Page 12 – LIFE

The Fight to Desegregate the University of Georgia, 1961

January 3, 2024January 3, 2024 by Bill Syken

Go to the University of Georgia campus today and you will see an impressive building with white columns called the Hunter-Holmes Academic Building. It is named for Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes, the first Black students to attend the school. That building is where they registered for classes in 1961, and it now contains not only the registrar’s office but the Office of Institutional Diversity, the Institute of African American Studies and the African Studies Institute.

The renaming of the building is a tribute, and perhaps also an apology for the resistance, official and otherwise, that Hunter and Holmes met when they first tried to enroll in the school. Georgia admitted Hunter and Holmes as transfers only after a legal battle (the school argued they did not have dorm space for the two students) When they arrived on campus, pro-segregation protestors were there to meet them, and that night a riot broke out. The images by LIFE photographer Joe Scherschel capture the ugliness, including one particularly sickening image of a young man gleefully displaying a black doll with a noose around its neck.

In its Jan, 20, 1961 issue heres how LIFE reported on a day that began with hope but ended in chaos:

Their admission had been ordered by a federal court. Governor S. Ernest Vandiver made only a token protest against the decree. Many at the University were ready to accept the Negroes. In class their first day passed calmly.

But on the campus, jeering and joking students stirred trouble. That night the impact of student bigots and the influx of Klansmen into the campus brought an eruption. A student mob threw bricks at Charlayne’s dormitory and yelled vulgarities up at her window. Dean of Men William Tate worked heroically to restrain the rioters, and town police, acting chiefly in self-defense, dispersed them with tear gas. State police arrived two hours and 20 minutes after they were called. Then they drove Charlayne and Hamilton home to Atlanta. Governor Vandiver’s secretary commended the rioters on their “character and courage.”

The university suspended the two Negroes “for their own safety.” A majority of the faculty petitioned for their return and a federal court promptly ordered their reinstatement.

(Note that Georgia was not alone in these kinds of incidents. At the University of Mississippi the admission of the first Black student brought another riot.)

Hunter and Holmes did return to campus, and eventually graduated and went on to distinguished careers. Holmes became the first Black student at the medical school of Emory University and then worked as an orthopedic surgeon. Hunter, who would later be known as Charlayne Hunter-Gault, became as journalist for such outlets as the New York Times and PBS.

And today at the University of Georgia, Black students now comprise 6.6% of the student body.

Charlayne Hunter (center), one of the first two Black students at the University of Georgia, was escorted on her first day of class, 1961.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Charlayne Hunter (center), one of the the first two Black students to enroll at the University of Georgia, on her first day of classes in 1961..

Hamilton Holmes, one of the first two Black students at the University of Georgia, on his first day of classes in 1961.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hamilton Holmes was one of the first two Black students at the University of Georgia, 1961.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hamilton Holmes (center), one of the first two Black students at the University of Georgia, was welcomed to campus by the psychology professor, 1961.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hamilton Holmes was one of the first two Black students at the University of Georgia, 1961.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A pro-segregation protester at the University of Georgia on the day the first two Black students arrived on campus, 1961.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A pro-segregration protest at the University of Georgia on the day the first two Black students arrived on campus, 1961.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Tear gas was used to disperse rioters in front of Charlayne Hunter’s dormitory at the University of Georgia, 1961.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A window was broken at the University of Georgia’s Meyers Hall during protests against the school’s integration, 1961.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Charlayne Hunter, one of the first two Black students at the University of Georgia, was taken from campus after pro-segregation protests turned violent, 1961.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Charlayne Hunter leaving campus after her enrollment at the University of Georgia set off pro-segregration protests, 1961.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hamilton Holmes, one of the first two Black students to enroll at the University of Georgia, 1961.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Catherine Deneuve: The Eyes Have It

December 14, 2023December 14, 2023 by Bill Syken

Catherine Deneuve was one of the leading ladies of the new wave of European cinema. She made her first big mark when she starred in Jacque Demy’s 1964 musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival. She went on to perform in several other Demy films and also the works of directors such as Luis Bunuel, Roman Polanski, and Francois Truffaut.

But those heady days were in front of her when LIFE’s Loomis Dean photographed Deneuve in 1961. At that point, even though this child of stage actors had been appearing in movies since she was 12, she was identified in the LIFE archival captions as “fashion model Catherine Deveuve.” (Though to be fair, Deneuve is known as a style icon as well as an actress).

Deneuve, who was born in Paris on October 22, 1943, would have been around 18 years old when she posed for Dean. Her hair was dark then, and when she appeared in LIFE’s April 3, 1962 issue, in a story headlined ‘Windfall of New Beauties,” about a new crop of young European actresses. (The photo of Deneuve which ran in that story was not from the Dean shoot but by noted glamour photographer Peter Basch). Deneuve was one of five young actresses featured in that story, along with another future star, Claudia Cardinale.

LIFE’s terse write-up about the young actress was: “France’s Catherine Deneuve, 18, is the fawnlake protege of director Roger Vadim, who made a star of Bardot. Direct in manner, haughty offstage but appealing in her roles, she excels in portraying adolescents emerging into womanhood.”

It was at the urging of Vadim, who also fathered a child with Deneuve, that she later dyed her hair blonde. She was blonde in her most memorable films, including Bunuel’s Belle de Jour (1967), in which Deneuve played a bored housewife who filled her afternoons by working as a prostitute.

Deneuve is often written about as appearing cool and aloof, which is not something she appreciated. In a lengthy interview in 2008 in Film Comment, she said, “I am shocked when people talk about me and sum me up as: blonde, cold, and solemn,” she said. “People will cling on to whatever reinforces their own assumptions about a person.”

In Loomis Dean’s photos, Deneuve’s eyes suggest a woman who knew much, even at age 18. In 2023, at age 80, Deneuve is still acting, appearing in the 2023 French film Bernadette, in which she played the widow for former French president Jacques Chirac.

Whatever it is behind those eyes, they still have plenty to say.

Catherine Deneuve, 1961.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Catherine Deneuve (center) prepared for a photo shoot, 1961.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Catherine Deneuve, 1961.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Catherine Deneuve and her father, actor Maurice Docleac, 1961.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Catherine Deneuve with fashion designer Louis Feraud, 1961.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Catherine Deneuve with French TV director Marcel Cravenne, 1961.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Catherine Deneuve talking with French actor Christian Marquand (left) and actor-director Francois Moreuil (right), 1961.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Catherine Deneuve with French actor Christian Marquand, 1961.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Joys of Minnesota Ice Fishing

December 11, 2023December 11, 2023 by Bill Syken

Ice fishing is, if nothing else, a way to get out of the house during a long winter. In 1962 LIFE magazine photographer Robert W. Kelley traveled to the small Minnesota town of Glenwood—located on the shores of Lake Minnewaska, about halfway between Fargo, N.D. and Minneapolis—to capture people engaged in a classic northern pastime.

Ice fishers drop their lines through holes cut or drilled through a frozen-over lake. They can either sit outside and wait for a bite, or they can hunker in the relative comfort of an ice shack that they have hauled out onto the lake. One of the more distinctive photos in Kelley’s set is an overhead shot from inside a fishing shack in which a family is playing cards around a table and appears to be enjoying a cozy night in a living room—until you notice the rectangular fishing holes cut through the carpet and into the ice beneath.

Perhaps Kelley’s most inventive shot appears to have shot up through the ice as a fish is caught on a spear, with the delighted fishers visible in the background.

Kelley’s pictures also contains what would surely be a candidate for the most “Minnesota” photo ever taken—it shows people playing hockey on a lake with an ice-fishing camp in the background. (The image would be even more Minnesotan if one of the players was revealed to be a young Bob Dylan, which is not entirely implausible: the native of Hibbing is said to have both fished and played hockey in his youth.)

An ice hockey game by a fishing camp is a distraction from a distraction. Fair enough. To get through a long winter you need all the help you can get.

Ice fishing in Glenwood, Minnesota, 1962.

Robert W. Kelley/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An ice shack is hauled onto a lake during ice fishing season in Glenwood, Minnesota, 1962.

Robert W. Kelley/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ice fishing in Glenwood, Minnesota, 1962.

Robert W. Kelley/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A child ice fishing in Glenwood, Minnesota, 1962.

Robert W. Kelley/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ice fishing in Glenwood, Minnesota, 1962.

Robert W. Kelley/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

People playing ice hockey at an ice fishing camp in Glenwood, Minnesota, 1962.

Robert W. Kelley/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ice fishing, 1962.

Robert W. Kelley/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Laughing With the Stars

December 5, 2023December 5, 2023 by Bill Syken

Laughing is good for you, something of which it never hurts to be reminded. (Truly, laughter does help: if you don’t believe it, ask the Mayo Clinic.) With that spirit in mind we present this collection of notable figures in history enjoying a few hearty chuckles and/or guffaws.

There’s all kinds of laughter here, in situations expected and unexpected. In one photo Bob Hope cracks up a few of his fellow entertainers, and himself, as he tries out material before hosting the Academy Awards. But you also see general Douglas MacArthur cackling with glee the day after the successful invasion of Inchon. Whatever prompted MacArthur’s laughter in that moment, the relief following the previous day’s assault had to have been a factor.

Humphrey Bogart laughs more gleefully in a photo from the set of The African Queen than he was known to do when playing any of his memorably hard-bitten characters. Frank Sinatra, while hanging out with friends in a Miami hotel room, laughs so hard at a joke told by his pal and opening act Joe E. Lewis that the singer was literally rolling on floor laughing.

One of the more frequent celebrity laughers in the LIFE archives is Sophia Loren, represented here with three photos. No small part of the icon’s appeal is that, among her other virtues, she seemed to enjoy where life had taken her.

Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Bob Hope and David Niven laughed at a Cold War-era Russian joke from Hope during a break from rehearsals for Academy Awards show at the RKO Pantages theater, 1958.

Leonard McCombe/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Singer Billy Eckstine (right) having some backstage laughs with his ex-boss, orchestra leader Earl Hines (center) and trumpeter Louis Armstrong backstage, 1949.

Martha Holmes/Life Picture Collection/Shuttetstock

Warren Beatty with Natalie Wood at the 1962 Academy Awards ceremony at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Broadway producer Kermit Bloomgarden with Marilyn Monroe in her Manhattan apartment, 1958.

Robert W. Kelley/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Humphrey Bogart laughed while on location for the filming of The African Queen along the Ruki River in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1951.

Eliot Elisofon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

(left to right) George Jessel, Dean Martin, and Jack Benny at a Friars Club dinner for Dean Martin, 1958.

Leonard McCombe/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Elton John (right) sharing a laugh with his mother Shelia (left) and stepfather Fred Fairebrother (center) in their apartment, 1971.

John Olson/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Lyndon B. Johnson (left) and running mate Hubert Humphrey enjoying a laugh at Johnson’s ranch after their landslide victory in the 1964 presidential election.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

General Douglas MacArthur (center), slapped Vice Admiral Struble (left) on the knee while laughing gleefully the day after the invasion of Inchon, 1950.

Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy played with their children, April 30, 1957.

Paul Schutzer/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sophia Loren with her husband Carlo Ponti on a boating trip off of Naples, 1961.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sophia Loren laughing while exchanging jokes during lunch break on a movie set, 1961.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sophia Loren laughed about her guitar-playing ability with her secretary Ines Bruscia beside her, 1964.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dick Clark on his TV show the “American Bandstand” in 1958.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

American generals George S. Patton (left) and Omar Bradley (center) and British general Bernard Law Montgomery (right) laughed while discussing strategy and the progress of the campaign in France, July 7, 1944.

Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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

Leonard McCombe/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Rolling Stone band members Mick Jagger (left) and Keith Richards shared a laugh.

DMI

Nancy Reagan and her husband, then California Governor Ronald Reagan, walked behind Dean Martin and Phyllis Diller, California, 1970.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A rare laugh from somber Kim Novak greeted a joke by Otto Preminger, who visited Kim while she was in New York. She had great fondness and respect for Preminger, who directed her in The Man With the Golden Arm and put her genuinely at ease.

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Images Collection/Shutterstock

Alan Shepard laughs with fellow astronauts Gus Grissom (right) and Deke Slayton upon his arrival at Grand Bahama Island, shortly after his successful flight and splashdown, May 1961.

Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Harry Belafonte laughed during Bop City nightclub’s opening night, 1949.

Martha Holmes/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

In a Miami hotel room Frank Sinatra fell off his chair howling at a joke told by his opening act and longtime friend, comedian Joe E. Lewis, 1965.

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Meet Marge Sutton, LIFE’s Ultimate Housewife

November 29, 2023November 29, 2023 by Bill Syken

LIFE devoted its issue of Dec. 24, 1956 to The American Woman: Her Achievements and Troubles. Some of the many topics covered in the issue included: giving birth for the first time, the trials of widowhood, and a 13-year-old tomboy’s transition to traditionally feminine fashion. Noted anthropologist Margaret Mead wrote a piece for the issue tracing the spirit of American women to the hardships of the frontier days. This is but a sampling.

LIFE also had a big story on Marjorie Sutton of Los Angeles. Sutton was a 32-year-old mother of four with an amazingly busy life. Sutton married her husband George when both were in high school—he was 17, she was 16. He worked at his father’s Ford agency, while she had four children and handed the home duties.

In the photo captions in the LIFE archives, Sutton is repeatedly described as the “ideal housewife,” suggesting that was the guiding idea behind the assignment. Though if that’s the case, the magazine’s editors reeled in their assessment a tad before going to press, simply headlining the piece, “Busy Wife’s Achievements.”

However you describe her, the list of activities that Sutton had the time, energy and aptitude for suggest she was some kind of Superwoman:

She is a sponsor of the Campfire Girls, serves on PTA committees, helps raise funds for Centinela Hospitals and Goodwill Industries, sings in the choir at Hollywood’s First Presbyterian, and inevitably is drawn into many of her husband’s civic interests. But Marge Sutton thinks of herself primarily as a housewife and, having stepped from high school into marriage, has made a career out of running her home briskly as well. She does much of the cooking, makes clothes for her four children (ages 6-14) and for herself and, as a hostess, she entertains an endless stream of guests—1,500 a year, she estimates.

If it all sounds a little improbable, it should be noted that Marge did have had a maid helping out. Still, the photos by LIFE’s Ralph Crane show a woman with her hands full. Sutton is seen driving the carpool, shopping for groceries, sewing her children’s clothes, singing in the choir and also serving on the church decorations committee, in addition to caring for her four children and also the family dog.

One photo laden with symbolism shows her driving the family’s 1921 Model T Ford, which the Suttons apparently owned for kicks (Marge is seen driving a regular sedan in the carpool shots). In the Model T, Marge is the one with her hands on the wheel, while her family is either in the seats or standing on the car’s running boards. “She’d be a racer if I let her,” husband George told LIFE.

The most atypical photo of Sutton is one which did not run in the magazine. This picture shows her at night, floating in the pool behind her house, all by herself. It’s the one photo which suggests she might ever grow tired or need a few moments alone.

Marge Sutton, star of a 1956 LIFE story on the ideal housewife.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton drove a 1921 Model T Ford with son Gart beside her, daughter Christie in back, and husband George and children Marshall and Lolly on the running boards, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton with husband George, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton with son and dog, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton drove the high school carpool, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton, star of LIFE story on the ideal housewife, shopping for groceries, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton pinned the hem of her daughter Christies’ dress while her daughter Sally watched, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton with her son in their Los Angeles home, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton helped her daughter Sally with her homework, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton talked about PTA business on the phone while removing a shirt from her son Gart, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton cleaned her son Gart’s fingernails on a Saturday night, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton, wearing a dress she made herself, has a bracelet fastened by husband George as they prepare to go out, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton sings in her church choir, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton, the decorations chairman at her church, worked on the main altar, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton pledged allegiance with her son’s Cub Scout pack, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton and her family dined out at a buffet, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton and her family read the Sunday comics, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton and her four children enjoyed the pool at their Los Angeles home, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton and her family enjoyed the pool at their Los Angeles home, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton and husband George enjoy their time on the tennis court, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton attended her twice-weekly trampoline session with instructor Joe Smith at the YMCA in Inglewood, California. LIFE wrote in 1956 that Sutton’s interest in the trampoline “started during a `slim and trim’ class which she took at the Y to help preserve her size 12 figure.”

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton decorates the Christmas tree, a 16-foot fir that the family cut itself in the San Bernardino Mountains, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton and family decorated their Christmas tree, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton sews and sits with her husband by the fire, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton enjoyed a late night swim at her Los Angeles home, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Cheer Amid Wartime: Santa Visits Guadalcanal

November 22, 2023November 22, 2023 by Bill Syken

The Allies’ first land campaign in the Pacific during World War II took place at Guadalcanal. The siege, led by U.S. Marines but involving every branch of the military, began on Aug. 7, 1942 and continued for about six months, until Japanese forces abandoned the island on Feb. 3, 1943.

Guadalcanal was an important early win for the Allies in World War II, but victory came at a high cost; 1,592 Americans were killed in action, another 4,183 were wounded and many more suffered from tropical diseases. On the Japanese side the toll was even greater, with 14,800 killed in action.

In Guadancanal, war was indeed hell. It’s something to keep in mind when viewing these photos of the joyful Christmas celebrations that the troops were able to muster on that remote and battle-torn island.

The pictures shot by LIFE staff photographer Ralph Morse ran in LIFE’s issue of March 1, 1943, when the campaign was over. The photos were part of a much larger story that was built around an excerpt from a book that would become a classic of war reporting, Guadalcanal Diary.

The Guadalcanal Christmas featured touches that American soldiers would have found familiar. A chaplain led midnight mass, a choir performed songs, and the troops were served a holiday meal that included turkey and pie.

Of course there were differences too. Santa was walking around in shorts because they were in the tropics and it was 90 degrees out. He wore a military helmet instead of a red stocking cap. The presents he distributed were provided by the Red Cross. The only family these soldiers could be with was the found family they had made with each other.

And if the energy in the photos is any indication, they were grateful for all of it.

American soldiers celebrating Christmas in Guadalcanal, 1942; one soldier held a sign with a message for Japanese prime minister Hideki Tojo.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Santa Claus, wearing red shorts on a 90 degree day, visited a field hospital during the Guadalcanal campaign, 1942. He toured hospitals around the island in a Chevrolet captured from Japanese forces and gave out presents supplied by the Red Cross.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Soldiers prepared turkeys to be cooked for a Christmas meal during the Guadalcanal campaign, 1942.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

U.S. soldiers cut up mince pies in preparation for a Christmas celebration in Guadalcanal, 1942.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A church flag flew above the stars and stripes during Christmas celebrations for the American forces in Guadalcanal, 1942.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

American soldiers celebrated midnight mass on Christmas eve in Guadalcanal, 1942.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A choir sang on Christmas eve in Guadalcanal, 1942; this group toured the island with Santa to perform for soldiers during the holiday.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection Shutterstock

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The Fight to Desegregate the University of Georgia, 1961

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Laughing With the Stars

Meet Marge Sutton, LIFE’s Ultimate Housewife

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A Healing Return: Marlene Dietrich Goes Back to Germany, 1960

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