Alluring Long Locks

Vintage Beauties with Bewitching Hair...

Hazel Forbes

Veronica Lake

Madge Evans

Gloria Grahame

Maude Fealey

Olive Ann Alcorn

Some of these images are available as prints via our website (others available soon). Click on individual pics above to see more details or to purchase.

Sally Blane

Born today (July 11) in 1910, Sally Blane was an American actress of the 1930s, and also the older sister of film star Loretta Young. more

Lili Damita

French actress Lili Damita was born today (July 10) in 1904.

Born Liliane-Marie-Madeleine Carré in Bordeaux, France, by age 16 she was performing in popular music-halls, eventually starring in the Revue at the Casino de Paris. Offered a role in film, in 1921 she appeared in her first French made silent film before going on to perform in films in Britain, Austria, and Germany.

She became the second wife of Hungarian born film director Michael Curtiz after appearing in three of his Austrian made films. In 1929, she went to Hollywood, making her American debut in a film titled 'The Rescue'. Soon, she was an important star at Warner Brothers Studios, appearing with rising male stars such as Gary Cooper and James Cagney.

Divorced from Curtiz, in 1935 she married a virtual unknown who would become Hollywood's biggest box office attraction, Errol Flynn, with whom she had a son, Sean born in 1941. Following the marriage, she gave up her film career, taking up residence in Palm Beach, Florida. The couple divorced in 1942. source











Also born today: Surreal artist Giorgio de Chirico, and writers Marcel Proust & John Wyndham.

More Vintage Tattooed Circus & Sideshow Folk

Angelika Schwarz. 1902

Don Manuelo. 1908

'The Only Lady Tattooist'.
Sideshow photo. c.1920s-30s.

Tattooed Lady. 1906

Tattooed Lady. 1902

Annie Frank. 1911

*

All these images, and many more vintage circus and sideshow posters are available as prints via our website. Click on individual pics above to see more details or to purchase.

See previous tattooed lady blog post here

*

Pierre Cardin

Italian-born French Fashion designer Pierre Cardin was Born today (July 7) in 1922 in Venice, Italy.

He immigrated to Paris in 1924 with his parents, who were thrown into poverty by World War I. After working briefly with Elsa Schiaparelli, Cardin joined Dior in 1946 and opened his own couture house in 1950.

from Cardin's 1962 collection

He was a pioneer from the start, creating a design-based, architectural fashion with a futurist sensibility. Cardin also had a pioneer's understanding of fashion's relationship to new audiences, presenting his collections to large crowds.

He was the first to demonstrate that fashion can be both a creative process and a business and that one man can excel as both a businessman and an artist.

from Cardin's 1968 collection

Vintage Shoes

'Beurer' poster. c.1940s.

'Bally' shoe poster.

'Chaussures J.B. Torrilhon'
poster by Cappiello. c.1906

'Abbotts Phit-eesi' Boots & Shoes poster
by Dudley Hardy. 1897

'Doelker' poster. c.1920s

'Bally' poster. 1940s

All these images, and many more shoe & fashion posters are available as prints via our website. Click on individual pics above to see more details or to purchase.

Gina Lollobrigida

Actress Gina Lollobrigida was born today (July 4) in Subiaco, Italy, 1927.

Gina started off doing some modeling, and from there went on to participate successfully in several beauty contests.

In 1947 she entered a beauty competition for Miss Italy, but came in third. The winner was Lucia Bosé (born 1931) who would go on to appear in over 50 movies, and the first runner-up was Gianna Maria Canale (born 1927), who would appear in almost 50 films.

After appearing in a half-dozen films in Italy, it was rumored that in 1947 film tycoon Howard Hughes had her flown to Hollywood; however, this did not result in her staying America, and she returned to Italy (her Hollywood breakout movie wouldn't come until six years later in the John Huston film Beat the Devil (1953).

As her film roles and national popularity increased, Gina was tagged 'The Most Beautiful Woman in the World', after her signature movie, 'La Donna Più Bella del Mondo (1955). Gina was nicknamed 'La Lollo', as she embodied the prototype of Italian beauty. Her earthy looks and short "tossed salad" hairdo were especially influential, and in fact there's a type of curly lettuce named "lollo" in honor of her hairdo.

Her film 'Come September' (1961) co-starring Rock Hudson won the Golden Globe as the World's Film Favorite. In the 1970s Gina was seen in only a few films, as she took a break from acting and concentrated on another career: photography. Among her subjects were Paul Newman, Salvador Dalí, and the German national soccer team. A skilled photographer, Gina had a collection of her work, 'Italia Mia', published in 1973. Immersed in her other passions (sculpting and photography), it would be 1984 before Gina would grace American TV on 'Falcon Crest' (1981).






Although Gina was always active, she only appeared in a few films in the 1990s. In June, 1999, she turned to politics and ran, unsuccessfully, for one of Italy's 87 European Parliament seats, from her hometown of Subiaco.

Gina was also a corporate executive for fashion and cosmetics companies. As she told 'Parade' magazine in April, 2000: "I studied painting and sculpting at school and became an actress by mistake." (We're glad she made that "mistake.) Gina went on to say: "I've had many lovers and still have romances. I am very spoiled. All my life, I've had too many admirers." source