Vintage Everyday

Jeanette MacDonald (June 18, 1903 – January 14, 1965) was a major American soprano, actress, and one of the biggest stars of Hollywood musicals in the 1930s and 1940s. She was renowned for her operatic voice, elegant screen presence, and romantic pairings, especially with Nelson Eddy. She starred in 29 feature films during this period, with several earning Best Picture Oscar nominations, and she recorded extensively (earning gold records).

Paul McCartney’s 21st birthday party on June 18, 1963, at his Aunt Jin’s house became infamous for a violent alteration where John Lennon severely beat Cavern Club DJ Bob Wooler. While the milestone event at 147 Dinas Lane in Huyton, Liverpool started as a joyous celebration with Merseybeat royalty, it is remembered as one of the darkest days in early Beatles history.

Early in 1977, Blondie gained massive exposure by opening for David Bowie and Iggy Pop on Pop’s North American tour for The Idiot. Bowie and Pop personally invited the band after hearing their debut record. The band traveled to Los Angeles for a legendary series of shows at the Whisky a Go Go, which prompted the famous 1977 photoshoot beneath the Hollywood Sign.

Captured by music photographer Richard Creamer, the session remains a definitive visual artifact of the late 1970s punk and new wave movement. The shoot took place on the steep, brush-covered hillsides of Mount Lee directly beneath the massive letters. What makes this session visually unique is that the letters were visibly weathered, peeling, and deteriorating, just a year before the original structure was completely demolished and rebuilt in late 1978.

In March 1966, four months before England was set to host the World Cup, the Football Association agreed to let the solid-gold trophy be displayed at the “Sport with Stamps” rare stamp exhibition at Methodist Central Hall in Westminster.

Despite assurances of 24-hour security, the guard schedule had structural gaps. On Sunday, March 20, 1966, while a Methodist church service was taking place on the floor below, someone forced open the back doors of the building, removed the padlock from the display case, and stole the trophy. Ironically, the thieves completely ignored rare stamps worth £3 million, taking only the trophy (valued significantly lower for its physical gold).

On Sunday, March 27, exactly one week after the theft, 26-year-old Thames lighterman David Corbett stepped out of his South Norwood home in South London to take his dog, Pickles, for a walk. As Corbett was getting ready to put on the leash, Pickles wandered over to a neighbor’s parked car and began sniffing intensely at a package hidden under a laurel bush.