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- Which explains why...
- Paper drives
- Pregnant Marian
- Paper drive
- The 1942 scrap paper drives were very successful.
- Delivery Wagon
- All you need to make you Go
- All of That
- Egad
- Watch your step
- Baseball players or hoods?
- Still there
- Wrapped power pole
- Hollywood Bad Girl?
- Nonelectronic
- Wonderful talent
- A Bubbling Cup
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- These fountains
- Germs? What Germs?
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Most of the photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs, 20 to 200 megabytes in size) from the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) Many were digitized by LOC contractors using a Sinar studio back. They are adjusted by your webmaster for contrast and color in Photoshop before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here.
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Today's Top 5
Lush Life: 1941
Submitted by Dave on Tue, 01/01/2008 - 5:07pm.
April 1941. "Prosperous Chicagoan spends evening at home." View full size. Medium-format safety negative by Russell Lee. A few Shorpy readers have identified this as bluesman Big Joe Turner.
Big Joe
Submitted by Brent on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 9:18pm.
Since I've seen this very photograph identified as Big Joe Turner on two other websites done by people with more knowledge about the man than I have and than vg claims to have, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that this is may very well be Big Joe Turner.
Big Joe It Ain't
Submitted by vg- on Thu, 01/06/2011 - 7:34pm.
Well I'm probably no more of an expert than the folks who guess it is, but I'm skeptical that that's Big Joe Turner. There is a slight resemblance, but no singing bartender would be wearing the get-ups in his portraits, and what's more, there's no indication whatsoever that this guy is involved with music.
Big Joe
Submitted by SwingMan on Wed, 11/12/2008 - 12:00pm.
Maybe copping a room up there to cut a record or two with his partner in KC boogie crime, Pete Johnson - but I thought Big Joe was originally based in Kansas City. Either way, great find! Him & Jimmy Rushing are my favorite shouters and I have a stack of 78's to prove it.
Double take...
Submitted by Anonymous Tipster on Sat, 01/12/2008 - 12:42pm.
Big Joe Turner.. For some reason it was "odd" to see a photo of him on Shorpy in the midst of folks in Small Town America working and playing. Pretty neat at the same time.
Lampshade
Submitted by Anonymous Tipster on Wed, 01/02/2008 - 8:56pm.
I don't know who he is, though he clearly seems to be a performer/singer -- but my grandmother had the same lampshade idea, you keep the plastic it came in and don't take it off. Ditto for the doilies on the chair arms. Top hat, white tie, tails and a cane -- sharp-dressed man!
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Today's Top 5