The Dancer

Way back when, this young lady would go to her audition, dance away, hand this picture and a resume to the show's producer, and wait for a call-back. I don't recognize her, so she didn't make it in the movies.

What Dealers Do

Because of the damage, I would never have purchased this photo if it had not been part of a collection. This nice 19th century portrait was pulled out of a photo album. The glue and bits of black paper on the back is a dead give away. I've been known to complain about dealers breaking up collections and destroying the context of the photos. What might be a nice image, becomes an historically interesting photo when left with the other pictures in the collection. And, of course, a lot of photos get damaged when the dealer is clumsy when removing photos from albums. Lille could be a name, or it could refer to the city in France. The initials that follow the name are a mystery.

Doctors

At first, I thought this was a picture of barbers, but then I saw one of those very old fashioned reflectors that doctors used to wear on their heads, in the hand of the man in the center of the front row. The woman isn't wearing a nurses uniform, but a smock, just like everyone else. This is a pretty old picture, from the twenties or thirties would be my guess, so if she is a doctor, she was a very rare example of a woman doctor from that era.

Rainbow Girls

This was purchased with a group of other, better, totally unrelated images. The throw-ins of my collection sometimes remind me of things long past, and while I still don't find this to be a strong photograph, or historically interesting, it does remind me of the two years that my sister was a Rainbow Girl. Every week, she and her friends, got dressed up in their formals and went to the "secret" meeting. I don't know anything about this image, other than it appears to be from the mid fifties to mid-sixties; I don't know if these young ladies are Rainbow Girls, debutantes, or whatever. The one in the glasses has an I'm in charge, and you better get used to it air about her. So did my sister.

Flagler Garden, Miami

Yet another entry in my growing collection of nightclub, souvenir photo folders. (Click on night clubs in the labels section to bring the others up.) Sometimes I can find a lot of information about these old nightclubs, that once catered to an America that liked to go out, listen to big band music, jazz, and to dance the night away. On Flagler Garden, not so much. After entering every combination of words I could think of into the search engine, I came up with just two references. Flagler Garden Apartments, which may or may not have been built at the same location as the club, and a brief reference on a site devoted to defunct ball rooms. They were defining ball rooms as anything from a small club with a 10 x 10 dance floor to the massive halls with space for hundreds of dancers. As far as the photograph goes, it wasn't fixed or washed well. I spent years in photo labs, I notice these things. An interesting contrasts between the two ladies. The blond seems alert and ready for a much longer night. The brunette (Or redhead?) looks like she's ready for bed. The two soldiers and the hairdos put this image in the early to mid forties, probably World War 2. No dates or names were written anywhere on the cover, and there is no address for ordering more photos.

Ann Anderson, Bank Robber

Wire photos were a method used by news wire services to electronically transmit still images by either telegraph or telephone wires. The caption reads, "(RO2) Reno, Nev., Jan. 2--BOOKED ON BANK ROBBERY CHARGES Mrs. Ann Anderson, 28, of Petaluma, Calif., is one of three persons booked in the Reno city jail on bank robbery charges. Mrs. Anderson and her husband and 33-year-old Shirley Maniscalco of San Fransisco are being held in connection with a bank robbery at Cotati, Calif., last Friday. Their arrest followed a fight at a Reno motel last night in which a fourth member of the group, Ted Barker was shot and killed. (APWirephoto) (RS1420str) 1955" Stamped on the back, "MRS DONALD MRS ANN ANDERSON RECEIVED EXAMINER REFERENCE LIBRARY JAN 3 1955" This has been a rather frustrating post. I was able to find a listing for a California prison inmate named Ann Anderson, aged 84, and had this lady been sentenced to life, that would be the right age. And then the wall, access to prison, court, and arrest records cost money.

A Tintype Head Shot

It's been my experience that tightly framed, head shot tintypes are fairly rare, though it's possible with the irregular boarders that this image may have been cut out from a larger area. As I've noted in other tintype posts, tintypes are actually negatives that appear positive against a black painted or lacquered iron base. Tintypes are actually called ferrotypes.