Page 80 – LIFE

The One Vintage Beach Accessory That Needs to Make a Comeback

August 7, 2021June 26, 2015 by

Outside of the Olympics and synchronized swimming competitions, it’s fairly rare to see swimming caps these days. It’s rarer still to see swim caps that give the illusion that the bather has two faces. But these poolside headpieces were all the rage in 1959, when LIFE featured them in a fashion story photographed by Ralph Crane called “Two-faced Swimmers in Crazy Caps.”

The caps were invented by a Long Island housewife, Betty Geib, to amuse her children. After they flew off the rack at a church bazaar, she started a new business, Betty Darling, selling her wares for $3 to $6. The serpent, kitty and sunflower designs, LIFE assured its readers, “are guaranteed to turn heads.”

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

Crazy Swim Caps 1959

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Crazy Swim Caps 1959

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Early Days of the Korean War

November 27, 2019June 25, 2015 by

On June 25, 1950, the Korean People’s Army of North Korea, with the backing of Joseph Stalin and against the backdrop of rising Cold War tensions, invaded South Korea. Two days later, having condemned the attack, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution recommending military assistance to the Republic of Korea, as South Korea was officially known. By July, the U.S. was embroiled in a war that would last three years and cost more than a million lives in battle and hundreds of thousands more among civilians.

Less than a month after fighting began, LIFE published a series of photos by photographer Carl Mydans, who had documented the U.S. Army’s 1st Cavalry Division’s landing in P’ohang-dong on July 18. Mydans captured the unease of entering the unknown in a very literal sense, as members of the Division set sail from Japan without knowing their destination. Two weeks later, the Battle of P’ohang-dong would begin, lasting for 15 days and ending with a victory for the U.N. Forces.

As Mydans wrote to LIFE’s editors in the letter below, which accompanied his film, much of this war photography had to be reviewed and approved by the U.S. government before publication, as it might otherwise weaken the security of a nation at war.

Though the impact of the war is still extremely palpable in North and South Korea–where the demilitarized zone divides an economic power from an impoverished, disconnected country, the Korean War is often referred to as a forgotten war in U.S. history, sandwiched as it is between World War II and the Vietnam War. Many Americans even during wartime tuned out news from the front lines after realizing that the conflict wouldn’t likely escalate to the level of the recently concluded Second World War. Congress never issued a declaration of war, with President Harry S. Truman calling it a “police action.” It wasn’t until the late 1950s that Congress formally designated the conflict a war.

Photographs like Mydans’, and those made by his LIFE colleagues David Douglas Duncan, Margaret Bourke-White and Michael Rougier, ensure that the war can never truly be forgotten. Though Mydans’ early photos document the quiet days before battle, it’s impossible to look at them now without knowing the horrors that each of those men would face in short order.

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

The first U.S. infantry outfit to shed blood in the Korean war was the 24th “Victory” Division, three of whose men are shown aboard a jeep in Korea. This image was on the cover of LIFE on July 31, 1950.

Carl Mydans The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

These soldiers of the 1st Cavalry left Japan for what was, to them, an unknown destination.

Carl Mydans The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

P’ohang-Dong’s harbor was dotted with landing craft to take men ashore. A scouting party had already reported there was no opposition. This was the fastest amphibious landing in history—planned and staged in 10 days.

Carl Mydans The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

These GI’s didn’t yet know what mission they were on.

Carl Mydans The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

General Hobart R. Gay and Rear Admiral J.H.Doyle, Korean War July 1950

Carl Mydans The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Korean War July 1950

Carl Mydans The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The 1st Cavalry in Korea, July 1950.

Carl Mydans The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Korean War July 1950

Carl Mydans The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Battle-dressed GIs boarded landing craft for a short ride to the beach at P’ohang-dong.

Carl Mydans The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Korean War July 1950

Carl Mydans The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The 1st Cavalry in Korea, July 1950.

Carl Mydans The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

1st Cavalry GI’s on a jetty leading to a harbor beacon at P’ohang-Dong.

Carl Mydans The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jeeps being unloaded with help from Koresn people..

Carl Mydans The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Newly arrived troops gathering at the beach and awaiting orders. Korean War July 1950

Carl Mydans The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The 1st Cavalry in Korea, July 1950.

Carl Mydans The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A GI standing by tank-busting 75-mm, recoilless rifles.

Carl Mydans The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Korean War July 1950

Carl Mydans The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The 1st Cavalry in Korea, July 1950.

Carl Mydans The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Korean War July 1950

Carl Mydans The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

LIFE’s Celebration of a Year in High School, 1958.

April 13, 2022June 18, 2015 by

The haircuts are different and the hemlines are shorter, but the 1958 graduating class at Long Island’s Hempstead High was as ready for a taste of freedom as today’s outgoing high school seniors are. To commemorate graduation season that year, LIFE’s Gordon Parks photographed the students for a mini-yearbook the magazine ran in that year’s June 23 issue.

LIFE’s yearbook assigned senior superlatives, such as most popular girl (Jeanette Duggan), most talkative girl (Judy Krug) and best student (Jimmy Edwards). It recognized the students” favorite teachers, like foreign language teacher Helen Ignelzi (“a fanatic on irregular verbs!”) and English teacher Mary Church (“she did a mean Charleston, but she really dug the cha-cha-cha”). And it recounted the students” fondest memories of their final year in high school, “like the time Mr. Zara came to school in a red nightgown.”

Despite LIFE’s yearbook’s similarities to the ones hot off the presses this year, perhaps the most striking difference between those students and today’s is one that’s not visible in the photographs: their future plans. In 1960, just a couple of years later, fewer than half of high school graduates enrolled in college. Nearly 50 years later, the number is approaching 70%.

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

Hempstead High School class of 1958.

Gordon Parks The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hempstead High School class of 1958.

GORDON PARKSGordon Parks The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hempstead High School class of 1958.

Gordon Parks The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hempstead High School football captain Butch Lopez scored a dramatic touchdown in a football game against Uniondale High School in New York, 1958.

Gordon Parks/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hempstead High School business teacher Louis Zara hiked up his pants while giving a lecture in his classroom, 1958.

Gordon Parks/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hempstead High School students filed past the school portico on the way to class, 1958.

Gordon Parks/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hempstead High School class of 1958.

Gordon Parks The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

June 23, 1958 issue of LIFE magazine.

Gordon Parks LIFE Magazine

America’s First Big Dinosaur Exhibit

January 14, 2020June 12, 2015 by

Kids today have plenty of ways to “see” a dinosaur, not the least of which is the “Jurassic” series of movies. But in 1939, there was plenty of drama in the sheer possibility of seeing dinosaur fossils in a museum. That year, New York City’s American Museum of Natural History debuted the largest fossil exhibit in the world, consisting of 200 specimens covering a time period of 200 million years.

Much of the collection came thanks to the paleontologist Barnum Brown, who had been excavating fossils since the 1890s. Among Brown’s treasures were a 66-ft. brontosaurus discovered in Wyoming and a nodosaurus, “resembling a huge horned toad,” originally found in 10,000 pieces near Billings, Mont.

Decades before the animatronic wonders of dinosaur movies, these museum displays, which showed the awesome scale of these extinct behemoths, were capable of conjuring a world of wonder.

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

The Trachodon was most common of dinosaurs. In the back of its bill it had 2,500 teeth which, like the bullets in a machine gun, replaced one another as enamel wore off.

Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Tyrannosaurus, the largest of flesh-eaters, impressed with a skulled that weighed a thousand pounds.

Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This fossil demonstrating the 15-foot step of an Iguanodont dinosaur was found in the roof of a coal mine at Cedaredge, Colo. The coal was mined away and the stone footprints were left.

Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This Iguanodont dinosaur had a duck-like bill with a few teeth. The tail, twice as long as the body, propelled the reptile through water.

Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This seven-foot Placodus lived in the ocean, had well-developed flipper feet and ate nothing but mollusks.

Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The American Museum of Natural History dinosaur exhibit in New York, 1939.

Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Behind the scenes at the American Museum of Natural History Dinosaur exhibit in New York, 1939.

Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Display at the American Museum of Natural History Dinosaur exhibit in New York, 1939.

Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Workers handled a fragile fossil at the American Museum of Natural History Dinosaur exhibit in New York, 1939.

Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This well-preserved Plateosaurus was one of the earliest dinosaurs. It stood on its hind legs, and had front legs which were terminated by powerful talons.

Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Display at the American Museum of Natural History Dinosaur exhibit in New York, 1939.

Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The largest land tortoise that ever existed was found in India. This animal lived a million years ago, weighed 2,500 pounds and measured seven feet from tail to the head.

Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This Is What the Ideal Woman Looked Like in the 1930s

January 14, 2022June 2, 2015 by

The “ideal” body type has long been a topic of fascination. Whether we’re focusing on how those standards of beauty have changed over time, how clothing sizes have evolved or what dress size Marilyn Monroe really wore, it’s clear that the subject is less superficial than it may seem. Conversations about beauty are often conversations about the impacts these changing ideals have on the body images of women and girls.

Twenty years before Monroe stood over a subway grate in a billowing white halter dress, LIFE Magazine described the ideal figure American women hoped to attain. The year was 1938, and the model, 20-year-old June Cox, stood 5 ft. 6 3/4 in. and weighed 124 lbs., though life insurance statistics, the magazine said, suggested she should weigh 135 lbs.

The magazine explained that American women’s increasing involvement in sports in recent years had made them taller and flatter, and as such, “the boyish form became the vogue.” But by the late ’30s, romantic-influenced clothing had returned to fashion, and a “soft feminine figure” was replacing the athletic form as the look du jour:

The perfect 1938 figure must have curves but it differs from the perfect figure of past decades in relationship of curves to straight lines. In the 1890’s women had full bosoms, round hips. In actual measurements they were probably no rounder than Miss Cox but they seemed so because they were shorter, tightened their waists into an hour-glass effect … Now, though, the ideal figure must have a round, high bosom, a slim but not wasp-like waist, and gently rounded hips.

When it comes to issues of body image today, many blame the airbrushing of already-thin models for generating an unhealthy self-image among many women. True as this may be, women were receiving messages about how they should look long before the first love handles were magically eliminated in Photoshop.

Original caption: “This is ideal figure that modern women want.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Detail of model June Cox’s hair.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ring in Summer with These 1950s Beach Fashions

May 27, 2025May 22, 2015 by

On Memorial Day, swimming pools and beaches open for the season. It’s an occasion for sun-worshipers to assess their beachwear, digging it out from the depths of dresser drawers. That desire to make a style splash at the shore is nothing new. To celebrate the arrival of summer, and beach season in 1950, LIFE’s Nina Leen photographed that season’s trends for women: strapless and halter-top swimsuits, “pirate pants” drawn from fashions of the French Riviera and island-inspired straw hats. Thighs were in and midriffs were out, as simple suits allowed accessories the spotlight. As for the age-old one-piece versus two-piece debate? LIFE had the scoop: “The two-piece suit in general is running a poor second this summer.”