Page 70 – LIFE

Christian Dior’s Conquering Eye

February 25, 2020October 10, 2019 by resolute

Christian Dior was born on January 21, 1905, and had to wait until he was 42 years old to become an overnight sensation—as well as an international one. Dior had worked in the service of others for his first decade in fashion, but then on February 12, 1947, he debuted the first collection, and the echoes could be heard across the Atlantic, and in the pages of LIFE magazine. The story was headlined ” The House of Dior: New French Designer is Surprise Success at First Showing” and it breathlessly quoted an unnamed American as saying, “God help the buyers who bought before they saw this. It changes everything.”

That story praised Dior for recognizing that his job was to seduce. A year later the magazine did another major story on the designer, observing that he was surprisingly unassuming and polite. He commented, “I’m a mild man, but I have violent tastes.”

The photos below showcase Dior’s seductive designs during his electric decade at the top.

Photo by Gordon Parks//The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Photo by Gjon Mili//The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Photo by Nina Leen//The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Photo by Frank Scherschel/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Photo by Loomis Dean//The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Photo by Pat English/The LIFE Images Collection via Shutterstock

Photo by Pat English/The LIFE Images Collection via Shutterstock

In 1957, ten years after his smashing debut, Christian Dior died of a heart attack. His funeral was a major event in Paris. The church held 2,000 mourners, who were assigned numbered seats as it they were at a fashion show, while another 7,000 stood outside. Among those at the funeral was Dior’s 20-year-old assistant, Yves Saint Laurent. Shown in a moment of solitary repose during the funeral, he succeeded his master and took over the House of Dior.

Photo by Loomis Dean//The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Photo by Loomis Dean//The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Celebrities’ Best Friends

August 19, 2021October 7, 2019 by resolute

Famous people really are just like us! And they always have been. Whether vintage actors or athletes or poets: They love their dogs.

Natalie Wood and her silver poodle Morningstar, at home in Beverly Hills in 1960.

Photo by Allan Grant/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation.

Gertrude Stein, right, and Alice B. Toklas walked their poodle, Baskets, in the French village of Culoz after the end of German occupation, 1945.

Photo by Carl Mydans/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation.

Baseball star Willie Mays walked with his poodle at the San Francisco airport, after his Giants left New York and moved west in 1958.

Photo by Nat Farbman/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation.

In 1956, Jayne Mansfield pondered the eternal question: why not just play with your dog?

Photo by Peter Stackpole/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation.

Alfred Hitchcock, at home with his Sealyham terrier Mr. Jenkins in 1939, offered a title for this photo: “A Dislike of American Fireplaces.”

Photo by Peter Stackpole/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation.

Steve McQueen was woken by his malamute during a hunting trip in the Sierra Madre Mountains, 1963.

Photo by John Dominis/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Frank Sinatra checked in on Ringo in Palm Springs, 1965.

Photo by John Dominis/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Jimmy Stewart once read a poem about his dog on The Tonight Show.

Photo by Rex Hardy/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Actress Bette Davis and her dog were wheeled about in her Beverly Hills backyard, 1939.

Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

On this journey on a less-traveled road, poet Robert Frost chose not to walk alone.

Photo by Eric Schaal/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Butch and Sundance: Celebrating an Iconic Movie

September 17, 2025October 7, 2019 by resolute

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was an unexpected hit, a film about a duo of western outlaws who ran their mouths more than they pulled their triggers. When it opened 50 years ago in a time of turmoil, the movie seemed to be just the magical, side show elixir Americans hankered for. Audiences ignored naysaying critics, massed in lines, grabbed some popcorn and soda pop, and enjoyed two hours of sweet escapism. The movie earned what the equivalent of $700 million adjusted for inflation and won four Academy Awards. The inside story of that movie—including rare behind-the-scenes photos of Paul Newman and Robert Redford on set—is explored in LIFE’s new special edition celebrating the film’s 50th anniversary and available here.

The move follows the strange-but-true tale of Robert Leroy Parker and Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, sons of devout and impoverished families who in the long tradition of American pioneers set out in search of a different life. But instead of homesteading a spread of land, they reinvented themselves as Butch Cassidy and Billy the Kid. They rode the range, and they robbed banks, trains and mines with the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. And when marshals, troops and rangers hunted jailed and killed their mates, Butch and Sundance, along with Sundance’s lady friend, Etta Place, seemed to disappear. They went to Argentina and Bolivia and tried their hand at ranching—until they robbed again, and then the law cornered them in the sleepy town of San Vincente, Bolivia.

More than 100 years after the Bolivian gunfight in which Butch and Sundance died (or maybe they escaped?), we beckon these outlaws to return to America and continue to inhabit our fantasies about a place we call the Wild West. —adapted from an essay by Daniel S. Levy

Photo by © Lawrence Schiller, All Rights Reserved/Getty Images

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was based on the story of real-life outlaws. Harry “The Sundance Kid” Longabaugh (seated left) and Robert LeRoy “Butch Cassidy” Parker (seated, right) had this portrait taken in a photo studio in Fort Worth, Tex., around 1885. Pinkerton agents used copies of this portrait during their manhunt.

Photo by John Swartz/American Stock/Getty Images

In this scene in which Butch and Sundance (who has admitted he can’t swim) jump into the river below, Redford and Newman actually land on a scaffold build just below the ledge.

Photo by Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock.

It’s hard to look at this image of Newman and Katharine Ross on a bicycle without thinking of the music that accompanies it: Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head.

Photograph © Lawrence Schiller, All Rights Reserved/Getty Images

This Western wasn’t all wild. Butch & Sundance escape a posse, head o New York with Etta, and then travel by luxury to South America.

Photograph © Lawrence Schiller, All Rights Reserved/Getty Images

The filming of the scene in the lake in New York City’s Central Park actually took place on a soundstage.

Photograph © Lawrence Schiller, All Rights Reserved/Getty Images

Plywood was used to create the look of the Human Roulette Wheel at Steeplechase Park’s Pavilion of Fun.

Photograph © Lawrence Schiller, All Rights Reserved/Getty Images

Director George Roy Hill explained to Redford and Newman the look he was going for in the movie’s climactic scene.

Photograph © Lawrence Schiller, All Rights Reserved/Getty Images

Butch and Sundance, tracked down in Bolivia and wildly unnumbered, come out guns blazing in the movie’s final scene.

Credit: Photograph © Lawrence Schiller, All Rights Reserved/Getty Images

Robert Redford met Butch Cassidy’s sister, Lula Parker Betenson during the filming of the movie and visited their childhood home near Circleville, Utah.

Credit: Jonathan S. Blair/National Geographic

The Louisville Flood of ’37

November 16, 2019October 4, 2019 by resolute

No one living on the banks of the Ohio River had seen anything like it. Rain pounded from January 12th to January 23rd, 1937, and along a 650-mile swath reaching from Pittsburgh to Cairo, Ill., the river overflowed its banks. Overflowed by a lot. Nearly 400 people died. No town was hit harder than Louisville, where the water crested 37 feet above the flood stage, including a rise of more than six feet in one day, from January 21st to the 22nd. Nearly seventy percent of the city was flooded and 175,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes. Horses drowned. Light and water service was knocked out. Two city neighborhoods, Shippingport and The Point, were devastated out of existence.

It didn’t help that this was in the middle of the Depression. The above photo shows locals lined up for food and medicine in front of what turned out to be a poorly placed billboard from the National Manufactures Association; the confidence boosting message only served to douse displaced residents with irony.

The months of January and February have proven to be dangerous around Louisville, with another serious flood in 1997 that caused $200 in damage, and further incidents in 2018 and ’19. Though the flood of 1937 remains the area’s most severe on record.

The photos by Margaret Bourke-White captured just how dramatic the flood was, and how much was changed by the rising river.

Photo by Margaret Bourke-White

Ninety-year-old Jim Lawhorn, one of the displaced, found shelter at the clubhouse of the Churchill Downs race track. Photo by Margaret Bourke-White.

Churchill Downs, home to the Kentucky Derby, provided temporary housing to many. Photo by Margaret Bourke-White

This man built a makeshift boat made from four metal washtubs and some wooden slats. Photo by Margaret Bourke-White.

A newspaper editor, Tom Wallace, slept while he used a lamp under a bucket to heat water for next morning’s sponge bath. Photo by Margaret Bourke-White.

Another newspaper editor, Wilbur Cogshall, drank boiled water from a bottle while preparing a report on the flood. Photo by Margaret Bourke-White.

Photo by Margaret Bourke-White.

Photo by Margaret Bourke-White

On Tour With the First Miss Alaska

November 16, 2019October 2, 2019 by resolute

In 1958, with her home state about to be admitted to the Union (which it was, on Jan. 3, 1959) a 19-year-old woman, Stuart Johnson, from the Juneau area was named the first Miss Alaska and earned a spot in the Miss America pageant. In this bit of history a publicity agent saw an opportunity. He lined up a sponsor, Alaska Oil and Gas, and soon Johnson was on the way to New York to hit the media circuit before the pageant. With all the travel costs underwritten, her tour feels like a rough draft of what today’s aspiring social media influencers pursue on Instagram. Her ride certainly hit the heights. She stayed in a swanky hotel, wore beautiful clothes, made guest appearances on big TV shows and visited Yankee Stadium, and all the while LIFE photographer Peter Stackpole documented her adventures. Johnson, who’s name is now Stuart Sliter and who has been married for nearly six decades is 80 and lives in Juneau—her daughter, Beth Weldon, is the mayor. She recalls the New York trip as the adventure of a lifetime.

Photo by Peter Stackpole

Photo by Peter Stackpole

Johnson came from Douglas, a small community near Juneau, and she recalls the wonder of walking Manhattan’s streets surrounded by luminous buildings, and not being able to see the sky. She stayed in a room on the 23^rd floor of the Hotel St. Moritz on Central Park South, where the above photos were taken. The shots may look like pageant preparation or part of a fitness routine, but Sliter says she was just playing for the camera. The other woman in the photos is Bea Albertson, who came along from Alaska to be her chaperone.

Photo by Peter Stackpole

Photo by Peter Stackpole

One of her favorite parts of the trip was going to a tailor’s shop to be fitted for her pageant gowns. “Just having a tailor work on your wardrobe was an amazing experience for any young girl,” she says. After the trip, Johnson receiving a note from Stackpole, praising how photogenic she was.

Photo by Peter Stackpole

On her media tour, Johnson played the role of ambassador for the 49^th state. She visited the Today Show and met host Dave Garroway (right) and also Charles van Doren (far left), who is now most remembered for his role in the quiz show scandals. She also appeared on the Tonight Show with Jack Paar, American Bandstand with Dick Clark and on The Ed Sullivan Show, where she hobnobbed backstage with Walter Cronkite and Pearl Bailey. During her appearances she carried with her ta small totem pole, a prop given to her by her publicity team. She describes her TV appearances as “cameos” which often involved answering silly Alaska-themed questions. More than once she was asked, “Do you live in an igloo?” Her main memory from the Today Show appearance: “The dress, they couldn’t zip up the back, so they told me, don’t turn your back to the camera, just sit there and smile.”

Photo by Peter Stackpole

Johnson’s tour included a visit to Yankee Stadium, where manager Casey Stengel and outfielder Mickey Mantle signed her totem. A third pinstriped Hall of Famer, Yogi Berra, was supposed to meet her as well, but Johnson was ten minutes late to the park and Berra, tired of waiting, saw a fork in the road and took it. Other stops on her tour included the Statue of Liberty and a show with the Rockettes, and also night spots such as Toots Shor’s and the Copacabana. After the pageant—won by Miss Mississippi (and future actress) Mary Ann Mobley—Johnson completed a degree in education from Mills College in Oakland, and she became a teacher and also a mother of three children, including Mayor Weldon. The autographed totem from that trip is displayed on the mantel in her living room. (Yes, she has Mantle on her mantel). Of that trip to New York, Sliter says, “It’s my Cinderella story.”

The Family Life of a Young George H.W. Bush

May 12, 2022December 1, 2018 by

George H.W. Bush—who died in 2018 at age 94—served the government in many roles before he was elected president the nation’s 41st President in 1988.

In 1971, Bush had recently lost a bid for election to the Senate, and was serving as President Richard Nixon’s ambassador to the United Nations, a role he filled until 1973.

LIFE Magazine caught up with him during that time, specifically at the tense moment that the United Nations decided to admit “Red China” as a member in place of the Nationalist government based in Taipei. Bush, then 47, was an advocate of the “two-China solution,” of keeping both governments in the international organization. Bush was hissed at and booed by other ambassadors, and LIFE reported that even his wife, the late Barbara Bush, was “sneered at” as she sat crocheting in the gallery.

For observers, however, Bush’s attitude in the face of the significant setback was telling. Though some had doubted whether he was appropriate for the U.N. job—his diplomatic experience at the time of his appointment was pretty much zero—Bush had quickly shown that he made up for that gap in “wit, stamina and enthusiasm.”

“In trying to save Taiwan’s seat,” the magazine noted, “he had set what must be a U.N. track record for personal effort.” His attitude every day was a model of go-get-’em, as he raced to and from meetings, collapsing at the end of a long day knowing that even though he was sometimes so tired that he said he wanted to cry, he would do it again the next day.

Photographer Leonard McCombe captured Bush at work, but also explored the balance of Bush’s life—the home and family that he left behind when he went off to New York to the United Nations. As these images make clear, the future President whose “wit, stamina and enthusiasm” impressed the international community had no shortage of enthusiasm for the rest of life as well.

George H.W. Bush in 1971

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

George H.W. Bush and nephew at home in 1971.

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

George H.W. Bush and wife Barbara at home in 1971.

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

George H.W. Bush and family at home in 1971.

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

George H.W. Bush and family at home in 1971. Left-Right: Nephew Billy, daughter Dorothy, George H.W., son Neil, wife Barbara, nephew Jon.

Arthur Schatz / Getty Images