The Epworth League Album 3

I have a theory, completely unsupported by an facts, that photo albums are almost always put together by women. My other theory is that photo album are often put together by someone, for someone else. This album starts somewhere in the middle west and ends in California. Looking at these last two posts, makes me wonder if this album was made by a daughter for her mother, and if her mother is this lady. A mystery I would love to solve. Click on Epworth league in the labels section to bring everything up.

The Epworth League Album 2, Odd Angles

There are a lot of angled photos in this album, and they aren't easy to scan. Interesting bunch of images on this page. The subject looks happy and very relaxed in the seated photo. The hammock, she looks pensive. And finally, like the evil aunt in The Wizard of Oz. Wasn't L. Frank Baum from the middle west? There is a middle America feel to these three images.

The Epworth League Album 1, Love That Haircut

It's time to put up another photo album. I'll be following my usual practice of scanning whole pages to show position with separate scans of the individual photos. When there is only one photo per page, then there will not be a scan for position. There will be a few exceptions to that rule, but those will come a lot latter, along with an explanation for the album's title. While there will be some breaks in the posting of this album, there won't be the big gaps as there have been for the Green Bay Business College and German-American collections. Someone must have really loved this haircut.

The German American Collection, Deaths in the Family

The older gentleman is labeled, "Noah Jordan 1918 Grandfather, Died: Spring 1918" Perhaps a coincidence, but that would be the zenith of the Spanish flu pandemic that killed in the millions. The group photo, "Nan Nan and her sisters at her brother's funeral 1925" Click on the photo of the old man for a better look at the pin on his vest. It looks like a smaller photo, a common mourning piece. Click on German American in the labels section to bring up the rest of the lot.

Ciro's on the Sunset Strip

Two folders, two prints, but only one negative. Most of these old, classic nightclubs would have photographers, usually a pretty girl in a skimpy costume, at least by the standards of the day, who would wander the room offering to take pictures of the guests. The photographer caught and interesting group. She probably instructed these four people to look into the lens and smile. The couple on the left followed directions, but the couple on the right, not so much. The woman only had eyes for her date, while he barely acknowledged her presence.

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Ciro's was opened in January of 1940 by William Wilkerson. With gossip columnists Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons dropping in on a regular basis, Ciro's became the place to see and be seen. Average Angelenos and star struck tourists could rub elbows with such regulars as Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner, Marlene Dietrich and Cary Grant. In the 1960s Ciro's made the transition to rock club featuring acts from Dick Dale and the Surftones to The Byrds. In 1972 Ciro's became The Comedy Store, which is still going strong. I couldn't find anything on when ownership of Ciro's went from Wilkerson to H. D. Hover, but I did find out that serial killer Rodney Alcala killed 23 year old Ciro's heiress Ellen Jane Hover in 1977. An interesting mix of acts are listed on the back of the folder. I wonder what guests made of folk singers Libby Holman and Josh White. Two of my favorites. Click on nightclub in the labels section to bring up a number of other old souvenir photos.

Labor Day

Why is it so difficult to find photographs of people at work? Dated 1956, women assembling radios (I think), an industry that can no longer be found in the United States.

A Bit of History

No, it's not a great photograph, but it is a bit of tech history. This image is a very early Polaroid. Introduced in 1948 as the Model 95, the first instant system (40 series) used a roll film mounted on two spools, one with the negative that processed in the camera and the other spool, the positive strip and reagent chemical pack. I'm not competent to describe in detail how it worked, so I'll just write that as the two strips were pulled out of the camera, they went through a roller and after a minute of processing time, the instant image was produced. The 40 series format produced a print that was 3.25 x 4.25 inches, a handy way to tell the early roll system from latter ones. Too, look at the clothing worn, and we get another clue that this image is closer to 1948 than to 1964 when the last 40 series camera was made. Interesting aside, when I was working at the photo lab, one of our customers brought in a huge box of the Polaroid backing, the stuff from the roll system that most people threw away after they got the instant print. I took it into a darkroom and let it soak for a few hours in a photo-flo bath. The paper slid off leaving a conventional negative behind that we put in enlargers and printed. I do wish that Polaroid would keep it's promise to license production of film for their cameras. I still have a couple of them that worked last time I used them.