Iconic Photos From History Explained
By | February 2, 2023
A pretty and young Sally Field in 1975
These snapshots not only offer a look into the dark recesses of every day life, but they show our favorite idols from a perspective we may not have seen before.
These rarely seen photos are sure to shock even most readers. You'll want to make sure you keep the lights on while you peruse these iconic photographs from some of the most spine tingling moments in history.
Can you imagine a world where Sally Field wasn't one of the most famous people on the planet? Well that's what life was like in the early '70s. At the time she was mostly known for playing Gidget and the Flying Nun. Both of those shows were hits, but they didn't make Sally Field an It Girl or anything.
The one-two punch that proved Sally Field had what it took to make her a star was 1976's Sybil and the next year's Smokey and the Bandit. While those films are completely opposite one another they show her entire range of talent. She's super dramatic and all over the place in Sybil, and she got to be sexy and funny in Smokey. It really was a win-win.
Those two films opened up the world to Sally Field and from there on out everyone knew her name.
A rare photo of the notorious Bonnie and Clyde, 1933
We think of Bonnie and Clyde as the unstoppable, rag tag couple who ran roughshod through the south, robbing banks and inspiring legends everywhere they went but this photo reveals the dark truth behind the iconic couple.
This snapshot of Bonnie and Clyde show just how young they were. Their romantic embrace in this photo makes it clear why so many people were attracted to their story. Even if they were hardened criminals, you wanted to root for them.
By the time Parker and Barrow were gunned down on May 23, 1934, the fascination surrounding them had grown dark. Crowds of people surrounded their fresh corpses, grabbing at locks of their hair and clothing before they could be cleared away by the authorities. That dark end is a long way from the love seen in this photo.
Is there anything that says "1990s" like the leaders of the free world jogging from MacDonald's in short shorts? There's just something about this shot that sums up the whole era. It's both overly familiar and totally uncool. Honestly how cool can you be when you tuck your t-shirt into your running shorts?
Clinton and Gore really made a meal out of their early morning runs during their first term, and it's great that they were being healthy but wouldn't it have been great if they were wearing something less... skin tight?
Three years after this photo made news, Clinton entered an illicit affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. When Clinton's Oval Office infidelity was revealed in 1997, it overshadowed the rest of his time in office. After denying the allegations, Clinton finally admitted his "improper physical relationship" with Lewinsky. While speaking about his infidelity with the New York Times in 2020, the former president stated that he began the relationship to take his mind off of his duties as leader of the free world. He explained:
Nobody sits down and thinks, ‘I think I’ll take a really irresponsible risk.’ It’s bad for my family, bad for my country, bad for the people who work with me... You feel like you’re staggering around — you’ve been in a 15-round prizefight that was extended to 30 rounds, and here’s something that’ll take your mind off it for a while. Everybody’s life has pressures and disappointments and terrors, fears of whatever, things I did to manage my anxieties for years.
Catherine Bach as Daisy Duke on The Dukes of Hazard
It's impossible to separate Catherine Bach from Daisy Duke, the denim short wearing cousin who can drive just as fast as them Duke Boys while looking ten times as better. However, as Bach would say it she was nothing like what the producers initially wanted.
While casting The Dukes of Hazzard producers were searching for a "Dolly Parton type," something that Bach doesn't really fit. She told Fox:
It’s funny because around that time, my agency had fired me and I hadn’t gone out in an interview for two years. According to them, I was too exotic looking... My husband at the time was very connected with show business and worked with Bob Clark, who was writing with the show’s creator, Gy Waldron. He must have told him my stories because Bob called me and said, 'I’m working on this project and I’ve been thinking about you. I bring you up about your stories. I would love for you to try out for this role, Daisy Duke...' After I did my reading during the audition, there was total silence. I thought, 'Oh no, they didn’t like what I did.' Then everyone, we’re talking about 30 people, got up and started clapping. They just connected with my vision of how this part should be played. Two weeks later I was on a plane to Georgia.
Juliane Koepcke was the sole survivor aboard LANSA Flight 508, she survived the jungle for 11 days following the crash
On Christmas Eve 1971, Juliane Koepcke was ready to go home for the holidays. When she boarded LANSA Flight 508 at the Lima Airport in Peru with her mother, Maria, Koepcke thought it was just be another day, but when the plane was hit by lightning over the Peruvian rainforest it was anything but ordinary.
Koepcke survived a two-mile fall into the jungle, and at just 17 years old she maneuvered though the trees with a need to get to safety. She had a broken collarbone, cuts across her body and ruptured ligaments in her knee, but she could walk, so that's what she did.
All alone in the jungle, Koepcke avoided dangerous animals, sucked maggots out of her wounds, and survived on nothing but a bag of candy that she found before passing out in a hut that she came upon along the way. When she woke up she was surrounded by a group of locals. She told the BBC:
When [the locals] saw me, they were alarmed and stopped talking. They thought I was a kind of water goddess - a figure from local legend who is a hybrid of a water dolphin and a blonde, white-skinned woman. I introduced myself in Spanish and explained what had happened. They treated my wounds and gave me something to eat and the next day took me back to civilization. The day after my rescue, I saw my father. He could barely talk and in the first moment we just held each other.
Madonna, 1974
During high school, Madonna was already on her way to stardom even if she didn't know how she was going to make it big. This photo was taken during the production of The Egg. The Super 8 film looks like something that John Waters made on an off day, which is honestly really cool.
This video may be the most artsy thing that Madonna has ever done, and the video shows her spitting up eggs, rubbing them on her face, and then yeah, she has an egg fried on her stomach. It's a classic student film. The whole video, icky as it may be, is a template for Madonna's career. Essentially, if you want to get super famous you have to be ready to have a raw egg cooked on your bare stomach.
A woman stands near a ground rupture in Marin County, the result of the 1906 San Francisco
When we think of earthquakes we think of buildings falling, bridges crumbling, and hiding beneath tables, but we rarely think of the very real toll taken on the earth itself when fault lines shake the planet.
At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, Californians living in the San Francisco Bay area were awoken by a foreshock to one of the most intense and destructive earthquakes of the 20th century. 25 seconds later violent shocks ripped out across Marin County, lasting anywhere between 45 and 60 seconds.
Felt from southern Oregon to Los Angeles, this quake not only destroyed portions of San Francisco, but created a 296 mile rupture straight down the San Andreas fault from northwest of San Juan Bautista to Cape Mendocino.
Polaroid of Farrah Fawcett taken by Andy Warhol in 1979
There's no doubt that Farrah Fawcett is one of the most beautiful women of the 1970s, so it's not a surprise that Andy Warhol wanted to snap a Polaroid of her for his series of somewhat candid shots of famous people. At the time, the photo was a one-off lark, but as time has gone on, original paintings of the photo have become pieces of contention for Fawcett's family.
Warhol painted two portraits of Fawcett after she posed for him in September 1980, and even though Fawcett claimed that the portrait was hers when she passed away in 2009, he former partner Ryan O'Neal claimed that it was his. This wasn't a big deal until her will stated that "all" of her artwork would go to the University of Texas, but O'Neal wanted to keep the portrait, which has been appraised to be worth $18 million, for himself.
O'Neal won the painting in a trial after claiming that it was his final connection to Fawcett, saying:
I talk to [the painting], I talk to her. It’s her presence in my life and her son’s life. We lost her. It would seem a crime to lose it.
But now it seems that O'Neal no longer has compunctions about holding onto the piece.
Hocking Hills road in Hocking County, Ohio. (1908)
Hocking Hills, Ohio is a beautiful place, but that grandeur is terrifying when you think about how things could go wrong in an instant if this giant rock takes a tumble.
For people traveling this way in the late 19th century they were likely counting their blessings every time they passed this rock safely, but they probably didn't realize that they were super safe on this trip, it's not like the rock was just going to fall over or anything.
The whole Hocking County area is absolutely beautiful and filled with gorgeous diversions that are just as dangerous as they are deadly.
Brigitte Bardot was one of the most beautiful actresses of any era. You can put her up against Marilyn, Ann-Margret, and Raquel Welch, and she's still a stunner. While her career is really nothing like the women she's compared to, it's unfair to judge her work with that of another actress.
Discovered when she was only a teenager, Bardot's career was based solely around her gorgeous looks and her beautiful blonde hair. Not only did she not have a chance to really find the power in her performances, but she was never given a chance to grow personally.
Constantly hounded by the paparazzi in her native Europe and in America, Bardot dropped out of the filmmaking world to focus on her personal interests. Sadly, she's still being photographed everywhere she goes to this day.
Ivanka Trump with her dad, Donald, in the back of a limo
There's something chilling about this shot of Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka canoodling in the back of limo, although we can't quite put our finger on it. While this photo could just be a harmless shot of a father and daughter taken out of context, Trump has said some strange things about his offspring. For instance, while guesting on the Howard Stern Show in 2003 he offered up this piece of info:
You know who's one of the great beauties of the world, according to everybody? And I helped create her. Ivanka. My daughter, Ivanka. She's 6 feet tall, she's got the best body.
In a separate interview with The View he gave us another strange morsel of information, this time it was much more worrisome:
...she does have a very nice figure. I've said that if Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her.
These melted mannequins were some of the only survivors from the fire at Madame Tussauds
If you haven't had a dose of nightmare fuel yet then this should do it for you. This horrifying scene shows what was left of a horrible fire at London's Madame Tussauds in 1925. When a blaze tore through the upper floors, the building full of wax figures became a real life house of horror.
The Baker Street attraction was pretty much entirely destroyed, and left a skeleton of its former self. There were wax limbs and body parts strewn through the once amazing English landmark.
For nearly an hour and a half on March 18, 1925, the fire burned through the building, melting members of Parliament, world leaders, sports personalities, historical characters and infamous criminals. The fire put Madame Tussauds out of business for years. Not only were the upper floors fire damaged, but the bottom of the building was soaked with water from the fire fighters. These figures were all that remained.
An “icebox” facial beauty treatment, 1966
The icebox facial treatment was originally created to help keep a starlet's makeup in place between, the cold was supposed to make sure that nothing melted under the hot studio lights. Supposedly, once this Hollywood secret got out gals from all over the country started using these bad boys.
These masks didn't catch on like wildfire, but the cold is definitely good for your skin. Ice facials especially are good for taking care of puffy skin and jet lag, and they're also great for flare ups and breakouts. You don't need to wear a mask like this to take care of your skin, on the contrary, you can just hold a cold face cloth against your skin for a few seconds at a time.
Hans Georg Henke, a 16 year old German soldier photographed crying
The story of Hans Georg Henke, a 16 year old German solider forever immortalized weeping after he was captured by the allies is one that has changed over time. In 1944, Henke's parents were dead and he had no choice but to join the Luftwaffe.
When hew was captured a year later he claimed that was based in Stettin with a battery of 88mm guns and captured by the Soviets. Henke claims that when the photo was taken he was crying because he learned that the Germans had lost the war.
However, American photojournalist John Florea says this isn't the case. Florea claims that he took the photos of Henke in the village of Hüttenberg-Rechtenbach, which is just north of Frankfurt am Main. Florea goes onto say that Henke wasn't crying for the end of the way, but from the shock of being overrun by American forces. Either way, it makes perfect sense that a 16 year old would be freaking out after going through war.
Irish guards remain at attention after a fellow guardsman faints in front of the Queen, 1966
What in the world could have caused this guard to fall face first in front of the Queen? Was it a missed shot by an assassin? A prank gone wrong? Nothing of the sort. According to the photographer behind the photo, James P. Blair, he was was just overheated. Blair explained to National Geographic:
In June, the Queen has her birthday celebration, and she rides her horse around this square, and all of the soldiers are lined up, and I was there to get pictures of the Queen riding around, and anything else that would happen. This was a very long telephoto lens, an 800-millimeter. I was on the press stand and was able to photograph across the whole courtyard, when this guy fell over... He was almost immediately scooped up. The medical people came out about 30 seconds after I took this picture and scooped him up and took him back to the infirmary and took care of him. But I was told afterwards that you’re literally trained to fall at attention. If you’re standing at attention, you fall at attention, and it was just like a toy soldier falling over. I don’t think I got the falling process. I think I saw it out of the corner of my eye and I was focused on the Queen, and I swiveled around, click, click, click, and made that photograph.
No one looks good in these creepy masks for the "Miss Beautiful Eyes" contest in the 1930s
Have you ever wanted to see a beauty pageant that doesn't focus on a woman's face? What about the gorgeous eyes of all these beautiful ladies? Enter: The "Miss Beautiful Eyes" pageants of the 1930s, '40s, and '50s.
These contests specifically sought after “non-pin-up types” with different means for searching out their winners. Some contests just had women place handkerchiefs over the bottom half of their faces while other contests, like this one, had contestants wear insane masks.
As wild as these masks are, they definitely do the job of making you focus on a woman's eyes and not her face. Or maybe we're just focusing on the mask and not the eyes? Thank goodness these contests are long gone.
Blondie, 1978
Has there ever been anyone cooler than Debbie Harry? The answer is no. Harry and her band Blondie turned punk music upside down with their disco and pop inspired anthems that showed audiences that you didn't have to play as fast as possible to be tough. That you could be sultry and fun and still be interesting.
As different as Blondie is from the rest of the New York bands from the late '70s, Harry emphasizes the fact that none of the bands really sounded the same, and that it took Blondie a few years to find their sound:
We were very minimal when we started, very rough-edged. So, in that respect, we fit in. But I think every band was totally different and that was kind of curious for the scene... Blondie maybe wasn’t as fully developed as those bands were. But we all had the same kind of philosophy, and that’s more what the punk period was about—wanting change, having a more urban kind of sensibility and some weird kind of wit.
Muhammad Ali talks a veteran down from a high rise, 1981
By 1981, Muhammad Ali was no longer the brash young fighter who took on all comers and stung them with words as easily as he did with his fists. He was only months away from his final bought, a match against Trevor Berbick, one that he los after ten rounds. Ali's physical decline didn't remove his stature in the least, people continued to rally around him because of his hard work with the community and the way he defended people who couldn't help themselves.
On Jan. 19, 1981, a young man who only gave his name as Joe was suicidal and threatening to jump out of a window in the Miracle Mile neighborhood of Los Angeles. People were on the street screaming for him to jump, the police were trying to get him down, but the young man didn't listen. Joe told everyone who would listen that he was “no good,” but a few minutes later boxing legend Muhammad Ali drove up the street in a Rolls-Royce. He ran into the building and up to a nearby window where he shouted for the young man to re-evaulate his life.
According to the New York Times, Ali leaned out a nearby window and shouted, “You’re my brother! I love you, and I couldn’t lie to you,” before getting out on the fire escape and guiding the man inside and taking him to a near by veteran’s hospital.
Stevie Nicks, 1976
Even though Stevie Nicks changed the face of rock n roll and scored some of the biggest hits of the '70s, she still fell prey to the demons of excess found in her jet set lifestyle. Of course there was the serial dating of everyone in the band, but there was also the copious amounts of drugs on hand at every opportunity.
Sultry and enigmatic, Nicks' drug abuse began as a private escape from the whirlwind that followed The Mac everywhere they went. She and Christine McVie went so far as to buy their very own "beautiful coke bottles" that they wore everywhere they went for whenever they needed a bump. This cute partying spiraled out of control almost immediately.
Nicks' first step into the downward spiral of drug addiction happened at a party before the Rumours tour kicked off when she began a 48 hour binge that left her with her contact lenses fused to her eyes, nearly leaving her blind. Nicks escaped the holds of addiction, but it took her decades to leave the "beautiful coke bottles" behind.
Princess Diana hides in the back of a limo moments before it crashes on the streets of Paris
After returning from holiday with her boyfriend Dodi Al Fayed, Diana was ready to take a step back from the public eye. She wanted to focus on herself for a change, and after all of her charity work she deserved it. On the night of August 30, 1997, she and Fayed enjoyed a late dinner at the Ritz's L’Espadon restaurant before trying to lose the photographers who followed her every movement.
The couple slipped into a black Mercedes S 280 driven by Henri Paul, the hotel's assistant director of security and made their way down the Seine. When their car made it to the Place de l'Alma they were circled by seven cameramen on five motorcycles, then came the crash. A waiter named Jerome Laumonier who was near the entrance of the bridge told People:
There was this huge, violent, terrifying crash followed by the lone sound of a car horn.
Fayed died on the scene, Diana held on until 4:57 a.m. and the world was shaken forever.
The final moments of Doctor Martin Luther King Jr.'s life
When Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. stepped out onto the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, the last thing he expected was to be struck down by an assassin. This photo, snapped just moments before he was shot at 6:05 p.m. on April 4, 1968, shows him for what he was, a man who surrounded by friends.
Shortly after this photo was taken he was struck in the neck by a bullet fired by a man named James Earl Ray. as King was taken to the hospital, Ray escaped from the crime scene. King passed away an hour after he was shot.
Ray nearly escaped his fate. He made it all the way to Heathrow Airport in London before he was arrested on June 8, and brought back to America to stand trial. He claimed that he was the victim of a deep conspiracy, but his fingerprints were all over the rifle used in the attack. For his crime he was sentenced to 99 years to life. Meanwhile, Doctor King and his teachings remain immortal.
A soldier burns a hut in Vietnam
Americans were already on the fence about the Vietnam War by the mid '60s, but it was the reports of soldiers destroying villages and homes that really turned up the negative feelings of anti-war protestors back home.
Reports of the burning of Cam Ne, a village in Vietnam, by U.S. Marines came in on August 5, 1965, from CBS News. Journalists stated that Marines used lighter fluid and flamethrowers to torch huts in the village after they traced enemy fire to the area.
The report by CBS created such bad buzz for the American military that Lyndon Johnson threatened reporter Morley Safer and CBS. Safer wrote:
[Then-President Lyndon] Johnson threatened that, unless CBS got rid of me and 'cleaned up its act,' the White House would 'go public' [with information about Safer's alleged communist ties.]
Safer denies that any such ties existed.
Cars Left by North American Soldiers at The Chatillon Car Graveyard in Belgium
If you travel to the Belgian town of Chatillon, you'll find one of the largest car graveyards on the planet. But how did the cars arrive in this place? And why would someone just abandon so much horsepower and steel?
The story goes that the cars were abandoned by U.S. soldiers following World War II because of tax reasons, but that's not exactly the case. Following World War II, NATO set up shop in Chatillon and along with it came members of the Canadian military who started driving around the area in their big American cars.
To take care of the cars, a garage opened up in the town, and rather than order spare parts one at a time, the owner collected entire cars so he could grab what he needed when he needed it. After France pulled out of NATO, the Canadian forces were moved out of Belgium and sent to Germany. The owner of the garage switched to working on European cars, and the graveyard of North American muscle remains in Chatillion to this day.
Many bars in Istanbul offered to take drunks home in a basket, this photo from the 1960s shows that it wasn't so easy
Now this is what you call service. We've all had that friend who just refuses to go home when they've had one too many. Istanbul in the 1960s had that pretty much figured out thanks to "the drunk basket."
Clearly, it wasn't easy to get a raving drunk guy home on someone's back, but it must have been an effective tool for convincing someone not to drink so much the next time they went out. Can you imagine being carted home like this more than once in your life?
This early version of a ride share service comes from the saying “küfelik olmak," which means “needing to be carried home in a basket,” which itself is slang for "you're too drunk."
Martin Luther King Jr. removing a burned cross from his lawn
Sadly, this image is one that was commonplace in the 1960s. As civil rights leaders across the south attempted to put an end to the Jim Crow era and move the country into a place of harmony, members of the Klu Klux Klan did whatever they could to keep their part of the country in the dark ages.
This shot of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. removing a four foot cross that was burned on the front lawn of his home on April 26th, 1960, with his two year old son, Martin Luther III, is horrifying. Not only because of the stark racism on display, but because it's something that both King and his son have gotten used to.
King never eradicated racism, but he did bring the world closer together with his work and his calls for peaceful demonstration.
Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall pose in drag for Brigitte Lacombe
This surreal shot of the Rolling Stones front man and his then-wife Jerry Hall is a look into Jagger's home life in more ways than one. According to photographer Brigitte Lacombe, she was set to shoot photos of Jerry Hall at the home she shared with Jagger and asked if he would appear in one. He agreed, but with exceptions. Lacombe explains:
Mick had agreed to do one picture. He suddenly appeared in full make-up. The gown was his idea, he thought it would be fun. I love that the image is so genuine, not too jokey, not too camp.
Taken outside the couple's French chateau, this shot looks like an alternate version of history, don't you think?
This girl was asked to draw "home," while living in a residence for disturbed children. Warsaw, Poland in 1948
This image of a young girl named Tereska drawing an endless spiral on chalkboard was taken after she was asked to draw a picture of "home." It's one of the most emblematic photos of World War II, and shows the way in which the children of Europe internalized the explosions, the fighting, and the deaths of millions.
Tereska was photographed in 1948 when David "Chim" Seymour was sent by UNICEF to to photograph a group of children from Europe who were left homeless, wounded and traumatized by the war.
Seymour snapped this photo of Tereska in a school for “backward and psychologically upset children,” as Chim states in his story’s caption. The young woman spent the rest of her life in an institution, she passed away in 1978 at the Tworki Mental Asylum after accidentally choking on a piece of food that she stole from another patient.
This lava pit looks like it's sucking souls into the depths
The inky tendrils giving way to a fiery pit may look like twisted bodies dragging themselves from a hole, but this is really nothing to be afraid of. Well, aside from the whole "super hot lava" thing. Taken in 1996, this photo shows masses of different lava flows that dripped into a lava skylight, forming a crust around the hole.
Molten lava can travel through what's known as lava tubes, essentially channels of molten lava that are buried underground. They only become visible when the "roof" of ground above them collapses, revealing the tubes, and if we're lucky, a lava skylight.
This particular skylight is surrounded by different lava flows, creating a beautiful, albeit freaky, natural lava formation that looks like a portal to the underworld.
Before she was the Queen of Pop, and even before she was like a virgin, Madonna was just a young woman living in Bay City, Michigan. A middle child of six, she was often left to her own devices and dreamed of doing something that would take her away from Michigan.
Her mother passed away when she was only five years old, leaving her to as the oldest girl in the house. It wasn't easy for the young Madonna, but she made the most of her life. She later explained that she threw herself into her studies because she wanted to make something of herself. She didn't gain her rebellious streak until her father remarried.
Rebellious should have a pair of scare quotes around it. Madonna admits that she got deeper into her studies, and avoided her father and stepmother as much as possible by getting deeply into ballet. Eventually she earned a dance scholarship to University of Michigan, it was her first chance to escape.
While this couple was one of the more steady partnerships in Hollywood, the dark, gloomy look of this photo is an apt look at the hardships they faced towards the end of their nearly 20 year romance.
Much of their time together was spent going from set to set with their children. Bronson made sure that Ireland had a role in as many of his films as possible and it was was important to them to keep their family together so wherever they went so did their kids.
Theres was an idyllic relationship until Ireland was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1984. She wrote two books about her diagnosis and passed away in 1990 at the family's home in Malibu. Her ashes were placed in a cane that Bronson kept with him until his death in 2003, he was buried with it following his passing.
Tanya Roberts, 1982
Roberts has long been a staple of b-movies and genre films, but it's impossible to forget her work on Charlie's Angels and A View To A Kill. In fact, out of all the Bond women she's the one who popped up in the most interesting of places while she was alive.
Roberts knew that she would be facing an up hill battle if she took the role in A View To A Kill, but she knew she would regret it forever if she never appeared in a Bond film. Wouldn't you want to be a part of that legacy? She told the Daily Mail about her mental back and forth before agreeing to take the film:
I sort of felt like every girl who'd ever been a Bond Girl had seen their career go nowhere, so I was a little cautious. I remember I said to my agent, 'No one ever works after they get a Bond movie' and they said to me, 'Are you kidding? Glen Close would do it if she could.' and I thought to myself, well you can have regrets if you wish, but what's the point? At the time I didn't know what I know now, and to be honest, who would turn that role down, really?
Caroline Munro is an English actress and model known for her many appearances in horror, science fiction and action films of the 1970s
Few actresses have flitted between worlds as well as Caroline Munro. Throughout her career she jumped from genre films like Dracula 1972 A.D. and Starcrash to legit films like the Spy Who Loved Me and she never missed a beat. Her performances never felt like she was phoning it in even when she was sharing the screen with David Hasselhoff while wearing a leather bikini.
While speaking with Den of Geek, Munro explained that she was able to keep her performances so straight forward and spot on throughout her impressive filmography because she saw it all as work, no matter whether she was in a Hammer Horror Film or a picture with Roger Moore:
I don’t think seeing myself in those posters and in photos is something that really connects as part of my own life, and the life of my family. I mean, I recognize myself, of course, but it’s not really part of my own world. The photos don’t represent who I am, really. It’s work.
Jacqueline Bisset, 1970s
We often hear about "journeyman actors," those performers who go from role to role giving it all they've got, providing an Oscar caliber performance with just a few lines and looks. Jacqueline Bisset is one of those actors. She may be thought of as cheesecake for the viewers at home, but when you break down her filmography it's clear that she's a person who loves to work.
While speaking about filmmaking with Roger Ebert in in 1982, she explained that to her, working on a film isn't just showing up and looking pouty, it's forming a bond with the cast and crew that lasts long after the final cut. She said:
I work hard, and I tend to play hard. I very seldom rest hard. When I am working on a movie, all I want to talk about is the movie. All I want to be with are the movie people. It's like a clan. If I'm asked to people's houses for dinner, I hate to go, because they'll talk about other things... and all I want to talk about is the movie. How a shot was shot. Whether it worked. I think it must sound to other people a lot like somebody discussing golf putts. It's very hard to be interested in a golf putt if it wasn't your putt.
The pretty Sharon Tate modeling a Betsey Johnson dress
No matter how beautiful Sharon Tate looks in a photo or in her films there's always going to be a sadness with her. Cut down before she even hit her prime by the hopped up crazies in the Manson family, Tate just wanted to create a family, something that she was in the middle of doing in August 1969 when Tex Watson and a few Manson girls broke into their mansion.
At the time, Tate was married to Roman Polanski, a director whose star was only rising following the release in Rosemary's Baby. He was primed to take Hollywood by storm and to raise a beautiful family with Tate, but that never came to pass. Following Tate's murder Polanski fell into a downward spiral of drugs and alcohol, and Tate became the poster girl for the end of the hippie generation.
Raquel Welch in a publicity photo for the movie Hannie Caulder (1971)
In the early '70s, Raquel Welch could do anything she wanted but rather than take basic roles that just focused on her looks she took a bunch of left turns and off-kilter roles that make her career all the more interesting.
With Haunie Caulder Welch took the role of the western wife but she turned it on its head. Following the loss of her entire family she picks up a gun and employs a bounty hunter to help get her revenge.
Following her work in the '60s, Welch made it a point to take on roles like this. Her turns in Myra Breckinridge and Kansas City Bomber, along with Hannie Caulder, took her from a bombshell to a legit character actress. This role was Welch taking her career into her own hands.
The grooviness of Dawn Wells in 1970
Even if she never took another role, even if she disappeared off the planet after 1967, her role as Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island made her a sensation. She was the apple in the eye of every teen and pre-teen boy and she helped create the question: Are you a Ginger or a Mary Ann?
Even though there was a versus quality to these two characters and actors, that wasn't the case between the women behind the roles: Dawn Wells and Tina Louise. After Wells' untimely death in 2020, Louise spoke out abould the kindness Wells showed her while they were working on the show. She wrote:
I will always remember Dawn’s kindness to me. We shared in creating a cultural landmark that has continued to bring comfort and smiles to people during this difficult time. I hope that people will remember her the way that I do — always with a smile on her face.
Goldengirl Susan Anton in the 70's
It's hard to ignore Susan Anton, the blonde beauty who broke out in a sci-fi/sports and went on to pop up in just about every TV show of the '80s. Weirdly enough, it wasn't the big screen that made her a big deal, but the small screen.
After working the pageant circuit, Anton went onto star in a series of ads for Muriel Cigars where she sang a jingle and looked cool lightning up, something that an actress wouldn't be allowed to do today.
When the commercials debuted she immediately caught on with the public, and after CBS refused to air the ads for being too sensual the craze that was created by the ban made her an even bigger star.
Actress Pamela Hensley known for the movie Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, 1979
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century shouldn't have happened. It was over the top, it was camp, and it was absolutely bonkers. Created by Glen A. Larsen, the guy behind Battlestar Gallactica, the series was another big budget science fiction series for ABC, a type of show that they weren't known for succeeding at in the 70s.
For as outlandish as the show was it had sex appeal that was aimed right at teenage boys thanks to Pamela Hensley. She spent most of the series draped in clothing that accentuated every curve, and in some cases she didn't wear anything at all and instead opted to be obscured by steam or a bath. It was a seriously risquee show for the time. Unfortunately the series was canceled after two seasons. We would have loved to spend more time with Princess Ardala.
Actress Susan Dey, 1972
Susan Dey has come a long way from her early years singing on The Partridge Family. Dey rarely talks about her time on the show, some of which likely stems from not wanting to talk about a thing she made when she was a teenager, but also because at the time she was in capital L love with star David Cassidy.
Everyone on set knew that Dey had a massive crush on Cassidy, even co-star and Cassidy's real life stepmother tried to dissuade Dey from following through with the romance, but she didn't listen. Dey had to watch as Cassidy flirted with fans and hooked up with girls in his trailer, something that really destroyed her for a while.
Dey and Cassidy have since made up, sort of. He wrote about hooking up with her in his memoir and she didn't go nuclear on him, so that's something, right?
Barbi Benton, 1970s
The '70s were great because someone like Barbi Benton could be famous. This isn't too say that Benton never had the star quality of her peers on television, but she was able to go from a model working with Hugh Hefner and turn that into career as a television personality.
Because Benton was only sort of famous she was able to appear on shows like Fantasy Island and The Love Boat multiple times while also popping up as herself on The Sonny & Cher Show and releasing multiple country albums. Benton more or less retired in 1990 and now she lives the good life with her family... and that's how you win the fame game.
Bernadette Peters didn't make a splash as a movie star until 1976, in Mel Brooks' Silent Movie
Known around the world for her theatrical roles and booming voice, Bernadette Peters is amazing at any age. Her voice, her look, and her whole vibe harkens back to the Golden Age of Hollywood which isn't really what we think about when we're talking about the 1970s in film.
So what was it that made Peters throw herself into a style that looks back much more than it focuses on the now? While speaking with Vulture Peters explained that the grandeur of old Hollywood is really what did it for her:
I did sing popular music in high school, but what happened is that I discovered the choices as a performer that would allow me to live emotionally where I wanted to live. Every performer has to make that discovery. Where that realization comes from, I don’t know. Part of it must be what I was exposed to as a kid. When I would come home from school at four o’clock, I’d watch the Million Dollar Movie on television — it was always a classic musical. The beauty of that work was incredible. Hollywood was maybe a little more concerned with the overall visual beauty of the film in those days.
Charlotte Rampling back in the '70s showing off some leg
This star of the swinging '60s may be an English rose but she it's Italian cinema that thrust her into the spotlight. With Sardinia Kidnapped and Georgy Girl, both filmed in Italy, she found international success that made her a must cast dramatic actress.
So why would a model like Rampling leave England to work in Italy? She said that she just needed to get out of the county:
Italy is the most wonderful country to work in. They so love beauty and they so love what they’re doing, they so love the actual art of filmmaking. I don’t think Fellini’s films or Visconti’s films ever made any money. They just did it for the grand, operatic feeling. It was so different from the way the English and the Americans were working, there was such passion. And me coming from a rather cold Protestant family, I woke up! That was the beginning of things for me, really.
Deidre Hall may be best known for her role as Dr. Marlena Evans on the soap Days of Our Lives, a role she took on 1976
In the 1970s, if you were on a soap opera you were basically a rock star and Deidre Hall was definitely a rock star. As Dr. Marlena Evans on Days of Our Lives, Hall lived through some of the craziest storylines that viewers could imagine: she fell in love, she broke up couples, and she was possessed by a demon.
As crazy as that sounds, possession was hot in the '70s thanks to The Exorcist so it made perfect sense that Hall would end up floating with freakydeaky eyes on daytime TV. According to Hall, she wasn't sure about the concept but had faith in Days of Our Lives writer Jim Reilly:
I just thought, you know what, Jim is a devout Catholic. And this is a thing — it's a passion project for him. And I thought it would be safe in his hands. So the only thing that I said at that point was, I would like to make sure that we do it well, that we really reached in deep and we put the money and the time and the effort into it, and so we do it well. And they did and it was magnificent.
In 1978, Jayne Kennedy broke into the male-dominated world of professional football when she became the first female sportscaster on NFL Today
Jayne Kennedy didn't just break through the glass ceiling to become the first sportscaster for the NFL, she smashed through it with a hammer and never looked back. But when the job opportunity to audition for the job was offered to her she was certain that she wasn't going to be talking football with the players. She explained:
Sports had always been a huge part of my life. I knew I could do the job, and I knew it would have been a passion project for me: to be able to work with all of these sports figures who had been my heroes. I managed to convince the head of sports talent for CBS out of New York to give me an audition. When I walked in, there were 15 girls there with blond hair and blue eyes, and then there was me. I said 'Here we go again. I’m never going to get this job, I’m not what they’re looking for.'
Jaclyn Smith in the early 1970s
As one of the first three cast members on Charlie's Angels, Jaclyn Smith had the uphill battle and good luck of being on the ground floor of one of the most beloved series of all time.
While the rest of her co-stars came and went over the course of five years, Smith stuck around for the entire run of the series, something that she wanted to do because of the way that the series promoted pure girl power. She told The Hollywood Reporter:
Really, Charlie's was Aaron. He liked bright, happy, popping. He said it was 'mind candy.' It wasn't meant to be Shakespeare... The lighting was not shadows and moody. Get into their faces, get into their eyes, really look at these girls... [Critics] gave us no value... [Our characters] were emotionally and financially independent. We were making our way. We were strong — we did a lot of our stunts. We had each other's backs. I never thought of it as we were exploited in any way.
Linda Ronstadt in the '70s
Sure, Linda Ronstadt has hits on hits on hits from the '70s and '80s, but aside from her powerful voice and amazing ability to take any song given to her and make it soar she also had an extreme eye for talent.
As the leader of the Stone Poneys and later her own solo group, Rondstadt employed both Don Henley and Glenn Frey of the Eagles, and she even had a hand in the duo working with Jackson Browne on their hit "Take It Easy." It's not every day that an artist is both uber talented and magnanimous with their talented friends.
Rondstadt is absolutely one in a million, and we're lucky that we were able to experience her amazing rise to fame.
Loni Anderson as Jennifer Marlowe, the intelligent and sexy receptionist on WKRP in Cincinnati. She played the role from 1978 to 1982
WKRP in Cincinnati was a weirder show than we give it credit for. The series followed the quirky DJs at a radio station, something that no other sitcom was focused on putting on the air. It turned out that a lot of people wanted to watch the day to day office goofs of a bunch of music fans - and they really wanted to see what Jennifer Marlowe was up to.
Presented as a blonde bimbo, Loni Anderson turned the character into the glue that held the series togeter. She was secretly sly and she knew how to use her looks to her advantage to get the job done. Most importantly she was a laugh riot.
Anderson's work on the show paved the way for hilarious beauties like Lake Bell and Erin Haynes who both cranked up Anderson's sultry physical comedy to its extremes in the 2000s.
Marilu Henner In The '70s For Playing Elaine O'Connor Nardo on the TV show Taxi
Taxi is easily one of the greatest sitcoms that's ever come out of the 20th century. Not only does it still hold up, but it introduced audiences to some of the funniest character actors of the day while laying the template for every sitcom, successful or not, that followed.
Henner wasn't like the rest of the cast of Taxi. Aside from being one of the few women on the show she also happened to be drop dead gorgeous, something that made her extremely recognizable. Henner says that she enjoyed the fame that came with the series, but wished that she could be on the show without all the accolades. She told Roger Ebert:
Sometimes, though, I wish they would ignore me. Sometimes I look like myself, and sometimes I go out of the house looking like a mess and when, people ask me if I'm Marilu Henner I'm ashamed to admit it. In the grocery store the other day, I just said, No, but thanks for the compliment. I think she's very attractive.
Model Jerry Hall partying at Studio 54 in the 1970s. (Photo by Helmut Newton)
For a few brief years in the 1970s, Studio 54 was THE place to be no matter who you were. It didn't matter if someone was famous or not, if they were in Studio 54 they were someone.
It wasn't out of the ordinary for regular people, or regular people for the New York club scene to run elbows all night with the likes of Jerry Hall and Mick Jagger and not think twice about it. That's what made Studio 54 so cool, if you were there it meant you were someone.
Stevie Nicks back in the 1970s
In the 1970s, there was Stevie Nicks and then there was everyone else. Not only was she the witchy frontwoman of Fleetwood-Mac, but she had a kind of mystique that you don't just get from being a singer or an actress.
Nicks brought something new to rock music in an era full of overblown stadium rock bands running on pure testosterone. The Mac was one of the most successful groups of the era, but thanks to the feminity of Nicks and keyboardist/singer/songwriter Christine McVie the group brought more nuance to their music than many of the other platinum groups of the era.
Even through the group's ups and downs they've managed to mystify listeners with their sun soaked, pop rock goodness, and we've got Nicks to thank for leading the way.
Beautiful British actress Jane Seymour in the early 1970s
Jane Seymour has always been in her prime. This gorgeous English actress who's been acting since the 1970s never seems to slow down and she never seems to age. We don't know how she continues to find the energy to keep working the way she does, but we do know how she keeps looking so young - an intense skin care routine, baby.
While speaking with People Magazine she was open about the care she puts into making her skin look as youthful as it did when she was just getting started in the industry, and she explained why she's never had a facelift (and it's not the reason you think). She explained:
As of now, I have chosen not to have a facelift — but I have nothing against any of it, nothing. Almost everyone I know is doing it and they're really thrilled with the results. I think it's great, and if I felt that somebody could do something that wouldn't change my face, and I would have the results where I would look just like me, I would do it. I'm not saying I'd never do it, but I haven't done it yet.
When you're working closely with someone for years, even if you're pretending to be brother and sister, of course you're going to develop a natural chemistry - especially if that person is Carrie Fisher.
After Fisher passed away, Star Wars co-star Mark Hamill spoke about their affection for one another to the Guardian and admitted that the two made out at one point or another, but more than anything the two were friends who liked to hang out and walk their dogs together even though they had a kind of sort of romantic relationship for a brief period of time. He explained:
Carrie and I were attracted to one another, but I knew from previous jobs that it would have been a bad idea [to get involved with someone on set]. But Carrie and I found pretexts. I remember one time – I’m sure alcohol was involved – we were talking about kissing techniques. I said: ‘Well, I think I’m a fairly good kisser. I like to let the women come to me rather than be aggressive.’ And she said: ‘What do you mean?’ Well, next thing you know we’re making out like teenagers!
Freddie Mercury eating soup in bed with his cats, 1987.
When Freddie Mercury sings "you're my best friend" with that voice that could only come from rock royalty the listener assumes he's talking about one of his band members or even his ex-fiancé. But it's just as likely that he was speaking about his cats.
Mercury absolutely loved his cats, so much so that when he was on tour he would call them from his hotel room so he could talk to them on the phone. Mercury's personal assistant explained how these feline phone calls went down:
He’d get to a hotel, we’d dial through and he really would talk to his cats. Mary [Austin] would hold Tom and Jerry in turn up to the receiver to listen to Freddie talking. This continued throughout the years with succeeding feline occupants of his houses.
