The Unfiltered Past: Exploring the Authenticity of Vintage Photographs

 Few things are as gratifying as a trip down memory lane – and it's even better when you find something you hadn't noticed before. Because as Ferris Bueller said – life moves too fast. There are dozens of photographs of celebrities and notable people of yesteryear in all their beautiful, pristine glory. The glamour, the fashion, the hair – whether classically elegant, effortlessly cool, or intriguingly sticky, we'll never see the likes of them again. Here's to those movie stars who were larger than life, here's to those rock stars who lived on the sidelines, here's to those comedians who still make us smile, here's to those little players Who had moments of glory that changed their lives forever. It's all cool, it's all groovy, and the rest is history.

Local caddy graduates! In 1968, Bill Murray received his diploma from Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Illinois and moved west to study pre-med at Regis University in Denver, Colorado. Pre-made? Really, Bill? That plan didn't last long, and he soon dropped out and returned to the Chicago area, where he eventually joined the Second City comedy troupe with his brother Brian Doyle Murray. Murray's two other sons, John and Joel, became actors; It is said that the acting bug bit the Murrays because, as children, they were constantly competing with each other to get laughs from their father, Edward Murray. The brothers also worked as golf caddies at Indian Hill Golf Club, an experience that inspired Brian to co-write a film about the unsung heroes of the links – it was, of course, Caddyshack, starring Bill Played the role of neurotic groundsman Carl Spackler.

There are cult films, and there are cult films. The most cult film of all cult films is The Rocky Horror Picture Show, in which Tim Curry (center) played Frank N. Furter – a self-described "sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvania." This bizarre gender-bending musical (the film version of the successful stage production The Rocky Horror Show) went almost unnoticed when it debuted in 1975, and probably disappeared, becoming just another weird movie that flopped. But an executive at 20th Century Fox noticed that offbeat "midnight movies" were becoming a trend, and he arranged for the film to be shown in theaters to make a little money from the late-night crowds. It proved to be the right movie for the right audience – fans, often in costume, came back week after week to watch, sing along and scream at the characters on screen. The film's addictive, ritualistic appeal has kept it in theaters to this day, making it the longest-running theatrical release of all time.

Suzanne Pleshette's best-known TV role was that of Emily Hartley, the wife of Bob Newhart's character Robert Hartley on The Bob Newhart Show from 1972–78. Thus, she was involved in one of the most famous and controversial moments in sitcom history. See, Bob Newhart did another sitcom, Newhart, which ran from 1982-90. Viewers of Newhart's series finale were shocked by the final scene, in which the famous comedian wakes up in bed with Pleshette and describes a humiliating dream – revealing that Newhart's entire 8-year journey was just a dream, the Robert Hartley of The Bob Newhart Show One Night. Pleshette's brief appearance completed the most outrageous prank any TV show has ever played on its audience. Her photo shoot with Harry Langdon in 1979 was a lot less meta.

Loretta Lynn is the most successful female recording artist of all time in country music, with 24 chart-topping singles and 11 number-one albums to her credit. The Academy of Country Music named her "Artist of the Decade" for the 1970s, she has been inducted into every imaginable hall of fame, and she is a Kennedy Center honoree. Her best-known tune is the autobiographical and sentimental "Coal Miner's Daughter", released in 1970, but Lynne made her mark with fiery, rebellious songs that often delivered messages of rebellious empowerment, if not feminism. The songs "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)" and "Fist City" are addressed to man-stealing women, while "Rated 'X'" and "The Pill" respectively discuss double standards in men. . Women's relations and birth control.

In the comic books, Wonder Woman's other name is Diana Prince - but for Americans watching TV in the '70s, Wonder Woman (and, technically speaking, Diana Prince) will always be Linda Carter. When this photo was taken, Carter was about 20 years old, soon to be the winner of a pageant. She was Miss World USA 1972 and a semi-finalist in the 1972 Miss World pageant (held in London), after which she began studying acting and secured small roles in TV series and B-movies. In 1975, Carter got the role of Wonder Woman, which she played on TV until 1979. Current WW actress Gal Gadot is good – she's very good – but she'll never dethrone Lynda Carter as the iconic Wonder Woman of all time.

Just when you thought you'd seen Christopher Walken at his scariest, here he is as a clown to fuel your coulrophobia (it means fear of clowns). In this shot he's only 12 years old, decades removed from his breakout performances in The Deer Hunter, A View to a Kill, King of New York and Pulp Fiction, but he's clearly already been bitten by the showbiz bug . Walken – known by his given name "Ronnie" during his early career – began acting on stage and TV, and did much singing and dancing in New York nightclubs and cabarets. This would explain the bizarre dancing walken you might have seen on Saturday Night Live or in Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice" video.