What We Love This Week, Volume CVI

Published January 23, 2015
Updated January 21, 2015

Fabulous Photos Of A Young Betty White

In 2013, 93-year-old Betty White became the female entertainer with the world’s longest television career. White sings, writes, acts and produces, having appeared most famously in The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Golden Girls. Over the past several years White has become a favorite among up-and-coming comedic acts, but White is so much more than funny: she helped pave the way for today’s female producers, and was one of the first women in American television who had creative control before the camera and behind it. The folks at Vintage Everyday have looked back to White’s early days, and it would be an understatement to say that we’re obsessed.

What San Francisco Looked Like Before The Tech Boom

New York City tends to get the most attention for its population-displacing transformations, but San Francisco has also undergone similarly dramatic ones. Amid the high-tech hubbub that largely defines 21st century San Francisco, Jack London’s 1909 description of the Golden City–that it’s filled with “factories, slums, laundries, machine shops, boiler works, and the abodes of the working class”–seems to describe an entirely different place.

Soaring rents and a booming tech sector have pushed most of London’s working class realities outside of the city, and in terms of income inequality, San Francisco is on par with developing nations. But there was always “before”, which photographer Janet Delaney captured between 1978 and 1986, when San Francisco was just beginning to transform. We’re fascinated by her photos, and encourage you to check them out at Time Lightbox.

LIFE Magazine Never Ran These Photos Of 1950s Black America

1950s Black America Couple

Husband and Wife, Sunday Morning, Detroit, Michigan Source: Slate

Before the Civil Rights Movement really took off, Gordon Parks returned to his hometown of Fort Scott, Kansas, to take photos of his by-then grown classmates and tell a story about segregation’s effects. But when Parks arrived, most of his classmates were gone. Parks, hired by LIFE, traveled around the country to find them, and his story transformed from a tale of segregation to migration. The goal was to show black families in “a very dignified and proud place in life”.

Reasons as to why the series never made it to publication vary, but two major historical events–the United States’ entering the Korean War and Truman’s firing of General MacArthur–may have been behind Parks’ story being pushed to the sidelines. Regardless, the photos have since been unearthed and tell a story often overlooked in the American experience. See more at Slate.

1950s Black America Field

Untitled, Fort Scott, Kansas Source: Slate

1950s Black America Window Bed

Tenement Dwellers, Chicago, Illinois Source: Slate

author
Savannah Cox
author
Savannah Cox holds a Master's in International Affairs from The New School as well as a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and now serves as an Assistant Professor at the University of Sheffield. Her work as a writer has also appeared on DNAinfo.
editor
Savannah Cox
editor
Savannah Cox holds a Master's in International Affairs from The New School as well as a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and now serves as an Assistant Professor at the University of Sheffield. Her work as a writer has also appeared on DNAinfo.