Green Bay Business-Crowning the Queen

I haven't put up any of the pictures from the Green Bay Business College collection for awhile, and it's time to put some up some more. To recap, i bought a bunch of prints, some of which came in envelopes addressed to Kenneth Bierke, 225 Quinton, Green Bay, Wisconsin. Some are of a school dance, some are from some school banquets, and some are family photos of, I assume, Bierke clan. Click on Green Bay in the labels section to see some of the other prints I've already posted. This one looks like the Queen of the school dance is being crowned.

19th Century Old Lady

I hated to crop off the edges of the oval matt on this picture, but it just wouldn't fit on the scanner. Normally I wouldn't have cared, but sometimes the proportions of the mounts add to the beauty of the image. A very rich, albumen print of an old lady who was a little girl in the very first years of the United States. Let's say she was in her sixties when this image was taken. If true, and considering the age of the photograph, she was probably born near 1800 to 1810.

Kay Kyser

Kay Kyser was one of the most successful band leaders of the swing era. In all, his band recorded over 400 sides and had eleven number one hits. Kyser was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina in 1905. While at the University of North Carolina he was a cheerleader and director of student plays. At the recommendation of Hal Kemp, he took over the leadership, from Kemp, of a local band. After his college career, he continued to lead his own band, and in 1934, was booked into the Blackhawk Club in Chicago. It was there that he developed the gimmick that he would be known for, The Kollege of Musical Knowledge, an amateur night quiz for the contestants. In 1938 he hired vocalist Ginny Simms. Broadcast regionally by the Mutual Broadcasting System, he went national and to New York and had a hit show on NBC radio. In 1949, he took his band to television, but after the show was cancelled in 1950, he retired from show business and never returned. I'm fairly certain that the singer with Kyser is Ginny Simms. She left the band in 1941, so if I'm right in my identification of Simms, with the NBC mic, this photo was taken between 1939 and 1941.

A Formal Portrait

I'm assuming that this lady did not dress this way, normally. I've seen hair-dos like this in late silent and early sound movies, so I'm guessing mid to late twenties to early thirties. A wedding portrait or for a formal affair of some kind.

Etretat, France in World War 2

This one is for the World war 2 history buffs. When I first saw these photos I thought they must have been from the Dover area in England. But, I've been to Dover, and I couldn't remember the sea arches seen in several of the prints. A bit of research and I was able to identify the town as Etretat in France. With some of the signs in English and the bombed out houses makes these from the post D-Day era. The bunkers have to be German built, as a defense against the allied invasion.

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.