The magazine was best known for its photography. In making up a typical issue (which came out twice a month), editors would review as many as 8,000 photographs. During its lifetime the magazine published more than 180,000 photos, many of them iconic. The magazine had a full-time photography staff of 15 and hired many additional freelance photographers. Twelve men worked in the darkroom.
Here are pictures of comedian Red Skelton, Jack Benny, and another Avedon shot of the disgraced Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
When the magazine folded, more than 1 million photographs were donated to the Library of Congress, where they reside today.
The magazine often featured prominent artists, such as these pictures of Andrew Wyeth, Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Georgia O’Keefe, and Alexander Calder.
Go to page 3 for photos of young Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Mohammed Ali, a president, a blue-collar worker, and more.
This article was last modified on May 17, 2023
This article was first published on November 5, 2009
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