Page 84 – LIFE

Gregory Peck: How an Actor Became an Icon of Moral Decency

August 17, 2021April 5, 2016 by

Since the advent of Gary Cooper no screen hero has said ‘Shucks!’ with more conviction than Gregory Peck, who is sometimes called, because of his homespun look, ‘the Lincoln of Beverly Hills.’

So went the editor’s note about Peck’s 1947 LIFE cover by Nina Leen, cementing in the minds of readers that he was the handsome, wholesome hero at the heart of the Hollywood dream. He was still 15 years away from the role that would win him an Oscar and solidify his legacy, but he was already as respected as he was beloved.

The actor, born Eldred Gregory Peck on April 5, 1916, began his career in the theater in the early 1940s, exempted from the draft thanks to a back injury. Though he was often penniless during those years and sometimes slept on the street, the launching of his film career brought swift success. After releasing his first movie, Days of Glory, in 1944, he went on to receive four Academy Award nominations in the next five years. His fifth would be the one he finally took home.

Though the pages of LIFE are filled with glowing reviews of Peck’s performances, the legacy he left behind transcends the bounds of stage and screen. Peck, who died in 2003, is remembered as every bit the decent soul as his version of Atticus Finch was. As TIME’s late film critic Richard Corliss wrote in his obituary for the actor:

It’s dangerous to confuse an actor with his movie roles. But by all accounts the reel and the real Gregory Peck were close kin. He was a model of probity, a loyal friend to colleagues in distress, a father confessor to the Hollywood community. He chaired the National Society of This, the American Academy of That. He was laden with official honors: Lyndon Johnson gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom; Richard Nixon put him on his Enemies List. Peck received perhaps his sweetest laurel last week when the reclusive [Harper] Lee, on hearing of his death, said, “Gregory Peck was a beautiful man. Atticus Finch gave him the opportunity to play himself.”

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

Gregory Peck smoking a pipe for a scene in the movie “The Yearling.” 1947.

Walter Sanders The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gregory Peck and Ann Todd, starring in Alfred Hitchcock’s film The Paradine Case. 1947.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Images Collection/Shutterstock

Portrait of Gregory Peck in New York City, 1947.

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner watching Walter Huston as he gambles in scene from film “The Great Sinner.” 1949.

Peter Stackpole The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Peck at the beach in his birthplace of La Jolla, California, 1949.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gregory Peck costumed as WWII American Air Forces bomber pilot for movie “Twelve O’Clock High.” 1950.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward on the set of the 1951 film “David and Bathsheba.”

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gregory Peck on a set in Hollywood, California. 1955.

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gregory Peck in promotional shot for the film “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.” 1956.

J. R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Then, as Now, Kids and Baby Animals are an Adorable Combination

January 14, 2020April 4, 2016 by

Back in 1953, the Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo opened a new children’s section stocked with baby animals, and the kids enjoyed their hands-on experience, perhaps a little too much. Failing to differentiate between the live animals and their stuffed ones at home, the adoring children poked and prodded little llamas and kangaroos until the animals had had enough. LIFE’s story was titled “Zoo’s Babies Get Overdose of Love.”

“Some animals fought back,” the magazine stated. “A monkey grabbed a woman’s lipstick. A baboon hit a boy. A llama who had had his fill of popcorn discovered a way to say so, and a loud-mouthed mother stalked away, yelling, ‘That dirty brazen creature poked me in the rear!'”

The zoo quickly made modifications to the animals’ fencing so as to prevent another love-fueled fiasco. But in these pictures, you can see why the kids had a hard time keeping their distance.

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

This duck’s long neck provided a nice handhold for one boy.

Howard Sochurek The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hands swarmed over a dazed linon cub, Caesar.

Howard Sochurek The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Children were drawn to a baby kangaroo.

Howard Sochurek The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Children visited Brookfield Children’s Zoo in Chicago, 1953.

Howard Sochurek The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Baby llamas at the Brookfield Children’s Zoo in Chicago, 1953.

Howard Sochurek The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The attraction here was a sea elephant who had left its pool.

Howard Sochurek The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

“He feels funny,” one child remarked about the elephant.

Howard Sochurek The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A baby kangaroo was bottle-fed at Brookfield Children’s Zoo, Chicago, 1953.

Howard Sochurek The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A lion cub was displayed in a basket at the Brookfield Children’s Zoo in Chicago, 1953.

Howard Sochurek The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Elephant, Brookfield Children’s Zoo in Chicago, 1953.

Howard Sochurek The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The original LIFE story was titled “Zoo’s Babies Get Overdose of Love.”

Howard Sochurek The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A goat perched on a table at the Brookfield Children’s Zoo, Chicago, 1953.

Howard Sochurek The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Popcorn-stuffed baby llamas, too full to walk, were carried to their cage.

Howard Sochurek The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

And Now, Beautiful Photos of Pigs

November 23, 2019March 1, 2016 by

Pigs have generally gotten their cultural due. There’s a long line of fictional pigs, onscreen (Miss Piggy, Babe), in literature (E.B. White’s Wilbur; George Orwell’s characters in Animal Farm) and in verse (the little piggy that went “wee wee wee” all the way home). In 1972, Ellen Stanley, a schoolteacher and her sister Mary Lynne Rave decided that the animal deserved its own day in the mud. They founded National Pig Day, to be held annually on the first of March, “to accord to the pig its rightful, though generally unrecognized, place as one of man’s most intellectual and domesticated animals.”

Now, this is not quite a National holiday, but it does generate some happy celebrations in schools and zoos and game farms. At that time, or at any other, a more convenient way to observe might be to partake in the particular pleasures of pig portraits, such as these, produced by some of the 20th century’s greatest photographers.

Liz Ronk edited this photo gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

Piglet, 1939.

Wallace Kirkland The LIFE Images Collection/Shutterstock

Large sow eating an ear of corn, 1939.

Wallace Kirkland The LIFE Images Collection/Shutterstock

A pig makes a sorrowful expression, 1941.

Herbert Gehr The LIFE Images Collection/Shutterstock

A sow and her piglets at Super Pig Farm, Mt. Ararat Farms, 1945.

Thomas McAvoy The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A piglet at Super Pig Farm, Mt. Ararat Farms, 1945.

Thomas McAvoy The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A large pig roots through the mud, 1946.

Mark Kauffman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Portrait of a sizable pig, 1946.

Mark Kauffman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A pig wears ribbons for winning several contests in a livestock exposition, 1947.

George Skadding The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A championship Yorkshire mother pig with piglets, 1948.

Francis Miller The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Priscilla the Performing Pig, 1949.

Francis Miller The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Porkchop the pig relaxes in his backyard, 1952.

John Dominis The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A tiny piglet is held up for display, 1954.

Wallace Kirkland The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mixed Yorkshire pigs on an Iowa farm, 1954.

Gordon Parks The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jan Bruene stands with Henrietta, a 700-lb. purebred Yorkshire sow, 1954.

Gordon Parks The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Rear view of two hogs, 1954.

Al Fenn The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jesse Owens in 1955: Our Man in India

August 9, 2021February 19, 2016 by

Jesse Owens’ triumph at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games is one of the great stories of American sport, and a victory that might never have happened had the track star not decided that his competing would be a statement against Hitler’s racist regime.

But the story of Owens’ post-Olympic life a difficult one. His athletic feats did not exempt him from the struggles wrought by institutionalized racism in his home country, and those struggles could not be erased by any number of gold medals. As he would later say, “After I came home from the 1936 Olympics with my four medals, it became increasingly apparent that everyone was going to slap me on the back, want to shake my hand, or have me up to their suite. But no one was going to offer me a job.”

He attempted to capitalize on commercial offers following his victory, but those quickly dried up. He bought a Negro League baseball team, but the league disbanded after a few short months. He worked as a gas station attendant, ran a dry cleaning business and even raced against horses in an endeavor he recognized might be perceived as degrading, but as he explained, “You can’t eat four gold medals.”

In 1955, nearly two decades after the Olympics, the U.S. State Department dispatched Owens, then 42, on a goodwill tour of India. LIFE photographer James Burke documented the trip, during which the Olympian coached Indian athletes and gave speeches to schoolchildren. The magazine called him “a practically perfect envoy in a country which has violently exaggerated ideas about the treatment of Negroes in the U.S,” hinting at the political motives that may have been at play in the decision to send him overseas, and noted that Owens “generally charmed everybody in sight.”

Even so, the trip did not erase financial problems at home. Owens’ life would be cut short by lung cancer in 1980. His legacy, however, persists.

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

Jesse Owens demonstrates his form to sprinters in India.

James Burke The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jesse Owens coaches Indian athletes during his goodwill tour in 1955.

James Burke The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Athletes huddle around Owens in India, 1955.

James Burke The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Owens helps Indian athletes with their starting positions, 1955.

James Burke The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Owens demonstrates good form, 1955.

James Burke The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Owens helps Indian runners learn good form, 1955.

James Burke The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Attentive athletes look on as Owens coaches them during his 1955 trip to India.

James Burke The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Owens addresses schoolchildren as goodwill ambassador to India, 1955.

James Burke The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Original caption: “Arithmetic lesson by Owens interrupts the routine of a class of 6-year-olds at a Delhi school.”

James Burke The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jesse Owens speaks about sportsmanship to students at Delhi University.

James Burke The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Original caption: “One end of cloth clenched between his teeth, Jesse Owens learns the trick of turban-wrapping in manner of the Sikhs as he visits New Delhi.”

James Burke The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dogs: LIFE Was into Weimaraners Before Weimaraners Were Cool

January 13, 2020February 16, 2016 by

In 1950, when LIFE published a photo essay on the breed in 1950, there were a mere 1,500 Weimaraners in the U.S., all owned by members of the Weimaraner Club of America. The club tightly controlled breeding to ensure that each generation retained the best of the breed’s characteristics: namely, a distinctly friendly and loyal personality and a solid record as a hunting companion.

In the decades since the breed’s popularity has increased greatly. In 2018 Weimaraners were the 36th most popular breed in the U.S., finishing just behind border collies, according to the American Kennel Club. Then as now, the appeal is plain, as captured in these photographs by LIFE photographer Bernard Hoffman.

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

A Weimaraner mother and her 8-week-old son, 1950.

Bernard Hoffman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A woman and her daughter hold Weimaraner puppies.

Bernard Hoffman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Weimaraner pup played well with this two-and-a-half year old girl.

Bernard Hoffman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Versatile Weimaraner, 1950.

Bernard Hoffman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Weimaraner pups romped with their mother, 1950.

Bernard Hoffman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This Weimaraner was taken on a pheasant hunting expedition.

Bernard Hoffman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This Weimaraner considered a fallen duck.

Bernard Hoffman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Owner Bradford Warner with his Weimaraner Grafmar’s Evening Mist.

Bernard Hoffman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Genius at Work: W. Eugene Smith with Sinatra, Stravinsky, and Other Masters

December 14, 2019February 11, 2016 by

When LIFE photographer W. Eugene Smith photographed Frank Sinatra, Marian Anderson, Igor Stravinsky, Benny Goodman and others at the RCA and Columbia studios in 1951, he didn’t just shoot them making music. He also captured quiet moments of self-evaluation that are in themselves a key part of the creative process. Knowing that the public would be listening to and judging these recordings for years to come, “they listen with feelings of despair, approval or plain exhaustion to the playbacks of their own music,” LIFE explained.

What follow is is a rare and intimate look at these artists in their times of creation.

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

Frank Sinatra and musicians in a studio during a recording session at CBS.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Patrice Munsel, tea thermos handy, curled up and beat time to herself performing an aria from Fledermaus.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Gregor Piatigorsky unhappily listened to a movement being played back.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Rudolf Serkin, his hair bristling, listened with deep absorption to his Beethoven Emperor Concerto.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marian Anderson listened doubtfully to her Brahms Alto Rhapsody. But the orchestra applauded her performance.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Eyes closed and their faces mask-like in deep reverie, Helen Traubel (left) and Herta Glaz (right) sat in recording booth with sound engineers listening to their duet from Tristan.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The face of genius is here preoccupied with the correct time—a necessity for a man of Igor Stravinsky’s precise schedules.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Comedian Jimmy Durante and opera star Helen Traubel join in A Real Piano Player. Jimmy was serious during his duet with her.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Composer Marc Blitzstein and conductor/composer Leonard Bernstein (right) studied the score of a Blitzstein work during a recording session.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Conductor Leopold Stokowsky smoked a cigarette and listened during a recording session.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Pearl Bailey in a CBS recording session.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Conductor Artur Rodzinski seems dejected as he heard playback of Franck’s D-Minor Symphony, which he had just led. But when it ended he said, “Fine! I like it.”

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Jazz musician Mary Lou Williams, music in front of her, listened to playback of a recording she has just made.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Clarinetist Benny Goodman smoked a cigarette while listening in a CBS recording session.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dorothy Kirsten, glamour girl of the Met, recorded Puccini arias after first removing all her rings and bracelets, which might jingle and spoil the recording.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An outtake from a 1951 LIFE photo essay on recording artists.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Frank Sinatra and musicians in the studio during a recording session at CBS.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Shirtsleeved Isaac Stern played a Tchaikovsky concerto with Alexander Hilsberg.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Opera singer Eleanor Streber drank water during a CBS recording session.

W. Eugene Smith The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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Genius at Work: W. Eugene Smith with Sinatra, Stravinsky, and Other Masters

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