Lost in Abstraction : Louise Nevelson

Sky Cathedral : Moon Garden by Louise Nevelson, 1958

Neither Here Nor There

Courtesy of Gonzaga University

Somewhere in the Tall Grass 1958

Vintage European Vacation photos courtesy of the Huebner Family

Space Monkey | 1958

Cute little squirrel monkey who went to outer space in the nose of a missile and came back just fine!

What You See Is What You Get | Chevy Impala 1959

A model wears glasses designed to match the rear of the 1959 Chevrolet Impala during a car show in London in 1958.

Halloween Wallflower | 1958

Eyewear of the Newport Jazz Festival | 1958

       

      

 
Anita O'Day sings Sweet Georgia Brown, Newport Jazz Festival, 1958. As the camera pans across the audience, you will experience the greatest collection of mid-century eyewear ever to be captured on film.

Shades of the City | 1958

The City

In the morning the city
Spreads its wings
Making a song
In stone that sings.

In the evening the city
Goes to bed
Hanging lights
Above its head.

--Langston Hughes

I Feel Free | Princess Soroya, 1958

Princess Soroya spent seven years at the Iranian Imperial Court, where she was famed for keeping a pet seal in a fountain, until the royal marriage ended in March 1958 after she remained childless.

The story of Soraya's divorce inspired French songwriter Francoise Mallet-Jorris to write "Je Veux Pleurer Comme Soraya" (I Want to Cry Like Soraya):

Je veux pleurer comme Soraya

Je veux pleurer comme une princesse

Je veux pleurer avec noblesse

Pas dans la soupe, mais dans la soie

Je veux pleurer dans un décor

Un chagrin plus grand que ma vie

Un vrai chagrin qui fasse envie

Je veux pleurer comme Liz Taylor

I want to cry like Soraya

I want to cry like a princess

I want to cry with nobility

Not in my soup but in silk

I want to cry in a décor

A misery greater than my life

A real misery that causes envy

I want to cry like Liz Taylor

George Stevens Directing | 1958

Film director George Stevens holding loupe up to his sunglasses (in which a reflection of actors at a table can be seen) during production of his film, "The Diary of Anne Frank".

Actress Millie Perkins getting dressed with help of her family for the premiere of movie.

Ed Wynn, Millie Perkins and Shelly Winters during N.Y. premiere of "Diary of Anne Frank".

I don't think of all the misery, but of all the beauty that still remains.
-Anne Frank

Party Pooper | Herbert Stempel and The Quiz Show Scandals

Herbert Stempel is an American teacher who was famous for his celebrity as a television game show contestant—and for helping to expose what became known as the quiz show scandals after his long run as champion on the 1950s show Twenty One was ended by Columbia University teacher and literary scion Charles Van Doren.

After a series of 21-21 ties lasting several weeks in 1958, Van Doren defeated Stempel and went on to become the single most popular contestant in the quiz show's early history. Stempel wanted to play it straight against his opponent and was refused, but was promised a job in television if he would finish the performance they had started.

Stempel told the U.S. House Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight that, on the day he was to lose to Van Doren, he was strong-armed into answering incorrectly a question about the Academy Award for Best Picture for 1955: Marty, one of his favorite films. The incorrect answer he was forced to give was On the Waterfront—which won the same Oscar for the year before.

Stempel drew the evening's biggest laugh when he was asked the fate of four of Henry VIII's wives and answered, "They all died," possibly to break the tension under which both men laboured thanks to the fix. Then Stempel answered the question correctly, but when offered their standard opportunity to stop the game, Van Doren stopped it and became the new Twenty One champion.


Van Doren was forced out of Columbia University, and made a life as an editor for the Encyclopedia Britannica and for Praeger Books, before becoming a late-life adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut. Stempel finished putting himself through college on the G.I. Bill and became a teacher himself, teaching social studies in the New York school system.

Say "nuh-BOE-kof" | Vladimir Nabokov, 1958

Novelist Vladimir Nabokov looking out of car window. He likes to work in the car, writing on index cards. Nabokov never learned how to drive, his wife Vera acted as his chauffeur.

Lolita is famous, not I. I am an obscure, doubly obscure, novelist with an unpronounceable name.
-Vladimir Nabokov, Paris Review, Oct. 1967

Lana Turner Testifies | Los Angeles, 1958

Lana leaves the courtroom after testifying at Johnny Stompanato's murder trial.

Lana Turner sitting in what appears to be a courtroom chair. She appears to be crying. She has a handkerchief in her hand and her head is bent down toward it.

Carmine Stompanato | Los Angeles, 1958

Mickey Cohen was a gangster with whom Johnny Stompanato was connected. Mickey Cohen swore vengeance and urged Carmine to demand a complete investigation into Johnny's death. Carmine Stompanato had a long meeting with Police Chief Anderson before his brother's funeral.

Barbara Bel Geddes in VERTIGO

The glasses of Midge Wood are a lovely feminine P3 in the classic blond tortoise, how appropriate!