LIFE Magazine – August 30 1948

LIFE Magazine – August 30 1948 features actress Colleen Townsend on the cover, capturing Hollywood glamour at the end of the 1940s. Inside, the issue ranges far beyond entertainment, with major coverage of the postwar world, American politics, public health, culture, science, and everyday life.

Among the strongest stories is LIFE’s coverage of Babe Ruth’s funeral, the 1948 polio epidemic in North Carolina, and developments in postwar Europe, including the Belgrade Conference and Berlin. The issue also includes features on the Great Salt Lake, sculptor Carl Milles, Oxford student life, agriculture, technology, and a LIFE photo essay from a nature camp in Maine. It is a strong example of LIFE’s broad postwar reporting and photojournalism.

Inside This Issue

• Colleen Townsend — Hollywood actress featured on the cover.
• Babe Ruth Funeral — crowds gather in the rain to mourn the baseball legend.
• North Carolina Polio Epidemic — LIFE reports on the serious 1948 outbreak.
• Belgrade Conference — postwar international tensions and the Danube.
• Berlin — coverage of children and life amid the divided city.
• Great Salt Lake — photographic feature on one of America’s most distinctive landscapes.
• Carl Milles — feature on the noted Swedish sculptor and his work.
• William C. Bullitt — “How We Won the War and Lost the Peace.”
• Oxford — LIFE looks at an all-night student celebration.
• Nature Camp in Maine — LIFE Goes To documents summer outdoor life.

Original LIFE Magazines are authentic issues published between 1936 and 2000.