Rare Photos Of The Beauties of Vintage Hollywood

Doris Day is one of the most beloved icons of the 20th century, but she says that when she first signed her contract with Warner Bros. they really didn’t know where to slot her in. At the time, contract players were placed in movies where it was believed they would perform well. If you were a comedian you were put in comedies, if you were a bombshell you were a romantic lead, etc. But Day notes that when she first started acting for the Bros. they did everything they could to keep her out of “dramatic” films. Day later told Parade, “At Warner Bros. they had serious films. All the dramatic actresses were there. When they hired me, they didn’t know what to do with me. The first thing they put me in was Romance on the High Seas, a little comedy. The next one was My Dream Was Yours—I don’t even know what that was about.”

There was only way to know which television star was the best and brightest during the 1970s and ‘80s, you had to watch Battle of the Network Stars. The summer series boasted talent from the Big 3 networks – ABC, CBS, and NBC – who were ready, willing, and able to take part in a series of games that resemble the Olympics if they were held at your local summer camp. When Lynda Carter appeared on the inaugural episode of the show in 1976 she was on a team with Farrah Fawcett, Penny Marshall, and Ron Howard, which is seriously THE group to be on. Carter absolutely smashed her opponents in the swimming relay competition, but the real winners were the audience.

The image of Sophia Loren giving major side eye to Jayne Mansfield’s, um, assets is one of the greatest shots from the golden age of Hollywood. Even though it looks like Loren is about to rip Mansfield to pieces, the real story is much less spicy. Taken in 1957, at a party thrown by Paramount to welcome Loren to America, this image actually caught Mansfield making herself known at Loren’s table with a purposefully eye-catching dress. Loren has gone on record saying that even though she looks upset in the image she’s actually just sneaking a peak at blonde bombshell.

There’s never been anyone else like Brigitte Bardot. From the moment she hit the spotlight men were entranced by her, and things reached a fever pitch in 1956 during the filming of And God Created Woman in St. Tropez. At the time she was married to director Roger Vadim and the couple made the island their playground. Bardot was such a hot topic at the time that the European press started using the phrase “Ban Bardot” because they were so put off by her youthful sensuality.

The Swedish Red Bombshell Ann-Margret first traveled to the United States with her father in 1946 and it didn’t take long before she was pulled into the entertainment industry. A beautiful woman with an incredible sense of comedic timing, Ann-Margret was down for anything. If you’re not familiar with her work go straight to Viva Las Vegas to see her go toe to toe with Elvis Presley, The King himself.