Catalina in Postcards

By and large, I've strayed away from collecting postcards, but recently, I've decided to try and pick up a few, in a few select areas. Old California, especially southern California, Pittsburgh, and old gas stations, motels, and stores. Since I have a small group of Catalina Island photos that I'll be posting next, these four images of Catalina Island, 26 miles across the sea from Long Beach, seemed like a good start. These are linen postcards, made from a high rag paper with a textured surface of parallel intersecting lines. Introduced in the early 1930's, they were the most popular type of postcard sold in the United States until the mid forties. Photo chrome postcards, which would come to dominate the market, were introduced in 1939. Even though the bright inks that were used in production, and the paper surface itself gave linen cards a painterly feel, the original images were primarily black & white photographs that had been hand colored. 99% of Santa Catalina Island was purchased, in 1919, by Chicago millionaire, William Wrigley, Jr. During his ownership, and the ownership of his sons, the Wrigley family poured millions into Catalina, building homes, resorts, hotels, the Casino, bird park, roads, airports, and fresh water reservoirs. The card of the two boats were part of the fleet that Wrigley owned to transport tourists to the island. The caption, "Happy vacationists board fast speed boats that skim the placid waters of Santa Catalina. As they whiz by, with their cheers of happiness and laughter. with greetings to the new arrivals is a thrill and delight to the passengers aboard the approaching steamer." It was mailed on Aug. 6, 1946 to "R.E. Brown, 816 Jackson St., Sioux City, Iowa" The message, "Hi Pop. I rode on both boats in Picture. We got here on the big one & took a 10 min. ride on the speed boat. Lot of love xxoo Charles. Having fun here." There is no message on either the Wrigley residence card or the bird park image. The caption of the Wrigley home card, "This palatial home was built by the late W. Wrigley Jr. and occupies a site on Mt. Ada, with a commanding view of Avalon Bay and coast-line of the island." No caption on the bird park card. Construction began on the Wrigley residence in 1920 and was completed in 1921. Mt. Ada was named for his wife. After Ada's death in 1958, it became a tourist attraction. In the 1970's it was given to USC, and used as a conference center. Since 1985 it's been an hotel. The bird park was built on 8 acres in Avalon Canyon by William Wrigley Jr. and opened in 1929. It had 500 cages and housed over 8,000 species of birds and was one of the largest aviaries in the world. It closed in 1966. The night scene is captioned, "Avalon Bay, a thrilling scene of bustling activity by day-"Fairyland by night." Like a jewel in an exquisite setting, the view of Avalon, at night from the hills above, is a never to be forgotten sight." Mailed Sept. 19, 1953, to "Mr. & Mrs G. We. Johnson, Laurene, Iowa." The message, "Dear Folks, We are up near the high point of this Island now and having a wonderful time. Reggie and Enid are with us. Now we are just about back to the bay and the boat will leave about 3:30. Minnie and Lester were over for dinner last night, Fri. We came up thru San Bernardino." Written in a different hand, "This has been the most enjoyable weekend we've had in ??? Love L.B. and Jean" Catalina was used for training in World War 2 and was closed to tourism. Coupled with the explosion in car ownership and cheap airfares to places like Hawaii and Baja, Catalina has never recovered as one of the major vacation spots in southern California. Pre-war, big bands played in the Casino, the circular building seen to the left of the ships and on the right of the night scene, swimming beaches were crowded, restaurants and hotels were full. Catalina is still a popular destination, but no where near what it was.

Small Town Glass Negatives

A couple of glass negatives, one I wanted, and one was the throw in. I've always assumed that these two images, if not by the same photographer, were at least from the same small town. While glass negatives were manufactured, and processed by local labs, many glass negatives were made by the photographer, and processed by the photographer. This allowed for a huge disparity in the basic quality of negatives. I printed these by putting them in an 8 x 10 enlarger, and had a hell of a time getting usable prints. The emulsion was uneven, and the plates were over exposed. I assume that the group photo is a multi-generational family, and while this is the image I was really interested in, it is interesting to see a small town before paved streets.

Trains

Not all of my old photos are of people. This is another one of the images that, when I was working in a photo lab, I made copy negs and prints from. The original is an old albumen print, very likely from the late 19th century through the early 20th, and probably made from a glass negative. I 'd love to know where the photographer was standing. The image makes me think that this may have been a professionally made, commissioned image. I imagine that the camera was not a small, hand held one, but one mounted on a tripod. It's difficult to take a quick snap and then step out of the way of an oncoming train with one of those.

In Mourning

Cabinet cards were one of the first attempts at standardization in photography. While the size of the actual print might vary, the card mount itself was 4.25 x 6.5 inches and could fit into pre-made albums and frames. This style was popular, in the 19th century, as a mourning card. Stamped on the back, "Wm. L. Cornell. South Amboy, N.J."

Crookston, Minnesota

A small group of family photos from the Crookston, Minnesota area. Stamped on several of the mounts, the photo studio's mark, "BENSON, CROOKSTON, MINN." At fist I thought these might just be random images put together by the dealer, but on closer examination, it became clear that the people in the wedding photo were the same adults in the other images. Except for the picture of the lady with the dog, all photos were mounted. The wedding portrait is a cabinet card, the two of the woman are in the old fashioned, free standing photo folders, and the one with the kids, probably grandchildren, is in a flat mount that was once probably displayed in a frame. Normally, when scanning, I crop off the mounts, but because of the curved top of the younger version of the woman, I've included two scans of that image. Crookston, Minnesota is in the north western part of the state, near the North Dakota border.

Graphic House

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Stamped on the back of these photos, "PHOTO BY GRAPHIC HOUSE 280 MADISON AVENUE NEW YORK, N.Y. TEL. MUarry Hill 6-8826 THIS PICTURE IS SOLD TO YOU FOR ONE TIME REPRODUCTION IN YOUR PUBLICATION ONLY AND MUST NOT BE LOANED, SYNDICATED OR USED FOR ADVERTISING PURPOSE WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM US." In addition, on the back of the picture of the woman on the beach, "PLEASE CREDIT IRV. CARSTEN GRAPHIC HOUSE" On the back of the other, 'PLEASE CREDIT DAN SCHLANGER GRAPHIC HOUSE" I thought it would be easy to run down information on Graphic House, but as it turned out, I wasn't able to find anything at all. It's obvious that Graphic House must have been a photo agency, a clearing house for the sale of photographs for advertising and illustration. Magnum, the French based co-op for photo journalists is the most famous photo agency, and, of course, that's how modern day paparazzo sell their work. As far as the two photographers listed. I found a maybe for Dan Schlanger, an obit for a former employee of the social security agency, died in Baltimore, born in Queens, New York, former member of The Iris Society (Flowers or lenses?). Also listed as a photographer and film buff. It's pretty thin, but the name, city, and an interest in photography...well for what it's worth, and it's not much. Irv Carsten is a different story. I found records of him with other photos credited to Graphic House. It seems that Carsten was a fairly successful pin-up photographer. On a web sight dedicated to pin-up/nude model, and actress June Palmer, Carsten is quoted on how easy it was to work with June Palmer.

Green Bay Business College- Color Vacation

Put this one down to my sense of history and belief that it's better to post all of the images in a collection, rather than editing them down to the most interesting views. Stamped on the backs of all these photographs, THIS IS A KODACOLOR PRINT MADE BY EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY T.M. REGIS. U.S. PAT. OFF. Week of July 12, 1954 III 2" And again, images from the life of Mr. Kenneth Bierke of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Associated with the Green Bay Business College, probably, first, as a teacher and then as an administrator. Eventually, when I get the entire collection posted, there will be images of his farm background, the parties, dances, and dinners attended, the wars fought, the wife on the home front, and in 1954, post war comfort, a nice car, some level of prosperity not known during the great depression and World War 2, that allowed he and his family to take a vacation. In the grand scheme of things, a pretty ordinary life, but one that covers a lot of the twentieth century, good and bad. Once again, click on Green Bay in the labels section to see the collection, posted to date.