February 2014 - Page 2 of 3

‘I Was in LIFE’: Rita Moreno Remembers

December 15, 2021February 7, 2014 by

Rita Moreno, who turned 90 on December 11, 2021, is a member of one of the entertainment world’s most exclusive clubs: she’s one of only 16 performers in history to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony—the famous “EGOT” awards superfecta. In 2015 she was honored at the Kennedy Center, and in 2019 she was given a Peabody Award for her career of achievement.

LIFE was a fan of Rita Moreno before she had won a single one of those awards. She appeared on the cover of the magazine on March 1, 1954, issue as a vivacious, bare-shouldered 22-year-old, gazing at the viewer in what might well be the most playfully sexy portrait ever to appear on the cover of LIFE.

In a recent interview Moreno, said that the way she made it on to that cover, and not the picture itself, that stirred her remarkably sharp memory.

“Do you know how I got on the cover in the first place?” she asks. “Oh, it was such a wacky thing. I Love Lucy was enormously popular at the time, sitcoms were just taking hold on television, and the Desilu people decided to go into production with some other shows including one starring Ray Bolger [best-known today as the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz]. It turned out that he just wasn’t right for the medium, and the show didn’t get off the ground, but during rehearsals I happened to be on set one day when a LIFE photographer showed up to chronicle the action. Well, the pictures made it back to the editors at LIFE and, the way I heard it, someone saw me in one of the shots and said, ‘Who’s that girl?'”

[Follow Rita Moreno on Twitter]

“Next thing I know, LIFE calls me up about a photo shoot. The idea behind Loomis Dean’s pictures showing me in all sorts of silly poses, pretending to act out this huge gamut of emotions was ridiculous, but the photos were lovely. And I was happy to be in LIFE.” She pauses. “Oh, who am I kidding? I was fucking thrilled.

“The writer assigned to the piece, who was there during the shoot, told me that the magazine wanted a picture for the cover. I could not believe it. Twenty-two years old, and I was going to be on the cover of LIFE! But then he says, ‘I have to warn you—if Eisenhower gets a cold, you’ll get bumped.'”

At this, Moreno lets out a full, hugely contagious laugh.

As excited and proud as she was about her LIFE cover—”I was running all over, buying copies and giving them to friends, beside myself with happiness,” she says—Moreno recalls that, to her surprise, it didn’t immediately translate into significantly more work, or better, more nuanced roles. “Maybe because I was a Latina,” she says. “Who knows?”

But she also remembers that Daryl Zanuck, the legendary Hollywood producer and studio head, reportedly saw the cover and said, “Get me that girl. Can she speak English?”

“Who says that sort of thing?” the Puerto Rico-born Moreno asks, with a bemused but far from bitter chuckle.

Moreno offers one further insight into how “delicious” (her word) it was for a young actress to suddenly see her own face on the cover of arguably the most influential magazine on the planet at the time. Chuckling at the memory, she says that she “would walk into stores with a copy of the magazine, carrying it so you could see the cover, or laying it down on the counter face up, of course while I looked at a scarf or something. Oh, it was so wonderful.” And then she laughs, even louder this time.

Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

I Was in LIFE: Rita Moreno Remembers

Loomis Dean/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

I Was in LIFE: Rita Moreno Remembers

Loomis Dean/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The First Fashions of Post-Liberation Paris, 1944

January 14, 2022February 7, 2014 by

By the fall of 1944, not long after the Allies had routed German forces from Paris and while the post-Normandy push eastward toward Berlin rolled on, it was clear to anyone and everyone that the end of the Second World War in Europe, at least was truly, finally in sight.

LIFE’s Bob Landry, who had covered the war in North Africa as well as in other parts of Europe, was in Paris when it was liberated in late August, and he stayed on to report on and photograph stories in the giddy, post-liberation capital, including which included new fashions. The emergence of these fashions illustrated both the centrality of style to the Gallic way of life, and the deprivations that designers and their customers were forced to endure at a time when, after all, the continent was still at war.

LIFE never ran the pictures that Landry made of the French fall fashions, but some of them did end up in the Oct. 16, 1944, issue of TIME. Here’s what the newsweekly had to say about those fashion shows in the fall of ’44:

The Germans had not yet been driven out of France. Dunkirk had not yet fallen. The Gaullist government had not yet been recognized. But an old Parisian institution (and big Parisian business) returned to liberated France. Liberation fashions were barely a month old, but the season of style shows was on.
The spectators were almost as arresting as the mannequins. One Parisienne wore black lace bobby socks with matching lace earrings. Others in towering electric blue or mustard yellow hats racked bicycles in the marble lobby of Maggy Rouff’s salon.
All last week famous couturiers displayed their 1944 creations. Most of the familiar names were back: Bruyere, Alix, Molyneux . . . The trend was pronounced: skirts full and short, waists small, shoulders wide, sleeves mutton-legged. Designers used material lavishly, too lavishly for U.S. and British women limited by regulations and rationing.
Sales were disappointing . . . [but] another damper was the lack of good fur and real wool. French ingenuity did its best. Rabbits became everything up to ermine and chinchilla. But Parisians faced a cold winter without much coal. Said [one correspondent]: “If some enterprising couturier could acquire an unlimited supply of wool, the most popular collection would be one showing woolen underwear.”

Here, we take a look back at that heady time and at the remarkable styles that emerged from the international capital of fashion in the midst of a world war.

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.

Paris fashion, 1944.

Bob Landry The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow, 1967: Classic Photos of an Actress on the Rise

January 9, 2023February 6, 2014 by

Mia Farrow was 22 years old when LIFE magazine ran a seven-page cover story on the actress in May 1967. She was married to Frank Sinatra (he was 30 years her senior, and the marriage lasted less than two years) and at the time was best-known for her work on TV: she was a regular on the classic prime-time soap opera, Peyton Place. But LIFE’s decision to feature the young Los Angeles native proved prescient; within a year she was receiving raves for performances in several prominent films—including the Roman Polanski horror classic, Rosemary’s Baby.

She would go on to a decades-long career as an award-winning actress and an outspoken, fearless campaigner for human rights. Beyond her acting, Ms. Farrow has been a recurring figure in the news because of accusations by her adopted daughter, Dylan, that Woody Allen sexually abused her when she was a child, at a time when Allen and Ms. Farrow were in a long-term relationship. Woody Allen has always denied the charges, while Ms. Farrow has never wavered in her support of Dylan’s claims. Ms. Farrow is also the mother of Ronan Farrow, a journalist whose investigative reporting has been a driver of the #MeToo movement.

In that cover story from 1967, though, the photos are notably light, as Farrow freely clowned for the camera in many shots, and the focus of the story was on her youth, beauty, talent and mystery. As LIFE wrote:

There are these positive statements you can make about Mia Farrow: she is 22; she weighs 99 pounds; she is 5 feet 5 1/2 inches tall; she has less hair than Ringo Starr; she is annoyed that people in London mistake her for Twiggy; she is married to Frank Sinatra.

Beyond such unarguable specifics lies her shapeless world — a place of surmise so fascinatingly complex and maddeningly naive that Sinatra could fathom it only by marrying into it. And ever since the surprising match was made the public has been stuck on the nagging question, “What is Mia Farrow really like?”

The feature goes on to paint a picture of a whip-smart, self-deprecatingly funny daughter of Hollywood (her mother was the famous actress Maureen O’Sullivan, her dad was Oscar-winning writer and director John Farrow)—a woman barely out of her teens yet worldly enough to say of her superstar husband, Sinatra: “He’s an artist. He’s groovy, he’s kinky and—above all—he’s gentle.”

Here, LIFE.com features a series of photographs—most of them never published in LIFE—that feel, in more ways than we can count, as if they were made not only in another time, but in another world.

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

Mia Farrow on the set of the film, A Dandy in Aspic, London, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

On a lark in London, Farrow borrowed a construction lantern.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Farrow looked at off-beat antiques while searching for a gift for her husband, Frank Sinatra. She ended up buying him a $2,240 gazebo.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow in London, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow and A Dandy in Aspic co-star Laurence Harvey, London, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow in London, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow and A Dandy in Aspic co-star Laurence Harvey, London, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, London, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow, Laurence Harvey and A Dandy in Aspic director Anthony Mann, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow mocked A Dandy in Aspic co-star Laurence Harvey for his long hair and the length of time he spent with make-up, when all she did was dab her own eyes.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Between scenes of A Dandy in Aspic, Mia wrestled with co-star Laurence Harvey

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow and director Anthony Mann, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Farrow told director Anthony Mann, ‘I don’t want to be me on screen.’ Mann said of Farrow, ‘She’s marvelous—my main problem is not to change her an inch.”

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow with co-stars on the set of A Dandy in Aspic, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow on set, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow on the set of A Dandy in Aspic, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey on the set of A Dandy in Aspic, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey (left), 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, London, 1967.

Bill Eppridge Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow, London, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow in Geneva, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

On Swiss estate of her friend Yul Brynner, Mia romped with his five-year-old daughter, Victoria.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow and Yul Brynner’s daughter, Victoria, Switzerland, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow, Switzerland, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow on Lake Geneva in Switzerland, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Mia Farrow at home in London, 1967.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

At the Sinatras’ Grosvenor Square residence in London (other addresses: Paris, Palm Springs, Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Las Vegas), Mia Farrow wore Cardin original before the gala premiere of ‘Taming of the Shrew.’

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Fashion Flashback: Givenchy, 1952

November 2, 2020February 6, 2014 by

French designer Hubert de Givenchy rose to fame in the 1950s, but his elegant, feminine aesthetic continues to reverberate in fashion.

Raised in an aristocratic family that valued artistic pursuits, Givenchy journeyed to Paris in 1944 and by the early “50s had established a couture house of his own. While responsible for many sartorial innovations, such as the easy shape of the sack dress and the raw cotton Bettina blouse, he is best known for his strong professional relationship with Audrey Hepburn at the height of her Hollywood glamour days. In addition to outfitting her in films like Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Charade, Givenchy also featured Hepburn in his fragrance ads, making him one of the first designers to use a celebrity spokesperson.

While Givenchy himself retired from designing in 1995, his namesake house remains at fashion’s forefront. Here, LIFE looks back at the young Givenchy during the nascent days of his storied label.

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.

Designer de Givenchy (right) and a fitter studied the effect in a mirror of hat tried on by his partner Bettina between her publicity chores.

Nat Farbman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Givenchy style, 1952.

Nat Farbman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A lace ball gown was one of styles which showed De Givenchy could do bigger things than gimmicks. A copy of this dress was scheduled to be sold for $250 at Wanamaker’s department store in Philadelphia.

Nat Farbman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

High buttoned cuffs with black-embroidered ruffles falling over them were one of many De Givenchy treatments of a big sleeve in 1952. Worn by Bettina, this cotton shirt was called Blanchisseuse (Washerwoman). It was to be copied by Russeks, New York, for $10.95.

Nat Farbman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Givenchy’s designs specialized in separates like these three tops and skirts that could be used interchangeably to make nine outfits.

Nat Farbman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Givenchy style, 1952.

Nat Farbman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bettina modeled a shantung dress with tweed jacket for a press show. By end of the showings that year, every single outfit in the Givenchy collection was sold.

Nat Farbman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

William S. Burroughs in Paris: Rebel, Junkie, Exile, Genius

January 13, 2023February 4, 2014 by

The American writer, painter and spoken-word pioneer William S. Burroughs on Feb. 5, 1914, in St. Louis. He died — after an improbably long life, considering the self-inflicted abuse he endured through the years — at 83 in Lawrence, Kansas. It’s somehow perversely appropriate that an iconoclast of Burroughs’ power and scope, who so brutally skewered middle-class hypocrisy in so many of his works, lived a life that began and ended in the middle of middle America.

Born into a wealthy Missouri family, Burroughs attended Harvard (as well as medical school in Vienna) and was, seemingly, on track for a relatively unadventurous life and career. But in the 1940s—having been rejected by the U.S. Navy in the middle of World War II—he set a far different course for himself. He became a heroin addict. In New York, he met and influenced Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and the biggest voices of the Beat generation. In 1951, in Mexico City, he shot and killed his common-law wife, Joan Vollmer, in what was reportedly a drunken, catastrophic game of William Tell gone wrong. Ultimately convicted in absentia of homicide (he had fled back to the States by then) and given a two-year suspended sentence, the scarred Burroughs embarked on the journeys—London, Paris (where the photos in this gallery were made in 1959), the Amazon, Tangier and beyond—that would shape and define so much of the rest of his life.

And always, everywhere, he wrote. He wrote short stories, essays and hilarious, harrowing, difficult, indispensable novels. Junkie (later Junky), Naked Lunch, The Ticket That Exploded and other classics established him as a singular force in the postmodern cultural landscape. Other writers sang his praises, with some—like J.G. Ballard—arguing that Burroughs was the premier writer of the post-war age. (Many critics, on the other hand, weren’t quite so impressed, especially when the revolutionary cut-up technique Burroughs employed when constructing many of his books made their heads spin.)

Later in life, Burroughs became something of an éminence grise of the post-punk demimonde, collaborating with Sonic Youth, Nick Cave, the experimental English “noise” collective, Throbbing Gristle, and many others. His influence on music, literature and the visual arts can’t be overstated.

Many artists are desperate to be seen as rebels; in Burroughs, we find the unlikely real deal: the born rebel who could never stop creating art.

Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

William S. Burroughs in Paris, 1959—the year his novel Naked Lunch was published.

Loomis Dean/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

William S. Burroughs with unidentified companions in a Paris cafe, 1959.

Loomis Dean/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

William S. Burroughs at his typewriter, Paris, 1959.

Loomis Dean/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

William S. Burroughs with his frequent collaborator, the English artist Brion Gysin, in Gysin’s Paris studio, 1959.

Loomis Dean/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

William S. Burroughs, Paris, 1959.

Loomis Dean/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

William S. Burroughs in his room at the Beat Hotel, Paris, 1959.

Loomis Dean/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The Groundhog: An Appreciation

August 11, 2021February 2, 2014 by

Some call it a woodchuck. Others prefer the more evocative title, “whistle-pig.” But for most of us — and certainly for those who turn their gaze toward Gobbler’s Knob, Pa., in the first week of February each year — the squinty-eyed, sharp-toothed creature in the picture above is, and always will be, a groundhog.

With Groundhog Day upon us — when the most famous groundhog of them all, Punxsutawney Phil, emerges from his burrow and either sees his shadow, or doesn’t — we thought we’d take a moment to praise the often-maligned and largely misunderstood marmot. For example, far from the soft, doughy layabout of popular myth, the groundhog in the wild is an active animal (a single groundhog moves an average of 700 pounds of dirt when excavating a burrow); a fierce defender of its own territory; and a skilled tree-climber — when pursued by predators, at least.

Groundhogs also have a charming habit of whistling when alarmed — hence the whistle-pig moniker — and they really, really like to eat. The average groundhog will consume enough grass, grains, fruit and other non-meat foodstuffs that, if he or she was a 175-pound person, it would be the equivalent of eating a 15-pound salad. Every single day.

We could go on and on, extolling the virtues of the groundhog — and, admittedly, outlining the reasons why lots of people, especially farmers, can’t stand them — but it’s almost time for Phil to make his entrance, and we don’t want to miss it. This winter can’t end soon enough for us.

Happy Groundhog Day.

Groundhog

Andreas Feininger The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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