Bill Syken

LIFE was into Carol Burnett early. Her first appearance in the magazine came in 1957, when she was just 24 years old and still building her name in show business. LIFE identified Burnett as a “singer” in a story about novelty song she had performed, “I Ma... See more

The following is from the introduction to LIFE’s special tribute issue to Dr. Seuss, available at newsstands and online. By Eileen Daspin Dozens of books, thousands of rhymes, billions of dollars, and at the center of it all, one beloved chaos agent: The ... See more

In the late 1950s Nikita Khruschev, the leader of the Soviet Union, wanted to show the world that he was less of an iron-fisted leader than his predecessor, Joseph Stalin. So he initiated what was called the Khrushchev Thaw, which gave Soviet citizens gre... See more

In 1968 Muhammad Ali had plenty of time to go see a show. The previous year he had refused his induction into the draft because of his religious beliefs and his objections to the war in Vietnam. As a result he was stripped of the heavyweight title and als... See more

In 1938 LIFE magazine took its readers to a place that is even more exotic today than it was back then—the streets of a hastily constructed oil boom town in South Texas. The town was called Freer, which is a little more than 100 miles south of San Antonio... See more