Arts, Entertainment, & Culture - LIFE https://www.life.com/arts-entertainment/ Mon, 15 Jul 2024 13:30:49 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.1 https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/02211512/cropped-favicon-512-32x32.png Arts, Entertainment, & Culture - LIFE https://www.life.com/arts-entertainment/ 32 32 Majesty in Tokyo: The 1964 Olympics https://www.life.com/arts-entertainment/majesty-in-tokyo-the-1964-olympics/ Mon, 15 Jul 2024 13:30:47 +0000 https://www.life.com/?p=5366809 The first modern Olympics was held in 1896 in Athens, and the games have certainly changed much since then—a fact that will be obvious to anyone who tunes in the 2024 edition from Paris and sees competitve breakdancing, the latest addition to the Games’ cavalcade of sport. The Olympics are continually evolving, but all throughout ... Read more

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The first modern Olympics was held in 1896 in Athens, and the games have certainly changed much since then—a fact that will be obvious to anyone who tunes in the 2024 edition from Paris and sees competitve breakdancing, the latest addition to the Games’ cavalcade of sport.

The Olympics are continually evolving, but all throughout the years the Games have a simple appeal: The best athletes in the world gather and compete to see who is the fastest, the strongest, and the most acrobatic. On top of it you have pageantry: the opening and closing ceremonies can be as compelling as the games themselves.

In 1964 LIFE staff photographer Art Rickerby went to Tokyo to capture the 1964 Summer games in all their glory.

The Tokyo Olympics made history because it was the first the time the event was staged in Asia. That was also the first time the Olympics were broadcast via satellite—before that, improbable as it sounds, video tapes had to be flown across oceans before the competition could be seen by overseas viewers.

From the perspective of LIFE managing editor George P. Hunt, who covered many Olympics, the Tokyo event also stood out for the control exerted by Japanese officials. “The Games were precise, stiff and formal,” Hunter wrote, looking back in 1968. “The Japanese have a penchant for over-organization. The government even put a lid on the hot spots in Ginza.”

That management style which seemed novel to Hunter has become the standard, no matter where the Olympics are held. Host cities spend many billions to stage the games, and media companies invest heavily to broadcast them. They prepare with the same intensity as the athletes, and they do what they can to make sure all goes as hoped.

And the 1964 event, as always, made for not just plenty of athletic drama but some pretty pictures as well.

Opening ceremony at the track and field stadium of the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

West and East Germans march together at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Japanese athletes marched in at the opening ceremonies of the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

(Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock)

Japanese trumpeters at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

Art Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock)

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Japanese track athlete Yoshinori Sakai lit the torch at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Olympic torch at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The opening ceremonies of the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games, Japan.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sunrise at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium, home of the swimming and diving events of the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

1964 Summer Olympic flags, Tokyo, Japan.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Opening ceremony at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics, Japan.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A snack vendor at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

Art Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

1964 Summer Olympics, Tokyo, Japan.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Al Oerter of the U.S. team won a gold medal in discus at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

US swimmer Don Schollander (second from left) competed at the 1964 Summer Olympics, Tokyo.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

US gold medal winner swimmer Don Schollander celebrated at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics, Japan.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

US gold medal winner swimmer Don Schollander at 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics, Japan.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

USA swimmer Cathy Ferguson cried after winning gold in the 100-meter backstroke at the 1964 Summer Olympics. (L) Christine Caron of France won silver, (R) American Ginny Duenkel won bronze.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The USA women’s swim team signed a kick board after winning gold in the 4×100-meter medley relay, 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics. L-R: Cynthia Goyette, Kathy Ellis ,Cathy Ferguson, Sharon Stouder.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

(Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock)

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

US sprinter Edith McGuire at 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics, Japan.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

USA diver Larry Andreasen at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics, Japan.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

US athlete Hayes Jones in Tokyo 1964 Summer Olympics, Japan

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Soviet heavy-weightlifter Yuri Vlasov at 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics, Japan.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Medal ceremony at Lake Sagami for the Women’s 550-meter kayak pairs event. West Germans Roswitha Esser and Annemarie Zimmermann won gold. Second place went to 15-year-old Francine Fox and 35-year-old Gloriane Perrier of the US. In third place were Hilde Lauer and Cornelia Sideri of Romania.

Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ginny Duenkel (C), Marilyn Ramenofsky (R), and Terri Stickles (L) on the victory stand following the 400 meter race at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, 1964.

Arthur Rickerby/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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The Dawn of Rock: America Finds Its Thrill https://www.life.com/arts-entertainment/the-dawn-of-rock-america-finds-its-thrill/ Tue, 11 Jun 2024 14:34:12 +0000 https://www.life.com/?p=5379831 In its April 18, 1955 issue LIFE magazine reported on—with a fair amount of concern—the onset of the defining evolution of popular music in the 20th century. The story was titled “Rock ‘N Roll: A Frenzied Teenage Music Craze Kicks Up a Big Fuss.“ Here’s how LIFE described what the “big fuss” was all about: ... Read more

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In its April 18, 1955 issue LIFE magazine reported on—with a fair amount of concern—the onset of the defining evolution of popular music in the 20th century. The story was titled “Rock ‘N Roll: A Frenzied Teenage Music Craze Kicks Up a Big Fuss.

Here’s how LIFE described what the “big fuss” was all about:

The nation’s teenagers are dancing their way into an enlarging controversy over rock ‘n roll. In New Haven, Connecticut the police chief has put a damper on rock ‘n roll parties and other towns are following suit. Radio networks are worried over questionable lyrics in rock ‘n roll. And some American parents, without quite knowing what it is their kids are up to, are worried that it’s something they shouldn’t be.

But like it or not, rock and roll was here to stay. Standing in the heart of the moment, LIFE saw dancing as a big part of the new music’s appeal. The magazine, grasping to connect this revolutionary moment to the recent past, described rock and roll dancing as “a combination of “the Lindy and the Charleston, and almost anything else.” The story, shot by staff photographers Walter Sanders and Loomis Dean, had more pictures of kids dancing than of musicians performing. One of the shoots took place at the dance studio of Arthur Murray, where kids demonstrated their new moves.

LIFE acknowledged the roots of this new music, saying “The heavy-beat and honking-melody tunes of today’s rock ‘n roll have a clearly defined ancestry in U.S. jazz going back to Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith of 30 years ago.” The broader market was now turning to a style of music that first became popular in the Black community because record companies had been focussing on “mambos and ballads,” and as a result “the country’s teenagers found themselves without snappy dance tunes to their taste.”

Some adults fretted over lyrics that seemed to be laden with innuendo and double meanings. But even as the LIFE article adopted the tone of a worried parent, the pictures in the magazine told another story. The photos showed exuberance and joy. And by today’s standards, everything looks extremely proper. The main concert photos feature the great Fats Domino, who is wearing a suit and playing a grand piano. The young fans are dressed as if they were going to a formal occasion, without any jeans or T-shirts in sight.

It’s mind-boggling to think that a mere 14 years from when this story ran, rock fans would be mucking around in the mud at Woodstock. But there was no stopping it at this point. The revolution was on, and it was coming fast.

Teenagers demonstrated their rock music dance moves for Arthur Murray and his wife, in background, at Murray’s dance studio.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Arthur Murray and wife (in the background to the left) enjoyed a demonstration by teen-agers of rock`n roll dancing, 1955..

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Young dancers from a 1955 story on rock music.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A couple dancing from a story on rock music, 1955.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A young couple danced to rock music, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life PIcture Collection/Shutterstock

Pioneering rock DJ Allen Freed did a show from a studio in Boston, 1955.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A sign for an early rock show presented by pioneering DJ Allan Freed, 1955.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Teenagers danced to rock music being spun by DJ Al Jarvis in the parking lot of a Los Angeles supermarket, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Audience members enjoying Alan Freed’s Easter show at Brooklyn Paramount Theater, 1955.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Saxophonist Herbert Hardesty (center), a member of Fats Domino’s band, let loose at 54 Ballroom in Los Angeles, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fats Domino’s band performed in Los Angeles, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fats Domino’s band rocked out in Los Angeles, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fats Domino in concert in Los Angeles, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fats Domino and his band performed in Los Angeles, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Young dancers from a 1955 story on rock music.

Walter Sanders/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A show from the early days of rock and roll, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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The Amazing Story Behind “Jumpman” https://www.life.com/arts-entertainment/the-amazing-story-behind-jumpman/ Fri, 31 May 2024 15:26:26 +0000 https://www.life.com/?p=5379644 Co Rentmeester took countless memorable photographs during his years as a LIFE photographer, on a wide range of subjects, from the Watts riots to the war in Vietnam to snow monkeys in Japan. But no image of his has reached more people than the one he shot of Michael Jordan back in 1984—and that’s because ... Read more

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Co Rentmeester took countless memorable photographs during his years as a LIFE photographer, on a wide range of subjects, from the Watts riots to the war in Vietnam to snow monkeys in Japan. But no image of his has reached more people than the one he shot of Michael Jordan back in 1984—and that’s because it inspired the Jumpman logo that now appears on Jordan brand clothing, which generated $6.59 billion in revenue for Nike in 2023. 

“I see it ten times a day,” Rentmeester says. But the logo is more a source of irritation than pride, because he believes he was never properly compensated. He sued Nike in a case that in 2018 went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The courts ultimately sided with Nike. So now Rentmeester is taking his argument to the public in a new documentary called Jumpman. The film premieres on June 7 at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

The film recounts in fascinating detail Rentmeester’s fateful 1984 photo shoot with Jordan, which took place on a hillside on the University of North Carolina campus in Chapel Hill. Because Rentmeester still has all the alternate takes with Jordan and also test images he shot with an assistant playing the role of the basketball star, the documentary is able to demonstrate the aesthetic and technical reasons behind Rentmeester’s history-making request to Jordan. Rentmeester asked him to do a ballet leap, going straight up into the air with his legs split, rather than a conventional basketball jump that creates momentum toward the hoop. Rentmeester’s unusual request resulted in a signature image for a man who would go on to become the most famous athlete on the planet.

Soon after that shoot Jordan would begin his NBA journey as a player for the Chicago Bulls, and also as a spokesperson for Nike. As the documentary shows, making use of original documents from back then, Rentmeester received a request from Nike for two slides from that hillside shoot, to use for presentations only, not reproduction. Nike paid Rentmeester $150 for sending the images out on loan. Then, about a month later, Rentmeester traveled to Chicago and was stunned to see an image of Jordan on a billboard, replicating the ballet jump, except in red-and-black Nike gear. “It was like I was hit in the stomach,” he says.

Rentmeester protested to Nike. They responded by offering him $15,000 to use the image for two years, plus the promise to employ him on future advertising shoots, Rentmeester says. He took the deal. At this point in his career he was working as a freelancer, had young children, and was not positioned for a long legal battle with a deep-pocketed corporation. The promised work, he says, never materialized.

Rentmeester only headed back to court in 2014, when he found a lawyer who took on the case pro bono. But a district court ruled against Rentmeester, stating that a pose only received thin protection, and that small differences such as the turn of Jordan’s hand or the angle of his foot were enough to make Nike’s image distinct from the original.

Rentmeester sees that decision as not only an injustice against him but as an insult to the art of photography in general. “I didn’t take the picture. I made the picture,” he says in the documentary. “Obviously they did not make a picture. They took a picture.”

It further irked Rentmeester that his case never came before a jury. He believes a panel of regular people would recognize the truth of what happened.

Jumpman, with a running time of a brisk 22 minutes, was directed by Tom Dey, who has helmed such feature films as Failure to Launch and Shanghai Noon, and who knew this story intimately because he is married to Rentmeester’s daughter Coliena, who is also a photographer. 

“Because he is my father-in-law, I’ve lived through this saga at arm’s length over the last two decades,” Dey says. “I could tell that it was exhausting him.”  Forty years after that initial photo shoot with Michael Jordan, Dey believed it was time that Rentmeester get credit for his work: “I thought, `If we make a film about this, he can address the court of public opinion, and the public can make up their own minds.”

From June 6 to 11 a related photography exhibit, which covers the Jordan shoot and the rest of Co Rentmeester’s illustrious career, will run in a gallery at 127 Greene Street in New York City.

Co Rentmeester photographed Michael Jordan in Chapel HIll, N.C. for a story on stars of the 1984 Olympics; that shoot would produce the famous Jumpman pose.

Courtesy of Co Rentmeester

A still of photographer Co Rentmeester from the 2024 documentary “Jumpman.”

Courtesy of Co Rentmeester

A still from the 2024 documentary “Jumpman.”

Courtesy of Co Rentmeester

In 1984 Michael Jordan jumped straight up while doing a ballet split on a hillside in Chapel Hill, N.C., with a toy basket staged cannily in front of him, in 1984; the image led to a lawsuit between its photographer, Co Rentmeester, and NIke over the company’s “jumpman” logo.

Courtesy of Co Rentmeester

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The Ageless Rolling Stones, Through the Ages https://www.life.com/arts-entertainment/the-ageless-rolling-stones-through-the-ages/ Tue, 21 May 2024 18:07:38 +0000 https://www.life.com/?p=5379431 The summer of 2024 will be just like the summer of 1964 in at least one regard, and it has nothing to do with the Olympics or any presidential elections. Once again The Rolling Stones will be touring the United States. Back in 1964 the Stones embarked on their first U.S. tour, in support of ... Read more

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The summer of 2024 will be just like the summer of 1964 in at least one regard, and it has nothing to do with the Olympics or any presidential elections. Once again The Rolling Stones will be touring the United States.

Back in 1964 the Stones embarked on their first U.S. tour, in support of their self-titled debut record. Sixty years later they are, astoundingly, back it at. Will the 2024 U.S. tour be the last for band that has brought satisfaction —and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction“—to so many? It certainly could be, although at this it seems unwise to ever question the longevity of a band that has been carrying on this long.

Of course, as the photos in this collection show, the band has changed over the years. In early photos from Walter Daran and LIFE staff photographer John Loengard, the band’s lineup includes Brian Jones, a founding member who would dismissed from the band in 1969 and later drown in a swimming pool. Also shown in photos across the band’s eras is Charlie Watts, the elegant drummer who was there from the beginning and died in 2021.

But all these decades later, frontmen Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are still at it, despite both being 80 years old. Their longevity is a rock and roll miracle, when you think about it, surviving as they have in a business that has a way of chewing people up.

In 2024 the Stones released a new album, their first since 2005 and their 31st studio effort overall, called Hackney Diamonds. What else would they do but get out on the road to support it?

The Rolling Stones perform on the "Ed Sullivan Show" in 1965.

The Rolling Stones performed on The Ed Sullivan Show, 1965.

John Loengard The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Rolling Stones perform on a chandelier-filled set on the ‘Ed Sullivan Show,’ May 2, 1965. From left, guitarists Keith Richards and Brian Jones, singer Mick Jagger, bassist Bill Wyman, and drummer Charlie Watts.

John Loengard/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Drummer Charlie Watts during a Rolling Stones performance at the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in New York, 1966.

Walter Daran/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Brian Jones during a Rolling Stones performance at the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in New York, 1966.

Walter Daran/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mick Jagger performed during a 1966 Rolling Stones concert.

Walter Daran/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones performed at Live Aid concert in Philadelphia, 1985.

DMI

Mick Jagger and Tina Turner performed together at Live Aid in Philadelphia, 1985.

DMI

The Rolling Stones in concert: Ronnie Wood, Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Keith Richards and Bill Wyman.

DMI

Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones performed in 1989.

DMI

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

DMI

Mick Jagger during the Rolling Stones’ ‘Voodoo Lounge’ tour, 1994.

DMI

Mick Jagger performed during The Rolling Stones’ 1994 “Voodoo Lounge” tour.

DMI

Keith Richards took center stage during the Rolling Stones’ ‘Voodoo Lounge’ tour, 1994.

DMI

Keith Richards during the 1994 “Voodoo Lounge” tour, 1994.

DMI

Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones during band’s ‘Voodoo Lounge’ tour, 1994.

DMI

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LIFE Said This Invention Would “Annihilate Time and Space” https://www.life.com/lifestyle/life-said-this-invention-would-annihilate-time-and-space/ Mon, 20 May 2024 14:23:57 +0000 https://www.life.com/?p=5379373 In September 1944, World War II still had a year to go, but that didn’t stop LIFE from looking ahead to peacetime in its Sept. 4, 1944 issue. The magazine ran big story on the new technology that it predicted would reshape life after the war. The story was headlined, “Television: The Next Great Development ... Read more

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In September 1944, World War II still had a year to go, but that didn’t stop LIFE from looking ahead to peacetime in its Sept. 4, 1944 issue. The magazine ran big story on the new technology that it predicted would reshape life after the war. The story was headlined, “Television: The Next Great Development in Radio is Ready Now For Its Enormous Postwar Market.”

However odd it seems today to speak of television as a “great development in radio,” LIFE was dead-on in assessing how big a deal the combination of sound and moving pictures would be:

Within the first postwar decade television will be firmly planted as a billion-dollar U.S. industry. Its impact on U.S. civilization is beyond present prediction. Television is more than the addition to sight to the sound of radio. It has a power to annihilate time and space that will unite everyone everywhere in the immediate experience of events in contemporary life and history.

After getting readers excited about the new technology, the story then went on to detail its mechanics. The photos by Andreas Feininger are beautiful and fascinating in the way they contrast the machinery of the tubes and plates with the resulting image they produce of a female model whose presence is a kind of siren song. All that glass and metal, dear reader, will magically bring this woman into your living room.

At the time this LIFE story ran, very few Americans owned television sets. In 1946, the first year the government has data for television ownership, the total number of sets in American households was 8,000. By 1951, though, the number had ballooned to more than 10 million.

The LIFE story correctly predicted that TV would give Americans the new power to witness history live, and that was transformative. Part of the immense power of the signature moments of the original run of LIFE magazine—whether it be triumphs such as the moon landing or tragedies like the assassination of John F. Kennedy—was that Americans experienced those moments together, huddled around their televisions, seeing the same things at the same time.

The lens, at right, focused its image onto a plate in an RCA television camera tube, 1944.

Andreas Feininger/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This “dissector camera tube” was part of a 1944 story in LIFE on the brand new technology of television. Here’s how the magazine described the tube’s function: “Image is focussed on light-sensitive plate (left). Electrical field transforms visible image into extended electronic image…Electromagnetic field pulls this extended image back and forth in front of scanning finger mounted vertically at front of tube.”

Andreas Feininger/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Schmidt projector threw this image of a model onto a screen. A 1944 article in LIFE on the new TV technology stated that “projection screens will be part of postwar home receivers.”

Andreas Feininger/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A 1944 LIFE story on how television worked showed an image of girl being focused through a lens, 1944.

Andreas Feininger/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A color television camera, 1944.

Andreas Feininger/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An image from LIFE’s look at the technical side of the emerging technology known as television, 1944.

Andreas Feininger/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

In a 1944 story about emerging television technology, this demonstration photo illustrated how lines came together to make a picture.

Andreas Feininger/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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LIFE Gushed That This Actress Was “Paulette, Hedy and Ava, All in One” https://www.life.com/arts-entertainment/life-gushed-that-this-actress-was-paulette-hedy-and-ava-all-in-one/ Tue, 14 May 2024 14:46:44 +0000 https://www.life.com/?p=5379268 LIFE was quite the fan of Austrian actress Senta Berger, at least judging by the coverage it offered when she began making movies in the United States. The magazine introduced her to the American public in a 1965 story headlined “She’s Paulette, Hedy and Ava, All in One.” For those not on a first-name basis ... Read more

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LIFE was quite the fan of Austrian actress Senta Berger, at least judging by the coverage it offered when she began making movies in the United States. The magazine introduced her to the American public in a 1965 story headlined “She’s Paulette, Hedy and Ava, All in One.”

For those not on a first-name basis with those leading ladies of the early days of cinema, the article filled in the details:

“When people look at Senta Berger, they see more than just an astonishingly pretty young woman. They see images of other famous beauties—a hint of Paulette Godard, a flicker of Hedy Lamarr, quite a lot of Ava Gardner—or whomever they remember as being dark and altogether wonderful.”

LIFE magazine photographer Bill Ray caught up with Berger when she was down in Mexico filming Major Dundee, which was directed by the legendary Sam Peckinpah. The movie starred Charlton Heston as the title character, who leads a military expedition in Mexico during America’s Civil War. Berger played a Mexican woman who has a romance with the Heston character. Major Dundee flopped in its day but has gained respect over the years, thanks in part to the release of a restored version which was closer to Peckinpah’s vision. The film now has a 97 percent fresh score on the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes.

Ray captured Berger on the set of Major Dundee and also posing in a swimsuit and in the nude. It’s not difficult to see why the editors were gushing about Berger.

Even though Major Dundee wasn’t appreciated in its time, Berger’s career rolled on. In 1966 alone she appeared in six movies, and she would stayed busy for years, acting in film and television in productions on both sides of the Atlantic. The most recent of her 171 IMDB credits came in 2023, when she starred in the German romantic comedy Weisst du Nocht.

Austrian actress Senta Berger during the time she was shooting the 1965 film “Major Dundee” in Mexico.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Senta Berger and Charlton Heston relax between scenes during the filming of ‘Major Dundee,’ directed by Sam Peckinpah, Mexico, April 1964.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Austrian actress Senta Berger during the time she was shooting the 1965 film “Major Dundee” in Mexico.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Austrian actress Senta Berger during the time she was shooting the 1965 film “Major Dundee” in Mexico.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Austrian actress Senta Berger during the time she was shooting the 1965 film “Major Dundee” in Mexico.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Director Sam Peckinpah the filming of “Major Dundee” in Mexico, 1964.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Senta Berger and Charlton Heston during the filming of ‘Major Dundee,’ directed by Sam Peckinpah, Mexico, April 1964.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Charlton Heston and Senta Berger kiss by the water’s edge in a scene from the film ‘Major Dundee,’ directed by Sam Peckinpah, Mexico, April 1964.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Austrian actress Senta Berger during the shooting the 1965 film “Major Dundee” in Mexico.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Austrian actress Senta Berger during the time she was shooting the 1965 film “Major Dundee.”

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Austrian actress Senta Berger during the time she was shooting the 1965 film “Major Dundee” in Mexico.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Austrian actress Senta Berger, 1965.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Austrian actress Senta Berger, 1965.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Austrian actress Senta Berger, 1965.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Austrian actress Senta Berger, 1965.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Austrian actress Senta Berger, 1965.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Austrian actress Senta Berger, 1965.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Austrian actress Senta Berger, 1965.

Bill Ray/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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