Dedicated to finding the best of the LIFE Photo Archive and Flickr Commons.Tumblr (3.0; @bestoflife)http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kw4qiidaCt1qzsxryo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><b>TYRO</b></p> <p>Bain News Service, publisher.<br/><br/> [between 1910 and 1915]<br/><br/> 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller.<br/><br/><b>Notes:<br/></b> Title from unverified data provided by the Bain News Service on the negatives or caption cards. Forms part of: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress).<br/><br/><b>Repository: </b> Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, <a href="http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print">hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print</a></p>http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/331070867http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/331070867Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:11:43 +0100ice boattyroice sailingwinterice<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kw4q873U1b1qzsxryo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><b>Ice sailing</b></p> <p>Bain News Service, publisher.<br/><br/> [between 1910 and 1915]<br/><br/> 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller.<br/><br/><b>Notes:<br/></b> Title from unverified data provided by the Bain News Service on the negatives or caption cards. Forms part of: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress).<br/><br/><b>Repository: </b> Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, <a href="http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print">hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print</a></p>http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/331023943http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/331023943Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:38:59 +0100ice sailingice skatingwinterice1910s<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kw4q3dLBrm1qzsxryo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><b>Ice Auto at Duluth</b><br/><br/> [no date recorded on caption card]<br/><br/> 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller.<br/><br/><b>Notes:<br/></b> Title from unverified data provided by the Bain News Service on the negatives or caption cards. Forms part of: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress).<br/><br/><b>Repository: </b> Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, <a href="http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print">hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print</a></p>http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/331006669http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/331006669Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:26:49 +0100ice autowintericefrozen lake<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kw4qetB9lj1qzsxryo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><b>Ladies’ toboggan race</b></p> <p><b>Format: </b> Glass plate negative.<br/><br/><b>Repository: </b> Tyrrell Photographic Collection, Powerhouse Museum <a><a href="http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/collection=The_Tyrrell_Photographic">www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/collection=The_Tyrrell_Photographic</a></a></p>http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/330993492http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/330993492Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:16:59 +0100tobogganwomen1900racewintersports<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ksx12g026w1qzsxryo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Ruth St. Denis and two unidentified dancers in Egypta.</p> <p>Sarony, Otto — Photographer. 1910<br/><br/> Notes: National Endowment for the Arts Millennium Project.<br/><br/> Source: Denishawn Collection (<a href="http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=216">more info</a>)<br/><br/> Repository: The New York Public Library. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Jerome Robbins Dance Division.</p> <p>Dance occupied a back seat in the theatre of the performing arts in the latter part of the nineteenth century, but it began to come to prominence with the craze for the cakewalk starting in 1896. Loie Fuller’s Serpentine Dance of twirling scarves and lights entranced audiences from 1902 and in 1906 Ruth St. Denis presented herself in a full length work Radha.<br/><br/> But it was in the second decade of the twentieth century that dance took center stage. Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn established the Denishawn School in 1915 whose dancers explored the modern repertoire for years to follow.</p>http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/327842612http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/327842612Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:28:14 +0100ruth st denismodern dancedancer1910<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kswyv6i0Ia1qzsxryo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Vue du Nile</p> <p>Source: [Collection of photographs of Egypt and Nubia.] / A. Beato and others. (<a href="http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/?col_id=179">more info</a>)<br/><br/> Repository: The New York Public Library. Photography Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs.</p>http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/327832009http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/327832009Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:21:44 +0100egyptnilenubiabeatosailsriverboats<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ktzugr5rxM1qzn0deo1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><a href="http://i12bent.tumblr.com/post/265329917/birthdays-on-dec-1st-woody-allen-manhattan"><br/></a></p> <blockquote> <p>Birthdays on Dec. 1st:</p> <p>Woody Allen, Manhattan based clarinet player with a certain talent for acting and directing, b. Dec. 1, 1935.</p> <p>Las Vegas, 1966, Bill Ray</p> </blockquote> <p>(via <a href="http://i12bent.tumblr.com/post/265329917/birthdays-on-dec-1st-woody-allen-manhattan">i12bent)</a></p>http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/265346003http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/265346003Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:15:09 +0100woody allenportrait<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ktxjuynrpN1qzn0deo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Winston Churchill Painting</p> <p>Former PM Winston Churchill smoking a cigar as he stands in his studio dressed in his blue RAF siren jump suit while touching up one of his landscape paintings at his country estate Chartwell in Kent.</p> <p>United Kingdom, 1945, Hans Wild.</p> <p>(via <a href="http://i12bent.tumblr.com/post/263604549/another-side-of-winston-churchill-and-a-famous">i12bent</a>)</p> <blockquote></blockquote>http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/263671850http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/263671850Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:35:18 +0100winston churchillpaintingstudiopoliticians1940sart<p><i>In 1954, LIFE sent reporters to the Bahamas to cover the filming of Walt Disney&#8217;s first live-action picture, </i><i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20,000_Leagues_Under_the_Sea_%281954_film%29">20,000 Leagues Under the Sea</a>. The movie would go on to win the Oscar for best special effects</i>. <i>Many of the photos in this gallery never ran in the magazine and have never been seen before now.</i></p> <p>See more pictures from this gallery on <a href="http://www.life.com/image/53371349/in-gallery/23472/20000-leagues-under-the-sea">LIFE</a>.</p>http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/258253162http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/258253162Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:53:00 +010020,000 Leagues Under the Sea<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ktpxocN1tD1qzsxryo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Director of operations writing instructions to the cameraman on slate during the underwater filming of Walt Disney’s production of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”.</p> <p>FL, US, February 1954, Peter Stackpole</p>http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/258240010http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/258240010Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:33:48 +010020,000 Leagues Under the Seaunderwatermoviefilm1950sdivingfilmproduction<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ktpx67HKmw1qzsxryo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>The Seaweed Harvest of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”</p> <p>Actors playing Captain Nemo’s crewmen use four-pronged pitchforks to ”harvest seaweed” as a propman passes them a net they need for the scene.</p> <p>FL, US, February 1954, Peter Stackpole</p>http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/258232763http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/258232763Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:22:54 +010020,000 Leagues Under the Seaunderwaterfilmmovie1950sdivingfilmproduction<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ktpwymxUab1qzsxryo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Propman with Crayfish during the underwater filming of Walt Disney’s production of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”.</p> <p>A propman waits for the proper moment in the scene to release two more crayfish into view of the camera.</p> <p>FL, US, February 1954, Peter Stackpole</p>http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/258229781http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/258229781Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:18:21 +010020,000 Leagues Under the Seaunderwaterfilmmovie1950sdivingfilmproduction<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ktpwinTd8P1qzsxryo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Shooting the Underwater Burial of Walt Disney’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”</p> <p>Actors prepare to shoot a big scene involving an underwater funeral procession while a scene coordinator hovers above them. The actors had to wait four weeks to shoot the scene, because bad weather made the depths too murky.</p> <p>FL, US, February 1954, Peter Stackpole</p>http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/258223480http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/258223480Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:08:00 +010020,000 Leagues Under the Sea1950sfilmmovieunderwaterdivingfilmproduction<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ktpwe8izGp1qzsxryo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Movie Director Richard Fleischer, in diving suit during filming of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”</p> <p>These distinctive suits, as the original captions noted, were a technical problem because they “had to be invented to clothe the fabled <i>Nautilus</i> crew— Victorian-looking yet practical and self-contained… the way Jules Verne imagined it for his mythical hero, Captain Nemo.”</p> <p>FL, US, February 1954, Peter Stackpole</p>http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/258221560http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/258221560Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:06:00 +010020,000 Leagues Under the Sea1950sfilmmovieunderwaterfilmproductiondiving<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ktpwa8HW1j1qzsxryo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Underwater Camera Scaffold for the production of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”</p> <p>Cameramen use the underwater scaffold to shoot a scene from afar while a saftey coordinator (L) watches for emergency hand signals from the actor-divers.</p> <p>FL, US, February 1954, Peter Stackpole</p>http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/258219894http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/258219894Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:03:00 +010020,000 Leagues Under the Sea”1950sfilmmovieunderwaterdivingfilmproduction<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ktpw5zoGi81qzsxryo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Communications chief napping during the underwater filming of Walt Disney’s production of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”.</p> <p>Salvage Man Frank Higgins grabs some shut-eye underwater. As the only member of the team whose suit had surface air-lines and a built-in telephone, Higgins was underwater for most of the day and had to grab rest whenever he could.</p> <p>FL, US, February 1954, Peter Stackpole</p>http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/258218114http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/258218114Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:01:00 +010020,000 Leagues Under the Sea1950sfilmmovieunderwaterdivingfilmproduction<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ktpvzzfK0s1qzsxryo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>A propman carries a 9-foot wooden wrench during the underwater filming of Walt Disney’s production of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”. The wrench will be used in a scene where the <i>Nautilus</i> crewmen leave the submarine to repair a crippled propeller.</p> <p>FL, US, February 1954, Peter Stackpole</p>http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/258215580http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/258215580Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:57:00 +010020,000 Leagues Under the Sea1950sfilmmovieunderwaterfilmproductiondiving<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ktpvu5yrDN1qzsxryo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Propmen —off-camera and wearing woolen underwear for warmth— drag a 400-pound net of Bahama crayfish across the sea floor for use in a later scene of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”.</p> <p>FL, US, February 1954, Peter Stackpole</p>http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/258213432http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/258213432Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:54:00 +010020,000 Leagues Under the Sea1950sfilmmovieunderwaterdivingfilmproduction<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ktpvnbOXOw1qzsxryo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Scene from the underwater filming of Walt Disney’s production of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”.</p> <p>FL, US, February 1954, Peter Stackpole</p>http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/258210728http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/258210728Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:49:00 +010020,000 Leagues Under the Sea1950smovieunderwaterfilmproductiondiving<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ktmdcanOtn1qzsxryo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Polaroid Story</p> <p>1963, Fritz Goro</p>http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/255711967http://bestoflife.tumblr.com/post/255711967Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:21:45 +0100polaroid1960sfilmcamerainstant filmanalog