Page 25 – LIFE

Face of a Fighter: A Special Pearl Harbor Story

November 14, 2023 by Bill Syken

In 1961 LIFE magazine decided to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Pearl Harbor by focussing not on how it changed the world, but how it altered the life of one man.

Harold Lumbert was a civilian living thousands of miles away when Japanese pilots bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. He was 21 years old and working on an assembly line in Aurora, Illinois. He had been married for eight months and his wife Burnette was pregnant with their first child, a son named David.

But Pearl Harbor drew the United States into World War II, and eventually Lumbert into the Marines, by way of the draft. He was shipped overseas in November 1944. And he became one of 670,846 Americans who were wounded during the war.

During fighting at Iwo Jima, he was hit by a Japanese shell that tore away the flesh at the front of his skull, broke his lower jaw in seven places and also ripped the nerves at the base of his neck. He was sure he was about to die, and he wondered to himself, “How is Burnette going to bring up the kid?”

Lumbert didn’t die, but he would stay in hospitals into 1947, enduring 33 major operations and countless smaller procedures, in an effort to put his face back together.

As one operation followed another, with painful missteps along the way, Lumbert became increasingly worried about what he looked like—and he had no idea, not only because he was bandaged but also because, to his great frustration, the hospital staff kept him away from mirrors. Finally, in the office of the dentist who had been working on his jaw, with his bandages off, Lumbert slid down in the chair to get a look at himself in the reflection of the metal instrument tray. The dentist, seeing what he was doing, relented and gave Lumbert a proper mirror:

The doctor watched and said nothing while Lumbert stared into the mirror at an apparition that was mostly a hole from the sockets of its burning eyes down. The remaining flesh hung shapeless because there was no longer an upper jaw nor much of the front of the skull to support it. A framework of aluminum bars was fastened to the skull with screws and looped down to give some kind of alignment to the fragments of the lower jaw. The sight, the doctor knew, could destroy a man; he prayed that it would not destroy this one.

Lumbert’s face was rebuilt, and so too, slowly, was his life. He eventually returned to Aurora and his job on the assembly line. Lumbert had feared his wife would leave him, given his disfigurement, but Burnette stayed by his side, and their family grew. They would have three more children, though in a tragic accident their first-born, David, died in 1953, at age 10, after falling from a tree and fracturing his skull.

LIFE devoted 18 pages to Lumbert’s story. The photographs, taken by George Silk, show Lumbert with his wife and three daughters, and with friends, partaking in the satisfactions of everyday life. What SIlk’s photographs do not show, however, is Lumbert’s face. Silk photographed Lumbert from behind or over the shoulder, or with Lumbert’s face in the shadows.

The choice not to show Lumbert’s face is a powerful one because of what Silk does capture in abundance: the friends and family who are enjoying Lumbert’s company. Especially when Lumbert is with his daughters, their eyes are looking at him with love.

In the story Lumbert talked about how he enjoyed the company of his daughter’s friends, because kids had an easier time with his appearance. “If you grab the chance, you can make a friend out of a youngster before she knows what’s happening,” Lumbert explained. “Once that’s done, she thinks of you as a friend and it won’t even occur to her that you look different from anybody else.”

It’s the real message of Silk’s photos: how Lumbert looks matters less than how the people in his life see him. That message is brought home by the story’s closing lines:

By now Lumbert fully understands the special vision which allows children to see beyond the face of a man. As he watches his daughters happily shuffle through the family album and talk about the photographs of their father as he was long ago, he knows that they know that the two faces belong to the same man.

Harold Lumbert and wife Burnette with their son David, before Lumbert deployed to the Pacific in World War II.

Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marine Private Harold Lumbert on his last leave in 1944 before he deployed to the Pacific in World War II.

Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

$David Lumbert, son of World War II veteran Harold Lumbert, at age 5. David died in 1953 at age 10, after falling from a tree and fracturing his skull.$

David Lumbert, son of World War II veteran Harold Lumbert, at age 5. David died in 1953 at age 10, after falling from a tree and fracturing his skull.

Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert operated a fork lift at work in Aurora, Illinois, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert with daughter Joann, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert consoled his daughter Sue, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Joann Lumbert gets help with homework from her father, World War II veteran Harold Lumbert, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert held the hand of his daughter Sue just before her bedtime, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert and his daughter Sue, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert with daughter Sue, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert played with his daughter Sue, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert drove with his daughter Sue, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert said grace with his wife Burnette and his three daughters (left to right): Patricia Ann (14), wife Bernadette, Virginia Sue (5), and, mostly hidden by her father, Joann May (11).

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert with his three daughters, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert talked with a neighbor, George Glass, with whom he felt at ease, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert and his family hosted a dance party in their home, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Harold Lumbert with his daughter Joann Lumbert (right) as she and a friend ride a go-kart, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

World War II veteran Harold Lumbert walked with wife Bernadette and daughters Sue and Patricia, 1961.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Commuting Never Looked So Good

November 17, 2023November 10, 2023 by Bill Syken

The 1950s and ’60s are the decades in which the suburbs really took off as a feature of the American landscape. So LIFE was catching the early part of the wave In 1949 when it devoted 11 photo-rich pages to Fairfield County, Connecticut. LIFE deemed Fairfield County as the hot new locale for people who wanted to work in New York City but also sleep in a place were you could hear crickets outside your window. Old farmhouses were being bought up and renovated into country homes for successful New Yorkers.

Here’s how LIFE described the phenomenon, noting that Fairfield County was not the first place that New Yorkers had taken over, looking to build lives that combined the best aspects of city and country living:

Because of its distance from New York, Fairfield County is chiefly reserved for well-to-do commuters. So thousands of successful New Yorkers, attracted by the rolling hills, the leisurely life and other New Yorkers, have flocked to towns like Greenwich, Darien, Westport and Redding. A similar migration took place near the turn of the century to Long Island’s swank North Shore and after World War I to Westchester County, New York, now overcrowded. Today it is in Fairfield County that New Yorkers sail their boats, ride their horses, drive around in their station wagons and lead a luxurious rural life.

LIFE staff photographer Nina Leen captured the mix of lifestyles to be found in Fairfield County as the newly arrived businessmen mixed in with farmers and also artsier types such as magazine illustrators and classical music conductors. (As so often happens, the bohemians had discovered Fairfield County decades earlier, thus paving the way for the arrival of the executive class.) One photo of a boy on horseback looks like it could have been shot it Colorado. Meanwhile another, of a lawn party in which the men are wearing suits and bring brought drinks by a butler, is a reminder that the city is not far off.

The signature photos of the set are the ones Leen shot at the Darien train station, where a wife and her young children waited for the man of the house, an insurance executive, to return from his job in the city. The train was set to arrive at 6:26; the children, ages 3 and 2, were in their pajamas because they were going to be put to bed as soon as dad got home.

The photo of the wife greeting her husband with a kiss echoes one of the most famous images in the history of LIFE: Alfred Eisenstadt’s iconic V-J Day Kiss shot of a solder celebrating the end of combat in World War II. Four years later, this insurance executive had his homecoming every day.

The daily commute, the story noted, could be a grind. “The commuter’s day revolves around the 7:43 to New York in the morning and the 5:16 out at night. But for the New Yorkers who can—or think they can—afford a country home, Fairfield County is probably the best—and the newly fashionable—place to have it.”

All these decades later Fairfield County remains popular, though it is inevitably less bucolic. Today the county is home to four of the seven largest cities in Connecticut.

Chemical executive H.S. Richardson (center) enjoys cocktails with his family in Fairfield County, Connecticut, 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

At the Fairfield County, Conn., home of chemical executive H.S. Richardson, children played, under watch of a nurse, on sand that was brought in to a naturally rocky shoreline, 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Franklin P. Adams, a newspaper columnist and radio personality, stood beside his 17 year old, air cooled Franklin, which he said he liked because it did not freeze when left at the train station on a winter’s day, Fairfield County, Connecticut,1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A boy riding the only horse in the neighborhood in Fairfield County, Connecticut, 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Printing executive Nelson Macy hosted neighbors on his property in Fairfield County, Connecticut, 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Noted musical conductor Fritz Reiner moved to Fairfield County, Connecticut, in 1938; when he was conducting at the Met he stayed at his apartment in New York City.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A new arrival to Westport, 37-year-old executive James Donovan (left) exemplified the suburban growth in Fairfield County, Connecticut, 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Socialites getting ready for a barbecue picnic in Fairfield County, Connecticut, 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

From a 1949 story on Fairfield County, Connecticut.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

(left to right) Robert T. Vanderbilt, David S. Starring, Frederick T. Bedford and Charles S. Munson played golf at the Country Club in Fairfield, 1949. When this photo ran in LIFE it was annotated with the long list of boards each man served on.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

James Earle Fraser and his wife wheeling massive pieces of the sculpture onto an outside platform at their Fairfield County home; Fraser was the designer of the buffalo nickel.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Stevan Dohanos, who had drawn many cover illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post, painting in Westport, Connecticut, 1949; the man to his right is George Weising, who Dohanos frequently used as a model.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Helen Hokinson, a cartoonist for New Yorker magazine, in Fairfield County, Connecticut, 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actress Eva Le Gallienne relaxed on the property on her 15-acre farmhouse in 1949; at the time of LIFE’s story on Fairfield County she had been a resident there for 22 years.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Eddie Dowling (center) and Meg Mundy (behind him), rehearsing the community theater production `Time of Your Life’ in Westport, in Fairfield, Connecticut, 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Walter P. Jacob, who also worked as a management consultant in New York, operated a sheep farm in Fairfield County, Connecticut, 1949. The farm was at that point a money-loser, largely because the land was so expensive.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Walter P. Jacob holding two of his pedigreed sheep in Fairfield County, Connecticut, 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Daphne Jacob feeding the pheasants on her father’s farm in Fairfield County, Connecticut, 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Kids swimming in Walter P. Jacob’s stone swimming pool in Fairfield County, Connecticut, 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A gentleman farmer showing the ladies the hornless cows in Fairfield County, Connecticut, 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A large Mount Vernon type home running along the Gold Coast in Fairfield County, Connecticut, 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

From a 1949 story on the Fairfield, Connecticut.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

From a 1949 story on Fairfield County, Connecticut.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A cobbler’s bench, from a 1949 story on Fairfield County, Connecticut.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An old window pane showing the irregularity in the glass, from a 1949 story on Fairfield County, Connecticut.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A split-rail fence, from a 1949 story on Fairfield County, Connecticut.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A bottle of Kant-Burn, standing amidst a pile of fire proofed hay, from a 1949 story on Fairfield County, Connecticut.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

From a 1949 story on the Fairfield, Connecticut.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A beagle, from a 1949 story on Fairfield County, Connecticut.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

From a 1949 story on the Fairfield, Connecticut.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The sun shining on the highest peaks of the large stone mansion in Fairfield County, Connecticut, 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dark green bushes and trees surrounding a stone mansion in Fairfield County, Connecticut, 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A new Ford Station wagon, from a 1949 story on Fairfield County, Connecticut.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Wealthy businessman playing cards in the club car during the ride in the New Haven railroad, 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A wife waited with her children for her commuter husband to come home at the train station on Darien, Connecticut, 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A husband returns home from his commute at a railway station in Darien, Connecticut, July 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A family reunites on a train station platform in Darien, Connecticut as dad returns from his job in New York City, 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paul Newman: Now There Was a Star

November 7, 2023 by Bill Syken

In 1967 LIFE photographer Mark Kauffman followed Paul Newman around for what turned out to be the the cover story of the Oct. 18, 1968 issue. The occasion of the story was the release of Rachel, Rachel, which was the directorial debut for Newman and a passion project for both he and his wife Joanne Woodward, who starred in the ambitious drama, a portrait of a 35-year-old single schoolteacher.

Kaufman’s shoot resulted in a bonanza of publicity for a movie that was not overly commercial. While LIFE’s gushing cover story hailed the movie as a “triumph,” the magazine’s review of Rachel, Rachel, which ran in an issue two weeks prior, regarded the film as an honorable misfire, and suggested that it only got made because Newman was hot off the success of Cool Hand Luke: “They apparently encountered enormous difficulties in obtaining the relatively modest backing they required, and it was not until Miss Woodward’s husband put his plentiful clout behind it by agreeing to direct it that they could go ahead.”

We know now that Rachel, Rachel, whatever its merits, did not leave a major mark on popular culture. (That is, unless its title decades later somehow inspired Rochelle, Rochelle, the fictional art-house movie that was a running gag in the TV show Seinfeld).

But viewed more than a half-century later, the photos of Mark Kauffman tell a story that has little to do with Rachel, Rachel. The story is actually bigger. It is, in so many words:

This is what a movie star looks like.

Kaufman’s photos show this because Newman was so generous in giving Kauffman time and access, not just on the movie set but as Newman enjoyed such pastimes as fishing, playing pool and visiting the garage that was working on a race car of his. Whether Newman was chatting with mechanics or posing with a trophy fish, he always looked like a movie star—perhaps even more so when he was sharing the frame with everyday humans.

(For another example of star power, check another great LIFE photoshoot, this one of Robert Redford, who would be Newman’s co-star in the 1969 classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.)

In recent years a fair amount of digital ink has been spilled on the topic of “Where have all the movie stars gone” (See articles such as this one and this one and this one). The perception that we don’t have movie stars like we used to is in part the result of the changing nature of media, but the appearance of these stories also has to do with the penchant for click-bait headlines, because of course we still have movie stars. If you don’t believe it, ask Margot Robbie. Or at least her agent.

But maybe the point is this: when Paul Newman was in his prime, and even though his IMDB page has plenty of commercial misfires on it, no one would have considered asking where all the movie stars had gone.

Paul Newman leans against a tree in the Florida Keys during the filming of his directorial debut, the movie ‘Rachel Rachel,’ Florida, 1967.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paul Newman n the Florida Keys during the filming of his directorial debut, the movie ‘Rachel Rachel,’ Florida, 1967.

Mark Kauffman/Life PIcture Collection/Shutterstock

Paul Newman, holding monocular on his fishing trip in Florida Keys, Florida, United States, 1967.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paul Newman on a fishing trip in the Florida Keys, 1967.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paul Newman in the Florida Keys with guide Jake Muller (left) and friend Mike Hyman, 1967.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paul Newman on a Key West fishing trip, 1967.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paul Newman fishing in the Florida Keys, 1967.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paul Newman during his fishing trip in Florida Keys, 1967.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paul Newman during a fishing trip in the Florida Keys, 1967.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paul Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward, 1967.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paul Newman at an event, 1967.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward during the filming of his movie “Rachel, Rachel,” 1967.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paul Newman directing a child actor during the filming of “Rachel, Rachel,” 1967.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paul Newman during the filming of “Rachel, Rachel,” 1967.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paul Newman during the filming of his directorial debut “Rachel, Rachel,” 1967.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paul Newman (center) with men working on his racing car, a Volkswagen bug, 1967.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paul Newman spoke with a mechanic about his racing car, 1967.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paul Newman talked with a mechanic about his racing car, 1967.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paul Leonard Newman playing pool, 1967.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paul Newman playing pool, 1967.

Mark Kauffman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Dees Triplets: One Fascinating Look

October 20, 2023 by Bill Syken

The Dees sisters first appeared in LIFE in 1950, in an ad for Nabisco shredded wheat, when the eye-grabbing identical triplets were just five years old. Then in 1956 the triplets from New York City came before the camera of estimable LIFE staff photographer Nina Leen, who chronicled the signpost style moment when Christina, Katha and Megan had their pigtails shorn in favor of a shorter style.

And in 1964, the triplets made their biggest splash in LIFE, with their hair once again a topic of interest. The story was headlined “New York’s Dees Triplets Import a New Hairdo: Sleek and Straight and Hide an Eye.”

The triplets had gone to Europe and came back with a new look that was especially attention-getting when seen in triplicate. “Now 19, Christina, Katha and Megan with identical eye-obscuring hairdos by London’s Vidal Sassoon—which they like so much that they are willing to sacrifice individuality,” LIFE wrote. At that time Vidal Sassoon was just beginning his rise to prominence, and the year after this LIFE story came out, he would open his first salon in New York City.

Leen’s photos, while showcasing their new hairdos, and also presented the triplets in a variety of youthful fashions. But after this LIFE appearance the Dees sisters didn’t leave much of a public trace. Among the relatively few other fashion photos that can be found online is this fun shot of them standing in front of an image of the Beatles, taken by.the noted fashion photographer and film director Jerry Schatzberg.

It’s certainly not hard to why the Dees triplets captured the public’s attention, for as long as they were in it.

Triplets Christina Dees (left), Katha Dees (center) and Megan Dees modeling their braids before getting haircuts, 1956.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Dees triplets in braids, before they got their har cut, 1956.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Triplets Christina, Katha, and Megan Dees getting their hair cut, 1956.

Nina Leen/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Dees triplets under hairdryers at a salon, 1956.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Triplets Christina Dees (left), Katha Dees (center) and Megan Dees modeling their new, shorter haircuts, 1956.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Christina Dees (left), Katha Dees (center) and. Megan Dees (right) modeled new hairstyles done by Vidal Sassoon, 1964

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Dees triplets modeled identical organdy jacket dresses, 1964.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Dees triplets modeled slim crepe dresses that were “great for dancing,” 1964.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Christina Dees (left), Katha Dees (center) and Megan Dees (right) modeling their new hairstyles,1964.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Dees triplets wore striped knit pullovers and pleated skirts while making a nod to individuality with the way they wore the brims of their straw hats, 1964.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Dees triplets—Christina, Katha, and Megan—model knit pullovers with pleated skirts, 1964.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Dees triplets modeled cotton beach dresses, 1964.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Dees triplets posed in identical beach dresses, 1964.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Christina Dees (left, in overblouse), Katha Dees (center, in hooded dress), and Megan Dees (right), May 1964

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Insider’s View: LIFE Goes Backstage with the Stars

October 17, 2023 by Bill Syken

In this collection of backstage pictures captured by LIFE photographers over the years, there’s a great variety of stars in all kinds of situations. But the recurring themes are those of intimacy and surprise.

Some moments are beautiful because they are quiet, like the glimpses of Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn before they went on stage together at the Oscars. Or the photo of Sammy Davis Jr. eating spaghetti and watching the news on television. Or burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee sitting at a typewriter while in costume before she performs one of her strip-teases.

Or consider the photo of the cast of The Honeymooners all sitting and waiting, Jackie Gleason with his ankle on ice. It’s funny to see the cast of this all-time great sitcom together without a smile on their faces, or any expression at all, really. Each of these photos their own way feels like a glimpse of reality.

Some photos offer curious juxtapositions, such as Johnny Cash, dressed in his trademark black, coming backstage at production of the musical Annie. Same with Frank Zappa and his family posing with the cast of Broadway show Cats. You can also find unexpected couplings, such as Lucille Ball visiting with Shirley Maclaine in her dressing room, or James Dean helping actress Geraldine Page with her hair.

Also intriguing are the images of stars just before they go onstage. This gallery includes shots of Alec Guinness and Albert Finney before they have leapt into character, and singer Paul Anka stretched out across two beds, They are about to cross the bridge from private person to public performer, and give their audiences the performances they came for.

Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly backstage at the RKO Pantages Theatre during the 28th Annual Academy Awards, 1956.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Award presenters Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly waiting backstage at the RKO Pantages Theatre during the 28th Annual Academy Awards, 1956.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sammy Davis Jr. ate spaghetti in his backstage dressing room while watching The Huntley-Brinkley Report news show in 1964. “My only contact with reality,” he told LIFE. “Whatever I’m doing, I stop to watch these guys.” Reflected in the mirror: LIFE photographer Leonard McCombe.

Leonard McCombe/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Paul Anka, backstage at the Copacabana, 1960.

Peter Stackpole The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Albert Finney backstage during a production of the play Luther, 1963.

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Elvis Presley tenderly kissing the cheek of a female admirer backstage before his concert, 1956.

Robert W. Kelley The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ray Charles backstage talking with Eric Burdon and the Animals, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Shirley MacLaine preparing to perform the TV show “Shower of Stars” in 1955.

Loomis Dean The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Shirley MacLaine and Lucille Ball backstage during a benefit show for victims of the devastating Isewan typhoon, 1959.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marcia Diamond (right) watched as her husband Neil clipped their son Jessie’s nails in a dressing room at the Winter Garden Theatre, 1972.

MICHAEL MAUNEY/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee writes in her dressing room in Memphis, Tenn., 1949.

George Skadding/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Bobby Darin in his dressing room, 1959.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dustin Hoffman in his dressing room for the play (which he also directed), Jimmy Shine, New York City, 1969.

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mae West backstage at the Hotel Sahara with one of the co-stars of her Las Vegas show, 1954.

Loomis Dean/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

James Dean with the great Geraldine Page in her dressing room, New York City, 1955.

Dennis Stock—Magnum

Betty Grable, in her dressing room at 20th Century-Fox studios, pulled on black mesh stockings for a scene that would feature her famous legs, 1943.

Walter Sanders 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

The Honeymooners cast—Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, Audrey Meadows and Joyce Andrews—in 1954.

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Images Collection/Shutterstock

Chorus girls watching the Ed Sullivan television show at the Roxy Movie Theater dressing room, 1958.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Alec Guinness put on theatrical makeup at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, Canada, 1953.

Peter Stackpole/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy relaxing in dressing room, waiting for show to begin, 1942.

John Florea/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Movie director Vincent Sherman (right) with actor Paul Newman in dressing room reviewing lines for the legal drama The Young Philadelphians, 1958.

Leonard McCombe/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Johnny Cash, with stepson John (right), posed with Annie star Alison Smith and Sandy at a Broadway production of musical, 1981.

DMI/Shutterstock

(Center, left-to-right) Musician Frank Zappa and children Moon Unit and Dweezil visited backstage at the Broadway musical Cats in 1983; the cast included actress Betty Buckley (center, bottom).

David Mcgough/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

When Nuns Got Into The Television Habit

October 11, 2023 by Bill Syken

The 1950s is known as The Golden Age of Television because in those early days of the medium, the programming veered more toward high culture, with stage dramas and orchestra performances coming through the airwaves along with vaudeville-type shows and the earliest sitcoms and dramas.

It was in this era that a group of Boston nuns decided that television might be just the medium for them. In its Aug. 19, 1955 issue LIFE wrote about how these nuns were learning the new technology, hoping it would be a tool for education:

Twenty lively nuns overran a studio full of cameras, lights, microphones and monitors last week and became wise in the worldly ways of television. Parochial school teachers, they were learning the technical tricks of the TV trade from working professionals and expecting that they will regularly receive and produce educational telecasts for their schools. On WIHS-TV, set up by the Boston archdiocese as a closed circuit, they worked in front of and behind the cameras, staged commercials they wrote, tossed cues, directed skits, and combined all their talents in a convent-cast version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

LIFE photographer Grey Villet was there to capture the spectacle, and it makes for some delightful pictures. Not too long ago a professor at UC-Davis wrote a serious academic paper on the topic of why nuns are so funny. But Villet’s pictures, especially the ones of the nuns are acting out a Snow White skit, capture perfectly the memorable juxtapositions than can result when these holy women immerse themselves in the modern world.

The nuns’ ambitious for their productions were obviously narrow, with their focus on teaching. But the scenes of the nuns in front of the camera call to mind that the most most famous nun ever on television was The Flying Nun, a sitcom starring Sally Field that ran from 1967 to 1970, when the Golden Age of Television had given way to a world of popular entertainment..

A group of nuns learning how to make television programming at a Boston TV station, 1955.

Grey Villet/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Nuns learned about making educational programming at a Boston TV station, 1955.

Grey Villet/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Three nuns in praying position while in front of the TV cameras on a TV set where they were making educational television, 1955.

Grey Villet/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A nun acted out a makeshift TV commercial, featuring a joke about the pocket size of nuns’ habits, during a workshop at a Boston TV studio, 1955.

Grey Villet/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A group of nuns learning how to make television programming at a Boston TV station, 1955.

Grey Villet/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Nuns learned about making educational programming at a Boston television station, 1955.

Grey Villet/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A TV workshop for nuns including filming a skit based on Snow White, 1955.

Grey Villet/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

View of five nuns, each with a paper makes that depicts one of the Seven Dwarfs, as they perform under a boom microphone, August 13, 1955

Grey Villet/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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