Installation view
Martha Holmes
Santa's workshop at F.A.O. Schwartz, New York, 1947
In December 1947, famed New York toy store FAO Schwarz produced a dedicated phone line on which children could dial the number (MU 8-2205) and detail their Christmas lists directly to “Santa” himself. LIFE noted: “So far, the experiment has caught hold among both rich and poor — so much so that some callers want to talk all day. Santa handles this by jingling a few bells and saying, ‘That’s Dasher and Dancer. They want me to feed them. Goodbye.’”
J.R. Eyerman
Audience watches premiere of "Bwana Devil" wearing Polaroid spectacles to enjoy the three dimensional sequences, Hollywood, CA, 1952
Martha Holmes
Brooklyn Dodger fans celebrating 1955 World Series victory, Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, 1955
On October 4, 1955, at Yankee Stadium, the Brooklyn Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in the World Series - the Yankees first loss since 1942, and only their second loss since 1926. The triumph of the underdog team inspired spontaneous celebrations throughout the States. It would be the first (and only) World Series win for the Dodgers before they relocated to the West Coast in 1957, becoming the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Alfred Eisenstaedt
VJ Day, Times Square, NY, August 14, 1945
Alfred Eisenstaedt’s iconic image of a sailor kissing a woman in a white uniform was taken in New York City’s Times Square on August 14, 1945, following the news of Japan’s surrender in World War II. The photograph was published a week later in LIFE magazine, along with other pictures of celebrations around the States of what came to be known as “V-J Day.” While many have come forward claiming to be the subjects, the exact identities of the man and woman have never been officially confirmed.
Since then, homages to this photograph continue to appear in popular culture, notably in a 1990 episode of The Simpsons and a live concert by Katy Perry for the Marines in 2012. Most recently, Amy Sherald restaged the kiss with a black male couple in her 2022 painting For Love, and for Country, which was included in her 2025 retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art as shown here.
Harry Benson
Halston & Liza Minelli, New York, 1978
In 1973, fashion designer Halston sold his line to Norton Simon, Inc., but retained control as the creative director. Flush with financial resources and desiring more space, he relocated his headquarters in 1978 to a 12,000 square foot space on the 21st floor of Olympic Tower at 641 5th Avenue. Halston complemented the 18-foot ceilings and spectacular views of New York with mirrored doors and walls (weighing over a ton each), dark red carpet, and what was rumored to be an annual budget of over $100,000 for orchids.
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Bojangles performing at Zanzibar, New York, 1954
Born in Virginia in 1878, Bill Robinson was given the nickname “Bojangles” as a child. He became a celebrated tap and vaudeville dancer, actor, singer, and civil-rights activist - and was the most highly paid entertainer in the first half of the 20th century.
Harry Benson
The Godfather: Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino and Diane Keaton, New York, 1971
Harry Benson
Kate & Nadja, 1993
Leonard McCombe
Clark Gable, Cary Grant and Bob Hope and David Niven during Oscar show rehearsal, RKO Pantage Theatre, Hollywood, 1958
Loomis Dean
Gene Kelly dancing on the steps of the Paris Opera, Paris, France, 1960
In 1960, the iconic actor and dancer Gene Kelly became the first American invited by the Paris Opera to choreograph an original ballet. Pas de Dieux featured a jazz score by George Gershwin and was a smash hit, and Kelly was later honored by the French government with the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. The extravagant and mysterious setting of the Ópera Garnier, including the famous entrance stairs that Kelly poses on, inspired Gaston Leroux’s 1910 gothic horror novel The Phantom of the Opera.
Harry Benson
USA for Africa: Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, Willie Nelson, Lionel Richie, Bruce Springsteen, and Tina Turner, 1985
On January 28, 1985, Tina Turner, Lionel Richie, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson, Cyndi Lauper, and Michael Jackson entered A&M Recording Studios in Hollywood to record their vocals for the charity single “We Are the World.”
Produced by Stevie Wonder and Quincy Jones under the name “USA for Africa,” the supergroup’s aim was to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. Over a week, more than two dozen notable musical artists crowded into the studio to record parts for the song. A taped sign read: “check your ego at the door”. Wonder was also said to have threatened that any misbehavior or being unable to record their part in one take would result in him and Ray Charles driving everyone home.
“We are the World” would go on to sell 20 million physical copies and raised over 80 million dollars for humanitarian aid. It remains the 8th best-selling single of all time.
Loomis Dean
Noel Coward Las Vegas, 1955
Before joining LIFE magazine, Loomis Dean worked as a photographer for the U.S. Army and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Quick on his feet and unfazed by difficult subjects, he convinced playwright and composer Noel Coward to pose in the stifling hot Nevada desert by renting a limousine filled with liquor, tonic, and ice cubes. Coward allowed his dresser to help him into a tuxedo for the photograph, but then removed it and wore only his underwear for the ride back to Las Vegas.
Installation view
Paul Schutzer
Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood at the Cannes Film Festival, Cannes, France, 1962
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Bette Davis, Hollywood, CA, 1938
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Marlene Dietrich at a Costume Ball, Berlin, 1929
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Katharine Hepburn models one of her many costumes from the play "The Philadelphia Story", New York, 1939
John Dominis
Frank Sinatra with son Frank Jr. in Las Vegas, 1964
John Dominis
Frank Sinatra and Jackie Gleason, c. 1965
John Dominis
Frank Sinatra posing with Count Basie and his band, Las Vegas, 1964
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Marian Anderson, the great contralto in a rare performance of spIrituals, at the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 5, 1938
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Daydreaming Marilyn Monroe, California, 1953
Leonard McCombe
Lena Horne, New York, 1947
Allan Grant
Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly backstage at the 28th Annual Academy Awards, Hollywood, CA, 1956
Lisa Larsen
Grace Kelly, New York, 1956
Leonard McCombe
Kim Novak en route to New York City, 1956
John Dominis
Steve McQueen in black Jaguar at studio, California, 1963
Harry Benson
Four Generations of Carsons: Ricky Carson (Johnny's son), Johnny Carson, Christopher Carson (Johnny's grandfather), and Kit Carson (Johnny's father), Omaha, Nebraska, 1969
Martha Holmes
Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall at The House UN-American Activities Committee hearing regarding communists in the film industry, 1947
Gjon Mili
Billie Holiday, NY, 1943
Loomis Dean
Sophia Loren and her manager and future husband Carlo Ponti, on the set of "Legend of the Lost", Cinecitta, Italy, 1957
Martha Holmes
Louis Armstrong backstage with Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine, New York, 1950
Peter Stackpole
Jimmy Stewart talking behind counter at his father's hardware store while his father chats with customer upon Stewart's return from WWII, Indiana, PA, 1947
An example of LIFE’s blend of photojournalism and celebrity can be seen in Peter Stackpole’s photographs of Jimmy Stewart’s return to his Pennsylvania hometown in 1945 after enlisting in the Army Air Corps. In only four years, Stewart became a decorated Colonel, flying missions in Nazi-occupied Europe. He was certainly the only veteran with an Academy Award for Best Award in 1940.
Installation view
Martha Holmes
Jackson Pollock in his studio, Springs, Long Island, New York, 1949
Gjon Mili
Pablo Picasso creating light drawing of vase of flowers, Vallauris, France, 1949
Photographer Gjon Mili collaborated with Pablo Picasso to create “light paintings”: experiments made in a dark room with a flashlight. While initially skeptical, Picasso later allowed Mili five additional photo sessions. Forty of the resulting photographs were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in 1950.
Abe Frajndlich
Andreas Feininger, Triptych, NYC, 1988
Abe Frajndlich
Louise Dahl-Wolfe, In Closet with Camera, Princeton, N.J., 1988
Abe Frajndlich
Berenice Abbott, Umbrella & Fur, Abbott, Maine, 1986
Abe Frajndlich
Ruth Bernhard with Model, San Francisco, 1988
Andreas Feininger
Nude figure drawing class, Cape Cod, MA, 1946
Martha Holmes
Parts of giant advertising sign await unloading, NY, 1948
Loomis Dean
Model taking a five minute break, Oxbow, The Art Institute of Chicago's Summer Art School, Saugatuck, Michigan, 1949
John Dominis
Woodstock (color), NY, 1969
Installation view
Nina Leen
Racetrack Fashions, New York, 1958. (Plaids and checks lined up at Roosevelt Raceway window)
Harry Benson
Quarterback Roger Staubach with UT Austin Coach Tom Landry, Dallas Cowboys, 1972
Roger Staubach played quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys for 11 seasons and led the Cowboys to their first Super Bowl win in 1972. (This photograph was published on the cover of LIFE just a few days before the game on January 16, 1972.) His coach, Thomas Landry, was actually the first head coach for the Cowboys when the team launched in 1960, and Landry remained the coach for the next 29 years – an NFL record.
Carl Mydans
Teenage Texas migrants share their homeless journey, 1937
Loomis Dean
Anthony Armstrong-Jones' half brothers, the Honorable Desmond Parsons and Lord Oxmantown, at the wedding of Armstrong-Jones and Princess Margaret, London, 1960
Installation view
John Dominis
Diving, Olympic pool, Melbourne, Australia, 1956
George Silk
Tourists Climb Fox Glacier in Tasman National Park, New Zealand, 1946
Installation view
Yale Joel
Little League spokesman voices players' demand for pants, Manchester, NH, 1954
Leonard McCombe
Little boy with railroad workers, Arkansas, 1955
Carl Mydans
Roustabouts take time off from their job, Freer, TX, 1937
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Monks along the River Arno, Florence, Italy, 1935
Leonard McCombe
Men enjoying ice cream, Iowa State Fair, 1952
The importance of home and a sense of belonging was highlighted in LIFE’s 1952 photo essay by Leonard McCombe, published on the occasion of McCombe’s official USA citizenship after 7 years in America. McCombe spent a lonely first summer in New York at the age of 23, documenting the idiosyncrasies and frustrations of his new home.
“I began to notice the difference in my own countrymen. I’d never even seen men eating ice cream (that was only a children’s treat in England),” McCombe said, “but by now – seven years after I set foot on American soil – I have been buffeted and shaped until I fit. I feel I am a citizen of the place where I belong.”
Margaret Bourke-White
Diversion tunnel construction, Fort Peck Dam, 1936
Margaret Bourke-White was one of the four original staff photographers for LIFE, selected by Henry Luce alongside Alfred Eisenstaedt, Peter Stackpole, and Thomas McAvoy.
In 1936, Luce dispatched Bourke-White to Montana to photograph the construction of the Fort Peck Dam, one of the major New Deal projects under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency. Her photograph of the tunnel construction is shown here, and another photograph from this series appeared on the cover of the first issue of LIFE Magazine on November 23, 1936, as shown here.
Margaret Bourke-White
Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Baltimore, Maryland, 1935
Margaret Bourke-White
Ford Motor Company foreman shields his eyes against fiery light of open hearth mill, Detroit, MI, 1929
Margaret Bourke-White
Hats In The Garment District New York, 1930
Margaret Bourke-White
Crewmen unloading huge B-52 bomber engine used as spare, from the belly of a C-124 Cargo plane upon arrival at Strategic Air Commands's advance base, 1951
In addition to her work documenting American industry, Margaret Bourke-White also became America’s first accredited woman photographer in WWII and the first authorized to accompany Air Corps crews on dangerous bombing missions - well earning her the nickname among her colleagues at LIFE: “Maggie the Indestructible.”
John Dominis
Propman and rubber rocks, Universal City, Hollywood, 1963
Andreas Feininger
Warehouse dock, Brooklyn, NY, 1948
J.R. Eyerman
Howard Hughes in cockpit of Spruce Goose, 1947
In 1942, the US War Department commissioned Howard Hughes and the Hughes Aircraft Company to build a plane large enough to transport large volumes of war material and personnel to Britain, but without the crucial materials needed elsewhere in the war effort, such as aluminum.
Hughes proposed a “flying boat” made from wood which could carry 150,000 pounds and 750 troops. Three were ordered, but only one was built. The resulting effort–nicknamed the “Spruce Goose”–cost $23 million dollars (over $250 million today) and was beset by so many construction delays that it was only finished two years after the war ended.
J.R. Eyerman, who developed several innovations in photography, including camera mechanisms to photograph an atomic blast 3,600 feet below the ocean’s surface, was thus the perfect photographer to appreciate Hughes’ efforts. In 1947, he photographed Hughes in the cockpit of the Spruce Goose before its first (and only) flight, which lasted thirty seconds.
Hughes, who later testified at Senate hearings regarding the use of government funds for the aircraft, secretly arranged for the plane to be maintained by a complete crew until his death in 1976. The plane is now held at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in Oregon.
Carl Mydans
Sandhog in frame of Queens Midtown Tunnel being constructed under the East River, New York, 1939
Carl Mydans
Oil field worker, Freer, TX, 1937
Installation view
Carl Iwasaki
Teenage dating, 1961
Michael Rougier
Young Bride, Oaks, North Dakota, 1962
Alfred Eisenstaedt
A Soldier's Farewell, Penn Station, 1944
Carl Mydans
Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas sitting with "Basket" just after liberation at home in southern France, France, 1944
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Siesta on the Right Bank of the river Seine, Paris, 1964
Carl Iwasaki
Kissing in the kitchen, Denver, CO, 1958
John Dominis
Steve McQueen and his wife, Neile Adams, at home, California, 1963
William Helburn
Snorkelers, Caribe Beach, Puerto Rico, 1954
Margaret Bourke-White
Women working in defense industry, Gary, Indiana, 1943
Loomis Dean
Sands Hotel, Las Vegas, 1952
Loomis Dean
Gathering for morning rehearsal, American Debutante Ball, Versailles, France, 1958
John Olson
Women in large parade down 5th Avenue on the 5th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which granted the women the right to vote, 1970
John Dominis
Jacques D'Amboise Playing with his Children, Seattle, 1962
George Silk
Cross country skier at the 1960 Winter Olympics, Squaw Valley, California, 1960
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Shaker Room, Hancock, MA, 1974
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Ludwig van Beethoven's Birth Room, Bonn, 1934
Andreas Feininger
Woman with scuba mask, 1955
Nina Leen
Lady with Leopard Hand Warmer, 1951
John Dominis
Priest ice skating, Detroit, MI, 1954
Installation view