Photos Show What Life of American Teenagers Looked Like in the 1980s

The 1980s may feel like yesterday, but the teenagers of the 1980s are now unfortunately distinctly middle-aged.

If you’ve tried to explain to a modern child the significance of a pencil to a cassette tape, and they don’t even have a clue what a cassette is, then welcome home.

Take a look at these photos from tshiverd to see what life of American teenagers looked like in the 1980s.

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15 Adorable Childhood Photos of Janet Jackson in the 1970s

Singer, songwriter and actress Janet Jackson was born on May 16, 1966, in Gary, Indiana. The youngest of nine children born to Katherine Esther and Joseph Walter Jackson, she grew up in the affluence of a show business family. Her five brothers — Jackie, Tito, Marlon, Jermaine and Michael — signed a contract with Motown Records in 1968 and would go on to rule the charts as The Jackson Five, with such hits as “I Want You Back,” “The Love You Save,” “ABC” and “Dancing Machine.”

Janet Jackson first appeared onstage in April 1974, singing and doing impressions alongside brother Randy in the Jackson family’s Las Vegas act. In 1976, she appeared on The Jacksons, a summer replacement television show. Her performance earned her the attention of a producer who hired her to play Penny, a regular on the TV comedy series Good Times, from 1977-79.

She continued her television work in the short-lived A New Kind of Family (1979), the sitcom Different Strokes (1984-85) and the teen drama Fame (1984-85), based at a New York City performing arts high school.

Here, a selection of 15 adorable photos of Janet Jackson when she was young in the 1970s:

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26 Publicity Photos of a Young and Handsome Pierce Brosnan in ‘Remington Steele’

Pierce Brosnan’s breakthough role in Hollywood was essentially a 94-episode audition for 007. The handsome British star was perfectly cast as the title character in Remington Steele.

The 1982–87 TV series centers around a female private eye named Laura Holt who runs the Remington Steele Detective Agency. There’s one catch. Remington Steele does not exist — Holt invented a male boss to impress her sexist clients. Enter a charming thief and con man, played by Pierce Brosnan, who poses as the fictional Remington Steele. Over the course of the series, Holt and "Steele" team up and inevitably fall in love.

With its blend of wit, action and romance, the tongue-in-cheek action drama proved to be quite influential on pop culture. For starters, its sexy male lead was essentially a mysterious criminal. Of course, Brosnan would eventually win the role of James Bond, though not as soon as intended.

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Baby Bounces in Safety Chair, 1935

A safety chair which combines the enjoyment of a spring ride for the baby with assurance to the mother that he will not get hurt provides a solution to the problem of baby tending for the busy housewife.

Left: The chair used in an auto. Right: The safety chair is supported by a spring leaf slipped into a slot on the floor.

The chair is built high to support the baby’s back and is set on a strong steel spring leaf fastened to a slot in the floor. The baby’s legs straddle a hobby-horse head which prevent him from falling out of the front. Stirrups provide a natural rest for the child’s feet.

The spring of the safety chair may also be slipped into a slot in the auto floor, and it will eliminate all heavy shocks to provide baby with a smooth, comfortable ride in spite of rough and rutty roads.

Amazing Illustrations by John Bauer in the Early 20th Century

Born 1882 in Jönköping, Swedish painter and illustrator traveled throughout Lappland, Germany and Italy early in his career, and these cultures deeply informed his work. He painted and illustrated in a romantic nationalistic style, in part influenced by the Italian Renaissance and Sami cultures.

Illustrations by John Bauer in the 1900s and 1910s

Bauer’s work is concerned with landscape and mythology, but he also composed portraits. He is best known for his illustrations of early editions of Bland tomtar och troll (Among Gnomes and Trolls), an anthology of Swedish folklore and fairy tales.

Most of Bauer’s works are watercolors or prints in monochrome or muted colours; he also produced oil paintings and frescos. His illustrations and paintings broadened the understanding and appreciation of Swedish folklore, fairy tales and landscape.

When Bauer was 36, he drowned, together with his wife Ester and their son Bengt, in a shipwreck on Lake Vättern in southern Sweden in 1918.

A set of amazing illustrations is part of his work that John Bauer painted in the 1900s and 1910s.

Dag and Daga, and the Flying Troll of Sky Mountain, 1907

Dag and Daga, and the Flying Troll of Sky Mountain, 1907

Dag and Daga, and the Flying Troll of Sky Mountain, 1907

Dag and Daga, and the Flying Troll of Sky Mountain, 1907

Dag and Daga, and the Flying Troll of Sky Mountain, 1907

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Peter Lorre: A Great Screen Actor Remembered

Born 1904 as László Löwenstein in Rózsahegy, Kingdom of Hungary, Hungarian-American actor Peter Lorre began his stage career in Vienna before moving to Germany where he worked first on the stage, then in film in Berlin in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He caused an international sensation in the Weimar Republic-era film M (1931), directed by Fritz Lang, in which he portrayed a serial killer who preys on little girls.

Of Jewish descent, Lorre left Germany when Adolf Hitler came to power. Eventually settling in Hollywood, he later became a featured player in many Hollywood crime and mystery films. In his initial American films, Mad Love and Crime and Punishment (both 1935), he continued to play murderers, but he was then cast playing Mr. Moto, the Japanese detective, in a B-picture series.

From 1941 to 1946, Lorre mainly worked for Warner Bros. His first film at Warner was The Maltese Falcon (1941), the first of many films in which he appeared alongside actors Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet. This was followed by Casablanca (1942), the second of the nine films in which Lorre and Greenstreet appeared together.

Frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner, his later career was erratic. Lorre was the first actor to play a James Bond villain as Le Chiffre in a TV version of Casino Royale (1954). Some of his last roles were in horror films directed by Roger Corman.

Lorre died in Los Angeles in 1964 from a stroke at the age of 59. He was inducted into the Grand Order of Water Rats, the world's oldest theatrical fraternity, in 1942, and was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6619 Hollywood Boulevard in February 1960.

Take a look at these vintage photos to see portrait of a young Peter Lorre in the 1930s and 1940s.

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25 Fascinating Vintage Photographs That Capture Everyday Life in Central Park in the Summer of 1961

Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city by area, covering 843 acres (341 ha). It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated 42 million visitors annually as of 2016, and is the most filmed location in the world.

The park’s first areas were opened to the public in late 1858. Additional land at the northern end of Central Park was purchased in 1859, and the park was completed in 1876. After a period of decline in the early 20th century, New York City parks commissioner Robert Moses started a program to clean up Central Park in the 1930s. The Central Park Conservancy, created in 1980 to combat further deterioration in the late 20th century, refurbished many parts of the park starting in the 1980s.

The 1960s marked the beginning of an “Events Era” in Central Park that reflected the widespread cultural and political trends of the period. In the summer of 1961, LIFE photographer Leonard McCombe documented New Yorkers enjoying pastimes and pleasures in the park, about a century old at the time.

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