Vintage Everyday

On June 18, 1963, a 21-year-old Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) traveled to Wembley Stadium in London to fight British heavyweight champion Henry Cooper in front of 55,000 fans. It became one of the most famous non-title bouts in boxing history—featuring a dramatic knockdown, tactical controversy, and a precise prediction coming true.

In 1942, legendary photographer Gjon Mili captured a famous series of stroboscopic multiple-exposure photographs of director Alfred Hitchcock on the Hollywood set of his psychological thriller, Shadow of a Doubt.

Mili, a pioneer in using electronic flash and stroboscopic light to freeze rapid movement, photographed Hitchcock demonstrating various directorial actions, such as walking and pointing into the distance. The resulting images overlay multiple frames of Hitchcock’s silhouette into a single, fluid composition, perfectly mirroring the dramatic, suspenseful essence of the filmmaker’s work.

Mili utilized high-speed stroboscopic photography, a technique he heavily developed while working at MIT alongside Harold Edgerton. The photos were shot for LIFE Magazine to showcase Hitchcock’s highly animated and precise physical style of directing behind the scenes.

John Wojtowicz (also known as “Littlejohn” or “The Dog”) standing outside the Chase Manhattan Bank branch in Gravesend, Brooklyn (at 450 Avenue P), that he tried to rob on August 22, 1972. He is wearing a black T-shirt reading “I ROBBED THIS BANK.” The photo was taken after his release from federal prison in April 1978; he returned to the site to pose for pictures and sign autographs, capitalizing on his notoriety.

On the morning of Monday, December 16, 1935, film director Roland West faced the sudden discovery of the death of his business partner and on-and-off lover, actress Thelma Todd. Her body was found slumped inside her chocolate-brown Lincoln convertible in a garage on the hill above her Pacific Palisades café. Distraught and immediately thrust into the spotlight, West became a central figure in the intense police and grand jury investigations that followed.

Todd’s maid Mae Whitehead, found her employer inside her 1934 Lincoln Phaeton convertible. The car was parked inside the garage at Jewel Carmen’s residence, located roughly a block uphill from the Sidewalk Cafe. Todd was still wearing an evening gown, mink wrap, and jewelry. Whitehead later told police that Todd was slumped forward in the seat, her head tilted to one side. She also reported blood around Todd’s nose.

Investigators quickly established that West and Todd had quarreled the night before when she returned late from a party. West had locked the building’s doors, expecting her earlier. Because the garage belonged to West’s residence and the two shared a volatile, complex personal and business relationship, suspicion immediately fell on him, though he maintained his innocence during exhaustive inquiries.

On November 30, 1932, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) starlet Anita Page won the Californian contest for the “Most Beautiful Forehead in Hollywood” (alternatively translated from historic press wires as the “Most Beautiful Front”).

This was one of the quirky publicity-oriented beauty contests common in Hollywood during the early 1930s. Page was already famous as a popular MGM actress of the late silent era and early talkies (notably Our Dancing Daughters opposite Joan Crawford and the Best Picture winner The Broadway Melody, 1929). She was widely promoted as the “Girl with the Most Beautiful Face in Hollywood” and received up to 20,000 fan letters a month, reportedly second only to Greta Garbo at her peak, along with colorful admirers that included Benito Mussolini.