Page 76 – LIFE

Remembering Raquel Welch: Photos From the Set of “Kansas City Bomber”

February 16, 2023September 4, 2015 by

Raquel Welch became famous as the star of such movies as Fantastic Voyage (1966) and One Million Years B.C. (also 1966). When LIFE Magazine profiled Raquel Welch in 1972, she was donning roller skates for a new role. According to LIFE, the actress, who died on February 15, 2023 at age 82, was the “hottest thing on wheels,” throwing elbows and sustaining multiple injuries while filming the roller derby flick Kansas City Bomber.

The film, in which Welch plays a hardened derby star and single mother to a young Jodi Foster, may not have been a critical success, but Welch still believes it had something important to say. In a 2012 interview with GQ, when the Film Society of Lincoln Center was celebrating her body of work, Welch reflected on Kansas City Bomber“s depiction of gender relations in the early 1970s. “You have all those women out there, but the men in the front office are really running it,” she said of the roller derby world depicted in the film. “Which I thought was a really nice metaphor for the way a lot of women felt about their lives at that time.”

In her later years Welch stepped back from acting to focus on charity work and family time. She also cautioned against the superficiality of the sex symbol status she held, and the assumptions people tend to make. “I felt like people had me on a pedestal, and they didn’t know there was this other person,” she told the AARP, talking about the image that helped make her a star, of her in a bikini in the poster for the 1966 movie One Million Years B.C.. “They saw the poster but they didn’t really know the story behind it.”

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

Raquel Welch 1972

Bill Eppridge The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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Bill Eppridge The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Raquel Welch 1972

Bill Eppridge The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Back in the Day: Vikki Dougan’s Head-Turning Moment

April 30, 2021August 28, 2015 by

Vikki Dougan didn’t quite stick to the pop culture firmament in the manner of Marilyn Monroe and other beauty icons of the1950s, but she did have her moment: an appearance at the 1957 Golden Globes in a backless gown that was the talk of the ceremony. And it appears the model and actress known as “The Back” is having a moment again. In its April 22, 2021 Style section the New York Times trumpeted Dougan’s recent revival in popularity in a story titled “Flashing Back to `The Back.'” The cause: Instagram accounts which celebrate vintage Hollywood. Search on the hashtag #VikkiDougan and you’ll find images with tens of thousands of likes—most of which are drawn from a photoshoot that the starlet did with LIFE’s Ralph Crane in 1957.

“I don’t know, maybe I’m having a resurgence,” she told the Times, talking about her autograph requests. “I’m amazed at these people who write to me, they’ve seen everything I’ve done.”

If characterizing a woman by a notable body part seems reductive and objectifying—well, it is. That was also a not-uncommon publicity practice in a day in which Betty Grable was celebrated for her legs and Jane Russell was sometimes referred to as “The Bust.”

Dougan had actually been modeling and acting for years before her back became the center of attention after that Golden Globes presentation in ’57. But that aspect of her anatomy became such an object of curiosity—years into her career—that Crane conducted the rare photo shoot in which the subject was mostly photographed from behind.

Of particular interest are the images in which Crane had Dougan walk around Los Angeles in a backless dress. Crane’s images of male heads on a swivel play like an early draft of today’s popular “distracted boyfriend” internet meme.

Years before she became “The Back,” Dougan had actually appeared in LIFE magazine on two occasions. The first story, in the July 28, 1952 issue, was a short piece about how Dougan—born Edith Tooker in Brooklyn on Jan. 1, 1929—used different-colored wigs to earn extra bookings as a model. The following year she made on the cover of LIFE’s October 23, 1953 issue with the headline ‘Vikki Dougan: Actress, Model and Mother.’ The story talked about how the divorced 21-year-old balanced her various careers and motherhood. Six photos ran with the story, and in each of them Dougan was facing forward.

In that 1953 article LIFE described how Dougan’s career was going well: “…she earns $100 a week by looking pretty on Jackie Gleason’s TV show, and $250 a week from modeling.” The story also mentioned that she was taking acting classes.

But as the years went on Dougan’s acting career never entirely took sail, and her screen history is defined by small parts in forgettable movies. In the Times story she described a Hollywood experience defined by predatory men and poor management, and also a choice she regretted: turning down a contract from Paramount that did not pay as well as her modeling work, but which might have landed her in more quality films.

About being known as The Back, she said, “It is not symbolic about who I am. It wasn’t really me. I was playing a part. I didn’t even think there was anything even sexy about showing a back. It just didn’t occur to me.”

Model and actress Vikki Dougan wore a backless dress while walking in Los Angeles, 1957.

Ralph Crane/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Vikki Dougan walked past crowded park benches in Los Angeles, 1957.

Ralph Crane/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Vikki Dougan in Los Angeles, 1957.

Ralph Crane/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Vikki Dougan, 1957.

Ralph Crane/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Model and actress Vikki Dougan, 1957.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actress Vikki Dougan, 1957.

Ralph Crane/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Model and actress Vikki Dougan, 1957.

Ralph Crane/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Model and actress Vikki Dougan, 1957.

Ralph Crane/ The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Model and actress Vikki Dougan, 1957.

Ralph Crane/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Model and actress Vikki Dougan, 1957.

Ralph Crane/ The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Model and actress Vikki Dougan, 1957.

Ralph Crane/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Model and actress Vikki Dougan, 1957.

Ralph Crane/ The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Model and actress Vikki Dougan, 1957.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Model and actress Vikki Dougan, 1957.

Ralph Crane/ The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Model and actress Vikki Dougan, 1957.

Ralph Crane/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

For a 1952 LIFE story Vikki Dougan showed the different wigs she wore to get more modeling work.

Nina Leen/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Vikki Dougan in a 1952 story about wearing different wigs to get more modeling work.

Nina Leen/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Vikki Dougan in a 1953 LIFE story about how she balanced her various careers.

Photo by Lisa Larsen/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Vikki Dougan on a modeling job, 1953.

Lisa Larsen/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Go For a Swim With Bellybutton the Diving Dog

January 14, 2020August 26, 2015 by

One of the coolest dogs to appear in the pages of LIFE has to be Bellybutton. The 3-year-old German shorthaired pointer made an impression in 1966 with his underwater agility.

Bellybutton was unique not for his swimming abilities, but for his willingness to dive to retrieve an object. Most dogs retrieve sticks and balls from the water’s surface, but Bellybutton would go as deep as 20 feet and remain submerged for up to 15 seconds. He even practiced his skill on his own one day, LIFE reported, “he dived unbidden into a lake and fetched his master a 10-inch catfish.”

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

Bellybutton would swim underwater for distances up to 20 feet.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

German pointer Bellybutton dove for a rubber bone.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bellybutton reached the pool’s bottom to retrieve the bone.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bellybutton neared the rubber bone.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bellybutton returned to the surface.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bellybutton raced against a human swimmer to capture the bone.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bellybutton exited the pool via the stairs.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bellybutton carried his rubber bone.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bellybutton shook himself dry.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bellybutton received a post-pool rubdown.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bellybutton after a swim.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Beyond Bond: Rare Photos Of Sean Connery from LIFE Magazine

November 1, 2020August 25, 2015 by

The link between the actor Sean Connery and the character James Bond has proved to be an indelible one, no matter what Connery himself thought of that fact. The Scottish actor, who passed away on October 31, told Playboy in a 1965 interview that although the role had treated him well he was “fed up to here with the whole Bond bit.” He found the fact that fans identified him with the secret agent “a bit of a bore,” and lamented the lack of recognition for his other roles.

Still, as the first man to play Bond on screen, the association stuck. And when LIFE Magazine featured Connery on its cover in 1966, he posed naturally as his famous alter ego, in a tattered, drenched wetsuit unzipped to his navel. The photograph accompanied a review, inside the magazine, of Thunderball, Connery’s fourth installment in the franchise and, according to LIFE, the “wildest 007 movie yet.”

LIFE’s reviewer, echoing some of the movie’s other critics, censured the film for being “just like the three James Bond movies that preceded it.” It’s an analysis that mirrors the feelings of ennui Connery spouted to Playboy but that doesn’t mean the fans didn’t flock to theaters to see more of the same: The movie was the most successful Bond flick yet.

Connery would, of course, go on to play a diverse array of roles in the 40 years to come. And if anyone pitied him for being temporarily pigeonholed, they needn’t have. “I have always moved around and kept my eyes open and been prepared to raise my middle finger at the world,” he told Playboy. “I always will.”

For more of our favorite Sean Connery photos from the LIFE Picture Collection, see the gallery below.

From the Movie “Another Time, Another Place”

Actors Sean Connery and Lana Turner in scene from movie “Another Time, Another Place,” 1958 (Alfred Eisenstaedt/LIFE Picture Collection)

Actor Sean Connery (L) starring in scene from motion picture ‘The Hill’.

Actor Sean Connery starring in scene from the film “The Hill,” 1965 (Al Fenn/LIFE Picture Collection)

Sean Connery and Brigitte Bardot

Sean Connery and Brigitte Bardot laughing on set of the film “Shalako,” 1968 (Bill Ray/LIFE Picture Collection)

Sean Connery

Sean Connery on set of the film “Shalako,” 1968 (Bill Ray/LIFE Picture Collection)

Brigitte Bardot and Sean Connery

Sean Connery on set of the film “Shalako,” 1968 (Bill Ray/LIFE Picture Collection)

Sean Connery and Brigitte Bardot

Sean Connery and Brigitte Bardot on set of the film “Shalako,” 1968 (Bill Ray/LIFE Picture Collection)

Sean Connery

Portrait of Sean Connery, 1982 (DMI/LIFE Picture Collection)

Sean Connery with Singer Diana Ross, 1997

Sean Connery with singer Diana Ross, 1997 (DMI/LIFE Picture Collection)

See Eero Saarinen’s Career in Photos

August 8, 2021August 20, 2015 by

We sit in his chairs, road-trip to his iconic landmarks and even worship in his churches. Eero Saarinen, born in Finland and educated in the U.S., was one of the most influential architects of the 20th century. Since his death at age 51 from a brain tumor, he has been outlived as is the fate of all successful architects by the work he created, neofuturistic designs that have become a permanent fixture of our landscape.

The son of the renowned Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen, the junior Saarinen grew up in his father’s workroom, and the two entered into a partnership after Eero completed his studies at the Yale School of Architecture. His work ranged from the grand the TWA Terminal at JFK Airport and the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Arch in St. Louis to the everyday, as with the chairs he designed both on his own and with Charles Eames.

Here, on what would have been his 105th birthday, is a selection of Saarinen’s work photographed for LIFE Magazine from the in-demand, design-oriented furniture to the landmarks that define American cities. Though his aesthetic was eclectic, it can be summed up in four words, as LIFE put it following Saarinen’s death in 1961: “poetic inventiveness, monumental simplicity.”

Eero Saarinen at home 1958

Frank Scherscehl The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Womb Chair by Eero Saarinen, 1953

Gjon Mili The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Saarinen House in Detroit, 1958.

Frank Scherscehl The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fountain in front of new Law Library designed by Eerro Saarinen, 1961.

Andreas Feininger The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The TWA terminal, designed by Eero Saarinen, 1961.

Dmitri Kessel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Arch designed by Eero Saarinen, 1965.

Robert W. Kelley The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Arch designed by Eero Saarinen, 1965.

A.Y. Owen The LIFE Images Collection/Shutterstock

Walled-in glass bank designed by Eero Saarinen, 1967.

John Loengard The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Interior of North Christian Church designed by Eero Saarinen, 1967.

John Loengard The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Crowds out side of the North Christian Church designed by Eero Saarinen, 1967.

John Loengard The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This Rescued Lion Became a National Sensation—and Father to 33 Cubs

January 14, 2020August 18, 2015 by

The story of Frasier the lion might have ended gruesomely. At the age of 19—the human equivalent of 75—and no longer of use to the Mexican circus that owned him, he faced a preemptive death. But fate twisted kindly for the aging lion. In 1972, he ended up south of Los Angeles at Lion Country Safari, along with a group of other wild cats that had been sent north for a new life.

From the way LIFE Magazine described him, the staff at Lion Country likely expected Frasier to live out his days in a lazy retirement. “He is underweight and splay-footed,” the editors wrote. “His fur resembles an old moth-balled coat, and he sleeps 19 hours a day. The muscles in his tongue are so shot that it unreels from his mouth like a slobbery red carpet.”

But, as LIFE interjected, “appearances aren’t everything.” Frasier was quickly placed on a special diet replete with vitamins, and he began to put on some weight. Much to his handlers” surprise, he then became a hit with the lionesses. Within one day of meeting him, the same lionesses that refused to mate with several young guns “were sprawled protectively around Frasier,” bringing him choice meats at mealtime and waiting to eat until he was finished. Seven weeks later, they were all pregnant. Within 16 months, he had fathered 33 cubs.

LIFE called him “the country’s reigning sex simba.” Frasier fan clubs sprung up, sending the lion more than 1,500 letters each month and purchasing t-shirts and bumper stickers emblazoned with his face.

Frasier’s virility was not entirely unusual for a lion, and its continuation into old age may be explained, at least in part, by a life in the circus, where there were no other lions to compete with. When Frasier died of pneumonia in July, 1972, members of the Scottish Fraser clan performed traditional funeral rites, donning kilts and playing dirges on the bagpipes. He was buried beneath a cross on the grounds of Lion Country.

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

Frasier the lion, 1972.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Frasier with his lionesses and cubs.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Frasier rested alongside some of his lionesses and cubs.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Frasier enjoyed a nap.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

With most of his tongue muscles shot, Frasier’s tongue hung out of his mouth most of the time.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Frasier merchandise included sweatshirts, buttons and bumper stickers.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A lioness and cubs nuzzled in close to a sleeping Frasier.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Most days, Frasier slept for around 19 hours.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Frasier and several lionesses stood together at the Lion Country Safari, located south of Los Angeles.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Frasier with his lionesses and cubs.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Frasier watched a school bus full of children drive by the Lion Safari.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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This Rescued Lion Became a National Sensation—and Father to 33 Cubs

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