The names of Synanon and its founder, Charles E. Dederich, may be unfamiliar to most people today—the group, which was founded in 1958, disbanded in 1991. But for a time it was a big deal, because people saw Synanon as a revolutionary way of dealing with a scourge that was on the rise. In 1962 LIFE ran a story on Synanon that was fairly glowing, with the headline declaring that the program offered addicts “a tunnel back to the human race,” and the story said “both doctors and narcotics experts look at Synanon as en exciting, practical approach, and even skeptical federal narcotics officers see promise in it.” The pictures from LIFE’s Grey Villet focussed on the anguish of addicts as they sought to get their lives back.

Dederich’s program featured a technique called the Synanon Game, which was an extreme version of group therapy. LIFE described it as “a dozen or so persons seated in a circle, telling the truth about each other, interrelating. Verbally, anything goes and the games are sometimes brutal, although never physically violent.”

Over the years Synanon evolved from a therapy into a way of life, with many adherents living on the Synanon compounds. When LIFE returned for a major profile of Dederich in 1969, the founder was more at the center of the story, which featured photographs from Ralph Crane and Fred Lyon. Dederich was by then already a polarizing figure. Here’s how that story opened:

A madman with delusions of grandeur. A saint. An opportunist. A brilliant executive. Latter-day Socrates. Loud, arrogant egotist. Hilarious comic. An earthquake. A herd of one elephant. Charles E. Dederich has been called all that, and more.

And again, that was before things really started to go sour, which they would, especially in the 1970s, after LIFE had ended its original run. A passage from a history of Synanon which appeared in TIME in advance of the Max series shows how disturbing the world of Synanon became in its later years:

As Synanon’s eccentric leader Dederich started to decline, so did the organization. He began drinking again after his wife died in 1977 and remarried soon after. Then, he decided everyone in Synanon would also benefit from remarrying, and called for wife-swapping. Suddenly, men and women who were married to one another at Synanon were divorcing and marrying different people affiliated with the organization.

After encouraging people to raise families at Synanon, he called for residents to be childless. Men started to get vasectomies, like Mike Gimbel, who credits Synanon for getting him clean and worked for the organization in the 1970s. He says in the series that he was in love with his wife, but they decided to separate when Dederich called for wife-swapping. When she got pregnant, she got an abortion because they were afraid of running afoul of Dederich. As he puts it in the final episode, “Synanon saved my life, but screwed it up too.”

The group was at its most extreme when it attacked a lawyer who had successfully sued Synanon on behalf of former members. Two Synanon members placed a live rattlesnake inside the lawyer’s home mailbox, and those members were eventually convicted of attempted murder.

With that level of drama its no wonder that, so many years later, documentarians have returned to this fascinating story.

Synanon founder Charles E. Dederich at a treatment center, 1962.

Grey Villet/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Synanon founder Charles E. Dederich talked to an addict who had come with his mother in an attempt to get clean, 1962.

Grey Villet/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Synanon Founder Charles E. Dederich posed at the group’s research and development center in California, 1968.

Fred Lyon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Synanon founder Charles E. Dederich, 1968.

Fred Lyon/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Charles E. Dederich (center) at work with other Synanon members, 1968.

Fred Lyon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Synanon founder Charles Dederich spoke at a gathering in Oakland, 1968.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Charles E. Dederich with a group of Synanon members, 1968.

Fred Lyon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Synanon founder Charles Dederich, 1968.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Synanon founder Charles Dederich, 1968.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Synanon founder Charles Dederich (left), 1968.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Synanon founder Charles E. Dederich, 1968.

Fred Lyon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Synanon founder Charles Dederich in his office, 1968.

Fred Lyon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Synanon founder Charles E. Dederich relaxed in his office while blowing a tune on the recorder, 1968.

Fred Lyon/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post “The Synanon Fix” in LIFE appeared first on LIFE.

The Century City mall, selected for its futuristic appearance, was a primary battleground in the plot. LIFE staff photographer Ralph Crane came to the set and took pictures of the costumed actors in the mall, trying on shoes and making eyes at the lingerie store display, as well as eating in the mess hall with their masks half off. The pictures make for easy laughs, capturing the kind of shenanigans that help liven up a fourth Apes film in as many years.

But when the movie came out, LIFE reviewer Richard Schickel was not amused. In the magazine’s Aug. 11, 1972 issue the critic lumped Conquest in with some other film sequels which hit the screens that summer and said, “They’re not really different from—and certainly not better than—their progenitors. Your response to what went before can safely guide you through, or better yet around, this new batch.”

Conquest was followed by the fifth and final film of the original run in the series, Battle for the Planet of the Apes. After that the franchise took a well-deserved breather on the big screen. In 2001 Tim Burton tried a remake with Planet of the Apes, with only middling results. But a 2011 reboot, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, connected better with audiences, spawning its own run of sequels, though this group was, wisely, little more spaced out. The fourth film of this latest group, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, is slated to come out in May 2024.

A scene from the filming of the 1972 film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, at a mall in Century City, Los Angeles.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from the filming of the 1972 film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, at a mall in Century City, Los Angeles.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from the filming of the 1972 film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, at a mall in Century City, Los Angeles.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes from the filming of the 1972 film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, at a mall in Century City, Los Angeles.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from the filming of the 1972 film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, at a mall in Century City, Los Angeles.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from the filming of the 1972 film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, at a mall in Century City, Los Angeles.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from the filming of the 1972 film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, at a mall in Century City, Los Angeles.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from the filming of the 1972 film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, at a mall in Century City, Los Angeles.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from the filming of the 1972 film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, at a mall in Century City, Los Angeles.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from the filming of the 1972 film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, at a mall in Century City, Los Angeles.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from the filming of the 1972 film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, at a mall in Century City, Los Angeles.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from the filming of the 1972 film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, at a mall in Century City, Los Angeles.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from the filming of the 1972 film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, at a mall in Century City, Los Angeles.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A scene from the filming of the 1972 film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, at a mall in Century City, Los Angeles.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post “Planet of the Apes” Goes to a ’70s Mall appeared first on LIFE.

The thrills and the dangers were both acknowledged when LIFE took a deep dive on drag racing in a 1957 cover story. The photos capture the charm of a sport in which people take cars and soup them up and see how fast they can go. It’s the essence of an age in which people were deeply connected to their cars, seeing what they drove as an expression of self and of a newfound mobility, rather than just a way to get from point A to point B. Many of the photos in this gallery are by the great Ralph Crane, but it also includes other drag racing images from LIFE photographers Frank Scherschel, N.R. Farbman, Grey Villet and Loomis Dean are either from that story or other instances in that decade when LIFE sent its photographers to document the hot rod life.

The 1957 magazine story was headlined “The Drag Racing Rage: Hot-rodders Numbers Grow But Road to Respectability is a Rough One,” and the nine-page package talked about how drag-raching was going to backroads amusement/hazard to a controlled sport, with a growing number of fans clamoring to see these races that lasted as little as ten seconds.

But not everyone was happy about it. “Safety groups and some police officials feel that the glorification of speed on the strips infects the teenagers with a fatal spirit of derring-do on the highways,” LIFE wrote. The story reported that police chiefs had voted to condemn drag racing at a gathering in Chicago, as had the National Safety Council.

Despite the dangers, the sport carried on, and it still does. These photos are a monument to a time when drag racing was born, and car culture was at its peak.

Competitors sitting on top of cars during drag race in Santa Ana, California, 1957.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

People watching cars drag racing in Santa Ana, California, 1957.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A drag race competition, Santa Ana, California, 1957.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A team of men push a car at a National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) sponsored drag race held at the Orange County Airport, Santa Ana, California, 1957.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A team of men push a car at a National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) sponsored drag race held at the Orange County Airport, Santa Ana, California, 1957.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Two uniformed men stand beside hot rods at Santa Ana Drags, the first drag strip in the US, Santa Ana, California, 1957.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes of drag racing (and drag racing cars) in Minneapolis, 1957.

Frank Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scenes of drag racing (and drag racing cars) in Minneapolis, 1957.

Frank Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A hot rodder tuned up his Model T Ford before a race at a drag strip in Santa Ana, California, 1957.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shuttertstock

It’s a concern that carries on today. Even as it’s hard to deny that the photos of the world and its enthusiasts all looks pretty cool, as it takes you back to a place and time when car culture was at its peak.

Men praying during drag racing in San Francisco, California, April 1957.

Nat Farbman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A man prepared his hot rod for large drag race, California, March 1957.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

In the parking lot of a drive-in, an unidentified carhop serves a tray of food to hot rod owner Norm Grabowsky, who sits with a friend in his customized Ford with a Cadillac engine, as a large group of other admire the car, Santa Ana, California, 1957.

Arthur Schatz/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A drag race begins, 1957.

Hank Walker/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hot Rodders drag raced in the L.A. River, 1957.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A drag race, 1957.

Hank Walker/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Men working on a chromed roadster in preparation for a drag race in California, 1957.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Men cleaning their hot rod, 1953.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

From a 1953 story on hot rods and hot-rod accessories.

Loomis Dean/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Drag racing in Moline, Illinois, 1957.

Grey Villet/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Drag racing in Moline, Illinois, 1957.

Grey Villet/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post The Hot Rod Life appeared first on LIFE.

“DeMille tells this story sumptuously,” LIFE wrote. “He built a huge set on Egypt’s sands—the gates of Per-Rameses and a 16-sphinx avenue—that drew more tourists than Giza’s single sphinx….The result is a film of reverent and massive significance.”

LIFE’s Ralph Crane went to Egypt to capture the scale of this grand production, and his pictures show what it took to make a big movie in the days before digital effects. (Though of course the film is remembered in part for a scene that did require special effects, however old school, the parting of the Red Sea. DeMille filmed that sequence back in Hollywood and used shots of pouring water in reverse to create the illusion of seawater pushed aside by the hand of God.) Plenty about this film required extraordinary effort, as can be seen in Crane’s shots of the massive sets and the hordes of extras—not to mention the caring of the many horses needed for the chariot scenes.

Another LIFE.com story shows captures a more intimate moment from this film, with baby Moses in the rushes—it was Heston’s son in the crib. Those moments great and small help make DeMille’s masterpiece one that families keep coming back to.

Charlton Heston (lower right), playing Moses, in a scene from the 1956 biblical epic ‘The Ten Commandments,’ directed by Cecil B. DeMille, Egypt.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Charlton Heston, playing Moses, in a scene from the the 1956 biblical epic ‘The Ten Commandments.’ directed by Cecil B. DeMille, Egypt.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

On the Egypt set of 1956 Biblical epic The Ten Commandments.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

On the Egypt set of 1956 Biblical epic The Ten Commandments.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

On the set of the 1956 film The Ten Commandments in Egypt.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

On the Egypt set of the 1956 film The Ten Commandments.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

On the Egypt set of the 1956 film The Ten Commandments.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

On the Egypt set of the 1956 film The Ten Commandments.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

On the Egypt set of the 1956 film The Ten Commandments.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

On the Egypt set of the 1956 film The Ten Commandments.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

On the Egypt set of the 1956 film The Ten Commandments.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Cecil B. DeMille on location in Egypt during the filming of the 1956 movie The Ten Commandments.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Extras from the movie “The Ten Commandments” heading home after a day of shooting, Egypt, 1955

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A group of horses from The Ten Commandments drinking water at camp, Egypt, 1955

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Cecil B. DeMille directing a scene from the 1956 movie The Ten Commandments; on location in Egypt.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Extras pretending to a family during the filming of ‘The Ten Commandments in Egypt.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post “DeMille’s Greatest”: Making The Ten Commandments appeared first on LIFE.

LIFE also had a big story on Marjorie Sutton of Los Angeles. Sutton was a 32-year-old mother of four with an amazingly busy life. Sutton married her husband George when both were in high school—he was 17, she was 16. He worked at his father’s Ford agency, while she had four children and handed the home duties.

In the photo captions in the LIFE archives, Sutton is repeatedly described as the “ideal housewife,” suggesting that was the guiding idea behind the assignment. Though if that’s the case, the magazine’s editors reeled in their assessment a tad before going to press, simply headlining the piece, “Busy Wife’s Achievements.”

However you describe her, the list of activities that Sutton had the time, energy and aptitude for suggest she was some kind of Superwoman:

She is a sponsor of the Campfire Girls, serves on PTA committees, helps raise funds for Centinela Hospitals and Goodwill Industries, sings in the choir at Hollywood’s First Presbyterian, and inevitably is drawn into many of her husband’s civic interests. But Marge Sutton thinks of herself primarily as a housewife and, having stepped from high school into marriage, has made a career out of running her home briskly as well. She does much of the cooking, makes clothes for her four children (ages 6-14) and for herself and, as a hostess, she entertains an endless stream of guests—1,500 a year, she estimates.

If it all sounds a little improbable, it should be noted that Marge did have had a maid helping out. Still, the photos by LIFE’s Ralph Crane show a woman with her hands full. Sutton is seen driving the carpool, shopping for groceries, sewing her children’s clothes, singing in the choir and also serving on the church decorations committee, in addition to caring for her four children and also the family dog.

One photo laden with symbolism shows her driving the family’s 1921 Model T Ford, which the Suttons apparently owned for kicks (Marge is seen driving a regular sedan in the carpool shots). In the Model T, Marge is the one with her hands on the wheel, while her family is either in the seats or standing on the car’s running boards. “She’d be a racer if I let her,” husband George told LIFE.

The most atypical photo of Sutton is one which did not run in the magazine. This picture shows her at night, floating in the pool behind her house, all by herself. It’s the one photo which suggests she might ever grow tired or need a few moments alone.

Marge Sutton, star of a 1956 LIFE story on the ideal housewife.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton drove a 1921 Model T Ford with son Gart beside her, daughter Christie in back, and husband George and children Marshall and Lolly on the running boards, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton with husband George, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton with son and dog, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton drove the high school carpool, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton, star of LIFE story on the ideal housewife, shopping for groceries, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton pinned the hem of her daughter Christies’ dress while her daughter Sally watched, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton with her son in their Los Angeles home, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton helped her daughter Sally with her homework, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton talked about PTA business on the phone while removing a shirt from her son Gart, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton cleaned her son Gart’s fingernails on a Saturday night, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton, wearing a dress she made herself, has a bracelet fastened by husband George as they prepare to go out, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton sings in her church choir, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton, the decorations chairman at her church, worked on the main altar, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton pledged allegiance with her son’s Cub Scout pack, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton and her family dined out at a buffet, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton and her family read the Sunday comics, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton and her four children enjoyed the pool at their Los Angeles home, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton and her family enjoyed the pool at their Los Angeles home, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton and husband George enjoy their time on the tennis court, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton attended her twice-weekly trampoline session with instructor Joe Smith at the YMCA in Inglewood, California. LIFE wrote in 1956 that Sutton’s interest in the trampoline “started during a `slim and trim’ class which she took at the Y to help preserve her size 12 figure.”

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton decorates the Christmas tree, a 16-foot fir that the family cut itself in the San Bernardino Mountains, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton and family decorated their Christmas tree, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton sews and sits with her husband by the fire, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Marge Sutton enjoyed a late night swim at her Los Angeles home, 1956.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post Meet Marge Sutton, LIFE’s Ultimate Housewife appeared first on LIFE.

Perhaps the oddest-fitting of all its tenants was the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958, but the team’s stadium would not be ready for occupancy until 1962. So for four years the Dodgers did the best they could in the enormous Coliseum.

The photos show the problem; playing baseball in the Coliseum meant sticking a diamond into the middle of an oval. We see fans with binoculars, straining to follow the action on the far-away field. Remember that this was before spectators could watch replays on giant video boards at the stadium. It its coverage of the first Dodgers game in their new home in its April 28, 1958 issue, LIFE wryly noted: “In the cavernous coliseum many had trouble seeing the game at all. But many came only to be seen.”

Another oddity was that the left-field fence was a very short 250 feet down the line. (Since then baseball has established rules for new stadiums that require a minimum distance of 325 feet). A 40-foot screen was erected to keep down the number of home runs, but the complaints from the players were many. Dodgers star pitcher Don Drysdale commented, “It’s nothing but a sideshow. Who feels like playing baseball in this place?”

Most of the photos in this story are by Leonard McCombe and Allan Grant, and come from the Dodgers first home games in 1958, played against the San Francisco Giants, who had also just moved from New York to California. A couple other photos are by Ralph Crane amd come from 1959 World Series, when the Dodgers defeated the Chicago White Sox in six games—though again the pictures, by Ralph Crane, emphasized the odd setting more than the on-the-field action.

With a seating capacity of more than 90,000, the Coliseum remains the largest stadium ever to serve as the home field for a major league team. In 1967 it would host the first Super Bowl, between Green Bay and Kansas City. In 2028 the Coliseum will host its third Olympics.

A vendor outside the first game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, California, 1958

Television actress Juli Reding spoke with Dodgers outfielder Elmer Valo during the first home game at the Los Angeles Coliseum, 1958.

Leonard McCombe/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants during the Dodgers’ first home game at the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California, 1958

Leonard McCombe/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants during the Dodgers’ first home game at the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California, 1958

Leonard McCombe/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scene from the first home game for the Dodgers at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scene from the first home game for the Dodgers at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scene from the first home game for the Dodgers at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scene from the first home game for the Dodgers at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dodgers fans needed binoculars to follow the action in the cavernous Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where the team played for four seasons after moving from Brooklyn, 1958.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Dodgers home game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where the team played for four seasons after moving from Brooklyn, 1958.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dodgers fans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum cheer the team in in their first home game after moving from Brooklyn, 1958.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dodgers fans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum cheer the team in in their first home game after moving from Brooklyn, 1958.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Dodgers during the team’s first home game at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.

Allan Grant/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scene from the first home game for the Dodgers at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.

Allan Grant//Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A crowd watching the Dodgers’ first home game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.

Leonard McCombe/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Fans at the Dodgers’ first home game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.

Leonard McCombe/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Dodgers’ first home game at Los Angeles Coliseum, 1958.

Leonard McCombe/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The crowd at Los Angeles Coliseum for the first game between the L.A. Dodgers and San Francisco Giants in Los Angeles, 1958.

Leonard McCombe/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

People watched the first Dodgers home game at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1958.

Leonard McCombe/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Game 3 of the 1959 World Series between the White Sox and the Dodgers at L.A. Memorial Coliseum, 1959.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shuttetstock

The 1959 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers, at L.A. Memorial Coliseum.

Ralph Crane/Life Picture Collection/Shuttetstock

The post The L.A. Coliseum at 100: Remembering its Bizarre Baseball Years appeared first on LIFE.