Popeye and Friends: 1911

This is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. Popeye (boy with pipe and suspenders) was Albert Duquette. He became a professional boxer, known as Young Eddie Leonard. "Puggy" Duquette, as his North Adams friends called him, married in 1922, and died suddenly of a heart attack in 1935, at the age of 39. You can see the rest of my story about this colorful young man at
www.morningsonmaplestreet.com/albertduquette1.html

The boy standing between Popeye and Arthur Chalifoux is Joseph Crepeau. Hine took several photos of him. I tracked down his daughter. He was quite a character, and my search for his story took some amazing twists and turns. See the story at
http://www.morningsonmaplestreet.com/joecrepeau1.html

This is Joe Manning again. My full story about Arthur Chalifoux is now posted. I think it's very moving. See www.morningsonmaplestreet.com/arthurchalifoux1.html

The boy referred to as Popeye was Albert Duquette. I am tracking down his descendants now.

This is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. I interviewed one of Arthur Chalifoux's grandsons today, and even saw a 15-minute video of Arthur being interviewed in 1983. He lived to be 92 and worked most of his life for a paper mill in Holyoke, Mass., after moving to that city in his teens, but he often returned to North Adams to visit his old "haunts." He talked to his grandson frequently about having to work as a child. No one in the family had ever seen a photo of Arthur as a boy until I sent it to the grandson. The photo was taken in front of what is now Linda's Cafe, on Union Street, which has a large picture window where the outside brick wall was. The Eclipse Mill mentioned in the photo is now a condominium for artists. See www.eclipsemill.com for more information.

I could make up a story about each one of them.

The little boy with braces has arms that look like Shorpy's.

love the photos, something about the history