LIFE Magazine's Classic
Photos
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Fred Astaire, 1945
By Bob Landry
Even as thousands of copies
of his Rita Hayworth pinup were zooming across the world to bolster the morale
of US troops fighting in the Pacific, Bob Landry, himself returned from the
European Theater, entered the studio to make a lighter?than?air portrait of one
of Hayworth's favorite dance partners. Landry could shoot fierce scenes and fun
ones. Consider: Within a few months he made images for LIFE of a French woman
discovering her husband's body in St. Marcouf, Normandy; of French patriots
beating a German collaborator in Rennes; and this, of Hollywood's high-flying
Astaire.
Ingrid Bergman, 1949
By Gordon Parks
The Swedish beauty was one
of the top stars of the 1940s (Casablanca,
Gaslight, Notorious), but her career in the U.S. derailed in 1949 when
she left her husband and daughter for the Italian director Roberto Rossellini.
Bergman could not work in an American film for seven years, though upon her
return, in 1956, she won an Oscar for Anastasia. LIFE's Gordon Parks was a close
friend, and Bergman trusted him to the extent that she invited him to the 1949
shoot for Stromboli? directed by
Rossellini, at the time perceived as the villain ? where he made this haunting
portrait.
The Right Stuff, 1959
By Ralph Morse
The space administration
selected seven astronauts who would carry America's hopes into space against the
Soviet Union, then it elected to let LIFE into the inner sanctum. Ralph Morse
was such a constant in their activities that the Mercury Seven team (front row,
left to right: Wally Schirra, Deke Slayton, John Glenn and Scott Carpenter; back
row: Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom and Gordon Cooper) dubbed Morse the Eighth
Astronaut. Of LIFE's coverage, Morse said, "You've got to remember, we made
heroes of the astronauts the day they were picked. . . . We took seven men who
were all good test pilots and terrific guys, but we were making heroes out of
men who hadn't done anything yet."
MacArthur Comes Ashore, 1945
By Carl Mydans
General Douglas MacArthur
and photographer Carl Mydans both experienced jarring twists of fate in World
War II's Pacific Theater before arriving at this moment. MacArthur was driven
from the Philippines by the Japanese in March 1942, declaring emphatically, "I
shall return." Two months earlier, Mydans, covering the war for LIFE, had been
taken prisoner in Manila; he was held for nearly two years before being
repatriated in a POW exchange. MacArthur made good on his pledge in October of
'44. This photo, taken during American landings at Lingayen Gulf in the
Philippines, is invariably used to commemorate "the return." However, it was
actually taken three months later, at a different beach than that of the
original landing. The general apparently preferred his commanding mien in this
version
Pablo Picasso, 1949
By Gjon Mili
The Albanian native Gjon Mili
immigrated to America to study electrical engineering at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. After working at Westinghouse on photographic
applications of lighting techniques, he met in 1937 with M.I.T.'s Harold
Edgerton, who had developed stroboscopic light. Mili experimented with the
process, and his dazzling pictures in LIFE became famous. His portrait of the
painter Picasso sketching with a penlight at the Madoura Pottery workshop in
Vallauris, France, is a masterwork
Sophia Loren, 1961
By Alfred Eisenstaedt
Over the years, the
Italian actress and photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt had a close relationship and
it led to many memorable portraits, including this one
Marlon Brando and Kim Hunter, 1947
By Eliot Elisofon
Producer Irene Mayer
Selznick had wanted Margaret Sullavan and John Garfield to play Stella and
Stanley Kowalski in the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire. But a hungry young
actor named Marlon Brando drove himself from New York City to Cape Cod to
personally audition for playwright Tennessee Williams. The legend is that as
soon as Williams saw Brando through the screen door of his house, he knew he had
found his Stanley. In 1947 it was simplicity itself for photographer Elisofon to
drift down from LIFE's offices to Times Square, where the 23-year-old Brando was
creating a nightly sensation, and show the country what all the fuss was
about
Jackie Robinson, 1955
By Ralph Morse
Classic sports photos are
different: In many instances, they don't fill out until later, the perfect image
telling the multilayered story of the whole. Ralph Morse had already made
searing images for LIFE during World War II. In 1955, he stuck with Jackie
Robinson during the Brooklyn Dodgers' World Series showdown against their
awe-inducing crosstown rivals, the Yankees. Robinson was, of course, the first
black player in the major leagues, and he was terrific. Off the field, he played
demure. on the field, he shouted the future. Morse caught Robinson rounding
third base, and the Dodgers went on to beat the Yanks. A perfect picture
suddenly meant more.
Jack and Jackie, 1953
By Hy Peskin
The couple's first cover shot
for LIFE showed the senator and his fiance sailing off Cape
Cod.
The Mahatma, 1946
By Margaret Bourke-White
"I feel that utter
truth is essential," Margaret Bourke-White once said of photography, "and to get
that truth may take a lot of searching and long hours." This approach to the
craft is, it can be said, Gandhi-esque, so perhaps it is fitting that the
Mahatma, who spent many long hours searching for answers, was one of her regular
subjects in the 1940s. Here, the great man of peace is at his spinning wheel in
Poona, India
Jackson Pollock, 1949
By Martha Holmes
LIFE's editors had heard
that something weird and new?and perhaps important?was happening on Long Island,
so Martha Holmes traveled to meet with the artist Jackson Pollock. Holmes
recorded her day, including a session in the studio during which Pollock
demonstrated his avant-garde technique by applying house paint and sand to a
canvas that would become known as "Number 1, 1949." Holmes's pictures made the
abstract ｅxpressionist famous when they graced the August 8 article, "Jackson
Pollock: Is he the greatest living painter in the United
States?"
Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly, 1956
By Allan Grant
Allan Grant had a talent and
a penchant for making humorous photographs, and his images often appeared in
LIFE's Speaking of Pictures section, a repository for funny or otherwise
striking shots. But he could make a purely beautiful photo, too, as he did
backstage at the RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood on the night of March 21,
1956. The occasion was the Academy Awards, and in this image you can feel the
tension?and these two stars weren't even up for Oscars. They were there to
present: Kelly gave the award for Best Actor (Ernest Borgnine won for Marty), while Hepburn bestowed the statue for
Best Film (also for Marty). Just by the
way, the women got on famously.
The Chrysler Building, circa 1935
By Oscar Graubner
In 1930, six years before
signing on at LIFE, Margaret Bourke-White leased a studio in New York City's
sexy new Deco darling, the Chrysler Building, which had been completed only that
May (and for a brief time was the world's tallest building). She took striking
pictures of the building's majestic spire, and, while situated atop its
61st-floor gargoyles, this woman once known as Maggie the Indestructible cast
her eye and lens over all of Gotham and made fantastic cityscapes. This
particular photo, as famous as any of the Chrysler shots that Bourke-White took,
shows the photographer at her precarious perch, readying her camera. This
portrait of the artist as a young daredevil was taken by Bourke-White's
assistant. |
