Groovy Photos So Beautiful We Can't Look Away

 Lovely Jamie Lee Curtis - Late 1970s

Photos from the past have the power to inspire and intrigue, but there's something else going on just beneath the surface in this collection of beautiful visuals. Each of these rare historical photographs tells a story about a person, sure, but they can also transport us to a time and place.

Showcasing the icons of the past that we all dream about, these pictures will surely create a haze of nostalgia in the minds of everyone who sees them. They'll take you back to the most magical of decades, when anything was possible and life was less chaotic.

Be sure to take a closer look at each of these photos, and spend plenty of time enjoying nostalgic moments rarely seen in history.

After newcomer Jamie Lee Curtis played Laurie Strode in Halloween, she had no idea why people would want to see such a tense movie. After all, why would the audience want to provoke themselves?

Curtis says she didn't really get it until she saw the film with an audience that was fully invested in Laurie's survival. He told the New York Times:

I remember going to see it in Hollywood,

 and in the middle of the movie, when

 Laurie was walking across the street to

 the house where P.J. , In that moment,

 I understood exactly what John meant.

 The audience cared about Laurie.

It shows the power of watching a movie like Halloween with a big group of people, it's so much better than watching a movie alone at home.

Notorious singing duo, Sonny and Cher in 1965

We think of Sonny and Cher as a couple who rose to stardom as a singing duo, but that's not how it all started. They went from America's sweethearts to bitter rivals, to celebrities who were uniquely successful at each other without the ability to extricate themselves from their past as a couple. Initially, their relationship started as platonic. They met in 1963 when Cher was 16 and Sonny was 27 and struck up an instant friendship before living with each other in a small apartment.

Both Sonny and Cher say that their early relationship was devoid of sexual tension, and that they only got together later. In 1975, Cher explained:

It wasn't a fiery, sexy thing with us,

but rather paternal, like we were

bound together, two people who 

needed each other,

almost for protection.

At the time, Cher was singing backup on songs such as "Be My Baby" while working on her double act "Caesar & Cleo". They scored a hit with "I Got You Babe" in 1965, but it wasn't until 1969 that the two tied the knot and made their relationship official.

Frank Zappa and his parents in 1970

We often think of Frank Zappa as the weirdo king of the psychedelic rock scene, but as much as his music is characterized by a playful flair that verges on the ascorbic, he was much more of a family man than people. The picture shows him spending some family time with his parents, who were not at all like his son.

Zappa's father worked for the Department of Defense, so they moved around the country for years until they settled in California when Zappa was 15. She had trouble making friends and never did very well in school, but she was musically gifted and had a tendency to have chemical explosions. The same part of her that enjoyed doing science experiments enjoyed raising her children. His son Ahmet told the Guardian:

I think what my father appreciated was

the science experiment of life. He had

these children, and they had their own

experiences. He wanted us to discover

the world for ourselves. My parents told 

us how they felt, but they never imposed

their beliefs on us, though I appreciate 

that I got a healthy sense of democracy

from them. My father never beat us 

when it came to discipline. If he told you,

'You're acting like a jerk,' that was the 

worst thing ever.

Valley of the Dolls - Sharon Tate - 1967

1967's Valley of the Dolls has been described as "a dirty soap opera capable of some of the most offensive and appalling vulgarity ever thrown up by civilization," but it's also totally campy fun.

Sharon Tate is best known for starring as Linda, a hairspray waxed beauty who steals every scene with tons of cleavage and cheekbones that look like they were sculpted from marble . But she is not the only star of the film. Patty Duke ad Barbara Perkins as Nellie and Anne fills out the rest of the film, a film that has become iconic for its representation of '60s fashion.

The film follows three women as they become addicted to pills in the entertainment industry, and unfortunately its strange delights are overshadowed by Tate's murder at the hands of Charles Manson's followers two years later. At the time of her death, she was eight and a half months pregnant. She had married her director, Roman Polanski, only a year earlier.

Comedian Steve Martin looking pretty groovy in 1969

It may look like a wild and woolly stranger, but you're not looking at some banjo freak, this wild and crazy man is Steve Martin, one of the greatest entertainers of all time. He's been making people laugh for years, first with his stand up and later in movies like The Jerk and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, but before he hit it big, he was just another west coast folkie.

From an early age, Steve Martin was an artist. He had his eye on the big time, and to hone his skills he performed in various comedy troupes at Disney Land and Knott's Berry Farm. He says that this kind of West Coast upbringing made him who he is:

I was very happy with where

I grew up. I really loved it, 

being close to the beach,

Disneyland and Knott's 

Berry Farm. I was able to

be an artist there. It was 

all part of my young,

youthful history. I started

working at Disneyland 

when I was 10 years old.

Farrah Fawcett was the Golden Girl of the 70s!

It's impossible not to think back to the 1970s without the thought of Fawcett in a piece of red, smiling down at us with that million-dollar smile from her poster. Even if she never did anything after that poster, she would still be the golden sun of one of the greatest decades of the 20th century.

Farrah Fawcett turned her sun-soaked California good looks into a career with starring roles in Charlie's Angels and The Burning Bed, a role that garnered her critical acclaim. However, Fawcett left Charlie's Angels after a single season, forever cementing herself as the star of jiggle TV that quickly fizzled out and continued to reign supreme.

He was a meteoric talent that took just a few years to turn him into the rest of his career. This is a talent that very few stars have.