Why celebrities from the 40s and 50s didn't need much makeup or plastic surgery to look good like the celebrities of today?

Chemicals, we are exposed to far more chemicals these days than in days past. Those chemicals age us and mess with our health.

Sometimes, they don't look good, even with all that stuff. Joe Biden looks garish with his facelifts, hair plugs, and dental veneers.

Celebrities were more then one trick ponies back when too.
Entertainers.. could sing, dance, act, tell jokes..

Thank GOD, You, can blame the TV, Magazines promoting people like the Kardashians who are so FAKE

No high definition cameras

I haven't a clue. I rarely (if ever) think about celebrities from the 40s and 50s.

They used whatever they had at that time to look their best on the screen. Moreover there was not that much competition.

Um...they used just as much makeup as today, and plastic surgery wasn't as refined yet and was much more dangerous at the time.

They didn't look that great. If a starlet needed some help, she was photographed through a layer of gauze, which hid a lot. But back in the day, most actors and actresses were naturally good looking...until smoking, drinking, drugs, and decades of tanning caught up with them.

Back then natural was more acceptable.

Marilyn Monroe had a nose job and bleached her hair and she was a raging sex symbol in the 50’s. There was definitely plastic surgery as old as back in that time.

In the old days they'd shoot through gauze. High-def changed the rules a bit.

The Kardashians.. They pioneered the idea that any brainless talentless bimbo can cover themselves in crap, promote the hell out of it and make it. (Although Madonna did go a long way in laying that foundation..)😷

Plastic surgery wasn't as good back then as it is now and I'm pretty damn sure they wore a lot of makeup.

Beauty standards change and it's driven by the desire to sell products to people.

What was considered attractive then was different. And how do you know celebrities didn’t wear much makeup or have plastic surgery ? Even Marilyn Monroe had a nose job.