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Shorpy Higginbotham: 1910
... my first job was at the five and dime at age 14 on Fri night and all day Sat for a grand total of $4.50. Thank you again for the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/14/2022 - 3:03pm -

December 1910. "Shorpy Higginbotham, a 'greaser' on the tipple at Bessie Mine, of the Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Co. in Alabama. Said he was 14 years old, but it is doubtful. Carries two heavy pails of grease, and is often in danger of being run over by the coal cars." Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Shorpy storyThe story about this boy makes me so sad. The photo is so strong. Esthetically - wonderful - artistic movie like. Thanks for sharing it with all of us. Tamara Razov. His armsThose are the roughest part--it appears that they're rather permanently in that position. Notice His Hands...You can tell Shorpy worked very hard. His hands look like the hands of a 40 year old man, not a 14 year old boy. His arms do appear to be permanently bowed out and his shoulders are sloped from carrying the heavy buckets. How we could ever have gotten to this point in our society is beyond me. Thank goodness for the progressive people back then who put a stop to such practices and gave kids like Shorpy their childhoods. omg. after seeing theseomg. after seeing these pictures, its so hard to believe how far we have gone and what todays world is like compared to back then. The question is, what would they think if they saw what the world was like today and how people are living?! (perfect example, we now have cars that drive for us!!!) Shorpy and child laborThe pictures were taken only 30 years before I was born. When I was 14 I needed a State of California Work Permit in order to get a summer job (picking cotton). We could quit school at 16. I didn't do that but many did. Thank God for the reformers in the early 20th century! "The golf links lie so near the mill that almost every day, the working children can look out and watch the men at play." Don Lest we forgetIt is easy to forget from the perspective of our comfortable North American lifestyles that in many places in the world, child labor still runs rampant, not because families want their children to work endless hours in deplorable conditions, but because their very existence depends on the meager income the children earn. Let's not become too complacent and self-satisfied that we've "progressed" beyond the conditions of the early 20th century until we've globally eradicated those same conditions that continue to exist today. picture from a greaser kid... ... cause of his size he was able to easily go inside all the mechanics stuff.. they see it as a game... some great technologics developments were the outcome of that work-players boys... thats the good one... the bad one is that some of them never play again... So great wonder!Really I'm so scare about you beautiful eye-moment, serious, I think in a lot of stuff's, that amazing like a time capsule... Don't have the exactly words for tell you my reasons... make my day theses snaps. I hope back soon. Carlos "Cx" Shorpy's contemporariesA ten-year-old working in the mines was not unusual. My grandfather was born in 1896 and started in the mines at age ten. He worked for Tennessee Coal and Iron in Jefferson County, Alabama. After his back was broke in a mine accident and suffering from years of black-lung he lived to 84. This was before welfareAmerica is still the greatest place in the world to give. I have traveled to a lot of countries. Yes, they have their pluses, but even the poorest americans live better than 99% of the worlds population. Shorpy HigginbothamI wonder if anyone knows where Shorpy Higginbotham's grandfather, Robert Higginbotham, is buried. Robert Higginbotham is my Great Great Grandfather. Kenny Brown twotreesklb@aol.com Shorpy, descendant of Revolutionary War SoldierShorpy was my father's (Roy Higginbotham's) uncle, a younger brother of my grandfather, John W. Dolphus Higginbotham. Their ancestor Robert Higginbotham was a Revolutionary War soldier who fought in the Battle of King's Mountain. He died in Huntsville, Alabama, where he farmed for many years. He is buried on his farm and the Huntsville D.A.R. had a ceremony a few years ago at his grave site. There is another Robert B. Higginbotham (also a descendant of Robt. Sr.), buried in Remlap, Alabama, I think, but I don't recall him having an intact headstone. [P.H., thanks for the information. You have a fascinating family history. - Ken] ShorpyI found him, he is one of my cousins. Henry Sharp Higginbotham b 23 Nov 1896 d. 25 jan 1928, son of Felix Milton Higginbotham and Mary Jane Graham. We descend from the Amherst Co. Virginia Higginbothams. my line was Benjamin Higginbotham who m. Elizabeth Graves and d. 1791 in Elbert Co. GA. Then his son Francis Higgginbotham m. Dolly Gatewood. When they were in old age they moved with with their sons to the new Louisiana Territory, E. Feliciana Parish. My gggfather was Caleb Higginbotham and gggmother was Minerva Ann Bryant of the Manakintown, VA hugenot BRIANT. All the Higginbothams and Bryant sons fought in the Rev. War. My gggg William Guerant Bryant and his brother John, his father, James and Uncle Isaac and Isaac's son James and His Uncle Thomas were all in the battle of Guilford Court House NC 25 Mar 1781. Thomas was killed and Isaac wounded in the head. Bessie Mine?One of the first posters said that Bessie Mine may still be operational. Is that true? When I look it up online, nothing much comes up. I'd love to see some more pictures of the mine, though, and learn a little more about it! Bessie MineBessie Mine appears to be closed. Information available online shows that the current owner, US Pipe, has filed an application to use the area as a landfill. My grandfather worked at Bessie and other mines in west Jefferson County. He would have been about Shorpy's age but didn't start to work there until he was 18 or so. After a couple of years working in the pits, he was able to get a position tending the generators and never had to work underground again. Then and NowI don't want to go back to the "good old days." But everybody should "work" at least a few days (e.g. move a lot of force through a lot of distance all day while either sweating or freezing, dirty, dog-tired, with something aching). Maybe a kid who did some of this stuff will better appreciate the real things in life rather than Britney, American Idol, text messaging, and Fifty-Cent rap. I'm glad i did - but not too much! In my younger days, I harvested tobacco, hauled hay, milked cows, moved gravel from a creek bed to the barnyard in a mule wagon, picked potatoes behind a mule plow, budded peach seedlings and harvested nursery stock on cold rainy January days. These are cherished memories working with my kinfolk on their farms. I'm glad I did it! I've rolled cement up a hill in a wheelbarrow and finished it, framed and built buildings, plumbed and wired, and swapped greasy motors in cars. It all pays off as I can save money as a do-it-yourselfer. And it paid off as an incentive to study and go to college so I didn't have to do it for a living! Looking at these pictures, I don't feel sorry for the people in them as I don't think they knew how "bad off" they were. So they were not! However, I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for our hard-working ancestors, my aunts and uncles, and cousins. Roy HigginbothamWas your father the Roy Higginbotham who was principal of Minor Elementary School in the 60's and 70's? martyshoemaker@hotmail.com Bessie Mine Locationhttp://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=33.657286~-87.03305... Clyde Donald HiggI am also related to the Higg from Va, and also the ones from Ireland. I just loved this about Shorpy Higg. I am still trying to locate more information on the Higg from Ind. where my father was from, his father was Luther, and his father was George. My father's name was Clyde Donald Higg. cindykpiper@aol.com [So you mean Higg, or Higginbotham? - Dave] Feel sorry for us!>> Looking at these pictures, I don't feel sorry for the people in them as I don't think they knew how "bad off" they were. I don't feel sorry for them either. I feel sorry for us, the younger generations. We have no idea what real, consistent hard work is. With the way things are going I desperately want to know someone who has lived the hard life, maybe lived through the Depression but no one is around to glean from. I just turned 33 years old but I see the wisdom in searching out the generation. I have even written my husbands Grandmother for advice but she is too busy to share her knowledge. I don't wish evil for our great country but it might do us some good to have to experience hardship to get our act together. For me, I grew up without hot water, sometimes the electric was shut off, rarely a car and I can tell many a story about cleaning clothes in a wringer washer in the middle of Missouri's wicked winter temps - outside at that. But I still know I have so much more to learn. Roy Higginbotham>> Was your father the Roy Higginbotham who was principal of Minor Elementary School in the 60's and 70's? That particular Roy Higginbotham was not my father, although I had heard about him from my cousins who still lived in the area. No doubt he is related in some way. My father (Roy) was also a coal miner in his younger days like his father and uncles. He died in 1961 at the age of 46. I remember my grandfather John talking about his brother "Sharpe" and how someone "took his picture" when he was a young boy working in the mines. Sorry it took so long for me to reply. Bessie MineI live a few blocks from the mine. It was just off Rt 150 in Bessemer. The mine complex was left intact and abandoned since the 1950's until the buildings were cleared in 2009. I did photograph it before it was destroyed. Happy Birthday Shorpy!Thank you for diligently updating and uploading. I know it takes a lot of time to run a website like this, and I for one am grateful for your efforts, Dave. Thank you! Shorpy Higginbotham: 1910This is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. For those who have not seen it, here is my story of Henry Sharp Higginbotham. http://morningsonmaplestreet.com/2014/11/26/henry-s-higginbotham-page-on... Happy Birthday, Shorpy.com!I've been visiting since day one, so what else can I say? I love this site! Keep up the great work! Daily DoseHappy Birthday Shorpy! You are a part of my daily ritual since you began and I look forward to checking this site as often as time permits. I've learned a great deal since you began these wonderful posts. Thanks gang, and many more! My 2 cents worthI'm just a pup here, having only been on board for a year and a half. Thank you Dave, Ken, tterrace and all who do such a great job on this site. To all the Shorpyites who add so much extra via comments, links and other added information, you all get a big "Attaboy". Thanks to one and all. Happy birthday! Thanks for a Great Five YearsYour very skilled and hard work, along with your thoughtful selection of the right moments from the past is greatly appreciated, Thank You! George Widman A treat each and every dayA great website that really is quite a treat each day,and I never can wait until another post,and the comments are always entertaining. Thank you for 5 years of hard work. I know I used to blog and I know it's something you dedicate yourself to. The best photo blogI'm so glad you've kept it going. Yours is the best one out there. I enjoy how your selection of photographs cover the gamut. They may be from a particular era but not from a particular style or emotion. RemindersThanks to you all for these incredible photos--wonderful work! Some remind me of my own childhood in the south and I have photos, too. My grandmother worked in a textile mill when she was 12, around 1912, never had much schooling, and married at 16. She told me stories of the Depression, when she had 6 children to raise by herself. A wonderful person who was a huge presence in my life, esp when my mother died in 1948, poor and in ill health. In 1955, my first job was at the five and dime at age 14 on Fri night and all day Sat for a grand total of $4.50. Thank you again for the reminders of how it used to be, although I wouldn't want to repeat history. Thanks!Thank you Shorpy and thank you shorpy.com Fast Math"photographed by Lewis Hine 117 years ago" 107 plus 10 years of blogging, er, fast-forwarding gets you 117. Still the best site on the web. Shorpy is my Great UncleHi my name is Timothy Williams, great grandson of Joseph James Williams, who was husband of Susie Higginbotham-Williams, sister of Henry Sharp "Shorpy" Higginbotham. Oddly as it may sound; although, probably not shocking, I think my family might have married into the Higginbotham's more than once. My father was a Williams and my mother was a Higginbotham too. Anyways, It is my honor to share this with you all and I am happy to have found this website and I am so happy to look upon these pictures of one of my family members. I am proud to know he is my kin. While I am not a historian, I have majored in enough history classes, that I could probably teach it at some level. My family ancestry dates back to England and Scotland. I have a Robert B Higginbotham in my family that the Daughters of Revolution, found a grave marker years ago. He was a Revolutionary War hero. I don't know how they would be related, even if they are. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/28768283/robert-higginbotham (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, Mining)
The 'Super Market': 1940
... she's got her nerve charging $36 for that. Nope! A Night to Remember by Walter Lord was on the paperback carousel at the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/02/2022 - 11:01am -

May 1940. "The 'super market' in Durham, North Carolina." Back when self-service groceries were enough of a novelty that photographers put the name for them in quote marks. 35mm nitrate negative by Jack Delano for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Shopping for nostalgiaAleHouseMug - A coffee roaster in Burbank has bought the rights to Bokar Coffee and has attempted to recreate the taste. JennyPennifer There are multiple recipes for Spanish Bar Cake, if you bake. Or you can order one directly from the Jane Parker Bakery. They supplied the cakes to A&P originally, and claim to be using the original recipe now. The only downside is that they cost much more than what you paid at A&P. Y'all are on your own for those home killed fryers. That's the Post Office in the background. The current location of the old A&P is now a parking deck. I sometimes park hereAs J. W. Wright pointed out, the A&P at the corner of Rigsbee & E Chapel Hill is now a parking deck. The Post Office across the street is unchanged, and seems to be in good shape. There were about a dozen A&P stores in Durham in 1940, but most were the old-fashioned small stores, not the new-fangled super markets. Long gone nowA&P Supermarkets dominated Durham all the way into the 70's. Here is a little history of this one on Rigsbee: https://www.opendurham.org/buildings/rigsbee-avenue-super-market Tasty TimesBecause who doesn't remember fondly when advertising Fryers as being "Home Killed" wasn't seen as a major selling point? Your meter is runningEven the cabbie couldn't pass up the home killed chickens! Love the brush lettering. Reminds me of my old Speedball text book. We used to go shopping with dad at the A&P when we lived in Cockeysville, MD in the early 60's. I can still smell the coffee when you passed the grinder! They had an A&P in Mathews, VA when my folks moved there in the mid-70's. Three BlendsHow I miss Bokar Coffee. Back when ...... you could park your bicycle on a sidewalk without a lock. I love this photoAnd it looks for all the world like the building and market that was used in the movie "Driving Miss Daisy." I remember when most "supermarkets" looked like this - I was born in 1945 and I remember as early as 1948 going with my mother to the local Kroger store that was in a building smaller than this one. Great photo. More, more. I remember it wellThe A&P will forever be to me one item: Spanish Bar Cake. Every now and then Mama would buy one -- dark, spicy, applesaucy cake studded with raisins and nuts and coated with a generous layer of cream cheese icing featuring a fork-tine design that resembled corduroy. We couldn't wait for a thick hunk of that cake to land in our hands. To smell it was almost as good as to taste it. Much obliged... to archfan for the info. I am aware of the many recipes for "original" Spanish Bar Cake and have a few stored in my recipe file. A friend made one for me some years ago and the result was, shall we say, close but no cigar. Since we know that certain childhood memories are far more likely to be emotional than factual, it's possible that nothing not bought at the A&P, rung up with one of those gloriously chunk-kachunky cash registers and coming from my mother's hand will do it for me. But I do plan to make the recipe that I think would most approximate what I remember, and if it truly does the job, I will report back. As for Jane Parker, all I can say is that she's got her nerve charging $36 for that. Nope! A Night to Rememberby Walter Lord was on the paperback carousel at the A&P on 11th Street in Waco, Texas, in 1955 -- my first exposure to the Titanic tragedy. I mentioned it to my mother and she told me she was 10 when it sank. She added it to her tab before checking out, and I was hooked on Titanic from that point on. 8 O'ClockMy memory goes back to when I was about 3, and my parents would take my maternal grandmother (she didn't drive) to the A&P in tiny New Freedom, Pa. I would gravitate quickly to the 8 O'Clock grinder area just to smell the coffee being ground. Here I am now, at 74, typing out this memory, and I'm sipping a mug of 8 O'Clock Original. Just think of me as "hooked for life." Not so fast, Broadway!Gimme a minute to write down that phone number. Coffee"How I miss Bokar Coffee" There was also a stronger brew -- Rokah. Check my math. [Your math does not add up! - Dave] Super A&P MarketThe big sign on the roof looks like steel-embossed and porcelain enameled panels. They last forever. An unmolested version is a very sought after commodity today. Broadway Taxi Broadway Taxi changed its name to Broadway Yellow Cab in the 1970s, and was still operating in the mid 1980s -- its depot was on Hunt Street. (The Gallery, Jack Delano, Stores & Markets)
Jet Set Coffee Shop: 1962
... drinking hot chocolate and reading comic books. Date Night In the 1950s, and I guess the 1960s, if you were cash strapped and and ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/08/2013 - 9:35am -

August 29, 1962. "TWA terminal, Idlewild, New York. Union News restaurants. Coffee shop II. Raymond Loewy, client." Flight monitors by General Precision Laboratory Inc. Large-format negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size. Uncomfy chairsI sure hope most patrons didn't have a long layover. Though sleek and stylish, those chairs, particularly the ones at the bar, do not look comfortable for sitting in for long periods. Airport LoungeWhere the wild would idle between flights. Advanced technologyThose video flight monitors, while considered rather ho-hum these days, were ahead of their time. The display of upper/lowercase text with variable kerning is something I am surprised to see from 1962. General Precision, Librascope and Royal McBee merged in some confusing way to produce desk (as opposed to desktop) computers in that era. Their LGP-30 and the later LGP-21 were capable and affordable, if rather slow and difficult to use. Submitted for your approvalI'm almost waiting for Rod Serling to step into the image. Looks like a stage set for a late '50s episode of a Twilight Zone set in the far, far future ... say 2013. Killing time in Swinging 60s styleI love the House of Loewy designs! I can picture the Brat Pack hanging out her while Dean Martin picks up stewardesses and jazz-pop music fills the air! Outside a Studebaker Avanti waits on the tarmac near an airplane gangway. Precision (or lack) showsGiven the sharp and precise architecture of this lounge, the somewhat careless table settings are, as it were, out of place. Restaurateurs take note. Space Age themewas all the rage in design back then, love it! I would like to enjoy a nice chat with a friend over a meal at the counter. Coffee and pie for dessert please! Ugghhh!Look at all the ashtrays! Sign of the TimesIt's kind of funny in retrospect, how back then we thought the future would look like an episode of the Jetsons. Previous poster is right, this modern furniture was pretty uncomfortable and non-functional, but it sure looked "cool". Advanced tech?re: nixiebunny's comment below, those monitors look to me like they're merely showing feeds from TV cameras aimed at ordinary arrival/departure boards. [Note the whitish rectangles -- CRT burn-in. - Dave] I Miss These Places Man, I miss coffee shops and diners. I'm not exactly sure what the difference was between a coffee shop and a diner but they were different and you always knew which type you were sitting in. My mom worked in a "Pewter Pot" coffee shop wen I was a kid. The waitresses wore an old timey milk maid uniform that you would probably get sued for forcing on employees these days. I spent many an hour there drinking hot chocolate and reading comic books. Date NightIn the 1950s, and I guess the 1960s, if you were cash strapped and and were looking to entertain your current crush, Idlewild or Laguardia Airports were the venues of choice. Those coffee shops became a haven of sorts. There always were a feeling of excitement just being at an Airport. A spot like this designed by Raymond Loewy (although we wouldn't have known it) was always impressive, the downside, they didn't have dancing. Rebuilding Picture TubesI knew a picture tube (CRT) rebuilder located near Chicago's O'Hare Airport. He landed a contract with O'Hare for the rebuilding of the 27" tubes used in that Airport's flight monitors. Only the tube's glass envelope was reused, everything else was new. The contract sustained his business. CuriousI wonder why they say "Raymond Loewy, client" when Loewy designed the space. Noticed they had the same format with that recent Dodge showroom picture. Could it be that his office requested the photo? Only logical conclusion. [Gottscho was a professional commercial photographer specializing in architectural subjects; architects and design firms such as Loewy's were among the clients who hired him to photograph their work. - tterrace] Thanks, tterrace. Appreciated. TWA TerminalAs a kid in the 60s I recall hanging out a few times with my family either to see someone depart or arrive. I used to love running down the ramp holding on to the railing to gather enough static electricity, and then to give passberbys a big shock by touching them. Eventually my mom got wind of what I was doing and banished me from the ramp. Fun times. Text on flight monitorsI noticed one difference in the airport flight monitors from today's versions: On today's monitors, you get the scheduled departure time, and a message that either says ON TIME, DELAYED, or CANCELLED. These monitors show the flight number and the estimated departure time, but what is in the 3rd column? Does it say "Actual Depart"? I'm also curious about the purpose and title of the 4th column, and am wondering if the original had any more detail in it. ["Scheduled to depart," "Will depart" and "Gate." - tterrace] Thanks for the update. I knew someone would have the answers I was seeking. (The Gallery, Aviation, Gottscho-Schleisner, NYC)
Washington: 1918
... Concerts Banks Will Remain Open Tonight and Tomorrow Night Until 9 O'Clock to Encourage Early Pledges - Part Payments of $5 and $10 ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/28/2012 - 3:53pm -

September 30, 1918. "Fourth Liberty Loan." Crowds gathered for a war-bond rally on Pennsylvania Avenue with the Capitol in the distance. View full size. A smoggy dayThose old cars certainly did belch. Looks like LA! Car-cophanyCough! Nothing in the photo remains today Except the Capitol building: people, cars, buildings are all gone. [Not so. The Willard Hotel is still very much there. - Dave] Cough CoughRally for the American Lung Association to follow immediately. My ChoiceI don't know what kind of vehicle it is but I'll take the sporty model in the center with the fine wire wheels and dual porthole rear windows. Anybody know what make that one is? Waiting for Sousa? Washington Post, Sep 30, 1918 SOUSA TO HELP LOAN Band of 300 Pieces Here Today for Parade and Concerts Banks Will Remain Open Tonight and Tomorrow Night Until 9 O'Clock to Encourage Early Pledges - Part Payments of $5 and $10 Monthly on $50 and $100 Bonds Will Be Taken by Banks Led by John Phillip Sousa, the famous Great Lakes Naval Band, which includes more than 300 pieces, will give a series of concerts today to help subscriptions to the fourth liberty loan. The band is bigger and better this year than ever, and will be turned over to the liberty loan committee of the District for the entire day and evening. The band will head a big parade through the streets this afternoon, will give two concerts during the day, and will provide a musical climax for the evening at a mass meeting to be held at 7:30 o'clock in Liberty Hut. ... The Sousa Band will arrive early this morning on a special train, which is used throughout the country on behalf of the fourth liberty loan ... The band will proceed along B street west to Pennsylvania avenue, west along Pennsylvania avenue to Fourteenth street to H, west on H to Nineteenth street and Pennsylvania avenue, then east on Pennsylvania avenue to East Executive avenue, and south on Executive avenue to the south steps of the Treasury were a second big concert will be given at 4:30. To offer every facility to the people for entering their subscriptions early all banks will remain open until 9 o'clock tonight and tomorrow. Every bank will help persons of small means own a liberty bond by accepting $5 cash and $5 a month on a $40 bond and $10 cash and $10 a month on a $100 bond. ... Several buildings are still aroundIn addition to the Willard on the far left, the Evening Star Building, a sliver of which is visible just behind the Raleigh Hotel, still stands (at least its facade does). Farther down the street in the mist you can make out the twin spires of the Apex Building, also still standing. On the right side, turrets of the still-standing Old Post Office building appear just above the large tree. Such a Great PhotoI am sure I am not alone as one who has forgone the endless drivel of the day's news to venture into the past with Shorpy, Dave, and the wonderful comments and observations of viewers which lead me to explore things I would have never questioned otherwise. This photograph is one of endless wonderment as there is so much to see and ponder. A short list of what pops into my brain on viewing would include many unfit for comment and some that may be. At first glance I thought it seemed a George M. Cohan production without enough flags. How many people can I find in the crowd obviously aware of the photographer? And of course the cars and trolleys. I am always taken by the lack of front wheel brakes on the autos of this period as I was in later years with the American designers painfully slow adoption of the disc brake and radial tire. Today I explored brake history and found this: http://www.motorera.com/history/hist07.htm As Shorpy was voted one of the best 100 sites this year it indicates that the appreciation for a quality undertaking has not been lost despite all evidence to the contrary. Thanks Shorpy. Ike?I could not help but be struck by the resemblance of the Army officer at the right side of the photo to that of Dwight D. Eisenhower during this time period. I have spent the past couple of days looking up information and find he could well have been in Washington on that date. He commanded Camp Colt, Pa., but was reporting to Washington twice a week to the commander of the Tank Corps, who had his HQ there. I attach a photo of Eisenhower about three years prior to the Shorpy photo. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, D.C., Harris + Ewing, WWI)
Yard Cop: 1942
... Winchester I've seen pictures of the yard cop with a night stick. Winchester is the baseball bat. I guess for the war effort and ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/04/2023 - 11:27am -

October 1942. "Tulsa, Oklahoma. Mid-Continent Petroleum Corp. refinery, Tulsa station of the Great Lakes pipeline. Armed railroad guard inspecting an oil tank car in the yards." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Office of War Information. View full size. The trusty WinchesterI've seen pictures of the yard cop with a night stick. Winchester is the baseball bat. I guess for the war effort and saboteurs? Changing job focusA few years earlier the railroad yard cop would have been after hobos; movies of the 1930s have many such scenes. By 1942, war and economic activity had largely solved the hobo 'problem'. Now the concerns were sabotage, theft of raw materials, and security in general. The Case of the Missing Journal LidSomeone obviously pilfered it! The oil-filled journal box should have a snug-fitting cover, as seen on the one at far left, to keep rain water and road dust out of the bearing area. The journal box closest to the gun-toting lawman seems to have taken its leave? Black and White HeatA rifle ... next to an oil tank(er)??? Guess he didn't see the movie (But he had a good excuse: it wouldn't be released until seven years later) Vintage graffiti?I hadn't thought about graffiti in 1942. But then why not. Much less ugly than spray paint! [Those are yard-crew markings. - Dave] How StylishIn a three-piece suit & tie complete with handkerchief, this fellow seems quite overdressed. Railyards (especially in the days of steam locomotives) were very dirty places. Bib overalls would have been more appropriate. Maybe he spends time in an office or just wanted to look good for Mr. Vachon's camera. (The Gallery, John Vachon, Railroads)
Mechanical Nightmare
... Bunker C Fuel. 100 times thicker than Molasses. Night shot Here is a photograph that I picked at an antique store. It's a picture of one the locomotives being photographed at night. I’m not sure what the story behind this photo is, but it may be a ... 
 
Posted by Lost World - 07/26/2007 - 10:38am -

Chesapeake & Ohio M-1 steam turbine 502 at Cincinnati on July 2, 1949. These coal-fired turbine locomotives were complete failures in passenger service despite their impressive size and complexity. Built in 1947 by Baldwin Locomotive for exorbitant prices, all three were retired by 1950. Color of this engine, in case you're wondering, was yellow-orange up top with gray beneath, with dark blue lettering and trim. View full size. But...It might have been a financial failure, but - damn - that thing looks awesome (in black and white anyway). I love the old iron horses... C&O steam turbineI agree, really a fine-looking piece of machinery. Great pictureRecently saw an image of this locomotive with a crew of folks standing in the coal bunker (the area in the nose with the raised doors). The caption indicated they were measuring coal consumption (which seems a little far-fetched). Another attempt was made to build a coal turbine about 20 years ago or so. Don Hall Yreka, CA Steam LocoThere was also Norfolk & Western's #2300 Jawn Henry steam turbine electric loco built by the N&W it would generate steam to run a turbine in which a electric generator would provide power to the electric traction motors. It too wasn't too sucsseful due to the steam turbine using a very large amount of steam and the boiler working hard to keep up with the demand. Also a very impressive looking engine. Check out Trains Magazine's Aug issue on pg 70 for info on it. C&O M-1This is at the Cincinnati Union Terminal engine service facility. I saw one of these stuffed nose first into one of the roundhouse stalls. It was so long that the section (water carrier?) that can be seen behind the main locomotive was entirely outside. By the way, that was the one and only stall that could be used by these locos, as its track lined up with the turntable and one of the tracks on the other side all at the same time. Turntable was way too short to turn the engine!! M-1 Steam TurbineI agree, this thing looks awesome. Pity this photo isn't color. I'd love to see its yellow-orange decor. Why were they failures?I'm curious... why were these impressive locomotives failures? C&O TurbinesThere is a good history of them on this website. Scroll down. http://www.steamlocomotive.com/turbine/ I may actually have seen one!As a youth in Huntington, I saw a huge strange-looking locomotive waiting on the tracks at the C&O Station on Seventh Avenue. I have often wondered if it was one of these. If this ever pulled the old C&0 "George Washington," then this is what I saw! Financial FailureTo put this in perspective, in the 1940s and 1950s American railroads were changing from steam to diesel power due to cost savings. The C & O transported huge amounts of coal from West Virginia so to them it seemed silly to burn anything else. Baldwin and Westinghouse took on the challenge of building three of the turbines. They were hard and expensive to maintain and didn't get the fuel economy desired. They had problems developing enough steam for the needs of the turbine, but when the fireman could keep the steam up, they ran very good. They were intended to make 6000 horsepower and were going to pull a new state of the art passenger train, the Chessie. Due to a downturn in passenger traffic, as Americans purchased more and more cars and roads improved, the Chessie never ran and the turbines were quietly retired after about three years of trials. It is sad none survive in museums. You can see other images of the locomotives here. O Gauge M-1Mike's Train House made an O Gauge version of the M-1 around 2004, priced at $1,000. They are done in great detail. I have one sitting on my shelf in my office and it is a conversation piece. Dollars and DieselYes, these were financial failures, but not because of the fuel they burned. As Anonymous pointed out below, the C&O (and N&W as well) made their money hauling coal. On the face of it, that fuel was in ample supply and they had the facilities to handle it easily so it looked like a no-brainer. Unfortunately, neither road in the late '40s yet fully appreciated that switching from coal (or oil) fired steam to diesel wasn't about the fuel, it was about the labor. Every steam fired locomotive requires an on-board crew to operate it. Diesels can be strung together up to 12 units but controlled from the lead cab by 1 crew. Less crews = less payroll = less overhead = more money to the bottom line. Cha-ching! Plus they didn't (and still don't) require anywhere near the shop forces to support them. Steam locomotives (very much like humans) can be, and often were, fickle, demanding, precocious, temperamental machines in constant need of love and attention in the form of people which equals money. Cha-ching again! Steam locomotives were all of the things I mention above but they could also (again, much like humans) be emotionally evocative. Look at this thread as a tiny example. They had a way of stirring something in the souls of people who were, and are, inclined to respond to such things, myself included. Diesels, however, were (and are) an appliance. Think Toyota Camry. Solid, dependable, loyal appliance. Will get you (or your freight) there all day long and twice on Sundays but won't create much of a breeze thru one's soul. They will, however, return a ton more to the bottom line in exchange for that particular lack of soulfulness. Guess it depends on where one is with the industry; line-side observer or shareholder. Why were they failuresThese locomotives were "mechanical nightmares". This was the first advent of a steam turbine being used for railroad service. Think of a jet engine using coal as its fuel. Does not even make sense. The turbines of the UP were basically "jet engines on rails", difference there was they burned the thickest fuel oil you could never imagine, Bunker C Fuel. 100 times thicker than Molasses. Night shotHere is a photograph that I picked at an antique store. It's a picture of one the locomotives being photographed at night. I’m not sure what the story behind this photo is, but it may be a study for a publicity shot in a magazine or brochure. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Railroads)
Cherry Blossom Queen: 1939
... Baltimore Sun, December 11, 1938. Deb Bound for Night Club Tells How to Go “New Yorky” Peggy Townsend, who will join the ranks of social register night-club singers shortly, thinks it's all right for Washington debutantes ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/30/2013 - 1:44pm -

March 31, 1939. Washington, D.C. "Senate Majority Leader crowns Cherry Blossom Queen. Climaxing the annual Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival in Potomac Park today, Senate Majority Leader Alben W. Barkley placed the crown on the head of Peggy Townsend, Cherry Blossom Queen. Thousands of visitors view the beautiful blossoms every year." Harris & Ewing photo. View full size. Best exit linesSenator Barkley gave a speech at Washington and Lee in 1956. On concluding, he was offered a seat in the front row of speakers and declined saying, "I am glad to sit in the back row for I'd rather be a servant in the House of the Lord than sit in the seats of the mighty." With the applause of the crowd in his ears, he collapsed and died of a heart attack. Sen. Alben W. Barkley of Kentuckyhad a select group of senators and others with a standing invitation in his office at the close of each Senate business day for a drink or two of good Kentucky Bourbon. Vice President Harry Truman, a regular, happened to be there on the afternoon of April 12, 1945, when he received an urgent call to come to the White House immediately. He learned when he got there that President Franklin Roosevelt had died in Warm Springs, Georgia, and that he was to be sworn in as the 34th President of the United States. Early in 1944, Barkley and Roosevelt had a bit of a falling out over Roosevelt's veto of a tax bill Barkley had worked hard for, and Roosevelt had turned thumbs down when Barkley was suggested as his Vice Presidential candidate in the 1944 election. Truman didn't forget his old friend, though. Barkley served as Vice President during Truman's second — and only full — term. Alben BarkleyIt was Alben Barkley who was quoted that being the Vice President "wasn't worth a pitcher of warm spit." I read that he complained that what he had really said was that it "wasn't worth a pitcher of warm piss, but those pantywaist writers didn't have the nerve to write it like I said it." Peggy was a lovely woman-Does anyone know what became of this 1939 Cherry Blossom Queen? She was as beautiful as many of the movie stars people were going to see in pictures that year. (Thanks to stanton_square for subsequently the posting the obituary and biographical information.) Margaret TownsendAlso seen at Signs of Spring: 1939. The Baltimore Sun, December 11, 1938. Deb Bound for Night Club Tells How to Go “New Yorky” Peggy Townsend, who will join the ranks of social register night-club singers shortly, thinks it's all right for Washington debutantes like herself to “go New Yorky”—if they don't go too far. There's a movement among Capital debs, she said, to “try to have a little more cafe society,” like New York's. And it's fine, pretty Peggy added, if Capital debutantes “don't get the idea that toughness makes for glamour.” “We want to keep the things that make Washington individual—the old families, the old houses, the conservative people,” she insisted. Peggy, tall and slim and “18 and a half,” will sing twice a night in a cocktail lounge, beginning Monday, partly because of the “New Yorky” trend, and partly because she “always like the idea of women getting out and doing things.” Earlier the same day, she will mingle with the capital's society at the first of the famous morning musicales, sponsored each season by her aunt, Mrs. Lawrence Townsend. When Peggy was 6 years old, she sat on the lap of Mrs. Calvin Coolidge at one of the musicales. She's been brought up on classical music, and two months ago began to study singing—the conventional kind. But laryngitis chased her voice down to low registers, and scouts for a new cocktail lounge liked her throat singing. “Now I think they'd like for me to stand out by the Potomac river every night to catch cold,” Peggy laughed. Peggy is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Effingham Townsend. Her mother, the former Margaret Graham, of Danville, Va., made her debut in the South. The Townsends have been socially prominent in Philadelphia for generations. Washington Post, June 17, 1939. A Beauty Nap Pretty Peggy Townsend, 18, debutante cherry blossom queen who now sings at a night club, failed to appear in Traffic Court yesterday to answer a speeding charge because she overslept. The case was continued until Monday. Motorcycle Policeman Clark Coleman stopped Miss Townsend on Connecticut avenue northwest last Monday. He charged her with driving 40 miles in a 25-mile zone. When she identified herself at the Eighth Precinct, and confessed that she did did not have the necessary collateral, she was released to meet the policeman in court. When she failed to answer, Judge Hobart Newman ordered that a warrant be issued. A few minutes later, Miss Townsend telephoned the court and stated that she was on her way down. By that time the court had adjourned and her case was reset for Monday. Washington Post, March 17, 1951. Peggy Townsend Shaw Dies; Cherry Blossom Queen in 1939. Mrs. Margaret Townsend Shaw, 29, member of a fifth-generation socially prominent Washington family died Thursday at her home in Coconut Grove, Fla. She had been ill of a virus throat infection for only a few days. Socialite Peggy Townsend was the daughter of Mrs. Margaret Graham Townsend, of the Cordova Apartments, Florida ave. and 20th st. nw., and the late Effingham Lawrence Townsend, stock broker here who died in 1942. Educated at Holton Arms School, she was graduated from Junior College. She made her Washington debut in 1938, when she was presented by her god-mother and great aunt, Mrs. Lawrence Townsend, patroness of music in Washington for many years. Her uncle, Lawrence Townsend, was formerly Ambassador to Belgium, Spain and Austria. In 1939, Peggy was chosen Cherry Blossom Queen and was the object of the song written by Irving Berlin, “The Cherry Blossoms in Potomac Park.” After being brought up on classical music from an early age, the young debutante appeared as a professional singer in Washington night clubs. In 1948, she married Gould Shaw, son of a prominent Boston family. His father was first married to Virginia-born Lady Astor, former British Parliament member. The Shaws have lived in Florida almost three years. Besides her husband and mother, Mrs. Shaw is survived by two sons, Alexander, 2 and Townsend Vogel, 9, the latter by previous marriage in the 1940 to Martin Vogel, of Warrenton, Va. The boy lives on his father's Warrenton estate. The bucket list.....The "bucket" quote actually came from an earlier VP, John Nance Garner, who served in FDR's first administrations. Gould Shaw?The obituary for Peggy Townshend Shaw is a bit of a puzzle. It states that her father-in-law was "first married to Virginia-born Lady Astor, former British Parliament member." This would be Robert Gould Shaw II, (named after his grandfather and also his cousin, the Robert Gould Shaw who commanded the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment - the one featured in the movie "Glory"). He had two sons Robert Gould Shaw III - known as Bobby (born 1898) - and Louis Agassiz Shaw II (born 1906). My guess is while Peggy might have married into the Shaw family it was not one of Robert II's children, for which she should probably thank her lucky stars. Robert III was homosexual (at a time in England, where he lived with his mother, when homosexuality was punishable with prison time) and an alcoholic who suffered from bouts of depression and committed suicide in 1970. Louis Shaw also suffered from alcoholism and depression. In 1964 he strangled his maid and was committed to the McLean Psychiatric Hospital in Belmont Massachusetts until slightly before his death in 1987. (The Gallery, D.C., Harris + Ewing, Pretty Girls)
13 Inch Lunch: 1942
... Neon This establishment would have stood out at night, since neon tubing is in evidence. At the peak of the roof is the word ... sometimes forgotten. They Only Come Out At Night Hamburgers and beer. Barefoot on Highway 80 During World War II ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/23/2022 - 3:14pm -

January 1942. "Roadside stand -- U.S. Highway 80, Texas, between Dallas and Fort Worth." Acetate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Office of War Information. View full size. No trace of any of this nowThere is about 30 miles separating downtowns Fort Worth and Dallas. This could have been pretty much anywhere along the way. Interstate 30 replaced the part U.S. Highway 80 headed west out of Dallas. Texas Highway 180 follows what was U. S. Highway 80 west of Loop 12. Either way, it's nearly nonstop development between Dallas and Fort Worth now. I remember, in my youth, people commenting that the best thing about Pearl Beer, brewed in San Antonio, was it was cheap. A 13 inch hot dog sounds really ... filling, especially with a bun and toppings. Reminds me that September 30th the month-long annual State Fair of Texas opens and every year there is a new, deep-fried offering. This year it's a doh-muff. It's not the strangest, nor the least heathy deep-fried thing they've come up with. All kinds of sandwiches!I see on the list they have the Ruby and further down I see they have the Carousel Club! Wow, they do have a variety! Pearl Beer? Really? Just the name says "tastes bad" to me. Marketing genius comes in all grades. Brings Back MemoriesBut memory is a fleeting thing at my age. If I remember correctly Sivils Drive In where I misspent a lot of my youth was where Commerce or Fort Worth Ave merged with Davis or Highway 80. If one continued down Davis it crossed Loop 12 and continued into Grand Prairie and passed Yello Belly Drag strip. After that it became Main Street until outside Grand Prairie it was called Highway 80 again. I think this photo was taken on the west side of Grand Prairie before the city limits of Arlington on the way to Fort Worth. https://flashbackdallas.com/2015/12/03/sivils-drive-in-an-oak-cliff-inst... (xXx) (xXx)Gotta love, and wonder about, the (xXx) (xXx) on the front of the Pearl Beer truck. Safety FirstYup, safety first when smoking ... call for Philip Morris! That has to be the best sign. Makeshift NeonThis establishment would have stood out at night, since neon tubing is in evidence. At the peak of the roof is the word BEER, and below it HAMBURGERS. The perimeter of the roof and the eaves are outlined in neon, and the hanging sign also has tubing on it. The transformer for the building neon appears to be behind the centre Royal Crown sign, since that is where the tubing ends. I'm not sure if the "extension cord" hanging out the window is the source of power for all this or not. If it wasn't misspent, it wasn't a youthFulltimer, your memory is very good. I looked at the link you provided, and the Sivils Drive-in was where you remember. Your references are correct as far as I can tell. I also need to change my earlier comment about Interstate 30 replacing U. S. 80 because now I see that from Loop 12 in Dallas to Interstate 35W in Fort Worth, State Highway 180 follows the old routing of U.S. Route 80. A onetime favorite beer.During my five-month career as an enlisted man at Fort Hood in 1964, I drank more than my share of Pearl Beer. It was my first choice among the brands being sold at the PX. Then I shipped to Europe and my whole perspective changed. I like to tell people my mission in the Army, with a little help from some buddies, was to deplete the supply of beer in southwest Germany. Somehow we came up a bit short. xXx originsFrom Wikipedia: "The triple-X logo has long been associated with Pearl. In fact, it was used at the brewery even before Pearl beer became synonymous with the company. When the San Antonio Brewing Association bought the City Brewery and opened it for business in the 1880s, they used the triple Xs in the brewery's logo." "Many people wonder where the Xs came from, and how were they ever used on beer. In truth, the three Xs are actually a quality rating system. The system was initially used in Europe during the 16th Century. As European royalty traveled their lands and visited neighboring counties, a royal courier was sent ahead of the official party. The courier's job was to sample beer at inns along the way. If the beer was only average, the courier would mark the inn's sign or door with a single X. If the inn's beer was deemed good, the sign or door would receive two Xs. A mark on an inn of three Xs meant that the beer inside was excellent, and a must-stop for the royal court as they passed through." Pearl Beer has a long and interesting history and is still produced today in Ft. Worth, TX. The name has its origins in Germany. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Brewing_Company xXx xXxThe triple XXX was meant to denote the strength (and purity) of the alcohol content. Although not really applicable to beer. The use of the triple XXX was made popular by moonshiners and was a sign that their shine had been through the distillation process three times. Pearl beer wasn't actually half-bad. Pearl is still brewed in Texas but the company is now owned by Pabst (another Texas based company). Pearl BeerPearl has a long and somewhat checkered history in Texas. It was brewed in San Antonio for decades. It was a decent (for the time) and cheap brew when I was a college drinker in the early '70s. The brand has been punted back and forth between parent companies for years and most recently revived again by Pabst. They do absolutely no promotion of it so it seems to sell as a curiosity to those who remember it's its glory days. The old brewery site was turned into an extension of San Antonio's RiverWalk and the old brewery buildings were modernized and are now used for all sorts of retail establishments and office spaces. It's worth visiting if you're in the city. Thanks for the edit, Dave. Re-reading is fun-dimental...and sometimes forgotten. They Only Come Out At NightHamburgers and beer. Barefoot on Highway 80During World War II while my dad was overseas in the Army Air Corps, we lived on a farm just south of Highway 80 that ran alongside the Interurban tracks and a main railroad line that carried train car after train car loaded with tanks, trucks and all manner of military equipment painted olive green headed to ports in Houston to be transported to our troops in Europe. I had to cross Highway 80 to get to school. Nearly all the boys went to school barefooted. My school pictures of that time show the boys barefoot and the girls with shoes on. Math on an empty stomachA dime for a foot-long plus, two bits for lunch. What do I get for the extra fifteen cents? A Pearl and a slice of pie, maybe. By the way, I have heard that there are people who actually put meatloaf sauce (ketchup) on tube steaks. Disgraceful! Castlemaine XXXXThere is a dinkum Australian beer from Queensland called Castlemaine XXXX. I met a True Blue Aussie from Brisbane visiting Vancouver several years ago and asked him if he liked Castlemaine XXXX. His response: "Struth, you can start your car with that stuff." (The Gallery, Arthur Rothstein, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Eateries & Bars)
Rural Mother: 1936
... the stories she told, of washing out her underclothes each night, sleeping 4 to a bed, lard and bread sandwiches...I somehow cleaned up ... 
 
Posted by Ken - 07/05/2009 - 2:29am -

March 1936. "Mother and baby of family of nine living in field on U.S. Route 70 near the Tennessee River." 35mm nitrate negative by Carl Mydans for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. SonsRose, And notice that the boy you mention (the one on our right) is the only one wearing shoes. It looks like he's standing on maybe his father's feet--there's somebody else standing off the camera edge. But imagine: The clothes that they're wearing might've been their only clothes! Just to reiterate: there was no choice of what they could wear from day to day. What they have on now was all they (might've) had for possibly months at a time. "How do I get to the Susquehanna Hat Company?" What happened to them?While it's certainly disheartening to see that kind of abject poverty, the family probably fared better over the next decade. The TVA started bringing electricity to that area around the time of this photo and Tennessee had a pretty robust wartime economy. The draft board generally didn't take men with nine children so the father would have been around to find steady work. So however bad it may have been you can at least be confident it got better. And yet the boy is smilingAnd yet the boy is smiling :) Mother of povertyThis photo made cry. What more clear image of poverty in America could there be? A flour sack for a skirt and a safety pin holding a tattered sweater. I ache for her children and wonder what happened to this family. One bright spot is the boy smiling to his sister while holding her toe. Tatters...They may be poor material wise with their tatters and rags on their back, but they are rich in their love for each other. Mother of povertyThis is the worst case of poverty I have ever seen that wasn't from the third world, but look at them they are together, even able to smile, by far this picture is the best example of "the great depression". fakeThe picture is of far higher quality than existed in that era. It's obviously a fake. ["That era," the mid-1930s, when photography was 100 years old, saw some of the best photographs ever made - the work of Ansel Adams, for example. And of course a few minutes of Googling will show this to be a well-known Depression-era image in the Library of Congress archives. Comments like these are a good opportunity to point out that the farther back you go, the better and sharper the pictures get, because the recording media were bigger. Two examples are here (1865) and here (1913). As well as here and here and here. - Dave] Re: No exaggeration"And yeah, glass plate negatives are amazing. But even 35mm film actually carries more information than most digitals: ISO 100 35mm has an effective resolution of 10 megapixels, and when you up the negative size to that of a view camera or the 8x10 glass plates, you're talking resolutions and image quality that today's cameras can't touch." YOU'RE RIGHT ABOUT THAT ! No exaggerationIn addition to reading "Let us Now Praise Famous Men," check out the photos of Jacob Riis and read "How the Other Half Lives." Yes, muckrakers, but they were not making up the poverty they found and photographed. When people who were doing *well* had only 2 or 3 sets of clothing, there just wasn't as much "extra" around to give to the poor. Using flour sacks and sugar sacks was incredibly common - so common that it is a trope in literature of the time. Even solidly middle-class families "turned" collars and facings on their clothing when it wore to holes, to use the other side, and every family had a rag bag in which they saved *every* scrap of old clothing for other purposes. I guess in this day of cheap clothes made by slave laborers in poison-filled factories in China, its hard to believe anyone treated clothes as so precious that they were saved and worn until they were in this state, huh? And yeah, glass plate negatives are amazing. But even 35mm film actually carries more information than most digitals: ISO 100 35mm has an effective resolution of 10 megapixels, and when you up the negative size to that of a view camera or the 8x10 glass plates, you're talking resolutions and image quality that today's cameras can't touch. Rural mother 1936Oh how I wish I could take the doubting thomases back with me to the North East of Scotland during the time that this stunning photograph was taken. I am glad that it has been brought up to watchable standard by digital magic or whatever. I can still remember my grandfather filling his boots with straw to keep the cold/wet out before going out to the field to plough or cut corn with a scythe. He also used the very same material to wipe his bottom. Granny had a grain sack for a skirt and wore clogs. My favourite time of day was when she put the 'hen's pot' out to cool. I invariably ate the potatoes and haven't tasted better since. Money-wise it was a very poor time but life had a richness difficult to achieve these days. Re: Fake>> The picture is of far higher quality than existed in that era. It's obviously a fake. We get a lot of comments like this, I guess from younger people, or people who have never been to a museum. They don't realize that the farther back you go, the better and sharper professionally taken photographs get, because the recording media were much, much larger. An 8-by-10 glass plate negative is 80 times as large as a 35mm film frame, or the image sensor in a digital camera. Two examples are here (1865) and here (1913). As well as here and here and here. Also a lot of comments from people who seem to think color photography started around 1960. Poverty exaggerationOk, this photo is an example of early photo-journalism. The family could very well have been homeless and living in a lean-to or a wooden box on top of a truck chassis- during the summer, anyway. But the depiction of poverty is exaggerated- think about it- if someone steered the photographer toward the family, then others in the community knew they were there. There's no way a family can dress like that and not receive donations of used clothes. These rags were put on to evoke sympathy for the plights of many during the depression. Don't get me wrong - shock value was probably needed to raise support for many valuable social programs that came about because of the depression. But how long could a family dress like that and not receive donations from others, no matter how bad off the community was. [Most of these migrants, refugees from the Dust Bowl farms of the Great Plains, were not especially welcome in the communities where they dropped anchor, and people often did whatever they could to get them to leave. You might want to read up a little more on the Great Depression. A good start would be "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" by James Agee with photos by Walker Evans. Or "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck. - Dave] Not an exaggeration"There's no way a family can dress like that and not receive donations of used clothes." My mother was a teenager during those years and remembered how so many people were driven to desperation. Her comment was "there was always someone trying to cheat you." Two or three years into the Depression the do-gooders began to run out of sympathy and "used clothes." And after five more years of no improvement they began to fear things would never turn around and that they would end up in the same circumstances. There were just too many newly poor people and not enough people with excess resources to balance things out. BenIf anyone was ever interested in trying to achieve that kind of detail today, I'd highly suggest buying an old used medium format camera and using some 120 roll film. I have a couple of Yashica TLR's which were considered substandard in the 50's and 60's, but their quality still makes a 35 SLR look like a cheap point and shoot. It's not the camera that makes the pictures better, but the larger negative available in 120 film. Not only do you get more detail, but the color depth is far more realistic. ClothesMy Gramma has saved some clothes that her mother made from flour sacks. She also has some made from linen and wool they spun and wove themselves, when they were more prosperous. She lived in a house with a dirt floor and didn't wear shoes in the summer. The Face of the Great DepressionThank you Mr. Caruso. I echo the response from Dave....We read in history books about the Great Depression and over the years, in our mind it is simply a swirl of facts and figures, of almost dispassionate removal that was the reality. While it has been said that hindsight is 20/20, I think it can also be argued that hindsight, especially from such a distance can be sterile becoming almost become an illusion, an event without a substance. Hopefully this will once again place it into a reality ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSShPnOS15Y Dale Oh My GoshI'm 15 years of age and I had no idea that the Great Depression was that bad. This picture really oppened my eyes to the extreme conditions at that time. Thank you for this reality. Reality CheckI have a picture on my desk showing my mother during the depression. You can see her bones because at 5'7" she weighed 85 pounds...just from the simple lack of food. Each girl in the family had two dresses and each boy had two pairs of overalls - one to wear and one to wash. By "wash", I mean using a metal tub over an open fire. Mostly they went barefoot (in the Arizona desert) because if they had shoes, they were too valuable to wear everyday. In the picture my mother is looking directly at the camera and her expression is almost exactly the same as the look on the face of a shell shocked combat veteran. As I said, I keep this small black and white photo on my desk so that if I ever, ever have even a moment of thinking that I'm having a hard day I can look at my mother's face and get a reality check. Barefoot KidsMy parents grew up in the depression. When I was a kid (in the 60s) going outside barefoot was STRICTLY FORBIDDEN, reason being that in their minds if you weren't wearing shoes it was because you didn't have any, and therefore were poor, which they viewed as something to be ashamed of. Making doThe habits of the depression generation persisted into the better days of the '40s. I remember my mother repairing worn sheets by splitting them down the middle and sewing the good edges together to prolong their life. My dad brought home flour sacks from the restaurant where he worked. My mother made dish cloths and pillow cases from them. Some of the sacks were made from patterned material for dresses. The branding on the others washed out easily. To this day I an reluctant to discard clothing. ClothesMy parents did not allow us to wear jeans (which we didn't own) or sneakers because they weren't real clothing, but only worn if you owned nothing else. Believe me we weren't rich either. Mother of NineThank you so much for sharing this. I was born in 1977, but just hearing these stories helps me to realize that we are so spoiled and really puts things into perspective. Amen! Thanks, dalecaruso!I'm going to show this to my 7th grade students who LOVED the Newbery Medal-winning book "Out of the Dust" by Karen Hesse! Amazing...moving...thank you. The habits remained - for good or badMy parents grew up in the Depression. Members of their generation, roughly those born 1920-1935, often find it difficult to throw out anything "good". In my parents' case, I was left with stacks of thousands upon thousands of moldering magazines and newspapers, piles of old shingles, 2x4s, chunks of vinyl siding, and old cardboard; hundreds upon hundreds of doilies, knick-knacks, and figurines; and tons of worthless, useless plywood and cheap wood furniture. The cry was, "I might need it someday!" and "It'll be worth GOOD MONEY one day!" and "You're so wicked and wasteful and lazy to want to throw it out!". They were wrong in every single solitary instance, no exceptions. The figurines now go for five to ten cents each on eBay (and don't sell at that price); the shingles melted together into a big unusable pile; the 2x4s and cardboard rotted to dust; the doilies were attacked with mold; the magazines were destroyed by water and age; the furniture was rickety and undesirable in its shoddy construction and unattractive, unmarketable poor style. It all went away to the dump as useless, worthless, unrecyclable (because of the mold) garbage - and it cost over a thousand dollars to have it hauled away. And I'm not the only one. There are internet groups made up of people in their 40s and 50s who are, like me, dealing with the unhealthy hoarding habits of their Depression-era parents who have passed on. But we, the children, are not the ones hurt the most by this sickness. The older generation itself is harmed most of all. The mold and dust gathered by the things they've hoarded endangers their health. The sheer bulk of the hoard can endanger them in case of fire. And since they can't find what they've hoarded, they end up buying the same things over and over again, which reduces their ability to provide for themselves. No North American generation before this one has suffered from this level of hoarding, and I doubt any one after it will. Earlier generations didn't overbuy but also weren't afraid to discard; later generations might overbuy but likewise aren't afraid to recycle or discard. Re: Hoarders I would have to seriously question the sweeping and wide swath of the brush you painted this generation with. My parents lived through the depression and the dust bowl, as did my dads' 12 brothers and sisters. and the 5 siblings of my mothers' family. And not a hoarder among them. I am sure they used things longer and valued what they had more than we do, but I hardly consider this a "disorder". Now I am sure some did, but your statement to me really portrays this generation as unhealthy mentally, and I am just a little offended by it. Oh that we today were as mentally stable as they. And if "There are internet groups made up of people in their 40s and 50s who are, like me, dealing with the unhealthy hoarding habits of their Depression-era parents who have passed on", well then I would say, perhaps it is this weak-kneed generation, who need support groups because, "Oh No, Mamma kept things a Long Long time", are the ones who are unhealthy. You do this unbelievable generation a great disservice. Future Hoarders of America Unite!You know, I don't look at the faces of these little ones and concern myself with the idea that their biggest issue in their senior years is going to be that they held on to too much stuff instead of throwing it out. When your clothes are being held together with twine and your mother is wearing a cotton feed bag as a skirt, it's kind of easy to see how, in the future, when you're an old woman, you're probably going to hang on to every scrap and see its potential usefulness someday. It's amazing how differently our consumerist culture sees items today. How often I've longed to be able to hold onto a toaster that could work just fine if I had someone who could fix it for me. But instead, appliances today aren't meant to last for more than a few years and then off to dump with them. Our landfills are overcrowded with plasticized items that will never, ever decompose - plastic bags, water bottles, take out containers...the list is endless. I hate to politicize a picture but I can honestly see how having nothing more than the holey shirt on your back would make you take stock when one day you had tremendous bounty. We could learn a lot from these people and their troubles and how to see potential treasure in trash. Alive and wellPoverty can be because of chance or personal choices. Back in the times of the Depression it was heaped on people by powers out of their control. I see it today right here in Arkansas where I live and in my own neighborhood. I live in a small town of about 5600 and even in what is supposedly the world's most rich and powerful country people are lining up at the free food banks and food giveaways, receving government commodities and waiting in ine at the free medical clinic that is run by area churches and staffed with Doctors and Nurses who volunteer their time for free. Just walk into Walmart on the 1st of the month, they way some families are dressed would break your heart. But then you have the victims of bad personal choices. There is a single other in my neighborhood that recently lost her job because she failed a drug test. She has 3 children. Everyone in the neighborhood knows she sells her food stamps for alcohol. She would buy just enough (barely) food for them to get by and sell the rest If it were not for the kindness of neighbors her children would not have any decent clothes. She was just kicked out of what is very decent public housing where she was paying $16.00 a month rent because she had her alcoholic boyfriend living there with her. Her poor choices affected not only her children but many people in the neighborhood (who at their own expense would buy extra food so they could feed her children or spend money to buy clothes for them) who have tried to help her for years. In her children I see the NEXT generation of American poverty waiting to happen and it is so sad. HoardersMy parents are children of the Depression, too. And my father most definitely instilled in me the sense that one doesn't waste or discard anything useful. He has 2 barns and a shed filled with stuff, much of which I'll have to deal with after he's gone. But you know what? Virtually everything he has is valuable! His shed is filled with dishes and small appliances and the like, which has supplied many of his grandchildren when they went away to college or got their first apartment. He has one of nearly every tool known to man, and freely loans or gives them away. He paid cash for a brand new truck recently, using the proceeds from sale of scrap copper and iron he's been saving in the plum thicket. (He's never owed money on a car in my lifetime). He loves to give to others (it's nearly impossible to leave a visit empty-handed), and a lifetime of saving and storing means he has no shortage of things to give away. Because of my upbringing, it's very hard for me to discard anything that still has value, just because I don't need it any more. But I've learned from my dad - somebody needs that, so give it away! I understand that some hoarders are truly mentally ill. But to say that all Depression children who refuse to discard things that might be useful are "wrong in every single solitary instance, no exceptions" is absolute hogwash. The DepressionAnyone who says these photos are exaggerated or fake has never talked to someone who lived during that time. My mother lived on a farm during that period, and though she didn't have much that came from a store, they were able to eat and eat well. My father's family were poor tennant farmers on unproductive land and frequently had meals like "grease smeared on bread"....try to imagine that one. With several children, all but one had to quit school at 13 to earn a living. My husband's family has pictures of the children looking just like these - torn overalls and bare feet. Do some real research in your own family's past. Family HistoryMy father's family had a farm in southwest Nebraska during the Depression, so they were able to grow their own food and eat fairly well. My mother's paternal grandfather was a Methodist minister there, which was very rough since he was dependent on what the local community could pay, which wasn't much and people had an odd idea about what made a suitable gift. So instead of eggs and chickens, which Great-Grandpa would have taken in a heartbeat (he had 5 teenage sons!), people gave him things like fancy hankies, which he had no use for, and I found 50 years later still in the gift boxes. I know the Depression had a profound impact on my grandfather; he hated to throw anything away. When my mother cleaned out Grandpa's house in the late 80's she had to throw out dumpsters of metal pie plates, shopping bags, twine, bottles, newspapers, magazines and God knows what else. AgreedMy parents did not allow us to wear jeans (which we didn't own) or sneakers because they weren't real clothing, but only worn if you owned nothing else. Believe me we weren't rich either. I would have said this if you didn't. We had sneakers for gym class and gym class only. The picture, the video, the hoarding.Two things struck me about that picture: the caked on dirt on the mother's feet and the smile on the boy's face. Sure, I had heard the phrase "dressed in flour sacks." But, there's something about an image - seeing it. It hits home. The video, The Face of the Great Depression, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSShPnOS15Y from a previous comment. At first, honestly, I thought, "Can't the pictures move faster?" Then I looked, and listened, and let time stand still for a brief moment. By the end, I was crying. The license plate in the last photo was 1939. My mother would have been 13. NOW IT GET IT. Well, I'm beginning to. A second generation child on the South Side of Chicago, she always told stories of a her gang of kids distracting the cart owner so other kids could run by - stealing whatever vegetables they could grab. They would start little fires at the curb and roast them on a stick or boil them in a pot of water. She said that's why, as an adult, she hated boiled onions or potatoes. But, the stories she told, of washing out her underclothes each night, sleeping 4 to a bed, lard and bread sandwiches...I somehow cleaned up the images and made them all pretty. I left out what it smells like if you haven't had a bath. Or, what it must have felt like to really, really be hungry. Mom hoarded. Born in 1926 she left me the legacy of wall to wall, floor to ceiling piles of National Geographic magazines and "collectors" tins." "These will be worth something someday," she chided...and promised. They weren't. Well, some of it was valuable - more from memories of her than replacement cost. More than anything, I wish she could have culled her stuff so she had more room to live. Sure, it was a burden to empty. But it was easier for me to let go of her junk than it was for her to unload the fear of being "without." I can live with that. Everyday I understand and accept her more. One little photo... Can teach so much. The Great DepressionI've read the comments about this picture and echo the feelings of distress that people have had to exist under these conditions. We only have to look at some of the present day third world countries to see the same thing. Thank God that that level of poverty has never touched me. I was born in 1927 and raised, with my sister, in a single parent home. My Mother took in washing and ironing to make a living for us, and though we didn't have an abundance, we never went to bed hungry. She bought used adult clothes and cut them down to fit us (our sunday school and church clothes). No one told me that times were hard so I didn't know it until I was grown. The hobos (Hoover Tourists) used to get off the trains near our house and come to the door begging food. My Mother always made them a peanut butter sandwich. I spent my days in school or outside playing with my friends, I had a glorious childhood. It pains me to see today's children confined to the house, afraid to go outside alone, with only a TV or computer for a companion. So many children and young adults are overweight and under exercised. The Depression was hard on a lot of people but, as a child, I skated through it and wouldn't trade my childhood memories for being a child today. Where in SW Nebraska?Hello- A friend of mine introduced me to this website. I, too, am from southwest Nebraska. Where in SW Nebraska was your family originally from? MJ The DepressionI really liked reading all the comments. I intend to get the book "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" by Agee. I was born in 1921, the seventh child in a family of 10. My father died of TB in October 1929. Our church had a dinner after the service yesterday. I noticed some people not eating all the food they had put on their plates. I told them my clean plate was a reflection of living through the Depression, when at mealtime I would hand my plate to my mother with the words "All I can have. please." Every child in the family, when they were old enough, gave most of the money they earned to our mother. In the early 1930s our school clothes and shoes would be ordered by mail from Sears and sometime they would arrive days after school started. We lived in northwest Detroit and most of the kids had fathers with good jobs. In 1936 my oldest brother started to build a home near Mount Clemens, Michigan. A family pitched a tent in a field across the street from him and lived much like the family in this picture. My brother did not want me to visit them. I served in WW2, which I enjoyed because I had been working since I was 14 and it was nice to be free of responsibility. And seeing Europe was wonderful. I am a tourist at heart. Yes! Not getting killed and living into the Internet age is wonderful. Nebraska! With family now on the West Coast in Oregon and Washington we have been driving across this country about once a year. We like Nebraska and have been driving across that state on old U.S. 30, and find it much more enjoyable than I-80. Please try this some time. For those who don't believeRead "The Worst Hard Time" by Tim Egan. Never had heard of "dust pneumonia" until reading this. Also, a section of diary entries is just heartbreaking. Poverty and desolation on a scale unimaginable today. (The Gallery, Carl Mydans, Great Depression, Rural America)
Cross-Country: 1925
... longer own the car, the luggage rack is still on it. Night Rider Now that's an automobile! With seven lights (including the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/30/2015 - 12:08pm -

San Francisco, 1925. "Nash touring car at Nash-Ajax agency." Latest entry in the Shorpy Catalogue of Forgotten Phaetons. 5x7 glass negative. View full size. In styleCarefree, relaxed and confident: symbols of a world that vanished much too soon. The windshield and the wipers are lovely! 1849 Van Ness Ave.Looks like it still houses old cars; I wonder what the deal is. [They're classic cars in the Academy of Art University's Automobile Museum. -tterrace] Phalanx of Phorgotten Phaetons ?Instead of calling this collection the "Catalog of Forgotten Phaetons", how about calling it the "Phalanx of Phorgotten Phaetons???" Or perhaps the "Phalanx of Photogenic Phaetons" ? If only there could only be a car which combined all the good features of the old classic and antique cars with the good features of the new cars, like life-saving air bags and crumple zones! Don't give this guy the highbeamsHalf of this guy's pay must have gone to JC Whitney's. A Few ObservationsLooks like that driver's side running board wasn't strong enough and needed a a brace of angle iron and a couple of 'C' clamps to remedy. Someone has great faith in electric starters since they mounted the front license plate in line with the manual start attachment. And get a good look at those headlights with the clear lenses. I don't recall seeing anything like those on cars of that age before. I think I've got this figured outOkay, so if I've got this straight, the cars in Frisco are beautiful, but they're really obscure brands and are old-style. The cars in Oakland are more modern, and some are nice and some are just so-so, and more often than not they are smashed up, especially if they're Oldsmobiles. Can you guys show me what the cars in, say, San Jose or Mountain View are like? It's Here! AjaxBeginning in 1925 Nash offered an entry level car called the Ajax. They were built in Racine, Wisconsin, a few miles north of the Nash plant in Kenosha, and sold through the network of Nash agencies. Sales were less than anticipated, so for 1926 it was rebranded as the “Nash Light Six.” Nash, in an effort to protect their Ajax customers, offered them a free conversion kit including “Nash” hubcaps, “Nash” radiator badge, etc., all of which made an old Ajax a Nash in a matter of a hour or so. Attached a picture of Charles W. Nash and his 1925 Ajax. History of the buildingI believe this is the same building. Racking: My MemoryThat bracket on the running board holds a folding luggage rack. When I had a 1928 Studebaker Commander Victoria Coupe I was looking for one of those racks. By chance, I found one in a storage area under my very old house. Although I no longer own the car, the luggage rack is still on it. Night RiderNow that's an automobile! With seven lights (including the parking lights) forward it has a chance against the San Fransico fogs --- if the six volt battery can stand the drain. Clymer LampThe Nash is equipped with a Clymer spotlight. They were invented by Floyd Clymer, a lifelong automobile enthusiast, motorcycle manufacturer and publisher. The lamp required that a hole be drilled through the windshield. They were very popular and he sold thousands. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Chris Helin, San Francisco)
Lucky Ducks: 1927
... but Miss Mary looks like a better time on a 1927 Saturday night. Bathtub Ginny Great photo. It sums up the dissipation of the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/09/2018 - 4:25pm -

April 21, 1927. "Do ducks swim? Misses Eugenia Dunbar and Mary Moose." The main focus here is of course the horse trough, once a common item of street furniture in many big cities. National Photo glass negative. View full size. Ducks in a RowMiss Eugenia sure is lovely, no denying, but Miss Mary looks like a better time on a 1927 Saturday night. Bathtub GinnyGreat photo. It sums up the dissipation of the 1920s just about as well as can be done. Absolutely Gorgeous!The girl on the left is STUNNING! Man I'm hooked on this website! Puts Marilyn to shameI am captivated by Miss Dunbar's feminine charms; her beauty is that of Pallas Athena and Venus together. The TroughPutting aside the obvious va-va-voom comments for the cutie on the left, I'd like to ask about the trough. (God I must be getting old!) Did someone have to fill these daily? (I'm guessing the Fire Dept.) It looks like there's a compartment on the end, maybe for ice to melt slowly through the day? It's strange to think that may have been someone's job once. [These were plumbed and self-filling, with what looks like a covered float valve at the far end. - Dave] Wow!Two beautiful women, especially Miss Dunbar. You mean there are ducks in the picture? Fun FactDipping a hat in a horse trough is a crime in Mayberry, North Carolina. Eugenia's PoetryEugenia won a poetry contest in the Washington Post. I can't find any other information about her. The listed home address, at 1755 P NW, was close to Dupont Circle. The curved curbstones in the photo suggest that might be where the photo was taken. Life's Stage. (Winner of $1 Prize.) The dance is on, and the dancers      Drift out in the hall As leaves are blown by the west wind      In autumn after they fall. Some look o'erjoyed and carefree      And smile and laugh as they talk While others look overburdened and careworn      Like a withered rose on the walk. The music begins and the joyous      Float into the lands of dreams. And the sad shake their sorrowing heads and say:      "Life is not what it seems." Why be so withered and careworn,      Thinking only upon your sorrow; Why not join in life's little play      And think not yet of tomorrow? So let's help build this wonderful stage,      Let's aid in this great erection, And let each actor in life's game      Play his part to perfection Eugenia Dunbar (17) 1755 P street northwest. Washington Post, Sep 26, 1926 A Great ShotWOW -- Then as now, a photographer will use any pretense to photograph a beautiful woman! Re the horse trough, in the late forties and early fifties there were still horses hauling goods around D.C., and these cast iron troughs were all over the downtown area. Lor' luv a duck!These are a pair of nice-looking birds! Where's the SPCA?Ya daft preeverts! Everyone's looking at the girls and not the poor ducks with ropes tied around their necks! Ms EugeniaNo question here, Eugenia is a timeless knockout. "Nanny"Sometimes it's hard to get a decent guideline as to how old a person truly is from these older photos, but this one hits just right. My wife's grandmother, Nanny, is about to turn 100 at the end of March (yes, there will be a big party); my daughter will be turning 18 in June. It just so happens that Miss Mary and Miss Eugenia here would be the same age as Nanny, give or take a few months, having been born in 1909, as these two were. They are at the same age in this photo, roughly, as my daughter. Those are a couple of cuties, all right, but they both might, like Nanny, have now over 80 descendants. But as cute as they both were, I bet they had some fun times for the next two and a half years, with no lack of male attention during that era of copious money and speakeasy gin. Duck on a leashThose are some strict leash laws! I wish Toronto had a law like that. Nothing is worse than trying to walk down a street and having your ankles accosted by ducks amok. I haven't seen a horse trough in years. The city tore out the last ones back in the early 90s near St. Lawrence Market when the condo dwellers complained about hobos bathing in them. In love with a ghostMiss Eugenia Dunbar, wow! I think I am in love. Born in the wrong time. Does anyone else have any info on her? [She rhymed. - Dave] Big Ol' LoveShe's a spitting image of Jeanne Tripplehorn, or vice versa. QuackedWhat I see here are four real "flappers." Nice. Thanks. What time of year is this?I notice the attractive young ladies have coats and it appears the wind is blowing but the two younger girls in the back are wearing sundresses. The trough reminds me of my paternal grandfather. He drove horse drawn beer wagons for many years because not for tradition; his brother-in-law owned the warehouse and he was a drunken Irishman. My other grandfather was a railroad conductor, luckily I caught the train bug and not the drinking bug. There is so much to notice about our history in everyday photographs. Thank you for cleaning up and sharing these unique glimpses into history but also allowing us to comment. If you subtract everything ...from this photo except Miss Eugenia - dressed just as she is - it looks like a photo of a young woman taken only yesterday. I have seen my own 30+ year old daughter-in-law dressed nearly identically, and the hair style is in no way dated. Now that is rare in a photo that is 80 years old. A new dimensionBeautiful and talented, our Miss Dunbar was. I think it's interesting to see another dimension of someone who was never a celebrity (not that I'm aware of, anyway), but just a regular person. Do you think she imagined that a poem she penned for a newspaper contest to win a dollar would be read 80-odd years later? Not Dickinson, but pretty darn good for a 17-year-old. There's some really good imagery there in the first stanza. It is certainly better than anything I might have composed when I was 17. Of course, one now wonders what sort of hidden talents did her friend Mary have? Eugenia and MaryEugenia Dunbar, born April 18, 1909, died September 13, 2000, Pasadena California. Eugenia was living somewhere in Wisconsin during the mid 1930s or early 1940s. Mary Moose: This might not be her, but it could be. Mary Moose, born April 27, 1909, died sometime in January, 1981 in Tennessee. That Mary fits a lot of the patterns, but she was both born in Tennessee, was again living in Tennessee in the late 1930s-1940s period, and died there. If that's not our Mary, then I think her name is slightly misspelled, and it's actually Mary MUSE, born November 20, 1908 (in Northern Virginia), died (still in Arlington, Virginia), July 27, 1998. She seems to have lived most of her life in the DC area. [After these girls got married, which seems likely, they'd have different names. Which is the reason it's hard to dig up reliable information about women when all you have to go on is a maiden name. Dunbar and Moose are mostly likely the married names of Pasadena Eugenia and Tennessee Mary. - Dave] Eugenia and Mary againDave, I looked them up by their birth names. This was the only Eugenia Dunbar that came up, so I'm pretty confident in that one. [Where was Eugenia born? - Dave] Right for meIt looks like I am the only one more smitten by the girl on the right. A real ringer - MaryIf I didn't know better, I'd swear that Mary Moose above was the woman I dated for nearly 2 years at the beginning of this decade. Her name was Marie - she was 24 years old when we started dating, 5' 3", about 110 pounds, short light auburn hair, big piercing blue/gray eyes and identical features to Ms. Moose. Shoot, they even dress(ed) the same when stepping out. What a jaw dropper seeing this picture - Marie passed away from throat cancer at the age of 29 in late 2007. Just a touchingly timeless image, at least for me. Thanks again for the wonderful work, Dave. Eugenia DunbarI also found Eugenia Dunbar's Pasadena death record, so I immediately requested the obit from the Pasadena library. They said it takes three weeks. Who knows, maybe she didn't get married, or otherwise kept her maiden name. I am hoping the obit will confirm whether she's the one. From ducks to flamingos?The Las Vegas Sun and the Las Vegas Review-Journal of April 21, 1999 each had an obit for a Eugenia Dunbar McCall, age 95. Obviously I don't know if she's the same person, but "she was a retired Flamingo Hilton showroom waitress of more than 30 years." Somehow I can picture this Eugenia ending up at the Flamingo in Las Vegas. Birds of a FeatherEugenia is too young to have been the Flamingo dancer. If she was 17 in September 1926, she was born in 1908 or 1909. Your showgirl was born in 1904, and I don't believe any showgirl would add five years when telling her age! Lucky Ducks Take 2I found another photograph of Misses Dunbar and Moose here. The second picture was taken just before or after the one here on Shorpy; their poses (including those of the ducks) have barely changed. What has changed is that both ladies are looking into camera with rather sultry expressions – oh you kid(s)! It is interesting that the quality of this second picture is far poorer than Shorpy’s standard (it’s fuzzy with too much contrast) despite the site’s rather pleasing magnifying feature. It just goes to remind me what an outstanding site Shorpy is – cheers Dave! [That image was made from a print, as opposed to ours, which comes from the original negative. - Dave] Wow, and double wowI wouldn't mind a date with either one of these beauties, although I'm kind of partial to Eugenia. Pick her up in the old Essex for a malt at the corner drug store, a couple of hours at a dance (maybe the one mentioned in her poem?), and then down to the local motion picture palace to catch the latest Clara Bow movie. Eugenia DunbarThis is Joe Manning. A few weeks ago, I requested the obituary for a Eugenia Dunbar, who died in Pasadena, CA, and was born in 1909. Bad news. The obit is not available. The only other scrap of info is this: In the 1920 census, there is a Rossie Dunbar, born in 1909 in North Carolina, attending the Industrial Home School in Washington, DC. That's the only Dunbar, born about 1909, in the 1920 DC Census. Anybody got any ideas? Eugenia graduatesIn the June 23, 1923, Washington Post, Eugenia is listed as graduating from the Peabody-Hilton School to Eastern High. Photographer?Does anyone know who the photographer was? [The National Photo Service. - Dave] Dupont Circle / Leiter MansionThanks to research by Wikipedia user AgnosticPreachersKid, we can confirm the location is definitely the east side of Dupont Circle. The building in the background is the left side of the Leiter mansion, which until 1947 stood at the northeast corner of the circle. It's now the site of the Dupont Plaza Hotel, formerly known as Jurys Washington Hotel. Links: photo of the mansion exterior · blog post about the mansion · blog post about the site · Levi Leiter bio @ Wikipedia. I suspect the streets have been widened since 1927; Google Street View today seems to show a narrower sidewalk at the location where the ladies would've been positioned: View Larger Map The sidewalks on Sheridan Circle, a few blocks away, are twice as wide, and more closely resemble the one in the photo. But there's no denying the photo was taken at Dupont Circle; too many details match up - tree branches, railed fence, fence column, balcony, position of street lamp; the shrubs were missing in 1927, but that's about it. Olivia Eugenia "Gena" Dunbar Snell (1909-1967)Many thanks to Erin Blakemore, professional genealogist Shanna Jones, and Gena's nephew Edward H. Dunbar, Jr. and his mom for their assistance with this research! I'd love to be able to say "Gena loved to..." but unfortunately, Edward Jr. says the relatives who could've filled in the gaps in her biography and told us more about her life & interests have all died. Olivia Eugenia "Gena" Dunbar was born in Augusta, Georgia, on March 25, 1909, to William M. Dunbar Jr. and Carrie Eugenia Johnson. Gena was the first of six children (three boys and three girls), none of whom are living now. She turned 18 just one month before the photo was taken. Her youngest sibling, Edward, was about two years old at the time of the photo. He died at age 83 at the end of 2008, a mere two weeks before the photo was posted on Shorpy. Gena's mom, Carrie, was from a well-respected family in Gainesville, Georgia. Carrie's father, Fletcher Marcellus Johnson Sr. (1858-1914), was a judge, and her mother, Elizabeth Eugenia Sullivan (1861-1893), was a college professor. This branch of the Dunbar family was from Richmond County, Georgia (Augusta area), and nearby Barnwell & Edgefield counties, S.C. In the mid-1920s, Gena's parents had temporarily settled in Washington, D.C., where William was working as a Maxwell House coffee salesman. Gena's nephew, Edward H. Dunbar Jr., says, "I was told that part of his job was the introduction of an 'instant' coffee product ... an endeavor which did not meet with success at that time," but concedes "I don't know about the accuracy of this. My father, who had a genuine interest in family history, also could exercise a rather impish sense of humor from time to time." His mother, though, confirms the story. Instant coffee existed but didn't really catch on until after World War 2. Gena eventually married William Edward Snell (b. Sept. 21, 1905), whose family was from Gwinnett County near Atlanta, home to Snellville. Thereafter, Gena was known as Gena or Eugenia D. Snell. On May 19, 1932, she gave birth to their only son, William Edward "Bo" Snell, Jr., who eventually graduated from the University of Georgia and became a lawyer. Gena's mom died at age 69 on June 5, 1955, in Augusta. Gena's husband died in Cobb County (Marietta area) at age 56 on Dec. 22, 1961. Gena herself died in Atlanta at age 58 on Nov. 17, 1967. Her son Bo died in Bar Harbor, Maine, at age 63 on Feb. 26, 1995. Melancollic StrangerBy lucky I get into this site, found this photo and suddenly I feel rarely sad and ... small (pequeño). I don't know how to explain, I don't even speak english very well. And is just this picture, I was captivated by it, it's so clear, so close. And then I see that date, and is so hard for me to accept that everything is gone, that she is not there, right know, with that smile. I'm not even suppose to be here, doing this, there is so much work to do, however I can't help my self, I needed to write this. Duck speed on landIt just struck me as funny that these girls have leashes on the ducklings. Back on the farm I would often see our two ducks waddling toward the barn, as I set out to get the cow and take her into the barn to milk her. By the time I was headed back to the house with the milk, or about 20 minutes later, the ducks would have waddled about five yards. Had those ducklings decided to make a run for it, I don't think the girls would have had much trouble catching them! SHE IS MY TWINOkay, the girl on the left looks just like me, it's crazy! Quacking another Mystery.The ducks are named "Diddles" (Dunbar) and Tommie (Moose), according to the caption from Acme Newspictures. (The Gallery, Bizarre, Animals, D.C., Natl Photo, Pretty Girls)
South From Chestnut: 1910
... +103 Below is the same view from May of 2013. Night Lights As I scan over all to see, I kept thinking what this street would look like with the arches and signs fully lit at night. Just so much to see. Love these busy street scenes, a moment ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/03/2014 - 7:51am -

Circa 1910. "High Street south from Chestnut, Columbus, Ohio." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. EnigmaI'm glad tterrace included a "g" in the noun. As for how I do it, Dave was right - I use my camera and take the pictures. I'm glad people enjoy them (it drives my wife insane). The real questionThe real question is not how he makes a specific image but how does "timeandagainphoto" (taap) know which image Shorpy is going to publish and in some cases it is several years before it is published on Shorpy. [And some he took before there even was a Shorpy the Website. He addressed the enigma here. -tterrace] Re: EnigmaAlthough I feel like I'm falling into a trap of my own making, I still must ask this of timeandagainphoto. Just so I really understand: you have a massive archive of photos of streetscapes from across America, and when you see a Shorpy photo taken from the same vantage point, you dive into your storehouse of treasures and pluck out the matching picture? UpdateOK, I accept the explanations by Dave and tterrace as to how timeandagainphoto does it! BUT, after offering the Bing possibility earlier today, I went out and about and ran across a Bing Streetside camera car mapping roads in Pittsford, New York, the first time I've ever seen one! If I wasn't suspicious already, I'm now totally convinced that Shorpy is somehow tied into the space-time continuum at a level beyond my ability to comprehend. Enigma VariationsMaybe taap previously photographed the "now" views of the same Detroit Publishing catalogue of images that Dave uses for Shorpy. [That's on a par with saying Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny don't exist; leave us with some illusions, please. -tterrace] Speaking of illusionsBut, but, what do you mean they don't exist, tterrace? ArchesMany of these arches were moved about a mile north on High St to the "Short North." They give a nice cozy feeling when you are out on the street. "Columbus-ohio-short-north-arches". Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons. Storehouse of Treasuresdavidk - you mostly described the process. perpster’s speculation is correct (sorry for the illusion elimination tterrace) - the first step is obtaining the vintage images that I use as "thens" to the "nows" that I shoot. I use the vintage photographs to triangulate the height and distance in order to ensure my shots are taken from the identical perspective (which is challenging since many of the vintage views were taken in streets that were used by significantly fewer and slower modes of transportation, different optics of modern lenses, large glass plates vs. digital, etc.). I have hundreds of sets from all over the country that I've done since 1986 – I mat and frame them next to one another (see below for a couple of examples). The reason they match up with the Shorpy views is because I use the Library of Congress for most of my vintage views like Shorpy (I also use the National Archives, libraries, and other sources). By the way, my storehouse of treasures is numerous lateral filing cabinets in my basement and several gigabytes of hard drive space in my computer. Okay, I give upHow does timeandagainphoto do it? He isn't taking screen grabs from Google streetview, and he always has the same perspective as in the Shorpy photo. I am both dumbfounded and gobsmacked. "How does timeandagainphoto do it?"There are OTHER street view programs out there. Bing (Maps) "Streetside Explorer at eye level", is one of them, IF the street you're looking for is one of those they cover (far less then Google at present), and IF you can hit one of those times it's actually working. The relevant view appears to be in their database, but I kept getting "try again later" messages when I went for a look-see. [Actually he does it by standing in the appropriate spot with his camera and taking a picture. - Dave] +103Below is the same view from May of 2013. Night Lights As I scan over all to see, I kept thinking what this street would look like with the arches and signs fully lit at night. Just so much to see.Love these busy street scenes, a moment captured in time and in such exceptional detail. Everyone hurrying about their business and paying no attention to the photographer who here must be more or less in the middle of the road. Not Much LeftThe Atlas building still remains. It's the building with "4%" on its roof. There may be a couple others, like the Elevator restaurant and an apartment building, but that's about it. The building I work in sits on the corner of Chestnut and High. I wish Columbus still had the arches going all the way down High Street, not just in the Short North. Twenty Year OffsetIn the 1970s Columbus was solidly in the 1950s. I don't know if that 20 year difference tracks forward or backward. Re: Storehouse of TreasuresThank you so much for the explanation, timeandagainphoto. I realize it demystifies yet another untouched corner of the universe, but it goes a huge way towards satisfying my literal-minded, need-to-know, aching-with-curiosity soul. (As for Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, there's no reason to assume they don't exist.) (The Gallery, DPC, Streetcars)
Times Square: 1943
... Depression That brilliant facade of the night, the signs that scream see this, drink this, buy this, are stripped of ... Times Square! Mysterious and alluring, rain or shine, night or day. Not the sterile, Disneyfied pedestrian mall that's closed off to ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/01/2012 - 1:35pm -

New York, March 1943. "Times Square on a rainy day." Medium-format nitrate negative by John Vachon for the Office of War Information. View full size. Color me grayThis would be fun to see in color: the brightness of the billboards and the taxis would really stand out against the steely cold damp drabness of everything else. Colorizing after the fact wouldn't quite capture the atmosphere, but maybe I'll try anyway. Unless someone else wants to...? Saludos Amigos en la Plaza del TiempoThe Globe Theater on the right has put up a lavish display for Walt Disney's "Saludos Amigos," a 42-minute feature cartoon that encouraged our wartime "Good Neighbor Policy" with South America. Here's the Disney lobby poster that the Globe copied for its building-high banner. March 1-17, 1943Well, the only way I can narrow down the date is to find out that the movie at the Globe changed beginning Thursday, March 18 (Saludos Amigos had its last showing on the 17th). Are there any other little hints in the picture to help date it? Blackout!Check out the blackout headlights on the taxicabs. My mother remembers those. Taxi!Those taxicabs look particularly strange, kinda like a 1930s front plastered on a 1940-ish body shell. And the coupelet back makes them even stranger! Any idea what they are? [Circa 1940 Checker Model A. - Dave] Mother & Father DuffyAt the far left, you can see the Father Duffy Statue. Here's the statue in 1944. The pretty woman in the middle is my mother. BeerSchaefer is the one beer to have...when you're having more than one! Now you know the rest of the jingleSchaefer is the one beer to have...when you're having more than one! Schaefer's pleasure doesn't fade even when your thirst is done. The most rewarding flavor in this man's world, for people who are having fun. Schaefer is the one beer to have when you're having more than one. I wonder how long it's been since that was on the airwaves... Stop n GoIs that one of the old-fashioned stoplights that only had red and green lenses? I would have thought those were all gone by 1943. BroadwayThis picture shows Seventh Avenue, which looks like it was a two way street then. Out of the photo, to the left, would be Broadway. Mayor Bloomberg has shut off any traffic between 47th and 42nd Streets on Broadway. It is now a mall, complete with folding chairs and is mobbed on the nicer days. GloomyIt makes me shiver just to see this photo. How gray and cold that rain must be. I also notice the "Buy War Bonds" sign on the Flatiron Building, and the WAAC sign. Is that a recruiting station or something? Also visible above the marquee is an Orpheum sign, presumably from the old Vaudeville days. A real step back into America's past. I wonder if it was Sunday, with so few people on the street. [That's not the Flatiron Building. Which is taller, and not on Times Square. - Dave] Laffmovie Here, a 5/15/43 NY Times entry about the theater to the right of the Astor. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9802EFDD103CE03ABC4D52DFB... Parts of the 42nd Street sister-theater mentioned in the article have been put to good use as the AMC Empire 25. http://cinematreasures.org/theater/255/ Depression That brilliant facade of the night, the signs that scream see this, drink this, buy this, are stripped of their promise by the harsh drab light of day. Across the street is the Orpheum. A gilded palace where baggy pant top bananas tell stale jokes and cheap B girls shimmy and strip to the cat calls and wolf whistles of the lonely and desperate. I pull up my collar against the wind and start across. My feet make pearlescent rings in the oil drenched street. It's a cold rain, but not enough rain to wash the dirt from this city. Depression is daylight, and rain and Times Square. Crossed StreetsPerhaps Mr. Mel has Bway and Seventh reversed. In the foreground Broadway is on the right -- a two-way avenue at the time, one-way going south when I moved here, no-way as of last month (pedestrians only). Seventh Avenue is out of view on our left. In the distance where the Times building is (with a V for "Victory" and War Bonds), the two cross and Broadway goes away down the canyon to the left and Seventh Avenue continues down the canyon to the right. WAAC = Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, soon changed to Women's Army Corps (the famous WACs of the WACs, WAVEs, WASPs, and SPARs). Re the Flatiron Building misidentifications, I myself got the Times tower confused with yet a third building in the Central 40s (still standing) in another Shorpy last week. It's too easy to get confused because with the ugly sheathing obscuring all the turn- of- the- century beauty, the Times tower shell we see today isn't recognizable to its appearance in photos. This is wartime and the neon signage is a sad subdued shadow of its peacetime glories. Admiral -- Canadian ClubNot only is that not the Flatiron, it's the building Times Square was named after -- the old New York Times headquarters. Known mainly for the past 60-odd years as the building that holds up the big billboards at the end of Times Square. It's encased almost entirely in signage. Now that's Times Square!Mysterious and alluring, rain or shine, night or day. Not the sterile, Disneyfied pedestrian mall that's closed off to traffic now. Red and GreenI'm not sure when New York replaced all the older two-color lights, but I can remember them still being around during my childhood in the mid- to late-1950's. As I recall, at one point they had them showing both red and green to mean "caution" in place of the yellow light. Some things never changeThe manhole covers look the same today. The potholes, too. Taxi grabThat shot of the Checker Model A taxi is a frame grab from the film Kiss of Death (1949). The one where Richard Widmark pushes the old lady in a wheelchair down the stairs. Trash basketsI love the wire trash cans. They're right out of a Looney Toons reel. Do these still exist? 47th StreetThis is looking south from 47th Street. The building on the right has been replaced by the W Hotel and the Marriott has replaced the building just south of that. This is where the TKTS booth is nowadays. And as a matter of fact, my office window (where I am sitting right now) is on the left -- just to the right of the letter A in "State". MasterpieceAlso visible is a billboard for "The Human Comedy," a superb movie, a bit maudlin now, but still a classic and well worth watching. Admiral-Canadian Club ReduxThat Admiral - Canadian Club stack of signs was at the north end of Times Square and not hung on the Times Tower on the south end. Notice that the Astor Hotel is on the left, or west, side of the Square. The Astor Theater was a favorite with my family, when we were in town just to see a movie, and not to go to the Paramount, Roxy or the Music Hall (or to the Center Theater for the ice show), all of which complemented their movies with stage musical and comedy shows, such as The Phil Spitalny All-Girl Orchestra featuring Evelyn and Her Magic Violin, Phil Silvers, and Danny Kaye. Wow! There were giants (managed by Bill Terry and Mel Ott) in NYC in Those Days! And weren't those funny-looking cabs DeSotos? [The ones in this photo are Checkers. - Dave] Movie schedule"The Human Comedy" opened at the Astor Tuesday, March 2 so that eliminates one day. The Lonely CrowdI love the complete anonymity of the few people in this photo. You can't see their faces. They could be anyone, lost somewhere in the sprawling metropolis. Horn and HardartThe building just to the right of the Globe Theater (partially shown) is Horn and Hardart Automat. If this is 1943 it may not have been the Automat yet, as I didn't get to New York until 1947, at age 15, but by then it certainly was the Automat as I was in it a lot. Coming from Boston and all alone I was a scared kid to be in middle of Times Square. The Palace theater was across the street showing "The Spiral Staircase." I believe to the right of the Astor was the Victoria Theater, probably yet to be where the Laff Movie seems to be in 1943. I think the Globe was later to be the Times Square Theater or something like that. I remember seeing "An American in Paris" there around 1953. Times bldg. & Flatiron bldg.Sorry, Dave, but according to emporis.com Times is taller than Flatiron (110.64 m vs. 86.87 m). Funny thing is that I too misidentificated these two buildings before I started read more about Manhattan skyscrapers. Now I'm old NYC highrise fan and I love your site. [Maybe you're still a bit confused. The Times building is behind the "Buy War Bonds" building, which is just 16 stories tall. - Dave] The 1943 Father Duffy area in 2009As of 2009, the large Celtic looking stone cross to the left in the 1943 pic is now directly at the bottom of the steps of the TKTS booth in Times Square. The other side of the cross has the statue of Father Duffy so the 1943 pic is facing south. I think that spot is still called, Duffy Square? Interesting how the subway entrance used to be in what is now pavement in the middle of the two streets. Here's an example to compare it to. "Times Square: 1943" http://www.nytix.com/repository/broadway/TKTS/times-square-steps1.gif And the ladies under the Father Duffy pic in 1944. "Mother & Father Duffy" http://gothamist.com/attachments/jen/2008_10_tkt18.jpg +66Here is the view from the identical location and angle from August of 2009. As Azelzion noted, the Horn and Hardart Automat is visible on the right of the original photo (my father told me that the one time he visited New York City was when he was in the Marines in the early 1950's and had Thanksgiving dinner at that automat). The Grand Slam souvenir shop now occupies that site. I believe it is the same structure but under a new facade (no traces of the automat can be seen inside, either). The Globe Theater, which also has an "Orpheum" sign, next door to the automat was replaced by a Howard Johnson's restaurant in 1955 and was a Times Square landmark until it closed in July of 2005 (I was fortunate to have had lunch in the aged but still charming restaurant in November of 2004). The site is currently undergoing construction of a new building to house a retail store. WAAC BoothHere's a closer view of the WAAC booth with my Mom and her friends. Taken the same day as the pic below with Father Duffy. Locus of creativityThis wonderful image adds another dimension to the descriptive work from that era left to us by Kerouac; it is the Times Square of Edie Parker, Huncke, Lucien Carr, Burroughs, Ginsberg, and late-night camaraderies that inspired some of the best writing of that generation. Almost exact location, 11 years laterAbout 11 years later, my grandfather took a picture on a very similar, rainy day. He was about half a block farther south, and little bit to the left. One thing that surprises me is that the first movie theater just south of 46th has a Planters ad over the marquee, and not an ad for what's showing, like in the 1954 image. Other little changes, like light poles are different, no WAAC globe in 54, and many more pigeons! In Living ColorA large full colorized version can be found here. More on the Checker Model A here. About that traffic lightA couple commenters noticed the traffic light with only red and green; New York City didn't start using red-amber-green until the early 50's, and the transition took about 40 years to complete. I remember seeing some red-green signals still hanging on here and there in the city through the 70s. The other interesting thing about this particular light is that you can see here that the lenses are masked for war-time darkening. There is only a very small cross of light visible for each indication, rather than the whole 8"-wide ball that would normally be visible. I find it amazing that anyone could see these signals darkened like that. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, John Vachon, NYC)
Interiors: 1941
... they're called muffin tins. A dark and stormy night For what it's worth, my mom and dad and older siblings lived in a ... a cigarette in the living area in the middle of the night during a thunderstorm. A ball of fire came through the front door, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/13/2017 - 2:47pm -

June 1941. "Interior of Negro rural house. Greene County, Georgia." Medium-format negative by Jack Delano, Farm Security Administration. View full size. Take a guessThe three people in the background in two other rooms all appear to be watching TV, but I doubt that many people had a TV in 1941. What do you think they were looking at? [The lighting suggests the two in back are on an open porch and the seated man in a room with an open door, and they're all looking at whatever is going on outside. -tterrace] House DesignI believe we're looking at the interior of what is called a "Shotgun House." They were built narrow and long to fit more buildings into one area. The name came from someone saying you could "Stand at the front door and fire a shotgun out the back door and hit nary a thing." Shotgun Shack......was my first thought when I saw this photo, but obviously it's not really one, because there's not a door at the back end, and there look to be rooms on both sides of the hallway. I'm not from the South; I first heard about shotgun shacks when reading a biography of Elvis' life- his first home, where was born, was a shotgun shack. Also, I noticed how the woman in front has the top of her apron pinned to her dress, rather than holding it up with a neck strap. Never saw that before. Norman Rockwell, Eat Your Heart OutSo many details to see from the safety pins holding up her apron, to the cupcake tins that seem to double as decor on the far wall, the open lock on the old chest, the bare feet, the quality of light... Except this was not an artist's idealized fiction. Though I don't doubt there was some level of deliberate positioning between Jack Delano and the subjects, the overall feeling has a rich truth to it. Deep FocusI couldn't help but think of deep focus photography, as seen in movies such as "The Best Years of Our Lives." It's an amazing technique that draws the viewer in. Domestic sceneThis reminds me of Dutch domestic paintings where you can see people in distant doorways. A young woman stands at the entrance of a spotlessly clean house (also like the dutch) where her family members stand and sit farther back in the house, resolutely ignoring the camera. A beautiful, enigmatic photograph. Kitchen houseIn some parts of Georgia, families often had separate "kitchen houses" to keep heat and risk of fire away from the house. You can still view them in historic house tours. In the North, there was a similar concept, but used only seasonally, the summer kitchen. It appears to me that this family also had their kitchen area separated from the other parts of their living quarters by a breezeway or porch area. The woman/girl in the foreground is in the sleeping area, then there is a porch with two folks seated, and beyond them, is the kitchen. Hat bandI would love to know what's around that guy's hat, just in case there were other photos from that day. Muffin tins (on the wall, in the kitchen), probably for corn bread. Someone said cupcake pans, but even when they're used for cupcakes, they're called muffin tins. A dark and stormy nightFor what it's worth, my mom and dad and older siblings lived in a shotgun house back in the late 1940's. My dad was sitting in his chair smoking a cigarette in the living area in the middle of the night during a thunderstorm. A ball of fire came through the front door, rolled down the length of the house, and exited through the back door. True story. (The Gallery, Jack Delano, Rural America)
Hobo Life: 1915
... into our single room home (under the Swithing Tower) one night when it was cold. Father was upstairs at work. A bum was going to force ... rails is all they feel." I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night alive as you and me! Family lore tells that my great-uncle John ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/15/2010 - 5:24pm -

Location unknown circa 1915. "Tramps in boxcar playing cards." 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size. On their wayFive years later, they attended the banquet for the Civitan Club. My Dad, in 1933, at age 16 left his home in depression-ridden Flint, Michigan, to hobo his way via rail to California. He managed to return home to Flint, and eventually graduated from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in civil engineering, becoming a professional railroad engineer. At his retirement, he was the only person to have served as Chief Engineer for 3 major railroads: the Wabash, the Norfolk and Western, and the B&O-C&O (predecessor to CSX). Hobo or TrampThis is according to Wikipedia: Tramps and hobos are commonly lumped together, but in their own sight they are sharply differentiated. A hobo or bo is simply a migratory laborer; he may take some longish holidays, but soon or late he returns to work. A tramp never works if it can be avoided; he simply travels. Lower than either is the bum, who neither works nor travels, save when impelled to motion by the police. Not an easy lifeHobos faced all sorts of dangers -- from freezing to death on trains, to being beaten by railway "bulls," to being murdered by other hobos. It wasn't uncommon for newspapers to include methods of dealing with unwanted hobos, including hints on poisoning them. My father rode the rails for a time until he witnessed the death of another man who was knocked from the top of a train. I highly recommend "Hard Travellin': The Hobo and His History" by Kenneth Allsop. A fascinating glimpse into the life and history of hobos. Emmett KellyThat guy on the right sure does look like him, only he doesn't need any makeup. In the cardsJudging by the number of cards per player the scorecards on the ground, I'm guessing these guys are playing three-handed euchre. Since euchre is played mainly in the upper Midwest, I'm going to guess this was within smelling distance of the Great Lakes. [How far away from the Great Lakes do they have to get before they stop playing? - Dave] Works & DreamsForget Wikpedia, trust the old hoboes who described it this way:: A hobo works and dreams. A tramp dreams and works. A bum is too lazy to do either. Mum and the bumFor the first several years of my life my father worked for Southern Pacific as a telegrapher. Our family routinely had contact with hobos, tramps and bums. It was not uncommon to find some very well educated men traveling the rails as a hobo. I was told by my mother that many times she would let hobos hold me as an infant and they would sit and talk. She said you could tell it made them think of home. Hobo camps were common and most people left them alone. When tramps or bums hit the area there was more often trouble. My father related a story to me in which a bum burst into our single room home (under the Swithing Tower) one night when it was cold. Father was upstairs at work. A bum was going to force his way in and stay by the iron stove. What he did not know was my mother was a "crack shot" with a small pistol she kept tucked away. Rather than call for Father, she pulled the gun out and forced the man outside. The bum challenged her. He didn't think she could handle the gun. Mother pointed it at a bottle by a fencepost and fired. Now, more than likely it was by luck, but the bottle shattered. The bum ran for the hills all wide-eyed. Word got around that there was a lady living at the Yard "who could kill ya!" We never had problems again. Not surprisingly, the hobos in the area always kept an eye out for our family and made sure we were safe! As we got older, all of us Railroad Kids would wander off to the camps and visit with the hobos. It was a different time. A time when you knew who you could trust. Dressing styleYou know, I think these tramps are actually far better dressed than most employed men I see on the street today. Four months ago"I told my wife I was running out to get some cigs." "Are you in or not?" "Oh, sorry. I'll see your twigs and raise you a handful of hay." I can hearArlo Guthrie singing "The City Of New Orleans" -- the part that goes "the rhythm of the rails is all they feel." I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last nightalive as you and me! Family loretells that my great-uncle John Shea was a hobo back then. I wonder if one of these guys is he. (The Gallery, G.G. Bain, Railroads)
Brooklyn Pin Boys: 1910
... Bowling Alleys, 65 South Street, Brooklyn, N.Y., every night. Three smaller boys were kept out of the photo by Boss." View full ... were set. It happened routinely, especially later at night when the patrons were inebriated. However, you could usually expect a ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/08/2011 - 6:37pm -

April 1910. "1 a.m. Pin boys working in Subway Bowling Alleys, 65 South Street, Brooklyn, N.Y., every night. Three smaller boys were kept out of the photo by Boss." View full size. Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. notice the gas lightsnotice the gas lights Slave DriverNot only did he hide all the nine year old kids when he saw the photographer, but I'll bet he also made sure his whip wasn't visible either. muralI like the hint of the sailing mural on the back wall.Touch of class. Bogotá 2006Reminds me of a bowling hall I visited in downtown Bogotá last year - pin boys and a musty basement smell my dad was a pin boy. :]my dad was a pin boy. :] Is that.......the dude from "Deadwood"? The boss looks like......Al Swearengen from Deadwood Pin Boy (Retired)I'm 78 now. I used to be a pin boy, part time nights in Hartford, Ct. from 1944 to 1947. The pay was much better than working on the tobacco farms after school. man that job must haveman that job must have sucked did anyone ever throw the ball b4 u were done setting them?? Patrons intentionally bowling before pins were set.It happened routinely, especially later at night when the patrons were inebriated. However, you could usually expect a better tip from the drunk bowlers, especially if you would "help them along" by discreetly knocking over a few extra pins. We would occasionally taunt them and quickly jump over the safety wall as the ball was approaching. One of only a handful remaining, there is still a public manual alley in Shohola, PA at Rohman's Hotel, It is cheap (1$ per frame) if you set your own pins or bring you own pin boy, (or girl). http://www.riverreporter.com/issues/05-07-14/LR-wanda.html 73, Tom Good ole daysI worked lanes like these in the basement of a school attached to our church in Illinois. First time I ever saw a cork ball. And yes, they have thrown the ball down the lane before you had all pins set up, you just had to be quick enough to jump out of the way. Then & NowPeople think they have it ruff now. Nice photo. Got paid a nickel a line.I was a pinboy at age 12 in New Jersey in the fifties. Eight alleys no air conditioning, no breaks, no dental plan. But with tips you made a couple of bucks a night. Enough for a movie, comic books, a coke, and a pack of smokes. Today most folks have to work 8 hours to get all that stuff. My First JobMy first job was as a pinboy at our local country club in New Jersey. Seven cents a game plus tips. I lasted about 4 hours. ChicagoStill have pinboys in Chicago at Southports Lanes on the northside. Former Pin BoyMy husband was a pin boy in 1953 at the Yonkers Jewish Center. He said your picture is exactly the way it was. (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, NYC, Sports)
Herald Square: 1908
... left of the Hotel Astor? [The owls' eyes lit up at night. The skinny building is the New York Times. - Dave] Can you find? ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/02/2020 - 2:40pm -

New York circa 1908. "Herald Square." Panorama composed of two 8x10 inch glass negatives, digitally merged, showing Broadway at 34th Street. Landmarks include the the New York Herald newspaper building (with its clockwork blacksmith bell-ringers and electrified owls), Sixth Avenue elevated tracks, New York Times building and Hotel Astor. Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. James Gordon Bennett MonumentThe New York Herald Building was built in 1893 and demolished in 1921. The statue of Minerva, the clock and two owls were saved and are now part of a monument to James Gordon Bennett. The Mighty HippodromeThe largest theatre in the world at the time, the Hippodrome, can be seen far down the tracks on the right. Hotel Normandie"Absolutely Fireproof" Made of 100% Asbestos. Wow!Just WOW! An amazing photoThe details are unbelievable. Hours can be spent just studying this photo and I likely will. "Electrified" owlsSo what did Herald's "electrified" owls do? Light up or move? And what is the tall skinny building just left of the Hotel Astor? [The owls' eyes lit up at night. The skinny building is the New York Times. - Dave] Can you find?A head without a hat. I couldn't. Too much... This one is giving me data overload! So much to see in the image! It must be a warm Spring or Summer day because I see a lot of men sporting skimmers (flat topped straw hats) and the women are wearing blouses with shorter sleeves and fancy hats. Toward the lower left of the photo we see a cab (horse drawn type) with the driver, in his top hat, waiting patiently. I suspect that I can see a slight smile on his face. Perhaps there is a pretty girl in his field of view. Then, there are the two members of the constabulary conversing together, in the lower center of the picture. maybe they are talking about going over to the Lunch wagon on the far right to grab a bite to eat. What, I ask, is the "House of Hits"? That phrase seems to me to right out of the early '60s Motown, not 1910 New York. Then there is the Hotel Normandie - Absolutely Fireproof! It seems that Otard Brandy is still available, even today! I find it a bit hard to believe, but there seems to be a casino in Midtown Manhattan. I can't forget Lucio's Pearls. They defy detection! and right above them we have "Paul Jones Pure Rye - Remember the bottle!" There is so much more to take in, in this photograph. [In answer to your questions: Jos. W. Stern ("The House of Hits") was a music publisher. The Casino was a theater at 39th and Broadway. - Dave] 80 minutes apartThe glass plates making up the panorama, exposed at 12:04 and 1:24 p.m. Click to enlarge. Still Where The Action Is!I So LOVE this photo! I would give almost anything to be able to go back to this very spot for a few days to shop, sightsee and experience life during this time. The buildings are lovely, the clothing elegant, the cabs very dapper. I will be studying this one for a long while. Thank you Dave posting this one and for such a wonderful merger of pics. Herald SquareThat answered my question about why the two clocks had different times. [There's only one clock here. The dial on the right is a wind rose. - Dave] FoxyThat Fox Real Estate branding would stand the test of time by today's standards, what a classic. Although the fox better watch out for that self-stropping razor up above. DaredevilWho are those people on the elevated tracks in the distance? And what are they doing? One looks like a kid on a bicycle, dropping something on the people below. [That's a man standing with his hand on the railing. - Dave] Jaywalkers everywhereI have no idea how I could safely drive that street without flattening a well dressed pedestrian or two. The most I can see vaguely in the way of traffic safety is a sign on a lamppost warning about slow moving vehicles. Not even a bollard in sight. Streetcars or cable carsAre those streetcars or cable cars? The center slot between the rails could hold either the electrical source for streetcars (the "conduit" type) or the moving cable for cable cars. I don't seem to see any trolleys on the cars or overhead trolley wires. [New York's streetcars drew their power from an underground electrical supply. - Dave] All those peopleDidn't anyone work? This must be the ultimate Shorpy photo, almost too much to fathom. The city of Vancouver, B.C., had a population of 70,000 in 1907; today the greater Vancouver area is 2.25 million, which most Canadians think of as an unlivable population. Credit where credit is due.Don Y's post was just fabulous. Thank you Dave and thank you Don Y !!!! Herald Square ParkNice 2007 article in the New York Times about the statue of Minerva and her bell ringers, "Stuff" and "Guff" (or "Gog" and Magog"), seen here atop the Herald Building. The Herald Building was demolished in 1923, the statue stored, and then in 1939-40 permanently installed back in Herald Square Park. Present day Herald Square Park as well as the adjacent Greeley Square Park are gores--that is, triangular. Several New York City parks are gores. But, in front of the Herald Building, is the statue that of Horace Greeley, publisher of the rival Tribune? The horseless hansomThere is a very interesting cab (?) with a driver up behind in the middle right. Can anyone ID it? [It's an electric hansom cab. - Dave] Hussy!The forearms of the young woman in the lower left are entirely exposed. What was the world coming to? No point in directing the traffic,may as well stand in the middle of the road and have a chat instead. An amazing photo with superb detail. Excellent piece of stitching. Macy'sLet's not forget Macy's Department store right there on the corner. I used to walk through that very spot almost everyday, and to be honest, it hasn't really changed all that much. Right Hand DriveAnyone know when American autos converted to left hand drive. [The transition was a gradual one, with right- and left-hand-drive autos sharing the roads for many years. - Dave] We may never knowWhat is so fascinating about the carriage with the umbrella? The driver of the Packard, the second wagon and the nearby pedestrians all appear to engrossed. I have visions of a patent medicine barker making an unscheduled pitch, or perhaps a local celebrity on his or her way from the Hippodrome. That Packard, BTW, is one gorgeous automobile. The menace of lunch wagonsIn the center right sits "Lunch Wagon No.9" - precursor to today's bustling midtown street food scene. Wish I knew what was on the menu. Here is a 1907 letter to the New York Times complaining about this very lunch wagon for being obstructive. A letter the day before in the Times complained about a food wagon at Union Square that had wheels but hadn't moved in years. This one looks like it could be the same deal. A couple of years later, there were Suffragette Food Wagons that offered a free side of feminism along with "Suffragette Sandwiches" - shades of Govinda's, a Hare Krishna food cart that has recently disappeared. WatchYour Step!There is an open access panel in the roadway right where the tracks cross. Interestingly enough, it does not seem to be visible in the left hand of two images, but is quite clear in the right hand one and in the composite photo. There is one hatless headand it is in a very prominent position in the square. It belongs to the fine statue of William Dodge (now in Bryant Park) in front of the Herald. Outstanding photograph and merge! Nobody remembers Rogers Peet anymoreOf course, few people remembered them when they were still open. I got one of my first suits on sale there, but I think that store was uptown from here on 42d Street. It was full of what seemed to be very old people. Metropolitan opera houseAlso visible is the original Metropolitan opera house at Bway and 39th... (The Gallery, DPC, NYC, Railroads, Streetcars)
1950s Record Store
... member-submitted photo. Just the thing for a Saturday night. Like a number of the commenters below, I would place the date here ... 
 
Posted by John.Debold - 06/25/2008 - 2:05pm -

Interior of the Holiday Shop record and camera store at the Roeland Park Shopping Center in Roeland Park, Kansas. View full size. [A fascinating member-submitted photo. Just the thing for a Saturday night. Like a number of the commenters below, I would place the date here around 1950-51. - Dave] Records?Records? What's a "record"? 1950s Record StoreA great photo. I would date it at 1950. On the right are a dozen or so 10-inch Columbia LP's released that year, then re-released around 1955 as 12-inch discs. The Record StoreThis is a great photo...seems to be from a pretty-good-sized negative, given the detail coming across on the scan. I would concur with "Anonymous Tipster" that it's a bit earlier than 1955. She/he is correct about the datings for the 10-inch LPs on the right. Plus, the Columbia 33 rpm LP was a brand-new technology in 1948, and so the stuff at the left of the photo to play the "new LPs" wouldn't have been any big deal in by 1955. But then, I was surprised that there was any sort of consumer reel-to-reel on the market just then (left of photo; $109 = serious money); I would have expected that a few years later. But, lots of fun nonetheless. Given that the Christmas records are on display, I guess we can assume it's late in the year. [This was scanned from a print. Below, a newspaper ad from October 1950 for the Ampro-Tape recorder shown in the photo, at the same price. - Dave] LPsLooked up a couple of albums from the rack. Went by the cover design since I couldn't make out very much of the text. Doris Day did Tea for Two in 1950. Bing Crosby's Christmas album was from 1949. Couldn't find a manufacturer's name on the tape deck. Looks like it went for 109 and change. Checked a dollar inflation conversion table, and that 109 circa 1950 would be 938 in current dollars. [The manufacturer, whose name can be seen upside down in the lid, is Ampro. - Dave] No. 1 on my hit paradeWhat a fantastic image! This store is so cool and serene; it's hard to believe record stores would change so much over the next twenty years. I have so many questions about this photo. Where was it taken? Can anybody identify the children's record player in the display case on the left? What's the story behind the photos displayed high on the wall? (They don't seem to have anything to do with musicians or records.) I'm adding this photo to my list of Shorpy all-time favorites. [That's a Frank Luther record player. Frank was a country singer who also did kiddie songs. Check out John's other photos. I especially like Lunch on the Pennsy. - Dave] Edith PiafI can't add anything definitive since I don't know which Edith Piaf album that is on the rack, but the little inset photo on the album cover is the famous Piaf photo taken in 1948. That seems to jibe with the assumed 1950 date. Photo At Upper LeftGreat pic not just for the record collectors but audio hobbyists like me. But what is that thing in the photo at upper left? I've zoomed in it and I still am not sure what to make of it. Frank Luther and 10-in. LPsWow! A great nostalgia photo! The first records I ever "owned" when I was a tiny lad were very small 78rpm items that featured Frank Luther singing children's songs. One nonsense ditty that sticks out in my mind began "A frog he would a-courting go, 'Hi-Ho' says Toady; The cat, the rat and little froggy, with a roly-poly gammon and spinach, 'Hi-Ho' says Anthony Toady." As for those 10-inch 33-1/3 RPM Columbia records...I had almost forgotten that such things existed. I had quite a few, mostly featuring the Boston Pops orchestra. [There were also 7-inch 33-1/3 discs, as we can see on the left. - Dave] AllmusicLooking at the Hal McIntyre and Harry James records on the top row, I'd say 1950. The first band only released two albums, the second being "Dance Date" in 1950. Harry James cranked out a bunch, but I find one in 1950 called "Your Dance Date" which can be decoded from what I see in the picture. Both were released on Columbia, BTW. The pictures at the top intrigue me as well. Part of me suspects that they are from old calendars. [The pictures along the top are examples of photo studio work. Meaning this could have been a record-camera store. - Dave] Edith PiafI'm not surprised in seeing the Doris Day and Bing Crosby records on the wall on the right, but I am a little shocked that Edith Piaf features on that wall. Though she was massively popular in France and in French Canada in the 50's, I had no idea she was known in the USA... let alone be popular enough to be displayed in a prominent spot like that. Can we see a close-up of the other records to see the other artists? Der BingleThe Shorpy sleuths seem to be correct [again] as to the vintage of the photo -- in our basement stash of records is the album "Christmas Greetings" on the Decca label from 1949 -- Bing Crosby with the Andrew Sisters, a 3 record set. If this were late 1949, the shoppers as dressed here would seemingly be from a Southern state. For what it's worth, in my small hometown in 1952, I was the first to buy a reel to reel tape recorder, a RCA model similar to the Ampro shown for about $125 if I remember correctly, and still it have in A1 shape. A friend of the mine had an Ampro wire recorder. Time TravelAmazing. Photos like this make me wish time travel was a reality. I would love to insert myself into this scene and go wandering around that bright and shiny place. But for now, photos like this one are a pretty good substitute. Don't suppose anyone knows the name and/or location of this particular shop? I wonder how long it remained a record store? Was it there when Elvis hit the scene a few years later? The Beatles? U2? Excellent photo and thank you for sharing it! Or is it Memorex?Despite my husband's insistence, I must say, this photograph, well, the photo itself is lovely; too lovely. Something about it doesn't set right with me. I am not sure if it is the fit of the dungarees of the guy on the right, the girl's shoes, the fact that the kid's victrola is locked in the showcase yet the expensive reel to reel sits right out in the open. or maybe it is the streamlined look of the counter and wall, or the way the high up pictures are displayed, and their subject matter. Could one have gotten by us? [No. Page through a 1950 House Beautiful or the LOC's Gottscho-Schleiser archive. This is that, on the nose. Below: 1951 music store, 1957 record department, 1951 radio showroom. The tape recorder is where it is so it can be demonstrated to customers. UPDATE: This is the Holiday Shop record and camera store at the Roeland Park Shopping Center in Roeland Park, Kansas. - Dave] Another Soon!I'll put up another record store photo soon. I'm a little busy right now so hopefully by this coming Wednesday. Thanks for the nice comments and information. The next one has Frank Sinatra! -John [We can hardly wait! And you know what would be great, if possible, is a higher-resolution scan of the record-store photo, and whatever you can tell us about it. What might be written on the back, for example. It has caused quite a stir. - Dave] Newfangled SinglesOn the right of the counter, that revolving rack of Capitol singles in boxes really takes me back. This was when 7-inch microgroove (long-playing) records were new and different. They did that for just a few years before going to paper sleeves. Edith PiafThe Piaf discography includes dozens of releases on American labels in the 1950s. [Below on the left, "Chansons Parisiennes" from 1949, an early Columbia Microgroove (LP) release. At right is the one in the photo -- "Edith Piaf Sings," Columbia ML-2603, a 1951 release. - Dave] 7-inch discsThose boxes on the revolving Capitol rack, as well as on the right side of two shelves behind the counter, do indeed contain 7" 45rpm discs, but they're albums, not "singles." Eventually the 45rpm format came to be used exclusively for singles, but initially it was also used for complete multi-disc albums, duplicating the contents of a standard 78rpm album. This was when the RCA/Columbia format war was still underway. 45rpm singles were always issued in paper sleeves, just like their 78rpm counterparts. The thin items on the left side of the two shelves behind the counter are 78 singles. You see a small section of 7" singles on the shelf behind the hand of the customer on the left. Counter KidsWhat exactly are the people at the counter doing? Did you have to pick out the record you wanted from a list or something, and the clerk would retrieve it? [Or she would order it for you. - Dave] Record Store UpdateThis is the Holiday Shop record and camera store at the Roeland Park Shopping Center in Roeland Park, Kansas. Harry JamesHi there. Nice picture! I happen to own a copy of the Harry James 10" depicted in the photograph: "Your Dance Date With Harry James" (Columbia CL 6138). It's dated 1950, so my guess would be 1950 too. Love your site. The Record ShopHere is a nice pic of the local record store circa 1954, named fittingly, The Record Shop. It closed sometime in the 1970's. They also sold audio gear and had a service center in the basement, which the service center remains. One of the original repair techs took over the service center and he's still there servicing. Frank Luther Record PlayerThis Billboard Magazine from December 9, 1950 has an ad for the player on Page 15 (upper right): Browsing BoxesThe "browser boxes" seen below in the "Record Shop" comment were created by Capitol Records' Fred Rice. His team brought the records in music and department stores out from behind the counter to self-service displays that let the customer leaf through the albums and see the covers. Counter-service stores would normally place them with the spines facing out as shown in the main photo above. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Stores & Markets)
Old Corner Bookstore: 1900
... before they left the house. Since I saw some people last night at the local Seven Eleven in their pajamas, slippers and robes, I fear ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/08/2012 - 1:13pm -

Boston, Massachusetts, circa 1900. "Old Corner Bookstore, first brick building in Boston." Detroit Publishing Company 8x10 glass negative. View full size. Dentist NeededThere must have been a corn-on-the-cob vendor nearby. Three pedestrians are picking their teeth. Ann Hutchinson lived thereMy 10th great-grandmother, Ann Hutchinson, lived at that location! Just visited it this summer, fun stuff. No OverweightsPre-automobiles and pre-fast foods.... look how trim all of the men are regardless of age. Compared to todayEveryone's so... thin. Old JokeI bought a suit with 2 pairs of pants and burned a hole in the jacket. Old Corner BookstoreA picture and more information about the Old Corner Bookstore. Covered HeadsEvery man has a hat on. Also, I wonder what the guy in the 4th floor window is doing and what's that circular object in the window? Great PicUsing Google Street View, you can see the building still stands. I'm fascinated by the people you can spy through the windows--the barber, and assorted other folks. I especially enjoy the class case suspended on the second floor full of trousers. Too coolI'm fascinated by the two young dudes leaning against the lamppost. Are they ogling or hoping to be ogled? Only the attire has changed since then. Old bookstoreI love the finger-o-doom pointing downwards on the building behind. Where are all the women? The Corner StoreI'm always wondering why I can't find a good old corner bookshop-barber-loan shark-jeweler-wood engraver-tailor place anymore. Is that...The current Boston Globe Bookstore? Circa 1900Must be the photo, not the bookstore that's circa 1900 since Boston's first brick building must have been built many years before 1900. [There are two giant signs on the store that say when it was built. - Dave] Quick, Marty! I see a time-space wormhole!Jeez, the man standing right on the corner is using a cellphone! Shorpy Zoom PleaseCan we get the Shorpy Zoom to shed some light on the three windows with people please? The barber, the wood engraver, and the kid in the attic. DiamondsThe Old Corner Book Store is now a jewelry store - the building is still there, but the books have long since departed. The cobblestones are still there, though. Time Machine is Working Just FineBeautiful and fascinating photograph! WowLoved this picture - so much to look at! Very cool. Thanks! Another Cool Boston FeatureAnybody interested can also check out this Google Earth tour of the sites in the famous children's book Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey. Rens Spaans - Hair CutterThere's a Dutch name for you. It takes one to know one I guess... Mr. Spaans was apparently "badly injured" in the March 14, 1887 Bussey Bridge Disaster, the train accident following the collapse of a railroad bridge that left 38 dead and some 40 "more or less injured". More here. Sam, you made the pants too long.By the way, when do you suppose this building was built? (Just kidding). One common-tater asked what the guy on the fourth floor was doing and my guess would be that he is sewing on a sewing machine as that is exactly the posture he would be in and being that it was on the fourth floor, with no a/c, it must have been warm, dark and stuffy, hence the wide open window. The circular object MAY be a sewing machine or other tailoring tool. I wonder if your younger readers know that in the 1950's and early 60's, men's suits often featured two pairs of pants because most men would remove their jackets at work and the pants would wear out long before the jackets, making the jacket useless. It was a really good idea. I love this photo and particularly the very well-dressed people in the street. There was a time when people had to be "presentable" before they left the house. Since I saw some people last night at the local Seven Eleven in their pajamas, slippers and robes, I fear those days are gone forever. Thanks for a fascinating look back. UsuryTwo percent per month works out to "only" 26.82% when compounded annually. Unfortunately, Google Maps shows this building is gone. This may be a stupid question but...I'm assuming the 'circa 1900' refers to the photo, but now I became curious as to when the actual 'first brick building in Boston' was built. I found this site, which said it was built in 1712 and has pictures of it still standing today. [Look at the photo. There are two giant signs on the store that say when it was built. - Dave] Pants!I'm somewhat partial to the sign off to the left side for the Eclipse Pants Co., where they offer pants made "at very short notice." Was it common to suddenly need pants in 1900? Never mind any kind of sub-joke about their pants being too short or anything. Man: Excuse me, shopkeep, but I'm in dire need of pants! Shopkeep: You've come to the right place. Short notice is all we need. The Banker and the BearBook ad from June 1900. Closeup of DoorwayWould it be possible to get a closeup of the door with the "Suits ... 16.00" sign to better read the placards. By the way, other than patronizing your advertisers, is there anything we can do to support this wonderful site? [Buy a print! - Dave] Where are the women?For pete's sake, man! This district has bookstores, engravers, loan sharks, and cut-rate tailors! This is no place for any respectable woman! By the way, I think Mr. Cell Phone is actually picking his nose! Dave? Closeup? Different CornerI grew up in Lexington, MA and Boston was my playground. There are a lot of wicked pissa hidden treats all over. Brattle Book shop was established in 1825. Not as old as this building but it smells like history inside and they have an amazing collection of rare books. http://www.brattlebookshop.com/Stuff/rarebookroom.html Pockets and shoesNot the best fitting suits, but they sure beat pajamas. Check out the pocket-watch pocket on the gentleman in front. No wristwatches yet. And how about the shine on the shoes in an era where piles of manure had to be navigated while crossing the street. Modern men can take an example of that. 1900Interesting that the pawn shops and quick loans still exist. And the people, caught in the windows--they had no idea they were being preserved for posterity. 108 years from now, one of us, caught on a cell phone or digital photo will be on Shorpy! This is within a few years of James Joyce's "Ulysses"--I know it's not Dublin but the details are intriguing. Hats off to Shorpy!For another excellent find. I always appreciated the era of hats, and being bald now, I long for those days to return. Face it, all I have to choose from is a baseball cap, which makes me look like the world's oldest 10-year-old, or a cowboy hat, which unless you happen to be riding a horse just doesn't cut it. Let's bring back the derby and fedora! Me too...I love how everyone is dressed smartly and I was wondering about the color of their suits. What was the predominant suit color back then ? [An intensely deep, dark purple. - Dave] Another slice of lifeI love the "slice of life" images on Shorpy. The sight of people in the windows is fascinating. These pictures make history come alive and I wish more people could share in that sense of life. Too many think History is a dry, static thing and are unable to make a personal connection. Make Way for DucklingsIn an interesting bit of serendipity, I Just happened to run across my childhood copy of Make Way for Ducklings at my mom's house last weekend. I found every word was deeply lodged in my subconscious although I hadn't read it in at least 30 years. As I re-read it, I wondered if the Old Corner Bookstore (which as a child I assumed was a generic description) still exists. And lo and behold, thanks to Dave and Shorpy, I now know the answer! Another Old JokeWhy did the golfer buy a suit with two pairs of pants? In case he got a hole in one... So what is that "cell phone" thingy then?By the way, re: JimsShip, if people can wear pyjamas to the 7-11, you can buy yourself a dapper hat and wear it any time you like! Bowler hatsYes, these are still available. Easy to find on eBay, if you are confident of your size. I bought mine at a western store in Lincoln, Nebraska that has a large period clothing section catering to re-enactors. That way I could try it on. I wear my bowler every few weeks (to the dismay of my children) and always get positive comments. Wood engravingI have degree in printmaking and have actually created several wood engravings so I'm especially intrigued with the Robert Stockin Wood Engraving business and wish I could see inside. Wood engravings (not the same thing as woodcuts) were used for newspaper and commercial illustrations. That might be a proofing press in the window immediately left of the shield "erected AD 1712" sign or it might be wishful thinking on my part. I'm especially fond of the pointing hand of doom on the side of the building in the upper right. This is a great photo. Fickle Finger of FateSomething I always like in signage of this vintage is the Victorian Directional Hand, employed here to show the way to the Bay State Loan Co. and the Eclipse Pants Co. It makes me wonder what the giant VDH painted on the side of the building at upper right is pointing to, though. CommentedWith 42 and counting, this has provoked comments galore! What is/are the most commented upon photo(s)? [The Beaver Letter. - Dave] The Victorian-era Pointing Hand.Now we know what inspired the Microsoft programmers when they were developing the Desktop for Windows. Street signsLike many other commenters, I've been to the current store and walked or driven by this building hundreds of time. One thing I found interesting is the street signs on the building. Both are partially hidden by the awnings, but one says School Street and the other says Washington Street. Were street signs on poles not used in that era? [They were, but not everywhere. - Dave] Bring back the derby and fedora!Fedoras are back, especially here in New York. I've been wearing them for 4 years. I have a total of three felt fedoras and a straw one, two porkpies, felt and straw and a homburg. Back then was definitely the good old days. People knew how to dress. I wish more people would bring it back. In my opinion after 30 years of sports clothing as the "average daywear" I think it's about time we change back to formal and dress casual. This must be the original negative for our postcardThe museum I work at has a postcard published from this photo in its collection. You can see this colorized image here. It's interesting to see how this image was used back then. (The Gallery, Boston, DPC, Stores & Markets)
Fountain Service: 1942
... slippery. Rubber mats can't do this. At the end of the night the boards are pulled up, scrubbed and the floor cleaned beneath them. A ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/22/2022 - 2:40pm -

July 1942. Washington, D.C. "People's Drug store lunch counter on G Street N.W. at noon." Acetate negative by Marjory Collins for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Floor SlatsMy family owned and ran a restaurant (opened 1934) and I spent many hours traversing those type of boards you see behind the counter. Though rubber mats are the norm and the preferred nowadays, those slats nailed or screwed to 2x4's were really better...the wood gave and cushioned when walked on. Also, spillage and pieces of food that dropped to the floor beneath the slats (usually) kept the walkway from getting too slippery. Rubber mats can't do this. At the end of the night the boards are pulled up, scrubbed and the floor cleaned beneath them. A lot of bars, at least in the south, still use them today. Amazing!Most Shorpy pics of lunch counters and the like look staged - all clean and set up, ready to go. This is great to see a 1940s lunch counter in action! Dropped oranges, rags, dirty dishes and all! It FEELS real! Busy placeBut I would sure feel uncomfortable with a line a people at my back watching me eat, waiting for me to finish. Not All People's DrugstoreAfrican Americans made up 28% of the population of D.C. in the 1940 Census, but I don't see a Black face in the photograph. A quick search online turns up reports of sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in the city in the 1940s and 1950s. Bird's eye viewof the duckboards. What's leftWhen I moved to the Washington area in 1981, the People's Drug Store in my neighborhood had a lunch counter, not unlike this one though smaller and curved. The lunch counter vanished within a few years, and now the drug store is a CVS. Alexandria, Virginia, where the People's chain was based, has a place called The People's Drug (or The Peoples Drug, they can't seem to decide) for "fine food and cocktails." As far as I know, the only drugstore lunch counter in the District of Columbia today is in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. It's from the Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina, which a six-month sit-in desegregated in 1960. Wow, This is a Wonderful Photo!Thanks for posting this one. The angle looking down onto the action is a real rarity for an indoor shot. There is so much visual information on offer here. And with the one exception of the young lady in the middle left of the frame (and possibly the young man down at the left edge of the frame), no one seems aware of the photographer at work above them. I look forward to lots of reporting from the detail-minded Shorpy community. You Gonna Eat That?An establishment still exists near the University Of Minnesota Minneapolis campus named Al's Breakfast. In business continually since 1950, the building is only 10 feet wide including cooking and eating areas. Due to the tiny space, guests must first stand in line along the building's back wall as they wait for others to finish their meals. It is common for diners to be instructed to move down the counter to allow newly seated customers to be seated together. Veterans of Al's are used to the instruction and diners may be re-seated several times during the course of a meal. Generations of poor U of M students have worked and been nourished there. Don't mind me. But hurry up!I agree with denverlev. I had exactly the same thought on first glance at this photo. What a bizarre setup, to pick a spot behind a diner and stand there while they eat. And my next thought was about the "grocery store line effect", where I always seem to pick the "wrong" line at the grocery store (although self-scan has largely eliminated this issue). How frustrating it would be to choose to stand behind the guy who takes forever to eat, then mulls over the dessert choices, then bickers over the bill, then takes forever to pay it, etc. etc., all while you watch the patrons in the seats next to you come and go and come and go. I couldn't do it. I'm so glad that at some point between July 1942 and today we came up with the concept of the hostess stand. One more thing. Is the floor behind the counter designed to maximize the effort required to keep it clean?! Geez. And I think the server at the top is fishing out a coin that she dropped. Clean Up On Aisle 1Is what the waitress at the top of the picture is doing. I guess being busy at a lunch counter will always mean a broken plate or two (or three, or four). The person with the plates behind the crouching waitress looks a little annoyed too. Not All People? In all fairness, keep in mind this is G Street N.W., nowhere near the predominantly Black neighborhoods of the time. I'm sure that local drugstores there were often frequented by a mixture of races. I didn't know... that Sean Penn was THAT old! Where to wait ?I guess from above it looks worse then from where you're enjoying your meal. I mean, you can't see the people waiting behind you, can you. Wonder if the lunch-time regulars used special tactics to decide behind which stool/patron to wait. That girl fourth from the bottom, near the Coca-Cola dispenser, is she going to eat all those buns (or cakes) ? YIKES ! !I never noticed the people waiting behind the seated customers, was this the busiest lunch counter in the world?? I just now noted the people waiting behind the seated customers, was this the busiest lunch counter in the world?? Dynamic photoGreat angle, almost lurid. And so much activity. I feel for that waitress at the far end who’s squatting down to pick up a mess. Can’t be easy on the greasy duckboards. And at first I wondered what was the suspended circular device in the upper left with the blur around it until – duh! – it occurred to me that it’s a ceiling fan, in motion. No smoking? Dont see any ash trays or cigarettes. Always was someone next to me smoking. Can almost hear the sound of dishs clanging around. Watcha gonna have, hun? Are you done yet?I appreciate the caption simply says lunch counter at noon, cause there is no break in this lunch break. There is likely more pressure at this lunch counter than at their jobs. I don't see many watches, but I'm sure everyone is keeping track of the time. Have a cookie, or a sandwich?Those little square cellophane wrapped items on the stand at the bottom of the picture, and the round ones nearby - are they stacks of cookies or pre-made sandwiches? Can't zoom in enough to tell or read the writing on them. There's another stack at the far end by the second Coke dispenser. [Nabisco "NAB" Raisin Fruit Biscuits, some LANCO fig bars, etc. - Dave] No SmokingDuring a time when everyone smoked, and it was allowed pretty much everywhere, I don't see any ashtrays or anyone smoking. Maybe there's no time to have a smoke after lunch with so many people waiting for your seat. All for oneIs that woman near the Coke fountain really going to eat all those cinnamon rolls by herself? I don't see them anywhere else on the counter, so I assume they must all be for her. That looks like a diabetic coma waiting to happen. Milk for lunchI'm a bit surprised at all the lunch patrons drinking milk with their meal. I suppose today most would be drinking sodas. And in 1942 there's not an obese person in sight at this counter. To me, mystery iswhere in the world photographer anchored himself to make this dramatic view and composition? [The mezzanine. - Dave] An ad, or your lying feet ??So who are you going to believe when it comes to deciding what's "excellent"? (That the ad lists as a perk the possiblity of moving on to better paying positions may give the answer) DC's "lost laws," later foundIn 1872 and 1873 the Legislative Assembly of the District of Columbia adopted ordinances providing that no restaurant keeper or proprietor could refuse to serve respectable and well-behaved persons, and prohibited refusals of service on the basis of race. color, or previous condition of servitude. But as Reconstruction gave way to a return to racist practices, those laws were largely forgotten - until the forties. In 1944, Ms. Pauli Murray, the top-ranked member of Howard University Law School's Class of 1944 (and the only woman in the class), rediscovered the laws and sparked a campaign to enforce them against segregated lunch counters within the District. Enforcement actions began in 1950, and convictions of the John R. Thompson Co. Inc. restaurant chain under the "lost laws" were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1953. https://historicsites.dcpreservation.org/items/show/971 There's a site reposting your photosThis photo is #23 in their series. I think all the other photos are yours as well. https://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/30-fascinating-photos-collected-fro... [Welcome to the Internet! Just two of those (23, 28) are "our photos." Which are from the Library of Congress. - Dave] (The Gallery, D.C., Eateries & Bars, Marjory Collins, PDS, Stores & Markets)
To Build a Fire: 1920
... new, ready for new generations. Wonderful plinker. Night Moves If they are all planning to sleep in that tent, and assuming ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/27/2014 - 11:14am -

        "Say, Bill, don't you think the girls did a marvelous job setting up the tent?" California circa 1920. "Briscoe auto at campsite." We'd say it's about time to rustle up some grub. Also we call dibs on that camp chair. Now where'd we put the cocktail shaker? 8.5 x 6.5 inch glass plate by Christopher Helin. View full size. Two Couples, One Bed and One TentIs this the silent version of Bob & Carol and Ted & Alice? Where is Smokey when you need him?Oh Man! That fire, not the mention the stogey that the guy on the right has fired up, are going to ignite that litter they're sitting on. Too bizarre. No Winchesters or Brownings here.We have a fine pair or Remingtons in this cool pic. It's an easy mistake since both resemble similar guns though. The shotgun is a Remington model 11 and not it's more expensive Browning cousin. The giveaway is that the Model 11 has no shell cut-off switch on the side of the receiver like all A-5's. The rifle is a Remington Model 12. They were a little more streamlined than their more famous competitor Winchester. Kelpie is correct that the shotgun was a Browning design, but the rifle credit goes to J.D. Pedersen. Gum treesI'm not sure exactly where they're camped, but it's certainly an odd location -- a eucalyptus forest. "Eucs" (or gum trees to our Australian friends) were planted in great numbers in the San Francisco Bay Area. Given the location of many of the other photos in this series, I'm guessing the foursome might have been posed in a eucalyptus grove in either Golden Gate Park or the Presidio of San Francisco. BTW, the piled up eucalyptus duff surrounding their campsite is notoriously flammable. London callingLet's hope this little foray into the wilderness turns out better than the Jack London short story of the same name. The fellow on the right is truly Mr. Safety Last. Note his right arm atop (or next to) the head of the ax lying on the ground. The fellow on the left has his wedding ring on his right hand. (The photo isn't reversed, as evidenced by the car's steering wheel.) That is & was pretty common in several European countries/cultures. Don't try this at home!Building a fire without a proper fire pit is exceedingly dangerous and shows a lack of needed camping skills! Blazing speedNext installment: We see just how fast the Briscoe machine can deliver them to safety, once their little campfire sets that mass of bone-dry underbrush ablaze. Mr. Browning, I Presume?I see a nice Browning Auto 5 (A5) 12 gauge leaning on the car. Also, there looks to be a Winchester Model 1890 pump .22 "gallery gun" as well. Both of these were designed by Browning. I have an Auto 5 that shoots like a dream. Wouldn't give it up for anything. Pressed trousersThe reclining chap must be new to camping judging by his neatly pressed dress pants and, as mentioned, the cigar ready to ignite the whole idyllic scene. Winchester .22 Pump RifleKelpie, we had one of those Winchester .22s at the farm, and at least three generations there learned to shoot with it. It finally got so worn that, in the mid-1960s, it developed a dangerous condition. If there was a live round in the chamber, it would fire automatically when the gun was held level horizontally; no trigger pull required. Of course, my cousins and I thought this was great, but my uncle heard one of us bragging about our "machine gun" and took the gun out of commission. Later, I had it repaired, re-blued, and re-stocked and it was like brand new, ready for new generations. Wonderful plinker. Night MovesIf they are all planning to sleep in that tent, and assuming they take a "head-in, feet-out" attitude, arranging themselves in "spoons" positions perpendicular to the tent flap - whoever gets the far left spot will be at the bottom of a heap by morning unless they level out that ticking mattress. Of course that cat-faced gal with the bundle may be plotting to sleep in the car. (The Gallery, Camping, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Chris Helin)
Cheers: 1937
September 1937. Craigville, Minnesota. "Saturday night in a saloon." Medium format negative by Russell Lee, Farm Security ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/19/2012 - 10:17pm -

September 1937. Craigville, Minnesota. "Saturday night in a saloon." Medium format negative by Russell Lee, Farm Security Administration. View full size. White gasKerosene lanterns had just an open flame. These pictured were fueled by white gas and the tank had to be pressurized with a hand pump. Hands-Off policyInteresting that the "Cheers" folks removed the fellow's hand from the lady's shoulder. Indoor campingPretty rustic. The lights are kerosene lanterns. Slim pickin'sA James M. Cain novel is written all over that woman's face. P.A.Do you have Prince Albert in a sign? Cheers...... it ain't.... Cheers!Hey! Doesn't the guy holding glass appear in the old lead-in for "Cheers"? Cheers to you too!Oh my gawd it's the folks from the "Cheers!" intro. I must have seen their colorized faces a thousand times (thanks to reruns), and now I know where they're from. It's like running into long-lost family members. Thanks Dave! Where everybody knows your nameThis photo was used in the opening sequence of "Cheers." As I remember, it was cropped, to highlight the couple in the center. 0:43Character actorsCentral Casting, eat your heart out! Cheers!Remember the opening titles to the TV show "Cheers"? It shows old photos of people at bars. One of the "Cheers" photos is THIS photo; they did a close-up of the guy on the left. And yes, I watch too much TV. Casting? Sure ...That's Howard Hughes, Patricia Neal, and G.W. Bailey on the right. Can't quite make out the lady on the far left, though. A certain dignity.Even though these people have seen more than their fair share of hard times, there is a kind of dignity in the way the hold their drinks. Serious drinkers for sure. The guy on the right looks kind of like George Clooney. They all exhibit character with a capital C. The guy on the left is giving a major superiority pose to the guy taking a nip. The lantern in the back corneris a Coleman. I have one just like it. Still works very well. A rose is a rose is a rose.A barfly is a barfly is a barfly. Nice hat on the alcoholic on the extreme right, looks like he stole it from a horse. Not politically correct but my opinion. GaslightNotice the fixture in the upper left of the photo is providing light via gas, not electricity. [As noted below, that's a kerosene lantern. The tank holds the fuel. - Dave] CamelsAnd I'm thinking that's a Camel cigarette pack on the bar. Recognize the "pillars" from my father's smokes. That's where I've seem him!Thanks everyone for restoring my sanity. I saw the guy on the left and immediately thought "were have I seen him before?" I am a child of the 80's so that's why his face was burned into my brain. Camels for sureI used to smoke them before Pall Mall. Cigarettes didn't have filters in those days. Maybe it was the "Hits or Cracks" game that made me switch from Camels to Pall Mall. As I remember, you guessed if it was the letter H or C under the stamp. If you picked wrong you got slugged on the upper arm. Alternate casting suggestionsLeft to right: Rosie O'Donnell, Robert Ryan, Margaret Hamilton, Walter Huston. Whatever is transpiring, it's interesting enough for the Missus to delay her request to "light me." SimplicityThe beer looks great. Camel Caravan"Camel" was the first nationally advertised and distributed brand of American cigarettes, beginning in about 1914. My dad's first real job was with their NY Distributor, Metropolitan Tobacco, back in 1921. He smoked Camels and only Camels for the nexr 65 years, and never had so much as a cough ("Not a Cough in a Carload"). Back in my time, if I ran out of my favorite, Lucky Strike, I'm bum a Camel from him. Without any exception, they were the strongest, looseest and hottest burning American cigarette that ever existed. They would have killed me after a year! And yes, I do also remember the H and C thing from under the revenue stamp on the packages. LanternsActually both lanterns are probably Colemans. The one over the bar is an indoor table lamp, which would have originally come with a shade, much like an electric table lamp. The other one is an outdoor type lantern. Both are missing their globes, a rather alarming fact, as the furring strips on the ceiling suggest that it is made of combustible fiberboard, a cheap and popular building material at that time. Like most Colemans, these burned "white gas," which I believe is actually naphtha, but kerosene models were also available. More common kerosene lanterns have wicks, but pressurized ones do exist. They can be distinguished from the white gas version by the primer cup below the mantle. You fill this cup with alcohol to preheat the kerosene; otherwise, it does not vaporize properly. BTW, "not a cough in a carload" was the slogan of Lucky Strike, not Camel. And I don't believe for a second that anyone smoked any brand for 65 years without coughing. Lumberjack TownSome history on this town, and this saloon can be found here: http://www.lakesnwoods.com/Craig.htm This place was evidently both a saloon and a barbershop. There are some photos here of other customers, as well as another shot of these folks. Another image in original Cheers Theme SequenceThe original Cheers Theme Sequence has a picture of my Great-Grandfather W.T. Price II in the Horseshoe Saloon in Junction City, Kansas taken in 1905 by a photographer named Pennell! (The Gallery, Eateries & Bars, Russell Lee)
Manhattan Skyline: 1915
... precursor to the Seven Sisters." We spent a night in the Hotel Ukraina some years back. Lovely building, but very old, and ... Twain, "The hottest Summer I ever spent was a Winter's night in Moscow!" 15 degrees outside, 85 inside. [That's the Woolworth ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/05/2012 - 4:25pm -

New York circa 1915. "New York skyline from Manhattan Bridge." Another entry from Detroit Publishing's series of sooty cityscapes. View full size. BuildingsOn the far right is the Municipal Building, and to its left is the Woolworth Building. A modern viewHere's a shot from a nearby location 100 years later. Merchants Chambers Printing Company S. Giuseppe Uneeda Biscuit And nowA view from the bridge. Where it isThe cross street in the foreground is Market, in what used to be Little Italy, now Chinatown. What are the two streets heading downtown? There is no wedge-shaped block like this on Market today. What a pole!As a straight razor guy and a collector of things tonsorial, my eye was immediately drawn to, what I believe is, that great barber pole at the bottom of the photo. It looks to be part barber pole and part flag pole. I'd give my brother's right arm to have one like that. Pineapple TowersGreat skyline picture especially especially juxtaposed behind the everyday market street at the bottom. Can anyone supply names for all those massive buildings? -- especially the one that looks like it's wearing a pineapple on top. [The pineapple is the Singer Building. - Dave] Hey KidCareful on that fire escape! Madison StreetThat's Madison Street with the Alfred E. Smith Houses on the left and Chatham Green apartments on the right. Are you sure this photo is from 1910?because The Equitable Building wasn't completed until 1915 ... and construction of the Woolworth Building was just starting in 1910. ["Circa 1910" does not mean the picture was taken in 1910. If we knew what year the photo was taken, we'd give it. "Circa" means around -- in the general vicinity. It's a starting point. - Dave] FluffyzillaIt's not a giant lizard, a flying turtle or even the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, but every time I look at this portion of the photo, I see a giant bunny between the buildings, peacefully nibbling its way through the city. Today's ViewI used Google Earth 3D buildings to align the vantage point and then looked at Street View. The buildings match (look at the one the horse is headed toward, and also the building on the block closer to the camera with arched windows). View Larger Map Make that New York c. 1915This magnificent view contains several skyscrapers completed after 1910. On the left we see the Bankers Trust Building, with the pyramid on top (finished 1912) and immediately to its right, the wide bulk of the new Equitable Building (finished 1915); on the right we see the Woolworth Building, the tallest in the world at that time (finished 1913) and the Municipal Building, with its cute little round temple at the top (finished 1914). TrystLove blooms above the city's streets. Nice Monroe StreetThis is a view looking up Monroe Street with Market in the foreground. NYCer's image is nearby looking up Madison Street with Market in the foreground. Here's One MoreThe very white building in the middle background with the American flag waving above it is the first section of the old AT&T Building at 195 Broadway, which was completed in 1916 (the second section - not seen here - was completed in 1922). Still ThereIf I've got it right, these two buildings are still there but now surrounded by even bigger buildings. Amazing. [These are the Bankers Trust and Equitable buildings. - Dave] Where it isThe exact location is the intersection of Monroe and Market streets looking west. The first picture submitted by nycer as well as the one directly above is along Madison Street, which is one block north of Monroe. The wedge shaped block was created by Monroe and Hamilton streets. Hamilton was eliminated with the construction of the Knickerbocker Village housing project in 1934. I have a site devoted in large part to the history of this project: http://knickerbockervillage.blogspot.com Between Monroe and CherryI think the street to the left is Monroe. The street to the right is the unnamed street circled in the map below, in between Monroe and Cherry. That would mean S. Giuseppe's store is on Catherine Street. Most of it is gone. It's all large apartment buildings on the south side of Monroe and the West side of Catherine. The buildings on the North side of Monroe are still there. +99This is the same view west on Monroe Street from May of 2009. The building in the right foreground remains as do its chimneys which are now covered in graffiti or hidden by transmitters. Laundry LadyI smiled when I saw the woman on the roof hanging her wet laundry out to dry! I'm afraid I would be scared to death! Zero'th SisterI was going to mention the interesting similarity of the building below to Moscow's "Seven Sisters," a series of wedding-cake architectural extravagances from the Stalinist era. Then I read the Wikipedia article on Stalin's buildings! "The Manhattan Municipal Building in New York City, completed in 1915, is reportedly an architectural precursor to the Seven Sisters." We spent a night in the Hotel Ukraina some years back. Lovely building, but very old, and to paraphrase Mark Twain, "The hottest Summer I ever spent was a Winter's night in Moscow!" 15 degrees outside, 85 inside. [That's the Woolworth Building below. - Dave] High and DryThis gal is just merrily hanging out her laundry with nothing between her and a fast free-fall but a few live wires! At my place of work I couldn't go higher than a common step ladder without a climbing harness and a spotter. Seems to me they worried a lot less back then and didn't try to turn everything into a liability lawsuit. Market, Monroe and HamiltonThe original photo shows the intersection of these three streets. Hamilton Street (the one with the bend in the middle) was demapped in the early 1930s when Knickerbocker Village was built (see first photo in comments). That development was opened in 1934. At the foot of Monroe Street in the original photo there is a building marked "S. Giuseppe." That was the original St. Joseph's Church. The current structure was built in 1923 at the corner of Monroe and Catherine Streets across from the original site. First time I ever saw a photo of Hamilton Street, great find! My Best ShotHere is another view of the skyline in a photo I took Oct 4, 2009 from the Manhattan Bridge. I was attending the celebration of the Bridge's 100th Anniversary. So muchfor previous claims posted here on Shorpy that cities one hundred years ago were neat, clean and litter-free. A hot dayDid anybody else notice how most of the people on the street are crowded into the shade? This helicopter mom is nervousAbout that child on the fire escape, who looks to be about 3 or 4 years old. That's five storeys up. Such a different world. Or, perhaps, such a different economic perspective from my middle class complacency. Mom was probably overwhelmed with six or seven kids, the housework and cooking and, perhaps, piecework to help keep the family in food and tenement rent. No time for the luxury of worry. And those windows would have to be wide open in a stifling upper storey building. Black MariaWhat's amazing is the ominous woman striding down the left-side street dressed literally head to toe in black on this seemingly warm spring or summer day. Complete with black hat. We will never know her tragic mission; what dark news she's about to deliver to some poor soul in one of those buildings. Biggest ChangeMy father was born in Manhattan in 1918, and died in January 2009 at the age of 90. He was raised in Greenwich Village and except for 10 years spent in Europe, he lived his entire life in Manhattan. He saw almost all of the evolution of New York during the 20th Century. Shortly before his death I asked him what he thought was the greatest general change in New York since he was a kid. Immediately he said "The greenery ! New York is so green now! There are so many trees! When I was a kid New York was a dirty and grimy place with almost no greenery, and very few of the side streets had any trees in them. Certainly not in working class neighborhoods. If you wanted trees you went to the park. That's definitely the biggest change." This is borne out by all these comparative pictures; not a tree in sight in 1915. (The Gallery, DPC, NYC)
Dancing Queen: 1942
... "Midsummer Matinee" by Russ Morgan. No. 6 is "Ev'ry Night About This Time" by The Ink Spots. No. 7 is most likely "Abraham" ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/28/2022 - 1:47pm -

September 1942. "Local dance hall in Richwood, Nicholas County, West Virginia. Photos document U.S. Department of Agriculture efforts to recruit adolescents and adults as farm labor to relieve manpower shortage for harvesting New York State crops." 4x5 inch acetate negative by John Collier for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. "Leeks are for geeks"... might have been a good slogan for the USDA to lure Wallace, Ferrell and Josephine or their fellow foot stompers from their mountain home, 'cuz Richwood is home to the longest continuously running festival celebrating America's native wild leek, the ramp. (As if you didn't know!) The Festival seems to be a Spring affair, so they might just be looking for something new anyway. (We know the juke box never left town...much to its eventual regret) That look --Her song just came on! If not rockSince rock 'n' roll would not become a thing for more than 10 years, I am wondering what those teenagers were dancing to. Bebop? Swing? Swing Out SisterI would guess that her biggest problem is catching her breath between dances. I can't imagine her sitting out many numbers. p.s., It's easy to dance to swing music, just about impossible to dance to bebop. 1941 Wurlitzer 850 PeacockIt appears that this 78 rpm jukebox was one of the most technically advanced of its time, according to this collector. Save the last dance for meFrank and Joe Hardy taking turns with Callie Shaw. Iola Morton, the pleasantly plump sister of Chet Morton, is not a happy camper. Only song title I can make outFirst row, bottom: "The Nickel Serenade" by Les Brown (misspelled as "Less", I think). Amazing Images From Our PastI have been a member of the Shorpy community for many years. During this time I have been amazed of the variety and quality of photos that came from the Depression years. This collection of photographs exist because several US Government agencies actually paid photographers to document the country during that time. What we now have is an incredible and diverse collection of photos that record our country during the most difficult economic times in our history. Some of these photos have become quite famous, but the rest which Dave has shown us I find endlessly fascinating. I am thankful the politicians at the time had the vision to fund this, and most of all the photographers who brought them to us. [Also the Library of Congress, repository for this vast collection, whose contractors and employees are still busy scanning the negatives. The ones we've been seeing on Shorpy were digitized and uploaded only days or weeks before being posted here. - Dave] Selections #2, 6, 7 and 8The second one down is "Midsummer Matinee" by Russ Morgan. No. 6 is "Ev'ry Night About This Time" by The Ink Spots. No. 7 is most likely "Abraham" by Freddy Martin No. 8 is "I Threw a Kiss in the Ocean" by Benny Goodman (Peggy Lee vocal) Famous companyWurliTzer of course not only made iconic juke boxes but also their mighty theater organs, some of which are still in operation. (The Gallery, Agriculture, John Collier, Music, Pretty Girls)
Expert Truss Fitting: 1900
... into pinup gals. Buffalo Cool! I stayed a night in Buffalo early last month. Had it still been standing, I would have ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/26/2012 - 12:35pm -

"Main Street, Buffalo, N.Y., circa 1900." The merchants of Buffalo, aside from making that fine city a haven for the herniated, also offered a wide range of "deformity appliances." Detroit Publishing Co. glass negative. View full size. Fireproof indeed!The fireproof tiles on the roof of the Iroquois were a big selling point after the horrific fire that destroyed the Richmond Hotel, which stood on the same site until 1887. Mirror Writing?The reverse lettering above the motorman's head looks like the back of a glass sign that says SMOKING ENTRANCE REAR SEATS ONLY, whatever that means exactly. [The signs says "Smoking on three rear seats only." - Dave] Safe CityThat is one safety-conscious city. Note the pedestrian catcher mounted on the front of the trolley. Niagara Falls!!!!Niagara Falls! "Slowly I turned...step by step...inch by inch..." From the Three Stooges short "Gents Without Cents" Oh MyWhat a picture. This is definitely a downtown scene. I am curious about the rides to Lockport, Lewiston and Queenston. Are they entrance cities to Canada? Perhaps they are tourist destinations like Niagara Falls. This photo will take a while to gather it all and to understand Buffalo as a major U.S. city at the time. [Those cities were excursion destinations. - Dave] Shuffle off to Buffalo...So much detail to take in. Wonder what a "Deformity Appliance" is. [I am thinking something along the lines of a super-dangerous cake mixer. - Dave] Bustling BuffaloNothing is more depressing than seeing the once-bustling major city that is now Buffalo. Interesting that the streetcar was the main mode of public transportation, and yet the newer "metro" line (consisting of one short rail from HSBC to the University of Buffalo) has contributed to the death of downtown. Martha!And "I Love Lucy." Your neighbor the sign painterBesides the five (or six or seven) signs of his own, Mr. Scott seems to have painted all the other signs on that building. I wonder if he traded signs for trolly rides, cigars, or deformity appliances. Trolleys Then and NowThe open-seat single-truck trolleys seen in this picture (with smoking allowed in the three rear seats only) have long been absent from the City of Buffalo. The line is now the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority's Buffalo Metro Rail light rail line. Interesting that the tracks on Main Street have survived, while those on Church Street, and all of the surrounding buildings, including the Iroquois Hotel, have all vanished. View Larger Map No heritage hereSo, is this was were the Main Street Mall now resides? Seems all these blocks were demolished. The Iroquois Hotel was torn down in 1940. The Perfect VignetteWhat a great photo! The "Signs" signs, the omnipresent hats, the fancy streetlight. I love the advertisement for the "tobacconist"--that would make a catchy little business card, I think. Some people are dentists, some are salespeople, and then there are the tobacconists. And I wonder what got thrown into the wires crossing the street? I also love the trolleys in the picture--somehow, my daily bus ride doesn't seem quite as cool as this. One question. What is the net in front for? I would guess it's for luggage or large packages? [The net would be for inattentive or careless pedestrians. - Dave] LockportLockport was and is a neat little city in NW central New York State where canal boats travel down a series of locks. It's fun to watch. The city is also the home of an American standard in every kitchen: Jell-O! Cars?Sign says "cars leave every 15 minutes"...I don't see any cars, it's 1900 (or so) What do they mean by "cars"? [Streetcars. - Dave] The GlobeSure would like to be able to see more detail on that globe painted on the left side - looks like the continents have been anthropomorphized into pinup gals. BuffaloCool! I stayed a night in Buffalo early last month. Had it still been standing, I would have chosen the Iroquois over the Holiday Inn for sure. Looks like a fun city, but you've never seen anything more depressing than Niagara Falls (the town) in winter. You Are HereIn response to the many requests seen in comments for a time machine: here you are. Absolutely fantastic picture. Pan-American ExpoThat's the logo for the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, held in Buffalo -- where President McKinley was shot and later died. Trolly carsThey mean Trolly cars. [Or maybe trolley cars. ("Cars" = streetcars.) - Dave] Look out above!The top three floors of the Iroquois were "superadded" for the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. In 1923, owner Ellsworth Statler opened another hotel, and the Iroquois became the Gerrans Office Building. The building with the tower was transformed into one of the earliest movie theaters, the Strand. Steve Miller Someplace near the crossroads of America Leroy not LockportLeroy is the home of Jell-O, not Lockport! Visit the jello museum in Leroy to learn more about the product invented by a man named Pearl. CSI: BuffaloNice Cigar Store Indian on the right. Oh that logo The Pan-American Exposition Company chose Raphael Beck's design from over 400 entries, awarded him $100. They copyrighted it as the official logo in 1899. At first the design was to be used only for "dignified purposes," but due to its popularity, the decision was made to license its use. The logo was soon available on souvenirs of every conceivable description and was plastered on "everything that didn't move and some things that did." Some unscrupulous vendors ignored the licensing process and sold unofficial souvenirs with the logo. Here is a plate and a watch souvenir (both official): Beck made sketches of President McKinley when the president toured the fair and made a speech there. After McKinley died Beck completed the painting titled "President McKinley Delivering His Last Great Speech at the Pan-American Exposition, Sept. 5, 1901." Beck went on to design the logo for the 1905 Portland, Oregon Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition. His father Augustus—who designed the bas relief at the base of the Washington Monument—named his son after the famous painter Raphael. +122Below is the same view from September of 2022. (The Gallery, Buffalo NY, DPC, Streetcars)
Mr. Magazine: 1908
... Just Curious How did they close up shop for the night? It looks like this is right on the sidewalk. I can see that some of the ... the date on the cover of the 10 Cent Story Book last night when I posted this, thinking the 8 was a 6. Thanks to all who set me ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/14/2012 - 3:46pm -

1908. "Smallest news & post card stand in New Orleans, 103 Royal Street." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Next doorI see cabbages, bananas, oranges, apples, peaches, walnuts, and ... waffles? Re: BlueBookAnother bid for one of each! From Antiques Roadshow archive: APPRAISER: "This is one of the later ones-- there's no date here, I think this was done about 1915, 1916 or 1917.the last copy I was able to track down at auction, sold for more than $2,000, some years ago. GUEST: Wow. APPRAISER: My guess on this is it's worth somewhere between $3,500 and $4,500. GUEST: My goodness. APPRAISER: Not bad for something you picked from the garbage, right? Magazines and NewspapersI'll say what we're all probably thinking: I'll take one of everything on your stand, sir. Hey, there's a magazine for everybody. The Information HighwayBefore the internet was invented. Sagebrush Philosopher"Sagebrush Philosophy" was published by the Wyoming writer Bill Barlow: Shortly after locating at Douglas he began the publication of a little monthly magazine called Sagebrush Philosophy, which soon had a circulation that extended to all parts of the Union. His writings scintillated with wit, philosophy and optimism, and his vocabulary was both extensive and unique. Sagebrush Philosophy was built up on his personality and when his death occurred on October 9, 1910, it was realized that no one could continue the publication of the magazine, so its last number was issued in November following his death. The JewelThis photo has a great example of an Etched - Glue Chipped Glass doorway on the right. I would lay money down and say that the gilded wood letters (on the upper left & above clerk) are most likely manufactured by the Spanjer Bros. This photo would look great in color with all those magazine covers too. Dietz Sign Co.Saw that at the top of the picture. Googled it. Got as far as this page. Dietz Lantern Company. Read through it, you'll see mentions of places and things seen on Shorpy. I will start a-looking. The Big QuestionHow did he get IN there? ThurberesqueShe came naturally by her confused and groundless fears, for her own mother lived the latter years of her life in the horrible suspicion that electricity was dripping invisibly all over the house. It leaked, she contended, out of empty sockets if the wall switch had been left on. She would go around screwing in bulbs, and if they lighted up she would hastily and fearfully turn off the wall switch and go back to her Pearson's or Everybody's, happy in the satisfaction that she had stopped not only a costly but a dangerous leakage. Nothing could ever clear this up for her. -- James Thurber ("The Car We Had to Push") No Business Like ItPublications suspended under the ledge, below the proprietor, are The Dramatic Mirror, Billboard, Variety and Show World. Someone once said that everybody's second business was show business. Looking at these magazines for sale in 1908 New Orleans sort of reinforces that theory. Gimme the lot!I'd buy the whole lot. Can you imagine what all those are worth today? It looks like this may have been a cafe entrance once. June 1908The Saturday Evening Post in the lower right corner was dated 13 June 1908. I did a quick search online and voila, now I have that warm, fuzzy feeling one can get from a successful treasure hunt. Thank you, Shorpy, for the thrill of the hunt. My Order"Hey buddy, I'll take a bunch of bananas, two pineapples, some mixed nuts, five melons and a dozen postcards. By the way, do you have July's edition of The Railroad Man's Magazine?" Ex-PresidentGrover Cleveland--definitely him--has been out of office for nearly ten years. Why is he gracing the cover of the Chicago Tribune? [His uncanny impersonation of William Howard Taft. - Dave] Naughty BitsInteresting to note that on the bottom row is the notorious "Blue Book," the guide to houses of ill repute in Storyville, the area of New Orleans where prostitution was legal until WWI. Just CuriousHow did they close up shop for the night? It looks like this is right on the sidewalk. I can see that some of the display looks like it might swing into the opening where the proprietor is standing but it still looks like there's a lot of effort to open and close for the day. Tag SuggestionCould you also tag this and future images like it with "Postcards"? Images like this that depict the retailing of postcards are incredibly rare and of great importance to we deltiologists. Thank you. Taft of Ohio, Not ClevelandThe Chicago Tribune cover is graced by the future president, William Howard Taft. He was the Republican candidate in 1908. [I think you're right. At first I thought it was Cleveland, who had died on June 24, but this does look more like Taft. Especially the ear. - Dave] Oh yes, we have bananas!Didn't say they were fresh, just said we had them. For everybody, indeedCowboy Bill is surely referring to this. 1908.It took me a while, but here is the evidence. First, "The Railroad Man's Magazine" on the bottom cannot be from 1906, because it wasn't published until October of that year. I then found the cover for Collier's Magazine from June of 1908. Finally, there is an advertisement on the bottom left for the 1908 World Almanac! [I misread the date on the cover of the 10 Cent Story Book last night when I posted this, thinking the 8 was a 6. Thanks to all who set me straight! - Dave] Hardly Naughty The Blue Book Magazine displayed on the bottom row is not the notorious Blue Book guide to "sporting houses." It's a copy of a legit magazine that was published until 1975 featuring fiction by writers like Agatha Christie, Booth Tarkington, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. [This particular magazine, Stageland Blue Book, was a theatrical publication. - Dave] Re: Naughty BitsThe Blue Book would not have been sold openly at a newsstand. It was also very plain in appearance. Sugared SnacksThe stacked, flat items in the case on the far left could be beignets, the Official State Doughnut of Louisana, but more likely are New Orleans-style Pralines. Clean 'em outAccording to my rough count, there are about 100 different postcards on display. Figuring 10 of each at 15 cents per dozen, one could have the entire stock for just over $12. Great magazines, buttucked in among the postcards is a very interesting, small publication: Sagebrush Philosophy. It wasn't the magazine for everybody, but that's what made it so special. MoneyTime travel to this place in order to buy these itmes would be very interesting, just don't forget to first get into your family's coin collection and grab some Barber dimes and quarters, Liberty nickels, and Indian Head pennies. You show this guy dead president coins and bills and he'll have you hauled away by the police. Another ClueChecked one more thing on why that is probably Taft on the Chicago Tribune cover. The Republican convention that nominated him was held in Chicago from June 16 to June 19, 1908 which would coincide with the time frame here. It is interesting, however, that Grover Cleveland died June 24, 1908. Please note that the Tribune was a very Republican leaning newspaper in those days, so it's more likely they would feature the new Republican nominee that the recently departed former Democratic president. Dangerous leakagesWe can laugh at it now, of course, bit it was common during the early years of electricity for people to believe that electrical sockets "leaked electricity" if they didn't have something plugged or screwed in. Many families have stories of people insisting on removing the plugs or bulbs and putting in stoppers at night. People even complained of smelling the electrical "vapours" coming from the sockets. Closing up shopRegarding how they closed up shop at night. The middle section above the hatch flips down. The two shutters on either side close inwards. The magazines below are simply unclipped and taken indoors. Sidewalk CafeLOVE the tile sidewalk sign for the Jewel Cafe. It's the same type that some streets still have that say Rue Royale or Rue Bourbon. Very cool. Then and NowThis photo is featured in the 1996 book "New Orleans - Then and Now." In 1996, there's also a newsstand, just to the right of this one. In addition, I found a vintage postcard (postmarked June 1908) that shows this same newsstand. So it's a postcard of a postcard stand. (I know there's a name for things like this, but my coffee hasn't kicked in yet.) Speaking of post cards within postcardsWonder if any of the pictures featured on those postcards ever appeared on Shorpy? Now there's a heck of a scavenger hunt for you. Politically Incorrect Period HumorLook inside the kiosk to the left of the proprietor and you'll notice section of postcards devoted to those comical darkies and their antics. Very popular at the time, and very collectible now despite (or perhaps because of?) the transgressive stigma of racism. Now I understandI always wondered why they called it the Kelley Blue Book. Now I get it. It lets you know how the car dealer is going to #@$% you on the value of your car. Learn something every day on Shorpy. Cornucopia--The younger man on the right has the look of one not to be trifled with; --The cafe doors are almost identical to the doors on the front of Antoine's Restaurant; --I wonder who the ball player is on the front page of the Sporting News. Walter Johnson? Ty Cobb? Honus Wagner? --Among the many old framed articles and pictures on the walls of the main dining room at Antoine's there is a lengthy one about W.H. Taft and his eating exploits at the restaurant during a trip to New Orleans. Marvelling at his stature as a "trencherman," the writer tells that Taft had a great love of boiled shrimp but didn't like to have to peel them. Taft claimed there was no serving of boiled shrimp so large he couldn't finish it. In an attempt to test this claim, Jules Alciatore (the proprietor at the time) had 50 pounds of shrimp delivered the morning before Taft was to dine there. They boiled them and he and his staff peeled them all, yielding a seving bowl with 7 1/2 lbs. of shrimp meat. According to the article, Taft finished them all but was so surfeited that he could barely speak afterwards! --The items in the case look too big, flat, and uniform to be either beignets or pralines, but I'm not sure what else they would have been. They certainly do look like waffles, which would have kept all day in the case I suppose. About that ArgosyIt's the July 1908 edition. What fun hunting this stuff up! Cover BoyWhile the individual covers of Sporting News are not readily available, issues of Sporting Life can be easily found. The photo shows the June 13, 1908 issue of Sporting Life with Edward Siever of the Detroit Tigers on the cover. Five days after this was published Siever played his last major league baseball game although he played another two years in the minors. Less than a year earlier he had been in the 1907 World Series. A copy of the front of this issue of Sporting Life, along with the caption that goes with Siever's photo, is shown below. Note that most sources state he was born in Kansas in 1875 (not Illinois in 1878). He died in 1920 while coming home from his job as an inspector for the City of Detroit. "EDWARD SIEVER. Pitcher of the Detroit American League Club. Edward Siever, the noted south-paw pitcher for the Detroit American Club, was born April 2, 1878, at Lewistown, Ill. Siever was originally a locomotive fireman of the Grand Trunk. He made his professional debut with the London Club, of the Canadian League, in 1899, which, largely owing to Siever's fine pitching, won the championship. He was sold to the Detroit Club the following year, and sported the Tigers' stripes continually until the Fall of 1903, when he was transferred to the St. Louis Club. After a season with the Browns he was transferred for 1905 to the Minneapolis Club, with which he did such fine work that St. Louis re-drafted him for 1906. During that season he was sold to the Detroit Club for which he has played since. In the 1907 season he very materially helped Hughey Jennings' Tigers to bring to Detroit a championship pennant for the first time in twenty years." Jewel CafeThe Jewel Cafe, at 131 Royal Street, was listed in the program for the 5th Annual Sugar Bowl Classic in January of 1929 as a sponsor:         Jewel Cafe ... 131 Royal Street; Oysters 45 cents per half dozen; First time in the history of New Orleans, Oysters a la Rockefeller are prepared before your eyes. This deep mystery of the culinary arts is now almost within the price range of raw oysters. Louisiana's choicest cultivated oysters, served in all styles at our counters and tables; open all night. (The Gallery, DPC, New Orleans, Stores & Markets)
Mysterious Tunnel: 1924
... trees; the lantern (red, maybe) will serve as a warning at night. Also note the camera tripod. Two guesses. Underground railroad, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/08/2021 - 12:49pm -

September 26, 1924. Washington, D.C. "Mysterious tunnel." A strong Hardy Boys vibe here. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size. UPDATE: While initial speculation (bootlegging, espionage) was soon dispelled by an eccentric insect expert's explanation that he had dug the passages "for exercise," historical evidence suggests that this was a tunnel of love. Or at the very least, bigamy. Old BasementIt's probably an old basement from a burnt building. Burnt building debris falls into the basement and leaves voids to be discovered later. [A plausible theory, but incorrect. - Dave] That's probablyjust an forgotten old septic tank. [What it is is what the caption says. - Dave] It's da cops, boys!The men in suits look like they may be detectives. Am I even warm? RemainsNext to the laundry, the bones of a Model T. The interesting case of Allen v. AllenIt seems that tunnel building wasn't the only hobby of Dr. Dyar. According to the interesting case of Allen v. Allen, 193 Pacific Reporter 539, Dr. Dyar was also a practicing bigamist. He apparently married his second wife using the name of Wilfred Allen. His second family seemed to have lived nearby his first in Washington, DC. The question is was he digging his tunnels to connect the homes of his two families? (The reporter who broke the first story of Dr. Dyar being the source of the tunnels also found a second set of tunnels at his house on B Street.) At some point, his first wife had had enough and wanted out. This would seem to have left wide open his relationship with his second wife except that they had concocted a fictional husband who they now needed to remove from the scene. So, they loaded the kids up in a ship and went west for a quickie divorce in Reno. Unfortunately for the Allens/Dyars the judge in Reno didn't buy their story. Not sure how it all sorted itself out in the end, but I do know that the good doctor suddenly died five years after the story of his tunnels made the local papers. DetourThe alleyway has been blocked with a board nailed to the trees; the lantern (red, maybe) will serve as a warning at night. Also note the camera tripod. Two guesses.Underground railroad, or, secret distillery. RumrunnersMight this have had something to do with Prohibition? The man standing over the hole is holding a broken bottle neck, and some of the participants are grinning like they've figured it out. In recent years out here in San Diego, the DEA and INS have found several "mysterious tunnels" running under the international boundary between Tijuana and San Diego. Somehow those tunnel discoveries never seem to inspire the kind of jollity seen here. Make a sharp leftAre you sure that rabbit said this was the way to Albuquerque? Calling Dan BrownA mysterious tunnel discovered in our nation's capital! Those pesky Freemasons are at it again. "Upon closer inspection ...""This is clearly a mystery tunnel," said D.C. Police Inspector Sherman T. Ransom, second from right in photo. AlsoA strong hat vibe. If you dig a hole that's deep enoughEveryone will want to jump in. -- Firesign Theatre What's so funny?Could the man bent over the hole be holding the key? Who wants to crawl in the dirt?Hey, I know! Let's get the the skinny kid with the newsie cap and light colored jacket! It'll be a hoot! Call for Elliott NessThe twenties, an alley, a tunnel. I suspect something to do with the Volstead Act. Spider HoleIt's where Saddam Hussein's great grandfather hid out. It's the heat!Prohibition was in full swing at this point. The official looking men, the camera tripod, a broken bottle in the hand of the bull leaning over the hole. The happy expression on the face of the young man coming out of the hole. Perhaps a distillery raid? Very suspiciousIt looks like the piece of sheet metal was used to hide the mysterious tunnel. Prohibition?Caould it be a cellar to hide illegal liquor? Looks like the fellow leaning down towards the hole is holding part of a broken bottle out towards the fellow coming up from the hle. Escape Route?Given that 1924 is during Prohibition, I'd bet it was an escape tunnel from a basement "speakeasy" in one of the background buildings. Root cellar!Someone's smugglin' turnips! Well dressed gopherEvery kid should wear a light colored jacket and cap when going into a hole in the ground. I'm wondering what the man is handing the boy. It almost looks like money? Illicit booze pipelineIf it's connected to the garage in the background, I would guess it's an escape route from a speakeasy. Before Groundhog DayBack in the day if Jimmy came out of his underground lair and saw his shadow, it meant 6 more weeks of winter. ClewsThe man bending over the hole looks to be holding a broken bottle. Could this perhaps have something to do with prohibition? Maybe it was an escape tunnel from a speakeasy? The Underground exposedSo much for the Trilateral Commission's secret tunnel to sneak up on the Masons and take over their plan for world domination. ProhibitionCould the mysterious tunnel have anything to do with bootlegging? My Guess Is:Considering the year of the photo. That what they have found is either the location of a still or some bootlegger's stashing place. Rabbit HoleAlice's favorite tea parties take place here. Scram It's the G-men!Must be an escape tunnel from a speakeasy. Where's Geraldo when you need him?The fellow with the pocket watch and no jacket doesn't look like he is having a good time. Perhaps, since this is the height of prohibition, that is because these hardy boys have found where he stores the hooch. German Spies!Washington got its first inkling of this subterranean network when a truck sank a wheel into one of the tunnels in an alleyway behind the Pelham Courts apartments on P Street, making the hole shown in our photo. Initial speculation centered on German spies and rum-runners. The truth turned out to be more prosaic, yet still bizarre. They were the work of a millionaire Smithsonian entomologist named Harrison Dyar, who said he had dug them between 1908 and 1916 "for the exercise," although he clearly seemed to have a fixation on underground passages. After his newspaper interview in 1924 (below), he was found to have dug another network of tunnels around his current home on B Street (Independence Avenue). He died in 1929, though parts of his underground labyrinth were still being stumbled upon (and into) as late as 1958. Inside the tunnelClick to enlarge. Could that bea broken bottle the one guy is holding in his hand? Hard to tell, but this being 1924, it's a good chance that the tunnel has something to do with Prohibition. Ask Al Capone. Or, maybe, Geraldo Rivera. Harrison Gray Dyar, Jr.Could this be one of Dr. Dyar's creations? I GuessThis is some sort of forgotten security/escape tunnel leading from a government building, probably dating to the time of the Civil War. Beyond RepairThe remains of the auto in the upper right have me wondering what model year it is. Must have been one of the first Model T's from '08. AmazingInteresting hobby. Some people collect stamps; some build model aeroplanes. He wanted something different. That's a swell pictureBut I can't see Stan or Ollie. T timeThe Model T has a brass-era radiator piled on the frame that was last used in 1916. The headlight are mounted in a style that started in the summer of 1915. Mr. Dyar Explains Washington Post, Sep 27, 1924 Mr. Dyar at first was reluctant to discuss his strange handiwork which, when uncovered, created such a mystery that theories that the tunnels had been used as a meeting place for German spies in war days were given as much attention as the police theory that they were the rendezvous of bootleggers. It had been suggested even that they labyrinth was the workshop of a gang of counterfeiters. "No." chuckled Mr. Dyar. "The theories are all wrong. You have solved the mystery all right. I dug the tunnels. I did it for exercise. My son, Otis Dyar, who is now a man and married out in California, was a little boy when I began to dig. He used to play in the tunnels. "In fact," he continued, "other boys played in the tunnels and while they didn't annoy me they became a nuisance to some of the neighbors. Complaints were made and I recall on one occasion Detective O'Brien investigated. "Another time, I recall, a policeman came snooping around to look into the tunnels. I played a little joke on him. I put a clock back in the tunnel and when the policeman heard it ticking he must have thought it a time clock on an infernal machine or a smuggler's den or something." Contractors and engineers who have viewed that part of the labyrinth which has been opened declare the bricklaying and construction of the passages generally the work of an expert artisan. "I'm not a bricklayer," Mr. Dyar said with a laugh. "My business is with mosquitoes, moths and butterflies. I just laid the bricks on evenly; that's all." … Mr. Dyar said he knew nothing of the German newspapers which were found in the tunnel and which gave rise to the rumor that perhaps German spies had occupied the underground place. He pointed out that they were dated in 1917, two years after he had moved from the Twenty-first street house. aka Wilfred AllenBut wait - there's more. In 1906 (one year after he started tunneling for exercise), Dyar secretly married Wellesca Pollack using the alias Wilfred Allen while remaining married to his first wife, Zella Peabody. The two of them had three sons, and he deeded $100,000 in property to her. Unfortunately for him, he had another hobby - writing and publishing autobiographical short stories about a character named Mr. French. In one such story, Mr. French deeded a substantial amount of property to "Flossie," until Mrs. French discovered it. That story was used against him in two highly-publicized divorce suits, Dyar's Reno suit to divorce Zella (which failed on jurisdictional grounds), and Zella's California suit to divorce Dyer (which apparently succeeded). Then, as Harrison Dyar, he legally married Wellesca, and adopted their three sons. [Wow. Amazing. - Dave] Electric torchI'd like to have that flashlight he's holding. (I collect flashlights, old ones are especially cool) The CarThe car is indeed a Ford. It has obviously been disassembled, and the fuel tank is out of place, and the steering column is lying much lower than it would be in use. It has a brass radiator so is pre 1917, but has electric headlights so is post 1914, so is only about ten years old at the time of the photograph. One of the mudguards (fenders) is at the base of the tree hiding the feet of the smiling man in the greatcoat. Joel and Ethan - are you watching?If this isn't a perfect vehicle for the Coen Brothers, I don't know what is. (The Gallery, Bizarre, Curiosities, D.C., Natl Photo)
Christmas Story: 1953
... radiates warmth and good cheer. We're leaving it up all night on our plasma display. It's better than a fireplace! California ... 
 
Posted by der_bingle - 12/09/2008 - 6:58pm -

Christmas 1953. Oak Park, Illinois. My cousin Tom experiencing the thrill of his first Lionel electric train. My Uncle Bill is manning the transformer, and my dad, who was a real-life railroad engineer, is on the right. 35mm slide. View full size. There's a tree somewhereUnder all that tinsel! SparksWow! I can practically smell the ozone. This could have been me, except we didn't have sense enough to take pictures of anybody with our electric train, only pictures of it, like this one from December 1954. I think it's Lionel, I forget. This was the time of my life.I might as well be in this picture. The timeline and all that is going on is perfect. Wonderful family shot. WOW! what great memories. Thank you and Merry Christmas to you and your family. Tinsel HazardsHere's a question for you Boomers -- I see that tinsel was big in your growing up years (understatement). Did people keep their pets outside then, or did they all just die horrible, tinsel-blockage induced deaths? (I know that it doesn't always cause serious problems for them -- but with the sheer amount of tinsel on these trees, it seems like the chances for intestinal problems would be good.) tterrace, I really like the attractively arranged couch pillows behind your train. What were you hiding back there? Or are they simulated mountains? Who's having the most funI was so glad when our son was old enough (1957)for me to buy the thing I'd always wanted for Christmas but, because I was a girl, never got. Unfortunately, he was still at the push-toy stage so it didn't work for him but I had a ball. Re: Tinsel hazardsWhy would pets be eating tinsel in the first place? None of ours ever touched the stuff. I grew up in the tinsel-lovin' Fifties. Dogs and cats eating tinsel was not anything people ever talked about happening. Sounds like some sort of 21st century consumer worrywart issue. TinselitisI don't know ... because it's shiny and stringy and fun to play with? My cat would go crazy for the stuff, as would most cats I've owned. Maybe even the pets were perfect in the 50s. It was just a question. [It was an excellent tinsel question. Speaking of which: Garlands or icicles? We were always a garland family. Not that there's anything wrong with icicles. - Dave] Simulated mountainsVery good, Catherine. I usually have to explain to people what the pillows are doing behind my toys in a number of my photos from back then. These we had retained from our old chesterfield which had been relegated to a slow, moldering death in the basement a couple years back. If you could look above them, you'd see my mother's renowned curtains and drapes. We never used tinsel ourselves, but I remember enjoying it when we'd visit friends or relatives who did. Those were the days when tinsel was made of, or mostly of, lead. I liked to slip strands off and ball them up into little wads or, better yet, if there were lighted candles around and nobody was watching, dangle them in the flame and watch them melt. Don't tell anybody. Twin tops?It appears that someone improvised and used some of the TinkerToy pieces to make stands for the 'billboard' signs. It also looks like the Tinkertoy was also a present that may have been wrapped in aluminum foil. And, there appear to be two identical toys in the picture, possibly spinning tops. Great picture! TransformerLooks like the transformer is a Lionel model 1033 (made from 1948-'56). I have one of these units, still in perfect working condition. As far as I know, the only maintenance it ever had was the replacement of the power cord, due to the insulation drying out and cracking (a common problem). I never cease to be amazed at how durable those old Lionels are. Great picture! LionelI agree, it's probably a Lionel in tterrace's photo. I had an American Flyer I received for Christmas in 1948. American Flyer did not have the middle rail in the track. A way of lifeAs they say, a way of life gone with the wind. I love this blog . . .It is threads like this that keep me hooked on this blog. It's comforting to know I'm not the only whack job walking around unattended. Foy Las Vegas Cat TinselWithout the prompting of previous posters I wouldn't have mentioned that during the Christmas season at our house our Siamese cat Tabetha would walk around with a piece of what she usually left in her litter box instead dangling from a piece of tinsel she had once presumably eaten. That's the most tasteful way I can explain it. Now That's Christmas!Real Tinker Toys, the "real" old-school Lionel train sets, and not those modern knockoffs made by a company that simply owns the name. What do kids get today? Lead lined Chinese plastic "toys" from Wal-Mart. Boy, give me that old fashioned Christmas anytime. Thanks, and Merry Christmas to you. My Dad and Uncle have passed on, but Tom - who's now in his sixties - still has that Lionel train set. Last time I was at his house he had it set up in his basement, along with several accessories he's accumulated over the years. [We're all glad he finally got to play with it! And thanks for this wonderful photo. - Dave] Chestnuts roasting on an open plasmaThis picture just radiates warmth and good cheer. We're leaving it up all night on our plasma display. It's better than a fireplace! California TinselI have to think our state banned tinsel production due to environmental concerns, because it's virtually nowhere to be found. I say "virtually," because Michael's has it. No tinsel at the dollar stores and such. At Michael's it is in packages that need to be cut. The tinsel comes attached at the top. Same stuff. Thanks to Michael's, our tree looks like this one. [I think its scarcity might be due more to child-safety concerns. - Dave] Nothing to add.I have nothing to add. Just love this picture and reading all your comments -- the wallpaper is killer. Shorpy forever. How we tinseledAround our house, we would always begin with laboriously stringing one strand of tinsel at a time on a barren branch until it was somewhat filled. Yet invariably, we two boys would get rambunctious and throw a handful up where we couldn't reach. And Mom, patient Mom, would sigh and give us permission to begin the fusillade of tinsel throwing that produced a Christmas tree neatly stranded with tinsel about 3 feet up, but above that utter disorder that only little boys could love. But I hasten to add the "tidy line" rose as we grew. Making a much happier mom. The Train Don't Stop Here No MoreMy Dad had a huge 60's-70's Lionel train set, with all the accessories: the lighted passenger cars, the little signal box with the trainman who would come out, holding his lantern when a train went by, and even the Giraffe Car. Anyone remember the Giraffe Car? Several locos too, both steam and diesel, and that big control transformer with the power supply handles on both ends. The whole setup ran on a plywood table, about 6 x 8, which he built himself. Sadly, when he died, my mother sold the whole outfit for a hundred bucks, and today it would probably be worth ten times that much. I wish I still had it! Tinsel informationTo RoverDaddy who is looking for tinsel, try the cheap, cheap, cheap stores. I found it at Dollar General Store but also Family Dollar Store, Dollar Tree and other bargain centers are most likely to have it. You can see I am the last of the big spenders and I have to add that one time when my mother was removing tinsel to save it for the next year, my father asked her, with a straight face, if she was going to make tinsel soup, as she always stretched the life out of a dollar by making lots of soups and stews. Voices from the kitchenLove this photo! While the menfolk are intent on the train, I can hear Grandma and the aunts in the kitchen talking over each other while getting Christmas dinner ready. Is the turkey done? Did you hear about Great Aunt Stella? She's already wrecked that brand new beautiful car. Mom, that's enough gravy for an army! Did Bill get you that brooch you've been wanting, Madge? And, naturally they're all wearing dresses, heels and festive aprons. This photo is CLASSIC. Lead-foil tinselThe tinsel on a tree of this vintage is probably made of lead foil. The good news is that it was reusable year after year. The bad news is that you could get lead poisoning from ingesting it! Lead foil tinsel has long since been removed from the market, along with several other dangerous items from Christmases past! See: http://www.familychristmasonline.com/trees/ornaments/dangerous/dangerous... Kids AgainI love this photo because the uncle and the dad are suddenly about 9 years old too. Windows 53Love those window blinds. All our cats have eaten tinsel. It makes the litter box more festive. We use both kinds -- short hunks of garland and the stringy silver "icicle" stuff. I too heave the stuff at the tree rather than place it carefully. Dave, I think Anonymous at 11:25 was talking about the train in tterrace's photo. [You are so smart. Thank you! - Dave] Wow.Well this brings along even more memories. I was born in '65 and I remember playing with a train like this in '68 or '69. I do not remember what brand (Lionel or American Flyer), but I do remember putting in a pill pushing a button or something and it would smoke when I pushed it. I remember pissing Daddy off because every time the train would go in front of the TV while he was watching it, I would push that button! Talk about pushing Daddy's button!!! I also remember throwing tinsel on the tree, Daddy helping, and Mom getting upset with both of us. In addition, we also had those bubble lights. After they warmed up they would start bubbling. I need to go lie down and look at Shorpy some more and see what else I can remember. Too much tinsel...My mother would always complain that my father and I put too much tinsel on our trees. And our beloved Cocker Spaniel, Sherman loved the taste of tinsel. Xmas ExpressOur house had a very similar Christmas morning about 25 years later. My dad found a second train in a garage he was tearing down. I got them out last Christmas and they still run. I put a video on our site. RetinselingYup, we did the tinsel thing too, but we were thrifty New Englanders, and my mother took at least some of the stuff OFF the tree every year and carefully put it on cardboard to use it again the following year. My grandmother, bless her, had the job of untangling the resulting mess and handing each of us little handfuls to drape over the branches one by one. Needless to say, we weren't allowed to throw it because then it couldn't be taken off. All That to be an Engineer????I can't tell you how envious I am of your father. When I was in the ninth grade one of my teachers decided to play guidance counselor and advise me on what courses to take in high school. She asked what I wanted to be and I told her I would like to be an engineer. She told me I should take Algebra II, Calculus, Physics, etc etc etc. I sat there in stunned amazement thinking, "All that just to drive a train????" When it dawned on me that we were talking about two entirely different things I was too embarrassed to correct her. Where can I find tinsel?This year I'd love to introduce my kids to the fun of cheap old shiny plastic tinsel (yes I'm a masochist for wanting to clean up the mess later). Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the stuff anywhere! Does anybody still make plastic 'icicles' as the package often called them, or have they been made extinct by concerns over fire hazards and unfortunate pets? Retinseling 2And I thought my family was the only one who did this, except we didn't put it on cardboard. All the tinsel went into a cardboard shoe box, year after year. We would add maybe one package of new tinsel every couple of years. The new tinsel would hang straight while the old would be more and more crinkly over the years. My sister & I had to put it on one strand at a time (except when Mom wasn't looking). Being from the Depression era as my mother was, I'm sure that box of tinsel is still up in the attic to this day. Our cat also loved the taste of tinsel, with predicable results. Lionel 027It's 027, the less expensive Lionel product compared to big heavy "O". Same gauge, lower rail, slightly sharper curves, simpler switches. We had a mixture of both, purchased used from various sources, and we figured out ways to use the 2 sizes together. That switch is a manual 027 one, with no lighted position indicator, we had a pair of them. Didn't make the satisfying "clack" sound that the "O" manual switches did when you threw the lever. We never had remote control switches, since you could buy more manual ones for the same money. Some "O" gauge equipment couldn't operate on 027, the curves were too sharp. Made a serious mistake about 30 years ago, sold all of it except a couple special cars. Smokin'!My own American Flyer set of that era had tablets that, when dropped into the locomotive's smokestack, would emit little puffs of real smoke. Gift itI gave my 1948 3/16 model American Flyer to my grandson last Christmas. Much better than selling. Alas ...In 1954, just after we moved into our spiffy suburban ranch house, my uncle started a large 8 x 16 Lionel O-gauge layout in the basement. Presumably for me, or so he said. After everyone died off, I inherited the six large boxes of trains and all the fixin's. Fifteen years ago I sold the lot for $450 to a dealer. Dumb move. But revenge is sweet as I have just started construction on a huge (roughly 100 x 150) garden train layout behind the house. The RugWhat really caught my eye is that rug -- a dead ringer for one we had for many years! My dad got it at Barker Brothers in 1943. The hopper car and caboose also look exactly like the ones from my Lionel train set from the late '50s, though the rest is different. I just wanted you to knowI just wanted you to know that you brought a tear to the eye of this grumpy old man, remembering the exact same scene from his childhood. Thank you. You made my day, GrumpyGlad this evoked a fond memory for you, as well as for so many others. Another tinsel commentGrowing up in the later 50s and 60s, we also did tinsel every year. Like many others, we would save it from year to year until it was too crinkled to hang right. Then we'd have to get one or two new packages, probably from Woolworth's or "the drugstore" since Target and Walmart were not born yet. We kids also tossed it up to the top of the tree. These days, I want to get some but my wife says no - you can't recycle it with the tree, she says. Too messy. Too bad. I did see some this year at Target, except the 'new' tinsel has that prismatic glimmer to it where it reflects like a rainbow, not like regular silver stuff. I'll kep trying. Tinsel and SnowLike Older than Yoda, I can remember taking the (metal foil) tinsel, which we always called icicles, off the tree and saving it. As soon as the plasticky stuff came out, that was the end of that. Another long-gone Christmas memory was a box of mica chips of that Mama would sprinkle on the cotton batting at the base of the tree. That box lasted years and years. When you had parents that came up during the Depression, you learned about saving. My dad: "Turn off some of these lights, this place looks like a hotel!" American Flyer, no LionelGreat picture ... we all laid our heads on the track and watched the train coming right at us. This is actually an American Flyer 3 rail O gauge train. It was made before WWII. After the war American Flyer went to 3/16" to the foot S-gauge two rail track. [If it's not a Lionel, why does it say LIONEL LINES on the tender? - Dave] We used tinsel alsoThat brings back memories. We would go to the woods and cut the "cedar" tree. My family had a flocking machine, and several households on the street would put their tree up the same day, so the flocking machine would only have to be used once per year. We also used to take a strand of tinsel, wedge it in between our front teeth, and blow. I don't know why that was so much fun but it was. A (real) Christmas storyMy brothers (who were 18 and 9 years older than me) made me a train set for my 5th or 6th Christmas -- I walked into the garage while they were painting the board and I asked if I could help and they told me they were painting a sign and I could help paint it green. When I got it Christmas morning I was the most surprised boy in the world. It was a great gift that I helped make without knowing! Disney train setWhen I was 5 (back in 1970), my parents bought me a Disneyland Monorail train set. My father had it already assembled for me on a large piece of plywood that had been covered in green fake grass, and had miniature buildings to go with it. Considering what that original set would be worth today, I almost wish he had just left it sealed in the box. All that I have remaining from the original set is the 12v-18v transformer. Maker of lead foil tinselI'm not sure if anyone is still looking for lead foil tinsel - the stuff some of us fondly remember from our childhood. It's available from Riffelmacher and Weinberger in Germany. Or rather it's shown in their wholesale catalogue. See p 50 of their 2010 Christmas catalogue, Item 91152 is silver ... exactly what we all remember! Now your only challenge may be ordering in bulk from Germany. I can smell the coal smoke from the furnaceGreat picture. I love how the kid's old man gets to run the locomotive, his Uncle is playing Conductor and the kid gets to be Switchman! Gotta pay your dues kid! Looks like they just setout the hopper and tank car and are about to back the engine to re-couple onto the NYC gondola and caboose. A very similar scene played out in many households of the era. I like the Hamilton or Gruen wristwatches that the guys are wearing too. My cousin Tom, the boy in the photo...turned 68 this year. Sobering perspective on just how long ago this was! Your photo and story for magazine articleHi, I am senior editor at Classic Toy Trains. We would be interested in publishing this vintage color photo and learning more about the background . Please contact me at: Roger Carp 262-796-8776 ext. 253 rcarp@classictoytrains.com Thanks, Roger (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Christmas, Kids)
California Modern: 1950
... else they have in common besides biblical footwear? The night is young... Time and place Sandals and a suit? Hey, this is ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/05/2008 - 12:47pm -

1950. Cocktail hour at the Spencer residence in Santa Monica. Note the mirror-view television sunken into the table. Architect: Richard Spencer. Color transparency by Julius Shulman. View full size. Is Uncle Miltie on tonight? Where is Hugh Hefner?This is reminiscent of the mood of the old TV Show "Hugh Hefner's Penthouse Party." It was all so "chic and stylishly sophisticated" and only the young and beautiful need apply. I do LOVE the streamlined clean look of it all but the guy standing by the fireplace appears to be wearing sandals with a suit, kind of a strange combo. And the powder blue chenille chair in the left foreground would have left lots of lint on black clothing. Quite a slick depiction of the trends of 1950, although most of it is timeless good design. Thanks for the flashback, I love your Shorpy time machine. Meaningful Look...... between Standing Man and Black Dress Woman. Who knows what else they have in common besides biblical footwear? The night is young... Time and placeSandals and a suit? Hey, this is California -- not only that, Santa Monica. As California goes, so goes the future, and it was true in 1950. Granted, I was only 4 then, and my family wasn't in any way immersed in this kind of lifestyle and fashion, but I grew up aware of it, so this scene is completely believable. About the only thing not cutting-edge that I can see are what appear to be 78-rpm record albums (they were literally albums) on the bottom two shelves. 1950 ArmaniWhen I saw this, I immediately thought of Armani Casa, the style is so similar. And the woman on the right in the black dress with the small pois pattern is pure Emporio. SandalsSandals on men are just wrong. Sandals with a suit are an abomination. This guy wuld probably be wearing flip flops to work today. Steak TartareIs that a big plate of raw hamburger there? [Probably not. - Dave] Name that tune.How about you all guess what suave, very cool and modern music that fits the scene might have been playing on the stereophonic hi-fi in 1950. I'm guessing something with Les Paul and Mary Ford. [There was no stereo hi-fi in 1950, but what the heck. Miles Davis. - Dave] Books!The thing that struck me immediately was the prominence of books in this otherwise very spare room. Note the tapered, built-in bookcases, the hard-bound volume carefully placed on the coffee table and the stack of books in the centre unit of sectional couch. Clearly, those who "dressed" this room could imagine the living room as a space where people would read, and they wanted to project the possibility. Today's living rooms -- and the "entertainment units" with which they are furnished -- are designed around electronics, with some allowance for a few magazines or decorative items. Bookcases, where you actually find them, tend to have oversize shelves for binders, photo albums and magazines, not octavo sized books. Soviet ChicI love the Soviet Chic concrete block wall. It reminds me of the university building where I currently work. Probably constructed in about the same era. Two observations: (1) without a ladder, how do you reach the books at the top of the 12-foot-shelf? (2) I love that the flask on the table matches both the drink on the table (which looks like Hawaiian Punch to me) and the pillows behind the bored blonde. [The "flask" is a table lighter. - Dave] Huaraches Going out on a limb here that those sandals are huaraches which were big in the 60's. I know because I had a Rat Fink surf themed LP, Surfink, in the 60's that mentioned huaraches. I suppose that qualifies me some. Modern and Cold...I like a lot of the modern designs from the 50's. However, this one looks too cold and industrial. This is one cocktail party that I am glad I didn't go to. Just look at how much fun they are having! Oh my! Swank padThe future was going to be so cool, and look what we did with it. Shag?Is that SHAG carpetting on the chair? And why is Mr. Spencer wearing Birkenstocks with his suit? Even the ladies shoes seems to be.... less than fashionable. House overall seems somewhat dated, but functional, but the furniture (except maybe the TV) needs to go. And the TV needs to be an LCD pop up with something like Microsoft Surface. Otherwise, this looks like a bad retro-istic look at yesterday's today. Looking like today!High ceilings, simple, sparse furnishings, even the fashions look contemporary. Usually there would be a grey brick fireplace and evidence of robin egg blue palette or chrome and blond furniture around for the fifties. This could be 2009 decor. Santa MonicaSo, tt, what was "this lifestyle" that was on the periphery of your awareness? Spooky ChicThe very chic woman on the right looks so contemporary it's almost spooky. Going DownI thought it was simply a blocky coffee table, until I saw the opening to the steps leading to the chic pleasure dungeon. The guy in the suit and the blonde are obviously planning an immediate descent. Playboy PadThe guy in the suit and sandals looks like a cross between Woody Harrelson and Hugh Hefner. Yeah, Baby . . . So Cool!This is probably the first Shorpy pic that truly makes me want to time travel and immerse myself completely into this scene. I love the coolness and sleekness and the fact that 58 years later, this looks like something that I could probably mimic today without too much fuss. Well, except the smoking. About Santa MonicaI phrased that poorly; my intention was to zero in on Southern California in general, not Santa Monica specifically. What I was driving at was that Southern California had long been a place where the new, the novel, the offbeat was a familiar part of the culture; also that there was a particular style of upscale living - influenced by, among other things, the climate, the movie industry and that tolerance for the idiosyncratic and unusual. A scene like this, in a ritzy, high-concept-design postwar modern living/entertaining room, with a guy in open-shirt designer garb in sandals, well, this is so totally Southern California that I can't stand it. And it's 1950. We're witnessing the dawn of casual chic. Hi-De-FiThe hi-fi system is highly unusual. They were not commonly built into coffee tables! They were commonly custom built, however. The components often didn't come with cabinets. I assume that the TV mirror is so thick because it has a layer of that zebra-grain plywood on it. I also assume that the preamp sticking out near Black Dress's knees tucks in when not in use. There would also be a record changer that slid out when the records needed changing. As someone noted, the records are those old-fashioned 78s. The 33 rpm LP record was just coming into vogue at that time, being introduced c. 1948. The draperiesThe draperies--I assume that is what they are--are amazing. But I really, really want that lamp on the right. [Those are probably boards set at an angle. Your classic mid-century room divider or window baffle. - Dave] True date of this photoThe unbroken horizontal top of the bodice on the sleeveless and strapless gowns gives me pause about the date 1950. I've found only one photo of 1950, "Carmen's Armpit" by Norman Parkinson, that shows a model in such a gown, but the top of that bodice has a break in the overfold to suggest cleavage. By 1952 such gowns as appear in this photo were worn; by 1954-1955 they were common. The short hairstyle on the blonde belongs to 1951-1952, or to 1955, especially if she has a flip curl in front. This image could be as late as 1955. Perhaps a source for the unusual TV setup will help pin down the exact year. [This photograph was taken in 1950. - Dave] More on the SpencersI found the Spencers' wedding announcement (in the January 28, 1949 Long Beach Independent). Based on the accompanying photo I'd bet that they are the two standing by the fireplace. Most remarkable was her wedding dress - "an apple green dressmaker suit and orchids." He was described as an industrial engineer, originally from Denver, who studied abroad. She was the former Josephine Caruso, whose parents had a Long Beach address and who graduated from Polytechnic High. "They will make their home in Santa Monica Canyon." Neal Cassady by the wallWith Kerouac chatting up the local hipsters, while traveling "On the Road." HotDo you suppose the fire is actually burning that wood? If so, Mr. Sandals wouldn't be able to keep his hand on the fireplace screen very long. That is unless he is so mesmerized that he doesn't notice. [Some people are just too cool to get burned. - Dave] As seen on AMC's Mad MenThe woman on the right sure looks like Betty Draper. Of course this would have been before she met her future hubby, Don. Time TravelerI can't believe that woman in the black outfit is from 58 years ago. I am intensely curious as to how she aged in the following decades... How did she look in 1965? 1974? 1995? The writer Robert Benchley once had to console a man who was in love with a woman who'd been dead for a hundred years. I feel myself falling in love with this woman, and wish I had a time machine. The lobbyistsThis room looks more like an upscale lobby or waiting room than a room in somebody's home. I'm guessing the little Spencers didn't play in this room. I think one of the biggest reasons the woman in black looks so contemporary is her millennial borderline-underweight figure, in a time when most of the starlets were more pneumatic. [You'll note from the caption that the owner of the house is the architect who designed it. - Dave] That mirror TV cabinetLet's see if we can figure out how that mirror cabinet for the TV worked... We need two mirrors to keep from reversing the image. Could the TV screen be facing the photographer, with one mirror out of sight reflecting the image up to the mirror we can see? No, then the viewer would see a sideways image, unless the TV is on its side. Probably the TV needed to stay upright? Or could it be on its side, or upside down? [Mirror view televisions, whose sales peak was sometime around 1948, were used for the larger screen sizes (17 inches and up) back when the bigger picture tubes were too long to fit front-to-back in a standard cabinet. Generally the tube was wired to display a reverse image. The standard design was an upright cabinet with mirrored lid. Some used a prism or extra mirrors. They were superseded by direct-view sets once picture tubes got short enough to fit front-to-back in a 24-inch-deep enclosure. Custom installations continued to make use of the principle. - Dave] Time is relative...Our family was totally working class, but, I remember the homes (and offices) of more "sophisticated" people looking much like this when I was a kid. Ours was a two-university town. This looks like the home of a prof or department head, and it resembles a lot of the university architecture being built at the time, the time being the early 1960s for me. It took a decade or more for California Chic to percolate down (and up) to the likes of us in Southern Ontario. This room is ugly and the people look strange.Why does the woman in black appear to have been decapitated and then had her head put back on the neck? What is wrong with this picture? There certainly is a lot wrong with the room. It's about as homey as a public toilet. Another worldWow. I can't even imagine how wealthy one would have to be to live like this in 1950. When I first saw the picture I assumed these people were all movie stars. My father was born in 1947, and his working class upbringing in Northern England, in an unheated home lacking an indoor bathroom, would have been almost literally on another planet compared to this. Astonishing. Kind of Cold In Here...I agree with all those who find this room cold and impersonal, but I suppose it would be a good place to hang out and smoke a couple packs of butts, like these people are doing. Girl in the black dress is exceptional by the standards of any era. For those who like this room I suggest a visit to Aqueduct Racecourse. That was built in 1961, but style hadn't changed all that much, and the little foyer below the grandstand escalator is still furnished something like this. A real time warp. What goes around comes around...I'm from New Zealand, and this style of interior is becoming extremely popular again. I think it's wonderful, nothing like a public toilet. (Art & Design, Julius Shulman)
Thronged Thoroughfare: 1908
... Today it houses a Home Depot store. Just the other night I was in NYC this past weekend and, although it was night-time and snowing and there was no more Sixth Avenue El to take the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/18/2015 - 7:03am -

New York circa 1908. "Twenty-Third Street east from Sixth Avenue." Featured players in this picture include the McCreery dry goods store, Lilliputian Bazaar and our old friend the Flatiron Building. 8x10 glass negative. View full size. Best & CompanyLater famous for their small, white brick branch stores in the suburbs of NYC and DC. Some remain, though repurposed after McCrory's, which acquired Best in the mid '60s, liquidated the company in 1970. There is presumably no connection between the McCreery's shown here and McCrory's, which also owned Lerner's and S. Kline ("On the Square"). In the 1940s, I had a few outfits my mother purchased for me at the Lilliputian Bazaar, a name that by then had been relegated to a subtitle as the stores' proportion of adult clothing increased. As a kid, I found those ensembles decidedly "sissy" and, like the long and boring church services to which I was forced to wear those togs, just another in an infinite series of adult injustices to be endured. Pictured here is the chain's original flagship store, established in 1879. Early wireless NYCthanks to the Great Blizzard of 1888 which took down all the overhead wires. It also took down ex Senator Roscoe Conkling, famous womanizer and philanderer, who symbolically overlooks this same 23rd Street in the form of a bronze statue on the nearby southeast corner of Madison Square Park. The Twenty-third Street Railway went through several gyrations before being replaced by the M23 bus, to the delight of Big Oil/Auto conspiracy theorists. Small price to payFor such items as 'Lawn Russian Dresses', whatever they may be. New York Daily Tribune, May 17, 1908. Stern Bros.The most obvious survivor in this shot is the old Stern Brothers store, what is now Home Depot. View Larger Map Photographer's locationI’m trying to figure out where he would have been, so high above the road in the middle of the streetcar track. On top of a streetcar? Note: Thanks to the suggestion in BigAl42’s comment above (Puzzled), it is now clear to me that the vantage point is the platform of the 23rd Street station of the Sixth Avenue elevated railway. In fact, much further down the street, one can make out the 23rd St. station of the Third Avenue El. Best PricesBest & Co. was a top-drawer retailer, with prices to match. They were still around when I was young; they had a store in the Oak Brook Center in the tony western 'burbs of Chicago. I loved when Mom shopped there, as they had a stuffed 3/4 scale horse, with a western-style saddle and covered with real horsehide, for young equestrians to play on. Fabulous diversion, and one that probably escalated the average sales ticket exponentially. Speaking of prices, I ran both the sale prices on a couple of items in that "Special Sale" ad through an inflation calculator site I frequently use. Get a load of this: The linen jumpers and "wash suits": "What cost $9.85 in 1908 would cost $255.67 in 2014." The "Sailor Suits," presumably for boys: "What cost $12 in 1908 would cost $311.47 in 2014." The regular price on those jumpers? "What cost $29.50 in 1908 would cost $765.71 in 2014." Mind-boggling. [Maybe not so mind-boggling when you consider that the average wage in 1908 was 22 cents an hour, as opposed to $24 now. So those $29 jumpers would have taken 131 hours of work to pay for in 1908, as opposed to 32 hours today. (If a pair of jumpers actually cost $765 today, which seems very unlikely!) - Dave] Could this scene be part of the famous NYC Easter Parade? The street crowds seem very well-dressed for just a regular day, and there are so many carriages and liveried coachmen about. Wonder if it is Easter.Even for 1908, the people on the street are well-dressed. Can you imagine someone from 1908 seeing today's New York, especially in the summer? They'd faint. Toys and Dentists.Two things I can't help but think of. 1. Oh boy would I love to walk into that toy store (on the left). Probably find myself a brand new SturdiToy pressed Steel Fire Engine with working ladder. I wish we had a picture of that interior. 2. Those "Dental Parlors." Imagine having a toothache in 1908. The treatment may have been worse than the toothache. I believe that Shorpy has shown some photos of old dental offices. No Dandelions on a Lawn RussianLawn is a specific weight/grade of cotton. It is still called cotton lawn today, though it is pretty rare that we leave out the fiber name when we have so many synthetic fibers to compete with cotton. My best guess is the flowing Gibson Girl style dress in question has its buttons down one side of its front, rather than down the middle of the front, in homage to the traditional Cossack style. PuzzledWhere this photo was taken from? It appears to be at first floor height almost directly over an active tramline. So it's not been taken from inside a building? Was there an elevated railway on 6th? 6th Avenue Elevated TrainTo Big Al's question, yes there was a 6th Avenue Elevated Train (until 1940) and this photo appears to have been taken from its 23rd Street station. WhoisitWonder who face adorns the building on the far right of the picture? Stern Bros Dept StoreThe white 6-story building in the middle of the photo (40 W 23rd Street) was once Stern Bros Dry Goods store. The building has possibly the largest cast-iron facade in Manhattan. Today it houses a Home Depot store. Just the other nightI was in NYC this past weekend and, although it was night-time and snowing and there was no more Sixth Avenue El to take the picture from a raised vantage point, I did dash out into the westbound lanes to do my best (and I ain't no timeandagainphoto) to show you this stretch of 23rd Street two nights ago. William ShakespeareThe bust Phaedrus asks about is the one and only William Shakespeare. Apparently this building was the site of Booth's Theatre, which opened in 1869 with a production of Romeo and Juliet. When McCreery bought the building, he installed the bust as a tribute. For an in-depth look at the theatre and the fate of the bust see this page at the Performing Arts Archive. (The Gallery, DPC, Flatiron Building, NYC, Streetcars)
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