#may 1956

[vintagegoddesses3]

[chicinsilk]

US Vogue May 1, 1957

Anne St. Marie wears a checkered voile beach jacket over a black swimsuit. Both by Cole of California; the Galey & Lord jacket in madras cotton. Suit, in suede Celanese acetate, cotton and Lastex.

Anne St. Marie porte une veste de plage en voile à carreaux sur un maillot de bain noir. Tous deux par Cole of California ; la veste de Galey & Lord en coton madras. Costume, en acétate Celanese suédé, coton et Lastex.

Photo Roger Prigent vogue archive

[theamericanpin-up]

Bill Randall - "Lani" - May 1956 Date Book Calendar Illustration - Kemper-Thomas Calendar Co. - American Pin-up Calendar Collection

[freddiemercurylegendabovelegends]

Today, on 12th February, 1987

Freddie Mercury filmed “The Great Pretender” video, Battersea, London, UK, Director David Mallet

- Version of The Platters 1956 hit

Mercury's music video for the song featured him parodying himself in many of his Queen guises through video medium over the years, including visual re-takes of: "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "Radio Ga Ga", "It's A Hard Life", "I Want To Break Free", "I Was Born To Love You", "One Vision"

On the set with Freddie also Roger Taylor and Peter Straker

📸 Photo © #RogerTaylorOfficial

[rachelmygod]

Iris och Löjtnantshjärta (Alf Sjöberg, 1946)

[gracie-bird]

🎥 VIDEO "GRACE AND RAINIER VISIT PARIS": Princess Grace and Prince Rainier of Monaco visit Paris on May 28, 1956. The princely couple stayed at the Prince's apartment in the French capital. It's their first trip outside the little principality since they returned from their honeymoon. Among questions from the press is whether a new arrival is expected in the palace of Monaco to which the prince says nothing and the princess only says "perhaps".

Source and Credits: UCLA Film & TV Archives.

[arinewman7]

La Cage (The Cage)

Mai Trung Thu

Ink and gouache on silk mounted on cardboard, 1956

[vintagegoddesses3]

[chicinsilk]

US Vogue May 1, 1956

Dior for Cole of California

Model : Jean Patchett

vintage vogue

[theamericanpin-up]

Mauro Scali - "Pam" - May 1956 Scali Scandals Calendar Illustration - Osborne Calendar Co. - American Pin-up Calendar Collection

[freddiemercurylegendabovelegends]

Today, on 23rd February, 1987

Freddie Mercury released his 7th solo single ”The Great Pretender”/ "Exercises In Free Love" - Successful, reaching No4 in charts.

David Wigg: Do you feel in um, that you have been, that you're, you said you feel you're re-living your life, do you feel you've been the big pretender?

Freddie Mercury: Basically it's, it's what the song really says is a very sort of one to one basis about, that he's pretending because she's um, gone, but he's still pretending that she's still around, basically that's (David: yes) but I thought that you could sort of take it a lot further in, just in the word 'pretender', (David: yes) so that, so that pretence, and for me, the way I'm doing this is that, you know it's tongue-in-cheek and not to take everything too seriously, that all these sort of visuals and these sort of, these images that I've portrayed over the years, is a kind of pretence, because I mean there's no way that I was real on stage, these, I, I wore costumes and I sort of put myself into different atmospheres and different characters, but underneath all that there is a real me which, you know, so, so I just thought why not, you know, I, I've been pretending all this time, you know, doing all this stuff, wearing my bananas on my head, you know, coming on peoples shoulders, wearing glitter, doing this, doing glam, wearing, you know, wearing, it was all, kind of thing, and it's, it's a kind of pretence, yes, whereas I mean, you know, underneath it I'm still, you know, a musician and so I thought I'd, I'd bring it up to the, in that level, where all these sort of costumes, where a lot of people took it so seriously, well I didn't, you know, give a damn, I just thought my God, you know, and they read far too much into it, I just thought that this is a nice way of sort of um, covering this whole sort of era of mine, call it, and um, say that look, it, it's just been a bit of fun, you know actors don't, I know, they portray somebody, they don't become those people, they go back and do something else, you know

- Freddie Mercury interview, Ibiza 1987

by David Wigg

Songs:

- ”The Great Pretender” cover version of The Platters’ 1955 original

- "Exercises In Free Love" written by Freddie Mercury / Mike Moran

Written by Freddie as his impersonation of Montserrat's vocal style. She was so enamored with the song that she insisted on recording her own version. The melody was later reused for 'Ensueño', with a set of lyrics written by Montserrat

📸 Photo by Richard Young

[audreyhepburninblackandwhite]

Audrey Hepburn, May Britt, and Mel Ferrer in War and Peace (1956)

[mariocki]

Patrick Magee works to apprehend the villains as Parsons, the head of airport security in Dial 999: The Great Gold Robbery (1.4, ABC, 1958)

[thisdayinfiction]

On This Day in Fiction: May 12, 1956

Homer Simpson is born

The Simpsons s4e16 “Duffless” (1993)

[allthemusic]

Week ending: 10th May

Something in the water with this week's songs. Not least because the title for both songs sound like pulp action thrillers, or vintage spy films. Will they live up to the expectations this has created in my head? Only one way to find out...

Mack the Knife - Louis Armstrong (peaked at Number 8)

Well, if you've been attentive, you know already that I really like this song. It's got a sort of dark comedy to it, a fun jazziness, a catchy but simple melody and links to a play I actually kind of know. What isn't there to love?

Louis Armstrong, on the other hand, is a prospect that I'm not wholly sold on. I don't dislike him, by any means, but I've yet to find a Louis Armstrong song that I properly love. Something in the gravelly voice doesn't quite work for me - though if there's any song that could turn me round on that, it's probably this one.

I love the little Dig man, there goes Mack the Knife spoken intro at the start, and to be fair, the muted trumpet that starts the whole thing off is also very cool, especially with the jazzy piano scatting underneath. It's a classy vintage start to a song, just laid-back enough to put you at ease.

Then Louis comes in, and actually, his voice does work for the song really well. I always think of Macheath as quite a smooth, debonair character, but Louis brings in a slightly rougher, more "knife you in a back alley" energy that makes Macheath into a slightly different type of criminal archetype. It's very menacing.

The instrumentation thoughout is spot-on, from the tinkling piano that comes in and out, to the clarinet that periodically rears its head. None of them are particularly obtrusive, but they keep the song moving along nicely, and stop it feeling like it's getting repetitive.

And then a brief spoken Take it away, Satch launches us via a fabulous key change into an instrumental ending. I like it, it's like all this pent up, nervous energy just got released. After a song about a murder skulking round, the instruments just let rip, and it's a great way to end.

I also should give Louis some credit here, as apparently he's the reason this is charting, with the other contemporary versions - like Dick Hyman's, a few weeks back - being copies. It was Louis that went to see an off-Broadway performance of the Threepenny Opera, and insisted on doing a version of Mack the Knife. Louis is also apparently the source of the little lyrical nod to Lotte Lenya, Kurt Weill's wife, and an actress in many of Brecht's plays. Which is a little nerdy nod that I've always appreciated. So yeah, respect, Louis.

Man With the Golden Arm - Billy Mays (9)

I went into this certain that this was going to be a James Bond song, but it turns out that that's the Man With the Golden Gun. Instead, the Man With the Golden Arm is from a 1955 film by the same name, scored by none other than Elmer Bernstein.

Everything about this film screams cool, from the poster - done in a very mid-century collage style with this weird arm - to the star-studded cast - Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak, anyone? - to the controversy it caused on release, as a film about drug addiction, which was still apparently a taboo topic to show so frankly on screen in 1956?

Honestly, I'd normally look more at the summary for a film like this, but even the brief look I took convinces me that I maybe ought to actually watch this film, so I don't want to spoil myself. Sorry!

Anyway, all that to say, it looks like a cool film, and trumpeter and bandleader Billy May's version of the main theme doesn't in any way disappoint. It's got this iconic "duh-duh-duh-duh-DUH" opening that I swear I've heard before, and the whole rest of it is just a little shy of 3 minutes' worth of big band awesomeness, with this insistently pounding horn line, escalating amounts of trumpet, and a driving drum beat to get your pulse racing - except for when it gets replaced by a cowbell. And it makes the cowbell work!

The whole song has swagger, style and swing. It's not a James Bond song, but somehow, if you'd told me it was, I don't think I'd even be surprised. It's got the right attitude and the right brand of jazzy confidence. I want it to play as I enter a room, you know?

Oh, man, both those songs were awesome. I don't think I've described so many things as "cool" in one single entry before, and I don't even regret it. I was prepared to crown Mack the Knife, because, let me repeat, I really love Mack the Knife. And then Billy May, completely out of left field, ladies and gentlemen!

Favourite song of the bunch: Man With the Golden Arm

[vintagegoddesses3]