45 Eerie Vintage Photos Not Meant For The Public

The Queen of Rock ‘n Roll, Tina Turner has been a powerhouse since she made her record debut in 1958 and she’s not slowing down any time soon. Her career has had a few high points – like in the 1970s when she released songs like “Proud Mary”, “River Deep, Mountain High”, and “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine” as duets with Ike Turner and her comeback career in the 1980s with “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” “Private Dancer”, and “We Don’t Need Another Hero”. Through it all, Tina Turner has rocked her impressive legs that still look great even those the singer is pushing 83 years old. Did you know that Tina Turner’s legs are insured for $3.2 million? 

Did you know that pretty petite Pat Priest wasn’t the original Marilyn Munster from the 1860s TV show, The Munsters? She took over the role from Beverley Owen, the original Marilyn, who quit the show after only 13 episodes to get married. When Pat Priest stepped into the role, she recalls being somewhat intimidated by Yvonne De Carlo who had been a major movie star in the 1940s and 1950s. De Carlo played the role of Lily Munster. On Priest’s first day on the set, De Carlo said to her, “Let’s get something straight, young lady. Don’t you ever upstage me”. Priest says they ended up getting along just fine but she was always careful to remember who the diva was. 

Remember the Brady Bunch episode in which Marcia Brady, played by Maureen McCormick, broke her nose when one of her brothers threw a wayward football? In true sitcom form, her swollen and bruised nose coincided with a big date with a new crush. Bet you didn’t know that Maureen McCormick’s real-life broken nose inspired this iconic and memorable episode. It wasn’t a football that broke the teen actress’s nose. It was a car accident. When she showed up on set with a bandaged nose, the writers were inspired to write an episode featuring the broken nose. The episode was filmed within days of McCormick’s accident while her nose was still quite swollen. 

This photo of a happy couple enjoying a bit of alone time on a crowded beach on the 4th of July was taken by Ralph Crane. The Life magazine photograph had a knack for capturing unique slices of American life with his camera. The German-born Crane was expected to be a doctor just like his father and grandfather before him. Instead, he was more interested in his father’s side hobby … photography. When he was just 18 years old, one of his father’s patients helped him land a job with Wide World Photo Agency, but as an equipment carrier, not a photographer. Still, it was enough to get his foot in the door. When he moved to the U.S. in 1941, he worked for the Black Star agency, which was the original source of many of Life magazine’s photographs. 

Elvis Presley and his mother, Gladys, were extremely close. As he was growing up, she was quite overprotective and doted on her only son. She gave Elvis her undivided attention. That could be because she didn’t have the opportunity to give her attention to two sons. On January 8, 1935, wen Gladys went into labor. She and her young husband, Vernon, were surprised to learn that Gladys was having twins, but devasted when the first baby, a boy they named Jesse Garon, was stillborn. The second child, also a boy, survived. They named him Elvis Aaron. Gladys believed that Elvis took on all the strength of his twin and that was what made him special. 

The grotesque figures in this 1925 photograph are not extras in a horror movie. They are survivors of a terrible and devastating fire. But no, they are not alive. They are wax figures that were once featured in the world-famous Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. When the London attraction, located on Baker Street, went up in flames, firefighters from the surrounding area worked to save the structure. Unfortunately, many of the famous wax figures were a total loss. The ones they were able to salvage, including the ones in this creepy pic, were hopelessly mangled and disfigured. 

This snapshot of a young Ivanka Trump with her famous father shows her as a pretty but somewhat gangly young teen. Since then, Ivanka Trump has become a poised, beautiful, well-spoken, well-educated, businesswoman, entrepreneur, wife, and mother. As a high school student in an elite Connecticut prep school, the tall, blonde Ivanka became modeling. Upon her graduation from Choate Rosemary Hall in 2000, she spent two years at Georgetown University before transferring to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2004, she earned her bachelor’s degree in economics. She promptly went to work for her father’s real estate empire but kept one hand in the fashion industry with her Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry line and her Ivanka Trump Collection of high-end clothing. 

Although it had been used in an unofficial capacity much earlier, the United States military officially adopted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in 1957. The technique that the military adopted was invented the year before by Peter Safar and James Elam. Just ten years later, utility worker J.D. Thompson used the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation technique to save his co-worker, Randall G. Champion, who was knocked unconscious after contacting a low voltage line. A photograph named Rocco Morabito just happened to be in the right place at the right time to snap this heroic photo. When the pic ran in Life Magazine, it was titled “The Kiss of Life.” 

Princess Diana will forever be remembered as the “People’s Princess.” That is the term British Prime Minister Tony Blair used to describe Diana in his official announcement of her death in 1997, just a few days after this photo of Diana was taken. Diana opted to use her celebrity to help raise awareness for a number of causes for which she was passionate. She worked tirelessly to let the world know about the dangerous and deadly landmines in Angola. She helped organizations tackle mental health and domestic violence issues. In 1987, she caused a sensation when she hugged and shook hands with AIDS patients, dispelling the myth that the illness could be spread through touch. Two years prior to her death, Diana said in an interview that she wanted to be the queen of people’s hearts. She accomplished that goal.

The very public suicide of Pennsylvania politician R. Budd Dwyer in 1987 left television stations debating how much of the graphic details they should show their audiences. It all started when Dwyer, the state treasurer of Pennsylvania, was convicted of taking bribes, racketeering, conspiracy, and a host of other charges. On January 22, 1987, the day before his sentencing, Dwyer called a press conference. After he spoke, he pulled out a revolver and shot himself in front of a room full of reporters and news cameras. Later that day, some of the news channels aired the footage of Dwyer’s very public suicide, leaving their audiences and fellow journalists to question how much violence is too much to show on television news. 

Sexy Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, is beautiful in a spooky sort of way, but Cassandra Peterson, the actress who created the Elvira character, didn’t always feel beautiful. In her memoir, Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark, Peterson explains that, as a toddler, she pulled a pot of boiling water onto herself, resulting in third-degree burns over 35% of her body. As a schoolgirl, she was bullied because of her scars and became withdrawn. When her cousin took her to see her first horror movie, House on Haunted Hill, Peterson was immediately drawn to the disfigured characters. It began her lifelong love of the horror genre. 

On the drag racing scene of the early 1970s, the best-known non-driver was Jungle Pam Hardy. The Funny Car Series of the day were filled with attention-grabbing gimmicks and for Jungle Jim Liberman, Jungle Pam was the ultimate attention grabber. The leggy, busty teen, in her tight shirts, mini shorts, and go-go boots, knew how to direct attention to the Liberman car. Jungle Pam’s reign, however, lasted only about four years. Rules to the racing series abolished the showmanship glitz that Jungle Jim so loved and left Jungle Pam without a job. When Liberman was tragically killed in a traffic accident, Jungle Pam went back to being Pam Hardy, but she has kept involved in motorsports. She regularly appears at motorsports shows, ready to sign autographs for fans. 

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis is the daughter of two icons of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Her mother, Janet Leigh, shown here, was already a big movie star when she met a young Hollywood newcomer, the devastatingly handsome Tony Curtis. Curtis was still looking for his big Hollywood break, but that didn’t worry Janet Leigh. The two fell hopelessly in love. Their romance was the talk of Hollywood, especially after they got married on June 4, 1951. Their perfect marriage was already starting to crumble when their first child, daughter Kelly, was born in 1956. Things were even worse when Jamie Lee Curtis was born in 1958. Jamie Lee jokingly calls herself a “save-the-marriage” baby, adding that she failed in this department. 

Racing photographer Tom West was supposed to be taking pics of the drag races he covered, but he declared Barbara Roufs, the hot, young, braless trophy girl of the drag racing circuit, to be his muse. There were probably a few things about Barbara that caught his attention. He ended up taking hundreds of photographs of her. Many of his photos of her ran in racing magazines across the country, which only added to her celebrity. West’s photos, like this one, helped to add to the allure of drag racing and brought more fans to the track. 

The 1983 teen comedy Private School came quickly on the heels of Fast Times at Ridgemont High and attempted to capture the same energy and buzz of Fast Times. In fact, it cast the Fast Times hottie, Phoebe Cates, as the lead in Private School. She co-starred with Betsy Russell, Kathleen Wilhoite, and Kari Lizer as students at an exclusive, all-girl private school exploring the world of boys with some of the students at a nearby all-boys high school. The comedy tried to show the typical sex life of teens but the audience was left feeling like their own high school experience was dull by comparison. 

Lynda Carter shot to stardom as TV’s Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman was such a huge hit and a cultural phenomenon that it might make you wonder…what did Lynda Carter do for an encore? After Wonder Woman stopped filming, she appeared as a guest star in a number of television variety shows and series. Her next starring role in a television series came in 1984 when she was cast with Loni Anderson in Partners in Crime. Carter and Anderson play the two ex-wives of a murdered private investigator who team up to solve his murder and run his detective agency. The show was canceled after just 13 episodes. 

Pam Grier was cast in the title role of the 1974 film, Foxy Brown. Called one of the first American “blaxplotation” film, the part led director Quentin Tarantino to label Grier “cinema’s first female action star.” In Foxy Brown, Grier plays a woman whose boyfriend was killed by a gang of white drug dealers. She single-handedly takes on the gang in her bid for revenge. Foxy Brown was just one of six blaxplotation movies that Grier starred in. She appeared in Coffy, The Big Doll House, Women in Cages, The Big Bird Cage, and Black Mama, White Mama. 

Pretty Chris Noel enjoyed a diverse and exciting career in entertainment. She was only 16 years old when she appeared on the cover of Good Housekeeping Magazine. From there, she became a sought-after pin-up model and appeared in many of the popular beach party movies of the 1960s. She later went to work of Armed Forces Radio and Television and was sent to Vietnam where she hosted her own radio show as the “Voice of Vietnam”. In this pic from 1966, she is happily posing with American troops stationed in Vietnam. Chris Noel was one tough cookie … during her four tours of Vietnam, her helicopter was shot down twice. 

Like the guards at England’s Buckingham Palace, the Royal Guard of Sweden has a reputation for remaining stoic and alert while on duty. The Royal Guard of Sweden, in fact, has a long a rich history. Members of the guard have stood watch over the Swedish royal family at the Stockholm Palace since the guard’s inception in 1523. And like the Buckingham Palace guards, visitors to the Stockholm Palace enjoy tempting the guard in the hopes of getting them to crack a smile. This seductive visitor in the 1970s gave it her best shot with some suggestive moves, but the guard stood strong. 

Gorgeous Claudia Lennear was the muse of some of rock music’s biggest stars and an accomplished singer in her own right. She was a backup singer for the Superbs and an Ikette for the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. She also provided vocal backup for Leon Russell, Freddie King, Humble Pie, and Joe Cocker. Claudia Lennear, who dated Mick Jagger in the early 1970s, served as the inspiration for the 1971 song “Brown Sugar”, one of the Rolling Stone’s biggest hits. She was also the muse of David Bowie who wrote his 1973 tune, “Lady Grinning Soul” in her honor. 

In the early days of air travel, the majority of passengers were businessmen. As a result, airlines sought to attract more travelers to their airlines by touting the sexiness of their flight attendants. In a move that would be highly discriminatory these days, stewardesses, like this girl in 1958, were hired based on their appearances. Airlines wanted attractive, curvy, flirty flight attendants … and they wanted them to wear revealing uniforms. In this pic, we see someone inspecting a proposed uniform for Scandinavian Airlines. Can you believe this uniform design was rejected by the airline? 

Although she was often cast as the sexy siren on-screen, movie buffs often point to Sophia Loren’s 1977 film, A Special Day, as one of the actress’s best performances. The drama explores some of the hot-bottom topics of the day – such as the role of women in society and homosexuality – even though the film is set in the late 1930s. A Special Day takes place on May 4, 1938, the day that Adolf Hitler came to Italy to meet with Benito Mussolini. Nearly everyone goes to the historic event, leaving a disillusioned housewife, played by Loren, and her neighbor as the only ones left on the block. The unlikely pair has a length discussion about toxic masculinity, gender roles, and homosexuality in a frank and candid way. Sophia Loren shows a bit of her sex appeal in the film, but more importantly, she showed that she could be a serious dramatic actress. 

Do you remember Emily Banks who played Yeoman Tonia Barrows on TV’s Star Trek? She appeared in the “Shore Leave” episode that aired during Star Trek’s first season. In this episode, the crew of the Starship Enterprise visits a strange planet where each member’s fantasies become reality. Early in the episode, Banks’ character has a fantasy about being accosted by Don Juan. Later, her fantasy is intertwined with the fantasy of Dr. McCoy, the ship’s doctor. Banks’, dressed in a medieval maiden costume, is the damsel in distress to McCoy’s hero fantasy. 

As these two catalog models are demonstrating, earth tones were the hottest fashion colors in the 1970s. Earthy greens, burnt oranges, and shades of brown were quite trendy. In this vintage pic, we see one of the more popular color combinations – buffalo and harvest gold. Giving brown and yellow fancy new names like “buffalo” and “harvest gold” played into back-to-nature wave of the seventies. This was a time when folks wanted to reconnect with their pioneer pasts, so how better to do that than to wear the latest fashions in colors like “buffalo” and “harvest gold”? 

If you were a fan of the campy 1988 comedy horror movie, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, then you probably remember that Elvira, played by Cassandra Peterson, owned a dog. It was not just any dog, either. It is a colorful poodle named Gonk. Trained canine performer, Binnie, was cast in the role of the dog with anger management issues and the animal actor turned out to be quite problematic. Peterson, an animal advocate, would not allow the dog’s fur to be permanently dyed using harsh chemicals. Instead, the dog had to be re-dyed every day using a vegetable-based dye. On top of that, the dog simply wasn’t that great a performer. The audio in several scenes had to be tweaked to erase the trainer’s commands. 

Barbara Roufs was born in 1944 and came of age in the 1960s. As a teen, she had all the right qualifications to be a trophy girl for the Professional Dragster Association – long legs, curvy figure, bright smile, and sleek straight hair. She joined many young women of the time in burning their bras which only added to her appeal. It helped that she dressed in the trendy fashions of the day – go-go boots, tight tank tops, ultra-short shorts, and miniskirts. She naturally caught the attention of racing fans and even modeled for some national racing magazines.   

Lynda Carter was naturally athletic growing up, but she was also exceptionally tall. Kids teased her and called her “Olive Oyl” after Popeye’s gangly girlfriend. When she tried out for the high school pompon squad, she didn’t make the team because of her height. She stood a head taller than the rest of the girls. She was even taller than most of the football players. She needed to pick sports that were better suited for her body type. She excelled at volleyball and swimming. She used her experience in the pool as a competitive swimmer when she was called upon to join a team on Battle of the Network Stars. She left her competition in her wake. 

This heartbreaking photograph shows the occupants of the car carrying Princess Diana that crashed in a Paris tunnel on August 31, 1997, killing Diana and two of the other three occupants. In addition to Princess Diana, her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, was in the backseat. In the front street was the chauffeur driver, Henri Paul, and Diana’s bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones. When the Mercedes-Benz crashed, the accident killed Diana, Dodi Fayed, and the driver of the car. Only Rees-Jones survived, but he was seriously injured. He was the only occupant who was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident. 

Mick Jagger, the iconic front man of the Rolling Stones, has always had a reputation for pushing the envelope. This photograph, taken in 1996 by Brigitte Lancombe, is a perfect example. In it, Jagger and his then-wife, Jerry Hall, explore gender roles. Hall looks decidedly masculine in a tailors jacket and slicked-back hair. Jagger, on the other hand, is wearing a dress and make-up. The music power couple took this gender-bending photograph as a way of showing the fluidity of gender and to dismiss traditional gender stereotypes. Of course, the shock value was also a reason. 

This impressive building teetering above the Pacific Ocean is the Cliff House. Built in 1863, the Cliff House was the posh meeting place of the wealthy elite of San Francisco. At that time, San Francisco was one of the wealthiest cities in the United States thanks to the California Gold Rush and the business opportunities that came as a result of it. The Cliff House boasted fine dining restaurants and exclusive bars where the rich and famous could hobnob with each other while enjoying a spectacular meal and an even more spectacular ocean view. Sadly, the building has fallen into disrepair and is now permanently closed. 

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Jayne Kennedy seemed to do it all. The statuesque beauty was a pageant queen – Miss Ohio 1970 and in the Top Ten at the Miss USA Pageant –as well as a model, actress, sports broadcaster, television personality, writer, and producer. She caused a national debate as a sports journalist over the issue of female reporters having access to male locker rooms like their male counterparts did. She pushed for equal access for women and inspired a whole generation of young girls to become sports reporters. She was also an advocate for African American rights. In 1982, she earned the NAACP Image Award. 

Marilyn Monroe was a strange combination of angel and demon. In pics like this, she could look sweet and innocent, but in other photos, she was a naughty demon. Take the centerfold pic of her that appeared in the first issue of Playboy magazine, for example. It caused quite a scandal in 1952 when the photos hit the newsstands. The truth is that Marilyn did not pose for Playboy. In 1949, when she was living in poverty, she posed for photographer Tom Kelley. He sold the pics to a company that made pin-up calendars. Hugh Hefner paid $500 for the image which he published in the first issue of his new magazine, Playboy. 

Drag racer Jungle Jim Liberman knew how to use gimmicks and glitz to draw attention to his race team. When he spotted a busty teen in a tight tank top and skimpy shorts walking down the street in Ohio, he was struck with a brilliant idea. He literally turned his car around to talk to the girl. She was Pam Hardy, an 18-year-old who was about to graduate from high school and planned to go to college in the fall. She put her plans on hold to join Jungle Jim on the drag racing circuit. She knew nothing about racing, but she did know how to turn heads. She just needed to play up her natural assets … her curves, her legs, and her long, straight hair. 

The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 during the Cold War to keep the people of communist East Germany away from West Germany. The wall went up quickly and separated families who were caught unaware. On August 13, 1961, a photographer shot this photo of an East German soldier defying orders by sneaking a young boy across the border so he could be reunited with his family. The fate of the child is unknown, but the photographer noted that the soldier was punished for ignoring orders. The Berlin Wall stood for more than three decades until it was torn down in 1989. 

Have you ever heard of Operation Magic Carpet? This was the initiative at the conclusion of World War II to bring home the more than eight million American servicemen and women that serviced in the war. American troops were scattered across the globe since the United States was involved in 55 different theaters of war on four separate continents. Operation Magic Carpet used air and sea travel to return the troops to their home. It began on September 6, 1945 and concluded on September 1, 1946. Roughly 22,222 soldiers, including the one in this pic, came home per day in the nearly one-year-long operation. 

County music superstar Dolly Parton has been married since 1966. Her husband, Carl Dean, a businessman, prefers to stay out of the limelight so it is rare to see him with his famous wife. In fact, Dean won’t even go to her concerts to watch her sing her biggest hits, like “Jolene”, “Here You Come Again,” and “I Will Always Love You.” Parton once explained that Carl Dean turns into a bundle of nerves when he watches his wife perform. He gets so worried that Dolly will mess up that he can’t enjoy the show. He decided that the anxiety is too much for him, so he hasn’t attended one of her shows in decades. 

Princess Diana relaxed on the beach in 1997, just months before her untimely death on August 31, 1997. Since her divorce from Prince Charles in February of 1996, Diana worked to rebuild her life. She maintained her public persona. In the last year of her life, she continued to promote the social causes that were most important to her, such as AIDS awareness. She also supported the arts. She traveled extensively, from Pakistan to New York City to Bermuda and France. After her unhappy marriage, she was eager to spend time with her two sons and work on her own happiness. 

In the groovy 1997 movie, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, the British actress Elizabeth Hurley played the classy Vanessa Kensington, a stark contrast to the laid-back, 1960s’ swinger Austin Powers. But as this blurry snapshot shows us, Elizabeth Hurley went through a punk rock stage in her youth. In the early 1980s, Hurley was a student at Basingstoke’s Harriet Costello School. While there, she fell in with the punk rock crowd and immersed herself in the punk rock scene. That included wearing crazy clothes, dying her hair funky colors, and piercing her nose. 

As a young teen in a Catholic school in Michigan in the 1970s, Madonna was a top student. She had a high GPA, took classical piano lessons, and even studied ballet. But she also liked to flash the boys in class, do cartwheels in the hallway, and bend the rules as far as she could. She was often in trouble, but she didn’t seem to care. Later, Madonna recalled that she spent much of her teen years believing that she was meant for greater things. As soon as she had her chance, she proved that to be true. 

Photographer Slim Aarons made a splash with his fashion photographs, but he insisted that he wasn’t a fashion photographer. Instead, he said, “I take photos of people in their own clothes and that becomes fashion.” That was probably true of these two snow bunnies, Manuela Boraomanero and Emanuela Beghelli. The former war photographer and Purple Heart recipient snapped this photo of two fashion-forward Italian beauties at Cortina d’Ampezzo in 1976. Today, we would call Slim Aarons an influencer, but that term didn’t exist in the decades following World War II. He jetted off to beautiful locations around the world to photograph the gorgeous trendsetters he encountered, much like an Instagrammer today. 

Long before the dystopian fad that gave us The Hunger Games and Blade Runner there was Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. Released in 1971 and based on the 1962 Anthony Burgess novel of the same name, the bizarre and disturbing film is set in Britain in the near future and makes commentary on political, economic, and social issues. In the film, the lead character is subjected to sexual violence, music, and warfare as a guinea pig who undergoes psychiatric experiments and conditioning as a cure for delinquency.  

Jayne Mansfield was too hot to handle in the 1950s and early 1960s. Blonde, buxom, and beautiful, Jayne Mansfield rose to fame as a Playboy playmate, pin-up model, and sex symbol who parlayed her popularity into a Hollywood acting contract. She appeared in The Girl Can’t Help It, The Wayward Bus, and Too Hot to Handle. Her personal life was just as salacious. She was married and divorce three times and had five kids. She was rumored to have had affairs with both John and Robert Kennedy and several others. Jayne Mansfield’s star burned out early. In 1967, she was killed in a car accident. She was only 34 years old. 

Originally, James Caan was cast as Michael Corleone in The Godfather, but the director Francis Ford Coppola insisted that Al Pacino take that part and Caan switch to the role of Sonny Corleone, Michael’s hot-headed older brother. At the time, Caan was buddies with Carmine “The Snake” Persico, a known mobster and future head of the Colombo crime family. Once, federal agents mistook Caan for a mob member and questioned him. In the end, Caan delivered a memorable performance … so much so that he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. 

Shout out to this head-turner, Joey Heatherton. This singer, actress, and dancer was one of the best-known sex symbols from the 1960s and 1970s. She kept her face in front of her fans by appearing on numerous television variety shows in the late 1960s and 1970s. She also joined Bob Hope on overseas USO tours for more than a decade where she entertained the troops with her tantalizing dance routines and revealing costumes. Heatherton’s dance moves and playful banter wowed the crowds at her USO tours and Heatherton loved being able to boost the morale of the troops.