The Rose Parade, January 1, 1926 Part 4

This is part 4 of 5. This grouping has my second date clue. The photograph with the marching band wearing fezzes, there is another movie theater marquee. This time, Old Clothes, with Jackie Coogan, released November 9, 1925. And, on the guys in the fezzes...are they Shriners?

The Rose Parade, January 1, 1926 Part 3

This is part three of five. Just for a bit of variety, I'm going to be putting up some other things for a bit, but check back, because the last two parts should be up by the middle of next week. Stamped on the back of each photo in the set, "NEW PHONE VErmont 4184 AEROGRAPH CO. 1763-5 W. Vernon Ave. LOS ANGELES,-CALIF. No_Price_ Mail Orders Receive Prompt Attention." All of the photos had a punched border, and were bound in a plain card folder. I suspect this might have been a salesman's sample book, marketing to people involved in the parade. Note the Angelus Temple banner. The Angelus Temple was the church founded by sister Aimee Semple McPherson, one of the first major radio evangelists in the United States. She had a national, rather than just a local following.

The Rose Parade, January 1, 1926 Part 2

This is part two of five. I often date old photos by comparing things like cars, clothing, and hair styles with other pictures that have written dates. This collection was easy to date. Look at the photo with the theater marquee. I needed a magnifying glass to make it out, but the front of the theater advertises "The Live Wire" with Johnny Hines. The live wire was released on September 20, 1925. The theater is the Bard's Egyptian, which opened in 1925. Pasadena's Colorado Blvd., the route of the Rose Parade still has many building from the era. Note the marchers with the Pasadena Humane Society banner.

The Rose Parade, January 1, 1926 Part 1

This is the first part of five, showing images from the January 1, 1926 Rose Parade in Pasadena, California. The Rose Parade was first held in 1890. It's original sponsor was Pasadena's Valley Hunt Club. The membership was heavy on cold whether refugees from the east and mid-west, and they wanted to show off their homes and the mild winters of southern California.

To Miss Nellie Baker of Clinton, Maine From California

What I'd do to see the letter that accompanied these photos, when mailed, from the San Francisco Bay area to Clinton, Maine. All we know for sure is that someone mailed these photos from somewhere in California on June 23, 1908, that it was then relayed from the San Francisco post office on June 28, 1908, and arrived at Clinton, Maine on July 4, 1908. (TheClinton post mark is on the back of the envelope.) This is where the fun comes in from collecting old photos. While we can't know things for sure, we can speculate, logically. There are two probable scenarios here. The first is that Nellie Baker's friend was on a trip to California. The second, and more likely, is that her friend moved to the bay area. Are the photos of the school house, children, and library work places for Nellie's friend, or is she ( I'd bet money that we are dealing with a woman.) trying to brag to her friend that in California, we've got better schools, libraries, churches, and houses than you do, back home, in Clinton. The picture of the men in the boat, leads me to think that this family didn't live in San Francisco, but the head of the house commuted, by water, to the city. East bay, maybe Oakland, or perhaps from Marin? I think there is a good chance that the church and possibly the old school house are still standing, so if anyone out there recognizes them, please leave a comment.

Hollywood Hot Spots

These two images are linen postcards of night spots from the golden age of Hollywood. (Information about how linen postcrds were made can be found in my post of 7/3/10 Catalina in Postcards.) The first Brown Derby was opened 1926 by Herbert Samborn at 3427 Wilshire Blvd. and was shaped like a derby hat. It was so popular with the Hollywood crowd, that Samborn opened a second, more conventionally designed restaurant at 628 Vine St. near the corner of Hollywood Blvd. It opened on Feb. 14, 1929. This is the building depicted in this postcard. A third Brown Derby was opened in Beverly Hills, and the final one in the chain was opened on Los Feliz Blvd. They have, since, all been closed. In 1934, Samborn died and the restaurants were taken over by Robert Cobb, the inventor of the Cobb salad. One of the anecdotes I've found about the Brown Derby; noted for it's movie star caricatures, the restaurant's manager would place those of married couples and actors who were dating, together. If the marriage or relationship ended, the caricatures would be moved to opposite walls. I've already written about the history of the Earl Carroll Theatre-Restaurant in a previous post, dated 8/18/09, which can be easily accessed by clicking on night club in the labels section. The Earl Carroll Theatre opened on December 26, 1938. Both of these cards were published by the same company, "WESTERN PUBLISHING & NOVELTY CO., LOS ANGELES, CALIF." "C.T. ART-COLORTONE REG. U.S. PAT. OFF." On the back of the Brown Derby card, "The famed Brown Derby on Vine Street, Hollywood, with it's adjacent distinctive bamboo roof, is the acknowledged center of the smart social life of the movie colony." The Earl Carroll postcard, "The Earl Carroll Theatre-Restaurant in the heart of Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard near Vine, is a favorite Nite Spot in the Film Capitol of the the World. Seating arrangements are terraced so all guests may enjoy unobstructed view of the lavish stage productions with "Sixty of the Most Beautiful Girls in the World." Both of these cards are unused.

Los Angeles After the War

I've written enough about my distress when dealers break up photo albums, that I'm happy to finally put up one of the albums I own, complete. It's a small collection. While the album itself has around fifty or so pages, these few pictures were placed on only five of those pages. (The album owner used photo corners. A few of them are missing and have left small, triangular bits of crystallized glue behind, that are not to be found on any of the blank pages, which has led to my conclusion that the owner of this album gave up adding new images.) One of the things I've always found fascinating about old American photographs is the documentation of movement; the movement from one part of the country to another. One of the things my father told me was that the depression and World war 2 were good for the United States because it forced people to uproot and move on from their established lives. My father had to drop out of the tenth grade, he went on the road, worked for both the C.C.C. and the W.P.A. and then ended up spending four years in Europe during, and right after the war. I found this album in Rosamond, California, and at first thought that it must have been owned by one of the families that went to the high desert as support workers for Muroc, latter Edwards Air Force Base, but on closer examination I realized that the ridge line seen in the background runs from just north of downtown Los Angeles to Pasadena. For Anglenos, think Mt. Washington. More than likely, these images were taken in Glassell Park, a real estate development aimed towards defense workers. A lot of those old houses are still there, and with a bit of work, I could probably find this street. Of course, Los Angeles is the city that it is, because of twentieth century population shifts. The depression saw the uprooting of people from the great plains, Texas, Oklahoma, the Ozarks, and lots of them headed for southern and central California. And then the war, and the growth of the defence industry, especially aircraft in the L.A. area, brought even more people west, looking for high paid jobs. Since these photos are held in the album with photo corners and are not glued to the pages, I have been able to, carefully, remove them and then replace them back in the album. A few of the pictures have hand written captions on the back. The first picture of the older man in overalls being embraced by the woman in slacks, "Feb-9-1946 Quite a paunch you have there pop." The younger man and woman wearing a skirt, holding a plant in her hands, "Feb-9-1946. Smile Mac, it's not." The older man in overalls, with his arm on the older woman's shoulder, "The couple." Mac, standing alone, cigarette in hand, "Feb-9-1946 Look at the birdiee please." The two younger women standing side by side, "A Blonde & A Brunette OH OH!" The woman laying on the ground, "Feb-9-1946 Uh Uh! What a form!?" Mac, his arm around the waist of the woman in the cowboy hat and boots, "Hold on tight so IT won't Blow Away. (The hat of course.)" 1946 was a good year. The soldiers were back, the economy was booming, and everyone had a job.