Loomis Dean Photo Archives - LIFE

The Glamorous Anita Ekberg in LIFE

Bill Syken — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 18:45:17 +0000

Anita Ekberg was twenty years old when she first appeared in LIFE magazine. In 1951 the magazine breathlessly introduced this relative unknown model to readers in a story headlined “Beautiful Maid of Malmo.”

The most photographed, most pursued, and most popular girl at the most recent Miss America contest in Atlantic City was the blue-eyed blonde shown above, who boasts a sunny face and a stunning figure, a five-word English vocabulary—ya, no, hamboorger, El Morocco, ice cream—and was not eligible for the contest. The beautiful blonde was 20-year-old Anita Ekberg who, as Miss Sweden, was a guest of honor.

The gist of the story was that Ekberg, hot off being named Miss Sweden, had come to the United States to further her modeling career. LIFE photographer Lisa Larsen captured Ekberg meeting with a titan of that business, Eileen Ford.

The magazine was clearly among those impressed with the young Swede. Mere months later Ekberg posed in Los Angeles for another LIFE photographer, Allan Grant. And she would pose for Grant again in 1956.

In addition to modeling, Ekberg soon launched an acting career. She picked up small parts in films beginning in 1953, including playing an alien in Abbott and Costello Go to Mars. In 1955 staff photographer Loomis Dean captured Ekberg’s appearance on the short-lived television version of Casablanca.

In 1956 Ekberg then debuted on the cover of LIFE, when the magazine wrote about the film adaptation of War and Peace. Ekberg had a supporting role—the female lead in the movie was played by Audrey Hepburn—but that didn’t stop LIFE from devoting a major feature to her, photographed by James Whitmore.

The headline of that story, “Malmo Maid Makes Good,” celebrated how far the young model had come from her first appearance in the magazine.

Anita Ekberg made her first appearance in LIFE at age 20, in 1951, when she was an aspiring model. In this photo she wore a hostess hat from Scandanavian Airlines.

Lisa Larsen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Anita Ekberg made her first appearance in LIFE at age 20, in 1951. In this photo, as she looked to advance her modeling career, she was having her hips measured by agency executive Eileen Ford, 1951.

Lisa Larsen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Anita Ekberg made her first appearance in LIFE at age 20, in 1951.

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Anita Ekberg in Los Angeles, 1951.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Model and actress Anita Ekberg posed for LIFE in 1955.

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Anita Ekberg and Clarence Muse appeared in the television version of Casablanca, which ran for ten episodes from 1955-56.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Anita Ekberg appeared in the 1950s television version of Casablanca.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Anita Ekberg appeared in the 1956 film version of War and Peace.

James Whitmore/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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Did You Know Casablanca Was Also a TV Show?

Bill Syken — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 16:52:48 +0000

Casablanca is one of the most beloved movies in history. When the American Film Institute listed its top 100 movies, the film from 1942 came in second, behind Citizen Kane and just ahead of The Godfather.

So perhaps its not surprising that Hollywood tried to take another bite from that apple. In 1955 ABC aired a Casablanca television series built around the continuing adventures of freedom-loving cafe owner Rick Blaine in the age of the Cold War. The show was part of a rotating series of dramas presented under the aegis Warner Bros Presents. Warner Bros had been the studio that made the original movie.

But the magic of the movie could not be recaptured, and the series ran for only ten episodes. What went wrong?

According to the book Short-Lived Television Series 1948-1978: Thirty Years of More Than 1,000 Flops by Wesley Hyatt, the problems began with casting. Humphrey Bogart had no interest in playing Rick Blaine again. The show’s director, John Peyser, set his sights on Anthony Quinn, but the actor’s asking price proved too high. So they ended up casting Charles McGraw—who, according to Peyser, “couldn’t act his way out of a hat.” Also, according to Peyser, the scripts were terrible.

With the benefit of hindsight, it’s easy to see another issue. The movie Casablanca was not only the story of the resistance movement during World War II but also a romance between Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund (played by Ingrid Bergman), the woman who broke Rick’s heart in Paris.

The television show couldn’t easily bring back the Ilsa Lund character because of the way the movie ended, with Rick sending Ilsa away in a grand moment of self-sacrifice for a larger cause. In a speech for the ages Rick declared that their problems didn’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world, but here’s looking at you, kid.

In the television show, Rick didn’t have a “kid” to look at—except for one episode. Anita Ekberg, who like Bergman was Swedish, made a guest appearance playing a character named Katrina Jorgenson. Ekberg’s character was the center of attention when LIFE staff photographer Loomis Dean visited the set for photos. In the shots where Ekberg poses with Clarence Muse, who portrays Sam the piano player, Ekberg looks like she is just about to ask Sam to play As Time Goes By.

Dean’s camera knew what the show’s creators did not, because they capture what the show was missing. If Ekberg had been in more than one episode, maybe that would have been the beginning of a beautiful TV series.

Anita Ekberg and Clarence Muse appeared in the television version of Casablanca, which ran for ten episodes from 1955-56.

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The television series Casablanca ran for ten episodes from 1955-56.

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Anita Ekberg appeared in the 1950s television version of Casablanca.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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Albert Camus: Intellectual Titan

Bill Syken — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 15:22:04 +0000

In 1968 LIFE magazine summed up the appeal of French philosopher and author Albert Camus with a single sentence: “Camus looked directly into the darkness as saw sun—the human spirit.” The line came from a review of Camus’ book “Lyrical and Critical Essays.” And the fact that LIFE was reviewing such books at all is a throwback to a time when mainstream American media regularly chronicled the doings of French intellectuals.

LIFE ran its biggest story on Camus in October 1957, right around the time he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for fictional works such as The Stranger, The Plague and The Fall, and philosophical writings such as “The Myth of Sisyphus.” Camus was a mere 44 years old at the time, and he remains the second-youngest person to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature, after Rudyard Kipling.

LIFE’s 1957 story about Camus carried the headline “Action-Packed Intellectual” and began with the note that he “jealously guards his privacy.” But the author relented enough to allow LIFE staff photographer Loomis Dean a rare window into his life. Dean documented Camus at his publishing office, at home with his family, and preparing to direct a staging of his play Caligula. Camus declared to LIFE, “I consider myself an artist first, almost exclusively. What is an artist? Principally a vital force, and of that, frankly, I think I have almost too much. It wears me out.”

The most famous photo from Dean’s shoot—which is also one of the most popular images in LIFE’s online print store—is of Camus standing on the balcony of his Paris publishing offices. Camus looks like an avatar of 1950s intellectual cool. He even takes a drag on a cigarette, a throwback to the days when smoking was less taboo.

In the original story the image of Camus on the balcony ran with this quote from him: “I don’t like to work sitting down. I like to stand up—even at my desk. I probably need to wear myself out.”

It’s the kind of intellectual who could become popular—one who doesn’t take anything sitting down.

French author Albert Camus at the office of his Paris publishing house, 1957.

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French author and philosopher Albert Camus stands with an unidentified woman and reads one of a number of letters on a balcony outside his publishing office, Paris, 1957.

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Albert Camus leaned against a radiator in his office, Paris, 1957.

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French author Albert Camus, on the set of his play Caligula, 1957.

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Albert Camus directed a rehearsal of his play Caligula, Paris 1957.

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Albert Camus directed actors during a rehearsal of his play ‘Caligula.’ Paris, 1957.

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Albert Camus smoked a cigarette outside Theatre des Mathurins, where the rehearsals of his play Caligula were taking place, 1957.

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Albert Camus kissed actress Dominique Blanchar after a rehearsal of his play Caligula, 1957.

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Albert Camus and actress Dominique Blanchar after a rehearsal of his play Caligula, 1957.

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Albert Camus (center) rehearsed with actors for his play Caligula at an outdoor Shakespeare theater in Paris, 1957.

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Albert Camus (center, next to woman in glasses) dined with a group at a Paris restaurant, 1957.

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French author Albert Camus sitting in the garden of his Paris home with his 11-year-old twins Jean and Catherine, 1957.

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French author Albert Camus poised at home with his 11-year-old twins Jean and Catherine, 1957.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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“The Most Thrilling Ride in the U.S.”

Bill Syken — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 15:13:02 +0000

In 1949 LIFE magazine took its readers on an extreme river adventure in a story headlined “Shooting the Salmon.” The headline referred to the Salmon River, which cuts through central Idaho.

The magazine opened its story breathlessly:

The most thrilling ride in the U.S. is in a 12-foot rubber boat down 55 miles of the middle fork of the Salmon River in Lemhi County, Idaho. For years the river with its boiling rapids and so-called Impassible Gorge with its 3,000-foot walls was thought so dangerous that only two dozen of the most daring white-water boatmen in the U.S. had ever tackled it.

But in 1949 some river guides had mastered the Middle Fork to the point that they began leading expeditions, and LIFE photographer Loomis Dean rode with one group. The trek down river took nine days, with people often camping near winter snow that had yet to melt. Some nights the temperatures dipped to 25 degrees. During those nine days the trekkers also caught—and ate—an estimated 200 pounds of trout. (If you are wondering, you can also catch salmon in the Salmon River) .

After finishing their trip the adventures concluded that, having survived the Salmon River, “the only thing left was Niagara Falls in a barrel.”

Today the Salmon River remains an esteemed destination, and one that is not easy to gain access to. The Middle Fork is now federally protected and adventure-seekers must enter a lottery for the right to travel its class III and IV+ rapids.

A Salmon River adventure in Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes from a nine-day adventure on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes from a nine-day adventure on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Men horseback riding along the Salmon River.

Guide Hank Hastings scanned the wild rapids ahead on the Salmon River, 1949.

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Adventurers shot the rapids on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

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Adventurers rode the rapids on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

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Helen and Peter Brooks explored an ice cone in Impassable Gorge during their nine-day trek down the Salmon River, 1949.

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Scenes from a nine-day adventure on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The adventurers set up camp during a nine-day trek down the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

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The trekkers caught and dined on trout during their expedition down the Salmon River, Idaho, 1949.

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Helen Brooks held a string of trouts caught during a nine-day expedition down the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

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Scenes from a nine-day adventure on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Helen Brooks washing dishes in the Salmon River, Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shuttertstock

One of the trekkers took a bath in frigid waters during a nine-day adventure on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

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Scenes from a nine-day adventure on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes from a nine-day adventure on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Men horseback riding along the Salmon River.

Scenes from a nine-day adventure on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes from a nine-day adventure on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, 1949.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shuttertstock

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The Dawn of Rock: America Finds Its Thrill

Bill Syken — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 14:34:12 +0000

In its April 18, 1955 issue LIFE magazine reported on—with a fair amount of concern—the onset of the defining evolution of popular music in the 20th century. The story was titled “Rock ‘N Roll: A Frenzied Teenage Music Craze Kicks Up a Big Fuss.“

Here’s how LIFE described what the “big fuss” was all about:

The nation’s teenagers are dancing their way into an enlarging controversy over rock ‘n roll. In New Haven, Connecticut the police chief has put a damper on rock ‘n roll parties and other towns are following suit. Radio networks are worried over questionable lyrics in rock ‘n roll. And some American parents, without quite knowing what it is their kids are up to, are worried that it’s something they shouldn’t be.

But like it or not, rock and roll was here to stay. Standing in the heart of the moment, LIFE saw dancing as a big part of the new music’s appeal. The magazine, grasping to connect this revolutionary moment to the recent past, described rock and roll dancing as “a combination of “the Lindy and the Charleston, and almost anything else.” The story, shot by staff photographers Walter Sanders and Loomis Dean, had more pictures of kids dancing than of musicians performing. One of the shoots took place at the dance studio of Arthur Murray, where kids demonstrated their new moves.

LIFE acknowledged the roots of this new music, saying “The heavy-beat and honking-melody tunes of today’s rock ‘n roll have a clearly defined ancestry in U.S. jazz going back to Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith of 30 years ago.” The broader market was now turning to a style of music that first became popular in the Black community because record companies had been focussing on “mambos and ballads,” and as a result “the country’s teenagers found themselves without snappy dance tunes to their taste.”

Some adults fretted over lyrics that seemed to be laden with innuendo and double meanings. But even as the LIFE article adopted the tone of a worried parent, the pictures in the magazine told another story. The photos showed exuberance and joy. And by today’s standards, everything looks extremely proper. The main concert photos feature the great Fats Domino, who is wearing a suit and playing a grand piano. The young fans are dressed as if they were going to a formal occasion, without any jeans or T-shirts in sight.

It’s mind-boggling to think that a mere 14 years from when this story ran, rock fans would be mucking around in the mud at Woodstock. But there was no stopping it at this point. The revolution was on, and it was coming fast.

Teenagers demonstrated their rock music dance moves for Arthur Murray and his wife, in background, at Murray’s dance studio.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Arthur Murray and wife (in the background to the left) enjoyed a demonstration by teen-agers of rock`n roll dancing, 1955..

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Young dancers from a 1955 story on rock music.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A couple dancing from a story on rock music, 1955.

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A young couple danced to rock music, 1955.

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Pioneering rock DJ Allen Freed did a show from a studio in Boston, 1955.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A sign for an early rock show presented by pioneering DJ Allan Freed, 1955.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Teenagers danced to rock music being spun by DJ Al Jarvis in the parking lot of a Los Angeles supermarket, 1955.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Audience members enjoying Alan Freed’s Easter show at Brooklyn Paramount Theater, 1955.

Walter Sanders/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Saxophonist Herbert Hardesty (center), a member of Fats Domino’s band, let loose at 54 Ballroom in Los Angeles, 1955.

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Fats Domino’s band performed in Los Angeles, 1955.

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Fats Domino’s band rocked out in Los Angeles, 1955.

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Fats Domino in concert in Los Angeles, 1955.

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Fats Domino and his band performed in Los Angeles, 1955.

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Young dancers from a 1955 story on rock music.

Walter Sanders/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A show from the early days of rock and roll, 1955.

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Catherine Deneuve: The Eyes Have It

Bill Syken — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 19:38:05 +0000

Catherine Deneuve was one of the leading ladies of the new wave of European cinema. She made her first big mark when she starred in Jacque Demy’s 1964 musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival. She went on to perform in several other Demy films and also the works of directors such as Luis Bunuel, Roman Polanski, and Francois Truffaut.

But those heady days were in front of her when LIFE’s Loomis Dean photographed Deneuve in 1961. At that point, even though this child of stage actors had been appearing in movies since she was 12, she was identified in the LIFE archival captions as “fashion model Catherine Deveuve.” (Though to be fair, Deneuve is known as a style icon as well as an actress).

Deneuve, who was born in Paris on October 22, 1943, would have been around 18 years old when she posed for Dean. Her hair was dark then, and when she appeared in LIFE’s April 3, 1962 issue, in a story headlined ‘Windfall of New Beauties,” about a new crop of young European actresses. (The photo of Deneuve which ran in that story was not from the Dean shoot but by noted glamour photographer Peter Basch). Deneuve was one of five young actresses featured in that story, along with another future star, Claudia Cardinale.

LIFE’s terse write-up about the young actress was: “France’s Catherine Deneuve, 18, is the fawnlake protege of director Roger Vadim, who made a star of Bardot. Direct in manner, haughty offstage but appealing in her roles, she excels in portraying adolescents emerging into womanhood.”

It was at the urging of Vadim, who also fathered a child with Deneuve, that she later dyed her hair blonde. She was blonde in her most memorable films, including Bunuel’s Belle de Jour (1967), in which Deneuve played a bored housewife who filled her afternoons by working as a prostitute.

Deneuve is often written about as appearing cool and aloof, which is not something she appreciated. In a lengthy interview in 2008 in Film Comment, she said, “I am shocked when people talk about me and sum me up as: blonde, cold, and solemn,” she said. “People will cling on to whatever reinforces their own assumptions about a person.”

In Loomis Dean’s photos, Deneuve’s eyes suggest a woman who knew much, even at age 18. In 2023, at age 80, Deneuve is still acting, appearing in the 2023 French film Bernadette, in which she played the widow for former French president Jacques Chirac.

Whatever it is behind those eyes, they still have plenty to say.

Catherine Deneuve, 1961.

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Catherine Deneuve (center) prepared for a photo shoot, 1961.

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Catherine Deneuve, 1961.

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Catherine Deneuve and her father, actor Maurice Docleac, 1961.

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Catherine Deneuve with fashion designer Louis Feraud, 1961.

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Catherine Deneuve with French TV director Marcel Cravenne, 1961.

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Catherine Deneuve talking with French actor Christian Marquand (left) and actor-director Francois Moreuil (right), 1961.

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Catherine Deneuve with French actor Christian Marquand, 1961.

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