‘Olden Days’ image gallery that the over 60s will enjoy

Enjoy some brilliant images captured in the ‘olden days’. This page has a range of fun and delightful shots of everything that the over 60s will love and reminisce.

If you would like to share your vintage images with us, email the team at info@60plusclub.com.au.

Note: Photography credit is referenced in each image or caption. 60+Club does not own rights or claim ownership of the below images.

 

Louis Armstrong playing trumpet for his wife Lucille Wilson in front of the Sphinx at the pyramids of Giza, Egypt, in 1961.
Photograph by Harry Warnecke.

 

Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh relax on the set of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’, circa 1951.

 

3DB Top 40 music hits poster 1969

 

Johnny Cash, on his farm in San Antonio Texas, 1959. Photograph by Don Hunstein.

 

Jessica Lange, France, circa 1970.

 

IBM console from the NSA, 1971.

 

Bondi Junction in the 1940s. Looking west down Oxford St from Bronte Rd.
Image source: Sydney Morning Herald

 

Old 16mm footage in the 1940s that includes Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane.

Old 16mm vacation films were discovered at a garage sale in San Jose, CA by Tim Peddy and digitally converted courtesy of The California Pioneers of Santa Clara County. The unknown photographer traveled throughout 1940’s Australia, including Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. All Rights Reserved.

 

Grace Kelly on horseback on set of a film, probably ‘Mogambo’, circa 1953.

 

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, 1950s. Kodachrome by Chalmers Butterfield.

 

Footage of Construction Workers on the Historic Chrysler Building circa 1929-30

New York City’s Chrysler Building, one of the city’s most iconic skyscrapers, was built in a remarkably short time. Foundation work began in November 1928, and the building officially opened in May 1930. Even more remarkably, the steelwork went up in just six months in the summer of 1929 at an average rate of four floors a week.

At 1,046 feet (318.9 m), the Art Deco-style skyscraper was the world’s tallest building for 11 months before it was surpassed by the Empire State Building in 1931.It is the tallest brick building in the world with a steel framework.

Fox Movietone’s sound cameras visited the construction site several times in 1929 and 1930, staging a number of shots to maximize viewers’ sense of the spectacular heights. Movietone almost never put somebody in front of a camera without giving them something to say, so a number of scenes include some staged dialogue.

Scenes include:
0:35 A construction worker is posed out on the end of a beam on the north side of the building. Another worker supplies his words (or thoughts). When it’s over, he gingerly makes his way off.

1:32 Another shot, taken the same day, shows plasterers and bricklayers posing for the camera. Far below, trains can be seen on the Sixth Avenue El. The Avenue itself is mostly tenament buildings.

2:09 A pair of construction workers, posing precariously on the edge of some pipework, give a few facts and figures about the building.

3:05 Workers wrestle on of the 61th-floor eagles into place. Far below, streetcars run up and down Lexington Avenue.

7:55 Workers on the scaffolding surrounding the needle spire that, for 11 months, made the Chrysler building the tallest building in the world.

Video source: Speed Graphic Film and Video

 

Girl cutting a Sunbeam 1886.

 

 

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Four men climbing Brooklyn Bridge as part of a test for those wishing to be appointed to paint the bridge, 1926.

 

Flirting outside of J. Mendel & Sons, London, 1960s.

 

Father and daughter riding Penny Farthing’s together, England, circa mid 1900s.

 

The famous Hollywood sign, which originally said ‘Hollywoodland’ advertising the opening of a housing development on Mulholland Drive, 1924. The last four letters were removed in 1949.

 

Ernie Hudson, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis on the set of Ghostbusters, 1984.

 

Elvis Presley, Priscilla Presley, and Lisa Marie Presley relaxing at home, 1968.

 

Elvis in uniform, lying on an army cot 1958.

 

Diana Ross and the Supremes looking fabulous, 1967.

 

Coco Chanel, French couturier, circa 1936.

 

Christopher Walken at 10 years old, 1953.

 

Building the Flatiron, 1902.

 

British model and actress Jean Shrimpton walks barefoot in the rain down the Kings Road, Chelsea, London, 1964.

 

Brigitte Bardot at Pablo Picasso’s studio on the Cote d’Azur during the Cannes Film Festival, 1956.

 

Morning bathers in Las Vegas watch the mushroom cloud from an atomic test just 75 miles away, 1953. The cloud had a brilliant red and purple cast.

 

 

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Audrey Hepburn gets a kiss from her pet fawn, Ip, 1958.

 

Albert Einstein as a Professor, 1931.

 

Salvador Dali at his home in Figueres, Spain.

 

Russian writer, philosopher, and mystic Leo Tolstoy telling his grandchildren a story, circa 1890.

 

Relaxing by the Seine with a view of Notre-Dame de Paris, 1980.

 

Receipt from Elvis Presley’s second recording session for Sun Records, 1954.

 

Playboy Bunny girls arriving at a London Airport, 1966.

 

Paul McCartney playing piano at the wedding reception of Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach, 1981.

 

A young passenger asks a station attendant for directions, on a railway platform in Bristol, 1936.

 

The Eiffel Tower at twilight, 1932. Photograph by George Brassai.

 

A panda discussing the problems of the day over the washing line with a young admirer, 1939.

 

 

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A horse-drawn cart passes through a section cut out of the base of a giant sequoia at Yosemite Park, CA, circa 1879.

 

In the ’50s black musicians were often limited to small nightclubs. The Mocambo wouldn’t book Ella Fitzgerald until Marilyn Monroe said she would take a front table every night Ella played. The owner said yes, and Marilyn was true to her word.

 

James Dean sitting on his Porche Speedster in Los Angeles, California, 1955.

 

President Abraham Lincoln, Major Allan Pinkerton, and General John A. McClernand visit the Union camp at Sharpsburg, MD, 1862. Lincoln visited the camp in an attempt to persuade General George McClellan to take his army on the attack.

 

View of Circular Quay showing trams in operation, c 1926. Image source: State Records NSW.

 

Construction of the Sydney Opera House, Sydney, N.S.W. – circa 1970. Image source: Art Gallery NSW – NSW Government

 

Sydney harbour bridge construction, 1930.
By 1930, Sydney’s ferries faced a bleak future as the Bridge began to span the Harbour. In 1927, ferries had carried 47 million passengers to the North Shore. Today the figure is closer to 14 million.
The Bridge took eight years to build, from 1925 to 1932, including the approaches and supporting roads. Over 2,000 people were employed to work on the bridge, including engineers, boilermakers, ironworkers and stonemasons.

 

Tram Conductress, circa 1942. Image source: Vic Solomons Collection

 

Elizabeth Taylor posing with a cigarette during production of, ‘The Girl Who Had Everything,’ 1952.

 

Mid 60s fashion, France, with Twiggy on the right.

 

English boy scouts collecting funds for those affected by the Titanic disaster, 1912.

 

Elvis signing autographs on a boys head, 1959.

 

 

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Queen Elizabeth II at a garden party in Sydney, Australia, 1954

 

Marlon Brando in costume for, ‘The Wild One’, 1953

 

A London bus makes its way along Fleet Street in heavy smog, 1952.

 

Women using compact mirrors in a crowd to catch sight of Queen Elizabeth II, 1966. Photograph by James P. Blair.

 

Al Pacino’s life in pictures. Submitted by @officialmafiapage

 

English children huddle in a trench during a German air raid, 1940.

 

Two West German girls chat with their grandparents in the eastern zone, separated by a barbed wire barricade, 1961.

 

The first ever issue of Vogue, 1892. They hoped to attract “the sage as well as the debutante.”

 

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip, married since 1947.

 

One Night Cough Syrup’ with some interesting ingredients. Manufactured in Baltimore, 1888.

 

A penniless mother hides her face in shame after putting her children up for sale, Chicago, 1948.

This photo was taken in August of 1948 and published in a Chicago newspaper. This truly encapsulates the experience of those families still down on their luck years after the war.

The woman, Lucille Chalifoux, was only 24 years old, but pregnant with her fifth child at the time. Lucille and her husband Ray, age 40, were facing eviction from their apartment at the time. Ray had lost his job as a coal truck driver. Faced with the prospect of being homeless – and the daunting task of feeding so many mouths – they chose to auction off their own children.

On the top step are Lana, 6, and Rae, 5. Below are Milton, 4, and Sue Ellen, 2.

Within two years, all four of the children pictured, as well as the child she was carrying, were sold off for as little as $2 or given to other homes.

 

 

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