The Life of Reilly

HDV Salutes Charles Nelson Reilly, Mad King of Eyewear.

To Sir With Love | Self-Portrait by Sir Cecil Beaton, 1930

Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.

-Cecil Beaton

Greta Garbo's Eyes by Cecil Beaton

July 1946 Edition of VOGUE magazine featuring the first published photo shoot of Greta Garbo by Cecil Beaton.

One day in spring 1946, Greta Garbo asked Cecil Beaton if he could make her passport photograph. Beaton agreed and in the end the shot a full session. With her permission, he sent the pictures to Alexander Liberman, the art director at Vogue. Liberman “could hardly believe his eyes,” Beaton recalled. “Here was a precious windfall of a dozen different pictures of someone who for ten years had resolutely refused to be photographed.”

Sketch of Garbo's Eyes by Cecil Beaton from his 1937 Scrapbook

Garbo & Beaton in London, 1951

...as for her eyes, there are never been such before, in expression so quizzical, compassionate and languorous, so deepset and of such unforgettable blue; they have large, dark irises, and boast lashes so long that it is impossible to believe that they are real ... -Cecil Beaton

Keratitus Punctata | Aldous Huxley by Cecil Beaton

In 1911, Aldous Huxley suffered from an optical illness, keratitis punctata, which left him practically blind for two to three years. Huxley's near-blindness disqualified him from service in World War I. Once his eyesight recovered sufficiently, he was able to study English literature at Balliol College, Oxford and graduated in 1916 with first class honours.

Perhaps it's good for one to suffer. Can an artist do anything if he's happy? Would he ever want to do anything? What is art, after all, but a protest against the horrible inclemency of life?

-Aldous Huxley

Bright Young Thing | Sylvia Townsend Warner by Cecil Beaton

She has always been perfectly shameless about reading letters not meant for her, and, as she said, she was ideally suited for the work by never having much inclination to answer letters back.

-Sylvia Townsend Warner

Do I Dare Disturb the Universe? | T.S. Eliot by Cecil Beaton

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
-T.S. Eliot

Ils Sont Magnifiques | Bisset & Belmondo, 1973

Jean Paul Belmondo & Jacqueline Bisset in Phillipe de Broca's Le Magnifique

Lower the shades...

Underwater shoot-out complemented by chrome aviator sunglasses and tie

Pour Homme | Yves Saint Laurent for YSL

Yves Saint Laurent Nude, Photographed by Jeanloup Sieff, 1971

It is by perfecting essential items of clothing--a marvelous position--that I created my style. That I became what I am, and through this, I overtake fashion.
-Yves Saint Laurent

Bon Homme | Claude Chabrol, 1959

Claude Chabrol photographed in 1959 by Jeanloup Sieff

Chabrol with Bernadette Lafont

A woman confronting men is a proper subject, it is inexhaustible.
-Claude Chabrol

Une Femme | Anouk Aimee, 1963

Anouk Aimee in Fellini's 8 1/2, 1963

Un Homme | Jean-Louis Trintignant, 1966

Z, 1969

They've Got Personality | New York Dolls, 1973

Now with all the crossin fingers that mother nature says
Your mirrors get jammed up with all your friends
That personality everything starts to bend
Personality when your mind starts to bend
Personality impression of a friend,
Of a friend, of a friend, of a friend, of a friend
Personality wonderin how celebrities ever met
(Look and find out on television)

Personality Crisis you got it while it was hot
frustration and heartache is all you got don't you worry

Personality Crisis please don't cry
it's just a Personality Crisis please don't stop

Guess Who? | Chad Allan and The Reflections

The Guess Who had their origins as Chad Allan and the Reflections in 1965, with a triple eyewear hit as pictured aboved. As a publicity stunt, Quality Records released promo copies of their single, "Shakin' All Over" as credited to "Guess Who?".


By default, this became the band's new name, although they were still being credited as "Guess Who? Chad Allan And The Expressions" throughout 1965.

The 1969 ballad "These Eyes" was the group's first Top 10 US hit for their new label RCA Records. By the 1970s, they had moved toward an edgier hard-rock sound with the album American Woman. "American Woman" earned The Guess Who the honor of being the first Canadian band to have a No. 1 hit on the American charts.

Enjoy them here in their 1972 televised guest appearance on Burt Sugarman's Midnight Special.

Why Should We Not? | Manfred Mann

Manfred Mann were a British pop band of the 1960s named after their South African keyboard player. The group debuted in July of 1963 with the jazzy instrumental single Why Should We Not?, which failed to chart, as did the follow up Cock-A-Hoop. After a further self-penned hit (Hubble Bubble (Toil And Trouble)) the band struck gold with Do Wah Diddy Diddy.

Later evolutions of Manfred Mann were Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Manfred Mann Chapter Three, Manfred Mann's Plain Music, and The Manfreds (Manfred Mann's 1991 reunion line up with all orginal members except Manfred Mann).

She's Not There | The Zombies, 1965

In January 1965 the Zombies were set to make their first in person appearance on U.S. television. They were to appear on the first episode of NBC's Hullabaloo. They played "She's Not There" to a screaming hysterical audience full of teenage girls. Hullabaloo was a musical variety show which ran from 1965-1966 and served as a big-budget, quality showcase for the leading pop acts of the day.

In 1967, the Zombies signed to CBS Records, for whom they recorded the album Odessey and Oracle. Because the band's budget could not cover session musicians, they used a Mellotron, a device designed to imitate orchestral sections. By the time Odessey and Oracle was released in April 1968, the group had disbanded. The album sold poorly, yet it is now considered one of the best of its time and is ranked 80 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

When The Sun Comes Up I'll Be On Top | ? and the Mysterians

Pictured above is "?", frontman and primary songwriter for The Mysterians, who claims to be a Martian who lived with dinosaurs in a past life, and who never appears in public without sunglasses.



? and the Mysterians was the first band to be described as punk rock, and may be the first Latino rock group to have a hit record in the United States. The group named itself after the 1957 Japanese science fiction film The Mysterians, in which aliens from the destroyed planet Mysteroid arrive to conquer Earth.

Ad Week | Persol of 1900

An amazing advertisement from Persol at the turn of the 20th century. The name PERSOL derived from "per il sole," which, in Italian, means "for the sun." Here we see a play the word "parasol" which has phonetic similarities to Persol, both offering protection from the sun.

Persol began in 1917 in the Italian city of Turin by Giuseppe Ratti, owner of Berry Opticians. Ratti designed in such a way as to meet the comfort and safety requirements of aviators and pilots, as well as ideal vision standards. Persol was not introduced to the United States until 1962.

Turin is also the birthplace of the Shroud of Turin, a controversial ancient linen cloth bearing the likeness of Jesus. The Shroud achieved its notoreity in 1898, pre-dating the creation of Persol by only twenty years.

Ad Week | Early 80s Commodore Style

I designed Tax Pack so you could do something really practical with your VIC 20.
-Peter Lambert, MBA, Vice President, Product Development, Cosmopolitan Software

This vintage magazine ad comes from Compute! Gazette of January 1983 and features a forward thinking young man pulling off a well groomed comb-over. The VIC-20 refers to the Commodore VIC-20, an 8-bit home computer and the first computer to sell one million units.

The VIC-20 was originally meant to be called Vixen, but this name was inappropriate in Germany, because it sounds like wichsen, a colloquial word for "masturbate". VIC, which was subsequently chosen, has a similar problem, it can be pronounced like fick[en], the German word for "f*ck". Therefore the VIC-20 was finally marketed as the VC-20 "Volkscomputer". Sales of the VIC-20 started declining after the launch of the Commodore 64 in that same year.

HDV research suggests that this may be Peter Lambert today.

Ad Week | Vintage French Wall Mural

Here is a faded wall mural for eyewear found in Bagnolet, France. Bagnolet is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris. Its inhabitants are called Bagnoletais. Learn about them here.

Ad Week | Seventies Era Agfachrome Girls

Agfachrome CT18 Film Ad from Time Magazine, July of 1973 featuring Hexagon Opthalmic Frames

Honeywell Agfachrome ad circa 1975 featuring a well-rounded woman in an orange full shield sunglass.

Ad Week | When Your Child Needs GLASSES

This informative pamphlet answers such questions (usually asked by parents) as:
"Are glasses really necessary?"
"Why is it so many children are now wearing glasses, when in former years this was not so?"
"Are eyes becoming worse?"
"What can be done to prevent this situation?"