Page 139 – LIFE

Josephine Baker: An Expat’s Triumphant Return to Broadway

August 9, 2021April 11, 2012 by

No American public figures—not Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, not Louise Brooks, not even the inimitable Louis Armstrong—embodied the “Jazz Age” of the 1920s more perfectly than Josephine Baker, the Missouri native who became a legendary performer in Paris in the ’20s and ’30s.

In fact, for millions of people (Europeans, for the most part, but also others all over the globe) who read about, heard about or saw the “Bronze Venus” on stage or in movies at the height of her career, Baker was the Jazz Age a gorgeous, pyrotechnic talent who, in the words of none other than Ernest Hemingway, “was the most sensational woman anyone ever saw.”

Years after her greatest popularity, but when she was still a beloved singer and dancer in her adopted France and elsewhere in Europe, Baker returned to America specifically, to Broadway in 1951, and was a smash hit decades after she left home for less Puritanical and (largely) less race-conscious realms overseas.

In its April 2, 1951, issue the editors of LIFE reported on Baker’s homecoming thus:

One of the most famous American expatriates of this century came back home a few weeks ago. Josephine Baker, daughter of a Negro washerwoman in St. Louis, had begun a sensational career in Paris nightclubs in 1925 by singing an Ave Maria while clad only in a girdle of bananas. She went on a little less scandalously to become “La Baker,” darling of Paris, a citizen of France and a legend to Americans. Now, at 45, she was back on Broadway, singing love songs in five languages and making the Strand movie theater seem intimate as a boudoir. Swishing her pantalooned gown, she crossed her eyes exuberantly, brought cheers from the packed theater as she shouted, “You make me so hop-py!” She made her managers so happy that they quickly booked her for a U.S. tour at $7,500 a week.

Here, LIFE.com brings back a series of photographs from 1951 by Alfred Eisenstaedt that capture something of the woman’s energy, charisma and near-palpable joie de vivre. There will never be another. . . .

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

Josephine Baker performs at New York’s Strand Theater in 1951.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Original caption: “In a $21,000 gown of Jacques Griffe, she flutters like a moth and sings a Cuban love song, ‘This is Happiness.’ She brought 43 gowns to the U.S. for her tour.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Josephine Baker performs at New York’s Strand Theater in 1951.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Original caption: “In a Dior dress, and furs which cost $2,600, she sings into mike concealed in her hand-held corsage: ‘Two loves have I … my country and Paree …”

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Josephine Baker performs at New York’s Strand Theater in 1951.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Josephine Baker’s four-foot chignon is wound up into three tiers of buns in her dressing room, 1951.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Original caption: ” A peck on the nose is given by husband Jo Bouillon after performance. Bouillon, called ‘Mr. Soup’ around theater, leads the orchestra for his wife.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Josephine Baker performs at New York’s Strand Theater in 1951.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

LIFE With Bette Davis: Rare and Classic Photos of a Hollywood Legend

August 9, 2021April 4, 2012 by

By the time LIFE magazine put Bette Davis on its cover in January 1939, the 30-year-old actress had already appeared, as a star and in supporting roles, in more than two dozen films and won two Oscars (for 1935’s Dangerous and 1938’s Jezebel). What many fans and most critics (even those who dislike her) consider Davis’ signature work in movies like Dark Victory, The Little Foxes and Now, Voyager was still ahead of her, but there was no question that the Massachusetts native was one of the most electrifying movie stars of any era.

In fact, in its 1939 article, LIFE’s writer Noel F. Busch called Davis’ turn as the rough, vulgar London waitress Mildred Rogers in the 1934 version of Somerset Maugham’s classic, Of Human Bondage, “probably the best performance ever recorded on the screen by a U.S. actress.”

High praise but anyone who has seen the film knows what Busch meant. For sheer, melodramatic perversity, Davis’ Mildred is one of film’s most riveting, revolting creations: a vicious, self-absorbed viper who also exudes a magnetic and for the film’s protagonist, an addictive carnality.

In the decades since her great work of the 1930s, ’40s, ’50s and even into the ’60s, Davis has remained one of the seminal figures in Hollywood history. A powerhouse actress she was the first person ever to receive 10 career Academy Award acting nominations Davis was unique in her appearance (those eyes) and in what a New York Times critic once perfectly described as her recognizable, inimitable “tensile” acting. Like James Cagney, Katharine Hepburn, Clark Gable and a handful of other legitimately iconic figures, Bette Davis was a spellbinding talent (i.e,. someone with genuine acting chops, rather than merely a gorgeous face or outrageous figure) who was instrumental in defining what it meant to be a screen idol in the Golden Age of Hollywood.

LIFE’s 1939 cover story, meanwhile, featured the actress not as some sort of raving prima donna the image that has, bizarrely, attached to her in the decades since her death in 1989 but as a remarkably grounded, albeit supremely driven, artist. (It also pointed out that “Miss Davis is Warner Bros.’ top box-office star. She is 30 years old, 5 ft. 3 in. tall and weighs 113 lb. without dieting. She conducts herself with more dignity than most stars.”)

That the article’s writer, Busch, was genuinely impressed with Davis especially in light of what passes for talent in Hollywood is abundantly clear throughout. One marvelous example of the tone of the piece:

Since the ability to act is comparatively unnecessary in Hollywood, it is regarded with suspicion. Directors might be interested in a girl who was noted for her love affairs or able to balance a peanut on her nose, because these accomplishments would suggest that she had an interesting personality. Conversely, acting ability [like Davis’] suggests an arty personality and young movie actresses should conceal it more carefully than a craving for cocaine.

Published one month before Dark Victory was released, the article featured a number of portraits by the great LIFE photographer, Alfred Eisenstaedt. Here, LIFE.com again publishes several of those Eisenstaedt pictures, as well as a number of equally strong, charming photos that never appeared in the magazine.

Bette Davis at home in Beverly Hills California, 1939

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

With her dog, Popeye, in her lap, Bette Davis is wheeled across her Beverly Hills home’s wide, red-tiled patio in a sun chair by her chauffeur, 1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bette Davis at home in Beverly Hills California, 1939

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Original caption: “A daily sunbath in a well-shielded enclosure is Bette Davis’ health recipe. At her beautiful Mexican-style, 4-acre Beverly Hills home, she spends most of her time outdoors.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Original caption: “Popeye the Magnificent, a pet Pekingese … follows his mistress down to the patio.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bette Davis at home in Beverly Hills California, 1939

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bette Davis at home in Beverly Hills, California, 1939

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Original caption: “The top box-office star of Warner Bros., in blue slacks, skims through the morning newspapers in the playroom of her home. The walls are decorated with Mexican posters.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bette Davis at home in Beverly Hills, California, 1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

LIFE With Famous Dads (and Their Sometimes-Famous Kids)

December 19, 2019April 2, 2012 by

The lives of celebrities are different than ordinary lives in many ways, but never do they look more like the rest of us than when they are in the thrall of their children. Here, LIFE.com celebrates fatherhood as practiced by the rich and famous—mostly actors, with the occasional president thrown in. In a few cases (Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis and Donald Sutherland, for example) the children of these notable figures, also pictured here, achieved their own renown in later life.

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

Rita Hayworth with husband Orson Wells and daughter Rebecca, 1946

Peter Stackpole (LIFE Picture Collection)

Kirk Douglas with son Michael, 1949

Lisa Larsen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Humphrey Bogart and son Stephen in 1952

J.R. Eyerman /Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Charlton Heston lifted his two-month-old son, Fraser, who was portraying the baby Moses during filming of The Ten Commandments in 1955.

George Silk/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Senator John F. Kennedy played peek-a-boo with daughter Caroline in 1958.

Ed Clark/ Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Desi Arnaz with son Desi Jr. and TV son Richard Keith at a Dodgers game in 1958.

Leonard McCombe/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Dean Martin with his son, Ricci, at home in 1958.

Allan Grant/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Vice President Richard Nixon and daughter Julie at a ballgame, 1958.

Hank Walker Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Tony Curtis and daughter Jamie Lee Curtis in 1959

Allan Grant/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Richard Burton and his future stepdaughter, Liza (Liz Taylor and Mike Todd’s daughter), in 1962.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Steve McQueen kissed his daughter Terry goodnight in 1963.

John Dominis/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Sammy Davis Jr. with his son Mark in 1964.

Leonard McCombe/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Dustin Hoffman with his daughter Karina, 1969.

John Dominis/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Jack Nicholson played with his daughter, Jennifer, on the deck of his home overlooking Franklin Canyon, Los Angeles, 1969.

Arthur Schatz/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Donald Sutherland with his son, Kiefer, in 1970.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Robert Redford and his son, David, in Utah in 1970.

John Dominis/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Johnny Longden: Giant in the Saddle

August 17, 2021March 31, 2012 by

It’s hardly surprising that racing fans can reel off the names of dozens or even scores of great horses far easier than they can bring to mind, say, ten great jockeys. Here’s one you should know: the late, great Johnny Longden an English-born, Canadian-raised titan who first made a name for himself riding in California and, by the end of his four-decade career, had won the Triple Crown (aboard Count Fleet) and most every important race in the land.

As LIFE magazine put it in a May 1952 issue:

When wizened 42-year-old jockey Johnny Longden booted home his 3,999th winner, the routine of horse racing at California’s Hollywood Park was completely upset. Fans suddenly stopped playing form and, anxious to help Longden get his 400th win, began playing his horses for sentimental reasons. Officials who had planned a big ceremony fidgeted: Longden himself acted coy. “I never give it no thought,” he said. “I know it’s come, just like night and day.” It came seven races later hen, next day, he won No. 4,000, about 1,000 more than any other U.S. jockey.

Famous for getting his horses off to a fast start and keeping them out in front, little (4 ft. 11 in.) Johnny Longden has at one time or another won almost every big race in the country. Despite his age and a fat bank account, he is still the most industrious jockey going, riding six or seven races every day of the week and occasionally flying down to Agua Caliente, Mexico to ride on Sunday. Rising horses, says Longden, is the one thing he really enjoys. And he expects to win 5,000 before he is 50.

In fact, he ended his career with more than 6,000 wins including his very last race, the 1966 San Juan Capistrano Invitational Handicap at Santa Anita Park, where Longden had enjoyed so many of his greatest triumphs.

But Longden wasn’t merely a Hall of Fame rider who competed as a jockey until he was 59; he is also the only man to ride to victory in the Kentucky Derby, and then train a horse that won the Derby, as well, in 1969 with Majestic Prince.

Johnny Longden was, in many ways, one of the major figures in horse racing for decades. He should be remembered, and celebrated, for even longer. This is a start.

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

Johnny Longden, 1952.

George Silk Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Johnny Longden, 1945.

Martha Holmes Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Johnny Longden (second from right) with fellow jockeys, Hollywood Park, 1952.

George Silk Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Johnny Longden (second from right) with fellow jockeys, Laurel Park, Maryland, 1952.

Mark Kauffman Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Johnny Longden (left) and fellow jockey, California, 1952.

George Silk Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Johnny Longden, Hollywood Park, 1952.

George Silk Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Johnny Longden wins at Hollywood Park, 1952.

George Silk Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Johnny Longden at Hollywood Park in 1945.

Martha Holmes Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Johnny Longden poses after his 4,000th career win in 1952.

George Silk Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Johnny Longden and son at the track, 1945.

Martha Holmes Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Johnny Longden and family, 1945.

Martha Holmes Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Johnny Longden with his pet cockateil, 1952.

George Silk Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Johnny Longden and family, 1945.

Martha Holmes Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Johnny Longden, 1952.

George Silk Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Johnny Longden (hands in pockets) in 1952.

George Silk Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Johnny Longden and friend, 1952.

George Silk Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

LIFE at an Extraordinary, All-Night Ohio Prom

May 22, 2024March 29, 2012 by

Nowadays, in order for a high school prom to garner national attention, something rather extraordinary or, better yet, something vaguely scandalous has to occur before, during or after the event—perhaps a celebrity cameo, or a showdown that sets of a social media firestorm.

But back in the day specifically, back in 1958, students at an Ohio high school simply had to stay awake in order to get their names and faces in the June 9, 1958, issue of LIFE magazine. Stay awake and dance, that is. And go riverboating. And eat breakfast. And ride roller coasters. And dance some more. . . .

“Traditionally,” LIFE noted, “senior proms are the high school students’ big night to howl. To keep them happy and off the roads and ultimately wear them out, many high schools now sponsor all-night dances. The only trouble is that each generation seems to take longer to wear out.”

The article continued:

Students at Mariemont High School near Cincinnati came close to the ultimate this year when they put on a “prom” that lasted almost 32 hours. It started with a progressive dinner (spaghetti to strawberry cake), followed by a formal but highly energetic dance. Then the students boarded a river boat for a cruise and dancing to a jazz combo. Dawn found them somewhat subdued and back at the school for breakfast. Sent home for a short rest period, they emerged refreshed and descended on an amusement park. By nightfall half the students had discovered they were mortal and had gone home to bed. The rest whipped up another dance. “It keeps getting better and better,” one said, “as I get more and more numb.”

Original caption: “Formal dance held at the Kenwood Country Club was only traditional part of Mariemont’s prom.”

Francis Miller/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Original caption: “Informal games started at progressive dinner. Here students pull each other off in ‘chicken.'”

Francis Miller/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mariemont High School Prom, Ohio, 1958.

Francis Miller/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Original caption: “Third dance was held at the amusement park. Here couples gather around as band plays ‘Tequila.'”

Francis Miller/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Original caption: “A chilly dawn as boat neared dock quenched some student fire. Most revived after hot breakfast.”

Francis Miller/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Original caption: “River Cruise was kept lively by dancing. Here Leslie Ingram and Jim Rockaway lead a bunny hop.”

Francis Miller/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mariemont High School Prom, Ohio, 1958.

Francis Miller/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Original caption: “Snoozing in sun at park pool, Nancy Reynolds and Wally Wyatt nap to help keep them going.”

Francis Miller/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Original caption: “Roller Coaster ride keeps students moving. Holding hands in air during ride is judged brave.”

Francis Miller/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mariemont High School Prom, Ohio, 1958.

Francis Miller/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Tennessee Williams: Portraits of an American Genius

August 12, 2021March 23, 2012 by

While Eugene O’Neill, with his Nobel Prize and four Pulitzers, is the greatest American playwright of the 20th century, Arthur Miller the most lastingly relevant, Edward Albee the most challenging and Sam Shepard simply the coolest, one could argue that Thomas Lanier “Tennessee” Williams III is the most influential, and his work the most universally beloved.

Putting one’s finger on why Williams’ plays have held pride of place in theater goers’ hearts for so long is another matter. Yes, the dialog is a thrilling mixture of the perfectly colloquial and the poetic. Yes, the passions on display in works like The Rose Tattoo, The Glass Menagerie and, of course, A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof are as blistering as those given voice by any other American dramatist, while the characters Williams brought to life remain, for many of us, as indelible as members of our own families.

In the end, though, the appeal and the power of Williams’ very best plays might reside in this: that he manages, somehow, to peel back layer after layer from his characters as the story rolls on, and rather than diminishing these men and women in our eyes, the gradually unfolding revelations and the playwright’s clear-eyed compassion for his own creations ennoble and humanize them. Stanley, Blanche and Stella; Maggie the Cat, Brick and Big Daddy; Amanda Wingfield in Menagerie and Serafina in The Rose Tattoo these and so many other Williams characters are profoundly memorable not because they’re heroic, but because they’re so deeply and recognizably flawed. They’re damaged, searching, isolated creatures and still they go on. Williams, never sentimental, sees in that simple act of endurance a quality worth celebrating. And so do we.

Here, on Williams’ 101st birthday (he was born, not in Tennessee, but in a small town in eastern Mississippi, on March 26, 1911, and died in New York City in 1983), LIFE.com offers a series of portraits of the great American playwright by some of LIFE magazine’s finest photographers: portraits of what LIFE, in 1948, called “a dreamy young man with an unconquerable compulsion to write.”

That Tennessee Williams creatively harnessed that compulsion for so many years, battling an army of relentless personal demons (alcohol, drugs, depression) every step of the way, is one more act, William’s own act, of endurance worth celebrating.

Tennessee Williams stands in front of a poster advertising his play, A Streetcar Named Desire, in New York in 1948.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Tennessee Williams in New York in 1955.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Original caption: “Backstage poker with the musicians attracted Williams much more than flashy night life during his month in New York after Streetcar’s premiere.”

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Tennessee Williams in 1948.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Tennessee Williams, New York, 1948.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Tennessee Williams on the set of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1947.

Eliot Elisofon The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Tennessee Williams at a diner in New York in 1948.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Tennessee Williams in Mexico in 1963 during filming of a movie from his play, The Night of the Iguana, in 1963.

Gjon Mili The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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Josephine Baker: An Expat’s Triumphant Return to Broadway

LIFE With Bette Davis: Rare and Classic Photos of a Hollywood Legend

LIFE With Famous Dads (and Their Sometimes-Famous Kids)

Johnny Longden: Giant in the Saddle

LIFE at an Extraordinary, All-Night Ohio Prom

Tennessee Williams: Portraits of an American Genius

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