Hidden Gems of the Past Uncovered in These Incredible Images

James Dean and girlfriend Ursula Andress at a party in Los Angeles, 1955.

It’s time to take a look at some photos that are going to make you wish you had a time machine handy. Did you know that James Dean stole Marlon Brando’s girlfriend shortly before his death? We’ve got the photo to prove it. Do you remember that picture of Lynda Carter in a swim cap that shocked the public? We’ve got that too. And we’ve got Jim Morrison hanging out in his home made vocal booth (also known as a “bathroom” in some parts of the country). We’ve also got classic photos from Woodstock, some sweethearts from the racing scene, and plenty of interesting facts about these small yet fascinating moments in history to keep you from falling asleep at your desk.

Crack open a can of Tab and dive into these 56 photos that will have you reminiscing with your crew before you know it. Read on!

James Dean sure was a scamp, wasn’t he? With East of Eden out in theaters and his calling card Rebel Without A Cause yet to be released, Dean was so hot that he was able to steal 19-year-old Swedish femme fatale Ursula Andress away from none other than Marlon Brando.

Dean and Andress were only together for a few weeks, and this is the only real proof that they were hooking up. About a month after this photo was taken Dean passed away after he smashed his Porsche Spyder 500 head on into another car while flying down route 466 toward Paso Robles. After Dean’s death Andress went onto appear as Honey Ryder in Dr. No. 

Baby You Can Drive My Car! John Lennon's psychedelic Rolls-Royce Phantom V and George Harrison's Mini Cooper S.

Get back! These fine and freaky automobiles could only belong to the guys who turned the world of rock music on its head with the British Invasion before getting weird in India with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. While Lennon’s approach to painting his Rolls Royce Phantom V in all manner of psychedelia was somewhat of a dig at the English upper crust, Harrison was all about peace and love when it came to designing his 1966 Mini Cooper S. 

The designs on his car were culled straight from Tantra Art: Its Philosophy and Physics, and he apparently thought the designs were pretty goofy. After all, this is the guy who once said, “I’m the biggest lunatic around. I’m completely comical, you know? I like craziness. I had to in order to be in the Beatles.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger standing in the middle of Wilt Chamberlain and Andre the Giant on the set of "Conan the Destroyer" in 1984.

Isn’t Arnie supposed to be um… big? Or something? Did someone shrink him down? Or did a witch cast a spell on him? Okay so neither of those things happened, he just happens to be standing in between Wilt Chamberlain and Andre the Giant, easily two of the biggest mother effers to ever grace the silver screen. This photo was taken while filming Conan the Destroyer, the not so great 1984 follow up to Conan the Barbarian. You may remember this as the movie where a mirror wizard turns into a giant bird and captu                                                                                                                     Ho ho, no! Quentin Tarantino sits on Santa Claus’ lap in 1970.

                          ,                                                                     Ah, Christmas in California. The sun is shining, the palm trees are shifting in the breeze, and Santa is sweating like a hooker in church. After being abandoned by his father, Tarantino moved to California with his mother at the age of four where he began diving into his love of film. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. At this point in time young Tarantino was busy watching movies that were definitely over his head while his mother dealt with Hodgkins lymphoma.

Little did anyone know that this smiling young man would go on to describe in detail the backstory of Madonna’s “Like A Virgin.”

Alfred Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville poses with a wax cast of her husband's head in the refrigerator, 1972. 

Doesn’t every housewife dream of chopping off her husband’s head and shoving it in the refrigerator? If you’re married to Alfred Hitchcock then you’ve definitely got a macabre sense of humor, so it’s no wonder that his wife, Alma Reville, kept a bust of her beau’s noggin hanging around. 

This shot is likely based on the episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, “The Jar,” where a man kills his wife and stuffs her head in - you guessed it - a jar. Or maybe this was Alma’s way of keeping her portly husband in check. Either way, these two were made for each other. 

'Miss Nevada, 1958' Dawn Wells with Mr. Blackwell at the Miss America Pageant. 

Before she was stuck on an island with Gilligan, the Skipper, and the rest of the gang, Dawn Wells was a beauty queen who represented Nevada in the 1960 Miss America Pageant. Wells didn’t win the title of Miss America, but who needs a crown and a sash when you’re going to spend the rest of your life making residuals off of one of the most beloved television shows of the ‘60s?

It only took a few years after her Miss Nevada win for Wells to start working on television. In 1961 alone she appeared on shows like Wagon Train, Maverick, and Surfside 6. In 1964 she began her 98 episode run on Gilligan's Island                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Mick Jagger looking like a naughty little boy put in timeout in this photo!

Poor little Mick Jagger, what do you think he did to get in so much trouble? Steal Keith’s heroin? Hide Ronnie Wood’s telecaster? Mick was truly up to no good throughout the Stones’ run at the top in the ‘60s and ‘70s, but judging by the hair this was taken in 1967, just around when Mick was arrested on a narcotics charge. Specifically, he was hanging out at Keith’s place when the bobbies busted in to nab the immortal guitarist.

Jagger didn't exactly go on the straight and narrow after his arrest, but he notably stopped palling around with a geezer like Richards as the decades wore on.                                                                                                                                                              Stevens, Cesar Romero and Jane Wald on the set of "Batman" (1966)

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Holy star power Batman!  This is  a behind the scenes photo from the set of 1966’s Batman series starring Adam West. While Lewis would have been a huge get to play the Joker, he actually just pops up for a gag in the episode “The Bookworm Turns.”

In the episode, Batman and Robin are walking up the side of a building when Lewis pops his head out a window to say hello to the Dark Knight and his pal Robin - whom Lewis seems to know from a previous engagement. This just goes to show that you never know who’s going to show in Gotham City.  

Anti-hippie protesters, 1960s.

For all the good that hippies did throughout the 1960s, people really hated them. It wasn’t just that they were anti-war and pro peace, it was that they had long hair, wild clothes, and they listened to music that old timers just couldn’t get behind. 

During the Vietnam War, anti-war protests brought the fight for freedom and the pursuit of happiness to major cities and college campuses across the nation, but it was only a matter of time before squares began their counter protests. Eventually the war came to an end, but the generational rift remained.  

Philippe Petit walks a tight rope between the Twin Towers in 1974.

Phillips Petit was only 24 years old when he walked on a tight rope shackled between the Twin Towers, at that age most people are still figuring out what they want to do with their lives but he was making history. Petit’s balancing act would have been impressive no matter where he was, but at 1,300 feet in the air this death defying is absolutely stunning.

At the time of his walk Petit said that he didn’t have a specific reason to walk between the two towers, but that it was more of a compulsion. He told the press, “There is no why, just because when I see a place to put my wire I cannot resist.” 

Rockabilly legend Eddie Cochran and his Gretsch in 1958. He would be killed in a taxi that was hit in an accident while on the way to an airport in England, at the age of 21 two years later.

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There are for sure more well known guitar players - Hendrix, Clapton, Plant - but Eddie Cochran’s raucous songwriting informed generations of country, rockabilly, and pop artists in ways that you can still hear when you listen to the radio. His down and dirty style of roots rock is audible in artists like The Cramps, Kurt Vile, and even San Fransisco’s Dead Kennedys.

Unfortunately, Cochran’s life was cut short in 1960 while he was on a UK tour with fellow rocker Gene Vincent. While riding back to his hotel on the A4, the car transporting Cochran lost control near Chippenham and careened into a lamp post. Cochran was sent through the roof and after smashing into the concrete the star never regained consciousness. He passed away at St. Martin’s hospital later that day. 

Members of The Runaways and David Lee Roth at an interview in a Pasadena radio station, 1978. 

I don't know who's prettier in this photo, David Lee Roth or Joan Jett. By 1978 The Runaways were just about the disband and had just released their final album “And Now… The Runaways.” The very same year Van Halen released their debut, self titled album. While Van Halen’s virtuosic, shred heavy sound may be at odds with the four chords and the truth attitude of The Runaways, Roth was a tireless promoter who did everything he could to get the word out about his new band.

With both groups being from the Los Angeles area it makes sense that Roth would end up on a radio show with the four rockin’ babes from The Runaways                                                                                                                                                                                          Flight attendants posing on an empty airplane in the 1960s. 

The Golden Age of Air Travel is named as such because it’s when people were still so enamored with the idea of mass chartered flights that they still dressed in their Sunday best before boarding a jumbo jet. It’s also a time when airline attendants looked effortlessly cool. This style - the high necked babydoll dresses, the cocked hats, the perfectly quaffed hair - was an unofficial symbol of companies like Pan Am. The look said, “live the high life,” literally.

The outfits weren’t the only thing that was different with air travel in the ’60s. The cost of flying was significantly more expensive than it is now. Adjusting for inflation, round trips could cost at least a thousand dollars. If only there was a way to go back to the effortless cool of flight attendants without the insane costs.