What 20th Century Life Was Like - LIFE

LIFE’s Favorite Vintage Surfing Photos

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 05:07:00 +0000

It’s more than the sun and the sea that makes surfing pictures so appealing. It’s also that surfers just seem to be living right. It is the rare sport that is both a pastime and a way of life. There are many quotes about the unique appeal of surfing, including this one from Frosty Hesson: “If you’re having a bad day, catch a wave.” Hesson made his name as a big-wave surfer, but the sentiment can be understood by anyone who has ever taken a refreshing dip in the ocean.

The sense of people enjoying themselves by the sea is what makes these surfing photos such a pleasure, and it’s why when you look at the best-selling photos in the LIFE print store that have anything to do with sports, you find that surfing is as popular as any.

Many LIFE photographers took their turns having a day at the beach. Some of the most wonderful photos were taken by Allan Grant, more noted as a chronicler of Hollywood. But he also swung out to nearby Malibu and captured the surf culture there. This overhead shot of riders catching a wave is LIFE’s best-selling surf print.

LIFE photographers such as Ralph Crane, Loomis Dean and Frank Scherschel turned up gems as well. All these images are wonderful. Enjoy.

Surfing, Malibu, California 1961

Allan Grant/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Surfing, Malibu, California, 1961

Allan Grant/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Surfers, Malibu, California 1961

Allan Grant/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Surfing, California, 1950.

Loomis Dean/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Surfing, Lima, Peru, 1959.

Frank Scherschel/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Surfing, Hawaii, 1959.

Ralph Crane/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Surfing, Manhattan Beach, Calif., 1965.

Ralph Crane/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Surfing, Australia, 1958.

John Dominis/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Surfing, Hawaii, 1963.

George Silk/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Surfing, Lima, Peru, 1959.

Frank Scherschel/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Surfing, Malibu, Calif., 1961

Allan Grant/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Surfing, Hawaii, 1959.

Ralph Crane/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Surfing, Malibu, Calif., 1961.

Allan Grant/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Surfing, Malibu, California, 1961.

Allan Grant/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Sixteen-year-old Kathy Kohner (the real-life inspiration for the character of Gidget) rode a wave, Malibu, Calif., 1957.

Allan Grant/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Surfing, Malibu, California, 1961

Allan Grant/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Surfing, San Onofre, California, 1950.

Loomis Dean/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Surfing, Lima, Peru, 1959.

Frank Scherschel/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The beach scene at Lima, Peru, 1959.

Frank Scherschel/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Surfing, Malibu, California, 1957

Allan Grant/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Surfing, San Onofre, California, 1950

Loomis Dean/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Surfing, San Onofre, California, 1950.

Loomis Dean/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

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From the Factory to the Track: Inside the Fantastic World of Ferrari Racing

Bill Syken — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 14:35:22 +0000

Some people may only know Ferrari as a maker of luxury sports cars, but the company is also the most storied maker of racing cars for Formula 1. Ferrari has competed for every world championship since 1950, and its racers have the most race wins in Formula 1, a good bit ahead of rival McClaren and way out in front of the third place finisher, Mercedes.

In 1956 LIFE photographer Thomas Mcavoy went deep inside the Ferrari racing operation, following cars from their construction in Maranello, Italy, to their racing at the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix. Appearing in the some of the pictures is company namesake Enzo Ferrari himself.

Enzo Ferrari once said, among his many aphorisms, “Race cars are neither beautiful nor ugly. They become beautiful when they win.” Still, most would agree that his cars are quite stylish, and some of the images McAvoy shot with the cars on the streets of Monaco look like they could come from fashion shoots.

One of Ferrari’s drivers, Peter Collins, is photographed with his wife, actress Louise Cordier, and they were a certified mid-50s glamour couple. Reportedly the only person who didn’t approve of their marriage was Enzo Ferrari, who worried that the relationship would distract Collins from his racing.

After seeing the elaborate process required to construct a Ferrari racer, it’s plain to what Enzo Ferrari put his love into.

Outside the Ferrari factory, company namesake Enzo Ferrari (left) and head mechanic Vittorio Bellentani (right) spoke with an unidentified man next to a Lancia Ferrari D50 car, Maranello, Italy, early 1956.

Thomas Mcavoy/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ferrari head mechanic Vittorio Bellentani (second left, in dark blazer) watched as other mechanics lowered an engine into the chassis of a Lancia Ferrari D50 car (which will be raced in the Monaco Grand Prix) at the company’s factory, Maranello, Italy, early 1956.

Thomas Mcavoy/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ferrari head mechanic Vittorio Bellentani (center) watched as other mechanics lowered an engine into the chassis of a Lancia Ferrari D50 car that would be raced in the Monaco Grand Prix, Maranello, Italy, May 16, 1956.

Thomas Mcavoy/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An unidentified Ferrari mechanic worked on a Lancia Ferrari D50 car for the Monaco Grand Prix, at the company’s factory in Maranello, Italy, May 16, 1956.

Thomas Mcavoy/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mechanics worked on building a car for the Monaco Grand Prix at the Ferrari plant in Maranello, Italy, 1956.

Thomas Mcavoy/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ferrari mechanics lowered an engine into the chassis of a Lancia Ferrari D50 car at the company’s factory, Maranello, Italy, early 1956.

Thomas Mcavoy/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An unidentified Ferrari mechanic stripped a brake drum from a Lancia Ferrari D50 car at the company’s factory, Maranello, Italy, early 1956. This drum went into the car raced by Peter Collins at the Monaco Grand Prix..

Thomas Mcavoy/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mechanics worked on building a car for the Monaco Grand Prix at the Ferrari plant in Maranello, Italy, 1956.

Thomas Mcavoy/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ferrari mechanics readied Lancia Ferrari D50 cars for the Monaco Grand Prix, at the company’s factory in Maranello, Italy, early 1956.

Thomas Mcavoy/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An unidentified Ferrari mechanic pushed an engine for a Lancia Ferrari D50 car to be raced in the Monaco Grand Prix, on a cart at the company’s factory, Maranello, Italy, early 1956.

Thomas Mcavoy/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An unidentified Ferrari mechanic inspected the body shell segments for a Lancia Ferrari D50 car outside the company’s factory, Maranello, Italy, early 1956.

Thomas Mcavoy/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Outside the Ferrari factory, head mechanic Vittorio Bellentani (in dark blazer) and company namesake Enzo Ferrari stood near several Lancia Ferrari D50 cars that would be raced in the Monaco Grand Prix, Maranello, Italy, early 1956.

Thomas Mcavoy/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Enzo Ferrari stood in front of his race cars at the Ferrari factory in Maranello, Italy, 1956.

Thomas Mcavoy/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Ferrari car on its way to the Monaco Grand Prix, 1956.

Thomas Mcavoy/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Ferrari racing driver Peter Collins enjoyed a drink with his soon-to-be-wife, American actress Louise Cordier at the Monaco Grand Prix, May 13, 1956.

Thomas Mcavoy/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Italian racing driver Eugenio Castellotti stood over his Lancia/Ferrari D50 prior to the Monaco Grand Prix race, May 13, 1956. With him are unidentified mechanics.

Thomas Mcavoy/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Ferrari car at the Monaco Grand Prix, 1956.

Thomas Mcavoy/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The start of the Grand Prix de Monaco, May 13, 1956. British driver Stirling Moss (#28, center), in a Maserati 250F, went on to win the race. Others visible include Argentine Juan Fangio (#20) and Italian Eugenio Castellotti (#22), both in Ferraris on either side of Moss.

Thomas Mcavoy/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

British driver Stirling Moss (later Sir Stirling Moss) raced a Maserati 250F car in the Grand Prix de Monaco in Monte Carlo, Monaco, May 13, 1956. He went on to win the race.

Thomas Mcavoy/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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Shoes That Really Match the Outfit

Bill Syken — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 14:06:08 +0000

Choosing shoes that go with your outfit is the subject of many online tutorials. In 1946, some clothes makers experimented with a novel approach to simplify the challenge. They sold shoes and dresses that were literally cut from the same cloth.

Here’s how LIFE explained it in an Oct. 1946 issue:

The newest looking shoes this year are made of bright fabrics. For shoemakers this is a risky innovation because gay shoes make a girl’s feet look bigger than they are, and the American girls’ feet are big enough already (most sold size, 7 1/2). But using fabrics makes it possible to turn out novel shoes which match other parts of an outfit. Besides, as shoemakers realize, bold shoes are a fine device for attracting attention to pretty legs.

The trend didn’t last, but it did serve as the inspiration for some eye-catching photos from LIFE staff photographer Nina Leen, an expert on making fashions jump off the page.

LIFE noted that manufacturers had been forced to make fabric shoes during World War II because of rationing that limited the supplies of leather (and also rubber). But during those war years manufacturers used dark-colored cloth so as not to draw attention to it. In 1946 some manufacturers switched gears and decided to the highlight the presence of cloth by using bright patterned fabric. LIFE said that this approach gave outfits a “startling footnote.”

P.S Speaking of footnotes, the 1946 story’s comment about the size of women’s feet is not only odd but also outdated. These days women’s feet are actually much bigger, with the average size now up to 8 1/2. The most likely explanation: changes in the American diet.

From a 1946 story on shoes and outfits made from the same fabric.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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Proper Teenagers in a Post-War World

Bill Syken — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 19:18:04 +0000

After the hard lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic finally loosened up, many people—and especially teenagers who had their school years interrupted—talked about wanting to make up for lost time. The phrase “hot girl summer” may have originated in 2019 with a song by Megan Thee Stallion, but it came up again frequently when vaccines became available and public spaces opened back up again.

That more recent history something to keep in mind when considering a 1947 photo essay by staff photographer Nina Leen about teenagers in the years immediately after World War II. As described by LIFE, those teenagers were pretty much the opposite of the COVID kids.

The 1947 photo essay by Leen centered on a pair 17-year-old identical twins named Betty and Barbara Bounds. The point of choosing identical twins as the main subject may have been to add an element of symmetry to a story about how young people had become fastidious about their appearance.

According to LIFE’s story, headlined “Tulsa Twins: They Show How Much the Teenage World Has Changed,” young people after World War II aspired to be being dignified and proper:

In 1944 when Betty and Barbara Bounds, who are identical twins, entered Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, their clothes were sloppy; hot music was the rage and the general behavior of the world was somewhat footloose….Today the teenage world of Betty and Barbara is entirely different. Their clothes are feminine and fastidious; sweet music has replaced hot licks and the general tone of the teenage life is more decorous. The reason for this may be all tied up with the U.S. transition to peace or merely an adolescent desire for something new.

Going with the idea that the teenage trends were a reaction to the war, the motivation behind it underlines the key difference between the pandemic lockdowns and the deprivations of World War II on the domestic front. The pandemic restrictions robbed young people of social opportunities. Whereas the World War II and the rationing of goods meant that teenagers at home were limited less by where they could go than what they could have.

Leen used the mood of the day to create these idealized images of youth. The photo of the Bounds sisters at a dance is as dreamy a picture of teenage life as you will find anywhere.

Teenagers at a party in 1947 in Tulsa, Oklahoma; LIFE reported that these kids “munch doughnuts and sip cokes whenever they are not dancing with serious faces to sentimental music.”

Nina Leen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Tulsa twins Betty and Barbara Bounds, 1947.

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock images

Tulsa twins Betty and Barbara Bounds with their parents, 1947.

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock images

Tulsa twins Betty and Barbara Bounds, 1947.

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock images

Tulsa twins Betty and Barbara Bounds at ballet class, 1947. A LIFE photo essay highlighted the twins as examples of the decorous lifestyle choices being made by teenagers in the days after World War II.

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock images

Tulsa twins Betty and Barbara Bounds, 1947.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Tulsa twins Betty and Barbara Bounds spoke with a friend, 1947.

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock images

Barbara Bounds, 17, and friend work on the mixture for a fudge cake, Tulsa, 1947.

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock images

Tulsa twins Betty and Barbara Bounds, 1947.

Nina Leen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock images

Teenage life in Tulsa, 1947.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A teenage girl in Tulsa, Oklahoma used nail polish to decorate her sunglass frames, 1947.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Betty Bounds, with real gardenias in her hair, wore a full-skirted evening dress embellished with an artificial gardenia while waiting at door for her date, Tulsa, 1947.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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An Unexpected Tribute to Family Life

Bill Syken — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 15:14:39 +0000

In 1948 LIFE ran a big story with an alarming headline: “The American Family in Trouble.”

Even though the story ran nearly eighty years ago, the threats that it named might sound familiar today. Divorce rates were rising. Movies and advertising were creating unrealistic expectations and thus sowing discontent. But the real issue, the story claimed, was that family members didn’t do things together anymore. The ideal family situation that LIFE presented in this story was the family farm, in which all members contributed to a common enterprise. The modern reality, on the other hand, was a family in which its members went off in different directions.

This passage gives a sense of the story’s tone:

Today the forces of social change have broken down the family. It is now tiny—a husband, a wife, and one or two children. Its members do little more than eat or sleep together. They buy everything—food, laundry, entertainment—and produce nothing but the money for these purchases. The outward pull of movies, automobiles, bridge club, and Elks constantly threatens what little family unity remains.

The fact that the societal ills listed above include bridge playing and the Elks is a hint to what is remarkable about this story when viewed from the vantage point of the 21st century, which is that most of the “troubles” seem pleasantly quaint. One photo shows family members in their living room looking at the looming threat that was their rotary phone, waiting to hear if one of them might be called away.

In fact the photos look like less like a comparison of good vs. bad and more like a tribute to family life in its many forms.

For the story LIFE staff photographer Nina Leen followed three different types of families. The first was a farming family in the Ozarks in which everyone was pitching in together, right down to granny mending jeans on the front porch. The second family, based in Enid, Oklahoma, represented a “domestic” middle ground—the grandparents were only four blocks away and could still come over to read stories to their grandchildren, and when the teenage daughter went shopping for a bathing suit, all the women in the family came along to give their opinion.

Finally, Leen followed a family from Manhasset, N.Y., that exemplified what LIFE called the “atomistic” family (it would more commonly be termed “nuclear family“), in which the unit was comparatively small—two parents, two kids—everyone was going in their own direction. Dad travelled for work, mom was involved in her clubs, and their 14-year-old son hung out with his friends around town and his sister earned money by babysitting for neighbors when those parents were away.

Part of the reason that life in all three of these families looks beautiful is that Nina Leen takes beautiful photographs. (She also took images from foster homes for this story that have their own charm.) But to the modern eye scenes from all three of these family situations are capable of inspiring nostalgia—whether they show a family fishing expedition, a grandfather doing yard work with his grandson, or an “atomistic” 14-year-old hanging out with his friends at the diner. Leen’s shots of the teenage boy fending for himself look like stills from a classic coming-of-age movie.

LIFE’s story did include a dissenting view from an expert who argued that individuals gaining separation from their families can be a good thing. A professor from Vassar named Joseph Kirk Folsom told LIFE that the loosening of family ties was in fact a sign that America was living up to the American ideal of personal freedom. “If the family as a unit is to be so sacrosanct as to stand in the way of allowing a growing child to develop his own contacts freely, to roam in search of fresh private experiences and to strike out when he is ready to conquer his share of the world—then it has ceased to fulfill the functions for which it is intended in a democratic society,” Folsom said.

And of course family life is not always uplifting for everyone. The famous opening line of Leo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” acknowledges that there are an infinite number of ways that home life can go wrong.

There’s an argument that the one way happy families are alike has nothing to do with engaging in a common enterprise, but rather supporting its members on their own path, wherever that leads.

The Russell family, posing together in 1948, had worked their farm in the Ozarks town of Belleview, Mo., for 125 years.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes from a family farm in the Ozarks, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A family farm in the Ozarks, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

At the Russell family farm in Belleville, Mo., mending shoes was one element of a 14-hour workday.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes of family life in the Ozarks, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shuttetstock

A grandmother mended jeans on the porch of the family farm in the Ozarks, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes from a story on family life, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Frantz family of Enid, Oklahoma attended church together, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Harry Frantz Jr. and his family sitting on the lawn in Enid, Oklahoma; Harry lived just four blocks from his parents, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shuttetstock

Harry Frantz teaches his grandson, who lived just four blocks away, about gardening in Enid, Oklahoma, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Men of the Frantz family of Enid, Oklahoma, fished together, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Harry Frantz read to his grandchildren; he was a regular presence in their lives because he lived only four blocks away, Enid, Oklahoma, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shuttetstock

Scenes from a story on family life, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Members of the Frantz family of Enid, Oklahoma all went together when one of them wanted to buy a swimsuit, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes from a story on family life, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Parker family enjoys a picnic lunch together in Manhasset, N.Y., 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Parker family dines together without dad, who is away on a business trip, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Mrs. Parker chatted over tea with other members her social club, Long Island, N.Y., 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A youth baseball game in Long Island, N.Y., 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Cary Parker, 14, spent time with friends in Long Island, N.Y., 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Taking the dog out for a walk gave a restless 14-year-old boy an opportunity to meet up with friends, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Martha Parker (left), at age 11, was often out of the house at night working baby-sitting jobs like this one, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Packer family in Long Island, N.Y. waited for the phone to ring and possibly call one of them away to an outside activity, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The tendency to daydream and imagine an unrealistic ideal, as inspired by advertising, films, and radio serials, was portrayed in a 1948 LIFE story as an enemy of family life.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sidney Hauser, 11, needed to spend two years in foster care because of an illness in the family, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This day nursery tended to kids whose parents worked, 1948.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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Pushing the Right Buttons: Inside Charm School for Elevator Girls

Bill Syken — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 12:13:17 +0000

In the 1940s the job of stewardess became increasingly glamorized as commercial airline travel became more and popular. That trend may have reached its peak—or nadir, depending on how you look at it—when the now-defunct National Airlines ran an ad featuring stewardesses and slogans like “I’m Cheryl. Fly Me.” Many women were not amused, and before too long the people who worked on airplanes were being referred to with the more professional and gender-neutral term “flight attendants.”

But it’s worth remembering that bygone mentality when considering a 1947 story that ran in LIFE magazine headlined “Store Pretties Up Its Elevator Girls.” The Chicago department store Marshall Field and Co. wanted to give its elevator operators the same kind of glamorous profile as the stewardesses of the time.

To achieve that goal, the store began to give its elevator operators special training, and it was about more than pressing buttons. Here’s how LIFE described it:

Twice a week a small group of operators leave their high-powered lifts and are sent to be kneaded, pummeled and painted in a flossy charm school in the Loop. During the eight-week course the girls not only learn where and how to take off unflattering bulges and how to blend a powder base into the hairline but also how to walk, sit and operate the elevator car decorously. They are also taught how to enunciate clearly merchandise items like “lingerie, bric-a-brac and budget millinery.”

LIFE photographer George Skadding was given a behind the scenes look at the training and the makeovers these operators received. His photo of women in their uniforms stationed outside elevator doors almost has the feel of a chorus line. The story noted that at least one former Marshall Field elevator operator had become a star of screen and stage—her name was Dorothy Lamour.

But for the vast majority who didn’t, their humble role attained, for a time, a touch of glamour. And the efforts did not go unnoticed.

In January 2025 on a Facebook page dedicated to Marshall Field & Co., one poster talked about her fond memories of being an operator. A fan responded “You were one of the most wonderful, talented, perfect women in the world. Oh, how, when I was 5, I wanted to grow up to be one of you . . . and I still wish it had been possible.”

In the 1960s the store replaced its elevators with more modern models and operators were phased out.

The elevator girls at the Marshall Fields department store in Chicago, 1947.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Elevator girls at the Marshall Fields department store in Chicago went through a training program which included lessons in makeup and other beauty skills, 1947.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Elevator girls at the Marshall Fields department store in Chicago went through a training and beauty program; here operator Ann Vratarich received a new hairdo, 1947.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Elevator girls at the Marshall Fields department store in Chicago went through a training program; this photo demonstrated the wrong postures (too breezy, bent, leg in air) for an operator, 1947.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Elevator girls at the Marshall Fields department store in Chicago went through a training program, with this photo demonstrating the proper posture (straight and modest), 1947.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The elevator girls at the Marshall Fields department store in Chicago worked on “reducing exercises” as part of their training program, 1947.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Elevator girls at the Marshall Fields department store in Chicago, 1947.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

An elevator operator from the Marshall Fields department store in Chicago, 1947.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Elevator girls at the Marshall Fields department store in Chicago went through a special training program, 1947.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Elevator girls from Marshall Fields department store in Chicago showed off their look after attending charm school, 1947.

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Elevator operators at the Marshall Fields department store, 1947

George Skadding/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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