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Comic Fan: 1950
... book brought the memory back immediately. It was also 1950. Darling photo!! Notice no reading glasses perched upon the nose! ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 06/12/2010 - 12:34pm -

A prophetic photo, as I did become a big comic book fan. My favorites: Uncle $crooge, Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, Pogo, Little Lulu. Also bought Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tubby, Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse and scads of others, but I never got into superheroes. Stored them (along with those inherited from my brother) in big stacks in a cabinet down in the basement, arranged by title and in chronological order. Frequent re-readings necessitated periodic large-scale re-sorting operations that my mother often aided in. I'm one of those lucky ones whose mother didn't throw them all out one day when the kid wasn't looking; she liked reading them too occasionally. I have an inventory I made in early 1967 (when I was still buying them) showing a total of 1508. Just about all of them are still in existence, most stored at a friend's place. You know, I really did have more fun as a blond. View full size. Oh MomMom not only tossed out my comics, but also my precious collection of personally autographed glossies of such minor Hollywood celebrities as Republic Pictures serial and western villain Roy Barcroft, TV and movie actress Gale Storm ("My Little Margie"), and movie actor Dan Duryea. But I long ago forgave her. My brother's escapeThis pic reminds me of the time my little brother climbed the fence in our back yard and disappeared. My mother was beyond frantic and the police were looking. He was found about two hours later at a drug store sitting at the counter with three comic books, all the same, an ice cream cone and a fountain Coke. At 3 years he had walked a mile and when the police brought him home my mother was the happiest woman in town. The druggist said it was his treat. His hair was identical to Tterrace in this photo and the comic book brought the memory back immediately. It was also 1950. Darling photo!!Notice no reading glasses perched upon the nose! ha ha I love your contributions - keep 'em coming!!! Thanks! tterrace's first words"Blog! Blog! Blog!" Of course no one knew what he was trying to say. I believe I took this photoOr maybe our sister Rosemary did! 1,508 Comic Books!No wonder tterrace you became a victim of never rectified amblyopia. Funny StuffIf ever there were a picture that caused me to have an uncontrollable guffaw, this would be it. Comic reliefrequires no explanation. Sad SackDid you ever collect Sad Sack or Archie? Those are what I read. My older brother read the racier MAD. Not fooling anyoneThat is obviously a wig and you have it on backwards. Did the hair stay with you up to the present time? Too bad we cannot all stay as irresistible and adorable as we were as toddlers but there are definitely other advantages to growing up...its just that I cannot think of any at this moment. This photo rates highest of all time on the "cuteness" scale. Aaaaw. Great stuffWhat a perfect picture to illustrate a simpler, and in many ways a happier time. Seduction of the InnocentsWe're just about the same age tterrace. I learned to read before school largely because of comics, although I thought that "uncle" was spelled "unca" for the longest time. Unca $crooge by Carl Barks was like Shakespeare to me. I read many of the titles you mention. ("Magic words of 'Poof, Poof Piffles', make me just as small as Sniffles!") I didn't retain any of them, nor did I retain any of my thousands and thousands of Marvel and DC Silver Age and Bronze Ages books and the Modern Age ones that followed. Now I'm down to about eight or ten a month. (Allan Moore, Gaiman, "Hellboy" "Love and Rockets" and on and on.) I guess it was a seduction, but I swear I'm gonna kick the habit in a couple of years, when I turn 65. Yesterday Once MoreTTerrace is the sweetest little sweetie ever in his baby pics. I love having had the chance to see him "grow up" through the years in photographs. I wonder what he looks like NOW, though! A shame that we don't have a current incarnation! [Actually we have a number of them, interspersed among his many postings. - Dave] Comix go to schoolIn 1961, I based part of my report on mythology for sophomore English on "The Golden Fleecing" from Uncle $crooge #12. I got a B-minus. AntiheroesI'm quite a bit younger (born in 1983), but I used to love it when my dad would occasionally bring me home a Donald Duck or Archie comic and a Slurpee from the 7-Eleven when he got home from work. I often wonder about the difference between the superhero comic types and the others that often get left in the dust. 1,508 comicsI too collected as much as possible of Walt Disney comics. I also collected Tom & Jerry as well, they were my favorites, I later collected DC and Marvel but only a select few. I still have them today. And I still collect and read comics today. PricelessI think this photo is priceless. I love the smile on the boy's face, his tousled blond curls and his shoes are so cute. While he is reading/looking at the funny comic pictures! AngelicThat smile would melt anyones heart. Innocence, pleasure, happiness and childhood all right there in one expression. Thanks so much for posting a truly personal and great image. 1508 ComicsTterrace, you are one of the lucky ones. I too was glad my mother never threw out my comics. Plus I had grandparents that used to buy them for me too. I was born too late to buy the golden age issues as my childhood was from the 60's - 70's. One thing I look for in old photos here are photos of comic books from long ago. I am in the process of looking at every picture here and yours is the first I have found of a comic in an older photo. Reading Uncle Scrooge got me interested in history and now I am the treasurer for my town's Historical Society. After looking through the town archives for pictures I decided to go online with my search and now here I am. No print to buy?Why are some some photos not available for sale? [This is a member-submitted family photo. - Dave] (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Kids, tterrapix)
Night Game: 1950
June 30, 1950. "Cleveland Municipal Stadium during Cleveland-Detroit night baseball ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/24/2020 - 12:15pm -

June 30, 1950. "Cleveland Municipal Stadium during Cleveland-Detroit night baseball game." Photo by Carl McDow. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Collection. View full size. Cleveland 11, Detroit 3There were 50,882 in attendance that night -- a good crowd, but far fewer than the 86,563 who saw the Indians sweep the Yankees in a doubleheader. That's generally accepted as the record for Major League regular-season games, although the Dodgers, playing in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, had as many as 92,000 fans at the 1959 World Series and 115,300 for an exhibition game against the Red Sox in 2008. A greater AmericaThese people had lived through WWII and the Great Depression and many had survived WWI and the Spanish Influenza. I wonder what they would have thought of their descendants, 70 years later, banning events such as this and even mandating draconian rules about private household behavior because of a virus. I believe they would have wondered why they fought so hard to keep the Kaiser, Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini and their dangerous ideologies out of this country. [In 1918, during the Spanish Flu epidemic, Major League Baseball cut its season short by a month, with the last game played September 11. Over a dozen college football teams sat out the season. The Stanley Cup finals were canceled. And people didn't complain, because they weren't a bunch of selfish, whiny babies. - Dave] Sorry Dave, I love this site and you do a great job, but you're wrong on this one. The whiny babies are the ones who are too afraid to defend their Constitutional rights as they continue to disappear day by day. Anyone who believes that what America has been forced to give up in 2020 is all because of a virus is terribly naïve. [If only you had been there to guide them! - Dave] It's past timeOh to be among the crowd in a major league baseball stadium again on a muggy night, hot dog and frosty Coke in hand, cheering for the boys of summer. Of course I prefer Wrigley Field some 350 miles to the west, but at this point I'd take Detroit at Cleveland and consider myself the luckiest girl on the face of the earth. All That Green!I grew up in North Central Ohio as a Tribe fan during the late 50's and early 60's. I can clearly remember my first trip to Municipal Stadium, walking up those steps to the inside of the stadium and seeing that incredible green baseball field for the first time in person! Yes Dave you are RightMy Father, a veteran of three wars beginning in Jan 1941, would agree with you Dave. If he taught me one thing it was to sacrifice for the well being of others, even if this meant a temporary suspension of your freedoms, and in thousands upon thousands of cases of service men and women, your very life. America the selfless seems to have become America the selfish. Thank You DaveDave, you couldn't be more correct with your description of how some American citizens have acted throughout the pandemic. Shameful at best. Like has always been said, "it starts at the top". Selfish, whiney babiesDave, I think the "selfish, whiney babies" comment was uncalled for. I agree with KAP about rights. It's easier to take away rights than it is to get them back again. However, even if I didn't agree with him I wouldn't insult him for it. KAPYikes, I didn’t think we’d get into this on Shorpy, but here we are. The view from Canada, where the country is not burning up with covid in the same uncontrolled manner as it is in the US, is that everyone has to buy in to the measures. I don’t like wearing a mask, and I don’t wear one outdoors, but everyone does it indoors in stores and public places, and that’s just the way it is. It’s an all-or-nothing thing, and you need buy-in from everyone. If you want, you can carry on about rights and freedoms all the way to the grave. All you have to fear is fear itselfSorry, Dave. I love the site, but my freedom and liberty is 1000 times more important than your irrational, ignorant fear. It is not selfish to stand against tyranny. We've known scientifically for 100 years that masks are useless, and we had story after story about the uselessness of masks ... until March, when everything suddenly flipped. Why? Because masks are not about science, they're about social control. I believe you were formerly part of the major media, so it's not surprising that you don't want to believe that it's completely corrupt and a single-party controlled propaganda machine. Yet, that is the truth. It's been so long since we've had a full-scale fascist/communist authoritarian attempt at a takeover of power that we think those people just went away. They didn't. We forgot that the normal, historical state of the world is a constant struggle against tyrannical people. The selfish ones are the appeasers. [Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth ... -- Dave] I agree ...... with KAP, and I doubly, triply agree with Groucho. https://spectator.us/salem-thanksgiving-coronavirus-panic-safetyism/ 8.7The US has 8.7 times the population of Canada. If we take the number of covid deaths to date in Canada (11,689) and multiply by 8.7, we get the number of deaths the US ought to have had to date: 101,694. But the US has had over twice that number of covid deaths to date: 267,528. I do believe it might be a matter of public measures and committed leadership. The US is an amazing country, but it has dropped the ball on this one. Whose House is This?The last time I checked, this was Dave's house and he didn't ask anyone what they thought about his comment to KAP. The person who needed and received admonishment is KAP, who ridiculously compared a public safety measure to the invasion of fascism and destruction of our Constitution. KAP clearly didn't study history enough to remember that during the Spanish Influenza outbreak it was common for local public health officials to quarantine people in their homes. It was for the public good and the law allowed it. And I've never read that people in quarantine whined about their Constitutional rights being taken away. You want to talk about taking away our Constitutional rights -- why do we have to wear seatbelts? That really is a matter of personal choice. But we lost that right, not because of fascism, but because of insurance companies. Therefore: insurance companies are destroying the Constitution! Concerning One's RightsI get tears in my eyes when I see people call the efforts to keep the virus from spreading a loss of their rights. Nobody has the right to spread an illness. And if everybody would just wear their masks, observe social distancing, and wash their hands frequently, we might not have strictures about gatherings now, we might not have our hospitals and the healthcare workers strained so badly, and we might not have so many people grieving the loss of friends and loved ones. I love Shorpy and have done for many years. It is a lovely place to visit, in good times and bad. Yet even here, the horrible division that afflicts this country rears its ugly head. And I get more tears. Everybody, please, just care a little for each other. The view from the front lineMy job is to intubate your trachea and breathe for you when you are no longer able to do so yourself. I hope that none of you ever need my services. And I wish that this situation was as simple as allowing you to exercise your "Constitutional rights" but it makes no sense when doing so potentially causes harm to others while benefitting you in no particular way. And as I show up to work each day, all I can do is try my best to protect myself from the selfishness and ignorance of others while keeping the victims alive and hoping to see their recovery. It helps to be able to enjoy Shorpy at the end of the day - thanks Dave! And Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Stunningly beautifulThis image is amazingly beautiful. The lights are liquid, pouring out and washing down on the players. Stunning. Familiar Nameshttps://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-scores/boxscore.php?boxid=195006300... Box score brings back memories of these guys, all of whom I had in Topps or Bowman's bubble gum cards, sold in packages of five cards plus the gum. Believe the ScienceThanks Dave for your clarification to KAP about pandemic events then and now. The problem of not believing the truth is a serious one. Did people lose rights after the 1918 pandemic? Gosh don't know what it would have been... Folks, as a physician and a scientist I implore you: Believe the science. Wear your mask. Social distance. As Dr. Fauci has said, I don't know how to make you care about one another. There is no more a "Constitutional right"to recklessly infect others with a deadly virus, than there is to drive a car while drunk, or to yell "fire" in a crowded theater. "Selfish, whiny babies" is a charitable description of the anti-maskers who are primarily responsible for the deaths of 2,000 Americans a day. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Cleveland, News Photo Archive, Railroads, Sports)
The $64 Washer: 1941
... I remember my mother getting one like that circa 1950; primitive it may have been, but it beat the heck out of the tub and ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/02/2024 - 3:08pm -

        Its big 8-sheet porcelain tub is insulated to keep water warm! Streamlined 8-position wringer with soft balloon rolls has chromium pressure controls; push-pull safety release; roll-stop safety dry feed rest and automatic water-return board. October 1941. "Kenmore washer for sale. Sears Roebuck store at Syracuse, New York." Medium format negative by John Collier. View full size. Mom Was DelightedI remember my mother getting one like that circa 1950; primitive it may have been, but it beat the heck out of the tub and washboard it replaced. Incidentally the price translates to $650 in current dollars. Not cheap, especially considering the lack of disposable income people had back then. They've Gotten CheaperAlthough you can't buy that exact model these days, I think, a comparable washer, with electronics, would cost $1,031.47 in 2016 dollars. $64 was a ton of money pre-WWII. I remember my grandmother had one a bit earlier than that one. She used to roll it onto her front porch to wash clothes and drain the water onto her yard. I remember helping her when I was 3-4 years old and the wringer sucked my arm right into it. Sure glad she was close by and knew to hit the emergency release 'cause I remembered that pinch for a lot of years. That was also when mom's (or grandmothers) used soap instead of detergent. It made great bubbles and smelled oh so nice! Not Exactly CheapBut I'm sure that every part was Made in the U.S. A. Familiar contraption!That looks a lot like the one that was in the basement of the house I shared in grad school at Duke in the early 80s. We were so broke, as students, we used that old thing and its wringer instead of going to a laundromat. If you have never gotten grabbed by an electric wringer, you can't fully appreciate that old saying about getting your teat caught in a wringer. YEOW! Mom-in-Law Was Delighted, TooMy mother-in-law, who grew up as a Pennsylvania farm girl, used one of these until she moved out of her suburban Philadelphia house in 2002, aged 85. She'd run the clothes through the wringer and then put 'em in her fairly new automatic dryer. The grandkids were enthralled! A Dream WasherWringer washers seem primitive now but they made life so much easier for women. I am old enough to remember my mother using one. In the photo above, you can see female customers in the background. They are all dressed up in hats, "good" coats, stockings and heels. Perhaps this Sears store was in downtown Syracuse. A trip downtown warranted getting dressed up. I remember those machinesAlong with the two galvanized washtubs for rinsing the clothes. My job to fill them with water and the washer. Punch the hole in the bottle of bluing for the white clothes. Wipe the outside clotheslines off and if it was winter time shovel the snow out from under the lines. Clothes would freeze solid then we'd bring them back in and hang them up in the basement. Coal furnace would dry them in half and hour. Only on Mondays. Wash day. Skip the Linepennsylvaniaproud said "if it was winter time shovel the snow out from under the [clothes]lines. Clothes would freeze solid then we'd bring them back in and hang them up in the basement. Coal furnace would dry them in half and hour." Why not just hang them in the basement to dry in the first place (in winter)? Not getting why do the extra steps of outdoor clothesline. Demonstration Washing MachineOn the extreme right, there is a washer with glass sides. These were used in department and appliance stores to demonstrate the washing action of the agitator. You could easily see how the clothes circulated in the water. When I left home in 1967 and moved into an old Vancouver, B.C. apartment building, the laundry featured three wringer washers with dual concrete laundry tubs for rinsing, a gas-fired ironing machine, and clotheslines in the spacious roof-top laundry room. Elderly ladies taught me how to use the machines - I was 19 at the time. In the United States, automatics outsold wringers as early as 1951, but in Canada that did not happen until 1968. One of the main reasons was that an automatic was three times more expensive than a wringer. I still have a 1944 Beatty wringer that I use occasionally. Here is a video on how to do your laundry with a wringer washer. Looking at photos like thisWell... Europe was not only at war, but... twenty years late? This design, for me it's just like 1960 or something like that. And some change...I'm sorry, but it's that 95 cents that broke the deal for me. Remember the "Suds Saver" Feature?You would stopper one side of your dual basement sink (which was probably made of concrete) and the washer would drain the sudsy wash water into that side. Then with the next load, the washer would suck that wash water back in and reuse it. My mother would wash the whites or lights first and "suds save" to wash the kids' clothes after that. It certainly did save water, especially if you had a big family and washed lots of loads. Old-style washers with wringerWhen my wife and I bought a 1920s Tampa bungalow, it had a wringer Maytag, originally fitted with a gas engine, in the garage building out back. Patty decided to use it one day, just for laughs, but she was astonished at how clean the clothes were. Soon, that old Maytag was what she used all the time. If I remember correctly, Patty collected the water after washing and used that on her flowerbeds, and the soap helped control insects. Regarding that wringer, yep; I caught my hand in it one time and that was all it took to teach me to stay clear of it after that. But the old wringer washers worked and drying on a clothesline also had advantages. At the cottageMy dad added a room to the back of my grandparents cottage the year after he added an electric pump for running water. He installed a flush toilet, and, a wringer washer just like the one in the picture appeared soon after. It was over in the corner, and I do not remember seeing it in use, but know that my grandmother would have used it to wash all the towels and such us ragamuffins got sand-encrusted at the beach. She sure put up with a lot of noise from the succeeding groups of grand kids showing up week after week for their time at the cottage. It was a never-ending battle to keep sand out of the front room, and encouragments to 'Wipe Your Feet Outside'or 'Get the sand OFF' were made often and AUDIBLY. It didn't help. There seemed to always be a layer of sand in the bottom of the washer tub. Wonder if it wore out the gizzards. Grandma's Washer of ChoiceAs a child growing up in the 60's, I remember well my grandmother owning two of these. She could afford a more modern style washer, but the wringer ones are what she preferred. I guess probably because that is what she was used to using. Sitting on her back porch, watching her feed those clothes through the wringers, looked like so much fun! As much as I'd beg her to let me do it she'd never let me for fear of getting my hand caught!! (Technology, The Gallery, John Collier, Stores & Markets, Syracuse)
6 for 9: 1950
May 1950. "University of Notre Dame football quarterback Bob Williams posed as if ... assignment "Grantland Rice's Football Forecast for 1950." View full size. Great Player As a nineteen-year-old junior ... in voting for The Heisman Trophy in 1949 and sixth in 1950. 2 + 4 for 9? The two girls at the bottom of the picture look like ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/22/2017 - 1:02pm -

May 1950. "University of Notre Dame football quarterback Bob Williams posed as if signing autographs for a group of college women." 3x4 inch Kodachrome transparency by Frank Bauman for the Look magazine assignment "Grantland Rice's Football Forecast for 1950." View full size. Great PlayerAs a nineteen-year-old junior quarterback, he guided Notre Dame to an undefeated season with 10 wins and 0 losses. Williams won the National Championship for Frank Leahy's 1949 team. Williams finished fifth in voting for The Heisman Trophy in 1949 and sixth in 1950. 2 + 4 for 9?The two girls at the bottom of the picture look like twins. 6 FUR 9Fixed it for you. King of the Wild FrontierAm I the only one becoming ancient by recognizing those Davy Crockett coonskin hats worn by some of the co-eds. Signing autographs?From the look on his face, he's taking phone numbers. Prescient?The coonskin hat on the woman at the nine o'clock position antedates the fad by five years or, at least, the Disney TV segments that popularized that headgear for pre-adolescent boys. On the other hand, the character of Scut Farkus in "A Christmas Story" sports that headgear in what's supposed to be 1940, so what do I know? ObitBob died of Parkinson's disease in Timonium Md. in 2016, (Kodachromes, LOOK, Pretty Girls, Sports)
Christmas Stockings: 1950
November 11, 1950. New York. "Gimbel Brothers department store. Interior. Raymond Loewy ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/22/2022 - 12:28pm -

November 11, 1950. New York. "Gimbel Brothers department store. Interior. Raymond Loewy Associates, architect." 4x5 inch acetate negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size.   A street floor named desire         Ah for the infinite loveliness of Gimbels. We're the most enticing, most alluring street floor that ever walked the ways of beauty. So captivating are we, you just can't resist us. Our walls are delicately tinted. Our counters are sleek. If we were a bell, we would tinkle. We're all this, and more, because Raymond Loewy, genius at transforming an ugly duckling into a raving beauty, has given us his magic touch. And the best part is, this beauty of ours will be a joy forever. Our loveliness will never pass into nothingness. Why? Because those sweet, sweet bargains and those low, low price tags keep coming and coming and coming ... (NYT ad, Feb. 1951) Lingerie on 6, wife-beaters on 7 "Does Macy's tell Gimbels?"I first heard that now antiquated line on "I Love Lucy". Lucy and Ethel bought identical dresses at the competing stories. The witticism was so familiar that Gimbels used it in a 1953 ad. The New York Gimbels opened in 1910, a block south of Macy's in the Herald Square shopping area. It was the company's third flagship after Milwaukee (glimpsed earlier on Shorpy) and Philadelphia. Light 'em up!By 9:30 a.m., the floor of Gimbel Brothers Department Store will be covered in cigarette butts. By the early 1960s I'll be visiting my aunt and uncle’s house just outside of Baltimore during Christmas. Elvis will be on the record player and there will be a fake Christmas tree set up, kinda like the ones at Gimbel's, but covered with angel hair and a revolving color wheel on the floor to the right of the tree. Oh yeah, and there'll cigarette smoke hovering in the air. The Martians have landed... in small ships on the ceiling. This seems like a compromise redo (new fixtures and lights, while retaining the basic shell, perhaps befitting their image as the runner-up. Or maybe not: IIRC it didn't look much different 30+ years later when it closed — an unexpectedly elegant looking store. Later that same centuryThe lone and level sands stretch far away. Out of the WayIn the awkward space underneath the escalator's angle was the Stamp & Coin Department. It not only sold collecting supplies but also had actual old stamps and coins for sale. This was a franchise operation that, at its height in the early 1960s, had 38 locations in department stores nationwide. These hobby nooks are all closed now, but they sure sparked the imagination of young boys (and sometimes girls). If you want to read the historyNice summary on Wikipedia. There's a part about the New York City flagship store that stands out because, as today, people will ruin what was intended to be a benefit, "When this building opened, on September 29, 1910, a major selling point was its many doors leading to the Herald Square New York City Subway station. Due to such easy access, by the time Gimbels closed in 1986, this store had the highest rate of 'shrinkage,' or shoplifting losses, in the world." Of course, that's not what caused Gimbels to close, but it didn't help. (The Gallery, Christmas, Gottscho-Schleisner, NYC, Stores & Markets)
Party Animals: 1950
"Linda's third birthday -- 1950." Our second visit with Linda, who despite being only 3 already seems a ... Rojankovsky was first published by Simon & Schuster in 1950. He was the featured illustrator for "My Little [big] Golden Books" ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/18/2013 - 1:15pm -

"Linda's third birthday -- 1950." Our second visit with Linda, who despite being only 3 already seems a little jaded. 35mm Kodachrome. View full size. Jaded with good reasonIf that was all the cake I had for my third birthday, I'd feel annoyed too! Most cupcakes are bigger than that. A little jadedGood heavens, of course she's jaded! Look at that cake! Alternate takeMake a wish! Bibs with sleeves?I'm a lot older than Linda, but my mom told me I was the first kid ever to have custom-made bibs with sleeves since I was a rather messy child who always wiped my mouth on my sleeve when I finished eating. She then requested that a talented seamstress (aunt) design a bib with sleeves after she gave up on me ever breaking that habit, so somebody must have copied her design although mine looked more like a raincoat. I finally did stop doing that when I was about 12. Baby food warmersRemember those old baby food warmers? They had a little screw top on the side where you would pour in the boiling water to keep everything warm. Today's moms have it so much easier. [I was wondering what that was. - Dave] awwwi have a baby food warmer JUST like that, i used it for my last little one..so cute. Grow up!Thanks for the memory of baby food warmers- I had forgotten about them. I even had a little one for my doll as part of a nursery set. However- three years old is too old for a food warmer and a full bib! Props to DadOr whomever was the photographer. Two off-axis flashes and no redeye! AwwWith those flushed cheeks and her expression, I can't help but wonder if Linda might be a little under the weather on her birthday. Or maybe she just woke up from a nap. Cute. Knocked flat by the barnyard gate!I keep going back to this book! What a great gift for a young child. Learn your animals, appreciate great art in the process!?! The Great Big Animal Book illustrated by Feodor Rojankovsky was first published by Simon & Schuster in 1950. He was the featured illustrator for "My Little [big] Golden Books" titles: Humpty Dumpty, Mother Goose, Animal Dictionaries etc.. A few generations of children have grown up with his art! He was a fine artist, Russian born and trained. Found his fame and obvious fortune in the United States. His work appears in fine art periodicals as well. But knock me flat with the barnyard gate, He was also a noted illustrator of Erotic Art. His prints are listed starting at $500 plus on eBay! Russian Erotica Handcolored Lithographs!! I may have to go into therapy. JammiesIt looks like she just got up because the clothes she is wearing look like good old Dr. Denton's. (Kids, Kitchens etc., Linda Kodachromes)
Cellulose Sales: 1950
Nov. 21, 1950. "Cellulose Sales Co., 250 Park Avenue, New York. Accounting office." In ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/03/2013 - 7:35pm -

Nov. 21, 1950. "Cellulose Sales Co., 250 Park Avenue, New York. Accounting office." In addition to the usual staplers, ink stamps and accounting machines we have one big glass ash tray and another shaped like a ship's wheel, both amply supplied with butts. Whose filters would have been made mostly of cellulose! Large-format acetate negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size. Divide By ZeroGuess the Marchants were more robust than the Fridens. I used a Marchant machine similar to the calculator pictured in a college numerical analysis class in 1965. We all tried the divide-by-zero (which caused the machine to subtract zero endlessly from the dividend). Some of the Marchants had a "Div Stop" key on the base at the lower right. If your machine didn't have such a key, you had to do a hard reboot---unplug it and plug it back in. Re: CalculatorsYes, very early STW10s, I think. The styling of the function keys looks like the C10s and D10s, but those didn't have the multiplication keyboard, and the layout of the function keys is close (but not identical) to the later STW10s. At the time of this picture, they couldn't have been much more than a year old as the STW10 was introduced in 1949. CalculatorsLooks like a Friden Model STW10, probably an early version of the series! Machines of that era were fascinating, hugely complex systems of levers, gears, latches and shafts. This series performed multiplication by entering one factor on the ten-column pad, and the other on the small ten-key pad. I remember playing with these (could have been the similar Marchants) when visiting my dad at work (civil engineer.) The truly evil thing to do was to set up a division operation - by zero - and walk away. StaplerThe stapler next to the calculating machine appears to be a No. 6 Hotchkiss made in Norwalk, Conn. I have one in front of me as I speak. It's been in the family for many years and only recently I put staples in it for the first time in several decades. One advantage it has is being locked in the open position so you can staple stuff to bulletin boards, walls, your buddy's forehead etc. Calculated Response In the early 60s my father was head of an engineering division at a Very Big Company - and the folks in his office had several of those Friden calculators that were in daily use. When I was in grade school I was utterly fascinated with that amazing level of technology. I was sometimes allowed to do some simple math on one of them, but it made everyone nervous - mainly because of the "divide by zero" mistake that required a service call to remedy. One fine day when I was 13, Father told me he had a present for me in the trunk of his car - and there was one of the machines! The one in the photo looks exactly like mine - and forty-mumble years later, I still have it safely tucked away in storage. I used it a bunch in high school and college, and made more than one friend quite envious, as most of us back then just had slide rules. Mine came with the accompanying Friden books, which I also still have. The first 'serious' thing I did was sit down and, by an iterative process, figure out that 21.99114855 divided by 7 equals PI to 8 decimal places (3.14159265). We were taught that 22 divided by 7 is PI, but that wasn't precise enough for me. What amazing fun for a young geek teen to sit and watch (and listen!) as the machine faithfully assembled the answer with the carriage shuttling back and forth and the little numbers whirling in thier windows... Makes me sorta want to go get it and see if it still works. Naw, maybe not. I have too many new toys to explore. Friden CalculatorThe calculator was a Friden C10 or similar, an older design from the thirties. The divide key is split in half to get around a patent for a dividing calculator by Marchant, so the story goes. The PhoneThe phone on the left desk: it's a Western Electric Model 302. I have one on my desk. It was made in 1947. What IzzitThe item between the pen set and the pencils on the desk in the foreground, it has 2 indents in it. Does anyone know what that was used for? Also, I spied something else I haven't seen before, the bottom of the windows have a shield which I'm sure was to keep papers from flying on windy days when the windows were open for some air. Western Electric 302Designed by the firm of Henry Dreyfuss, who also designed the streamlined shroud for the Hudson locomotives that pulled the New York Central's 20th Century Limited. Paging Mr. Hopper(Edward, that is.) What's the Other Phone?On the rear desk, there is another device that looks like a wooden box with a telephone handset. Is that some sort of dictation device? [Looks like a Dictograph Intercom, a desktop inter-office phone switching unit. - tterrace] re: What IzittThe item appears to be a holder for a pencil or pen, a business card holder in front and the indents for paper clips and thumb tacks. IndentsPaper clip holder, if I recall correctly. With a pen/pencil groove to the side. Re: Calculations - A truly honorable job with that approximation to Pi! Sounds like something I would have been doing, as well. I've always loved 355/113; not quite as good as 21.99114855/7, but elegant in doing it with only three different digits in nice pairs. Who says the good old days were better?The Friden STW10 weighed 40 pounds and cost about $880 in 1960 (that's the earliest price I could find). A calculator with the same functions plus more now weighs a few ounces and is readily available for less than $10. HVACThis must have been an older building, retrofitted with a central air system. Note the fairly good sized duct that cuts up the left hand window. A fresh air intake? They did a neat job of modifying the venetian blinds to fit it in. Desk Accessory FeatureBlast from the past - a pull out writing slide for use by a stenographer or visitor, at the top of the front of the desk on the left. You just don't see those anymore. Re: Window shieldsNote that the tops are tilted toward the interior of the room. I believe the primary purpose of these was to allow the windows to be opened when it was raining. They would also serve to direct the incoming airflow upwards to improve circulation and avoid blowing things around, but I don't think that was the main intent. (The Gallery, Gottscho-Schleisner, NYC, The Office)
Frosty Drinks: 1950
New York circa 1950. "Store at 513 East 79th Street." Also known as "Stopping by Deli on a ... I remember stores like this when I was a kid (I was 2 in 1950). The interiors were usually small but crowded with items, dark ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/02/2015 - 8:37pm -

New York circa 1950. "Store at 513 East 79th Street." Also known as "Stopping by Deli on a Snowy Evening." 4x5 film negative by John M. Fox. View full size. With apologies to Robert FrostThe steps are slippery, hard and steep, But there are no hurdles I would not leap For Schlitz to drink or else I weep, For Schlitz to drink or else I weep. InvitingWhether you need a pack of Fatimas, a box of Supersuds (perhaps with a dish cloth inside), or a pound of sliced Genoa, this is the place to get it. Myriad needs attended, always with a wry, mock-hostile gibe or two for the regulars from Mr. Petrocelli or Mrs. Weinstein or Bobby McMahan behind the counter. With both Elsie the Borden Cow and the Old Dutch lady emblazoned on the door, who would not find this a most welcoming establishment? Activated SeismotiteDiscovered by Madison Ave. geologists without a doubt. The age of modern chemistry helping housewives. What an amazing modern world we live in. 1949 Old Dutch Cleanser ad. Where Oh Where?Is the wheelchair ramp? Perhaps a few decades into the future? The prettiest girl I ever sawwas sipping Hoffman's right through a straw! Small, Dark & ComfortingI remember stores like this when I was a kid (I was 2 in 1950). The interiors were usually small but crowded with items, dark (sometimes store owners would not turn on the lights until it got dark), but nonetheless cozy and inviting. Since they were basically "cellar" stores, they usually had no storeroom, but often had a small exit door in the rear leading to an alleyway. Great places for a 2-year-old to explore. SeismotiteI doubt many people knew what Seismotite was, (I didn't) it's the trade name for pumice. I have no idea how you activate Pumice, it comes from Volcanoes so activating it sounds pretty dangerous. Into the mists of history513 East 79th is long gone. A large apartment building, completed in the early 1960's, now occupies the site. East 79th Street was once called "Hungarian Broadway" after its dominant ethnic group. Its ethnic character would already have been in decline by the time of this photo and is all but gone today. Seismotite sourceI believe that this was the source of said seismotite. I was in this mine in the mid 1960s, and it is extensive. Bossy?That cow's head advertisement on the door certainly looks familiar. What product does it advertise? Anyone remember? [Elsie the Cow for Borden's dairy products. -tterrace] GoneThis block of East 79th Street, which is way over on the far Upper East Side of Manhattan, between York Ave. and the FDR drive, is today a combination of the old and the new. On the south side of the street is a row of nice pre-war apartment buildings, with interesting roof lines, and front doors, and window details, very similar to the sort of detail hinted at in this photo, above and around the storefront. Today, the north side of the block - where the 513 E. 79th St. Grocery & Deli was located 65 years ago - is, unfortunately, a boring line-up of flat-faced, largely uninteresting 1960-1970 vintage apartment buildings, one of which (515 E. 79th St.) appears to be well in excess of 30 stories tall. In fact, I don't see any indication that there is even a 513 E. 79th St. in existence anymore. The numbering on the street appears to go from 509 to 515. I'm guessing there was a small soda fountain in this little deli, and that the proprietor made an egg cream to be proud of. Probably cost one whole nickel. (The Gallery, Found Photos, John M. Fox, NYC, Stores & Markets)
Yardbirds: 1950
Circa 1950, Linda's mom at right with someone who might be her sister, and someone ... - Dave] Chairs and flowers My house was built in 1950, so a friend gave me a housewarming gift of two '50s webbed aluminum lawn ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/03/2013 - 7:43pm -

Circa 1950, Linda's mom at right with someone who might be her sister, and someone else who is definitely a dog. And, for those of you keeping track, the third box of paper napkins in this batch of 35mm Kodachromes. View full size. SmokingIt appears there are three brands of cigarettes in this photo. Camels, Pall Malls and the yellow pack. I don't think the yellow pack is Fatima or Old Gold. Maybe Herbert Tareyton? And what are the things under the lady's chair on the right? [Something you fill with water. - Dave] EscapismThis is sending me back to childhood bliss! I wish I could have the webbed aluminum lawn chairs in my yard and I've never seen such a nice split log fence. But I could have the Pall Malls on the lawn if I still smoked. Woah! Re: Kodachrome Cine. Cool catch! I processed Kodachrome on a Pako 35mm cine machine at the Pako lab turned Brown Photo in Minneapolis for five years in the late '80's and never saw a 16mm film come through. Of course, regular 8 movie film is 16mm that you turn over after half the film is exposed and ultimately is slit and spliced to make a 8mm home movie. Too bad this stable media is no longer with us. Some of the first words I learned to read"In Hoc Signo Vinces," the Latin inscription on each of the thousands of red Pall Mall packs my parents went through! What a memory rush. I'd recognize that pack anywhere. The Yellow packIt looks like a Kodak box of some sort to me. [Correct! 16mm Kodachrome movie film. These people were serious cinematographers. - Dave] Chairs and flowersMy house was built in 1950, so a friend gave me a housewarming gift of two '50s webbed aluminum lawn chairs. The webbing was worn and frayed so she thoughtfully threw in a couple packages of replacement webbing. I sliced my fingers on the screws that hold the webbing in place, but I ended up with two comfortable chairs that I'm still using ten years later. The plants along the fence are hollyhocks, which my gardener friends consider an "old-fashioned" flower. Yes, I have some in my backyard, near the aluminum chairs. Re: Something you fill with waterIt may look like that, but the color is straight out of "Alien": I suspect predatory mimicry. Smiling LadyLooks like she'd be a hoot to hang out with Might Be Her SisterHas nice legs. Linda's Momnever smiles. She may be like my Aunt, funny as anything, but she's all frowned up like this is old photos, cos she hated having her picture taken. The hollihocksThose hollihocks haven't bloomed yet, so it places this pic as early summer, maybe June. Where have I seen that face before?The mystery lady in the photo with Linda's mom bears a remarkable resemblance to Queen Elizabeth II as she appeared in the early 1950s. (Linda Kodachromes)
Susie, Susie, Susie, Susie: 1950
... 21 years. It is captioned "Susie at home for Christmas 1950". You can learn to "free-view" this digital version by giving the image a ... 
 
Posted by Joseph M Hohmann - 02/20/2019 - 2:22pm -

3-D was big in the early 1950s. This slide is one of 4,800 3-D slides I have bought over the past 21 years. It is captioned "Susie at home for Christmas 1950". You can learn to "free-view" this digital version by giving the image a blank stare. In time, you brain will produce three images, the middle one in 3-D. It's like learning to ride a bike ... not easy, but once you do it, that's it. View full size. It works!Wooow! it is really easy if you cross your eyes slowly to finally "lock" the center image. Fantastic effect. Crosseyed and ParallelThe top pair is for crosseyed viewing, the bottom for parallel (like those 'magic-eye' patterns). Stereo Pair ViewingWhile on the pursuit of a Forest Management degree in the mid 1970's, I took a required course in Photogrammetry and Aerial Mapping. I was provided with optics that enabled me to view stereo pair photos. After a time I mastered the art of parallel focused vision instead of convergent vision. It is like riding a bike, you never forget how to do it. If the center of each photo is beyond parallel vision (divergent), you can't bring the photos into full overlap. In this case, if you're on a computer (I know you are), scale the image down until you can converge the images. https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-view-stereo-graphic-images/ Two different styles of stereo pairsUpper photo pair is for crosseyed technique (not my preference). Left eye focuses on right image, right eye on left) Lower photo pair is for parallel technique (much more relaxed in my book). Left eye to left photo, right to right. If you use the wrong technique for a given stereo pair, items that should be in the forefront are pushed to the back. StereoscopeIt's really easy if you happen to have one of these. I never could do it with the "blank stare". I also wasn't good at autostereograms in the '90s but at least I was able to do it occasionally. Freeviewing SusieThe bottom set of images is the one to use for traditional "freeviewing" to see the 3D image -- the left image is on the left, the right image is on the right. On the top set of images the right image is on the left. That would be proper for anyone using "crosseyed freeviewing" which is used for stereo images if the image is large. For traditional "blank stare" type freeviewing the left/right images should be in proper order (the bottom set here) and the size of the image on your screen should be adjusted so that the distance between the centers of the two pictures is about the distance between your pupils. Freeviewing in a skill worth learning -- once your mind learns what it is supposed to be doing, it will lock in the 3D image easily. There are thousands of antique stereoviews every day on eBay, and you can free-view them on your screen. At last!I've been waiting for someone to post something in three dimensions. I hope you come up with more. Free ViewingThe two pictures have to be printed with a point-to-point separation less than eye separation to free-view. Anaglyph of SusieHere's a black-and-white 3D anaglyph of Susie for anyone who has the red/blue lens glasses used for 3D comic books, many children's books, early 3D movies, etc. Anaglyphs don't work well in color if there is any red or cyan in the photo as one eye will not see that color and it creates uncomfortable viewing. Tried so hardWell, now that my eyes are stuck in the crossed mode, does any know the name of a decent ophthalmic surgeon? Wake up, little SusieThank you for this! Yesterday I tried but nothing happened. Today, after reading all the comments, I stopped overthinking it and just crossed my eyes and Bob's your uncle, the picture popped right into 3D! Now I can't stop looking at little Susie triking past that see-through Christmas tree, the icicles nearly brushing her face. It's awesome. What a treat. Glad you liked this.And thank you, Shorpy folks, for including it. Yes, the top is "cross eye"(X) and the bottom is "parallel" (P). I can only do P since I learned from "Magic Eye" books. P is actually more "useful" in that you can view old stereo cards that way. I'm delighted that some of you were able to do this. I'll offer a few more in the future. Modern StereoscopeI bought a modern plastic version a view years ago and instead of a postcard, I held my smartphone in front of it. Works Great. 3DWhen I was a child my favourite toy was my Viewmaster and its reels; once grown up I worked for 20 years on aerial mapping with different kinds of equipment: analogic and mechanical first, digital later. I always liked 3D photos, those of the '50s are wonderful, it seems that everyone had a 3D camera in those years. When I take pictures now with one, people always ask me what I'm using. I hope that there will be other pictures like this. Oh WOWJust like the "Magic Eye" from the 1990's!! Very cool. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)
The Corner Store: 1950
June 8, 1950. "Fields department store, business at 37th Avenue and 82nd Street, ... photo! First metal-bodied station wagon The 1949 or 1950 Plymouth Suburban, second from left, enters a market filled with beautiful ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/03/2017 - 10:06am -

June 8, 1950. "Fields department store, business at 37th Avenue and 82nd Street, Jackson Heights, Queens, New York. Exterior, by day." (And by night.) 5x7 inch acetate negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size. The neighborhood has changedI used to go to the Garden School at 79th and Northern Blvd in the late 1970s. Every school day I passed through this intersection, and never in my wildest dreams could I ever imagine it once looked like this! Now it's all cheap bodegas, 99 cent stores, cheap clothing, and cellphone stores. Unbelievable photo! First metal-bodied station wagonThe 1949 or 1950 Plymouth Suburban, second from left, enters a market filled with beautiful wood-bodied station wagons that will deteriorate at a much faster rate than this entirely new concept that will become the norm in just a few years. 1949 Studebaker Champion on left. On the far right it's a 1949 Pontiac Silver Streak and I can't identify the truck. Shorpy Vehicle Identification ImperativeThe vehicle close up on the left is a '47 Studebaker Commander "Land Cruiser", the wagon just behind it is a '49 or '50 Plymouth "Suburban". Interesting how those vehicle model names got recycled. Also, in front of the '49 Pontiac "Silver Streak" on the right, it's great to see that Harley Davidson "Servicar." My dad (who rode Harleys for over 60 years) called them "Servicycles." I think Harley guys like my dad preferred the latter. Vehicle IDThe Studebaker on the left is a 1949 Commander. The pickup nearby is a 1940s International. The truck on the right is a late 40s REO. The modern ageSleek and minimalist modern architecture in a an old traditional neighborhood. I think it might have been quite a culture shock for some of the older residents. The store that ate QueensIt looks like the department store grew another story, and ate the rest of the block. The second story windows and the short brick wall at ground level (on the right) match the original photo. Fields on The AvenueBorn and raised in Jackson Heights, this was my local department store. We would go "up the Avenue" to shop all the stores along the way, to end at Fields. Afterwards, maybe over to Jahn's for ice cream. What a treat to see Fields again! (The Gallery, Gottscho-Schleisner, Stores & Markets)
Hopalong Christmas: 1950
"Xmas 1950." 35mm Kodachrome yanked at random out of a box of slides bought on eBay. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/29/2012 - 9:01pm -

"Xmas 1950." 35mm Kodachrome yanked at random out of a box of slides bought on eBay. I call dibs on the dump truck. View full size. TractorI still have my tractor from perhaps a year or three later. Roughly the same size, it appears, though not as nicely detailed. Some paint not original. One owner though, of course. The Red vs Green Debate...tterrace...The tractor in the original photo looks to be a John Deere while yours must be a McCormick Farmall. Just last week I was at the Butler County Fair in Ohio and I saw this Tee shirt.... Thanks for some saddle-up memories ShorpyWow - this pic just whipped me back to the past on the Shorpy time machine! My two favorite movie/TV cowboys Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy in there with a pair of RR boots and what looks like a book "Hoppy and Lucky" (Lucky being one of his side kicks). Liked the actors that played Lucky but Edgar Buchanon was just too comical as Red Connors. Other old timers on here will remember the original books by Clarence Mulford where Hoppy and the rest of the Bar-20 boys were rough and tough. William Boyd did a wonderful job civilizing Hoppy to make him a household name. Writer Louis L'Amour also continued with some outstanding Hoppy books. You can have itI want the streamlined Fire Chief car! I'll takethe creepy doll and teh speliing adn cownting borde. Fine, take the red one.Christmas of 1955 I was 6 and my brother was 4. Among many treasures like these under the tree were two cars identical to the Fire Chief car. One was red (mine) and the other was yellow(his). Of course little brother pitched a fit for the red one and my parents talked me in to trading with the brat. Two days later he left it out in the driveway and my Dad flattened it with the car when he came home from work. I call it poetic justice. And no, I didn't give him mine. Tough noogies. Tinkertoys in the back!Would have been perfect if there were Lincoln Logs too! Ther's an Erector Set in the backin the round container with the metal lid. I had the same set, but it was later in the 50's. Wish I knew where my spelling board was.I had one of these, and I loved it! Got it probably around 1959, and it wasn't red. Never used the number side except for playing "school" with Doreen, Gretchen, and Sandy in Santa Ana, CA. Good times. For What It's WorthI second the "tough noogies"!! Tinker Toys....It looks like the round container with the metal lid is a container of Tinker Toys. Wooden sticks, spools with holes in them to insert the sticks and an assortment of connectors and pulleys. All of this was made of wood. An erector set on the other hand is comprised of metal parts, wheels, pulleys, nuts, bolts and quite possibly an electric motor to make your contraption work. The end result is the same, just wood vs metal. I had both back in the 50s when I was a kid. DollThat's a Tiny Tears doll - the first year she came out when she only came with the rubber head and no 'real' saran hair yet - I got one just like it that year. (The Gallery, Christmas, Michigan Kodachromes)
Primitive Modern: 1950
July 20, 1950. "Helena Rubinstein residence, 625 Park Avenue, New York. Art gallery." ... that clear acrylic was a common material for chair legs in 1950. The camera pulls back To Rod Serling, standing cigarette in hand ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/09/2015 - 7:40pm -

July 20, 1950. "Helena Rubinstein residence, 625 Park Avenue, New York. Art gallery." Large-format acetate negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size. One Thing Sticks OutI hate to be "Mr. Obvious" but Doc Dave's hilarious comment and title just clicked into my brain when I was observing the sculpture on the table under the Modigliani (far left of this picture). Silly me, I was first thinking his title meant the wealth required to exhibit all this art but his title and comment is just too funny to have it go to waste in case anyone else missed it (I'm a little slow on the uptake). Thanks for the laugh D.D. The lightingI'm hoping they used LumiLine linear incandescent lamps. They had all the advantages of the shape of fluorescent tubes with the color-temperature and dimmability of incandescent lights. Dig those crazy legsI can't imagine that clear acrylic was a common material for chair legs in 1950. The camera pulls backTo Rod Serling, standing cigarette in hand with a cryptic introduction to tonight's episode. When You've Got itFlaunt it. Poor choice of lightingIs that fluorescent lighting illuminating these fine works of art? Might as well put them in direct sunlight. Artistic paintings-industrial lightingShe may have had modern art on the wall and been a artist in cosmetics; but the lighting in this room reminds me of a metal shop I was in once. Sometimes, money isn't enoughWhat a mishmash! (The Gallery, Gottscho-Schleisner)
Gamers: 1950
June 6, 1950. Pembroke, Ontario. "Vis-O-Matic department store." A variation on ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/28/2008 - 3:58pm -

June 6, 1950. Pembroke, Ontario. "Vis-O-Matic department store." A variation on mail-order shopping, the Vis-O-Matic system used color slides to display merchandise to potential customers, with orders placed by Teletype and delivered to your door. Photo by Bernard Hoffman, Life image archive. View full size. Wii!Darn, I thought this was a Nintendo Wii! Oh, my--the danger!That ring toss board has exposed metal pegs! No rubber tips! No 17 pages of warnings! HowEVER did these children survive?!? Oh yeah, we used common sense when we were playing! But watch out--the parents of these boys just might have been lurking in the corner, waiting to draft their frivolous lawsuit! Amazon Beta40+ years before the advent of modern online shopping. Who'd have thought? Ahh, the days of common sense...Remember those days... Playing with mercury in science class, lawn darts, candy cigarettes, the U-238 Atomic Energy Lab, the Johnny Reb 30-inch authentic Civil War cannon. Hey...Is this the first Canadian picture you've had??? Woo! Ashtray joystickYou used to be able to smoke everywhere. Chairs used to acknowledge this fact. Hey!Didn't Bill Bryson mention this in his book about growing up in Iowa in the '50s? And if you haven't read "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid," or better yet, listened to it on a road trip ... well, what are you waiting for? It's amazing!) [As far as I can tell, Vis-O-Matic never made it out of Ontario. - Dave] Reminds me of QUBEOn the 1980 TV series "Speak Up America," co-host Marjoe Gortner would say that viewers in Columbus Ohio could submit their opinions using the "QUBE system" (whatever that was.) Finally Canadian picturesI would love to see more from Canada. More on QUBELong before the Internet as we know it, early cable television was supposed to become interactive and viewers in some trial locations (apparently Columbus, Ohio was one) could respond to queries from the broadcaster on a variety of topics and those responses would be tabulated for whatever purpose said broadcaster chose. QUBE was shortlived since cabled television networks reached precious few viewers in those days. (Technology, Kids, LIFE, Sports)
Roller Derby Girls: 1950
... Women's league roller derby skaters in New York. March 10, 1950. View full size. Photo by Al Aumuller, New York World-Telegram. no ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/07/2007 - 3:10am -

Women's league roller derby skaters in New York. March 10, 1950. View full size. Photo by Al Aumuller, New York World-Telegram. no fearwow we wear pads, mount guard and helmets now. They look fearless. Zoom Zoom Zetta (Suzette) Rocky Mountain Rollergirls More pleaseAre there more where this came from? colin j. [As far as I can tell this is it. - Dave] Seeing these old-school galsSeeing these old-school gals make me feel like such a pansy. I would never dream of jumping over someone without my kneepads and a mouth guard! Rollerderby photoGreat photo. I actually saw this happen, as I was there. I was only 10 years old at the time and it was powerful and exciting in the light of the times. J. Williams Roller DerbyDo you know which team was playing in this picture? [Sorry, no idea. But I bet someone out there knows! - Dave] I have to come back to thisI have to come back to this photo daily. It's such a great moment of vitality, and adventure. I'm living vicariously through the woman on the right. WOOOO excitement, ready to land, and the momentum to go forward. I.D.The lady on the right is Annis Jensen of the Chicago Westerners. Not sure about the lady on the left but she looks like Edith Branum of the Jersey Jolters. (Sports)
Mid-Century Modern: 1950
Los Angeles, 1950. "Herman Miller furniture showroom, 8806 Beverly Boulevard, West ... in business in Los Angeles -- here are some other 1950 Herman Miller showrooms. Practice Makes Perfect It's an early ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/17/2019 - 9:12pm -

Los Angeles, 1950. "Herman Miller furniture showroom, 8806 Beverly Boulevard, West Hollywood." Designed by Charles and Ray Eames. View full size. DriftwoodSo, this was a 50s thing! My dad was always bringing home pieces of driftwood from his travels and we had them on the mantel and end tables and knickknack shelves. I used to play with them and pick at all the little shell and pebble pieces embedded in the open grain. No Driftwood Visible NowThere is a vast amount of furniture and one hideous sculpture hanging from the ceiling at the present day location of the former Herman Miller showroom. The company is still in business in Los Angeles -- here are some other 1950 Herman Miller showrooms. Practice Makes PerfectIt's an early attempt at the cubicle. You don't get everything right the first time. [Herman Miller designer Robert Propst's "Action Office" of the 1960s is regarded as the birth of the cubicle. - Dave] Wax Fruit?That used to be a thing. When did that cease to be a thing? Fake Fruit is still "a thing" in my houseWax may be passé but I have fake fruit in a lovely sage green ceramic bowl on my dining room table filled with fabric covered apples, pears, bananas and grapes. They look real and don't rot or attract/spawn weird flies. The look of fresh fruit in a bowl is very nice but not too practical, most fruit should be stored in a refrigerator. Wax fruitSometime before 1960, I went to a classmate's house and saw a bowl of wax fruit. After looking at it for about 15 seconds, I picked up an apple. The classmate yelled at me not to eat it, since it was artificial. I conclude today that he yelled because I was not the first kid to do this. Waxing realAs much money as Herman Miller made, it's entirely possible they put out fresh fruit daily in their showroom for customers. ... but you're probably right. It, like so much of the mid-century, was probably fake. [The Eamses used actual plants, fruit and starfish in their displays. - Dave] (The Gallery, Charles & Ray Eames, Los Angeles, The Office)
House Party: 1950
1950. From photographs by Stanley Kubrick for the Look magazine article "The ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/30/2013 - 10:59pm -

1950. From photographs by Stanley Kubrick for the Look magazine article "The Debutante Who Went to Work": "Socialite model/actress Betsy Von Furstenberg attending a weekend house party. Includes Von Furstenberg, hostess Sandra Stralem and other young women in ball gowns." View full size. Smoke? Don't mind if I do! (Two women on the left) CharmingOne of the girls is wearing what could be a heart shaped charm dangling from a bracelet with the number 17 on it. That makes it look like the tag hanging from a beach locker key in a Shorpy Atlantic City photo. [Sweet 17. - Dave] On display:A lot of clavicle. I STEPPED on the ping pong ball!This looks the kind of crowd Gloria Upson ran with (Auntie Mame). Is that Muriel Puce I see? Voice Activated Light Stand"Can you hold that light a little higher for me?" Mirrors and other reflective objects in the background cause headaches for all photographers. In this case it clearly shows the guy holding a light and a woman (chaperone maybe?) looking on. I can almost hearthe crinkling sound of all that fabric every time any of our ladies move around, even a little, plus I can almost smell the strange mix of 1950s hairspray and perfumes certainly saturating that room. If I could turn back timethis is precisely where I would be. Great shot! (LOOK, Pretty Girls, Stanley Kubrick)
On Broadway: 1950
New York circa 1950. "Far right -- No. 319 Bdwy." Gelatin silver print by Angelo A. Rizzuto -- ... a good looking building while 317, more visible in the 1950 photograph, did not fare so well. Great Bunndini -- I linked ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/14/2021 - 10:16pm -

New York circa 1950. "Far right -- No. 319 Bdwy." Gelatin silver print by Angelo A. Rizzuto -- Box 325, General P.O., New York City. View full size. GorsartsAccording to the all-knowing web, Gorsarts, which was a very well known place for Wall Street men to get their 3 piece suits, was located at 9 Murray Street until it closed in 2001. The location in this photo is the corner of Thomas and Broadway, several blocks north of Murray Street. Gorsarts either had a satellite store, or, like the ubiquitous Ray's Pizza, somebody borrowed its name. The city that does not sleepBeautiful photograph. It's nice to be out before most everyone else wakes up. In this photograph, 317 and 319 Broadway appear to be mirror image buildings on corners flanking Thomas Street. But Google street view today shows 319 is still a good looking building while 317, more visible in the 1950 photograph, did not fare so well. Great Bunndini -- I linked this photograph to a blog, DaytoninManhattan.blogspot.com that posts daily on still standing and lost buildings in Manhattan. He quickly responded by posting on the Thomas Twins. No Amber LightWhen I first visited New York City in 1972 there were still quite a few streets with the red/green traffic signals. At first I wondered how these functioned without an amber phase. About five seconds before the light turned green on the cross street, a red signal was added to the green one, and both displayed simultaneously. After five seconds the green light shut off, and the signal turned green for the cross street. Here is a "video showing how it looked. You said it Doug Floor!Brother that building that replaced 217 is a far cry from what was there! I wonder if 217 burned down? Whatever happened they didn't get much. CocaCola & Ex-LaxWho needs yer egg cream? (The Gallery, Angelo Rizzuto, NYC)
The Christmas Tree: 1950
"Sierras, 1950, Nevada." The Christmas Tree Lodge on the Mount Rose Highway south of Reno ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/07/2021 - 8:56pm -

"Sierras, 1950, Nevada." The Christmas Tree Lodge on the Mount Rose Highway south of Reno is the backdrop for this latest Kodachrome of Don Cox's 1939 Mercury. The restaurant, which touted its "mahogany-broiled steaks and chops," is no more, replaced by the Tannenbaum Event Center. Now, who's gonna squeegee that tyke off the bumper? View full size. SkeechingMy nephews and their cousins did that around here in Northwest Indiana. I don't know if the word is the "official" name for it, but that's what they called it in these parts. The plaid-jacket era for boysI'm reminded of that scene in "The Bishop's Wife" in which Cary Grant as the angel conjures up attendance at the boys' choir practice and every one of them is wearing a plaid jacket similar to the one the kid is wearing in this photo. I was born in 1947 and had one, too, but it was my older cousin's hand-me-down. Paul Simon got it right"Mama don't take my Kodachrome away." Don Cox took some supernaturally beautiful pictures in the winter Sierras. Egad!Looks like some kind of surplus window size experiment. SnowmobilityI had a hat like the young man is wearing. We used to grab hold of bumpers like that and get pulled up and down street on our sleds during winter. Great fun. That Hat When I was five years old I had one just like it. This photo was taken in our back yard in Riverside (now Windsor) Ontario in 1952. We are bundled up like the kids in "A Christmas Story." A Christmas StoryTHOSE are the icicles that have been known to kill people. Now The Tannenbaumhttp://www.ccgtcc-ccn.com/Christmas%20Tree.pdf Let there be LOTS of lightAbsolutely beautiful Kodachrome. What has always impressed me about snow photography - the immense amount of reflected light equals tiny aperture (and/or fast shutter) equals huge depth of field and razor sharp focus. This photo epitomizes all that was good about Kodachrome combined with photography in the snow. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Christmas, Don Cox, Eateries & Bars, Kids)
Flipper: 1950
... Models in swimsuits by fashion photographer Toni Frissell, 1950. View full size. Shadow Is that a shadow of the middle model's ... 
 
Posted by Ken - 09/08/2011 - 1:29pm -

Models in swimsuits by fashion photographer Toni Frissell, 1950. View full size. ShadowIs that a shadow of the middle model's profile on the model on the left's back? Or is it a weird tan line! Zippers were used on suits,Zippers were used on suits, then they rusted ruining the suit. Janice, I say shadow.Janice, I say shadow. FinsWow! Vintage Churchills! Soft green, with the patent nos. molded right on top of the fins. I bodysurf, but don't use 'em myself. I don't like the bias cut. (The Gallery, Portraits, Toni Frissell)
You Are Here: 1950
        UPDATE: Main Street in Friendship, Wisconsin, at the Friendship Hotel, is the answer, supplied by "lifelong Wisconsin resident" Wiscojim. Clapclapclap! Who can tell us where these old-timers are, other t ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/06/2015 - 5:18pm -

        UPDATE: Main Street in Friendship, Wisconsin, at the Friendship Hotel, is the answer, supplied by "lifelong Wisconsin resident" Wiscojim. Clapclapclap! Who can tell us where these old-timers are, other than on a porch near a mountain? 4x5 negative from the News Archive. View full size. Waukegan, IllinoisThere was a Hoban & Sons Hardware in Waukegan. Jack and William Hoban were two names I turned up as having owned it in the 1910s. That's all I can find. Anyone with any knowledge of the area think that "mountain" is feasible that close to the lake? DeLavalNo one who milked cows as a child, as I did, will fail to recognize DeLaval. Together with a company called Surge, they had a duopoly--or close to it--on the milking machine market. It looks as if Karo Syrup is also in the advertising game, just below the hardware folks. Hogan and Son(s)How about Hogan and Son(s) Hardware, agents for De Laval (farming and dairy machinery). Friendship, WisconsinThis is Route 13 (Main Street) in Friendship, Wisconsin. Very distinctive view of the north end of "downtown". Many of the original buildings have survived. Milking machine?http://www.alfalaval.com/about-us/our-company/history-of-alfa-laval/ Friendship HotelThe porch still exists on the front of the old Friendship Hotel in Friendship, Wisconsin. Thanks wiscojim!Now someone help decipher the black sign on the right side of the street. Looks like SC??? Might mean anything, but I'm pretty sure the bottom two words are "on tap" which would imply a beer brand. [Here's a slightly different version. -tterrace] Smoking joyI love the smiles on these old boys' faces, made more subtle by the fact that one has a cigarette holder and the other a pipe in his mouth. No scolding grandchildren, no hotel staff asking them kindly to step away from the entrances, nothing to pollute the unalloyed joy of a simple smoke. Grand Prizeto the winner of the location, I bet myself there would not be an answer to this particular location (not much to go on here), but foiled again by astute Shorpy fans. Digit countThis picture reminds me of my uncles. Mom had 9 brothers raised on a farm in Manitoba. Not one made it off the farm with all his fingers intact. Looks like the fella on the left might have had the same fate. Thanks WiscojimIt made me glad to see that this quiet street of businesses remains relatively unchanged all these 65 years later. That can be said about so little of my own San Diego, CA, where land values are astronomical. Sleepy Town. The fact that the two gentlemen would sooner pose under a plank of wood that is definitely about to fall off and hit them rather than pull the plank off and then pose tells me just how slow the pace of things must be in a small town like that. There's something admirable about the relaxed attitude of a couple of men who know that they have already paid their dues in life and they can simply leave it to the next guy. That's how I want to be when I retire. Friendship HotelLovely postcard circa 1912 which shows the second story verandah in all its glory. Found here. (The Gallery, News Photo Archive, Small Towns)
House Beautiful: 1950
Nov. 12, 1950. "John D. Rockefeller III, residence at 252 E. 52nd Street, New York City. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/12/2015 - 12:11pm -

Nov. 12, 1950. "John D. Rockefeller III, residence at 252 E. 52nd Street, New York City. Living room to fireplace with model." Note the Giacometti "Pointing Man." Large-format acetate negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size. A Johnson JewelEvery week I take my son to the Turtle Bay Music school at 244 E 52nd. It is directly next to this very building (242, not 252). I had no idea this was a Philip Johnson-designed Rockefeller "crash pad", what a great discovery! Yowza!That 20th century life size bronze sculpture (5 ft. 10" high) by Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti, just sold yesterday at Christie's for an eye-popping $141.3 MILLION! [That was another of the six casts made, not the Rockefeller piece, however. -tterrace] The Giacometti is now in MOMAAccording to Christie's, "In 1951, the adventurous American collector Saidie May, an early patron of the Abstract Expressionists, bequeathed another of the bronze pointing men (there are seven casts in all) to the Baltimore Museum of Art; three years later, Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller donated her cast of the sculpture to the Museum of Modern Art." It's still there. Not a place where I would want to live.Looks like a very sterile place to me. Eye of this beholder....All the warmth and ambience of a hospital lobby. Someone has to askWhat the heck is on the the coffee table? Landmark DesignationThe report and approval for Landmark status by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, the year 2000: see it here. By the fireplaceHe's got a genii bottle, no wonder he was so rich!!! Musically inclinedIt appears that the woman is reading sheet music. The object on the coffee table......is a shmoo. (The Gallery, Gottscho-Schleisner, NYC)
Free Ice: 1900
... plan ahead a little. Hats Year Round Up until the 1950's or so, you will notice that headgear was always part of the dress code. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/28/2018 - 10:09am -

Circa 1900. "Heat wave. Free ice in New York." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative by Byron for the Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Great TimingMy friends back East say it brutally hot just now, Hudson Valley included. More than just comfortI would bet that most of these people are not going to use this ice for chilling their drinks. They're probably going to use it to keep their food from spoiling. One thing about the present day is we continually go from hot to air conditioned environments during a heat wave. In New York, no matter how cold it gets outside, the subway cars are usually cooled to the point of refrigeration. This keeps our bodies from becoming acclimated to the temps. These folks have been in the heat and have become somewhat adjusted. The clothes they wear are probably all cotton or linen, both of which have the ability to wick the sweat away and help cool the body. I'm sure they're pretty miserable, but coping. You'd get a line for free ice right nowWith temperatures hitting 101 degrees, in the middle of a l-o-o-ng week of 95+, you'll get plenty of people willing to stand in line for bags of free ice. Ice cubes in a bowl + fan = poor man's air conditioning. Thanks, Dave, for reminding us that some things never change, like NYC heat waves in the summertime. The children who grew up standing in those lines supported the construction of municipal swimming pools during the New Deal. They remembered! Nostalgic and VintageI absolutely love old photographs, the older the better. You get to experience people, places and things frozen in time. Sure this isn't Japan?The policeman looks like he's wearing white gloves. That would suck on a hot day like it appears to be in the picture. Hot CommodityLater on, someone realized they could spritz it with food coloring and some flavored syrup and charge for it. The Iceman (and Milkman) ComethBack in the 1940's in Newburgh NY in the midst of a summer heat wave, neighborhood kids would raid the back of the open ice delivery truck while the iceman would be tonging a block of ice to home ice boxes. Another source for kids, of small chunks of ice, was in milk delivery trucks while the milkman was delivering his wares. Weather's nice here in Monterey.It might have gotten to 65 here today. Staten Island FerryWhen my parents married in New York, in 1953, they stayed with a friend in Harlem. It was so hot and a neighbour was having a rent party so my parents took the Staten Island ferry back and forth all night long. Cool and quiet, compared to their friends' apartment. I lived on City Island, in the Bronx, for two years and with no air-conditioning, and the ceiling fans not being up to the job, it was like trying to sleep in pea soup. Trying To Imagine...what NYC must have smelled like with all of those sweating people and piles of horse manure in the streets makes me not want to go back in time to experience what is going on in the photo. This is a first in all my time as a Shorpy fan. Melting PotTemperatures in Manhattan will probably go over 100 degrees today. It has been in the high 90s for the last few days and will be in or around the 100 degree mark for the rest of the week. There will be no free ice and the local utility, Con Ed, has started cutting back on the power so the air conditioners are not performing to spec. I think I'll go to a movie today, their sign says they're 20 degrees cooler inside. Incidentally, movie theatre air conditioning goes back to 1925 when Dr. Willis Carrier cooled the new Rivoli Theatre on Broadway. Fishy, indeed!We are experiencing a real heat wave in New York today. I don't for a minute believe that the photo was taken in a temperature that comes close to our 100+ Look at the barefoot boys on that sidewalk -- there's your proof. I got news for yahFree Ice? That's nothing special. Every February there is tons if it in New York. You just need to plan ahead a little. Hats Year RoundUp until the 1950's or so, you will notice that headgear was always part of the dress code. My dad wore a hat most of the year. It had to be hot and uncomfortable. Something's FishyI can't believe all their icemakers went out at once.They need to call the super and complain. Take it offThey sure are wearing a lot of clothes for a heat wave. I'd lose the jackets and long sleeves. Barefoot tykesThat sidewalk had to be hot! HatsA few years ago I bought a straw hat and It seems to actually make you feel cooler on a hot day. Cool LidOnly a straw hat would make sense, or maybe one of these. Poor timingHow about some lovely pictures of deep snow, ice-covered lakes, or something to make us feel cooler in today's hot weather? The Long Hot SummerLooks like the cop has had a long day. As hot has his uniform is, my hubby now has to wear pretty much all that, except in polyester and with an extra 35 pounds of equipment, plus a bullet proof vest. It's been hovering around or at 100 lately here in Maryland, and his vest doesn't have time to dry out from sweat one day before he puts it on the next. So next time you see a cop sitting in his car with the AC on on a hot day, think of that guy up there! He could use a little break! (I hope he got hold of some ice chunks.) Waaaaah!I love reading about the New York heat waves with temperature in the 90s or even 101 (!). If it was in the 90s in Austin, we'd all be wearing parkas. Most of these people want Gordon Park!As in the last picture. Even in these Victorian times you can see signs of the heat, the cop wiping his brow, most men in the derbies have them way back on their head to let the heat out, and the straw hat man doesn't because they let heat out, just as the Mexican and South East Asian farmers learned from history. I loved the snow cone comment, probably very right, why give the melting ice away if you can sell it! Hot mamaSo I can see why they had the long pants, skirts and hats, but couldn't she have left the shawl off? Hey, Austin tipster We NY/NJ SMSAers feel the same way about you guys when your highways are shut down after 4 or 5 inches of snow. We laugh at your puny "frozen precipitation levels" that seem to cause such chaos! Have you ever been on the Lower East Side, and seen these turn-of-the-19th-century former tenement neighborhoods? They are still standing: five- and six-floor walk-ups, built with no help from Mr Otis, crowded together on narrow streets. Even today, Austin's population density of 2600 people per square mile is less than 1/10th of New York City's (26,100). Crowding ten times as many people into every square mile raises the ambient temperature of NYC exponentially. When the weather report says "90" in a town of crowded, narrow streets with ten times as many people, it is a medical emergency. Be grateful that, in your hometown, such temperatures make you reach for a sweater. It's not a sign of how much tougher Texans are in comparison to New Yorkers. It means that you are fortunate to live where the historical development patterns have provided you an environment where weather extremes aren't so dangerous to human health. 547Was looking for clues about the location of this picture and noticed the clothing store has "547" on the awning (alas no street name). Looking closer you can see that "547" is also written on the inside of the awning and reflected in the store window. But the reflection isn't backwards ... so perhaps it was written backwards so that people facing the window could see the non-backwards number in the reflection? Very curious. [The "547" on the outside of the awning would be backwards on the inside of the awning because it's the same "547" showing through the canvas. - Dave] (The Gallery, DPC, NYC, Stores & Markets)
Polar Bare: 1950
Washington, D.C., circa 1950. "Four naked boys, viewed from behind, sitting on large blocks of ice." ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/06/2018 - 6:31pm -

Washington, D.C., circa 1950. "Four naked boys, viewed from behind, sitting on large blocks of ice." Photo by Aaron Miller. View full size. On The Rocks!So — that explains the slightly odd taste of my martini! Mom would say:"You'll ruin your kidneys that way". Bare BrothersI'm willing to bet we're looking at two sets of brothers here. Boy #1 bares a strong resemblance to Boy #3, as does Boy #2 to Boy #4. And that's not just in their ears. Hot seat ... Not!Not a comment, but several questions: Why sitting on blocks of ice? And why bare butt? Wouldn't that create frostbite in a most uncomfortable place? [This was a newspaper photo of the genre frequently seen during heat waves. - Dave] Ice deliveryI'm here to pick up my ice order. Ahhh, never mind. (The Gallery, D.C., Kids, News Photo Archive)
Beach Boy: 1950
Continuing my vacation theme , we return to the same beach ten years earlier. I'm wearing the St. Christopher medal that was then a permanent accouterment, but what really kept me from drowning then and forever afterwards was making sure that m ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 09/29/2011 - 6:57pm -

Continuing my vacation theme, we return to the same beach ten years earlier. I'm wearing the St. Christopher medal that was then a permanent accouterment, but what really kept me from drowning then and forever afterwards was making sure that my extremities were firmly in contact with the bottom at all times. This was when the Russian River region was the vacation destination for denizens of the San Francisco Bay Area and was jammed with sun and fun frolickers during the summer months. About ten years later, freeways made Lake Tahoe more easily accessible and Guerneville and environs went into a serious and sad decline that lasted until the 1980s. View full size. As cute as ...Channeling my grandmother here. She'd say, "tterrace, you are as cute as a bug in a rug!" [My grandmother said the same thing! Not about tterrace, of course. (Not because she didn't think he was cute, but because she didn't know him.) What else is tterrace as cute as? - Dave] TT is A.C.A.A bucket of puppies. A.C.A...A flea with a sledgehammer. Relative CutenessDoes anyone else think that tterrace is "Cute as a button"? Regarding "Cute as a bug in a rug," I always heard the saying as "Snug as a bug in a rug." The latter saying makes sense to me, since a bug in a rug could be seen as snug, but I don't see anything "cute" about it! Of course, I don't necessarily see anything "cute" about a button, either! Maybe I'm just a curmudgeon. [Come to think of it, "snug" was what Gramma said, too. Also: "Good night, sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite!" Not that we actually had bedbugs, or rugbugs. - Dave] AnachronisticMan immediately above your head, to left, holding his arm up to the side of his head. My first thought was that he was talking on his cell phone -- and then I thought "of course not!!" Cute as the devilI was also an expert at being deliberately not cute when I saw a camera being aimed at me. A.C.A."a bug's ear." This shot brings back memories...My grandparents owned a cabin on the Russian from the late twenties till the early seventies. We would spend every summer there. Sometimes for a couple of weeks, or the entire summer. I too used to do the same thing TT is doing in the shallows. Before you could swim, you could kind of crawl and kick against the current, so it felt like you were swimming. A few other memories this shot brought back are... The smell of the redwoods on a hot summer day. The sound of the logging trucks as they sped down River Road. Those great big umbrellas, and drying your clothes on a line. Catching polliwogs and watching them grow into frogs. Canoeing up and down the river. Christmas lights strung around the cabin became party lights. Mudball fights. Fishing for bluegill and smallmouth bass. Talent shows and bingo. Going into Occidental for family style Italian dinners. Riding out to Bodega Bay for fresh salmon Believe me, I could go on and on. Thanks for posting this, and jogging the good times back into the old noggin. Tterrace is cute as a gnat's @$$Gosh, but you are, and so darn emotionally well adjusted too. I love your life, TTerrace. I hope you do children everywhere a favor and make a coffee table book of your photogog memories and your prose so they can show their parents "THIS is how you raise a kid". ACAA sack of kittens. Russian River memoriesThanks, rgraham, for sharing your Russian River memories; we must have led parallel lives. We also often spent the whole summer at our cabin, Father just his two weeks vacation and then weekends. You were lucky in having your polliwogs survive to froghood; ours never seemed to survive past the leg-sprouting stage. Logging trucks: hiking up along the twisty, one-lane Old Cazadero Road in the hills with my father, brother and dog Missie, I'd hear their engines echoing through the valley and tremble in anticipation of meeting one barreling around a blind curve. Aromas that take me back: freshly-oiled dirt summer roads; hay and horse droppings (picturesque, no?) as we walked past the rent-a-mount place in Guernewood Park; the scent of the willows along the beach; and, as someone else mentioned, Sea and Ski suntan oil - I wonder if they still make a formulation that smells like that? Unique experiences: the ice man delivering big cubes for our icebox before we got a refrigerator; attending Sunday Mass under the redwoods in Guernewood Park - imagine, going to church outside!; stopping at the dump off Pocket Canyon Road with a station wagon-full of accumulated summertime trash and watching my father and brother hurling cartons of it into the pit, then, when we finally got home, discovering that a whole box of my toys was missing. Sorry about your box of toys.Growing up in the same county, going to the same high school, and vacationing at the River each summer seems pretty parallel to me. You are a bit older, but back then, times didn't change as fast as today. The river was our aquarium, and would watch the polliwogs' changes in their natural habitat. One of the benefits of spending the whole summer there. There were two kinds. The larger, olive colored ones that turned into bullfrogs, and the much smaller black ones that turned into the smallest frogs I'd ever seen. Remember the sound those bullfrogs would make early in the morning? And yes, the smell of the oiled roads and the willows are also fond ones. Did you ever get to ride the ponies there in Guernewood? The one like a merry go round, only with real ponies. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Kids, Travel & Vacation, tterrapix)
Noir York: 1950
August 29, 1950. "Storm over Manhattan. New York: The towering buildings of Manhattan are ... first 450 employees started working there on August 22, 1950. (The Gallery, News Photo Archive, NYC) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/22/2018 - 2:53pm -

August 29, 1950. "Storm over Manhattan. New York: The towering buildings of Manhattan are silhouetted against heavy clouds which gathered over the city just before a sudden electrical rainstorm late in the afternoon of Aug. 29. This view looks south from the area of Central Park." Acme Newspicture. View full size. Sherry-NetherlandPhotographer must be on top of the Sherry-Netherland, still there on the NE corner of 5th Ave and 59th. At the right edge of the pic, the roof of the Savoy Plaza, not still there. Look up "eerie"and this photo appears with the dictionary definition. The Fuller BuildingOn the left is the 40 story Fuller Building, which is now almost swallowed up by newer, taller skyscrapers. The Fuller Company made a move that coincided with the architectural changes of the times, moving from the Renaissance revival Flatiron Building to the Art Deco Fuller building in 1929. United Nations HeadquartersAt left on the East River is the UN Secretariat. Just one week after first 450 employees started working there on August 22, 1950. (The Gallery, News Photo Archive, NYC)
These Three: 1950
... too young and fashionable for a mother of two grown men in 1950. (And she also doesn't look a generation older than the men to me). I'm ... 
 
Posted by Vintagetvs - 12/25/2016 - 10:56pm -

I have no idea of the relationship between these three, but they look straight out of a Hollywood gangster film, or maybe everyone back then looked like they were in a gangster film. From a box of found Kodachrome slides. View full size. I Know Why She's SmilingShe knows too much so the boys are taking her for a ride. But she's smiling 'cause she was tipped and in those pockets her hands are clenching a couple of snub-nosed .38s. Fashion forwardIs that Charlie Sheen on the right sporting sandals with dress pants and sports jacket? No doubt about itThese are two bros. with their one sis. Now the hard part would be to discover where this photo was taken. I can't do everything. Careful, Gents!The woman you are with is obviously Loretta Salino and you can get stung if you aren't careful. Just the oppositeActually EVERYBODY dressed like this, and the gangsters just looked like everybody else. Mother and Sons?The woman looks to be older than the men. I'm guessing this is a photo of a mother posing with her two boys She's Big SisHer clothes seem rather too young and fashionable for a mother of two grown men in 1950. (And she also doesn't look a generation older than the men to me). I'm betting on an older sister, who may just possibly be amused by the contrast between Mr. Sharp Suit (a salesman, perhaps?) and the huarache-wearing schoolteacher type on her left. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)
Fountain of Youth: 1950
... the lawn sprinkler and the kid and let 'er rip. Here in 1950 in our back yard in Idyllic Larkspur™, my sister is handling the camera ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 09/29/2011 - 6:22pm -

Well, hot summer weather has finally come to this part of Northern California, so it's time to haul out the lawn sprinkler and the kid and let 'er rip. Here in 1950 in our back yard in Idyllic Larkspur™, my sister is handling the camera and I'm handling the comedy. View full size. Who'd Have Guessed?That you'd grow up to own a Sony Betamax™ Water You Doing?!That's about nine kinds of precious! My absolute favorite photos on Shorpy are yours tterrace. I feel like I grew up with you! Water EverywhereIt look like you were having a blast getting water everywhere! Cute pic, tterrace. Tterrace ...You're the best!!! God bless you for sharing your fabulous family history via photos. This pic made my day. Thank-you. Hey tterrace!Any chance of a "Then and Now" reenactment of this pic?! Deja VuMy word, that brings back memories of not only my own children playing in the garden sprinkler, but of me and my siblings doing the same thing last century. Sadly, with water restrictions and "water conservation measures" in force in my part of the world, that is a sight we see only rarely nowadays. Portrait of a square4.5 cm square? Or was it a 35mm negative that you cropped? re: Portrait of a SquareThis is cropped from a 2-1/4 square, or 6x6 cm neg. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Kids, tterrapix)
Big Gun: 1917
... "down" position: Fashion Statement In the 1950's, boys' trousers with that belt and buckle arrangement were the fashion. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/26/2024 - 11:02pm -

Washington, D.C., or vicinity circa 1917. "Military training. Loading big gun." 4x5 inch glass negative, Harris & Ewing Collection. View full size. Disappearing Mount - Coast ArtilleryThat's a coast artillery gun (probably a 12-inch bore) on a disappearing mount. After loading, the gun was pivoted upward by an hydraulic cylinder over the concrete wall for firing. After firing, the recoil compressed the hydraulic cylinder and the gun returned to the loading position. Here's a full view of one in the "down" position: Fashion StatementIn the 1950's, boys' trousers with that belt and buckle arrangement were the fashion. Apparently, at some time, it was actually functional. Cooties Keep OutTheir will be no bugs climbing up into the pant legs of these fellows, although there looks to be plenty of apartment space for them above the knees. Ram It Home, Boys!This photo could have been the inspiration for this not-at-all-suggestive recruiting poster. Disappearing Mount (or Carriage)Is that picture from Fort Casey on Whidbey Island, in Washington State? The fort (now a state park) has two such guns, brought over from Corregidor in the Philippines. The guns show battle damage from WWII. There could be more such guns at other coastal forts but the Fort Casey ones are the only ones I know about. There is a similar fort (Ft. Stevens) near Astoria, Oregon, that had the same type of guns. Fort Stevens was shelled by a Japanese submarine during the early days of WWII. The soldiers manning the batteries were not allowed to return fire because the Japanese gun outranged the fort's guns and were more accurate to boot. It was apparent that the Japanese fire was harassing fire only and they didn't appear to know about the fort. Returning fire would only have alerted the Japanese to a real target and they could have caused real damage. As it was, they blew up the baseball backstop in the fort. Morale is said to have reached new lows after the attack. GunsRailsplitter: If memory serves, those guns came from Fort Wint, on Subic Bay. The guns at the various Manilla Bay forts were damaged a good deal more, but the overly hasty retreat to the Bataan peninsula left the Subic forts intact. (The Gallery, Harris + Ewing, WWI)
Vis-O-Matic: 1950
June 6, 1950. "Vis-O-Matic department store," a premonition of virtual retailing. One ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/28/2008 - 3:58pm -

June 6, 1950. "Vis-O-Matic department store," a premonition of virtual retailing. One of at least 200 photographs taken by Bernard Hoffman at retail magnate Laurence Freiman's newfangled catalog store in Pembroke, Ontario. The cards were an index of merchandise on color slides viewed by customers on rear-projection screens. Life magazine image archive. View full size. Jaunty ChapeauI imagine it must have taken tons of pins to keep that hat on her head. Could also be contributing to the expression of tooth-grit pleasantry. Pembroke, Ont.Pembroke is such a sleepy little town. With a lot of history. It's hard to imagine that it had a store like this back then. ZoinksShe looks like she's been staring at the rear-projection screen a bit too long. Take a break, girlfriend. Whatta Rolodex!I've been a lurker here for a long time, so you don't know me. The wheel used to flip the Rolodex looks big enough to turn a boat! It must have been for show, because current Rolodexes use a much smaller knob. [The junior-size Cardineer rotary index that she's using is quite a bit bigger than a Rolodex. - Dave] Another first?Hey! Did they accidentally invent the scroll wheel? (Curiosities, LIFE, Stores & Markets)
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