MAY CONTAIN NUTS
HOME
Home

Search Shorpy

SEARCH TIP: Click the tags above a photo to find more of same:
Mandatory field.

Search results -- 30 results per page

Pittsburgh Noir: 1907
... a stunning image. I can just picture the men working the night shift in those factories while their families sleep in the little row ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/02/2012 - 4:32pm -

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, circa 1907. "A Mill Street." Fifty Shades of Black. 7x5 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. WowThat has to be one of the most fantastic photos I have ever seen on Shorpy. Dark ShadowsCheck out the Shorpy gallery of nighttime photography. WOW!!!!Not often do I see an image and go WOW, but this image got that reaction from me. Yes I even said WOW out loud. ArtistryNow we all know where rizzman1953's Grandpa (or Grandma) came from. What a picture!This is stunning. Smoke, light, shadow, dark. The feeling is that of a true Hollywood film noir. Who knows what lurks in the shadows of those row houses? Just looking at this makes my lungs ache from the acrid smell of the furnaces. DPC did some truly amazing work. Well done Shorpy, keep em' coming! What Time of Day Is It?Considering that this is Pittsburgh in the bad old days of smokestack industry, can we be sure that this is NOT a daytime photograph? London callingI swear, this made me think of Sherlock Holmes. it looks like one of those dank nights that are always shown during a Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce whodunit. SpectacularI had to read the caption twice - I would've thought this photo was from the 1930s or even the WWII era. It's a stunning image. I can just picture the men working the night shift in those factories while their families sleep in the little row houses. Wow is old hat now, but WOWThis is an absolutely stunning photo. Spectacular!And spooky. Wow was my first reactionIf I ever produce an image this good, I am gonna throw away my camera. Billy Joel said it."The good old days weren't always good." It's a stunning picture but due to the air quality I am so glad I did not live anywhere near Pittsburgh at the time it was taken. Second that OMGAlfred Stieglitz would buy this photo. Pale grey smoke- stacks fade into smoke. The black telephone pole breaks up what would be a distracting vanishing point perspective. The glow on the windows sills is wonderful. This is a photo you could stare at and enjoy forever. Stylistically very unusual for 1907. I agree with Mattie, I would have guessed it to be the 1930's. Anybody know the artist? They were ahead of their time. Gritty and hard: compare to other Shorpies of the Edwardian era, many often look posed, with a flat subject (building) dead center and no thought given to distractions (litter) or anything on the edges of the shot. When I first saw thisI said out loud, "OMG, what a photo!" Many thanks for posting this beauty! Lone PedestrianIf you enlarge the picture, it appears there is a misty outline of a man crossing the street at the intersection just right of the fire hydrant. Either that or it is the creature from the black lagoon. [Jack the Squiggler. - Dave] (The Gallery, DPC, Pittsburgh)
Mark of Zorro: 1921
... movie that young Bruce Wayne and his parents saw on the night they were murdered. Deja vu I think I've seen this theatre before; ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/07/2012 - 2:20am -

1921. Sidney Lust's Leader Theater in Washington, D.C. Now playing: Douglas Fairbanks in "The Mark of Zorro." National Photo glass negative. View full size. Wow!I didn't even see the guy in the Zorro suit in the preview pic. Such a gorgeous picture. At The MoviesSome good stuff here. The date for the photo is almost certainly early 1921. The main feature of course is "The Mark Of Zorro" starring Douglas Fairbanks (at a time when no one needed to include Sr.) and Noah Beery (also at a time when no one needed to include Sr.) as Sgt. Gonzales and Marguerite De La Motte as the love interest. It debuted on December 5, 1920. Also on the bill (in the pictures in the stand to the left of the box office) is a Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle short. Can't read the title even blowing it up using Window's Photo Gallery, but many of Arbuckle's films from 1917 to 1920 co-starred his cousin Al St. John, who was later a sidekick in "B" westerns under the name "Fuzzy" St. John, and Buster Keaton whose fame would soon eclipse Arbuckle's. He was making shorts throughout 1920 and '21 until he was charged with manslaughter after the Labor Day weekend of 1921. The Pickford movie is "Love Light" with Mary playing a young Italian woman keeping a lighthouse while her brothers are off to war. The film was written and directed by Frances Marion (who was a longtime collaborator of Pickford's) probably most remembered today for her script to "Dinner At Eight." The male lead was Fred Thomson, who was married to Marion. His career was in the ascendant with the advent of talkies until he died suddenly of tetanus in 1928 at age 38. As nearly as I am able to tell, "Love Light" is one of only two of his films to survive. "Love Light" debuted on January 9, 1921. The fourth movie is "Fighting Bill," starring William Fairbanks. He was no relation to Douglas Fairbanks - his real name was Carl Ullman, the name he worked under until 1920. IMDB has no real information on either "Fighting Bill" or William Fairbanks beyond the fact that he died in 1945 of lobar pneumonia at age 51. "Fighting Bill" debuted sometime in 1921. To-Day's the DayI'm always amazed at the pictures I find on this site, but this one made my day. Thanks for sharing. I love the Z stickers all over the ticket booth; so subtle! Out of ControlThe poor guy in the Zorro suit! What a wonderful photo. We don't think of such extensive promo material being used back then. All the Z's and little photos of Fairbanks are a revelation. Although I'm sure this was what we'd call a blockbuster today. Waxing Enthusiastic The Washington Post, Feb 6 1921 At the Picture Houses Leader - Douglas Fairbanks in "The Mark of Zorro." Never before has Douglas Fairbanks waxed so enthusiastic over the success of a picture as he has over "The Mark of Zorro," his fourth United Artists production, which will be the feature attraction at the Leader theater, beginning today. The story is an adaptation of Johnston McCulley's novel, "The Curse of Capistrano," which appeared in the All Story Weekly magazine. Movie MemorabiliaI imagine there are some movie memorabilia collectors who would trade their souls to go back to 1921 for a shot at grabbing some of these great promotion displays and running for dear life. Wonder what's playing?Wonder what’s playing here. You'd thing they would advertise some or put the title up someplace, give us some clue ... BatmanAt some point in DC mythology, this became the movie that young Bruce Wayne and his parents saw on the night they were murdered. Deja vuI think I've seen this theatre before; there's another photo of it somewhere on Shorpy, one with a bunch of kids standing in front. The Batman ConnectionFrom Wikipedia: In the DC Comics continuity it is established that The Mark of Zorro was the film which the young Bruce Wayne had watched with his parents at the cinema, and after which he witnessed the murder of his parents. Zorro is often portrayed as Bruce's childhood hero and an influence on his Batman persona. There are discrepancies regarding which version Bruce saw, The Dark Knight Returns claims it was the Tyrone Power version whereas a story by Alan Grant claimed it to be the silent Douglas Fairbanks original, though Bob Kane's original basis for the Batman character draws its origins from the silent original. Amazingly fun advertisingI work at a movie theater and I wish we could advertise like this today! It made everything seem so much more fun and exciting about going to the cinema! Two BitsThe inflation calculator says that 25-cent admission would be about $3 today. Still not bad. For a guy with no chin, Fairbanks was a pretty solid action star. It's hard to think of other A-list stars who did action movies at his level. ZorrophileThis is one of my all time favorite silent films EVER. It was one of the most exciting films I have ever seen. Thank you SO much for this picture, I love film history! Arbuckle ShortLooking at the original TIFF for this image, from the Library of Congress, I can barely make out the title of the Arbuckle short as THE COOK, from 1918. (The Gallery, D.C., Movies, Natl Photo)
Three Girl Pyramid: 1957
One cold February night your webmaster was faced with a choice: Poignant sepia- tinged Lewis Hine ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/09/2011 - 1:37pm -

One cold February night your webmaster was faced with a choice: Poignant sepia- tinged Lewis Hine urchin ("says 12 yrs., but it is doubtful") or a 1957 Kodachrome titled "Three Girl Pyramid." After a nanosecond of deliberation, the Oscar for Best Transparency in a 100-Year-Old Photo Blog goes to: "Three Girl Pyramid"! [Rest of the caption: "Beautiful Florida Cypress Gardens 4/5/57."] View full size. Bravo!I'd like to thank the Academy for making a fine choice. Thank You!The Lewis Hine urchins were getting tedious! Superb decision!Superb decision! Vacation, all I ever wantedAH! It's a balmy 37 degrees here but this lovely picture is still giving me summer fever! Childhood MemoriesThis picture brings me back to vacations spent with my aunt and uncle in Orlando. My little brother actually got to ride in the speedboat that pulled the waterskiers. A memory he still looks back on fondly. How Do They Do That?An outstanding achievement and an outstanding photo. (The Gallery, Florida, Kodachromes 3, Pretty Girls, Travel & Vacation)
Princess Phone: 1983
... someone was sent to a Gulag and mother got a full night's sleep. We received no more calls. It is a wonder we weren't "on a ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 05/01/2019 - 9:04pm -

When my mother wasn't doing crossword puzzles, shopping or waiting on the rest of us hand and foot, she'd be on the phone, and sometime after they were introduced in 1959 she got this pinkish Princess. One reason was so she could move it around, specifically to her primary domain, the kitchen. These came with an old-style connector, not the later modular type. I'm pretty sure it had the external ringer, as I remember the sound of the dining room wall resonating when it went off. Another feature gave her something to rail about. "Imagine! They make you use your own electricity to light up the dial!" This replaced our first dial phone (dial came late to Larkspur, and we were still talking to operators until 1957), a full-sized basic black model. Mother didn't want to pay Pacific Telephone for a decorator color, so she bought a cream-colored plastic shell for it - think "skin" in today's lingo. As for the Princess, I remember usually having to hold the thing down while you dialed, and we were forever knocking the handset off the base. I shot this negative by available light - mix of daylight and incandescent - on 35mm Kodak Vericolor. View full size. Another secret tipIt's perfectly possible to "dial" a landline phone manually by tapping the hookswitch once for one, twice for two, and so on up to ten times for a zero, with a pause between digits. The system is quite forgiving, and as long as you keep a reasonable rhythm while tapping out the digits and the pause is at least ten times the time between taps, the call will go through. This gets very tedious for a ten-digit number, of course, but back in the Good (?) Old Days local numbers in small towns could be as few as five digits, or even four in a few cases. Lots of people used to know the possibility, but I fear that in the modern age of universal touch-tone the knowledge has been lost. It might be useful in an emergency. Most phone-system computers (not cell phones) still allow pulse dialing. If you can get a dial tone but the keypad or dial doesn't work, you can get help by tapping out 9 - 1 - 1 that way. When the 911 system was first proposed, there was a serious suggestion that the emergency number be 111 for just that reason -- it's easier to 'tap dial'. The phone companies turned that down because a '1' as first digit was an important signal, used for other purposes throughout the system. Ahhh! The PrincessI don't know about 1959 but the Princess phone was a godsend to me in 1984. My family and I had just returned to Canada after several years of military service in Germany. We did the normal things towards re-establishing ourselves, including ordering telephone service. One day I came home and was startled by an electronic annoying sound. "What was that?" I hollered. "The phone!" the reply. "Not for long!!" my rejoinder. The following weekend I discovered my joy: a rebuilt Princess phone at a flea market. It had all the modern age electronics and a digital touch pad. Most comforting it ad a bell ringer. This could be turned down to a softer tone. First ChanceLet me be the first to extend an early Mother's Day Greeting to all mothers in Shorpy-land. I know it's really next week, but shouldn't every day be Mother's Day? Bless them all! EvolutionNot all telephones were inspired designs, as evidenced by your mother's clunky Princess. The word ergonomics wasn't in the vocabulary of Western Electric engineers when they designed that thing and its even clunkier predecessor, the candlestick phone. Dial phones didn't come to my New Hampshire community until 1964, but we've always had mothers. [Let's not forget Henry Dreyfuss's Western Electric 500 desk telephone, a masterpiece of functional design that endured for half a century. - Dave] Nearly skinned alive over phoneThe land line phone has just about gone the way of the buggy whip and knickers, and the black dial-up land line phone was a 1950's-60's classic few can understand today. When I was in college (1973) I got a phone for my dorm room. They asked what color I wanted, and I picked blue. When my father came to visit me, he saw my phone and was livid. I was lectured forward and backward about wasting money and how I was expected not to be monetarily extravagant on his dime. It took me over an hour to explain to the guy that I had not spent even ten cents extra. All the colors now cost the same. I was eventually forgiven when I came up with proof that there was no monthly color charge. But had I dared to get a Princess, like your mother, or a push button (which did cost something like 60 cents extra every month) I would have been dead meat. Black eyes guaranteedMy parents had a Princess phone, also beige) in their bedroom atop the bookcase headboard (the other was in the "telephone room"-coat closet in the main hall). Anyone who happened to be lying in bed and happened to brush the phone when reaching for something would usually get the receiver landing on their head. There were several black eyes. That Princess was the one that was used when, for some months during the Cold War, the Russian Embassy had a phone number that was one digit different from ours. Over those months, calls would come in during the wee small hours of the morning for the Russians and Mom would have to get the phone book out and look the number up. I guess someone finally got the right number to the international operators, someone was sent to a Gulag and mother got a full night's sleep. We received no more calls. It is a wonder we weren't "on a list" for the frequency that we received phone calls from Moscow. The Pink Version was Hideous.There were at least two versions of the rotary dial Princess Telephone. The older model had an external subset and bell ringer which was mounted on the wall, table or baseboard. A shaped weight was inserted inside one end of the telephone instrument to make it heavier, but, it still skated around when dial-equipped. The subset-and-ringer-on-the-wall version Princess could not be moved from its location on a jack and plug as the subset was required to operate the telephone. In later years the Princess Telephone had a bell ringer installed inside the set which eliminated the external subset and ringer, and it could be moved from jack to jack. There were some technical restrictions about using Princess Telephones on party lines. Power for the dial light was provided from a small transformer which plugged into a nearby house wiring outlet. If the filament dial light burned out, the company would often mail the subscriber a new light bulb and it was easily changed with a bayonet socket from beneath. In some large apartment buildings the last pair of wires in the cable up from the terminal in the basement was often used to carry Princess Light voltage to the suites so the transformer and wiring could be eliminated. Rotary Dial PhonesA few years back, 2004 I believe, I found a black dial phone from that era and hooked it up. I liked it cause it had a nice loud ringer. My 16 year old daughter came over and looked at it, and with all seriousness she asked "How does it work?" She have never seen one before that. And in the irony departmentMy first touch-tone phone wasn't. It looked like a touch-tone, but when you you pushed one of the keys, you heard the telltale clicking of rotary dialing. It has since been replaced with a 2500-lookalike, in Western Electric beige. We just last month converted to FIOS at our house, after several years of badgering by Verizon, but we gave in only when they got desperate enough to get rid of the all the extra charges for doing so. My parents kept the 554 wall phone for ages, I think until well after Bell Atlantic "sold" it to them; they certainly weren't going to pay a premium for touch-tone. Secret electrical tip: in those older phones, the hook on the dial was a good ground. I remember old kids' electronics books recommending it for use with crystal radios and the like. Meanwhile, that same yearI got my first Touch Tone phone in 1983. It was an O-fficial "Bama" phone, a red and white Slimline with an Alabama sticker running the length of the handset that I'd seen in a catalog from the University Supply Store. I'd mailed them a check and as soon as it cleared they mailed me the phone; total turn around time was about 6 weeks. I was incredibly excited the day it finally arrived. Came home from work early, actually. But I couldn't CALL anyone on it. I got a dial tone. I could get incoming calls. But I couldn't call OUT. I plugged the old Princess phone back in, got the Yellow Pages out and called some phone repair places seeking advice. The third place I called asked if I had Touch Tone service from Ma Bell. Oops. Nope. Hadn't occurred to me. That was a service you had to sign up for and it cost extra. So I called the phone company, got the service turned on and was once again proud of my new purchase. I was thinking about that adventure just a couple weeks ago, right after I upgraded to my newest smartphone and was whining about how it was taking 10 whole seconds to connect to the Internet. In the market for some Trimlines After continually going crazy trying to find any one of our 4 cordless phones whenever the phone rings, I have a secret plan to install two Trimlines and a wall mounted phone in the kitchen. I wonder if you can still buy the 20 foot long coiled handset cords? Western Electric 500I love the ladylike way your mom uses the phone. Folks today have lost "phone etiquette." My primary phone is a bitsa Western Electric 500. (It's made from bitsa one phone and bitsa 'nother.) It sounds like a fire alarm when it rings. None of those silly ringtones for me! All Things PhonesThe original Princess was the first phone with a dial light and was designed for use in darkened bedrooms. It was very lightweight and when the handset was lifted it often moved the base. Later models had lead weights in the base to make it more difficult to bean yourself when answering the phone. Pacific Telephone, in the mid 60's, used to charge 35 cents per month to turn off the ringer. Their reasoning being that people would forget it was off and make a service call because their telephone was "not working". I installed many a Princess but don't remember a transformer for the dial light. More likely, it was for the remote ringer. One thing about those old Western Electric phones was their indestructibility. I still use several "500" sets in my house. My grandmother had one of the first dial sets from the 1930s in her house for over 40 years. The handset weighed about 5 pounds. Good exercise for her! [Side note: First phone with a lighted dial was the Western Electric 500U, a.k.a. the "mushroom phone." Below, an ad from 1954. - Dave] Thanks for the update Dave. I never saw one of those illuminated '500' set phones but then most of my PacTel hitch was at an Air Force base so maybe it was something the military wouldn't pay for. I remember the general's houses got plenty of Princess phones though. At the other end of the lineCould it be this lady? Touch ToneThe Touch Tone phone was shown at the 1964 New York World's fair, where I got to see it for the first time. When I went back to school (Ithaca College) Ma Bell was offering them for a minor charge for a test limited to one "office" (number exchange), $2 including choice of colors. As the charge for a 500 was slightly more, it was a now brainier to get one. The only problem was at AM your phone would ring and Yankee Doodle or something would sound via Touch Tone. [Brainier both then and now! - Dave] What's that?I mentioned rotary dial phones at work the other day, and one of our younger employees gave me an inquisitive-dog look and said, "What's that?" I drew him a diagram, and said a good visual is the build-up to the murder in Hitchcock's "Dial M for Murder." He wasn't familiar with that, either. I am now officially "old." ["Hitchcock"? - Dave] Don't make 'em like that anymoreThose Western Electric black phone sets were indestructible. They were also the murder weapon of choice in domestic disputes. Deadly weaponsI saved a comic strip from 1997, in which the main character watches someone use an already pretty small cell phone. His observation: "I remember when people were beaten to death with phones" OverextensionedMy near-skinning was over my home-brewed phone in my workshop. The place where I stripped the wires and tapped in under the crawlspace shorted out one day while I was at school. Came home to find it had been "repaired", and my parents threatened with being charged for use of an extension line back several years, to when the line was last inspected. Thank God for Vodafone! As for Trimlines, I've threatened the same "fix" in our house! At least once a week, a cordless goes missing, and we seem to need new sets of them nearly every year. And yes, you can still get the long coil cord! I think I've even seen them at Dollar Tree. Also available in powder blueHere's our Princess phone, found at a garage sale. Though the box is beat up, it looks like it was never used. My daughter has claimed it for her home, after she gets out of grad school. TV AdIIRC, the tag line on the TV ad for the Princess was - "It's little, it's lovely, it lights!" (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, tterrapix)
The Kittens of Doom: 1914
... OH GOSH! my grandpa read me this book every night before bed when i was at there house. and i tried to make a book by ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/09/2018 - 3:37pm -

"Two cats, dressed as humans, holding rope, which doll appears to be skipping." Circa 1914 photograph by Harry Whittier Frees. View full size. More on the strangely unsettling photos of Harry Frees here and here. He often used his own cats, Rags and Fluff, with costumes sewn by his mother. Re: "When asked..."That was hilarious. Stuffed Kittens ... Not.More on the strangely unsettling photos of Harry Frees here and especially here. He often used his own cats, Rags and Fluff, with costumes sewn by his mother. Kind of a proto-William Wegman. Yikes!Isn't this one of the signs of the Apocalypse? "When asked why he would"When asked why he would take such a picture, Frees responded 'Perhaps one day, far in the future, there will be some sort of interconnected system of mechano-adding machines--a net-work, if you will--through which people will be able to transmit information 'twixt one another. Were this to happen, I for one would bet tuppence that there will be a great clamor of demand for pictures of kittens in funny outfits." CatsThese pictures look an awful lot like ones in a reproduction storybook my grandmother gave my son when he was quite young. I forget the name of the story but it was about a family of kittens who went to the fair. They had dorky names like Buzz, Fuzz, Suzz, and Agamemnon. Gotta be the same photographer. I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER!Wow. That lolcats website has been around longer than I thought. Buzz, Fuzz et al.>> They had dorky names like Buzz, Fuzz, Suzz, and Agamemnon. Gotta be the same photographer. Yer memory is good, and so is yer eye. That's "Four Little Kittens" (1935). I have a modern reprint of that one, as well as "Four Little Bunnies" (also 1935 — Fluff, Puff, Muff, and Algernon) and "Four Little Puppies" (1936 — Wags, Tags, Rags, and Obadiah). OH GOSH!my grandpa read me this book every night before bed when i was at there house. and i tried to make a book by writing the words and drawing kittens on stapled pieces of paper! we still have it. never knew how old it was! i will hang on to it forever! i actually named my cat agamemnon. im 13 now. (The Gallery, Bizarre, Cats, Harry W. Frees)
Cheese Midgets: 1942
... from a kilometer. I was telling my wife the other night about using glass bottles of Prell and Balsam shampoo when I was a kid. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/06/2013 - 11:32am -

May 1942. "Greenbelt, Maryland. Federal housing project. Shopping in the cooperative grocery store." Do we have enough cookies? Medium-format nitrate negative by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information. View full size. Pre-code pricingOne of my father's pricing grease pens, once actually used to price actual groceries in an actual grocery store. No bar codes hereNo price tags, either. It looks like the price for each box is conveniently written across its front with a grease pencil. When Soda Still Tasted Good Wow, glass quart bottles of Hires Rootbeer. Made before anyone had tasted high fructose anything and most Americans would't have known a liter from a kilometer. I was telling my wife the other night about using glass bottles of Prell and Balsam shampoo when I was a kid. She was sure I was wrong (that would be so dangerous!). Google proved me right as usual. You can still go shop there today This store is still a working operation just as it was when the picture was taken, here is the website. http://www.greenbelt.coop/ The whole town center a great place to shop and visit. Where are Cheese Midgets?Are they crackers? edited to add: Found 'em, they must have been popular, I only see one box The 1940s version of an "upskirt" shotI imagine this was in a narrow aisle, and that's why the photographer is down on the floor, but what a bizarre effect. The woman looks about 10 feet tall. Different ProductsSo Barnum's Animals, which I've always known as animal crackers, were not the same as Animal Crackers. My Shorpy nolledge nugget o' the day. I remember the Toy Cookies. Plus it looks like Mickey and Donald also had an entry in the little string handle sweepstakes. Cookies, not cerealA closer inspection of mom's shopping cart show Timmy had tried to open the box of Kix cereal to slow his ravenous hunger pangs, but he settled for opening the box of cookies instead. Either would have worked, I'm sure. One of the first programmersThe white socks and sandals are a dead giveaway. Tiny cart?They have those same carts at our local grocery store but they also have a tall pole sticking up off the top. I don't know if the pole is there to hang your coat or if it beams out a signal to the Starship. Love the Animal Cracker boxes on the shelf and I really wish they still made those Cheese Ritz I see there. Yum. Back SoonWonder Bread should be back soon, just like in '42. A bobby-soxer?Or was that a term strictly for single women, assuming this beauty was married (probably) and 3 bottles of Hires root beer, good times tonight. El Cheese RitzRemember Dr. Don and Ermita with their upside-down box of Cheese Ritz (https://www.shorpy.com/node/13954)? Hey MomWhich aisle has the Screaming Yellow Zonkers? Smush!She has a can on top of her Wonder Bread! Weightlifter's ParadiseI feel sorry for that poor woman. Look at all those different boxes marked ONE POUND. She probably has no car and has to carry that heavy stuff home. Today's boxes are weight friendly. Easy to wheel out to one of your cars. Kid's outfitI used to have a "sun suit" like his in the late 50's, for playing outside in hot weather. Looks like neither one of us was making a fashion statement. Wartime shortages?Good gracious, all that stuff in the middle of the war? Fully stocked shelves? Loaded shopping cart? How much of that merchandise was actually rationed? Is that photo a set-up for war-time propaganda as it would have been on the other side of the pond? Or is it representative? No Shortages YetThis is not the middle of the war for the United States. It's just the beginning. In May of 1942, The U.S. Office of Price Administration froze prices on practically all everyday goods, starting with sugar and coffee and no rations yet. I only see a posed picture of a mother and son shopping normaly with no overflowing cart. Could it be propaganda from the Office of War Information? Yes I think it is, but it's just showing that it's not quite the end of the world, so don't start emptying the shelves of your local market just yet. (The Gallery, Kids, Marjory Collins, Stores & Markets)
California Vacation: 1956
... within view of the big blue pool at Marineland. And at night, the Palos Verdes Peninsula (P.V.) came alive with the arrival of ... 
 
Posted by pointedrocks - 09/16/2011 - 5:27pm -

Marineland of the Pacific on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in 1956. Left to right are my two cousins visiting from Texas, myself, and my brother. Inside the 1955 DeSoto are my Granny and my Aunt. We are all enjoying our ice cream at the end of a day of watching the fishes. All but my little brother, that is. His ice cream has rolled out of the cone and can just barely be seen on the ground at his feet on the right. It wasn't the first or the last time that would happen to him. View full size. DeSotoWOW what a great car. Missing dessertLove the chrome on that DeSoto. I learned to drive in my grandma's '55. What memories this pic brings back. Looks to me like a '55 Chevy station wagon in the background. [Almost -- the wagon is a Pontiac. (Oops, actually a Mercury, as noted by A Californian.) - Dave] Delightful, DelovelyI love the photo! It is so very 50ish!!! Love the joy of the ice cream and the sadness of losing your cone to the pavement!!! Boy! Do I remember that!Especially losing a triple decker. Oh, the pain of youth. DeSoto!Memories of my late father are always intertwined with his string of DeSotos. From the '47 (Fluid Drive semi-automatic) of my early childhood through the fire-breathing red '61 Firedome (383 Hemi) of my teen years, in which I learned to drive and became a man. Thanks for bringing up a lot of memories, pointedrocks. [The last Firedomes were 1959 cars. For 1961, which was DeSoto's final year, the only models were a nameless sedan and coupe. - Dave] The station wagon at rightIt's a handsome car and definitely a rival of Pontiac's, but my money is on it being a 1955 or 1956 Mercury. Sadly, in just a few years younger people won't recognize those names anymore (or other old Detroit friends like Plymouth & Oldsmobile.) Chrysler productsAs a kid of 8 & 9, just about my favorite cars were DeSotos and Chryslers of 1955-56. And they keep on following me. Just the other day via Netflix Streaming I watched Hot Cars, which is full of them, and tonight whilst exiting a shopping center parking lot I came nearly face-to-face with a vintage restored 1955 Chrysler. '56In 1956 I had a new drivers license and on the weekends I could be found on those hills directly behind the cars. There was a Nike Missile site up there and my friends and I would explore it. It was also prime hunting territory for rattlesnakes. We would catch them live and sell them to a lab in L.A. All of this within view of the big blue pool at Marineland. And at night, the Palos Verdes Peninsula (P.V.) came alive with the arrival of hundreds of young couples to watch the submarine races. Silver Lining?At least you get to eat the cone. Been there and done that. Marineland!I remember a visit in the late 50's. The walruses (walri?) were making awesomely flatulant noises inside their cement shelter - almost outweighing the famous leaping porpoises in my impressionable 12-year old mind. It was fascinating to watch the porpoises build up speed through the underwater portholes, racing individually in seemingly random circles until they suddenly came together and burst out of the water in formation leaps. And we too observed the now-forgotten discipline of only enjoying treats OUTSIDE the car, to preserve the upholstery. We would have arrived in our 1957 Mercury Colony Park station wagon with the Turnpike Cruiser V8, complete with pillarless hardtop construction, vinyl siding and red "spear" inset into white body - a major milestone in the lurid styling race that erupted in the late fifties. As hastily as this car seemed to be designed and built, not many made it into the sixties. DeSotoProbably a Fireflite, may be a Coronado. Submarine Races?Couples watching submarine races? Is this a 1950s euphemism, or was this an actual, literal event? [Yes. - Dave] Fashion youngstersBoy, those clothes are just so typical of the era. Love the turned up denims. Come on pointedrocks, tell me you gave your brother some of your ice cream after his "whoops". Cars like shown here are alive and well here in New Zealand, friends of mine have '57 Fairlanes, '57 Oldsmobile, '58 Buick Special and one mate has three Chevy Bel Airs -- 1955, 56 and 57. Great cars. Booty cuffs. Those are just like the way we used to cuff our pants as kids. Then some kid transferred to our school with his cuffs tucked under and inside the pant leg, and we never looked back. My sister, grandmother and aunt would venture down from the Bay Area to Southern California two years after this to enjoy Disneyland and surrounding attractions, Marineland being one of the stops. With no interstate highways at the time, it was the longest trip I'd ever been on, and seemed like it would never end. We did get a chance to see some Hollywood magic, as they were filming some of the new hit show "Sea Hunt". One of my favorite shows, it was so cool to see the footage of the scenes I'd watch them film later on. Yeah, I guess this photo is bringing back a few memories. Marineland From the AirLate 50's aerial view. The wife and I were married on the former Marineland site, several years after it closed. It's now Terranea Resort. The big differenceI love these nostalgic pics of families with their cars. It does show up the big difference between America and South Africa in this era -- the cars. The cars in the old photos of my parents and grandparents are generally smaller British and German cars like Morris and Opel, nice and yet somehow not as glamorous as those fantastic "yank tanks." The Times They Are a-Changin I fish off the site of the former Marineland and above is how it looks now. Below a post card and the name of the resort that is there now amidst some of the priciest high rent districts in California. Amazing AmericanaSuch a classic example of a bygone era!! (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Kids)
Flight Line: 1942
... 1942. "Long lines of A-20 attack bombers roll ceaselessly, night and day, through the Douglas Aircraft plant at Long Beach, California. ... and installations -- also for reconnaissance work and night fighting. It is armed for its several duties with light and heavy caliber ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/30/2022 - 9:45am -

October 1942. "Long lines of A-20 attack bombers roll ceaselessly, night and day, through the Douglas Aircraft plant at Long Beach, California. The A-20 is used by the American Air Force and the Royal Air Force (RAF) for hedge-hopping and strafing operations against ground troops and installations -- also for reconnaissance work and night fighting. It is armed for its several duties with light and heavy caliber guns in varying combinations." 4x5 acetate negative by Alfred Palmer for the Office of War Information. View full size. Wicked!Need I say more? Where my wife's grandfather workedFunny, not an hour ago, my wife and I were talking about what it must've been like for her dad, then a teenager, moving to Los Angeles in 1942, when his dad got a job at Douglas Aircraft for the war effort. Grandpa Joe was a machinist, previously employed by Fisher Body in Detroit. This was where he worked in his new West Coast job, and why the family moved to L.A. It's nice to have a good illustration for a conversation. Thanks, Shorpy! Could you now post some pictures of housing along La Cienega Boulevard, just north of what is now the I-10 freeway. That would be helpful. It was a family of six, in a small bungalow, probably 2 bedroom, 1 bath. Grandpa Joe slept on the kitchen floor, so mom and daughter could have privacy in a house of dominated by males. But that was a lot better than what they left behind in Detroit. At one point, 11 family members were all in the same apartment. But even that was better than life as an Armenian in the Ottoman Empire, which is where Grandpa Joe and Grandma Turfunda grew up. The whole topic of conversation was how we invariably adjust our comfort levels upward. 13381, 13383This must be the odd number side of the aircraft plant. It's impressively clean, no burnt-out lights. I wonder how loud it was? The man on the ladder in the foreground strikes a good pose. He is somewhat comparable to Gene Kelly on the lamppost in the rain. Yes seaelf, please say more. Wicked can mean more than one thing. No way we were gonna lose thisLooking at these pics of WW2 wartime factories you have to walk away and say: No way this joint was gonna lose the war. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower was a numbers man and this exemplifies what he meant. Throw enough men & machines at them and it will overtake anything the Axis has. Look at these well lit factories -- modern, clean, a massive production scale, unlimited resources, and a well fed work force that wasn't being bombed each night and slept in beds, not subway tunnels. Keep 'em flying        The Douglas A-20 really made its mark in the Southwest Pacific. There, Paul Irvin "Pappy" Gunn began to modify the planes. These bombers started to get as many as six M2 .50-caliber machine guns in their nose. It was here, low-level tactics helped the A-20 live up to its name — "Havoc."         Eventually, word of Gunn’s field modifications made their way back to Douglas Aircraft, which began building A-20s with the nose guns already installed. [Source] More info and pics here. Image: Snug cockpit of an A-20G Havoc shows the single-place arrangement with a control yoke, and dual throttles, pitch, and mixture to the left of the pilot, fighter style. The G-model used a solid nose with fixed machine guns or cannon fired by the pilot for ground attack missions. (National Archives photo) (The Gallery, Alfred Palmer, Aviation, Factories, WW2)
Red All Over: 1972
... before! He's an anchorman on BBC news! I saw him last night! Hey barber Gimme a Beatle haircut. Career Highlights ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/13/2022 - 3:12pm -

From around 50 years ago comes this uncaptioned News Archive negative that might have been used to illustrate a newspaper feature on trends in Seventies menswear. And what the men swear could curl your hair. But probably not this particular hair. View full size. That’s the '70s I remember Ugly clothes, and even worse hairstyles. Those pantsI had a pair quite like that back in high school circa 1969-70. More brown than those he's wearing. Looking back, they were very ugly but I thought I was pretty stylish at the time. I like the tie, though. I'd wear it today (if I wore ties, that is). Tie one onAlthough in and of itself the hot pink/fuchsia/magenta necktie is all right, I am definitely not digging it with this particular ensemble. But I can appreciate the overall sartorial aesthetic; my husband was wearing a similar outfit when I first clapped eyes on him in February of 1976. He had on similarly patterned polyester slacks (okay they may have been a solid color, black or gray) and a burgundy (to this day he calls that color maroon) single-breasted polyester sports coat complete with goldtone buttons, and a wide tie that was most surely of an appropriate pattern for the times. But his hair was much shorter than that of our subject, and he was significantly prettier. Also the only jewelry he ever wore was his Citadel ring. Serious comb-overTim Roth! Forgive usOur past tresses. [★★★★★ ! - Dave] The hair could be worseEvery piece of clothing you can see on this guy is either polyester or a polyester blend. I remember the initial attraction of polyester -- it was more durable than silk and didn't wrinkle like cotton or wool. You could throw a lot of it in the washing machine. We seemed slow to realize it also had no personality and was really hot because polyester doesn't breathe. And this very modern, young man is sitting in a Victorian armchair because that somehow gives him more credibility as a reporter? The hair could be worse. He could have had a mullet. [Newspapers generally use models, not reporters, to illustrate fashion features. - Dave] What??How can that be fifty years ago?! Re: Those pantsI’m guilty of those same pants. In that very year, I went curling at least twice a week in my hometown of Winnipeg (fun fact: it was the city with the greatest number of sheets of ice for curling in the world!), and it was important to have pants that could stretch (no one wore tight jeans, for instance), so I always wore the same pair of grotesquely patterned, 100% polyester, cuffed flare pants. This was common garb. I did not stand out amongst my fellow 14-year-olds. And, I might add, we thought we were cool. Killer 'doI think Anton Chigurh's haircut in No Country For Old Men looked more welcoming. Side curtainsBack in the '70s, before we could grow sideburns, we grew side-curtains instead. Waiting BackstageThis time period will never be known for it's its understated elegance but I am glad that we took chances with new products & ideas, even if some were a bit tacky. I think everyone has funny pictures of themselves dressed in similar clothing. Although I can appreciate avant-garde type fashion & enjoy styles from decades gone by, this complete look is too much like a costume. Rather like the pinstripe pants & the tie isn't awful, but both would benefit from a more toned down coat. Big, bold red is great but in smaller doses & more as an accent color piece. The model's hair could have used a better cut with more softness & shorter bangs to show off his expressive brown eyes. The two women of the 1960s textile industryPolly and Esther Fashion forwardI sometimes wonder what fashion choices I'm making now might elicit the same reactions of amusement and derision 50 years from now. I've seen him before!He's an anchorman on BBC news! I saw him last night! Hey barberGimme a Beatle haircut. Career HighlightsSun-In: a product that never should have seen the light of day. Ahhh the 70sThe decade of disco, lava lamps, bell bottom pants, platform shoes and the coup de grâce -- the plaid polyester leisure suit, with lapels and neckties wide enough to double as an airplane wing. (NIXON, now more than ever!) "C'mon Baby Light My Fire"I remember way back around 1980 driving to work one morning with a lit cigarette in my hand. I was wearing polyester pants at the time. I proceeded to make a big turn with the steering wheel and it knocked the ash off of my cigarette on to my pants. It made a hole so big I had to go back home and change. I do not remember getting burned, though. Yeah, don't miss those times at all. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, News Photo Archive, Portraits)
Old King Coal: 1900
... a trip to Buffalo, "My gown stays white from morn till night upon the Road of Anthracite." Progress Indeed! Yes, this was ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/05/2012 - 6:29pm -

Scranton, Pennsylvania, circa 1900. "Delaware, Lackawanna and Western R.R. yards." Dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Sooty CityThe pollution is truly impressive. Was this progress? A Breath of Fresh AirNot to be found at this time and place. The old king is NOT dead! Long live the king!Coal-burning locomotives are making a comeback in Britain! Brand-new steam loco rescues passengers when electric trains are paralyzed by snow: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/8428097.stm Phoebe Snow's RoadThe Delaware Lackawanna Western was famous for its advertising campaign featuring a character called Phoebe Snow, a 1900s period lady dressed in white, which touted the cleanliness of the line's trains because of the fuel they burned (and which the company mined): Says Phoebe Snow about to go upon a trip to Buffalo, "My gown stays white from morn till night upon the Road of Anthracite." Progress Indeed!Yes, this was progress! Because without crawling first, we would have never developed the clean energy technologies of today. Don't forget that before coal, we burned wood, and just about deforested the entire Eastern seaboard. SteamtownI believe this is the site of the present day Steamtown. The coal ramp is now the site of the pedestrian walkway to the nearby Steamtown Mall, to the right. I make the trip there at least once a year, so I'll have to compare my photographs with this one. Everyone whines about the "pollution" in this photograph, but this country was built with the help of "Old King Coal." Old Mother HubbardThe style of locomotive at the right in the picture (808, 812, 811, and a couple farther right) is called a 'Mother Hubbard' -- the cab is at the middle of the boiler with just a small, dangerous platform for the fireman, because the loco used a very wide firebox. "In the summer the engineer roasted, in the winter the fireman froze" was a period quote. The picture is from the Willard Library. Historic ScrantonI believe the structure with the missile-like turret off in the distance is the Scranton Municipal Building. Scranton has a number of gorgeous old buildings that escaped the wrecking ball. I lived there in the early '80s, too late to enjoy the boom times of King Coal (and too soon to work at Dunder-Mifflin). Great job, Shorpy, on this imageI found this on the LOC website and grabbed the 170mb TIFF scan. You-all have done a truly impressive job sharpening and extracting the content of the image from what's on the LOC website! NotesThere's a couple interesting things in this picture. First you're facing the "coach" yard, where passenger trains were made up. Looking at those cars, on the far left you can see a handful of wooden open end cars, as well as that curious round roofed structure in the middle of the yard. That looks to be a caboose, in particular a short wooden "coupla" [cupola?] free caboose. Would have dated from the 1800s. There's a couple more of those in that yard. Perhaps the most interesting thing is the locomotive at the head of the short freight. It looks like it's a tank engine of some sort, probably more likely a porter 0-4-4. Mother HubbardsThose locomotives are more properly known as Camelbacks. There was no communication between the engineer up in the cab, and the fireman down below. There were stories of the firemen having enough of the heat on a tough trip and jumping off to walk home. The engineer never knew it until the pressure dropped and he had to go see why. (The Gallery, DPC, Railroads, Scranton)
The Apparatus: 1929
... results from all over and even a Cincinnati ball game at night when the cloud cover was good for a "skipping" AM signal but these tubes ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/04/2013 - 10:21am -

UPDATE: See the front panel here. Summer 1929 or thereabouts in Washington, D.C. An impressive rack. Of what? Unlabeled Harris & Ewing glass negative, Part 1 of 2. View full size. A radio and so much moreFor any Shorpy-ites who complained that recent radio pictures didn't show wiring, this one does. And there's even a speaker in this photo, and it's connected to this seemingly powerful receiver and / or transmitter. Hi-fiTwo of the shelves have identical apparatus, so obviously it's stereophonic. (I don't really have to insert a smiley face here, do I?) Not stereophonic.My guess is the two sets of identical apparatus work in series. First set picks up weak signals and amplifies them, second set amplifies them even more. Or both sets amplify the same signals and then combine the signals through superheterodyne action. Believe this receiver would be connected to a pretty good-sized antenna/set of antennas, which would allow worldwide reception. CAGEThe first Electric Analog Grandfather's Clock? Being that it's Washington DC, it was probably classified: CLOCK, ANALOG, GRANDFATHER, ELECTRIC (CAGE) First Mobile PhoneIt's either the first mobile phone or the first microwave oven. Or not. It's not RFIt's an audio amplifier of some sort -- possibly for a PA system. This is because of the rack mounting. The reason I say it's not RF is that there is no evidence of tuning capacitors, plus the transformers are definitely audio finals. While not my era, I'd certainly love to hear from someone who knows about this equipment. Rack mounted CrosleysReceive WLW and WOWO. BacksideI think this is the backside of the equipment rack. I am betting that the next image (2 of 2) will show us the other side and give us more clues. Not radioThese appear to be audio (sound) amplifiers. I see tubes and wire-wound resistors- but no RF coils or tuning capacitors like radio equipment would have. My guess is it's part of a early PA system. Either a PA system or a two-way radio base stationHere's my guess: The whole rig is either a public address system, or something like a base station for a police radio system. The top device is probably a tunable radio receiver. I can see what looks like a tuning capacitor behind a couple of the tubes on the left. The three tubes on the light-colored chassis on the right are probably part of the power supply, while the five tubes on the left are the RF/IF/AF part of the radio. I'm not sure what the three biscuits are, under the tubes at the left - maybe covers over the back sides of rotary controls? The cylinder slung under the left side is probably a filter capacitor for the power supply - it is rather bigger than most radios would have used at that time. Maybe this is designed for a 25 Hz supply? That bright sheet-metal piece standing on end under the workbench is probably the shield for this device. The top device might also be a powered microphone mixer, to allow multiple microphones to drive the power amps. If the whole thing is a PA system, and this is a radio, this lets you play background music. If it's a mixer, it lets you use more than one microphone. If it's a base station, then this is probably a radio, and this is how you hear the mobile units calling in. The bottom two devices are either audio power amplifiers (PA system) or radio transmitters (base station). If they are power amps, they probably amplify the output of the radio for loudspeakers. If you need to cover a bigger area, add another amp to the rack (note the empty shelf). If they are power amps, the dark oblong boxes might be audio output transformers, but I'm not 100% sure on this. (If this was 30 years later, they might be spring reverb tanks, but I don't think those existed in 1929.) If they are radio transmitters, my guess is that they are fixed-frequency; at that time, those were easier to build, and are always much easier to use. They might even be just CW, for Morse code, but 1929 sounds a little late for that. If they are fixed-frequency, my guess is that they are on two different frequencies; you *could* use the same frequency into two different directional antennas, but that requires synchronization of the transmitters that I am not sure was reliable in 1929. I'm not sure what the dark oblong boxes do, if these are transmitters. There are three jacks (probably for 1/4" phone plugs) above the top device. I bet these are for headphones, a microphone, and maybe a push-to-talk switch. If it's a PA system, someone standing at the console can monitor the output, and the microphone and PTT let you cut out the music and make announcements. If it's a base station, then you listen to the mobile units on headphones, and use the microphone to transmit. There is a small terminal board under the bottom shelf. I am not real sure what this is for - it might be the antenna terminals for the radio on the top shelf, or maybe it's some control and switching lines for the whole rack, that can be used to tie more than one of these racks together. The AC power comes in at the bottom right and runs up the rack, with an outlet for each shelf. The outlet boxes and conduit look a lot like the stuff that is sold today as Wiremold(R) surface-mount conduit. The whole rack is not that much different than a "relay rack" you might use today to mount Ethernet jacks, switches, routers, etc; the main difference is that the shelves on modern racks usually bolt in rather than weld on. The power (if equipped) still tends to run up one side. Vacuum TubesAs a lad on Long Island I had a 5-tube Crosley superheterodyne receiver that could pull in race results from all over and even a Cincinnati ball game at night when the cloud cover was good for a "skipping" AM signal but these tubes have me awestruck. Quite obviousThis is the first dual line iPhone. With nifty techno-geek carrying case. Pots???Probably not a receiver as there is a shortage of tuning components on these chassis - the upper unit may be a mixer of some type (power supply on the right) - the three round shiny things may be pots or potentiometers (volume controls), there appear to be three input jacks just above the top unit and the two units on the lower shelves are likely two amplifiers that fed two separate speaker systems. The lower empty shelf looks ready to receive the third amplifier. This is obviously the forerunner of Muzak, to be used in a building with 3 elevators. Talkie equipmentI see speakers but no microphones, and nothing that looks like antenna leads. I'd suggest this is equipment for playing sound in a movie theater. Second suggestion, it's part of a studio's sound recording equipment. Server (of sorts)because it's in a 19-inch rack mount,verified by scaling up from the No. 6 dry cell (as opposed to less common 23-inch telco equipment racks). Rack System!The predecessor to today's rack systems used by those IT nerds out there...think about the heat radiating off this monster! Almost certainly audio equipmentThe "tuning capacitor" on the uppermost unit which KCGuy pointed out is a selenium rectifier - one of the first solid state devices in use. It's probably rectifying a bias voltage for the tubes. I'd discount the likelihood that this rack is radio equipment - at least, not the radio frequency part of it. The two identical large units have no connectors which would be used with radio frequency signals. The only outputs visible are screw post terminals, which would be consistent with audio frequency signals. The three jacks we can see on the top unit (from the back) are the standard quarter-inch phone plugs which were used for audio right through the 20th century - since they're up so high and are on the front of whatever this is, I'd guess they're test jacks or places to plug in headphones or speakers for testing or local monitoring. A firstThe first PA system for Congress? The Rest of the StoryClick here to see the front panel. The top unit is an American Bosch Magneto radio receiver. Early TelevisionThat big disc reminds me of early mechanical television. But it would need a fairly big electric motor behind it, as well as a neon glowlamp. Dual chassis were another hallmark of TV setups at the time. You needed separate receivers for audio and video. No tuning caps might mean a closed-circuit demo rig, not meant to pick up over-the-air signals. The same but differentWhen viewing the back of the rack (1 of 2) the bottom two units appear to be identical. However the front view (2 of 2) shows that these same two units have completely different front panels. Unfair! A little unfair Dave. We loyal Shorpy fans can only go by what is visible to us. Obviously the radio's components were inside a metal enclosure out of our view. What was visible were the audio amplifiers used to distribute the sound about the hospital so I think my conjecture it was part of a PA system was valid. [The radio components are right there in front of your nose on the top rack! American Bosch Magneto Model 28. -Dave] In my defense, the radio's RF coils and tuning components were not visible from the rear. Of course, had we seen the front view it would be obvious it was a radio. Dry cell?M2 commented on the "No. 6 dry cell". Is that what's slung underneath the radio - the thing I misidentified as a filter capacitor? I thought battery vs AC radios were sort of an "all or nothing" thing; either it ran totally on AC or totally on batteries. Maybe I am confused about that. If this rig needs more batteries, it might make sense that they go on the floor, and the terminals under the bottom shelf are for hooking them up. Or maybe the dry cell is the only battery in the rig, and it's there for something relatively low-current, like maybe biasing the microphones? (Technology, The Gallery, D.C., Harris + Ewing)
Fantasyland: 1963
... that some evenings Disneyland would host a sort of "Adults Night" showcasing a popular band or singer and staying open late; they could ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 09/23/2011 - 2:19am -

Kennedy-era folks at Disneyland in Kodachrome. Should I go on here about how thoroughly obsessed I was with Disneyland in the 1960s? At first I ached to go there just to drive the Autopia cars. The real fixation started after my first visit in 1960. It was like another world -- actually, a multitude of other worlds, all of them ones I'd rather live in. That being not quite possible, I settled for the next best thing: bring it into my real life. I organized the hundreds of color slides I took into elaborate shows with music and even printed programs. I drew and painted Disneyland artwork. I dubbed my cactus garden "The Living Desert" and tape-recorded a narration for walks through it. I built my own Storybook Land in one corner of our garden, and a diorama in the basement. I insisted we start having our Sunday dinners in the dining room so I could wheel the TV set around in order to watch The Wonderful World of Color -- in black-and-white. I sent an inquiry about employment in the park, but they weren't hiring teenagers who lived 400 miles away. Even now I think I'd really like to live there, or at least the one of the 50s and 60s. Must be a Peter Pan complex. View full size. Have you seen Daveland or Gorillas?If you haven't, you need to visit Daveland and Gorillas as they are chock full of thousands (yes, thousands) of color vintage Disneyland slides and, between the hosts and commentators, know pretty much everything you could imagine and more about the singular cultural gem that was/is Disneyland. You'd be most welcome to comment and share your pics at either one. FantasticIt's easy to understand an obsession with such a magical place. Disney did an incredible job of touching on that spirit of the imagination in all of us. Love DisneylandWalt was one of the most creative people in the entertainment business of the 20th century IMO. He simply did things that he found enjoyable or exciting and everyone else came along for the ride. Stirring MemoriesI love that teacup with the gent in the suit and tie and girls in what look like gowns. Pretty classy tea party going on in there! My parents moved to Orange County in 1960 and lived right across the road from Disneyland. Dad was a Navy doctor stationed with the 8th Marine air wing at El Toro. They've said that some evenings Disneyland would host a sort of "Adults Night" showcasing a popular band or singer and staying open late; they could just cross the road to attend. I'm pretty sure there are some Kodachrome slides at home that include a few shots from one of those events; a Tony Bennett concert, if I remember correctly! Disney was a master of illusionWhat a job they did with the original Disneyland. It quickly made you forget you were in Anaheim; in fact, I don't think you could even see the outside world from the original park. And they were so lucky that a small Matterhorn just happened to be on the property! Heh heh. We met Walt!On our first visit to Disneyland during the summer of 1955 we were waiting at the Main Street train station for our first ride of the day inside the brand new park. As the train arrived in to pick up passengers, off stepped Walt Disney to welcome my older brother, 12, and me, 8. He bent down to our level and kindly asked us how we liked Disneyland. My mom quickly said to ask for his autograph, but he smiled and said he was on his way to an appointment and had to rush to get there. We were in absolute awe, and for us it truly was the happiest place on earth that long ago day. Tterrace is absolutely right. Disney obsessionBack in the day my parents would get me magazines at the Gulf gas station with fill up. A good many of them had info on Disneyland and the soon to be Disneyworld. I read those things obsessively and noticed that they would end up near my father's recliner on occasion. Well the minute Disneyworld opened we made the trip. The sod was still brown in sections where it didn't take. By then I was a sullen teen totally embarrassed to be with my parents. Hardly remember a thing. Went back about 1990 with a co-worker and had a ball, being the kid I should have been in the 70's. Taking the kids and grandkid in a couple of weeks. Wish I could take a friend my age to be silly with instead of a responsible mom and grandmom. We went in '64We visited in late summer around this time of year in 1964. My dad was going to take a job out there so we all went and stayed while all the job and house details were looked into. I remember some things (like the submarine) but not teacups. I do know we stayed all day -- ages 10 (me), 6 and 1. I respect my folks a lot more these days for the effort, and for the week-plus long journey from the Jersey shore to SoCal. We picked up Route 66 at St. Louis (I remember that) and traveled it the rest of the way, including seeing the Teepee Motel. Drove from Moose Jawto Los Angeles (2200 miles) in the early '60s and they were still building it, no one told us it was not finished yet, good time though. [Disneyland was finished when it opened in 1955. A $6 million expansion was begun in 1960. - Dave] Great memories.Our family took the train from South Bend, Indiana, to SoCal in June of 1963, and Disneyland was of course one of the featured places for us to visit (I was 11, and my sister 15). I had my first cheapo camera (127 film?), and my parents shot with their 616 format cameras -- all b&w. Seeing this great tterrace shot brings back fantastic images in my mind. The train trip took us over 40 hrs. to get there (no compartment, just recliner chairs and lousy food; thanks Santa Fe!). Dad decided to cash in the return train tickets and purchase our fare back via United Air Lines, and saved over 37 hours of traveling! Teacup twirlI love the girl's long ponytail swinging out of the teacup on the left. This is the kind of scene that Kodachrome was made for! I've never been to Disneyland, but grew up in Orlando when Disney World had just opened and was very affordable (unlike today) - we went as a family on weekends fairly regularly. Mr. Toad's Wild RideMr. Toad's Wild Ride is still there although a bit different. The ride in the '63 tterrace photo was closed down in 1982 for renovations, and here's the finished product. My kids are jealous!They have yet, at 18 and 19, to go to Dinseyland. Tterrace, you have scored with another great shot! A movieBwayne! What a fun movie that trip could be! Cable CarsYou will note in the upper right hand corner the bottom of one of the gondolas of the cable car ride that went across the park. I remember gliding over the Teacup ride and seeing some poor kid barf up, in a 360 degree spray, what looked like a large Coke, a bag of popcorn and a chili dog - at least that's what I had for lunch that day. God Bless KodachromeIn 2009 and 2010, knowing the demise of Kodachrome was near, I shot many rolls of my kids at Disneyland, at the beach, with their grandparents, etc., using that film. Digital has many advantages, but the particular color mix and grain of Kodachrome (and the slightly rounded images from the slide mount), evoke a powerful sense of American family life in the mid-20th century. Not BostonSo this is where all that Tea Party stuff started! My first visit to DisneylandMy first visit to Disneyland was in 1959, when I was 8 years old. My mom and I took the train from Richmond CA to Bakersfield, where we got the Santa Fe Trailways connecting bus to Los Angeles, then to Anaheim. We stayed in a motel just a few blocks from the entrance to Disneyland, and I remember that relatively short walk very clearly - it was ALL orange groves, on both sides of the street, from the motel to the gates of Disneyland! My favorite attraction was Tom Sawyer's Island, where my cousin and I ran around like idiots, probably much to the adults' relief! The submarines were brand new that year. I remember I did NOT ride the Matterhorn, but my Mom did and she loved it! I made my fifth trip to Disneyland last April, on my 60th birthday. It was still great fun, but WOW was it expensive! I told a clerk it was my birthday when I bought a new set of ears, and she gave me a pin to wear. I was amazed when EVERY employee who saw me with the pin said "Happy Birthday, Ken" to me! Somewhere I have an Ektachrome slide I took in 1970 with my new Hasselblad. We were the last to leave the park, and I set the camera on the ground in Main Street for a long exposure of the street cleaners pushing brooms toward us. If I find it again, I will post it here! (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, tterrapix)
Billy Sunday Tabernacle: 1918
... role of a revivalist, at the Central Union Mission last night. The hall was pretty well filled, and a great many came in while he was ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/28/2012 - 6:38pm -

January 1918. Washington, D.C. "Billy Sunday tabernacle." A temporary meeting hall built near Union Station for a three-month series of revival meetings held by the famous evangelist. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size. Streetcars!According to an article in The Post this week, streetcars are about to return to DC after a 50-year absence. There it is!The honest to god, original Tourist Motel! And to think, it all started because of Billy Sunday... Well, probably not, but I love the hotel name. Photographer's Vantage PointThe photographer's vantage point seems to be from an upper level window or the roof at the SE corner of the Union Station building. The view is looking south with First Street NE extending in the distance towards the Library of Congress dome. What a weird structureAnd it looks like someone's been snowboarding off the roof. Not seen in this photois a temporary wall of separation between church and state. Switch TowerCan anybody identify the function of the elevated tower at the front left of the photo? I'm guessing that it might house the controls for the switches on the trolley car tracks. That might also explain the semaphore like device sticking out of the roof. [That "semaphore" is a street sign on the lamppost near the horse. The switch tower is described in the comments under this photo. - Dave] Popular EvangelistBilly Sunday, born in poverty and raised in an orphanage, was a magnetic personality who, after playing professional baseball in the 1880s, became one of the most popular Bible-thumping evangelists of his time. He was a large cog in the wheel that foisted Prohibition on America. Unlike many of his peers, before and since, Billy seems not to have had feet of clay. Outfielder Billy SundayHow many knew that, in his 20s, the legendary Rev. Billy Sunday (1862-1935) spent 8 years as a big league outfielder with Chicago, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in the National League? Could it have been his .248 career batting average that inspired him to give up his baseball career for a higher calling? Out-of-townerAnybody know what that big dome-y structure up on the hill is? (You can have them ring me at my rooms in The Tourist.) IncendiaryI'll bet the D.C. fire marshal held his breath for 3 months. The Ghostly Horse And WagonThe horse and wagon to the extreme right look like true ghosts to me. They're very faint and I can see what looks like the entire curb behind them. They do cast shadows so I'm not calling on the supernatural to explain it yet. I've never seen such large moving objects look so ghostly with such sharp outlines. As an aside, there is an almost invisible bicyclist who is also casting a shadow midway between the trolleys. Clean snow!By the number of wheel tracks in the snow, you can tell it's been on the ground awhile. With that in mind, it's nice to see WHITE snow. Those were the days of clean air. [The air of 1918 was considerably dirtier than it is now. Coal soot. - Dave] Who was the evangelist ?Billy Graham is the only one named Billy that I ever knew but he was born in 1918 so not likely to have preached the same year. Which "Billy" was speaking here ?? [Billy Sunday. Like it says in the title and the caption. - Dave] Thanks Dave, I thought it meant that it was on a Sunday and since it is a tabernacle it is normal to think that. But thanks for answering. [Aha! You're welcome. - Dave] Urban and Spiritual RenewalDuring the early-century maneuvering over how to memorialize Lincoln, one of the sites considered was this general area, which was a slum between Capitol Hill and Union Station. The Lincoln Memorial was going to go up elsewhere, but it appears that a way was found to clear out the slums and simultaneously promote righteousness. Eloquent, at times Washington Post, May 25, 1889 Billy Sunday as a Revivalist Billy Sunday, the clever right-fielder of the Pittsburg club, doffed his baseball uniform and made his first appearance in this city in the role of a revivalist, at the Central Union Mission last night. The hall was pretty well filled, and a great many came in while he was speaking. None of the members of either the Pittsburg or Washington clubs were present. After a service of song and a prayer by Mr. Sunday, he selected a text from the first chapter of John, fourth and fifth verses. The short sermon which followed was replete with interest, forcibly and, at times, eloquently given. He closed with a short prayer. Washington Post, Nov 6, 1917 Ground is Broken for Tabernacle Ground was broken in front of the Union Station plaza yesterday for the tabernacle which is to house the Billy Sunday revival here in January. The actual turning of the sod was performed by John C. Letts, chairman of the Sunday campaign committee. Post-master M.O. Chance presided. The ceremony took place under one of the big Union Station flags at 12:15 o'clock p.m. in the presence of several hundred people who stood with bared heads until the exercises were completed. The Rev. Charles Wood, pastor of the Church of the Covenant, and the Rev. James Gordon, of the First Congregational Church, delivered the prayers. Dr. James E. Walker, representing Billy Sunday, in his address said that Sunday comes to Washington to preach the simple word of God. "Not Mr. Sunday, but Washington is on trial," he concluded. The permit to erect the tabernacle bears the signatures of Champ Clark, Vice President Marshall, and Supt. E.H. Woods, of the Capitol. Another Billy Sunday referenceChicago, Chicago that toddling town Chicago, Chicago I will show you around - I love it Bet your bottom dollar you lose the blues in Chicago, Chicago The town that Billy Sunday could not shut down BrrrThe winter of 1917-18 was one of the coldest and snowiest of the 20th century. Many cold records were set that remain unbroken 90 years later. http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_reader.php?BiotID=637 Room at the TouristWell, you can stay there, but I'm booking a room at the Hotel Wilmat, they have 'ROOMS' (The Gallery, D.C., Harris + Ewing, Railroads, Streetcars)
Dormitory: 1909
... Number "Any man not in his bunk at eight will spend a night in the box. There is no smoking in prone position in bed. To smoke ... bunk. Anyone caught smoking in prone position will spend a night in the box. You get two sheets. Every Saturday you put the clean sheet on ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/09/2011 - 2:26pm -

February 1909. Men's dormitory at the New York municipal lodging house. 8x10 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size. Sleep Number"Any man not in his bunk at eight will spend a night in the box. There is no smoking in prone position in bed. To smoke you must have both legs over the side of your bunk. Anyone caught smoking in prone position will spend a night in the box. You get two sheets. Every Saturday you put the clean sheet on the top, the top sheet on the bottom and the bottom sheet you turn in to the Laundry Boy. Any man who turns in the wrong sheet spends a night in the box. No one will sit on the bunks with dirty pants on. Any man sitting on a bunk with dirty pants will spend a night in the box." - Carr the Floorwalker, "Cool Hand Luke" Paging Lewis HineWell, the place looks immaculately clean. Lewis Hine would have loved it. Wonder if it smelled like formaldehyde? Ikea for the ItinerantThe Dormitory is a remarkable foreshadowing of the Minimalist aesthetic and a number of other 20th century design trends. On another note, let's not be dissing LWH, people. You would surely be forgiven if you found his work just a trifle tendentious and I, for one, am not overly fond of didactic art, but Hine clearly had another agenda and art was probably just an incidental. I don't know to what degree Hine considered himself an artist (or not), but it seems clear that his commitment to documenting child labor was nothing short of heroic. By way of illustration, the inquisitive may wish to have a look here. Dave (or any of you kids in the peanut gallery), do you happen to know of a good biography of Hine? I think it would be difficult to spend any time around Shorpy and not be at least mildly curious about the man. On a more general note, there is not a day that goes by that I don't appreciate the efforts of the photographers whose work populates these pages and the yeoman service done by Dave and Ken and such others as may populate the Shorpy ranks. The work done in presenting these photos (choice, editing, captioning, &c.) is the very definition of 'value added'. The window that this site provides on the past is of incalculable value. As some of the Anonymous (and otherwise, myself included) Tipsters continually demonstrate, we need a lot of help in seeing past our 21st century prejudices. Faux PasI neglected to mention Joe Manning! And here I am asking about Lewis Hine... duh. Thanks, Joe. Hine BioI saw an excellent documentary last week on the Documentary channel called "America and Lewis Hine." It is being rebroadcast on 03/18/08, 04/02/08, 04/03/08, and probably more, because they replay programs often: http://www.documentarychannel.com/schedule/index.php NYTimes review. And there is a VHS copy for sale on Amazon. Too bad I'm posting this relative to someone else's photo. Hine BioThis is Joe Manning. The best three books I've read on Hine so far are: "Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor," by Russell Freedman and Lewis Hine "America and Lewis Hine: Photographs, 1904-1940," by Walter Rosenblum, Alan Trachtenberg, Naomi Rosenblum, and Marvin Israel "Lewis Hine in Europe: The Lost Photographs," by Daile Kaplan Fascinating Light FixturesAny information on them? (The Gallery, G.G. Bain, NYC)
Homecoming: 1919
... and brought back to the USA. In addition to Sunday night's dinner, the 81st annual Memorial Day Service for the "Polar Bears" ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/29/2011 - 12:42pm -

November 1919. Hoboken, New Jersey. "Dead soldiers from Russia. Funeral services for 103 slain fighting Bolsheviks." 5x7 glass negative. View full size. Uncanny timingThe Polar Bear Descendants Dinner, made up of descendants of the 339th Regiment whose members made up most of the 103 dead, is taking place tonight in Troy, Michigan. A ReminderOf what this weekend should be all about; remembering all those, throughout the years, who gave "their last full measure" to insure our ability to celebrate, and to complain sometimes, being Americans. Embrace Feedom! And thank anyone you meet in the Military, regardless of Branch! Longfellow's commentYour silent tents of green We deck with fragrant flowers Yours has the suffering been, The memory shall be ours. "Nation Honors Men Killed In Russia"The public funeral service took place on November 13 at Pier 4 in Hoboken, after which the coffins were escorted to a mortuary chapel. (N.Y. Times article, Nov. 14, 1919) 100 Yank Dead Brought Back from ArchangelChicago Daily Tribune, Nov 13, 1919      Washington, D.C., Nov.12 - [Special] -- The bodies of 100 midwest soldiers who died in north Russian during the allied campaign against the bolsheviki will arrive at New York late tonight aboard the Lake Daraga. Most of these soldiers were from Michigan, members of the 339th infantry.      Relatives have been notified to communicate with the port utilities officer, Hoboken, N.J., regarding the disposition of the bodies. Chicagoans in the list of dead were:      Leo P. Ellis, private, company I, 339th infantry. Mother, Mrs. Catherine Ellis.      Claude B. Hill, 2d lieutenant, 210th engineers, company A. Father, Dr. Charles Hill, 6330 Kimbark Avenue.      Michael J. Kenney, sergeant, company A, 339th infantry. Brother, Patrick J./ Kenney, 1825 West Garfield Boulevard.      Mattios Kozlousky, private first class, company M, 339th infantry. Sister, Mrs. Martha Getz, 704 West Thirty-first Street. Quite an assortment of gorgeous trucksLooks like the second in line is an air-cooled Franklin. Interesting that they are all different. [That's a Renault an International. The radiator is under the windshield. - Dave] Almost forgotten homecomingFew people remember that we had thousands of troops sent into the chaos of the Russian civil war, on short notice, shortly after the Bolshevik coup overthrew the revolutionary government. Two separate expeditions, in the Archangel-Murmansk region and in Siberia, backed Allied attempts to corral large supplies of in-transit war matériel, bolster loyalist 'White' forces, and evacuate the Czech Legion. The whole mess became politically unsupportable after Armistice and the continued unraveling of the "White" Russian forces, Allied troops were withdrawn in 1920. Good to knowI didn't know that so many Americans fought against Bolsheviks in Russia. They fought for freedom, but they lost. One year later, in 1920, Soviet forces came for Poland. Decisive Polish victory was battle of Warsaw, so unexpected that called "A miracle at the Vistula". Thanks to it we have secured Polish (and European) eastern frontiers for the next eighteen years, till 1939. Thanks, BinkThanks for the simple, but beautiful poem. Says it all! [Henry Wadsworth Longfellow deserves a smidge of credit, too. - Dave] When you think of itIt must be the only time in history where American soldiers actually fought in a war against Red Russian soldiers. About the gorgeous trucksFirst in line is from White Motors, second and fourth are from International Harvester, third is a bit more generic but my money is on Reo. You can almost make out the diagonal script on the front of number two's coffin nose in the full-size version. Finallya place where I can get my eagle washed. International HarvesterI suggest the "Renault" truck is an International Harvester. The lineup left to right is White, International Harvester, Reo, another International. 1919 International Harvester The second truck is a 1919 International Harvester. Model 15The first truck is a 1919 White Model 15. "This is not the Western Front""It is hardly no front at all." So wrote my grandfather in this letter to his parents dated "Archangel, Feb. 14, 1919. He was one of the approximately 5,000 "Polar Bears" of the American North Russia Expeditionary Force who fought the Bolshevik Red Army in North Russia from Sept. 1918 until June 1919 - more than six months after the end of the Great War. He was one of the lucky ones - more than 230 of his fellow soldiers died in North Russia. The "dead soldiers from Russia" shown in this photo were disinterred from the Allied Cemetery in Archangel and shipped home for reburial closer to their families. Archangel finally fell to the Bolshevik forces in Feb. 1920. The remains of most of the other American dead were recovered in 1929 and brought back to the USA. In addition to Sunday night's dinner, the 81st annual Memorial Day Service for the "Polar Bears" was held today at White Chapel Memorial Cemetery in Troy, Michigan. Their service and sacrifice have not been forgotten. In the summer of 1918,In the summer of 1918, President Woodrow Wilson, at the urging of Britain and France, sent an infantry regiment to north Russia to fight the Bolsheviks in hopes of persuading Russia to rejoin the war against Germany. The 339th Infantry Regiment, with the first battalion of the 310th Engineers and the 337th Ambulance and Hospital Companies, arrived at Archangel, Russia, on September 4, 1918. About 75 percent of the 5,500 Americans who made up the North Russian Expeditionary Forces were from Michigan; of those, a majority were from Detroit. The newspapers called them "Detroit's Own,"; they called themselves "Polar Bears." They marched on Belle Isle on July 4, 1919. Ninety-four of them were killed in action after the United States decided to withdraw from Russia but before Archangel's harbor thawed. In 1929, five former "Polar Bears" of the 339th Infantry Regiment returned to north Russia in an attempt to recover the bodies of fellow soldiers who had been killed in action or died of exposure or disease ten years earlier. The group was selected by the members of the Polar Bear Association under the auspices of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The trip was sponsored by the federal government and the State of Michigan. Some picturesArchangel is actually the town where I was born and I was taught in school about British-American troops who invaded Archangelsk back in August of 1918. British memorial cemetery is situated there. British soldiers of WWI and WWII (sailors from polar convoys who were killed by nazis) are buried there. If memory serves me, there were also few American graves. http://autotravel.ru/phalbum.php/90212/137 You can see few interesting photos of WWI period here: http://warhistory.livejournal.com/1574525.html You can use Google translator to read the captions under the pictures. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, G.G. Bain, WWI)
Grandpa Fred: 1958
... Chilton's manual and went to work. Lo and behold, late one night my mother hears the sound of the engine running once more. Even at that ... 
 
Posted by Radio Free Babylon - 05/13/2012 - 4:16pm -

Chula Vista, California, 1958. Grandpa Fred in his MGA on Madrona Street. Photo by my father, home on leave after his second year at West Point. View full size. MeanwhileThe middle class British family car was this an Austin A35 Impressive! That is quite a vehicle. I read up a little on it and was surprised to find out that it was actually raced in Nascar in the early sixties. Street view today..Appears Grandpa Fred lived at 231 Madrona. Street is not as nice today as back in '58. View Larger Map Gotta love Gramps!I bet he must have been 50 or so. Got his jaunty little sports car. For sure,not an old guy on the porch in his rocking chair. Just from the picture,I bet he was a fun loving guy who enjoyed life. Is there any cahnce he is still alive? The Usual CadetCadets at the military academies seem to always buy sports cars. Someone put a nice gash in his front fender. At least he is having fun. MGs"MGs.. Turning drivers into mechanics for half a century!" I had a college friend who drove a yellow one, his dad had a black one. I'd bet that the two cars were both up and running at the same time maybe three months in the years I knew them. They were cool cars when they were fixed though. Gramps' well-used MGAShows signs of daily-driverness. As opposed to garage-queenliness, with that crease down the side and the overflow of grease from the front wheel bearings. The MGA was a decent car, actually outran some contemporary Porsches in Sports Car Club of America races at Palm Springs, as documented in the magazines of the time. I have attached a photo of one racing at Willow Springs "vintage" races in 2004. My brother had one which he crashed into a boulder at the side of a highway near Big Bear Lake, California. I worked in Chula Vista for quite a few years. I probably jogged or walked down that street at lunch breaks in the 1970s and 1980s, although I don't recognize the houses. That MG is one of those real MODERN ones.Here I am fussin' with an MG-TD that same year. Then came the TF and then the ultra swoopy high-powered (72 horsepower!) model sported above by David Wilkie's Grandpa. When Truman Capote's book "In Cold Blood" was made into the film with Robert Blake, I always thought the guy helping me put the top up - or was it going down - looked like Blake. Or the other way around. Man About TownGrandpa looks to be quite the bon vivant! The Lucas motto: "Get home before dark." The reason for the joyous countenance is because he expects to be home before dark. The Lucas headlamps had three settings: dim, flicker and off. Had a 69 Triumph TR6 motorcycle with Lucas electrics. We had a serious love hate relationship, but when she was running right it sounded like the Boston Symphony. The MGs were all a joy to drive, and notwithstanding the remark above, gramps bears witness to that proposition. Regrettably, I never owned one. The spoke wheels are quite handsome. Looks like he left the 54 Plymouth and 1951 98 for the youngsters. Really?I could be a grandpa by now, but that grandpa looks nowhere near 50. Mid 40s at best. Ground view todayIn 1958 I was living with my folks about a mile northwest of this block, and, strange to say, as I write this, I'm in the process of slowly moving back in again to that same house. With that classy MG, you grandfather looks like he was probably a customer at my folks' steak and seafood house, one of only three or four "nice" places in town back then. In 1958 Chula Vista was at the top of its boom years, with the Navy and huge Cold War aerospace payrolls keeping everything pretty prosperous, expanding rapidly and definitely optimistic (Rohr Aircraft Corporation's 28,000 workers on three shifts, producing fuselages and missile parts). But CV's economic Big Chill set in pretty early, although it took decades for it to really show. By 1963, three-fourths of the Rohr payroll had moved permanently to Marietta, Georgia, never to be successfully replaced. That being said, Madrona Street doesn't really look all that bad today, although fewer residents are as "yard-proud" as they once were. And, Chula Vista has annexed so much formerly unincorporated land to the south and east that it's now the second largest city in San Diego County, with 56 square miles of mostly newer neighborhoods. MGA, MGB, Triumph, Morgan etc. Were/are British "sports" cars popular in the USA - they never struck me as ideal transport - your bum's too near the road! Perhaps more of a bird-puller? Jos. LucasSince we started Lucas jokes: Did you hear that Joseph Lucas got "Honors" from the Queen? He is now know as the Lord of Darkness! Why do the British drink warm beer? Lucas makes the refrigerators as well! Running great 55 years later.I still own the used 1957 MGA my parents bought my sister back in 1962. It was later abandoned by her, and left in the bushes gathering dust and mice. I always asked my parents not to sell the car, I was interested in getting it running myself. So, at 14 years old, I read the Chilton's manual and went to work. Lo and behold, late one night my mother hears the sound of the engine running once more. Even at that age,I was allowed to drive it around the back roads of the county as my reward, and have owned it ever since. I rebuilt the engine myself at 18, and can say that if you tune them correctly, they are as reliable as any vehicle of that vintage. At 19, I rebuilt the engine and painted the car. A few years later, she was put into the parents garage with the promise to drive her every couple of weeks or so. Weeks turned into months. Months turned into years. After sitting well over twenty years, I promised I would get her running again before the end of the millennium, which I did. The sound and smells that car produced as she warmed her heart after all those years brought the memories streaming back. Much like this photo did as well. Thanks Shorpy. On the popularity of British sports carsHaving owned/put up with a few British sports cars back in the late 1950s to mid 1960s, I can say that we bought them not to troll for la femme but to drive the darn things. This is not to deny the attention they gathered from la femme, especially the E-Type Jaguar. Here's my Jag (in Altoona, Pa.) plus one of my Healey 3000s (Wildwood, N.J.) and the TR-3 Triumph I raced (Thompson Raceway, Connecticut). I had other sporty cars but only a total of four Brit cars (replaced one Healey with another one). Yes, we had The Fun, we really did. (Cue Jim Croce's "Time in a Bottle".) Sigh. Lend-Lease: the SequelBritish sports cars were definitely popular in the USA, especially in the 1950s and '60s. When I was in college in the latter decade, I drove a 1956 Austin-Healey 100-4, a corporate sibling of the MGA featured here, which it resembled in basic profile. My Healey had been well-used long before I got it, and often enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with my father, an experienced auto mechanic, but ran well enough most of the time that there was nothing like it -- having my bum tooling along a few inches off the road made the exhaust coming out of the tailpipe right behind me sound that much sweeter. And of course my Healey was a "bird-puller" -- I had that in mind from the first moment I spied it on the used-car lot, and I must say it worked, too. Thanks for these top-down memories. Dad...My dad had at various times in the early 60's, an Austin Healey, a Triumph TR3, and something I think he called a 'Bug-Eyed Sprite'. He loved those cars but they were headaches for him as well. I remember he told me that one time a wheel actually fell off the Healey while he was driving down the road. My wife's uncle had an infatuation with TR7's and possessed 5 or 6 of them at the time of his death. No Chance.He would be way over a hundred if he was still alive. I lived in Southern California, from 1956 to 1959, near Pasadena in a little town called Duarte. For a young lad (11 Yrs Old),who migrated there from the big blue sky's of Texas, it was not a nice place to grow up. The smog was so bad (I lived in the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains), you were lucky to see them on a Sunday. I was definetily glad to leave. Know why the British didn't make computers?They couldn't figure out how to make them leak oil. The first car I owned was a 1967 Triumph Spitfire. I couldn't keep the rear tail light lenses on the car, everytime someone would walk around the back, they would naturally grab ahold of the tail light lens and it would break off. In 1970 the lens cost $11.00 and was a special order item in Springfield MO I wonder if your family knew mineMy mother graduated from Chula Vista High in 1958 and lived on 1st near Shasta St in Chula Vista. I wonder if anyone in your family knew her. Linda Lane is named after her. It's great to see a picture of what the area looked like then. My mother said she remembered in the late 40s that there were still lots of lemon groves and there was a guy who delivered produce with a donkey cart. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)
Ice Men: 1941
... "Diners in Washington Hot Shoppes restaurant." An exciting night of ice skating awaits, or has just concluded. Medium format nitrate ... Re: Bottle The same type of bottle is seen at Girls' Night Out: 1941 but also lacking a view of the label. I too would guess ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/26/2013 - 10:53am -

December 1941. Washington, D.C. "Diners in Washington Hot Shoppes restaurant." An exciting night of ice skating awaits, or has just concluded. Medium format nitrate negative by John Collier. View full size. Close to HomeLived in a small garden apartment complex just up Yuma Street from where this Hot Shoppe was located. It had a drive-in as well. Good to know that the 'Ice Palace' building has not been altered that badly over the years, hope WMAL [ABC] stay there for a long time. There used to be a Mercury dealer on the other side of Yuma Street from this restaurant. Celebrity look-alikesThe guy at the left front of the table looks like a young version of the blond half of the Siegfried and Roy (Las Vegas and white tigers) act. The guy reflected in the glass block mirror (sitting with a girl) looks like a young Jimmy Stewart. The plates of food look like burgers and fries. mirror. mirrorI love the woman in the mirror who is checking out the photographer. Poor plants.Those stringy philodendrons need some tender loving care! Material for Future NostalgiaSoon this prosaic scene will be remembered with some poignancy should either of these young men end up at Guadalcanal or Anzio or Omaha Beach. In Vietnam, I found myself recalling fondly such odd moments as spaghetti day in my elementary school's cafeteria or the day Suzie Egan smiled at me for no good reason. The recollection of an evening's skating, followed by a burger with a friend, and all the while nobody's shooting at you ... priceless! Re: BottleThe same type of bottle is seen at Girls' Night Out: 1941 but also lacking a view of the label. I too would guess ketchup but have been unable to find anything similar on the intertubes. I'm also curious what was in the bowl with the metal lid. Relish? Sugar? [Another Hot Shoppe shot shows that bowl seemingly immediately before or after use. - tterrace] Nice Collar Flipon the blonde guy. The Army will straighten him out. Across from the Ice PalaceCould this be the Hot Shoppe across Connecticut Ave. from the Ice Palace? (approx 4400 block) In 1941, we ate dinner there before going skating with the Washington Figure Skating Club. Full dinner was either 66 or 88 cents depending on whether you got dessert. Note the coin box on the wall for the jukebox. The Marriotts thought their choice of music was superior to what the diners might choose. After WW2, what had been the Ice Palace became the studios for Channel 7. The Hot ShoppesI remember when the Hot Shoppes operated the restaurants on the NY State Thruway. It didn't matter what time of day or night you went there, there would be someone mopping the floor with some smelly ammonia based liquid. What's in the bottle?I'm not quite old enough to remember what it might hold, but any idea what's in the shapely bottle closer to our diner on the right? At first I thought it might be some long-forgotten beverage, but it appears to have rings in the glass neck, so maybe it's ketchup. Or a Hot Shoppe special topping? But where's the label? Inquiring, somewhat younger, minds want to know. Fuzzy MemoryI lived in Fairlington in Arlington from age 2 thru 5. My distant memory may be deceiving me but I seem to remember there was a Hot Shoppes in the Shirlington Shopping Center not far away. My mother went shopping in Shirlington a lot and I can picture myself as a young tyke eating there on occasion. Same booths and table setups. Anyway, Hot Shoppes is gone but last I knew Shirlington lives on. Chevy Chase Ice PalaceWhere the Ice Men cameth from... Before or afterIt appears that both men have their trousers cuffs rolled up. Easier to skate with not so much material in the way Sooooo, I would assume it is an after skate snack. Apres Skate?Seeing the young men's cuffs rolled up that they had already had their "skate." I used to do the same, as a kid, when I roller-skated around the neighborhood - and, of course, one cuff rolled up when riding my bike. Sugar, sugarI'm fairly certain the bowl with the metal lid is a sugar bowl. (This was before sugar came in little packets.) The hinged lid allowed one to level the teaspoon before removing it and prevented spills on the way to the coffee cup. Sugar cubes were also sometimes used at places like this and often stuck together in the bowl. When I was a kid we would sometimes stick our fingers in the sugar bowl (yuck!) and grab one or two cubes to suck on. Condiment ChoicesThat condiment bottle does look like ketchup, which wasn't always blood-red, according to oldsters in the know. Some ketchup was more orangey-red before artificial coloring became widespread. My maternal grandmother used to make her own ketchup when we had a particularly good tomato crop. I remember it being acidic and tangy and quite runny, not so sweet like the corn-syrup laden goo sold today. She canned it with a paraffin wax seal and served it right out of the jar with a spoon. Right beside it was her homemade chow-chow sauce, another tomato-based condiment that contained finely-chopped onions and hot peppers, vinegar, and salt. Both of my grandmothers made chow-chow, maternal "Mimi" made it soupy and paternal "Mamaw" made it chunky. "Ankle Beaters"What they called it in the 50's when you wore your jeans like that. (The Gallery, D.C., Eateries & Bars, John Collier)
Roeber's Cafe: 1908
... to Patty, his bartender, that it's gonna be a long night if they get more rain. Meanwhile the bouncer, Gill "The Butcher" Fendley, ... does in a blur of motion. Yep, it's gonna be a long night. (The Gallery, Eateries & Bars, G.G. Bain, NYC) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/19/2012 - 2:12pm -

On the left, champion wrestler and vaudeville impresario Ernst Roeber (1861-1944) and his Manhattan saloon at 499 Sixth Avenue around Easter 1908. 8x10 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size. Roeber (aka Ernest or Ernie) also operated a cafe in the Ridgewood section of Brooklyn. Moerlein'sAnd a closer look at this photograph shows the wrap-around metal banner proclaiming “Moerlein’s Celebrated Cincinnati Lager Beer.” Being originally from Cincinnati, and having never heard of this brand, I did a Google search and discovered that the Hudepohl Brewing Company now owns the Moerlein brand and apparently produces and sells it today. Hudepohl beer (and its lighter companion Schoenling beer) are well-known Cincinnati brands and were my brews of choice when younger, particularly when watching the Cincinnati Reds at old Crosley Field. Roeber Arrested!Thanks to the NY Times opening up their archive, there's an article that mentions the address in a brief article on Roeber being arrested for disorderly conduct at his cafe. The address is given as 499 Sixth Avenue, which is the number in the photo. [Thanks Wayne! I added that to the caption. - Dave] What an amazing photographThis is one of those photographs that just keep on giving. What wonderful detail!! Thanks for putting it on the site. Don Hall Yreka, CA Not So Subliminal Religious MessagesThis photo is rife with spiritual imagery. First there is the obvious star of David under the big "Ernst Roeber" sign. Less obvious is the fortune teller that dwells within Joe's Theatre. Finally, there's the newspaper headline, "Excommunication Of King Robert The Pious." [Maybe not all that spiritual. The star was the logo for the Ehret's Beer Hell Gate Brewery, at one time the largest in the country. George Ehret was from Germany, where the hexagram or Bierstern (beer star) is a symbol of the brewers' guild. - Dave] Robert the PiousActually The Excommunication Of King Robert the Pious is a painting, not a newspaper headline. [Seems to be a little of each. - Dave] WeirdSpeaking of spiritual imagery. What's with the ghostly figure on the right side? Was that person simply moving as the picture was taken? Cut rate vaudeville, beer,Cut rate vaudeville, beer, wine, whiskey, palmists, massage... It all looks pretty decadent to me! Ice, Coal, and WoodDid people really buy coal and wood at shops like this? It was for heating, right? Also I love the sign that reads "SIGN" Ice, Coal and Wood"Did people really buy coal and wood at shops like this?" I would imagine that the "shop" was really a company office where you would order deliveries of ice (for your ice box) wood (for cooking?) and coal (for heating). L'excommunication de Robert le Pieux (1875)This a painting by Jean-Paul Lauren (1838-1921), now at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Wikipedia article. Anyway... this is one of the greatest photos of this site! Moerlein BeerI'm related to Christian Moerlein, the brewer. Do you have any more images, like these, that include the Moerlein name? The Moerleins recently had a family reunion in Cincinnati, which my immediate family attended. I'm going to send this link to all of them, and we'll be ordering some of these prints very soon. Please let me know if you have any other Moerlein images. Thanks! [As far as I know, this is it. Cheers! - Dave] It was a dank and rainy day.Everybody is at home having dinner with their family and nobody is out drinkin', even the "Floppy Joes" are staying away today. The shoeshine boy has already thrown in the towel and has gone home, empty handed, to his mother. Roeber, in a mood as black as the day, ponders going next door and making a long distance telephone call to wish his mother a Happy Easter. Jingling his pocket change, he grumbles to Patty, his bartender, that it's gonna be a long night if they get more rain. Meanwhile the bouncer, Gill "The Butcher" Fendley, has just told a loitering tramp to hit the road, who having dealt with "The Butcher" before, does in a blur of motion. Yep, it's gonna be a long night. (The Gallery, Eateries & Bars, G.G. Bain, NYC)
Boom to Bust: 1940
... wonder what those miners would have to say about "$175 per night." - Dave] What IS that? On the lawn, right side of photo, near ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/30/2020 - 2:09pm -

September 1940. "House dating from the early boom days of Silverton, Colorado." Medium format acetate negative by Russell Lee. View full size. It's a tricycleMay not be a Sky-King, but it looks like a 1930's fendered tricycle. Now a B&BThe Wingate House: http://www.wingatehouse.com/about_wingate.html [I wonder what those miners would have to say about "$175 per night." - Dave] What IS that?On the lawn, right side of photo, near corner of house. Is that a farm implement? A child's toy?? I am mystified. Milk bottle-compliant?I see shelves under two of the upstairs windows - could those be for storing milk in the winter? Also, what would miners think about llamas grazing on the property? 78 years on80 years old and she's still a little girl. Re: What is that?It is a toy. Looks to me like the little girl's tricycle lying on its side. They made them with fenders back in the day Return to GloryI was thinking that was a pretty nice place back in the day---great to see someone else thought so and made it happen! (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Frontier Life, Kids, Mining, Russell Lee, Small Towns)
Brinkley & Huntley: 1960
... from Washington and the other from New York. Their "Good night, Chet" and "Good night, David" signoff became a cultural staple. Walter Cronkite on CBS didn't ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/02/2022 - 11:03am -

July 1960. "David Brinkley and Chet Huntley -- NBC convention coverage. From NBC Television Audience Promotion." 4x5 acetate negative from the News Photo Archive. View full size. Goodnight ChetGrowing up, they were by far my favorite evening news anchors. They delivered the stories of the day in a way that was always interesting and never dull plus a little wry humor thrown in here and there. When ethics meant somethingPlease bring back the good old days! I was there, 63 years agoHuntley-Brinkley even made Rocky & Bullwinkle. Being only 3 then... I was too wrapped up in the politics of hysterically funny, violent 1940s Bugs Bunny cartoons to care about the news. LoyaltyWalter Cronkite at CBS always seemed to be the lead dog. However, I grew up with Huntley/Brinkley, and stayed for Chancellor, Brokaw, Williams, and Holt. That's sixty years with NBC. I hear it stillThe Beethoven! Symphony No. 9, 2nd movement. Part of my childhood -- the black and white part. Forgot to mention: In 2016 I visited David Brinkley's grave at Oakdale Cemetery in Wilmington, North Carolina. Are you sureThat's not Bob and Ray playing "David Chetley" and "Brink Huntster"? Empty handedSo unusual seeing Chet Huntley's right hand empty. If nothing else was demanding its attention, it typically was holding a cigarette. Huntley was a notorious chain smoker to the point where he even smoked during televised newscasts. 5 pm in b&w The adults in the house listened to these two guys everyday they were on; one reason was a cousin who was in Nam at the time and the other was just good reporting. And being but a lad at the time I do remember learning at an early age what a C.O.L.A. raise was, hearing them report about it almost daily by a group of unhappy somebodies. Best team ever!Their pairing during the 1956 elections was a stroke of genius, just like Laurel and Hardy. They played off each other like no other news team. Not only were they outstanding newsmen, but great personalities. Chet was the old-time radio announcer, with a great voice and David was the commentator with a wry sense of humor. By the way, Chet Huntley had a minor career in movies, mostly as the narrator or announcer in certain scenes, usually off camera. But he was seen as a baseball announcer for games in "The Pride of St. Louis," an old biopic about Dizzy Dean. This was before becoming famous for his news work. Time FliesMy first thought when I saw him was that it wasn't long ago when This Week With David Brinkley was on. Of course, a Google search reveals it was 25 years ago when Mr. Brinkley signed off of his show for good and nearly 20 years ago when he left us. Fantastic newscaster, and I miss him. I really never got to watch Huntley, as he died when I was 11. Remember?We had real news from real professionals and not editorializing hacks. 1960This is the first election coverage I can remember. I was seven, almost eight, and I really liked JFK. In fact, Nixon campaigned in my neighborhood, and I refused to go over two blocks to see him. As for Huntley-Brinkley, one anchored from Washington and the other from New York. Their "Good night, Chet" and "Good night, David" signoff became a cultural staple. Walter Cronkite on CBS didn't find ratings traction until Huntley retired and broke up the team. Goodnight, Chet. Goodnight, DavidI think it was Brinkley who said he hated that sign-off because it sounded like they were in bed together. (The Gallery, News Photo Archive, Politics, TV)
Road House: 1956
... bar there, it just might been a little cafe on a weekend night with a well stocked jukebox. Someone from South Carolina might weigh in ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/25/2008 - 12:51am -

1956. "Segregation in South Carolina. Separate and unequal recreation facilities." I've looked at hundreds of photos from this assignment and would have to agree -- the white folks in general seem to be having a lot less fun in their hopelessly boring bars, uptight country clubs and over-chlorinated swimming pools. Eventually they got wise. Color transparency by Margaret Bourke-White. View full size. What's on the Jukebox?I'd love to hear what they're dancing to! Who said what?I am assuming that:"Segregation in South Carolina. Separate and unequal recreation facilities." is from Bourke-White. Who is the author of the rest of the statement? Trent Lott, maybe? Hopefully it is not Shorpy. Although the statement, "I've looked at hundreds of photos..." might be read as a simple statement about the levity shown in them, it also carries the bigoted message, "The darkies so much enjoy their place!" [Oh brother. - Dave] AskanceThe woman in the upper left is looking askance at the photographer. I wonder what she's thinking Bourke-White will do with the photo. Reminds me of "Hairspray"All I can think of is the scene in Hairspray (the original one, if you please!) where the kids are dancing in Motormouth Maybelle's record shop. Cool shot! Family MattersThe guy in the skimmer looks like Steve Urkel Looks like funLooks like a fun place to hang out! Is the man on the right wearing a hearing aid? I'm afraid I'm not familiar with earbud technology from the 50's. Interesting tank top shape under his shirt, at least to modern eyes. EarphoneThe first Japanese transistor radios didn't arrive here until 1957. The fellow on the right, with the earpiece, may be listening to a Zenith AM receiver priced at about $75., a sizable sum then. Perhaps he was wearing a hearing aid, but I doubt it. It wasn't until the early 1960s that the popularly priced Asian radios first hit the market, priced under $30. The first Panasonic transistor radio, circa 1959, marketed under the brand "National" was a fairly large piece, that worked on 4 C cells. It sold for $59. The competition was a Sylvania slightly larger and much heavier. It was powered by 2 batteries an "A" and a "B" battery. If I remember correctly the batteries sold for around $40, the radio around $79. We had a lot of sales resistance because of the Japanese manufacturer. A lot of people still objected to the Japanese products even though the war had ended 15 years before. When Mitsubishi marketed their first TV's in this country, the brand was MGA, the spector of the Mitsubishi Zero fighter airplane and their heavy bombers were fresh in the memories of Americans. However, their lower pricing and acceptable quality gave them the foothold they needed and their lower production costs was the beginning of the end of American electronics production. Early iPodLove the earbud on the man in the straw hat. Since there is music playing on the jukebox, do you suppose he is listening to the ball game on his transistor radio? What song is playing?No one knows, but my guess is Little Richard's Rip It Up. I'm also guessing from the poster on the wall that the photo was taken somewhere in Greenville. I dance quite a lotI dance quite a lot, so this photo really grabs me. The kid in the middle is leading with his right hand which probably means he's got a few moves in his bag. Plus, he's just using his fingertips. Sign of a good lead. I can kinda sorta imagine how these people are moving just by their body positions, but I'd really love to know what kind of music they're dancing to. Looks like some variant of your typical rock and roll jitterbug that has a myriad of styles. Love to see what's on the jukebox list. I don't see any ads for liquor, just food. So I suppose this could have been a roadhouse, but without any drinks on the bar there, it just might been a little cafe on a weekend night with a well stocked jukebox. Someone from South Carolina might weigh in on whether they had dry counties. Hearing AidWhy couldn't it be a hearing aid? The guy looks to be of an age that could suggest he is a WW2 vet where in a number of circumstances he could have lost his hearing. The picture is a wonderful slice of life. Oooh, check out suave dudeOooh, check out the shoes of the suave dude with the boater. Those look like spats! I love that the men are hatted, indoors, and the women are not. These are definitely Hats of Coolness, not everyday headgear. [He's wearing two-tone wingtips. And yes, they are tres cool. - Dave] HUH?!?Bobby from New Orleans...What the He!! are you talking about??? I am just saying, I am a black man - I am assuming you are as well - and I don't see a bigoted statement in the description of this picture. It actually is a statement to the rigidity of the "established" recreation facilities. Basically from what I can tell whoever the author was was saying that the "darkies" had more fun. As my godfather once said: "people with hate in their hearts see hate wherever they look". I think maybe you should look at your heart, what you find there may surprise you... "Freedom to be your best means nothing unless you're willing to do your best." (Colin Powell) Booze by the DrinkI grew up in North Carolina about this time, and made frequent trips to Ocean Drive, SC (known as OD to the intiated), which is now called North Myrtle Beach. Liquor was not available by the drink in the Carolinas except at private clubs, and most of that probably wasn't legal. There were a number of "beer bars" and dance halls like The Pad in OD that sold beer to those 18 and over. Underage guys would find an empty beer can, take it back to the bar and ask for another. Worked for me! But many of the people in this shot look well under 18 and they spent good money too. So there were a lot of places, known as family places, that sold just soft drinks. We don't have to drink to have a good time. And this is an example of seeing a market and catering to it. Smart! ShagdanceThere were "shag dance" places in both NC and SC where the races danced together. This particular dance seemed to bring all together and still does. The AB pack and earbudThe A/B battery pack was only used in tube radios, where the high voltage was the plate voltage and the lower voltage was for the filament. Transistors have no filament, and operate at much lower voltages. Regency was the first transistor radio on the market. They came with a warning to "never under any circumstances use a meter with more than 1.5 V on the probes in this radio" that gave service people fits. Some Regency owners would not even let a serviceman check the battery voltage! Like the Regency, most of the original transistor portable radios used a NEDA 216 9V battery, although a few used two to four AA cells. $79 to $99 for a name brand 4 tube battery portable is about right. Most of the Burgess and Eveready 90/7.5 V packs for Zenith portables cost $10.00 or so and lasted 15 to 20 hours of intermittent use. The 90/1.5V "farm packs" were the same price, but lasted a bit longer. Western Auto had farm packs in a tin can for $10.95, and had the reputation of lasting much longer. That earbud is a puzzler. That style was fairly common with hearing aids, which were usually carried in a shirt pocket, but not at all common with any sort of radio. In fact, many radios had no earphone jack. While that may be a pack of smokes in the man's pocket, I don't think so. And it's too short and too narrow for any of the popular transistor radios of the era. I think it's an early one tube hearing aid with a 22.5/1.5V battery pack, since I have seen them in cases that size. Knotty PineThe paneling tongue-and-groove knotty pine. Definitely from the past. The fellow with the ear bud is wearing a hearing aid. There was a kid in junior high with me in the 50's that wore one. He had a special pocket inside his shirt to hold the power pack. If he carried it in his shirt pocket, he had to keep it buttoned to keep the power pack from falling out. I have to wear hearing aids now, and thankfully, they have come a long way. Southern NightsI worked with a guy who in the '50s was an Airborne soldier stationed in SC. He said all the white bars played only country music. If Jazz or R&B was desired you had to go to a colored establishment. Since he is white this would have caused unpleasantness. If he wore his uniform there was never any trouble. He is a Northerner. I don't know if this would have worked for a white Southerner. Each one teach one While in the service in the south, Florida, to be exact, I had, as a white northerner, no inhibitions about where I partied. Many bottle shops, liquor out front, juke joint in back, had separate facilities for the two races. The white side was mostly angry drunks looking for a fight, while the 'colored' facilities had the best music, dancing and good times. Eventually, some of the rednecks would cautiously slip inside for the good vibe. But stay away from the gals, their boyfriends wouldn't hesitate to let you know the score. (Eateries & Bars, LIFE, Margaret Bourke-White)
At the Mall: 1959
... May 29, 1959. "Prince George Plaza, Hyattsville, Maryland. Night view." An actual mall (a long, open plaza) when it opened in 1959, the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/24/2013 - 1:25pm -

May 29, 1959. "Prince George Plaza, Hyattsville, Maryland. Night view." An actual mall (a long, open plaza) when it opened in 1959, the shopping center was enclosed in the 1970s and renamed the Mall at Prince Georges. Large-format safety negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size. The PlazaI grew up a couple of miles away and went here often. When I was a kid in the early 1990s, the mall still featured several iconic brands, many of them local, that would soon die or be swallowed by national chains: Hot Shoppes, Woodward & Lothrop, Hecht's, Waxie Maxie's, GC Murphy, People's Drug. Dress-up TimeInteresting how all the women are in dresses. No slacks here. Demo Bomb ShelterJust to the right of where the photographer is standing was a retail space that was set up as a fishbowl atomic bomb shelter with an actual volunteer family living inside for a period. There were several apertures through the plate glass windows to view the family, and there was a primitive closed-circuit TV monitor as well. This must have been 1961 or 1962. I was still taking a thermos of powdered milk to school then to avoid the Strontium 90 in fresh milk due to the atmospheric nuclear testing. We moved into the Americana Plaza apartments just down the road, in 1960. An air raid siren in the parking lot of the shopping center went off every Saturday at noon for testing, and was also tested at random intervals. Us kids would be playing outside and the siren would go off, and we would all be looking at the sweep second hands on our Timex's, because the tests were only supposed to last 60 seconds. Open, closed, open ...And on the opposite end of the Beltway, Springfield Mall, which was built enclosed in 1973 (and which had a poor reputation safety-wise already when I was a kid in the 80s and has seemingly only gone downhill from there), is now in the process of being converted to an open-air "town center" style shopping center. Still OperatingHad family in the area and remember it looking like this. PG Plaza is still there despite going downhill for a number of years and changing demographics of the surrounding neighborhoods. What a shame it lost this much nicer mid-century modern look to its current nondescript mallishness. Hecht's was swallowed by Macy's. PG PlazaHah! I live about a mile from there now. PG Plaza has been upgraded significantly in the last few years. There is an effort to turn the older section of Hyattsville into an arts district and it's been fun to watch the changes. The section of Route One has been turned from used-car dealerships to upscale row housing. Those who remember the old Lustine Chevy dealership would be surprised to see it's now a community center; they kept the rounded-glass-front dealer building and even the Lustine signage. Pretty nifty. Great photo! Thanks, Dave!!! Hot ShoppesI lived in College Park and this mall seemed like something out of Disney to me. The mall was a very cool place with Hot Shoppes cafeteria that served a steamship round of beef, no pizza, no tacos, Oh to go shopping there and then.But I was only a half-baked Bun in May of '59. 5 years old that dayI was celebrating my 5th birthday that day, but on the opposite coast and with a chocolate cake. But I can easily imagine myself at the PG mall, staring wide-eyed at the open expanse of tile and plate glass. Mom's, Milk, and Where Power Is in a DemocracyPdxrailtransit, Interesting and useful comment about the on-display fallout shelter at this mall. I'm aware of a couple of other instances of this (there was one in Florida with a [newlywed?] couple that appeared in Life magazine in that time frame and another in a household show in Chicago IIRC), but I didn't know about this particular one. Thanks! I do research on the history of human interaction with fallout, so also found your comments about drinking stored, powdered milk fascinating. "Bad milk" that moms didn't trust helped end fallout. We remember consumer palaces like this fairly easily through pics like this, as well as in the popularity of "atomic age" fashions of various kinds that Shorpy so brilliantly illustrates for us. But pics like this also stir other, more problematic memories of that consumer paradise. Thus it's worthwhile to remember all those moms who suddenly stopped buying fresh milk. It got JFK's attention pronto -- he basically pulled the plug on open-air testing in Nevada at that point -- and demonstrated the power of the consumer to affect foreign policy in the midst of a time when fallout -- and the bombs that made it -- created a real sense of powerlessness among many. Sounds like your mom was among the many who took things into her own hands. Brentano'sOur family lived in nearby College Park between 1968 and 1974. PG Mall was like a one-stop center including the large, pre-Home Depot hardware store, Hechinger's, and Brentano's book store (my favorite spot besides the music store). FamiliarVirtually identical to the mall at Menlo Park, NJ during the same period. In season, it was a pleasant stroll from the retail "anchor" at one end (Sears, Roebuck and Company) to the other (the regional Macy's affiliate, "Bamberger's"). Visited recently; it's now a Simon property, with trademark wall-to-wall marble and anodized gold trim. Progress! New Name, Same JunkNow we build these outdoor malls, but call them "Lifestyle Centers" Similar Mall, Similar EraI'm struck by how similar this mall looks to the plaza I grew up near in Vestal, NY during the 1960's. Ours was much smaller but the architecture was almost identical to the one in this photo. MuzakI love the proprietary Muzak speakers with the diffuser in the roof. Haven't seen those in decades. I remember it wellIn the early 1960's My bff and I would take 2 buses almost every Saturday to get to PG plaza. We shopped and ate lunch at Bob's Big Boy. Once we could drive, we worked at the plaza. My first job was at Hahn's and later we both worked at the gourmet counter at Hechts for the Christmas rush. Many family went to the Hot Shoppes Cafeteria most Sundays after church. Many good memories. And we never wore slacks. We could wear pants to schools and going shopping was more dressy than school. If we rode the bus all the way into DC, we got very dressed up. Silver Spring was also a big shopping destination, with a huge Hecht store. One day beforemy first birthday. But in Hugo OK there were no malls or plaza's. Just Eastman's Department Store. I finally saw a mall when we moved to OKC in 68. We went Christmas shopping at the mall. Wow! so many people. And an Asian lady! Who would've thought? In my mind she was Japanese, but really, who knows... She was the first Asian I had ever seen. She could have been born in OK for all I know, but in my 9 y.o. mind she was exotic and strange and beautiful. I tailed her around the store for a few minutes just to look, until brother and cousins dragged me away to find the moms and see if we could spy what we might be getting for Christmas. (The Gallery, Gottscho-Schleisner, Stores & Markets)
Candy Factory Kids: 1913
... South Ervay Street. I counted five going and coming at night and at noon, that appeared to be from 12 to 15 years old. One girl told ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/03/2009 - 5:45pm -

October 1913. Dallas, Texas. "A few of the young workers in Hughes Brothers Candy Factory, South Ervay Street. I counted five going and coming at night and at noon, that appeared to be from 12 to 15 years old. One girl told me that she is 13 years old, 'but we have to tell them we're 15. I run a chocolate machine.' " Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. The Chocolate FactoryHow many of the boys here were named Charlie? "Robbed of their childhood?""Robbed of their childhood"? Spare me. Childhood today consists of a pampered, entitled existence, devoid of imagination, cluttered with electronic entertainment devices and other brain-deadening paraphernalia, their days filled with pre-planned, adult-supervised "activities" (youth sports, play dates, etc.), their parents reduced to holding their breaths for 21 years or so, hoping their kids come out the other end without being completely screwed up or over-diagnosed with some sort of "syndrome", and at least reasonably capable of actually living on their own without Mommy and Daddy sending them a check every other week. The youngsters depicted in many of these photographs grew up with notions of responsibility, self-reliance, and self-sufficiency that seem almost quaint in today's world. God bless them! Like a kid in a...If I had to pick between being a breaker boy in a coal mine, and running a "chocolate machine" - I'm pretty sure which one I'd pick. Some conditions for child labor were admittedly awful. I think its a bit of a stretch to melodramatically delare that all their childhoods were entirely robbed, though. Kids have always worked, until very recently. Why do you think farm families had 6+ kids? And farm work is consistently one of the most dangerous working environments there is. If this is really Deep Ellum, there will be a tattoo parlor just out of frame. Workin' kidsWhen I was a kid, I had a paper route, worked in fields and any other job I could find. Still had time to be a kid too. I would wonder how many hours a day the kids worked and whether they were afforded time for school work. I sure agree that today's kids are pampered too much. I try to keep my 11 year old daughter busy with daily jobs around the house, but she still has lots of time to do kid things too. Oh Wow!A kid, working in a candy factory. How lucky can you get? When I was a kid I worked in a chicken house shoveling you know what. Another timeLife was hard for our working class ancestors. Mom kept house with little money and cared for the small children. Often she took in other people's laundry and mending to make some money. Dad worked six days a week for low pay as a farm worker or factory laborer. Those families needed the income from their children's labor on the farm or in the factories to survive. Historic buildingThe Hughes Brothers building is south of downtown Dallas in the Cedars, which was a Jewish neighborhood around 100 years ago, next to Old City Park, where several historic buildings have been relocated, including the Millermore mansion. The factory is said to have produced "the first African-American soda pop." Today"Robbed of their childhood" would be letting them sit in front of a game console, television or computer. Working KidI spent my first 27 years of life working on a dairy farm. At 5, I had daily chores. At 11 years old, I was tall enough to reach the clutch on the Case tractor and was put to work in the fields operating heavy machinery. At 14 I drove the farm truck to and from the fields (what a great non emissioned 350 V8 that truck had!). I ended up just fine even though I worked most of my childhood. Work at an early age teaches responsibility and a good work ethic. How sadAll these photos showing child workers makes me think how terribly sad on how all these children were thoroughly robbed of their entire childhood. Where were all the adults? Taking a perpetual siesta? I know it was a totally different era and different culture, but still! ["Robbed of their childhood"? Oh brother. - Dave] Hasn't Changed MuchThe Hughes building is still standing in Dallas and the loading dock at the back of the building looks much the same. View Larger Map Spare Me.Right, all of us worked, and are just fine. None of us were alive in 1913. I suspect most of us are baby-boomers. So none of us can speak with much authority of how things were at the time this photo was taken. We're not talking about working for your dad on the farm, or picking up an early paper route before school. I know that gives us the warm fuzzies. We're talking about six days a week, backbreaking labor, which these children were forced by economic circumstances to undertake. Apples and oranges, people, apples and oranges. [Work in a fabric mill (and, I would imagine, the candy factory) was not exactly "backbreaking." - Dave] Not exactly "backbreaking"?I'm curious, Dave. What are you thoughts on child labor laws? It appears from your frequent comments on the matter that you feel that children should be allowed to work from the time they can walk, and not only should we be able to force them to work, but we should be able to force them to work around dangerous machinery, and, Yes, be robbed of their childhoods (oh, the horror!, says Dave). What an unbelievably deranged point of view you have. Do you actually believe that these children had a marvelous existence? If so, you're deluding yourself. Did you ever wonder why so many of these photographs of this era showed nothing but grinding poverty? It wasn't because the photographers were trying to earn their keep by finding sensational subjects. It was because it was so damn easy to find. Use your head: these kids weren't having fun working in candy factory. You can sugar coat it all you want (ha ha), but child labor was nothing but a disgrace. And child labor laws were a godsend to generations of children. I'm not expecting this comment to be published, but I sure as hell hope that you read it. One has to wonder, what do you have against kids? Kid loses his arm in a thresher? Apparently, you wouldn't have a problem with that: kids gotta work, and that's what happens. Your attitude is nothing short of sickening. [Evidently the pills aren't working. - Dave] Child labor my a--My fondest memories as a "child" are not of hanging around the neighborhood with nothing to do, bored out of my face, but of the summers spent working on a farm. Hard work? Yes. Rewarding? Very. Great pay? Back then, I was able to stretch it out the entire year until harvest started up again. Oh, and at 12 I was able to reach the clutch. Nuff SaidGranted that in many families during the era it was imperative for children to work in order for the families to survive, since no government handouts were available. Child labor laws came into being because of the long working hours and, in many places, horrid and unsafe working conditions. The long hours prevented many children from obtaining anything close to literacy and doomed them to a lifetime of poverty and manual labor. Fortunately, and as many posters have already said, the grueling labor suffered by these children resulted in them becoming resilient, responsible, and able to persevere in the face of future hardships....but at what cost. (The Gallery, Factories, Lewis Hine)
Washington Lanes: 1925
... electric lights will furnish the illumination at night. ... Washington Post, Aug 16, 1925 B.Y.P.U. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/03/2012 - 4:05pm -

Washington, D.C., circa 1925. "Convention Hall bowling alleys, Fifth and K Sts." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size. InspirationDid the architects of the Metro stations visit this place before making their designs? Pin boys look out!Man, there is no protection or space for the pin boys in this design. Lots of nice maple flooring - wish I had some of it. Pre-AMFBefore automation put about a dozen pin setters out of work. Pin boy protectionI think the pin boys would be behind the chain link fence. There's probably a sliding door to give them access to the "pit" behind the pins. After the bowler rolled the ball, he could set the pins and return the ball. This would allow each pin boy to service several alleys. Can you imaginethe noise in that place when it was busy !! Northern Liberty MarketWasn't the wax museum on this site in the 1960s? Convention Hall was built as the Northern Liberty Market in 1875. It burned in the mid-1940s. Seen here previously on Shorpy. Click to enlarge. No sliding doors for pinboysThe pinboys in old time bowling alleys had a small ledge behind the pins that they sat on, then jumped into the pit to do their work. No chain link fences. I bowled in places like this as a kid. Those are above ground ball returns and it looks like some sort of blackboard and chalk being used to keep score. Also, there are no arrows on the lane in front on the foul line to aim at. I bowled at a place in Chicago that was like that(Petersen Tournament). After we finished bowling we would tip the pinboys by throwing coins down the alley. Thanks for a great photo, Dave. Pin-Spiller Paradise Washington Post, Aug 9, 1925 Huge Alleys Will Open in Fall Convention Hall Converted Into Large Recreation Center. At a cost of Approximately $200,000, the second floor of the old Convention hall building on Fifth, and L streets northwest, is being converted into the finest bowling center in the United States, Canada, or any other bowling country. It is to be thrown open to the public on September 15, and will have 50 alleys, a grandstand that will seat more than 2,500 visitors, and will cover not less than 50,000 square feet of floor space. The work of installing the alleys is being done by experts from the Brunswick-Balke factory of Muskegon, Michigan, and is under the personal supervision of John S. Blick, former bowling champion of the District of Columbia; and president and general manager of the Convention Hall Bowling Alleys. A decided innovation in the construction of the alleys is the shower baths and rest rooms for the women bowlers; and the shower baths and smoking rooms for the men. In the balcony, overlooking the alleys, will be committee rooms for the league members in which meetings may be held. This will also contain a lounge for viewing the play on the vast array of alleys. Two thousand incandescent electric lights will furnish the illumination at night. ... Washington Post, Aug 16, 1925 B.Y.P.U. Signs For New Alleys The Baptist Young Peoples Union is the first organization to sign up for the use of the new Convention hall bowling alleys, was the announcement yesterday of President John S. Blick, following a meeting of the board of directors. This organization consists of 24 teams, twelve of men and twelve of women. Approximately 180 teams have already signed up, and many more have made applications. ... The new alleys are to open Monday September 14, and an excellent program is being arranged which is to include a band concert, exhibitions, and souvenirs for the ladies. Washington Post, Jan 1, 1926 Bowlers in Finals at Convention Hall The finals of the elimination bowling tournament in progress at the Convention Hall drives will be rolled tonight, starting at 8 o'clock. Four pin-spillers remain in the event — Al Work, Max Rosenberg, Happy Burtner and John Pappas. A semifinal of five games will be rolled by this quartet; with the low two dropping out and the two high scorers then engaging in a five-game final for first and second place. ContrastI'm struck by the stark contrast between that exterior and that amazing interior! It must have really been a shock to a first time visitor to enter that building and see nothing that suggests what that wonderful exterior shell was hiding! Marvelous. Since it was converted from the market to this sports venue, kudos also to the unknown Architect that pulled it off. Pin boy protection.I can now see that there is a walkway behind the fence. I had initially seen the floor behind the fence as being the height of the ledge. But boy going in and out of multiple lanes via sliding doors would have been slow as well as dangerous since you could not see that some idiot had not thrown another ball down the alley after you crouched. I think that little raised platform every other lane is where they stand. Each ball return serves two lanes. I have little visual experience with pin boys but all I have seen sat/stood above the lanes on a bench so they were clear unless a pin flew high. PinsettingHubby was a pin setter in the late '50s, early '60s. He said the pin setter would have been sitting on the flat platform on the side of the pin area. They stepped on a lever which raised pins and set the wooden bowling pins on them (therefore, PIN boys), the bowling pins had a hole drilled in the bottom. After setting them up, they released the pin and it dropped and the next frame could be played. Had to be very fast. He said if they were good enough, one boy could have done several of these lanes himself. Had to be fastTo set up more than two lanes and get out of the way of flying pins. The pin boys I saw in the early 50's at least had a pin placer machine that they manually filled up with the pins after each roll. They would pull the pin setter down to reset them and then would crouch in a opening between lanes untill the pins quit flying. In my memory the pin boys only worked two active lanes at a time. Big ThreeToday there are three bowling alleys in D.C. Lucky Strike in Chinatown, the Hippodrome on GWU's campus, and in the White House. AcousticsAlthough this hall would be noisy when many bowling lanes were being used, I think the height and shape of the ceiling, plus the protruding joists, would make it less noisy than more modern halls designed with low, flat ceilings. Setters beware!I remember bowling as a kid in Michigan. The place used pin setters and because I threw the ball so hard my dad used to have to pay the setters extra to work my lane. This was in the late 50's and by then they had a rack they loaded with pins. They sat on a raised platform between the lanes and flying pins were a hazard when I bowled. It wasn't till later in life I learned that ball revolution and angle of attack were better for scoring than speed. By then the bowling center had converted to automatic pin setters thus depriving the manual setters my new found knowledge. That location todayFor those who are always wondering as I what those locations look like today, see this. (The Gallery, D.C., Natl Photo, Sports)
Atlantic City Forever: 1912
... postcards. He would photograph the clouds if it took all night for them to move into the position he wanted. He would use a view camera ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/25/2011 - 11:08am -

"I could stay in Atlantic City forever." A Kodak moment circa 1912 at the New Jersey resort. 5x7 glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Atlantic CityI work in Atlantic City - It's a shame they tore down the lovely Victorian buildings. I bet those folks are sitting in front of the Marlborough-Blenhiem, the most ornate of the old hotels. Da Yellow KidIsn't that Da Yellow Kid to the left of the photographer, face partially obscured by the drape/hood/cape (whatever it is called) of the camera? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yellow_Kid No Time Like the PastIn the late 60's until the mid 70's I worked with a photographer who specialized primarily in postcards. He would photograph the clouds if it took all night for them to move into the position he wanted. He would use a view camera only like the one above. That was the best I have ever seen. No matter what is said there are no times like old times. RagtimeThis shot made me flash on a scene from the movie Ragtime. The family in the movie takes a trip to a very similar looking beach resort, and I think the date of the photo is very close to the era portrayed in the movie. Can't remember if the movie ever specifies a location. I See Coneheads ... Oh. That's someone's coat draped over a railing. Doy. Never mind! Whoa.Nice girl on that ass. Had to say it. Love The Photo!My husband and I were born and brought up in Ventnor, right next to Atlantic City on Absecon Island and we went "uptown" often. This is a wonderful piece of nostalgia, although by our day, bikinis had taken the place of the ladies' modest attire. Great picture! The AssThe ass looks none too thrilled to be there but a job's a job I guess. Conehead!Could we get a close up of the blond headed fellow in the center of the picture with apparently the Mohawk or Conehead hair. Was this in style during this time period, or is this an artifact in the picture of some kind? [How long have you been seeing Coneheads? - Dave] Sweet ShadesIt's funny, I don't think of the early 1900s as being a time of sunglasses, but the woman with the hat and skirt is clearly sporting some cool shades. Who knew? (The Gallery, Atlantic City, DPC, Sports)
Garfield: 1906
... dresser (looks like he used his coat as a pillow every night) or if the artist was just showing off his mastery of stone wrinkles. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/12/2012 - 3:09pm -

Cincinnati, Ohio, circa 1906. "Garfield statue." Our 20th president, cut down by an assassin's bullet and put up on a pedestal. 8x10 glass negative. View full size. Impostor!Everyone knows Garfield has orange fur and a tail. A Short ReportWe were all required to do a report on a president in 4th grade. Somehow I got Garfield, and I remember being a bit disappointed when I realized there wasn't a whole lot to go on. My best friend got Franklin Pierce. At least he had crazy hair. ForsoothIs this a lasagne I see before me? From the makers of the OK Brush --... the Alright Gate. Brought downI prefer the "new" pedestal. It brings him down to the viewer's level, at least a bit. The other one looked like one of those "topsy turvy" cakes we see these days. It made him look like he was doing a pirouette. What a dragWhen my pants cuffs drag the ground like that, I usually get them shortened by an inch or so. Still StandingCharles Niehaus' 1887 statue of President James Garfield still graces Cincinnati, but it's been moved to a much less majestic pedestal in Piatt Park. Sadly, Garfield's name has since been besmirched by a cartoon cat! SorryCouldn't help myself. Auto repair shop on the rightGiven the year was 1906, I can't imagine they have been in business long. Took this in ClevelandThings have changed slightly in Garfield Place Nice rack!Just spotted these off to the side. Nice rack!Just spotted these off to the side. Perchance the automobile repair shop pried an elk from a grille? RumpledI wonder if our 20th president was really such a messy dresser (looks like he used his coat as a pillow every night) or if the artist was just showing off his mastery of stone wrinkles. [Or bronze wrinkles. -Dave] Hazy DayThe air is so thick it's a wonder they can breathe! Really brings home the effects of all the incinerators and smokestacks. Ah, the industrial age. Notice the hazy skyNotice the hazy sky permeating the town going up the road. Perhaps excessive methane gas pollution from horse droppings? [The "haze" is coal soot. - Dave] RemovalThe statue wasn't moved too far as it was in the middle of Eighth and Race Streets and in this photograph is facing Piatt Park/Garfield Place. It now faces its former location situated at the head of the park. GarfieldsThere is a James A. Garfield connection to the comic strip. Jim Davis patterned the cat's personality after his grandfather, James A. Garfield Davis, and chose his middle name for the character. It's probably a good connection, 'cause Garfield was one of the most brilliant and righteous presidents we've had -- albeit for a short period of time. Anything that gets folks to dig into the string of forgotten, bearded presidents in the Gilded Age is all right by me. Sorry just isn't enoughHe should be pirouetting with a plate of lasagna! WrinklesIf you look at photos of our pre-dry cleaning and pre-air conditioning presidents, you'll see they're often creased. They weren't as vain and coiffed as our politicians today. They'd go town to town to town and give speeches, traveling long distances by train. And there were no synthetic fibers. Hard to imagine just how different it was 130 years ago, but it was. (The Gallery, Cincinnati Photos, DPC)
Old Patent Office: 1865
... keep models anymore (unless they stole them from me last night) because I never gave them a single one (nor did they ask for any). I ... The Old Schnozzola This picture makes me think, "Good night, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are." Now Part of the Smithsonian The ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/17/2012 - 10:19pm -

Washington, D.C. "Old Patent Office model room (1861-65)." Wet-plate glass negative from the Brady-Handy Collection, Library of Congress. View full size. Let me be the first to sayWow, lookit all the spittoons! Where are they nowThe Arts and Industries building next to the Smithsonian Castle used to have cabinets just like these full of interesting but unexplained objects. Wonder if that is where this collection ended up. Anyone know? PlaypenIs it still the practice to retain a model of each patent granted? What a fun place that would be to visit. Outstanding ShotThe view is fantastic. I hope we will get some pics of the items in the display cabinets. Where are those things now? Sorry, Mr. DickensWhen I read Charles Dickens's account of traveling across America, with a complaint about Americans' constant tobacco-spitting on every page, I assumed he was exaggerating for effect. However, so many 19th-century pictures of spittoon-filled rooms I've seen on Shorpy prompt me to offer the great man an apology. I wonder what all the stools are for. Did they have guards sitting there, or would people come and sit to study the models? Modern timesAs a holder of numerous patents, I can tell you that the Patent Office doesn't keep models anymore (unless they stole them from me last night) because I never gave them a single one (nor did they ask for any). I think the patent total is up in the 7+ million range now; that would make for quite an exhibit hall. Patent Model MuseumThis tickled a memory of visiting a patent model museum in some small town. A search narrowed it down to one in Ft. Smith Arkansas where I briefly lived and the synapses reconnected. It features models from the early 1800s. I wonder if the museum's roots are in the model patent diaspora Stanton cites? Patent Model LegacyThe story of the ultimate fate of the patent models is a sad tale of mismanagement and unrecognized value. One telling is available at American Heritage. More recent articles: Christian Science Monitor and Forbes. Update: Some patent models are now being sold online. Go buy yours here. On another note, this hall, one of the largest rooms in Washington at its time, was used for Lincoln's second inaugural ball. Thank you againStanton_Square. You always seem to come up with an answer. Civil War HospitalA couple of years earlier, these halls were filled with wounded soldiers. Walt Whitman, who visited them, remembered "the glass cases, the beds, the forms lying there, the gallery above, and the marble paving under foot - the suffering, and the fortitude to bear it." The use of the building as a hospital ended in March 1863, and the inaugural ball took place there in March 1865. The Old SchnozzolaThis picture makes me think, "Good night, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are." Now Part of the SmithsonianThe old Patent Office has been home to the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum since 1968. Recently renovated, it's very nice inside. http://www.npg.si.edu/inform/chron.htm Model RoomI'm guessing this is the west gallery, because it's relatively short in length. The Patent Office had four model galleries that formed a square on the top floor. Only the east gallery, the one used for the Lincoln inaugural (and I'm pretty sure not the one in this photo), still remains in its original form. The north and west galleries burned in 1877, destroying a number of patent models. Adolph Cluss, a prominent Washington architect, designed replacements for the two galleries and also thoroughly redesigned and replaced the south gallery in the 1880s. If you visit the museum today you will see Cluss's Victorian exuberance on proud display throughout the three redesigned galleries. The original Robert Mills-designed Lincoln Gallery is much more restrained. [This is short? It looks to be 200 or 300 feet to the window from the camera. - Dave] (The Gallery, Civil War, D.C.)
Trick or Treat: 1940
... a Halloween block party. It was yesterday (Sunday) night. A friend of mine used to go every year and video the event. Here is ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/31/2022 - 12:21pm -

        Heeeere's Jack -- Happy Halloween from Shorpy! October 1940. "Grocery store in Fargo, North Dakota." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon (with color by Shorpy) for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Excellent jobGreat PhotoShop work. OutstandingNice picture without color. Much better with the way you did it. Thanks Dave. SISIAcross the street, the Isis Theatre -- destroyed by fire Nov. 19, 1955. Fargo's Most Popular TheatreI came to the same conclusion as about Fargo's Most Popular Theatre at 218 Broadway. Better late than never.As the title suggests, though it's nearly two weeks removed from Halloween now, I just wanted to throw my $0.02 in to send some appreciation your way not only for this website being such a necessary distraction (at least for me) this year, but for choosing such a great picture, with added exceptional Photoshop, to mark the day. You can almost see the flickering flames inside Mr. Jack O'Lantern's head. Happy Halloween, ya'llGreat photoshop, Dave. Every year in Dallas there's a Halloween block party. It was yesterday (Sunday) night. A friend of mine used to go every year and video the event. Here is his 2014 video. Check out the costume at 12 minutes, 18 seconds -- simple, but effective. My friend doesn't go anymore; the block party has become a victim of its own success. It is so crowded now he can't move around and get enough room to video. For those interested in seeing me -- do a search for Jellyroll under his name. I'm the guy wearing the mask in the park and dentist chair. (The Gallery, Halloween, John Vachon, Stores & Markets)
Bondi Beach: 1969
... The headlights didn't work, so it couldn't be driven at night, but it was fine for getting to and from Bondi, as we'd load it up with ... 
 
Posted by davisayer - 09/21/2011 - 12:18am -

Sydney, Australia 1969. 35mm Kodachrome Transparency taken by Unknown American Soldier on shore leave from Vietnam. Scanned and Restored by Davis Pascal Ayer. View full size. Bondi BeachSo I typed "Bondi Beach" into Wikipedia's search box and the first photo to show up is this: BondiThis is one of Australia's most famous beaches - at the suburb of Bondi in Sydney. Except for the costumes, or more correctly, the lack of them, this could have been taken recently. Pinke Zinke is still a favourite sunblock. I could be in this picture!My family was stationed in Australia from 1968 to 1970. We often visited Sydney and made several stops at Bondi. Once we were at a bar/restaurant in Sydney full of American servicemen on leave from Vietnam. They talked to my older brother and me (8 years old) because they were so homesick. Those buildings in the background ...Man, the architecture on those buildings makes it look like the island was a penal colony or something. So cold and spartan looking. Oh, wait ... Shore leaveWow, having to leave this and go back to Vietnam must have been awful. I hope he was able to enjoy himself... NeatoLove this stuff. The Kodachrome has a great 1960s film feel to it - totally different quality than the one from Wikipedia that someone linked. It's striking, though, how similar they are. Good old Bondi!I went to boarding college only 10 minutes' drive from Bondi Beach. In my final years (1963 & 1964) I and some mates would drive down to the beach in an old 1939 Pontiac that we'd all chipped in to buy. The headlights didn't work, so it couldn't be driven at night, but it was fine for getting to and from Bondi, as we'd load it up with 10 bodies and they all had to hit the kitty for petrol! Bondi was THE place to latch on to a "bird" (during daylight hours) and, as a respite from studying for final exams, was a brilliant safety valve for we 17 & 18 year-olds. I have many fond memories associated with Bondi and in '63/'64 it looked EXACTLY like this photo. Wonderful! UnrealMaybe it's because this picture was restored, but it looks manipulated - especially because of the white halos around nearly everything in front of the shoreline -makes it all look pasted on. Go OlderI live just four streets back from Bondi and at least from that angle it still looks the same. It is what is off camera to the the left where it begins to change. It is curious I rcently came across another picture of Bondi over at the Powerhouse Museum flickr page that is a little older : Over SharpeningReferring to the comment below, the effect you are referring to is over-sharpening. A little less sharpening would have been preferable. Photoshop TipsFor anyone using Photoshop to sharpen, I have a little tip: Instead of using a sharpening filter (usually the ironically named "unsharp mask"), make a duplicate layer, then go to Filter > Other > High Pass, and pick a radius of between 2 and 5 pixels (mustn't overdo, or you'll see the halo effect). Then go to the Layers palette, and in the dropdown where it says Normal, scroll down to "Soft Light." You can then adjust opacity if needed. Flatten layers. This will sharpen only the hard edges, and leave the softer edges alone. [I'm not sure the sharpening filters have anything to do with those white halos. They look more like the result of using a selection tool with feathering set to some non-zero value. Overall, I think it's a great picture. - Dave] (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Swimming)
Radio School: 1920
... or calculating how many papers are needed for that night's run based on subscription and street sales demand. Learn Wireless ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/04/2012 - 9:37pm -

Washington, D.C., 1920. "National Radio School, Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size. Republic of Chop SueyCan anyone make out the flag flying under Old Glory on top of the Chinese & American restaurant? Doubling upTwo Chinese restaurants in one block! One of them a walkup. And either two cigar stores, or one cigar store and a distributor. Plus ca changeSo back then people paid to take "radio" classes like today they pay to take "computer" classes? You Street?I know that I Street in Washington is sometimes called "Eye Street," is "You Street" for U Street another common usage? Never heard of it before. Some nice details...- The guy cleaning windows on the 7th floor of the building on the far left. In all the Shorpy cityscapes I've looked at this is the first window cleaner. - Two guys in hats peeping over the roof parapet of the Radio School. - A man working in the Washington Post who is enjoying an open window. Looks like an editor from one of the 1930s newspaper films. The window he is sitting at has some nice architectural details and an unusual angled design. - The Washington Post appears to share premises with the Cincinnati Enquirer. - Nice devilish gargoyle and tessellations at the top of the Post building. Does it still exist? - The parked car on the far left seems to have the letters CHEW on the trunk. I wonder what that meant. ["Don't Stay Behind -- CHEW Peper (something) Leaf." Tobacco salesman's car at the cigar store. - Dave] Thanks, Shorpy for 15 minutes of interesting observation of another world. Look, up there!Who are the two men in hats on the roof of the Radio School building and what are they doing? The guys on the roofPretty sure these hats belong to Stan and Oliver. All goneThis row--even though some establishments sport Pennsylvania Avenue addresses--is actually on E Street, just east of 14th. The large building on the far left is the Willard Hotel. All the buildings here have been replaced a couple of times--currently the J.W. Marriott Hotel dominates this end of the block. Shorpy previously brought us a scene of a large crowd gathered to watch results from the big game at this same location in 1912. [Before Pershing Park was built out in the 1930s, this block (lower right in the Baist map) was fronted by Pennsylvania Avenue. E Street is just to the right. - Dave] View Larger Map Re: Look, up there!Why, it's Barney and Gomer making sure the streets are safe from organized crime! City of Chinese RestaurantsOne little known fact about 1920s Washington is that every other building back then housed a Chinese restaurant. Radio RepairI think a lot of the classes focused on how a radio worked and how to repair them. In one of the antique radio repair books I read, the author recalled his father's studies in one of these schools. He later went on to become a radio operator on board a ship for a while. If I remember right, the book was Fixing Up Nice Old Radios. [I think the focus was basically "getting into radio" from a technical and procedural standpoint, as Plus ca Change noted below. It was like the Web 15 years ago -- an emerging medium that was the Next Big Thing, and people wanted a foot in the door. This was just before the emergence of commercial radio as a mass entertainment medium, back when audio broadcasts were something geeky baseball fans listened to on headphone crystal sets, and the airwaves were thought of more in terms of wireless telegraphy and telephony, as a means of point-to-point communication, with an emphasis on maritime and military uses. - Dave] Horse Apples!Need I say more? National Radio Institute?I believe the National Radio School eventually become the National Radio Institute, who trained thousands of radio and television repairmen by correspondence until the 1990's. Washington Post ManNewspapers have more than just writers and editors. Plus, note that the window says "The Washington Post Business Office." Hence the man you can see in the window may be working in the circulation or advertising department, typing out bills, correcting invoices, or calculating how many papers are needed for that night's run based on subscription and street sales demand. Learn WirelessCanton Pagoda, 1343 E St. D. Loughran, 1347 Pa. Ave. Oriental Restaurant. 1347 Pa. Ave. Kronheim went into the liquor businessThe Milton S. Kronheim Company was a wine and spirits distributor in D.C. until going out of business in the late 1990s. Perhaps the clothing business is what they did during Prohibition, or else once Repeal came in 1933, they decided to go into the alcohol beverage business. +90Below is the identical view taken in April of 2010. One can still get Chinese food by walking through the doors facing Pennsylvania Avenue, but it's a bit longer walk - the food court in the Metro Shops complex on F Street (the next street north) is accessible through this frontage. (Technology, The Gallery, D.C., Natl Photo)
« first‹ prev…19 [20]21…next ›last »
Syndicate content  Shorpy.com is a vintage photography site featuring thousands of high-definition images. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago. Contact us | Privacy policy | Accessibility Statement | Site © 2024 Shorpy Inc.