Interesting Young Men

A fraternity party, an acting troupe, Vaudeville, a late nineteenth century group of gay men? It's impossible to say. Anyway, we've got one man in a woman's bonnet, one in what might be a woman's hat, and one man in a dress. An albumen print from the late nineteenth century (probably) with a very interesting group of young men.

Norman In the Navy

I've been looking at pictures on line, and my best estimate is that Norman is wearing the wool navel blue uniform used from the 1920's to the early 1940's. If anyone out there knows better, leave a comment. Written in the upper left corner, Love, Norman" I lost a bit of the inscription when I cropped out the white boarders.

Railroad Men

I don't know where this was taken, but it looks like the rail line that crosses the Sierras between Truckee and Sacramento.

Yet Another French Postcard

I found this old, framed French postcard in a thrift shop. One of my fellow employees at the photo lab where I was working at that time was teaching himself photo shop, and so I let him practice his digital correction skills with this image. Now, I did have to correct some of his work the old fashioned way, with a paint brush and spot tone, but by and large, the negatives I had made gave me a nice, black & white print. Also done the old fashioned way, with an enlarger and chemistry.

Santa Catalina Island Across the Sea

And yet another souvenir photo, this time from Santa Catalina Island. Catalina is 26 miles across the sea, or so the line in the song goes, from Long Beach, California. Today, most of the island is owned by the nature Conservancy. There is a small town on the island, Avalon, that was once pretty much owned by Philip Wrigley of chewing gum fame. Written on the inside matt, "August 5, 1947. El Encanto, Catalina, Is." El Encanto is a small market place with souvenir shops and a couple of restaurants.

The Persian Room

Like a lot of people, I'm somewhat nostalgic for a world I'm a bit too young to have experienced. When I was born in the 1950's, big bands were dying, and jazz clubs were just staring to be replaced with folk and rock venues. Written on the inside front cover, "Just like old times-being together! If only we were sober!! Alice." "Its a long while between drinks! Ed." "Wish New York was always as Frisco is tonight. Head." Zingy-How about a reunion in L.A. Come on out-the water is fine! Alice." I'm guessing Zingy must be the Doris whose name is written on the front corner and can be seen in the scanned image. Written on the matt around the photo, "Frisco 4-2-44." It's always nice to have a date, and to have the day, month and year is quite rare. Printed on the back cover beneath a war bonds ad, "For additional prints write to Hollywood Nite Club Photos. PICTURES ARE $1.25 EACH. PRICE INCLUDES TAX AND MAILING CHARGES. Be certain to mention SIR FRANCIS DRAKE, this number 16 and date APR 2, 1944. 6304 Riley Way, Carthay Circle Theatre Bldg., Los Angeles, Calif. WAlnut 9880." Of course, The Hotel Sir Francis Drake wasn't in Los Angeles, but San Francisco, and in fact, unlike many of the night club souvenir photos I post, The Sir Francis drake is still there, on Union Square in downtown. The Persian Room, though has closed. A quote from S.F. columnist Herb Caen, who referred to the Persian Room as the snake pit. "You never heard such hissing or saw such writhing as in the Persian Room." I've got a number of these night club souvenir photos in the collection. Go to the labels section at the bottom of this post and click on night clubs to pull up some others.

Women of the Theater

This photo was very likely cut out from a bigger print. While it's possible that this might have been from a costume party, I think it's far more certain that it's a photo from a theatrical production at an all girls school or a woman's college. On age, my guess would be from the late nineteenth century or early twentieth. The seller told me that it was from an estate in Maine.