Michael Jordan: The One and Only

The following is excerpted from LIFE’s new special issue Michael Jordan: The Greatest of All Time, available at newsstands and here online.

When it dropped in the mid-’90s, the 30-second spot felt like just another quick and clever Nike ad, though if you go back now and watch “The Hundred-Foot Hoop,” it seems to speak to us on several levels. At the fade-in, we see a basket hanging mercilessly high in a dimly lit warehouse. The storyline, at least initially, is simple: Michael Jordan enters, dribbling, then, looking grim but confident, drives in and up (and up) for the unmakeable but of course inevitable jam. The spoonful of message—that the man inside those supercool shoes can perform superhuman feats—went down without question back then, when Jordan was still in his Chicago Bulls prime and on a nightly basis redefining what was possible in the game of basketball. But the commercial doesn’t stop there. 

In a spasm of celebratory ecstasy, our hero, we see, has grabbed onto the rim, as slam-dunkers do, and now finds himself swinging slowly above the hardwood at an unsafe altitude. The moment of triumph has passed. Jordan first looks down, then at us, the audience that he always wanted to impress. He does not speak, but his big brown eyes pose an excellent question: “Where do I go from here?”

Michael Jeffrey Jordan was a skinny middle-class kid from Wilmington, North Carolina, who put aside the doubters—no, who used the doubters who appeared at every stage—to have himself a storybook career. His breakthrough came in the spring of 1982, when, in a game played in the Louisiana Superdome against Patrick Ewing and the Georgetown Hoyas,
he hit an electrifying jumper with 15 seconds left to give his Carolina Tar Heels the National Championship. “Your life will never be the same after that shot, son,” his father, James, told him soon afterward.

A few years later, Jordan revitalized the Bulls, a motley bunch that played in a dreary, half-empty arena, a team that according to its owner was regarded by Chicagoans as “somewhere between mud wrestling and tractor pulling,” eventually leading them to six NBA championships. Along the way, Jordan took the excitement generated by Larry Bird and Magic Johnson—stars a few years ahead of him—and brought it to a new level, helping shake the NBA out of its 1970s doldrums and usher its players and franchises onto an international stage. In Jordan’s spare time, he revolutionized the sneaker business. 

Jordan broke into the league exactly 40 years ago, in the fall of 1984, and he left it for good in the spring of 2003. Over a 15-season playing career, he won 10 scoring titles, five MVP awards, and six Finals MVP awards, and he was named to the All-Defensive first team nine times. He played in 14 NBA All-Star Games and, competing against Bird, Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal, and others in the pantheon of basketball gods, won three All-Star MVP trophies. He has the highest regular-season career scoring average and career playoff scoring average of all time (30.1 and 33.4 points per game, respectively). Numb yet? After a point, even such incomparable statistics don’t capture all of the player Jordan was. They say nothing about the way he did what he did, the rampaging love of the game he always demonstrated, or the role he played in the larger popular culture—the very things that made him the man and the brand we know and love.

Here is a selection of images from LIFE’s new special issue Michael Jordan: The Greatest of All Time.

Cover photo by Jerry Wachter/NBAE/Getty

Michael Jordan in his freshman year at North Carolina, January 1982.

Bettmann Archive

Michael Jordan, with Chicago Bulls general manager Rod Thorn, signed his first NBA contract in 1984.

Bettmann Archive

Michael Jordan in 1989 took on the Detroit Pistons, a team that served as an early foil on his way to the top.

Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images

Michael Jordan celebrated winning his first NBA title in 1991.

Richard Mackson/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images

Michael Jordan led the Dream Team to a gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

Richard Mackson/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images

Michael Jordan in 1994, when he took time off from the NBA and tried his hand at minor-league baseball with the Birmingham Barons.

Photo by Focus On Sport/Getty Images

Michael Jordan, when he returned to the NBA following his time in minor league baseball, briefly wore No. 45 before returning to his familiar No. 23.

NBAE via Getty Images

Michael Jordan in 2003, his final season.

Simon Bruty/Anychance/Getty Images

Michael Jordan waved farewell after playing his final NBA game in April 2003, when he was a member of the Washington Wizards.

Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images

Michael Jordan, representing his Jordan Brand, visited Paris in 2015 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his signature Air Jordan shoe.

Jordan Brand via Getty Images

“The Most Thrilling Ride in the U.S.”

In 1949 LIFE magazine took its readers on an extreme river adventure in a story headlined “Shooting the Salmon.” The headline referred to the Salmon River, which cuts through central Idaho.

The magazine opened its story breathlessly:

The most thrilling ride in the U.S. is in a 12-foot rubber boat down 55 miles of the middle fork of the Salmon River in Lemhi County, Idaho. For years the river with its boiling rapids and so-called Impassible Gorge with its 3,000-foot walls was thought so dangerous that only two dozen of the most daring white-water boatmen in the U.S. had ever tackled it.

But in 1949 some river guides had mastered the Middle Fork to the point that they began leading expeditions, and LIFE photographer Loomis Dean rode with one group. The trek down river took nine days, with people often camping near winter snow that had yet to melt. Some nights the temperatures dipped to 25 degrees. During those nine days the trekkers also caught—and ate—an estimated 200 pounds of trout. (If you are wondering, you can also catch salmon in the Salmon River) .

After finishing their trip the adventures concluded that, having survived the Salmon River, “the only thing left was Niagara Falls in a barrel.”

Today the Salmon River remains an esteemed destination, and one that is not easy to gain access to. The Middle Fork is now federally protected and adventure-seekers must enter a lottery for the right to travel its class III and IV+ rapids.

A Salmon River adventure in Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes from a nine-day adventure on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes from a nine-day adventure on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes from a nine-day adventure on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Men horseback riding along the Salmon River.

Guide Hank Hastings scanned the wild rapids ahead on the Salmon River, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Adventurers shot the rapids on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Adventurers shot the rapids on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Adventurers rode the rapids on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Helen and Peter Brooks explored an ice cone in Impassable Gorge during their nine-day trek down the Salmon River, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Helen and Peter Brooks explored an ice cone in Impassable Gorge during their nine-day trek down the Salmon River, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes from a nine-day adventure on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The adventurers set up camp during a nine-day trek down the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The trekkers caught and dined on trout during their expedition down the Salmon River, Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Helen Brooks held a string of trouts caught during a nine-day expedition down the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes from a nine-day adventure on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes from a nine-day adventure on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Helen Brooks washing dishes in the Salmon River, Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shuttertstock

One of the trekkers took a bath in frigid waters during a nine-day adventure on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shuttertstock

Scenes from a nine-day adventure on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes from a nine-day adventure on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes from a nine-day adventure on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Men horseback riding along the Salmon River.

Scenes from a nine-day adventure on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes from a nine-day adventure on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shuttertstock

Mysterious Italy: The Mummies of Venzone

One of the stranger photosets in the LIFE archives was shot in a bucolic small town in Northern Italy—one in which the ancient architecture was not the only thing that was well-preserved.

The town’s name is Venzone, and among its claims to fame are a collection of mummified remains that date back as far as the 14th century, when a time of plague led to some bodies being kept in a church basement, where they mummified naturally. No one knows for certain why these bodies became mummified, though speculation centers on the presence of limestone and certain fungi in the basement.

But what is particularly interesting is not just that these mummies existed, but how the local townsfolk regarded them. Rather than being freaked out by these figures that would become horror movie staples, the townsfolk decided to celebrate the mummies as a connection to their own ancestry.

Here’s what the website Weird Italy had to say about the mummies of Venzone:

The residents thought that God had sent their forefathers to guard the village while still living (since they were unaware of the term “mummy” at the time). Then the locals wished the mummies luck and begged for assistance with any difficulties. As the village’s elders, the mummies were accorded excellent treatment. And this custom persisted up until 1950. The townspeople had to value the mummies as their forefathers.

The photos by LIFE’s Jack Birns capture the warm relations between the townsfolk and their mummified ancestors as they pose for photos together. Birns also photographed a museum where some of the mummies were on display. The ancestors are no longer paraded around town like they once were, but the museum remains open today, with five of the mummies available for viewing.

View of the Cathedral of Saint Andrew the Apostle and the village of Venzone in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy, September 1950.

Jack Birns/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A man posed for a portrait with one of the mummified bodies displayed in the Cemetery Chapel of Saint Michael on the grounds of the Cathedral of Saint Andrew the Apostle in Venzone, Italy, September 1950.

Jack Birns/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Locals in Venzone, Italy, 1950, pose with the mummified bodies that had been found years before in the crypt of a church there.

Jack Birns/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A local woman held up one of the natural mummies found in the crypts under the Cathedral of Saint Andrew the Apostle in Venzone, Italy, September 1950. The mummified bodies date from 1348 to 1881.

Jack Birns/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A local woman held up one of the natural mummies found in the crypts under the Cathedral of Saint Andrew the Apostle in Venzone, Italy, September 1950. The mummified bodies date from 1348 to 1881.

Jack Birns/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A man in Venzone, Italy, 1950, poses with a mummified body, one of many found in the crypt of the local church.

Jack Birns/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A priest held up one of the natural mummies found in the crypts under the Cathedral of Saint Andrew the Apostle in Venzone, Italy, September 1950. The mummified bodies date from 1348 to 1881.

Venzonea Skeletons

The townspeople of Venzone, Italy, posed with their mummified ancestors, 1950.

Jack Birns/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Local boys carried the natural mummies found in the crypts under the Cathedral of Saint Andrew the Apostle in Venzone, Italy, back into the crypt museum, September 1950. The mummified bodies date from 1348 to 1881.

Jack Birns/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Monsignor Simeone Guglielmi stood above the opening to one of the burial vaults under the Cathedral of Saint Andrew the Apostle in Venzone, Italy, September 1950. When the crypts were being relocated, the citizens of Venzone discovered that several of the bodies interred there had been naturally mummified.

Jack Birns/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The museum inside of the rotunda of Saint Michael displayed the natural mummies found in the crypts beneath the Cathedral of Saint Andrew the Apostle in Venzone, Italy, September 1950. The mummified bodies date from 1348 to 1881.

Jack Birns/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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

The idea of using unmanned aircraft for military purposes has been around for centuries. The first actual attack may have come in 1849, when Austria launched 200 incendiary balloons in the direction of Venice, though the assault was ineffective because the wind blew all but one of those balloons off course.

In the early 20th century, not long after the Wright Brothers’ first flight in 1903, the race to develop unmanned aircraft stepped into high gear. It was fitting that when the U.S. military demonstrated its technologies for the first time to LIFE readers, it did so at Wright Field in Ohio.

The military pulled the wraps off two experimental models of “robot planes,” as they were then termed, for a story in LIFE’s issue of Oct. 15, 1945. The story, featuring photos by Sam Shere, said that the military had been working on unmanned military aircraft “for more than 20 years.”

Here’s how LIFE described those early models:

The robot plane is flown by a man on the ground or by a pilot on another plane which accompanies it in flight. The remote-control operator holds a radio control box, moves the pencil-like stick to transmit signals over a frequency-modulated wave to a radio receiver in the plane. These signals activate a Servo unit, nicknamed “the muscle,” which transforms electrical impressions into mechanical action and moves the airplane’s controls.

The story said that the robot planes needed to be operated by someone who was within four miles. Consider that a first step toward today’s technology, where drones have a range of hundreds of miles. Today the U.S. Department of Defense says that is has more than 11,000 military drones in its fleet.

The LIFE story concluded with a turn toward consumer uses of this technology and said, “Not inconceivable for the future is an awesome peacetime application which may make possible radio-controlled, wireless airliners.” While computers do aid in 21st century air travel, human pilots remain essential figures.

A soldier demonstrated an experimental “robot plane” that the U.S. military was developing, 1945.

Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A soldier demonstrated the experimental “robot plane” that the U.S. military was developing, 1945.

Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The remote control unit used for the “robot planes” the U.S. military demonstrated to LIFE magazine in 1945.

Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

One of the U.S. military’s robot planes in development in 1945 needed to be controlled by a manned plane that was flying nearby.

Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A soldier at Wright Field in Ohio demonstrated an experimental “robot plane” that the U.S. military was developing, 1945.

Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An experimental robot plane about to take off was being guided by a person in the plane behind it, 1945.

Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A soldier demonstrated a radio-controlled “robot plane” that the U.S. military was developing, 1945.

Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

In the foreground is a “robot plane” being developed by the U.S. military that could be controlled from its ‘mother plane,” 1945.

Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A demonstration of a “robot plane” being developed by the U.S. military, 1945

Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Cold Cave’s LIFE Magazine: A Haunting Tribute to Nostalgia

In 2007, the band Cold Cave wrote the song “LIFE Magazine” shortly after learning that the iconic publication had ceased printing. “The notion that something called LIFE had died, after decades of being so iconic…was just too existential,” explained band member Wesley Eisold over email.

Started in Los Angeles, Cold Cave includes members Eisold and Amy Lee and is known for its synth-driven sound. The ending of LIFE Magazine inspired the title of the song and its dual themes of futility and hope, with lyrics like:

“…I climb clouds to the bluest of the sky

 And all I saw was air

 I rain my love to the heads that breathe below 

 But none of them cared…” 

“To me, the song is about the duality of futility in everything and retaining a little hope, a little bounciness, to keep moving forward anyway. That choice is in the eye of the beholder. It’s happy-sad,” Eisold explained.

For Cold Cave, visual culture and photography have always played a crucial role in their music and artistic expression; a connection that aligns well with the legacy of LIFE Magazine, known for its pioneering photo essays. 

“For me, LIFE Magazine represents youth,” wrote Eisold. “The checkout lane at the grocery store. The coffee table at the grandparents’ house. The brutalist red logo and the stark headlines. Brilliant and fatalist and authoritative. It was celebratory and scary.” These memories influenced the creation of the song, blending a sense of nostalgia with a contemporary sound.

When asked about favorite issues or images from LIFE Magazine, they named several iconic moments: Marilyn Monroe in 1952, Jefferson Airplane in 1968, Charles Manson in 1969, Paul & Linda McCartney in 1969, and Madonna in 1986. These selections reflect a diverse range of cultural moments that have shaped both their artistic vision and personal identity.

Marilyn Monroe attends the Foreign Press Association of Hollywood’s First Annual International Film Festival, at the Club Del Mar, Santa Monica, California, January 26, 1952. At the ceremony, Monroe won a ‘Henrietta’ award, her first of several over the years.

Loomis Dean The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

American rock group, Jefferson Airplane, performs i in front of a screen projection from ‘Glenn McKay’s Headlights,’ during which the artist projected light through various liquids and was accompanied by live music by the group, at the Whitney Museum, New York, New York, 1968.

Henry Groskinsky The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mass murderer and conspirator, Charles Manson, at his preliminary hearing, Independence, California, December 1969.

Vernon Merritt III The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paul (center) & Linda McCartney after their wedding, London, United Kingdom, 1969.

Terence Spencer The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Though the song “LIFE Magazine” was initially sidelined after its release in 2007, it has since been revived in Cold Cave’s live performances. 

“The song was a staple but it only partially represented what Cold Cave was to me,” Eisold notes. The band’s label at the time had heavily licensed it for commercial use, elevating the song’s profile. “But that didn’t change the song’s influence on me or how I wanted the band to be seen. The project was too new and undefined, and I didn’t want the commercially approved pop song to define me.” Today, with a clearer definition of the band’s identity, “LIFE Magazine” has found its place in their setlists once again.

In terms of visual representation for live performances, Cold Cave opted for a diverse array of imagery. “We wanted an array of war, fashion, beauty, Hollywood, rock’n’roll…there is this beautiful phenomenon where visuals and music always sync up magically, so we didn’t overthink it.”

Reflecting on the song’s connection to nostalgia, Eisold sees it as both a blessing and a curse. “Synth music has the curse and luxury of nostalgia. It’s a sound for tomorrow’s yesterdays.” 

The Moment When Sweaters Grew Up

LIFE photographer Nina Leen had a sure eye for fashion. And when the temperatures dropped, she often turned that eye toward what was a relatively new way to dress for the change in seasons.

Today sweaters are a staple of a fall/winter wardrobe, but it was not always the case. The sweater first came into use as sportswear, and it was only around the 1920s that it made the transition to everyday clothing.

A story that Leen shot in 1945 showed its tenuous place that sweaters held in America’s closets at the time. The story talked about sweaters as jockeying for status with a loose-fitting (and similar-looking) piece of clothing known as the “sloppy Joe.”

“Having floated around for years in `sloppy Joes,’ girls are getting back into sweaters, which fit more trimly,” wrote LIFE in its Dec. 3, 1945 issue. The sweaters in that particular shoot were Jacquard sweaters, so named for their particular weaving process, and the story discussed how their look had changed as the makers aimed toward a more domestic market. The versions that had been made for sportsmen tended to decorated with snowflakes and deer and the like, but “the new patterns this year reflect the interests of young girls—telephone numbers, boys’ names, toy animals and boogie-woogie motifs.”

The sweaters in Leen’s 1947 shoot featured even more colorful designs, including one with a knife piercing a bleeding heart.

But in shoots done by Leen in 1949 and 1952, the sweaters become sleeker and more mature. The 1952 shoot featured a plain black sweater worn by a model, Mary Cheseboro Phipps, who was a noted socialite and husband of writer Thomas W. Phipps. That shoot made clear—sweaters were growing up.

But as the ugly sweater phenomenon shows, wild designs will always be a part of the sweater culture.

A LIFE fashion shoot on Jacquard sweaters, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A fashion shoot on Jacquard sweaters, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A LIFE 1945 fashion shoot on Jacquard sweaters.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A LIFE fashion shoot on Jacquard sweaters, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A 1945 story on Jacquard sweaters.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A 1945 story on Jacquard sweaters.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A fashion shoot on crazy sweaters, 1947.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A fashion shoot on crazy sweaters, 1947.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A fashion shoot on crazy sweaters, 1947.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A fashion shoot on crazy sweaters, 1947.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A fashion shoot on crazy sweaters, 1947.

Nina Leen?Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A fashion shoot on crazy sweaters, 1947.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A sweater fashion shoot for LIFE, 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A sweater fashion shoot for LIFE, 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A sweater fashion shoot for LIFE, 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A sweater fashion shoot for LIFE, 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A sweater fashion shoot for LIFE, 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A sweater fashion shoot for LIFE, 1949.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Women with stylish cuts wearing classic knitwear cardigans, 1952.

Nina Leen?Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A 1952 sweater fashion shoot for LIFE.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A model wore a classic knitted cardigan, 1952.

Nina Leen?Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Socialite Mary Chesebro Phipps wore a cashmere scooped neck sweater combined with a brocade skirt, 1952.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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