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Possibly Bethlehem
... more like a Philadelphia address. View full size. Brooklyn, NY I believe this is the location at Bay Ridge and 3rd Avenue ... 
 
Posted by John.Debold - 03/11/2017 - 10:13am -

Street scene obtained many years ago at a house sale. I was told at the time it was Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, but I don't think it is, as the number for Schumacher Meats is 6903. Sounds more like a Philadelphia address. View full size. Brooklyn, NYI believe this is the location at Bay Ridge and 3rd Avenue Thank You.Now I know. Thanks. Leave it to the great Shorpy denizens to get it right. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)
Family Room: 1942
June 1942. "Brooklyn, New York. Red Hook housing development. Mrs. Caputo and her children ... 2023 rental market shows 2-bedroom apartments in Red Hook Brooklyn going for between $3500 and $5000 a month. But if this is the Red ... Of course they only had two rooms on Chauncey Street in Brooklyn, overlooking a Chinese restaurant. $400 a month $5.35 is ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/20/2023 - 9:35am -

June 1942. "Brooklyn, New York. Red Hook housing development. Mrs. Caputo and her children in the living room of their four-and-a-half room apartment for which they pay $5.35 weekly." Acetate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Office of War Information. View full size. 4½ roomsWhat exactly is half a room? [A ro. - Dave] 1942, June 12President Roosevelt made a radio appeal in support of the scrap rubber campaign, held because the Japanese had cut off 92 percent of the U.S. rubber supply. They're Trouble!Why has no one noticed that Tribble on the floor!! GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!! 4½I guess they just couldn't afford $5.94 weekly for five full rooms. Armchair AntimacassarMrs. Caputo appears to be crocheting a doily to complement those under the clock atop the radio and under the lamp. When used on a chairback, doilies are known as "antimacassars" -- so named for the thin Macassar oil hair tonics from Indonesia (then colonial Dutch East Indies) popular from the mid-19th to early 20th century. Menfolk applied the hair tonic so liberally that absorbent pads were required to protect upholstery, and were a staple in Grandma Goober's house. Goober Pea Not a bright futureComparing prices in different eras is tricky, but the CPI suggests that 5.94 in 1942 is $110.83 today, which would make the monthly rent on the Caputos' apartment equivalent to about $450. The 2023 rental market shows 2-bedroom apartments in Red Hook Brooklyn going for between $3500 and $5000 a month. But if this is the Red Hook Houses project constructed in 1938-39, then paying subsidized rent might be the least of problems. Aside from other urban ills, the area is in a flood zone 1 and was inundated by Superstorm Sandy, losing power, water, and telecommunications for months. Various "resiliency and renewal" and "model community" projects have been initiated, with the usual difficulties. In the 1950s... Ralph & Alice Kramden were paying only $15 a month. Of course they only had two rooms on Chauncey Street in Brooklyn, overlooking a Chinese restaurant. $400 a month $5.35 is equivalent to about $100 today. $400 a month for a 4½-room apartment! A real bargain! The RadioI'm not sure what make it is, but that set would have been pricey when new. I have a similar one that is a Canadian-made Northern Electric model, and as on this one you can slide two panels shut that cover the speaker and controls. (The Gallery, Arthur Rothstein, Dogs, Kids, NYC)
Nine-Centers: 1942
June 1942. "Brooklyn, New York. Red Hook housing development. Diving pool at the play ... him. Worst case scenario is he gets to visit a local Brooklyn emergency room. With the information provided by William Lafferty, ... rail fence and diving boards, of course. Yet, I suspect Brooklyn yutes today are still able to risk serious injury doing foolish ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/16/2023 - 8:35pm -

June 1942. "Brooklyn, New York. Red Hook housing development. Diving pool at the play center which is supervised by the city's Department of Parks. There are separate pools for swimming and diving. Charge is nine cents for children, twenty-five cents for adults." Acetate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Office of War Information. View full size. What could go wrong?Let's see -- there's a railing around this end of the pool to keep anyone from jumping in or climbing out there, avoiding collision with a diver. But the young man directly under the high diving board has decided it would be fun to climb up on the round, metal rails with slippery, wet feet and, in one swift motion, push himself up with one leg and grab the underside of the diving platform. And then what? Best case scenario is he balances there for a moment or two and then lets go, diving into the water and avoids being hit by someone diving off the board directly above him. Worst case scenario is he gets to visit a local Brooklyn emergency room. With the information provided by William Lafferty, above, I'm providing a birds eye view of the pool today. Gone are the pipe rail fence and diving boards, of course. Yet, I suspect Brooklyn yutes today are still able to risk serious injury doing foolish things. Something Looked Off ...I kept staring at this photo wondering what it was that looked out of place and it finally hit me. The kid climbing on that railing is dangerous enough but it occurred to me that I've never seen a railing around a pool before. I wonder if this was a normal thing back then. There are so many things that make a railing dangerous. First and foremost, it impedes the path of a lifeguard and risks injury. It would also make it difficult to help someone out the pool and also end in injury. Someone walking close to the railing could slip on the wet tile and go head-first into a metal bar. Sometimes I notice weird things but I don't know if it's worth pointing it out or not. Any public pool experts out there? HA! Boys will beWhat is it with boys crawling all over everything? That kid on the rail under the lifeguard on the high diving board, the boys on the right on the roof of that entrance on the stairs, and all the others, tensed and ready for action -- they all seem to be burning off some kind of surplus energy. Nine?!?Was one extra cent considered such a burden in 1942? Besides the extra revenue, a dime would have saved a lot of labor, making change! Just a short walk down Clinton Street from where I am typing is the Red Hook Play Center that houses this pool, now known as the Sol Goldman Recreation Center and Pool, named for the Brooklyn-born New York real estate magnate who in the 1970s provided funds to keep a number of New York City public pools open, including Red Hook. The aquatic facility was a WPA project opened in 1936 and is a designated New York City landmark. The diving pool shown is now a wading pool, and the buildings in the distance still exist, also WPA projects. It's undergone considerable refurbishment and renovation over the decades, and the pool is adjacent to playing fields on remediated industrial land south of the facility. (The Gallery, Arthur Rothstein, Kids, NYC, Swimming)
And bless Leo Durocher ...
June 1942. "Brooklyn, New York. Red Hook housing development. Jimmy Caputo, 7 years old, ... the prior week. Dem Bums! God bless any and all Brooklyn Dodgers references here! Could be .. They're asking for some ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/20/2023 - 4:44pm -

June 1942. "Brooklyn, New York. Red Hook housing development. Jimmy Caputo, 7 years old, and Annette, 4, at their nightly prayers." Acetate negative by Arthur Rothstein. View full size. Nice guys …… finish their prayers last. The Holy FamilyDepicted in the mini-altar. Why is the Holy Family a model for all families? Internally, what distinguished them were their holy hearts and their close personal relationship with God. It is this that has given them lasting greatness. It is this that motivates us to look at them as a model family. They illustrate God's plan for a family, the Nuclear Family, which modern society now seems intent on abolishing. "As a child I always said my bedtime prayers with my eyes closed." I'll be very pleasantly surprised to see my comment included, thanks Dave if you do. AgeShe's the same age as my mom, who was living in Baltimore at this time. My grandfather built Liberty ships. Echoes through the years. All while looking like a TV show housewifeMrs. Caputo is quite a homemaker. Everything is as neat as a pin, including Annette and Jimmy, seen here (and who I could not find in the 1940 Census). The drapes in this bedroom were, no doubt, made by her, as were the drapes in the family room. We've now seen half, two, of the four and a half rooms in this apartment. The bedspread here is made from the same bolt of cloth as the curtains. Mrs. Caputo also crochets, takes care of that furball on the family room floor, and is probably a talented cook. Let's hope Mr. Caputo is a TV show husband. Meet the CaputosIt looks like these are the Caputos: James and Antoinette, from the 1940 Census. They lived at 795 Hicks Street. From the Census: Their parents were James (aged 32 in 1942) and Angelina (30), and were both born in New York. The family had been living in this building since at least 1935. James was a helper on commercial ships -- most likely at the shipyard at the Erie Basin, only a few minutes' walk from their apartment. As a helper, James earned $1,146 the previous year, and while we don't know if it was a typical week, he worked 50 hours the week prior to the census. Interesting that the crane operator listed immediately after him (and probably his neighbor) earned more ($1,248) working only 25 hours the prior week. Dem Bums!God bless any and all Brooklyn Dodgers references here! Could be ..They're asking for some handles for the chest of drawers so they don't have to wear their PJs to school tomorrow. (The Gallery, Arthur Rothstein, Kids, NYC)
Dead End: 1905
... many of which were located next to Dead Horse Bay in Brooklyn. I hear that bones are still occasionally found! Nowadays he'd ... this site but must comment on this picture. I grew up in Brooklyn in the 1950s. There was a livery stable on Dean Street where peddlers ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/09/2018 - 5:26pm -

Circa 1905. "The close of a career in New York." Photo by Byron. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Not ready for a poke.You really want to wait a day or so, until the legs on top are lifted skyward, before poking the horse with a stick. Grew up in cattle country, and had the chance to do so as a kid. Great photo, this one, for showing what life was like. Also enjoyed the Little Italy 1900 view posted today (or was that yesterday?). Urban ArchaeologyWho'll be the first to figure out what street this is? The smellI would not last very long in the olden days. Gag. Future GlueFascinating photo. Apparently this was a very common sight. NYC had men with wagons in place to pick up carcasses and bring them to rendering plants, many of which were located next to Dead Horse Bay in Brooklyn. I hear that bones are still occasionally found! Nowadayshe'd be plastered with tickets. For Jack FinneyIf I could dedicate a photograph from this site, I'd dedicate this one to Jack Finney, author of "The Third Level," "I Love Galesburg in the Springtime" and the novel "Time and Again," among dozens of stories all focused on the notion that any normal, healthy, sane person would want to flee the oppression of modern life and escape to the healthier and more beautiful world of 1905. Which, in Finney's mind, apparently consisted entirely of men in straw boaters, women in leg-o'-mutton sleeves, and band concerts in the park on summer evenings. There are no dead half-starved horses in Finney's world, no ragged children, no shaved heads to get rid of the lice (note the extremely short haircuts on a couple of these kids), no mud. That's why I love this site: it's like getting a glimpse into the past, unfiltered by the wishful thinking of modern filmmakers or fictionalists. Google Street ViewBefore too many people post Google Street Views of 527 West 125th Street (the address noted in the excellent comment below), two observations. 1. 527 West 125th Street is the address of the dairy (photo below), not of the rundown stable whose entrance is shown in the dead-horse photo. Dairy and stable not necessarily same street address! 2. Please DO NOT make a screen grab of a Google Street View and then upload the screen grab here or elsewhere. If you want to show a Google Street View in the comments box, all you need to do is copy and paste the Google "embed" code, which is super-easy. Thank you and good day. Stop right there boyo!Don't you dare poke that animal with that stick. McDermott-Bunger DairyThe McDermott-Bunger sign is a clue. The company built a new dairy at 527 West 125th Street in 1903 (NY Times), so the delivery stable was probably not too far away. Beginning in the 1860s, factories producing lumber, paint, beer, dye and other materials cropped up on the far western end of Manhattan Valley, around what is now West 125th Street, with its direct connections to the rail line along the Hudson River and the ferry. While I am loath to beat a dead horse, I speculate this photo was shot in that area. In the movies from that eraI always wondered why even really poor people were always clean and had good teeth. Also thought it was strange that there were never any dead horses in the streets--except the ones shot in gun battles. West Side DairyThere was another McDermott-Bunger facility at 525-27 West 38th Street. I think the older boy cares.Though horse death was a regular part of life in the dairy delivery business I'm sure people did get attached to some of the animals. When the time came a horse had to be gotten out of the property and out to the street where the carcus could be picked up. I'm thinking the boy with shoes and a hat works in the stable and has been tasked with waiting for the pickup. I'm also thinking he is not too happy with the task nor what has happened to one of his charges. It's entertainment for the kids and it's a responsibility for him. His affect says, "Aw crap, this sucks." "Mind your horse for you, Mister?"The kid in the flat cap looks a bit guilty to me. The Knackers TruckGetting a dead horse up off the street was hard work. Here is a photo of one being winched into what looks like an early Daimler municipal knacker's truck somewhere in Germany. Another note re: Jack FinneyAnother note re: Jack Finney and his wonderful book, "Time and Again", as posted by Cactus Wren. I've read it at least three times over the years, and it would be a book that I'd want to have with me to read once again, if marooned on a desert island. We tripped the light fantastic on the sidewalks of New YorkWell, a few of us, anyways. Others, not so much. Dave, some of the photos you find astonish me. They have changed me. This is one of the saddest ever. Looks LikeThe Yellow Kids of Hogan's Alley Look at the old facesThese kids had such old looking faces...this was the most depressing photo yet...interesting, but depressing! I could have lived the rest of my lifewithout seeing this photo. Why oh why did I click on this email this morning? Ok, I'm a woman who loves animals, babies, children etc. I'm no member of Peta and I eat meat but this picture is heartbreaking. To see a magnificent animal like the horse lying in a ditch looking starved and unkempt just makes me want to cry. I wish I could go back to that time and whip that owner for abusing that horse the way he did. This just makes me even more thankful for our modern ASPCA. I hope this horse is in horse heaven now galloping over the hills and valleys of heaven and eating all the oats he desires. Please don't reply about all the other misfortunate beings that existed then. I'm not really interested. Any architectural historians out there?The clapboard house next to the dairy looks considerably older than the brick structures elsewhere on the street. Any clues as to its potential age? It looks fairly rattletrap when this photo was taken. Is this a Saturday or in the summertime - or are all these boys playing truant? And I bet none of them wash their hands before eating. You can do better, DaveJesus, man - don't we see enough death and violence in modern media? You can actually select the pics you post, right? [Boo-hooey. - Dave] For Cactus WrenNot to get in an argument with you, but I recently read "Time and Again," a work of FICTION, which was written in 1970. I didn't get the idea from reading it that 1882 was such a fabulous and glorious time to live in. In fact, there's a part in the book where the main character Simon Morley is riding in a taxi and discussing with the driver the poverty he and his family live with constantly. If people really want to know how the "Other Half" lived, they ought to read Jacob Reis. Look at their facesI see an obvious resigned sadness in each little boy's face over the demise of the equine as though, even at their tender ages, they accept the sorrowful but inevitable finality of death. Even the kid that has spotted the photographer wears an undermask of mourning. (Yeah, I am one of those morose drinkers who cries in my beer). The poor horse was a good animal, he didn't deserve this. He served his master well, worked his carcass off and this is how it all ends up. Where is the justice? Great Photo Dave!Not sure what everyone's gripe is about you posting this photo. As a history buff, I am thankful that such photos are available to view. They give us a peek into history, and the way things were. A great photoSure it's depressing, but it's as real as the pictures of death taken by Mathew Brady during the Civil War. When I was a kid in New York, circa 1944 to 1948, there were still a number of horses drawing vendors' carts. Vegetables, rags, and a knife sharpener were the ones I remember. I also remember a traditional organ grinder with a monkey, and guys building skyscrapers tossing red hot rivets through the air. This way to the Egress.The comments regarding the "depressing" subject remind me of a comment left at the Children's Museum at a certain major Canadian institution when I worked there. "You should only put up pictures of pretty things like flowers and butterflies instead of the Satanic things you have" (which were, amongst other things, costumes from other countries and an inflatable igloo). I, for one, am glad that no punches are pulled, here. Life isn't always flowers and butterflies. Cost of HorsepowerThe fate of horses worked to death, and elimination of their droppings from the street, were big reasons why automobiles were looked on as a great advancement. By comparison, automotive smoke and oil drips seem minor. On PhotographersAn eloquent, honest, even wrenching photo. And it has inspired a range of emotions. This is what the best photography does - beyond the merely documentary. Thanks for unearthing and posting this. Thanks, DavePut me in the category of readers who appreciate photos like these. The great thing about so many of these historical photos is that they show the dirty fingernails and the sweat-soaked clothes of past times, not just picture-postcard views of town and country. When thousands of horses pulled thousands of carts, wagons, and carriages through cities every day of the week, some horses obviously died. Let's not be so meek and prim that we complain about seeing photos that depict everyday reality. If you're too fragile to view these photos, maybe the problem is with you, rather than the truth portrayed in the photos. And Shefindsu, what makes you think any cruelty was involved in this horse's death? The horse doesn't look "starved and unkempt" to me. He just looks dead. Geez, people, get a grip. Losing the rose-tinted glassesI've been enjoying the photographs on Shorpy.com for over the year now. During that time, I noticed a certain tendency of some commentators to shake heads at our present while nostalgically looking at pictures of men and women of the past century. I hope this photo will serve as a sharp reminder of how primitive and brutal life could be in a average Western metropolis, barely a century ago. Mind you, I don't think present times are anywhere close to utopia. But comparing the place I live in today with the way it was a hundred years ago... I'd say I'm better off then my grand-grandparents. Blogging a dead horseThis was a common sight in any big city at the time. Just because this horse is on the street waiting to be picked up does not necessarily mean that the animal died from abuse. I wrote an article last year about the history of carriage horses in New York, and in the course of my research I found numerous pictures just like this (and none of the horses in the pictures looked "healthy," probably because they were, you know, dead). Freak accidents, disease, and simple wear and tear from years of pulling carriages on the city streets are just a few of the things that could send a horse to an early grave. Although it may seem sad, horses in this era were still considered a means to an end, and their usefulness was determined by how much they could work. I'm sure that there were owners that mourned the death of a cherished animal, but truthfully people around the turn of the century were generally a bit more realistic about the inevitability of death than we are today. Horses still need disposalI worked for the National Park Service for many years and we had mounted patrol rangers who rode the back country trails. I vividly remember the card we kept in the Rolodex file for a "dead horse removal" service. Never had to call on them, thank god. Our horses were loved and cared for like no others (a small army of volunteers assisted in feeding and currying) but they were still animals that might fall victim to sickness or injury. Yes, not 125thGreetings -- just discovered this fantastic site. Amazing stuff. Kudos to webmaster Dave. Adding to what's probably already been confirmed, a friend on 126th Street notes that while the photo of the dairy (comments, 1/21, 9:06) is definitely West 125th (Manhattan Ave, as it was called around the time that pic was taken), the picture of the dead horse does not look like West 125th. There is no place on West 125th that has that kind of perspective, straight to the vanishing point. It could possibly be East 125th, or, much more likely, someplace well downtown from there. Thanks for this pictureA sad photograph, but an interesting one that shows something about history that we don't ordinarily think about much. That's what I like about this site: old photographs show us the forgotten details. For me the most telling thing is that the kids are more interested in the camera than they are in the horse. It's not that the kids are particularly inhumane, but for them a dead horse isn't all that unusual. A camera is. And is that so bad, for children to focus on the new? I'm sad for the horse, but let's not forget the kids. They're vibrant, alive, interested in new things around them and in each other, even in the face of death and their own poverty. There's hope here. The kidsI agree that this is a sad picture, but alas, it is real life. The horse does not look that well fed, but perhaps it is because it was ill, not starved. What I really find interesting is how many kids are just sort of running around on their own - no supervision, no shoes, and that one little guy on the sidewalk by himself looks no more than 3 or 4. That's Life (& Death)I am new to this site but must comment on this picture. I grew up in Brooklyn in the 1950s. There was a livery stable on Dean Street where peddlers stored their wagons and boarded their horses. Occasionally a horse would die and wind up in the street just like this. The owner of the stable would cover it with a blanket (presumably to keep the flies off) until the Department of Sanitation (around the block on Pacific Street) could pick it up. I remember one instance where we kids watched as the dead horse was winched onto a flatbed truck and hauled away. Horses (even the most loved and well-cared for) die, as do all living things eventually. The horse in the photo may well have been 25 to 30 years old. Possible Location ...I have been spent a little while trying to solve the puzzle of where the location of this picture was and I may have found it. Not only was the McDermott-Bunger Dairy located at 527 West 125th Street in NYC, but they also had an additional location at 525-531 West 38th Street in NYC. I have found several references to this, including one in a November 1902 issue of the Jefferson County Journal (of Adams, NY.) Unfortunately, when I looked at the location on Google maps, I found an open space that is an overpass for one of the entrance/exit ramps to the Lincoln Tunnel. Additionally, there are no old buildings that are identifiable on the block. (The Gallery, Bizarre, DPC, Horses, Kids, NYC)
Water Sprites: 1942
June 1942. "Brooklyn, New York. Red Hook housing development. Children in wading pool at ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/19/2023 - 1:47pm -

June 1942. "Brooklyn, New York. Red Hook housing development. Children in wading pool at play center which is supervised by the city's Department of Parks. There are separate pools for swimming and diving. Charge is nine cents for children, twenty-five cents for adults." Acetate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Office of War Information. View full size. Front and centerA youngster is staring directly at Arthur Rothstein while marching straight towards him. The kid ain't afraid and I suspect Arthur Rothstein is about to get a little wet. Meanwhile, a little to the left, a young man is crouching with his hands cupped, no doubt intending to splash water on the unobservant young ladies. He's at that age where he thinks this is flirting. I'd passThere isn't enough chlorine in the world -- Still there... I think. these are the same Red Hook Projects today. The case for casements Properly adjusted, a side-opening casement window can catch a breeze, helping to cool off a bit before air conditioning became readily available. (The Gallery, Arthur Rothstein, Kids, NYC, Swimming)
Drink Up: 1942
June 1942. "Brooklyn, New York. Red Hook housing development. Mrs. James Caputo in the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/21/2023 - 1:08pm -

June 1942. "Brooklyn, New York. Red Hook housing development. Mrs. James Caputo in the modern kitchen of her apartment, pouring milk for Annette and Jimmy. The children drink more than a quart apiece daily." Acetate negative by Arthur Rothstein. View full size. Well now --Do I spy some home made zeppoli in the offing, Mrs. Caputo? Tickety booI was like that for milk when I was a kid. I craved milk. Now I never drink it but those were the good old days ... and not for nothing but if that full sugar bowl and that plateful of sweets had been sitting in front of me, I wouldn't have been looking at Mama. That had to have been a command of the photographer. I had such a sweet tooth as a kid that I would make a sugar sandwich on white bread and eat it over the sink. Chased by a glass of ice-cold milk. Still sounds delightful but with my mature age I have become more circumspect. (The Gallery, Arthur Rothstein, Kids, Kitchens etc., NYC)
Can You Hear Me Now?
June 1942. "Brooklyn, New York. Red Hook housing project. Mrs. Caputo washes son Jimmy's ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/21/2023 - 9:32pm -

June 1942. "Brooklyn, New York. Red Hook housing project. Mrs. Caputo washes son Jimmy's ears. He is recovering from infantile paralysis." Photo by Arthur Rothstein. View full size. What if?Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, was diagnosed with infantile paralysis, better known as polio, in 1921, at the age of 39. At that time, polio had no known cure and often resulted in full or partial paralysis. Son,you could grow pertaters in there!! (The Gallery, Arthur Rothstein, Kids, NYC)
Ghost Hotel: 1905
"Hotel St. George, Brooklyn, circa 1905." Plus a ghost or two in this time exposure of the hotel's Clark Street facades. This Brooklyn Heights landmark, which by the 1930s was New York's largest hotel, ... river. I woke, panicked and got off at the first stop in Brooklyn. It was the St. George Hotel. I was amazed that a hotel had its own ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/01/2012 - 5:34pm -

"Hotel St. George, Brooklyn, circa 1905." Plus a ghost or two in this time exposure of the hotel's Clark Street facades. This Brooklyn Heights landmark, which by the 1930s was New York's largest hotel, with 2,632 rooms in a complex of buildings spread over a block, started with the 10-story dark brick structure, completed in 1885. After more than a century, it was destroyed by fire in 1995. The adjoining white building with the flagpoles, designed by Montrose Morris in the 1890s, still stands. Detroit Publishing Co. glass negative. View full size. Hotel St. George: 1954In 1954 I stayed with my parents at the Hotel St. George the night of July 30-31 after returning from two years in the UK as a USAF dependent. I might even have the room number in a crude diary from the time. We sort of aborted our first full meal back in the U.S. in one of its dining rooms in favor of a walk down and across the street to the east to some burger joint to sit on stools at the counter! I got a US Road Atlas from its lobby bookstore for the impending seven-day cross-country road trip to the SF Bay Area. I also got one those automated photos done in a booth there, but it's far too poor to even think about scanning. One of the postcards obtained there (click image for details): I've another one showing their famous 120-foot indoor salt-water swimming pool. It all certainly went into a fast decline by just a few decades later. SwimmingI remember going to the St George in the 1950s to swim. They had an enormous swimming pool in the basement. It was a coed attraction for young college kids and singles. It probably didn't cost more than a couple bucks for admission and suit rentals. Back in '62Back in 1962, I was a student at the RCA Institutes in lower Manhattan. I worked at the GE building at 570 Lexington Avenue, so I took the 7th Avenue IRT to the school after work. Boy, was I tired. One night I fell asleep and ended up going under the river. I woke, panicked and got off at the first stop in Brooklyn. It was the St. George Hotel. I was amazed that a hotel had its own subway stop, so to speak. Those were the days! Saltwater PoolsI've never heard of a salt-water swimming pool ... was that common in the past? [Lots of hotels, resorts and even private homes have saltwater swimming pools. - Dave] A Dim MemoryI remember staying there for one night in the early 1950's with my family. My only recollection is of the swimming pool. The St. George Swimming PoolCan you scan your postcard showing a view of the pool and put it up here at Shorpy? In 1961 I was living on West 12th Street in Manhattan as a fledgling employee of Union Carbide, and went by subway over to the Saint George in Brooklyn to swim in that great pool. My other visits to Brooklyn back then were to the Cypress Hills Cemetery to visit the graves of my paternal Wilson grandparents who lived on Madison Street in Bed-Stuy at the turn of the 20th Century. I had commissioned a stonecarver to complete a gravestone inscription for my grandmother. In that effort, I got the birth and death years and month correct for her, but missed the days of the month in each case by a few. St. George salt-water poolLinen postcard. Click to enlarge. THE ST. GEORGE SWIMMING POOL, located in the Hotel St. George, Clark St., Brooklyn, the largest in New York (120' x 40'), was constructed at a cost of $1,263,000. Crystal clear pure natural artesian salt water is used. Swim and gym suits, showers, steam rooms, battery of sun lamps, and air-conditioned gymnasium are included in the admission charge! 4 minutes from Wall St., 15 from Times Sq.; Clark St. Station of 7th Ave. I.R.T. Subway in hotel. I only had a quick peek at it in 1954. The main reason that my parents and I were there was because my father had stayed at the St. George in August 1951 on his way to England on the USNS Gen. Maurice Rose.
Starlight Park: 1921
... the NY Hungarians, Praha, Savoia, Hakoah, Eintracht, Brooklyn Wanderers, Bronx Scots, my old man's former team the NY Corinthians, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/27/2012 - 12:24pm -

June 1921. Eleanor Tierney at Starlight Park on the Bronx River at 177th Street. Eleanor, a Broadway chorus girl, married a banker and ended up in Larchmont. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size. Hairy gamsShe has more hair on her legs than some of those Confederate soldiers had on their chins. I bet it's a good thing her arms aren't raised. EleanorYou could almost think this was a recent photo. She has a very modern look. The suitWas this bathing suit considered risque at the time? I wonder, only because so-called "modesty suits" which are marketed to (mostly extremist) religious women these days (i.e. http://www.swimoutlet.com/product_p/11745.htm ) offer significantly more coverage than this item from nearly 90 years ago. [It's not unusual for a 1920 bathing suit. - Dave] Itchy & ScratchyThat suit looks mighty itchy... Is it wool? A Little ChubbyA lot of those 1920 bathing beauties seem to be slightly pregnant I guess they weren't into washboard abs or heroin chic. Grooming NotesWow, I guess women of the 20s were not too worried about shaving their legs. Of other interest, it appears that there is more material on the men's bathing suits of the day than on Eleanor's! A real woman*sigh* every chorus girl's dream: to marry a banker and move to Larchmont.... RE: "Chubby," Seems that some men today are too used to the hyper airbrushed "perfect 10's" they see in the media. As apparent in comments seen here and elsewhere on Shorpy. Someone always seems to pipe up about weight. Most women share a shape similar to Eleanor's. Not fat, not skinny, not hard-bodied, not total slobs--just real and healthy. That being said, most of us do shave our legs nowadays. Comment criteria?I find it interesting that every comment I've submitted to this site -- which have had to do with artistic decisions in photographs or societal conditions at the time the photos were taken -- has not appeared in the threads, and yet comments about the hair on this woman's legs or that say she looks "slightly pregnant" (please, calling her "a little chubby" is absolutely ridiculous) pass muster. This is a private blog, of course, and you may post comments or not as you please, but this thread is a bit annoying. [Indeed. - Dave] I like her attitude.I would seriously like to go back in time and hang out with this girl. Concrete beach?What is she standing on? [Concrete paving. - Dave] Starlight ParkFrom what little I can find about Starlight Park, it was at 177th and Devoe and closed around 1940. The site is now occupied by a city bus barn. From other writings, Eleanor was apparently standing on a "beach" at the edge of a large wave pool on the park grounds. The chin-up pose is striking. Eleanor had confidence. She's all that...and she knows it! Here's a woman with a healthy confidence and outlook! Real women, indeedI agree that normal women are shaped like this young lady, if they're lucky; she was indeed a beautiful girl. As a guy in his 60s, I would point out that the rage for anorexics is a fairly recent one, and I think that even young men would largely prefer a healthy woman to one who is obsessed with her weight. It seems to me that this is something that women have brought on themselves in the last 25 years or so. Maybe not. It's also true that men like me knew lots and lots of unshaven European and American girls in the '60s and '70s. Natural and feminine women can be devastatingly attractive. ShowboatAccording to http://broadwayworld.com/people/Eleanor_Tierney/ Performances Show Boat [Broadway] Original Broadway Production, 1927 Lady of the Ensemble More New York City photos requested...More photos of people and places in New York City that are no longer "there" would sure be welcomed here, a la' the vast file of DC scenes you've published to date. [We have more than 400 NYC photos on the site. - Dave] Where it was...If I'm reading my Yahoo! Map correctly, Starlight Park in the Bronx was just about where the northern terminus of Sheridan Parkway feeds off to East 177th Street, very close to East Tremont Avenue. The Bronx River is basically clean where in runs through the NY Botanical Garden, but I don't think I'd want to take a swim it it today where Starlight Park used to be. Who wants plastic anorexia?I'm a relatively young man myself (37) and it's all the starved carpenter's dreams walking around these days that makes me really appreciate the beauty of this photo. Nothing fake or plastic here - to paraphrase, "it's all her, baby!" - and that's how I personally prefer women, inside as well as outside. Since we're on the subject of "modern" women vs. the extremely appealing jazz babies I've seen here thus far, my question is, why on God's green earth have hips and real busts been outlawed the last 3 decades or so? Dave, I can't tell you what a wonderful job and service you're doing. The streetscapes - as well as the jazz babies, among the many other things here - are exceptional!!! Twiggy Go HomeTo answer the SwingMan's question: It's that darn Twiggy in the early 1970's. I wish she had quickly crawled back into the golf hole from whence she came. *sigh*"It's also true that men like me knew lots and lots of unshaven European and American girls in the '60s and '70s. Natural and feminine women can be devastatingly attractive." Heck, yes. That's a reason I keep coming back to this site. The Hepburn FactorTwiggy was a latecomer in the thin-is-stylish sweepstakes. It actually dates back to Audrey Hepburn, the quintessential high-fashion template of the 50s. On a related note, let's not forget that of Katharine Hepburn (no relation), Spencer Tracy said, "Not much meat on her, but what there is is cherce." YMMV, of course. Almost Nekkid!For its moment, ca. 1920, this is a mild news service cheesecake photo produced for one of New York's many illustrated dailies. Eleanor Tierney's two-piece wool jersey bathing suit is acceptable in 1920 but a bit risque in its lack of a skirt. Many women continued to wear corsets under their bathing suits until the mid-teens at least, and one-piece bathing suits for women would remain illegal on many American beaches until the early 1930s. Many viewers at the time would have considered her "almost nekkid." With her casually proud stance and short hair, Eleanor is expressing modernity and liberation from older values, embodying social changes that were exciting, controversial and hotly debated throughout the country. Real WomenOnce again, Shorpy proves why it is my daily online morning ritual. Cup of coffee in hand, I have to peruse the jewels set up for daily display. As a woman who would have been described a "sweater girl" back in the good old days, I have always been amazed and a bit irritated how normal, healthy women in pictures such as this are berated in the comments on Shorpy for their weight when they have the curves and lovely meat a woman is supposed to have. I'm very glad I resemble Mae West rather than Twiggy, and I know not a few men who are as well. Flat-Chested FlappersOdd that so many readers view thinness as a purely modern fashion phenomenon, although our rail-thin models are a record-setting extreme. By the mid-1920s the ideal beauty was "boyish," with very slim hips, long legs, a flat chest and very short hair. This was the culmination of a revolutionary fashion trend that began during World War I with "mannish" dresses that suppressed the hourglass body shapes of the 1890-1910 period. In the 1920s John Held's covers for Life and Judge magazines featured girls with barely noticeable breasts and no waistline. This is the basis for the joke in "Some Like It Hot," when Marilyn Monroe envies Jack Lemmon's figure (in drag). She says that his beaded necklace hangs straight, and complains that hers just go all over the place. The Boyish LookSetting aside the fact that had the current fashion for anorexic actresses been in place fifty or sixty years ago we would have been robbed of the pleasure of watching Marilyn Monroe, the boyish look of the '20s was quite common, and would later come to be thoroughly misunderstood. If you've ever seen a not very good movie called "Getting Straight" which starred Elliott Gould and Candice Bergen, you may recall a scene in which Gould's character is defending his thesis on his favourite book "The Great Gatsby." One of the professors insists that Fitzgerald's description of Daisy is distinctly boyish and points to this as proof of Gatsby's (and maybe even Fitzgerald's - it's been a long time since I've seen the film) suppressed homosexuality. I at least see it as being as much a product of the fashions of the times as the descriptions of blacks in other novels of the period. My Two CentsNot to belabor the point regarding women's curves, I can only think of the classic artists whose magnificent paintings of beautiful, fleshed-out female forms are unintentionally so much more interesting (as in erotic) than would be bone-thin, shapeless females exhibiting a dearth of both feminine hormones and sex appeal. Take for example Venus, September Morn, the entire works of Rubens, Botticelli and hundreds of other artists and paintings that celebrate the true nature of the female form. Of course, then we have Botero, who makes all his figures very short and very stocky, but they are such great fun to look at. I can't imagine the great painters even desiring to paint the anorexic girls on the runways today. Just had to add my humble opinion to the mix. Thank you for not only the fascinating photos but also the stimulating discussions they inspire. EleanorEleanor, gee I think you're swell, and you really do me well, you're my pride and joy, etcetera... ©the Turtles ...this beauty can model for me any time. WOW...That is some hairdo! Very pretty woman. Can this be back in style?I absolutely love her bathing suit. I may need to get to work on one not made out of wool... Re: Show BoatShe's a chorus girl, too? Can she GET any more awesome? Why this photo?DO you know why this photo was taken? Was it a private photo? Or was it taken as publicity for the show she is appearing in at the time (being a chorus girl) or for the park itself? It has all the hallmarks of a professional photo due to the angle and her stance. [The Bain News Service photos were all professional. - Dave] EleanorSomething about the way she is standing and the look on her faces tells me that Eleanor might have been that girl who knew how to have a good time. Love the photo. Eleanor TierneyAccording to census records and the NY Times archives, Eleanor married John A. Van Zelm. He died of pneumonia on August 1, 1937. Eleanor died on June 22, 1948. Chubby? Slightly Pregnant??!!Honestly, get a clue. She just happens to have internal organs. Gee,if only they could come up with plastic surgery to remove them. Starlight Park in my LifeI admire the candid of Ms. Tierney, but the background is most interesting. I knew Starlight Park more than a quarter century later. By then there were no remnants of roller coasters or the like. The arena had been converted to a bus barn by Third Avenue Transit( taken over and operated now by the government transit op.) Many of the stucco buildings with red tile roofs were either destroyed,falling down or abandoned playgrounds for kids. That pool she is standing beside had a large sandy beach area and was of monumental proportions. It was the length of a football field, oriented east-west. At the west end, beyond the paved promenade, was a retaining wall and the land fell off sharply to the Bronx River. When this photo was taken this was largely an area that was undeveloped. The 180th Street Crosstown trolley (X route) went by and there was the West Farms junction of several trolley routes (after 1948 all buses) about a quarter mile away. The White Plains Road IRT elevated line with a Bronx Zoo destination had a stop another few blocks further west. In the 1940s when I frequented the place, it was because I accompanied my father, who was a soccer buff, when he went there on Sundays to doubleheaders of the German-American Soccer league. Not withstanding the leagues moniker; the NY Hungarians, Praha, Savoia, Hakoah, Eintracht, Brooklyn Wanderers, Bronx Scots, my old man's former team the NY Corinthians, and a plethora of teams with non-teutonic associations made up the league. There were professional leagues that had a larger territorial range, but almost all of the players in those days were either immigrants, or their first generation progeny. The GA was the MISL of that time. There was no real money to pay living wages to soccer players so either industrial teams, like the Uhrich Truckers in St. Louis, or semi pros - like those from the G-A league were the source of the best players in the country. Yogi Berra, and Joe Garagiola who grew up on "The Hill" in St. Louis, were part of a similar world and played soccer for local Italo-American sides there as children and teens. I know this seems strange, when the American goalie Brad Fridl pulls down 5 million bucks from Aston Villa in Birmingham in the UK Premier League, but until the Spaniards and Italians started offering whatever wages they would to get the best players, the British paid washers to professional soccer players. Ten pounds a week was the fixed rate in the forties for UK soccer players. Liverpool offered a NYPD sergeant named Miller, who was the G-A all star teams goalie, a contract. He would have had to have taken a substantial pay cut to have gone there. Foreign wage pressures, and the fixing of games by underpaid players has changed that forever. The Post War would change everything, but meanwhile the German-American League was the best we had. In the early 1950s, I was at Randall's Island Stadium when the G-A League All Stars beat Kaiserslauten , the German Bundesliga champions, 2-0. So Starlight Park's large playing field, north of the pool site ruins, was, along with Sterling Oval, and a field across the road from Con Edison in the south Bronx, were the places where the best soccer in the US was being played. As a young kid, I and the sons and daughters of the immigrants tore around the ruins playing games, built fires to roast spuds and marshmallows and the like, while our parents watched the games and relived their own athletic youths. Unfortunately, it wasn't all a halcyon time in the ruins for us. Charley, a 12-year-old acquaintance, was murdered by a sexual pervert there after swimming in the Bronx River. I never knew the place in its heyday, and I wish I had been there to ride the roller coaster and swim in such an immense pool. Still, it provided a different set of experiences and meaning to another generation. Good-Luck, Peter J. Eleanor in ColorWhen this photo originally appeared on Shorpy last year, I decide it was a good experiment for hand-coloring. I did this in Adobe Illustrator CS2, not a traditional photo-manipulation program. With the recent mania for colorizing, I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon. Fire away, philistines! [The system deleted your attachment because it was wider than 490 pixels. Please read and follow the posting instructions! - Dave] More Starlight PixI first became aware of Starlight Park from a photo in Roger Arcara's "Westchester's Forgotten Railway" (1960). Now, the Internet and this web page have opened a whole new box of nostalgic pleasures. I have uploaded more Starlight Park pix here. Beach hairYes, it appears that Eleanor is both confident and fun-loving! It also appears that (by the look of her carefree 'beached-out' tresses) she has been SWIMMING this lovely day. This makes me very happy! I imagine that not too many women of the day would purposely submerge their HEAD in the salt water, much less consent afterwards to having their portrait made. That said, I have no doubt that for stage and most all other social appearances, Eleanor made diligent use of hair straightening rods, pin curlers, scented hair oils, etc. How do I know this? I (and all the other women in my family) have Eleanor's hair. Pool I wonder how they took care of keeping a pool of this size clean in 1921. I don't think they had Olin's HTH product at the time. (The Gallery, G.G. Bain, NYC, Pretty Girls, Swimming)
Character Study: 1964
... Gedney,” my photography teacher at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY. He rarely, if ever showed his work to us. His classes were ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/05/2010 - 6:07pm -

"Cornett family, Kentucky, 1964." One of the Cornett boys on the front porch after working hard at something. Print from 35mm negative by William Gedney. Gedney Photographs and Writings Collection, Duke University. View full size. Role modelMy 17-year-old grandson started his first job over the summer, bagging groceries. He quit after a week because the work was "exhausting." Sigh. The Working Hard at somethingIs most likely the questionable part. Did this young man escape from what is a future just like his father or did he decide to escape to a new beginning of education and prosperity for his family like many of us did at his age. I think I and most of my family looked like the Cornett's Cornetts in 1964. Dare you!Thsi guy looks capable of murder and abuse. Please stop with the 60s redneck series! Creepy is toop kind a word. [It's toop something. And speaking of creepy, how are those cousinfs? - Dave] It's all in how you look at itProbably not a good idea to judge a book by its cover, though on a site like this one it's pretty all we can do. To some this young man looks like someone capable of "murder and abuse", my impression is that he looks like someone who is used to hard work and not afraid of it one bit. It's such an unusual trait in today's youth that it's easy to mistake it for something else more sinister. DisquietingI find this set of pictures a little disquieting. There's something--an intimacy?--about them that's disconcerting. That would make them great pictures. What he looks likeis a hard worker, a smart guy, a good man to have on your side. Let's hope he didn't get blown up in Vietnam. GrittyI am really enjoying this series of pictures. The Cornetts show a hard core brand of grit and determination that I find admirable. I'd hang out with these people anytime. Bill GedneyI studied with Bill back in the mid '70s at Pratt. I was fortunate to have known him and to have heard a few stories about these people and his commitment to living with them and documenting their lives. I'm also fortunate to know the people who organized his life's work at Duke Center for Documentary Studies. Thanks for posting these images! Great Series!I love how this series from Duke brings some variety in the already amazing offerings from this site. Looking forward to seeing more of these pics in the future. Hmmm!Must admit -- I'm not enjoying these "Cornett" family pictures. Something about them makes me decidedly uncomfortable - perhaps I watch too much TV? I unreservedly apologise if I've done the family a disservice. ["If"? - Dave] [Update: Commenter has courageously altered his post to remove references to "Dueling Banjo's" [sic] and "potential for violence."] Huh???What's with the mean comments? This kid looks sweet to me and not afraid to work or get dirty. I would have been about his age in 1964 and it was very common for boys to work on their cars (IF they had one), hunt, fish, etc. If they lived in a farming community, they did some pretty darn tough, dirty work, too. My grandson rarely leaves the house---too busy with the video/computer games. If he does get out in the heat, it's only to get in the pool. I'll bet there were some real winners in this family who made something of themselves and changed their future. Hope we hear from them. Hey, WyethHey, Wyeth, your profile says it all. These people knew HARD, physical work. They have my admiration and my deep respect. Many here had parents, fathers especially, who worked with their hands and their backs to support their families. Honorable men, all. The family portrayed in these pictures didn't have the advantages you enjoy, your stereotypes obviously intact. I love these pictures, as they show a time when MEN worked hard, played hard and took care of their families. When times get truly tough, people like this survive, You will not. Bah! Salt of the EarthThis young man and many many more like him were and are the backbone of the United States. When we were young (I'm about his age, if he's alive) most of us had to work damned hard and get very dirty. Some found their separate ways to a higher place in the middle class, usually by education; some did not. Regardless, these striving, determined, hard-nosed people are the kind who move a country forward. Boys like this are the future of any country. The DraftAssuming that he was eligible to be drafted into the armed service, this guy probably served, may have even enlisted. Many of the "Lifers" I met during my time in the Army were from places like these and probably families such as the Cornetts. If they weren't hard drinkers, they made good soldiers and many became NCOs, some learned trades. They were able to visit and live in other countries. They met and worked with people of other cultures. The down side was they could have been in a war. Military conscription in our country ended in 1973. Then and NowI hope the Cornett family survived to better times. It's hard to look at the photos and imagine the family still living, given their hardscrabble existence. Did they ever smile for their portrait? Did they ever stand together and belly-laugh? Was there any joy in Mudville, ever? It's like looking into a parallel universe and it's haunting, and creepy. There are those who did not experience it, and cannnot imagine this life in America. We want to move on to life as presented by the privileged few, like Tterrace. TTerrace had the kind of life we all wanted so let's look at that ! I saw a documentary of the Appalachian families in the year 2010. Not so different from life as the Cornett family knew in the early 60s. Are we in a rush to flip back to a perfect world--patterns and possessions, and happy children being encouraged to thrive. No pain in there, just a glimpse of life we want to believe everyone had. The art of the well-done photograph is far more interesting and factual than film media could ever be. It produces huge emotion that cannot be dismissed by going for a brewski while the commercial is on. You will come back to your place and there is the same image. This guy knows how to do stuff.The fact that some people here somehow find his appearance frightening says a lot more about them than the hard working subject of the photo. I wonder how long those folks would last in this man's environment. Thank you for posting this series. We all need a reality check now and then. 60's redneck??Its almost as if the photos in this series are a kind of truth serum for the posters here -- would you call the members of this family rednecks to their faces? I come from a family of hillbillies and rednecks, and I'm not ashamed of it. My Grandfather was a coal miner in Logan, West Virginia. These photos could be of my cousins -- they bring back wonderful memories for me. These people are no more capable of murder and abuse than anyone else. They've just lived a hardscrabble existence, making do with what they had, and narrowing their suspicious eyes at the remarks of "flatlanders" who don't know any better. Keep posting pictures of the Cornetts!In my neighborhood when I was growing up in NC, they were the Daltons. They had lots of kids, little money, crappy cars and the worst house. Mr. Dalton drove a heating oil truck and they were all as redneck as one could possibly be. They stuck together and would collectively "whoop a#%" on anyone who messed with any one of them, whether it was the oldest or the youngest. We all thought we were better than them because we had more and came from smaller families with disposable incomes. As it probably is with the Cornetts, they were the lucky ones with a strong sense of family and independence, as well as a "we can look out for ourselves" mentality. My family became dysfuntional as we grew up and moved to the four corners of the country; rarely speaking with or seeing each other anymore. I'll bet the Cornetts still gather for holidays. It would be great to find out what became of the Cornetts. Mixed feelings, but you can't deny a brilliant shotAn amazing study. You look at it once, there's a bright, affectionate, fearless young man - suddenly there's a hostile, defensive, possibly cruel boy. This is an example of where portrait photography surpasses painting. He tries to stare you out across forty-six years. Not creepy at allHe looks like someone who has just finished doing hard and dirty work. Sad that that makes people uncomfortable nowadays. Same teen... different moodThe earlier photo of him smoking definitely had a sinister aspect to it, the eyes (to me) reflected something intense, whether it was resentment, jealously, hatred, disgust, I don't know what. It might have been just an affectation for the photo. But it made you wish you could find out. I felt I had the same reaction that Capote did when he saw the photo that inspired "In Cold Blood." Now, in this photo, he seems to be in a much better, happier state of mind. [Editor's note: Not the same guy. - Dave] Being born and raised, and having lived most of my adult life in the Deep South, I've had plenty of interaction with families like the Cornetts. If there's one thing I've learned, you cannot judge by appearances. If you did, and lived in certain areas, you'd never leave your house. Appearance, for the most part, results from circumstances, not from character. I'd be more leery of those in fancy suits. They have the power (and often the inclination) to do you much harm. I'd say the Cornetts must be good people, given their apparently warm reception of the high-falootin' photographer from Duke U. "Murder and abuse"?I look at this photo and see a really handsome guy. I don't understand where the negative comments are coming from. Enough already!This endless series of rednecks is uninspiring. They are being showcased as if they were iconic photos of Oakies of the Great Depression. Unlike the dust bowl pictures there is no dignity here or triumph of the human spirit. Let's get back to 19th century rarely seen photos of America's past. Honest dirtSome people's only exposure to honest dirt was the one time they got talked into helping their great-aunt Annie plant her new rosebush! Horrors! What is that stuff all over my hands? Must go wash it with some antibacterial soap, immediately! Poor babies. I like rednecks & I like GedneyAppearances can be deceiving; I'll bet if you gave this young man a good scrubbing, a haircut and put him in a nice suit, suddenly everyone will be trying to introduce him to their daughters, assuming he was going to Yale or Harvard (maybe he did, on a scholarship or GI Bill). When I lived in Charlottesville, with its "Gown and Town" culture, I met plenty of "rednecks" who were the nicest people; helpful, friendly, loved to sit on the porch Friday nights and shoot the breeze. Some of the "Gown" group were dressed to the nines, wouldn't dream of getting their hands dirty, stuck up, and borrringgggg! P.S. I belonged the "gown" crowd at the U of Virginia in Charlottesville, a boy straight out of the Maryland suburbs. Good Earthy FolksBack in the mid-1960s.I hung out with a family a lot like the Cornetts, to the horror of my mother, although my father was more understanding. I was enriched by this association and still keep in touch with the surviving members of my alternate family. Try as I mightI detect nothing sinister here. Just a young man with a hard life by today's standards. Maybe even by any standards. But lack of wealth does not always equal unhappiness. I hope he was happy. It bothers me that someone could look at this simple, unassuming photo and then ascribe to it terms like murder and abuse. Reminds me of the quote by Anais Nin: We see things not as they are, but as we are. We need moreI have a feeling that this young man is a bright-eyed smart fellow that happens to live in the country and knows how to give a honest day's work for a honest paycheck. Our country needs a few million like him right now. Negative comments?I also don't understand where these negative comments are coming from. Too bad that some Shorpy viewers think they are better than others. I see a very hard working family when I view these photos of the Cornett family. They appear to be honest hard working people the kind that make good neighbors and good friends. What viewers are looking at here is the true backbone of America. The fancy dressing politicians could not pass the muster in similar situations. Thanks Dave for showing not just the historical America but also the hard working America. I can relateI just spent the afternoon under the truck replacing its shock absorbers. Except for being much cleaner around the eyes thanks to wearing safety goggles, I ended up just at dirty as this fellow, something I don't find myself doing like when I was in my twenties. It felt good and I expect to sleep well tonight. Still creepyI have found the reactions to this series very interesting. I have lived in such a rural poor area all my life, going to school with MANY children who were forced to live as these people. Let's not make more out of these people than they were, they were just like the rest of us: both good and bad, smart and dumb, clean and dirty, hard workers and lazy, compassionate and indifferent, etc. How having said that and being a product of a poor rural area, and still a resident in that area, I find the series creepy especially of young children smoking which I never saw happening with the like people I grew up with, at least not in front of their parents. I think it very possible the photos could have been a bit influnced. [Just a bit "influnced"? Or a whole lot "influnced"? - Dave] MoreWould like to see more of the Cornett family series. Eye of the BeholderThis series of photos has turned out to be quite the Rorschach test. Dirty work, clean money I worked alongside some guys like this for a short while in the '60s. The title was a comment I heard from one of them. The Cornetts of flyover land built the 20th century and won its wars. I don't think the 20 year-olds of today could do as much. Worked hardAnd is dirty. This is what happens. I'd love to know how the next few decades played out. And I love the sparkly bits in the chair. The Best Hard TimesOdds are, in later years, these folks look back on this era as being some of the best times in their lives. I know that when I think back about my younger years, we lived in a tiny house, were raised by our divorced mom (two of us), and did not have extra money. We had lots of neighborhood friends, we always had three meals, and we always played outside. We were as happy as pigs in mud. Reminds me of my sonHe who isn't happy until he's worked hard enough to get this dirty. His dad and I must've done something right. A healthy work ethic will take one a long way in life. HandsomeI, for one, think that he's a very handsome young man, dirt and all. I bet he lights up and shines when he smiles. A true portraitI really hate reading some of the truly (literally) ignorant comments in this series. If you want a real taste of what Eastern Kentuckians are really like, just consider that this man and his wife, unemployed and with 12 children, opened their home to a photographer (read: stranger) from Duke University with no pretense and showed him hospitality for 11 days in 1964 and then again welcomed him into his home 8 years later. That is more a portrait of the true nature of Appalachian people than any ridiculous story Hollywood can make up (e.g. Deliverance). [A little confusion here. It was this young man's parents who played host to William Gedney. Who had no connection with Duke University when these pictures were made. - Dave] to: A Certain Canadian Shame on you! My parents lived in Minnesota during the depression, and we did not live much differently from this photo, but we had a happy family, we ate well, and we all grew up to be responsible adults. How dare you think that just because someone is poor, they are rednecks! [What exactly constitutes being a redneck, and why is it bad to be one? - Dave] Folks, do not despair.We still have plenty of hard-working young men and women like this young man in our America. Do not despair. We'll get through it. WOW!Dave...You must be in Heaven! What a response to your Photos of the Cornett family! I have commented, myself, before, and I am totally into this family, and have been for days. I just read through all of the comments and I think I could read on forever…they are such a mix of Brilliance, and, I am sorry to say this…total Stupidity, but that is in the Minority. Thank You, Dave! But, I Think you, too, must be a bit amazed. What a great way to get people to come alive and Talk to a subject…if only we could continue the dialog…in so many other topics. Coal DustThis young man has a right to be proud and you can see it in his eyes. He is covered with coal dust. That means he is making money--good money! Things sure have changed for today's young men. Not for the better. Bah, humbugSorry guys - but - by about the 3rd picture I didn't want anymore Cornett Family either. There's an affected bleakness about these pictures that just makes me wanna smack somebody, probably the photographer. A couple of the girls snuck in a smile . .probably when the photographer was off-guard. Good for them, probably blew the whole theme for Gedney though. Are we going to get any Cornett pictures without the "o I see misery, that makes me profound" motif? Goodness, beauty and truth are also part of the human experience, ya know. I mean, just sayin'. There's nothing wrong with honest dirt. /end tirade. ["Misery"? What misery? - Dave] "Dirty jobs"Late 70's spent my days baling hay and milking cows on our 4th generation dairy farm, my sisters and I would pack 1,000 bales or more of hay a day into the barn, under a hot tin roof in typical Ohio weather, 98 degrees and 98 humidity, "the sweaty armpit of America." I now own that farm and my dad at 78 is out helping me milk the cows every day, because he wants to be useful. The comments on this list tell me that a whole lot of folks have never learned to appreciate a hard day's work. The feeling of sweat running down the crack of your a-- and hay chaff in places you never new it could go, the feeling of a good shower and sleep that comes from being tired and not from "sleep aids". The pride of good day's work, a full barn ready for winter, contented cows and a full belly produced from your own hands. Keep posting these types of pictures, we need a reminder now and them. Like Mike Rowe keeps saying, this country needs people who will do the "dirty jobs." Definition of a redneckThe term is used to describe the hardworking man or woman who has labored, bent over, in the hot sun, and received the mother of all sunburns for their efforts. I don't know why it's bad to be called one. Sounds like a badge of honor to me. A few people who have posted here have more than likely never suffered anything more serious than a paper cut in their daily labors. Hey Lou, don't look!! It's that easy.Shoot, I was born in 1966, and there were a LOT of days I left work looking like that. It was either from working at the service station (yes, I used to pump Ethel), or at the sign shop. Sometimes, you just get dirty doing an honest days work. Painters get paint on themselves, and farmers get dirt on themselves. That's all. Dave-Thanks a million for posting the Gedney shots, as well as all you have done with shorpy.com. I scan your site every day looking for cool shots of insulators and feats of electrical engineering, but being a history buff in general, I get a real good feel for days of yesteryear. Keep'em coming my good man! [Now we know the reason for Ethel's mysterious smile. - Dave] Nothing More to AddI'm disappointed in some of these comments but reassured that there are others who don't agree with the stereotyping and leaping from a photo to the "murder and abuse" branding. Ridiculous. The Cornett defenders have said what I feel, but I found myself wanting to show my support for them, too. ("Yeah! What HE said!") Any way we could get a "like" button for Shorpy comments? Undoubtedly a relativeI'm a member the Cornett family with strong ties in Kentucky (my dad's family is from Cumberland, although we live in Maryland now). Amazing seeing these shots. I never knew this guy but I have no doubt he's a cousin of some sort. Cornetts had our black sheep (what family doesn't?) but on the whole we're a hardworking breed who gets by the best we can. Street smart?I have finally given up reading the comments on this picture. The one that really bugs me is the person who thinks this face belongs to a criminal. Obviously someone who has no street smarts. There is nothing sinister behind those eyes. And as for the people complaining about how sad these people must be, I ask why? Because they don't have all the luxuries of today that most people consider needful things when they are not? I have not seen a miserable face on any of the Cornett family. I am glad to have seen them and hope they all had or are having great lives. Another '"Yeah! What HE said!"These photos are great. Keep them coming. Anyone who could see someone capable of murder or abuse when looking at this photo is someone or find this series creepy is one who only has to look in the mirror to see a real creep. Am I the only one... or do you see a resemblance too? [Maybe that's toner on his face. - Dave] The old adagesays that when you point your finger at somebody, THREE fingers point back at you. These pictures of the Cornett family are a vivid portrayal of an important part of the American Experience. The photos are illuminating and often a work of art, as this particular picture is. This is my very favorite historical/picture blog. Keep up the GREAT work, Dave! Every timeI look at this photo I think of James Jones' star-crossed Pvt. Robert E. Lee Prewitt in "From Here To Eternity." In fact, I think I'll pull out my battered copy of that book and re-read it for about the fifteenth time. My cousins from Martin County. Just like him. high-school "diploma," willfully ignorant, hopped up on Baptist prayer meetin's, and just as happy as can be that they'll be able to get a job in the mines just like Daddy and Granddaddy, both of whom got the Black Lung from too much coal and too many Camels. And it's still like that there. WTF, America? Seriously ... [Inane Comment of the Day! - Dave] Handsome I look at this photo and see a very handsome man. In this day and age, its hard for a girl to find a guy that doesn't mind rolling up his sleeves and getting dirty to get the job done. The ruggedness of his features makes him attractive. Kindred SpiritIn 1964 I was very close to this guy in age, economic prosperity, and work opportunities. One difference was that I was in rural Alabama rather than Kentucky. I am not embarrassed by the type work I used to do, but I am thankful to now have a physically less demanding job. My electrical engineering degree helped to ease my way into middle class status. I would like to know what happened to this guy after the picture was made. I hope that he has been as fortunate in life as I have been. William GedneyI was surprised when I saw the work of Bill Gedney, years after I knew him as “Mr. Gedney,” my photography teacher at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY. He rarely, if ever showed his work to us. His classes were focused (bad pun) on us and how to improve our photographic vision. I liked him a lot – he was soft spoken and kind unlike the abrasive/aggressive nature some of the others in the photography department. One of my proudest moments: when he approved of my photo essay of my sister and her husband’s move from apartment to their first house. They weren't “pretty pictures,” but captured a significant moment in time, much like his own series of the rural families. It was indeed an honor and pleasure to have worked with “Mr. Gedney.” (Cornett Family, Portraits, William Gedney)
River Traffic: 1910
... York circa 1910-12. "Manhattan Bridge and East River from Brooklyn." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. ... and playground in 2002, and are now part of the enormous Brooklyn Bridge Park . The schooner barge in tow appears to be ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/17/2015 - 5:26pm -

New York circa 1910-12. "Manhattan Bridge and East River from Brooklyn." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Holiday? Weekend?I was wondering why there are so few people visible? I would have thought it would all be bustling. [Where would you expect to see them -- rowboats? - Dave] Fulton FerryThat's the Fulton ferry tucked in behind that Victorian looking ferry building. Painting DayLooks like a couple of crews are taking advantage of good weather to get some painting done on the cables. I've worked on up high on iron, but I believe I would pass on this. When sail existed side by side with steamSo much to see and in such detail in this beautifully presented photograph. Great stuff! DelightfulIn the enlarged version, that Sailing Schooner about to go under the Bridge. Met Life TowerIs it possible, from this angle and at this distance, that we see, left of the central dip in the cables, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, tallest building in the world from 1909 to 1913, way up at Madison Square Park, on Madison Avenue just above East 23rd Street? [Met Life is on the left, and there's another on the right. - Dave] Schooner Barge?An odd craft is on the right, being towed under the bridge. She has two masts forward, apparently rigged with gaff sails like a schooner, but a deckhouse aft more like a "machinery aft" steamship of the period. There's a small funnel, or at least it looks like that in the photo. Might this be a "Schooner barge?" That's a retired sailing ship with a small schooner rig that can be handled by the crew normally assigned to handle tow and dock lines on a barge. (This would be a very small crew!) The time period is about right. The sailing rig was used to save the tug's fuel, reducing towline force required, in favorable winds, and occasionally tugs would cast off such a barge and let it enter harbor under sail if the wind was strong enough for that and from a suitable direction, saving time for the much more highly valued tug. The most common trade for schooner barges was coal in bulk. Note there is a coal terminal clearly labeled with a big sign in the photo. Ferry TerminalI really love the Mansard roof ferry terminal. I know this image is 1912-ish, but when I spotted this building all I could think of was some 1930s potboiler detective film. Things have changed, littorallyThe wharves in the foreground were replaced by a park and playground in 2002, and are now part of the enormous Brooklyn Bridge Park. The schooner barge in tow appears to be the Magnolia. Big AdventureI had the pleasure of climbing to the top of the Manhattan Bridge's Brooklyn tower back in the days before Homeland Security. Safely accomplished with the help of a series of ladders nested inside of the tower. The bases of the large globes on the top of the tower were surrounded by large scrunched up and rotting canvas banners protesting the war in Vietnam, which had ended over a decade earlier. The waterfront activity back in the day of this picture was astonishing, what a rich life, truly metropolitan! New York's transition to a tourist trap, theme park, shopping mall and mega-rich self-storage depot was just a hundred years ahead. Re: Met Life TowerCan anyone identify the second tower? (Mr. Mel, Peter?) TugYay! More NYC waterfront! I love these pics. That's a Moran tugboat towing the schooner barge. Moran still hale and hearty all these years later. Link to their history at corp website. DiscoveredThe building on the right is the R.H. Hoe Factory on the Lower East Side. The boat is a steamer barge, not a schooner barge. It's not a piteous converted old sailing vessel. Her sails were for auxiliary use in a very tight margin trade. Vantage Point?I'm curious - from which building would this have been taken? I'd love to see (or take!) a photo from the same vantage point. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, NYC)
Black Sea Bass: 1900
... 384-pound black sea bass caught by Franklin Schenck of Brooklyn with rod and reel off Catalina Island, California, on August 17, 1900. ... 
 
Posted by Ken - 01/06/2008 - 2:22pm -

A world's record 384-pound black sea bass caught by Franklin Schenck of Brooklyn with rod and reel off Catalina Island, California, on August 17, 1900. View full size Wikipediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_sea_bass Add your picture to this article please! That's a BIG ol' fish. BobThat's a BIG ol' fish. Bob from Iceland. WoW!That fish is unbelievable!!! What an amazing picture. Is this realI never hear anything like this before ? That thing must weight 1/2 tone! Can eat a man! No way.no way. That thing's gotta be this thing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_sea_bass Not exactly the same thing as the black sea bass in that other article. big difference between 5 lbs and 384 lbs. A Big FishFrom the New York Times of August 27, 1900: A Big Fish From The Los Angeles (Cal.) Herald. Catalina Island, Aug. 18. — The world's record for the heaviest fish landed with rod and reel was broken yesterday afternoon by F. S. Schenck of New York, who brought in a jewfish, or black sea bass, weighing 384 pounds, which was captured on a twenty-one-thread Cuttyhunk line after a twenty-minute fight. The record has previously been held by T. S. Manning, who, on Sept. 16 last year, took a 370-pounder after a two hours' contest. Enter Name Here FishWhatever kind of fish that is, it's phenomenal!! Could you imagine trying to reel something like that in?! It's fantastic. What a great photo!! Is this real???Is this real??? i dunnoit's not real, look closely at the lighting, very shiny and bright all close up on fish, dim on people, or maybe sharper and brighter on fish and dull on the people [Yes, it's real, and it's in the Library of Congress archives. It was also reproduced in newspapers across the country. See clip below from the New York Times. - Dave] Sea BassSome more sea bass sport-fishing photos. Indonesian Black sea bassHi all, my name is Welly m (Balikpapan - Indonesia) ,...2 days ago, I catched a black sea bass with my reel, it's about 12 Kg, and I cooked it in Rica-Rica (Indonesian Tradisional Recipe) Very nice taste. (Animals, Curiosities, Sports)
Textbook Example: 1912
... Company for many years (Knox also had a huge factory in Brooklyn )and is still known as the Knox Hat Building even though the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/10/2014 - 10:06am -

Circa 1912. "New York Public Library building." With a variety of motorized conveyances. 8x10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Libraries and carriagesI wonder if 100 years from now, whether Shorpy will display a similar photo that shows how libraries became as obsolete as horse-drawn carriages? Will e-books have the same effect on these magnificent edifices as the internal combustion engine had on the carriages? Hold On To Your HatThe building at the extreme left in this photo is still with us today. It was known as the Knox Hat Building, standing at 452 5th Avenue, it was built in 1902 as the headquarters of one of the Country's largest and most famous headgear manufacturers. A surrounding high rise glass tower was added when it was known as the Republic Bank Building. The major tenant and new owner is now another bank, HSBC. He kindly stopped for meIn the bottom right corner of the photo there is a wagon hurrying along. Is that a coffin in the back? [Whooooo knows? -tterrace] Knox HatsWhile so much has changed in the past 102 years, one survivor in addition to the library itself is the building at the extreme left. Built in 1902 in the Beaux-Arts style, and designed by the same architect as Grant's Tomb, it was the headquarters of the Knox Hat Company for many years (Knox also had a huge factory in Brooklyn)and is still known as the Knox Hat Building even though the company's long gone. HSBC Bank now uses it for offices and has an enormous highrise building crowding it on two sides. Library Lions"Fortitude" on the left, north side; "Patience" on the right, south side. http://www.nypl.org/help/about-nypl/library-lions A Very Good YearI'm always on the lookout for photos taken in 1912, because that's the year that my Mom was born. She's 102 years old, and still lives on her own and is sharp as a tack. When I see a photo like this, I try to imagine all of the things she has seen in her lifetime, and it helps me visualize the work into which she was born. The New York Public Library has hardly changed a bit, except I did notice that the facade in the 1912 views must have been unfinished, for today, 6 statues grace the frieze on the colonnade, rather than the single one that was there then. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, DPC, NYC)
Pressing the Flesh: 1940
... floor front apartment at 4109 7th Avenue in Bayridge, Brooklyn. No need for trolleys, subways and body odors. Kids who today ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/22/2016 - 9:11pm -

New York, 1940. "Crowd at Coney Island." Gelatin silver print by Arthur Fellig, the press photographer known as Weegee. View full size. Fourth of July WeekendI was 8 my that year & mom had taken me to Coney Island beach since I was an infant. If this was the Fourth of July it marks the last time she put up with the crowds that were there (weather permitting) most every week end in July and August. After that it was Sunset Park Pool across the street from our third floor front apartment at 4109 7th Avenue in Bayridge, Brooklyn. No need for trolleys, subways and body odors. Kids who today think Woodstock and rock concerts in Central Park were huge should see this photo. I demonstrated in four "marches" on Washington and they couldn't hold a candle to this loony mass of humanity. In Living ColorA colorized version of this photo would be nice. Anyone up to the task? Where is WaldoBlack-and-white version. WoodstockThat was my first impression upon seeing the preview. Okay, Harry, where do we set up the tent?My one day spent at Coney Island Beach in 1958 or so was enough for a lifetime, and our subsequent outings to the beach at nearby (Jacob) Riis Park were far more pleasant, although I never became a big fan of beaches anywhere. The ride home on the bus and subway while still encrusted in sand and salt was truly the low point of every trip. Reminds me of:Where's Waldo. Yogi Berra's Quote“Nobody goes to Coney Island anymore, it's too crowded.” Small wonder, and he actually may have said it. However, he also is said to have said, “I never said most of the things I said.” Auntie Mary and cousin Joe in the tenth row back?How many megapixels to get that level of detail on this here newfangled digital film, then? Washrooms?Oh, the ocean. (I'm assuming it's there somewhere.) Special event?That can't have just been the regular Tuesday crowd, right? There had to have been something special happening that day, to have so many packed in like sardines .... It was so very hot on that day.None of the rides were open and Mister Handwerker ran out of red hots. Me?!?!jobaron I am somewhere in this picture. I grew up in Coney Island and, since this was taken on the Fourth of July, 1940, I most certainly am somewhere here. No way I wasn't on the beach that day... Anybody find me? :-) How many humans?Wow. Do that many people ever get together in one place any more? I know I have never been in a crowd that big in my life! Does Coney Island still get this overcrowded? Is the entire meyro NYC there all at the same time? to heck with Where's Waldo.Where's the water? It will take all day to find it. Show Us Your PitsI'll just show myself out now. No ExitSometimes it's nice just to get away from it all and go to the seashore Watch the birdieThe trick here seems to be: How do I get them to look at me? The Wonderwheel still stands and operates, as does the Cyclone, as far as I'm concerned the finest wooden rollercoaster in use. I once got paid to ride it for an audio experiment, and made 23 trips around it with a 24 pound tape recorder in my lap. I was a huge bruise the next day. They said my headphones flew off at one point and I calmly reached into space and grabbed them. What a great day. So Ralphie said"Why don't we go to the beach and get out of this hot, crowded city?" SunblindnessSomeone could have made a fortune selling sunglasses to this crowd... I only count about a dozen or so folks wearing eye protection. Today you'd only be able to count a dozen or so NOT wearing sunglasses! What a crowd! I'm getting claustrophobic just looking at the photo! A sea of humanityWonder what the occasion was? It's hard to believe there's enough room for anyone there to enjoy a peaceful day at the beach. Must have been a change for Weegee -- shooting live subjects, that is. Most of his photos I've seen are still life (or, more accurately, still "death") "Let's Go Down On The Sand,""It has to be less crowded than this boardwalk is...." My Dog Filmed a Short Film on that BeachMy dog filmed a video on the boardwalk and on the beach in this photo. We rode the Wonder Wheel together and also had our photo taken in a photo booth. He died on Oct. 18, 2015 at age 15. RIP Clancy :( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_CaQqDSRu4 Listen Without PrejudiceI always wondered where this picture was from! George Michael used it for the cover of his "Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1." and I always thought the woman in the center in the black bikini looked like my English teacher. Clearly, she was not; I'm not quite that old. East Coast For Sure!You can count the blondes on one hand! Good dayto head out to Flushing Meadows to the World's Fair! J. Edgar HooverMr Cool in the lower right corner cracks me up; he even wears fedora and sunglasses in the shower. Any open space will doWhere can I lay out my towel? Has anyone seen my flip-flops? What kind of drive would one have to go to such a place where you could hardly breathe? Like someone said..."where's the water?" Where Are They?So how did those folks find their blanket after the photo? That is one huge group of people. Was Coney Island Segregated Then?I see only shades of white and sunburned. Re: WoodstockYep, pretty close! This might make a good source for colorizers, too... Oh, the Humanity!My guess is 600 to 700 thousand people framed in the pic. About enough to fill 9 football stadiums. Ideal PlaceIf you ever wanted to lose a kid this would be where to do it! Anyone who's gotta use the washroomraise your hand. July 28, 4 p.m.Which was a Sunday. (Found with reference to a 2009 exhibition at the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas which included this photo.) THE RIDE HOME?!!!!!I will NEVER complain about a crowd and traffic again. I have never seen anything like this before. The comment volume..........is proportional to the amount of exposed skin. Of course, there is also a female coefficient to factor in when applicable. Where are Mom's shoes?I was born in Coney but went to neighboring Brighton Beach. On one of those hot days, with blanket touching blanket staking our space, a crowd started to gather as someone was drowning. After things calmed down my mom discovered that someone took her shoes. I was about 12 but remember it as if it were yesterday as she walked to the train without shoes. Oh the memory that this photo stirred up. Thanks Looking back.Imagine the heebie-jeebies this gathering would now conjure, with the pandemic we're facing. Social distancing 1940 style. (The Gallery, Coney Island, NYC, Swimming)
On the Edge of the 60s
... ... with iPods, this would look like a pack of present-day Brooklyn hipsters. Creepy? Hardly -- I look at this photo, and I feel ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 09/29/2011 - 6:37pm -

Even though it's 1960, it's obvious that the 60s haven't started yet. My eighth grade class photo in Larkspur - or as Dave would say, idyllic Larkspur. I must say, though, that we're looking somewhat less idyllic than when some of us were gathered at the same spot eight years earlier. I'm in the front row, second from left. So, when did the 60s begin? A case could be made for 1963, 1964 or 1965, but I'm going for 1965. View full size. 60s != sixtiesThe problem here is that the Sixties as a cultural phenomenon has very little correlation with the decade of the 1960s. In most of America, the Sixties (drugs, sex, rock-n-roll, decadence) began in late 1968 with the large demonstrations against the war, and faded out around 1975. By contrast the 1960s, as seen in this picture, were a time of prosperity and optimism, a time when boys looked like rocket scientists and girls looked like rockets. Did any of these boysserve in Vietnam? Great photo BTW When the 60s beganThe 60's began on Sunday night, Feb. 9, 1964! I'm from a later generationbut I think Buddy Holly (among others) had a influence on kids back then. (Or was he just that way?) The 60sI'm in the group who think the '60s started at the end of 1963 with JFK's assassination, followed by the Beatles in '64. And the end of the decade came in 1973 with the U.S. pullout from Vietnam and Nixon's resignation in 1974. No moreAn innocence that no longer exists in our children. So tell us, tterrace, just how innocent *were* you kids? Starting from top right, moving counterclockwise. On a scale of 1 to 10. -Dave] I was six in 1960This shows life as portrayed in "Leave It To Beaver." Then came the Beatles and life changed. That's how I remember it anyway. Girls ARE more matureIf you enlarge this photo, and carefully scrutinize all the faces, it is apparent that all of the girls seem to be certain of who they are and comfortable in their own skin. Many can also pass for high school students. The boys on the other hand show various characteristics of rebelliouness, moodiness, sadness, some seem troubled and pensive, some look like cut-ups and wise guys, just a lot less certain of the image they wish to portray and many can pass as fifth graders, looking at least three years younger. I'm thinking perhaps some parents were much harder on their sons than on their daughters as the girls seem relatively content while the boys show signs of personal conflict. I hope they all found happiness. Thank you for this very nostalgic picture. O.K. RomeoWhich girl (?!!) did you have the hots for? I was in 2nd grade in 1960 ... and you're right, we were all still blissfully living in the fifties then. I think the sixties began with the assassination of JFK and arrival of the Beatles in 1964. The era was in full swing by the time of the Summer of Love and the murders of RFK and MLK. And, btw, if anyone ever perfects a time machine, I'm going back to live with your family, tterrace. "Idyllic" is the right word for most of your pics. Nothing screams 1960... like a Hawaiian t-shirt! Such a lively group of kids, and to think, in just under a decade this same group of youngsters will introduce the world to pot, LSD, and the Grateful Dead! When did the 60s begin?I too was an eighth grader in 1959-60. It's hard to say just when the culture of the "60s" first emerged in the national consciousness. I guess I would say 1964-1965, with the beginning of the Vietnam buildup, the civil rights movement in full swing, campus protests, inner city riots, and the emergence of an entirely different style of popular music. Anyone who leapt from 1963 to 1968 would have been completely lost. I Want to Drivemy '50 Ford to the drive in with that little gal next to the teacher, whew, what a doll she must have become in high school, "Apache" (1960) on the AM car radio. How many?Point of curiosity -- if you know -- how many of your classmates are still alive? It seems like every class starts losing members about a year after graduation so I suspect you've lost your share as well. Innocence of youthWell, our names were innocent-sounding enough anyway: Albert, Bob (2), Bucky (really Harold, but who knew?), Carla, Christine, Cynthia, David (2), Dennis, Earl, Frances, Hilliard, Jack, Jean, John (3), Johnny, Ken, Laurie, Lenore, Lonna, Marcia, Margaret, Paul, Peggy (2), Richard, Roberta, Roger, Russ, Sam, Sharon, Sheila, Tom. Ashley, Brittany, Brandon, Justin and Dakota were absent that day. Could be my classI believe the 60's started around 1962, but in a small way. The folk music scene, and coffee houses contributed to it. Early Dylan, Baez helped nudge us into a new decade. But the really visible 60's didn't occur until around 1964/65 with the British invasion of music, and fashion. The guys in the photo defiantly exhibit a late '50s sensibility in their clothing choice, and hairstyles. [Definitely. - Dave] Decades vs. ErasOne of tterrace's contemporaries takes on the '50s-'60s thing. Let's go back to the '40s. '40-'45: the Depression jarringly became the WWII Era--privation and sacrifice. '46-'51: the Post War Era--baby boom, consumer goods and housing in short supply. '52-'63: "The Fifties", the "Fab-u-luxe Age"--tail fins, massive consumption, rock and roll, shadow of nuclear destruction, JFK. Started to peter out with Cuban missile crisis. Ended November 22, 1963 '63-'72: "The Sixties", civil rights, the British Invasion, Women's Lib., Viet Nam, student riots, Stonewall Riot, M.L. King and RFK assassinations, Chicago convention, Nixon, war winds down. '73-?: Beyond here lies Disco, gay rights, bad presidents, trickle down, AIDS, Iran, energy crisis, limited wars, cell phones, the Internet and Shorpy. Positive IDI graduated a few years later at LCM and recognize about 14 of the people, all boys by the way, as some of those were the ones you had to look out for. Do you remember all the names to go with the faces here? Too Cool for SchoolPlease let us know (if you know) what happened to the dude sitting next to you on the right. I bet he wound up in juvy. Front row guyI wonder what happened to the James Dean guy in the front row. He had an obvious magnetism and confidence that the other boys seem to be lacking. More than 10 years to the SixtiesHaving graduated from 8th grade in the same year, I would say that the 60s began in 1955 with Rosa Parks in the front of the bus and with the trial and ended with the sentencing of Patty Hearst in 1976. For me, just starting to open my eyes to the world, the Sixties began with the Civil Rights movement, JFK, and the Space Race. In between there was Vietnam, the draft and the anti-war movement; the assassinations (JFK, RFK, MLK and Malcom X); the Summer of Love, Woodstock, and the rest of the drugs, sex, and rock & roll scene; and all the societal and personal changes, large and small, that we remember in different ways. It ended with Altamont, Kent State, Manson, Nixon and the Symbionese Liberation Army. A long, strange trip indeed. I'm glad I was on the ride. The girl by the teacherShe is not only seriously cute, but that direct gaze, as if she's looking right at ME, indicates she really knows who she is (as someone else pointed out). That, and she's quite a flirt. Alpha Male spottedBack row, between Buddy Holly and Susan Boyle. An ath-uh-lete. Those are some seriously huge looking trees in back. Redwoods? Casual Friday?I was in public school 8th grade in 1964, my first experience with "real clothes" after parochial school. I am amazed at the attire in this photo. In the front row alone I spy sneakers, rolled-up pants, and dungarees. All would have been verboten in our school. There's also the glaring absence of shoe polish. The gals, though, all appear demurely and appropriately dressed. Could this have been "class day" or some other occasion calling for "dress-down" attire? BTW, the gal at the top right is hottimus maximus! My wife posed in front of these redwood trees.And she did it many times through her school years. She also remembers Mr. G, the teacher in this photo. Seemingly fondly. Some of these guys look familiar to me. My sister was this age, and ended up going to Redwood High School with most of this crowd. I think she even went out with the guy in the second row from the top, two over from the teacher. I'm pretty sure he was kind of a baseball hero in high school. Some of these lads look like the kind of guys you'd have to avoid if you were younger like I was. There was a pretty good pecking order that went on back then between age groups. And if you were from out of town, then you were in real trouble. I was from the next town over, but would head to Larkspur to run amok in the abandoned houses along the Corte Madera Creek. Dangerous and fun. No real teasing quite yet... of the girls' hair, that is. In a couple of years those natural looking bobs would be teased and sprayed into larger than life beehives and bouffants. By 1962 I am doing just that and seeking great heights of unnatural hair that looked just like the styles in Hairspray. Although my sixth grade year of 63-64 was certainly pivotal between Dallas and the Beatles, the 60s started for me in 1962, when hair was hard to the touch, shoes were very pointy, and boys that looked like the Danny Zuko lookalike in the front row would have been the object of my desire. That day in Dealey PlazaDefinitely the 60s started that Dallas afternoon on November 22nd 1963 Fan ClubOh tterrace....you need to have a fan club! And I want to be your president! Your photos make my day, Daddy-o! Bye, Bye Miss American Pie!I’ve been wrestling with what I could ad to these observations. I’ve decided that Don McLean knew what he was talking about when he sang about “The Day The Music died.” That did seem like the day of transition to me. Before, it was the optimistically innocent time of early rock ‘n roll, Davy Crockett and Annette Funicello. Afterwards came the threat of nuclear war, the Beatles & Stones and the threat of being drafted. The onset of darkness seemed overwhelming as our high school years commenced. Most of us got through it. People from The Edge of the 60sI met up with a number of them at the 40th reunion of the Redwood High class of 1964 and learned that the gal next to our teacher Mr. G. is, I'm afraid, one of the ones no longer with us. The fellow in the second row from the top, second from left was indeed an athletic-type guy, but it was his older brother who became a tennis pro of some note. This wasn't a "casual Friday" or any other kind of special-clothing day. This is pretty much how we all looked day-in, day-out. CreepyThat is how I feel whenever the adult male visitors on Shorpy make comments about the physical appearance of underage girls in the pictures....even if the pics are decades old ... it is just creepy. [There is definitely one creepy comment here -- yours. Ick! - Dave] Why so few girls?Was there a Catholic girls school nearby and thus the out of whack boy-girl ratio? I am about this age and this looks a lot like one of my Indiana school pictures of the time. Socks that always fell down. Checked shirts. Buzz (butch), flat top cut or Brylcreem. Jeans with a cuff. Always a white T-shirt under your shirt. Girls more mature so they were always going out with guys 2 years older. Thin and NowOne notable difference between your class picture and one of a current 8th grade class is the lack of fat kids! Everywhere schoolYou guys are youngsters. That year, 1959-60, was my first as a teacher. Every kid in the photo reminds me of one I taught. When in a group, mob psychology seems to rule, and these kids, especially the boys, could give any teacher problems. But in one-on-one situations, you would probably enjoy getting to know any of them. One of the best things about kids is that most of them eventually grow up! If you replaced all the girls in the photo... with iPods, this would look like a pack of present-day Brooklyn hipsters. Creepy?Hardly -- I look at this photo, and I feel part heartbreak, part bittersweet nostalgia. I see tterrace and his friends, and I see myself and MY classmates*, now scattered to the winds. This is a reminder of lost opportunities, a reminder of the futures we saw for ourselves -- mayhap, realized, more likely not -- and above all, a reminder of the fleet passing of our lives. Still, it's nice to remember what we were, and not try to force ourselves into the shorthand of decade-sized boxes. *Admittedly, some of us were smitten with other classmates. Remembering those early crushes -- and that's what has been commented on -- is part of who we were and are. Something in the WaterI distinctly remember my eighth grade class & none of the girls looked like this. 3/4 of these girls here look like 25-year-old women. It's a strange phenomenon. The beautiful girl sitting on the far right has a timeless look but definitely exemplifies wholesome fifties beauty to me; the dark girl with the sweater sitting in the middle looks four years ahead of her time, like she should be dancing to Spector records. Biology is strangeCan't help but notice - with this photo as well as my own grade eight class photo, taken 17 years later - the disparity between the girls and boys. Some of the boys look like seniors in high school already, while some - the line sitting in the front - could be in grade 5 or 6. The girls, on the other hand, look around the same age, and far more mature than kids just a summer away from high school. They do, as someone said earlier, seem like 25-year-old women. The same strange phenomenon is present in my own grade school grad class photo, shot in 1977. The stretch between 10 and 14 really is a biological roller coaster for boys in a way that girls seem to have been spared. I would love an explanation for that. The 60s started, for me, in the early spring of 1965, when I was 10 years old. My dad, a Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton, California, came home from work and said that he had to get on board ship in a few days. He said he didn't know where he was going or when he would be back. We went down to the dock and waved goodbye and he said, "I'll see you by Christmas." I am sure he really knew where he was going, but couldn't say. He did come back, thankfully, 13 months later. I don't think I had a single waking moment, over the rest of the decade, that I was not conscious of the Vietnam War. I guess when the 60s started depends on what about the 60s you are thinking of. If it is civil rights, then I agree that it started even before 1960. If you are thinking of the hippie culture, campus demonstrations, etc., then I say it started in 1965. There were certainly all ready things, like the JFK assassination and the arrival of the Beatles, that had kind of paved the way, though. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Kids, tterrapix)
Smoking: 1949
... Truly, a dream come true for a geeky clarinet player from Brooklyn. Thanks for the memories. Corsets, Girdles, Bras and Such My ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/06/2011 - 1:22pm -

Chicago, 1949. "Woman standing in office, smoking while modeling undergarments." An early image from budding photojournalist and nascent filmmaker Stanley Kubrick. Look Magazine Photo Collection. View full size. Was it Casual Friday?I've been known to oversleep and get to work late without being fully dressed i.e. Dagwood Bumstead but this takes the cake. I had a female relative who worked for a manufacturer of "foundation garments" in the early 1950s who was promoted from being a secretary to being a model much like this and then was promoted again to being the CEO's wife. Alert!Bullet bra. CT scan. Kubrick was an animal. Caption Suggestions"You're never fully dressed without a smile." "Can I get a martini here please?" "The airline lost my luggage." "I don't believe in spending a lot on clothes." "Let's give 'em something to talk about." "I dreamed I went to work in my Maidenform bra." "Hey Buster, my eyes are up here." "We're an Equal Opportunity Employer." Cigarette Ad: "It's whats up front that counts." "Yeah, I got my resume', right here!" (Dave, I bet this picture gets the most comments you've ever had. Outstanding photo.) Hubba Hubba HubbaHack! Hack! Lady at Desk"I picked a bad time to stop smokin'." SpeechlessI don't even know where to begin. ObservationsI'm impressed by the perfectly framed puff of smoke. However, I think my wife would comment that the bra does not fit that woman properly. I ain't complainin', though. "You said you wanted to introduce me to your staff"Any time you're ready, bub. StraplessRe the bra's fit: In these pre-elastic days (I believe stretchy bras and girdles didn't arrive until the mid-'50s), a strapless bra might well be intentionally tight-fitting to keep it from riding up or sliding away down the rib cage. Not that it probably helped -- even with today's advanced underwear technology, the silly things never do stay put. Do You See Too?I think I see where she keeps her smokes and lighter. Kubrick?Nah. Fellini. My little chickadeeReminds me of W.C. Fields's comment about Mae West -- "A plumber's idea of Cleopatra." If I didn't know betterI'd say that was Lucy and Desi - IN DRAG! Get Lucky!I feel pretty sure that she's smoking a Lucky Strike. You remember the old ads: "So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed". Looks like comic glasseswith a fake nose attached on the woman sitting at the desk. UncomfortableAs if anyone needed to be told, ladies undergarments of this era were no more comfortable than the generations before. Add a crinoline and looking sexy for any woman was a hot, itchy, suffocating, uncomfortable affair... and that was BEFORE you removed your undergarments. It ain't fittin' -- it just ain't fittin'That bra is all wrong. I kept looking at it and it looks upside down! Does anyone else think so? Far side ladyThe woman at the desk looks like she is straight from a Far Side cartoon. Plus her catty look is priceless. Put a saucer of milk on her desk. And they say corsets were uncomfortableI can't imagine wearing "undergarments" like that. The bra doesn't fit her right and the panty-girdle thing looks miserably uncomfortable. If I had to choose one item from this photo, I'd wear the cat-eye glasses of the gal in back. Too heavy.Hate to break her heart but she DOESN'T look good wearing that. She is far too heavy for it. Borscht Belt MemoriesWhen I was a 14 year old musician working in the Catskills, the strippers and belly dancers loved to parade in front of us like this. The highlight of the summer was when one of those "tough broads" would say "Fix my bra for me, Big Guy." Truly, a dream come true for a geeky clarinet player from Brooklyn. Thanks for the memories. Corsets, Girdles, Bras and SuchMy late sister worked in the main office of the Lily of France Corset Co. back in the mid-1940s, and her descriptions of the workplace environment there used to set my prurient teenage mind afire. Their catalog models were far more attractive than the one in Kubrick's photo here, though, or at least they were in my mind, anyway. My first reactionWhen I opened up shorpy this morning, I got quite the eye opener. I then thought about the safety hazard, and put on some shop goggles. I was not surprised to find out Kubrick took this photo. How funny. Too heavy?!Are you kidding me? How skewed is your beauty ideal if you think this gal is fat? Welcome to the world before Kate Moss ruined the party for everyone. This shot could beA still from a lost scene from "Dr. Strangelove". Industrial strength underwear. I think they are showing her smoking just to prove she can breathe wearing that stuff. That is a pretty bad job of blowing smoke. First of all, her mouth isn't open, and the blast coming out is like a cartoon steam blast out of a train. This neatly forms into a cumulus cloud floating right in the middle of wall between the two windows. Lastly, I think Kubrick is casting for his next two reel girly film involving some spanking and wrestling. It won't be long till Miss Manners takes off those glasses and lets down her hair, to teach that broad a lesson. What kind of film was used here?Kubrick famously used a Leica III in his early photojournalism, but the aspect ratio here does not look like it came from 35mm film. Team Shorpy, enlighten us? [35mm Super XX. - Dave] Listen Madgewhen in heaven's name are they going to fix the air conditioning in here? Those Aren't Cat's-Eye GlassesTHESE are cat's-eye glasses on my great-grandmother with me at Golden Gate Park in 1959: I mean, really?Now we're criticizing the way people blow out their smoke? The least of it..."Now we're criticizing the way people blow out their smoke" Beats calling a woman with perhaps a 24-inch waist "far too heavy." Look-alikeI was trying to think who the model looks like. After a LOT of Googling and wracking my brains it came to me. Elsa Lanchester ("Mary Poppins", "Bride of Frankenstein", "The Spiral Staircase"). Yes, really. She's not blowing smoke. The point I was making was that it's a bad "retouching" job of someone blowing smoke. I guess the woman in the photo isn't the only one getting their panties in a bunch. [This photo is not "retouched." - Dave] At the Bonjour Tristesse Brassière CompanyI'M GOING BACK, from Bells Are Ringing I know you, your name is Sue But who am I? I've gotta find out At least I'm gonna try I'm going back Where I can be me At the Bonjour Tristesse Brassière Company They've got a great big switchboard there Where it's just hello, goodbye It may be dull But there I can be just me, myself and I A little modeling on the side Yes, that's where I'll be At the Bonjour Tristesse Brassière Company And if anybody asks for Ella, Mella or Mom Tell them that I'm goin' back where I came from To the B.T. Bras-se-ière Company Goodbye everybody Goodbye Madame Grimaldi Goodbye Junior Mallett Santa Claus is a-hittin' the road Listen to your mama, mama, mama Eat your spinach baby Eat your spinach baby By the load La petite bergère restaurant adieu Je ne reviendrai jamais, jamais, jamais C'est tout fini Adieu to you So, goodbye Max, to your dogs and your cats To the Duke of Windsor and His Duchess Bye bye Barton and Kitchell and Hastings At last you're out of my clutches I'll miss you but you'll carry on You'll never know that I've gone I'm a-going back Where I can be me At the Bonjour Tristesse Brassière Company And while I'm sitting there I'll hope that I find out Just what Ella Peterson is all about In that Shangri-La of lacy lingerie A little modeling on the side At the Bonjour Tristesse Brassière Company Send me my mail dere! To the Bonjour Tristesse Company === Judy Holliday on the Ed Sullivan Show, singing "I'm Going Back" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5Xf6fusFmg (The Gallery, Chicago, Stanley Kubrick)
Dog Funeral: 1921
... all my pets are buried with dignity. Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn has quite a few dog graves and a horse one as well! Mrs. Snook, to ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/12/2009 - 11:47am -

October 7, 1921. "Dog funeral." Aspen Hill Cemetery, final resting place for one Boots Snook, "dear old pal" of Mrs. Selma Snook of Washington. Today's funeral is for the recently departed Buster. Harris & Ewing glass negative. View full size. Born a Dog, Lived a GentlemanI imagine many women can attest to the the opposite occurrence as well: "Born a Gentleman, Lived a Dog." 50 Washington Lovers of Animal Pay Tribute At Last Resting Place of Their Departed Pets In a wonderland Valhalla for pooches, "World Day for Animals" was celebrated in quiet fashion by a group of 50 Washington dog lovers yesterday. A mellow October sunlight flooded Aspen Hill Cemetery, where lie 2,700 "prominent" dogs, at peace with the world at last, far from the threat of onrushing automobiles, and presumably gnawing meaty bones as they growl in endless sleep. ... Owners of deceased pets haven't gotten around to holding religious services yet at burials, although Mrs. Selma Snook, of this city, has had formal burials with children acting as pallbearers for her five dogs, one of which, Buster, has this inscription on his monument: "Born a dog, lived a gentleman." Washington Post, Oct 5, 1936 Saying GoodbyeLooks like Mrs. Snook is comforting a relative or pal of the late Boots. Funny how dogs and their owners so often resemble each other. Mrs. Snook and the principal mourner have the same hair, although Mrs. Snook has tamed hers with a net. Discretionary incomeIt's nice to see that people squandered money on useless items for their pets 90 years ago too. I wonder if they were regretting spending money on a granite memorial for a dog eight years later in 1929 when "Black Thursday" rolled around. This is an interesting parallel between our consumption based society of the late 20th century with its childless power couples and their 4 legged "kids" and the boom-boom 1920's. So glad to see this!Truly man's best friends, treated with the honor they deserve. While I can't afford such elaborate stones, all my pets are buried with dignity. Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn has quite a few dog graves and a horse one as well! Mrs. Snook, to Boots II"If you don't stop chewing on the davenport you're next." And is that Aretha Franklin's hat? Hey!Discretionary income....if they earned it, they can spend it anyway THEY please. Maybe they should throw it down the entitlement rat hole. Sour grapes"Useless," "squandered," "regretting" -- I doubt these folks had ANY regrets about giving their pet a lavish burial. Would you rather spending be regulated? Hope you have a nice view from your porch, cranky old man. Boots HillAll dogs go to heaven. The date of the photographThe date of the photograph was October but the date on the tombstone says Boots died in April. Looks like a new grave so I was wondering what old Boots was doing between April and October. [Try reading the caption again. This is not Boots' funeral. - Dave] Marginal MemorialsIn 1921 the marginal tax rate for US taxpayers in the bottom bracket (taxable incomes up to $4,000) was 4%. The marginal rate for the top bracket (taxable incomes above $1 million) was 73%. By contrast, for tax year 2008 the lowest marginal rate is 10% for taxpayers with $16,050 taxable income, and the top rate is 35% for taxable incomes over $357,700. If Mrs. Snook was lucky enough to be a top-bracket type of gal with a million dollar income, she could take her $270,000 after-tax income and build a grand monument to ol' Boots. Today, any Leona Helmsley-ish dog lover would have $650,000 left after taxes on the same million dollars to take care of her pets' needs. Goober Pea It's my moneyAll of my pets have been buried at my parents' farm, joining their pets and some that belonged to my siblings. I don't regret the money spent at the vet, or for their food, or toys. Still taking petsThe Aspin Hill Pet Cemetery is still taking burials, though it has been buffeted about a bit recently from some changes of management. Note the spelling, BTW: for whatever reason, the official spelling is "Aspin", though "Aspen" seems to get used as often. It is now being run by the Montgomery County Humane Society. For a while it was run by PETA, which explains some of the curious memorials listed in the Find-a-grave listings. FISHcrimination!Why is it that dogs, cats, birds, even hamsters get solemn farewells with respectful burials but FISH just get flushed down the toilet? Aspin Hill lives onThe cemetery is still there. I used to belong to St. Mary Magdalene Episcopal Church, right next door, when PETA owned it. Here's an article on all the tumult of its recent past. http://www.mchumane.org/aspinhillpetcemetery.shtml No FoolingI thought that maybe it was April 1 when I read the article about Aspen Hill Cemetery and Mr. J. C. Crist! That aside, I hope that the cemetery plot, the headstones and the funeral rites helped Ms. Snook deal with the loss of what MUST have been beloved pets. Could the money involved have been spent on hungry children, homeless pets, animal medical research, or a host of other worthy causes? Yes, but the choice was hers, and anyone who doesn't like it can deal with it by increasing their own contributions to worthy causes of their choice. Boy in the middle"Why wasn't I born a dog?" GratefulI cherish the time with, and have never regretted the money spent on my furry friends. I could not afford a place like the pet cemetery in Columbia, Tennessee, but there's a tiny fenced-in graveyard with a little wood marker for each of my lost friends. It overlooks the Piney River here in Tennessee. I think they must like it. Not kids, but friendsPets are loving, loyal, and would die for you. They deserve to be given a decent rest at the end of their lives. Or would you rather they were just thrown in the garbage? My parents held funerals for our two turtles and one goldfish that passed on when we were very small. The little creatures were buried in the yard, in small jewelry boxes. I don't spend much on my cat and when she goes, she will have a simple, good sendoff. I hope that's a long time ahead. There is a pet cemetery very like this one near me, and I'm amazed at how long some of the animals lived. They obviously brought a lot of happiness to their humans. Four-legged kidsDogs and cats don't get drunk when they're 13 and come home pregnant and strung out on meth (OK, animals with roaming privileges still come home pregnant, but at least you can simply give away their unwanted offspring without any red tape). And they don't forget about or ignore you when you've grown old and useless. We're not that fancyBut our departed pets are all buried on our property, with pretty stones for markers. Our life is blessedly child-free and our pets are family and treated as such during and after their lives. No Glue FactoryAn old farmer down here, a distant relative, buried all of his horses and mules and put up markers for some of them. He kept this up through the 50's or early 60's. That's a lot of digging. Sleeps with the fishesFor my fish, I always say a few respectful words before giving them the big flush. Besides, this method of disposal does use water, their natural element. We used to name them too, but when you have 90 neon Tetras, the attrition rate is just too great to keep up! Touch a nerve?Wow, look at all the comments from people defending their right to spend their money how they want. It's your money, do with it as you wish. Dogs are wonderful animals, but as much as they love you they are entirely dependent on you and can do nothing to support you in your old age. I hope the person comparing a dog to a 13 year old child coming home drunk never ever has to take care of a child. If you have a child behaving in that fashion, it is your fault. Ask Notwhat your dog can do for you, ask what you can do for your dog. Aspin HillThis is one of the oldest pet cemeteries in the nation. I did volunteer clean-up work there in the summer of 2002. There are still plots available, but some of the older areas are overgrown. It's near the intersection of Connecticut and Georgia avenues. The Snook plotI live just down the road from the Aspen Hill pet cemetery, and I visited it today. I found the Snook plot. It's still there, although it was quite overgrown. What I'm assuming to be Buster's headstone, the one to the right of Boots, has since toppled onto its face and has grown over with weeds. The current state of the plot. You can make out the supports for the corners of the plot. The third grave from the right is Boots. Also in the Snook plot are: Trixie Snook Born July 5 1913 Died July 12, 1922 Finest Friends I ever had sleeping side by side, I love and miss you all --Mrs. S. Snook" http://tinyurl.com/Trixie-Snook Snowball Snook Born April 18 1908 Died July 8, 1922 Dear beloved pet. True, Faithful unto death Loved her dearly. http://tinyurl.com/Snowball-Snook Not a good year for the Snook Family. More on Aspen Hill Pet CemeteryI keep a fairly detailed and reasonably "up to the minute" pages on the Aspin Hill Pet Cemetery. Right now, not much is happening with it, though the County has condemned almost the entire property, and unless the Humane Society -- which is incredibly strapped for cash -- can bring it up to code by March, the County may just seize the property, which is most excellently located for use by the Developers who so vastly fund elections in this County. It's sad, it's the last little slice of pre-urban Maryland in this part of the County. More on Aspen Hill, in general, may be found at http://www.aspenhillnet.net Regards, Old Aspen Hill EmployeeI worked after school and summers for the Aspen Hill Pet Cemetery when I was in high school. It was very well kept then, and a interesting and attractive place to visit. Although I moved away from the area many years ago I have periodically returned. It is sad to see how the majority of the grounds have become overgrown and poorly maintained. The people who owned and operated it then are both buried in the cemetery along with several other humans. Several police dogs who died in the line of duty are buried there, and were put to rest with full honors and gun salutes. The "HOOVER" monument marks pets of one time FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. There are dozens of cats buried at the "TIMMONS" monument. There is a section for birds. Several horses are burried there. Normally we hand dug the graves. For the horses the adjacent human cemetery did the digging with power equipment. Because of the location there has long been a chance/risk of the land being re-purposed for business. I you want to see the place I wouldn't wait too long. A little more SnookHere's some more information and more pictures of Mrs Snook's dog funerals and Aspin Hill https://petcemeterystories.net/2018/05/31/aspin-hill-cemetery-for-pet-an... (The Gallery, Dogs, Natl Photo)
D-Day: New York
... with the the US Maritime Service at Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. Many of us teenagers had close relatives in the military and wished ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/06/2013 - 10:25am -

New York, June 6, 1944. ALLIED ARMIES LAND ON COAST OF FRANCE. GREAT INVASION OF CONTINENT BEGINS. "D-Day. Crowd watching the news line on the New York Times building at Times Square." Photo by Howard Hollem or Edward Meyer for the Office of War Information. View full size. Unidentified ObjectDoes anyone know what the curved metal object with letters on it is? It appears to be on top of a car on the right. [DeSoto "Sky View" taxicab sign. - Dave] Internet, 1944is what this could have been titled. The scrolling electric sign was as good as it got then, and I am sure those folks were fairly amazed to see it. I wonder what it took to program it? My great-uncle went in at D Day +60 (August 7) as a replacement in the 2nd Infantry Division (L Company, 23rd Infantry Regiment); he was seriously wounded at Brest, France, a month later, died in 1956...and I was named for him. That was never far from my mind when I served in Iraq in 2004 at the same age he was when he earned his Purple Heart and (I believe) a Bronze Star. To all those who went in on D-Day...and throughout WWII, I stand and salute. So what about that moving sign?According to various sources the NY Times installed the first moving "news ticker" in 1928, using 14,800 electric bulbs. Given the technology of the day, I can only guess that each bulb required a relay, which would have to click on and off almost instantly to momentarily light its bulb, as the text scrolls along. This must have been a maintenance challenge (there seems to be a few extra bulbs lit, and some brighter ones that may just have been replaced). They may have used or even invented the "matrix" technique still used today for LCD displays, which uses "crosspoint" wiring to greatly reduce the number of lines going from the elements to the control system, but my mind still boggles at the number of wires remaining, and what kind of electro-mechanical system translated "operator input" to the streaming text. If only Shorpy's world-wide readership included a retired electro-mechanical sign technician! Just the technology of the news line was something...Before zooming in to see the image full size, on first glance the guy on the left and the guy 2nd from the right were in a posture not to different than someone holding a cellphone to the ear. Of course it's clear they were dragging on fags, sucking on coffin nails, drawing down on Pall Malls while taking in the portentous news. As someone not born until 12 years after the war was over - I am fascinated by what day to day life in the US was like, mobilized for war. Of course I grew up knowing it was a success, but at that very moment, who knew how this was going to work out - the intensity of the moment, even for folks in the street in Times Square, must have been incredible. Pausing to rememberMy brother landed D-Day plus 12 and my uncle D-Day plus 20. They were lucky, I guess, and returned to us to live out long lives. Great photo. Really profound. 6-6-44Yet to be born, a twinkle in my father's eye as he dropped from the sky into Caen with the Canadians early that morning. RIP Dad. 23,740 days later Kind of Gladwe can't see many faces in the crowd. We'd have to start wondering what they were thinking -- Is my son there? My dad? My husband? My brother? Funny but I cannot summon up any memory of D-Day. VE and VJ Days, and the dropping of the two A-bombs are sharp and clear, but not D-Day. I think perhaps that it might relate to what happened in early May. I was out riding my trike when a Western Union messenger rode up on his bike and went into the three-family apartment in which I lived. I heard a terrible scream through the open windows of the first-floor unit. All the neighbors (women since the men were in the military or working) flocked to the apartment with screams continuing for some time. I learned that the woman's son had been killed in action. I did not totally understand the horror, but I was sad because the young man had been very nice to the punk kid airplane nut from the third floor, even letting me hold his model planes. The first-floor family were an elderly couple, with the one child, who had become a fighter pilot in the Pacific. The husband walked with heavy braces and crutches, and, as I later learned, they just quit and gave up life. They moved within days and we never heard from them again. I think that I was in a bit of a void for a while. Walking to churchOn January 6, 1944, I was 6 years old in Fort Smith, Arkansas, part of a young generation which at the time had no knowledge of a condition known as peace. On that day, my mother received a phone call from a fellow church member who was calling everyone in the congregation to say that the invasion was under way. This was the signal to come to the church to pray. Our family; mother, father and two boys walked to the church to pray for the safety and success of our "American Boys" on that day. DeSoto Sky ViewThose great old DeSoto cabs had a sliding roof panel to let passengers see the views above them while being carried through the Manhattan canyons. The skyscraper with the clock housed the Paramount Theatre, a wonderful place to visit for a movie and a live stage show. I saw Phil Spitalny and his "All-Girl Orchestra featuring Evelyn and her Magic Violin" there with my family. The movie was "Miss Susie Slagle's," starring Veronica Lake and Sonny Tufts. Bright Lights, Big SignRadio CoverageThe National Archives in College Park, Maryland has recordings of the entire NBC and CBS broadcast day from D-Day and anyone can go in and listen to them. It's a very good way to get a sense of what the day was like for people at home listening on the radio as events unfolded. News ZipperFrom a 2005 NYT article on the Zipper: The Motograph News Bulletin, to use its original formal name, began operation on Nov. 6, 1928, election night, as a band of 14,800 light bulbs that extended 380 feet long and 5 feet high around the fourth floor of what was then the Times Tower. It was installed for The New York Times by Frank C. Reilly, according to an article in The Times, which identified Mr. Reilly as the inventor of electric signs with moving letters. Inside the control room, three cables poured energy into transformers. The hookup to all the bulbs totaled 88,000 soldered connections. Messages from a ticker came to a desk beside a cabinet like the case that contained type used by old-time compositors. The cabinet contained thin slabs called letter elements. An operator composed the message, letter by letter, in a frame. The frame, when filled with the letters and spaces that spelled out a news item, was inserted in a magazine at one end of a track. A chain conveyor moved the track, and each letter in the frame brushed a number of electrical contacts. Each contact set a light flashing on Broadway. There were more than 39,000 brushes, which had to undergo maintenance each month. The frame with the letter elements passed up and overhead, forming an endless circuit. Mr. Reilly calculated that there were 261,925,664 flashes an hour. D-DayJune 6, 1944, I was 16 years old and in Basic Training with the the US Maritime Service at Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. Many of us teenagers had close relatives in the military and wished we were there with them to fight the Axis. A month later, I was in a North Atlantic convoy assigned to a 20 mm anti-aircraft gun hoping that a Nazi plane would dare to fly over. "I'd show 'em." Of course I didn't tell this to my shipmates. skyview cabI believe this is the light-up sign on top of the Sky-View Cab Company. It looks like neon. I was watching an old movie from the forties (?) on TCM and I noticed these cabs. They had a sunroof cut into the roof of the cab so the passengers in the back seat could look up and see the buildings. I can't remember the movie, but the plot involved the passenger looking up and seeing something relevant to the story line. It must have been a gimmick for the cab company. It also must have been one of the early sunroofs in a car! More SkyviewThe Skyview NYC Taxicab that the tipster may have seen on TCM was in the musical "Anchors Aweigh". The scene where Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly are Standing up and looking out at the city in Betty Garrett's Skyview cab. Those DeSoto Skyview Cabs were sold exclusively through James Waters Chrysler Agency in Long Island City, Queens. The price for a new one was about $1100. I once heard a story that he was Walter Chrysler's Son-in-Law but I can't confirm it. The Skyview cabs were all over the placewhen I lived in NYC from 1941 - 44. They were stretched DeSotos with a couple of fold-up seats and the roof had glass so that one could see the tall buildings. There was also a radio built into the armrest on the right. The driver turned it on and the passenger controlled the rest. I had many rides in those cabs. Hovercraft at D-Day@sjack: I don't mean to rain on your parade, and I certainly don't wish to denigrate the memory of your father and his courageous service to our nation in World War II, but I'm quite sure he didn't lower tanks onto hovercraft for the D-Day invasion of Normandy. The US Army did not make use of hovercraft until Viet Nam, and then it was only on an experimental basis. As your comment is titled, memories are funny sometimes. Perhaps your dad talked about loading tanks onto landing craft, not hovercraft, like the LST (landing ship tank) or smaller versions like the LCU (landing craft utility), which were flat-hulled vessels that could approach fairly close to the beach and lower a ramp on the bow, allowing troops and vehicles to exit. The Bronx is up but the Battery's down"New York, New York, A Helluva Town" was sung in the Broadway "On the Town" but for the film changed to "New York, New York, A Wonderful Town" because of those archaic Hollywood codes at that time. Los Angeles may have our Dodgers but they don't have our songs or our Skyview Cabs. RememberingDuring my early teen's in the 1950's I was invited along on several fishing trips with 3 WWII veterans. One had been an Army Ranger, one a sailor who had been on the Murmansk Run, and the third a paratrooper. You can imagine the banter among those guys. The Ranger was in the D-Day invasion and had been wounded in the buttocks. The Navy vet always asked him how he could have sustained that injury advancing from the beach. Curiously, the paratrooper never spoke any particulars of his service. They're gone now, but I remember them being nice to this kid. Thanks guys. UnawareJune 6, 1944 - I was happily gestating in my mother's womb and would be born during the Battle of the Bulge (no relation to mom's condition). My dad, drafted in 1940 into the 7th Cavalry (yes, Custer's old outfit) had been converted into armor and was preparing to sail overseas to a place called Leyte Gulf in the Philippines where he would be wounded and spend the rest of the war, plus another year, in Letterman Hospital in S.F. Until his death in 1996 he could remember most of his company's buddies names and the names of their horses. More on radio coverageThe NBC and CBS D-Day broadcasts are available at the Internet Archive. NBC: http://archive.org/details/NBCCompleteBroadcastDDay CBS: http://archive.org/details/Complete_Broadcast_Day_D-Day That woundHow your Ranger probably caught that one: We were taught in training that buttocks wounds were very common; moving forward under fire without decent cover, one crawls. It is most difficult to accomplish this without making your buttocks the highest point of your body! Let us never forget the men of D-Day.An awful lot of them gave up their tomorrows so we could enjoy our todays. 'On The Town'Is the movie 'Mr. Mel' is thinking of; 'Anchors Aweigh' is set in Hollywood. Right Stars, wrong movie. 'Lest We Forget'A line from Ford's 'She wore a Yellow Ribbon' that fits this day so well. Odd TriviaThere are a couple of boats trading on the Great Lakes today that were at the Normandy invasion. One still carries the battle ribbons with stars on her bridge wings. One other point is that the Times building was of very attractive design before it was covered up with billboards. Communiqué No. 1I followed the NBC link provided by hlupak604 and listened to some of the radio coverage and heard, more than once, the short text of Communiqué No. 1 from Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force, which appears to form the basis for the scrolling text on the news zipper. It runs as follows: "Under the command of General Eisenhower, allied naval forces, supported by strong air forces, began landing allied armies this morning on the northern coast of France." Thanks! Uncle SamMy uncle Sam (no pun intended) landed at Omaha Beach, and immediately sustained an injury to his head. He was fitted with a metal plate to replace the part of his skull that he lost. Needless to say, his fighting days were over. However, he went on to be become an accomplished auto mechanic. Family, friends, and neighbors all asked him for automotive advice. He passed away last year at the age of 90. Thanks, Uncle Sam! - because of your sacrifices, I am free today to write this. Yeah, I remember.Although we didn't know it at the time, my brother was in the sand of Utah Beach just then. He survived the war. I remember vividly the headlines in The Detroit Times that afternoon, "WE WIN BEACHES". Due to the time difference, of course, there was plenty of fresh news of the invasion in the afternoon paper. I've been a news junkie since. May we never forgethow brave these men were. My uncle fought in Okinawa in 1945, unfortunately he never made it out alive. I still have the last letter he wrote to his "beloved mama", what a sweet soul he was. Bless them one and all. Memories are funny sometimesMy father was on a supply ship in the English Channel on D Day, lowering tanks into hovercraft that were being sent to French beach heads. Many, many, times I tried to discuss his experiences that day but he never really had much to say. He said that on D Day he was "on the water" (in the Channel) and they were pretty much working constantly getting the tanks loaded and shipped. They slept whenever they could he said. He landed at Utah beach (but didn't say when) and moved up the coast doing whatever was asked (he was in a supply unit) until he got to Belgium. And that was pretty much all I got out of him. His shared memories of the battle of the Bulge were even more meager ("it was very cold"). I'm jealous of people whose fathers discussed their war experiences; mine just didn't seem to want to share. Cold for JuneI realize most people dressed up in public back then, but most of the women in the photo are wearing overcoats. It must have been cold in New York that June day in 1944. Hovercraft tanks, sort ofOne of many unique innovations for the D Day invasion was the "Duplex Drive" tank, essentially a standard Sherman tank which was fitted with an inflatable, collapsible canvas screen and twin screw props which would enable the tank to float like a boat and wade ashore. Unfortunately, the contraption worked best in calm water, something that was in short supply off the Normandy coast that day. I remember a buddy of mine whose dad had served with the US Navy at the invasion re-telling his dad's stories of the DD tanks being dropped off in deeper, rough water due to enemy fire and sinking like rocks. Fortunately enough of the tanks were able to make it on shore to provide badly needed armor support for the ground troops, and the tanks were deemed successful enough to serve in the invasion of Southern France two months later, as well as during numerous river crossing operations during the remainder of 1944 and 1945. Good article with photos of the tanks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DD_tank Full messageI believe the full message read: "ALLIES LAND ON NORTHERN COAST OF FRANCE UNDER STRONG AIR COVER" (The Gallery, Howard Hollem, NYC, WW2)
Mass Transit: 1910
... version of an image first posted here in 2008. Brooklyn, N.Y., circa 1910. "Atlantic Avenue subway entrance." Plus an elevated ... and streaming light into the station. If I still lived in Brooklyn, I'd get a photo. You can see it here, photographed from Flatbush ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/14/2020 - 1:25pm -

        A better-quality version of an image first posted here in 2008. Brooklyn, N.Y., circa 1910. "Atlantic Avenue subway entrance." Plus an elevated railway and streetcar tracks. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Rock and FultonLooks like the poster for the Brighton Beach Music Hall (which later became a Yiddish theater) is advertising William Rock and Maude Fulton. They were apparently heading the bill written about here in the Aug. 7, 1910, New York Times. Still StandingThe subway entrance in the foreground is still there. The elevated and the railroad terminal building are not. The Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street subway station is home to (If I remember correctly) nine subway lines. The LIRR still has its terminus at Flatbush Avenue. Because of the great mass transit, this is the site where the NJ Nets are building their new arena. The surface traffic is horrendous now. That's why the neighborhood is pretty much against building the arena. BreezyI would think that those open-sided cars get a little breezy. Then and NowThe tracks are gone and the Long Island RR Building in the back was transformed into a mall. The small building on the Island that says "Atlantic Avenue" is still there. My son lives around the corner. I'll take a picture and post it for everyone to see. Love the open-sided subway cars!Can we assume these cars ran aboveground at all times? You couldn't go underground in these cars. Or you could.....but you'd need hosing down at the end of the ride. NYC TransitI used to ride these cars as a kid. The transportation system in NYC was so far superior before 1940, at a nickel a pop for over 40 years, that people today cannot even imagine how easily, safely, and pleasantly it was back then. To El and BackJune 1, 1940, was when the City of New York took over the trolleys, elevated railways and subways of the BMT and began the abandonments. The Fifth Avenue El, the Fulton Street El, Fulton Street trolleys, Gates Avenue trolleys and Putnam Halsey cars ran their last on May 30. Both Els were torn down the summer of 1941. Atlantic AvenueThe subway entrance is still there, but it's no longer in use as such. The MTA renovated it when it expanded and refurbished the Atlantic Avenue subway station, but because the entrance is on a traffic island in the middle of a very busy intersection, you can no longer use it to enter the station. Instead, it now serves as a skylight for the underground station. There's a spot in the station where you can stand about 20 or 30 feet underneath the old station house, look up, and see it directly above you, hollowed out and streaming light into the station. If I still lived in Brooklyn, I'd get a photo. You can see it here, photographed from Flatbush Avenue: View Larger Map The mall that 9:26 AT refers to you would be behind you in this shot. I tried to get a Google Map image from the vantage point of the 1910 photo, but a large truck was between the Google Map camera and the old station entrance. I believe the 1910 image was photographed from roughly where the PC Richard currently stands. There's a much better view of the current state of the old entrance here, in a photo from April of this year: http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?82823 You can also see it, boarded over and in disrepair, in this 1997 photo: http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?426 Finally, the New York Times has a good article from 2003 about the renovation of the Atlantic Avenue station, including a couple of paragraphs about the old station house. I used the station daily during the renovation, and the work they did was remarkable. Ashcan schoolThe Ashcan school of artists was known for painting New York street scenes similar to this. John Sloan's famous and, in this writer's opinion, beautiful painting, Six O'Clock, Winter, painted in 1912, may have been painted at this station or a similar one in the city. Open platform El carsAfter the Malbone Street wreck in 1918, wooden cars were banned from the subways. Open-platform wooden cars continued to be used on the Els in Brooklyn until 1958, when the last of the "BU" El cars ran on Myrtle Avenue. The IRT ran wood open platform El cars in Manhattan and the Bronx until the early 1950s. In 1938 the "Q" class El cars had steel ends added to enclose the open platforms of 1903 wood El cars; they were used on the Flushing line for the 1939 World's Fair. After that the "Q" cars ran on the Third Avenue El in Manhattan and the Bronx before finishing out their days on Myrtle Avenue in 1969. Open platform El cars were typical of rapid transit from the 1870s through the mid teens. They were labor intensive, with a conductor needed between every two cars. A nicer timeI live not far from here, and this photo is so much nicer than what it is today -- a mall with trash and insane traffic. Makes me wish I was there back in 1910. Polka dots and moonbeamsI'd love to make the acquaintance of the lovely lady in polka dots. And, check out the lady's amazing hat! Fashion ForwardThe lovely lady in the polka dot dress must just have gotten back from Paris, as she is wearing the latest Paul Poiret inspired hobble skirt/pagoda tunic, with a Japanese- bridal style hat. All of the other ladies in the photo, with full flared skirts, blousson bodices, and huge, but very lightweight picture hats will be following her style by next Spring, at the latest. Famous time travelers caught on glass Now it can be told: many celebrities were also, in fact, secret travelers through time. Although I am not at liberty to disclose their methods, I am permitted to point out a few well known faces. On the far left, we see W.C. Fields, wearing false whiskers, attempting to look casual. Moving right, we see a stylish Brian Donlevy striking a pose as he boldly looks directly at the camera. Just behind the policeman on the right is a young Gary Cooper, who is not quite as tall as he would be later in life. The young lady in the au courant outfit is lovely Laura La Plante. And now we come to the true master of time travel, Charles Durning, who is both the policeman on the right *and* the man in the white hat, on the other side of the pole, with his back to his policeman self. Take the "A" train.Unlike the other els mentioned, the Fulton Street el (in the picture) had been replaced by a subway before being torn down. Through service to Manhattan at last. Yes, the "A" train. "Circa 1910" indeedThere's no "circa" about it given that the "3 Eagles" newsstand is displaying the Aug 6, 1910, issues of The Saturday Evening Post . My old stomping groundsBefore my transfer to Garden City. View of the same location October 2018. By the way the Brooklyn Daily Eagle is archived for free online access: https://bklyn.newspapers.com/ About the policemen's hatsAccording to the Internet (so it must be true), the New York City police wore "custodian helmets," grey for summer and blue for winter, from 1880 to 1912. (The Gallery, DPC, NYC, Railroads, Streetcars)
Clam Chowder Today: 1905
... window It could be Francie. It could. A Tree Grows In Brooklyn was my favorite book as a young adult and this detailed photograph ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/14/2012 - 2:37pm -

New York City circa 1905. "Exterior of tenement." The longer you look at this, the more you'll see. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Time for some road repairWow, that's a nasty bit of road in front of that building. HauntingBest face-in-a-window shot in a long time. Looks like a painting, and speaks of timeless solitude across a century. 308Who'll be the first to post a Street View? S&H Green StampsAnd here I thought they were a product of the 1950s, or earlier. ["Earlier" would seem to be correct. - Dave] Pop. 2So far I see two people in this photo. Not counting George McClellan. I wanna buy that mason a beer!Those are the coolest headers I've ever seen! There's probably a term for that style, for all I know. The cobblestones on the street are another story. No doubt a mosquito plague after every rain. DeepI think I lost a truck in that pothole. Scared the bejesus out of me!The shadowy lady in the doorway! And the pensive woman in the window looks so lost in thought. The people in this photo are the best part! Down in flamesHmmm, fire escapes that go nowhere. Maybe notI was thinking of swiping something out of that tool chest, then I read the label! Loafer DeterrentThose sharp triangles on the top of the railings look to be very effective at keeping people from sitting on them. [Also effective for loafing pigeons -- note that they're also on the lower rung. - Dave] Trading stampsThat S&H Green Stamp sign would be quite a collectible now. Sperry & Hutchinson began in 1896. They're still around, just virtual. Give the man a steak to go with the beer!The brickwork is fantastic. Look at the fancy work above the second floor windows and the double diamondwork up the walls. I have never seen diamondwork in brick before. It does not survive.308 East 40th Street (courtesy of the 1915 city directory). View Larger Map Chillin at the windowI count two windowsill milk bottles. Plus some paper-wrapped packages, maybe meat or butter. I just figured it outWhy do vintage street lamps always those two arms sticking out? To support a ladder for maintenance! Thank you!Clicking on these photos to get the full-size view is like opening gifts! I'm thrilled every time. Thank you. Tudor City308 East 40th Street in Manhattan is just off Second Avenue on the south side of the street and just a few doors away from the Tudor City apartment and park complex. Back in the 1980's, there were some terrific restaurants in that immediate area. Tenement?In New York City a "tenement" is considered to be a small (under five story with no elevator) overcrowded run-down building. The houses on the Lower East Side in the early 1900s were tenements. 308 East 40th Street does not fit that description. [Meanings change over time. Strictly speaking, a tenement is any tenanted building, i.e. apartment house. Below, NYC real-estate listings from 1905. - Dave] GaslightThe lamplighter would lean his ladder against those arms. It's a gas!I see that H. Kino the Tailor still uses gaslights (in the front window) -- but seeing as how this building was a "tenement," I suppose electrification was a low priority. Fire EscapesThe two "Fire Escapes" I guess are not balconies but have no apparent way to get down to street and away from the conflagration. The only thing I can figure is the NYFD would come and raise a ladder to them. We can't tell how tall the building is but I imagine no more than four or five stories [Actually, seven. - Dave]. The fire escapes for the floors above must be on the sides and rear of the building. I am having trouble identifying the metal bracket affixed to the wall between the tailor shop window and it's door. It looks like it could have held a hanging sign but appears to be too low. Morning scrubbingThe lady in at the doorway seems to be scrubbing the floors. You can see the water dripping down the front step. Graffiti If you zoom in you can see initials chalked on the bricks. JuniorIn spite of the apparent distaste someone in this neighborhood had for George B. McClellan, he won his mayoral campaign. The name sounds familiar, of course, and the man on the poster is the son of Civil War General George B. McClellan. He served as mayor of New York City from 1904 to 1909 (he was elected first for a two-year term, and then for a four-year term). Apparently he was a little moralistic, and canceled all motion-picture exhibition licenses on Christmas Eve 1908. Perhaps that's why he was not encouraged to run for reelection for the 1910 term. Once, tenements were even respectableLovely curtains, with lace or bobbles or fringe, at every window. No broken glass. Well-kept and middle-class. Jacob Riis had shown New York tenements as nothing but degrading slums. "How The Other Half Lives" was only 15 years old when this photograph was made. But there was always a strong sense of middle-class values that resided in the people who lived in the "better" tenements. They embraced the Settlement House movement, strove to present a "decent" face to the world, and certainly didn't want to be tarred with the same label as those dirty, disreputable slum-dwellers downtown. What an amazing image. There's so much we've forgotten. Thank you for reminding us. George B. McClellan JrMayor of New York 1904-1909. Born in Dresden, Germany, and son of Gen. McClellan of Civil War blundering. Elmer's GantryOn the wall above the cellar stairs, there's a triangular rig for hoisting stuff up out of the basement. Where'd the cart go?There are two other photos of this tenement in the Library of Congress collection. They look much more inhabited and show how this image might have been manipulated for effect -- the other images show the address number (curiously missing here), the awning down, and a cart of produce in front of the building, a much more inviting view. [Nothing was "manipulated." You can't see the address numbers because they're on the front doors, which are both open in this view. - Dave] Lace Curtain IrishIf this is chowda, it must be Friday. When I was a kid, every Friday was meatless and during that era, the better-off Irish were referred to as titled. Likewise the Polish people who were "comfortable" were "silk stocking Poles" and my father used to call us cotton stocking Poles. Both ethnicities were Catholic and Friday always meant seafood, (Irish were also referred to as "mackerel snappers) and odors of frying fish, tuna salad and chowda permeated the neighborhoods. My mom made three kinds of chowda, New England with a creamy, white base, Manhattan with a tomato base and lots of vegetables and Rhode Island which was a lighter version of the N.E. kind but with added broth. I love them all but also miss the smell of everybody's tuna and onion sandwiches at school lunch and fish frying aromas wafting through our town at supper time. I do remember that fresh mackerel was ten cents a pound and almost everyone could afford it. Thanks for the great nostalgic picture, the despairing lady in the window seems trapped and scared, there has to be a story there. Windowsill gardenI love the window with all the plants in it! Hard to tell what they are, though it looks like one may be an orchid. I wonder if they were purely ornamental or if some were herbs for cooking. Either way, you've got to cram as many as you can into your available sunny spaces! Francie is gazing out the windowIt could be Francie. It could. A Tree Grows In Brooklyn was my favorite book as a young adult and this detailed photograph brings a better understanding of the novel. Almost "Norman Rockwell"Imagine a 5000-piece picture puzzle with this photo as the topic! I LEARN so much from the comments!This is one of my favorite sites for resting my weary eyes during work breaks. And while I certainly savor the photos, so many layers are added by the comments. Thank you, everyone, for sharing your knowledge. Holy horse dung!Having lived in Manhattan for 12 (yes, only 12) years and having moved away, this photo leaves me speechless. The detail of the photographic process is amazing and the subtle (and somewhat hidden) joys on view here make me wanna head back for any chowder--even the famous Gowanus Canal Chow. All the sights, smells and sounds of the greatest city on earth come back to me. Many thanks. I now live on this spotOr possibly right next to it. I live in the Churchill, a 33-story apartment building at 300 East 40th Street - it takes up the entire block between 39th and 40th Street, and 2nd Avenue and Tunnel Entrance Street. 308 was either torn down to make room for the Churchill (built 1968) or possibly during the building of the Midtown tunnel and its approaches (1936-40). What am I missing?Just wondering how "swein" determined that this was E. 40th; might I be enlightened on this "1915 directory"? I'm half-cringing in anticipation of a "duh" moment but I've looked over the pic & the comments -- and I'm not getting it. [Swein consulted the 1915 Manhattan City Directory for Wm. Inwood, Grocer, and found a listing that matched the 308 address in the window. - Dave] Do You Supposethe Sicilian Asphalt Company also offered a line of concrete shoes? (The Gallery, DPC, NYC, Stores & Markets)
Motley Crew: 1897
"Hogan's Alley." Below decks aboard the U.S.S. Brooklyn circa 1897. Glass negative by Edward H. Hart, Detroit Publishing ... he doesn't catch diseases. "New Navy" Brooklyn was a large (10,000 ton) armored cruiser commissioned in 1896; she was ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/14/2012 - 11:14am -

"Hogan's Alley." Below decks aboard the U.S.S. Brooklyn circa 1897. Glass negative by Edward H. Hart, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Black SailorsApparently the navy in 1896 wasn't as segregated as it would later become. At the beginning of the 20th Century there were Black sailors in most of the enlisted departments of the Navy; the first Black to make CPO was Chief Gunners Mate John Henry Turpin who enlisted in 1896 and was promoted to Chief in 1917. Increasingly policy pushed new enlistments into "servant" roles. In 1919 the Navy instituted a "Whites Only" policy - Blacks who were already in the Navy could continue in their various areas until they retired but Blacks who wanted to enlist in the Navy were refused. This policy lasted until 1932 but only as stewards and mess attendants. That only changed after the start of World War II and the well publicized heroics of Mess Attendant Doris "Dorrie" Miller at Pearl Harbor. All enlisted ratings were opened (or should I say RE-opened) to all races in 1942 and the first Black officers were commissioned in 1944. The Varmit PitTo quote http://www.olgoat.com/substuff/dex14.htm Remember "The Alley"? On Requin, it was six racks in the after battery - outboard - aft of the well manhole. Home of the most senior, most worthless non rated wild men on the boat. The nest where every harebrain prank, underhanded scheme, diabolical plot and stupid idea germinated, hatched and blossomed forth. Yup, you got it - the Varmit Pit. The ringleader of this band of unrepentent idiots was known as the Mayor of the Alley. The motto was: "If you ain't heard a good rumor in four hours... Start one." In the annals of Naval history, Hogan's Alley ranks right up there with pirate dens and the foc'sle of the HMS Bounty. A rat hole whose only redeeming feature lay in the fact that the wardroom always knew where the "usual suspects" were camped out and could be rounded up. On Requin, it was known to anyone above Ensign as the "Headache Factory." New viewpoint on race relations in the military.Wow, an integrated crew in 1897! I never realized that would have existed. That would be worth researching. BombletsI'm fascinated by those three bottles on the wall. I wonder what they might have been for? Restoring Hogan's AlleyWhat a great shot! I am the curator on Requin, the (now-museum) submarine Dex Armstrong speaks of in his musings. We are currently working on a plan for restoring our Hogan's Alley to its former glory, but have to keep it family friendly, so it will never be the same! I have to say, when former sailors come onboard, the place where they become most wistful is Hogan's Alley- on any boat, in any era, was and is more than a home away from home. It's like a kid's bedroom, treehouse, playground, and alley behind the comic book store where they sneak to look at Playboys absconded from the back of Dad's closet. The plaquesSay what? [The big one gives cubic footage for "inner bunker" and "outer bunker." - The others say "sluice." Dave] Hygiene Below DecksA sailor travels to many lands, anywhere he pleases. And he always remembers to wash his hands, so he doesn't catch diseases. "New Navy"Brooklyn was a large (10,000 ton) armored cruiser commissioned in 1896; she was new when this picture was taken. However the "period" details show how much of the "New Navy" of steel ships that started in the 1880's melded traditional and "new" features. Above the steel beams is wooden deck planking, not just sheathing but the real thing; it had to be caulked now and then to prevent leaks. (You can still see this detail if you visit the museum ship Olympia in Philadelphia.) The deck the men are sitting/standing on is also wood planked. Those beams have plaques with labels attached to their webs (wish I could read them, they aren't quite sharp enough on my computer even at high res). Note the hooks: are these hammock hooks like in the Age of Sail? The crew uniforms are evidently not standardized -- note the varied hats and the special, pointy shoes worn by the black sailor in the center foreground, sitting on the deck. Black sailors served on USN ships routinely before the Civil War but afterward, most sources say they could only be cooks and stewards. Maybe this wasn't true yet in 1897? Because of my sea time on recent Navy ships I at first thought the numbered bins on the left were crew lockers. Looking more carefully at the rack with canvas bags hanging from it in the left lower corner of the photo, I'm not so sure -- those bags might have been "sea bags" for personal effects, meaning lockers hadn't been introduced yet? The ventilator in the left upper corner, on the other hand, looks amazingly "modern." There was forced air ventilation (first used in USS Monitor) on this ship. But there was no air conditioning! The flash for this photo must have been terribly bright -- the sailors nearest the camera have their eyes closed. Lots of good details, as I've come to expect from Shorpy. In Case of FireThose are fire extinguishers. You threw them at the base of the fire where they shattered and (hopefully) put the fire out. My grade school still had them hanging in the hallways in the 1960s. Fire GrenadesI believe those bottles are fire grenades. Probably filled with carbon tetrachloride. Re: "New Navy"The Fire Grenades were filled with a mixture of sodium bicarbonate, but worked just like described in a previous post. The large plaques describe capacity of these particular coal bunkers in this part of the ship. The "sluice" may describe the discharge overboard of the coal ash from down in the fire room. To the viewer's left, on the racks, are the crew's "Ditty Boxes." These were issued to each Sailor for stowage of his personal items. The Sailors in the middle of the photo are playing cards on one. Uniforms were stowed in sea bags, which are lashed to the pipe racks below the boxes. The numbers on the Ditty Boxes correspond to the numbers on the hammock clews (hooks). These numbers would be on the small labels by each hook (can't discern in the photo...) This number corresponds to the number on the muster list that was assigned to each crewman when he reported aboard. While obviously posed, this photo still shows how crowded Navy ships were then. Manpower still reined over technology then. Black GangI suspect some, if not all, of the crew members shown here were part of Brooklyn's "black gang," those whose work space was the ship's engine rooms where they shoveled coal into the maw of furnaces or kept the machinery oiled and operating. The coveralls and generally, uh, not spotless personal appearance of some of the sailors lends weight to my guess. Young saltsLooking into these faces is amazing. First thought that came to me -- these guys were not plagued by a lot of self-doubt. Ha. Very interesting!My great uncle served on the USS Baltimore at the battle of Manila Bay. Nice series of shots! Hogan's AlleyHogan's Alley was an 1890s comic strip. Wacky characters doing wacky things. The "Yellow Kid" was a principal. One of the first comic strips. Very popular in that time. It is interesting that a submariner talks about a Hogan's Alley aboard his boat. During my naval service in the 40s, 50s, 60s, I can't recall ever hearing the term. Maybe I've forgotten but I don't think so. A web search didn't turn up much either. Great navy photos! Thank you very much. Fire GrenadesYes, the three round bottles hanging on the right are Harden Star Hand Fire Grenades. They were made of fragile glass usually filled with carbon tetrachloride, a very popular fire extinguishing agent at one time. Carbon tet is a halogen and attacks the chemical chain reaction of fire (tetrahedron) rather than the normal avenues (fire triangle). Later used as Halon in complex fire extinguishing systems and was quite effective, and with sensitive detection equipment would even extinguish an an explosion before dangerous pressures could develop. The grenades were thrown at the base of a fire, breaking the glass and hoping the extinguishing agent put a dent in the fire. They had various colors and the one in my collection is a wonderful cobalt blue. Carbon tetrachloride was also a very popular cleaning agent especially in auto repair shops, my Father growing up using it. Under high temperatures carbon tetrachloride formed phosgene gas, and finally determined to be not so good to use on a fire in enclosed areas. The CFC fraud finally put an end to carbon tetrachloride. Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) mixed in water was generally used only as half of the propelling agent combined with sulfuric acid to produce CO2 gas, expelling water under pressure onto a fire with the water doing the work. As opposed to dry chemical extinguishers which used sodium bicarbonate extensively. Hazing must have been roughI would fear being the new guy tossed into the hold with the likes of these old salts. I'd bet they made life miserable until they deemed you a worthy shipmate! (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, E.H. Hart)
The Young Readers: 1941
Feb. 1, 1941. "Brooklyn Public Library (Ingersoll Memorial), Prospect Park Plaza. Librarian's ... thought was chaps, but a riding a pony to the library in Brooklyn in 1941 SEEMS unlikely. Would those perhaps be to cover leg ... Nine out of Ten are Goils Seems rather strange that in Brooklyn there were nine goils (Brooklyn accent) to every boy. How will they ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/05/2012 - 7:08pm -

Feb. 1, 1941. "Brooklyn Public Library (Ingersoll Memorial), Prospect Park Plaza. Librarian's desk, sharp view." 5x7 acetate by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size. WTF?Full leathers on the girl at the counter? Left her Harley outside? And the young lady dressed from the waist up as a little girl and as a soldier from the waist down! Interesting AttairFeb 1941, the young lady, closes to the camera wearing winter leggings. Then the young man next to her in shorts! Yes there is snow outside. On the shelf"The smallest one was Madeline." Are those boots?On that young lady in front, are those boots or some kind of brace? Leg bracesIt looks like the little girl to left has leg braces. Is this how they use to treat polio after the fact? Polio Leg BracesA not-uncommon sight before the Salk and Sabin vaccines. These have a leather zip-up winter cover. Girl in the foreground...What the heck is the footwear she's wearing? Signs of NewnessThey must have just opened the building. A fresh bulb garden and all the cupboards behind the desk are empty. I suppose librarians are extra tidy though. Floors could also use a waxing. The leather-lookI love those leather gaiters the girl up front is wearing! All zips and buckles! I'd have killed for a pair of those. Sadly, I was stuck wearing snow pants and galoshes like the girl at the back of the line. She's got her dress tucked into her pants, too, I'll bet. In 1968, we (the Grade 7 and 8 girls) had a sit-in to protest not being able to wear pants in school. We won. Nothing like having to walk to school in -20 temps in bare legs or have to wear snow pants under your mini-skirt. MadeleineSeventy years later, my daughter has the same Madeleine book in the background. First thing I thought of was how these young lives were changed by December of that year. I hate budget cuts!A brand new library and not one table or chair for these kids. Team LibrarianI wonder how many librarians it took to raise those blinds to the top of the window. The first young lady in front of the deskhas some leggings(?) on. My first thought was chaps, but a riding a pony to the library in Brooklyn in 1941 SEEMS unlikely. Would those perhaps be to cover leg braces? Polio was my second thought. Anyone remember something of the sort? [The consensus seems to be that they might be covers for leg braces of the type worn by kids who've had polio. - Dave] Nine out of Ten are GoilsSeems rather strange that in Brooklyn there were nine goils (Brooklyn accent) to every boy. How will they all find dates for the prom in ten years? My AuntMy aunt, who had muscular dystrophy, wore leggings just like those to cover her leg braces when she was a girl in the 1950s. Cold LegsHaving been a little girl in the 1940s before girls were allowed to wear slacks or pants to school, I know how cold it was wearing little cotton dresses and bobby socks in the winter. Many of the girls who had access to riding jodhpurs or snow pants wore them to school over their dresses. They had to be checked into the cloakroom for the school day. How I envied them. My mother thought the winter weather in San Francisco not cold enough to go to the expense of buying a pair of snow pants for me. I did finally talk her into buying me some knee socks. Leg bracesMy uncle was wounded in the Korean war and had to wear leg braces that were attached permanently to boots. The little girl's shoes do resemble those boots quite a bit, right down to the heel. "I'm Elaine and these are my socks."Take your eyes off the gaiters and check out the third girl from the left. Were monogrammed socks in style in 1941 or was Elaine just fearful of sock thieves? Feb. 1, 1941This was the day the library opened to the public after four years of construction. History of the Library. Polio leg bracesI recall that my dad's sister spent 13 years on her back looking into a tiny mirror mounted above her iron lung machine after she was stricken by polio. When a cure was slowly produced my aunt Anita Moe became well enough to undergo an operation to fuse her hip and leg to a point where she could walk with the aid of a cane and a similar leg brace and shoe. My heart goes out to that little girl. I'll bet she was teased quite a bit. She became the Chairperson for the Chicago Heart Foundation until stricken by a stroke and soon her life ended. (The Gallery, Education, Schools, Gottscho-Schleisner, Kids, NYC)
Acorn Buggy Co.: 1909
... his seed. Did someone from Cincinnati buy the Brooklyn Bridge? Sure has a similar design. [Cincinnati's Roebling Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge were both designed by John Roebling. - Dave] Memories of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/12/2012 - 3:17pm -

Circa 1909. "Cincinnati from Mount Adams." The continuation of our previous view of the Queen City. Among the enterprises whose names are blazoned across the factory district's smoky skyline: Acorn Buggy Company, Cincinnati Bag ("Cotton, Seamless and Burlap") and of course J. Chas. McCullough, "Seedsman." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. The More Things ChangeI was a bit surprised to see that a whole cluster of buildings at the left are still there today. The huge warehouse with the two water towers (Tailors L.E. Hays etc.) has had a modern makeover, and the 5th Street/Columbia Parkway Viaduct now slides in just to the right of it. The Taft Museum and its back yard, part of a small enclave of wealthy residences, can be seen poking out from the left of the warehouse. The two buildings at the very left edge of the shot remain, sans smokestack. Aerial photo. The street coming towards us is 5th, and Eggleston is running left to right behind the Seeds building and Acorn Buggy. FechheimerFechheimer Brothers was, and apparently still is, one of the major suppliers of postal uniforms. I note their home page says they've been in Cincy since 1842, and that in addition to their foreign plants maintain three stateside union operations, presumably to cater to the union-heavy trades. Spillinghis seed. Did someone from Cincinnati buythe Brooklyn Bridge? Sure has a similar design. [Cincinnati's Roebling Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge were both designed by John Roebling. - Dave] Memories of CincyI grew up in Cincy in the 40s and 50s in Walnut Hills, Mount Auburn, and Hyde Park. Reader Jeff mentioned Eggleston Avenue. It was near the Mt. Adams Incline which I rode many times as a kid; what a view it had at night with the open summer cars. He also mentioned Columbia Parkway which was an early day version of an expressway. When it reached downtown, its viaduct crossed Eggleston and you could always smell the spices being made at the Frank Tea and Spice Conpany down below. Columbia then became 5th Street which went to Fountain Square and Government Square in the heart of downtown. White HouseI believe that white house with the tree-lined triangular yard (that looks like a small park) might be the home of William Howard Taft. It is the Taft Museum, today. Uniform tailorsWhen I was in high school we bought new band uniforms from Fechheimers. How funny that would come up after all these years! Procter and GambleHad already been around Cincy for 70 years when this pic was made. One more pan to the rightand just maybe we will see my favorite Cincinnati business, Lunkenheimer Valve. More on the BridgeConcerning Chris's remark on the similarities between the Cincinnati and Brooklyn suspension bridges, they are both the product of the Roeblings (John and Washington). The Cincinnati bridge (1867) is a predecessor of the Brooklyn bridge (1883), is still in service, and currently being repaired and repainted. The deck is metal grating and "sings" when driven over. You can see the river through the deck, which is a thrill to ride a bicycle over. http://www.roeblingbridge.com/historyb.html (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Cincinnati Photos, DPC, Factories)
Boardwalk Empire: 1910
... The set is located at Newtown Creek and the East River, Brooklyn side in NYC. It is surrounded with cargo containers stacked four high ... Google Earth: Dupont and Franklin St., Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY (Panoramas, Atlantic City, DPC, Swimming, Travel & Vacation) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/20/2012 - 3:36pm -

Atlantic City, N.J., circa 1910. "Boardwalk, Hotel Marlborough-Blenheim and Young's Million-Dollar Pier." There are a zillion interesting details in this panorama made from four 8x10 inch glass negatives. View full size. Just imagineTo be able to take for granted that you will walk outside to such beautiful buildings, a boardwalk where everyone is nicely dressed and you can even walk six abreast, sweeping lawns, spacious streets, peaceful porches to rock on, an almost empty beach to sit on. They probably took much of it for granted and certainly didn't know how amazing and wonderful it would look to me 100 years hence. A Monumental ChallengeDo any of our talented colorizers dare tackle such a sweeping scene? Are any of these buildings still standing?Maybe someone familiar with Atlantic City knows. I've never been there. AmazingThe scope of the shot is breathtaking! From the chimney that needs repair in the lower right corner and the "hidden" clotheslines on that roof, to the confection of the M-B to the Pier and the vistas beyond and the wonderfully random set of tracks throught the sand. These people wouldn't recognize Atlantic City today. Such detail. All in focus.This is a fantastic photo. You might even say it took my breath away. Nice to see an old shot like this and have everything look so new and clean. I'm amazed to see so much built in 1910. I'm going to have to do some research and discover the Atlantic City timeline. I was always under the impression it lagged behind Coney Island, but here it looks as though they were in place about the same time. Amazing DetailThis is just a fabulous image. It's fascinating to study the various hotels (I assume), porches, rooflines plus the people on the boardwalk and beach. It just goes on and on. Mary PoppinsApart from the cigarette ad, it could be a Disney film set. Wonderful photo. Photography and condimentsNice view of another set of tripod legs and camera just below the apparent center view point of this pan. And just to the bottom right a wood headed greenhouse with the little cart of wood right beside the wood heater. Windows of the spice/condiment bays stored neatly behind the hedge in back of the green house. You can almost imagine the year long work of someone to make sure this operation always provides fresh things for the chef. Steve BuscemiAnyone who's watched "Boardwalk Empire" has to believe many of these photos must have been used to create the CGI backgrounds they use for various shots. [The "Boardwalk Empire" production company is one of our print customers. -Dave] A Lot of GasI see at least four gasometers (gas holders) in the photo. The Twin TowersDoes anyone know what purpose two tall pillars or columns, might serve on the central hotel with the dome and all the gingerbread? They seem strange and lonely. Couldn't be elevator works inside, or ... what? [Chimneys. - Dave] Coney & ACConey Island became what it is because of the availability of public transportation. The first subway line or El trains were built in the late 1800s. This afforded relatively cheap rides to the beach. There were hotels but nothing like those in Atlantic City. Although it was a reasonable distance from Philadelphia and NY it still required the railroads to move the more distant customers to the Jersey Shore. I'm sure there were day trippers but many people came to spend their vacations in the luxury of the the hotels. Park PlaceThe park in the front of the photo is Brighton Park. The street between the park and the hotel is Park Place. The Marlborough-Blenheim remained in great condition through the seventies. In 1979, Bally's bought it and replaced it with the Bally's Park Place Casino. Make Room for Bally'sThe Marlboro-Blenheim started construction in 1902 and completed in 1906. In 1978 it was demolished to make way for Bally's Park Place casino. Bally's Wild West Casino now sits where that little park looking thing is and Young's Million Dollar Pier became The Pier Shops at Caesar's in 2006. Wheelchair RampThe hotel at the end of the great lawn had a wheelchair ramp installed after the building was constructed. You can see how it sits on top of the original staircase. I wonder what VIP stayed there to justify building that? [The ramps were for "rolling chairs." Not quite the same as wheelchairs. - Dave] Obviously shot from the Traymore HotelJust as this 1910 postcard picture was obviously shot from the "wedding cake" part of the Marlborough-Blenheim. Some of the same things are visible from the opposite side such as the Y-shaped walkway in the garden-like area and even the greenhouse. Beautiful BuildingsI wish Atlantic City looked like this today. These are gorgeous buildings, unlike the ugly buildings that one sees there now. It must have been a great place to vacation in those days. "Boardwalk Empire" BoardwalkThe set is located at Newtown Creek and the East River, Brooklyn side in NYC. It is surrounded with cargo containers stacked four high hung with blue screen so the background can be matted in electronically. Some blue screen can be seen at the left of the photo on a stack of containers. Google Earth: Dupont and Franklin St., Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY (Panoramas, Atlantic City, DPC, Swimming, Travel & Vacation)
The Sun: 1914
... partly as a result of the construction of new ramps to the Brooklyn Bridge in the 1950s and 1960s. My guess is that Spruce Street is the ... 9th and March 14th, 1914. Spruce? Judging by the Brooklyn Bridge in the background, my guess is this has to be Spruce Street. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/10/2012 - 7:06pm -

The Sun newspaper building on New York's Park Row circa 1914. View full size. 8x10 glass negative, Geo. Grantham Bain Collection. Who can ID the cross street? Street IDPearl Street? All Pace University now. Where is this place?I'm pretty sure that both the building on the left and right have been demolished and replaced, partly as a result of the construction of new ramps to the Brooklyn Bridge in the 1950s and 1960s. My guess is that Spruce Street is the cross-street in this picture. HmmmI'm going to say Beekman, but I don't think that's right. Must be 1914The delivery vans a announcing a feature of "A Business Day with President Wilson" in next Sunday's Sun on March 15th. For March 15th the be on a Sunday during Wilson's Presidency, this photo was probably taken between March 9th and March 14th, 1914. Spruce?Judging by the Brooklyn Bridge in the background, my guess is this has to be Spruce Street. These building have been torn down now. The cigars are gone, instead we have Pace University. Cross streetChambers St? The SunIs that the newspaper that merged with the World Telegram? I think it was Frankfort St.I think it was Frankfort St. 41 Park Row is at the corner of Spruce right now, and it was the home of the NY Times. This site also indicates that the Sun was at Frankfort and Nassau in the 1800s: S.E. Beckwith was located at 63 Park Row, and the NY Correspondents Club also was located there. The president of the NYCC? Worked for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. I used to work in 41 Park Row (now Pace U.). The Sun BuildingAccording to a 9/25/1914 article in The New York Times, the building was at Park Row and Frankfort Street. It was torn down shortly later and The Sun moved to a location on Broadway. S.C. Beckwith and cross street infoS.C. Beckwith, the original president of the "S.C. Beckworth Special Agency" seen in the extreme upper right corner of the photo, died from injuries received when the 20th Century Limited crashed near Mentor, Ohio, on June 21, 1905. Mr. Beckwith was carrying $32,000 worth of jewels that at first were thought stolen from the wreckage. (article from The New York Times archive.) The Special Agency was an advertising agency that was headquartered in the Tribune building at the time of Beckworth’s death (and at the time of this photo). He was in business with his brothers (unnamed in another archive article), who presumably were running the agency in 1914. Also, the Sun building (later called the World building) and the Tribune building were torn down in 1955 for expanded auto entrance ramps for the Brooklyn Bridge. They were located across from the New York City Hall. Three NewspapersThere are three newspapers actually named in this photo. Besides The Sun, there is a wagon for the Evening World ("A Complete Novel Each Week By A Famous Author") in front of the building with the Cigar Store. Then above the semicircular window on that same building but below the "Mortgage and Loan" window is a window for the Brooklyn Eagle. Actually, if you look carefully just under the ledge below the Brooklyn Eagle window, you see word "World" on the left side of that round bit that sticks out, and the word "The" on the right side. Could this have been the offices of the New York World at the time? The original New York Sun published from 1833 until it merged with the World-Telegram in 1950. The New York World published from 1860 to 1930 when it was sold by the heirs of Joseph Pulitzer (who died in 1911) to the Scripps-Howard group who merged it with their Evening Telegram in 1931. The original Brooklyn Eagle was published from 1831 to 1955. Today there are modern versions of both the Sun (a Conservative alternative to the New York Times) and the Eagle. A fourth newspaper?On the window (on the far right) third floor, is the St. Louis Globe Democrat. Actually four newspapers…There appears to be a bureau for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat on the right. Actually the World Bldg isActually the World Bldg is the one to our left (you can see the name above the arc window above the CIGARS sign. And the road is Park Row. On the right...I see an office for "International Correspondence Schools"....wow!...is this the original location for the place whose advertising adorned every second matchbook cover in the 20th century? Who could resist such come-ons as: "Make big money in accounting," "Learn RADIO at home!" or...."Be a drawbridge oiler!"? (Okay, I admit I cribbed that last example from a satire in an old issue of National Lampoon.) Necropost...oh well.Here is a photo of the Tribune Building and it's its shorter neighbor to it's its lower left, the Sun Building. The detail photo also frames the two buildings in the same fashion so that the architectural details may be more easily compared. Companies seen in the windows of the Tribune Building like W.H.H. Hull & Co., S.C. Beckwith Special Agency, and Clarke Brothers Bankers had addresses on 154 Nassau St, which was directly past Park Row, from where this picture was taken. If Park Row can be called the front entrance to these buildings, Nassau street would have been the back entrance. Note also that the cross street to the left of the Sun Building slopes downward; that is to say that there is an apparent decline to the street. There are very few streets in lower Manhattan that are not flat and level and have an angle to them; Spruce Street (now running alongside Pace University) still has this slight decline and you head towards Gold St and what is now New York Downtown Hospital. Sun on Park RowAccording to this article, the Sun was located at 170 Nassau Street from 1868 to 1915. That would mean that this is a photograph of the back of the building, on Park Row. Frankfort Street slopes down to the left. (The Gallery, G.G. Bain, NYC)
Jimmy Hall: 1921
... 1921. "Jimmy Hall, Central Y.M.C.A." James W. Hall Jr. of Brooklyn, who won the 1921 National A.A.U. distance title by default after the ...       James W. Hall Jr., Central Y.M.C.A., Brooklyn, who finished second, was awarded the race.       ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/19/2012 - 5:06pm -

Riverton, New Jersey, July 23, 1921. "Jimmy Hall, Central Y.M.C.A." James W. Hall Jr. of Brooklyn, who won the 1921 National A.A.U. distance title by default after the first-place finisher was disqualified for completing the 10-mile event in the Delaware River without a swimsuit. Bain News Service. View full size. Niceabs! For whatever reason... it was obviously a challenge keeping these boys in their swimsuits! RegulationsI suspect he might be concealing a European keel. Runner-upHe looks pretty cocky for a guy who won by disqualification. An admirerThe guy on the left looks a bit envious. Not the typeto go putting his head in the sand. Yet. What's the problem?Lots of people enjoy photography! Shorpy Pictures Like ThisThe comments that always follow Shorpy's revealing pictures of guys are predictable and, I imagine, are akin to the talk that goes on in girl's locker rooms. Psst, buddyYou see a guy with a camera? Yeah? Then RUN THE OTHER WAY! Double StandardOh, I see. You get disqualified for being nude, but win if your swimsuit is just painted on. Shoulda been a tie, at least. AhemI thought we were all supposed to have been concerned with modesty in 1921. Or did that just apply to women's suits? BrandingIt pays to advertise! TemperatureApparently the water wasn't too chilly. EquipmentNice fence ... Riveting! And a lovely row of rocking chairs. Etcetera. Pass me the smelling saltsOh my. Is that a dime in your pocket?And it's heads. 1919. D. Or are you just glad to see me? Here I am you lucky people"How do you like me NOW?" No surprisesThat's what 10 miles in the Delaware River will do to you. The Yis a great organization. Always nice to see a member. Naked AmbitionNew York Times, July 24, 1921. WINS TITLE SWIM; HIS SUIT DISQUALIFIES HIM Bolden, First in Ten-Mile Championship, Loses Because Not Sartorially Correct         RIVERTON, N.J., July 23 -- Eugene T. Bolden of the Illinois Athletic Club, Chicago, twice winner of the National A.A.U. ten-mile swimming championship in the Delaware River, finished first in that event again today, but was disqualified for not wearing a regulation suit as called for by the rules.         James W. Hall Jr., Central Y.M.C.A., Brooklyn, who finished second, was awarded the race.         When Bolden entered the water at Race Street Wharf in Philadelphia, he wore the regulation suit, but when he emerged at the Riverton Yacht Club here he had only an elastic supporter. As he approached the finish line an easy winner, he was cheered by a crowd which had waited two hours for the long-distance swimmers to appear. He was acclaimed by the crowd, and disappointment was expressed when the referee, Herman Meyer of Philadelphia, announced the disqualification.         Bolden explained that the suit bothered him shortly after taking the water, and with the consent of his trainer he discarded it.         Twenty-six contestants entered the water, and nineteen finished. Bolden led practically all the way. His time for the ten miles was 2:07:45. Hall's time was 2:12:25. Kinda skinnyHe doesn't look like today's musclebound athletes. Hard to imagine him surviving 10 miles in a river. But, what nasty sea creature yanked the suit off the other guy? Color me confusedAccording to newspaper account below, Bolden was disqualified for wearing a "supporter," yet the photo caption says this is a pic of the winner Hall. This man is clearly wearing said "supporter" under a shirt, with no trunks. Is he actually Bolden, or Hall? [Bolden wasn't disqualified for wearing a supporter -- he was disqualified for not wearing a swimsuit. Jimmy Hall, in our photo, is obviously wearing a swimsuit. - Dave] (The Gallery, G.G. Bain, Sports)
Dixie Soda Fountain Co.: 1928
... long and prosper. Egg Cream When I was a kid in Brooklyn an Egg Cream was favorite of mine at the local ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/24/2012 - 11:38pm -

Washington, D.C., circa 1928. "Dixie Soda Fountain Company. People's Drug Store No. 40." National Photo Company glass negative. View full size. Two peas in a pod....These two guys behind the counter must be twins. Sweet DisplayCampfire still is in the Marshmallow business, but now from Illinois. Whitman's candies should be in a lot more Shorpies, the brand has been out there since 1842. Half-pound Hershey and Nestle bars for only 25 cents? Soda JerksWow. If you looked in the encyclopedia for "soda jerk," you would expect to see this photo. What a perfect example. It would sure be a treat to visit this soda fountain. First thing I would try is a yeast milkshake. Never had one of those. Location location location?Does anyone know where this was? [I'll bet PER is out researching this right now. - Dave] Soda FountainNo cherry or celery phosphate. (Just egg phosphate. Sounds yucky.) A favorite treat when on an outing in San Francisco with Grandma in the late 1930s was a cherry or celery phosphate. Notice the Campfire Marshmallows. They don't taste like that any more. FiretrucksWhat caught my eye were the ladder trucks atop the display cases. (Well, after the cases and the counter, of course.) Today those toys would be worth hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Steve Miller Someplace near the crossroads of America Don't forget the ice cream!This place certainly would be worth stopping by--all kinds of delectable treats! Not to mention the very handsome young man behind the counter--alas, I fear I was born about 80 years too late for him. The sign for a milkshake "with ice cream" is interesting--I suppose given the name, it makes sense that milkshakes were just flavored milk at one point and not the thick concoctions they are today. Happy thought, whoever came upon the idea of adding ice cream (I'm glad the milkshake with egg didn't last though.) Wonder what the guy crouching on the right is up to? It seems a strange position to be in, but I suppose he was just examining some of the other wares on that counter. (Or he was camera shy!) I'll take two of those!My time machine better have passenger seats, because I'm bringing those soda jerks back with me! Sold by the InchCheck out that cool contraption from Loffler Meat Co. on the counter. It looks like sausages are wound inside on a rotisserie shelf. I wonder if they sold it a link at a time or if the sausage was one continuous piece and sold by the inch? If the sausage had no casing it wouldn’t have to be twisted into links. I love old displays like this…it looks like the globe atop is lit from within and that the cabinet is made of enameled nickel…probably weighed a ton. Goober Pea Egg Milk ShakeEgg Milk Shake?!? I found references and a few recipes. Like this one. Peoples Drug #40?Oh Dave, how I do love the flattery.... but alas, "Peoples Drug Store No. 40" is proving elusive. How does one determine the location of one store in forty based on advertisements in the Washington Post? My cursory searches so far suggest that this riddle cannot be easily solved. I have not yet given up though. -PER [I looked too. The ads do mention stores by number ("On sale at Store No. 7") but so far, no 40. - Dave] [Update: There's an address stenciled on this crate but I can't quite make it out. Anyone at the NRO or NSA on lunch break? Little help please. - Dave] Yeast MilkshakeI love looking at the products in these pictures! The Hygienol Picture Puffs interested me, as I've seen ads for their powder puffs but can't recall ever seeing them called "picture puffs". I can't quite wrap my head around the idea of a yeast milk shake, and I don't recommend searching for it online unless you have safe search on. Just a helpful hint. Yeast MilkshakeI think a yeast milkshake is a malted milkshake. My mother made egg milkshakes when we didn't have ice cream. It is basically eggnog without alcohol. Salt Water TaffyDo I see a box of Fralinger's Taffy in the glass cabinet? They still are the best! Ice CreamWhen I was a kid way back when, milkshakes were usually made with something called a milkshake base, sort of like a vanilla ice. If you wanted real ice cream instead, you had to fork over an extra nickel. Hot DoggityAfter a closer look at that meat cabinet I'm starting to wonder if it's an early version of the hot dog and sausage rotisserie that lives at the local Stop-N-Rob. When I examine the full size picture it looks to me like the hot dogs are in little racks on a roller chain and there is a nickel plated motor on the far side to drive it. Add a little electric heat and you're in business. Stenciled textMy best guess: PEOPLES DRUG STORE 1?08 FIRST ST NE (maybe 1608 or 1808) WASHINGTON DC Re: Stenciled TextGood detective work on that stenciled address! Note that the box of Campfire Marshmallows has "40" marked in grease pencil. Perhaps packages were delivered to the main People's Drug for inventory control and distributed from there to the branch stores? There is some kind of paper item behind the Hygienol Picture Puffs that has People's Drug on it, but I can't make out an address. MilkshakesIn 1957 I ordered a vanilla milkshake at the lunch counter at Boston's Logan Airport. What I got was shook up milk. When I complained to the waitress that there was no ice cream in it, she advised me in a rather blunt way that if I wanted a Frappe I should have ordered one! Re: Vanilla IceWhen I was a kid, Vanilla Ice was a rapper. I think your vanilla ice was probably preferable, Jim! Eggs and yeastThis may not be too enlightening, but I put it out there for your advisement. I did see the recipe for the egg milkshake someone posted and it may have been like an eggnog, but in the northeast, there was a very popular refreshment called an "egg cream" which had no eggs at all in it. By the fifties, they were calling this a "VP" or a "CP" which meant a vanilla plain or a chocolate plain. It was similar to the liquid in an ice cream soda but did not have any icecream at all (thus plain) and was cheap, anywhere from a nickel to a dime. When I was a tot the teenage boy next door had extremely severe acne and his mom and doctor made him drink yeast dissolved in water every day although it did not seem to help his face clear up. Maybe it was a "health thing" in the old days? Even today some people drink fermented mushroom juice and other unimaginable concoctions. I'm just sayin'...for your consideration. Wish I was there. RadiatorSorry to distract from the confectionery discussion, but is that some sort of radiator running up the wall at the back of the room to the right? Never seen one like that. YeastyFor 'Older than Yoda' and anyone else who could use a good laugh... Check out the always hilarious James Lileks' commentary on an old Fleischmann's Yeast ad. Re: "Yeasty" by mrs_djsA MILLION thanks for that James Lileks commentary. It is great fun and will keep me from doing any work at all this afternoon. You made my day. Live long and prosper. Egg CreamWhen I was a kid in Brooklyn an Egg Cream was favorite of mine at the local fountain/candy/cigarette store in Flatbush. As I recall it was a shot of chocolate syrup, a dash of milk followed by filling the glass with seltzer water (or maybe club soda?). I can still taste those things. Egg CreamWe don't have egg creams on the left coast here, but I remember reading about them in a story when I was a little girl. I didn't know what an egg cream was, but I thought it sounded nasty. So why do they call them egg creams if they contain no eggs? [Wikipedia: Egg Cream. - Dave] People's WarehouseThe People's Drug Store warehouse was in the triangle formed by New York and Florida avenues and North Capitol Street N.E. That would probably explain the address on the goods. The location is now home to the headquarters of XM Satelite Radio. People's Drug No. 40According to an ad in the February 5, 1928, Washington Post, Page M12, Store No. 40 was at 1 Dupont Circle. Ice Cream ShakeMy folks, who were teenagers in the 1950s, called shakes with ice cream ice cream shakes, without ice cream was milkshakes. When I was about 14 I was underweight and our doctor prescribed that I drink a regular milkshake with an egg every day. That lasted about two weeks. [And look at you now. - Dave] Savory Weiner RoasterThe great hot dog vendor on the counter is a late 1920s or early '30s Savory Weiner Roaster (Model A) made by Savory Inc. of Newark, NJ I have one (non-working) that I display in my soda fountain at work. My top sign is different than the wonderful globe in your picture. I received a copy of a 1933 brochure from the manufacturer several years ago (they were still in business), which I've included here. Also, attached is image of my actual unit. (The Gallery, D.C., Eateries & Bars, Natl Photo, PDS)
The Jolly Grenadier: 1942
... not an 03A3. Working in the Park Slope Armory, Brooklyn, we found a cut-away 1O5mm artillery shell, an instruction aid. We ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/16/2022 - 3:05pm -

November 1942. "Grenade throwers. Ready to make a shipment of pineapples to Hitler, Hirohito & Co. An infantryman at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, holds a double handful of deadly grenades that may one day blast open a road to Berlin or Tokyo." 4x5 acetate negative by Alfred Palmer for the Office of War Information. View full size. Please label explosive contentsI've mentioned before I go to thrift stores, looking for treasures that have fallen through the cracks. I've had some luck, but so far haven't found anything worthy of Antiques Roadshow. A few years ago, I was in a St. Vincent De Paul store when the intercom instructed everyone to leave the store - now. The police were already outside. It appeared they were after someone in the warehouse. The next time I was in the store I asked a manager what the excitement was all about. He said they had opened a donation box filled with hand grenades. Fortunately, the grenades were duds; but it took a while to figure that out. Dedication and DeterminationThat GI is determined and seriously dedicated, and I hope he came home safely. '03 Springfieldnot an 03A3. Working in the Park Slope Armory, Brooklyn, we found a cut-away 1O5mm artillery shell, an instruction aid. We huddled and decided to call the bomb squad, "when we got back from lunch". We did, the bomb squad dutifully removed it using a man in a Michelin tire suit. Worked four, hours paid eight. Thank You For Your ServiceVery powerful picture. My sincere hope is he made it back safely and used those same hands to cradle his newborns and build a life for his family. My father never spoke of his service years during WWII but he seemed to have a great appreciation for the simple things in life. Maybe when you've been through hell it doesn't take much to feel you're in heaven. Hey Adolf!!You wanna play Horseshoes or Hand Grenades??? You get a point for being close. Jolly?At first I thought it might be a sort of smile, then a strange kind of grin, or maybe even a grimace. Now I think he might be emitting the same type of sound a dog in the corner makes when it has its eye on you and is working its way up to a growl. Watch out, Jerry or Tojo. Happy in VirginiaHe may be jolly because he's at Fort Belvoir rather than fighting Vichy French troops in North Africa as part of November 1942's "Operation Torch." He might be on his way to North Africa, Sicily, and Italy soon, though. Don't play with the rocksI grew up overseas in a neighborhood built up over a WWII battlefield. In the '50s we used to go over and play in a nearby park. We were always told to never bring anything home, and don't pick up the rocks. Leave them on the ground. One year a couple of kids did play with the rocks. End of story. At times during construction of the houses, work would have to stop when an explosive was found. Never heard any stories of any workers getting injured or dying due to explosives. Something other than jollityThis calls forth Ezra Pound (on an earlier war): The age demanded an image Of its accelerated grimace. (The Gallery, Alfred Palmer, WW2)
BASE BALL TO-DAY: 1909
... first game of the doubleheaders played that day between Brooklyn and the Cubs in the NL and the Athletics-Browns in the AL. The ... scores for the Athletics/St. Louis (0 & 2) and the Brooklyn/Chicago (1 & 0) games? They don't appear to be associated with ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/09/2022 - 10:43pm -

Philadelphia circa 1909. "Chestnut Street and Post Office." Neighbor to the Philadelphia Record building and its "electric score board" of baseball results. (Set up to show runs and innings in Roman numerals?!) 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative. View full size. 'Base Ball To-day' means it must be July 19, 1909This picture was taken around 9:40 AM on the morning of Monday July 19 1909. First of all, the time on the clock in the picture shows 9:40, which judging from the brightness of the sky would have to have been in the AM. Second, all of the final results for July 17 1909 are shown on the score board, meaning it would at least have to be the 18th. But the Phillies and Pirates had Sunday the 18th off, and did not play each other again until Monday the 19th. Finally, The sign on the front of the streetcar clearly states "Base Ball To-day," eliminating the 18th as a possibility, since they did not play on the 18th. Ipso facto it must be about 9:40 AM on July 19 1909. Game day! (Phils lost that one too by a 5-4 score) [At the very least, you seem to be off by five minutes. — Dave] Honus Wagner at shortThank you bwayne for the box score link. I thought that might be THE Wagner at SS for the Pirates, and it is. When they voted the first Hall of Fame inductees, he came in second, behind Cobb and ahead of Ruth. Went 0-4 on July 17 though. The game had 7 errors! Beaten to the Punchbwayne beat me to the answer of July 17, 1909, but here's the box score for that day: https://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-scores/boxscore.php?boxid=190907170... Of all the players that played that day, only one, William Joseph "Jap" Barbeau, played for his team only in 1909; he was traded to the Cardinals in August. ELECTRIC SCORE BOARD.Who can figure out the exact date of the photo from these scores? (Our choice of 1909 as the year here is only a guess.) Click to embiggen. Nice dig into 1909!July 17, 1909. One second before the collision ...It would appear that the coatless young fellow running toward the camera near the lower left of the frame is on a collision course with the older fellow striding purposefully leftwards toward the corner of the shot. One wonders if his attorney ever saw a print of this probative photo ... Rounding IInd & headed IV IIIrdWhile in a full sprint wearing a necktie, this agile office boy is successfully weaving through straw hats and avoided the man on crutches who, apparently is screaming for everyone to keep away. No doubt this go-getting lad is wearing hard sole shoes, which may very well have given him a blister for his effort. When he returns to his employer's office, he will probably be asked what took him so long. PB & HWhat at first appears to be a spelling error ("Pittsburg") on the baseball scoreboard, in fact, is not. In 1891, the United States Board on Geographic Names officially deleted the "h" from the end of Pittsburgh. The Board officially reinstated the "h" in 1911. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Pittsburgh Busy Street and BaseballA lot to see in this picture. But no automobiles. Almost everyone has a hat on. Boston had two baseball teams? I had to look it up. While the more famous American League Boston Red Sox have stayed steady, the National League Boston Doves at this time in 1909 had a history of much more name and location changes. Starting in 1876 to 1882 as the Boston Red Caps, then Beaneaters 1883 to 1906, then Doves 1907 to 1910, then Rustlers in 1911, then Braves 1912-1935, then the Bees 1936 to 1940, then Braves (again) from 1941 to 1952, the Milwaukee Braves 1953 to 1965, and finally the Atlanta Braves from 1966 to the present. Lost Record Buildinghttp://philaphilia.blogspot.com/2011/08/lost-building-of-week-august-3rd... Hold on to your hats, ladies!Looks like quite the blustery day, judging from the ladies at the lower right. Those Extra DigitsThe numbers to the left right of the team names reflect the final scores from the first game of the doubleheaders played that day between Brooklyn and the Cubs in the NL and the Athletics-Browns in the AL. The day in baseball The other teamPhiladelphia at the time, of course, had two teams, so one wonders who got possession of the Game Board; did they trade off based on who was home - or even away, as it looks like the Phillies were actually in Pittsburg - or was the "Record" a NL partisan (if so they got the demise they deserved!) Regardless, 1909 was a big year for baseball in Philly: The A's opened Shibe Park that year, the Major's first "modern" stadium. Scoreboard QuestionLooking at the scoreboard -- what are the numbers to the left of the first inning scores for the Athletics/St. Louis (0 & 2) and the Brooklyn/Chicago (1 & 0) games? They don't appear to be associated with close games that went into extra innings. I'm sure it must be something obvious but whatever it is I am missing it. Working from HomeAccording to that box score, the game was umpired single-handedly by Hall-of-Famer Bill Klem. If that's true, how long has it been since a Major League game was called by only one umpire? I've seen kids' league and high-school contests with one umpire, but not college or pro. In those, the ump positioned himself behind the pitcher's mound. But Wikipedia tells us that Klem worked exclusively behind home plate. If this is true, was he able to decide balls and strikes and all baserunning plays, plus all the business of running the game, from home plate? But base ball survives to this-dayvjmvjm's comment about the Lost Record Building made me wonder what this stretch of Chestnut Street looks like today. It looks very different. You're at the intersection of S 9th Street, looking west. Chestnut is, and maybe was, a one-way street coming towards you. Today, there are only two buildings on the north side of this block, a US courthouse and a Federal Reserve Bank. Nothing on either side of the street looks familiar until you get to the next intersection, S 10th. There, the white, Second Empire building with the rounded corner is the same as in the 1909 photograph. Read all about itThe sports page for July 20, 1909 ... https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1909-07-20/ed-1/seq-8... Jack ChesbroPer the sign, we can see that Jack Chesbro pitched for the New York Highlanders. Chesbro is still the record holder for the most wins in a season (41 in 1904), and the Highlanders -- who officially changed their name to the Yankees in 1913 -- are most famous for having the highest total of World Series victories of any team, at 27 (far ahead of second place St. Louis, who have 11). The Yanks and Cardinals may face each other this October. (The Gallery, DPC, Philadelphia, Sports, Streetcars)
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