16th Century Spectacles | Medieval Marketplace

Sixteenth Century engraving of a spectacle shop in a marketplace. Note the prevalence of spectacles worn by other figures in the scene.

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold | David Cornwell, 1962

John le Carré (A.K.A. David John Moore Cornwell) worked forMI5 and MI6 in the 1950s and 1960s, before leaving the secret service to devote himself to writing after the success of The Spy Who Came In from the Cold. Cornwell wrote under his pseudonym of John le Carré because it was not acceptable for members of the Foreign Office to publish under their own names. John is Le Carré's second forename, whilst the words "le carré" mean "the square" in French.

In 1950 le Carré joined the British Army's Intelligence Corps in Austria, where his German proved useful in interrogating people who had fled westward across the Iron Curtain. In 1952 he returned to England to study at Lincoln College, Oxford where he carried out secret assignments for MI5, which included joining far-left groups in order to collect information about possible Soviet agents.

His work was affected by Kim Philby, a British double agent (one of the Cambridge Five), who blew the cover of dozens of British agents to the KGB, David Cornwell among them. Years later, le Carré carefully depicted and analysed Philby's weakness and deceit in the guise of "Gerald" the mole, who is hunted by George Smiley in the central novel of le Carré's work, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

Dark Glasses of 1963 | Splashing

Dark Glasses of 1963 | Smoking

Photographed by Yale Joel.

Dark Glasses of 1963 | Roundabout

Photographed by Yale Joel.

Dark Glasses of 1963 | Opera Glasses at the Ocean

Photographed by Yale Joel.

Dark Glasses of 1963 | International Elegance

Photographed by Yale Joel.

Do It Like Donahue | Marlo and Phil, 1981

Actress Marlo Thomas and husband, television personality Phil Donahue.

Otto Preminger | Hollywood, 1959

Director Otto Preminger on the set of the motion picture Porgy and Bess.

Pleased to Meet Me | L.A. Library Friends, 1930

Gotta Have It | Dizzy Gillespie & Ava Gardner, Hollywood 1948

Actress Ava Gardner in Hollywood nightclub, wearing beret, horn-rimmed spectacles, and simulating a goatee, to signify admiration of Dizzy Gillespie, bebop King.

Teen-age girls in blue jeans affected by Gillespie stand to have his autograph.

Igor Stravinsky | England, 1957

I know that the twelve notes in each octave and the variety of rhythm offer me opportunities that all of human genius will never exhaust. -Igor Stravinsky

Sun Ra | Rolling Stone Cover, 1969

Say it Together, Naturally | More Lionel Richie + Tina Turner

Singers Tina Turner and Lionel Richie posing with their Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California.

Gloria Steinem in Tinted Aviator | Beverly Hills, 1972

Is It Me You're Looking For? | Lionel Richie at Film Premiere, 1984

Lionel Richie, Apollonia Kotero, and Eddie Murphy at premiere of motion picture "Purple Rain" in Los Angeles, California, 1984.

Wigmaker at Max Factor | Los Angeles, 1954

An industrious wigmaker at Max Factor Studios in Los Angeles dons a delicate pair of cat eye glasses and a lovely gingham skirt.

New Wave Los Angeles | 1980

Fashion show at California Mart, Los Angeles, 1980.

Out of Character | Irving Lazar in Gold-Rimmed Rounds

Agent Irving Lazar and Polly Bergen were among guests who "decorated" party for Earl Blackwell at Bistro in Los Angeles, CA, 1975.

Talent agent Irving "Swifty" Lazar was notorious for his oversized black opthalmic frames, but here we see another side of him in round gold-rimmed sunglasses. After putting together three major deals for Humphrey Bogart in a single day, he was dubbed "Swifty" by Bogart.

Earl Blackwell was a society impresario who made his fortune keeping track of celebrities and Miss Bergen appeared in many film roles, most notably in the original Cape Fear (1962) opposite Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum.

Fight for your Right | Jane Fonda in Octagons, 1971

Actress Jane Fonda joins a welfare rights march in Las Vegas, NV. Photograph by Bill Ray. She wears a dark tortoise octagonal sunglass with a seductive brown gradient lens; a lovely compliment to the passions of Klute-era Jane.

When in Rome | Audrey Hepburn at the Movies, 1969

Actress Audrey Hepburn leaving movie theater w. 9-yr-old son Sean Ferrer in Rome, Italy (1969).

Beatnik Bot | Lawrence Lipton's Subversive Technology, 1965

Author Lawrence Lipton, chronicler of the beatnik scene, demonstrates his "robot," Duhab (detector of undesirable habitues). Lipton says the robot ferrets out the undesirables-including censors and book-burners. During the 1920s, he associated with Chicago writers Edgar Lee Masters, Sherwood Anderson,Harriet Monroe, Ben Hecht, and Carl Sandburg. His book, The Holy Barbarians (1959), linked Lipton to 1950s Beatnik writers. His son is Inside the Actors Studio host James Lipton.