A Blast From The Past

How beautiful are these old photos from the 1930s? I love how treasured photographs were then, each one a precious piece of film, and each capturing just one moment, instead of a stream of endless snaps, like we do these days.

Have a look:

Young skater with safety cushion

Dutch boy with a pillow strapped on his backside in order to soften the falling on ice while skating.

Cabaret Dancers

Cabaret dancers wearing fake mustaches.

Einstein with Einstein Puppet

The photo was taken by Harry Burnett at Cal Tech in Pasadena where Albert Einstein was teaching. Einstein saw the puppet perform at the Teato Torito and was quite amused. He reached into his jacket’s breast pocket, pulled out a letter and crumpled it up. Speaking in German, he said, “The puppet wasn’t fat enough!” He laughed and stuffed the crumpled letter up under the smock to give the puppet a fatter belly.

Public Call

A photograph of the making of a programme by the BBC about driving errors, taken by Saidman in 1939 for the Daily Herald.

Stalin pulling a face at his bodyguard

Stalin is captured in this photograph by Lt. Gen. Nikolai Vlasik, the Soviet dictator’s bodyguard. Vlasik’s off-the-record photos of Stalin caused a sensation in the early 1960s when an enterprising Soviet journalist spirited some out, selling them to newspapers and magazines worldwide.

Driving Across the Pudding River

A crazy designed method of crossing a river.

Coats Coat Coat Store

A huge showcase of clothes.

Mussolini’s Fascist Headquarters in Rome

One of the most interesting political poster I have ever seen in my life.

Max Factor’s Beauty Micrometer

Probably a tool of measuring the dimensions of “beauty”.

Construction of the Hoover Dam

Bonnie and Clyde

Burning cigarette dispenser

Disposing of Alcohol During Prohibition

Bullets for Hitler

Baby Cage

A baby suspended in a wire cage attached to the outside of a high tenement block window. The cages were distributed to members of the Chelsea Baby Club in London who have no gardens”

Empire State Opening

The models for American Gothic

Alfred Hitchcock in LA

Construction of Mount Rushmore

[Photos and captions from here]