912, when progressive labor reformers openly urged shoppers to plan ahead and do their holiday shopping as early as possible to lighten the load for retail staff. “Thousands of workers in every city have been taught by bitter experience to look forward to Christmas with dread,” the Consumers’ League of New York lamented in a magazine advertisement that year. “Every shop girl knows that the coming Christmas season will mean to her an immense amount of extra work, of nervous strain and exhaustion. The great army of workers whom you do not see—the bundle wrappers, drivers and errand boys—look forward to Christmas as a hateful time of undeserved effort and hardship.” Shopkeepers worked to attract the bustling holiday crowd to their stores by offering a wide range of Christmas-themed goods, and children’s toys—stuffed toys, dolls, train sets—were especially popular.

By the mid-1940s—the era that sparked Miracle on 34th Street—the U.S. economy was kicking into high gear after the Great Depression, in part due to production required during World War II. With the war over, jobs were plentiful and wages higher. And, because of the lack of consumer goods during the war, Americans were eager to spend. The postwar years were also the beginning of the baby boom, which would push the demand for children’s goods even higher.

In Miracle, Kringle, rather than following Shellhammer’s cynical directive to push overstocked toys on disappointed children, performs the ultimate act of customer service by pointing shoppers to competing stores that do carry the toys they want. The Macy’s manager is at first horrified—until parents congratulate him on this new marketing tactic and promise they’ll be loyal Macy’s shoppers from now on. The fictional “Mr. Macy” declares the new store motto will be “to place public service ahead of profits”—in the name of making a bigger profit than ever.

The resolution shows how Miracle is hardly a deep critique of holiday consumerism. In some ways, it’s closer to an embrace. Kringle knows where to send kids for the toys they want because he has an expansive knowledge of New York City’s stores and their toy inventory. He simply puts kids’ toy preferences over the profits of one store in particular. In the movie’s climax the ultimate Christmas gift is the consummate act of middle class spending—the purchase of a house. In this case, consumerism isn’t a nefarious concept but instead one that signals security and a means for a new family to come together in comfort. The Kris Kringle of Miracle may be put off by a world fraught with profit margins and clearance sales, but he also knows that, when done thoughtfully and with a sprinkle of faith, Christmas and gift-giving go together like milk and cookies. 

Here are a selection of photos from LIFE’s new special issue about Miracle on 34th Street:

Cover images: (Gwenn & Wood) AF Archive/Allstar Picture Library Ltd./Alamy; (sky background) Standret/Shutterstock; (Gimbels & Macy’s buildings) Bettmann/Getty

The heroes of Miracle on 34th Street—John Payne as Fred Gailey, Maureen O’Hara as Doris Walker, Natalie Wood as Susan Walker, and Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle—gather at a Christmas party near the movie’s climax.

20th Century Fox/Kobal/Shutterstock

Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) brings out the playful side of Susan Walker (Natalie Wood) and shows her the joy of make-believe as Fred Gailey (John Payne) looks on in the 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street.

20th Century Fox/Photo 12/Alamy

Richard Attenborough took on the role of Kriss Kringle in the 1994 remake of Miracle on 34th Street.

© 20th Century Fox, Courtesy Photofest

In the 1994 remake of Miracle on 34th Street, Dylan McDermott (right), in the role of Bryan Bedford, defended Kriss Kringle in the movie’s trial scene.

Collection Christophel/Alamy

The wrapping department at Macy’s was busy during Christmastime in 1948.

Nina Leen/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A crew of Santas readied to work at Macy’s, 1948.

Nina Leen/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Woody Woodpecker delighted the crowds at the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade in 1989; the store and its parade were integral settings in the 1947 movie Miracle on 34th Street.

Bettmann/Getty

Zip Service: When the Model Met the Mobot

In 1961 Hughes Aircraft had a new technology that it wanted to introduce to the public. That desire led to one of LIFE’s stranger photoshoots.

The invention was the Mobot, and this motorized robot performed a valuable function. Workers at nuclear sites could use the Mobot’s mechanical arms to operate machinery remotely and without fear of exposure to radioactive materials. A story in Popular Mechanics in 1960 talked about how “Mobot Mark 1, the first mobile remote-controlled handling machine for radiation labs too dangerous for man, flexed his steel arms recently and showed how he can move into `hot’ areas and perform intricate tasks.”

The concept is obviously a valuable one—a lifesaver, really. Today remotely operated robots continue to be a valuable tool for handling potentially lethal tasks such as bomb disposal. Which makes the LIFE photoshoot for the robot all the more curious. In the photos by the great J.R. Eyerman, the Mobot is depicted not as handling a dangerous assignment but helping a model go through her beauty routine. The Mobot and its mechanical arms help the model do her nails and comb her hair. The Mobot’s most helpful contribution was to zip up the model’s dress.

The zipping scenario was a smart one, because women getting into dresses sometimes do need an extra set of hands, and human ones aren’t always available. But as the site Fanboy.com noted in a story on the Mobot, the real absurdity of the demo was that zipping a dress required not only a room-sized machine and a human engineer to operate it.

Even if the Mobot wasn’t the most efficient way to get that zipper up, the shoot did point up a problem for dress-wearers that the world of technology has not entirely forgotten. In 2016 at a fashion conference, a paper argued that automated zippers would be a great help to the infirm and the elderly, The year before the MIT Robotics Lab had developed a prototype of an automated zipper that lived inside the dress. One thing is clear: if automated zipping ever becomes a part of our lives, it is much more likely to be invisible that room-sized.

The Mobot, a creation of Hughes Aircraft Electronic Labs, demonstrated its abilities by helping a model go through her beauty routine, 1961.

J.R. Eyerman/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Mobot demonstrated its capabilities by helping a model go through her beauty routine, Hughes Aircraft, California, 1961.

J.R. Eyerman/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hughes Aircraft Electronic Labs’ ‘Mobot’ dressing a woman, California, United States, 1961

J.R. Eyerman/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An engineer operated the Mobot mobile robots, Hughes Aircraft Electronic Laboratory, California, 1961.

J.R. Eyerman/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando: Portraits of a Charismatic Young Star, 1952

By 1952, Marlon Brando was well on his way in Hollywood, with three remarkable roles under his belt: his big-screen debut as a paraplegic war vet in The Men; a searing on-screen reprisal of his Broadway turn as the iconic brute Stanley Kowalski in director Elia Kazan’s A Streetcar Named Desire; and the title role in the biopic, Viva Zapata!, about the Mexican revolutionary hero.

But for all those successes, Brando had not yet made the cover of LIFE — a magazine that prided itself on capturing and reflecting the nations’ obsessions and interests, week after week after week. In 1952, that oversight was remedied, as legendary photographer Margaret Bourke-White shot a portrait session with Brando, capturing the 28-year-old star in a casual, playful mood.

For reasons lost to time, Bourke-White’s photos — discovered in LIFE’s archives and marked with the sole descriptive phrase, “cover tries” — were never published in the magazine. (Though Bourke-White’s portraits never saw the light of day, Brando ultimately did grace the cover of LIFE, making his first appearance in character as Antony from Julius Caesar in the April 20, 1953, issue. He’d appear on the cover three more times.)

It is difficult to look at the face of the young Brando without feeling the influence of his most iconic performances, from On the Waterfront to The Godfather. Here, meet the young Brando at his most charismatic and mysterious, seen through the lens of one of LIFE’s greatest photographers, in a series of photos that never ran in the magazine.

Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

Marlon Brando, 1952.

Marlon Brando, 1952

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1952.

Marlon Brando, 1952

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1952

Marlon Brando, 1952

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1952

Marlon Brando, 1952

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1952

Marlon Brando, 1952

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1952

Marlon Brando, 1952

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1952

Marlon Brando, 1952

Margaret Bourke-White Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando, 1952

Marlon Brando, 1952

Margaret Bourke-White Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Marlon Brando: First LIFE Cover

Marlon Brando: First LIFE Cover

Margaret Bourke-White Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The New ‘Seven Wonders of the World’

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the Seven Wonders of the ‘New World’ have captivated generations of travelers and historians for centuries. Lists declaring different “wonders of the world” have been compiled since antiquity to record some of the world’s most breathtaking natural and man-made historic sites.

Dating back to the 2nd century BCE, the original list was a massive testament to the sheer ingenuity, innovation, and creativity of Earth’s early civilizations. 

In 1999, an initiative was started by Swiss explorer Bernard Weber to update the list and choose the New Seven Wonders of the World from a selection of existing monuments. The results of the 7 Wonders of the New World were announced in 2007 with the Pyramids of Giza, the only remaining original wonder, being named as an honorary wonder. 

In addition to all being UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the New 7 Wonders of the World are all architectural sites of enormous scale and are among some of the most visited tourist attractions in the world.

The Seven Wonders of the New World 

The Great Wall of China (China)

Christ the Redeemer (Rio De Janeiro, Brazil)

Machu Picchu (Peru)

Chichen Itza (Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico)

The Roman Colosseum (Rome, Italy) 

The Taj Mahal (Agra, India) 

Petra (Jordan)

Many LIFE photographers have captured these spectacular sites, and below you will find images from the seven dynamic destinations. 

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall Of China, 1920.

Mansell Collection / LIFE Picture Collection

U.S. President, Richard Nixon, visit The Great Wall of China, 1972.

John Dominis / LIFE Picture Collection

From the September 8, 1941 issue of LIFE: “From a plane, you can see the Great Wall of China, writhing and coiling like a frozen dragon across 1,500 miles of the North.”

Christ the Redeemer

Christ The Redeemer Statue, 1941.

Hart Preston / LIFE Picture Collection

Christ the Redeemer, Tijuca Forest on the Corcovado Mountain, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1973.

Alfred Eisenstaedt / LIFE Picture Collection

Machu Picchu 

View of terraces in the ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu, 1947.

Dmitri Kessel / LIFE Picture Collection

The Ruins of Machu Picchu, 1945.

Frank Scherschel / LIFE Picture Collection

Incan ruins at Machu Picchu, 1948.

Dmitri Kessel / LIFE Picture Collection

A view showing the temple with the alter and sundial at Machu Picchu in Urubamba , Peru, 1945.

Frank Scherschel / LIFE Picture Collection

From the January 19, 1968 issue of LIFE: “Locked between two massive peaks of the Andes, and balanced at the edge of sheer, menacing abyss, lie the ruined palaces and temples of an Incan City. Machu Picchu. The jungle growths that obscured Machu Picchu for centuries have been cleared away. But the natives swear the ancient gods still linger, laughing and whispering among themselves.”

Chichen Itza

The Mayan temple, Chichen Itza, in ruins, Mexico, 1946.

Dmitri Kessel / LIFE Picture Collection

Ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza built by Mayans in 6th century dedicated to a godlike leader, Kukulcan, 1946.

Dmitri Kessel / LIFE Picture Collection

Cultural site in Central America, Chichen Itza, Yucatan.

Mansell Collection / LIFE Picture Collection

Cultural Site in Central America, Chichen Itza, Yucutan.

Mansell Collection / LIFE Picture Collection

The Roman Colosseum 

A view showing the interior of the Colosseum in Rome, Italy in 1940.

Thomas D. McAvoy / LIFE Picture Collection

Exterior view of the Roman Colosseum, Italy, 1940.

Thomas D. McAvoy / LIFE Picture Collection

A night-time view of the ruins of the Roman Colosseum, Italy, 1940.

Carl Mydans / LIFE Picture Collection

Crowds of people in the city near the Roman Colosseum, 1944.

George Silk / LIFE Picture Collection

Taj Mahal

On tour with the United Service Organizations in the China-Burma-India theater of World War II, India, December 1944.

US Army Signal Corps / The LIFE Picture Collection

Aerial view of the famed Taj Mahal, 1944.

Thomas D. McAvoy / LIFE Picture Collection

Taj Mahal by Moonlight, 1952.

James Burke / LIFE Picture Collection

Mrs. John F. Kennedy during tour of India visiting the Taj Mahal, 1962.

Art Rickerby / LIFE Picture Collection

From the August 31, 1962 issue of LIFE: “Shimmering in the moonlight as delicate and cool as its own white marble skin, the Taj Mahal at Agra, India floats in a romantic dream which has charmed tourists for 300 years and has made ‘The Taj’ the most famous mausoleum in the world.”

Petra

Petra, Jordan.

Mansell Collection / LIFE Picture Collection

Petra, Jordan.

Mansell Collection / LIFE Picture Collection

Petra, Jordan.

Mansell Collection / LIFE Picture Collection

From the October 31, 1949 issue of LIFE: “Hidden in a narrow, sheer-sided valley in the craggy wilderness of southern Trans-Jordan are the ruins of the strangest city ever built by man. Its name is Petra, which means ‘rock,’ and is aptly named. For here, carved like giant cameos into the faces of towering pink and orange cliffs, are hundreds of tombs, temples, and palaces whose severe classic beauty stands out in fantastic contrast to the windworn living rock of which they are a part.”

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