Monday, May 31, 2010

Brooklands Racing Circuit

On June 18th 1907 - the world's first purpose-built motor racing circuit was opened in England. Brooklands, in Surrey, was considered to be one of the seven wonders of the modern age. Today the track is in pieces; the ruins acting as a shattered window to a bygone age. The once majestic banking has been dissected by busy roads, supermarkets and a business park. The people of Brooklands town go about their lives almost entirely unaware of the significance held by the moss-covered monuments, which surround their every waking moment. The track was the brainchild of a local racing enthusiast called Hugh Locke King. He had two important assets: a large wallet and an even larger back garden. After witnessing the insanity of the European road races, he decided the time was right to bring motorsport to Britain. In just 9 months, 1500 laborers created a circuit 2-miles in length, with banked corners that reached a height of over 27ft. Locke King's 300 acre back garden had become the world's first permanent racing.

The sheer enormity of the circuit took many by surprise. "Bare figures convey no sense of its stupendous size, and words must fail to describe the impression that the finished track creates at first view in its nakedness, one finds no measure of its size", wrote a journalist for "The Motor".

And so it was that motorsport was born in Britain. For 32 glorious years (give or take a stoppage for World War I) Brooklands existed as Britain's finest motor racing circuit and testing venue. As an oval track, the enormous straights and long, high banked corners enabled cars to run flat out, something that was unachievable anywhere else in Europe at the time. Brooklands became the home of Sir Malcolm Campbell's workshops and it was there that he tested his Bluebird Land Speed Record cars (via grandprix.com)


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Four wheeling (1941)

The Uncomfortable Truth of War

Latrine Ditch; Eastern Front; Poland 1915

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Swimming Beauty: Gene Tierney

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Jean Seberg

Marlene Dietrich

Photograph taken by her lover Mercedes de Acosta, Paris 1933.

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Shirley Grey

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Dennis Hopper Gone at 74

CNN is reporting that Dennis Hopper past away this morning from prostate cancer.  He was 74.

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Jane Mansfield

Jack Smith inspects bruise on Jane Mansfield’s thigh

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Friday, May 28, 2010

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Monday, May 24, 2010

Gregory Peck

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Sean Connery

Oriana Fallaci: So then, Sean, let’s finish with a little test: the names of three men & three women whom you admire, for whom you feel respect & envy.  Sean Connery: The first is Khrushchev. That sense of humor of his, that appetite for living, that non-conformism. Great man. The second is Stanley Matthews, the soccer player. He’s 51, and still plays soccer. I’d like to be him. The third is Picasso: to me he has the same virtues as Khrushchev.  As for women…let’s see…women…let’s see…odd: you know, I can’t think of a single one? Yet I like them a lot, I respect them, I esteem them, I often find them superior to men. I’m one of those who still find women devilishly attractive, irreplaceable…well, that must be why. I mean that, whenever I see a woman, I can never get away from the sex element. The liking and even the admiration, even the respect, I feel for a woman always has sexual origins. A character like me, who loves life, appetite, and strength, can’t get away from sexual desires. And so, when he stops to assess a woman, he can never make out where that thing finishes and pure admiration begins. Do you see what I mean? Khrushchev doesn’t provoke any sexual desires in me, nor does Matthews, nor does Picasso. With them there isn’t that alarming little complication. Alarming. Isn’t it?  Fallaci: Eh, yes. Alarming.  Connery: In fact, I find women very alarming, very worrying. Always. And picking out one I admire and nothing else…let’s see…yes: Greta Garbo. For her talent, her dignity, her silence. And yet, no, even in her case I can’t get away from the fact that if I’d ever been close to her…well…in short…I’d have been very attracted to her, apart from her talent, her dignity, her silence. So, after all, the choice doesn’t stand. Phew! Tell you what we’ll do: we’ll forget about the women for a moment and take the names of two more men. One is Hitchcock and the other is Noel Coward. And now let’s go and have a beer.  -Paris magazine, March, 1965

Oriana Fallaci: So then, Sean, let’s finish with a little test: the names of three men & three women whom you admire, for whom you feel respect & envy.

Sean Connery: The first is Khrushchev. That sense of humor of his, that appetite for living, that non-conformism. Great man. The second is Stanley Matthews, the soccer player. He’s 51, and still plays soccer. I’d like to be him. The third is Picasso: to me he has the same virtues as Khrushchev.

As for women…let’s see…women…let’s see…odd: you know, I can’t think of a single one? Yet I like them a lot, I respect them, I esteem them, I often find them superior to men. I’m one of those who still find women devilishly attractive, irreplaceable…well, that must be why. I mean that, whenever I see a woman, I can never get away from the sex element. The liking and even the admiration, even the respect, I feel for a woman always has sexual origins. A character like me, who loves life, appetite, and strength, can’t get away from sexual desires. And so, when he stops to assess a woman, he can never make out where that thing finishes and pure admiration begins. Do you see what I mean? Khrushchev doesn’t provoke any sexual desires in me, nor does Matthews, nor does Picasso. With them there isn’t that alarming little complication. Alarming. Isn’t it?

Fallaci: Eh, yes. Alarming.

Connery: In fact, I find women very alarming, very worrying. Always. And picking out one I admire and nothing else…let’s see…yes: Greta Garbo. For her talent, her dignity, her silence. And yet, no, even in her case I can’t get away from the fact that if I’d ever been close to her…well…in short…I’d have been very attracted to her, apart from her talent, her dignity, her silence. So, after all, the choice doesn’t stand. Phew! Tell you what we’ll do: we’ll forget about the women for a moment and take the names of two more men. One is Hitchcock and the other is Noel Coward. And now let’s go and have a beer.

-Paris magazine, March, 1965

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Clark Gable

Monday, May 17, 2010

Mondays are a drag...

Dorothy Lamour + friend, 1938.

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louise brooks

Sunday, May 16, 2010