California Photo Archives - LIFE

Diving For Abalone: A Vanishing Tradition

Bill Syken — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 13:42:56 +0000

Modern times have been hard on California’s abalone population. The warming oceans have hurt its food supply and led the shellfish to being listed as endangered. In 2017 California halted its abalone fishing season, and it has not resumed.

The precarious state of the population lends a heavier type of nostalgia to this 1944 LIFE magazine story about the joys of abalone diving.

LIFE photographer John Florea tagged along for an abalone expedition at Point Dume, a state beach in Malibu. The hunting party was a glamorous and photogenic one, as it included actor Peter Coe and actresses Martha O’Driscoll and Ramsay Ames.

LIFE wrote glowingly of the prize they sought: “Of all the seafoods that come from the Pacific Ocean, abalone…is probably most prized by Californians….This is partly because of its flavor, like that of a good scallop, and partly because it is hard to get. The abalone is a big stubborn snail that clings to underwater rocks, has to be pried loose with crowbars.”

As the above paragraph made clear, retrieving abalone requires some expertise. For the LIFE story the group of Hollywood actors were led on their quest by veteran abalone fishermen. And it was a good thing. “The girls spent hours diving, tugging and getting their hair wet,” LIFE wrote. “They finally gave up and let the experts supply the food.”

The actors were able to help more with the picnic. The diving was followed by shucking and trimming and breading and frying. Florea’s photos capture every step in this bygone tradition.

California is working to restore the abalone population and there is hope that its red abalone season could return in 2026.

Actors Peter Coe and Martha O’Driscoll watched the hunt for abalone off the California coast, 1944.

John Florea/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Bill O’Connor handing Martha O’Driscoll two abalones that were freshly plucked from the ocean rocks in Southern California, 1944.

John Florea/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actors Martha O’Driscoll and Peter Coe during an abalone dive off Southern California, 1944.

John Florea/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A crew of abalone divers enjoyed the waves off the Southern California coast, 1944.

John Florea/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Freshly caught abalone are removed from their shells in preparation for a California beach picnic, 1944.

John Florea/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Freshly caught abalone were trimmed and sliced in preparation for a California beach picnic, 1944.

John Florea/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The actresses breaded the freshly-caught abalone in preparation for cooking on a California beach, 1944.

John Florea/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actors Ramsay Ames, Martha O’Driscoll and Peter Coe fried abalone steaks during a California beach picnic, 1944.

John Florea/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Abalone shells at a picnic at Point Dume beach in Southern California, 1944.

John Florea/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Martha O’Driscoll, Ramsay Ames, and Peter Coe enjoyed their sandwiches of freshly caught abalone in Southern California, 1944.

John Florea/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Actors Martha O’Driscoll, Peter Coe, and Ramsay Ames during an abalone picnic, Southern California, 1944.

John Florea/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post Diving For Abalone: A Vanishing Tradition appeared first on LIFE.

“The Elements of Utopia”: Nina Leen in California, 1945

Bill Syken — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 15:01:11 +0000

California’s population growth was one of defining trends of 20th-century America. From 1900 to 1950 the population increased 500%, going from two million to ten million. Then things really exploded, and by the year 2000 the state’s population had climbed to 34 million, making California the most populous state in America.

People have been lured west for a variety of reasons, from the gold rush to Hollywood dreams, but beyond riches and fame there has been also the promise of the sunny California lifestyle, one captured by LIFE staff photographer Nina Leen in a piece that ran in the Oct. 22, 1945 issue.

The unreservedly enthusiastic thirteen-page essay was titled “The California Way of Life,” and it’s not hard to imagine that the article affected some readers the way news of gold in Sutter’s Mill did in the 1800s. The story began with these words, which could have come from a state tourist brochure:

Californians live in a land where the sun shines 355 days a year, where the thermometer seldom falls below 46 degrees, and where towering mountains and endless beaches flank a countryside of incredible fertility. Against the background of these unique natural advantages, Californians have evolved a unique way of life which is physically the most comfortable and attractive way of life enjoyed in any region in the U.S.

It’s worth noting that this story came out just a few short months after the end of World War II, a time when readers might thirst for a new beginning. (The issue also included a story an another feel-good imagination-tickler: “victory lingerie.”)

The article rhapsodized about how Californians spent as much time outdoors as they did inside, dressed primarily for comfort, and could enjoy themselves at all income levels. An editor’s note told readers that “this was Nina Leen’s first trip to California,” and it showed in her sense of joy and wonder at these lives lived by the pool.

The story included a section on the California car culture that made “conventional city life almost obsolete,” LIFE said. “Living in a natural paradise where highways connect modern communities and farms with some of the most beautiful scenery in the U.S., the Southern Californian has created a way of life that, on the physical side, has at least some of the elements of Utopia.”

All these years later, LIFE’s view on the joys of driving in Southern California might be the most dated aspect of this story. Visions of Utopia have been replaced by environmental concerns and also by complaints about spending half your life stuck in traffic.

In the 21st century California has slowed its population growth. The total now stands around 39 million, and the numbers even dipped some during the COVID pandemic. The hard truth about Utopias is that they don’t exist (the literal meaning of the word is “no place”). But as Leen’s essay shows, sometimes pictures can make you believe they do.

Women and girls, in convertible at a drive-in, happily greet female car hop, who has just brought their drinks, from a story on California living, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Essay on California living, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This group drove a Model T that they had souped up with extra carburetors and other devices, California, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A 16-year-old just out of the pool, shot for an essay on California living, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Essay on California living, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The wife of MGM’s musical director painted a portrait of her daughter Carol; the photo was shot for an essay on California living, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Colleciton/Shutterstock

Essay on California living, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Tourists looking at the mountains in Yosemite Valley Park, California, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Essay on California living, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Cars moving along a highway that leads to Lake Arrowhead, California, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Tourists looking at the mountains in Yosemite Valley Park, California, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Customers visiting a drive-in beverage stand, California, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

MGM musical director Herbert Stothart at his Santa Monica home, shot for an essay on California living, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Two young women using a wishing well, California, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Rancher Arthur Campbell watching his daughter riding a horse, California, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A lone wooden chair on hillside overlooking the hazy ruggedness of the Santa Lucia Mountain Range between Carmel and San Simeon, California, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Essay on California living, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A young couple filling their gas tank at a gas station shaped like airplane, California, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post “The Elements of Utopia”: Nina Leen in California, 1945 appeared first on LIFE.

The American Northwest: Vintage Color Photos From an Epic Road Trip

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 15:27:00 +0000

In August 1961, LIFE magazine published an ambitious, 10-page tribute to the American Northwest with the dramatic title: “Where God Sat When He Made America.” The title of the article, LIFE claimed, was inspired by a phrase uttered by an awe-struck visitor to Glacier National Park. Now, there’s nothing unusual, cheesy or suspect about the deep emotions that grand vistas can inspire in most anyone. Teddy Roosevelt, after all, reportedly wept upon first seeing Yosemite Valley.

And we can say this about the brilliant color photographs in this gallery, shot by long-time LIFE staffer J.R. Eyerman: they’re wonderful.

When he was a boy, Eyerman took thousands of pictures in Yellowstone, Glacier and other national parks while traveling and camping with his dad. Decades later, the professional photographer spent weeks in late 1960 traveling throughout Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Washington, and even as far south as San Francisco for the magazine’s tribute to “the stunning majesty of the Northwest.”

We hope you enjoy the view.

Not published in LIFE. Photo made for, but not published in, a LIFE magazine article on the American Northwest, fall 1960." caption="J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/04/140414-northwest-roadtrip-01-1024x810.jpg" alt="" />

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Photo made for, but not published in, a LIFE magazine article on the American Northwest, fall 1960." caption="J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/04/140414-northwest-roadtrip-02.jpg" alt="" />

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Photo made for, but not published in, a LIFE magazine article on the American Northwest, fall 1960." caption="J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/04/140414-northwest-roadtrip-03-1024x673.jpg" alt="" />

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Yosemite Valley, 1960." caption="J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Yosemite Valley, 1960." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/04/140414-northwest-roadtrip-04-1024x662.jpg" alt="" />

Yosemite Valley, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Photo made for, but not published in, a LIFE magazine article on the American Northwest, fall 1960." caption="J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/04/140414-northwest-roadtrip-05.jpg" alt="" />

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Golden Gate Bridge, 1960." caption="J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Golden Gate Bridge, 1960." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/04/140414-northwest-roadtrip-06-1024x662.jpg" alt="" />

Golden Gate Bridge, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Photo made for, but not published in, a LIFE magazine article on the American Northwest, fall 1960." caption="J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/04/140414-northwest-roadtrip-07-1024x833.jpg" alt="" />

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Photo made for, but not published in, a LIFE magazine article on the American Northwest, fall 1960." caption="J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/04/140414-northwest-roadtrip-08-1024x676.jpg" alt="" />

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Caption from LIFE. "At Yosemite National Park, four bucks gather to drink at the edge of the Merced Rover under the rock formations of El Capitan (far left) and North Dome (center, right) which rise above the unspoiled wilderness."" caption="J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="At Yosemite National Park, four bucks gathered to drink at the edge of the Merced Rover under the rock formations of El Capitan (far left) and North Dome (center, right)." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/04/140414-northwest-roadtrip-09-1024x814.jpg" alt="At Yosemite National Park, four bucks gather to drink at the edge of the Merced Rover under the rock formations of El Capitan (far left) and North Dome (center, right) which rise above the unspoiled wilderness." />

At Yosemite National Park, four bucks gathered to drink at the edge of the Merced Rover under the rock formations of El Capitan (far left) and North Dome (center, right).

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Photo made for, but not published in, a LIFE magazine article on the American Northwest, fall 1960." caption="J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/04/140414-northwest-roadtrip-10-1024x830.jpg" alt="" />

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Photo made for, but not published in, a LIFE magazine article on the American Northwest, fall 1960." caption="J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/04/140414-northwest-roadtrip-11-1024x823.jpg" alt="" />

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Photo made for, but not published in, a LIFE magazine article on the American Northwest, fall 1960." caption="J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/04/140414-northwest-roadtrip-12-1024x662.jpg" alt="" />

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Photo made for, but not published in, a LIFE magazine article on the American Northwest, fall 1960." caption="J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/04/140414-northwest-roadtrip-13-1024x662.jpg" alt="" />

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Photo made for, but not published in, a LIFE magazine article on the American Northwest, fall 1960." caption="J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/04/140414-northwest-roadtrip-141-1024x662.jpg" alt="" />

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Photo made for, but not published in, a LIFE magazine article on the American Northwest, fall 1960." caption="J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/04/140414-northwest-roadtrip-15-1024x808.jpg" alt="" />

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Caption from LIFE. "The monumental Grand Coulee Dam in Washington intercepts the Columbia River and sends its waters rushing down the 1,650-foot-wide spillway. . . ."" caption="J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="he Grand Coulee Dam in Washington intercepted the Columbia River and sent its waters rushing down the 1,650-foot-wide spillway." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/04/140414-northwest-roadtrip-16-1024x662.jpg" alt="The monumental Grand Coulee Dam in Washington intercepts the Columbia River and sends its waters rushing down the 1,650-foot-wide spillway. . . ." />

he Grand Coulee Dam in Washington intercepted the Columbia River and sent its waters rushing down the 1,650-foot-wide spillway.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. The Northwest's Pacific coast, 1960." caption="J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="The Northwest's Pacific coast, 1960." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/04/140414-northwest-roadtrip-17-1024x816.jpg" alt="" />

The Northwest’s Pacific coast, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Photo made for, but not published in, a LIFE magazine article on the American Northwest, fall 1960." caption="J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/04/140414-northwest-roadtrip-18-1024x808.jpg" alt="" />

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Roadside picnic, fall 1960." caption="J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Roadside picnic, fall 1960." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/04/140414-northwest-roadtrip-19-1024x819.jpg" alt="Roadside picnic, fall 1960." />

Roadside picnic, fall 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Photo made for, but not published in, a LIFE magazine article on the American Northwest, fall 1960." caption="J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/04/140414-northwest-roadtrip-20-1024x662.jpg" alt="" />

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Driving through the famed Wawona Tree (est. 2,300 years old), Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park, 1960. The tree fell in 1969." caption="J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Driving through the famed Wawona Tree (est. 2,300 years old), Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park, 1960. The tree fell in 1969." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/04/140414-northwest-roadtrip-21.jpg" alt="Driving through the famed Wawona Tree (est. 2,300 years old), Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park, 1960. The tree fell in 1969." />

Driving through the famed Wawona Tree (est. 2,300 years old), Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park, 1960. The tree fell in 1969.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Photo made for, but not published in, a LIFE magazine article on the American Northwest, fall 1960." caption="J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/04/140414-northwest-roadtrip-22-1024x808.jpg" alt="" />

A scene from a road trip through the American Northwest, 1960.

J.R. Eyerman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post The American Northwest: Vintage Color Photos From an Epic Road Trip appeared first on LIFE.

The Fire Last Time: LIFE in Watts, 1966

Thu, 20 Nov 2014 11:45:31 +0000

The August 1965 Watts Riots (or Watts Rebellion, depending on one’s perspective and politics), were among the bloodiest, costliest and most analyzed uprisings of the notoriously unsettled mid-1960s. Ostensibly sparked by an aggressive traffic stop of a black motorist by white cops, the six-day upheaval resulted in 34 deaths, more than 3,400 arrests and tens of millions of dollars in property damage (back when a million bucks still meant something).

A year after the flames were put out and the smoke cleared from the southern California sky, LIFE revisited the scene of the devastation for a “special section” in its July 15, 1966, issue that the magazine called “Watts: Still Seething.” A good part of that special section featured a series of color photos made by Bill Ray on the streets of Watts: pictures of stylish, even dapper, young men making and hurling Molotov cocktails; of children at play in torched streets and rubble-strewn lots; of wary police and warier residents; of a community struggling to save itself from drugs, gangs, guns, idleness and an enduring, corrosive despair.

In that July 1966 issue, LIFE introduced Ray’s photographs, and Watts itself, in a tone that left no doubt that, whatever else might have happened in the months since the streets were on fire, the future of the district was hardly certain, and the rage that fueled the conflagration had hardly abated:

Before last August the rest of Los Angeles had never heard of Watts. Today, a rock thrown through a Los Angeles store window brings the fearful question: “Is this the start of the next one?” It brings the three armed camps in Los Angeles the police, white civilians, the Negroes face to face for a tense flickering moment. . . .
Whites still rush to gun stores each time a new incident hits the papers. A Beverly Hills sporting goods shop has been sold out of 9mm automatics for months, and the waiting list for pistols runs several pages.
Last week a Negro showed a reporter a .45 caliber submachine gun. “There were 99 more in this shipment,” he said, “and they’re spread around to 99 guys with cars.”
“We know it don’t do no good to burn Watts again,” a young Negro says. “Maybe next time we go up to Beverly Hills.”
Watts seethes with resentments. There is anger toward the paternalism of many job programs and the neglect of Watts needs. There is no public hospital within eight miles and last month Los Angeles voters rejected a proposed $12.3 million bond issue to construct one. When a 6-month-old baby died not long ago because of inadequate medical facilities, the mother’s grief was echoed by a crowd’s outrage. “If it was your baby,” said a Negro confronting a white, “you’d have an ambulance in five minutes.”
Unemployment and public assistance figures invite disbelief in prosperous California. In Watts 24% of the residents were on some form of relief a year ago and that percentage still stands. In Los Angeles the figure is 5%.
[It] takes longer to build a society than to burn one, and fear will be a companion along the way to improvements. “I had started to say it is a beautiful day,” Police Inspector John Powers said, looking out a window, “but beautiful days bring people out and that makes me wish we had rain and winter year-round.”

For his part, Bill Ray, a staff photographer for LIFE from the mid-1960s until the magazine’s demise in the early 1970s, recalled the Watts assignment clearly, and fondly:

“In the mid-nineteen-sixties [Ray told LIFE.com], I shot two major assignments for LIFE in southern California, one after the other, that involved working with young men who were volatile and dangerous. One group was the Hells Angels of San Bernardino the early, hard-core San Berdoo chapter of the gang and the other were the young men who had taken part in the Watts riots the year before.
I did not try to dress like them, act like them or pretend to be tough. I showed great interest in them, and treated them with respect. The main thing was to convince them that I had no connection with the police. The thing that surprised me the most was that, in both cases, as I spent more time with them and got to know them better, I got to like and respect many of them quite a lot. There was a humanity there that we all have inside us. Meeting and photographing different kinds of people has always been the most exciting part of my job. I still love it.
Two big differences in the assignments, though, was that I shot the Hells Angels in black and white which was perfect for their gritty world and “Watts: A Year Later” was in color. Also perfect, because Watts had a lot of color, on the walls, the graffiti, the way people dressed and, of course, my group of bombers who liked to practice making and throwing Molotov cocktails [see slides 17, 18 and 19 in gallery].
Those two assignments documented two utterly marginalized worlds that few people ever get to see up close. There was no job on earth as good as being a LIFE photographer.”

The words painted on the grocery store alerted rioters that the stored was African-American owned.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Watts, Los Angeles, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Young men hung out near Simon Rodia’s Watts Towers, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Watts, Los Angeles, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Young men near Simon Rodia’s Watts Towers, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Watts, Los Angeles, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

William Solomon (right, in his home in Watts) commanded a big Watts street gang, which he openly admitted took an active part in the riot. A champion hurdler in high school, he had no job and was on probation for assault. With two followers shown with him, he later helped at a neighborhood association and used his influence to keep order there and, by his interest, give its program a certain prestige in the streets.”

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Watts, Los Angeles, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The Fire Last Time: Life in Watts, 1966

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Watts, Los Angeles, 1966.

Bill Ray/ Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Watts, Los Angeles, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Booker Griffin (yellow shirt) moved in on an argument between students and police who found the youths carrying heavy boards and suspected a gang fight. He calmed both sides.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Making Molotov cocktails, Watts, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Molotov cocktails in Watts, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

LaRoi Drew Ali refused to join any group, but viewed Christianity as a device to keep African-Americans down. “Even if somebody did rise up on Easter,” he said, “it would just be another white man to kick us.”

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Watts, Los Angeles, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The Fire Last Time: Life in Watts, 1966

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Watts, Los Angeles, 1966.

Bill Ray/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The post The Fire Last Time: LIFE in Watts, 1966 appeared first on LIFE.

LIFE Rides With Hells Angels, 1965

Sat, 08 Nov 2014 13:28:01 +0000

From Jesse James and Butch Cassidy to Scarface and Tony Soprano, outlaws have held an ambiguous place in America’s popular imagination: we fear and loathe the gangster’s appetite for violence; we envy and covet his radical freedom. In early 1965, LIFE photographer Bill Ray and writer Joe Bride spent several weeks with a gang that, to this day, serves as a living, brawling embodiment of our ambivalent relationship with the rebel: Hells Angels.

Here, along with a gallery of remarkable photographs that were shot for LIFE but never ran in the magazine, Ray and Bride recall their days and nights spent with Buzzard, Hambone, Big D and other Angels (as well as their equally tough “old ladies”) at a time when the roar of Harleys and the sight of long-haired bikers was still new and for the average, law-abiding citizen almost unfathomable. The day-to-day existence of these leather-clad hellions was as foreign to most of LIFE magazine’s millions of readers as the lives of, say, Borneo’s headhunters, or nomads of the Gobi Desert.

“This was a new breed of rebel,” Ray told LIFE.com, recalling his time with the Angels. “They didn’t have jobs. They absolutely despised everything that most Americans value and strive for stability, security. They rode their bikes, hung out in bars for days at a time, fought with anyone who messed with them. They were self-contained, with their own set of rules, their own code of behavior. It was extraordinary to be around.”

Ray spent some of the time with the Angels on a ride from San Bernardino (about 40 miles east of Los Angeles) to Bakersfield, Calif., for a major motorcycle rally. The Berdoo-Bakersfield run is a trip of only about 130 miles but in 1965, it would offer enough moments (both placid and violent) for Ray to paint a rare, revelatory portrait of the world’s most legendary motorcycle club in its early days. The way in which the story came about, meanwhile, was as dramatic and unexpected as Bill Ray’s pictures.

“I’d done a story on Big Daddy Roth,” writer Joe Bride recalled, “a genuine L.A. phenomenon and legend in the Southern California car culture. He had a lucrative business designing hot rod-themed decals and cartoon figures. While I was wrapping up the story with Big Daddy, the Angels were in the news. They were accused of terrorizing a small central California town and being major growers and distributors of pot. Big Daddy said he knew a lot of Angels, did business with them and that they were more lost nomads than real criminals. After meeting them, by the way, my take on them was a little bit closer to the prevailing opinion than to Big Daddy’s. . . .”

“I told Big Daddy Roth I’d like to meet the Angels, talk to them about doing a story,” Bride said. “It would be a chance for them to get some recognition, and explain why they did what they did. Not long after the story on Big Daddy ran, in late 1964, Roth called and said, ‘They’ll meet you with conditions.'” Bride met two Angels at Big Daddy’s store. They blindfolded him, put him in a car and drove into the mountains. At a bar “with what looked like 100 bikes parked outside,” no longer blindfolded, Bride met a stocky, long-haired Angel who asked if he shot pool. They played some nine-ball, and Bride beat the guy two out of three games. Bride then negotiated, there in the bar, a relationship where the Hells Angels agreed to allow him and Bill Ray to shadow them. Bride sat back, had a few beers, and then they drove him back to L.A. Not long after that, Ray and Bride began reporting the story.

Ray and Bride spent more than a month with the Angels in the spring of ’65, “mostly on weekends,” Ray remembers, “but the Bakersfield run was around the clock, three days and nights. In Bakersfield, I slept on the floor of the Blackboard Cafe the bar that the Angels basically lived in while they were there.”

“I got along with the Angels,” Ray says today. “I got to like some of them very much, and I think they liked me. I accepted them as they were, and they accepted me. You know, by their standards, I looked pretty funny.”

Ray vividly remembers the moment he truly felt accepted, or as accepted as he was ever going to be, by the Angels. In a confrontation reminiscent of a famous scene in Hunter S. Thompson’s classic 1966 book, Hell’s Angels, when Thompson was almost stomped to death by bikers, Ray says that “he got in a bit of trouble one day, in a bar. Some bikers guys who weren’t Angels saw me taking pictures. They didn’t like it, but they didn’t realize that I was a sort of mascot of the real tough guys. I’d been shooting the Angels for maybe a week at this point. I was about to be attacked by one of these guys when a Hells Angel standing next to me made it clear that if a hair on my head was touched, the other guy was a dead man. From that point on, I felt . . . well, not safe, because I never felt safe with those guys, but as if I’d passed a test, somehow.”

Ray stresses that while the Angels he spent time with smoked pot, and he once saw them “beat the holy hell” out of some other bikers behind a bar, he “never saw these guys involved in anything deeply illegal. Then again, they always had plenty of money for gas and beer. They lived on their bikes that is, when they weren’t hanging out in bars. Their money had to come from somewhere, but none of them ever worked.”

The FBI has contended that the Angels and other motorcycle gangs are involved in extortion, drug dealing, trafficking stolen goods and other criminal activities.

“There’s a romance to the idea of the biker on the open road,” Ray says. “It’s similar to the romance that people attach to cowboys and the West which, of course, is totally out of proportion to the reality of riding fences and punching cows. But there’s something impressive about these Harley-Davidsons and bikers heading down the highway. You see the myth played out in movies, like Easy Rider, which came out a few years after I photographed the Angels. You know, the trail never ends for the cowboy, and the open road never ends for the Angels. They just ride. Where they’re going hardly matters. It’s not an easy life, but it’s what they choose. It’s theirs. And everyone else can get out of the way or go to hell.”

—gallery by Liz Ronk

Hells Angels, California, 1965.

Bill Ray Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Hells Angels, California, 1965.

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Big D, a member of the San Bernardino, a.k.a, "Berdoo" Hells Angels, during a ride from San Bernardino to Bakersfield, California, 1965." caption="Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock" title="Big D, a member of the San Bernardino, a.k.a, "Berdoo" Hells Angels, during a ride from San Bernardino to Bakersfield, California, 1965." src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/10/hells-angels-03-680x1024.jpg" alt="Hells Angels" />

Big D, a member of the San Bernardino, a.k.a, “Berdoo” Hells Angels, during a ride from San Bernardino to Bakersfield, California, 1965.

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Inside the Hells Angels’ San Bernardino clubhouse, 1965.

Bill Ray— Life Pictures/Shutterstock

“Little Jim” drinks beer from a waste basket at the Angels’ clubhouse in San Bernardino, 1965.

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Hells Angels’ “old ladies,” California, 1965.

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Two “Berdoo” Hells Angels clown for Bill Ray behind a bar during a stop on their run from San Bernardino to Bakersfield, 1965.

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Hells Angel “Hambone” posed during a ride from San Bernardino to Bakersfield, Calif., 1965.

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Hells Angels and locals outside the Blackboard Cafe in Bakersfield, Calif., 1965.

Bill Ray— Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Hells Angels, their “old ladies” and hangers-on outside the Blackboard in Bakersfield, California, 1965.

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Hells Angels cruise north from San Bernardino to Bakersfield, 1965.

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A man in Bakersfield, Calif., cast what appeared to be an appraising eye over the Hells Angels’ Harley-Davidsons, 1965.

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Hells Angels

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Sonny, the leader of the San Bernardino Hells Angels, needed stitches in his head after crashing his bike, California, 1965.

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Women—including one with a bandaged nose—in a bar while male bikers gathered in a separate room, California, 1965.

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A sheriff’s officer kept an eye on the proceedings outside a bar that the Hells Angels had made their headquarters-away-from-home during their San Bernardino-to-Bakersfield run, 1965.

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Two women who were riding with the Hells Angels at a bar in 1965. “This is one of my favorites from the whole shoot,” Bill Ray says. “There’s something kind of sad and at the same time defiant about the atmosphere.”

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Hells Angels

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Outside the Blackboard Cafe at night, Bakersfield, Calif., 1965.

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Hells Angels

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A teenager seems drawn by the Angels and their machines, California, 1965.

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Two “reputable” motorcyclists photographing the Hells Angels, 1965.

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

During their ’65 run to Bakersfield, the Angels pushed their way into a motorcycle hillclimb, in which bikers race up an often insanely steep incline. The Angels wanted to take part; organizers said no (but finally relented).

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A biker named Roseberry sported a “one percenter” patch—a badge of honor for the Angels and other motorcycle clubs whose members revel in and celebrate their outlaw status, 1965.

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A biker named Roseberry getting fingerprinted, 1965.

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

An Angel getting frisked.

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A Hells Angel—with his “old lady” holding on tight—pulled a wheelie in downtown Bakersfield, Calif., 1965.

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Bikers (including Sonny, left, with a bandaged head) and their “old ladies,” California, 1965.

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Hells Angels

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

“Buzzard” and an “old lady,” California, 1965.

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A Hells Angel salute, 1965.

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

“Buzzard” prepared to leave Bakersfield as cops and townspeople watched, 1965.

Bill Ray; Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The post LIFE Rides With Hells Angels, 1965 appeared first on LIFE.

The Magic of the Off-Screen Trampoline: A Young Man Soars Above The Beach

Sun, 01 Jun 2014 16:03:38 +0000

With most pictures—and certainly with most pictures made by professional photographers—we can grasp what’s happening inside the frame the moment we lay eyes on it. If the photograph is in focus, and if the action or subject of the picture is remotely discernible, it takes the eye a mere instant to tell the brain what’s going on.

That’s a couple kissing. There’s a sunset. That’s a baseball player sliding into home.

But some photos capture scenes so unfamiliar so outside the realm of what we usually see, or expect that it can take a while to wrap our minds around what’s depicted. Case in point: This Loomis Dean picture, made on the beach in Santa Monica in 1948. We know, when we first encounter it, that the photograph depicts a beach scene. We know that the central figure in the composition is a human being. But many of us, for a good while, are unable to understand, to really grasp, what’s happening.

The caption “A man flies off of a trampoline” explains how that fellow ended up there, soaring effortlessly (it would seem) through the air. But some of us will see this picture for the first time and, for a fleeting moment, before it all becomes clear, we might think we’re seeing . . . what? A misguided diver about to face-plant in the sand? Icarus falling from the sky?

What do you see? And why?

A man flew off a trampoline, Santa Monica, 1948.

Loomis Dean/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The post The Magic of the Off-Screen Trampoline: A Young Man Soars Above The Beach appeared first on LIFE.