Vintage Celebrity Selfies From Before Camera Phones Were A Thing

By | August 19, 2022

Jackie Kennedy taking a “selfie” with John F. Kennedy. 1960s.

Everyone thinks of the selfie as a 21st-century phenomenon. A by-product of a world where people are intensely focused on themselves more than anything else. That may be a great line for curmudgeons to grumble about, but people have been taking selfies long before camera phones and Instagram. They may have only risen to prominence in the 2000s, but photographers have been taking photos of themselves since the 19th century.

Whether you’re curious about what one of the earliest selfies looked like, or you want to see which celebrities from the Golden Age of Hollywood were all about finding the perfect look we’ve got you take care of. Say cheese!

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Source: Reddit

While the main bullet points about Jackie Kennedy are her marriage to JFK and her role as a fashion icon, she lead an incredibly interesting life. Her first job after attending Vassar, the Sorbonne and George Washington University was as a photographer and reporter for the Washington Times-Herald in 1952.

Her actual position was “Inquiring Photographer” which means that she definitely knew how to snap a good quick pic. This early selfie of the President and the First Lady in the back of a car looks like something that a young couple would post on holiday, which makes this photo all the more fascinating. 

Sammy Davis Perfecting His Mirror Selfie in the 1950s

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Source: thechive.com

Taken in a moment of pique, this early selfie has the avant-garde composure of a professional, the artful blur of a playful student, and the face of a photographer asking, “is this even going to work?” When he wasn’t crooning on stage or cutting up with the Rat Pack, Sammy Davis Jr. was the kind of photo nut who was rarely without his Rolleiflex.

Aside from cheeky selfies he took photos of famous pairs like Rex Harrison with Martin Luther King Jr as well as Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe. His archives are full of stills of marquees and quite moments with some of the world’s most famous people.