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Hawkeye Troop: 1956
... long-sleeved shirt, even in winter. (Boy Scouts, Kermy Kodachromes) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/08/2012 - 6:29pm -

"Boy Scouts 1956." Our young friend Kermy is holding the flag on the right in this Kodachrome slide found on eBay. View full size. Balmer BoysOverlea is part of Greater Baltimore. Today's Maryland Troop 433 is now located in Olney which is west of the city. http://www.troop433.org/ Jungle GreensFor some reason the poses in this shot, particularly of the lads squatting at the front, remind me of photos of young soldiers in Vietnam or Korea. I guess a few years into the future from here, these lads may well have been those soldiers. Uniformed and proud.A time when the BS wore full uniforms and looked the part. I remember having to wear the official shorts, socks, shirts, berets etc. We were proud to do that as well and were always dong some volunteer task the town asked us for. We had a huge Scout troop in my hometown 40-60 at one time. I recently went back for the 4th of July parade in the hometown and was dismayed at the look the local Scouts took on. 7-10 members now shuffling down the street: shirts un-tucked, baggy cargo shorts, flip flops; barely any trace they were indeed BS. Total slobs. Oh well. Kermy's from Maryland!I would have guessed Iowa, glad to hear it. Mounting evidenceSomething tells me the evidence will start building sufficiently from these photos to track down Kermy and his sister. I wore that uniformMinus the convenient folding brimless hat, whatever you call it. I know the hat is military in origin, but I also associate it with fast food clerks. When we wore hats at all, they were ball caps. I was one of the last Scouts to wear this style uniform. The new uniforms, with the lighter-color shirts and epaulets, were introduced about 1981. I wanted to be up to date, but my parents had just bought my uniform and were determined to wait until I outgrew it, which I did soon enough. The Scout troops that beat everybody else in the knot-tying competitions must have worn their uniforms all the time. That wasn't us. It was only much later that I understood that they were busy perfecting these skills, while we were backpacking 100 miles, and climbing Mount Whitney. I think we had more fun. 1950 censusI wish we had access to the 1950 census, so we could look for a family in Overlea, Maryland, with a little boy named Kermit (at least I can't think of any other name that Kermy would be short for). azhdragon is right. These kids would have been in the age group of most who served in Vietnam. Its a very sobering thought. Scout seniorityWhen I was in Boy Scouts in the early 80s, we had the recently-introduced khaki shirt with dark OD green trousers and a mesh back baseball cap [OD green with the BSA emblem in center]. However, some of the older Scouts and a few of the adult leaders still had the old style, all-OD green uniform as shown in this photo. Sort of an indication that they were "old-timers" and still wore the older uniform to prove it. It definitely looked a lot sharper than the ones we had and was also more comfortable. This could have beena picture of my troop in the early 60's. The garrison cap worn by these Scouts was still the official "topper" for scouts of my era. Not that Troop 433Troop 433 of the Balto. Council still meets at a Methodist church in Perryville. I've been trying to identify the campsite but it's not obviously either of the two local boy scout camps (Broad Creek or Hawk Mountain) or in Patapsco Park on the other side of the city. The poseI noticed their poses as well. I think they were very consciously (without realizing it, if that makes any sense) mimicking the poses they saw their fathers taking in the unit pics from WW II. I was a Cub Scout in 56, but graduated to the green uniforms in 1958. That hat style was what we called a garrison cap in the Marine Corps, but it had a slightly ruder common name, the p*ss cutter. BSAMost of these kids are probably about 2 years older than me. I was a Cub Scout in Kansas from 1956 to 59, and a Boy Scout from 1959 to 1964. We all wore the long-sleeved shirt, which for reasons I never understood required you to fold the collar inside the shirt before putting on the neckerchief. When I was 14 I went on an expedition to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. The troop I went with all wore the short-sleeved shirt (which had no collar), short pants, and a campaign hat (which was an optional item.) After that, I never went back to the long-sleeved shirt, even in winter. (Boy Scouts, Kermy Kodachromes)
Loves Olives: 1956
... think the woman is just lighter skinned. (SoCal 1956 Kodachromes) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/14/2012 - 4:59pm -

Southern California circa 1956. One of a dozen Kodachrome slides that I recently found on eBay. If the clothes here were any sharper we'd need to call 911. No T- shirts and jeans for these folks. More to come over the weekend. View full size. Pink Golden AgeIf this photo was shot in 2012, the young woman's clothing would be far different. The Pink Top would be gone and the Dress would be daringly unbuttoned. It's been interesting watching Shorpy Photos and seeing the progression of women wearing less and less clothing through the years since the camera was invented. Seems the 1950s was the happy medium. What were we thinking?I’m guessing the guy on the left is wearing suede shoes. 1955/56 were the years of pink and charcoal attire for men of the world, as were blue suede wingtip shoes. What we can see of him measures up to the standard, so I’m assuming his footwear does also---including the obligatory pink argyle socks. Pastel colors abounded everywhere at the time: car paint, fiberglass boats, interior décor, furniture, home exteriors, advertising layouts, product packages, etc. Thankfully, providence spared us the simultaneous affliction of women’s sack dresses during the same period, as they were still a couple of years off. "Mad Men," eat your hearts out!Why does the song "Sharp Dressed Man" come to mind? Seriously, the clothes are wonderful! Green olive loverThat's a really cute girl! I'm wondering what the story is about the b&w photo of the white couple. Maybe Olive Girl is biracial and those are her grandparents. I'm speaking this as a mother with two biracial kids and three biracial grandkids, as of yesterday (baby boy, 7lbs 6oz)! UnforgettableHaving been a fan of Nat King Cole, I attended some of his concerts in the early '60s. He dressed so very similar to these two men, very elegant, slender, meticulously groomed and a very smoooooth operator. As soon as I saw this picture, I was reminded of his demeanor. He was especially graceful and attentive to his fans and yet was so humble and congenial to all and his voice was one in a trillion, never to be duplicated. Even though these two do not really look alike, they both interpreted his sophisticated "style" beautifully. What my sons would say"If you could get ALL those olives in the dish into your mouth at the same time, I'll give you a quarter." This was the kind of stunts they'd pull in their teen years and beyond. Their youngest brother at age 5 had a near tragedy trying to fit a whole wedge of cantaloupe in his mouth at once. Thank goodness Mom intervened. Great Photo findThere are still many of us around from that age and that time. Dave, I hope you can get some names to attach to the pictures. I'm looking forward to the next of the set. [Alas, the only name on these slides is "Kodachrome." -Dave] B&W PhotoI don't think the couple in the photo are white noelani. I think the woman is just lighter skinned. (SoCal 1956 Kodachromes)
Little Red MG: 1953
... is in Dunedin, Florida around 1961. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Don Cox) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/21/2021 - 11:32pm -

From 1953 comes this 35mm Kodachrome of hot-rodder and finer-things-appreciator Don Cox in a Tabasco-red MG at the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego. Wanna race? View full size. KookieGiven the apparent lifestyle and cars, the Dude was obviously the inspiration for Kookie on 77 Sunset Strip, a few years later. A Gilded Age WonderThe Del Coronado was opened in 1888 as the then largest hotel in the world. Incredibly, it never burned down (the fate of so many of its contemporaries) and remains the largest surviving example of the Gilded Age wooden beach hotels so popular with the well heeled of the late Victorian era. The Del is still in business and has a list of famous guests longer than my arm including a slew of US presidents, starting with Benjamin Harrison. Ya gotta love an MG TD...I certainly do. I have one just like it! The MG TD was the car that started the entire British sports car craze in America. Many returning GI's brought these inexpensive cars home and began racing them, and an entire industry grew up around them, supplying parts and accessories. Even the legendary Carroll Shelby had an MG TD - it was the first car he ever took racing. The UK needed to improve their balance of payments after the war, so to encourage even more auto production to go overseas they charged "home market" buyers in Britain an exorbitant tax on car purchases, as much as 66%. The combination of these high home market taxes and eager American buyers made for a huge post-war boost to the UK economy. Other UK manufacturers followed MG's path, and soon America became the UK's largest market for their sports cars, with Triumph, Austin, Austin-Healey and Jaguar becoming among the most popular brands in addition to MG. MGTD 1950-53What a beautiful auto. MG started export production in January of 1950 and lasted until 1953 (actually late 1949 but they only made 98 cars that were right hand drive). It was fitted with a 1250cc 4 cylinder engine and total production totaled 29664 cars. It was preceded by the MGTC and followed with the MGTF 1953-55. The redesigned curved body MGA followed in 1955 and production of this beauty ran until 1962. The MGB followed the MGA until British Leyland ceased production in 1980. My first MGThe first one I ever saw had my Uncle Albert in it. If tterrace's uncle was wearing red socks ... then we have a pretty cool pairing of photos (ignoring the Cadillac). The Hotel Del CoronadoMentioned below, in 1973 was used as the setting of a campy horror-thriller film called Wicked, Wicked using a gimmicky technique called "Duo/Vision" or split screen. On the left side of the screen you'd see someone opening the door of a room while on the right screen you'd see the darkened interior of the room as the door quietly opened to sheer horror. The attic contained the still barely alive female victims of the mad floor-show camera operator who had a mommy complex strung up in grisly fashion. It was a gimmick that didn't last long because it added nothing to the movie. By the way, gorgeous MG TD, hope it is in the collection of some proud collector today. Well, nobody's perfectThe Hotel Del is perhaps best known as the setting (ostensibly in Florida, not Coronado) for much of the movie Some Like It Hot. Long Drive in a Small CarDon Cox is a pretty interesting guy and worth an internet search. Among other things he raced cars on the salt flats and co-authored the 2003 book "The Birth of the Hot Rod." At some point he lived in Oceanside, which suggests he may have just completed a 45-mile trip down to Coronado Island. His little MG TD might get up to 70 mph in places but San Diego traffic would have taken care of any speed records. 1953 MG TDMy parents bought this one in 1958 in St. Louis, Missouri. Photo is in Dunedin, Florida around 1961. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Don Cox)
Toy Story: 1949
... Claus." The man was clearly doing something right. (Kodachromes, LOOK, Stanley Kubrick) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/26/2013 - 12:24pm -

October 1949. "Cowboy entertainer Gene Autry posing with children's clothing and toys which have his name and/or image on them." Kodachrome from photos by Frank Bauman and Stanley Kubrick for Look magazine. View full size. RoyRoy Rogers is always mentioned as the TV and movie cowboy with a plethora of marketing items for sale, but this photo proves that Gene was certainly no slouch. Kind of miss this wholesome children's entertainment. Simple stories with real morals included! Successful BrandingThe postwar prosperity + Baby Boom + TV seems to have been quite lucrative for him--and the "Repeating Cap Pistol" pictured recently brought an eBay seller $461 after spirited bidding. Sixty-four years laterThis picture of old familiar boy's toys and joys really takes me back to my youth when my little brother and our neighbor were both completely in awe of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers (who seemed to be featured at every weekend matinee in our small town). The neighbor was even named Gene and took his idol very seriously, owning just about all of the items pictured plus an entire bedroom suite of Autry furniture, bedspread, sheet, etc. Today, both the real Genes are gone. We all played with toy guns and none of us became murderers or even animal hunters, just pretend cowboys who kept our loved ones and property safe from all those "bad guys". Tried the cap guns ...but never wore the jeans. The second luckiest man in show businessGod bless Gene "Ornery". No actor, and not much of a singer, but a darn good businessman for a kid from Oklahoma! Flying A gas stations, KTLA TV, the Angels, and the Autry Museum of Western Art in LA, and I'm sure there was much more. (In my opinion, Ringo Starr still ranks #1 luckiest.) ViewmasterThat looks like a Viewmaster viewer at the upper right, behind a series of Viewmaster disks in their cardboard sleeves. [It's actually a "Hollywood Toy Television," which showed short film strips of still pictures. -tterrace] The historical star of this photo is...Eastman Kodachrome -- with due respect to Gene Autry. Sharp, rich colors combined with perfect skin tone. Trigger fingersI'm a big Gene Autry fan but I'm disappointed he had both fingers firmly on the triggers of those cap guns. That's no way to teach gun safety to impressionable youngsters. A quick eBay peekComics- $10-$45 Chaps- $150 Holster (w/o gun) $55 T-shirt (on left) $24.99 Spurs (w/o leather strap) $50 Scarf/bandanna-$10.50 Fan badge-$5.00 Cap gun (w/o grips) $10.00 Cap gun (w/grips) $80-$175 Watch- $30 or $175 White double holster (in red box)- $195 I found 6200 separate listings! A few highlights shown there but not in the image: A record player, many records, flashlights, alarm clock(NIB), dime novels, pennant, guitar, lunch boxes, LA Angels Autry autographed baseball, pen knife, Flying A horseshoe nail ring, and far too many more to list. Enough for a museum. Red "TV" viewerit seems to be styled after the Bakelite General Electric TV from the same year. TV collectors (ahem) refer to this model as "The Locomotive" because it resembles the streamlined locomotives of the time. Moppet Picture Projector Billboard, December 31, 1949. CHICAGO, Dec. 24. — Ray Marchbanks, regional chief for Capitol disks here, and Henry Saperstein, prexy of Hollywood Toy Television Corporation, new moppet picture projector, met last week to discuss the possibility of Cap taking over national distribution for the kid gimmick. Introduced to the market last June, the toy video set retailed at $9.95 for a red plastic case outfit that carried a four-by-three inch screen. By inserting foot-long strips of film, the child could see a six-minute show of animated cartoons. The cost of the original set included six such strips, which make a complete 30-minute movie. Saperstein has 17 story subjects, including Woody Woodpecker, Hopalong Cassidy and Gene Autry. These strips retailed for six for $1. More Picture for MORE DollarsAccording to my Inflation Calculator, that television would cost about $2,280 in 2012 dollars (the last year available). All that for what, two or three channels - and NO UHF stations unless you bought a separate converter. Hoppy, Gene and RoyThough I would watch Gene and Hoppy, Roy was the real deal, when I was a lad. I was Roy, my bike was Trigger. Our dog, a Cocker Spaniel had little interest in being Bullet. My cousin, who's real name is Dale would, of course, be Dale. I had RR cap pistols, but rarely had the nickle for a box of caps. No problem, "Pow Pow" sounds were almost as good. We must have killed a thousand bad guys. Ironically, one of my current "heroes" is, also, named Roy Rogers, the finest slide guitarist around today. His given name is RR, unlike the, late, Leonard Slye. BTW, if you visit Los Angeles, The Autry Museum is a must see Media Mogul1949 was also the year he sold 2.5 million copies of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and the year before he came out with "Here Comes Santa Claus." The man was clearly doing something right. (Kodachromes, LOOK, Stanley Kubrick)
Cafe Jetson: 1959
... serves 12. In 15 minutes. (Technology, The Gallery, Kodachromes, Kitchens etc., LOOK) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/16/2018 - 10:53am -

        "The Planning Center -- this is the heart and the brain of the RCA-Whirlpool Miracle Kitchen. For example, there's a button that turns on a built-in color television set that brings entertainment into your Miracle Kitchen of the future. Other buttons select recipes, request an inventory of food stock, select food from storage, or complete the automatic meal from the Magic Meal Maker." March 1959. "Home economist Anne Anderson demonstrating appliances and features of RCA-Whirlpool 'Miracle Kitchen of the Future,' a display at the American National Exhibition in Moscow." Kodachrome by Bob Lerner for the Look magazine article "What the Russians Will See." View full size. We all talked about this one dayBack in my bbs days during the ’80s, I hung out a lot in the cooking newsgroups, as did a lot of other people. Many of us talked about how, someday, we would have a special computer in the kitchen, where we could have all our recipes stored on disk and pull them up to read and use without ever having to print out anything. Fast forward to today. I wanted to cook stuffed pork chops but didn’t really want to improvise. I’d poked around in my recipe database application until I found one I liked and that seemed possible, given what I had on hand. But instead of cranking up the printer and making a hard copy to work from, I grabbed my laptop and hauled it into the kitchen with me. I called up the recipe I wanted on his screen, and referred to it as I cooked. Working from the recipe on screen, I got the pork chops prepared and in the oven just as fast as if I’d had a cookbook or a printout at hand, and when I was done I just washed my hands, picked up the laptop, and left the chops to bake. It took twenty years, but the future we talked about has come to pass. [And one day, instead of a bulky laptop, perhaps we'll have some sort of slim, tablet-like device to display our recipes! - Dave] Rotating StockThe bananas are about to go bad. Presumably the computer takes care of that. Honeywell Kitchen Computerca. 1969: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kitchen_computer_ad.jpg Surprisingly, neither of them caught on. Nor did this (40 years later): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3Com_Audrey My wife and daughter do, however, use their MacBooks in the kitchen, when they're testing out recipes they find on the 'net. Waiting ...Still no Magic Meal Maker in my kitchen. BananasRegarding those bananas "about to go bad", keep in mind that most Soviet subjects rarely, if ever, saw bananas, pineapple, boxes of cereal, other packaged foods, makeup, jewelry, hose, and the like. In terms of "our system is better than yours," this exhibit was completely "in your face." For a picture of life there, the September 1959 National Geographic has a nice article on one professor's visit to the USSR in 1957 and 1958. Now for a main dishthat uses zweiback, rotten bananas, Jello, and ketchup. And serves 12. In 15 minutes. (Technology, The Gallery, Kodachromes, Kitchens etc., LOOK)
A Little Night Music
... photo has an Edward Hopper quality about it. (Linda Kodachromes) ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 01/24/2013 - 7:02pm -

tterrace here to report that in this, another unlabeled Kodachrome from the "Linda" series, our music-loving friend is about to enjoy (and unfortunately is touching the playing surface of) an LP of one of the top items in the classical hit parade, Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor. This performance, with Walter Gieseking, piano, and Herbert von Karajan conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra, was originally recorded at Kingsway Hall, London, by EMI on June 6 and 11, 1951. It was licensed to USA's Columbia Records, which released this album in late December 1951 as ML 4431, selling for $5.45. His player appears to be a 1950 Steelman "Quartet" Model 515 portable, one of their "better buys," priced at $29.95. Definitely not hi-fi, but perhaps this is an example of the stopgap that many of the time employed, their older behemoth radio/phono consoles unable to accommodate the relatively new long-playing record, introduced by Columbia in 1948. I'd like to think this was a Christmas present. View full size. Player and recordSteelman "Quartet" and Columbia ML 4431 VTF in ounces, not gramsConsidering the weight of the tone arm on that Steelman touching the records surface was the least of his worries. Columbia Record "Club"Remember the Columbia Record Club? They'd send a new recording (I belonged to the Classical Music option) once a month or so. I would send the record back and they would send me a bill, or I would accept the record and they wouldn't send me a bill. Finally quit sending the recordings back and they dropped me from their mailing list. Those were the days. Christmas season?Small tree in the window. In the 1960s my dad picked up a portable Motorola stereo phonograph player that had detachable speakers. You uncoupled them from the sides of the cabinet and could pull them out as far as the cable would allow, but that was easily 6-8 feet on each side. Dad modified the amplifier so that he could plug a microphone into a jack he added on the side and use it as a PA system. He and mom then took the stereo to a few PTA parties and kids' dances and school functions. Flip the switch-- PA announcements. Flip the switch back-- play the dance music. My dad was a great improviser and quite handy with tools. Too bad I didn't inherit much of that. Dramatic or romantic?Probably one of the most well known dramatic piano intro flourishes ever! The rest is pure romantic loveliness. (Though still nothing close to Ase's Tod or Peer Gynt.) The crop on this image is tantalizingly close. One more mm of image and we would see whether he wears a ring. The photo frame on the turntable is also just enough out of focus. Off to listen now. I love the art on the album cover. Well, this was a coincidenceI clicked on Shorpy.com this evening while I was listening to this week's New York Philharmonic radio broadcast. What was playing at that moment? Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor, with soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet! Putting sound to the recordTo add to Deborah's comment, here's the opening flourish of Grieg's Concerto in A Minor, played on a Steinway Duo-Art piano: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqqKQILSr44 Reproducing pianos such as this were different from your normal player piano. The paper roll included markings for sustain, dynamics, etc. These pianos typically went for $2,000 on up in the 1920s ... so needless to say, not many had them. Great picture. I have a LP collection of jazz from the 1950s and early 1960s. Reading the covers gives you an attachment to the music, something that sadly is lost today. RE: Columbia Record "Club"I think you may have reversed part of your comment: If you "kept" the record, they sent you a bill. Of course, in my case, it didn't matter if I sent it back or not; they ALWAYS sent me a bill for it. What It Is DependsIn those days the kids called it the record player. Mom and Dad called it the Victrola. When sober Uncle Ernie called it the phonograph. Not cheap$5.45 for a record back in 1951 sounds pretty expensive. Were classical records more costly as a rule? DramaticI love this picture. Dark, but not foreboding, it suggests comfort, if not luxury. The shadows invite speculation, as many Shorpy photos do, and the lamplight invites one into a warm, cozy room to enjoy an evening symphonic performance. Nice! Expensive!As per the Consumer Price Index, that $5.45 record album would cost over $48 in today's money. The phonograph works out to a whopping $265. [Originally the Masterworks price was $4.85 or $5.45 depending on length, later standardized to $4.98. In January 1956 Columbia reduced it to $3.98. - tterrace] StopgapWe had a "stopgap" like that, only later. When I was young my parents had a Montgomery Ward radio-phono in a wooden cabinet. The radio would do AM, FM (which was almost nonexistent then) and shortwave. The phono would only do 78s. In about 1961, my father bought a used Zenith record player with the old Cobra tonearm (which looked like a snake.) It would play LPs and 45s, but only mono. A couple of years later they bought a Zenith stereo in a cabinet. By then, of course stereo LPs had been out for several years. I remember it had a flip feature on the tonearm--you turned a disc one way to play LPs/45s and rotated it to get a 78 stylus. The turntable would do all three speeds. If you set it for 78s, however, because the whole thing ran on a cam, the changer worked so fast that it would likely have smashed itself to bits if you did it very many times. I have bought more used vinyl than CDs in the past 2-3 years. There is some real treasure out there for very little money ($1 a disc at my store.) Night HawkThis photo has an Edward Hopper quality about it. (Linda Kodachromes)
On His Rocker: 1952
... Phantom, etc., are available. MUCH fun. (Minnesota Kodachromes) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/16/2016 - 3:47pm -

"Abe at home -- Jan. 20, 1952." The Tuttle patriarch amid a hothouse of floral motifs in Blue Earth, Minn. 35mm Kodachrome by Hubert Tuttle. View full size. You could buy the radio but it won't be the sameI bought an old floor radio of that type (in better condition cosmetically) just a few years back. Alas, the good old days of Lum and Abner, The Shadow, and Jack Benny didn't come with it. I'm of the TV age (barely) but as a kid spent time out of state summers in a remote area where the radio stations broadcast the old programs all day on a schedule. With no TV there out in the wilds, I learned to appreciate what my parents had loved about radio growing up. I wish there were some fine programming for that fine old radio now. Still, I listen to the baseball games on it. That's pretty much the same as ever and makes me happy for a few hours now and again. Abe's view of the world and so many historic events of his long age were doubtless fired by the glow of those vacuum tubes. Philco 46-1226The exact radio that graced our living room in 1949. Old-time radioAbe Tuttle knew how to live. I was a week old when he was photographed here. Old-time radio, either downloaded onto CDs or via Greg Bell's XM Radio Classics, has made my DC-Beltway commutes enjoyable for many years. My millennial friends have no idea of radio as a source of that kind of entertainment, and a few have scoffed that it was something for geezers. I keep this old Suspense episode-- there were several versions of this tale over the years, and the one starring Jack Webb is missing some audio in the transcription-- and once they hear it, they scoff no more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sARjY1Gihfk The episode is called "A Shipment of Mute Fate." Console radioI did buy one of those radios - a Philco 46-1226, to be exact. It cost $80 and it doesn't work, but it's in pristine condition. I've got about 1,300 old time radio shows in my iTunes library and a Bluetooth speaker positioned behind the fabric grille completes the illusion nicely. Moments laterAbe rocks back in his chair, causing the tassel to come in contact with the back of his neck. Thinking it's a spider, Abe slaps it hard, grasping the doily while suddenly lurching forward in the chair, pulling the potted plant off its stand which shatters the glass on the wedding photo and dumps wet dirt onto the floor, but not before knocking over the floor lamp, which in turn destroys the ceramic pig and chips the top of the radio. [Actually those tassels belong a butterfly. - Dave] Abducted by aliens?I've tried in the past (and tried again last night) to find Tuttle burials on Find-A-Grave, but have never had any luck finding Grace, Herbert, Abe, or Julia. Has anyone else found graves or obituaries? It's like they disappeared. Could they be in a private family cemetery? [Much biographical info in the comments under our previous Tuttle photos. For example. - Dave] Abe can keep the florals... but I want that radio! Notice the wedding portraitjust behind the plant stand. Julia hasn't changed a bit. [In the dozen or so photos I have of her, Julia's countenance is possessed of an almost geologic immutability. - Dave] Floral overloadI finally understand the appeal of the deer camp and ice fishing shanty. I Can Hear It NowFibber McGee & Molly, Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy, Jack Benny & The Great Gildersleeve ... GAWD I miss the old days!!! I'm getting kind of fond of this Tuttle familyAt first not so much, but these are memories from the time I graduated from High school. Thanks! You've got to trim those fingernails!Typical worn-through finish around the most-used knobs on the radio. In this case, it's a low-end five-tube 1935 RCA console, Model 214. http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/rca_214.html Hello DoilyOne thing that aggravated us kids when visiting Granny -- DOILIES!! They were always getting squished up on tables, wet under plants, and the worst was sticking to a sweaty youngster's arms off a chair. After looking at eBay and ads for places like Michael's, they are apparently still used. That horse.I have that exact same cast metal horse that has been with me more years than I remember. I've never found where it came from and this is the first sighting of another. Anyone else have one? Mine is just as shiny too. Old time radioIf anyone has an old tube radio that they'd like to enjoy, here are a couple of tips. First and foremost, if you acquire an old tube radio, DON'T PLUG IT IN! Old radios have components that can catch fire when power is turned on. Have a PROFESSIONAL give it a once over. You'll need the capacitors replaced with modern ones at the very least. Now if you want to listen to it (once it's restored) there are things you can do. Some restorers will add a little RCA plug to the back, so you can plug any modern signal source into it. Or you can get a low power AM transmitter. You can get ones with only a few mili-watts of power, and are FCC legal, that have a range of less than a quarter of a mile. The one I use is the SSTRans AMT3000, available on line. (And I'm definitely not getting a percentage of the profits on it. ;-) ) They're generally considered the best one available. Then you can put any source, i.e. CD or Internet, through the device and send the signal to any AM radio within range tuned to the correct frequency. I own a beautiful 15 tube 1938 Philco 38-116 console, that I can listen to the many available oldies internet streams on. Even old radio shows, such as Fred Allen, the Phantom, etc., are available. MUCH fun. (Minnesota Kodachromes)
Hotrod Time Machine: 1975
... prints, if stored properly, can be every bit as good as Kodachromes for archival purposes. I'm having a lot of trouble scanning ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 10/22/2010 - 6:42pm -

This shot answers the question, "Just what was tterrace photographing that day in 1975 when he was strolling around Petaluma?" Well, when I got to this spot on Sixth Street I apparently stumbled into a gap in the space-time continuum. Fortunately my Konica was loaded with Kodacolor, so I was able to return with the kind of scene one normally encounters only in black and white. If we were to do an equivalent shot today, the car would be something like a 1965 Dodge Dart, which to me doesn't seem like a really old car, whereas the one here unquestionably does. Doesn't stuff like that drive you nuts? View full size. Let me playwith this image. Sixth Street, PetalumaI live in the county next door and so I am very familiar with the historic neighborhoods of Petaluma. I've been scanning many of my photos from that era and Kodacolor prints, if stored properly, can be every bit as good as Kodachromes for archival purposes. I'm having a lot of trouble scanning slides because I used to deliberately under-expose by 1/3rd of an f stop for color saturation. The slides looked great when projected with an intense projector lamp, but my scans are almost always too dark. Your resolution is also something easier to achieve when scanning a print than a negative or a slide, because you don't need so many dpi for sharpness. Nice photo! I think I'll convert your grayscale version to simulated 3-D; the tree in the foreground might make for a nice effect. --Bob A Doctor's Visit?Or perhaps his residence and/or office. It doesn't look old.Even with the old house and car, it still dates itself as very contemporary (in color or black and white). I'm not quite sure why, but here's my best guess. The lawn and shrubs and even the paint job are all finished by machines that simply didn't exist then. Back then lines where not as straight. Paint wasn't as flat. Reflections in glass weren't so crisp. To me the biggest anachronism is the lawn. Lawns mowed with a hand mower just look different. [I'm not that old, but I grew up with one.] Am I crazy? GREAT ShotNow that is a great shot. The scan is fantastic as well. I think I need to take lessons from tterrace. This makes onewant to talk badly about those longhaired hippies. Great shot. Variations on a houseBelow is my own monochrome version, in which I tried to emulate the orthochromatic sensitivity of older photographic emulsions by lightening the blues and darkening the reds. Hence we get what you might call a "Shorpy sky." If we keep this up, we're going to out-Fark Fark. Gleneagles: I've found Photoshop's Shadows & Highlights function to be a great tool for dealing with slide scans, in particular highly contrasty and underexposed ones. I too liked to underexpose transparency film for saturation, usually by a whole stop. That car is certainly hotrod material, as Dave has implied, but it looks like an authentic restoration to me. My first thought was a Model A, but I couldn't find that exact body style or window shape. A 1930 Plymouth 2-door sedan looked pretty close, though. Experts? Doc Brown?Paging Marty McFly! The CoupeI'd agree that it's a Plymouth but more likely a 1931-32 model since the 1930 has a split two-piece rear bumper on either side of the spare tire. This one probably had a single side-mounted spare on the driver's side fender or else someone had removed the original rear carrier and put the spare in the trunk. Nice photo in all versions! Waiting for the +35Would a Petaluman please step forward and post a recent photo of this house? I really hope it hasn't changed. (If the car's still in the driveway I'll be astounded.) Found itI took a long virtual walk along 6th Street and found the pretty white house, which is now a strangely foreboding, yet handsome, gothic Victorian. The upper windows were replaced with a style that matches the side windows. I like both the old and new versions of the house. Too bad the car in the driveway was also replaced. Old things seemed older in the old daysI think about this all the time. A matter of perspective that always keeps me in awe. The things I thought were really old when I was younger, really weren't all that old after all. New and PricyZillow seems to think it was built in 1968 and worth more than $600K. Falcon CrestObviously this house is at the center of some kind of old-car vortex. View Larger Map TelltalesThe post-1963 black California plate dates it. Also, the modern-type electrical service cable. I tend to think that the brick steps are a modern style; they do look like the '70s to me, but pretty subtle. That's about it, I think. You did a good job of not getting any TV antennas or aluminum siding in the shot. Yes, the things that seemed old were really not so old. The things that were new, strangely do seem old. It's a paradox. Petaluma"Petaluma"?? re: New and PriceyThe house in that Zillow listing at #4 Sixth St. is the one next door, off to the right out of frame; it is indeed a newer building. The one in my shot is #6 Sixth St. Google street numbers are often approximate, to say the least. About the telltales: I figured that electrical line was a giveaway, same with the license plate. Also, good points someone made about the shrubbery. I lucked out on no TV antennas, but in the original neg there are glimpses of modern cars just outside of where I cropped this on both the left and right. I know the feelingI just went back for my 25th class reunion. I was talking to my fellow Class of 85 grads and reminded them that these high school seniors are looking at us like we looked at the Class of 1960. That thought was a bit sobering!! Talk about a Space Time continuum!! I know it wellHaving graduated from Petaluma High School which is on Fair Street (which turns into Tenth Street as you head south), I know the area well. Whenever we get to Petaluma, my wife loves to see the old homes on the west side. It is good to know that I am not the only one who looks at the relativity of time. In August, I went to my 36th (yes thirty-sixth) high school reunion. I reflect on the fact that that amount of time would be like someone in 1974 having graduated in 1938. In movies, I notice the difference between a film made in, say, 1975 and a new film that takes place in 1975 is that the older film has so many things -- especially cars -- that are old for the time. The new film trying to be 1975 usually makes it look like everyone drove a car that was less than five years old. Petaluma HouseI was in Petaluma today and got this photo of the house. The plaque on the front steps says "Heritage Home of Petaluma." Click to enlarge. Time Perspective as it applies to Sportstterrace, I know what you mean about time, and I normally apply it to sports. For instance, Terry Bradshaw led the Steelers to their first Super Bowl victory in January 1975. Terry Bradshaw in 2010 is like Slingin' Sammy Baugh in 1975, and both as funny. Porch lightNice picture! Another indicator of the time period is the porch light. Often missing in older shots, it is not only present but of a more decorative style. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, tterrapix)
Tomorrowland: 1954
... out Disney trivia. I loved that job. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, LOOK, Los Angeles) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/21/2018 - 12:11pm -

July 1954. Los Angeles. "Walt Disney pointing to a plan for Disneyland, under construction in Anaheim." Color transparency from photos for the Look magazine assignment "Here's your first view of Disneyland." View full size. Never-EverlandDisneyland aficionados will note the circus that was never to be set up in an area at about 4 o'clock. To this day, part of it at least remains a service area. In a 1965 visit, I - as always, eager to sneak peeks at behind-the-scenes stuff - noticed a slightly ajar door in the barrier wall off the central hub and took this Kodachrome slide. Peeking up is the decorative top of the Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln building on the Main Street Town Square. The sawhorse signs say "WED Parking," WED then being Disney's theme park design arm. Also, a 1963 Rambler. Plans subject to change without noticeInteresting how little of Disneyland was built according to the plan shown. (Note the buildings surrounding Cinderella's Castle that never got built.) And of course, the rocket was removed and the area completely revamped when Tomorrowland became dated. Bound to happen when you try to predict the future, as the future becomes the past. I spent lots of time in front of this painting.In my late teens I worked in the Disney Gallery above the Pirates of Caribbean at Disneyland where this was on display for some years (late '80s, early '90s). The painting was used by Walt mostly to present his concept for the park to investors, banks and sponsors. So it had a lot of miles on it by then. It also glowed under a black light or in the dark. I forget which. To illustrate that Disneyland could be an evening destination as well. The gallery showcased mostly early conceptual art for Disneyland. Considering most of the work in those days was done at the studio. The folks who were responsible for the details in the concept of Disneyland were the same people that worked on the live and animated films. Both for Disney and Hollywood. Ivan Earle, Dorothea Redmond. The artist who did this painting went on to be historically significant in Hollywood. A little time on google may pry them out. For instance Marc Davis who was mostly responsible for some of the character concepts for the Disney villains. Was also mostly responsible for the character concept of the pirates in the Pirates Of The Caribbean attraction among others (stretching paintings in the Haunted Mansion). We would take small groups around the gallery, answer questions and toss out Disney trivia. I loved that job. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, LOOK, Los Angeles)
Chateau Crestline: 1954
... the mustard. We’ve been desensitized by googie. (Kodachromes, Cars, Trucks, Buses) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/22/2021 - 8:03pm -

Dearborn, Michigan. "1954 Ford Crestline Fordor Sedan." With room in back for their 2.5 kids. Color transparency from the Ford Motor Co. photographic archives. View full size. Uh Oh, No AerialWith no aerial on the roof, and the cable guy still a decade away from showing up late, it's little wonder they're going out in the Crestline. They won't be watching Uncle Milty at #10 any time soon. Maybe they're heading back over to the Joneses' place to watch it on their lovely console model. Ford Y-block 1954 was the first year Ford cars in the U.S.A had overhead valve 8 cylinder engines, their Canadian cars and trucks had the flathead 8 until '55. The sweet sound of an accelerating flathead is forever ingrained in my memory. That jacket gets aroundLove that Fordor. And the 4 body trunk. Beautiful, upscale trim packageThat Ford marketed for the first time in conjunction with the introduction of its brand new V-8 after 31 years of the famous flathead. This may be an early production model as the V-8 fender badge is actually the one used on the '53 models. The new V-8 was described as a Y-8 and its badge looked like this, would be used through the '56 model year: https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk001d-qluGtb6aKnwSLUaHfHsYPmAA:1... It remained in production with various displacements through I believe 1962. The new V81954 was the debut year of the new Ford "Y-block" overhead valve V8, which replaced the flathead. Ford and Mercury shared the smaller engine and Lincoln used a physically larger version. The smaller Y-block was unique for it's its stacked intake ports. Sals is rightFast forward to July 2018: Frank Lloyd Wright in the 'burbsIf you look very closely at the brickwork, you'll notice that the horizontal joints are raked -- essentially scraped out so they're recessed behind the faces of the bricks -- while the vertical joints are flush with the brick faces. This was one of Frank Lloyd Wright's signature techniques to emphasize the horizontality of his Prairie houses. Lots of other modernist architects picked it up -- along, apparently, with some suburban developers. You can see it most clearly on the chimney here, where the shadows give the impression of continuous horizontal bands. DownspoutsLooking at the Street View of this house posted earlier, it looks like the breezeway, that part of the house between the chimney and the garage has been shortened in using an earlier version of Photoshop. The street view shows an interesting detail peculiar to Detroit houses. If you look at the downspouts in the street view you will see the drains end in some interesting places; the one to the right of the breezeway drains right into the driveway. The house to the right of 1 Boone Lane does the same thing, drain to the driveway. In the winter this will leave a sheet of ice. Detroit area houses originally had a feature where the downspout drained into a pipe that ran underground to the storm drain. In the past 10 years or so Detroit no longer allowed roof gutters to drain drain to storm sewer and the standard practice was to seal up the ground pipe with cement at the ground level and find an alternative place to drain the water. If you look closely at the bottom of the downspout to the left of the breezway, you can make out the black pipe directly under the downspout that the water would have drained into. The original feature of sending the roof gutter water down the downspout and into the storm sewer allowed a lot of freedom in landscaping; it allowed cement or brick or whatever to go right up to the house as a grassy area to absorb the drain water was not needed. But you need it now and the landscaping does not allow for this unless you tear up your driveway or walkway. If you look around the street view at other houses you see some very interesting downspout configurations that you will not see anywhere else. My son owned a Detroit house which had this downspout conversion and when the insurance man came to check out the house to approve his policy application and he said upon inspecting the property that you cannot send the water to the driveway or walkway, this creates a hazard that the insurance company does not like but he overlooked it and sent in his policy approval. Fifties architecture was pretty tameIt’s funny how one's (my) perception of what mid-century modern is accentuates the outliers. This house really only has that triangular piece of trim to be a 1950s house. It could easily be a '70s house without it. I've been looking for a distinctly 1950s house for a photo shoot with an 1953 Arnolt MG Coupe, but overt blatant Fiftiesness is hard to find. Not sure this house cuts the mustard. We’ve been desensitized by googie. (Kodachromes, Cars, Trucks, Buses)
Test Pilot: 1958
... above is from his 2005 obituary. (Technology, Kodachromes, Aviation, LOOK) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/09/2020 - 5:42pm -

May 1958. "Lt. Commander George Watkins in flight suit in cockpit of jet fighter." Kodachrome by Frank Bauman for the Look magazine assignment "Navy Test Pilot." View full size. A Full LifeIf he was a test pilot in the 1950s, he's lucky to have lived long enough to die of a heart attack. I worked at Edwards AFB for a little more than a decade and let me tell you the streets of Edwards are paved with dead test pilots: many are named after somebody who died testing aircraft. My coworker once calculated that in the '40s and '50s, the mortality rate was 1 every 11 months. In my first two years, there were two crashes and several "in flight emergencies". One time some landing gear got stuck and the plane had to "belly it in". My friend's husband was flying and she got called to the mission control room, just in case that was the last time she got to speak to him. (Thankfully it wasn't.) People talk about "watching a trainwreck" but you can't imagine the excruciating fear of being in a control room when the spin chute won't pop, much less being the pilot in that circumstance. Humans learn from trial-and-error and the science of safe flight test had to grow up alongside the new airplanes. Working as a test pilot was beyond dangerous back then. (And it's still dangerous now.) The work and sacrifice these people made expanded the envelope for *all* flight. So if you've ever flown in *any* airplane, you owe a debt of gratitude to the pilots of military aircraft. Nerves of SteelI don't know why, but I LOVE this photo. To be willing to strap yourself into something moving faster than a bullet for Uncle Sam to see if it'll fly speaks volumes to this man's courage and character. It reminds me of America's "can do" attitude that made it great! Set Altitude Records - Served U.S. Presidents"Capt. George C. Watkins, who had a singular career as a record-setting Navy test pilot in the 1950s and later delighted in unnerving a new generation of swashbuckling pilots at his aerobatic-glider school near Palmdale, has died. He was 84. Watkins, who served three presidents as a White House social aide, died Sept. 18 of a heart attack at a hospital in Lompoc, Calif., said his wife, Monica. "Over a 30-year military career, the pilot set records for speed, altitude and number of landings on an aircraft carrier. He never planned on being a pilot. After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy during World War II, he served in the Pacific as a battery turret officer on the battleship Pennsylvania." The quote above is from his 2005 obituary. (Technology, Kodachromes, Aviation, LOOK)
Teamwork: 1942
... to dress better, more formal back then. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Aviation, Factories, WW2) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/19/2016 - 10:05am -

October 1942. "Men and women make efficient operating teams on riveting and other jobs at the Douglas Aircraft plant, Long Beach, Calif. Most important of the many types of aircraft made at this plant are the B-17F 'Flying Fortress' heavy bomber, the A-20 'Havoc' assault bomber and the C-47 heavy transport plane shown here for the carrying of troops and cargo." 4x5 inch Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer for the Office of War Information. View full size. What? What?What did you say? what? Great picture!The composition, the color - just a beautifully composed shot. Riveting!I just had to say it: This is a riveting photo! ;-) I love the chiaroscuro, the focussed concentration, the saturated colors, the flesh tones and the gray metal. They are both beautiful people, too! MOM!No comment necessary Blatantly, Utterly PosedTechnically, it's a great feat of photography, but, like many Office of War Information photos, this image is blatantly and utterly posed. Look at how the supposed "Rosie" is dressed, right down to gleaming shoes. Do you think for a moment that even the most unsophisticated viewer would not instantly recognize this as propaganda ? Would it not be more informative to have captured the way the work was actually being conducted ? Would that not instill greater appreciation of the war effort in the general public? On the plus side, the models are at least holding the rivet gun and the bucking bar in the correct alignment. [These photos were used to produce posters and other promotional materials intended to motivate women to work in war-related industries; in other words, advertising, not documentation. -tterrace] C-47Dad flew as aerial engineer / crew chief on C-47's in the Pacific War. Battle Stars for Guadalcanal and Northern Solomons. His unit, the "Thirsty 13th" Troop Carrier Squadron island hopped for almost 4 years. Places and air strips long since forgotten.. Dumbea, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Espiritu Santos, etc. . C-47's were unarmed, flew low and slow, frequently to airstrips carved out of the jungle at the front lines (ie Guadalcanal). His unit lost aircrews. Also, heavy experience with malaria (take your Atabrine !!) and combat fatigue. C-47's were also used to tow gliders to the front lines. Dad made the Sep 7 1942 cover of Life in a "war glider". Dad never discussed much of his experience, but made sure we remembered his lost friends. Mom served in the Atlantic. Greatest generation indeed. This photo series... famous, yes posed, but served an important function. Front line airmen depended on the manufacturing excellence portrayed in the series. Posed? Of course!Made a pretty decent living taking photos like that. They were posed because the people who were paying me to take them wanted them that way. The shot we're discussing here is a beaut. Alfred Palmer made what could have been a snoozer most compelling. When I was taking photos for newspapers, I still would, depending on the situation, ask the subjects to move this way or that way, so you could say those were posed, too. Most of the stuff I shot captured students of the month or new garden club officers. I wanted the subjects, who would be happy to be in the next edition of the paper, to look nice and for the photo to reproduce well as 65dpi black-and-white printed on newsprint. Sports stuff, crime (what little I ever took) stuff: not posed but not always good, either! Posed or not...Yes, it's obvious that the photo was posed. As tterrace noted, this and other similar photos seen here on Shorpy were used to create posters and other paraphernalia for the War effort. But... My Grandmother worked in an aircraft plant during the War. She worked on an assembly team, not riveting but an equally taxing and dirty job. She had several photos I've seen that showed her daily outfits and for the most part it looks like she always tried to look her best, at least in the morning. She actually wore her hair the exact same way. Yeah, there were (and still are) a lot of dirty jobs but you only have to peruse the photos in Shorpy for a bit to tell that people took the time to dress better, more formal back then. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Aviation, Factories, WW2)
Marlene: 1952
... I've been a graphic designer for over 40 years. (Kodachromes, LOOK, Phillip Harrington, Portraits) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/12/2016 - 3:25pm -

March 1952. "Marlene Dietrich makes her stage debut in Chicago." Color transparency by Phillip Harrington for Look magazine. View full size. The Sharp Eye of ShorpyHaving been a publisher of magazines for 25 years, I agree tterrace is right that printing would smooth this out a great deal, with all those Ben Day dots. I hadn't noticed until just now taking a second look at this Shorpy-Sharp photo that Dietrich employed the same makeup tactic as Lucille Ball (and others) -- painting in lips far larger than nature provided, with the upper lip drawn well above the natural line. I imagine one would rarely see a photo of either Dietrich or Ball without that artifice. I've found only one photo of Ball with the natural lip line and she was truly not recognizeable as the icon we all know. My aunt worked in pictures in the 50s and said no one would recognize Betty Grable without her makeup, but said Marilyn Monroe was naturally beautiful without hers. This picture makes me realize why Dietrich liked Von Sternberg's "butterfly lighting" and reckon that black and white was something of a blessing for her (though Dietrich in her first Technicolor, "The Garden of Allah", was spectacular). Absolutely FabulousAs Edina in the UK sit-com AbFab says "My entire body hangs off these cheekbones!" Before plastic surgeryTons of pancake makeup. The seat of glamourShe appears to be sitting on a vinyl-and-chrome chair from a dinette set. But under all that Max Factor, a fine soulI watched a DVR'd documentary from Turner Classic Movies just last night called "Cinema's Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood" (2009), about the huge number of film-making refugees from Germany just prior to WWII, in which she featured prominently. Most of the points made about her in that film are made in the Wiki biography about her. As an old fan, I already knew most of anyway, and while I admit that the heavy makeup is the first thing I noticed in this photo of her at age 51, my immediate next thought was that her inner beauty of strength of character and humane ethics needed no makeup or embellishment. She was right among the first to open her home to refugees and get them into jobs and homes of their own, and was right at the top in sales of war bonds and among the most hardworking entertaining the Allied troops around the world. The vanity of a bit of makeup and later a bit of plastic surgery seem trivial amid such a life lived in anything but vain. Living gracefully is more rare and important than the superficiality of "aging gracefully". I confess stereo wars with my sister during high school involved me listening to Dietrich in my room and my sister listening to Led Zeppelin in hers. Before the touch-upLooks like a photographer's proof before the touch ups are done. [It's not a "proof" because this is a scan of the camera original. The magazine's color printing process alone would smooth everything out a good deal. -tterrace] Wrong terminology.I think the magazine publisher in an earlier comment used the wrong terminology. Ben-Day dots differ from halftone dots in that the Ben-Day dots are always of equal size and distribution in a specific area. To apply the dots to a drawing an artist would purchase transparent overlay sheets. Photographs and artwork are converted to halftone dots for reproduction, whether it be for letterpress or offset production. Yes, sometimes they will tend to lose detail especially when using a coarser line screen. I've been a graphic designer for over 40 years. (Kodachromes, LOOK, Phillip Harrington, Portraits)
The Hump Office: 1942
... thanks to your superb members. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/16/2014 - 6:12pm -

December 1942. "Switch lists coming in by teletype to the hump office at a Chicago & North Western railroad yard, Chicago." 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size. The List - Railroad Abbreviations?I can figure out some of the abbreviations in the left column as railroads: SFE = Santa Fe, RDG = Reading, PA = Pennsylvania, NYC = New York Central, RI = Rock Island, MIL = Milwaukee Road. Maybe someone out there can figure out the others: CIM, MP, EJE, COFG, GCX, UTLX, CNW, MDT. I also think the ones in the center column are abbreviations (BELT, PENNA, IHB, IHLOC, CBQ), but of railroads or cities? 20 Years Later...in 1962, a similarly attired C+O clerk, leaning back in a swivel chair, feet up on the console of the Univac 1 at Case Tech, watching the neon lights blink and the metal tapes spin. C+O's corporate offices were in the Terminal Tower, and a clerk came out to Case every day to run accounting jobs. This was the only use the Univac 1 got at the time, with the Burroughs 220 and the new Univac 1107 taking over student class load. My phone has more computing power than all of them put together. Could it be?General MacArthur above the pictured man's head? [Good catch! Time magazine, December 29, 1941. -tterrace] The ListClick to enlarge. Railroad AbbreviationsCIM = Chicago, Illinois, and Midland MP = Missouri Pacific EJE = Elgin, Joliet, and Eastern COFG = Central of Georgia GCX = General Chemical UTLX = Union Tank Car Co. CNW = Chicago & Northwestern MDT = Merchants Despatch Transportation Full disclosure: Other than CNW, I had to rely on the magic of the interwebs. Hump listThe list most likely represents train 284 out of Butler Yard (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) on the Wisconsin Division, with conductor GL Stewart in charge. The 1, 2, 3...designation indicates the first car to go over the hump, the second, etc. I find in interesting that the official reporting marks of the various railroads are not used. Regarding bigguy1960’s question: CIM represents the Chicago and Illinois Midland railroad. MP represents the Missouri Pacific railroad, often called the Mopac. EJE represents the Elgin Joliet and Eastern railroad, owned by US Steel at the time to handle their product. MDT stood for Merchants Despatch (the “e” is correct) Transportation. CNW was the Chicago and Northwestern railroad, the host railroad for the picture. The X designation in a reporting mark meant the rail equipment was owned by a company other than a railroad. Hence, UTLX refers to the Union Tank Car Company, still with us today. The “COFG” and “GCX” have me stumped. The two character designation to the right of the initial/number represents load or empty, and car type. X stands for empty, thus CIM 5449 is an empty “gon,” or gondola. Lines three and four are empty hoppers. Lines 14, 15, 16, 20, 21, 22 and 23 are loads, with a brief description of the lading. The next block of information indicates which railroad in Chicago the car goes to. The line one through six block will go to the BRC, the Belt Railroad of Chicago. The handwritten twos and sixes are for the pin puller on the hump. He will see a block of six cars and pull the pin “behind six,” instead of scrutinizing each car reporting mark and number. The two digit number to the right of the off going line represents the cars weight, critically important to the retarder operator. A couple of the cars show “10” tons, and I’m assuming they are wooden sided gons, which would account for their very light relative weight. Let's dissect a switch listThe very top of the page shows the train's origin and date. 1. The left column is the position number of the car in the train followed by the car initials and number. The double letter indicates car type, i.e.XG, gondola; XM, boxcar, etc. 2. The next column lists the car destination as far as this yard is concerned. Belt would be Belt Railway of Chicago; IHB is Indiana Harbor Belt, with initials after indicating IHB's connecting destination, for instance CBQ is Burlington Route. Most of this train is being delivered to C&NW's connecting railroads in the neighborhood. 3.Third column of typed numbers is the track number the car is headed for. The hand written number shows multiple car cuts. To the right of the track numbers is any special notations or instructions. It looks like "Ride" is the big note, meaning the car should be ridden by a trainman off the hump, to slow the car to prevent damage to lading. In this time, most humps employed "hump riders", trainmen who controlled speed of cars as they rolled into the tracks by gravity after being uncoupled in motion. Early in my career, only the yard conductor got a nice printout like this. He would scribble out a simple switchlist for his trainmen that only listed how many cars to which track number. The conductor was the only one who had car numbers to work with; if he missed an extra car, or a car missing, all the work beyond that was wrong and had to be straightened out. (Most guys were careful about that.) Couple more abbr.BELT = Beltline RR (Chicago local freight) CBQ = Chicago Burlington & Quincy (Burlington route) Those Initials and moreCOFG = Central of Georgia (Railroad) GCX = General Chemical (Company) WAB - Wabash (Railroad) The Belt (Railway Company of Chicago) gets all of its empty Railroad owned cars on the same Track 28, but the PENNA (Pennsylvania Railroad) gets its empty PA (Pennsylvania Railroad) cars on Track 10 and an empty RDG (Reading Railroad) car on Track 9. Thanks, SHORPYAnother learning experience thanks to your superb members. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads)
Seattle: 1942
... read up on it, it's worth your while. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Don Cox, Gas Stations) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/05/2021 - 5:03pm -

"Seattle 1942" is the notation on this latest Kodachrome from photographer-hotrodder Don Cox. At opposite ends of the architectural spectrum we have the Smith Tower, completed in 1914, and the Ace Hotel, one of which both of which still stand. View full size. Both Are Still StandingThe Smith Tower is obviously still there, but so is the building that was the Ace Hotel. It's now part of the Union Gospel Mission and stands on the pointed plot where the 2nd Avenue Extension and Third Avenue meet. Is that you, Geoffrey?Looks like a Toys "R" Us sign -- Geoffrey and all -- sticking out about halfway down the street, on the left. But Toys "R" Us wasn't founded until many years later ... 1957, to be exact, as a toy store. Geoffrey made his debut in the 1950s as well. So it is clear that what I am seeing is something else, but the similarity to the Toys "R" Us font and logo is uncanny. Anyone? Not Toys R UsIt's difficult to tell exactly where that sign is, due to extreme foreshortening, but I found Otto's Meat Market in the 1940 City Directory, online at the Seattle Public Library. It's listed under Dreschel Otto meats, at 315. The sign appears to be in front of that one, so: 301 Betty's Coffee Shop, 309 Furuya M Co, 313 Masin Eman 2nd hard goods (predecessor of Masin's Furniture?). There are addresses in the previous block (221, 223-25) but they are vacant in 1940. There are no businesses ending in "us" anywhere on the block that I can find. [Or is it the YS in a second "Betty's" sign? - Dave] New Trolley Coaches for SeattleSeattle shut down their streetcar system in 1941, and replaced it with an extensive electric trolleybus system. There are two of these new vehicles visible heading north on 2nd Avenue. Some 1940 trolleys ran in regular service for 38 years. Several generations of trolleybuses have served Seattle since then, and a modern fleet operates to this day along with four other USA Cities. Several of these original 1940s trolleys have been preserved as part of a museum fleet. Top of the tower roomsI'm always fascinated by these old skyscrapers and the attic-spaces or top floor architecture. Did they hide secret owner penthouse bachelor pads? Or merely old elevator equipment or water tanks? Someone needs to write a book about these attic floors on old buildings. Pioneer Square Fish FryeNot only has the rather squatty and unlovely Ace Hotel building managed to make it 117 years, but so has the former Frye Hotel in my hometown, rising in the vintage photo behind the Ace and kitty corner from the Smith Tower. Both hotels predate the Smith, which itself was once the tallest building West of the Mississippi River, dominating the local skyline (and countless postcards) for 46 years until the building of the Space Needle. While the Ace is now the Union Gospel Men's Shelter, the Frye has been converted to high quality low-income housing (with a waiting list) for nearly 25 years. Smith Tower PenthouseSomeone lives there: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/garden/21who.html There's quite a roof-top view from the Smith Tower.The Smith Tower facility was a long time customer of mine (performing water treatment management) with its cooling towers and HVAC systems. Two interesting experiences that I'll always remember. 1. While dealing with their equipment, I had parked my New Beetle (aka Bug) in the alley behind the building. On the other side of the alley was a building used by an organization that housed the homeless. Apparently some of the residents were on the rooftop, taking a break (?) from some kitchen duties and thought it might be fun to squash "a bug", all from the rooftop. When I came out to get into my car, I found the windshield smashed. They had dropped a 5 gallon bucket of French Onion Soup from the rooftop (5-6+)? stories up, filling the inside of my car with a lovely aroma, but a terrible mess. 2. The other experience was the demolition of the Seattle Kingdome. The Smith Tower was on the edge of the Exclusion Zone and the Chief Engineer had invited my wife and I to an early Sunday morning visit to the rooftop for viewing the implosion of the Kingdome (March 19, 1998). This was the largest building ever demolished by implosion up to that time. We were standing on the rooftop and there were video cameras behind us and everybody was waiting for the countdown. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2v24rp Needless to say, it was impressive. That evening, after returning home, I was watching the evening news and realized that the cameras were from NBC, as I could rear the comments of spectators as the explosion happened; and the conversations were EXACTLY what was said on the rooftop, earlier that morning. That said, if you're ever near the Smith Tower in Seattle, it's worth a trip just to see the decorative elevators with the polish brass, maybe they're still providing the elevator operators, I'm not sure. Lovely building, read up on it, it's worth your while. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Don Cox, Gas Stations)
Junior Driver: 1949
... bike and its garage-mates circa 1949, from a set of 35mm Kodachromes I acquired in northern New Jersey. View full size. Too old ... 
 
Posted by historic52 - 12/08/2012 - 5:25pm -

A Schwinn bike and its garage-mates circa 1949, from a set of 35mm Kodachromes I acquired in northern New Jersey. View full size. Too old for the trainersThe kid looks a little too old for training wheels. Maybe it's just the suite and tie. Definitely not carbon fiber composite and Shimano parts.That bike looks as heavy as a tank too. I think when cars hit these the cars got damaged NOT the bike. Trunk TrimThe trim on the Pontiac, the car on the right, indicates that it is a 1951 model. The 1949, 1950, and 1952 trims were all different so it is easy to tell the year by looking at the trunk. Similarly, the Chevrolet parked next to it is a 1950 model. The 1949 model had different trunk trim and the 1951 and later models had the tail lights on the outermost part of the fenders instead of on the slope between the fender and trunk. The photos below show the differences between the years. New Jersey license plates from both 1949 and 1951 were white lettering on a black background. Tight SqueezeIf the driver of the Pontiac wanted to leave first, how would they get in? Clip-on tieBoys' bow ties of that era were usually clip-on. Know this firsthand. Also the license plate on the Pontiac is a 1951 New Jersey tag. Quite impressiveTaking into consideration everything; the well dressed kid, the bike, and the cars, this was a very well to do family in 1951! Sunday MorningLooks like Sunday morning before getting into the car for church... Good Job Zcarstvnz!Great ID on the model years Zcarstvnz. My initial guess was '50 on the Pontiac and '49 on the Chevy, but I could not find any good rear photos for confirmation. Nice informative post. Clip-onsI grew up in the 1950s, and any special event required all the boys and girls to "dress up." My dresser drawer had a selection of clip-on bow ties, and I don't recall learning to tie a Windsor knot until I was about 10. Was this boy's tie a clip on? It sure looks like one. When I was dressed up, my mother wouldn't let me near my bicycle. I wasn't alone?I thought that I was the only kid dressed that way! I had the same bike too but with a blue/cream coloration. Possible Reason for the Suit and TieOne possible reason for our young man to be riding his bike in a suitcoat and tie - it is Easter morning. I have a number of these same kind of pictures that seem to have the exact same feel to them. A bright, sunny Spring day and me dressed up in new Easter clothes waiting for the rest of the family to finish getting ready and go to church. (Look at his clothes and especially his shoes - way too new for a young boy to keep taht clean) I would be bored silly as I was the youngest and usually the first to be gotten ready so I would go off to find something to do while I waited. "Don't get into anything" would be the command from my mother. Most of the time I didn't... Perfect ProportionsI, too, had that model Schwinn, minus light and training wheels. I've always thought it was a particularly attractive machine, with proportions much closer to those of a motorcycle than the bigger bikes possessed. When I outgrew it, I inherited my mother's Schwinn, complete with tank horn, sprung fork, and Pierce-Arrow-style headlamp. Having a silly given name and riding a girl's bike guarantees that one will grow up to be a decent boxer ... if one grows up at all. 1950 Chevrolet and 1951 Pontiac1950 Chevy with Powerglide on the left, and a 1951 Pontiac Catalina. Gotta hurryMr. White's gonna kill me if I miss another deadline at the Daily Planet! Guaranteed for as long as he owns itLooks like the lucky lad has himself a 20 inch Model J-46 Schwinn. The circular badge just forward of the left tail light on the Pontiac identifies it as either a 1951 or 1952. Just like meI didn't know there was another kid who put on his coat and tie to ride his bike. I didn't use training wheels, though, and I had a regular tie with a windsor knot. Didn't know how to tie a bow tie. OptionalLicense plates? Maybe the owner of the new Pontiac was saving the Chevy for a Barret-Jackson Auction in 2013? Young Pee Wee Hermanheads off on his first Big Adventure. Great Caesar's Ghost!He's even wearing Jimmy Olsen's bow tie! (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)
High Spirits: 1956
... dress on the right and the shiny Olds! (SoCal 1956 Kodachromes) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/16/2012 - 4:14am -

Southern California circa 1956. The Oldsmobile and Mrs. Binoculars are back! Everyone seems to be in a jolly mood. 35mm Kodachrome. View full size. Rhapsody in BlueLove them wide whitewalls and bosomy bumper guards! How do they end up on eBay??Love the blue and pink dress in the middle! Dave, do you think people toss or hand off their slides because they've converted them to dvd's? I simply can't believe that no one in a large family would take charge of the slides, for privacy's sake if nothing else. Perhaps they tell the conversion business to dispose of them and they end up on eBay? I find this really strange when there clearly are other family members or friends in these images. Families usually go through deceased members' belongings to share/divvy up what is there. House clearance sales are usually for people with uninterested family, or for loners, aren't they? What do you think? Thanks for this amazing site. Between yours and Retronaut, I end up spending hours in old memories of my life in the States quite often. Gail in Kent, England [Someone dies, and then there's an estate sale. That's how most of these end up on eBay. - Dave] About that beltlineIt's hard to believe now, but high-waisted pants were considered hip in some parts of the LA scene in the '56-58 era. Dick Contino's fashion choice in this much-mocked excerpt from "Daddy-O" (1958) shows it wasn't limited to kids whose mamas dressed them funny. Zoot SuitIndeed the high waist and baggy legs were considered high style starting in the 1930's. Movies from that period commonly show pants worn well above the elbows -- with varying states of bagginess. The kid looks like he was the inspiration for the 'Urkel' TV character. Glad they ended up on eBayIt is sad that there was apparently no one left to cherish these photos, but 60 or so years can work a lot of changes within a family. I'm glad these made it onto Shorpy. It might be different if they were laughable or hideous, but the chance to see happy people, great old cars, wonderful clothes, high-waisted trousers and full-fashion hosiery-with the seams, makes their appearance here a fitting memorial to this lovely group of folks. Good TimesI agree with Bull City Boy that Shorpy readers are the benefactors of these delightful photos which present to us historically accurate and joyful times in the lives of this particular group of amicable friends. These are real moments in time preserved for future reference and even the personalities of the characters express themselves through body language, laughter, shared jokes and revealed joy. The little boy with both belt and suspenders (and grass stains on his knees) tells us he is all boy, but very disciplined in being the only one to stand at attention while posing for the picture. The lady with the flowered dress is sharing a humorous thought and amusing her friends. The turned-around lady and girl on the extreme left are looking for something they have misplaced. Everybody has a story, but rarely is it captured for all eternity in a permanent etching. I'm lovin' this group of pictures because in my lifetime the fabulous fifties stands out as the best of times. It is so much better than having them stashed in a shoebox and forgotten at the bottom of someone's closet, like a gift that keeps on giving. Thank you Shorpy for stirring some spectacular memories. Keep 'em coming.I come to Shorpy for the older photos however I can not remember the last time I enjoyed a set of photos as much as I do these. I'll echo the sentiment that it is tragic that nobody from the family could have kept these. Thanks for letting us see them. What gets them on eBayPeople die and the ones who inherit the photos don't know any of the people in the photographs, so the emotional tie is broken. Maybe they keep them for a while but then they move, or downsize, or get a little paranoid that they're a little like those people on the hoarder TV shows. Anyway, the person who is in charge of getting rid of the stuff decides that they'll try selling the slides instead of dumping them in the garbage because he's heard that there are people who collect old slides, and the few bucks he'll get for selling them might come in handy some day. [Actually how it works is you hire someone to dispose of the contents of the house and don't even look at the slides, or you just toss the contents of that closet in a Dumpster somewhere. I've helped clean out the houses of various deceased relatives, and there was no careful inspection of the zillion items that had to be gotten rid of before the house could go on the market. We certainly weren't looking at slides. That kind of stuff just went in the trash. Dozens of Kodak Carousel boxes from my grandmother's house, for instance, containing what must have been thousands of slides. They took up an entire closet wall. - Dave] I feel like I know this family!I am so glad we got to see glimpses into the life of this wonderful family. Thanks for posting this series of photos! I wantthe satin dress on the right and the shiny Olds! (SoCal 1956 Kodachromes)
Bel Air Belle: 1963
... issued spring or summer of 1965. Dating L Most Kodachromes of this vintage would have the processing date stamped on the ... 
 
Posted by Deborah - 01/20/2013 - 6:27pm -

Circa 1961 1963, L's 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air two-door hardtop. She bought it used and paid $500, then had to sell two years later. Oh to see this car now! 35mm Kodachrome slide. View full size. 57 - MehThe 57 Chevy gets all the attention now, but the 55 and 56 were essentially the same car, and for my money nicer looking, especially the straightforward looking 55. My mom bought a 55 two door, very similar to this, in 1958. It remained her favorite car long after. She traded it in for a 59 Ford, which turned out to be a total lemon. You can have oneMy cousin has restored one of these, same turquoise two tone. A bit more than $500 though. It's HUGE inside, and you sit upright like adults. 6 BangerThe Bel Air undoubtedly has a 6 cylinder engine, as the tailpipe is on the left side. If it had the standard V8 it would be on the right side. Power Pak cars had dual exhausts. Judging from the shift lever position, it's more than likely a Powerglide automatic transmission. [As noted above, the V emblem on the trunk denotes a V-8 powerplant. There was no standard engine; buyers had a choice of a Blue-Flame 6 or Turbo-Fire 8. The V-8 tailpipe was on the driver side of the car. - Dave] What a lovely photoIt's hard to say which is more lovely, the stunning Chevy or the very pretty young woman. Safari55 is right, the picture could only have been taken in 1963. That was the only year that black plates were used without a date sticker. It replaced the yellow 1956 plate that used stickers to update them through 1962. The black plate was then updated with stickers from 1964 through 1969. As an aside, the California DMV is considering bringing back black and yellow plates as a special order option. V=V8V on the trunk means it is a V8. 265 Cubic inch V8. I think it's a V8I was under the impression the silver V on the trunk indicated of the 265 V8. Yes, late summer 1963 in VirginiaL and her aunt had just driven cross-country from California to Virginia in the summer of 1963. She is newly married and she is just shy of her 19th birthday! There's no easy segue into this next image. This is where the gas cap is located. Sticker in window - VALLEY...This could be one of the earliest photos of an automobile with a sticker in rear window. Yes? [School decals like this weren't a particularly uncommon sight when I was mooning over cars in the 1950s. - tterrace] Fine ModelThey sure made some fine models back then. Made pretty good cars, too. Chevy DealerFrom the license plate frame, it appears that the car was purchased at Rancho Chevrolet in Reseda, California. I can't find them on Google, so perhaps they are no longer in existence, or were swallowed up by another dealership. Date changeI think you are probably right. I will change the date! $39k todayHere is a similar '56 Bel Aire 2 door, $38, 995! And the black CA plate would be worth a premium today. 1963 not 1961The black California plates with the yellow digits were the first year for the 1963 base plates, so this photo was taken sometime in 1963. Even later than 1963Yes, black plates in California began in 1963, and quickly exhausted the first part of the alphabet. However, the "P" series plates weren't issued until the 1st quarter of 1965. This plate was likely issued spring or summer of 1965. Dating LMost Kodachromes of this vintage would have the processing date stamped on the mount. Barbie ShoesI love her little shoes. Looks just like the shoes that came on the first Barbie dolls. First rideI believe the '55 Chevy was the first time I rode in a car. Unlike the rest I fell in love with the steering wheel. Also liked hanging out the rear seat window. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)
Road Tripping: 1952
... Lebanon, MO. - SilverfoxCo ] (Minnesota Kodachromes, Travel & Vacation) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/02/2014 - 3:09pm -

"6 Oct 1952. Clara & Grace at chenille & souvenir shop south of _______ ." We're back with Hubert and Grace on their road trip from Minnesota, the day before our previous photo was made at Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Where are we now? 35mm Kodachrome by Hubert Tuttle; paint by Dr. Seuss. View full size. JCT ASince the Missouri DOT doesn't have money to pave roads anymore, they have lots of time to do things like scan all of the old state highway maps. The '48/'49 and '53 maps confirm that there was never a Route T near Phillipsburg. In '49, Route T went all the way from Montreal (Missouri) to Route 66, but by '53, part of it was replaced by Missouri 35. The south end of that Route T being in Laclede County precludes there being another Route T in Laclede County that isn't connected to it. My further guess would be that this is between Phillipsburg and Lebanon, because 1) the shadows say we are looking more or less north and 2) we can see the *backs* of signs that are advertising the wonders to be found to the south. I spent a little time with Google Street View looking for that hill, but nothing jumped out at me. It's possible that the hill was eased when I-44 went through - the interstate would be pretty much right where Clara and Grace are standing. How About This?Back then, the way to get from Minnesota to Eureka Springs, Arkansas was along Highway 65. Given that people in 1952 didn't travel as far in a day as we do, I'm going to guess this is around Sedalia, Missouri. Not as rare a name as I thoughtI had thought that Wiltfong was a very rare name that might provide a location clue, but an online search shows well over 100 people with that surname. While they're located all over the place, there are a number in Missouri, which ties in with a prior comment. Someplace to the north of Eureka Springs also would make sense given the way the trees have turned more in this picture. [What about "O. Wiltfong" -- are there hundreds of them? -Dave] [Edit: No O's that I could find. Probably wouldn't matter, as the O in this picture has likely been long since gathered to his/her ancestors.] [It does matter, if you're trying to figure out where this is. - Dave] Country Roads Back when I was a lad, American highway lanes were separated by a white line (broken or solid as appropriate), as shown here. Somewhere along the line, the white of those lines was replaced with yellow, and white was retained only for separating same-direction lanes on multiple-lane roads. Apparently this was a change I completely slept through, because I can't place the time when it took place. I wonder if anyone out there can pinpoint when this change occurred. The reason I'd like to know is that I find it irksome when "period" movies show yellow lines on putatively vintage roads (much like showing red/blue mailboxes in an era when they should be green), and I'd like to know at what portrayed period I can relax in this regard and, therefore, not feel an oppressing need to get a life. [That bugs me in period movies, too. The change from white to yellow began in 1971 when the Federal Highway Administration assumed responsibility for the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. Everything you ever wanted to know about it is in this document. -tterrace] I know where they are. Just outside of Hooterville. Oliver!Oliver Wiltfong, born in 1900, was living in Blue Springs, Missouri, in 1920. In 1940, he was in St. Louis. Perhaps Ollie ended up at this roadside oddity by the time this pic was taken. Route 66 Novelty MerchantThis is probably the home/business of Novelty Merchant Oliver U. Wiltfong in rural Lebanon area of Missouri. Oliver (and wife Jessie) lived in rural Lebanon, Laclede County, Missouri, for about 2 years prior to Oliver's death from brain cancer on May 6, 1949. They resided near Phillipsburg, a village of about 200 population southwest of Lebanon along U.S. Route 66 (now I-44). Postal address: Phillipsburg Rt I. Assuming Jessie remained living in Phillipsburg after Oliver's death, at the time this photo was taken in 1952 I would venture to say this is probably the family home on Route 66 near Phillipsburg. During the 1940/50s is was customary for folks living along Route 66 to sell novelties from their yards to passing travelers. [The old Route 66, now State Highway W, parallels I-44 near Lebanon, Missouri, the town whose name fills in the blank in our caption. Below is Oliver's death certificate; click to enlarge. His address is given as Phillipsburg Route T, presumably State Highway T in the vicinity of Phillipsburg. - Dave] [Dave - *Missouri T* is north of Lebanon. It runs south from Stoutland, MO to old Route 66 where it ends. Hence my conclusion the address on the Death Certificate is a U.S. Post Office mailing address (not a highway route). It's doubtful *Missouri T* ever ran all the way down to Phillipsburg, MO (unless since the 1940/50s the State renamed all the highways). Common sense says to me that since Oliver sold novelties he would locate on old Route 66 for maximum traveler traffic. Few travelers ventured off of Route 66 particularly in rural areas (except to visit major attractions). The building in the photo appears to be an old barn or shed dressed up a bit as a novelty shop by adding a false front and roof over hang. Notice the arched front vs. the pitched metal roof on the building; and, the double swinging barn type doors at the front of the building. During the early to late 1950s my family traveled Route 66 annually from California to Missouri on vacations to visit family living in Missouri. The highway shown in the photo is what Route 66 was like most of the way from Chicago to California - a two lane concrete and/or asphalt highway. The mail box with the name *O. Wiltfong* on it leads me to believe this is the property where Oliver and Jessie lived on old Route 66; and, that they converted an out building to a novelty shop. All of this leads me to believe the photo was taken at the Wiltfong residence (and novelty shop) on old Route 66 in Phillipsburg, MO southwest of Lebanon, MO. - SilverfoxCo ] (Minnesota Kodachromes, Travel & Vacation)
Scooby-Doo: 1967
... I totally disagree. I have been enjoying these family Kodachromes; I believe there's a place here for both black & white and ... 
 
Posted by delworthio - 09/22/2011 - 6:16pm -

All five kids plus Tippy the wonder dog in Rochester, Indiana. Kodachrome slide. View full size. Scooby DooI see that the two youngest kids, even the baby still in diapers, are packing heat. It is what "dates" the photo since today it is difficult to find toy guns for boys, even though my kids had dozens, and not one out of four grew up to be outlaws. I bet none of these kids did, either. All the kids in my day had them, none became criminals or murderers. Who remembers WHEN and WHY it became forbidden to sell toy guns? ["Forbidden"? Guns are still big sellers at toy stores. - Dave] Coloured photosColoured photos are really awful and they spoil this site. Wonderful shotThe boy with the finger dangerously close to nose-picking territory makes it an excellent, unposed shot where everyone is clearly having a great time. I like color shotsA lot of us grew up with Kodachrome and those brilliant, very-saturated images are very nostalgic. Fan of "coloured photos"I totally disagree. I have been enjoying these family Kodachromes; I believe there's a place here for both black & white and color. In fact, it was a link to the Kodachrome-Pie Town series by Russell Lee that got me hooked on Shorpy. Line and sinker were quick to follow. ~mrs.djs Great MixYou have a great mix of color and B/W photos on this site. Don't change a thing! A third vote for colorBecause the past WAS in color, even when the photographs aren't. From my 10 year old"What's the difference between broccoli and a booger? Kids won't eat broccoli!" I love the mix of the colored and older pictures. This site is one of my daily musts! Seems like just yesterdayI'm becoming quite fond of these children- I would have been 5 when this photo was taken and the outfits look familiar to the ones seen when I was growing up. My mother commented that when raising kids back then, their clothes were clean but if they were "play clothes," fashion wasn't the priority. I like the dainty watches on the girls- with their hairstyles and the eyeglasses, I feel they look like they will zoom from girls to responsible moms without any stops in between. I bet they were busy watching those little brothers. More pictures of the family, please. I'd love to know more about them- much as we all got the opportunity to meet the young military couple and their baby boy. Woof!!That's such a great picture~ Even the dog is in on the joke and has a big smile!! LOVE IT!! 60s and 70s photosAt first I was a bit surprised to see photos from the 60s and 70s but I think they're pretty cool. I guess it depends on what you think of as old. I was born in '68 so the early 70s photos are like fragments from my earliest memories. I appreciate seeing a time that I sort of remember. I still do love the 20s through 40s but I have really enjoyed seeing these 60s and 70s family photos. Now I'm not too sure how I'd feel about seeing "nostalgic" photos from the 80s and early 90s... Love the colorI love all the pictures on this site. The Kodachrome pictures bring back memories ... especially this one with the Forsythia bush. My Mom had lots of them in the yard. That Belt ThingamabobWhat's that belt ornament on the far left? Looks like a 30-06 cartridge or shell or ? Pretty impressive. NOBODY's gonna mess with this family! NeighborsCan I go back in time and move next door to you guys? Neighbors? Sure! Hey, Hold On!Just bring your record collection and camera. Waaaait a minute. It took me awhile, tterrace, but I think I know what this is all about. You have eyes for my sister, don't you? The delworthio crowdTaking nothing away from the obvious charms of your sisters, my thought was actually that yours looked like a fun bunch in general to live next door to. I probably would have kidnapped Tippy, though. Into the lightRemember the good ol' days when we had to face the sun while having our pictures taken. I have several photos of me and my brothers, squinty eyes and all. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Dogs, Kids)
Redhead Posse: 1956
... things from days long past. Color In the domestic Kodachromes, the Shorpy photo families loosen up following the relative ... of the kids? Keep 'em coming, AAAndrew. Unlike the other Kodachromes we've been viewing, where figuring out and speculating on the ... 
 
Posted by AAAndrew - 10/03/2014 - 4:52pm -

Bert and Iva are on the road visiting relatives. In 1956 they visited this red-headed posse in Nebraska. Stick 'em up, pardner. 35mm Kodachrome from the Bert's Slides Collection. View full size. History with a small h.The interiors of homes and offices are my favorite photos here at Shorpy, they're a wealth of visual information about everyday things from days long past. ColorIn the domestic Kodachromes, the Shorpy photo families loosen up following the relative rigidity of the B & W era. There's also a warm glow coming off this particular family with their genuine smiles. And isn't it great finding traits of both parents in each of the kids? Keep 'em coming, AAAndrew. Unlike the other Kodachromes we've been viewing, where figuring out and speculating on the connections is part of the deal, it's intriguing to have a contributor who knows the cast of characters. Fellow BoomersThe cowboy and myself would be about the same age. So far so good for me, I hope if he's still with us he can say the same. Dad's footwear...Wow, tell me about Dad's shoes...pretty nifty I'd say... SOSWe had the same sofa in this "liver pink". If the color wasn't bad enough, the fabric was like sitting on steel wool. If you were wearing shorts, it was child abuse. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)
At the North Pole: 1958
... the original 2400 dpi scan. They also took 35mm Kodachromes. Abandoned Santa's Village had random bits of 'stuff' in ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 06/24/2009 - 5:11pm -

My brother-in-law at the North Pole, which in February 1958 was in Scotts Valley, California. The second Santa's Village theme park to be built, 1957-1979. 2¼ 120 Anscochrome transparency shot by my sister on her honeymoon. View full size. Missing!Someone stole Florida! Santa's Village AnswersBaton Rouge Bill: 1. Anscochromes from this era tend to be on the cyan side to varying degrees; most, like this one, are fairly easy to fix. Harder are Ektachromes, which have gone very red, like my example here. Also, Dave frequently improves them. 2. My sister's Kodak Duaflex was a better-than-average snapshot camera, but you did get chromatic and speherical aberration from the simple lens. 3. Dress like Santa Claus! Bwah-haaa, spit-take! Sun and Moon Tipster: Excellent calculations. The wedding was Feb. 16, 1958. Yes, that's the moon, which I noticed when I almost retouched it out while dust-spotting the original 2400 dpi scan. They also took 35mm Kodachromes. AbandonedSanta's Village had random bits of 'stuff' in place up for about 15 years after it closed. You knew you were almost to the beach when you saw the giant candy canes. Anscochromes, preppy drag, tattoosFifty years ago? How some things change and how some things remain the same! 1. My Anscochromes from that era--as well as many Ektachromes--have faded. How much Photoshop did you have to do to rescue the color? The reds sure look like that scarlet-brown sunlit Anscocrhrome I remember so well. 2. Lens aberrations never change do they? I swear I can see minor purple fringing in the outer parts of the image around the high-contrast tree-branch/sky and shadow-cracks/cement(or rock?). It's much the same with my current high-end lenses on digital cameras. In fact, I'm told Photoshop has an anti-purple fringing plug-in that I've never bothered with. 3. Unlike women's fashions, men's fashions never seem to change, do they? I swear I wore that that exact outfit to work yesterday. As a mental health professional, I always try to dress like Santa Claus. No, seriously, I wore khaki pants, a plaid button-down shirt and brown loafers, which is what I wore all the way through grammar school, high school, college, and pretty much since (unless I'm going to court to testify, in which case I'll wear a coat, white shirt and tie). 4. Of course some things do change. No one I know wears long sleeves these days unless they want to cover up their tattoos, and they don't roll their sleeves up unless they change their minds about covering up the tattoos. In 1958, polite people didn't get tattoos, but if you actually had tattoos, particularly on a forearm, you wanted to hide it, you didn't want to be reminded of it, you probably couldn't remember getting it anyway, so you never EVER wore short sleeve shirts till the day you died. My, how times have changed in fifty years! Santa's VillageAh, Santa's Village. Its former location is still visible from Highway 17 running between Santa Cruz and San Jose over the mountains. In fact, a sign for Santa's Village lane is still visible, although the exit is now closed. In the early 80s, crumbling buildings and amusements were still visible there. The Sun and the MoonAssuming that's not a weird cloud or a lens flare there, the moon phase can narrow that Feb 1958 date down a bit. It appears to be close to 1st or 3rd quarter (and would be rising or setting, respectively). Since in Feb the sun still has negative declination it couldn't illuminate a setting moon the way it's doing here so it is a rising moon near 1st quarter. The Feb 1958 1st quarter was on the 26th. http://wise-obs.tau.ac.il/~eran/Sky/MoonPhase.html I loved Santa's Village - Got Engaged there!I LOVED Santa's Village- I got Engaged there....to a chicken. When I was about 4, we stopped at Santa's Village on the way to the Boardwalk. They had a bunch of those coin operated machines with performing animals...anyone remember those? You put a quarter in, and the animals had to do something to go get a treat, then you got a gumball machine prize. There was a duck that played the guitar with his beak (surreal feedback loop, I recall), a white bunny that played a mini grand piano, and a very sad rooster who walked a tightrope. I placed my bet, the rooster walked, and I got a quite nice little brass ring with two enameled hearts on it. I wore it for months, and my Dad told everyone I was engaged to a chicken. I lived in that area for ten years. You can count on features about the old staff to show up in the local weekly paper at Christmastime. What a swell place that was! Still there, sortaSanta's Village is still there, mostly. The current owners put up a bunch of gaudily painted carved totem poles, a couple of coke machines (in tank-proof cages to prevent vandalism) and a fruit stand. It's right at the crest of the hill leaving Scott's Valley for the twisty part of 17, so most people don't stop there unless they'd planned to from the start. I used to wonder about it every time I drove that hill to or from UCSC. My mom says she remembers visiting Santa's Village when she was a kid. That, and the place with the Circus Trees, which were apparently sold to Busch Gardens not too long ago. More photosWanted to share a website I found when looking for more information about Santa's Village (I have a weird attraction to abandoned places.) At http://www.alamedainfo.com/santas_village_ca.htm, you'll find dozens of scanned postcards and brochures from Santa's Village in its glory days. On an unrelated note, found this story at CNN.com a couple of weeks ago and thought many people here at Shorpy might find it interesting. Has The Digital Era Killed Kodachrome? Santa's Village MoonI do believe it was Feb. 17. We were on our way to Carmel the day after the wedding. -- Ex-Honeymooner More great memories, sort of.We lived in San Jose (about a mile from the "Winchester Mystery House") and I recall when the advertising for Santa's Village started. I wanted desperately to go there. We'd drive past Santa's Village about once a month on the way to my grandparents' house near Felton, but since my dear ol dad was one of those "No stopping for tourist traps!" people I didn't get to actually visit Santa's Village until I was about 12 years old and by then the magic had pretty well worn off. Santa's VillageSorry to say but the various dips at my high school (Saratoga High) would vandalize Santa's Village for part of the Senior Prank on the first day of school, and haul back a fake tree or something else from there. I never went there personally but passed it each time I was headed for the beach (Capitola or points south) and always thought I should stop, but never really did. Another "Santa's Village"There's another Santa's Village located in Jefferson, NH. My Uncle George used to take family and friends there for trips at least 3-4 times a year. We always had to stop on the way back to get an ice cream. Since he passed away in 1992, I have assumed the responsibility as "Uncle George." I don't get there as often as he did, but I try to maintain the family tradition of an ice cream stop on the way back. We also used to visit Storyland in Glen, NH; another favorite from my childhood that got visited at least a couple times each summer. We even went to Six Gun City, our version of "out west." Of course, coming from Maine, "out west" meant New Hampshire or Vermont. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Travel & Vacation, tterrapix)
Over the Boardwalk: 1984
... produces a richer photo than a digital image. My father's Kodachromes from 1954 have held up very well. The Konica weighs just over 2 ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 02/17/2021 - 3:40pm -

Atlantic City isn't the only place with a Boardwalk, ya know. Out here in California we've had the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk since 1907. Its Giant Dipper wooden roller coaster is a National Historic Landmark. In another kind of history, back in 2008 its late, lamented Fun House was the location in one of my very earliest Shorpy photo submissions. I took my 1984 shot on 35mm Kodacolor VR 100 with my Konica Autoreflex T. View full size. Who Wears Short Shorts?Surprisingly it doesn't look all that much different than a similar scene today, except for the length of the men's shorts! They're showing a lot of legUsually you can judge the approximate year of a picture by female hairstyles and attire. But here it's the males that date this photo to the 1980s. More legShorts were shorter back then. Under the PavementIt's "down by the sea" alright, but a "boardwalk"? Where's the "boards"? Looks like pavement. I know, I know: "Boards?!? We don't need no stinkin' boards!!!" Konica: Built Like a TankIn 1972 my six year old Hanimex rangefinder camera was stolen. Actually, I left it in a phone booth (remember those?) for a few minutes and when I returned it was gone. I purchased a Konica Autoreflex T as a replacement, and took many thousands of photos over a forty year period. It was very reliable, and was rebuilt twice. I used mostly Kodachrome 25 and 64 colour slide film, but also Agfa, Kodak and Ilford black and white. I went digital in 2010, and this photo of my Konica was taken with a Canon ELPH 360HS, my third digital camera. I did my own darkroom work for many years, but I enjoy the ability to edit photos on my computer without the use of chemicals. A scan of a Kodachrome slide produces a richer photo than a digital image. My father's Kodachromes from 1954 have held up very well. The Konica weighs just over 2 pounds, while the Canon is just under 8 ounces. Nice JobOn reproducing a 1984 Kodacolor Mr. Terrace. Did you use the negative or print? [This is a scan of the negative. -tterrace] Medical emergency or fight?I wonder what is going on to the left of the red and green building in the middle of the picture? It appears to be two or three people on the ground in a pile. A few people around them seem interested but not the masses. [Good question. -tterrace] Where are the boards?I'm kidding, and it's a terrific picture! We have beach-side promenades made out of concrete or brick in NJ, like in Cape May or Bradley Beach, but Atlantic City and many other Jersey Shore towns still have the old wooden boards, like Atlantic City, Asbury Park. Some towns have begun replacing the wooden boards with trex composite planks, which last longer and warp less, but something's lost when you "upgrade" that way, and it doesn't sound or feel the same when you're walking or riding along. SocksThe men's shorts were short but the other 80's giveaway is the length of the socks, especially the ones with the 3 colored stripes at the top. A different era.A couple of guys have picked out something nice at that “Women” shop. Man, to have lived in a time like that. Man, to have livedThere are many Shorpy commenters who wonder what it would be like to be on a particular 1905 Manhattan street or at the 1922 Washington DC tidal basin. No one is alive to give a first-hand account. I like the 1941 Virginia crowded-bed photos that prompt personal memories from some commenters. But for Winstrol to say, “Man, to have lived in a time like that” about a scene from 1984, that makes me say, Hey! – I was 27 back then. (And I’m only 63 now.) So it’s not like that’s ancient history, you young person. We pre-oldsters remember the times of tall socks and short shorts and bad music and ridiculous hair. I think there was a hole in the ozone layer but global warming wasn’t a thing yet. Reagan was in his first term and Russians were bad commies. Cars were unremarkable. Living in the eighties was easy because although I was just a kid in the sixties, I knew I owed an eternal debt to all those hippies and freaks and protesters who did the heavy lifting that handed me sex & drugs & rock ‘n’ roll on a platter. Eye-catchingThe girl in the foreground with the white tank top and purple shorts, and the one just to the left of her in the blue top and a couple of steps behind her. The prevailing female hairstyle seems to be mostly shoulder length perms. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, tterrapix)
Our New Car: 1956
... its transmission on I-580 in Oakland in 1971 (yes, I have Kodachromes of it), my father had no complaints. Hey tterrace I’ll ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 04/03/2021 - 12:36pm -

One early September morning in 1956, my father pilots our brand new Hudson Rambler from its docking bay preparatory to its maiden voyage. Yes, I said Hudson Rambler. The distinctive front end was patterned after that of the Pinin Farina-designed Nash-Healey sports car. View full size. RamblerThink the Hudson name was on the Rambler for only a couple of years, until their merger with Nash. The first Metropolitans were also manufactured by Hudson. Rambler rootsRamblers were actually a Nash product originally, debuting in 1950. Nash and Hudson merged in 1954 to form American Motors, and Ramblers were produced with both emblems until the Nash and Hudson lines were discontinued. Ours was a Hudson Rambler because we bought it from a Hudson dealer. Metropolitans were also a Nash product initially. Beep Beep BeepPerhaps you can clear up the urban legend about Ramblers having tricky transmissions? I heard one of them had to chase down a Cadillac to get advice on shifting gears. Shifting RamblersPerhaps you can clear up the urban legend about Ramblers having tricky transmissions? The '56 had a 3-speed manual transmission, the '66 had an automatic, both apparently Borg Warner. Except for the '66 blowing its transmission on I-580 in Oakland in 1971 (yes, I have Kodachromes of it), my father had no complaints. Hey tterraceI’ll show him that a Cadillac Is not a car to scorn. Beep beep. Beep! Beep! His horn went beep beep beep. Hudson-Nash mergerHudson merged with Nash in late 1953, moving production to Kenosha after closing its Detroit plant in October 1954. The 1955 Hudson was a restyled Nash with Hudson's '54 instrument cluster, but retained "Dual-Safe" brakes and Hudson front suspension. You could get a Packard V-8 in the car. 1956 saw "modest" styling and engineering changes and further declining sales. 1957 introduced AMC's new four-barrel, dual exhaust 327-c.i. V-8. It as Hudson's last year. AMC dropped both Hudson and Nash, carrying on with the Rambler. Metropolitans were sold by both Hudson and Nash, but the car is usually associated with the latter. Beep-beep! Steve Miller Someplace near the crossroads of America RamblingI learned to drive on a 1962 Rambler with a pushbutton automatic transmission on the dash. That thing was a tank! Wouldn't go much above 40, so Dad figured it was safe to let us drive it. We had a '59 Rambler station wagon when I was in grade school - but it didn't have the massive amounts of chrome shown here. Ramblerin' ManMy dad was a diehard Rambler man. There were Nashes before my day, then in '57 he bought a brand new wagon much like the one in the picture, but black with white roof and red side trim. Quite striking. Next came a new '59 Ambassador Custom Country Club. What a beast. 327 4V, 270 bhp. Electric windows, seat belts, headrests, push button transmission, fully reclining seats, continental tire, yada yada yada. A '65 Ambassador wagon came next and lasted him for over 300,000 miles. The last one we had was a '68 AMX 390 he bought for my mom. I got the '59 for high school use, but good old mom let me take the AMX on occasion. Dad made my sisters and brother buy Ramblers. At one point we had five of them in the family. My brother was not pleased with his '62 American. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, tterrapix)
Dee's Cafe: 1941
... If so, I'm ready to move! In all seriousness, these Kodachromes never cease to amaze me. Seems that they were the "high-def" of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/27/2008 - 5:05pm -

July 1941. "On the Main Street of Cascade, Idaho." View full size. 35mm Kodachrome transparency by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. PrioritiesGlad to see this town has the basic necessities. Beer, drugs, food, more beer, and if you have any money left, what looks like a barber shop too for that all important haircut! According to Google Maps, the town and the Main Street are still around, can't vouch for the original buildings though. CascadeThese buildings may or may not still be there, but the character of the small town doesn't look to have changed. A pretty place. Dee's CafeI wonder if this Dee's Cafe is related to the Dee's Restaurant chain in Utah? Idaho and Utah, being close together with a large Mormon population, seem to have a lot of the same people moving back and forth... Main StreetIs there still a place in Cascade where I can drink beer, eat candy, shoot pool, and play cards all in the same place? If so, I'm ready to move! In all seriousness, these Kodachromes never cease to amaze me. Seems that they were the "high-def" of the previous century. They're all so gorgeous in their color and clarity, and seem to have held up amazingly well, too. CascadeI live a few hours away in Boise and have traveled to Cascade for work several times. If you updated the cars, the place would look pretty much the same. Beautiful country up there. CascadeI live in Cascade along with about 950 other people. Many of those buildings still stand, but the tenants have changed. We have one bar that serves beer and wine and another that serves hard liquor. People cross the street from each bar to get what they want! A lot of retired people here as there is not much industry. You should know we still have the same movie theater that was built around then and maintains the same character. The town got hit hard when mining and lumber were cut off in the national forests but it is a great place to live with 2 great ski resorts up the road, some of the best snowmobiling country in the US, 2 great lakes for fishing, sailing and other water sports. Plus great steelhead and salmon fishing about 2 hours away. It's a paradise if you love any of the above. Beer, Drugs, Coffee, Beer......Pool, Cards, Candy, Tobacco! My private Idaho. Wonder if those faux-fronted western-style building still exist anywhere. Except for ghost towns. All you get these days is strip malls. Dang strip malls. Wall, SDCheck out Wall Drug, in Wall SD. http://www.walldrug.com/ looking for tourist-trap faux-Western? These folks are unashamed of kitsch and are not shy about it. I was there two weeks ago. I am from Las Vegas and I have gained an appreciation since living here for open and honest commercialism. If that is also your bag, Wall is about 50 miles SE of Rapid City, on the way to the Badlands NP. Check 'em out, you'll be glad you did. (The Gallery, Eateries & Bars, Russell Lee, Small Towns)
Arsenal of Democracy: 1941
... Previously on Shorpy -- Quite a few Alfred Palmer 4x5 Kodachromes featuring M-3 crews training at Fort Knox have appeared on Shorpy. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/16/2020 - 4:55pm -

August 1941. Warren, Michigan. "Tank manufacture (Chrysler). These are partially completed M-3 tanks, 28-ton steel giants being turned out at the huge Chrysler tank arsenal near Detroit. The camera was directed toward the end of the three main assembly lines. Mass assembly methods developed in automobile manufacture are used. Note overhead cranes for heavy parts." Photo by Alfred Palmer for the Office for Emergency Management. View full size. BookWhen I was younger, I found, in a used book store, a small book about the effort by an automotive manufacturer to build tanks for WWII. I believe it was actually published by the manufacturer to document their work after the war. Don't remember whether it was GM, Ford or Chrysler. But, it was a fascinating read, with pictures of the assembly process, at least one of them much like this one. Previously on Shorpy --Quite a few Alfred Palmer 4x5 Kodachromes featuring M-3 crews training at Fort Knox have appeared on Shorpy. Here are a few: M-3s in Action: 1942 Aim High: 1942 Fort Knox: 1942 Hits the SpotLooks like a very thrifty operation indeed, at least if judged by the recycled Pepsi-Cola bucket sitting on the floor just ahead of the stand-mounted engine at lower right. M-3 Medium Tank (Lee)as opposed to the M-3 Light Tank (Stuart). The Confederate general names were applied by the British to distinguish the tanks, with the Grant M-3 being a modified version that suited the Brits more. They were used extensively in the North Africa campaign by the British, despite the tank being a stopgap measure until the M-4 Sherman could be developed. An unusual characteristic was the 75mm cannon in a fixed sponson on the right side because a turret capable of handling such a large gun hadn't yet been developed. The turret at the top held a rapid firing 37mm cannon. As a little note, the tank pictured by Vonderbees is an M-3 Stuart light tank. The Stuart has four road wheels and no 75mm cannon and the Lee six road wheels. Continental R-975Based on the glimpse of the yet-to-be installed engine on the floor in the bottom right-hand corner, this would appear to be one of the many thousands of Wright developed R-975 C1 air-cooled radial engines manufactured under license by Continental for use as a powerplant for Allied tanks and other armored vehicles. http://usautoindustryworldwartwo.com/images/Continental%20Engine/r975-aa... This engine in its C4 variant went on to be the main engine for the Sherman. Not that the R-975 isn't a great engine (it is!) but it's a bit of a disappointment for me as I was hoping to catch sight of the Chrysler A57 Multibank. The A57 was a 30-cylinder 1,253 cid engine (five Chrysler 250.6 cid L-head inline six cylinder engines arranged around a central shaft) that was developed in 1941 out of the necessity for a rear-mounted tank engine to be developed and produced in the shortest time possible. ... and here I am, hijacking my own post about the R-975 For sheer output to space ratio, the Radial Engine configuration can't be beat. Yank In A TankUpon further review, the tank on fire in the photo below is actually the M3 Stuart Light Tank which is different than the M3 Lee tanks in the manufacturing photo. PhotographerIs the photographer really Russell Lee? Per https://www.loc.gov/resource/fsa.8b00695/, the photographer is Alfred T Palmer. [It is indeed and the caption has been corrected. - Dave] More About The PlantInteresting info here about the tank plant in the photo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Arsenal_Tank_Plant Tanks!"Yer welcome!" Amazing timesI continue to be amazed at how America mobilized for WWII, the massive output of war machines, airplanes and ships. And how the railroads managed to come back from very lean years with worn out equipment to handle all the traffic. America truly came together. I'll be 80 in two days and really all I can remember is my dad being on the road as a Frisco engineer and the huge number of trains running then. (The Gallery, Alfred Palmer, Detroit Photos, Factories, WW2)
Twig Trimmer: 1937
... Twig is way up near Duluth, Blue Earth (of Minnesota Kodachromes fame) is south of Minneapolis on Interstate 90, almost at the Iowa ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/12/2015 - 9:34pm -

August 1937. "Barbershop in village of Twig, Minnesota." Medium format nitrate negative by Russell Lee for the Resettlement Administration. View full size. Barber poleThere’s either the elegant rotating pole inside a glass tube or, uh, this. [Not to mention the traditional barber building corner. -tterrace] At Least It's HeatedExcuse me, may I use your washroom please? Looks like no water or shampoo in this place. Nor a light switch. Oh and by the way, the washroom shack is a few steps out out back, unheated. [There is, however, free parking. - Dave] The Old Fashioned WayJudging by the lack of electrical wires and windows (at least from this angle), it looks like this barber does things the old fashioned way: Comb and scissors by lantern light. Hope you're not too picky! [Half of the storefront is a window! - Dave] Floyd's Barber Shop in Mayberryis looking positively palatial compared to this. TwigTwo Minnesota photos in as many days. But whereas Twig is way up near Duluth, Blue Earth (of Minnesota Kodachromes fame) is south of Minneapolis on Interstate 90, almost at the Iowa border. Pole MatchingIn case a potential customer misses the barber-pole, this barber has a matching barber-corner-of-building. One ChairLots of waiting, bet many tall tales were heard within those walls. All GoneScissors and comb have been replaced with propane and nightcrawlers. Out in the sticksWhen I lived in Minnesota, the joke was "Twig - oh yeah, it's out in the sticks." Looks like it still is. To add to the interesting place names, Minnesota also has a Fertile and a Climax. In journalism class, we were shown an actual headline: "Fertile Woman Dies in Climax." S. Todd, Barber -> Twig Store Propane and nightcrawlers… I guess you'll see no cries of gentrification here. Electrical system in a suitcase? You bet.In June, 1938, the "modern" electrical system in my Great Uncle and Aunt's, "The Walton's" style, rural general store in the Missouri Ozarks, consisted of a few light-bulbs, wire, batteries, and a hand-crank generator; all of which would fit in a suitcase. My father, a 12-year old farm-boy, powered the generator as people from all-around listened-in on a new, floor-mounted, upright electric radio to the "fight-of-the-century" between Germany's Max Schmelling and America's Joe Louis. (The Gallery, Bicycles, Russell Lee, Small Towns)
Name Your Poison: 1953
... spare room of his house a month back was a mini-trove of Kodachromes of his folks in 1953 he didn't know about. But he did instantly ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 07/07/2015 - 8:54pm -

Along with the "tterrace lost and found" slides my friend and I came across in the spare room of his house a month back was a mini-trove of Kodachromes of his folks in 1953 he didn't know about. But he did instantly recognize the recreation room and bar his dad had built in the basement of their San Francisco home. A big holiday shindig is underway with friends and relations; other slides hint that it might be Thanksgiving. Meanwhile: set 'em up. His folks always knew how to really throw a party. Later in the decade and into the early 60s they took on a distinct Tiki flavor, not unusual for the time in general, but especially so for Pacific-theater WWII vets like his dad. That's his mom in the background attending to the record player. Hey buddy, you got a light? View full size. Smoker's paradise(almost) Everyone in sight is smoking. That's becoming a rare sight these days. I smoked for a lot of years, too, and being in a bar always seemed to lead to chain smoking ... That girl!The woman to the bartender's right could be Peggy Olson. I don't understand the metaphysics that place her on the other coast and in an earlier decade. [We're the ones to the bartender's right, however. -tterrace] Metropolis after hoursJimmy Olsen tends bar while the first Lois Lane smokes a cigarette. The 2nd Lois Lane spins the platter. Shaken pleaseBack when ordering a Big Mac was a completely different experience. Back when I was one year oldThat could have been a genuine Cuban cigar in the bartender's left hand. But it was probably a White Owl, a Dutch Masters or a Roi Tan. Blowing SmokeThat looks like a Ronson cigarette lighter in the hand of the fellow at the bar. That was the most popular brand in my group with Zippo as a runner up. I remember that my brother gave me a Ronson cigarette lighter combined with a case that held 10 of my Chesterfields. I think it was for my high school graduation. I've attached a photo of a brown onyx combo that looks like the one I had. My other cigarette lighter memory was at the Playboy Club on 58th Street, where a pack of smokes that sold for around 35 cents at the time cost a dollar but came with a lighter embossed with a picture of a Bunny on it. Frolicking FiftiesMy Aunt Alice gave some rocking parties in their basement bar in the 50's. They even had a great pool table. New Year's Eve always found a lot of people there sometimes til the morning! As a kid I thought she was about the coolest person I knew. Like so many of the day, she was a smoker and I remember watching her light up and blow smoke rings. Seven drinksI see four golden liquors (scotch? bourbon? rye?) on the rocks with the ice at varying levels of meltedness, one of those golden liquors neat, one martini with olives, and something with coke for Mrs. Sad Smoker. I also count six people + the photographer. All present and accounted for. One bourbon, one scotch and one beerOr, possibly four scotches, one Coke and one excellent looking martini. "Make mine a double!"I've always wanted to say that. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, tterrapix)
Kodachrome Crowd: 1958
... a gray day in February 1958. One of my sister's honeymoon Kodachromes. View full size. KBF It's fun seeing the old Knott's ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 06/24/2009 - 5:12pm -

How to dress for Knott's Berry Farm, California, on a gray day in February 1958. One of my sister's honeymoon Kodachromes. View full size. KBFIt's fun seeing the old Knott's Berry Farm before it got all smarty-pants to compete with Disneyland and Magic Mountain. As a kid I enjoyed the train ride, the haunted shack that seemed to defy gravity, and the old codger sitting in the outhouse, who somehow knew your name when you looked through the window. And a lot of the little girls were still wearing dresses. Master of the Obvious (#1)Let me be the first in line to point out the white lady and black or Hispanic man and their kids. "Hey, there's a white lady with a black or Hispanic man. And they have kids!" [Isn't it interesting how tterrace's title for this post works on several levels. - Dave] Many a Sunday afternoonOn many a Sunday afternoon my family went to Knott's. No fence, no gate and no admission fee. In 1958 I was 10 and I have carefully examined the photo looking for myself, but I am not to be found. It is interesting that the mixed-race family is attracting attention from those on the left of the photo. Today no one would even see them. We did all dress nicely back then, didn't we! Vehicle trendsThis shot also brings to mind the inverse relationship between the sizes of automobiles and those of baby strollers over the past 50 years. Vehicle Trends reduxYet, the stroller manufacturers are still making the rear axle a trip zone for fathers' toes. Fifty years ago and that father is pushing the stroller the same way my husband pushes our Graco. Some pricier models and jogging strollers have extended handles that eliminate the toe-scuff/tripping problem. Do you think that baby's bottle is glass? I have to tether anything I let my son carry, whether he's in the stroller or on my back. Ah, 1958I, too, was 10 in 1958 and we traveled from Minneapolis to LA to visit Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm. I looked for myself in these but that would be too much of a coincidence ... but you never know! Love the innocence of the time! Interracial CoupleI noticed that couple right away, and felt certain the man must be Filipino, but he could be Hispanic. The miscegenation laws were declared unconstitutional in 1948 (my Filipino grandfather and white grandmother had to go out of California to marry in 1939). I wonder what their lives were like. At times it's confusing to be biracial in 2008; it must have been so much more so fifty years ago. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Travel & Vacation, tterrapix)
Theater District: 1960
... comments: from Baltimore (and from the glorious Kermy Kodachromes series), End of the Line: 1963 , and from Washington, D.C., ... 
 
Posted by prrvet - 05/22/2020 - 10:38am -

A bright and sunny New Year's Day 1960 found me walking along Grand Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri. I snapped this photo because three days later the streetcars would cease running, owing to the closing of a nearby viaduct for replacement. The Fox Theater in the background, opened in 1929, fared a little better, lasting up to 1978. In 1991 it reopened and survives as a performing arts center. The Fox house organist at the time was Mr. Stan Cann, who held that position for 22 years, from 1952 until 1974. They called him "Stan Cann the vacuum cleaner man" because his hobby was collecting antique vacuum cleaners. He lived in Los Angeles during retirement and gave frequent organ concerts around town, many of which I attended. 35mm Kodachrome by William D. Volkmer. View full size. Stag BeerThe Stag Brewery was in Belleville, Illinois, about 18 miles from downtown St. Louis. Stag was a staple in southwest Illinois back in the days of popular regional breweries. They had a long run, opening in 1851 and finally closing their doors in 1989. I find it interesting that this small brewer would advertise so boldly right in the shadow of Anheuser-Busch headquarters. Little Jack showing fearlessness when faced with the giant! I remember a Stan Kann from 1970s TVSeems like he was always showing up on a talk show to demonstrate various gadgets or inventions, and they invariably broke or just didn’t work properly, on purpose, which was part of the gag. Where's the Starbucks?Between the streetcars is a Woolworth's. I suspect everyone who looks at Shorpy remembers those stores. They seemed insurmountable. Yet eventually they were replaced by Kmart, then Walmart, and now Amazon is in the lead for that market. I once worked in retail. It's tough to see the future. Much is GoneHalf of the block with the Stag Beer sign is now a parking lot. Everything else is recognizable. The Woolworth building is quite an art-deco piece. J. B. / JobThe American Theater is advertising a production of Archibald MacLeish's 1958 play "J.B.", starring Basil Rathbone, famous for playing Sherlock Holmes in 14 films as well as on radio and on stage. "J.B." is a retelling of the Biblical Book of Job, written in free verse and set in a circus tent. As noted on the St. Louis marquee, it won the Pulitzer Prize, as well as Tony Awards. MacLeish had been a Harvard professor and Librarian of Congress. The combination of Biblical reference, serious subject matter, and highbrow aura attracted audiences. I recall productions through the 1960s. But when a D.C. area theater revived "J.B." in 2012, it was described as "nearly forgotten." Let's go to WoolworthWhat a wonderful picture. Beautiful composition, with the leading line of the street itself, the shadow of the street light, the gaggle of chilly consumers on the sidewalk, and the big orange buses trundling forward. The signage is fascinating and evokes so many memories. But as a kid, finding myself on that boulevard, I would have been tugging my mother's hand towards the big gold letters of F.W. Woolworth, a store which in my estimation contained an infinite number of joys and possibilities, not least the lunch counter. 1982, not 1991Is when the Fox Theater reopened. I saw so many shows there throughout the '80s. It's even more magnificent now. PCCI will limit myself to two other posts that highlight this beautiful streetcar and provide illuminating comments: from Baltimore (and from the glorious Kermy Kodachromes series), End of the Line: 1963, and from Washington, D.C., Streamliner: 1938. Stan KannStan Kann (not Cann) is the same guy as the frequent talk show guest that Koogan mentions. An American Theatre by any other name --More on the American Theatre, where "J.B." is about to open. It had a complicated history, with multiple renovations and names between 1910 and 1978. To complicate matters further, "American" also appeared on other theater buildings in St. Louis, including what is better known as the Orpheum on North 9th Street. According to the Cinema Treasures web site, the North Grand Avenue building had the following names as a stage or movie venue through the years: Princess, Players, Rialto, Schubert-Rialto, Schubert, American, Loew's Mid-City, Campus, Sun Mid-City. Locally Built StreetcarThe PCC streetcars in this photo were built by the St. Louis Car Company, a local industry in St. Louis. They manufactured PCC cars for many cities, and PCCs were built in Canada by Canadian Car and Foundry. Another manufacturer of PCC streetcars was Pullman; its version looked slightly different. You can read all about it here and here . Here is a photo I took in 1972 of an ex-Birmingham, Alabama Pullman PCC streetcar running in Toronto, Ontario. The Fabulous FoxIf you've never been inside the Fabulous Fox Theatre, its opulence often overshadows what's playing on stage. There's a twin house Fox in Detroit, too, though it also sports an office tower above its lobby. Recently, the owners of the Fox hired a local drone operator to fly through the interior. A St Louis PCC still runs in San FranciscoSan Francisco acquired 66 PCC streetcars from St Louis when they were retired there and as part of its historic Market Street Railway line. Most are painted in the livery of other cities' line including car #1050, in the colors of St Louis Public Service transit company. Here's that car's story: https://www.streetcar.org/streetcars/1050-1050-stlouis/ (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)
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