We’ve Been Here Before, We’ll Be Here Again | The 1958 Recession & Grassroots Economic Stimulation Package

 

“It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose yours.”    –Harry S. Truman  

 

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Unemployment-- Fueled by a drop in unfulfilled orders for durable goods and a declining demand for commodities and other raw materials, the recession of 1958 forced over five million people — nearly 7% of the labor force — out of work. In the photo above, Illinois residents line up at an unemployment office in Chicago.

 

Voter's Fears-- As the nation grew anxious, Congressmen used a recess to return to their districts to sound out their constituents on their concerns. Life photographer Walter Sanders traveled with Representative Edwin H. May, Jr. as he met with farmers in Connecticut.

 

Seed Money-- The Life team found that many merchants tried to take matters into their own hands. A Hampton, Iowa banker named Dana Bramwell distributed $1,100 in bonuses (represented by the clutch of $1 bills he holds in this photo) to his employees, with the stipulation that they spend it on nonessential items.

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Le Corbusier | The Father of “International Style” Design

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“Space and light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep.”
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–Le Corbusier

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Architect Le Corbusier sitting in chair & holding book in hands-- Paris France 1965.

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“To create architecture is to put in order. Put what in order? Function and objects.”

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–Le Corbusier

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Architect Le Corbusier working on project for French ministry of reconstruction in his Paris atelier-- Paris, France 1965.

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“The home should be the treasure chest of living.”

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–Le Corbusier

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Architect Le Corbusier sitting in chair with book in hands, glasses perched on his forehead-- Paris, France 1965.

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“I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies.”

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–Le Corbusier

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Swiss architect Le Corbusier leaning down to write w. his glasses pushed back on his forehead-- Venice, Italy 1952.

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“Architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in the light.”

–Le Corbusier

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A Man’s Desk is the Portal to His Mind | How Good Design Creates Order

 

“If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what is the significance of a clean desk?”  —Dr. Laurence J. Peter

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William Allen White's old roll-top desk heaped high with books, papers, packages and a rickety chair-- Empoira, KS 1944.

 

Desk designed by industrial designer Donald Deskey-- 1958.

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Cecil Beaton | Fashion Slave from the Cradle to the Grave

 

“Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary”  –Cecil Beaton

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Cecil Beaton drinking while wearing his fourth costume of the evening, as host of his garden party. --circa 1948

 

 

Cecil Beaton-- his vanity knew no bounds.

 

 

 

 

Photographer Cecil Beaton adjusting the lens on a primitive camera in his studio, U.K. --circa 1929.

 

Cecil Beaton-- put that in your pike a smoke it.

 

Photographer Cecil Beaton escorting Francis Doble (Lady Lindsey Hogg) to the wedding of Lord Herbert Equerry & Lady Mary Hope-- Circa 1936

 

 

Actress Ina Claire hugging Cecil Beaton at the opening of "Once Is Enough"-- circa 1937

 

Photographer/designer Cecil Beaton at the switchboard doing his duty as an Air Raid Precautions operator on the estate of Lord and Lady Pembroke-- circa 1940

 

 

Fashion designer Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel w. photographer Cecil Beaton-- circa 1937

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Noel Coward | Desert Dandy by Loomis Dean

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How timely indeed–

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“If you must have motivation, think of your paycheck on Friday.”

—Noel Coward

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1954– Noel Coward –photo by the legendary Loomis Dean

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1954– Noel Coward –photo by the legendary Loomis Dean

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Adolphe Menjou | Legendary Style

 

“Sex appeal rises from him like a cloud of steam.”

 

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Donning a fur top hat & over the knee boots

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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