LIFE

Hanging Out With Sheena, Queen of the Jungle

January 23, 2026 by Bill Syken

Wonder Woman gets more hype—and not without reason—but the first female character with her own comic book title was actually Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.

Sheena was basically a female version of Tarzan, and if she doesn’t linger in the collective consciousness the way that Wonder Woman does, it is due in part to the popularity of the adaptations that followed. Wonder Woman had a memorable 1970s TV show and a blockbuster movie in 2017. The only major movie treatment that Sheena ever received was a 1984 box-office dud starring Tanya Roberts, and on television the most recent effort was a syndicated TV series starring Gena Lee Nolin that ran from 2000 to 2002.

But Sheena did get come to life on the screen first, in a 1950s television show starring actress and model Irish McCalla. The strapping Nebraska native and Vargas girl was modest about her qualifications for the role. She later said “I couldn’t act, but I could swing through trees.”

And in fact McCalla did swing through trees for a photo session with LIFE photographer Loomis Dean. The shoot took place at the World Jungle Compound in Southern California, which was both a theme park and a training ground for movie animals. And while that first Sheena, Queen of the Jungle wasn’t a big hit—it lasted 26 episodes—McCalla made impression. One young fan named Carol Hatfield, who went on to become a writer, reminisced that McCalla presented a vision of femininty that was ahead of its time. “She was the only female portrayed on the tube who didn’t conform to the fifties stereotype,” Hatfield wrote. “Sheena was a real rugged individualist.”

In later life Hatfield would interview McCalla for a “Where are they now”-type television show, and she reported that during the filming of Sheena, McCalla did not get along with her chimpanzee co-star.

That’s surprising because, in the photos that Loomis Dean took, McCalla and the chimp seemed to have the kind of chemistry that most human actors can only dream of. The silhouetted photos of the two primates hanging from branches exude a flair that is rare to find in publicity shots.

One fun note about the character of Sheena is that her most lasting contribution to pop culture is likely a song from the Ramones, “Sheena is a Punk Rocker.” Nothing in these photos would do anything to dispel the notion that Sheena could rock.

Irish McCalla starred in ‘Sheena, Queen Of The Jungle,” 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Irish McCalla, star of the television series ‘Sheena, Queen of the Jungle,’ posed with a chimpanzee named Neal at the World Jungle Compound, Thousand Oaks, California, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Irish McCalla, star of the television series ‘Sheena, Queen of the Jungle,’ posed with an elephant at the World Jungle Compound, Thousand Oaks, California, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Irish McCalla, star of the television series ‘Sheena, Queen of the Jungle,’ posed with a chimpanzee named Neal at the World Jungle Compound, Thousand Oaks, California, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Irish McCalla starred in ‘Sheena, Queen Of The Jungle,” 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

See LIFE’s Best On Display in New York

January 20, 2026 by Bill Syken

Though February 21, 2026 the Staley Wise Gallery in New York City is running a show called “Looking at LIFE,” which features some of the most popular photos from the history of the magazine.

In this brief interview the gallery’s director, George Kocis, explains how the show came together.

LIFE: How did you select which photos would appear in this show?

GEORGE KOCIS: We made print-outs of every single photograph available from the LIFE archive – over 600 images! We also considered images by photographers Harry Benson, Abe Frajndlich, and William Helburn, who we work with directly and whose work appeared in the magazine. From this, we chose 75 or so of our favorites, and pretty quickly discovered thematic groups and stories that we could tell and which would inform the physical design of the exhibition. It was our privilege to have access to such a vast body of work, but painful to not include everything that we wanted due to space constraints!

LIFE: What would you describe as the distinctive appeal of the LIFE brand of photography?

GK: LIFE was particularly great at reflecting the “real life” of its readers right alongside images of aspiration and glamour. Our exhibition includes this kind of diversity as well – we have photographs of baseball fans in Brooklyn, oil field workers in Texas, and World War II soldiers saying goodbye to their wives at Penn Station – but also photographs of Al Pacino and Diane Keaton shooting “The Godfather”, Princess Margaret’s wedding, and Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn at the Academy Awards. There are even pictures that combine those perspectives, such as Peter Stackpole’s 1947 photograph of actor Jimmy Stewart in his Colonel’s uniform at his father’s hardware store in Pennsylvania when he left Hollywood to enlist in the Army Air Corps.

LIFE: The show has been up since December. What kind of reactions have you had from visitors?

GK: Many visitors to the exhibition have said that they remember waiting for LIFE magazine to arrive in the mail each week! We’ve also had a few editors that worked for the magazine and people currently and formerly in the publishing industry come to see the exhibition and that’s been very interesting to hear their perspective and experience. Younger visitors don’t share that nostalgia, of course . . . they’re as familiar with the brand of “LIFE” as they are with McDonald’s and Nike, but they have rarely seen the magazine or these images before.

LIFE: Are there particular images in the show that stand out to you as remarkable, or that exemplify LIFE’s appeal?
There’s hardly a more iconic image than the “VJ-Day Kiss” by Alfred Eisenstaedt, which has been a well-known symbol of patriotism and joy since it was taken in 1945 but which has also more recently been parodied by the Simpsons and inspired contemporary painter Amy Sherald. LIFE’s photographers also had the opportunity to highlight an outsider’s perspective of the familiar, which is why Leonard McCombe’s picture of men enjoying some ice cream in Iowa is unexpectedly poignant – as a Brit who recently obtained his US citizenship, McCombe noted that “I began to notice the difference in my own countrymen. I’d never even seen men eating ice cream (that was only a children’s treat in England). But by now . . . I feel I am a citizen of the place where I belong”. My personal favorite in the exhibition might be John Dominis’ photograph of a priest ice skating – another great union of a familiar subject in an unexpected context.

LIFE: What has your gallery done to display these photos in a way that gives their historical context?
GK: In addition to the photographs themselves, the exhibition includes scans from the actual pages of LIFE magazine with corresponding anecdotes about some of the photographers and the images – most of which are included on our website, too. This collection of work is informative and educational – and also entertaining and simply fun to see! We hope that visitors will enjoy each of these photographer’s contributions to LIFE magazine and recognize these images’ historical and cultural significance. Staley-Wise Gallery has always celebrated photography that has appeared primarily in magazines, and this exhibition continues that tradition.

Below are a selection of images from the show.

“Eyes right” is executed with near-military precision by men aboard a New York-bound 20th Century Limited train as movie star Kim Novak eases into her seat in the dining car. Originally published in the March 5, 1956, issue of LIFE.

Leonard McCombe/Life Picture Collecltion/Shutterstock

Brooklyn went wild after the Dodgers’ win in 1955.

Photo by Martha Holmes/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shuttetrstock

Steve McQueen is seen driving a sleek and stylish sports car on the streets of Los Angeles, California in June 1963.

John Dominis / LIFE Picture Collection /Shutterstock

Jackson Pollock worked in his Long Island studio, 1949.

Martha Holmes/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty, Cannes, 1962.

Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Models posed a race track betting window at Roosevelt Raceway., New York.

Nina Leen/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Little League 1954

Yale Joel/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Eisenstaedt’s iconic photo: A jubilant American sailor clutched a dental assistant in a back-bending kiss at a moment of spontaneous joy about the long awaited WWII victory over Japan. Taken on V-J Day, 1945, as thousands jammed Times Square. In recent decades this iconic photograph has engendered condemnation, after Greta Zimmer Friedman, the woman being kissed by the sailor (believed to have been George Mendonsa) said that the kiss was nonconsensual. In 2019, shortly after Mendonsa died at age 95, a statue of the kiss in Florida was tagged with #metoo graffiti.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

While his father chatted with a customer at the hardware store, a uniformed Jimmy Stewart set up a date to go fishing, 1945.

Peter Stackpole/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Watching Bwana Devil in 3-D at the Paramount Theater, 1952

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Green Pastures: The First Broadway Show With an All-Black Cast

January 8, 2026 by Bill Syken

When the play The Green Pastures debuted on the stage on February 26,1930, it was more than a groundbreaker. Not only was it the first Broadway show with an all-Black cast, but it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was so successful that the show ran for a year and a half, until August 29, 1931. After that the show toured the country, playing in all but eight U.S. states before coming back to Broadway in 1935.

LIFE, which published its first issue in 1936, wasn’t around for that original performance. But it was able to shine a spotlight on The Green Pastures during a 1951 revival, with staff photographer W. Eugene Smith documenting the action.

The play, adapted from a 1928 book Ol’ Man Adam an’ his Chillun by Roark Bradford, features stories of the Hebrew bible as told by a young Black child in the South. The central character of the play is De Lawd, who in the 1951 production was played by William Marshall, a deep-voiced 6’5″ actor whose long career on stage and screen would include many productions of Shakespeare’s Othello—and also the title role in the 1973 blaxploitation film Blacula.

LIFE’s opening of its 1951 story about The Green Pastures gives some of the flavor of the show:

Once again on Broadway the curtain went up on a heavenly fish fry, and Gabriel shouted, “Gangway for De Lawd…” De Lawd walked among his angels, and tasted a spoonful of custard. “I kin taste de eggs and de creme and de sugar,” he said, and then added, “It needs a little more firmament.” There was no firmament left in the jug so De Lawd passed a miracle to create some. And before you knew it, he had also created the Earth, complete with Adam and Eve.

While the play is historically significant for its casting and won decoration and success, it was not universally loved in its time. Black critics questioned the show’s idealized depiction of the Depression-era rural South for not reflecting the harsh reality of Jim Crow.

And while the show’s original run was a business success, the 1951 revival that LIFE covered was not. While the magazine termed The Green Pastures “a lovable piece of American folklore,” it also noted that ticket sales were weak and the show would close ahead of schedule.

Since that 1951 revival The Green Pastures has not been staged again on Broadway, making the show both a milestone and a relic all at once. LIFE’s headline “Last Glimpse of De Lawd” proved more prescient than the magazine’s editors might have expected.

A scene from a 1951 performance of The Green Pastures, which when it debuted in 1930 was the first Broadway show to feature an all-Black cast.

W. Eugene Smith/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

In the play The Green Pastures, De Lawd (played by William Marshall) talks to a child about the evils of playing dice, 1951.

W. Eugene Smith/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from a 1951 performance of The Green Pastures, which when it debuted in 1930 was the first Broadway show to feature an all-Black cast.

W. Eugene Smith/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

In a scene from the 1951 performance of The Green Pastures, built around stories from the Old Testament, Hebrews march out of Egypt.

W. Eugene Smith/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from a 1951 performance of The Green Pastures, which when it debuted in 1930 was the first Broadway show to feature an all-Black cast.

W. Eugene Smith/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

LIFE’s Favorite Ice Skating Images

December 19, 2025 by Bill Syken

In 1968 figure skater Peggy Fleming graced the cover of the Feb, 23, 1968 issue of LIFE after winning a gold medal at the Winter Olympics at the age of 19. One of Fleming’s competitors gushed to LIFE that “Everything Peggy does is pure ballerina.”

The phrase “pure ballerina” is not just a tribute to Fleming but also to ice skating itself. It is the rare sport that demands of both athleticism and artistry.

Images of Fleming are included in this gallery of LIFE’s favorite ice skating images, appearing alongside other skaters of great accomplishment. Barbara Ann Scott, a champion skater from Canada, was a particular fave of the magazine in the 1940s Two-time Olympic champion Dick Button, who would later become a television commentator, is shown making great leaps during his competitive years.

Some of the photos are set at competitions. Others take place in public rinks, including two in New York City— at Rockefeller Center and also at Wollman Rink in Central Park.

Also included are pictures of some anonymous skaters whose movements across the ice made for pretty pictures. if you look at the credits you’ll see the names of some of LIFE’s star photographers—Alfred Eisenstaedt, Ralph Morse, Peter Stackpole and many others. The talent attracted to these assignments underlines the visual appeal of a sport that was also an art form.

Five-time world champion skater Carol Heiss performed at Wollman Memorial Rink in Central Park, New York City, 1955..

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ice skaters in Switzerland, 1948.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

British figure skater Graham Sharp at the Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, 1948.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Tenley Albright, an Olympic gold medalist, performed a frog jump, 1956.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dick Button at a figure skating competition in Stockholm, 1947.

Tony Linck/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dick Button, 1947.

Tony Linck/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstuch

Dick Button at a figure skating competition, 1947.

Tony Linck/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dick Button competed at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Barbara Ann Scott at the world figure skating championship in Stockholm, 1947.

Tony Linck The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Barbara Ann Scott at the world figure skating championships in Stockholm, 1947

Tony Linck The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The husband-and-wife team of Narena Greer and Richard Norris skated with The Ice Follies, 1947.

Gjon Mili/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Figure skater Johnny Lettengarver, a member of the U.S. Olympic team, 1948.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Skaters performed at an ice show at Madison Square Garden, 1948.

Gjon Mili/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Austrian ice skating champion Melitta Brunner practiced in St. Moritz, 1934.

Alfred Eisenstadt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A skating waiter delivered drinks at the Grand Hotel, St. Moritz, 1932.

Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

U.S. skater Peggy Fleming won a gold medal at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France.

Art Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A figure skater made a leap that mimicked the statue of Prometheus at Rockefeller Center in New York, 1942.

Wallace Kirkland/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Like Seeing Old Friends: Images From the ’90s Golden Globes

December 11, 2025 by Bill Syken

Looking at red carpet photos of years past is a surefire way to trigger memories. Those memories can be as small as remembering the way an actress wore her hair, or as deep as recalling the days when stars who who are longer with us were young and healthy.

Looking at this photo gallery of images from the Golden Globe Awards in the 1990s might trigger such memories as:

—When the TV show Melrose Place, starring Heather Locklear, was America’s guilty pleasure.

—When Seinfeld was America’s top comedy—and in one episode Jerry lied about watching Melrose Place.

—When Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were married. And how Kidman, who towers over Cruise in our photo, commented about being able to wear high heels again after the couple had divorced.

—Hugh Grant and Elizabeth Hurley in their dating years (and though the two are long separated they are reportedly still close friends).

—Speaking of old friends, we have Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox on the carpet as well. While often nominated, Friends took home only one Golden Globe (Aniston in 2003) and the beloved sitcom generally earned greater recognition at other awards shows.

—And seeing Christopher Reeve walking the red carpet in 1993 might conjure up all sorts of thoughts about the man who became a spinal cord injury advocate after a 1995 horse riding accident left him paralyzed. Reeve, who died in 2004, remains the embodiment of Superman for people of a certain age.

These stars all walked the red carpet at the Golden Globes because their performances made an impression on people, and those impressions remain. Which is as rare and meaningful as any award.

Actress Julia Roberts holding her Golden Globe Award for best actress in a musical or comedy for “Pretty Woman,” 1991.

DMI

(L-R) Actors Jodie Foster, Al Pacino (holding his award for “Scent of a Woman”) and Patrick Swayze in the press room at the Golden Globe Awards, 1993

DMI

Jerry Seinfeld and Julia Louis-Dreyfus holding their awards in Press Room at the 1994 Golden Globe Awards.

DMI

Tom Cruise with Nicole Kidman at the 1995 Golden Globe Awards.

DMI

Friends co-stars Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox at the 1996 Golden Globe Awards.

DMI

Jason Priestley, star of “Beverly Hills 90210,” in the press room at the 1992 Golden Globe Awards.

Actor Val Kilmer at the Golden Globe Awards, 1994.

DMI

Actor Brad Pitt holding his supporting actor award for his performance in “12 Monkeys” at the 1996 Golden Globes.

DMI

Winona Ryder at the 1994 Golden Globes, where she won best supporting actress for her role in “The Age of Innocence.”

DMI

Actress Helen Hunt at the Golden Globe Awards, 1994.

DMI

Actress Heather Locklear at the 1996 Golden Globes.

DMI

Actress Halle Berry in the press room at the 1997 Golden Globe Awards.

DMI

Rupert Everett and Julia Roberts, co-stars in “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” at the 1998 Golden Globe Awards.

DMI

Actors Gina Gershon and David Spade at a 2000 Golden Globe Awards party.

DMI

Eddie Murphy and wife, Nicole Mitchell, at the 1997 Golden Globe Awards.

DMI

Bruce Willis and Demi Moore at the 1997 Golden Globe Awards.

DMI

Actors Hugh Grant and Elizabeth Hurley at a Golden Globe Awards pre-party, 2000.

DMI

(L-R) Model Claudia Schiffer and actress Elizabeth Hurley at a party before the 2000 Golden Globe Awards.

DMI

Tom Cruise at the 2000 Golden Globe Awards.

DMI

Christopher Reeve and wife Dana at Golden Globe Awards, 1993

DMI

A Battered Town Welcomes A Savior

December 2, 2025 by Bill Syken

Americans who are not all that well versed in history may only know Charles de Gaulle as a man with an airport in Paris named after him.

But if you want to know why that airport is named for him, take a look at the photograph of a group of young girls assembled in the square of a bombed-out French town. Look at the hope they have, despite the rubble surrounding them.

The photo was taken was June 14, 1944. That is eight days after the D-Day invasion began the process of liberating Western Europe, and six days after a June 8 attack that devastated Isigny, destroying about sixty percent of the French town.

They girls assembled because people in Isigny had been told, with only a half-hour’s notice, that Charles de Gaulle was coming. De Gaulle was the leader of Free France, which formed after Paris fell to the Nazis in 1940. He had been directing a government-in-exile from Great Britain for the four years since then, but his arrival in Isigny was part of his return to his home country to establish a new French government.

When he arrived De Gaulle told residents of the war-ravaged town, “I am very happy to see the dear and bruised population of our town of Isigny gathered here, I know what suffered Isigny. It is the sufferings that each parcel of France will have to pass before reaching liberation. But I know, like you, that this test will not be useless. It is because of this ordeal that we will make the unity and the greatness of France. I want you, with me, to have a feeling of hope in your heart, and to sing the Marseillaise “

In its July 3, 1944 issue LIFE covered De Gaulle’s return to France and his visit to isigny with photos by staff photographer Frank Scherschel that showed both the leader of the resistance and the hope that his presence inspired.

The magazine’s story duscussed the political aspects of the moment, because de Gaulle’s actions were more welcome locally than they were among France’s allies, who felt it was too soon to establish a new French government. But while U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt was irked, the people of France were overjoyed. LIFE’s ended with a quote from a French playwright, Henri Bernstein, saying of De Gaulle, “Let me tell you, this is not going to make him unpopular among the French.”

De Gaulle not only served as head of France’s provisional government for three years, but would also come back to serve as President of France from 1959 to 1969, before his death in 1970.

The people of Isigny hastily gathered to welcome Charles de Gaulle after the recently bombed town learned that the leader of Free France was on his way for a visit, June 14, 1944.

Frank Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

People gathered to welcome the return of Charles de Gaulle to France during World War II, June 14, 1944.

Isigny & De Gaulle – Photographs of Italian civilians during WWII

People in Isigny, France, gathered on short notice for the arrival of Charles de Gaulle as he re-established the government of France during World War II, June 14, 1944.

Frank Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Charles de Gaulle arrived in Isigny as he re-established the French government in the days following the D-Day invasion, June 14, 1944.

Frank Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Charles de Gaulle, leader of Free France, spoke to people in the recently bombed town of Isigny, 1944.

Frank Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

People gathered to welcome the return of Charles de Gaulle during World War II, June 1944.

Frank Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

People salvaged furniture from their houses at Isigny during World War II, Italy, June 1944.

Frank Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II, June 1944.

Frank Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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