Living the Gatsby Life on Long Island’s Gold Coast

In 1946 LIFE magazine went to the North Shore of Long Island to peep in on the lives, and the beautiful homes, of the ultra-rich. The Gold Coast, as the most exclusive stretch is known, was a place where many homes were more rightly called estates, and where lunch guests might be served by a butler who spoke three languages. Polo was a popular pastime, as was sailing, and even flying. One country club had an airplane hangar for the 25 members who kept planes there.

This rarefied playground was beautifully photographed by Nina Leen for an 11-page story in the July 22, 1946 issue of LIFE. The magazine called the North Shore “the most socially desirable residential area in the U.S.” and claimed that “nowhere else in such costly profusion can be found such great, handsome and scrupulously tended estates as those on the North Shore.”

The luminaries of the North Shore included the Astors, the Vanderbilts, the Whitneys, J.P. Morgan and F.W. Woolworth, among others. But despite the wealth of its residents and the grandeur of their estates, the magazine described the lifestyle there as “ordered, gracious, and, amid great luxury, basically simple.” The view of the North Shore in LIFE was unabashedly admiring, with the only question being, Could this paradise last?

They live with the unpretentious ease of a well-entrenched money class, busy with sports, hobbies and charities, surrounded by yachting trophies, etchings of dogs, silver mugs won on polo fields and portraits painted by fashionable artists. Their North Shore domain is assailed by the breakup of the very biggest estates and by encroachment along the edges by middle-class suburbia. Nevertheless the North Shore residents have just survived the heaviest taxation in their history and as long as they continue prudently to preserve their fortunes by frequent intermarriage, their handsome way of life seems likely to persist.

All these years later the Gold Coast is still a place of stature, but it is not unchanged. The Long Island Aviation Club of Long Island is no more, fading out in 1948. The Phipps residence, seen in the photos here, has been converted in a museum, Old Westbury Gardens, and it is one of many of the old estates to transition from private haven to public usage. The former home of William Robertson Coe, who was both a business titan and a noted horticulturist (Nina Leen photographed Coe inspecting the orchids in his greenhouse), is now part of Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park.

The magic of the Gold Coast at its peak is most famously memorialized in The Great Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s definitive portrait of aspiration in America takes place in fictionalized towns on the North Shore. Today you can still take a Gatsby Tour of the area’s historic mansions, and enjoy your views of these former castles.

The Piping Rock Club in Locust Valley on the North Shore of Long Island, N.Y., 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Golfers at a country club on Long Island’s North Shore, 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Thomas Bradley and his wife played golf at a country club on Long Island’s North Shore, 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Aviation Country Club in Hicksville, Long Island featured a hangar which housed 25 planes belonging to members and four other aircraft reserved for members who did not have their own, 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The North Shore of Long Island, N.Y., 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, North Shore, Long Island, N.Y., 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Men lined up their sailboats at the starting line at the Seawanhaka yacht club, Long Island’s North Shore, 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sunbathers at a country club on Long Island’s North Shore, 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

North Shore, Long Island, N.Y., 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dean of the North Shore, horsey set, F. Ambrose Clark, 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Polo player Stewart Iglehart, Long Island’s North Shore, 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Michael Phipps (right) talking to a fellow polo player, Long Island’s North Shore, 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Michael Grace Phipps, a polo player, outside the Meadow Brook Club in Westbury, Long Island, 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The gates to the estate of John Phipps, son of the partner of Andrew Carnegie, on the North Shore of Long Island, N.Y., 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Wendy McCrary relaxed in La Granja, the art-filled North Shore home of her parents, 1946; her father, D.S. Iglehart, ran the Grace shipping line.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Edgar Leonard (right) and his wife (center) hosted a luncheon at their home, with their longtime butlers, identified by LIFE with only their last names Smith and Froggart, and a note that Smith spoke three languages, North Shore, Long Island, N.Y., 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The boxwood gardens at the Ogden L. Mills estate, North Shore, Long Island, N.Y., 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Ogden L. Mills estate on the North Shore of Long Island, N.Y., 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney raised black Angus cattle on his 600-acre estate in Old Westbury, Long Island, N.Y., 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, nee Eleanor Searle, at the reins of a horse buggy while her footman rode in the back, North Shore, Long Island, N.Y., 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The North Shore of Long Island, N.Y., 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

W.R. Coe looking over the orchids in his greenhouse with his estate superintendent on the North Shore of Long Island, N.Y., 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The front gated entrance to W.R. Coe’s estate; the gates were built in Sussex, England in 1720 and bought by Coe in 1921 from Lord Wittenham in 1921.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The estate of W.R. Coe, an insurance, railroad and business executive, 1946; the home today is a museum and part of the Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park in Oyster Bay, N.Y..

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The playhouse of the Webb home in Westbury included a pool and mural of the North Shore scenery, 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Harry Webb plays indoor tennis on a court decorated with Native American carved wooden figures from his mother’s collection of Americana, Old Westbury, Long Island, N.Y. 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mrs. H.I. Pratt walking through the pathway in her highly regarded gardens at her home on the North Shore of Long Island, N.Y.; the Pratt family made its fortune through Standard Oil, 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A colonial style home in Long Island’s North Shore, 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mrs. F. P. Garvan, the daughter of business tycoon Anthony N. Brady, admired a cocker spaniel along with her son and daughter-in-law, North Shore, Long Island, N.Y., 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A home on Long Island’s North Shore, 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The bathroom in a home on Long Island’s North Shore, 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A home in Long Island’s Gold Coast, 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This half-mile hedged walk was part of the Syosset home of banker and philanthropist Richard M. Tobin, 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

North Shore, Long Island, N.Y., 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A hedged walkway down to the lake from a mansion on the North Shore of Long Island, N.Y., 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The home of stockbroker Edwin A. Fish in Locust Valley on the North Shore of Long Island, N.Y., 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A canopied bed covered in flower print from a North Shore estate, 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The living room of a North Shore estate, Long Island, N.Y., 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hand-painted trays adorned the walls of the North Shore home of Harvey Gibson, president of Manufacturers Trust bank, Long Island, N.Y., 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mrs. Cyrus Newkick Johns, exiting the church with her husband after their wedding ceremony at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Lattingtown on the North Shore of Long Island, N.Y., 1946.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Let’s Go! Traveling Europe by Train

The Eurail Pass helped remake summer travel. Introduced in 1959 by a group of cooperating European railroads, it gave tourists the opportunity to hop from country to country on a single golden ticket.

This offering was not only popular, it was transformative. One reason was that it attracted many a student and other budget traveler for a summer of European adventure. The other was that introduced Americans to a new set of destinations that went beyond the grand European capitals. Every stop on the train became a place to explore. Here’s how LIFE described the joy of the Eurail Pass in its Aug. 14, 1970 issue:

Nowadays more and more Americans—many of them equipped with only a knapsack and a sleeping bag—are bypassing the tourist traps to explore out-of-the-way towns and villages. And they are discovering that one of the finest—and cheapest—ways to roam the continent is on Europe’s dense network of railroads.

The story praised the comfort and the punctuality of European trains, and the pictures by LIFE photographer Carlo Bavagnoli did plenty to sell the experience. The most exotic photo from his set is of a rider in the salon car of a French train, having her hair washed in preparation for a styling.

But the true Eurail experience was more about exploration than luxury. Bavagnoli’s photos of young people bumming around train stations or asleep in railcar seats, on their way to their next new experience, capture its fundamental appeal.

Bavagnoli’s photos also give glimpses of European attractions, such as the tilework in Portugal or a historic cathedral in Germany. Taken as a whole, the pictures capture the thrill of being able to bounce from one country to another without ever having to step on an airplane.

That basic appeal is why the Eurail Pass remains a popular offering today, with the current service expanded to 33 countries—Estonia and Latvia were the most recent to come on board, in 2020. Not only that, but rail companies in other countries have been inspired by the Eurail Pass to create their own cooperative products in India, in Japan, and in South Korea.

Then as now, just thinking about all the possible destinations can’t help but excite the imagination.

Germany’s “Parsifal Express” sped past a cathedral in Cologne, Germany, 1970.

Carlo Bavagnoli/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

In Amsterdam, American Eurail Pass holders pondered their next destination, 1970.

Carlo Bavagnoli/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A traveler enjoyed the scenery from the observation deck of italy’s silver-and-green, seven-car “Settobello” that ran between Rome and Milan,1970.

Carlo Bavagnoli/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Eurail Pass travelers, 1970.

Carlo Bavagnoli/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The French “Mistral” train that traveled between Paris and Nice included an on-board hair salon, 1970.

Carlo Bavagnoli/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Eurail Pass travelers, 1970.

Carlo Bavagnoli/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Three American students caught some sleep on Norway’s Oslo-Bergen line, 1970.

Carlo Bavagnoli/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Eurail Pass travelers enjoyed a picnic on a Norwegian train, 1970.

Carlo Bavagnoli/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Eurail Pass travelers in Europe, 1970.

Carlo Bavagnoli/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An agent checked passports for train riders at the Swss border, 1970.

Carlo Bavagnoli/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Spanish train flashed past a small fishing village on its way along the Costa Brava, 1970.

Carlo Bavagnoli/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

American travelers enjoyed a trip on the Rhine river on the steamer “Deutschland,” 1970.

Carlo Bavagnoli/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

European train travelers, 1970.

Carlo Bavagnoli/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

People waiting on the platform of a Portuguese train station, 1970.

Carlo Bavagnoli/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

European train travelers, 1970.

Carlo Bavagnoli/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The view from aboard the”Mediolanum,” which sped from Milan to Munich in less than six hours, 1970.

Two young American Eurail Pass holders in a train station, on the way to their next adventure, 1970.

Carlo Bavagnoli/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Wonders of Wyoming

Today Grand Teton National Park welcomes more than 3 million visitors a year, and the appeal is as obvious as the majestic mountains that tower over the landscape. It’s as beautiful a setting as you will find to experience the joys of outdoor life.

More than 80 years ago photographer Hansel Mieth went to Wyoming for a big package on summer vacation destinations in the July 14, 1941 issue of LIFE magazine, and his pictures captured the realm of natural wonder and adventure that, all these years later, still draws people to the Cowboy State.

The two shots from Mieth’s essay that ran in the magazine featured what LIFE described as “vacationing college girls” riding on horseback and listening to “a cowboy strum his song.” Other photos from his set show tourists fishing, hiking, and taking a dip in the lake, with the Grand Tetons usually looming in the background.

Mieth also documented a few slices of everyday life in the most sparsely-populated state in the lower 48—people farming, riding motorcycles, getting a shoeshine. He also shot a church wedding that looks like a scene of frontier life.

Of course some things have changed in the decades since Mieth visited. Park visitors today are more likely to be wearing fleece quarter-zips and other athleisure wear than the denims and plaid shirts in his pictures. And the spaces in Wyoming are not as open as they used to be: The summer crowds in Grand Teton National Park and similar destinations that LIFE photographed back in the day such as Yellowstone and Yosemite can test the vacationer’s patience. Also, the prices have inevitably gone up. The 1941 story mentioned that a cabin on park grounds could be rented for $30 a week; today the price of in-park lodging, though still a good deal, would be several hundred dollars.

But many of the sights from this 1941 story will be familiar to contemporary visitors, and that is a tribute to the national parks program and its mission of conservation. What was jaw-dropping then remains jaw-dropping today.

Friends fished for trout in the lake in the Grand Tetons, 1941.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fishing in the Grand Tetons, Wyoming, 1941.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Vacationers fishing in the Grand Tetons, Wyoming, 1941.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fishing in the Grand Tetons, Wyoming, 1941.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Grand Tetons, Wyoming, 1941.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Grand Tetons, Wyoming, 1941.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Climbing in the Grand Tetons, 1941.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Climbing in Wyoming, 1941.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Vacationers in Wyoming, 1941.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Vacationing college students riding on horseback through the Grand Teton area, 1941.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Vacationers in the Grand Tetons in Wyoming, 1941.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Vacationers in the Grand Tetons, Wyoming, 1941.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Vacationers in Wyoming, 1941.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scene from a wedding in a small town church, Wyoming, 1941.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Newlyweds leaving a church in Wyoming, 1941.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Vacationers in Wyoming, 1941.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Vacationers listened to a cowboy playing guitar, Wyoming, 1941.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Vacationing college students listened to a cowboy sing his song, Grand Tetons, 1941.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Vacationers enjoyed a riverside picnic, Wyoming, 1941.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Shoe shine, Wyoming, 1941.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Motorcyclists in Wyoming, 1941.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A tractor pulling wagons on a farm, Wyoming, 1941.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Wyoming, 1941.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Wyoming, 1941.

Hansel Mieth/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

How Five-Dollar Loans Fueled Weekends of Fun at Ohio State

They called it the Lettuce Box, and it helped out many an Ohio State student who was short a few bucks.

The Lettuce Box was the creation of Will Parker, owner of a popular student hangout known as Hedon Hall. It was his way of helping out former GIs who needed money during their time as students. His Lettuce Box, which hung on a wall, had ten $5 bills hanging on clips. The box looked—and operated—like a mini-library, but instead of books, students could check out money.

Here’s how the lettuce Box worked, as described in a story in the April 25, 1949 issue of LIFE:

A student only has to get Parker to unlock the box, take the bill, sign his name on a card and clip it face down into the box. If he does not return the money in five days, the card is turned face up and is disgraced.

And best of all, it worked. Just about everyone paid the money back. The story said Walker had issued a cumulative total of $2,500 in loans, and only once did he lose the $5.

In LIFE’s story the Lettuce Box provided the financing for a student named Bud Shively as he embarked on a weekend of enjoyment. He borrowed $5 (the equivalent of about $63 in 2023) on a Friday and then let LIFE photographer George Skadding follow him around and chronicle how he spent it over the course of the weekend.

Shively’s first purchase was a nickel cup of coffee, and also indulged himself with pinball, candy and cigarettes. Then the expenses grew with the arrival of a woman Shively had met over the summer and who was visiting Columbus for the weekend. Shively took her out for burgers and Cokes at White Castle, and he spent more on cotton candy and arcade games at a circus. The next morning he gave his sister 15 cents to iron the clothes he planned to wear on Saturday night. He also spent 60 cents on a gasket for the jalopy he was working on, a ’33 Plymouth. He added to his bankroll at a late-night poker game on Friday but then lost back most of winnings at the pool table the next afternoon.

And what finally took his bankroll down to zero? A 25-cent donation to the church plate on Sunday morning. By the time his Sunday afternoon picnic with his date and some friends rolled around, Shively was living off the generosity of others. LIFE’s story concluded, “As these pictures show, he made the most of every cent, just managed to get through to Monday.”

All thanks to the Lettuce Box, a simple creation that generated a lot of joy.

Will Parker (right), owner of popular campus coffee shop Hedon Hall, retrieved a $5 bill from the “lettuce box” to loan to Ohio State student Bud Shively (fourth from left) Columbus, Ohio, 1949.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ohio State student Bud Shively signed out a $5 bill from the “lettuce box” at a campus hangout that provided short-term loans to students, 1949.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ohio State student Bud Shively, after borrowing $5 for the weekend, broke the bill to buy a 5-cent cup of coffee; if the shop caught him eating the sandwich he had snuck in with him, he would have been charged 25 cents, Columbus, Ohio, 1949.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ohio State student Bud Shively spent 15 cents from his $5 loan on a pinball game, and he played well enough to win five free games.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ohio State student Bud Shively (right), after borrowing $5 to get him through the weekend, spent 5 cents on candy and 20 cents on cigarettes, 1949.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ohio State student Bud Shively spent 60 cents from his $5 weekend loan on a gasket for his “late ’33” Plymouth, 1949.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ohio State student Bud Shively worked on his ’33 Plymouth, 1949.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

At a circus on Friday night, Ohio State student Bud Shively, having borrowed $5 for the weekend, spent 20 cents on cotton candy and 25 cents on a parasol for his date , Vivian DeMaria, who was visiting Columbus from out of town, 1949.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ohio State student Bud Shively and his date Vivian DeMaria watched clowns performing at a circus; Bud had been given a free ticket and spent $1.20 on one for Vivian, 1949.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Staked with $5 for the weekend, Ohio State student Bud Shively and his date Vivan DeMaria spent 40 cents for burgers and Cokes at a White Castle, 1949.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Staked with $5 for the weekend, Ohio State student Bud Shively and his date Vivan DeMaria spent 40 cents for burgers and Cokes at a White Castle, 1949.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ohio State student Bud Shively increased his weekend bankroll when he won 40 cents at a poker game that went until 5 a.m. Saturday, 1949.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ohio State student Bud Shively (left) studied with his friend Red Eyerman (right) on a Saturday morning while his sister Lorita ironed the shirt he planned to wear out that night; Bud paid her 15 cents for her services, 1949..

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

After winning 40 cents the previous night playing poker, Bud Shively (left) lost 35 cents the next day while playing billiards with friend Red Eyerman, Columbus, Ohio, 1949.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bud Shively and his date Vivian DeMaria enjoying an arcade game; Bud had been an aerial gunner in the Navy, and he spent 40 cents on the game. After that he had $1.39 left from his original $5 weekend loan.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ohio State student Bud Shively and his date Vivian DeMaria spent 14 cents on more arcade games such as a Kiss-o-Meter, Columbus, Ohio 1949.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

At popular hangout Hoovers, Bud Shively spent $1 from his $5 loan on burgers, beers and a tip, and after that he and his friends were given a free round for signing Ohio State songs, Columbus, 1949.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ohio State student Bud Shively and his date Vivian DeMaria tried a penny-arcade game in which the promised “screen test” turns out to be a mirror, 1949.

Ohio State student Bud Shively, girlfriend Vivan DeMaria and friend Red Eyerman (foreground right) at church on Sunday; Shively placed the last 25 cents from his $5 loan for weekend merriment in the collection plate, 1949.

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The weekend included a picnic on Sunday afternoon put on by the girls; by this time Bud had blown through his $5 loan, Columbus, Ohio, 1949.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

“I’m sure glad you’re buying this,'” said Ohio State student Bud Shively (left)) to his date Vivian DeMaria during a Sunday afternoon picnic; at this point Bud had blown through the $5 he had borrowed for the weekend, 1949.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ohio State student Bud Shively and his date Vivian DeMaria walking along by the river as their weekend came to an end, Columbus, Ohio, 1949.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Wild Manhattan Nights: A Peek Inside The Latin Quarter, 1949

In its Nov. 21, 1949 issue LIFE gave big play to a story centered around a Manhattan nightspot called the Latin Quarter, and breathlessly announced a trend in nightclub entertainment of “pretty girls who display as much flesh and as little covering as the law allows.” LIFE was so scandalized that it ran pages of photos from inside the club, including shots of dancing girls backstage, wearing even less than they did onstage.

The photos by George Silk captured the whole boisterous scene, which included not just chorus girls but also singers and a comic named Frank Libuse, who pretended to be a waiter while delivering slapstick merriment to upscale patrons in the white tablecloth setting. The Latin Quarter was located in Times Square—just a couple blocks from the Time & Life Building, which may help explain how the club caught the attention of LIFE’s editors. But the club was undoubtedly a big deal, and in its heyday welcomed such legendary entertainers as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Milton Berle.

If the shows at the Latin Quarter sound like what you might expect to see in Las Vegas rather than in New York City, there may be a reason for that. LIFE’s story on the club ran in the days before Las Vegas had entered its major boom period in the 1950s. (And if you look at this LIFE story on Las Vegas from 1955, you can see that what sprouted in the desert bore strong resemblance to what the Latin Quarter was offering). While the LIFE piece on the Latin Quarter was intended to report on a trend of the moment, it also captured an element of New York culture that, like the Brooklyn Dodgers for example, was about to move west.

The Latin Quarter closed in 1969, and the space went through various incarnations as a theater and nightclub before it was torn down in 1989. On that location you can now find a hotel, perfectly situated for visitors who want to seek entertainment in the transformed and family-friendly Times Square.

Comic Frank Libuse, pretending to be a waiter, shot water at patrons seated at the Latin Quarter nightclub, New York City, 1949.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Comic and fake waiter Frank Libuse would “accidentally” brush patrons with a potted palm, Latin Quarter, New York City, 1949.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Frank Libuse, a comic who pretended to be a waiter, Latin Quarter, New York City, 1949.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ernestine Mercer, who sang Cole Porter at the Latin Quarter, New York City, 1949. LIFE’s description of her performance said “Added attraction is Miss Mercer’s neckline, which keeps receding as a partner (left) throws money at her.”

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Latin Quarter, New York City, 1949.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Latin Quarter, New York City, 1949.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Latin Quarter, New York City, 1949.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Latin Quarter, New York City, 1949.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Latin Quarter, New York City, 1949.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Latin Quarter, New York City, 1949.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Latin Quarter, New York City, 1949.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Chorus girl-singer Linda Lombard rested her legs after a tough night on stage at the Latin Quarter, New York City, 1949.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Singer Linda Lombard, originally from Ohio, backstage at the Latin Quarter, New York City, 1949.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Singer Linda Lombard backstage at the Latin Quarter, New York City, 1949.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Singer Linda Lombard, backstage at the Latin Quarter, New York City, 1949.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Backstage at the Latin Quarter, New York City, 1949.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Latin Quarter, New York City, 1949.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Joy of Reading, Anywhere and Everywhere

Reading might not seem like the most dramatic of subjects—Seinfeld fans will recall the episode in which George appalled the president of NBC by saying in a pitch meeting that he wanted to make a show in which people might just sit and read.

But images in the LIFE photo collection tell another story. Over the years the magazine’s photographers created many fascinating and resonant images of people lost in words. And those photos, viewed collectively, illustrate both the power and the great diversity of the reading experience.

For example, images here include:

—A soldier in a fox hole, savoring a letter from home.

—Sophia Loren perusing a newspaper while waiting on a movie set.

—The teenage son of the artist Christo passing the time with a book while his father erected one of his sculptures.

—Hockey great Jean Beliveau relaxing in bed with a novel.

—College girls at the University of Kansas reading their mail while sitting on their sorority house steps.

—Thomas Mann, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, reading in his armchair.

—Jackie Kennedy, First Lady and future book editor—reading to daughter Caroline in her bed.

And on and on. One particularly poignant photo shows baseball star Roy Campanella a few months removed from the car accident that left him paralyzed from the shoulders down. LIFE’s story on Campanella’s rehabilitation in the July 21, 1958 issue opened with a photo of the former Dodgers catcher hovering horizontally, face down, in a specially designed bed and studying a newspaper sports section spread out beneath him.

The benefits of reading are numerous: Experts believe that it strengthens your brain, reduces stress, improves empathy, helps you sleep better and staves off cognitive decline. That photo of Campanella makes evident another benefit, and underlines a common theme through so many of these images. Whether you are reading a letter, the newspaper or a great novel, you can be taken out of where you are and connect with another person, or even another world, all through the power of the written word.

Baseball star Roy Campanella, who suffered a broken neck in a car accident, reading a newspaper, 1958.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marilyn Monroe at home, 1953.

Marilyn Monroe at home, 1953.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Jackie Kennedy reads to her daughter, Caroline, in Hyannis Port, Mass., in 1960.

Jackie Kennedy read to her daughter, Caroline, in Hyannis Port, Mass., in 1960.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jennie Magill reading a story to her children.

Jennie Magill reading a story to her children; the image is from a 1956 LIFE story on working mothers.

Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Wilson Riles, California State Superintendent of Public Education, read a storybook to his grandson, 1971.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Tent-dwelling hippie family reading bedtime stories. (Photo by John Olson/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

A tent-dwelling family at an Oregon read bedtime stories, 1969.

Photo by John Olson/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi reading next to a spinning wheel at home. (Photo by Margaret Bourke-White/The LIFE Picture Collection © DotDash Meredith)

Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi reading next to a spinning wheel at home. (Photo by Margaret Bourke-White/The LIFE Picture Collection © DotDash Meredith)

Hockey great Jean Beliveau, the center for the Montreal Canadiens, 1953.

Yale Joel/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Babysitter Iva Peppe was engrossed in reading a magazine while Chad Gibson set up for a sneak attack, Des Moines, Iowa, 1957.

Leonard McCombe/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Reading the comics, Detroit, 1943.

Walter Sanders/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Boys shopped for comic books, Des Moines, Iowa, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Students in the library reading room at Howard University, 1946.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A student sits in a crowded library on the campus of Smith College, Northampton, Mass., 1948.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Cowboy Clarence H. Long from the iconic 1949 LIFE magazine cover.

Beside his chuck wagon, cowboy Clarence Long read a western magazine, 1949. When he was through with the magazine he passed it to another cowboy. Such magazines were read and reread until the pages fell apart.

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Images Collection/Shutterstock

Marilyn Lovell, wife of Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell, reads a newspaper at home, April 1970.

Marilyn Lovell, wife of Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell, read a newspaper at home, April 1970.

Bill Eppridge The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Michael Caine reads a paper, and an article about himself, in Los Angeles in 1966.

Michael Caine read an article about himself, Los Angeles, 1966.

Bill Ray The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Charles M. Schulz, creator of Peanuts, at his California home, 1967.

Bill Ray/ Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Actor George C. Scott on set of the 1959 film Anatomy of a Murder. In the movie he played prosecutor Claude Dancer.

Gjon Mili/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A boy read newspaper comics while his leash-tethered mutt waited, New York City, 1944.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Sportscaster Bill Stern read a newspaper as his Chesapeake Bay retriever sniffed a sidewalk grate, New York City, 1944.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Aspiring actress Jo Ann Kemmerling read a book in the small tub that was set up in the kitchen of her small New York City apartment, 1953.

Nina Leen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The son of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Cyril Christo, read a book during the construction work on “5,600 Cubic Meter Package,” for Documenta IV in Germany, 1968.

Photo by Carlo Bavagnoli/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation.

The children of architect Nathaniel Curtis enjoyed the home he designed: Cathy (left) read on the patio while Francis (center) and David (right) played a game in the living room, New Orleans, 1965.

John Dominis/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

William Gerberding, a U.C.L.A. assistant professor of political science, read while waiting for the bus, 1964.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Soldier smiling while reading mail in a fox hole, 1945.

Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A solider read a letter at the U.S. naval base on Midway Atoll, 1942.

Frank Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A sailor relaxed aboard a US Navy cruiser at sea read a copy of Life magazine, 1942.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

German POWs read on their cots inside one of the prisoner of war barracks at Camp Blanding in Tallahassee, Florida, June 1943

Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Former Japanese war minister Hideki Tojo read in the yard of the Omira prison where he was being held for war crimes, Nov. 1945.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Men talking and reading the newspaper in the local market, Maine, United States, 1942

Bernard Hoffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actress Greer Garson read while relaxing in a hammock near her pool at her Hollywood home, 1943.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

New York City, 1943.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

People reading newspapers with the headlines of the D-Day invasion at the Pershing Square Park, Los Angeles, June 6, 1944.

John Florea/Life Picture Collecrtion/Shutterstock

Woman relaxing on sofa, Phoenix, Az., September 1952.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A teenage babysitter read to the boys she was watching, St. Louis, 1944.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A photo from an essay illustrating Richard Wright’s memoir Black Boy, 1945; to escape the wrath of his grandmother, Wright used to sit behind the barn to read.

Ed Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A father read his daughter the Sunday comics, United States, August 1946.

Nina Leen?Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Department store magnate Bernard F. Gimbel reading his competitor’s advertising, under picture of his wife painted by De Guttman, 1949.

Eliot Elisofon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A barber in a small New England village, 1950.

Yale Joel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Young polio patients read letters from home while gathered around mailroom desk during mail call at FDR’s Georgia Warm Springs Foundation where they were receiving intensive treatment while being boarded there, November 1938..

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Women reading books and newspapers, Atlantic City, N.J., 1941.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Students read and relaxed at the ATO house at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., 1940.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

At the University of Kansas, Kappa Alpha Theta sorority members read letters and newspapers,1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jill Corey’s father, a coal miner in Avonmore, Pa., eagerly reading the first letter home from daughter, who had moved to New York to become a professional singer, 1953.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A high school girl at the Newburyport Free Library in Massachusetts, 1943.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fire Chief Bob Harmon of Hamilton, Ohio reading the newspaper at home while listening to the radio, from the LIFE essay “An American Block” about home life during wartime, 1943.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Children reading the comics, Hamilton, Ohio, October 1943.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actress Sophia Loren read a newspaper by candlelight while in costume for her role in movie Madame Sans-Gene, 1961.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

On a Sunday afternoon in Emporia, Kansas, Sante Fe Railroad timekeeper John Tholen, 52, read newspaper with his wife and two sons, who are Kansas National Guardsmen, on their front porch, 1942.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hair salon, New York City, 1952.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dutch billiards prodigy Renske Quax (left) read comic books with his sister, Holland, 1953.

Nat Farbman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Frenchmen reading newspaper reports of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, 1963.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Out on Hampstead Heath in London, British author Colin Wilson sat underneath a tree wrapped in a sleeping bag, reading a book, 1956.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

At Cumberland Mountain Farms in Scottsboro, Alabama, barefoot young boys sat outside on chairs made from tree sections and read during school, 1936. Cumberland Mountain Farms, like nearby Skyline Farms, was a government-sponsored resettlement project designed to help out-of-work farmers and their families.

Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Novelist Thomas Mann at home, circa 1939.

Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Comedian and actress Phyllis Diller read a copy of Vogue magazine, St. Louis, April 1963.

Francis Miller/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Visitors to TIME’s Reading Room at the Chicago World’s Fair, 1933.

Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Navy crewmen on a submarine, 1939.

Carl Mydans/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A boy read a comic strip while getting a haircut in Garden City, New York in 1942

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Robert Kennedy, then the U.S. attorney general, read a book while walking with his three dogs, 1964.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Warship, 1943.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Anchorage, Alaska, 1958.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Author Hoffman Reynolds Hays read among the shelves, New York City, New York, 1944

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

New York Public Library, 1944.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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