Page 76 – LIFE

Sammy Davis Jr.: Behind the Scenes with Mr. Show Business

December 13, 2019December 8, 2015 by

When LIFE editor Thomas Thompson reviewed Sammy Davis Jr.’s 1965 autobiography Yes I Can, he noted an unfortunate parallel between the story the book contained and the story of its release unto the world:

It seems appropriate that the week Sammy Davis’s autobiography Yes I Can was published, its author collapsed from nervous exhaustion and the New York newspaper strike prevented two prestigious Sunday reviews of his book from being published. Such bad breaks seem to follow the natural order of Sammy’s life. They are almost an unwritten final chapter in this remarkable book.

Davis’ life was, indeed, marked by many hardships. At 28, he nearly lost his life to a car crash that left him with one eye. His remarkable success as a singer, dancer and star of screen and stage did not shield him from the pain of racism, both subtle and overt. (He was once turned away from an Upper East Side supper club as the band inside played the theme song from his Broadway musical Mr. Wonderful.) On the other hand, he felt rejected by many in the black community who criticized him for what they perceived as his ingratiating himself with whites, including his second wife, the Swedish actress May Britt. Davis and Britt, who married in 1960, divorced in 1968.

Nevertheless, the spirit LIFE photographer Leonard McCombe captured when he spent time with Davis and Britt in 1964 was one of exuberant charisma—the charisma that earned Davis, who died in 1990, the nickname “Mr. Show Business.”

Sammy Davis Jr. with his wife May Britt and their children, 1964.

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Tracy demanded a piggy-back ride from her father, with his Rolls-Royce is parked at the curb. This was one of his four cars—among them a Mustang and a Cadillac with bar, TV, stereo and two telephones.

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sammy Davis Jr. with his son Mark and wife May Britt, 1964.

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sammy Davis Jr. with wife May Britt, 1964.

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sammy Davis Jr. with his 4-year-old son Mark.

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sammy Davis Jr., 1964

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sammy Davis Jr. ate spaghetti in his dressing room while watching `The Huntley-Brinkley Report ” (“My only contact with reality,’ he told LIFE. ‘Whatever I’m doing, I stop to watch these guys’). Reflected in the mirror: LIFE photographer Leonard McCombe.

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sammy Davis Jr. tried to grab some shut-eye on a hotel room floor during the tour to preview “Golden Boy.”

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sammy Davis Jr., 1964.

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sammy Davis Jr. onstage in 1964.

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sammy Davis Jr. plays the drums, 1964.

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sammy Davis Jr. plays the trumpet, 1964.

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sammy Davis Jr., 1964.

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sammy Davis Jr. with his wife (left) and Julie Andrews (right), 1964.

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sammy Davis Jr. with Richard Burton, 1964.

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sammy Davis Jr. clowned backstage during Golden Boy’s run on Broadway.

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

In a New York pub, Sammy applauded as Richard Burton kissed May, while Elizabeth Taylor beamed.

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sammy Davis Jr. laughed over dinner with his wife, Swedish actress May Britt.

Leonard McCombe/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

How Black Friday Looked Before It Was Called Black Friday

November 19, 2020November 25, 2015 by

Black Friday wasn’t yet called Black Friday in 1948, nor do the newspapers from that era offer evidence of the long lines and raucous stampedes that have become typical on the day after Thanksgiving. Still, the kick-off to the holiday shopping season has long been a red-letter retail day. Images of preparations for that 1948 season at Macy’s—then, at one million square feet, the biggest store in the world—bespeak a highly orchestrated operation relying upon 14,000 employees to ready 400,000 items to be swept off of shelves by 250,000 eager shoppers.

Planning entailed both logistical and motivational efforts. At a giant pep rally, the morale of staff members was lifted by a harmonious rendition of “Jingle Bells.” Telephone operators prepared to respond to as many as six questions per minute. Plainclothes employee detectives trained to spot shoplifters from among the hordes. And clerks readied themselves to handle fluid pricing on that year’s hottest items from striped pajamas to “simulated” pearls to Macy’s house-brand Scotch which fluctuated as many as five times per day as reports of competitors” pricing came in.

When all was said and done, when the bargains had been scored and the pajama sets sold, all that was left behind was one million square feet of a giant, heaping mess.

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

Jane Pickens leads 9,000 Macy’s employees in “Jingle Bells” during a giant rally designed to whip up the fever of salesmanship for the 1948 Christmas rush.

Nina Leen / The LIFE Picture Collection

Eager customers stand outside the doors of Macy’s, 1948.

Nina Leen / The LIFE Picture Collection

Holiday shoppers line the sidewalk outside of Macy’s, 1948.

Nina Leen / The LIFE Picture Collection

Macy’s shoppers wait to be allowed on the floor, 1948.

Nina Leen / The LIFE Picture Collection

The bulletin board lists price changes that made as a result of comparison shopping. Macy’s got around fixed prices by producing their own brands and fixing their own prices.

Nina Leen / The LIFE Picture Collection

Shoppers clamoring for coveted items.

Nina Leen / The LIFE Picture Collection

This was how many pearls [salesgirl] Janet [Steurer] would sell in one day.

Nina Leen / The LIFE Picture Collection

A customer examines a string of pearls, 1948.

Nina Leen / The LIFE Picture Collection

Santa Clauses at Macy’s, 1948.

Nina Leen / The LIFE Picture Collection

Young salesman William Komlos (Yale ’48) was a member of the 60-man executive training squad.

Nina Leen / The LIFE Picture Collection

The sales floor at Macy’s.

Nina Leen / The LIFE Picture Collection

Women trying on furs in the Macy’s dressing room

Nina Leen / The LIFE Picture Collection

Comparison shoppers would buy items in competing stores and then bring in merchandise priced under Macy’s. Macy’s would then lower its prices to undersell the competition.

Nina Leen / The LIFE Picture Collection

A child with her doll at the crowded Macy’s world heardquarters.

Nina Leen / The LIFE Picture Collection

Macy’s store hospital treated 65,000 patients a year. This was a typical Monday morning lineup of people having their temperatures taken. The lineup was longer after big sale days.

Nina Leen / The LIFE Picture Collection

A pageant being performed for the store’s thousands of employees before the holiday rush, 1948.

Nina Leen / The LIFE Picture Collection

The mess in the wake of a major sale day, 1948.

Nina Leen / The LIFE Picture Collection

LIFE’s Fashion Covers of the 1940s

January 14, 2020November 18, 2015 by

Two events define 1940s fashion more than any others. The first was the beginning of World War II, in 1939. The second was its end, six years and one day later. American trends in the decade can be distinctly divided into those influenced by the changes brought by war—in particular the rationing of materials and the increase in women’s participation in the workforce—and those inspired by the freedom of post-war peace.

By the end of 1942, materials like wool and nylon had joined sugar and coffee on the growing list of rationed goods. Leather shoes would follow suit the next year, and Americans were strongly urged to donate scrap metal to the war effort. As a result, the silhouettes de rigueur at the beginning of the decade were essentially frozen in time, and fashion entered a no-frills period. (Quite literally ruffles were among a list of details, including extra buttons and pockets, eliminated during times of austerity.)

As a growing number of women entered the workforce to fill posts vacated by men at war, the popularity of pants skyrocketed—in part because factory work required the range of motion afforded by trousers, in part because nylon had been diverted from the manufacturing of stockings to the creation of parachutes. Many women sported tailored suits with squared shoulders and narrow waists, sometimes repurposing the suits that languished in their husbands” closets. And simple styles ruled the day as European fashions ceased to be available stateside.

But the tide shifted following the war—not all at once, but gradually, as Paris resumed its place as the headquarters of couture and Christian Dior’s “New Look” reintroduced more traditionally feminine styles. Utility gave way to softness as square shoulders were rounded and slim skirts became fuller. And the late “40s introduced a newly defined segment of the population, and with it a whole new style icon: the teenager.

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

March 4, 1940 issue.

George Karger LIFE Magazine

April 22, 1940 issue.

Peter Stackpole LIFE Magazine

May 13, 1940 issue.

Alfred Eisenstaedt LIFE Magazine

October 21, 1940 issue.

Gjon Mili LIFE Magazine

January 13, 1941 issue

George Karger LIFE Magazine

March 24, 1941 issue

Herbert Gehr LIFE Magazine

April 7, 1941 issue.

Gjon Mili LIFE Magazine

May 19, 1941 issue.

Herbert Gehr LIFE Magazine

April 20, 1942 issue.

Nina Leen LIFE Magazine

May 11, 1942 issue.

Nina Leen LIFE Magazine

July 20, 1942 issue.

Walter Sanders LIFE Magazine

August 24, 1942 issue.

Nina Leen LIFE Magazine

October 5, 1942 issue.

Philippe Halsman LIFE Magazine

November 16, 1942 issue.

Walter Sanders LIFE Magazine

March 1, 1943 issue.

Philippe Halsman LIFE Magazine

May 3, 1943 issue.

Philippe Halsman LIFE Magazine

September 13, 1943 issue.

Nina Leen LIFE Magazine

October 11, 1943 issue.

Philippe Halsman LIFE Magazine

November 15, 1943 issue.

Walter Sanders LIFE Magazine

December 6, 1943 issue.

Walter Sanders LIFE Magazine

May 8, 1944 issue.

Philippe Halsman LIFE Magazine

July 17, 1944 issue.

Nina Leen LIFE Magazine

August 28, 1944 issue.

Zoltan S. Farkas LIFE Magazine

October 9, 1944 issue.

George Karger LIFE Magazine

January 8, 1945 issue.

Nina Leen LIFE Magazine

February 19, 1945 issue.

Alfred Eisenstaedt LIFE Magazine

July 9, 1945 issue.

Ewing Krainin LIFE Magazine

October 15, 1945 issue.

Alfred Eisenstaedt LIFE Magazine

November 19, 1945 issue.

Nina Leen LIFE Magazine

December 10, 1945 issue.

Philippe Halsman LIFE Magazine

January 14, 1946 issue.

Philippe Halsman LIFE Magazine

April 15, 1946 issue.

Ralph Crane LIFE Magazine

June 17, 1946 issue.

Lisa Larsen LIFE Magazine

October 14, 1946 issue.

Ralph Crane LIFE Magazine

November 18, 1946 issue.

Loomis Dean LIFE Magazine

January 13, 1947 issue.

Philippe Halsman LIFE Magazine

March 31, 1947 issue.

Philippe Halsman LIFE Magazine

May 5, 1947 issue.

Andre De Dienes LIFE Magazine

June 23, 1947 issue.

Philippe Halsman LIFE Magazine

September 22, 1947 issue.

Nina Leen LIFE Magazine

January 12, 1948 issue.

Philippe Halsman LIFE Magazine

March 29, 1948 issue.

Sharland LIFE Magazine

June 7, 1948 issue.

Lisa Larsen LIFE Magazine

October 18, 1948 issue.

Gordon Parks LIFE Magazine

November 29, 1948 issue.

Nina Leen LIFE Magazine

January 17, 1949 issue.

Leonard McCombe LIFE Magazine

April 25, 1949 issue.

Gordon Parks LIFE Magazine

June 6, 1949 issue.

Lisa Larsen LIFE Magazine

August 29, 1949 issue.

Philippe Halsman LIFE Magazine

November 14, 1949 issue.

Arnold Newman LIFE Magazine

The Sweet and Sour of National Pickle Week

January 14, 2020November 13, 2015 by

America has its share of holidays that don’t quite rise to the level of, say, Thanksgiving, and National Pickle Week would be among them. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t fun to be had on such occasions. For instance: during the inaugural Pickle Week celebration in 1949, a Mr. Dill Pickle— a fortuitously named resident of Mississippi—went floating in a giant vat of pickles.

In what may be the most alliterative article ever published in LIFE magazine—”Packers preach their product’s perfection with a peck of publicity,” reads the deck below the headline—an image of Mr. Pickle appears above a description of the activities organized by the National Pickle Packer’s Association:

They invented liquor-flavored pickles, crowned a Pickle Queen amid flaming pickles in a Chicago nightclub, and proclaimed as their Man of the Year Mr. Dill Lamar Pickle of Rolling Fork, Miss., who obligingly posed in a vat of pickles.

As you can see from the photos, the Three Stooges even joined in on the merriment.

From a business standpoint, the week was a success: Pickle sales increased by 22%. From a floating-in-a-vat-of-brined-cucumbers perspective: also a major win.

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

Mr. Dill Pickle (that’s his name) of Mississippi reclined happily in a rubber boat amid 204,681 soggy pickles.

Francis Miller The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A giant pickle adorned the front of a car for National Pickle Week, 1949.

Francis Miller The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Men took a break after stacking barrels of pickles for National Pickle Week, 1949.

Francis Miller The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A man delivered a presentation on pickles during National Pickle Week, 1949.

Francis Miller The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Drinking out of a pickle, National Pickle Week, 1949.

Francis Miller The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A woman put finishing touches on a gigantic pickle, National Pickle Week, 1949.

Francis Miller The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Pickle Queen posed with the Three Stooges during National Pickle Week, 1949.

Francis Miller The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Pickle Queen, National Pickle Week, 1949.

Francis Miller The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Models showed off pickles for National Pickle Week, 1949.

Francis Miller The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Group shot with Pickle Queen, the Three Stooges and others during National Pickle Week, 1949.

Francis Miller The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

19 Spirited Vintage Photos of Cheerleaders in Action

November 2, 2020November 2, 2015 by

“Rah, Rah, Rah! Ski-U-Mah! Hoo-Rah! Hoo-Rah! Varsity! Varsity! Minn-e-so-tah!” So went the very first organized cheer at an intercollegiate football game, a rallying cry meant to break the University of Minnesota squad’s losing streak. Though college football had begun in 1869, and all-male pep clubs had long sung fight songs to inspire their teams to victory, it wasn’t until the turn of the century on this day, Nov. 2, in 1898 that a fan named Johnny Campbell led the cheer that would earn him the title of America’s first cheerleader.

Like Campbell, the majority of early cheerleaders were men in large part because squads did not begin opening their ranks to women until the 1920s. The gender balance shifted further during World War II, when an increasing number of women filled positions vacated by men who had been drafted to fight in the war. By the 1960s, the sport became dominated by women, as National Football League teams began to organize professional squads.

LIFE magazine covered cheerleading in abundance, from the magazine’s inception in the late 1930s until it ceased publication in 1972. Cheerleading’s mid-air splits and synchronized pom-pom shakes were a win-win subject for a magazine that traded in stimulating visuals and glimpses into everyday American pastimes. Here, in celebration of the sport’s 122th anniversary, are LIFE’s greatest images of America’s purveyors of pep.

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

Cheerleaders 1939

Alfred Eisenstaedt / The LIFE Picture Collection

Cheerleader 1946

Alfred Eisenstaedt / The LIFE Picture Collection

Cheerleaders 1947

Ralph Crane / The LIFE Images Collection

Cheerleader 1950

Loomis Dean / The LIFE Picture Collection

Cheerleaders 1952

Robert W. Kelley / The LIFE Picture Collection

Cheerleaders 1952

Mark Kauffman / The LIFE Picture Collection

Cheerleaders 1953

Francis Miller / The LIFE Picture Collection

Cheerleaders 1953

Nat Farbman / The LIFE Picture Collection

Cheerleaders 1954

Lisa Larsen / The LIFE Picture Collection

Cheerleaders 1954

J.R. Eyerman / The LIFE Picture Collection

Cheerleaders 1958

Gordon Parks / The LIFE Picture Collection

Cheerleaders 1958

Stan Wayman / The LIFE Picture Collection

Cheerleaders 1958

Paul Schutzer / The LIFE Picture Collection

Cheerleaders, 1960.

Robert W. Kelley / The LIFE Picture Collection

Cheerleaders, 1960.

Francis Miller / The LIFE Picture Collection

Cheerleaders, 1964

Larry Burrows / The LIFE Picture Collection

Cheerleaders 1965

Lynn Pelham / The LIFE Picture Collection

Cheerleaders 1966

Bob Gomel / The LIFE Picture Collection

Cheerleaders, 1971

Grey Villet / The LIFE Picture Collection

James Dean on the Cusp of Stardom

December 28, 2020October 20, 2015 by

Few photographer-subject relationships are fruitful enough to yield a compelling examination of a rising star let alone one of the most iconic photographs of the 20th century and a meaningful friendship to boot. The partnership between Dennis Stock and James Dean did all of these things, and in just a few days’ time.

Stock was a young photographer working for the Magnum agency when he met Dean in the winter of 1954-55, at a party thrown by director Nicholas Ray at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood. Dean, at the time, was still a relative unknown. East of Eden, the first of the three films he would make before his untimely death, was about to be released. When Stock attended a sneak preview as Dean’s guest, he knew he was witnessing the debut of a legendary actor.

Over breakfast the next morning, as Stock listened to Dean speak with nostalgia about his upbringing in Fairmount, Ind., Stock became determined to capture a portrait of a young man suspended between two worlds: that of the family farm where his aunt and uncle raised him after his mother’s death, and that of the Hollywood into which he would soon be embraced. Stock pitched a photo essay to LIFE magazine and though it was not an easy sell, given Dean’s anonymity, he got the green light to move forward.

The photos Stock made of Dean in Fairmount, New York and Hollywood—which were also the subject of a book, DENNIS STOCK: JAMES DEAN—paint a picture of a young man still more comfortable in his old farm clothes, playing his bongo drum to cows, than he was on a red carpet. In Fairmount, Stock captured Dean’s brotherly relationship with his young cousin Markie and Dean’s fondness for the Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley. In a series of eerie photographs that seem to foretell his death in a car accident just eight months later, Dean hops in and out of caskets at a local furniture store, beseeching Stock to take his picture.

These days spent together by Dean and Stock were the subject of a 2015 movie, Life, starring Robert Pattinson as Stock and Dane DeHaan as Dean. Director Anton Corbijn, a photographer himself, has explained that as much as the film was inspired by Dean’s iconic status and Stock’s ability to capture the truth behind it, the story at the core is a simple one, of “two males that bond to create a friendship.”

For Stock, who died in 2010, the power of the images was in the transition they depict, the crossing of a bridge that can never be traversed in reverse. “For Jimmy it was going home,” he wrote in the introduction to DENNIS STOCK: JAMES DEAN. “But it was also the realization that the meteoric rise to fame that had already begun that night in Santa Monica had cut him off forever from his small-town Midwestern origins, and that he could never really go home again.”

James Dean by Dennis Stock

©Dennis Stock / Magnum Photos

James Dean by Dennis Stock

Courtesy Thames & Hudson

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James Dean on the Cusp of Stardom

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