Vintage

Vintage: Queen Christina (1933)

14 July 2019 0

Queen Christina is a pre-Code Hollywood biographical film, produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1933. It stars Swedish-born actress Greta Garbo and John Gilbert in their fourth and last film together. The film was directed by Rouben Mamoulian in 1933, and written…

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Benares (Varanasi), India (1890s)

10 July 2019 0

The Kingdom of Benares was given official status by the Mughals in 1737, and continued as a dynasty-governed area until Indian independence in 1947, during the reign of Dr. Vibhuti Narayan Singh. In the 18th century, Muhammad Shah ordered the…

Vintage: Portraits of Betty Compson – Silent Movie Star

5 July 2019 0

Betty Compson (1897 – 1974) was an American actress most famous in silent films and early talkies. Playing in vaudeville sketches with touring circuits, Compson got noticed by Hollywood producers. While touring, she was discovered by comedic producer Al Christie…

Vintage: Portraits by James Abbe (1920s)

17 June 2019 0

James Abbe (1883 – 1973) was an American photographer. His career as international photographer was first boosted by the Washington Post, which commissioned him to travel and take photographs of a 16-day voyage with the American battleship fleet to England…

Vintage: Thylacine, Tasmanian tiger (1930s)

14 June 2019 0

The thylacine, now extinct, is one of the largest known carnivorous marsupials, evolving about 4 million years ago. The last known live animal was captured in 1933 in Tasmania. It is commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger because of its…

Vintage: Portrait Photos of the Dare Sisters: Phyllis and Zena (early 20th Century)

12 June 2019 0

Two of the most stunning and popular actresses of Edwardian England were the sisters Dare, Phyllis and Zena, who for decades delighted audiences in London’s West End and on tour. At the height of their fame, their likenesses graced hundreds…

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Bombay, India (1890s)

10 June 2019 0

From 1782 onwards, the city was reshaped with large-scale civil engineering projects aimed at merging all the seven islands of Bombay into a single amalgamated mass by way of a causeway called the Hornby Vellard, which was completed by 1784.…

Vintage: Vivien Leigh as ‘Anna Karenina’ (1948)

7 June 2019 0

Anna Karenina (Vivien Leigh) is married to Alexei Karenin (Ralph Richardson), a cold government official in St Petersburg who is apparently more interested in his career than in satisfying the emotional needs of his wife. Called to Moscow by her…

Vintage: Portraits of Blanche Sweet – Silent Movie Star

5 June 2019 0

Blanche Sweet (1896 – 1986) was an American silent film actress who began her career in the earliest days of the Hollywood motion picture film industry. Sweet was known for her energetic, independent roles, at variance with the ‘ideal’ Griffith…

Vintage: Glass Plate Negatives of Norfolk, Virginia (1919)

2 June 2019 0

In the 1980’s 46 glass plate negatives were found in the attic of a Norfolk home. The plates measured 8.5” x 6.5”. Through the generous support of the Norfolk Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Old Dominion University, and Colorcraft…

Vintage: Greece (late 19th Ccentury)

28 May 2019 0

Greece remained a very poor country throughout the 19th century. The country lacked raw materials, infrastructure and capital. Agriculture was mostly at the subsistence level, and the only important export commodities were currants, raisins and tobacco. Some Greeks grew rich…

Vintage: Portraits of Geraldine Farrar (1910s)

26 May 2019 0

Geraldine Farrar (1882- 1967) was an American soprano opera singer and film actress. Farrar was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, the daughter of baseball player Sidney Farrar, and his wife Henrietta Barnes. At age 5, she began studying music in Boston…