Friday 29 November 2013

Marlon Brando

Marlon_Brando_-_The_Wild_One
Marlon Brando in a publicity shot for the 1953 film, "The Wild One".


Marlon_Brando_-_The_Wild_One
Original B&W photo.

Thursday 28 November 2013

Bill Shankly

Bill Shankly, as a player for Preston North End in May 1937
Bill Shankly, most famous as the manager who rebuilt Liverpool Football Club into a major force in English football, pictured here in 1937, while he was a player for Preston North End.

Soccer - Football League Division Two - Preston North End
Original B&W photo.

Wednesday 27 November 2013

William Russell as Sir Lancelot

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot
William Russell, best known for being part of the original cast of Doctor Who, in his first big television role, the lead in "The Adventures of Sir Lancelot", in 1956.
Although made for a British audience, the series was shown on NBC, one of the major broadcast networks in the USA, a very rare occurrence, and the last fourteen of the thirty half-hour episodes were shot in colour, though they were only seen in black and white in Britain.

Consequently, there were enough colour pictures for reference for me to colour this informal "between takes" shot.

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot
Original B&W photo.

Tuesday 26 November 2013

Karel Hynek Mácha

Jan_Vilímek_-_Karel_Hynek_Mácha
When I saw this drawing of the Czech romantic poet Karel Hynek Mácha, I was struck by how much it looked like a photograph, apart from the pencil lines. The artist, Jan Vilímek, wasn't even born until nearly a quarter of a century after Mácha died, so how accurate it is I don't know. Even so, it's a superb and natural looking portrait. Doubtless some purists will object to my reworking of this drawing, but I think it only emphasises how good the original was, and the original still exists, so nothing is lost.

Jan_Vilímek_-_Karel_Hynek_Mácha

Original drawing.

John Wayne

Young John Wayne from 1930
When Marion Mitchell Morrison was young, he had a dog called Duke, and was given the nickname "Little Duke". When he started acting in movies, he used the name Duke Morrison until he got his first leading role in "The Big Trail" in 1930, the year this photo was taken, and he became known as John Wayne.

Young John Wayne from 1930
Original B&W photo.

Lucille Ball

Lucille Ball
When she started her acting career, in the 1930s, Lucille Ball bleached her naturally brown hair blonde, as in this photo. She later dyed it red to stand out from the many other blonde actresses in Hollywood.

Lucille Ball
Original B&W photo.

Monday 25 November 2013

Quagga

Quagga_photo
Equus quagga quagga was a sub-species of the plains zebra of South Africa that went extinct in the wild by 1878, and completely extinct in 1883, when the last captive Quagga died in Amsterdam Zoo. This 1870 photo shows the only Quagga, a mare at London Zoo, to be photographed.

 

Quagga_photo
Original B&W photo.

Dalek Invasion of Earth

dalekstrafalgarsq
One of the early scenes in the Doctor Who 50th anniversary episode took place in Trafalgar Square. The location was also used prominently in the second Dalek story, "The Dalek Invasion of Earth", in 1964.

dalekstrafalgarsq
Original B&W photo.

Sunday 24 November 2013

Tasmanian Tiger

thylacine_tasmanian_tigerThe last known Thylacinus cynocephalus in existence died in 1936, at Hobart Zoo. This photo is, as far as I can ascertain, that animal, and I think it dates from 1933.

Most commonly known as the Tasmanian Tiger, because of the stripes, it's sometimes called the Tasmanian Wolf, as it has dog-like features. In fact, it was neither, but a marsupial that had evolved to fill a similar ecological niche to those creatures.

thylacine_tasmanian_tiger
Original B&W photo.

Saturday 23 November 2013

Dalekmania!

DaleksBus
The anticipation for tonight's 50th Anniversary episode of Doctor Who extends across the globe but, in the 1960s, the hysteria was just as intense, albeit a bit more local, as this photo from the '60s shows.

DaleksBus
Original B&W photo.

Friday 22 November 2013

C. S. Lewis

CS.Lewis
Another famous person to die on November 22nd 1963 was author and Christian apologist Clive Staples Lewis, most famous for his "Chronicles of Narnia". This photo was from 1947, when Lewis was 50.

CS.Lewis
Original B&W photo.

Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley
The most famous death on the 22nd of November 1963 was undoubtedly that of John F. Kennedy, but the author of Brave New World, Aldous Leonard Huxley also died on this day.

Aldous Huxley
Original B&W photo.

Thursday 21 November 2013

Booker T. Washington

Booker_T_Washington_by_Frances_B_Johnston,_c1895-crop
Booker Taliaferro Washington, seen here around 1895, was born into slavery in 1859. By the end of his life, in 1915, he had been an educator, an author, an orator, and an advisor to presidents of the United States.

 

 

Booker_T_Washington_by_Frances_B_Johnston,_c1895-crop
Original B&W photo.

Sherpa Tenzing

tenzing norgay

Tenzing Norgay, better known to many as Sherpa Tenzing. He and Edmund Hillary were the first two men known to have climbed to the summit of Mount Everest. Hillary tends to get most of the credit, but that was not the intention of any of the other members of the expedition, and its leader, Colonel Hunt, insisted at the time that "They reached it together, as a team."

Sherpa Tensing
Original B&W photo.

Edmund Hillary

Edmund_Hillary,_c._1953,_with_autograph
Edmund Percival Hillary c1953, the year he climbed Mount Everest as part of a team led by John Hunt. He and Tenzing Norgay were the first men recorded to have reached Everest's summit, on the 29th of May, 1953.

Edmund_Hillary,_c._1953,_with_autograph (1)
Original B&W photo.

Tuesday 19 November 2013

Lawrence Oates

Lawrence_Oates_c1911
Captain Lawrence Edward Grace Oates during the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910-1913, probably in 1911.

His last words, before he died, in 1912, were recorded by Captain Scott as "I am just going outside and may be some time." Scott added in his diary, "We knew that poor Oates was walking to his death, but though we tried to dissuade him, we knew it was the act of a brave man and an English gentleman."


Lawrence_Oates_c1911
Original B&W photo.

Scott of the Antarctic

Scott_of_the_Antarctic 1905
Robert Falcon Scott in 1905, five years before he set off on his last expedition to Antarctica during which, after being beaten to the South Pole by Roald Amundsen's Norwegian expedition, he died in 1912.

Scott_of_the_Antarctic 1905
Original B&W photo.

Monday 18 November 2013

Roald Amundsen

Roald Amundsen, ca 1909
Roald Amundsen. around 1909, shortly before setting out on the expedition to the South Pole, in competition with the ill-fated Captain Scott.

Roald Amundsen, ca 1909
Original B&W photo.

Sunday 17 November 2013

Rutherford B. Hayes

President_Rutherford_Hayes_1870_-_1880
Rutherford Birchard Hayes, the 19th President of the United States, pictured here some time during the 1870s, probably during his presidency.

President_Rutherford_Hayes_1870_-_1880_Restored
Original B&W photo.

James A. Garfield

President James Garfield 1870
James A. Garfield in 1870, while a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was later to become the 20th President of the United States, but was assassinated after only 200 days, the second shortest term in history.

President James Garfield 1870
Original B&W photo.

Fridtjof Nansen

Fridtjof_Nansen,_1922
Fridtjof Nansen, a Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, in 1922.

no-nb_bldsa_q01a009 001
Original B&W photo.

Arthur Balfour

Arthur_Balfour Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, a Conservative politician and statesman served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from July 1902 to December 1905.

He is best remembered for the Balfour Declaration of 1917, during his time as Foreign Secretary in David Lloyd George's wartime coalition government. This laid the ground for the later creation of the state of Israel.

Arthur_Balfour,_photo_portrait_facing_left

Original B&W photo.

Saturday 16 November 2013

Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge

Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge
Princess Mary Adelaide Wilhelmina Elizabeth of Cambridge, first cousin to Queen Victoria, being a granddaughter of George III , and the mother of George V's queen, Mary,

In later life, Mary Adelaide devoted her life to charity,  one of the earliest royals to support a wide range of charitable organizations.

NPG x96001; Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck by Alexander Bassano

Original B&W photo.

Friday 15 November 2013

Empress Elisabeth of Austria

Empress Elisabeth of Austria _1867
As well as being Empress of Austria, Elisabeth was Emperor Franz Joseph's queen consort of Hungary, and the coronation, on the 8th of June 1867, was commemorated with this photo.

Empress Elisabeth of Austria _1867
Original B&W photo.

Franz Joseph I of Austria

Franz_Joseph_1898
Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, in 1898. In that year his wife and Empress of 44 years, Elisabeth, was assassinated by Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni.

Franz_Joseph_1898
Original B&W photo.

Franz_Joseph
I think this 1910 oil painting, from which I took the colours, may well have been based on the 1898 photo. Note the extra medals in the painting.