Description
Original LIFE Magazine — May 21, 1956
LIFE Magazine May 21 1956 features Joan Burke and Tippi Hedren on the cover demonstrating “Trick Towels for the Beach,” a playful example of mid-1950s leisure culture and summer fashion.
The issue also launches a new LIFE series on the Democratic presidential candidates, beginning with Stuart Symington, described on the cover as a leading dark-horse contender. Together, the beach cover and political reporting make this issue a distinctive snapshot of American life during the 1956 election year.
- Cover Subject: Joan Burke and Tippi Hedren — “Trick Towels for the Beach”
- Inside This Issue: Beach fashion and novelty towels; the beginning of LIFE’s series on Democratic presidential candidates, featuring Stuart Symington; plus LIFE’s signature news reporting, photography, culture, personalities, and period advertising from 1956.
- Completeness: Complete original issue of LIFE Magazine, not a reproduction.
- Perfect For: Tippi Hedren collectors, 1950s fashion and beach-culture enthusiasts, political history collectors, 1956 election memorabilia collectors, birthday gifts, and collectors of original LIFE Magazines.
This original issue preserves the reporting, photography, advertisements, and editorial presentation seen by LIFE readers in May 1956, making it an authentic snapshot of mid-century American leisure, style, and politics.
Original LIFE Magazines are authentic issues published between 1936 and 2000.
Pg… 31 THE WEEK’S EVENTS: A Solid Leader for the Solid South: Senator Lyndon Johnson Wins the Eyes of Texas and of the Nation
Pg… 36 THE WEEK’S EVENTS: The Cyprus Tragedy, a Dark Shadow Over NATO, Deepens with Rioting Over Hangings
Pg… 38 THE WEEK’S EVENTS: Operation Bootstrap’s Pay–Off; Puerto Rican Industry Overtakes Farming in Drive to Expand
Pg… 49 THE WEEK’S EVENTS: A Look at the Worlds’ Week
Pg… 52 THE WEEK’S EVENTS: A Tense Time for Seamen: Camera Gets Close to the Collision of a Destroyer and a Battleship
Pg… 55 THE WEEK’S EVENTS: The Mystery of an Extra Body Among Dead Cuban Revolutionaries
Pg… 44 EDITORIALS: New American Look
Pg… 44 EDITORIALS: Professors and Ethics
Pg… 96 PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY: The Climax of LIFE’S Series on America’s Arts and Skills: Functional Beauty in the Tools of Today (General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan)
Pg… 79 ARTICLE: Kidnaped Into Red Tibet, by Sydney Wignall: Welsh Climbers Meet Ordeal by man and Mountains in the Himalayas
Pg… 160 CLOSE–UP: The Dark Horse with a Bright Hope, by James L. McConaughy Jr.: First in a LIFE Series on Democratic Candidates Tells Why Missouri Senator Stuart Symington has Good Chance of Succeeding in a Deadlocked but Orderly Convention
Pg… 59 SEQUEL: Dead Priest’s Gift is a Success: Italian Girl Sees Again with Transplanted Cornea
Pg… 62 FASHION: Gaudy Toweling Brightens the Beach
Pg… 71 TELEVISION: Irish Star Siobhan McKenna Gives a Tender and Masterful Performance in TV Drama Debut as a Nun in “Cradle Song”
Pg… 117 EDUCATION: Classroom Hatchery: a Bantam Named Biddy Teaches Seattle First–Graders Some Facts About Life
Pg… 125 MOVIES: Ava Gardner Survives Wrecks, Riot and Romance in “Bhowani Junction”
Pg… 131 NATURE: Fresh Hope for Bird Lovers in Two New Whooping Crane Eggs
Pg… 137 SPORTS: A Posse of Big League Scouts Comes to Watch a 17–Year–Old Pitcher with an Amazing No–Hit, No–Run Record
Pg… 141 MUSIC: U.S. Composers in a Bright Era: Nine Stand Out as Public Taste for Serious Music Grows. Photographed for LIFE by Gordon Parks
Pg… 151 THEATER: Northwestern’s $25,000 “Silver Jubilee” is the Most Lavish College Show
Pg… 177 PARTY: Old Outfit has Big Day as New York’s 7th Regiment Remembers 150 Years
Pg… 19 OTHER DEPARTMENTS: Letters to the Editors
Pg… 24 OTHER DEPARTMENTS: Speaking of Pictures: Symmetry Under the Shell
Pg… 180 OTHER DEPARTMENTS: Miscellany: Downhill trip on a Ti Leaf
