Page 27 – LIFE

Marilyn, Arthur Miller and More: A Star Producer’s Spectacular Orbit

November 17, 2022November 16, 2022 by Bill Syken

If the distinctive name of Kermit Bloomgarden doesn’t ring a bell today, that’s to be expected. Even when he was at the height of his powers in the 1950s, he wasn’t particularly known to the general public—even if his works were.

Bloomgarden was a theatrical producer and a force behind of such enduring classics as Death of a Salesman and The Music Man, along with many other prominent titles, including The Diary of Anne Frank, Look Homeward, Angel, and Equus.

His success explains why LIFE, for a story its December 22, 1958 issue titled “People at the Top of the Entertainment World,” shone its spotlight on Bloomgarden. Wrote LIFE, “Little known to the public, Bloomgarden is unsurpassed at the complex job of choosing plays, directors, actors, and meshing them all together smoothly,”

Bloomgarden’s influence also explains the many stars that appear alongside him in the pictures taken by LIFE photographer Robert W. Kelley. Luminaries shown with Bloomgarden include actor Anthony Perkins, who starred in Look Homeward Angel before moving on to his career-defining role in Psycho. The man who Bloomgarden chose to direct Perkins in that play was George Roy Hill, seen here lunching with Bloomgarden, would go on to direct such movies as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

But the most glamorous figures in Bloomgarden’s orbit were undoubtedly Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe. Bloomgarden had not only produced Miller’s classic Death of a Salesman but also another play of his, A View from the Bridge, in 1955.

And Bloomgarden was connected to Monroe not only through Miller but also through her close friend Susan Strasberg, who was photographed separately by Kelley and had starred in Bloomgarden’s production of The DIary of Anne Frank. In addition to being an actress, Strasberg was the daughter of Lee Strasberg, the legendary acting coach who taught Monroe. In 1992 Susan Strasberg wrote the memoir Marilyn & Me: Sisters, Rivals and Friends.

Kelley’s photos Monroe and Miller hosting Bloomgarden in their Manhattan apartment, sitting in the living room and gathering around the piano for a light-hearted shoot. When these photos were taken, Miller and Monroe were in the middle of what would be a five-year marriage, and they look very much the happy couple. It’s telling of Bloomgarden’s position in his world that he looked very much at home with the most glamorous couple in America—even if the former accountant stayed in his coat and tie.

Broadway producer Kermit Bloomgarden with Arthur Miller (left) and Marilyn Monroe in their Manhattan apartment, 1958.

Robert W. Kelley/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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

Robert W. Kelley/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marilyn Monroe poured a drink in her Manhattan apartment with theatrical producer Kermit Bloomgarden and her husband Arthur Miller in the background, 1958.

Robert W. Kelley/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

In her Manhattan apartment Marilyn Monroe poured a drink with her husband, playwright Arthur Miller (mostly obscured, at extreme left) and theatrical producer Kermit Bloomgardensit in the background, 1958.

Robert W. Kelley/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Theatrical producer Kermit Bloomgarden (right) visiting with playwright Arthur Miller his wife, actress Marilyn Monroe, in their Manhattan apartment, 1958.

Robert W. Kelley/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marilyn Monroe hugging her husband, Arthur Miller in their apartment in New York, 1958.

Robert W. Kelley/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Kermit Bloomgarden visited Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller at their apartment in New York, 1958.

Robert W. Kelley/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Theatrical producer Kermit Bloomgarden visited Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller at their apartment in New York, 1958.

Robert W. Kelley/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Theatrical producer Kermit Bloomgarden with Marilyn Monroe at her New York apartment, 1958.

Robert W. Kelley/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Theatrical producer Kermit Bloomgarden posed in his New York office, 1958.

Robert W. Kelley/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Kermit Bloomgarden visited with Anthony Perkins, who starred in Bloomgarden’s stage production of Look Homeward, Angel.

Robert W. Kelley/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

New York producer Kermit Bloomgarden (right) hugged actress Susan Strasberg in 1958; she played the title role in his production of The Diary of Anne Frank.

Robert W. Kelley/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Producter Kermit Bloomgarden and Susan Strasberg, who had starred in his production of The Diary of Anne Frank, walked in New York City, 1958.

Robert W. Kelley/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

New York producer Kermit Bloomgarden (center) had lunch in 1958 with director George Roy Hill (left) and playwright Ketti Frings (right), who both worked on Bloomgarden’s production of Look Homeward, Angel. The play would earn Frings the Pulitzer Prize.

Robert W. Kelley/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

New York producer Kermit Bloomgarden (R) having dinner with actor Robert Preston (left, and star of Bloomgarden’s The Music Man) and his wife, actor Peter Ustinov (third from left) and actress Celeste Holm (center) at George M. Cohan Corner, 1958.

Robert W. Kelley/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

New York producer Kermit Bloomgarden (center) auditioned dancers, 1958.

Robert W. Kelley/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Inside Volkswagen: The Mass Production of an Automotive Icon

November 16, 2022November 15, 2022 by

Most people who have ever owned a Volkswagen Beetle or, say, an early, split-windshield VW bus or even a Karmann Ghia will swear that those uncomfortable, relatively bare-bones vehicles were among the favorite cars they’ve ever driven. They’re not for everyone, of course but for a certain breed of driver, the old-school VWs offered a rare combination of economy, ease of maintenance (this writer, stranded far from any garage, once repaired a busted accelerator cable on a ’67 bug with 12-pound-test fishing line) and, most importantly, personality that so many other mass-produced automobiles lacked.

The story of Volkswagen, meanwhile, is among the most fascinating and, in some regards, most troubling of any car manufacturer in existence. One well-documented example of VW’s paradoxical history: in its early days, during World War II, Volkswagen used slave labor (the company has admitted as much) to build vehicles for the Nazi war effort; decades later, the archetypal Volkswagens, the Beetle and the Type 2 bus, would become the four-wheeled symbols of the “peace and love” movement of the 1960s. From Hitler to hippies: not many other companies, automobile or otherwise, can lay claim to that sort of stranger-than-fiction corporate narrative.

Here, LIFE.com offers a series of photos made by Walter Sanders at the company’s famous Wolfsburg plant in 1951. A refugee from Hitler’s Germany himself, who fled his native country the same year VW began making cars, Sanders captures in these pictures of the factory and the factory workers a nation in the process of recreating itself. Here, in black and white, is a portrait of the labor and mechanization that would again make Germany (well, West Germany, anyway) one of the world’s most powerful economies before the end of the century.

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

Volkswagen’s main plant, Wolfsburg, Germany, July 1951.

Walter Sanders/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Volkswagen 1951

Walter Sanders Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Volkswagen’s main plant, Wolfsburg, Germany, July 1951.

Walter Sanders/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

People gathered around a VW bus, 1951.

Walter Sanders/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

People gaze through the open roll top of a VW bus, 1951.

Walter Sanders/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A young woman and man beside a VW cabriolet, 1951.

Walter Sanders/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

An ‘Air of Abandonment’: Photos of Julie Christie, 1966

November 16, 2022November 15, 2022 by

Not long after she won the Academy Award in 1966 for Best Actress, for her role as a sexy social climber in Darling, a naturally gorgeous Brit named Julie Christie appeared on the cover of LIFE magazine, which dubbed her an “anti-goddess” for her tomboy style and no-fuss attitude.

LIFE’s Paul Schutzer had trailed Christie, then just 25 years old, as she filmed her next high-profile film: Fahrenheit 451, directed by the French New Wave auteur François Truffaut. (For unknown reasons, the shot that editors selected for the April 29, 1966, cover was not by Schutzer, after all, but by Iranian photographer Hatami.)

Making the adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel was a huge undertaking for both the British actress and her French director: Christie was pulling double duty, cast in both the lead female roles, and Truffaut—who had built his name in 1959 with the seminal Les Quatre Cents Coups (The 400 Blows)—was taking a risk helming his first English-language film. (It would turn out to be his last.) Still, a sense of calm and respect ruled the set, according to notes filed by Paul Schutzer: “Truffaut seldom approaches her. He uses the formal ‘vous’ to Julie as he does with everyone. Everybody’s aware of his shyness and also aware of his potential warmth. It’s anticipation of this warmth that brings out the best in his team.”

As for Christie’s own work ethic and her attitude toward her craft: “I feel no difference between me acting and not acting,” she told LIFE. “There’s only one Christie. But I know I’m never more myself than when acting, because I put all of myself into it.”

“A mere three years ago,” LIFE wrote of Christie, “she was an unnoticed bit player, and she’s still pinned to a movie contract that calls for wages like those an old-time film goddess paid her second chauffeur. Julie represents a new spectrum of actresses the anti-goddesses but do not confuse her with just any jaunty gamine frugging on the dance floor of a discotheque. On screen, as the 2,700 movie pros who voted her the Oscar know, she burns with a nervous energy that lights up the house.”

At the time of the shoot, Christie was living with her boyfriend of about three years, an artist named Don Bessant. “I don’t suppose I’ll ever want anyone but Don, but marriage it’s like signing your life away,” she told LIFE. By 1967 the couple had split, and Christie was in a relationship with Warren Beatty, who would later remark that she was “the most beautiful and at the same time the most nervous person” he had ever known.

“For men, I don’t think it’s sexiness in me that appeals to them, but an air of abandonment,” Christie told LIFE. “Men don’t want responsibilities and neither do I.”

Despite her early misgivings about marriage, Christie did eventually marry—in 2008, she and her longtime partner, journalist Duncan Campbell, tied the knot.

“There’s still one important thing for me to do: learn,” Christie told LIFE in 1966. “I’ve got so little control over myself that adrenaline simply flows. I’m awkward, the type who always does things wrong.” But what may have felt wrong to her was all right in the eyes of her peers and critics: She was nominated for a BAFTA Award the British equivalent of an Oscar for her dual performance in Fahrenheit 451, and has been an Academy Award nominee twice in the decades since.

Not all of Paul Schutzer’s photos from 1966 moody gems showing the actress on and off the Fahrenheit 451 set made it to print. Now, LIFE.com brings to light these pictures of the film icon and thinking filmgoer’s sex symbol in her prime.

ulie Christie beside costar Oskar Werner in a scene from Farhenheit 451.

Paul Schutzer/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Julie Christie, 1966.

Paul Schutzer/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Julie Christie took direction from Francois Truffaut on the Fahrenheit 451 set in London, 1966.

Paul Schutzer/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Julie Christie, 1966

Paul Schutzer/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Julie Christie, 1966.

Paul Schutzer/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Julie Christie in hair and makeup, 1966.

Paul Schutzer/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Julie Christie, 1966.

Paul Schutzer/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Julie Christie with photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt, Paul Schutzer’s LIFE colleague.

Paul Schutzer/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

“I’m just in love with cinema,” Christie told LIFE. “In the theater no one in the house will forgive you if you break the spell. In cinema you can always go over something wrong—go deeper, dig further, stretch wider.”

Paul Schutzer/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

“I love and adore acting, but I hate the trimmings,” she told LIFE—but Christie became a fashion icon anyway, here representing that swinging-’60s look out of London.

Paul Schutzer/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Julie Christie, 1966.

Paul Schutzer/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

“I’ve got something of a frustrated quiz kid in me,” Christie confessed to LIFE. “I never read enough. Novels simply don’t interest me. I like history because it’s based on facts.”

Paul Schutzer/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Julie Christie on set, 1966.

Paul Schutzer/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

“I arranged a fake lunch with the two of them,” LIFE photographer Schutzer wrote in his notes of creating this photo op between the very shy Truffaut (who spoke very little English) and his star Christie.

Paul Schutzer/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Though she called it the “greatest place for a holiday,” Christie told LIFE back in ’66 that she had no desire to work in Hollywood: “I feel very strongly European.”

Paul Schutzer/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Julie Christie, 1966.

Paul Schutzer/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

The American Northwest: Vintage Color Photos From an Epic Road Trip

November 16, 2022November 14, 2022 by

In August 1961, LIFE magazine published an ambitious, 10-page tribute to the American Northwest with the dramatic title: “Where God Sat When He Made America.” The title of the article, LIFE claimed, was inspired by a phrase uttered by an awe-struck visitor to Glacier National Park. Now, there’s nothing unusual, cheesy or suspect about the deep emotions that grand vistas can inspire in most anyone. Teddy Roosevelt, after all, reportedly wept upon first seeing Yosemite Valley.

And we can say this about the brilliant color photographs in this gallery, shot by long-time LIFE staffer J.R. Eyerman: they’re wonderful.

When he was a boy, Eyerman took thousands of pictures in Yellowstone, Glacier and other national parks while traveling and camping with his dad. Decades later, the professional photographer spent weeks in late 1960 traveling throughout Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Washington, and even as far south as San Francisco for the magazine’s tribute to “the stunning majesty of the Northwest.”

We hope you enjoy the view.

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Yosemite Valley, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Golden Gate Bridge, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

At Yosemite National Park, four bucks gathered to drink at the edge of the Merced Rover under the rock formations of El Capitan (far left) and North Dome (center, right).

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

he Grand Coulee Dam in Washington intercepted the Columbia River and sent its waters rushing down the 1,650-foot-wide spillway.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Northwest’s Pacific coast, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Roadside picnic, fall 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Driving through the famed Wawona Tree (est. 2,300 years old), Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park, 1960. The tree fell in 1969.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Anatomy of a Murder: On the Set of a Cinema Classic

November 11, 2022November 11, 2022 by Bill Syken

The 1959 film Anatomy of a Murder has aged remarkably well, perhaps because it was so ahead of its time, both because of its nuanced depiction of the legal process and its anticipation of the popularity of stories that draw from true crime. The film is based on a novel written by the district attorney who tried the case that inspired the story, and that helps explain why Anatomy of a Murder is rated as one of the top-ten courtroom dramas ever by both the American Film Institute and the American Bar Association.

The pedigree of the film is world class. The movie stars Jimmy Stewart as the defense attorney in the case, Ben Gazzara as a soldier on trial for murder—one that he admits to, but claims that he is not legally responsible for because had gone temporarily insane after learning about the rape of his wife (played by Lee Remick). The movie was directed by Otto Preminger and the music was done by jazz legend Duke Ellington, who also makes a cameo in the movie. The film would be nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Stewart) and twice for best Supporting Actor (for both George C. Scott, who played the prosecutor, and Arthur O’Connell, who portrayed Stewart’s alcoholic friend).

But what inspired LIFE to send photographer Gjon Mili to document the making of Anatomy of a Murder was not any of the big-name cinematic talents involved. Rather it the presence of attorney Joseph Welch, who became famous for dressing down Sen. Joseph McCarthy during televised Senate hearings, memorably asking him, “Have you no sense of decency?”

In Anatomy of a Murder, Preminger cast Welch in the role of the judge.

LIFE’s story, headlined “Joe Welch In Juicy New Role,” was focussed on the acting efforts of the star attorney. “Unlike most celebrities who have been lured from the outside world, Welch took the job seriously.” LIFE wrote. “If anything, Preminger had to hold him down. After Welch had given his own interpretation of how to overrule an objection, Preminger suggested gently that a movie audience might grow somewhat restive if the camera dwelled so long upon one actor staring into space, however remarkable the play of emotion on the actor’s face.”

Even though LIFE’s primary focus at the time was Welch, Mili ranged widely enough to create a valuable document of the making of a cinema classic. When the Criterion Collection issued its DVD version of the movie, the LIFE story was included in the Blu-Ray version, and an extra feature on Mili’s LIFE photographs was included in all editions.

Ben Gazzara, Jimmy Stewart, Lee Remick, and George C. Scott (right to left) in the 1959 film Anatomy of a Murder.

Gjon Mili/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

George C. Scott, Joseph Welch and Lee Remick in the 1959 film Anatomy of a Murder.

Gjon Mili/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Attorney Joseph N. Welch as Judge Weaver in a scene from the 1959 movie Anatomy of a Murder.

Gjon Mili/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Director Otto Preminger was behind camera as Joseph Welch, a famed attorney from the McCarthy hearings, played the role of the judge during filming of Anatomy of a Murder.

Gjon Mili/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jimmy Stewart was coached by a dialogue director during the filming of Anatomy of a Murder.

Gjon Mili/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Otto Preminger (center) and actor Murray Hamilton (in the witness stand) on set of Anatomy of a Murder.

Gjon Mili/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Duke Ellington (right), who did the music for Anatomy of a Murder, played piano with John D. Voelker, who wrote the book on which the film was based.

Gjon Mili/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Attorney Joseph Welch, who plays Judge Weaver in film Anatomy of a Murder, with his wife (left) and actress Lee Remick and her infant daughter in their hotel room on location in Michigan.

Gjon Mili/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Lee Remick (foreground) had her hair done for a scene of Anatomy of a Murder. Actress Eve Arden, who played the secretary for Jimmy Stewart’s lawyer character, sat knitting in the background

Gjon Mili/LIFE Picture Collection/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

George C. Scott, Jimmy Stewart, Lee Remick and Joseph Welch (left to right) acted out a contentious cross-examination in the 1959 movie Anatomy of a Murder.

Gjon Mili/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jimmy Stewart (left) and Ben Gazzara in a scene from the 1959 movie Anatomy of a Murder.

Gjon Mili/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Lee Remick in a scene from the 1959 film Anatomy of a Murder.

Gjon Mili/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Otto Preminger (center) discussed a scene with Jimmy Stewart and other actors on set during the filming of Anatomy of a Murder.

Gjon Mili/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Movie executive Sam Goldwyn (right) visited director Otto Preminger on the set of the 1959 film Anatomy of a Murder.

Gjon Mili/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Otto Preminger looked at stray cats while attending Venice Film Festival at which his film Anatomy of a Murder was shown.

Gjon Mili/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actress Lee Remick on location for the 1959 film Anatomy of a Murder.

Gjon Mili/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Serious Drinking: LIFE at a Martini Contest

November 10, 2022November 10, 2022 by Bill Syken

The writer H.L. Mencken memorably described the martini as the only American invention as perfect as a sonnet.

The cocktail, invented in the second half of the 19th century, came into its heyday in the 20th Century, and it was the signature cocktail of the era in which the original LIFE magazine was published, from 1936 to 1972. Martinis frequently show up in cultural representations of those days, savored by the doctors of M*A*S*H during the Korean war and guzzled by the ad executives of Mad Men in the 1960s. This lengthy YouTube disquisition on Roger Sterling’s martini drinking is a good primer on its cultural significance.

In the Dec. 10, 1951 issue of LIFE—which featured one of the magazine’s odder covers, on the fashion evolution of Harry Truman— the editors ran a story on a contest for the best new martini recipe. The tone of the story was tongue-in-cheek disapproval of anyone who dared to tinker with the classic formula of four parts gin and one part vermouth, and it carried the headline, “Martini Heresy: Prize Recipes Will Have Purists Giving Up Their Gin for Ginger Beer.”

The contest was held at Chicago’s La Salle Hotel and sponsored by a local liquor dealer. The judges, all older men with the bearing of humorless villains in a Marx Brothers movie—considered 240 variations on the martini formula, though the actual taste-testing seems to have been limited to the 25 most promising ideas.

The winner of the contest used a recipe that was described by LIFE as “comparatively simple” and succeeded thanks to original details that were really minor tweaks: an olive stuffed with anchovy and a glass rinsed with Cointreau.

The story ended with a quote from one of the mixologists that was as somber as their attire: “The improvement of Martinis in this country is a noble cause.” But do let it be noted that, going by the pictures, by the end of the judging all those martinis seemed to have loosened up the crowd.

A martini recipe contest in Chicago, 1951.

Francis Miller/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

At a 1951 martini recipe contest in Chicago, one version featured three drops of tequila as its special ingredient.

Francis MillerLIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

One entrant in a martini recipe contest rubbed garlic around the rim of the glass, 1951.

Francis MillerLIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Judges tested the entries at a martini recipe contest held at Chicago’s La Salle Hotel, 1951.

Francis MillerLIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

During a martini competition at Chicago’s La Salle Hotel, a line of men prepared the cocktails as the judges (at left) watched,1951.

Francis MillerLIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

During a martini competition at the La Salle Hotel in Chicago, judge George Anderson toasted the finalists, 1951.

Francis MillerLIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A judge at work during a martini competition at the La Salle Hotel in Chicago, 1951.

Francis MillerLIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

During a martini competition at the La Salle Hotel in Chicago, a man added vermouth to a bottle of gin as he prepared his recipe, 1951.

Francis MillerLIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Judges at a martini recipe contest at the La Salle Hotel in Chicago, 1951.

Francis MillerLIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Three drink mixers tried singing in harmony after test tasting martinis at a 1951 contest in Chicago. Said one, “The improvement of Martinis in this country is a noble cause.”

Francis MillerLIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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Serious Drinking: LIFE at a Martini Contest

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