Can I Have …….

…. one like that in my living room? Please. Oh ple-e-e-e-ease……

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Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Wallsend Shipyard, ca 1955 – Bergensfjord

From a Transport Age article on Tyneside a fine colour shot of the passenger steamship Bergensfjord, built for the Den Norske Amerikalinje A/S by Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson and launched, by H R H Princess Astrid of Norway in July 1955.The ship was 577-feet long and was notable, the caption informs, for its all-welded aluminium-alloy superstructure.

Many fine and famous ships came out of the Swan Hunter Wallsend yard. The company, usually known just as Swan Hunter, was responsible for the construction of some of the world’s most famous ships including the Mauritania and Carpathia. Building finally ceased here in 2006.

Anyhow, it is a cracking view of a traditional shipyard on one of the world’s busiest shipbuilding rivers, the River Tyne.

Image ans text from Adventures of the Blackgang

Related articles

• Swans yard will be a showpiece. (diy-home-tips.com)
• Swan Hunter, Shipyard (richardhartjacksonart.wordpress.com)
• Norwegian America Line 1910 -1983 (retrorambling.wordpress.com)

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Routemasters To The Tune Of “Bridge of Song”

Movie found at The British Film Industry’s YouTube pages

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It Isn’t Often You Wish You Were A Pekingese Dog

March 1955. "Women posed in fashions influenced by the Orient”. Unpublished photograph shows Marilyn Monroe, wearing a black Chinese coat, posed with Pekingese dogs." Colour transparency by Milton Greene for the Look magazine assignment "Translations From the Orient."

Image found at shorpy

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Anita Ekberg In The Buff

Anita Ekberg, nude, photo taken by Andre De Dienes in 1955

Image found at LostFoundAndEnvied

Related articles

• Andre de Dienes – (backlotstage7.wordpress.com)
• André de Dienes (mastersofphotography.wordpress.com)

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Philippe Halsman, Brigitte Bardot, 1955

 
French actress Brigitte Bardot photographed at her villa at La Madrague
by Philippe Halsman, 1955

 

Philippe Halsman (1906-1979) was born in Riga, Latvia, and began to take photographs in Paris in the 1930s. He opened a portrait studio in Montparnasse in 1934, where he photographed André Gide, Marc Chagall, André Malraux, Le Corbusier and other writers and artists. Halsman began a thirty-seven-year collaboration with Salvador Dalí in 1941 which resulted in a stream of unusual ‘photographs of ideas’, including ‘Dalí Atomicus’ and the ‘Dalí’s Mustache’ series. In the early 1950s, Halsman began to ask his subjects to jump for his camera at the conclusion of each sitting. These uniquely witty and energetic images have become an important part of his photographic legacy. Philippe Halsman died in New York City on June 25th, 1979.

Text from YOOX

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Miss California Competition At Santa Cruz – 1955

Video from travelfilmarchive

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The Orange Peel House

Article from Popular Mechanics July 1955 found at “modernmechanix.com”

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Miss California Contest – Santa Cruz 1955

Movie from “The Travel Film Archive” on YouTube

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1955 Achilles Sport Scooter

The Achilles factory of Weikert & Company was located in Wilhelmshaven in northwestern  Germany. They produced scooter-like bikes with 147cc and 174cc Sachs two-stroke engines. These had a four speed gearbox with foot-change gear lever and a neutral selector switch on the handlebars. The chassis had 8 inch wheels, telescopic front forks and swing-arm rear suspension.

At some point 48cc mopeds were added to the production line. Production ended in 1957, and Norman in England bought the production tools. Very few examples of the machine exist, and photographs and sales literature are rare.
Text from “Sheldon’s EMU”

Related articles

• The First Generation Scooters (1915 – 1930) (retrorambling.wordpress.com)
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An Early Start

Princess Yvonne and Prince Alexander, 1955

This picture go a long way to explain why European royalty are like they are. When you’re knocking down fortified wine by the bottle in your early teens it no surprise that your serebral capasity has shrunk to a bare minimum by the time you reach full adulthood.

Image found at:

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Billboard’s Rock’n’Roll Top 10 lists 1955 – 1959

-:: 1955 ::- No Song Artist/Group 1 Rock Around The Clock – Bill Haley & His Comets 2 Maybelline – Chuck Berry 3 Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine) The Penguins 4 Ain’t That A Shame – Fats Domino 5 Hearts Of Stone – The Fontane Sisters 6 Black Denim Trousers – The Cheers 7 Only You (And You Alone) – The Platters 8 Tweedlee Dee – LaVern Baker 9 At My Front Door – The El Dorados 10 Sincerely – The Moonglows -:: 1956 ::- No Song Artist/Group 1 Don’t Be Cruel – Elvis Presley 2 Be-Bop-A-Lula – Gene Vincent & His Blue Caps 3 Blue Suede Shoes – Carl Perkins 4 I’m In Love Again – Fats Domino 5 See You Later Alligator – Bill Haley & His Comets 6 Hound Dog – Elvis Presley 7 Fool, The – Sanford Clark 8 Green Door, The – Jim Lowe 9 Why Do Fools Fall In Love – Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers 10 Flying Saucer, The – Buchanan & Goodman

-:: 1957 ::-

No	Song	Artist/Group
1	.All Shook Up –	Elvis Presley
2	Wake Up Little Susie –	The Everly Brothers
3	Diana –	Paul Anka
4	Party Doll –	Buddy Knox
5	That’ll Be The Day –	Buddy Holly
6	Jailhouse Rock –	Elvis Presley
7	Little Darlin’ –	The Diamonds
8	Peggy Sue –	Buddy Holly
9	.School Days –	Chuck Berry
10	Whole Lot Of Shakin’ Going On-	Jerry Lee Lewis

-:: 1958 ::-

No	Song	Artist/Group
1	At The Hop –	Danny & The Juniors
2	Tequila –	The Champs
3	To Know Him Is To Love Him –	The Teddy Bears
4	It’s Only Make Believe –	Conway Twitty
5	Get A Job –	Silhuettes
6	Hard Headed Woman –	Elvis Presley
7	Little Star –	The Elegants
8	Bird Dog –	The Everly Brothers
9	Yakety Yak –	The Coasters
10	Great Balls Of Fire –	Jerry Lee Lewis

-:: 1959 ::-

No	Song	Artist/Group
1	Mack The Knife –	Bobby Darin
2	Venus –	Frankie Avalon
3	Lonely Boy –	Paul Anka
4	Stagger Lee –	Lloyd Price
5	Kansas City –	Wilbert Harrison
6	Big Hunk O’ Love, A –	Elvis Presley
7	Happy Organ, The –	Dave "Baby" Cortez
8	Charlie Brown –	The Coasters
9	16 Candles –	The Crests
10	Sleep Walk –	Santo & Johnny

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Brütsch 200 "Spatz" or Dreirad-Dreisitzer 1954-1955

3-seater, 3-wheeled roadster, powered by a single cylinder 191 cc Fichtel & Sachs engine driving through a four speed gearbox. Top speed was around 90 km/h (56 mph) and about five cars were produced. Also built under licence by A. Grünhut & Co of Switzerland with minor changes and sold as the Belcar. Another licence was sold to Alzmetall for production by Harald Friedrich GmbH of Germany, but so many faults were found with the original design that their production model, the Spatz Kabinenroller was fundamentally a different car. Because of this Brütsch took Alzmetall to court to ensure payment of his licence fees but lost the case.

Micro car club – Wikipedia – Google

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Eve Meyer (1928–1977)

Eve Meyer (December 13, 1928 – March 27, 1977)was an American pin-up model, motion picture actress, and later, film producer. Much of her work was done in conjunction with sexploitation filmmaker Russ Meyer to whom she was married from April 2, 1952 until 1969.

Born Eve Turner in Atlanta, Georgia, Turner was a high-profile pin-up model in the 1950s, and was Playboy magazine‘s Playmate of the Month in June 1955. Her unbilled film debut was in Artists and Models (1955). She worked frequently as a photographic model for Russ Meyer after their marriage, appeared in the film Operation Dames (1959), and took a lead role in Meyer’s 1960 exploitation film Eve and the Handyman.

Eve Turner Meyer gained national fame as the first pinup girl to be hired exclusively for the Playboy Playmate of the month slot in June of 1955. Photographed by her husband Russ Meyer of B- movie fame, Eve appeared in many men’s magazines as well as some of her husband’s movies. A good businessperson, Eve retained a friendly business relationship with Russ as a producer after they divorced.

Eve was killed in the horrible Tenerife airline disaster in the Canary Islands, Spain, on March 27, 1977. At the time, Tenerife was the worst airline accident on record. Two 747’s collided on the runway and burst into flames, killing 583.

Related links

• The Tragic Deaths of Playboy Playmates
  Eve Meyer at 123nonstop
  Eve Meyer at The Playmate Directory
  Eve Meyer at Fanpix
  Eve Meyer at javasbachelorpad.com
  Eve Meyer at Allstarpix

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Cars & Girls

 
While browsing through “Dark Roasted Blend”s feature “Cars & Girls” I came across this lovely picture of a 1955 Opel Record. Surely not the most erotic or sexy among the picture in that feature, but we had one exactly just like it right down to the colour when I was a kid. In other words, another trip down memory lane. And that’s what this blog is about.

"Cars & Girls" on "Dark Roasted Blend"
"Dark Roasted Blend"s homepage

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