The most popular kind of scooter these days may be the standing electric scooter, which is seeing a boost in popularity because it provides the solution to a host of modern problems. Those standing scooters are an efficient way to make short trips around town without having to worry about either the environmental effects or the costs of gas usage, or the COVID concerns of riding public transportation. Scooters also aren’t a parking problem, especially if you live in one of the many cities with a scooter-sharing program.
The days after World War II saw the rise of a different kind of scooter—the kind that is more closely related to the motorcycle. (If you wish people would stop calling so many different two-wheeled modes of transportation “scooters” you are not alone). The scooters that took off in the post-war years have this in common with e-scooters: their burst in popularity was tied to the societal shifts of its day.
In Italy after World War II, the Vespa turned out to be the perfect vehicle for a war-torn country with bumpy roads and a bumpier economy. The Vespas were also fun and fashionable: in the great 1953 romantic comedy Roman Holiday, Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn had their day to remember as they scooted around town on a Vespa.
In the United States people also showed an affinity for this young form of two-wheeled travel, owing to a surplus of motorbikes being decommissioned by the army after the war, and also the former troops who rode in groups to reclaim some of the camaraderie of their service days.
LIFE photographers captured the rise of scooter culture on both sides on the Atlantic. In 1945 as the war was nearing its end, Wallace Kirkland documented the Cushman Motor Works in Nebraska, showing both the plant where scooters were made and also the locals enjoying their products. In Italy in 1948 Dmitri Kessel photographed people on Vespas for an essay on Europe coming back to life after the war.
Those motor scooters have been on the decline in popularity in recent years as electric sales surge. But when they had their moment, it sure looked fun.
Vespa riders in Italy, 1948.
Dmitri Kessel/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Mother and baby rode a Vespa scooter in Italy, 1948.
This month LIFE joins other major collections like the Associated Press and the British Museum to launch its own set of NFTs.
NFTS (non-fungible tokens) are one-of-a-kind digital items with blockchain-managed ownership. LIFE will collaborate with the NFT marketplace KnownOrigin, and distribute exclusive drops of their iconic photographs via their profile, beginning with the first on April 14.
Founded in 1936, LIFE, the first photography publication in the United States, coined the term “photo essay” and established a unique visual storytelling style in popular culture. With work from trailblazing photographer Margaret Bourke-White, the first drop offers the opportunity for serious collectors to own selected authentic, important pieces of photography from the cover essay of LIFE’s first issue.
“LIFE always seeks to share its incredible photography with new communities,” said Tom Rowland, President of the Picture Collection. “There is a growing number of photography enthusiasts on Web3, and we see this as a way to engage with new audiences around photojournalism and art.”
David Moore, one of the KnownOrigin co-founders commented, “We are delighted that LIFE has partnered with KnownOrigin to launch their journey into NFTs. LIFE is an iconic and historically important brand with compelling and instantly recognizable imagery, including famous LIFE magazine covers…We have recently seen photography grow in importance and collectability within the NFT community. The LIFE Picture Collection is unrivaled in its breadth and variety of awe-inspiring content. It’s an honor to have LIFE on our platform.”
The drop will include an auction with a reserve, rare editions, and other pieces with a larger limited run and items will be priced according to their rarity. It will also be accompanied by Twitter Spaces and a new LIFE Discord channel to connect audiences with the brand.
LIFE and KnownOrigin will feature a virtual gallery in Decentraland on KnownOrigin’s plot of land. As a continuation of LIFE’s cutting-edge philosophy, the gallery will form an immersive world celebrating LIFE’s inception and its digital form. The LIFE gallery platform will display NFTS and additional LIFE photography, allowing collectors to display their unique pieces.
LIFE will offset any emissions generated from the NFT minting process from sales. A portion of the proceeds from the NFT sales will also be donated to charities chosen by the LIFE team, with the first drop benefitting the Malala Fund.
Here’s an exclusive first look at the first pieces we’ll be releasing as NFTs on KnownOrigin.
LIFE’s first cover on November 23, 1963 of Fort Peck Dam.
(Margaret Bourke-White/ LIFE Picture Collection /Shutterstock)
Original print of first LIFE Cover from 1936, that will be on view at our largest retrospective to date, at the Boston MFA, in October 2022.
(Margaret Bourke-White/ LIFE Picture Collection /Shutterstock)
A contact sheet from 1936 of aerial views of Fort Peck Dam’s landscape.
(Margaret Bourke-White/ LIFE Picture Collection /Shutterstock)
Portrait of LIFE’s first hired and first female staff photographer, Margaret Bourke-White. She was on assignment in Algeria, standing in front of Flying Fortress bomber in which she made combat mission photographs of the U.S. attack on Tunis, 1943.
(Margaret Bourke-White/ LIFE Picture Collection /Shutterstock)
A workman crawls inside a giant pipe segment, Fort Peck, Montana. The pipe, divided by latticelike support struts, was used to divert the flow of the Missouri River during construction of the Fort Peck dam, 1936.
(Margaret Bourke-White/ LIFE Picture Collection /Shutterstock)
View of New Deal, Montana, which was one of the six shack towns around the US work relief construction project of the Fort Peck Dam in Fort Peck, Montana, 1936.
(Margaret Bourke-White/ LIFE Picture Collection /Shutterstock)
Two children leaning against a sign reading “Entering New Deal, Speed Limit 25 Miles Per Hour” marking the boundary of New Deal, one of the shanty towns which have grown up around the work-relief project at Fort Peck Dam in Montana, 1936.
(Margaret Bourke-White/ LIFE Picture Collection /Shutterstock)
In its issue of Dec. 15, 1952, LIFE magazine ran a 12-page essay about life on the American prairie. “It’s loneliness and awesome immensity shape a distinctive way of American life,” declared the headline.
But these prairie communities that LIFE reported on were notably changed from the world that had been celebrated in the beloved books of Laura Ingalls Wilder. True, the prairie was still rural and isolated, especially compared to the cities and the burgeoning suburbs of the 1950s. But change was starting to come, in ways that were largely welcome to those prairie residents. Life wasn’t quite so lonely or difficult as it had been:
The winds of modernity have tempered the hard life the homesteaders led when they came to plow up the buffalo grass. The long fingers of the rail lines and the black-tops have brought people together, and the prosperity from wheat, cattle, and the riches under the soil have given them daily comfort and time for travel. But with all the surface changes, the essential character of life on the prairie has not changed. It is still living shaped by the prairie’s vastness, and in no other part of the world is there a way of life comparable to it.”
In other words, this LIFE essay captured the prairie in its sweet spot. Some of the hardest edges of frontier life had been softened, without trampling over its special character. The photo essay captures so many wonderful details of life in rural Kansas in that era—like the newspapers that were delivered by airplane to the homes that were spaced out too far apart for a conventional paper route.
For all the talk of lonely open spaces, many of the beautiful photographs taken by Howard Sochurek in the small towns of Kansas centered on moments of community. As LIFE wrote, “The rhythm of the square dance, the recitation of the youngster, a box supper for the parents of the school children—these are some of the things that dispel the loneliness of the prairie. Many years ago a man’s neighbor was a remote and distant figure. Now the prairie people come from miles around to go calling or to go into town for the simplest forms of social life.”
Maybe the most fun picture in this whole set is of the dance attendees going to bed in cots. They were sleeping at the community center rather than make the long ride home at night. A big sliumber party for adults and kids alike—it sounds like a good time, right?
The announcement of a party at the community center in Pawnee Acre, Kansas, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Colllection/Shutterstock
For this prairie social event, many of the attendees came by plane, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Colllection/Shutterstock
This baby slept while Pawnee Acre members spruced up the building for a party, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Colllection/Shutterstock
A luncheon at the Pawnee Acre community center.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A luncheon at the Pawnee Acre community center.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Colllection/Shutterstock
A square dance in Dighton, Kansas, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A dance in Dighton, Kansas, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Colllection/Shutterstock
The Pawnee Acre community building during a Wednesday night social, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Colllection/Shutterstock
Community members transformed the dance hall into a dormitory after a dance, Kansas, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Colllection/Shutterstock
A man and his dog walk the Kansas prairie, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Colllection/Shutterstock
A farmer drove twin tractors lashed together, a common prairie practice that allowed for a doubled workload, Kansas, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Colllection/Shutterstock
The Richfield baseball club, Kansas, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Colllection/Shutterstock
A mother drove her child for a violin lesson, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The Kansas prairie, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Colllection/Shutterstock
Inside an insurance office in Cimmaron, Kansas, company president F.C. Walker met with a policy holder, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Colllection/Shutterstock
Newspapers were delivered by plane because of the vast distances between farms in Kansas, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Colllection/Shutterstock
School entertainment in Richfield, Kansas, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Colllection/Shutterstock
A Halloween party at the Pawnee Acre community center in Kansas, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Colllection/Shutterstock
A schoolboy went through a recitation while his teacher stood ready to prompt him, Kansas, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Colllection/Shutterstock
An eight-year-old boy took the wheel of a farm truck, Kansas, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Colllection/Shutterstock
Ruben Crist, a cattle and wheat farmer, looked out over his 12,500 acres, Kansas, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Colllection/Shutterstock
A Prohibitionist road sign near Richfield, Kansas, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Colllection/Shutterstock
A sign tallied church contributions in Lydia, Kansas, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Colllection/Shutterstock
Mrs. John Grusing, a mother of thirteen who first came to the prairie in 1908, taught Sunday school in Lydia, Kansas, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Colllection/Shutterstock
Prairie life in Kansas, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Colllection/Shutterstock
A tumbleweed blew into the door of a deserted prairie home, Irvington, Kansas, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Colllection/Shutterstock
The eyes of a farmer, Gus Dumler, show the reflection of a tractor, the prairie, and the ruined courthouse of the ghost town of Ravana, Kansas, 1952.
Howard Sochurek/LIFE Picture Colllection/Shutterstock
LIFE asked Caroline Gutman, a freelance photographer who has shot for the New York Times and the Washington Post, to choose her favorite photos from the LIFE archives that speak to the changing role of women. Gutman’s work, which you see on her website, often focusses on issues of gender and economic equality. “As a woman and a photographer, my work is inherently linked to women’s changing roles over the last century, and it is only possible because of generations of women who paved the way,” Gutman says.
Her selections are a diverse group that show women in many different settings—at home, on the farm, at the race track and even in the pro wrestling arena. Here Ms. Gutman explains what attracted her to each photo:
Field Workers 1941
In the months after Axis forces attacked the Soviet Union during World War II, women in Russia took to the fields to help feed their comrades while men fought on the frontlines. This well-framed photo goes beyond time and place as it shows captures women of all ages with rakes held high and harvested hay at their feet.
In 1941, Russian women’s brigade wielded crude rakes to gather up hay harvest on a collective farm outside Moscow, helping contribute to the war effort against the Axis.
Margaret Bourke-White/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Surviving the Dust Bowl 1942
This painterly depiction of a Dust Bowl-era home shows a mother and son finding comfort in each other’s company. She is likely darning a piece of clothing at a time when money was scarce, exemplifying how it often fell to women to hold the home together and make do with whatever they had.
Mrs. John Barnett and son Lincoln in a room of their farmhouse in the Dust Bowl, 1942
Alfred Eisenstaedt/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Mildred Burke, Wresting Champion 1947
While today women have a prominent role in professional wrestling, for most of its history female competitors were rare. But Mildred Burke was an early pioneer. She held the National Wrestling Alliance’s World Women’s Champion title for nearly 20 years. Not only does this photo show Burke proudly wearing her welterweight championship belt, it also shows how comfortable she is in showing her feminine strength.
Wrestler Mildred Burke showing her championship belt, 1943.
Myron Davis/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Motorcycle Meet 1947
Although less than 15% of motorcyclists in the U.S. today are women, female bikers have a long history. The founding of Motor Maids chapters in the 1930s gave women the chance to share their enthusiasm for motorcycles and bond with other female riders. This mother-daughter duo look happy and at home during a motorcycle meet in Laconia, N.H.
Motorcycle meet, Laconia, N.H., 1947
Sam Shere/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Casting Ballots 1952
At the time this photo was taken in 1952 in Martha’s Vineyard, women had only had the right to vote for thirty years, after the passage of the 19th Amendment. This image captures not just a new right but a changing tide. Since 1964 more women than men have voted in every presidential election.
Women voting in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, November 1952.
Fritz Goro/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Taking to the Air 1958
In the years after World War II women enjoyed new career options. This photo captures the pride of flight attendants-in-training, and also the beauty standards expected of women in the commercial flight industry.
Stewardesses in training learned proper grooming techniques during a class at the American Airlines “college” for new flight attendants, 1958.
Peter Stackpole/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Betting-Window Fashion 1958
This visually striking depiction of betting at a racetrack highlights not just the fashion of the day but a changing attitudes about women’s pastimes. This fashion shoot portrays the women with exuberance, while the drably dressed man fades into the background.
Models posed at a betting window at Roosevelt Raceway in Long Island, N.Y. 1958.
Nina Leen/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
March for Women’s Rights by John Olson, 1970
The push to pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a watershed moment for the women’s rights in the U.S, even though it was never ratified. The solidarity and resolve of the protestors in this photo walking arm-in-arm captures growing momentum of the feminist movement.
Women marched down Fifth Avenue in New York City as a part of the Women’s Equality March on August 26, 1970. The march, organized by the National Organization for Women, commemorated the 50th anniversary of the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted American women full suffrage.
John Olson/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
An example of Caroline Gutman’s work: Luo Peiqiong, an indigo artisan, stood for a portrait in her home in Rongjiang, Guizhou province, China, while wearing hand-woven, hand-dyed and hand-embroidered fabrics, on October 14, 2018. Indigo harvesting and dyeing are traditional practices in Miao villages in the region.
If you look at the breadth and variety in the photographs that Fred Lyon shot for LIFE magazine, you get a sense of the particular adventure of working for a general interest magazine.
“Every time the phone rang it would start me off in a different direction, usually some place I had never been or someone I had never known,” Lyon recalled in a recent phone interview.
Lyon, now as he was then, is based in San Francisco, and his assignments usually had a West Coast setting. From that perch he shot such varied subjects as news, fashion, food, and architecture. If there is any through-line that connects his work, it is that he managed to find joy and beauty in so many disparate situations.
Lyon, 97 years old, remains remarkably sharp. He is a lively storyteller who enjoys an amusing turn of phrase. Though he doesn’t go out on shoots anymore, he still makes and contributes to books, drawing on a vast archive of photos—he worked not only for LIFE, but for Vogue and numerous other clients. His most recent book, Inventing the California Look, out March 22, is about interior design. He has several other projects in the works.
Lyon recalls his LIFE association, which began in 1948, with great fondness. As a young photographer his agent had pushed for him to shoot for LIFE, he says, because once you are in that magazine, “no matter how bad the picture is, after that no one will ever question whether you are a good photographer.”
An early job that turned out to be surprisingly memorable involved riding around with a fledgling California politician as he introduced himself to the local population in his first bid for the U.S. Senate in 1950. Lyon sat in the front seat with Richard Nixon as he drove his station wagon from one small California town to another. As they reached the town center Nixon would starting playing march music on a phonograph in the front seat that connected to a loudspeaker on the car’s roof. As people gathered Nixon would introduce himself to voters and take their questions.
“He would confuse old people by doing the old high school debating gimmick of answering questions with other questions,” Lyon recalled. After they were back in the car, Nixon would loosen his tie, take the needle off the record and say to Lyon as they drove out of town, “Well, that’s all that shit.”
At that point Lyon sized up the future President thusly: “He has no style, and he has no future in politics.”
Some assignments were more fun, like a shoot Lyon did at the beach with two bikini-clad models. Here’s how Lyon recounts that adventure:
“When bikinis first became popular, of course LIFE was enthusiastic. Models were booked for the beach at Malibu. There was some sort of celebration the night before the shoot (there always was). In the morning, I sensed that I had done something unwise in the middle of the night. When I crept over to the telephone my scribbles revealed that I had booked elephants to meet the models at the beach. There were visions of the pachyderms holding each other’s tails and plodding out on Sunset Boulevard. My throbbing head could barely face bikinis, let alone elephants. The cancellation caught them in the nick of time, and even the models were grateful.”
Lyon staged another fashion shoot at a very different West Coast location—Alcatraz. The shoot starred two actresses from Point Blank, a cult classic crime movie that featured Angie Dickinson and Sharon Acker. The government had stopped using Alcatraz as a federal prison in 1962 and it had yet to make its transition to a historic monument. Lyon recalls Alcatraz as being cold and filthy, with papers strewn everywhere. He and the crew made it through the shoot with the help of thermoses of coffee and brandy.
“We managed the laugh a lot,” he recalls. “Maybe it was the brandy. My shoots were always happy shoots.”
Maybe not always. Lyon’s portfolio includes photos of a dark but fascinating piece of California history known as Synanon. At its outset Synanon, founded by Charles Dederich, was a pioneer in treatment of narcotics addiction, and Dederich is credited as the source of the expression “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” But in its later years Synanon morphed from a treatment program into a cult and a criminal enterprise. This fascinating deep dive into Synanon by L.A. Magazine opens with a chilling scene of a lawyer/journalist who dared to challenge Synanon being bit by a rattlesnake that had been shoved through the mail slot of his home.
Lyon shot his story on Synanon in 1969, before the movement’s darker impulses has taken over. Still, Lyon recalls not personally caring for Dederich. “He was an unpleasant man doing work that I realized was beneficial,” Lyon says.
And encountering characters such as Dederich was all part of the big adventure of shooting for LIFE. One upside of his association with the magazine was coming into New York and having occasional meetings the legendary Alfred Eisenstaedt, who stands as a giant on the roster of staff LIFE photographers. “He was to my way of thinking the perfect photojournalist,” Lyon says. “Everyone he met, he would try to extract everything from their brain right here and now.”
Some assignments resulted in valuable life lessons when Lyon least expected them. Once he was out on a more humdrum assignment, shooting the director of an opera company. Lyon said to him, “I hear you’re a hell of a fundraiser, whats your secret?” The director answered, “I tell people, Don’t die rich. Live rich.”
Actress Sharon Acker posed for a fashion shoot in Alcatraz, 1968.
Fred Lyon/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Angie Dickinson modeled for an Alcatraz fashion shoot, 1968
Fred Lyon/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Actress Sharon Acker posed for a fashion shoot in Alcatraz, 1968.
Fred Lyon/LIFE photos/Shutterstock
An opera performer was helped into his costume, 1948.
Fred Lyon/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Opening night of the Denver Symphony at the Tabor Theater, 1955.
Fred Lyon/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Richard Nixon as he was running for U.S. Senate in California, 1950.
Fred Lyon/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
A patient received radiation treatment for cancer at the University of California Medical Center, 1958.
Fred Lyon/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
At the I. Magnin Co. department store in San Francisco, the photographer’s son, Michael, tested a car during a pre-Christmas shoot, 1955.
Fred Lyon/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
A scene from the construction of an underground tunnel by the Pacific Gas & Electric ulitity company on the Feather River in Northern California, 1949.
Fred Lyon/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
A scene from work on the construction of a tunnel by the Pacific Gas & Electric utility company near the Feather River, 1949.
Fred Lyon/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Students enjoyed recess at Sassarini Elementary School in Sonoma, Calif. in 1959; the school was designed by architect Mario J. Ciampi.
Fred Lyon/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Students at the modernistic Westmoor High School, designed by architect Mario J. Ciampi, in Daly City, Calif.
Fred Lyon/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Women modeling knit bikini bathing suits on the California shore, 1959
Fred Lyon/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Vicky Drake, who worked as a topless dancer, ran a provocative but unsuccessful campaign for student body president at Stanford, 1968.
Fred Lyon/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Vicky Drake, who worked as a topless dancer, campaigned (unsuccessfully) for student body president at Stanford, 1968.
Fred Lyon/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Nancy Reagan, wife of Ronald Reagan, who was then the governor of California, posed at home, 1967.
Fred Lyon/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Nancy Reagan, the wife of then-Governor Ronald Reagan, posed in the California State capital, 1967.
Fred Lyon/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Charles E. Dederich, founder and leader of Synanon, 1969.
Fred Lyon/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Charles E. Dederich, founder and leader of Synanon, wore a hat with a moving tetrahedron as he wrote on a blackboard, 1969.
Fred Lyon/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Poached pears, photographed for LIFE’s “Great Dinner” series, 1968.
Fred Lyon/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
A Brazilian feijoda, featuring black beans, rice, sausages, baked bananas, onions and roast pork loin, photographed for LIFE’s “Great Dinner” series, 1968.
Fred Lyon/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
Gnocchi being made in Italy, 1966.
Fred Lyon/LIFE PIctures/Shutterstock
Pork was prepared in Hawaii, 1969.
Fred Lyon/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
The Lovejoy Fountain Park in Portland, Oregon.
Fred Lyon/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
LoveJoy”Fountain Park in Portland, Oregon, by Lawrence Halprin.
Fred Lyon/LIFE Pictures/Shutterstock
An image from a five-day trip down the Colorado River, 1969.
The news that a new biopic of Johnny Carson is on the way, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is exciting for a generation of fans who grew up knowing Carson as the one and only king of late-night television.
Carson was not the first host of the Tonight Show, but he was the one who defined the job and the format. Before he took over the show had been around for eight years, with two other hosts, Steve Allen and Jack Paar. Their tenures lasted roughly as long as a one-term presidency. Carson took over and reigned like a monarch. He ruled for 31 years, from 1962 to ’92.
He began that reign in New York City, taping the show there from 1962 to ’72. In 1967, LIFE photographer Arthur Schatz spent time with Carson at home and on the set. The story never ran, but the photos in the LIFE archives paint an intimate portrait of a star on the rise.
Carson’s New York years had their own particular flavor. In 2014 Sam Karshner wrote about that era for Vanity Fair, on the occasion of the Tonight Show coming back to Manhattan when Jimmy Fallon took over as host. The story noted how Carson, a Nebraska native, often made jokes about the dark side of life in New York, to the point where the city council asked NBC to make him lighten up:
To an out-of-towner who bragged on an audience card, “My hometown of Cincinnati has much cleaner streets than New York, signed Miriam,” he answered, “Pompeii, after Vesuvius went off, had cleaner streets than New York.” He joked about the city’s high crime rate: “New York is an exciting town where something is happening all the time—most, unsolved.” Not even New York’s weather was immune to ridicule—“It’s so cold here in New York that the flashers are just describing themselves.”
The Vanity Fair story also talks about Carson’s city life—including his home, which is captured in Schatz’s photos, right down to the telescope Dick Cavett jokes about:.
Dick Cavett remembers Carson’s first apartment, at 1161 York Avenue, as a “four-bedroom bachelor pad over the river with his telescope there, [which he] claimed he used for astronomy.” He had a car and driver available day and night. In the mornings he would play tennis alongside Mayor John Lindsay at the Vanderbilt Club, in the Grand Central Terminal Annex; later in the day he’d make the rounds—Patsy’s, Toots Shor’s, ‘21,’ Le Club, Danny’s Hideaway, even the Playboy Club. Like a true midwesterner, he was a meat-and-potatoes man his whole life and loved the row of steak houses between Lexington and Second Avenues in the East 40s—Colombo’s, the Palm, Pietro’s, Joe and Rose’s, the Pen and Pencil.
In 1972 Carson left New York and moved the show to southern California to be closer to the celebrities who populated his guest’s chair. After Carson retired in 1992, late night was slowly carved up into fiefdoms, like so much of the rest of popular culture. Most viewers now experience late-night TV after the fact, trough viral clips such this one (which is awesome, by the way).
It’s safe to say, no one will ever bring late-night America together like Johnny Carson.
Johnny Carson in the Tonight Show offices in New York, 1967.
Arthur Schatz/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Johnny Carson in the Tonight Show offices in New York, 1967.
Arthur Schatz/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Johnny Carson on the set of the Tonight Show in New York, 1967.
Arthur Schatz/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
MERY GRIFFITH AND JOHNNY CARSON
Arthur Schatz/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Johnny Carson and James Brown on the Tonight Show in New York, 1967.
Arthur Schatz/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Johnny Carson and James Brown on the Tonight Show in New York, 1967.
Arthur Schatz/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Ed McMahon, James Brown and Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show in New York, 1967.
Arthur Schatz/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Johnny Carson on the set of the Tonight Show in New York, 1967.
Arthur Schatz/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
MERY GRIFFITH AND JOHNNY CARSON
Arthur Schatz/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Ed McMahon and Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show set in New York, 1967.
Arthur Schatz/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Johnny Carson on the set of the Tonight Show in New York, 1967.
Arthur Schatz/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Johnny Carson on the set of the Tonight Show In New York, 1967.
Arthur Schatz/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Johnny Carson on the set of the Tonight Show in New York, 1967.
Arthur Schatz/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Johnny Carson on the set of the Tonight Show in New York, 1967.
Arthur Schatz/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Johnny Carson in the Tonight Show offices in New York, 1967.
Arthur Schatz/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Johnny Carson in the Tonight Show offices in New York, 1967.
Arthur Schatz/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Johnny Carson in New York, 1967.
Arthur Schatz/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Johnny Carson in his New York apartment, 1967.
Arthur Schatz/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Johnny Carson in his New York apartment, 1967.
Arthur Schatz/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Johnny Carson in his New York apartment, 1967.
Arthur Schatz/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Johnny Carson in his New York apartment, 1967.
Arthur Schatz/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Johnny Carson in New York, 1967.
Arthur Schtaz/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Johnny Carson in New York, 1967.
Arthur Schatz/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
