Presents From The Past

“I had just photographed what was to be Judy Garland’s last film, I Could Go On Singing, and Judy had serious emotional problems. When Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra were to be guests on Judy’s NBC-TV show, I was asked to photograph it. I didn’t quite know what to expect after the London film. The boys loved Judy, and both of them were wonderful with her. They went out of their way to keep her laughing all the time. It was great to see her happy again and in such rare form.”

— Bob Willoughby

(Source: becketts, via busykinging)

fuckyeahthevoice:

Let’s face it—Sinatra is a king. | -Bing Crosby

(via busykinging)

fuckyeahthevoice:

Frank Sinatra photographed by Herman Leonard, 1956

(via busykinging)

oldads:

Philco - 19551114 Life on Flickr.

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historiful:

Actress Susan Hayward (1917-1975), date unknown.

historiful:

Actress Anita Louise (1915-1970), date unknown.

oldhollywood:

Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy in Liberty (1929, dir. Leo McCarey) (via)

dtxmcclain:

Woman demonstrating a washing machine, 1935

(via 1940sthrowback)

turnofthecentury:

Spades and Hearts by unexpectedtales

fuckyeahthevoice:

1946 Columbia Records advertisement featuring Frank Sinatra, Dinah Shore, Harry James, Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, and Count Basie.

fuckyeahthevoice:

Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner are pictured viewing a designer’s lookbook while in Italy for his European tour, May 1953. The tour was cut short when European audiences did not take a liking to Sinatra and even booed him off the stage in Italy, shouting, “Ava! Ava! Ava!” It was yet another symbol of the vast disparity between her professional success and his. Five months later, MGM announced the couple’s separation after two years of marriage.

Both were heartbroken, particularly Sinatra. Daughter Nancy Sinatra wrote, “Dad was so sad. He was a body full of sighs. And it took a long time for him to begin to live again. A long time. I knew when I hugged him I was helping to heal the wound, but a hug from a daughter was only a Band-Aid, not a cure.” Frank once said, “What a period of time that was. It was all Mondays.” It was during this period, in November of 1953, that Sinatra made his last attempt at suicide when he slit one of his wrists and was checked into Mount Sinai Hospital for “exhaustion.” Rumors spread that he had tried to kill himself, and Sinatra denied them all. Though his career was on the upswing for the first time in two years, it was clear to everyone that, in his private life, Frank Sinatra had hit rock bottom.

chaplininpictures:

Charlie Chaplin & Dickie Sheridan, son of Winston Churchill’s cousin, Clare Sheridan, 1921. Sheridan is identified as one of Charlie’s sons in My Life In Pictures.  Charlie was old and confused by 1975 (he did not recognize Paulette Goddard in photos at this point either) and Oona and Francis Wyndham, who worked with Charlie on the book, may not have known any better.