Twilight of an Idol: A Portrait of Mickey Mantle in Decline

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The greater the athlete, the tougher it is to leave the arena. It was certainly the case for Yankees center fielder Mickey Mantle. A tremendous natural talent, Mantle became a dominant force on the diamond almost as soon as he joined the Yankees in 1951. He would go on to win three MVP awards and the 1956 Triple Crown, all the while making a name for himself with towering home runs. His purported 565-foot moonshot in 1953 gave birth to the phrase “tape-measure home run.” Mantle also delivered big when the stakes were highest, leading the Yankees to seven championships. To this day he still holds World Series records for career home runs (18), RBIs (40) and total bases (123).

While the young Mantle was electrifying, his career was plagued by injuries great and small until, by the time he was in his 30s, his legs were so thoroughly wrapped and bandaged on game days that he literally hobbled to the plate to hit. His heavy drinking also contributed to his physical decline. Mantle wrote in a 1994 story about his drinking habits in Sports Illustrated that he began to lean on alcohol during his second season in the majors, after his father died from Hodgkin’s disease.

The image by LIFE staff photographer John Dominis that is featured in this story was taken in 1965, when Mantle’s skills were clearly slipping. Mantle had just stumbled through a lousy at-bat, and he tossed his helmet in frustration. It is the kind of action shot you rarely see, and one that captures the anguish of a sports hero in decline. It is no surprise that this resonant photo is one of the top sellers in the LIFE print store. 

Dominis’s photo ran with a story in LIFE magazine titled “Last Innings of Greatness.”  The image was taken during a meaningless game midway through the team’s disappointing 1965 season (the Yankees finished below .500 for the first time in 40 years). The story began with with a description of Mantle’s helmet toss and then offered a quote from the fading star: “It isn’t any fun when things are like this,” Mantle told LIFE. “I’m only 33, but I feel like I’m 40.”

Despite his frustrations Mantle kept at it for three more years until 1968, when his batting average slipped to an anemic .237, and that was his last year in the game.

In 1995 Mantle died of liver cancer at age 63. On the occasion of his death, Richard Hoffer wrote an obituary in Sports Illustrated that attempted to explain the meaning of Mantle to those who witnessed his beautiful prime:

For generations of men, he’s the guy, has been the guy, will be the guy. And what does that mean exactly? A woman beseeches Mantle, who survived beyond his baseball career as a kind of corporate greeter, to make an appearance, to surprise her husband. Mantle materializes at some cocktail party, introductions are made, and the husband weeps in the presence of such fantasy made flesh. It means that, exactly.

Dominus’ photo captures the moment of the fantasy coming to an end for the man who was fortunate enough to live it.

Mickey Mantle flings his batting helmet in disgust after a lousy at-bat, Yankee Stadium, 1965.

Mickey Mantle tossed his batting helmet in disgust after a lousy at-bat, Yankee Stadium, 1965.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Jockey Who Was a Granny (and She Was No Novelty Act, Either)

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In the 1940s Neva Burright gained attention as a harness-racing grandmother. But by that time she had been competing in the sport for decades, and she had been around horse tracks from the beginning of her life—quite literally

Burright was born on the infield of a racetrack in 1883, and for the rest of her life she stayed close by. She had a 57-year career in horse racing; even after she stopped competing she worked as a timer and a race official. She did all this while being a mother of seven. “I would raise a baby or two and then go back and race some more,” she told LIFE magazine in 1948, in a story headlined “Queen of Racing.”

The photos by LIFE staff photographer Joe Scherschel show a woman who was truly at home at the track. whether racing horses or hanging out with her family in the stables. LIFE’s 1948 story said that Burright “not only spends 18 hours a day training and driving trotting horses at Chicago’s Maywood Park, but she spends the night in one of the barns, with her husband [who was also a harness racer] in the next stall.”

The crowning moment of Burright’s career was in 1943, when she became the first woman to win on harness racing’s Grand Circuit, with a gelding called Luckyette. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch described the joyous scene after her race victory: “…it has been years since we saw so many hats tossed into the air at a race track, and heard so many feminine screeches of satisfaction as when this pleasant white-haired lady demonstrated her skill and the ability of her honest gelding to such a superb degree.”

Neva competed until 1954, and she died in 1958. In 1994 she was inducted into the Harness Racing Hall of Fame.

Competitive harness driver Neva Burright at age 65, in 1948.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Neva Elizabeth Burright, 65, competed as a harness racer at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Harness driver Neva Burright celebrated her 65th birthday at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Harness racer Neva Elizabeth Burright, 65, walking her horse after a morning workout at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Competitive 65-year-old harness racing driver Neva Burright, photographed at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

.Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Neva Elizabeth Burright, 65, held a lead through the midway point of a race at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

.Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Harness racer Neva Burright, 65, mended socks in her stables at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Neva Elizabeth Burright, 65, spoke with two younger female harness drivers at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Harness racer Neva Burright, 65, at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Harness racing grandmother Neva Burright made French toast for breakfast at the race track, 1948.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Harness racing driving Neva Burright, 65, had a whip in hand as she clocked one of her horses at Maywood Park, 1948.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Harness driver Neva Burright, 65, at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Recreating a Masterpiece Painting

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Marcel Duchamp arrived on the scene in the early part of the 20th century with brash works intended to upset the art establishment. The most famous of these works were his “ready-mades.” These were store-bought objects which he presented as sculptures simply by placing them on a pedestal. For a major 1917 exhibition in New York, he famously displayed a urinal under the title “Fountain.”

He was part of a movement called Dadaism whose goal was anarchy as much as it was creation. They made a lot of noise for a while. But when LIFE magazine devoted a major story to Duchamp titled “Dada’s Daddy” in 1952, the artist was 64 years old and the movement’s heyday had long since passed. While the influence of Dadaism continued to echo throughout modern art, no one was really practicing Dada anymore—including Duchamp. The LIFE story was sparked by a retrospective being staged in New York, and at the show a woman complained to that Duchamp hadn’t done much since 1923 besides play chess—an assertion to which Duchamp nodded in happy agreement.

But while Duchamp was a “pioneer of nonsense and nihilism,” as LIFE termed him, he showed that he had a cooperative side by posing for LIFE photographer Eliot Elisofon in a stop-motion photo that recreated Duchamp’s early painting, “Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2.” Duchamp not only agreed to play along with someone else’s idea, but seemed to enjoy placing himself under Elisofon’s direction, reportedly joking during the shoot, “Don’t you want me to do it nude?” The resulting image was itself a piece of art, and it is one of the best-sellers in the LIFE print store.

LIFE’s story included a lovely passage which suggested that Duchamp had aged better than the movement he ignited:

Today he seems to regard the complete abandonment of art as in itself an artistic achievement. He has pursued this achievement with admirable tenacity for nearly 30 years, and as a result enjoys an almost oracular position among today’s avant-garde artists, dealers and critics of Manhattan. Duchamp treats them all with the most disarming courtesy and polished charm. He is against more things than he is for. But he seems to believe strongly in two things: esthetics, which in his mind takes the place of religion; and absolute individualism, which is the core of his way of life.

Perhaps it was this respect for esthetics which allowed himself to place his trust in Elisofon. This photo gallery includes Elisofon’s historic shot as well as several of Duchamp’s more conventional appearances before the cameras of LIFE photographers.

Artist Marcel Duchamp walking down a flight of stairs in a multiple exposure image reminiscent of his famous painting "Nude Descending a Staircase." (Photo by Eliot Elisofon/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation)

Artist Marcel Duchamp walked down a flight of stairs for a multiple exposure image that paid homage to his famous painting “Nude Descending a Staircase,” 1952.

Photo by Eliot Elisofon/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Artist Marcel Duchamp at a chessboard, 1952.

Eliot Elisofon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marcel Duchamp (right, foreground) attended a Texas art show, 1957.

Eliot Elisofon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Artist Marcel Duchamp sat behind his painting on glass, “To Be Looked at With One Eye, Close to, For Almost An Hour,” 1953. The cracks in the glass happened accidentally during transportation, but Duchamp said he felt they improved the painting.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Portrait of artist Marcel Duchamp, 1952.

Eliot Elisofon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Portrait of artist Marcel Duchamp, 1952.

Eliot Elisofon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Portrait of artist Marcel Duchamp, 1952, posing in front of his 1914 painting “Network of Stoppages.”

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Portrait of artist Marcel Duchamp, 1952, posing in front of his 1914 painting “Network of Stoppages.”

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sophia, Marcello and a Movie Set to Remember

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By 1964 Sophia Loren had been a longtime favorite of LIFE readers, and Marcello Mastroianni was having his moment too. In its Jan. 18, 1963 issue the magazine had introduced the star of Fellini films such as La Dolce Vita to readers with a breathless seven-page story headlined, “A Symbol of Something For All the Girls….And a Box-Office Smash (With Subtitles).”

So when Loren and Mastriano co-starred in the romantic comedy “Marriage Italian Style,” LIFE dispatched photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt—who had already taken so many great photos Loren—to document the moment.

The resulting photo set includes two of the best-selling images in the LIFE print store. The popularity of one is no mystery—it is a full-body shot of the voluptuous Loren in a sheer nightgown. In 1966, when LIFE ran a career tribute to the photography of Eisenstaedt, it placed that racy photo of Loren on the cover of the magazine.

The other popular photo from this shoot is one of Mastroianni, and its appeal is more of the cheeky variety. The photo shows the debonair actor in an unlikely pose— sitting on a bidet, smoking a cigarette.

In Marriage Italian Style, Mastroianni and Loren play a star-crossed couple. When their characters meet, she is a prostitute, and she becomes his longtime mistress—with aspirations to become his wife. The movie takes dramatic turns on its rocky way to happily ever after. LIFE’s review of Marriage Italian Style summed it up thusly: “Sophia turns from a high-spirited whore with girlish dreams into a battler for hollow respectability and finally into some kind of earth mother fighting for her young. Mastroianni meanwhile slips unobtrusively and cleverly from a youthful roué to a wistful one, and what began as a noisy, hokey clash of wills becomes a wry, touching conflict in which the only victor is humanity—which nobody can depict in its fine fallibility quite so well as the Italians.”

The movie received two Oscar nominations: one for Best Foreign Language Film, and the other for Best Actress (Loren lost out to Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins). Loren and Mastroianni, who made many films together, are now regarded as of the great screen pairings in the history of cinema. Meanwhile Eisenstaedt’s winning images from the set continue to delight as they pay tribute to the king and queen of Italian cinema.

Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni on the set of the 1964 film “Marriage Italian Style.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni on the set of the 1964 film “Marriage Italian Style.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni on the set of the 1964 film “Marriage Italian Style.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marcello Mastroianni on the set of the 1964 film “Marriage Italian Style.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marcello Mastroianni on the set of the 1964 film “Marriage Italian Style.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sophia Loren in a brothel scene from the 1964 film ‘Marriage Italian Style,’ directed by Vittorio De Sica.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sophia Loren in a brothel scene from the 1964 film ‘Marriage Italian Style’, directed by Vittorio De Sica.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sophia Loren on the set of the 1964 film ‘Marriage Italian Style’, directed by Vittorio De Sica.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni on the set of the 1964 film “Marriage Italian Style.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni on the set of the 1964 film “Marriage Italian Style.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni on the set of the 1964 film “Marriage Italian Style.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni on the set of the 1964 film “Marriage Italian Style.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni on the set of the 1964 film “Marriage Italian Style.”

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sophia Loren on the set of the 1964 film ‘Marriage Italian Style’, directed by Vittorio De Sica.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sophia Loren sitting on director Vittorio de Sica’s lap during the making of the 1964 film Marriage, Italian Style.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sophia Loren on the set of the 1964 film ‘Marriage Italian Style’, directed by Vittorio De Sica.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sophia Loren on the set of the 1964 film ‘Marriage Italian Style’, directed by Vittorio De Sica.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Vanishing Great Salt Lake in More Buoyant Times

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The Great Salt Lake in Utah is not what it used to be—not thousands of years ago, when it was a vast inland sea, and not 70 years ago either, when LIFE magazine devoted a large feature to this unique element of the American landscape.

It is still the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and it attracts more than 200,000 visitors annually. But a couple years ago water loss had researchers warning that the Great Salt Lake could soon dry up entirely. A report from BYU scientists published in January 2023 painted a grim picture of the future and raised the possibility of the lake disappearing entirely by 2028. Recent wet winters in Utah have given the lake a reprieve, but increased water use in the region as well as climate change remain threats to its survival.

In 1948, when LIFE took its readers on a journey to the Great Salt Lake, water loss was a part of the story even back then. The headline announced “Great Salt Lake: It Is Only a Shriveled Vestige of a Prehistoric Inland Sea,” and some of the images by staff photographer Fritz Goro demonstrated that the shriveling was ongoing. Witness the train tracks which had been built into the water by a lakefront resort. The train tracks were needed because the lake’s water level had dropped so much since the resort’s construction that visitors needed to be transported to a place where the water was deep enough for them to swim.

Although some of Goro’s photos portrayed the Great Salt Lake as a playground, the text made clear that even in its heyday, no one would be mistake it for Miami Beach. Oddities abounded.

Near the lake one may park a car on seemingly hard ground, only to return later and find it hub-deep because the sun has softened the mud. The very water of the lake is bizarre; it is so buoyant swimming in it is an experience. It is also so heavy and hard a newcomer may stun himself by jumping into it from a moderate height and will come up with salt-scalded eyes and mouth if he does not keep them shut. This is one reason the lake has not attracted a larger summer colony than it has.

The last words of the LIFE magazine article, like that recent BYU study, discussed the lake’s eventual disappearance, though it made clear that the timeline was ambigious. “Geologists began predicting the ultimate death of the lake by evaporation decades ago,” LIFE wrote. “But although the level varies cyclically and it has lost 400 square miles in the last 79 years, it has refused to die, and today few geologists care to venture a guess as to when it will.”

Visitors to Great Salt Lake in Utah, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Visitors standing near a warning sign at Great Salt Lake, Utah, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

High school student Shauna Wood floated in the Great Salt Lake, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Women floated at the Great Salt Lake, Utah, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

At Great Salt Lake in 1948, the tracks carried visitors to the resort in the background out to deeper waters. The visibility of the resort’s pilings give a sense of how much the lake had evaporated since the building’s construction in 1893.

Fritz Goro/Life PIcture Collection/Shutterstock

At Great Salt Lake in 1948, the tracks carried visitors to the resort in the background out to deeper waters. The visibility of the resort’s pilings give a sense of how much the lake had evaporated since the building’s construction in 1893.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Great Salt Lake in Utah, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

People played in the shallow water of the Great Salt Lake in Utah, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Great Salt Lake in Utah, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Great Salt Lake in Utah, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Near the Great Salt Lake in 1948, a man examined wagon wheel tracks left by the doomed Donner party 102 years prior.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Signage attempted to discourage racing across the salt flats near the Great Salt Lake, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A woman shopped for souvenirs at Great Salt Lake in Utah, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A rock formation at Great Salt Lake, Utah, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Signage at a gas station at Pocono, Utah, near Great Salt Lake, warned of scarce water, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Image of a grassy plain in Utah, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Salt encrustations surrounded the Great Salt Lake, 1948.

Fritz Goro/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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Muhammad Ali: Loud and Lyrical, 1963

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Muhammad Ali was much more than a championship boxer. He was also a natural entertainer. In February 1963, a year before he changed his name, LIFE magazine wrote “Cassius Clay has the loudest—and most lyrical—mouth in the history of boxing and the fists to back it up.”

In March 1963 LIFE photographer George Silk photographed Ali for his fight with Doug Jones at Madison Square Garden, one which was meant to a be a potential stepping stone to a title shot against Sonny Liston. Ali came into the fight against Jones, another top contender, with a 17-0 record and already carrying himself like a superstar. The most popular photo from this set shows Ali, young and lean, mouth aroar as he met with the media before the fight. This image of the young and bombastic Ali is one of the top sellers in the LIFE online print store.

It is but one of many evocative photos from the lead-up to the fight. Another shows Ali’s trainer, Angelo Dundee, placing a piece of tape over the boxer’s mouth, a playful nod to the fact that not everyone enjoyed the boasting of “the Louisville Lip.”

Before the fight Ali announced that he would finish off Jones in four rounds—one of Silk’s photos shows Ali, mouth still taped, holding up four fingers to remind everyone of his prediction. Ali did beat Jones, but the fight went a full ten rounds and was much closer than people expected. While the judges gave the decision to Ali narrowly but unanimously, many observers thought Jones had won the fight. Afterward UPI surveyed 25 ringside writers, and their vote was 13 for Jones to 10 for Ali, with two calling it a draw.

After the fight Jones said of Ali, “I’m not knocking his big mouth. He made me a lot of dough. He talks a lot outside but doesn’t show much in the ring. He better fight me again before he even thinks of Liston.” 

Ali did not fight Jones again, though. He moved on to his title shot against Liston, winning the heavyweight championship in February 1964 and becoming as famous around the globe as any athlete has ever been. Ali didn’t lose a professional fight until 1971, in a decision against Joe Frazier in the “Fight of the Century.”

At first glance these 1963 photos by George Silk feel like they capture the story of the inevitable rise of Ali. But if the judges had seen the fight the way the ringside writers did, it is possible that the narrative of one of the most fascinating characters of the 20th century would have taken a very different form.

Muhammad Alin, then known as Cassius Clay, before his fight with Doug Jones at Madison Square Garden, March 13, 1963.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, held a locker room media session before his fight with Doug Jones at Madison Square Garden, March 13, 1963.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Muhammad Alin, then known as Cassius Clay, spoke to the media before his fight with Doug Jones at Madison Square Garden, March 13, 1963.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, exuded confidence to reporters before his fight with Doug Jones at Madison Square Garden, 1963.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay and criticized for talking too much, theatrically had his mouth taped by trainer Angelo Dundee before a fight with Doug Jones, 1963.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, despite wearing tape over his mouth as a mocking gesture toward people who said he talked too much, used a finger gesture to promise that he would defeat Doug Jones in four rounds at Madison Square Garden, March 13, 1963.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) defeated Doug Jones in ten rounds in Madison Square Garden, March 13, 1963.

George Silk/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock.

Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) defeated Doug Jones in ten rounds in Madison Square Garden, March 13, 1963.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) defeated Doug Jones in ten rounds in Madison Square Garden, March 13, 1963.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) defeated Doug Jones in ten rounds in Madison Square Garden, March 13, 1963.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, fought Doug Jones at Madison Square Garden, March 13, 1963.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) defeated Doug Jones in ten rounds in Madison Square Garden, March 13, 1963.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, defeated Doug Jones in ten rounds at Madison Square Garden, March 13, 1963.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, had his hand raised in victory after defeating Doug Jones in 10 rounds in close heavyweight bout at Madison Square Garden, March 13, 1963.

George Silk/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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