Reliving the Past Through Rare Photos

In the age of #metoo – there’s something very creepy about Benny Hill. What you have is a non-threatening older man chasing around scantily clad women in fast-motion and Yakkity-Yak on the saxophone. Benny’s real name is Alfred Hawthorne Hill and he was was born on 21 January 1924 in Southampton, England. His grandfather had been a circus clown. Inspired by his favorite comedian, Jack Benny, Hill changed his name to Benny – and began t seek a career in show business. At one time, the Benny Hill was one of the most widely-viewed shows in the world. Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon were both fans and tried to get him to be a guest on The Tonight Show – but Hill declined because he didn’t want to travel the distance to Los Angeles.

Janis Joplin is remembered as a hard partying rocker chick that was never without a bottle of Southern Comfort in her hand. Her big voice and even bigger onstage attitude was exactly why people were drawn to her, but in her offstage life she was actually a solitary person. After her death Kip Cohen, manager of the Fillmore East, told Rolling Stone that she didn’t like to perform if she didn’t have to. “I remember once she came backstage to see Santana and I said the audience would love it if she just went on unannounced to introduce the group. And the idea of the ‘real’ Janis walking on stage and doing something other than performing, singing, scared her to death. She couldn’t do it. She had a tremendous amount of assurance when she got it all together onstage, but offstage, privately, she seemed to be very frightened, very timid and very naive about a lot of things.”

Before he was drenched in purple haze, Jimi Hendrix was wearing all green while briefly serving in the Army. After running afoul of the law for bopping around in stolen cars Hendrix was given the option of going to jail or enrolling in the Army, he chose the latter. After spending a year with the 101st Airborne Division Hendrix was caught pleasuring himself by his superiors and was discharged. It’s not clear if Hendrix was trying to get caught so he’d be kicked out, or if his superiors were strictly against self pleasure, but whatever the case on May 31 he was set free to unleash his raw guitar power on the world.

In 1955, Marilyn Monroe was on the top of the world. She’d just appeared in The Seven Year Itch, she was out of her rocky marriage with Joe DiMaggio and rather than go out and party or get up to trouble she decided to study her craft. At the time she was studying under Lee Strasberg at the Actor’s Studio and she took her studies very seriously. Strasberg didn’t see Monroe as another blonde actor. In actuality he felt that her sensitivity helped her find something real in her roles that other actors couldn’t pinpoint. She studied with Strasberg privately for three years before she joined regular classes. Strasberg went onto say that Monroe and Marlon Brando were two of the greatest actors he ever taught.

After restarting his career in Texas, Willie Nelson started touring non-stop with his band the Rolling Smoke Revue. According to Rolling Stone, Nelson and his crew all traveled under pseudonyms – Nelson was known as “Fast Eddie,” and his manager was “Poodie,” and his bodyguard was “Snake.” Even though Willie is most often thought of as a bearded, long hair stoner, he admitted in the late ‘70s that he shaved in the summers because the weather was too darn hot. Russell and Nelson toured together and ended up recording the album “One for the Road” in 1979 that featured classics like “I Saw The Light” and “Don’t Fence Me In.” It’s a snapshot of life on tour with these two country dynamos.