UPDATE: The Annenberg Foundation caption information is off by a year; this is 13-year-old Brenda Lee at Centennial Park on June 8, 1958, performing in a concert sponsored by the Nashville Tennessean. (Her first Nashville performance was at night – a double bill with Pat Boone at Ryman Auditorium on September 16, 1957.)

Brenda Lee, "Little Miss Dynamite," in 1957 at age 12, in her first Nashville performance. Photo by Elmer Williams / Annenberg Space for Photography. View full size.

Springfield, Missouri, circa 1959. "Sibling vocal trio The Browns -- Maxine, Bonnie, and Jim Ed -- with Bill Wimberly's Country Rhythm Boys on Jubilee USA, broadcast nationally on ABC-TV." In 1959 their single "The Three Bells" hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop and country charts. Photo by Elmer Williams / Annenberg Space for Photography. View full size.

Philadelphia, 1905. "American Academy of Music." With two examples of that latest thing in signage, the electric carriage call. 8x10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.

Saginaw, Michigan, circa 1907. "Academy of Music, Washington Avenue." Coming Sept. 23: the "great success" Under Southern Skies. 8x10 inch glass negative. View full size.

New York. May 16, 1921. The Metropolitan Opera soprano Yvonne d'Arle and friend. 8x10 inch glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1911. "Mawhinney, M., Miss." Mary Mawhinney at the harp. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

September 1940. St. Mary's County, Maryland. An uncaptioned photo by John Vachon showing Louise Dyson (last seen here with her husband) and unidentified guest playing Mr. Dyson's ancient accordion. Laissez le bon temps rouler! View full size.

June 1954. "Singer Nat King Cole performing in a nightclub." Color transparency from the Look magazine assignment "Melancholy Monarch." View full size.

1906. "Music Hall, Washington Park." Cincinnati Music Hall on Elm Street, completed in 1878. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Photographic Company. View full size.

August 1956. Southampton, New York. "Teenage girl in record store." Medium format negative from photos for the Look magazine assignment "The Young Have New Ideas: They're the Disc Diggers." Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Collection. View full size.

New York circa 1924. "Koshetz and child." The soprano Nina Koshetz and her daughter Marina Schubert. 5x7 glass negative, Bain News Service. View full size.

        Mel Torme (1925-1999) backstage at the Paramount Theater, in a visual approximation of his famous nickname conjured by photographer William Gottlieb and a block of dry ice in the dressing-room sink.

New York circa 1947. "Portrait of singer Mel Torme in dressing room." Medium format negative by Down Beat photographer William Gottlieb. View full size.

"Portrait of Billie Holiday at the Downbeat club, New York, ca. February 1947." Medium format negative by William Gottlieb. View full size.

        I especially tried to capture personality, but that's an elusive quality, and I was successful only a portion of the time. But I certainly hit it on the button here with a picture of Billie Holiday, whose voice was filled with anguish. I also tried to catch the beauty of her face -- she was at her most beautiful at that particular time, which was not too long after she had come out of prison on a drug charge. She couldn't get at any drugs while she was incarcerated, or alcohol, and she lost weight and she came out looking gorgeous, and her voice was, I think, at its peak. And I was fortunate enough to have spent some time with her during that period, and I caught this close-up of her in a way that you could really see the anguish that must have been coming out of her throat.

-- William Gottlieb, 1997

August 1947. New York. "Lou Blum, Jack Crystal [reaching] and Herbie Hill [rear] at Milt Gabler's Commodore Record Shop on 42nd Street." Medium format negative by William Gottlieb for Down Beat magazine. View full size.

New York circa 1948. "Jazz singer at the Onyx Club, 52nd Street." We trust that this canary won't stay unidentified for long. Medium format Kodachrome transparency by Down Beat photographer William Gottlieb. View full size.