Rare Vintage Photos That You Must See Before You Die

Labeled as “An Aquarian Experience: 3 Days of Peace and Music" in the Catskill village of Woodstock, the infamous festival with the same name was an event that defined a generation.

With attendance estimates coming in around 500,000 people, the festival lasted 3 days. The irony of the whole thing is that Woodstock didn't even take place in the town of Woodstock...

it took place on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in the nearby town of Bethel.

With attendance estimates coming in around 500,000 people, the festival lasted 3 days. The irony of the whole thing is that Woodstock didn't even take place in the town of Woodstock...

it took place on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in the nearby town of Bethel. Waits to get into the festival were so brutal that people eventually put on their own jam sessions in the middle of the street.

Sullivan County dairy farmer Max Yasgur agreed to have the festival on his property after original permits were revoked a month before the festival date.

This is an image of one of the makeshift ‘smoke camps’ that hippies erected during Woodstock. Here they openly smoked marijuana and hash, sharing with those around them.

People would use these smoke camps to meet new people and share stories.

With this much free-love, you have to imagine that there was a whole lot of... loving going on.

Reports have found that there were a total of 1982 "woodstock babies" created during the festivals 3 day run. But how many of those babies were actually conceived during the festival, there is no way to know how.

There was no suitable site in Woodstock, so organizers opted for Wallkill, 40 miles away. But residents blocked their plans, so dairy farmer Max Yasgur stepped in to offer his alfalfa field, in the neighboring hamlet of Bethel.

A deal was struck for $75,000.

What most people don't talk about when talking about Woodstock is how much of a logistical nightmare it was. There was little to no security, no facilities, barely any staff, and the venue didn't anticipate the actual amount of people that showed up for the festival.

People were so fed up with traffic that they eventually just got out of their cars and walked the rest of the way to the festival... turning the streets into the area into a parking lot.

The accommodations at Woodstock were... freeform.

Here you can see a concert goer taking a snooze on his motorcycle in the middle of the festival grounds. You won't see that Coachella!

Unsurprisingly, the festivals rules were very... non-existent.

Arguably the last place you would want to bring your little ones, there were surprisingly a large number of kids in attendance. Estimates come in around 1 thousand kids.

With so many people trying to get to the same place, traffic was going to be a huge issue. However, these people were on a mission and would do whatever it takes to get to the festival.

Some would even leave their cars and just start walking to avoid all the traffic. If you've camped at Coachella - you have likely seen how crazy these lines are to get into the festival!

With these huge crowds, you would think it would be complete chaos... and it was to a degree.

But you gotta remember, this was a festival built on the principles of peace and love in the 70s, so most people were on the same frequency... and also probably stoned out of their gourds.

Martin Scorsese is known as one of the greatest directors of all time. What not everyone knows, is that Martin started at Woodstock.

He began his career when he made a Rockumentary that became highly recognized and continued on with several other movies. This picture displays Scorsese at work in one of the most iconic times in music history.

Tie-dye has somehow managed to come back into style in today's culture! However, we have the hippies to thank for this style, who made it cool to wear these crazy colorful clothes during the Woodstock era.

Young entrepreneurs sold tie-dye clothing at the festival, however the cost is still unknown.

Before floral crowns became fashionable, these crowns represented the idea that they were embodied and an expression of love for nature, beauty and harmony.

When Woodstart started, it was not intended to be a free event and the organizers were going to charge a fee for entrance.

However, a mass amount of young hippies showed up on festival grounds very excited and hopeful changing this as they were in no position to fork over cash for the event.

Woodstock not only had an amazing atmosphere but it also delivered music from those with great talent. The musicians were either famous or beginning their stardum.

This photo shows Grace Slick Jefferson Airplane hanging out and enjoying the festival.

Although Woodstock was famous for the music, it is also known that there was large amounts of marijuana. Even though it was illegal, these hipsters were quite the rebels.

According to reports, about half the people at the festival smoked marijuana, although there were no known arrests.

What some were not expecting was the legendary turn out of Woodstock, which caused limited supplies, amenities, and space.

However, these people didn't let this bother them or stop the music, but resulted in the community coming together with love and generosity.

Part of the hippie culture was based on rejecting capitalism and sharing within the community.

There were vendors around the venue who tried to feed the extreme amounts of people, although they did have to sometimes charge for this service.

The best kind of photos are those candid moments that capture the subject off guard. They are even better when the people in the photographs happen to be celebrities, especially before they become famous. There is something about their vulnerability that makes us realize we aren't so different after all. Get ready for a treat, because we have put together a gallery of some of the rarest candid photos throughout history.

From Goldie Hawn slaying a game of basketball to Albert Einstein puppeteering, we've got it all. So take a walk down memory lane with the rich and famous to experience another side of their legacy as you know it. Whether it be through their classic elegance, effortless swag... or lack thereof, we're sure you will never look at these stars the same way again.

Blonde bombshell Barbara Bouchet is best known for her early work as Miss Moneypenny in Casino Royale in 1967. She also portrayed Patrizia in Don't Torture a Duckling (1972) and was cast in The Scarlet and The Black (1983). More recently the German American actress was in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York.

Over the course of her career, she has acted in more than 80 films and television episodes. She has also gone on to own and operate her own fitness studio and has founded a production company that specializes in fitness videos and books.

This is probably one of the coolest photos on this list. The Harlem Globetrotters are an exhibition basketball team that combine their athleticism with elements of theater and comedy in their routines. The team is incredibly popular, and they play over 450 live events worldwide.

To date, they've played more than 26,000 exhibition games in over 122 countries and territories over the past years. Knowing all that information, it's funny to see these professionals in awe of Goldie Hawn showing off her own personal skills with a basketball.

There was a point in time when some observers were convinced that Paul Stanley, KISS frontman was gay. Although this wasn't really accurate since it seemed he kept busy with a string of Playboy Playmates and Penthouse Pets for years. He just hadn't settled down with anyone, so many people just assumed he swung for the other team.

He later confirmed that he sought affirmation in the level of attractiveness of his girlfriends....but as many of us could guess, this wasn't really a strong foundation for a relationship. He did seem to have a real connection with the beautiful actress Donna Dixon. When they weren't dating, he always seemed to be up for rekindling things with her, up until he discovered she had secretly married actor Dan Aykroyd.

Here’s a shot of the lovely Barbara Carrera as 'Maria' on the set of The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977). The Island of Dr. Moreau is an iconic science fiction film, is the second in A.I.P.'s H.G. Wells film cycle, which includes The Food of the Gods (1976) and Empire of the Ants (1977).

It is the second English-language adaptation of the H. G. Wells novel of the same name. It stars Burt Lancaster, Michael York, Nigel Davenport, Barbara Carrera and Richard Basehart, and is directed by Don Taylor. The storyline follows a scientist who attempts to convert animals into human beings.

Phyllis George of Denton, Texas was first made Miss Texas in 1970, and was then and was crowned Miss America 1971. She was also First Lady of Kentucky from 1979 to 1983. The businesswoman, actress, and former sportscaster. In 1975 she joined the cast of The NFL Today, co-hosting live pregame shows before National Football League games.

She was actually one of the first women to secure a prominent role in national television sports coverage. In 1985, she became a permanent anchor for the CBS morning news program. She has founded two companies, the first of which was "By George" chicken fillets, which she sold to Hormel Foods. The second is Phyllis George Beauty, which markets cosmetics and skincare on the Home Shopping Network.

In 1989, Sally Mann captured this photo of a young girl looking like she's smoking a cigarette, but she is actually pretending to smoke a candy cigarette. Candy cigarettes were popular in the 20th century because they allowed children to pretend to be like their elders.

These candies were often made out of bubblegum or chocolate, which became really popular with kids. The candies became a controversial topic since then, and they have been banned in many countries around the world.

Here we have gal pals Anjelica Huston and Liza Minnelli on a road trip back in 1975. Actress and singer Liza May Minnelli is primarily known for her Academy Award-winning role as Sally Bowles in the 1972 musical film Cabaret. Minnelli is also the daughter of film actress and singer Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli.

This photo was taken not long after Anjelica Huston moved to Los Angeles in the early 1970s. She stepped onto the acting scene and began an extravagant sixteen-year love affair with actor Jack Nicholson. She earned parts in the films such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Postman Always Rings Twice.

Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun! Remember Candi and Randi Brough? They were the Doublemint Twins and starred in several Doublemint Gum commercials in the 70's.

Both sisters were also known for their roles in Quantum Leap (1989) and Calendar Girl (1993). The Brough twins were also in films like The Happy Hooker Goes to Hollywood (1980), and More Wild Wild West (1980), and The Lonely Guy (1984), with Steve Martin.

Old Yeller was Disney Studios' first and best attempt at a boy-and-his-dog film in 1957, with Tommy Kirk and Dorothy McGuire. The story centers on a boy and a stray dog in post-Civil War Texas. It’s based on the 1956 Newbery Honor-winning book of the same name by Fred Gipson.

The success of the Old Yeller film led to a sequel, the movie went on to become an important cultural film for baby boomers. The death of Old Yeller's, in particular, is a famous scene. In fact, it's remembered as one of the most heartbreaking scenes in cinematic history.

Here’s a clip from the hilarious film that led the way for the TV series, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in The Odd Couple (1968) Like the television series it inspired, the film’s storyline centers on the clashing of two divorced men, now living together. It’s after neurotic neat-freak Felix Unger and sloppy, cigar-chomping, sportswriter Oscar Madison have both been given the boot by their wives that the two share a Park Avenue bachelor pad.

Obviously, two grown men used to having spouses are going to have quite a few adjustments to make when moving in with each other–that’s where the hilarity ensues.

Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.is comedy sitcom that spun from The Andy Griffith Show. It ran for five seasons on CBS from September 25, 1964, to May 2, 1969, for a total of 150 half-hour episodes. The show was a hit!

It never placed lower than tenth in the Nielsen ratings, and when it ended its run, it was the second-highest-rated series in the United States! It stars Jim Nabors as Gomer Pyle, a good-natured but naive gas station attendant we all came to know and love from the town of Mayberry, North Carolina, who decides it's a good idea to enlist in the United States Marine Corps.

Can you imagine having an idea that could save the lives of police officers and military personnel by protecting them from gunfire from criminals and bullets in battle? The idea is great but at some point, you have to show proof of concept and have someone try it in a real situation. As far back as 1538 when Francesco Maria Della Rovere commissioned Filippo Negroli to create a bulletproof vest, people have been trying to protect themselves from harm.

Early versions were iron and even silk. But the first test of the modern version of the bulletproof vest took place in Washington, D.C. in September 1923.

The 15-megatonne Bravo test on 1 March 1954 was a thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

It exposed thousands in the surrounding area to radioactive fallout and forced the evacuation of the islanders, many who refuse to return even to this day.

It is widely accepted that JFK and Marilyn Monroe did have sex at least once, In 1962 at Bing Crosby's house in Palm Springs. A friend of Marilyn's is quoted as saying: Later, once the rumor mill was grinding, Marilyn told me that this night in March was the only time of her "affair" with JFK. Of course, she was titillated beyond belief, because for a year he had been trying, through Lawford, to have an evening with her. A great many people thought, after that weekend, that there was more to it.

But Marilyn gave me the impression that it was not a major event for either of them: it happened once, that weekend, and that was that. The next and last time Marilyn Monroe crossed paths with JFK was at Kennedy's 45th birthday party at Madison Square Garden. The knowledge that Monroe and JFK had already had a one-night stand by this point makes the sensuality she brought to her performance of Happy Birthday, Mr. President even more palpable.

There were 22 photographers present at 7 p.m. May 6, 1937 to film the Hindenburg's arrival, which was ridiculous because this was not a special or rare event and had already been done 20 times in the previous year with no fanfare.

Why were there so many people there to catch this seemingly mundane event? Not one of the photographers or cameramen caught the actual spark that led to the "explosion." Hmmmm....

Thomas Jefferson’s face on Mount Rushmore was originally started on the opposite side of but George Washington 18 months into the carving, they realized the granite was too weak.

His face was dynamited off and carved on the other side.

This photo was the last picture of the Titanic afloat, just mere hours before her tragic end. The Titanic could have been saved but for a 30-second delay in the officer in charge giving the order to change the ship's course after the iceberg had been spotted.

And, well you know the rest, or have seen the movie.

Helen Keller and Charlie Chaplin met on the set of his movie Sunnyside.

It is reported that the two became fast friends and communicated by Helen touching Chaplin’s lips to “feel” what he was saying and Chaplin drew pictures of the scenes on the palm of Helen’s hand.

Two engineers trying to fix a Disney animatronic. Audio-Animatronics were originally a creation of Walt Disney employee Lee Adams, who worked as an electrician at the Burbank studio and was one of Disney's original Imagineers.

One of the first Disney Audio-Animatrons was a toy bird Walt Disney got in New Orleans. It was a simple mechanical bird, and Walt decided to improve the device that moved it.

Sally Margaret Field is an actress and director. She began her career in television, starring on the sitcoms Gidget (1965–66) and The Flying Nun (1967–70).

She was honored at the White House with National Medal of Arts in 2014. President Barack Obama honored her for work that he said have helped Americans connect and understand each other a little better through the arts and humanities.

Jackie the lion was the source of the first audible “ROAR” in MGM’s famous movie logo, thanks to the invention of the gramophone.

He was also nicknamed “Lucky” after surviving a plane crash and a studio fire.

Giant manta rays are known for their huge size but this one, which apparently spans 26 feet, is a sight to behold.

The sea creature, which also reportedly weighs more than 1,000 kilograms, was allegedly caught by unsuspecting fishermen off the coast of Peru.

This photo was taken during an expedition to an Antarctica in 1911, a previously unexplored and little known about part of the world.

It captures the essences and spirit of journeys and exploration at that time.

During the three days of the Woodstock festival, there were no reported incidents of violence among the half-million people in the audience.

However, there were three reported deaths, apparently from drug-overdoses.

The Empire State Building took only one year and 45 days to build, or more than seven million man-hours.

The total height of the building, including the lightning rod, is 1,454 feet and cost a cool 28 million dollars to build.

How’s this for eerie: When the nuclear bomb exploded in Japan, it emitted intense thermal radiation which “bleached” every thing it hit.

In the example of the picture the people were close enough to the blast that they were vaporized almost instantly but their bodies absorbed the wave of thermal radiation leaving their shadow in the surface behind them but nothing else.

The Sphinx was carved from the bedrock of the Giza plateau, a single ridge of limestone that is 73 meters long and 20 meters high.

The Sphinx is considered to be one of the largest single-stone statues in the world and also the oldest, dating some 5000 years ago.

Is it really frozen? Yes and no. The tremendous volume of water never stops flowing, However, the falling water and mist create ice formations along the banks of the falls and river.

This can result in mounds of ice as thick as fifty feet. If the winter is cold for long enough, the ice will completely stretch across the river and form what is known as the "ice bridge". This ice bridge can extend for several miles downriver until it reaches the area known as the lower rapids.

Martin Luther King and Lyndon B. Johnson worked together to change the laws to give African-Americans the right to vote. Here is what MLK thought about President Johnson:

I had been fortunate enough to meet Lyndon Johnson during his tenure as Vice President. He was not then a presidential aspirant and was searching for his role under a man who not only had a four-year term to complete but was confidently expected to serve out yet another term as Chief Executive.

Therefore, the essential issues were easier to reach and were unclouded by political considerations.

The derailment and wreck of the Granville – Paris Express was on October 22, 1895, after it overran a buffer stop and crashed through a (2 ft) thick wall, shot across an outside terrace and plummeted (30 ft) onto the street below, where it ended up as seen in the photos.

Amazingly only two of the 131 passengers and two conductors sustained injuries.

The Prohibition Era (1920 to 1933) was the result of the 18th Amendment and enacted by the Volstead Act. During the Prohibition Era, the manufacture and sale of alcohol had been banned. This was viewed as the solution to the nation's poverty, crime, violence, abuse towards women and children and other problems.

However, it created more violence and crime due to the rise of the mafia and organized crime, untaxed alcohol, political corruption and underground commerce. It was repealed by the 21st Amendment because the 'Noble Experiment' simply did not work.

Technical Sergeant William E. Thomas and Private First Class Joseph Jackson got creative in their mission on March 10, 1945 – Easter morning.

With the words “EASTER EGGS FOR HITLER” and “HAPPY EASTER ADOLPH” written on the artillery shells, these two U.S. Army soldiers were not shy in declaring their intent to kill Hitler and bring down the Nazi Regime.

An American corporal aims a Colt M1895 atop a Sri Lankan elephant. The reason why the corporal is atop the elephant is a mystery but elephants were never a weapons platform adopted by the US Army.

It’s probably a publicity picture, not something the army would actually try to employ. The elephant would not respond well to the sound of that machine gun a few inches from his ears.

Named for President Hoover, the Hoover Dam’s construction started in April 1931 and was completed in March 1936. In total, 21,000 men labored on the dam, and the average total payroll was $500,000 per month. The Hoover Dam is 726 ft. tall.

That is 171 ft. taller than the Washington Monument in Washington D.C. At its base, Hoover Dam is as thick as two footballs fields measured end-to-end.

V-E Day stands for Victory in Europe Day, the day Nazi Regime officially surrendered to US forces.

It was “the celebration heard around the world.” However, WWII was not over yet as we now faced the brutal Imperial Army of Japan.

An American soldier replaces an “Adolph Hitler St.” sign with “Roosevelt Blvd.” sign in Berlin, Germany, 1945.

On June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France to fight the Nazi Regime. Gen. Dwight D.

Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which, “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft were deployed on D-Day, resulting in a foot-hold by the Allies in Europe, allowing them to start the slow trek across the continent to face enemy troops. More than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded.

In a surprise military attack by Japan’s Imperial Army on December 7, 1941 at 7:48 a.m.. the Hawaiian military base at Pearl Harbor was bombed, killing 2,500 Americans and wounding 1,700 more.

The next day, America declared war on Japan, and cemented our involvement in WWII.

The First Transcontinental Railroad in the United States was built in the 1860s, linking the well-developed railway network of the Eastern coast with rapidly growing California. The main line was officially completed on May 10, 1869.

The vast number of people who traveled the line, and the network that followed, set the USA on the path to economic abundance. It also ended the centuries-old way of life of the Native Americans and greatly altered the environment.

Kathrine Switzer became the first woman to run in and complete the male-only Boston Marathon in 1967 amidst angry protesters that grabbed at her and tried to push her off the path. She did not stop and continued to run, creating an uproar amongst the men there.

Today, this would not happen as we have come a long way in women's rights. Many women run the marathons taking place across the country.

The punt gun was used in the 19th century and early part of the 20th century. Its main use was to destroy waterfowl in large amounts, up to 90 birds at once.

The bullets were made of lead and weighed one pound each.

NPR's Robert Krulwich describes this tragedy:

So there's a cosmonaut up in space, circling the globe, convinced he will never make it back to Earth; he's on the phone with Alexei Kosygin - then a high official of the Soviet Union - who is crying because he, too, thinks the cosmonaut will die. The space vehicle is shoddily constructed, running dangerously low on fuel; its parachutes - though no one knows this - won't work and the cosmonaut, Vladimir Komarov, is about to, literally, crash full speed into Earth, his body turning molten on impact.

As he heads to his doom, U.S. listening posts in Turkey hear him crying in rage, "cursing the people who had put him inside a botched spaceship."

Evelyn McHale, jumped from the Empire State Buildings 86th floor observatory to her death where she lays atop a limousine.

Roger Moorhouse, a historian said:

“It makes perfect sense that he would be doing this. We have this image now of Hitler almost as a buffoon, but he had a lot of charisma and his speeches made people sincerely believe he would lead them back to greatness. He was an absolutely spellbinding public speaker and these pictures show that it was something he worked very hard on. When you listen to his speeches now, he sounds like a ranting, raving maniac, but we know that it came across in a very persuasive way. These pictures give an important insight into how he practiced.

He was a showman and rehearsed his gestures to get a particular reaction from his audiences.
He experimented with his own image and asked Hoffmann to take photographs for him to review. Then he’d look at them and say “no, that looks silly” or “I’m never doing that again”. He used Hoffmann as a sounding board but never intended the images to be published. Hitler was a very modern politician in that way. He was concerned about how he looked and his public persona.”

This is an excerpt from the actual newpaper, the Manchester Guardian, on 19 March 1925:

Madame Tussaud's, the famous wax-works exhibition in Marylebone Road, London, was badly damaged last night by fire. The fire was discovered shortly after 10.30. By 11.30 the interior of the top storey was a raging furnace. The whole of the roof collapsed with the exception of a dome-like structure at the western end.

The fire was extinguished by midnight. It was stated that all the Napoleonic relics had been destroyed. The total amount of damage cannot yet be estimated. The whole of the roof and the top floor of the main building was destroyed.

This hippopotamus named Lotus was actually apart of the act of a circus, although Lotus certainly doesn’t seem happy about it.

Elvis Presley served approximately 2 years in the Army, from 1958 to 1960, after being drafted.

At the time of his draft, he had already achieved fame and success and was one of the most recognizable names in the world.

In 1975, American audiences were paralyzed with fear when the movie Jaws came out.

Jaws went on to make over 470 million dollars at the box office and forever changed the movie industry.

From NPR:

In the midst of the political fallout, the U.S. government announced an unusual plan to get thousands of displaced Vietnamese children out of the country. President Ford directed that money from a special foreign aid children's fund be made available to fly 2,000 South Vietnamese orphans to the United States.

The first plane to leave as part of that mission took off on April 4, 1975, just a few weeks before the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War. But shortly into the flight, a malfunction forced the pilot, Captain Dennis "Bud" Traynor, to crash land the C-5 cargo plane into a nearby rice paddy.

About 20,000 people showed up and created a carnival-like atmosphere to watch Bethea McVeigh's hanging, a black man convicted of the rape and murder of a white woman.

The delight and fervor displayed by the mostly-white audience during the execution will forever haunt the town as one of its darkest days.

This surreal image was taken by Philippe Halsman as homage to both the new atomic age and to Salvador Dali’s surrealist masterpiece “Leda Atomica”. The bizarre photograph is actually a combination of people jumping and water and cats being thrown.

The shoot took six hours, 28 jumps and various assistants throwing things in the air.

Dutch boy with a pillow strapped on his backside in order to soften the falling on ice while skating.

Cabaret dancers wearing fake mustaches.

The photo was taken by Harry Burnett at Cal Tech in Pasadena where Albert Einstein was teaching. Einstein saw the puppet perform at the Teato Torito and was quite amused.

He reached into his jacket’s breast pocket, pulled out a letter and crumpled it up. Speaking in German, he said, “The puppet wasn’t fat enough!” He laughed and stuffed the crumpled letter up under the smock to give the puppet a fatter belly.

A photograph of the making of a programme by the BBC about driving errors, taken by Saidman in 1939 for the Daily Herald.

Stalin is captured in this photograph by Lt. Gen.

Nikolai Vlasik, the Soviet dictator’s bodyguard. Vlasik’s off-the-record photos of Stalin caused a sensation in the early 1960s when an enterprising Soviet journalist spirited some out, selling them to newspapers and magazines worldwide.

A crazy designed method of crossing a river.

A huge showcase of clothes.

One of the most interesting political poster I have ever seen in my life.

Probably a tool for measuring the dimensions of “beauty”.

A baby suspended in a wire cage attached to the outside of a high tenement block window.

The cages were distributed to members of the Chelsea Baby Club in London who have no gardens”

The screen manually scrolls paper maps that are attached to a cable that is similar to a modern mechanical speedometer.

Thus, the scroll rate of the map is proportional to vehicle’s speed.

Two women sport their "short shorts" in Toronto in the late 1930s. These certainly wouldn't be considered short by today's standards, but back then, they stopped traffic!

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This 1922 photo from Chicago shows two women being arrested for wearing "scandalous" swimsuits that didn't abide by the decency laws of the time.

What a hoot!