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87 Historic Photos That Show People Had More Class In The Past
Regardless of when you think "the good old days" actually were, many of us harbor a special respect for the past. These photos show people that had an appreciation for style, taste and class that seems to be harder to find these days.
If you have a photo showing what class looked like in "the good old days," we'd love to see it! Please add it to us or let us know about your favorite time period in the comments.
(h/t: designyoutrust)
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
A Young Harrison Ford
MarieBates 10 years ago
Yes you are correct. People in the past have much more fashion sense then now. I have also collected some of the past trends in my store
Shaheris Suhel 9 years ago
I love youuuuuuuuuu, hehe still when you are not this young...i still love you.
RELATED:
#2
American Actor Paul Newman During A Trip On A Water Taxi In Venice (1963)
BarbaraFriedmanPalmer 10 years ago
Out of this world gorgeous, that's what he was.
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NiamhMcKinney 10 years ago
See if that was someone now they'd be wearing a f***y pack, shiny sunscreen, and a tshirt
#3
A Man In A Suit And Sunglasses Rides A Skateboard Down A Hill Path In Central Park, New York (1965)
RJazz909 10 years ago
My fav...that is one classy man LOL....I feel like there should be some cool jazz in the background...XD
Fran 10 years ago
1965? Practically the beginning of skateboarding as we know it. That man is so classy cool!
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TassioCanhadas 10 years ago
This must be a very important man, cuz everybody is looking at him
#4
Louis Armstrong Plays For His Wife In Giza (1961)
#5
Sunday Morning On The South Side Of Chicago (1941)
AlexandraLadisluaus 10 years ago
look at the handsome innocent faces on those young men! I want to cry for the expressive beauty on those young men!
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BrettAlexanderMontano 9 years ago
Look nice all dressed up. If only kids today could dress like these kids.
SusanRamsay 10 years ago
It seems to me that black people show more respect for their houses of worship than many whites. They always seem to be dressed in their Sunday best. I go to a predominantly white church and see torn jeans, low cut sundresses, extremely short mini skirts, tight sexy clothing, you name it. Maybe it's an 80% well dressed to 20% slovenly dressed crowd, but to me the 20 % are just disrespectful. The boys in the picture look great!
#6
Clint Eastwood Walking In Rome (1960s)
IldikoWildeman-vanLunteren 10 years ago
That was exactly my first thought.
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#7
Audrey Hepburn At The Roman Holiday Premiere (1953)
Genet Abate 4 years ago
Such a classy lady her style, beauty and class that seems to be harder to find these days.
MarkMiller 10 years ago
She is one of my all time favorites in terms of beauty, grace, intelligence and humor That appears to be Irving Berlin behind her..
BobbieLe-Page 10 years ago
Beautiful woman. She died of the same rare cancer I have, Pseudomyxoma Peritonei.
BobbieLe-Page 10 years ago
Beautiful woman. She died from the same rare cancer I have. Pseudomyxoma Peritonei
#8
Plunging Necklines In 1950s
JosephReginaldCota 10 years ago
Their facial expressions and stunning wardrobes, reflect the elegant style of the time. Your comment reflects ours.
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Walkus-AndrewAndrea 10 years ago
they showed quite a bit of skin but in a tasteful way. Some women of today wear a lot more but, somehow, manage to make themselves look like the blue plate special down on Granville. Very elegant.
Warren Brown 9 years ago
The heck with the plunging necklines! I figure each one of those darlins' must have at least one complete can of hair-spray, on their heads!
#9
A Man Ice Skating (1937)
Dana Erasmowitz 9 years ago
Funny, my thought exactly! He's even got Gene Kelly's physique and composure!
Load More Replies... MarkMiller 10 years ago
Probably at the rink in Central Park...They really knew how to dress in those days.
Warren Brown 9 years ago
Could it be another Gordie Howe?? Naaaaa, Gordie Howe would have broken a couple of this dude's ribs, just introducing himself!
#10
A Young Couple Dancing Be-Bop At Vieux Colombier Theatre In Paris (1951)
Warren Brown 9 years ago
Even THEN they were well advanced in the social graces, not raising a "stink", when a black man danced with a white woman! Europe was (and still is) leagues ahead of the world!
#11
Muhammad Ali
Warren Brown 9 years ago
WOW !! Does that man cut a fine figure, or what ?!?! Check it out SPATS !!!
#12
Caroline Kennedy Walks In Front Of Her Father, President Of United States, While He Carries Her Doll (1963)
AnnaMcHugh 10 years ago
Can you imagine anyone doing that now? The kid would be a million miles away.
Chris Miilu 9 years ago
Really? I don't think Obama's kids are a million miles - lots of pics of him with his daughters.
Load More Replies... Warren Brown 9 years ago
This seems like such a common-place act, that even the Secret Service men, (in the Fedoras) aren't concerned.
#13
Cary Grant Stops In London On His Way Home To Bristol To Visit His Mother (1946)
SusanRamsay 10 years ago
Another name synonymous with class. Was there ever a picture of him looking sloppy?
Warren Brown 9 years ago
Go back to the photo of Ali, and between them, it's a coin toss as to who has the sharpest look. However, Cary Grant, dressed like this much of the time, and learned how to act well in public. Sadly, that can't be said regarding Ali.
ElenaN.Akasha 10 years ago
well WOW!!! THATS CLASS!!! OMFG HE'S HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
#14
A Young Sean Connery Smoking A Cigar
Warren Brown 9 years ago
Now, you throw this man into the mix, and he would look good wearing potatoe bags as a suit !
SusannaVesna 10 years ago
Now THIS is the man who should be on top of this list! Harrison Ford is good, but he got nothing on Mr Connery!
#15
Sigourney Weaver Dressed As A Man, Los Angeles (1983)
AnnHerring 10 years ago
what is that expression when a person is beautiful either as a man or a woman?
#16
Actress Brigitte Bardot Watching Pablo Picasso At Work In His Studio In Vallauris (1956)
SusanRamsay 10 years ago
Yes, nice pic, but I don't think of Bridgette as classy. That dress is the style in the 21st century, but back then it was trashy.
NigelBrown 10 years ago
Bardot spent all her time sunbathing in st tropaz And now her face is wrinkly
LiekeMuller 10 years ago
Looking at your profile picture you have absolutely no business to judge Bardot's wrinkles
Load More Replies... 9footconcertgrand 10 years ago
Um... it looks like her Girls are about to fall out of the dress. That's trashy not classy.
Stacey Weaver 9 years ago
That's a shame... he always spoke so highly of you...
Load More Replies... #17
A Stylish Couple In The Rain
AnnHerring 10 years ago
Pattie Boyd poses in a Mary Quant fashion shoot with actor Tom Courtenay (Dr. Zhivago, Billy Liar e.g.) Distributor : Puritan Fashions (US). Published in the March 1966 issue of Seventeen Magazine under ‘Our Girl In London’. Photographer: John Cowan
Janet Little 3 years ago
This reminds me of The Hollies' 1966 hit "Bus Stop". "Please share my umbrella."
#18
A Young Kevin Spacey (1980s)
SusanRamsay 10 years ago
What is it about some guys? Cary Grant, Kevin Spacey. Just a plain sweater and a normal face and he is to die for classy!
DebraBrooksKapellakis 10 years ago
He doesn't seemed to age much since this photo. Good genes. lol
#19
Clint Eastwood With Actresses Olive Stargess And Dani Crayne In San Francisco (1954)
Warren Brown 9 years ago
Eastwood made it a habit to jog at least 5-6 miles a DAY !! He still jogs every day! No wonder he looks like a stick!
GlynisRoss-Munro 10 years ago
I can just see him talking nonsense to a chair and supporting the NRA. Yuk.
#20
A Life Guard, Brighton Beach, New York (Between 1901 And 1906)
SusanRamsay 10 years ago
Oh, those poor women covered head to toe and using umbrellas to try to stay cool. Or maybe to try and save their faces from freckles. I wouldn't want to go back that far.
AngelaJones 10 years ago
I'm not sure how classy he is... Especially compared to the ladies in the background!
MichaelNguyen 10 years ago
Incredible photos and Incredibly well dressed gents. However I feel like you're misusing the word class ( you can't buy class but you can buy clothes) with those who are more sartorially inclined than today's generation.
#21
Teenagers On A Date In The 1950s
#22
Elspeth Beard, First Englishwoman To Ride A Motorbike Around The World (1980s)
#23
Sophia Loren, Italian Film Actress, Who Won An Oscar, Grammy, And Golden Globe Awards
#24
Ernest Hemingway Passport Photograph (1923)
#25
1950s Greasers
Danny Ruiz 4 years ago
The 50's. Black leather jackets with a bunch of zippers, steel taps on your shoe soles and a skeleton or pistons on the back painted with white shoe polish. My jacket had a Tyranasourus Rex on the back LOL!
#26
Carmen Dell’orefice, New York (1958)
TammyChapman 10 years ago
I agree. She does it with class and style, not like some people in the public eye nowadays. However, I do think if doors still opened in the opposite direction (like they did a long time ago), then everyone would be able to at least try to do it properly.
#27
English Film Actor Michael Caine At Home With His Mother And Brother (1964)
#28
The Queen Elizabeth II And The Duke Of Edinburgh Watching Competitors At The Badminton Horse Trials (1968)
#29
Frank Sinatra Steps Out Of A Helicopter (1964)
BeverlyGlover 10 years ago
He's the only person I've ever seen exit a helicopter who didn't duck as if they were going to be decapitated.
JessicaBertram 10 years ago
two possible reasons: he was drunk, and he was short.
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BrettAlexanderMontano 9 years ago
Love how he is holding a drink in his hand, that makes the picture to me.
#30
Albert Einstein Smoking A Pipe (1940)
#31
British Actress Diana Rigg, Also Known As Olenna Tyrell From Game Of Thrones (1967)
#32
First Actual Photo Session Of The Beatles In Hamburg (1960)
Suzanne Haigh 5 years ago
5 instead of 4, suppose Pete Best in on the left, but who is on the right?
NuClea Bomb 3 years ago
That's Stuart Suttcliffe. He was a talented artist and their first bass player while they were in Hamburg. Then he fell in love with Astrid Kitcher (the photographer who took this photo) and stayed in Hamburg with her, to go to art school. Paul then became their bass player. Unfortunately, Stuart died of a brain hemorrhage in his early twenties.
Load More Replies... #33
Einstein At Nassau Point, Long Island, New York (1939)
JeannieCarle 10 years ago
always seems odd to see him from the neck down! What a gloriously brilliant man!
Deon Bothma 1 year ago
Americans already got him to come to the USA in 1939 for him to assist them in the design of the atomic bomb even before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour which led America to enter the Second World War.
#34
Portrait Session With Marilyn Monroe (1957)
Jeanne Deaux 9 years ago
You mean she looks natural? Because, yes, this woman suffered her whole life. All the happy pictures are just very well done masks. :-(
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KTTrondsen 10 years ago
one look is worth a thousand words....she looks in need of a good friend
BrettAlexanderMontano 9 years ago
She does look like she is asking for help or a friend to talk to.
#36
Couple On Michigan Avenue, Chicago (1975)
#37
Teenagers And Their Car
TammyChapman 10 years ago
Gorgeous car. I would so love to own one. Or at least be able to go for a ride in one.
#38
Alice Denham And Her Royal Hh Typewriter In (1957)
glennderman 9 years ago
Looks like a cross between what Marylyn Monroe should look like and Maria Calas. What a beauty!
LuisSancho 9 years ago
>You gotta love those 50´s pointy brassieres, women looked HOT back then.
#39
Actors Dean Martin And Angie Dickinson on the set of Rio Bravo (1959)
#40
Paul McCartney Of The Beatles And Mick Jagger Of The Rolling Stones Sit Opposite Each Other On A Train At Euston Station (1967)
#41
Children In Ballroom Dancing Class (1945)
#42
Skater Girl
LiekeMuller 10 years ago
Or instead of "skater girl", refer to this photo by the girl's name: Ellen O Neal. Being (one of) greatest female skateboarders in the 70's she deserves a bit more cred than just anonymous "skater girl", don't you think?
#43
Teen Fashion In 1950s
Marilyn Dorn 6 years ago
This is also a Nina Leen photo, with the same group of girls that are in her make over photo AND in her Life magazines of that year. Online it says 1944, but Hard Copy is 1954. Hard Copies are out there.
#45
Singer David Bowie Sharing A Cigarette With Actress Elizabeth Taylor In Beverly Hills (1975)
#47
First U.S. Debutante Ball Held At Versailles Palace (1958)
Suzanne Haigh 5 years ago
Debutante's were young women who were presented to the Queen, so how can America have debutantes?
#48
David Bowie Was Arrested In A Hotel Suite After Performance In Rochester (1976)
Ruellen 10 years ago
Whoa, what's with his eyes? First I thought he's on drugs, but I checked out his pictures and he has this kind of pupils almost every time. Contact lenses? Nature? Disease?
MaríaPazGreeneF 10 years ago
Accident. When he was a boy he liked a girl, but he had competition so they fight and the ohter guy broke Bowie's eyes. For good. So it doesn't work anymore and that's it. Both eyes are still of the same colour, but look different, because one has a rigid pupil (dead eye). David Bowie remained friends with the guy. He said he understood because the anonymous girl was so pretty. Hahaha. What is not to love about David.
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#51
Elvis In The Army
#52
Audrey Hepburn And George Peppard Filming Breakfast At Tiffany’s In New York, 1960.
Final score:
38points
#54
Frank Sinatra Arrives At Miami Beach With His Entourage (1968)
#55
Teenage Couple On Hudson Street, New York (1963)
#56
Elton John At His Piano Bar Aboard His Private Jet (1974)
#57
Jimi Hendrix At Monterey Pop Festival (1967)
#58
Couple With A Cadillac (1932)
Sebastian Mejia 6 years ago
Guess this is the building from 'Physical Graffiti' by Led Zeppelin
#59
Paul Newman And Robert Redford Playing Ping Pong
Final score:
35points
LeslieDoty-Munson 10 years ago
Enjoyed the classic photos. I grew up in S. California when people dressed this way, stunning photos.
get in 9 years ago
A lot of people still wear cutoff jeans or shorts like this. If you didn't know who the people were it could be 2016
Load More Replies... Chris Miilu 9 years ago
Robert Redford came to the law offices I worked in, D.C. - one of the partners was his atty. for environmental stuff. He was incredibly handsome, but not very tall. Paul Newman lived in Westport, CT when I lived there after moving from D.C. - again, very handsome, and not very tall. I think John Wayne was tall, and Cary Grant.
#60
Old Family Photo
BrettAlexanderMontano 9 years ago
The guy on the left doesn't even look like he should be smoking lol
#61
American Actress Faye Dunaway Takes Breakfast By The Pool With The Day's Newspapers (1977)
CristineMartin 10 years ago
this was probably taken the morning after the night she received her Best Actress Oscar, so I believe it can be considered classy! :-) (meditating on the vanities of life)
Load More Replies... #62
Corona Del Mar High School Students Kim Robertson, Pat Auvenshine And Pam Pepin Wear "Hippie" Fashions (1969)
TammyChapman 10 years ago
I really like what they're wearing. And that style is making a slow comeback.
#63
Salesman Mike Dreschler Has His Motorised Roller Skates Refuelled At A Petrol Station Near Hartford (1961)
#64
American Astrophysicist And Cosmologist Neil Degrasse Tyson Was An Amateur Wrestler In High School And College
Juci Shockwave 9 years ago
Damn! Can kick our a$$es in fighting and science. :) More respect for him.
#65
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau Arrives With Members Of His New Cabinet For Swearing In Ceremonies At Government House In Ottawa (1968)
#66
Men Playing Poker
TammyChapman 10 years ago
Is the guy at the door keeping a lookout so they don't get caught gambling? lol Also....those are some ugly hats.
#75
Mechanic Who Was The Inspiration For The "millennium Falcon."
Final score:
2points
janice deane (Submission author) 6 years ago
His name is Walter Deane - I don't know that he is credited anywhere, but he was my uncle and he knew George Lucas as a little kid. George would visit him in his mechanic's shop. Walter had a reputation for being a master mechanic who could make anything run. Years later, George Lucas visited Walter in his shop and told him he was the inspiration for his idea of the Millenium Falcon - something that could outrun anything in the universe but was always breaking down and cobbled together from scrap.
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#77
Young Woman Smoking A Cigar; Circa. 1950
Final score:
1point
#78
Soldiers; 1918
Final score:
1point
janice deane (Submission author) 6 years ago
LOL, the man who looks like Matt Smith was named Archie Deane, my grandfather. I never realized the resemblance until you mentioned it - thanks!
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What do you think ?
DariaB 10 years ago
More class than now? Still a lot of men wear suits and a lot of women display their shoulders... I don't... Get it. These do look beautiful, though, but it's too much to say it's a style which is "hard to find today"...
AnnieBeal 10 years ago
Men hardly wear suits now, just for the office (sometimes) and wedding and funerals. Most women show their shoulders, legs, bellies and boobs (not classy just trashy).
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Hubert Motorcyclescreens 4 years ago (edited)
Motorcycle is a best window for the world, you are moving, you discover new things and you have a good time. Worth to consider to put on bike is a motorcycle windscreen. Don't fight with strong wind, make you more protected and ride is becoming more comfortable. Here is great site with top quality and cheap screens, for example look at this: https://www.motorcyclescreens.eu/ top online shop with best available windsreens! :)
JeevanBabu 10 years ago
Nostalgia never dies. It is dormant and waits patiently with its footprints intact on the sands of time to restore memories at our will.
BrettAlexanderMontano 9 years ago
I really loved the pictures, they showed us a lot from class to even a little risque for back then, but it was all done in really good taste.
LauraSultan 10 years ago
I live in Toronto and a lot if these pictures remind me of it. How people carry themselves, etc. Even some clothing similarities for men and women.
BarbaraFriedmanPalmer 10 years ago
These pictures were just wonderful. It just proves that nothing is like it used to be, and I think I like the" used to be" much more than what's going on now.
Sonia.Alexandra 10 years ago
Aww, man! These are marvelous photos. The class, the style, the attitude...all of these are kinds gone today. They look awesome. Chapeau-bas! <3
DariaB 10 years ago
More class than now? Still a lot of men wear suits and a lot of women display their shoulders... I don't... Get it. These do look beautiful, though, but it's too much to say it's a style which is "hard to find today"...
AnnieBeal 10 years ago
Men hardly wear suits now, just for the office (sometimes) and wedding and funerals. Most women show their shoulders, legs, bellies and boobs (not classy just trashy).
Load More Replies... Hubert Motorcyclescreens 4 years ago (edited)
Motorcycle is a best window for the world, you are moving, you discover new things and you have a good time. Worth to consider to put on bike is a motorcycle windscreen. Don't fight with strong wind, make you more protected and ride is becoming more comfortable. Here is great site with top quality and cheap screens, for example look at this: https://www.motorcyclescreens.eu/ top online shop with best available windsreens! :)
JeevanBabu 10 years ago
Nostalgia never dies. It is dormant and waits patiently with its footprints intact on the sands of time to restore memories at our will.
BrettAlexanderMontano 9 years ago
I really loved the pictures, they showed us a lot from class to even a little risque for back then, but it was all done in really good taste.
LauraSultan 10 years ago
I live in Toronto and a lot if these pictures remind me of it. How people carry themselves, etc. Even some clothing similarities for men and women.
BarbaraFriedmanPalmer 10 years ago
These pictures were just wonderful. It just proves that nothing is like it used to be, and I think I like the" used to be" much more than what's going on now.
Sonia.Alexandra 10 years ago
Aww, man! These are marvelous photos. The class, the style, the attitude...all of these are kinds gone today. They look awesome. Chapeau-bas! <3
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