vintage and modern pulp fiction; noir, schlock and exploitation films; scandals, swindles and news
Her cover isn’t blown, but Stefanie Powers exemplifies the unlikelihood of that standard fictional device—the very beautiful secret agent. In real life it’s hard to keep a low profile when you look this good, but in cinema, television, and pulp literature you can be simultaneously gorgeous and invisible. The shot comes from The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., a tv series that has been good to us in terms of promo images. This is the third we’ve shared. We have two more nice ones here and here.
This promo shot shows U.S. actress Stefanie Powers and was made for her The Man from U.N.C.L.E. spin-off show The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., on which she starred as secret agent April Dancer. She would later go on to become widely known while starring in the 1979-84 sleuthing weekly Hart to Hart with Robert Wagner. The photo is from 1966. You can see another one here.
This shot of U.S. actress Stefanie Powers was made as a promo for the television series The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., in which she played the wonderfully named spy April Dancer, aka Agent 0022. The show was a spin-off from The Man from U.N.C.L.E., but lasted only one season during 1966-67, which gives us the date range on this photo.
Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom State Prison in Folson, California, where he records a live album that includes a version of his 1955 hit “Folsom Prison Blues.” Cash had always been interested in performing at a prison, but was unable to until personnel changes at his record company brought in people who were amenable to the idea. The Folsom album was Cash’s biggest commercial success for years, reaching number 1 on the country music charts.
British serial killer Harold Shipman is found dead in his prison cell, after hanging himself with a bedsheet. Shipman, a former doctor who preyed on his patients, was one of the most prolific serial killers in history, with two-hundred and eighteen murders positively attributed to him, and another two-hundred of which he is suspected.
English novelist Nevil Shute, who wrote the books A Town Like Alice and The Pied Piper, dies in Melbourne, Australia at age sixty-one. Seven of his novels were adapted to film, but his most famous was the cautionary post-nuclear war classic On the Beach.
Dr. James Bedford, a University of California psychology professor, becomes the first person to be cryonically preserved with intent of future resuscitation. Bedford had kidney cancer that had metastasized to his lungs and was untreatable. His body was maintained for years by his family before being moved to Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Arizona.
Jack Gilbert Graham is executed in Colorado, U.S.A., for killing 44 people by planting a dynamite bomb in a suitcase that was subsequently loaded aboard United Airlines Flight 629. The flight took off from Denver and exploded in mid-air. Graham was executed by means of poison gas in the Colorado State Penitentiary, in Cañon City.
The League of Nations holds its first meeting, at which it ratifies the Treaty of Versailles, thereby officially ending World War I. At its greatest extent, from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, the League had 58 members. Its final meeting was held in April 1946 in Geneva.
Harold Macmillan accepts the Queen of England’s invitation to become Prime Minister following the sudden resignation of Sir Anthony Eden. Eden had resigned due to ill health in the wake of the Suez Crisis. Macmillan is remembered for helping negotiate the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty after the Cuban Missile Crisis. He served as PM until 1963.
