Page 7 – LIFE

The Mona Lisa’s One and Only Visit to America

September 24, 2025 by Bill Syken

For a few weeks in 1963, Americans could see the Mona Lisa without having to go to the Louvre.

That’s because the Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece crossed the Atlantic ocean by boat for a one-of-a-kind visit to the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. This was the only time the painting came to the Americas, and likely the only time it ever will. The only other occasions on which the Mona Lisa has left France were in 1911, when it was stolen by an Italian museum worker and briefly taken to Italy, and in 1974, when the painting traveled for exhibitions in Japan and Russia.

How did the U.S. visit even come about? Credit First Lady (and LIFE magazine favorite) Jacqueline Kennedy, who spoke French fluently and made the request in person to Andre Malraux, the French minister of cultural affairs, during a dinner at the White House. According to Margaret Leslie Davis’s book Mona Lisa in Camelot, Jackie Kennedy wanted the painting to come to America because she “saw the exhibition as an unmatched opportunity to burnish the American image at home and abroad, and [as] a convincing emblem of friendship between France and the U.S. It was a well-chosen gesture of amity, goodwill, and fervent diplomacy.”

The plan to send the Mona Lisa to America was not popular in France, with art experts calling the idea “insane” and “deadly.” They worried that harm would come to this famous and fragile work of art, which was painted in 1503, either because of accidental damage or an act of terror.

French officials did everything they could to make sure Mona Lisa’s journey was a safe one. Here’s how LIFE described the painting’s journey from Paris to Washington in December 1962.

Surrounded by grandeur that would have done credit to Charles de Gaulle, she had travelled on the S.S. France in a deluxe suite that would have cost an ordinary passenger $2,000. Day and night four guards and three museum officials hovered around to check her temperature and see that her wraps didn’t slip off….She was spirited into an air-conditioned van on a New York dock and whisked to the National Gallery in Washington.

The trip from New York to Washington apparently included the van making a stop at a roadside filling station—probably the nearest the Mona Lisa has ever been to a five-cent hot dog. The photo of the van at the filling station is one of many shot by LIFE’s John Loengard, who documented the van journey and of a press viewing in Washington D.C. The painting was exhibited in Washington for three weeks in January 1963, when it was seen by more than a half-million visitors, who waited up to two hours in line for their glimpse of it. Then the painting returned back up to New York, where LIFE’s Ralph Morse took some more photos of the masterpiece on its way to the Met.

After nearly a month in New York, the Mona Lisa returned to France looking no worse for wear.

A French security guard with the crated ‘Mona Lisa’ painting in the state room of a French liner enroute to the US for an exhibit. 1962.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Mona Lisa was transported by van from New York to Washington D.C. during its U.S. visit in 1962.

John Loengard/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

During a visit to New York and Washington D.C.. in 1963, the Mona Lisa made the trip by van, 1962.

John Loengard/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Mona Lisa (inside its transport crate) came to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., 1962.

John Loengard/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Mona Lisa at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., 1963.

John Loengard/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The press at the visit of the Mona Lisa to Washington D.C., 1963.

John Loengard/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A security guard kept its eye on the Mona Lisa during its visit to the National Gallery of Art, 1963.

John Loengard/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Mona Lisa at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., 1963.

John Loengard/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Mona Lisa, on a goodwill trip from France, arrived in New York City in a protective box, 1963.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Mona Lisa, on loan from France, hung in a vault at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., 1963.

John Leongard/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Meet Three-Time LIFE Cover Model Elsa Martinelli

September 22, 2025 by Bill Syken

Elsa Martinelli had three things going for her. That was the analysis of LIFE magazine when she was introduced to readers on the cover of a 1957 issue as “a triple-threat Italian beauty.”

One of her chief assets was her was looks, wrote LIFE. Another was her flair for fashion. The third was her acting ability. And indeed in 1957 Martinelli was at the beginning of a long screen career in which she would play the female lead in the relatively minor works of some major movie stars, including Robert Mitchum, John Wayne and Kirk Douglas.

After her 1957 debut Martinelli was back on the cover in 1962 modeling “a toga to shed before going to bed,” and again in 1963 for a report on new fashions from Paris.

She also spent some time in front of a LIFE camera for a story that never ran in the magazine but produced some charming images. In 1964 photographer Carlo Bavagnoli followed Martinelli as she rode around Paris on a motorbike—it looks like a Honda CZ100, the first minibike sold to consumers. In her day Martinelli was often talked about as Italy’s answer to Audrey Hepburn, and the resemblance is prominent as she scoots about the City of Lights in a manner that calls to mind the playful spirit that Hepburn showed when she gadded about a different European capital in the cinema classic Roman Holiday.

Martinelli is of course smartly dressed in these photos and they also benefit from the flavor of Paris, especially when the Champs Elysées looms in the background.

Also included in this gallery are several shots of Martinelli by another LIFE photographer, Ralph Crane. These give a glimpse of what this cover model looked like in living color.

Elsa Martinelli rode a motorbike in Paris, 1964.

Carlo Bavagnoli/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Portrait of actress Elsa Martinelli, 1960.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Devil You Don’t Know: Fashion Editor Carmel Snow

September 17, 2025 by Bill Syken

The archetype of the powerful fashion editor was cemented in popular culture by the book and subsequent movie The Devil Wears Prada, which featured a character who was named Miranda Priestly but was inspired by legendary Vogue editor Anna Wintour.

While none of her former assistants wrote thinly veiled novels about her, Carmel Snow was the Miranda Priestly of an earlier era. Snow led the fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar for nearly a quarter century, from 1934 to 1958. If her name doesn’t sound familiar, it’s because the idea of an iconic magazine editor was a relatively new one back in her day. In a 2005 biography about Snow titled A Dash of Daring, fashion photographer Richard Avedon talked about why Snow wasn’t more of a household name. “She was older, right?” he said. “And she died before stardom was the thing.”

But Snow was enough of a power player that LIFE photographer Walter Sanders made her the subject of a photo essay which, viewed today, looks like storyboards for The Devil Wears Prada (minus the focus on the assistants, who remain unidentified). But other fashion stars who show up in the frames include Cristobal Balenciaga and Coco Chanel (in some photos wearing scene-stealing headwear). Another notable figure in the images is Diane Vreeland, who worked under Snow at Harper’s Bazaar and would later become editor-in-chief at Vogue. If today Vreeland’s name resonates somewhat more than Snow, it’s both because she is more recent and her platform, Vogue, has only gained in prominence relative to Harper’s Bazaar.

And, not to oversell the importance of LIFE, but it didn’t help that Sanders’ photos of Carmel Snow were shot for a story that never ran.

Carmel Snow, editor of Harper’s Bazaar, met with Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, 1952.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Carmel Snow, editor of Harper’s Bazaar, met with Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, 1953.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Carmel Snow, editor of Harper’s Bazaar, met with Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, 1952.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Carmel Snow (center), editor of Harper’s Bazaar, and the magazine’s fashion editor, Diane Vreeland (left), at work in the magazine’s offices, 1952.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Carmel Snow (left), editor of Harper’s Bazaar, and the magazine’s fashion editor, Diane Vreeland (right), at work in the magazine’s offices, 1952.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Carmel Snow (center), editor of Harper’s Bazaar, at work in her office, 1952.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Carmel Snow. (seated at desk), editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar, worked on the layout of an upcoming issue, 1952.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Carmel Snow, editor of Harper’s Bazaar, works on an upcoming issue, 1952.

Man holding a newspaper beside Carmel Snow, December 1952

Carmel Snow, editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar, works on an upcoming issue, 1952.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Carmel Snow (second from left), editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar, at work with designer Cristobal Balenciaga (second from right), 1952.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fashion designer Cristobal Balenciaga and Carmel Snow, editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar, looked at a model during fashion designers meeting, December 1952.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fashion designer Cristobal Balenciaga and Carmel Snow, editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar, shopped together in New York City, 1952.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fashion designer Cristobal Balenciaga pointed out something to Carmel Snow, editor of Harper’s Bazaar in an unidentified shop in New York City, 1952.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

When the Movies Got Smaller

September 15, 2025 by Bill Syken

One of the most famous lines in the 1950 cinema classic Sunset Boulevard is uttered by actress Gloria Swanson, who starred as former silent film star Norma Desmond. When the male lead, played by William Holden, meets her and recognizes her as a former movie queen, he comments, “You used to be big.” She responds, “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.”

So it was fitting that Swanson came by to pose for a photo when the Roxy movie theater was being demolished in 1960. The Roxy was the largest movie theater in the world when it opened in 1927, and it could seat about 6,000 people. With the Roxy being torn down, now the movie houses were getting smaller.

Beyond the poetic resonance, Swanson also had a direct connection to history of the Roxy. Her silent film The Love of Sunya was the first movie to play there, and she was in the audience for the film’s premiere, and had carved her name into the theater’s dome.

When Swanson returned for the demolition, she played to the drama of the moment for a photo by LIFE staff photographer Eliot Elisofon. The magazine’s story, headlined “Swan Song For a Famous Theater” was a short one but captured Swanson, then 61 years old, playing the role of movie star to the hilt:

The famous theater, its day done, is now being torn down, and last month Miss Swanson came back for a last look at the ruins. A wry and witty woman, she remarked, “Wherever I go I hear people saying `Is it” or “Isn’t it?’ and once I heard a man say, “It is. It is the original. ‘” When, gowned in a Jean Louis sheath, a feathery boa and $170,000 in jewels, she swept up to the Roxy in a Rolls Royce, crowds gathered and she could hear again, “Is it, or isn’t it.?” Perhaps she also heard the man who said loudly, “It is, and it’s looking better than ever.”

The Roxy, which cost about $12 million to build back in 1927—that’s more than $200 million in today’s dollars—was more than a movie theater. The space also hosted big stage shows, which meant that it had dressing rooms, rehearsal rooms, and a pipe organ. Also included was an infirmary and a menagerie to accommodate animal performers.

In addition to the photos that Elisofon took of Swanson, this collection also includes a couple photos of the Roxy’s demolition taken by another LIFE staff photographer, Ralph Morse. The Roxy may have had a special place in the hearts of people who worked at LIFE magazine because the theater was located at 153 W. 50th Street, which is just down the block from the old Time-Life building, where the magazine was headquartered. So it’s likely that LIFE staffers caught many shows there, perhaps even sneaking out of the office for an afternoon movie break.

The demolition meant goodbye to all that.

Actress Gloria Swanson posed on the site of old Roxy Theater in New York as it was being destroyed. Her silent movie The Love of Sunya was the first movie to play at the Roxy when it opened in 1927.

Eliot Elisofon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gloria Swanson arrived to pose at the Roxy theater as it was being town down, 1960.

Eliot Elisofon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gloria Swanson posed at the Roxy theater as it was being town down, New York City, 1960.

Eliot Elisofon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gloria Swanson posed at the Roxy, once the largest movie theater in the world, as it was being town down, New York City, 1960.

Eliot Elisofon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Roxy Theater, once the world’s largest movie theater, was torn down in 1960.

Eliot Elisofon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Roxy Theater, once the world’s largest movie theater, was torn down in 1960, New York City.

Ralph Morse/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Proper Teenagers in a Post-War World

September 10, 2025 by Bill Syken

After the hard lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic finally loosened up, many people—and especially teenagers who had their school years interrupted—talked about wanting to make up for lost time. The phrase “hot girl summer” may have originated in 2019 with a song by Megan Thee Stallion, but it came up again frequently when vaccines became available and public spaces opened back up again.

That more recent history something to keep in mind when considering a 1947 photo essay by staff photographer Nina Leen about teenagers in the years immediately after World War II. As described by LIFE, those teenagers were pretty much the opposite of the COVID kids.

The 1947 photo essay by Leen centered on a pair 17-year-old identical twins named Betty and Barbara Bounds. The point of choosing identical twins as the main subject may have been to add an element of symmetry to a story about how young people had become fastidious about their appearance.

According to LIFE’s story, headlined “Tulsa Twins: They Show How Much the Teenage World Has Changed,” young people after World War II aspired to be being dignified and proper:

In 1944 when Betty and Barbara Bounds, who are identical twins, entered Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, their clothes were sloppy; hot music was the rage and the general behavior of the world was somewhat footloose….Today the teenage world of Betty and Barbara is entirely different. Their clothes are feminine and fastidious; sweet music has replaced hot licks and the general tone of the teenage life is more decorous. The reason for this may be all tied up with the U.S. transition to peace or merely an adolescent desire for something new.

Going with the idea that the teenage trends were a reaction to the war, the motivation behind it underlines the key difference between the pandemic lockdowns and the deprivations of World War II on the domestic front. The pandemic restrictions robbed young people of social opportunities. Whereas the World War II and the rationing of goods meant that teenagers at home were limited less by where they could go than what they could have.

Leen used the mood of the day to create these idealized images of youth. The photo of the Bounds sisters at a dance is as dreamy a picture of teenage life as you will find anywhere.

Teenagers at a party in 1947 in Tulsa, Oklahoma; LIFE reported that these kids “munch doughnuts and sip cokes whenever they are not dancing with serious faces to sentimental music.”

Nina Leen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Tulsa twins Betty and Barbara Bounds, 1947.

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock images

Tulsa twins Betty and Barbara Bounds with their parents, 1947.

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock images

Tulsa twins Betty and Barbara Bounds, 1947.

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock images

Tulsa twins Betty and Barbara Bounds at ballet class, 1947. A LIFE photo essay highlighted the twins as examples of the decorous lifestyle choices being made by teenagers in the days after World War II.

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock images

Tulsa twins Betty and Barbara Bounds, 1947.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Tulsa twins Betty and Barbara Bounds spoke with a friend, 1947.

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock images

Barbara Bounds, 17, and friend work on the mixture for a fudge cake, Tulsa, 1947.

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock images

Tulsa twins Betty and Barbara Bounds, 1947.

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock images

Teenage life in Tulsa, 1947.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A teenage girl in Tulsa, Oklahoma used nail polish to decorate her sunglass frames, 1947.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Betty Bounds, with real gardenias in her hair, wore a full-skirted evening dress embellished with an artificial gardenia while waiting at door for her date, Tulsa, 1947.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

They Don’t Make Them Like This Anymore

September 8, 2025 by Bill Syken

The photos from the set of the movie Creature From the Black Lagoon are a window into the world of what monster movies looked like in the days before CGI. The film was a major production in its day, and the main object of terror—and an effective one—was a dude in a costume.

The movie, which was shown in 3-D, cost $550,000 to make (a little over $6 million in 2025 dollars), and people generally liked it. The American Film Institute writes writes, “At the time of its release, Creature from the Black Lagoon enjoyed critical and popular success, and has since gained status as one of the most important science-fiction films of the era, with the Gill Man emerging as one of the genre’s most iconic monsters.”

LIFE’s object of interest on the Florida set was not in fact Gill Man, but rather the movie’s lead actress, Julia Adams. The photos were taken for a story headlined “Julia in Jeopardy,” and was about how Adams was always playing women in danger. “Julie’s current opus is Creature From the Black Lagoon, a science fictioner in which she hoped her perils would end and her acting begin,” LIFE wrote. “But she swallowed up her disappointment when she wound up in the arms of a 6-foot, 5-inch Gill Man, who keeps her amply jeopardized, most of the time under water.”

The images by LIFE staff photographer Edward Clark capture Gill Man carrying off Clark in what is supposed to be the Amazon jungle. A secondary figures who pops up in one of Clark’s images is Bud Westmore, who was one of Hollywood’s grand wizards of makeup and worked on more than 400 films, including another movie whose set LIFE visited, Spartacus.

And while the headline of this story is “They Don’t Make Them Like This Anymore,” plenty have wanted to take their shot. The list of directors who have tried to remake Creature from the Black Lagoon includes some impressive names: John Landis, John Carpenter, Ivan Reitman, and Guillermo del Toro among others. In 2024 Australian director James Wan was the latest to be attached to a Creature remake.

Makeup artist Jack Kevan assisted with Gill Man’s costume on the set of the movie ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’, 1953.

Edward Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Lead actress Julie Adams on the set of the movie ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’, with the creature lurking in the background, 1953.

Edward Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

“Gill Man” carried actress Julie Adams on the set of the movie ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon,’ 1953.

Edward Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actress Julia Adams is carried by “Gill Man”, the titular creature of the movie “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” 1953.

Edward Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actress Julia Adams is carried by Gill Man on the set of the movie Creature from the Black Lagoon, 1953

Edward Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from the movie ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’ starring Julia Adams, 1953.

Edward Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gill Man emerged from the water on the set of the movie “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” 1953.

Edward Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Universal makeup department chief Bud Westmore (left), rowing on the set of the movie “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” 1953.

Edward Clark/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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