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Related post: IBM in 1962

“Thirsty cluster of patrons in P.J. Clarke’s saloon on Manhattan’s Third Avenue often includes male shorts-wearers. Custom began among young men who wore shorts for Sunday afternoon lounging at home, kept them on as they wandered out to neighborhood bars.”

“Correct outfits require long wool socks, here include cotton shorts($10) worn with a madras jacket ($32, both Brooks Brothers), worsted shorts ($17) and Argylls ($13, both Fenn-Feinstein).”

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A view of the rinks inside the Granite Curling Club in Seattle, the only dedicated curling club on the entire west coast.

Reading up on it later, it turns out that the game originated in medieval Scotland (and here I thought that the Canadians came up with it). From wikipedia again:

Curling is thought to have been invented in late medieval Scotland, with the first written reference to a contest using stones on ice coming from the records of Paisley Abbey, Renfrewshire, in February 1541. Two paintings (both dated 1565) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder depict Dutch peasants curling—Scotland and the Low Countries had strong trading and cultural links during this period, which is also evident in the history of golf.

Evidence that curling existed in Scotland in the early 16th century includes a curling stone inscribed with the date 1511 (uncovered along with another bearing the date 1551) when an old pond was drained at Dunblane, Scotland. Kilsyth Curling Club claims to be the first club in the world, having been formally constituted in 1716; it is still in existence today. Kilsyth also claims the oldest purpose-built curling pond in the world at Colzium, in the form of a low dam creating a shallow pool some 100 × 250 metres in size, though this is now very seldom in condition for curling because of warmer winters.

“A curling match at Eglinton Castle, Ayrshire, Scotland in 1860. The Curling House is located to the left of the picture.”

Illustrations from History of Curling, written in 1890.

Men playing on a rink in St. Moritz, Switzerland. 1947. From LIFE.

Players in Detroit, 1949. It’s too bad that the Olympic players of today do not dress up like this for their own matches.

While it’s fun to hate on the sport, you should definitely try it out if you ever get the opportunity (how often do you get to play medieval sports anyways?). If you’re in the Seattle area, the Granite Curling Club has ongoing open leagues and classes that are available.

More info:
Granite Curling Club
1440 North 128th Street
Seattle, WA 98133-7621
(206) 362-2446

For context, you should also read the original article that the pictures were shot for: LIFE Issue Jul 12, 1963

In the following issue that was published that year, there were some humorous letters to the editor in regards to the article.

“Each year when you go back to the surf, there is a certain amount of fear of the waves to conquer. Anyone who hasn’t been on the waves in quite a while and says he’s not afraid when he first returns is a liar.”

“I had an attache case once and found that the more I kept it around, the more things I found to put in it and bring home from the office. So I put it away and get along just fine without it.”

Source: LIFE. You can also see some of his artwork on surferart.com.

Interestingly there is no mention of the whisky in it, and there are only a few references to other types of alcohol which only seemed to be used rarely for toasts, holidays, and cooking.

From a section where he is describing part of the cabin at Cape Royds (where the cases were found):

My room contained the bulk of our library, the chronometers, the chronometer watches, barograph, and the electric recording thermometer; there was ample room for a table and the whole made a most comfortable cabin. On the roof we stowed those of our scientific instruments which were not in use such as theodolites, spare thermometers, dip circles, &c. The gradual accumulation of weight produced a distinct sag in the roof, which sometimes seemed to threaten collapse as I sat inside, but no notice was taken and nothing happened. On the roof of the dark room we stowed all our photographic gear and our few cases of wine, which were only drawn upon on special occasions such as Mid winter Day. pg. 85

Maybe the wine above was the whisky? Earlier he also describes a situation where brandy is fed to one of the ponies named Chinaman, who had fallen in ice cold water:

Mackay started to try and get the pony Chinaman across the crack when it was only about six inches wide, but the animal suddenly took fright, reared up on his hind legs, and backing towards the edge of the floe, which had at that moment opened to a width of a few feet, fell bodily into the ice cold water. It looked as if it was all over with poor Chinaman, but Mackay hung on to the head rope, and Davis, Mawson, Michell and one of the sailors who were on the ice close by rushed to his assistance. The pony managed to get his fore feet on to the edge of the ice-floe. After great difficulty a rope sling was passed underneath him, and then by tremendous exertion he was lifted up far enough to enable him to scramble on to the ice. There he stood, wet and trembling in every limb. A few seconds later the floe closed up against the other one. It was providential that it had not done so during the time that the pony was in the water, for in that case the animal would inevitably have been squeezed to death between the two huge masses of ice. A bottle of brandy was thrown on to the ice from the ship, and half its contents were poured down Chinaman’s throat. pg. 63

Chinaman ended up being the weakest of the horses and was the first to be killed for food:

It can be imagined that the cook for the week had no easy task. His work became more difficult still when we were using ponymeat, for the meat and blood, when boiled up, made a delightful broth, while the fragments of meat sunk to the bottom of the pot. The liquor was much the better part of the dish, and no one had much relish for the little dice of tough and stringy meat, so the cook had to be very careful indeed. Poor old Chinaman was particularly tough and stringy horse. pg. 230

In those days, explorers used animals brought along as transportation and when needed, as a source of food. Shackleton describes this process in detail on pg. 168 if you’re curious.

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton

Some gems:

“Elegance is the same thing in everything – in a house, in a flower, in a horse, in a woman – something that satisfies you esthetically.”

“I like art in every manifestation because I consider it not only lovely to look at but also a great distraction. It can in fact be a total distraction from everyday problems – half an hour for instance in a good art gallery and one forgets everything.”

“I would like my son to follow me but if he thought his life or natural instincts were somewhere else, I wouldn’t be surprised or shocked. As long as he liked doing it, I would be happy.”

“There’s a lot of work and sweat involved in an economic miracle. The world always makes it sounds as though somebody waved a magic wand. But there was no magic wand.”

Source: LIFE

From a journal written in 1908:

Masters of Hounds choose their meets on Boxing Day at places where it is convenient for large crowds to get a glimpse of the scarlet coats and the hounds. It is a great thing to keep up the interest of the people in fox-hunting as far as it can possibly be done, and these popular holiday meets undoubtedly do a great deal towards fostering the love of the chase which is, I think, inherent in the inhabitants of these islands. Another pleasant feature of Christmas-time hunting is to see the boys and girls home from school mounted on their ponies and joining in the glad throng with all the enthusiasm of youth.

They are the keenest of the keen, and we must always remember that the sporting schoolboy of to-day is very likely to be the country gentleman of tomorrow, so we must keep his heart in the right place, and encourage his fondness for hounds and hunting. There are one or two old fogies who will vow that the air reeks with the smell of buns at the Christmas meets, and they eye the small Nimrods with a considerable amount of disfavour. But I think that nearly everyone who has the true interests of the sport at heart is glad to welcome the youngsters. There are older enthusiasts whose business does not allow them to go hunting regularly, but are able to get two or three days’ sport with the hounds at Christmas. Among them are many born fox-hunters, who know as much about the sport as the constant followers. To see them enjoying their favourite pastime adds to the delights of Yuletide hunting.

On the attire:

Mounted hunt followers typically wear traditional hunting attire. A prominent feature of hunts operating during the formal hunt season (between late October and the end of March) is hunt members wearing ‘colours’. This attire consists of the traditional scarlet coats worn by huntsmen, masters, former masters, whippers-in (regardless of sex), other hunt staff members and male members who have been invited to wear colours as a mark of honour. The coats are also known as Pinks. Ladies generally wear coloured collars on their black or navy coats. These help them stand out from the rest of the field. Various theories about the derivation of this term have been given, ranging from the colour of a weathered scarlet coat to the name of a purportedly famous tailor.

Some hunts, including most hare hunts, use green rather than red jackets. The colour of breeches (riding pants) vary from hunt to hunt and are generally of one colour, though two or three colours throughout the year may be permitted. Boots are generally English dress boots (no laces). For the men they are black with brown leather tops (called tan tops), and for the ladies, black with a patent black leather top of similar proportion to the men. Additionally, the number of buttons is significant. The Master of the hunt wears a scarlet coat with four brass buttons while the huntsman and other professional staff wear five. Amateur whippers-in also wear four buttons.

Another differentiation in dress between the amateur and professional staff is found in the ribbons at the back of the hunt cap. The professional staff wear their hat ribbons down, while amateur staff and members of the field wear their ribbons up.

Those members not entitled to wear colours, dress in a black hunt coat and unadorned black buttons for both men and ladies, generally with pale breeches. Boots are all English dress boots and have no other distinctive look. Some hunts also further restrict the wear of formal attire to weekends and holidays and use ratcatcher all other times.

Other members of the mounted field follow strict rules of clothing etiquette. For example, those under eighteen will wear tweed jackets or ratcatcher all season. Those over eighteen will wear ratcatcher during Autumn hunting from late August until the Opening Meet, normally around November 1. From the Opening Meet they will switch to formal hunting attire where entitled members will wear scarlet and the rest black or navy. The highest honour is to be awarded the hunt button by the Hunt Master. This means you can then wear scarlet if male, or the hunt collar if female (colour varies from hunt to hunt) and buttons with the hunt crest on them.

Here are some older photos taken during a fox hunt in 1949.

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The Jaguar XKSS was a road-going version of the Jaguar D-Type racing car.

After Jaguar withdrew from racing the company offered the remaining, unfinished chassis as the roadgoing Jaguar XKSS, by making changes to the racers: adding an extra seat, another door, a full-width windshield and folding top, as concessions to practicality. However, on the evening of 12 February 1957, a fire broke out at the Browns Lane plant destroying nine of the twenty-five cars that had already been completed or were semi-completed. Production is thought to have included 53 customer D-types, 18 factory team cars, and 16 XKSS versions.

From wikipedia:

The tradition started in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States, tied with America’s Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit, and four years younger than the 6abc IKEA Thanksgiving Day Parade in Philadelphia. The three-hour event is held in New York City starting at 9:00 a.m. EST on Thanksgiving Day…

In the 1920s many of Macy’s department store employees were first-generation immigrants. Proud of their new American heritage, they wanted to celebrate the United States holiday of Thanksgiving with the type of festival their parents had loved in Europe.

In 1924, the inaugural parade was staged by the store. Employees and professional entertainers marched from 145th Street in Harlem to Macy’s flagship store on 34th Street dressed in vibrant costumes. There were floats, professional bands and live animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo. At the end of that first parade, as has been the case with every parade since, Santa Claus was welcomed into Herald Square. At this first parade, however, the Jolly Old Elf was enthroned on the Macy’s balcony at the 34th Street store entrance, where he was then “crowned” “King of the Kiddies.” With an audience of over a quarter of a million people, the parade was such a success that Macy’s declared it would become an annual event.

More reading on the WSJ for this year’s parade: Part 1, Part 2

Happy Thanksgiving!

The first series are a set of photographs taken around different parts of the midwest here in the U.S.

Young retrievers in training.

There was no info attached to these pictures, but I would assume that these people are out in the Scottish Highlands and that they’re upper class or royalty. Does anyone recognize them? The photographer was also very focused on the woman who was dressed in a heavy wool jacket and long dress – maybe she was important and famous, or maybe he thought the idea that a woman out hunting was novel enough to take pictures of for the magazine.

I would guess that this last series was probably taken somewhere in the Germany/Austria region pre WW2, based off the landscape and dress of the hunters. Members of some hunting clubs in these areas still dress up in similar clothing on trips out into the field.

They’re going to use this owl to hunt. Using trained birds of prey like this has always interested me, particularly the Mongolian tribes which use eagles.

View more pictures here: http://images.google.com/images?q=small+game+hunting&q=source%3Alife

From wikipedia:

As part of the Dash 80’s demonstration program, Bill Allen invited representatives of the Aircraft Industries Association (AIA) and International Air Transport Association to the Seattle’s 1955 Seafair and Gold Cup Hydroplane Races held on Lake Washington on August 6, 1955. The Dash-80 was scheduled to perform a simple flyover, but Boeing test pilot Alvin “Tex” Johnston instead performed a barrel roll to show off the jet airliner.

The next day, Allen summoned Johnston to his office and told him not to perform such a maneuver again, notwithstanding Johnston’s assertion that doing so was completely safe (”It’s a one-g maneuver. It’s absolutely nonhazardous, but it’s very impressive,” explained Johnston to Allen).

To date the only other four engine jet transport aircraft known to have been rolled is Concorde which was extensively rolled during testing by both British and French test-pilots. Other big four engine jet aircraft have done barrel rolls; for instance, the Avro Vulcan XA890 was rolled by Roly Falk on the first day of the 1955 Farnborough Airshow, but it was a bomber. The barrel roll story appears on a video called Frontiers of Flight – The Jet Airliner, produced by the National Air and Space Museum in association with the Smithsonian Institution in 1992.

The legacy of the 707 barrel roll lives on: Boeing Chief Test Pilot John Cashman has stated that just before he piloted the maiden flight of the Boeing 777 on June 12, 1994, his last instructions from then-Boeing President Phil Condit were “No rolls.”

Video of the event.

Photo taken from the cockpit while the plane was halfway through the maneuver.

Tex Johnston had an accomplished career in aviation in both the military and private sectors, and even won the Thompson Trophy race in 1946.

Photos are from the LIFE archive.