Not all historical photos were meant to be seen by the public. The pictures that we’ve collected have been hidden away from history, and kept secret to spare their subjects from embarrassment.
Many of these photos show a chilling side to the secretive past of many of our most well known celebrities and historical figures. You’ll blush with embarrassment after seeing some of these cringeworthy shots.
Proceed with caution while looking through these photos. Not every shot is meant for viewers of all ages, and many of them are far too hot for TV…
The Village People, Michael Jackson, Jane Fonda, Valerie Perrine, and Bruce Jenner at Studio 54
Think the of all the secrets being hidden in this photo. Sure, most of the members of The Village People were out and proud (save for singer Victor Willis who has firmly noted that he’s straight), but it’s an understatement to say that Bruce Jenner and Michael Jackson each had their extremely personal dramas going on behind the scenes.
While Jane Fonda was successfully rehabbing her career from the “Hanoi Jane” incident, Jackson was struggling with years of abuse from his father as he was breaking away from the Jackson 5 in order to establish himself as a viable solo artist. His following years were some of the most successful of his life, but this was also the beginning of a dark, strange road for the performer.
Following Jenner’s gold medal win at the 1976 Olympics he was American hero, but he was dealing with gender dysphoria in a way that he couldn’t even name at the time. After this photo was taken it was another 25 years before Jenner would come out as a transgender woman.
Lynda Carter as our favorite version of Wonder Woman
Lynda Carter not only played our favorite version of Wonder Woman, but she was strong and courageous behind the scenes as well. In 2018, Carter revealed that while working on the series she was sexually assaulted by an unnamed producer, something that made her feel small and weak while she put on the air of an unstoppable super hero.
While discussing her experiences on the series Carter refused to name names, only saying that the man who hurt her is “already being done in” and that there’s nothing to gain from “piling on again.” Although she later added she believes “every woman in the Bill Cosby case.”
It’s horrific to think that someone so strong could be a target of something so awful. Carter truly is Wonder Woman.
Hitler was seriously embarrassed by this ridiculous photo
Hitler was known for his power as an orator, for the way that held a crowd in his grasp not only by his words, but by his actions at the podium. It turns out that to make sure he was being dictatory enough he practiced his speeches over and over again, and even had Heinrich Hoffmann, his personal photographer, take photos of his actions to make sure he looked properly authoritarian.
As much as Hitler needed to check and see if his gestures and expressions were intimidating and inspiring, he was also desperate to look like he did everything off the cuff. He never wanted these photos to come out.
There are numerous photos of Hitler practicing his stances and they all look ridiculous – this is actually the best shot of the bunch and it still looks silly.
From the movie “Johnny Cool,” Elizabeth Montgomery, 1963
For everyone growing up in the 1960s and ’70s, Elizabeth Montgomery was an iconic performer. She started in small roles like Johnny Cool, but it was her turn as Samantha Stephens in Bewitched in 1964 that brought her into the homes of everyone in America. The show was so popular that after it ended she was haunted by the character.
Montgomery didn’t want to talk about the series after it ended, not because she hated the role but because she knew that she could do more than play Samantha, it’s just that viewers weren’t ready for it. Even in the final season of Bewitched, Montgomery was over the series. Her biographer said:
The show was not the same — if you look at that last season, she’s dragging her feet. She’s just gone. She’s bored out of her skull and you can see it. Now everybody thinks ABC canceled the show because of low ratings. Elizabeth Montgomery canceled the show.
John F. Kennedy was unwell long before his untimely death
JFK may have been young and handsome when he was elected to the highest office in the nation, but he was in pain every day of his life long before his untimely death in 1963. Much of Kennedy’s youth was spent in the hospital for painful intestinal problems, and it was briefly believed that he was suffering from leukemia.
Aside from his intestinal issues, Kennedy suffered from chronic back pain for his entire life, beginning with spinal problems as a child that were exacerbated when he rescued a fellow soldier during World War II.
After his election to the presidency he was in pain almost every hour of the day because of the extent of his back issues which was only made worse by fatigue, nausea, and dizziness from Addison’s disease. That being said, whenever he was asked how he was feeling, he insisted that he was in “excellent shape.”
A leader of the feminist movement, Gloria Steinem went undercover at the Playboy Club during its heyday
In 1963, feminist essayist Gloria Steinem got her start in journalism by spending some time working undercover at the Playboy Club in New York City. The expose, “A Bunny’s Tale” didn’t just show the cracks in Hugh Hefner’s empire that claimed to be hip to the plight of women everywhere while putting them in saucy clothing (or none at all), but it also showed that the company’s business practices weren’t all that hot for the women working at the clubs every day.
Steinem was able to use a fake name, and never actually showed a birth certificate or Social Security Number, to secure employment, to work the floor of the Playboy Club. To do that she also had to undergo an invasive check up with a gynecologist, and agree to hand over most of her tips to her managers.
Steinem’s piece didn’t turn her into a literary star overnight, in fact it was quite the opposite. She was blacklisted from most magazines and periodicals for a few years, and was only offered jobs that would force her to use her body while undercover.
1923, The last photo ever taken of Vladimir Lenin, who by this photo had three strokes and was totally mute
Born into a middle-class, well-educated family in Simbirsk, Russia on April 22, 1870, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov rose from a communist revolutionary to the head of the Bolshevik Party during the Russian Revolution of 1917. His bloody coup brought an end to the Romanov dynasty and centuries of imperial rule in Russia.
After leading the Red Army to victory in Russia’s civl war, Lenin helped draft a treaty between Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the Transcaucasus (now Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan) to form the Union of Soviet Republics, or the USSR. Although by that time his health wa sin serious decline. Between 1922 and his death in 1924 he suffered a series debilitating strokes that hindered his thinking and made it nearly impossible for him to speak.
Even though he was still considered to be at the top of the hierarchy in the USSR, Lenin was in hiding because of his condition, something that gave Joseph Stalin a chance to move in and take power. When Lenin passed away in 1924, he was only 53 years old.
Caroline Munro is an English actress and model known for her many appearances in horror, science fiction and action films of the 1970s
Known for her roles in Hammer Horror films like Dracula A.D. 1972 and Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter, as well as The Spy Who Loved Me, Munro mostly appeared in B-Movie roles throughout the ’70s. She may not have been a massive star, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t have to fight off members of the paparazzi throughout her career.
As you can see from this photo, Munro was ogled by cameramen across the pond wherever she went. She was vociferous in her refusal to perform nudity in films, which made her even more of a target for photographer who wanted to catch her in an embarrassing position.
With her refusal to appear nude in print or film, a creep shot of her would have garnered quite a bit of notoriety (and likely cash for the photographer), which meant that she had to stay ever vigilant wherever she went.
1945, German Prisoners of War reacting to a film about what happened at concentration camps
By 1945 the Allied powers were not only aware of German’s concentration camps, but they were doing everything in their power close them, save the remaining inhabitants, and document their existence to make sure that something so horrific never happened again. With each concentration camp that they found, films were made of the findings and shown to German POWs as a way to show them the menace that their work accomplished.
Not just a way to spite the German military, this form of “denazification” forced German soldiers to accept the full weight of what they’d done throughout the war. The Allied program didn’t stop at footage, but included visits to nearby concentration camps, and posters displaying dead bodies of prisoners hung in public places.
The process of making German soldiers confront the actions of their government was truly chilling, but they needed to know the horrible things they were fighting for.
Jessica Alba gets some rays in Miami
Jessica Alba has been in the public eye since the 1990s, but even though she’s been famous since her teens that doesn’t mean that she’s not a private person. Alba has had a tough back and forth with the paps, with many photographers trying to catch her in delicate positions.
While speaking with NBC, Alba said that she’s had run-ins with photographers, reporters, and a ton of invasive dirt sheet writers who just want a piece of her, and that this part of celebrity life isn’t what she signed up for. She explained:
I think it’s mutual, just because it’s so invasive. It’s not like they’re standing 100 feet away. They’re in your face, not letting you walk, standing in the way when you’re driving. It becomes a situation and it doesn’t need to be.
Princess Diana hides in the back of a limo moments before it crashes on the streets of Paris
It’s rare to see such a dramatic and chilling photo, but this shot of one of Princess Diana’s final moments is so eerie that it’s hard to look at for too long. After returning from holiday with her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, the two went to Paris to continue their time together.
After leading the Ritz, Diana and Fayed hopped in a car and drove along the right bank of the River Seine – into the Place de l’Alma underpass, the last place Diana would ever see.
Shortly after midnight, the driver of Diana’s car lost control of the vehicle as paparazzi flanked him from all sides, turning what should have been a short trip into a death drive. After losing control of the car, they struck the right-hand wall and swerved to the left of the two-lane carriageway before colliding head-on with the 13th pillar of the underpass, caving in the car. Diana died at the hospital at four in the morning, her final words were “My God, what’s happened?”
Marilyn Monroe
There’s no denying that Marilyn Monroe is absolutely gorgeous, but her beauty came at a price. Not only did she undergo constant hair bleaching and have plastic surgery done to make her face more “cloud shaped,” but she suffered from a lifelong eating disorder.
To keep her small frame Monroe was on an extreme diet of milk and raw eggs in the morning with steak and carrots at night, which she supplemented with light work outs, sleeping pills, and alcohol. She stayed small but the cost was draining on her mental health. In her final interview before her death, Monroe ominously declared:
I’m one of the world’s most self-conscious people. I really have to struggle… Everybody’s always tugging at you. They’d like sort of a chunk of you.
Two autistic children tied to a radiator, Lebanon, 1982
Even as recent as the late 20th century, people of all ages have been forced to endure so horrific treatment at mental health facilities. While these should be places where people receive the best help possible, they’re often a place for the unwanted.
As horrifying as this image is, it’s not a one time thing. There are stories from as recent as 2019 concerning autistic children being tied to radiators and left to fend for themselves in forgotten hospital wings.
Sadly, there’s no information about these two boys so we can’t even offer the solace that they were rescued and taken to a better medical facility. Hopefully when someone saw this photo in the early ’80s they were able to get these kids the help they deserve.
A Scandinavian Stewardess examines a new uniform proposal for Scandinavian Airlines in 1958, strangely enough it wasn’t approved
In the years since aviation was in its infancy, the outfits that stewardesses were expected to wear have come quite a long way. In the 1950s and ’60s, airline attendants were meant to be the embodiment of a man’s dream while onboard a plane. They were expected to remove every bit of their personality and be in service to the customer.
This kind of in the air servitude began with racy outfits (although they were never quite as racy as this) and extended to the way they were expected to speak with their patrons.
Throughout the mid-century the outfits went from pillbox hats and mod looks to the psychedelic patterns and bright colors of the ’70s – which was kind of the platonic ideal of the sexy air lady and women’s lib. The form fitting outfits changed completely in the ’80s, as airlines changed course to a job that welcomed everyone.
In the past, Beluga whales have often been mistaken for mermaids because of their human-like knees
When we think of mermaids the idea of a beautiful half woman, half fish wearing a sea shell bra comes to mind, but it’s believed that the concept of the mermaid actually comes from sailors and fishermen caching sight of a Beluga whale while underwater.
In most cases, imagining a whale as a sexy lady is kind of impossible, but this photo shows what looks to be a pair of legs beneath its skin. That’s definitely not the case. The thing that’s most likely the cause of this strange, leggy photo is the blubber “rails” which are kept beneath the skin of a beluga whale. However, it’s just as likely that this is a one off store of ventral fat.
A German soldier disobeying direct orders to help a small boy across the Berlin Wall
Many of the most chilling historical moments come from the decisions made by our governments. On the night of August 12, 1961, the German military began to close to border between East and West Berlin, and whatever side someone was on that was the side that they lived on – no matter if they were a child like the one in this photo.
Anyone trying to escape their section of Berlin would be arrested or shot, something that this soldier refused to let happen to this child whose father abandoned him on the wrong side of the wall.
Even though he was ordered to keep people from passing into East Berlin, this brave soldier helped the boy in the photo travel through the barbed wire and get back to his family. No one knows what happened to the soldier, but we do know that he was removed from his detail.
Ian Curtis with his daughter, days before he hung himself in 1980
Ian Curtis spent his entire life trying to settle himself within real life. He married at 19, young for anyone, but when he became a star of the English music scene at the age of 22 he became even more unmoored in his own life. It’s horrible when someone takes their own life, but the saddest part of this Curtis’ daughter never really knew her father.
Curtis’ widow, Deborah, wrote in 1995 that she understood why he was depressed because she was too. However, at the time she was trying to keep their family together while he was on the road. She wrote:
Our existence had become boring and the fact that we both hated our jobs didn’t help. I became very depressed. Sometimes I was unable to stifle the tears on the long bus journey home. We had mistakenly saddled ourselves with a mortgage and a stability we weren’t ready for.
Ian Curtis left us on May 18, 1980, but the music of Joy Division will be with us forever.
UFO featured some of the sexiest space babes
Debuting in 1970, the British series UFO explored the distant future of 1980 (wow!). It follows the adventures of a shady military operation working to stop alien invader across Earth who kidnap humans to harvest their organs. Called SHADO, or Supreme Headquarters Alien Defense Organization, the group stays on the alert for these creeps from beyond the stars.
What’s wild about the series is that SHADO’s headquarters is located beneath a film studio, a plot point that feels incredibly modern. Imagine hearing that an underground military operation was working beneath a film studio. It wouldn’t really be that much of a surprise, would it?
Burt Reynolds and Sally Field, 1978
These two may feel like total opposites – he was famously grouchy and the epitome of manhood, and she’s one of the most delightful actresses of the 20th century – but after they worked with one another on Smokey and the Bandit, Burt Reynolds and Sally Field became inseparable for a time.
The couple starred in four movies together, but called things off in 1982 before moving on to other lives and other partners. However, Reynolds always thought that Field was the love of his life and he kicked himself after their breakup for not being able to make it work out. When asked about Reynolds’ devotion to her after their breakup, Field said:
I was always flattered when he said that, but he was a complicated man… There are times in your life that are so indelible, they never fade away. They stay alive, even 40 years later. My years with Burt never leave my mind. He will be in my history and my heart, for as long as I live.
Circus performer Harriet Hodgini, sits on the gate of a truck helping Otto Griebling, a circus clown, apply his makeup, 1935
One of the four clowns bestowed with the title of Master Clown by Irvin Feld, the head of Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, Otto Griebling spent his entire life performing. After arriving in America from Germany, he began studying the art of clowning under Albert Hodgini in Baraboo, Wisconsin.
Hogdini’s entire family was involved in his act, and many of them went on to work with Griebling throughout his life. Initially, Griebling was a high flying clown but after a nearly life ending fall he was forced to change up his style or quit clowning altogether.
Griebling continued to work with the Hogdini family, but he became a more “sad clown” type of character. While other clowns made a big show of things, Griebling stalked the crowd attempting to find “Miss Jones,” in order to hand off a large piece of ice. He would continue to do so until it was almost melted and someone took pity on him.
Bill Bixby and Lou Ferigno on the set of The Incredible Hulk
The Incredible Hulk may have come straight from the pages of Marvel Comics, but nothing about Bill Bixby’s performance was cartoonish. He brought the realism of a man out of control to the role, something that the Hulk needs. His time on screen makes the audience believe that he’s a man struggling with an inner demon.
Ed Robertson, television historian, author and host of the TV Confidential podcast explained:
That ‘real’ quality he brought forth comes from a very deliberate approach he took as a performer. Certainly when he did Eddie’s Father, you believed that he was this single dad trying to raise a son in the right way. Even something like The Incredible Hulk — and this goes as much to the team behind it as it does to Bixby — you believe, even though it was a ‘comic book story,’ that he was this man living with the agony of this dual personality. Not being able to control what happens when he Hulks out made it real. There’s a good reason the show lasted five years.
Elvis photographed with his parents Vernon and Gladys Presley in 1958
More so than anything else in his life, Elvis adored his parents. As an insecure boy he grew up with his mother and his father as his best friends, something that made him a bit of a target at school. He was so in tune with his parent’s feelings that when a teenage Elvis saw his mother react to a high school football player who died of a blood clot he dropped off of his football team.
When Elvis started making money as a singer when he was 19 years old he made sure that his parents didn’t worry about money, noting that they took care of him for 19 years, and that it was now his turn.
Sadly, shortly after this photo was taken Elvis’ mother Gladys fell ill and passed away while The King was serving his country. He was never the same after this loss. With his mother gone, Elvis could only think of death. He said:
I don’t know why she had to go so young. But it made me think about death. I don’t feel I’ll live a long life. That’s why I have to get what I can from every day.
Actress Jocelyn Jackie Lane, 1964
Jocelyn Lane seemingly lived the dream of every young girl. After toiling in Hollywood for years she worked with Elvis in the film Tickle Me in 1965, and then in 1971 she married Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg to become a real deal princess, just like in a fairytale. Sadly, her life didn’t play out like it does in the storybooks.
In 1985, she and Prince Alfonso divorced, leaving her with a million dollar settlement, one that she later noted was “not really fitting for a princess.” With her million dollars in tow and no longer a member of royalty, Lane went on to design jewelry that she sells in London and California.
Starring in a film with the King and marrying a prince isn’t the worst thing that can happen to a person, but it’s a shame to see her drop out of a public life so abruptly.
1957, Alfred Hitchcock serving tea to the MGM Lion
Taken by Clarence Sinclair Bull in 1958, this photo of Alfred Hitchcock serving tea to Leo the MGM lion was used as a PR shot for North By Northwest, the director’s only film with MGM. There are rumors that Hitchcock actually directed the famous roaring lion intro for MGM, but that’s not true at all.
In reality there have been seven MGM lions and Leo was the last. According to sources the lions were all treated fairly well, although who knows what the animal rights laws were like in the early 20th century. They definitely aren’t what they are today, but the first MGM lion, “slats” was allegedly buried on the estate of his trainer Volney Phifer so there must have been some love there.
As far as Leo is concerned, he’s still the lion that you see in the company’s logo today, and was apparently gentle enough to be allowed on set with children, so maybe it’s not all bad for these MGM lions.
Jaclyn Smith on the set of “Charlie’s Angels” in 1976
The women of Charlie’s Angels have never had it easy but they’ve always had one another to work with. As one of the original stars of this groundbreaking series, Smith has been a beacon for young women, but when she was diagnosed with cancer in the early 2000s she says that it was her fellow Angels who helped her get through it.
Smith says that at the time she didn’t see the diagnosis coming because she was so healthy, and its this diagnosis that really made her take a look at the big picture:
The craziness of it was that I was so healthy, so energetic. How could this happen? I think people see you a certain way and that wasn’t part of the picture for my loved ones…but I guess it never is part of the picture.
Angela Lansbury in 1943 and today
Everyone knows Angela Lansbury. Whether you know her from her time in the theater, in Sweeney Todd, or as Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote, you know her work. Although that almost wasn’t the case. As a vaulted theater actor, everyone in her life told her that it was going to be a bad idea to star as a television detective.
Lansbury was a Broadway draw throughout the ’70s, so when she was offered Murder, She Wrote her agents begged her not to take the role. But after years in the industry she knew a hit when she saw one. She explained why the show was a hit and had more than 200 episodes to the Daily Mail:
I know why [Murder, She Wrote was a success]. There was never any blood, never any violence. And there was also a satisfying conclusion to a whodunnit. The jigsaw was complete. And I loved Jessica’s everywoman character. I think that’s what made her so acceptable to an across-the-board audience.
Natalie Wood monkeying around, 1960s
It was certainly better times for Natalie Wood in the 1960s. At the time she was riding high on a successful transition from child star to a legitimately talented adult actor. Many people didn’t believe that she could rise above her roles in West Side Story and Rebel Without a Cause, but after starring in 1969’s Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice she was a force to be reckoned with.
As much momentum as Wood’s career had, her personal life was often up and down. She was married multiple times, and allegedly had a series of affairs while married to British producer Richard Gregson and again when she was hitched to Robert Wagner. Her relationships were always on the back burner, especially after suffering a sexual assault when she was a teenager at the hands of a producer. Her sister later said:
Natalie ‘hated’ her former screen idol afterward, ‘shuddering’ if she heard his name. She would keep the horrible secret, and behave as if nothing happened whenever their paths intersected, too schooled by Mud [her mother] in the politics of Hollywood to cross a powerful movie star.
An IRA volunteer on her active service in West Belfast in the 1970s
This provocative photo of what looks to be a female volunteer of the Irish Republican Army taken was taken in 1972, just a few years after the beginning of “The Troubles,” a civl war that tore Northern Ireland apart and turned what had once been a peaceful place into a war zone.
What’s strange about this photo is that the Provisional IRA was male-only, and women only participated in the auxiliary unit of the military that provided weapons transportation, communications, and other various forms of support.
Irish photographer Colman Doyle says that he doesn’t remember much about the photo (he’s in his 80s as of 2020), but he noted that he snapped the shot while coming back from the North Belfast neighborhood of Ardoyne, a republican stronghold. He says that as he walked back to the city he “came across this young lady [who] fired two shots, I think… then she just vanished.”
An Italian Girl from Tunisia – Claudia Cardinale
This Italian beauty is more than just a girl with a suitcase. Claudia Cardinale has spent most of her life performing in one way or another, dating back to the 1950s when she won a competition for the “Most Beautiful Italian Girl in Tunisia.” What should have been a huge moment for her was almost ruined after she found out that she was pregnant following what she called a “terrible” relationship with
