This is one of the cooler sports photo galleries I’ve put together for you. This is a combination of published and unpublished images for a Life magazine article on the NFL and the ascent of pro football as a spectator sport. It ran in their December 5, 1960 issue and was called “Fans Go Ga-Ga Over Pro Football.”

The pictures in this gallery were taken by George Silk during the 1960 NFL season and seem to come from X main sources — four New York Giants home games (against the Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers, St. Louis Cardinals, and Washington Redskins), a Giants film session, and a game between the Chicago Bears and Baltimore Colts (which I believe to be a home game for the Colts).

Included here is a photo of Eagles linebacker creaming the Giants’ Frank Gifford. I don’t think it’s the same hit as the one that produced that iconic photo, but it’s almost certainly the same game.

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But before we get into the gallery, let’s look at the original Life cover — featuring Steve Myhra of the Baltimore Colts kicking off against the Chicago Bears — as well as an unpublished black & white version of the same photo.

OK, here we go with the gallery. Just for reference, any photo with the Life watermark is an unpublished version of the photo, while the non-watermarked ones are from the original article.

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Some time in 1954, Life magazine photographer Yale Joel ventured to an unknown destination. His assignment was to photograph a group of brand new cars — 1955 Ford and Mercury models, to be precise. I don’t know how many of these pictures ended up in the magazine, as I’ve been unable to find any associated article in the Google Books archive, but some of these are real stunners.

I wasn’t sure at first if these were actually 1954 models, but the dead giveaway was the distinctive look of the ’55 Ford Fairlane. That stainless steel Fairlane stripe on the side was what tipped me off, as the Fairlane debuted in model year 1955 (replacing the Crestline). Also present — as far as I can tell — are the Mercury Montclair and Monterey, as well as a Ford station wagon.

Owing to the fact that these are raw photos from a session, some of the pictures do look very much alike. But hey, one can never have too many vintage car photos if you ask me.

If you enjoyed my recent retrotisements gallery for the 1960 Ford lineup — and I know you did — this will be right up your alley. If any car buffs can verify the model or trim for specific photos please let me know!

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For those who haven’t yet beheld the wonder that is the official Facebook page of the Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, there’s still time to head over and click that magical Like button. Otherwise, there’s no telling what could happen.

So won’t you please think of all the sidekicks out there, click on this link (or on the Facebook icon in the upper right), and then hit that Like button? I promise it’ll be worth your while, as there’s all sorts of cool stuff to see there that I don’t share here.

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“Forty-niner” Street Advertiser in Studio, San Francisco — 1890.

Smithsonian American Art Museum purchase from the Charles Isaacs Collection made possible in part by the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment. Not currently on view.

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Last month I reviewed a new CD reissue of Jackie Gleason’s Music for Lovers Only album at Popdose. I meant to feature the album cover as part of this series but got distracted by something bright and shiny. So let’s look at it now!

Beautiful, ain’t she? While many of Gleason’s albums of “mood music” from the ’50s and ’60s tried to recreate the same feel, I think this is still the best of the bunch. Put another way, there is absolutely no doubt as to what the music on this record will sound like, even if you were totally unfamiliar with Gleason’s style of orchestral pop.

One of the few things about the nearly interminable one or two-week buildup between the NFC/AFC championship games and the Super Bowl that I looked forward to was tuning into ESPN and watching hours upon hours of NFL Films’ Super Bowl highlight packages.

In some ways, watching those 30-minute capsules — replete with their sweeping orchestral scores and booming narration by John Facenda — was more rewarding than the games themselves.

Through the magic of eBay and torrent sites, I’ve had the opportunity to watch Super Bowls from the 1970s and early ’80s, that I wasn’t around to see or was too young to remember. In almost all cases, watching those contests was almost a letdown after memorizing practically every line and every beat from the NFL Films version.

Take, for example, Super Bowl XIII between the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers. Here’s a snippet from the NFL Films recap:

And here’s an assortment of actual game footage clips:

Now I’m sure that if you’re a Steeler diehard then you get an equal thrill out of both videos. But to me the latter is a game, while the former is an epic struggle between two sporting titans.

The man most responsible for that passed away Tuesday at age 69, after a battle with brain cancer. I did not even know he was sick, but I feel the loss now that he is gone. For no single person, in my estimation, was more instrumental in shaping the way I thought about football than Steve Sabol.

When I used to play football in my back yard, time and time again I pictured myself not as one of my beloved Raiders — for whom Sabol composed the timeless “Autumn Wind” poem — but as Washington Redskins RB John Riggins busting through the Miami Dolphins defense in this clip from Super Bowl XVII:

Sabol’s productions weren’t so much highlight reels as they were mini-epics. Watch any similar presentation from the NBA or MLB, and it’s painfully dull to get through. You pretty much have to be a fan of the teams being shown. But with NFL Films productions, it didn’t matter who you were watching. It was riveting and memorable, and after all these years I still watch them with the same wide-eyed love that I did when I was 9 years old.

And even as a person whose love for the current NFL seems to fade a little bit with every year, I still make time to look through Sabol’s camera and am instantly transported back to magical world where every game is grand, every down is crucial, and every nuance of football is a glory to behold.

And for all that, I am eternally in Steve Sabol’s debt.

Related articles

• RIP Steve Sabol (kissingsuzykolber.uproxx.com)
• Peter King: In his brilliance and impact, Sabol truly lived ‘a football life’ (sportsillustrated.cnn.com)
• NFL Films president Steve Sabol passes away at 69 (silverandblackpride.com)
• Steve Sabol’s lasting tribute to the Oakland Raiders (ibabuzz.com)

I wasn’t planning on rolling out any of my Halloween-related posts until October, but this was so bizarre I just had to share it now. In searching old Sears catalogs for Halloween costumes — as is my wont — I came across these insane items. Let me just present them, and then we can chat. The first is a “Negro Makeup Outfit” from the Fall 1912 catalog:

And up next is a group of costumes from the Fall 1920 catalog. It has classic Negro masks like Sporty Mose (sorry, collar and tie not included), Old Uncle Joe, and Aunt Dinah (a Negress outfit not complete without this mask!). Oh, and if you really want to go hog wild you can get one of the full body suits — there’s the Ridiculous Yellow Kid, the Japanese Lady, and the Negro Minstrel Suit (suitable for hometown shows, no less).

There you go then. I’ll say one thing for old fashioned racism — there was no hiding or covering up. Dressing up as a “Ridiculous Yellow Kid” or a “Negress” was perfectly acceptable in the 1910s and 1920s, and that’s that. I’m not going to get all preachy here, because this stuff is a century old and the people behind it are dead.

I simply find it fascinating that this stuff was not only sold in a major retailer outfit’s national catalog, it probably sold well. I can only imagine the awkward meetings at Sears when they decided to drop these costumes (which were gone by the mid ’20s). I would wager that at least one person in that room saw absolutely nothing wrong with these costumes and argued that it was silly to stop selling them.

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This is a news service wire photo of Randolph Street looking west in Detroit, Michigan. It’s dated July 9, 1927. I would love to travel back in time and ride one of those trolley cars.

Related articles

• Vintage Photo Wednesday, Vol. 7 – Early 20th Century Cars
• Vintage Photo Wednesday, Vol. 1 – Photochrom Prints, 1890s-1900s
• Vintage Photo Wednesday: Labor Day Parades and Celebrations of the Past
• Vintage Photo Wednesday, Vol. 9 – Republican National Conventions
• Detroit resurgent? VentureBeat is coming to the Motor City in September

I’ve always been a lover of anthropomorphic art, so when I found this old children’s book from 1904 on the internet I was pretty jazzed. It’s called Fun and Nonsense, and was written by Willard Bonte. I know nothing of Mr. Bonte, and Wikipedia offers no help, but his contribution to the world of illustrated children’s literature is spectacular indeed.

Clicking on most of the images will open larger versions. Enjoy!

(Images obtained from the International Children’s Digital Library.)