Fuller & Rude

 "Fuller & Rude.  That's it, the only thing written on the print.  It might be the names of these two young ladies, but I suspect it's a commentary on their personalities.  But is it a joke comment or heartfelt?  I picked this one up in southern California, and it has to be form somewhere around the area.  Every time I see one of these old south Cal photos I think, "If only I looked hard enough I could find that hill or that stream or that bluff."  And then I look around and see how the landscape has been altered by one housing tract after another and realize it's a stupid idea.  Still, I'll keep my eyes open.

The Empire State Candy Club

It's been a long time since I've put up one of these souvenir photo folders.  At first, I thought that the Empire State Candy Club was just that, a club, open to the public, a floor show, dancing, food and plenty of alcohol.  But then, I started doing the research and found that it was a trade association of New York state candy distributors.  What was interesting was how I found out.  It doesn't look as if this particular association is in business any more, so I didn't find their web site.  I found references to them in the University of California San Francisco Tobacco Documents Library Collection.  One reference was an ad, taken by the Candy Club, in the program for the annual convention of The New York Association of Tobacco Sellers from September of 1963.  The other, a cancelled check from The Tobacco Institute for the purchase of a ticket to  the Fortieth Annual Empire State Candy Club Clambake in 1983.

I know, it seems a little weird that candy sellers would be connected to tobacco distributors, but then I started to remember the small town five and dime that sold me candy bars when I was a child.  Sloan's had a huge counter that filled the back wall of the store.  One half was candy and the other half was smokeless tobacco, cigars, and cigarettes.  And what separated the two?  Candy cigarettes and shredded chewing gum in snuff tins and tobacco pouches.  On entrance to junior high school, average age about twelve, students were allowed to chew tobacco or dip snuff.  At sixteen, with a parental permission slip, students were allowed to hang out in their very own smoking room.  That was a long time ago.  I was born in 1955, started grade school in 1960, and junior high in 1967.  And the fact is, back then, that arrangement was fairly common in small town America.

A lot of my classmates chewed tobacco.  As a life long hater of tobacco, I was very, very unhappy to be sitting next to a guy spitting tobacco juice into a paper cup.  It made it hard to concentrate in class.  And using the water fountains, with puddles of brown spit....disgusting.  And I would bet, that if I could go back in time and make a count, at least a third, perhaps even half of the boys in my class had permission slips from their parents to smoke.  I may be wrong, but if memory serves, that wasn't the case with the girls.  It makes me wonder how many of my classmates died of cancer.

Over the years, I've put up quite a few of these folders.  Click on souvenir photo folders or night clubs to bring up the others.

Relaxing In Suburbia

It was a golden time after all.  The war was over, the United States had one of the few strong economies in the world, unions were strong, and wages were high.  There was even money to buy the kids a piano.  Too bad rock & roll got 'em.

Stamped on the back,  "ROLLMAN'S CAMERA SHOP APR 6  1954  SHILLINGTON, PA."   What a great name for a camera shop.  I'll bet there motto was buy a roll from Rollman's.  And, as of January 2012, Rollman's was still in business.  Of course my source for that info stated that Rollman's had been in business for 55 years.  Do the math, and that means that the store opened in 1957, so clearly my source has some problems.

Shillington is a small town, a borough actually, adjacent to Reading, Pennsylvania.  In the 1950s, Reading had a population of over 100,000, today it's under 90,000.  There was a community named Shillington as early as 1860, but it didn't incorporate until 1908.  And the first elected official, Burgess Adam Rollman.  It's probable that some descendant of Adam was the camera store Rollman.  The most famous Shillingtonian (?) was author John Updike.  Updike was the valedictorian of the Shillington High class of 1950,  so it's pretty probable that the young lady in this photo either knew him, or knew of him, before he was famous.

Naughty Biddy

How did Biddy serve the tomatoes undressed?  Why did Biddy serve the tomatoes undressed?  Hard to believe that this was once considered risque.  No publisher listed or any captions other than the one seen on the bottom right.

Love Those Accordions

Please tell me he's wearing a pith helmet.  Who doesn't love an accordion?

Red Dress

I love these old, hand tinted photographs.  I'm always surprised just how hard it is to find a good example.  There was a fair amount of work in applying the tints and, of course, if a mistake was made, a new print was needed and the colorist had to start over, so they weren't cheap. .  Throw in that they were often displayed in a frame,  exposed to sunlight, and the subsequent fading, it's no wonder that so few have survived in one piece with good, rich colors.  The Northland logo presented some problems.  There are a huge number of photo studios, past and present, with that name.  I'm tempted to say that this photo is from Northland Studios with offices in Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Toledo and Indianapolis because they were in business in the 1920s and with all those offices, it increases the chances that this photo is one of theirs, but of course, I can only guess on that.   Click on hand colored prints in the labels section to bring up some more images.

La Dolce Vita

I don't know what they're doing, but it looks like they're enjoying themselves.  I'm thinking early to mid sixties and somewhere in Europe.  Don't know why, it's just the impression I get.