Page 97 – LIFE

Coney Island: Classic Photos From America’s Original Playground

February 24, 2020June 24, 2014 by

Not many places in America have, for so long, been so dedicated to the pursuit of fun as the mile-long stretch along the southern edge of Brooklyn known as Coney Island. Luna Park, Astroland, the world-famous Cyclone roller coaster — for well over a century, these names helped define what amusement parks were, while their attractions and thrills still inform what summertime entertainment looks, feels and sounds like.

As the Cyclone advances further into its 10th decade of life — the wooden coaster opened for business on June 26, 1927 — LIFE.com presents a series of pictures that celebrate the unique, messy, vibrant energy of Coney Island. Even today, after so many years of, well, ups and downs, there’s no place else quite like it.

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

Coney Island, New York, 1944.

Marie Hansen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Coney Island Cyclone, 1944.

Marie Hansen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Coney Island, 1943.

Ralph Morse The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Coney Island, 1949.

Andreas Feininger The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Coney Island, 1943.

Ralph Morse The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Coney Island, 1949.

Andreas Feininger The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Coney Island, 1943.

Ralph Morse The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Gryro Globe ride, a metal monster which simultaneously spun and tilted its victims, Coney Island, 1949.

Andreas Feininger The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Coney Island, 1949.

Andreas Feininger The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Coney Island, 1943.

Ralph Morse The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Parachute Jump along the boardwalk at Coney Island, 1951.

Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Coney Island, 1942.

William Vandivert The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Coney Island, 1943.

Ralph Morse The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Coney Island 1949

Andreas Feininger The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Coney Island, 1942.

William Vandivert The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Coney Island, 1949.

Andreas Feininger The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Coney Island, 1942.

William Vandivert The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Face of Freedom: Portraits of the Statue of Liberty

January 16, 2020June 16, 2014 by

The Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognizable pieces of public art, not only in America but around the world. At the time of its dedication on October 28, 1886, this gift from France was, at 305 feet and one inch, the tallest structure in New York City. While its status has been dwarfed in that one measure, its status as an icon has only deepened over time.

Here are photos of Lady Liberty as captured by LIFE photographers through the years.

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

Statue of Liberty, 1951.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Statue of Liberty, 1946.

Andreas Feininger/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Statue of Liberty, 1950.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Statue of Liberty, 1956.

Dmitri Kessel/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Statue of Liberty, 1951.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Statue of Liberty, 1959.

Stan Wayman/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Statue of Liberty, 1960.

Al Fenn/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Statue of Liberty, 1954.

Peter Stackpole/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Statue of Liberty, 1931.

Pictures Inc./Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Statue of Liberty, 1961.

Howard Sochurek/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Statue of Liberty, 1939.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Statue of Liberty, date unknown.

Al Fenn/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Statue of Liberty, 1939.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Statue of Liberty, 1942.

Andreas Feininger/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Grace and Mayhem: Women’s Roller Derby, 1948

December 23, 2021June 13, 2014 by

“It is a teeth-jarring sport for skaters who race 30 miles every night,” LIFE wrote of roller derby back in December 1948. The sport, LIFE continued, features “enough spills and body contact to gratify even an ice hockey fan.”

LIFE.com here features a number of photographs of women’s roller derby teams in Chicago, made by longtime LIFE photographer George Skadding. Known primarily as a chronicler of politics and presidents—before and after World War II, he was an officer of the White House News Photographers Association—Skadding clearly immersed himself in this particular assignment.

Maybe the open aggression of the sport was a tonic after years of covering Washington, where the assaults tended to be more buttoned-down. Whatever the reason, Skadding evidently enjoyed himself while chronicling these skaters. And according to LIFE, so did the fans at the rink.

“The rules of this spectacle appear to have been cribbed from six-day bike racing . . . and professional wrestling. . . . Audiences have already learned to hiss the sport’s more clumsy villains, but lady skaters are not ostracized when they kick one another in the face.”

Is it any wonder that, while always on the fringes of sporting culture, roller derby still endures?

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

A skillful shoulder block thrown by ‘Fuzzy’ Buchek (left) foiled an attempt by Vivian Johnson (center) to slip between two skaters and start a jam. These were all legal moves.

George Skadding The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Roller Derby, Chicago, 1948.

George Skadding The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A fight broke out between ‘Toughie’ Brashun (No. 12), Gerry Murray and a hapless mediator from a men’s team (No. 13).

George Skadding The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Roller Derby, Chicago, 1948.

George Skadding The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Roller Derby 1948

George Skadding The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Roller Derby, Chicago, 1948.

George Skadding The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An illegal hold by the skater at the left (No. 3) let her partner take the lead. It was observed that girls’ tactics were often dirtier than men’s.

George Skadding The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

LIFE magazine, Dec. 13, 1948.

LIFE Magazine

Vintage Yosemite: Breathtaking Photos of a National Treasure, 1962

January 16, 2020June 8, 2014 by

On June 30, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant Act, establishing Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove as America’s “first protected wild land for all time,” while also creating the very first California state park. The Yosemite National Park that we know and love today was not established until October 1890—but it’s still remarkable to consider that, in the midst of a civil war that threatened to destroy the nation, Congress and Lincoln had the foresight, and the guts, to protect America’s natural treasures in perpetuity.

Here, LIFE.com presents a series of photos made in the park in 1962 by LIFE’s Ralph Crane. Looking at these pictures, one would be hard-pressed to disagree with the famous assertion that, collectively, the national parks comprise “America’s best idea.”

A hiker at Vernal Falls in Yosemite National Park, 1962.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Yosemite Valley, a crown jewel of scenic treasure, has been preserved largely because of a pioneer’s love. Naturalist John Muir fought for a Yosemite National Park so things like the great granite shoulder of El Capitan (left) and Bridalveil Falls could be held in public trust for future visitors.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Campers made an early morning breakfast at their site in Yosemite National Park, 1962.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Children walked on a spit of rocks at Mirror Lake in Yosemite National Park, 1962.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Tourists floated on a raft in the Merced River, Yosemite National Park, 1962.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A horseback ride in Yosemite National Park, 1962.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Yosemite Falls at Yosemite National Park, 1962.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hikers passed beneath a rainbow formed by mist from Vernal Falls, Yosemite National Park, 1962.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Vernal Falls in Yosemite National Park, 1962.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

“Firefall” — burning hot embers spilled from the top of Glacier Point at Yosemite National Park — was a nightly tourist attraction for years, until the Park Service ordered the owners of the Glacier Point Hotel to put a stop to the dramatic, but highly unnatural, proceedings.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Father and son (unwisely) fed a deer, Yosemite National Park, 1962.

Ralph Crane The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Early Days of Professional Dog Walking

November 3, 2020June 8, 2014 by

New York City has always been a proving ground for entrepreneurs. The Alfred Eisenstadt photograph above, for example, depicts a dog walker in Central Park in 1967—and documents a phenomenon born just a few years before the photo was made.

Here’s how it started: one morning in 1964, a man of Upper East Side gentility awoke at dawn to walk an acquaintance’s dog. By the end of the year he was making more than $500 a week walking other people’s pooches.

Over time, this dog walker, Jim Buck gained many more clients, and in a few years he employed a stable of two dozen assistants walking hundreds of dogs a day.

As the ’60s pressed on, Mr. Buck founded Jim Buck’s School for Dogs—the first of its kind, being one part canine-training, one part exercise and other walking needs—and ran the business for more than 40 years.

Buck closed his school shortly after the new millennium, and retired. His death in July 2013 at the age of 81 was noted with an obituary in The New York Times. But his was a classic American success story: He was an innovator who saw a need, and filled it, and a man who, legend has it, wore through the soles of his shoes every other week.

Olivia Marsh is a filmmaker, writer and history student at New York University.

Dog walkers in Central Park, New York, 1967.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Images Collection/Shutterstock

Ghosts of World War I: The Tragic Legacy of Verdun

August 11, 2021June 7, 2014 by

In the spring of 1964, LIFE photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt—who served as a German artilleryman during World War I and saw action in the terrible fighting at Passchendaele—and correspondent Ken Gouldthorpe traveled to Verdun, in northeastern France, where one of the costliest battles of WWI took place five decades earlier. Here, LIFE.com presents Eisenstaedt’s quietly powerful color pictures from Verdun: images of an idyllic landscape that still bears the scars, and seemingly harbors the ghosts, of “the war to end all wars.”

Of all the battle sites along the 350-mile sweep of the Western Front [Gouldthorpe wrote in the June 5, 1964, issue of LIFE], none has come to symbolize the carnage and futility of World War I’s fighting more than the fields and hills of Verdun. Here the Germans tried to bleed the French army to death. . . . Today in an ossuary near Douaumont, even now smelling of death, rest the bones of 130,000 unidentified casualties from both sides: skulls, thighs, and — almost indistinguishable — the hobnailed sole of a soldier’s boot. Th erupting shells of a thousand bombardments killed and dug up and mixed and then reinterred the bodies until they intermingled inseparably beneath the mud. [But] not all the memorials honor unknown soldiers. In the wall of Fort Vaux . . . a couple of poppies from nearby fields decorate a plaque [picture #17 in the gallery] to one French victim of Verdun. It says, simply, “To my son. Since your eyes were closed mine have never ceased to cry.”

The sullen turrets of Verdun’s forts continued to guard one the world’s most deadly battlefields.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Verdun, France, 1964.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

In an ossuary near Douaumont rested the bones of 130,000 unidentified casualties from both sides.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Verdun, France, 1964.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Verdun, France, photographed from the air, 1964.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Verdun, France, 1964.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

14,000 marble crosses honored Americans” at Verdun.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

At Vaux rested a plaque to one soldier.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This monument was erected in remembrance of refugees.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Near the crest at Montfaucon, where in 1918 U.S. infantry routed the Germans with bayonets but suffered enormous losses, a village cross held up a shell-shattered Christ.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

At Douaumont a statue of a French soldier lay with 15,000 actual dead.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Verdun, France, 1964.

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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Vintage Yosemite: Breathtaking Photos of a National Treasure, 1962

The Early Days of Professional Dog Walking

Ghosts of World War I: The Tragic Legacy of Verdun

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