Easter Fashion Fun: Making Clothes For the Whole Giant Family

The April 7, 1952 issue of LIFE featured one of the magazine’s most iconic covers—a photograph of a young Marilyn Monroe at a moment when the young star was becoming, as the magazine announced, “the talk of Hollywood.” This was a time before televisions were commonplace, and the Internet was obviously nonexistent, which meant this cover would have landed in America’s mailboxes like the proverbial bombshell.

For additional context on life in the early 1950s, consider another story in that same issue of LIFE, one which was much squarer and also gauged to the issue’s publication date in early April. The story was about the O’Neil family of Boston. They had ten daughters, and they made their own matching clothes for Easter.

“Operation Easter took over the whole house of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel O’Neil,” LIFE wrote. “There, amid the urgent clatter of an electric sewing machine and the psst of wet fingers on hot irons, the entire family was engaged in the monument task of turning out almost identical Easter outfits.”

Wearing new clothes on Easter is a centuries-old tradition meant to symbolically honor the resurrection of Jesus. For the O’Neils, honoring that tradition required collaboration among the family members, who ranged from ages 3 to 19. “Mrs. O’Neil sewed, the biggest girls ironed, the middle-sized girls attached buttons and the smallest girls attached basting thread and retrieved dropped thimbles,” LIFE wrote.

The O’Neils had this is common with Marilyn: they were in show business too, in their way. “The Ten O’Neil sisters,” as they were known, regularly appeared in Easter parades in matching outfits and gave musical performances. The1952 burst of outfit-making documented by LIFE photographer Nina Leen was “in preparation for a weekend migration to New York where the O’Neils were scheduled to appear on an Easter television program.”

The O’Neil sisters continued their public appearances well into adulthood. Their website includes a photo from the Boston Herald in 1983 of them marching arm-and-arm in Boston’s Easter parade. The website also includes a page which at the top has the Marilyn cover and their family portrait in matching outfits side-by-side, showing there is more than one way to make a memorable picture.

Mrs. O’Neil pinned up hems on all ten of her daughters’ dresses in preparation for Easter, 1952.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

The O’Neil girls’ hats and gloves were inspected by the youngest sisters in preparation for Easter, 1952.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

One of the sisters, Jane, ironed a skirt while her mother and sisters worked another suit in preparation for Easter, 1952.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Cutting cloth for the Easter suits, Mrs. Daniel O’Neil and her daughters working from a paper McCall’s pattern, 1952.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

The O’Neil family readied for Easter, 1952.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

A little O’Neil admiring her four big sisters in their new Easter finery, 1952.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

The O’Neil family readied for Easter, 1952.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Daniel O’Neil with one of his ten daughters in a new Easter outfit, April 1952.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

The O’Neil family modelled their new Easter wear, April 1952

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Are City Dogs Better Off Than Country Dogs?

Many decades ago LIFE took a bold stance by suggesting that dogs in the city were better off than those in the country. Yes, the magazine actually put forward the idea that dogs thrived more living in cramped apartments than in places where they could frolic through fields and streams.

“Deprived of wide open spaces, they are just as happy and healthy as country dogs and live years longer,” declared a headline in LIFE’s April 3 ,1944 issue. The article used as its chief source a book called How to Raise a Dog in the City and In the Suburbs by Dr. James Kinney, which claimed that city dogs lived two to three years longer than country dogs. The story offered this rationale for the disparity: “City owners lavish more affection on dogs than country owners, not because city dogs are more lovable but because they are more often underfoot. A dog thrives as much on affection as it does on wide-open spaces.”

All these decades later, some still argue that city dogs are better off. A recent article on Vetstreet points out in the country, dogs there are more likely to roam unleashed, which means that they get hit by cars more often. Country dogs also encounter more types of parasites. And if a dog has some intestinal disease, the city owner is more likely to notice, because the evidence will be left in on a carpet rather than amid the bushes.

One counter-argument for country life is that dogs are simply happier there. According to a study reported on in Psychology Today, city dogs are much more fearful and anxious than their country cousins. The study found that city dogs were 45 percent more likely to be afraid of strange people, and 70 percent more likely to be afraid of strange dogs.

Also, the pictures of city dogs that LIFE photographer Nina Leen in 1944 to illustrate the story sometimes run counter to story’s premise—or, to put it more simply, some of the dogs don’t seem all that happy as they go on their walks in New York. The grumpiest-looking dog belonged to actress-model Joan Caulfield, whose West Highland terrier named Witty attempted to hide away in the hedges. Just about all the dogs that Leen photographed belonged to public figures, such as actors Frederic March and Ruth Gordon, but it’s not clear that they benefitted from the reflected glory.

Wherever you live, there’s plenty of evidence that owning a dog is good for the owner, both mentally and physically. In other words, what studies show most clearly is that people and dogs are better off with each other, and that’s true anywhere in America.

Actor Fredric March w.alked his cocker spaniel in the rain, 1944.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Actress Joan Caulfield briskly walked her West Highland terrier Witty, down Fifth Avenue in New York City, 1944.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Actress Joan Caulfield reached deep down behind a hedge to extract her West Highland terrier Witty, while trying to take him for a walk in New York City, 1944.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Actress Joan Caulfield lifted her West Highland terrier Witty, out from behind a hedge, while trying to take him for a walk, 1944.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Artist Earle Winslow, with a painting under his arm, struggled to control his stubborn Irish setter, New York City, 1944.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Artist Earle Winslow (right) showed his painting to a friend while struggling to keep his Irish setter under control, New York City, 1944.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Artist Earle Winslow, with a painting under his arm, struggled to keep his Irish setter under control, New York City, 1944.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Model Mimi Berry walked her cocker spaniel, who carried a package for her, 1944.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Metropolitan Opera singer Lauritz Melchior with his wife and their Great Dane, 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

Ed Sullivan, then an entertainment columnist before he became a television host, brought his black Scottie dog to a fenced-in area on the street in New York City, 1944.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Conductor Artur Rodzinski and his wife with their poodle at 57th St. and 5th Ave in New York City, 1944.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Actress Joan Roberts, wearing her costume for the musical Oklahoma, walked Goggles, her English bulldog, during the show’s intermission, New York City, 1944.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Actress Joan Roberts, wearing a costume for the musical Oklahoma, walked her English bulldog Goggles during intermission, 1944.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Actor John Boles coaxed his stubborn schnauzer puppy to jump a concrete barrier New York City ,1944.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Actress Margaret Webster’s two Cairn terriers checked out a cat perched in the window, New York City, 1944.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

William F. Schlemmer, of Hammacher-Schlemmer, walked his Yorkshire terriers, New York City, 1944.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Comedian Jimmy Durante walked his Irish setter in Times Square, 1944.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Author Fannie Hurst enjoyed the jumping antics of her Yorkshire terrier Orphan Annie, New York City, 1944.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Actress Ruth Gordon walked her black poodle, New York City 1944.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Actress Cornelia Otis Skinner, clad in a sheared beaver fur coat, walking her dogs in New York City, 1944.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Music conductor Andre Kostelanetz with his sheep dog Puff, New York City, 1944.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

This Maltese poodle/wire-haired terrier mix called Pooch was cuddled by its owner, former Metropolitan Opera singer Thalia Sabaneev, New York City, 1944.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Former Metropolitan Opera singer Thalia Sabaneev’s Maltese poodle/wire-haired terrier mix called Pooch was featured on the cover of LIFE magazine’s issue of April 3, 1944.

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

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

Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

More Than Obi-Wan: Alec Guinness Before Star Wars

Modern audiences know Alec Guinness best from a role he assumed toward the sunset of his career, when he played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars movie that came out in 1977. The veteran actor, born on April 2, 1914, was the man who first explained to movie goers the ways of The Force—an awesome burden that he carried off with avuncular ease.

While Guinness seemed to exude wisdom and warmth so naturally in the role of Obi-Wan, he always made his actor’s work look easy, no matter what sort of character he was playing. His broader career was defined by his ability to disappear into a role. He was described as “acting’s preeminent master of disguise” by Turner Classic Movies, and fellow British actor Peter Ustinov once called Guinness “the outstanding poet of anonymity.”

LIFE ran its first feature on Guinness to celebrate his reputation-making performance—or should we say, performances—in the dark comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets, where he played nine members of the same family. The story is about an avaricious man who, ninth in line for a dukedom, kills those ahead of him in the line of succession one-by-one. LIFE praised Guinness for playing “aristocrats of all ages, many professions, both sexes—and also was the model for the effigy of a deceased ancestor.”

Guinness continued to demonstrate rare versatility throughout his career, starring in classic comedies such as The Lavender Hill Mob (1952) as well as dramatic epics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). LIFE captured memorable images of Guinness when photographer Peter Stackpole visited him on the set of Our Man in Havana (1957), an adaptation of a Graham Greene novel. LIFE photographers were also there when Guinness performed on stage at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, Canada, and gave another stage performance in Under the Sycamore Tree.

An unusual number of LIFE’s pictures feature Guinness backstage, putting on makeup. That emphasis tells much about reputation as the ultimate chameleon. He was an actor who could make himself at home in any costume, including those famous Jedi robes.

Alec Guinness, wearing a toupee, on a movie lot, 1951.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/LIFE pictures/Shutterstock

Alec Guinness earned early notice for his portrayal of Fagin in Oliver Twist, 1948.

Nat Farbman/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Alec Guinness as an army general, one of the nine roles he played in Kind Hearts and Coronets, 1949.

Mark Kauffman/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Alec Guinness as Lady Agatha,, one of the nine roles he played in the movie Kind Hearts and Coronets, 1949.

.Mark Kauffman/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Alec Guinness in one of his nine roles in Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949).

Mark Kauffman/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Alec Guinness in one of his nine roles in the 1949 film Kind Hearts and Coronets.

Mark Kauffman/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Alec Guinness taking off his makeup during a production of Under the Sycamores, 1952.

Cornell Capa/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Alec Guinness put on makeup in his dressing room for the play Under the Sycamore Tree, 1952.

Cornell Capa/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Alec Guinness put on makeup in his dressing room for the play Under the Sycamore Tree, 1952.

Cornell Capa/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Actor Alec Guinness put on makeup in his dressing room for the play Under the Sycamore Tree, 1952.

Cornell Capa/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Alec Guinness relaxed in his dressing room during break from his appearance in Under the Sycamore Tree, 1952.

Cornell Capa/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Alec Guinness in an art gallery, 1952.

Cornell Capa/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Alec Guinness sat alone by a lake in a park, 1952.

Cornell Capa/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

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

Peter Stackpole/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

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

Peter Stackpole/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Alec Guinness during rehearsals at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, Canada, 1953.

Peter Stackpole/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Actor Alec Guinness played Richard III at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, Canada, 1953.

Pater Stackpole/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

(Seated L-R) Unidentified, Alec Guinness, Maureen O’Hara, Ernie Kovacs and unidentified; (Standing L-R) Noel Coward and Graham Greene on set of ‘Our Man in Havana,’ 1959.

Peter Stackpole/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Alec Guinness and actress Maureen O’Hara on the set of Our Man in Havana, 1959.

Peter Stackpole/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Actor/playwright Noel Coward (right) chatted with author Ernest Hemingway (left) and actor Alec Guinness on the set location at the author’s favorite hangout, Sloppy Joe’s Bar, during a break in filming the movie Our Man in Havana, 1959.

Peter Stackpole/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Alec Guinness (center left) arrived for funeral service for actor Gary Cooper, 1961.

Grey Villet/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Revisiting the Sites of the Salem Witch Trials

LIFE Photographer Nina Leen’s wide breadth of work ranged from fashion to documentary to animal portraiture. With an expansive portfolio, it comes as no surprise that she did not shy away from the macabre. For example, Leen had some of this work featured in a spread for an October 1957 issue of LIFE that covered America’s most famous ghost stories. 

Years before her ghostly 1957 series—and over 250 years after the Salem Witch-trials of 1692—Leen visited Salem, Massachusetts to reexamine the horrific events in Salem. For the September 26, 1949 LIFE issue, Leen and the author Marion L. Starkey visited historic sites where the witch trials took place. They followed the narrative of Starkey’s new book at the time, The Devil in Massachusetts: A Modern Enquiry into the Salem Witch Trials.

Author, Marion L. Starkey, holding a cat, 1949.

(Photo by Nina Leen/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

Tree at the top of Gallows Hill in Salem, Massachusetts, 1949.

(Photo by Nina Leen/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

In her book, Starkey recounts the trials from a modern psychological perspective, coming to the conclusion that “boredom, drudgery, and fear of Hell” among the teenage accusers were to blame for the nineteen executions that resulted from the trials.

Leen and Starkey particularly followed the story of the seventy-one year old victim, Rebecca Nurse, who was hanged at Gallows Hill with four others on July 19, 1692. In the above image, Leen captures the ominous tree, protruding from the landscape on a gray New England day. In the 1940s, this is where historians believed the executions took place. More recent research has determined that the hangings actually took place at Proctor’s Ledge, which is located between modern-day Proctor Street and Pope Street in Salem, Massachusetts.

Salem’s “Witch House” with actors dressed in Puritan clothing for colonial reenactments, 1949.

(Nina Leen/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock)

Descendant of witchcraft accuser Ann Putnam, holding a flower, 1949. Putnam was Nurse’s original accuser. She later recounted her accusations against Nurse in 1706.

(Nina Leen/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock)

Sewing pins that were used as “evidence” in Nurse’s trial. During the witch-trials, it was reported that they were used by “witches” to torture their victims.

(Nina Leen/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock)

Another victim of the witch trials was Tituba, an enslaved woman that worked for the Reverend Samuel Parris’ household. The image below is a sign that marks the site of “…where the young girls congregated to hear weird stories told by Tituba The West Indian Servant”.

Plaque establishing the site of the Reverend Samuel Parris’ home.

(Photo by Nina Leen/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

Blurred exposure of a woman sitting by the window, 1949.

(Photo by Nina Leen/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

The grave site of John Hathorne, 1949. Hathorne was the magistrate of Salem in the 1600s and a leading judge in the witch-trails.

(Nina Leen/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock)

Saying Farewell to a “Strong, Silent” Star: The Funeral of Gary Cooper

Gary Cooper appeared in 117 acting movies, but he is best remembered for his starring role in High Noon. In that movie he played Marshal Will Kane, the one good man who was both willing and able to stand down evil in a small town. Cooper’s persona was so singular that decades later on the television show The Sopranos, Cooper was repeatedly held up as the epitome of lost manliness. Tony Soprano would often lament, “What ever happened to Gary Cooper, the strong, silent type?”

When Cooper died of cancer at the age of 60 on May 13, 1961, some identified it right away as the end of an era. LIFE’s issue of May 26, 1961 quoted the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera as saying, “Perhaps with him there is ended a certain America…that of the frontier and of innocence which had or was believed to have an exact sense of the dividing line between good and evil.”

Cooper’s funeral, at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills, brought out Hollywood royalty. Actor John Wayne, who LIFE called in its report on the funeral “Coop’s successor as dean of cowboys,” attended with his wife. The pallbearers included good friends Jack Benny and Jimmy Stewart. It was Stewart who, at the Academy Awards several weeks prior, had accepted a lifetime achievement award on the behalf of the ailing Cooper. In his acceptance speech Stewart, nearly breaking up at one point, said, “Coop, I’ll get this to you right away. And Coop, I want you to know this, that with this goes all the warm friendship and the affection and the admiration and the deep, the deep respect of all of us. We’re very, very proud of you, Coop. All of us are tremendously proud.”

Cooper’s memorial was also attended by Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Those leading lights of the Rat Pack had hosted a dinner for Cooper in January 1961 at the Friar’s Club. Bob Hope came to the church to pay his respects to Cooper, as did Marlene Dietrich, who had costarred with Cooper in the 1930 films Morocco and Desire. Alec Guinness, Karl Malden, Dinah Shore, Rosalind Russell, and many others were in attendance as well.

LIFE’s tribute to Cooper, which was headlined “Hollywood Mourns a Good Man,” ran for eight pages. The story on his life and career included an anecdote about the actor’s surprising encounter with a very different icon of his day, Cubist painter Pablo Picasso. “When Cooper met Pablo Picasso in France, he said `You’re a hell of a guy, but I really don’t get the pictures. The great artist was delighted.`That doesn’t matter,’ Picasso said. “If you really want to do something for me, get me one of those hats you wear in the movies.” Picasso (who got the hat and sent Cooper a painting) was not alone in being charmed by Cooper’s directness and his refusal to be what he was not.”

Most photos of LIFE’s photos of Cooper’s funeral focused on the mourners, but some showed the crowd. While some onlookers were no doubt attracted by the celebrities, many look as if they too were lamenting the passing of the actor who personified the strong, silent type.

Funeral services for actor Gary Cooper, Los Angeles, 1961.

J.R. Eyerman/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

John Wayne and wife arrived for funeral service for actor Gary Cooper, Los Angeles, 1961.

Grey Villet/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Frank Sinatra arrived at funeral services for Gary Cooper, Los Angeles, 1961.

Grey Villet/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Dean Martin (left) arrived at the funeral service for Gary Cooper, Los Angeles, 1961.

Grey Villet/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Bob Hope arrived at funeral services for Gary Cooper, Los Angeles, 1961.

Grey Villet/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Alec Guinness (center) and Karl Malden (back left) arrived at church for funeral service for actor Gary Cooper, Los Angeles, 1961.

Grey Villet/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Actress Marlene Dietrich arrived at funeral services for Gary Cooper, Los Angeles, 1961.

Grey Villet/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Actress Rosalind Russell and her husband, producer Frederick Brisson, arrived at church for the funeral service for actor Gary Cooper, Los Angeles, 1961.

Grey Villet/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Singer Dinah Shore arrived at the funeral service for actor Gary Cooper, Los Angeles, 1961,

Grey Villet/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Jimmy Stewart (right) and Jack Benny (two behind Stewart) were among the friends who served as pallbearers at the funeral of Gary Cooper, Los Angeles, 1961.

Grey Villet/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Jack Benny (back left) and Jimmy Stewart (back, right) were among the friends who served as pallbearers at Gary Cooper’s funeral, Los Angeles, 1961.

Grey Villet/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Jimmy Stewart (back left) and Jack Benny (front left) were among the friends who served as pallbearers at the funeral of Gary Cooper, Los Angeles 1961.

Grey Villet/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Photographers and police at the funeral for Gary Cooper, Los Angeles, 1961.

Grey Villet/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Onlookers at the funeral of Gary Cooper, Los Angeles 1961.

Grey Villet/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Onlookers at the funeral of Gary Cooper, Los Angeles 1961.

Grey Villet/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Veronica Balfe, widow of Gary Cooper, arrived at his funeral, Los Angeles, 1961.

Grey Villet/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

Can We Just Go Already?: LIFE’s Most Ready-To-Leave Party Guests

We’ve all been there, at the moment when a previously lovely party suddenly becomes Alcatraz, and the inmates’ thoughts turn to escape.

The people in these photos certainly knew that feeling. Back in the day LIFE sent photographers to all sorts of parties, and while snapping photos of gatherings of celebration and joy, they occasionally captured images of people who looked like they would give anything to be home and in bed.

Knowing how to handle such moments without being rude is a common social dilemma, and the Internet is full of guides on knowing when to leave a party, and the right way to do it. Marie Claire offered up multiple graphs that help you figure out the right time to leave. The magazine Southern Comfort, for instance, offers pearls of advice, including the suggestion that when you exit early, do it quietly: “Unless you are leaving your own wedding reception, there is no reason everyone at the party should be made aware of your exit. Save the trumpets and tears for your own affairs. Please.”

Of course there are some guests who love parties so much they will always be the last person out the door—including author Elena Ferrante, who explains why in an article which explains her reluctance, saying that “separating from people feels like a blast of cold air.” But then the parties she is talking about are probably the fun kind, in someone’s home with a good mix of close friends and interesting strangers. Most of the parties that LIFE photographers attended were big public affairs where the line between work and pleasure was often blurred.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was surely of a different mindset than your conventional partygoer at a Democratic fundraiser. It is possible that movie director Alfred Hitchcock attended the tribute dinner for powerful Hollywood gossip columnist Louella Parsons at least in part out of professional obligation; the look on the face of the master of suspense suggests that at that very moment he might have been conceiving the shower scene from Psycho.

The person most clearly in work mode in these photos is Soviet politician Andrei Vishinsky, photographed at a dinner party for delegates to the Danube River Conference of 1948, held in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. The conference is remembered in history as the moment in which the diplomatic breach between Russia and its Western allies from World War II became clear. During the conference LIFE described Vishinsky as operating with a “chill ferocity” as he told Western allies, “The door was open for you to come in. The door is open for you to leave, if that is what you wish.”

So as Vishinsky sat alone and looking fed up in the picture taken by John Phillips, he was perhaps, like so many other tired party guests, thinking of what else he would rather be doing—even if, in his case, it was getting on with the business of cleaving the world in half.

Attendees at the Jackson-Jefferson Day dinner, a Democratic party fundraiser, in 1944.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Attendees at a party thrown by Lady Mendl, a prominent interior designer and the wife of English diplomat Sir Charles Mendl, 1939.

William Vandivert/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Celebration of the season opening of the New York Philharmonic, 1958.

Gordon Parks/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Gloria Vanderbilt, seated to the right of legendary composer Jule Styne, at a celebration of the opening of the New York Philharmonic season, 1958.

Gordon Parks/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Tthe Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Fashion Ball, New York, 1960.

Walter Sanders/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Fashion Ball, New York, 1960.

Walter Sanders/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Attendees at a party thrown by Lady Mendl, a prominent interior designer and the wife of English diplomat Sir Charles Mendl, 1939.

William Vandivert/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Attendees at a party thrown by Lady Mendl, a prominent interior designer and the wife of English diplomat Sir Charles Mendl, 1939.

William Vandivert/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Attendees at a party thrown by Lady Mendl, a prominent interior designer and the wife of English diplomat Sir Charles Mendl, 1939.

William Vandivert/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Comedienne Martha Raye and husband David Rose attended a Gay 90s party hosted by ventriloquist Edgar Bergen, 1939.

Peter Stackpole/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Actor Thomas Beck and actress Patricia Kirkland shared dinner at a gathering of New York actors at a house in Pennsylvania, 1947.

Nina Leen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at a fundraising dinner, 1937.

Peter Stackpole/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock

A view of members of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority singing at an engagement party on the campus at the University of Kansas, 1939.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Movie director Alfred Hitchcock, with his wife Alma, sitting near actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and actress Joan Fontaine., during a testimonial dinner for columnist Louella Parsons, 1948.

Peter Stackpole/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

United Nations Ball, 1951.

John Dominis/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The woman at the left is not at all into the party game put together by Frederick Lewis Allen (left), author and Harper’s’ Magazine editor and his author wife Agnes Rogers (left, back to camera) in which describing in which a painting is described and guests try to draw it.

Allan Grant/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

French actress Arletty (left) and designer Andrew de Beaurepaire wopre matching costumes for the Classical Ball in Paris, 1949.

Nat Farbman/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Parisians dressed up as gods and goddess of ancient Rome at a Classical Ball, 1949.

Nat Farbman/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Prince Aly Khan’s party, 1959.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/LIFE pictures/Shutterstock

The Jackson-Jefferson fundraiser for the Democratic party, 1944.

J.R. Eyerman/LIFE pictures/Shutterstock

Soviet deputy Andrei Vishinsky attended a dinner party for delegates to the Danube River Conference of 1948 in Belgrade; the conference was a noted diplomatic showdown between former World War II Allies from the West and the East.

John Phillips/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

More Like This

history

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

history

Mysterious Italy: The Mummies of Venzone

history

“Robot Planes”: When the U.S. Military Unveiled Its First Drones

history

The Logging Life: Gone Down the River

history

“Degrading to Minority and Majority Alike”: The Fight to Vote, 1960

history

Seeking Warmth During an Iceland Deployment