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Bal Masque: 1922
... the good pillowcase? Grampa, is that you? A sign of age To me 1922 seems shockingly recent for as photo like this to ... had his arm around her. I felt very sorry for her. A sign of age. We haven't changed all that much. I passed a group of five ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/31/2011 - 4:35pm -

June 28, 1922. Washington, D.C., or vicinity. "Ku Klux Klan meeting." 8x10 inch glass negative, National Photo Company Collection. View full size. Beyond scaryIt's amazing just how much power the KKK had in this country in the '20s. They controlled elections in many areas and kept Catholics from serving in many venues (including the governor's position in my home state). Let's hope their reign of terror is completely finished. Cowards hide your faceThis was not too many years ago. The same mentality still exists. Oh myWhat dangerous fools!!!! Sad that these people still exist today. Low-RentI grew up and have lived in a very rural section of NC all my life. I can remember the subject of the KKK coming up in conversation with my grandparents and great-grandparents. According to them the KKK was always made up of the "low rent" crowd and looked down on. Men in SheetsThe most scary image I can think of for Halloween. Herb, where's the good pillowcase?Grampa, is that you? A sign of ageTo me 1922 seems shockingly recent for as photo like this to have been taken near our nation's capitol, yet to my 14 year old son, it's nearly a century ago. I pray we can change as much in the next 90 years. Not the Klan of TodayIn the 1920's, the Klan was less about racism and more about maintaining the status quo of the day. Which sure, was racist but as others have said we can't look back on photos and judge them with standards of today. What I find interesting though is that this photo is in Washington D.C. In 1922, the KKK held a march down the streets of Washington. They were met not by outrage, but cheered by the citizens and treated like heroes. At the time it was fashionable to be part of the Klan, since they stood for good American values. Meaning God, Country, and Family. (Racism as I said was there, but keep in mind the period.) The culmination of this march was the swearing in of U.S. President Warren G. Harding as a member in the White House. (This is largely disputed, but there is evidence that supports it.) Harding renounced that membership about a year later, after consultation with his advisers. It didn't help that he had passed the anti lynching law, which brought much of the old Klan's activities to light in 1923. However when this picture is taken, it's entirely possible this is the night before the march on Washington, making the photo VERY historic. [Your timeline may be a little confused. The Klan was forced to postpone or abandon various parades in 1922 and 1923 due to community opposition in the Washington suburbs. Its "march on Washington" came in 1925 (and then in 1926), after Warren Harding had died. Serious historians dismiss the "evidence" of Harding's induction (the alleged deathbed reminiscence of a New Jersey Klan leader many years later) as ludicrous; rumors to that effect may have been spread in response to a speech he delivered in 1923 denouncing hate groups, a move that was widely viewed as a rebuke of the KKK. - Dave] Scary!The really "UGLY" side of America. Not that long agoMy family is from Columbia, South Carolina. After my grandfather died in 1953, about six months before I was born, hidden among his personal effects were found his robe and documents indicating that he had at some time been a member. Neither my grandmother nor anyone else in the family had a clue. I can remember seeing newspaper ads announcing meetings well into the 1960s, a few in the 70s. I once read or saw in a documentary that the highest per capita membership was in Indiana. It's almost hard not to laughIf the import of this were not so serious, it would be difficult not to laugh at the image of so many grown men with face-masks apparently in homage and thrall to other grown men in such ridiculous attire. Appalling as were their attitudes and their beliefs, this group, at least, could hardly be accused of being tainted by the presence of the opposite sex. Presumably most women would have considered these menfolks' activities as faintly ludicrous. InitiatesThis has all the look of a fraternity initiation with the pledges assuming various uncomfortable, subservient postures before the older (robed) members. Also, the apparently portable/reuseable burning cross (with guy lines) seems to be an innovation that I've not noticed before in pictures like this. Soft Serve Ice CreamEverything reminds me of food today to the point that I feel like Homer Simpson. I do have to say though that any group that has to wear masks and hoods to hide their true identities have to be feeling profound shame at what their group represents. Since 1922 when this was taken, we have had a Catholic and an African-American president and there may one day be a Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Mormon,or any other faith-based leader of our country that shows most humans MUST be getting smarter, even though lots of old-timers might disagree. This picture says a lot though, in that all the participants would not reveal their faces and they had their meetings under cover of night. SadThis one reminds me of being a little girl, in North Carolina, from 1959-63, when I was 5-8 years old. My dad was stationed at Camp LeJeune and we were living in base housing. On the base, the only segregation was by rank. Off base, it was a different story. There were "whites only" signs, separate restrooms, and footage of KKK rallies on the local news. I saw a little girl about my age, at one of those rallies. She was standing on the hood of a car and her father, wearing one of those scary, idiotic hoods, had his arm around her. I felt very sorry for her. A sign of age. We haven't changed all that much. I passed a group of five Klansmen, dressed in white and red robes (they looked so silly) picketing outside of Mount Dora, Fla., in 2001, right beside a major highway! Just when you think it's safe to go back on the road. Cross BurningsMy mother was born in Independence, Missouri, in 1915. Together with my grandparents she lived there until moving to Los Angeles in 1937. In the 1960s my older brother once idly remarked that it would be "interesting" to attend a cross burning, to which my mom replied "they weren't all that great." Upon further questioning, she reluctantly recalled that such events sadly weren't uncommon in 1920s Missouri, frightening (though memorable) as they were to a small child and certainly beyond that to whomever was being targeted. The soft optionVile as that bunch was, and I don't at all minimize it, it could have been worse. What you're looking at here is the "Second Klan," which was primarily political in its orientation. The guys in front, kneeling and wearing masks, are waiting to be inducted into the Real Organization so that they can wear robes. Nasty to a huge degree, but not a patch on the original KKK, which was organized by die-hard Southerners as what we today would call a "resistance group" along the lines of the IRA or Shining Path. They didn't march in the streets wearing robes, they moved around in the shadows assassinating people and engaging in what can only be called terrorism in general. Imagine if that had taken hold. The original Klan was derailed by its insistence on racial repression, which weakened it enough that the Government was able to infiltrate and eventually suppress it. If they'd stayed with States' Rights and the like, instead of concentrating on "beating up the n--s" (as an ancestor of mine supposedly put it), they might still be around as an organized force not all that different from al Qaeda. It may be difficult to comprehend, but in this case vicious race prejudice was the soft option. ColorizedThat flame is colorized, right? It really stands out because of that. I'm sure there's something clever to be said about colorization and the black and white photograph, but I'll leave you to work out the details. Famous peopleI think I see Hugo Black and Robert Byrd. (The Gallery, D.C., Natl Photo)
Grand Hotels: 1942
... Renewal On the right, the building with the "Fidelity" sign was known as the Baum Building. It was one of the most ornate and ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/15/2024 - 12:00pm -

November 1942. "Oklahoma City, Oklahoma -- Hotels on West Grand Avenue." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Office of War Information. View full size. Urban RenewalOn the right, the building with the "Fidelity" sign was known as the Baum Building. It was one of the most ornate and regretted demolitions of the 1970s "renewal". I have a small piece of it. Just beyond it is the Colcord Building, the taller white structure, which is the only thing in this photo that remains. Built as office space in 1910, now a high end hotel. https://www.colcordhotel.com/about Next is the Warner Theater located in part of the site of the current Devon Tower, tallest building in the State. Just beyond that is the Black Hotel and the Union Bus Station. Both survived until about ten years ago. Across on the left is the 28 story Biltmore Hotel. For many years it was the largest structure brought down by implosion. I witnessed that one. Now part of the Botanical park mentioned in a comment on Seed Town. Grand has since been renamed Sheridan. Warner TheaterI see the Warner Theater in the distance. My dad worked there in 1946/1947. Renewed Just before the Warneris a tall white building. It is the only building in the picture that still exists, and is now an upscale hotel. Where the Warner Theater stood, is now an 845-foot-tall building, home to an energy company. I once saw "This Is Cinerama" at the Warner in about 1957. Park-O-MeterCarl Magee of Oklahoma City invented the parking meter. See his great creation at its birth above. In a way he helped the rise of the mall with its free parking and the demise of main street. What a legacy! Ka-BOOM! townNote the Biltmore down the street, a prominent example of a celebrity implosion (right around the time when they became popular as new stories and cities began to search for some prominent, hapless building to be "honored") And to build - no pun intended - on 'Studebaker1913's post: another hapless building (tho not imploded) Among its sins: "I.M. Pei wanted to clear the Venetian Style Baum Building in order to straighten Robinson Avenue." Oh, my. Being HumansOnce again the startling and heartbreaking contrast between the past and the present. Then; a street for human beings. Park where you want, walk where you like. Get a meal, buy a drink, find a room, hock your saxophone, maybe do a little shopping. Be human. Meet other humans doing human stuff. Now; some kind of corporate hell. Nothing to do, nothing to see - drive right through. And how is it that, once again, a black and white photograph looks sunnier and warmer than Google street view? Why so many hotels?Since some of the commenters have personal, historic knowledge of OK City, I'll ask: why are there so many hotels along this stretch of West Grand? I found there were two railroad stations a block or so behind where John Vachon was standing. The Santa Fe station is still there; the Missouri–Kansas–Texas station on East Reno is gone. You can spin the Street View provided by Studebaker1913 around to see the train overpass. The Santa Fe station is to the right. Was there something else in this area to make so many people want to bed down nearby? Today, there are fewer, but much bigger hotels. On the immediate right in Street View there is a Wyndham and a Sheraton. Down the street is the aforementioned Colcord. But I figure they're here because, on the left in Street View is a convention center and then a sports arena on the other side of Reno Avenue. I've got my dancing shoes on, but my wallet is in the carThe Tap Room has "free dancing" but charges for parking. I guess they know a good racket to run! The True Inventors of the Parking MeterWhile Carl Magee had the initial idea for the parking meter and he received a patent for it in 1932, he was unable to make a practical working model until he enlisted the help of two engineering professors at Oklahoma Agricultural & Mechanical College (now Oklahoma State University, my employer) in Stillwater, Oklahoma. They were H. G. Thuesen and Gerald Hale, who perfected the design in 1933. The first batch of 175 parking meters was installed in downtown Oklahoma City on July 16, 1935. Urban Renewal - UGH!Yet another Shorpy photo depicting an American city or town of yesteryear that looks so much better than its modern counterpart in Google Street View. Why Hotels?In response to Doug Floor Plan, I would speculate that this phenomenon was quite common in most US cities in 1942. Today's hotels are scattered throughout metro areas, especially at freeway interchanges. At that time, there were cabin/cottage like motels out on the highways, but hotels were almost always centrally located. In this case, there was even a third rail station (Rock Island) located a few blocks south to further increase traffic. By the 1960s, places like Holiday Inn were showing up on the highways, blurring the lines between Hotel-Motel. For another survivor of the old hotels, navigate two blocks north at the first intersection on my street view link to see the Hilton Skirvin on NE corner of Park & Broadway. We almost lost that one several times. Prior to 1933 the Rock Island station was located directly behind it. The tracks were relocated south to avoid having east-west lines running right through downtown. Many City and County Buildings were developed in the mid 1930s along the former line. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, John Vachon, OKC)
Cothouse: 1942
... a cot mattress was more than an inch thick. BTW the sign in the window refers to E.H. Moore, who was running for Senate. He won, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/18/2024 - 1:39pm -

November 1942. "Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Cot house." The California Dormitory, offering not just "clean cots," but checkers and dominoes. Acetate negative by John Vachon. View full size. SnoringIt may be a good 80 years ago and 5500 miles away, but I can still hear the snoring . 50% PremiumI wonder what extras you got for 15 cents versus the base price of a dime. A blanket? Larger size? Heads Carolina, Tails CaliforniaI wonder how the owners/proprietors of the Largest and Most Modern Cot House in the Southwest settled upon the name "California Dormitory" as opposed to some other state dormitory? And I'd like to see the signage on nearby culinary establishments where the denizens of the Cot House got their three hots. “California” DormitoryIt wasn’t named for the State, but rather after its location - 308 W. California Street in OKC. That part of the street no longer exists. “California” was also the name of that specific style of dorm construction in vogue when built. I don’t know what that was/is. The 15-cent CotMy best guess is that they gave you a second mattress to lay over the first. I don't think a cot mattress was more than an inch thick. BTW the sign in the window refers to E.H. Moore, who was running for Senate. He won, but his health failed him and he did not run for re-election. He died in 1950. Spelling (sigh)"Shower Bath Privilegs" - we signpainters have a proud tradition of phonetic spelling. The workmanship is quite impressive - even some flourishing around "Free" // I wonder if this was for wartime workers needing a place, or if 'Cot House' was just a standard system during the Depression? The California Dormitorywas a style -- huge but cheap to build -- that came into being in the 1930s during New Deal employment programs. In the Adventures of Superman episode "The Ghost Wolf," Clark, Lois and Jimmy spend the night in one of these dorms. The place is so enormous that Lois doesn't think twice about staying in one end while her two colleagues spend the night in the other. 2 in '42?BTW the Cincinnati Enquirer described "2 in '42" as a "mystery symbol." I guess it was a very good mystery, since no one today seems sure about what it meant. I've scouted around a bit, and it may have meant that people should buy two war bonds during the then-current year, 1942. [Two days' pay. - Dave] 15 centsFree WiFi. New Orleans CotsIn about 1960 I stayed at a Cot Dormitory for a few cold nights. The price was either 25 or 50 cents a night, I forget. You raised the head of your bed up and put your shoes under the bedpost so they wouldn't be stolen. I hitchhiked through 37 states in that period, met a lot of good people. 50% PremiumCots were 10 cents, clean cots were 15. (The Gallery, John Vachon, OKC)
Woodward Avenue: 1917
... lives, not posing for a camera. The movie theater sign says "All Next Week, Somewhere in Georgia". According to IMDB.com ... silent screen? The theater beneath the Blackstone Cigar sign (far right)features Gladys Brockwell, who, like Kay Laurell (1890-1927), ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/24/2012 - 9:50pm -

Detroit, Michigan, circa 1917. "Looking up Woodward Avenue." Dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. "Mellow as Moonlight"If I was a drinkin' man, I would be sippin' some a that Cascade whiskey. Motor city, for sure!Not one single horse in view. Temporal AcheMan, this is one of those Shorpy photos that really make me wish I had a time machine. Not much leftAbout the only thing still remaining is the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, and even it has been moved about 300 feet from where it stood for 130 years. An amazing photo. Casting against TypeI see the film "Somewhere in Georgia" is playing, where Ty Cobb stars surprisingly as a small-town Georgia baseball player who signs with the Detroit Tigers. Health InsuranceAlmost 100 years later, the country is in a major pique over health Insurance and the Detroit Creamery had the answer all along. This maybe the best urban photograph yet, it certainly is the busiest. Notice the #2 streetcar?It's got one of those fancy-schmancy 'people scoopers' on it, like this: https://www.shorpy.com/node/4468 HodgepodgeOne of the best urban pictures yet! Too much to take in at one sitting; The Opera House, that wonderful memorial, the traffic, those streetcars. I wonder what the tent was for in front of that fountain, just across from the Opera House. FascinatingThere's so much to look at in this photo. I especially enjoy seeing people going about their daily lives, not posing for a camera. The movie theater sign says "All Next Week, Somewhere in Georgia". According to IMDB.com "Somewhere in Georgia", starring Ty Cobb, was filmed in the winter of 1916 and released in June 1917. Is the 1915 date on the photo in error? [Do we know what "circa" means? - Dave] An Edison ElectricI notice that the Edison Electric is being driven by a woman. My grandmother (who lived in Detroit) said that the only car she ever drove was an Edison Electric. She was afraid of driving a gasoline-powered car. [Women liked electrics because there were no gears to shift, and no clutch -- shifting and clutching on cars of that era required quite a bit of muscle. - Dave] Cloudy crystal ballCover story in Time Magazine, October 5, 2009: "The Tragedy of Detroit: How a great city fell, and it it can rise again." Speaking of moonlightFarewell, good moonlight towers. Twenty years gone by the time of this photo. Is it a coincidence that Shorpy has hit upon another star of the silent screen? The theater beneath the Blackstone Cigar sign (far right)features Gladys Brockwell, who, like Kay Laurell (1890-1927), died in her thirties. Horrific 1929 car crash in California. Merrill FountainThe Merrill Fountain in front of the Opera House still exists, too. Granted, it was moved about seven miles up the road to Palmer Park. Before it was called Wootwart (Woodward)The definition of the "good old days" ... Traffic LightsGreat image. Did traffic lights look different then, or did they not have them in Detroit? [In 1917, traffic signals came on two legs. - Dave] Re: An Edison ElectricLooks more like a Detroit Electric car than the very rare Edison. The main reason the ladies like the electric car was no crank starting. Charles Kettering changed that a few years later with the electric starter motor if IC engines. Notice the complete absenceof horse poop. And horses. Stop sign doesn't apply...Surprised to see that pedestrains do not follow traffic signs as they crossed the streets. It seems that those signs were for trolleys and cars only. It anwered my question why my g-g-great uncle got killed by a trolley. ProsperityWow! You can almost hear the hustle and bustle of prosperity in this amazing photograph -- the essence of early 20th century proud American urbanity. Go to Google Earth or some other mapping web site and visit the corner of Woodward and Fort today -- a dreary, faceless, lifeless desert of glassy highrises without a pedestrian in sight. HeartbreakingWhen I go through Detroit now it is a vast third world, broken down, trashed city, with gangs and thugs peering from behind collapsed buildings. How in the name of all that is worthy could this magnificent American city come to what it is today? Almost makes me want to watch Glenn Beck. Oh what a feelingI had to smirk a bit when I opened of the intersection on Google streets and the first thing I saw was a shiny Toyota. FABULOUSThis image is go busy and wonderful. There is so much to notice. I wonder what the conversations were and so much more. There is a tent in the middle of the square to the left of the statue. Why? What is the statue of? All in WhiteI love the woman all in white crossing the street with her plaid skirted friend (near the front of the photo, just before the frontmost car). She looks so different than everyone else. I bet the two women just walking into the frame below them are talking about her. She's showing ankle AND calf! I'm sure she'll be a flapper in a few years! The girl in whiteI think that the girl in white is in fact a girl - probably a young teen accompanying her mother (the lady in the plaid skirt). Therefore she would be perfectly well dressed for her age. However that also means that she would be in the right demographic to become a flapper once the twenties (which would coincide with her twenties) rolled around. Great picture - Lord I could look at it for hours! That banner over the street"ENLIST NOW! YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU" And to your left...Seems even Detroit had its requisite "Seeing..." touring bus company. I count three "charabancs" in this photo, one across the street from Bond's with "WELLS" emblazoned on the back, and two in the centre-left crammed with mostly female tourists. Wonder what they were off to see next? I'm loving the little insignificant human moments the photographer caught and immortalized: the man at the lower left trying to make something out on a bulletin board; the hefty many putting his arm around his companion's waist next to the memorial; three ladies converging outside the theater. Fantastic. The building on the far leftis the 1896 Majestic Building, designed by the famous Chicago architect Daniel Burnham. Among other things, Burnham also designed the Flatiron Building in NYC, and oversaw the construction of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. The Majestic was Detroit's tallest building until 1909, when the Ford Building (also a Burnham creation) was completed. The Ford still stands today, as well as Burnham's other Detroit creations, the David Whitney Building and the Dime Building. Sadly the Majestic was torn down in 1962 to make way for the exponentially less-interesting 1001 Woodward Building. “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will not die, but long after we are gone be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistence. Remember that our sons and our grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty.” -Daniel H. Burnham Sight Seeing in Detroit ca. 1917The Dietsche Sight Seeing Company was one of several companies that offered tours of Detroit back in this time period. Below is a photo of their advertisement offering their services to local companies who might want to entertain their out-of-town customers with a "Sight Seeing Trip around the city, Belle Isle, or Water Works Park." Given the description of the street banner, this photo was probably taken sometime around June 5, 1917, which was the date on which all men between the ages of 21 and 31 were required to register for the draft. Soldiers and Sailors MonumentStill nearby, but not as nicely maintained. Very Nicely MaintainedThe Soldiers & Sailors monument is actually very well maintained. Notice how it's not all blackened with soot as in the old photo. When you view it up close you can also see where some very nice restoration has recently been done. Not everything in Detroit is a rotting hulk. Still busyNot like this, but the ice skating rink at Campus Martius is already set up and would be approximately directly in front of the Detroit Opera House. Downtown Detroit is not the home of thugs or crime at all, really, but is sadly quiet when the businesses are closed. Many of the buildings are still here, and magnificent. Come visit before they tear them all down. I'll be ordering a large print of this image! Thank you Shorpy. Re. "Mellow as Moonlight"I saw this photo a few days ago, and, like GeezerNYC, I was quite struck by the Cascade Whiskey billboard. Now, I know that Geo. Dickel is still in business, and I was familiar with Dickel's Tennessee Sipppin' Whiskey and Old No. 8, but I had never heard of Cascade. It must have gone the way of the buggy whip and Lydia Pinkham, I thought. But then today I stopped at the liquor store after work to pick up a bottle of wine, and GUESS WHAT THEY HAD?!?! shhhh...too loud. So, then and I bought some. And do you guys know what? It's pretty goood. I';m drikning it right now. And I just wanna True story I swear. Hey! do you know what? I bought some oft hat Cacsade whiskey? Or is it whishky? Aanyway, I just wanna You know what/ You guys are greatf. I just wanna Hudson's Grows, and...Hudson's grew with Detroit, and perhaps inevitably, declined with Detroit. Cascade HollowThe current Cascade Hollow Whiskey was created to deal with a shortage of the Dickel No. 8 and then just hung around. They didn't have enough whiskey of a certain age so they made a new brand and put their younger stuff in it so that the quality of the No. 8 wouldn't suffer. The Cascade Hollow has been discontinued, but it's still on the shelves in many places. The name Cascade was replaced by the Dickel name after Prohibition and a number. In order of price (& quality) the current Dickel offerings are: (Cascade Hollow) Dickel No. 8 Dickel No. 12 Dickel Barrel Select (which is one of the best whiskeys I've ever had. And I've had a lot.) Anyway, Dickel is currently owned by the evil international spirits conglomorate Diageo, which also owns Guinness, Hennessey, Smirnoff, Johnny Walker, Tanqueray, Bushmills, Cpt. Morgan, Jose Cuervo, Crown Royal and many many more. I can't relate to this picture at allThere is no one in this picture that looks like me or anyone else in my family and for that matter most of my friends...maybe that's how most of the people making comments about it want Detroit to look like. Movie ID helpIn the background, there appears to be a movie showing called "The Spoilers", but Wikipedia says it came out in 1914, not 1917. Just below that it looks like "Barrymore (?) as Georgia" and to the left of that is "Ty". Anyone have some ideas as to which movies are being advertised? [The movie is "Somewhere in Georgia," with Ty Cobb, released in 1917. - Dave] Re: Re: An Edison ElectricMy great-great-grandfather Frank Montgomery Foster was selling Kissel Kars in Detroit. In 1913, he also had "one of the Detroit's finest garages at the corner of Gratiot Avenue and Grand Boulevard." It looks like the two cars in the bottom left of the photo (with the barrel fronts) may be Kissels, but I don't know enough about autos of the era to ID them. KernsMy co-worker's last name is Kerns. I showed him this picture one day and eventually forwarded it to him. He then forwarded picture to his family and learned that his mother Americanized their Polish name around 1917 after seeing that building "Kern's Children's Clothes." One of the best!The photo is insanely busy and the comments led me on a couple scavenger hunts online. Introduced to Gladys Brockwell, Daniel Burnham, Cascade, Dietsche company, etc. A very entertaining hour and a half on this one pic! Of course, being from Detroit makes it that much more interesting. Also, Heartbreaking, Detroit is a pheonix. You watch what she can do! The people have so much spirit. We love our city like a member of our family. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Detroit Photos, DPC, Streetcars)
Reflections on a Stop Sign: 1936
... March 1936. Washington, D.C. "No caption (man with stop sign)." Our second look in as many days at traffic sign history. Harris & Ewing photo. View full size. Sliding tile ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/22/2014 - 9:22am -

March 1936. Washington, D.C. "No caption (man with stop sign)." Our second look in as many days at traffic sign history. Harris & Ewing photo. View full size. Sliding tile game? Hey, boss, look at all the different words we can make if the letters can be swapped! TOPS SPOT POTS STOP POST Don't stop me, I'm on a roll here. Shapes, Colors and ButtonsThe color of this sign is likely yellow. While the octagon shape was adopted fairly early, making it red was optional in the absence of a durable inexpensive red paint. The need to reflect headlights for night use led to extensive use of small round "button" reflectors inside the text. This sign may have been testing letter coloring and reflectivity. Multi-purpose"And by simple letter substitution, the sign can urge the motorist to shop!" Upon close inspectionit seems the sign was a grade eight woodworking class project. Reflector buttonsModern stop signs also use spherical reflectors, but they are now teeny-tiny glass balls embedded into an adhesive tape, made by 3M. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Harris + Ewing)
Expert Truss Fitting: 1900
... above the motorman's head looks like the back of a glass sign that says SMOKING ENTRANCE REAR SEATS ONLY, whatever that means exactly. ... Martha! And "I Love Lucy." Your neighbor the sign painter Besides the five (or six or seven) signs of his own, Mr. Scott ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/26/2012 - 12:35pm -

"Main Street, Buffalo, N.Y., circa 1900." The merchants of Buffalo, aside from making that fine city a haven for the herniated, also offered a wide range of "deformity appliances." Detroit Publishing Co. glass negative. View full size. Fireproof indeed!The fireproof tiles on the roof of the Iroquois were a big selling point after the horrific fire that destroyed the Richmond Hotel, which stood on the same site until 1887. Mirror Writing?The reverse lettering above the motorman's head looks like the back of a glass sign that says SMOKING ENTRANCE REAR SEATS ONLY, whatever that means exactly. [The signs says "Smoking on three rear seats only." - Dave] Safe CityThat is one safety-conscious city. Note the pedestrian catcher mounted on the front of the trolley. Niagara Falls!!!!Niagara Falls! "Slowly I turned...step by step...inch by inch..." From the Three Stooges short "Gents Without Cents" Oh MyWhat a picture. This is definitely a downtown scene. I am curious about the rides to Lockport, Lewiston and Queenston. Are they entrance cities to Canada? Perhaps they are tourist destinations like Niagara Falls. This photo will take a while to gather it all and to understand Buffalo as a major U.S. city at the time. [Those cities were excursion destinations. - Dave] Shuffle off to Buffalo...So much detail to take in. Wonder what a "Deformity Appliance" is. [I am thinking something along the lines of a super-dangerous cake mixer. - Dave] Bustling BuffaloNothing is more depressing than seeing the once-bustling major city that is now Buffalo. Interesting that the streetcar was the main mode of public transportation, and yet the newer "metro" line (consisting of one short rail from HSBC to the University of Buffalo) has contributed to the death of downtown. Martha!And "I Love Lucy." Your neighbor the sign painterBesides the five (or six or seven) signs of his own, Mr. Scott seems to have painted all the other signs on that building. I wonder if he traded signs for trolly rides, cigars, or deformity appliances. Trolleys Then and NowThe open-seat single-truck trolleys seen in this picture (with smoking allowed in the three rear seats only) have long been absent from the City of Buffalo. The line is now the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority's Buffalo Metro Rail light rail line. Interesting that the tracks on Main Street have survived, while those on Church Street, and all of the surrounding buildings, including the Iroquois Hotel, have all vanished. View Larger Map No heritage hereSo, is this was were the Main Street Mall now resides? Seems all these blocks were demolished. The Iroquois Hotel was torn down in 1940. The Perfect VignetteWhat a great photo! The "Signs" signs, the omnipresent hats, the fancy streetlight. I love the advertisement for the "tobacconist"--that would make a catchy little business card, I think. Some people are dentists, some are salespeople, and then there are the tobacconists. And I wonder what got thrown into the wires crossing the street? I also love the trolleys in the picture--somehow, my daily bus ride doesn't seem quite as cool as this. One question. What is the net in front for? I would guess it's for luggage or large packages? [The net would be for inattentive or careless pedestrians. - Dave] LockportLockport was and is a neat little city in NW central New York State where canal boats travel down a series of locks. It's fun to watch. The city is also the home of an American standard in every kitchen: Jell-O! Cars?Sign says "cars leave every 15 minutes"...I don't see any cars, it's 1900 (or so) What do they mean by "cars"? [Streetcars. - Dave] The GlobeSure would like to be able to see more detail on that globe painted on the left side - looks like the continents have been anthropomorphized into pinup gals. BuffaloCool! I stayed a night in Buffalo early last month. Had it still been standing, I would have chosen the Iroquois over the Holiday Inn for sure. Looks like a fun city, but you've never seen anything more depressing than Niagara Falls (the town) in winter. You Are HereIn response to the many requests seen in comments for a time machine: here you are. Absolutely fantastic picture. Pan-American ExpoThat's the logo for the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, held in Buffalo -- where President McKinley was shot and later died. Trolly carsThey mean Trolly cars. [Or maybe trolley cars. ("Cars" = streetcars.) - Dave] Look out above!The top three floors of the Iroquois were "superadded" for the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. In 1923, owner Ellsworth Statler opened another hotel, and the Iroquois became the Gerrans Office Building. The building with the tower was transformed into one of the earliest movie theaters, the Strand. Steve Miller Someplace near the crossroads of America Leroy not LockportLeroy is the home of Jell-O, not Lockport! Visit the jello museum in Leroy to learn more about the product invented by a man named Pearl. CSI: BuffaloNice Cigar Store Indian on the right. Oh that logo The Pan-American Exposition Company chose Raphael Beck's design from over 400 entries, awarded him $100. They copyrighted it as the official logo in 1899. At first the design was to be used only for "dignified purposes," but due to its popularity, the decision was made to license its use. The logo was soon available on souvenirs of every conceivable description and was plastered on "everything that didn't move and some things that did." Some unscrupulous vendors ignored the licensing process and sold unofficial souvenirs with the logo. Here is a plate and a watch souvenir (both official): Beck made sketches of President McKinley when the president toured the fair and made a speech there. After McKinley died Beck completed the painting titled "President McKinley Delivering His Last Great Speech at the Pan-American Exposition, Sept. 5, 1901." Beck went on to design the logo for the 1905 Portland, Oregon Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition. His father Augustus—who designed the bas relief at the base of the Washington Monument—named his son after the famous painter Raphael. +122Below is the same view from September of 2022. (The Gallery, Buffalo NY, DPC, Streetcars)
A Sign Unto You: 1939
May 1939. "Religious sign along highway. Georgia." Medium format acetate negative by Marion Post ... and salt. Bois d’arc I would say that post the sign is mounted on is bois d’ arc, Also known as Osage orange. It is a very ... place he appears to say anything like the message on the sign is Matthew 24:44: “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/30/2019 - 3:25pm -

May 1939. "Religious sign along highway. Georgia." Medium format acetate negative by Marion Post Wolcott for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. The end is nearEspecially if you use the two products advertised on that barn: Cigarettes and salt. Bois d’arcI would say that post the sign is mounted on is bois d’ arc, Also known as Osage orange. It is a very hard and durable wood and will last without rotting for years and years. As a young man I helped dig out/pull out miles of posts just like that when The Man decided to replace his fencing with steel posts driven into the ground and put in new barbed wire. Changing timesI grew up in the South and recall seeing these kind of signs everywhere. Today, they are almost nonexistent and actually are more plentiful in the Midwest from what I have seen. SourceI’ve read enough Shorpy signs with unusual punctuation from this era to know that we may be looking at either a single quote or two separate fragments. Jesus says “I come quickly” in a few places (e.g. Revelation 22:12), but the only place he appears to say anything like the message on the sign is Matthew 24:44: “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” I also really like the piece of wood the sign is nailed to. Time passesIt has been 80 years, which means that almost everyone who was intended to see this sign has passed beyond waiting. Almost choked on my milkSo funny, I was just saying the same thing to the wife the other day. Good old bois d'arcWe always called it "BO Dark", but did know how to spell it. Also known as wood of the ark. Probably known to Noah as well. It's all financial, you knowJesus saves ... God invests. (The Gallery, Bizarre, Agriculture, M.P. Wolcott, Rural America)
Glen Echo Girls: 1935
... collections of the Library of Congress. - Dave] Sign of the times The girl on the right appears to have gotten her smallpox ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/14/2023 - 9:49pm -

August 4, 1935. Montgomery County, Maryland. "Bathing girls at Glen Echo amusement park." 4x5 inch acetate negative by Theodor Horydczak. View full size. Don't forget your keysThree of them are wearing a anklet with a key (from home or a locker) Too bad we don't know their names - wonder how their lives turned out A snapshot in timeWhat pretty girls with kind eyes. A look at the row behind them more than suggests the young men are thinking the same thing. Do you every just look at photos like these and hope that things turned out well for them all? I do. This old architect was so hoping for another old building in today’s Shorpy! Guess I’ll just have to make do … Before the days of …silicone. Just registering my approval. Fun is where you find it ...Where do you find it? Glen Echo Amusement Park The Coaster Dip is cool, so's the Crystal Pool. For Summertime fun, it's Glen Echo after dark, Glen Echo Amusement Park. I remember this jingle on WPGC (Good Guys Radio) in the early '60s. So ThinThese pretty young girls are all quite thin -- one with her ribs showing. In that decade of Depression, one suspects many were quite thin. A scan of the background figures certainly confirms that. Our 21st century folks are pretty well padded in comparison. Interesting little spot up the river from DCI had not heard of this park just outside of DC. Even more interesting is that it had bathing facilities that included water slides and artificial beaches. I found this website with another image taken on the same August 4, 1935. I can see two of the girls sat for both images -- definite beauties so they would have caught the photographer's attention. [We have many more Glen Echo photos right here. They are all from the collections of the Library of Congress. - Dave] Sign of the timesThe girl on the right appears to have gotten her smallpox vaccination. I don't think that was a universal thing in 1935, and of course young people today probably have no idea what it was all about. (The Gallery, D.C., Pretty Girls, Swimming, Theodor Horydczak)
Intimations of Autumn: 1952
... What makes the guessing game especially tantalizing is the sign partly visible at far left. Someone named Horton or Morton or Norton was ... wouldn't be found in the Sunshine State.] Highway sign Down the road a piece we see what looks like a shield-shaped US Highway ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/30/2014 - 12:10pm -

        UPDATE: Shorpy member SteamBoomer has correctly identified the location as Eureka Springs, Arkansas. See the Comments for details. "7 Oct. 1952 -- Entrance to ______  _______." Who can tell us where we are in this latest installment of Minnesota Kodachromes? (Hint: not Minnesota.) 35mm color slide by Hubert Tuttle, on the road with wife Grace. View full size. If only we could see a little farther leftFrom the trees and the rocky terrain my best guess is that this is somewhere in Upstate New York or northern New England. What makes the guessing game especially tantalizing is the sign partly visible at far left. Someone named Horton or Morton or Norton was running for state attorney general in the 1952 election. Here's hoping Wikipedia has enough detail ... [Edit: as another person helpfully noted, this could not be Upstate New York or northern New England in October. I should have known that.] [Further edit: the suggestion of Florida is an intriguing one, and there are some areas north of Orlando that might be hilly enough, but the rocky outcroppings at the right wouldn't be found in the Sunshine State.] Highway signDown the road a piece we see what looks like a shield-shaped US Highway number sign with an auxiliary above. The latter could be "NORTH," "SOUTH," "ALT(ernate)" etc. My guess is "alternate," specifically the earlier main route, based on the narrowness and the 1920s-1930s-era cement pavement, and since bypassed by a wider, straighter roadway. Of course, this only narrows the location down to the entire United States. There's something about the nearest trees at the right that says California live oaks to me, but I can't quite make out the leaf shape. Too green?I think it may be too green for the photo to have been taken in New England in October. Farther south, I think. I would be tempted to say, "entrance to Blue Ridge Parkway" if there were three spaces. California? Near a polo field?Judging from the trees (is that a madrone on the near left?) I would say coastal California. It's a bit lush to be Southern California. My guess would be near Santa Cruz. The sign with the horse icon on the left looks to me like a sign for polo grounds, rather than horse riding or racing. The area around the Polo Grounds Park in Aptos looks similar, but I couldn't find a road that matched that topography. Maybe not so far awayIt's 1952 and these are our friends whose previous photos have always been in southern Minnesota. Not Minnesota? OK, how about western Wisconsin, someplace between the Twin Cities and Eau Claire? I'm going with California, somewhere.The trees on the right look like Madrone or large Manzanita. There are some pines floating around in the trees as well as what could be a tallish live oak. The cut bank of dirt looks like the kind where I grew up. I'm going with North Central California. No idea as to the entrance. Process of EliminationIf the election poster is for state Attorney General, then California can't be the state. Pat Brown was elected in 1950 and didn't run again until 1954. There was a State Attorney General elected in Oregon named Thornton in 1952, but the last four letters of the last name on the poster are definitely "RTON". [Interesting, but knowing who got elected doesn't help you much if the guy on the poster lost. - Dave] US 12Looking from the rocks and trees, could they be on US-12 south of Baraboo, WI on their way to Devil's Lake State Park? Wonder SpotLake Delton, Wisconsin, just south of the Wisconsin Dells. Trees suggest not CaliforniaI'm pretty sure I see post oak, black oak and shortleaf pine. I could be wrong, but I'm going to go out "on a limb" and say its the entrance to "The Ozarks". ArkansasHwy 7 outside Hot Springs. Entrance To ...North Dakota! Florida?Forgive me if this a stupid suggestion (I'm a Brit and have visted parts of the US but not Florida). Someone named L.Grady Burton stood for Attorney General in Florida in 1948*. If elections are every 4 years he may have stood again in 1952. Does this help? *Daytona Beach Morning Journal - May 21, 1948. Folger Stable and Wunderlich ParkI think we are on what is now SR 84 North, Woodside Road, Redwood City, San Mateo County, California. The election poster seems to be for Atherton. The entrance to the left is for the Folger Stable, where one could hire a horse and take the equestrian trails through Wunderlich Park. Glib Bartonran for Attorney General in Arkansas in 1952, so I'm going to cast my vote for Arkansas, as well. [Ahem. CLIB Barton. - Dave] Route 120 in CaliforniaThere are ponderosa pine, digger pine, madrone and black oak (I believe) in the picture, all native to California. I'm going with Route 120 on the way to Yosemite Park out of Groveland, CA. 3500 foot elevation because everything is still green in October. Let's go to Hot Springs (Ark.)Looks a lot like an Arkansas highway, plus the sign with the racehorse on it indicates they are on the way to Hot Springs which has a major thoroughbred race track and is on Highway 7. Route 120 in CaliforniaBased on the vegetation (the near pines are Ponderosa pine and there are a couple of digger pine along the horizon), the madrone near the electric pole of the near left. I guess it to be somewhere around Groveland, CA on the road to Yosemite Park. Hot Springs to WinYes, it must be Hot Springs. Hot Springs has had a horse track since 1905, Oaklawn Park. [You're not even Warm. - Dave] Play SafeElect Clib Barton your Attorney General. Agree with MbillardAs you suggested Dave, find the one who lost the election. Glib Barton fits the bill. As for the fill in the blanks, how about "Ozark Mountains"? [Not quite. And Clib wasn't Glib. - Dave] My vote - not CaliforniaTwo things I see, both road-related: 1. California's two auto clubs (and the Division of Highways beginning in 1948) were in charge of road signage and paid meticulous attention to detail in doing so. That yellow diamond sign would've been mounted to a post painted yellow to match with black at the base. 2. If this is indeed a US highway, there would likely be white striping down the center of the roadway, even if it wasn't quite wide enough for two full lanes. Reading the hintsWarm Springs, Georgia? It's on my mind. Warm Springs?Going by your hints, is it Warm Springs, Georgia? [Getting colder. Brrr! - Dave] Strange if CaliforniaThe foliage definitely looks like California, but if that is a US Highway sign whose back we see things are a bit odd. My memory was, and checking the online 1952 highway map verified, that there were relatively few US Highways in California in 1952, none were designated Alternate, and all were relatively main roads. (Except for good old US 395 to Alturas, which had sections listed as oiled dirt or oiled gravel.) If it was a state or county road it's unlikely but possible that a stretch that long would not have a distance marker (we called them "paddle signs" in the rally game) showing. Nifty puzzle. OuachitaCould it be Ouachita National Forest in Arkansas? They hit Iowa on the way home from the trip.I was going to guess Iowa, due to this article which places them in Iowa not very long after this photo was taken: [I suspect Iowa was on both both legs of their trip! - Dave] Entrance to Eureka SpringsHubert and Grace have turned north off US Hwy 62 onto Arkansas Hwy 23. The photo was taken somewhere around GPS coordinates 36.394231,-93.742166. [Now that's what I call specific. And correct! How did you figure it out? - Dave] I simply had a Eureka moment! View Larger Map Eureka!SteamBoomer seems to have nailed it. The irony for me is that I was originally convinced that this was one of the roads in the state I grew up in, California. Instead, it turns out to be in the one town in Arkansas that also figured in my childhood. I spent a few summers in Eureka Springs staying with relatives. I remember the beautiful buildings and houses of the town well, but I'd forgotten the wild look of the countryside around it. Eureka Springs, 1904Family outing, 110 years ago: https://www.shorpy.com/node/3276 (Minnesota Kodachromes)
Department of Admissions: 1904
... circa 1904. "The entrance, Vassar College." Note the sign . 8x10 inch glass transparency, Detroit Publishing Company. View full ... I hear Don Knotts playing the organ somewhere. Sign notwithstanding The lawn through the gate looks to be covered with ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/26/2015 - 10:21am -

Poughkeepsie, N.Y., circa 1904. "The entrance, Vassar College." Note the sign. 8x10 inch glass transparency, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Welcome to Vassar!Velocipedes Verboten. Wow -- Cheesy '60s HorrorI hear Don Knotts playing the organ somewhere. Sign notwithstandingThe lawn through the gate looks to be covered with bicycle tracks. [Their pattern seems more consistent with carriage tracks. -tterrace] Address1313 Mockingbird Lane, right? Purity and Wisdom (Vassar motto)Since I have neither, I've never been there. PostcardColorized postcard. Replaced 1913The gate house, designed by James Renwick, Jr., was replaced in 1913 by Taylor Hall. Evidently the gatekeeper and his family lived in the south tower and the north tower was occupied originally by the college engineer, appropriately named Mr. Gatehouse. (The Gallery, Bicycles, DPC, Education, Schools)
Everywhere a Sign: 1912
February 23, 1912. "Three-ton electric sign blown into Broadway." Our second look at the toppled sign in front of a railroad ticket office and Hepner's Hair Emporium. From the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/12/2011 - 2:26pm -

February 23, 1912. "Three-ton electric sign blown into Broadway." Our second look at the toppled sign in front of a railroad ticket office and Hepner's Hair Emporium. From the New York Times account the 100 mph gale: "An electric sign, 100 by 200 feet, on the roof of the Kohn Building, just south of the Hotel Knickerbocker, caught one of the worst puffs of the big wind and toppled over into Times Square. A policeman, who had just darted into the store on the ground floor to warn those within that the sign was coming down, barely escaped it as it fell. The sign, weighing nearly two tons, crashed over into the street, still clasped hinge-like to its moorings at the bent base, while the top, crumbling into the street, shattered to bits a large plateglass window in the Lehigh Valley Railroad's office on the ground floor." George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size. Hepner's is historyIt's been replaced by a YMI clothing store. However, the famous Knickerbocker Hotel building to the left is still going strong. But serving as an office building with a Gap store on the ground floor. View Larger Map +102Below is the same view from September of 2014. Also of note is the renovation of the Knickerbocker and its pending restoration as a hotel. (The Gallery, G.G. Bain, NYC)
Everywhere a Sign: 1941
October 1941. "Syracuse ice cream vendor." Continuing the story begun here . Medium-format nitrate negative by John Collier. View full size. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/17/2012 - 9:41am -

October 1941. "Syracuse ice cream vendor." Continuing the story begun here. Medium-format nitrate negative by John Collier. View full size.
Shoe Hospital: 1915
... was the ancestor of today's BankFive . Tiny stop sign I love the tiny "Cars stop here" sign on top of the cable car wires. Were drivers actually supposed to see that? ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/12/2023 - 12:20pm -

Circa 1915, another look at Main Street in Fall River, Massachusetts. Where the Shoe Hospital and Five Cents Savings Bank are mere steps apart. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Bank and North MainThe Five Cents Savings Bank was the ancestor of today's BankFive. Tiny stop signI love the tiny "Cars stop here" sign on top of the cable car wires. Were drivers actually supposed to see that? ["Cars" means streetcars. - Dave] Fall River Bijou & First Baptist ChurchThe Bijou theater (162 N Main St) was built in 1904 and was partially demolished in 1933. In the back of this photo, you can see the old steeple that used to be on the top of the First Baptist Church of Fall River. The church still stands, but the steeple is long gone. Deposit TimeI noticed Chief of Police Jones escorting his wife to the bank to make her five cent deposit -- chivalry lives! Cop on the BeatLove how you can see the cop swinging his club as he walks. Mind the horse droppings as you cross the street! And you have to wonder what's playing across the street at Loew's Bijou. (The Gallery, DPC)
To Herr With Love: 1942
... Hitler Some of the kids are giving the reverse peace sign as Churchill did in '41. Wonder if they knew. The Good Old Days ... jagged-edged junk. All flashing a patriotic V for Victory sign to boot. Here we are 81 years later and you'd never be able to recreate ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/03/2023 - 2:02pm -

October 1942. "Butte, Montana. Schoolchildren on a pile of scrap which they gathered during the salvage campaign." Photo by Russell Lee for the Office of War Information. View full size. Home AloneI see Macaulay Culkin made an appearance at the bottom of the pile. Too HeavyI'm sure those kids didn't pick up all the scrap metal on display. That radiator, leaning on the stove over to the right, would be weighing several hundreds of pounds. The stove wouldn't exactly be a lightweight either. [That was nothing compared to the trouble they had driving the truck. - Dave] The Spellingof Mussolini is a little off, but the sentiment is great. Down with HitlerSome of the kids are giving the reverse peace sign as Churchill did in '41. Wonder if they knew. The Good Old Days*sigh* I pine for the old days when people knew how to be impromptu and unfettered by the burden of what could and what might happen. Look at all these kids perched upon a pile of unstabilized, sharp and jagged-edged junk. All flashing a patriotic V for Victory sign to boot. Here we are 81 years later and you'd never be able to recreate this photo. There would be barricades, orange cones and danger tape all around the perimeter. Anyone allowed near the junk would be wearing thick clothing, steal-toed boots, face & eye protection, hard hats, gloves and flashing the V for Victory symbol would be followed by a pink slip for offending someone. *sigh* [Do "steal-toed" boots belong to someone else? - Dave] A bounty of bedspringsWhich, like box springs today, is not something I think people threw out that often. Maybe these kids convinced their parents it was better on their backs to go without bedsprings? And maybe they asked after the fact. [Or they're from car seats, sofas, etc. - Dave] Jog on!The reverse V-for-Victory sign actually would earn a few pink slips. But in this case I don't think anybody will complain about giving Hitler the middle finger. (The Gallery, Kids, Patriotic, Russell Lee, WW2)
The Singing Kings: 1965
... 1960s Batman TV show with Adam West. Sign of the times The King Family Show, which had a loyal following but was ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/08/2023 - 7:57pm -

March 1965. "The King Family -- including the King Sisters, King Kiddies and King Cousins -- with actor Robert Clarke and others on the set of the ABC-TV musical variety series The King Family." 35mm Kodachrome transparency by John Vachon for Look magazine. View full size. Robert Clarkeis probably best known for his appearances on the '60s run of "Dragnet." He usually played a businessman who'd done something terrible such as run down a child on a trike. He was the star of 1960's "Beyond the Time Barrier," a rather odd but sincere movie in which the X-15 Clarke is piloting breaks the time barrier, and he winds up in a desolate 2024. Everybody's dying because the layer of atmosphere that protects us from cosmic radiation was destroyed by nuclear testing. Oh Blanche!Everything is so ... white ... Creeeee-peeeyI'm old enough to remember groups like this that were weird and square. The Alvino Rey GunThe man playing banjo is Alvino Rey, a somewhat famous guitarist of the era who was married to one of the King sisters. A vintage guitar shop is actually offering one of his guitars for sale, the rare custom color 1960 Fender Telecaster shown below. And by the way, the headline is lifted from a line that I will always remember from the original 1960s Batman TV show with Adam West. Sign of the timesThe King Family Show, which had a loyal following but was never especially successful in the ratings, was an obvious attempt to create something in the category of "The Lawrence Welk Show" or "Sing Along With Mitch," but appealing to a younger demographic. Beyond that unlikely prospect, it reflected growing desperation in the entertainment industry, as well as general-interest publications like Look, to hold on to wholesome "family" content at a time when the culture was fragmenting. (1965 was also the year that "Up With People" was formed out of elements from the Moral Re-Armament movement. UWP's most famous veteran is probably Glenn Close -- before 'Fatal Attraction,' of course.) Originally "W. King Driggs and his Family of Entertainers"The oldest person in the photo (holding a studded cane on the left, seated) is the father of the six "King Sisters" (and a couple of brothers), William King Driggs. He died in April 1965, three months after the show's first episode. Although the show was a great advertisement for hair coloring products, there is one unaltered brunette among the older adult women -- an in-law, Hazel Driggs (wife of Karleton King Driggs), at far right. More than you wanted to know Tina Cole, best remembered as Robbie's wife, Katie, on "My Three Sons," is a King family member, too. Her mother, Yvonne King, married actor and composer Buddy Cole. Tina sang several times on MTS. In the early years of MTS, she appeared three, perhaps four, times -- briefly -- as various neighbor girls who knew the Douglas family and as a student at the college Robbie attended. Alvino Rey (born Alvin McBurney) was more than a somewhat famous guitarist of the era. He popularized the talk box effect in the late 1930s, used with a steel guitar, a throat microphone and his wife, King family member Luise. She stood offstage while a puppet, named Stringy the Talking Guitar, would appear onstage and "sing" with Rey. It's a little complicated, but if you remember how Peter Frampton sounded ("Do you feel like I do?"), you know the sound. One last thing: Alvino Rey, known by many as the father of the electric guitar, is the grandfather of Arcade Fire's Win and William Butler. GenerationalI would’ve been eight years old when this type of thing appeared on TV at my grandparents’ house. They would watch and enjoy it because that’s what TV did for them – provide enjoyable content. Only when the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show did they object. My parents, born in the mid-to-late twenties, were stuck between wholesome fare like the King Family, which they could watch with only a trace of cynicism, and disruptive iconoclasts like the Beatles, who they were already too old to adopt as their own. Myself, I would look from face to face in my family members, wondering who liked what and why. I would not have enjoyed the King Family. The King Family with Carol Burnett A wonderful satire about the King Family appeared on the Carol Burnett show. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, John Vachon, Kids, LOOK, Music, TV)
On Broadway: 1911
... of the fine, refreshing taste of Moxie. Macy's sign According to the company's web site , Macy's moved to its present ... vendor slumped over near the subway entrance. [The sign is on the store, eight blocks away in Herald Square. This view is from the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/18/2012 - 6:55pm -

New York circa 1911. "Broadway at night from Times Square." With a phantom or two loitering at the subway entrance. Companion to the night view of Times Square posted here on Monday. 8x10 inch glass negative. View full size. StreetlightsYou can still find those lampposts dotted here and there throughout the city. I think they are called "Bishop's Crooks." Subway entranceIt's neat to see the subway entrance at the right. There used to be quite a few like that, but now there's only one left, down at St. Marks Place, I believe. [Astor Place. - Dave] +98Below is same perspective (north from 43rd Street) taken in January of 2009. Phantoms and a great photo.I always enjoy seeing the phantoms of blurred people and objects in these old photos, it gives a sense of life and reality, that there were real people living there. Cars, trolleys, horses, going about their business the same as we do today. With a little imagination you can almost hear them! Hitchy-KooLooks like an ad reading "IT'S A HITCHCOCK CONQUEST" next to the Cohan theatre, likely referring to the actor Raymond Hitchcock, who was a star on Broadway at the time. Oddly enough, both Cohan and Hitchcock were celebrity endorsers of the fine, refreshing taste of Moxie. Macy's signAccording to the company's web site, Macy's moved to its present Herald Square location at West 34th and Broadway in 1902. Were they paying for advertising space at "the competitor's spot" -- Times Square? I love the phantom newspaper vendor slumped over near the subway entrance. [The sign is on the store, eight blocks away in Herald Square. This view is from the southern limit of Times Square. - Dave] +98 I disagree"Below is same perspective (north from 43rd Street) taken in January of 2009" That's the Times building behind the subway entrance to the right. So unlike your picture, we are standing in Times Square looking north up Broadway, and the street just ahead on the left is 47th. [Not quite. The view here is looking south down Broadway from 43rd. The next street to the left is 42nd. The big building outlined in lights is the Hotel Knickerbocker. The Hotel Albany was at Broadway and 41st. We can also see the Hotel Normandie sign at 38th, and the Macy's sign at 35th. - Dave] George M. Cohan.On February 13, 1911 the George M. Cohan Theater opened its doors at 1482 Broadway & 43rd Street. Its narrow entrance led to a marbled lobby which had murals depicting the Four Cohans up until the event of "The Governor's Son." After you entered the theater, you were treated to various scenes from his Broadway successes that were painted on the walls above and surrounding the boxes. The theater was virtually a shrine to his career. Opening night featured "Get Rich Quick Wallingford." The "Little Millionaire" opened September 25, 1911, and was the last production that George appeared in with any family members. The theater became a full time movie house in 1932, and by 1938 it was demolished. Subway Entrances/ExitsIn the original IRT system, entrances had the rounded roof, exits had the angled roofs. None survive today, though there are replicas installed at Astor Place, not St. Mark's, and an elevator at City Hall is similar in style. This picture is even more important for showing the Times building from ground level, giving an indication at how narrow it really is. It's a shame this gorgeous building was stripped of its ornamentation in the 70s, and soldiers on today vacant, making more money as a billboard than as a rented building. Still, and I forget who said it, but it is the most famous building in the world whose architecture is almost completely unknown. Re: +98 I disagree (and Dave)I humbly apologize for my misidentification of the perspective and thank you both for providing me with the proper location. I based my shot on a very low-res copy of the original photograph that I had. The Cohan Theatre building looked much like the Paramount building and I incorrectly believed the Hotel Knickerbocker was the Hotel Astor. However, after I posted the (incorrect) "now" version, it just didn't look right when I compared it to the hi-res Shorpy shot (especially with "Times" so prominently written in the window right in front and the Macy's sign in the distance). It's been driving me nuts. Looks like I've got another shot to take after I overcome my embarrassment. The perils of going from front to backAh, I see that Hitchcock was appearing just down the street in The Red Widow, as "Cicero Hannibal Butts," which might explain the "conquest" comment. This is what happens when you don't keep up with Shorpy on a daily basis. Much different todayIt's interesting how many hotels, theaters, and restaurants are on Broadway below 42nd Street in the photo. Today, there is very little activity below 40th, and most of Times Square activity extends from 40th up to about 48th. Where is this building?Has this building been torn down? It looks like the Flatiron building but in going back and forth with the Flat Iron building the facing doesn't look the same but yet the angle of this building looks like it. [This is the old New York Times building, seen here and here and here. Now covered with advertising signs, it's where the ball drops on New Year's. - Dave]Thanks very much. I was going nuts trying to tie those buildings together. So the NYT built two kinds of Flat Iron buildings? Do they face each other? [Two kinds? - Dave] 100 years laterOn my lunch break today I went out today and looked at this location. First of all, no sign at all that this structure, the subway entrance, existed. Today it would sit directly in front of the NYPD booth, where there is clean sidewalk, no sign of a former hole in the ground. But 100 years is along time and I'm sure the sidewalk has been repaired numerous times. Also it looks like this the subway is right in front of the face of 1 Times Square, but in fact there was about 40 feet between it and the building. Also in 1924 no sign of the subway entrance farther down 7th avenue on the right. [Historical map] It's great to be able to jump back in time 100 years, and see how much has changed, and how much is still the same. On a personal note, my great grandfather, John Larson, was a foreman at Hecla Iron Work in Brooklyn, and that firm apparently made all of the original IRT subway entrances. I don't have any information he worked on this project, but still I feel a little pride looking at these old entrances. +100In an effort to atone for my FUBAR post (+98 below), I retook the same view below from April of 2011. Subway Entrance on Times SquareIn 1911 the IRT subway ran a slightly different route than it does today. Tracks ran up the east side of Manhattan to 42d street then crossed over to the west side to continue uptown. This is how the station was originally configured (as seen at the track level): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_Square_%E2%80%93_42nd_Street_/_Port_... The cross-over tracks are now the Times Square Shuttle. (The Gallery, DPC, NYC)
Wabash Avenue L: 1900
... to be a "Gottcha." Signage That is an interesting sign behind the Pilgrim Press Booksellers. The one that has pictures of ... more research just guessing it is a monument companies sign and found the Charles M. Gall Company in Chicago at that time. They were ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/20/2012 - 3:44pm -

September 1, 1900. "Wabash Avenue north from Adams Street, Chicago." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Direct connectionThe walkway from the building to the station used to be common; many stops in the Loop on the L and in the subway had a direct connection from some adjacent business; it was a selling point for the business. The ones on the L are all gone now. Most of the subway ones are closed as well, with the exception of the ones that are part of the pedway. GottchaWonderful street scene. Can you find the "Gottcha"? Or what on first glance appears to be a "Gottcha." Signage That is an interesting sign behind the Pilgrim Press Booksellers. The one that has pictures of monuments or crosses on it. It would be nice to have a closer look at that. I did a little more research just guessing it is a monument companies sign and found the Charles M. Gall Company in Chicago at that time. They were also mentioned in the "Monument Mans Handbook" from 1919. The book had illustrations of types of monuments and it seems that some on the sign are military monuments. Of course, I could be totally off base and if anyone has any other ideas let me know. A Story In Every SignBarely visible below and to the right of the Windsor Clifton sign is a sign for Alfred Peats. According to his March 1915 obituary in the NYT, Peats made money so fast he was "crazed by riches" and driven insane. He ended up at the Bloomingdale Asylum. For that total Shorpy experienceI like to play my Scott Joplin CD while looking at these turn of the century street scenes in Hi-Def. It's almost like watching a Ken Burns documentary. It seems odd that his music was used in a soundtrack for a movie set in the 1930s (The Sting) when most of his work was written around 1900. I would have thought hot jazz a better choice for that movie, given the period. The GottchaIs that someone misspelled "gotcha"? How Often ...Jake: How often does the train go by? Elwood: So often that you won't even notice it. Are these what are known as "cold water" flats due to the water pipe running vertically from the sidewalk? There seems to be one valve or "tap" for each flat accessible from the veranda. What happened in the winter when the water froze? Got HER!The man walking by the bookshop at lower left appears to be goosing his female companion. GotchaAre you referring to the woman who appears to be scratching her behind? At first glance it looks like the man walking slightly behind her is "taking liberties," but after closer examination I believe he is innocent. [I think she's lifting her skirt a bit to keep it off the sidewalk. Hey lady, you're on the Internet! - Dave] Her Own ParadeAnd believe me, I'd be in it too! PlumbingThose look like standpipes for firefighters. You can see the terminus of one on the top of the building on the right side of the street. Rather than drag a hose all the way up from the street hydrant they could hook on to the standpipe and direct water to whatever floor needed it, or all the way to the roof. Chicago in the mid 1970sAs a HS student and camera buff, I used to go to the photo stores on Wabash Avenue, under the elevated tracks. Altman's Camera was one of the best places to buy equipment, and I would ride the train from Milwaukee with a pile of cash, arrive at the train station and then walk, nervously, east through pimps, hookers and street thugs to Wabash. Then I would walk back to the train station with my purchases, just as nervously. Boy, has Chicago cleaned up its act since those days. Re: SignageMy guess is that it from the florist shop and shows designs for wreaths, possibly funerary. CivilizedI notice not a hint of graffiti on the support beams for the elevated railway. Fire ProtectionI'd guess those tall pipes are dry standpipes for firefighting. They'd be empty of water until hooked up to a pumper during a fire. (And I think the hand on the lady's bottom is her own. The man appears to be carrying a parcel.) Direct Connection, Part 2The bridge connecting the L Station (Madison & Wabash) to the buildings on the left side of the street was designed by Louis Sullivan for the Schlesinger & Mayer department store in 1896, when the Wabash Avenue leg of the Loop L was brand new. This was Sullivan's first work for the department store; he later built an entirely new building for them around the corner at State & Madison Streets (1899-1904). This building is better known by the name Carson Pirie Scott & Co., which occupied the structure from 1904 to 2007. While Sullivan's bridge is long gone, the building that it "plugged into" has recently had its facade restored, and some "lost" Sullivan ornament was recovered in the process. Palmer HouseThe building on the left reads "Potter Palmer" near the top, which makes me think this might be the back of the second incarnation (1875-1923) of the Palmer House hotel. The front faced State Street, a block to the west. Wabash Avenue L: 2010Some of the buildings on the right in the 1900 photo, just past the train, still exist. The very tall building in the center is the Trump Hotel and Tower across the river. And yes, Pete is correct, that's the Palmer house on the immediate left. Between 1923 and 1925, the 2nd Palmer House was torn down while the 3rd (and current) hotel was built. So the hotel never closed during construction! (The Gallery, Chicago, DPC, Railroads, Stores & Markets)
Caffeine Warehouse: 1935
... making this a pretty good location in 1935. Sign Of The Times I tend to agree there is no hidden message in the sign. 1935 Selma wouldn't bother to be coy about the prevalent attitudes and ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/05/2023 - 3:38pm -

December 1935. "Coffee house in Selma, Alabama." The Sadler Grocery Store, purveyor of Kon-Koffee-Kompany's Table Talk and Selma Pride ("Roasted Last Night") as well as Coca-Cola and Dr. Pepper. Nitrate negative by Walker Evans for the Resettlement Admin. View full size. TimingLet's see ... if I can have Dr. Pepper at 10, 2 and 4, that means that at 6 and 8 I can have coffee. At the next 6 and 8, I can have Coca-Cola. Start out with lots of caffeine early on, then taper throughout the day. Of course, I could mix either the Selma Pride or Table Talk with Coke for a really nice caffeine hit late in the day. Then I could stay up all night roasting coffee for the next day. Coffee, White --Subliminal messaging?? We may never know if it was intended, but that name certainly conveys it. Yet history had the last laugh: what was known as Sylvan Street (see marker painted on steps) is now Martin Luther King Street. Nice work by BlantonEspecially finding just the right angle to fit "Selma Pride Coffee" and "Table Talk Coffee" in between the windows. Koffee KornerIf Sylvan Street is now MLK, then this is the corner with Water Avenue today. Kitty-corner is the old railroad depot, now a museum, making this a pretty good location in 1935. Sign Of The TimesI tend to agree there is no hidden message in the sign. 1935 Selma wouldn't bother to be coy about the prevalent attitudes and would feel no reason to hide what was obvious in everyday life to a certain segment of the population. The Hawaiian KIdiosyncratic spelling and alliteration were something of a fad in brand names of the 1920s and '30s, resulting in quite a few "Koffee Kompany" businesses in locales from Tacoma to Indianapolis to Selma, not to mention the Kona Koffee Kids -- a girls' baseball team. Is there trouble brewing in that Kon-Koffee-Ko name? Probably not. Must have been pretty bad coffeeI roast my own coffee and had a laugh when I saw that the company used "Roasted Last Night" as a slogan. Roasted coffee needs to "air out" for 2-3 days before grinding and brewing. The roasted coffee beans release CO2 during the "airing out" time, and if brewed before that happens, the coffee tastes terrible. The first time I roasted coffee, I didn't know that, and wondered why it tasted so bad. Now, I can't drink most coffee made outside my house because it is hard to compare to the quality of home-roasted coffee made from fresh green coffee beans almost straight from a coffee plantation. Koo Koo Ka ChooI am the yeggman Watch Your StepsIt's interesting that the railing only begins about halfway up. I guess the stairs aren't dangerous before that point. The BikeEarly Grub Hub vehicle? Have a Nice Trip --That first step at the bottom is a doozy. The Circus!Three railroad trains, double length! Circus Was HereThank you Paul Schmid for that beautiful circus poster. The remnants of a Cole poster on the side of the grocery store. Feel sorry for those poor animals such as lions and elephants that have no place to be kept in such conditions. (The Gallery, Stores & Markets, Walker Evans)
Skeeter's Branch: 1910
... it. I'm canceling my son's paper route. What does sign mean? I see the sign sticking out from the storefront says "St. Louis Times - Just White, and ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/18/2011 - 10:46am -

St. Louis, Missouri. "11 a.m. Monday May 9, 1910. Newsies at Skeeter's Branch, Jefferson near Franklin. They were all smoking." Our third visit with this memorable group. Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Dickens anyone?They look like a bunch of young pickpockets from a Charles Dickens novel. But OllieLooks like a young Stan Laurel on the right. Can anyone read the headline? ResemblancesActually, the guy on the right is a dead ringer for Joseph Gordon-Levitt. And the Bearded guy in the paper looks like George V, who came to the British throne that year. Gotta be GeorgeEdward VII died three days earlier, so I imagine George V would be front-page news on the 9th. Just be calmBet the kid on the far right was sent to buy a paper from these thugs; and not sure he will make it home. [The guy on the right is probably Skeeter. "Branches" were paper drops. - Dave] That's itThat's it. I'm canceling my son's paper route. What does sign mean?I see the sign sticking out from the storefront says "St. Louis Times - Just White, and Read" What does that mean, that it's not yellow journalism? [The sign says "St. Louis Times tells the truth: Not yellow, just white and read." Something like the old riddle "what's black and white, and read all over." So yes, it means it's not yellow journalism. - Dave] Well behaved schoolchildrenThe children sitting in St. Louis classrooms were all well behaved because those that weren't, well, they were out smoking and selling papers. Every one of them looks to be 12 going on 50. I wonder, if this photo was published in the St. Louis Post Dispatch today, would anybody recognize a relative? The Fagan of Skeeters Branch...I'm with Lord-Velveeta--Dickensian, indeed! My very first thought was, "Oh, that must be their version of Fagan over there on the right!" A little older, a little aloof, a LOT more wicked...and standing just far enough away to claim he wasn't involved in any of the other boys' mischief. [He would seem to be the Skeeter of Skeeter's Branch. - Dave] That's not Fagin...It's the Artful Codger. SmokingBack in 1956, when I was about the same age as these guys, I took up smoking, along with some friends. Not very long after that I was smoking three packs a day. In 2003 I quit cold turkey -- not at all easy. I wonder how many of the kids in this picture were hooked for decades or never did quit. Successful newsieIn the foreword to his account of WWII experiences, James M. Gavin wrote: "I had just passed my tenth birthday when the United States entered World War I. I was living in Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, where I sold morning and evening newspapers. My favorite corner was at Third and Oak Streets, which was the Main intersection of our small town." (On to Berlin) This newsie, who may have looked just like these boys, was born in 1907, placed in a Brooklyn orphanage at age 2, adopted at 9 by a coal miner and his wife, had a hard childhood, and left home at 17 to join the army where he applied himself and graduated from West Point. He became the wartime Commanding General of the 82nd Airborne Division, retired as a lieutenant general, and became Ambassador to France, plus a career in business. Skeeter's BranchThis is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. Earlier this year, I got the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to publish this photo and an article about my project. I got a call from a man who claims he was distantly related to several of the boys, who were brothers. He gave me their names and even sent me a photo of one of the boys when he was 19 years old. He looked just like him. The man said he knew very little other information, but he gave me the name and phone number of that boy's granddaughter. I called her, and she said that she didn't think the boys were related to her, and she didn't want to talk about it. I am convinced that the man was correct, and that the granddaughter just didn't want the publicity. Too bad. You're RightWhen I did my route in Rotterdam, hell, I smoked like a oceanliner!!! Skeeter's BranchThis is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. The second boy from the left was Raymond Klose. His niece identified him. See my story about him at: http://morningsonmaplestreet.com/2015/01/01/raymond-klose/ (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, St. Louis)
Migrant Mother: 1936
... thought the thumb was a distraction. Sign of the times She looks a lot older than she might today for a couple ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/04/2018 - 10:37pm -

        The anonymous subject of this famous Depression-era portrait known as "Migrant Mother" came forward in the late 1970s and was revealed to be Florence Owens Thompson. She died in 1983. February 1936. Nipomo, California. "Destitute pea pickers living in tent in migrant camp. Mother of seven children. Age thirty-two." Photo by Dorothea Lange. View full size. WonderfulSimply one of the greatest images in photographic history. The desperation in her eyes will always haunt me. Very powerful indeed.Very powerful indeed. ThinkingIf only we knew what she was thinking. about the subjecthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Owens_Thompson Anonymous TipsterThanks for the link with the info. About the pic. That was great. More on the subjectHere is a link for more in depth information on the famous photo. http://tinyurl.com/yntpzk Thirty-two years old...She looks to be about 45. The strain this woman must have been under... Why?Why didn't she get some training and become a member of the wealthy elite class as the CEO of a BIG corporation. Or, become a sports or entertainment star? You commoners deserve your fates. where are her kids now?where are her kids now? GrandsonHere's a link to a site presumably written by Florence Thompson's grandson that answers some questions about the family: http://www.migrantgrandson.com/the.htm Migrant mother's childThe daughter is in Modesto, Calif., and was recently burned out of her home. http://www.modbee.com/local/story/104433.html Golden DreamsIn the Golden Dreams show at Disney's California adventure, they re-created Dorothea Lange taking this picture and the people in the video looked SO much like the real deal, it's spooky. I loved this photo in the film and I'm very happy to find it on Shorpy. Thumb RemovalNotice that the mother's thumb has been (partially) removed from the post in the lower right hand corner. You can see the ghost of it. I always heard it had been removed but this is the first time I have seen a clear enough print to see the removal work. The photographer thought the thumb was a distraction. Sign of the timesShe looks a lot older than she might today for a couple reasons. One is malnutrition. When the draft started in World War 2 the Army was complaining about all the recruits they bounced because of nutritional diseases (scurvy, rickets). By 1946 the government started a school lunch program to keep people from starving in the recession after the war. I get a kick out of people who are idiots waxing on about the good old days. The good old days were where you maybe lived until 43 if you didn't die of some disease, alcoholism, accident on the job, malnutrition, or in childbirth. Migrant Mother's DaughterInterviewed here, on CNN. (The Gallery, Dorothea Lange, Kids, Rural America)
Wisdom, Montana: 1942
... . - Dave] Calso What does it say on the sign leaning against the wall, underneath "Calso Gasoline"? Is that ... Eternal Wisdom Underneath "Unsurpassed" on the Calso sign you have "The California Company" I found a modern picture of this ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/03/2023 - 1:14pm -

April 1942. "Baker's Garage in Wisdom, Montana. Largest town, population 385, in the Big Hole Basin, a trading center in ranching country." 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by John Vachon for the Office of War Information. View full size. Superb quality!The quality of this photograph is amazing. It looks like it was taken today. Do you have any more information on it? Wisdom MTGoogle Maps link. WisdomGreat photo. Thanks. The last remaining inhabitants eventually changed the name to "Boredom, Montana." Towns like thisTowns like this are a staple of western North America. In western Canada, their existence was justified by the railway and farmers hauling grain to their local elevators. Later they survived when the highway became the big thing and people stopped for gas or a little food on the road. There's probably a bar that the locals go to. Town's got a school maybe even a high school, and probably more than one church. There's a ball field and, in just about every prairie town in Canada though of course not the USA, a curling rink. In Saskatchewan they used to say that if you lived in a town that lost the school and the curling rink you might as well start looking for a place in Saskatoon or Regina. PennzoilThe Pennzoil logo hasn't changed much: WidsomIt looks like it's on the edge of a river valley? The colors in this shot are indeed amazing. I love the punch of the red gas pumps. [It's west of Butte. - Dave] CalsoWhat does it say on the sign leaning against the wall, underneath "Calso Gasoline"? Is that "Unsurcharged"? No extra fees? ["Unsurpassed." - Dave] Eternal WisdomUnderneath "Unsurpassed" on the Calso sign you have "The California Company" I found a modern picture of this place online: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/4494303 Aside from the paved road, this place looks much the same. I don't think they sell Chevron or Mobil at those buildings anymore. Baker's Garage is now Conover's Trading Post. The painted Wisdom has long since faded from the old metal roof. The GarageI was raised and went to school in wisdom and Bakers Garage is not next to Ed Glassey's garage (The building with Wisdom on the top). Baker's Garage was across the street from Glasseys Garage (Looks like maybe they used photoshop to alter the photo) .. I moved to Wisdom in 1959 so if the photo is from 1942 maybe they moved the Building?? [The image, which is part of the Library of Congress photographic archive, has not been altered. It's one of more than 50 pictures of Wisdom taken by John Vachon in April 1942. Things can change a lot in 20 years. - Dave] Baker's Garage in WisdomI am a Wisdom native too. In talking to my dad. Bruce Helming, who is the oldest native still living in Wisdom, it turns out that Anna Lee and Roy Baker did own a shop across the street from the garage that you know as Baker's, which is now the Wisdom Market. It was the Chet Bruns Union 76 Garage back in the old days. Anna Lee was my dad's first cousin. Dad's folks adopted her when her parents died in the 1920s, and she was raised as Anna Lee Helming in Wisdom. My grandparents' (and later Dad's) business, Helming Brothers, bought out Chet Bruns' operation in the 1950s, which is when Anna Lee and Roy moved to the garage that you know now. The buildings shown in the photo were destroyed in the American Legion hall fire. I would guess that was in the early 50s, which is when all of the cemetery records were destroyed. Wisdom had no real fire department until 1961, so when a blaze was raging out of control, it was extinguished by placing dynamite in a loaf of bread and tossing it into the fire. The night the Legion hall and all of these other buildings burned, Dad and his uncle, Clarence Helming, were bringing the fire pumper to the scene. Just as they rounded the corner, "Boom," no more fire (and no more buildings). Gary Helming Helming@juno.com Pictures of Wisdom, MontanaI enjoyed looking at the old pictures of Wisdom and reading the text about them. I grew up near a small town (Gladstone, VA) and have always been kind of partial to them. I love looking at old pictures like these. Thank you for posting them. The Wisdom of YouthThis town holds a place in my heart. I spent most of my youth in Wisdom, from 1975 to 1990. The town hasn't changed a lot since I left, but has gotten smaller. When I started at Wisdom Elementary there were four classrooms. By the time I graduated to high school they were down to three. I hear there is only one class there now. For high school we were bused 65 miles to the Dillon, one of only two high schools in the county. It was an amazing place to grow up. Though everyone knew your business, everyone kept an eye out for you. We had two bars that all the kids hung out in and played pool. There were street dances for the Fourth of July and any other occasion. There were two restaurants, one of which burned down last week. It is hard to describe the life that a kid in a town this small would lead. The concept just doesn't make sense to city folk. But it was an amazing carefree life of swimming under the bridge, ice skating at the pond, nights of kick the can in the Forest Service field, greetings from the town's pet deer and raccoons. If it were possible to have the kind of lifestyle I have now in the city, I would move back to raise my child there in a heartbeat. Having lived near Wisdom for many yearsduring the summer-time, I can almost see the buildings. We haven't lived in Jackson for 20 years but the previous 8 years were spent on the Hairpin Ranch in a line shack about 5 miles past the main ranch, in the middle of nowhere. I loved EVERY minute of it. We traveled to Wisdom for dinner some days or just when the kids wanted to take a ride. It was a short 20 mile drive. Would move back in a New York minute. Early pioneers of the Big HoleI'm looking for any pictures or info of the early Wisdom families prior to 1930. I have an old school picture dated 1914/15 and would love to have someone help identify the children. Both sides of my family, the Elliott's and Scollicks were early settlers there. The old dilapidated log cabin on the south end of the Ruby near Butler Creek is the Scollick homestead and the Elliott log cabin is on Gibbonsville road. I believe my Aunt Eve Scollick might have married a Ferguson in the Wisdom area. There's a picture hanging at the Crossing/Fetties with several people on horses. Anyone that can help identify them as well would be great. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Gas Stations, John Vachon, Rural America, WW2)
Sign Age: 1906
1906. "Boston, Massachusetts. School Street and Parker House." Home of the eponymous buttery roll. Much interesting signage in evidence, including two giant SIGNS signs. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Chew ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/09/2014 - 6:20pm -

1906. "Boston, Massachusetts. School Street and Parker House." Home of the eponymous buttery roll. Much interesting signage in evidence, including two giant SIGNS signs. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Chewing Candy.The "Genuine French" kind. ScoundrelThis photo was taken just mere moments before that scoundrel coming out of the alley just past the Parker House was apprehended for not wearing a hat. Oh the nerve of that man. Boston citizens are still talking about this day in 1906. Theodore R. Bird, Counsellor at LawFrom the Cambridge Chronicle, 20 February 1915, page three. I Prefer My Signs to be ClothIn the event of hard times, I can just cut a neck hole in the center and have a spiffy poncho! Parker House todayStaute on the right remains as does the parker house and at least one other building. View Larger Map The past is a foreign countryThe quote I used for the subject line of this post is what I thought of when I read, on Google Books, Sigmund Krausz' 1896 "Street Types of Great American Cities." Thanks to Dave for steering us towards that book, from which the text block and photo were taken in his post below. Certain portions of the book will make today's readers wince but it is authentic and was not intended to be more than an accurate and generally affectionate reflection of its people and times. Good book and quite interesting. I want candy. Old BostonThis is one of those streets in Boston (there are lots of them) where today you can still capture a feel for the turn of the (previous) century. The Parker House is still there, although it has been extensively remodeled and expanded. The open plaza on the right, behind the big square granite pillars, is the front entrance to the old City Hall, which is still there, largely untouched (at least from the outside). Today, there is a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse (with a beautiful bar) on the first floor. The building on the left side of the street, just past the Parker House on the other side of Tremont Street, is still there, although an additional two floors have been added to the top. And last, but certainly not least, is King's Chapel (overlooking the City Hall plaza on the right side of the photograph), which was constructed in 1754, is still a vibrant congregation, and rings a bell in the steeple every Sunday morning that was cast by Paul Revere almost 200 hundred years ago. Great shot! Behind King's ChapelThe building on the right, behind King's Chapel, is the Albion Building. It was one of several adjacent buildings owned by the Houghton & Dutton department store, a major retailer in downtown Boston at the time. The Albion Building was torn down in 1913 and replaced with a structure that "fit in" better with the rest of the H&D complex. The entire area is now occupied by the One Beacon skyscraper and expanded public sidewalks. At first I thought it was EuropeThe narrowness of the street looked Old World to me. I was at this scene just last summer--the old City Hall has been beautifully preserved, and from a seat in the Ruth's Chris bar, you can see the King's Chapel graveyard right outside the window. 10 Beacon StThe building on an angle at the end of the street is on Beacon Street. Worked in that building on the 8th floor for several years. It is still there. (The Gallery, Boston, DPC)
Super Giant: 1964
... stores here, no luck.) Next, just above the Lane 5 sign is a Brach's candy bin. Looks like the good folks at Time-Life have ... What is Loon? On one of the ends.... [The sign says LOOK. - Dave] Supermarket "Where's Waldo?" ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/22/2008 - 6:35am -

1964. The Super Giant supermarket in Rockville, Maryland. Color transparency by John Dominis, Life magazine photo archive. View full size. Twins?Look at the two ladies above checkout #7 and #8. They could be twins .. at least sisters. I love this photo ... there is so much to see! Funny how the Clorox label has not changed. That's good branding! Plaid ElephantDidn't that fellow come from the Island of Misfit Toys? Nice to see him or her gainfully employed. Credit cards?Are them Credit Card Imprinters on the registers? I didn't think grocery stores took credit cards until the late 80's. [The imprinters would be for charge cards, which for gas stations, grocery stores and other retailers go back at least to the 1950s and the era of the Charga-Plate. Charge accounts go back even farther, to the early days of retailing. Below: Artwork from a 1966 newspaper ad. What goes back to the late 80s is using bank-issued credit cards as an everyday substitute for cash, as opposed to merchant charge accounts, which generally had to be paid in full at the end of the month. - Dave] How little has changedIt's funny how things haven't changed. some of the equipment looks antiquated, but the whole checkout process is still the same. Little detailsLook closely at the rack at the checkout. One thing that stands out for me is razor blades. Lots and lots of razor blades. Now you're lucky if you even find them buried in among the 3-, 5-, 19-blade razors. (Don't even look for a safety razor today. I've tried 10 different stores here, no luck.) Next, just above the Lane 5 sign is a Brach's candy bin. Looks like the good folks at Time-Life have photoshopped the LIFE logo onto the bin. Anyone back me up on this? [That's not "photoshopped." It says "As advertised in LIFE." Often seen on product displays back in the Olden Days. - Dave] GeeSure were a lot of Caucasians back in 1964. Paper or plastic?It was at a Giant supermarket in suburban Washington in 1983 that I was first asked by the cashier "paper or plastic?" At first I was confused, thinking that she was asking me whether I wanted to pay with paper money or a credit card.... Keep GoingOh my great good God. I've never wanted a picture to "keep going" more than this one! I wish they had invented 360 degree viewing back then. AMAZING!! The good old daysI worked in a grocery store similar to this. Same cash registers. Brings back a lot of memories. Life Sure Got CasualComparing the turn-of-the-century pictures with this one shows the remarkable change in American public attire. The fellow writing the check in the right foreground might have been arrested for public indecency in earlier Shorpy Land. Didn't see too many men in short pants in 1905 stores. Deja VuI'm amazed at the number of products which are still instantly recognizable today. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for those prices! Check out the checkoutI can only imagine how long it took to get through the checkout line in the days before bar code scanners. It looks like the cashiers had to consult that notepad they all have propped up against their registers. Random musingsThose elephants are, like, crazy! People were thinner back then. The Clorox label hasn't changed a bit. Curious that the checkout ladies visible are all men. It's too bad we can't see the tabloid racks at the checkout stands. I just know there's a juicy headline on the Enquirer. Wow!I work about two miles from Rockville. Does anyone know the address of this store? Is it still there. This site is unbelievable... The ViewWhat strikes me about this is no one in view is morbidly obese. Look at the kid...... eyeballing that open Brach's candy display. Those are almost unchanged from than till now. I wonder if he copped a "sample"? CheckersThe checkers, the ones shown at least, are all male. This was once a well paid and somewhat skilled job if only for the sharp memory and hand-eye coordination. The gaudy merchandising hasn't changed much in 44 years but the checkout experience? Well, what do you all think , better or worse? Convenient beer & wineAt least in the late 70s, Marylanders learned to spot Super Giants, because through some complicated shift of definition (like SUVs = trucks), these stores were not subject to the prohibition that grocery stores and convenience stores can't sell alcohol. Today Giant Food remains but Super Giants are gone, and it's no longer possible to buy wine with your packaged ground beef. Pre-UPCOne of the more striking things here is the checkout registers where the clerk actually had to read a stamped-on price and key it in manually (after consulting a list of what might have been on discounted sale that day). Within ten years many registers would have their displays as bright glowing fluorescent digits (later LED/LCD) vs these mechanical pop-up number tags. UPC scanning lasers wouldn't be common for another 10 years or so. Look at all the Men!I am not accustomed to seeing so much testosterone in a grocery store! Everything looks supersized, even the hairdos. It's kinda funny how high they stacked the displays, you'd need a ladder to get at some of it. LinesThe lines are still as long after the "wonderful" invention of Bar Codes, Scanners and Chip & PIN credit/debit cards. One step forward, two steps back. So much to see!Dave, would you mind enlarging this to about six feet high? I can't make out all the details! What is Loon?On one of the ends.... [The sign says LOOK. - Dave] Supermarket "Where's Waldo?"Not one of these people have bottled water in their cart and there's no gum or candy visible on the registers... Now, find the: box of Life cereal, the Cracker Jacks, the Domino sugar, the Raisin Bran, the grape jelly, the grape juice, the box of Cheer detergent, and the anxious store manager. Brach's CandiesThe display of the bulk candy bin appears to read "Advertised in Life." I wonder how many Life readers caught the subtle product placement. A refreshing lack of "expression"Nary a tattoo nor a facial piercing in sight. Where's Waldo?I think he's in Aisle 6. Very interesting photo! Brach's CandiesScary how 21 years later, I could have been the kid looking into the Brach's Bulk Candies bin... I totally forgot about those bins until this picture. People were slimmer back thenOther than the antiquated cash registers and the male cashiers, what has changed the most is that we are more obese now. I love this pictureSo rich. So much to keep the eye busy. Almost like a Where's Waldo cartoon. From the Plaid Elephants advertising "Top Value" something-or other, all the way down to the Quaker logo on a box of Rice Chex. And who's that woman in line in front of the chip rack? She has a BIG BUTT! (If anyone tells me that's my mother, then she's YOUR mother.) Charge-a-platesThey go back to at least the 40's -- I remember them well. It was metal and specially notched for each of the stores which accepted them and where you had a charge account. Current plastic models, good for almost anything, are great but far less secure. Modern LifeThe Life cereal box behind the Rice Chex is virtually unchanged! Not so inexpensiveMedian income of all families in 1964 was about $6600. For female full-time workers, the median income was $3700. Median income of nonwhite males was $2800. http://www2.census.gov/prod2/popscan/p60-047.pdf I'll bet they didn't think these prices were all that cheap. I do wonder what day of the week this photo was taken - I'll bet it was a Saturday. Get your slob on!I imagine that this was taken on a very hot day. No matter what the weather, though, imagine this same scene in 1934 or 1904 - you wouldn't see people out in public wearing undershirts and shorts. I wonder if there's a particular moment in time or series of events when it became OK to look "slobby" in public? No sagging pants or backwards baseball caps, anyway. I second the vote For blown up sections of this photograph, a lot of shelves I would like to explore. [Click "view full size." That's as blown up as it gets. - Dave] Checking outWhen I worked in grocery in the mid 1970's, with only slightly newer registers, the checkout time would be about the same as now. Good checkers could check and bag at about the same rate as now - the difference being that the checker had to pay attention and couldn't have conversations with their coworkers while checking. The notepads have the produce prices on them. Typically, you would remember those after the first few checkouts of the same produce item per day and not need to refer back very often. Remember that the range of produce available was less than today, both because of improved distribution and widening of tastes. The preferred checking technique is to pull the item off with the left hand, check the price, and enter the price into the register with the right hand. The register we had had plastic covers to cover the keys for anything past $9.99, since items of that price were pretty rare, since grocery stores sold groceries and not other items. In general, we had fewer stoppages for price checks than a modern system will because of missing items in their database. The grocery stocked fewer items back then. The flip side is that inventory management was a pain - we would manually order based on what was on the shelves and did a periodic total inventory to find the correct wastage values from spoilage and shoplifting. I much prefer the wider range of food and produce available today. And just think...This could be one of the few larger group Shorpy pictures where most of the folks are still alive. The cute girl in the cart would be my sister's age; the adults are mostly in the mid-late 20s to early 40s range, giving them ages from the high 60s to the mid 80s. The older kids would still only be in their fifties. Anyone from Rockville know these folks? Fantastic Photo!Even though it's far "younger" that most of the great photos that Shorpy features, it's one of the most fascinating you've ever put up here. I can't take my eyes off it. Do we know the address?My partner and I -- en route to Bob's Noodle House -- have wondered about the origins of a now-empty grocery store in Rockville, near "downtown." Perhaps this Super Giant? Certainly of this era. You can just make it out in the middle of this view -- between the bus shelter and the tree -- through the parking lots. [The Super Giant was at 12051 Rockville Pike and Randolph Road, where Montrose Crossing is today. See the next comment up. - Dave] View Larger Map Rockville Super GiantThe 25,000-square-foot Super Giant that's the subject of this post opened November 12, 1962, at 12051 Rockville Pike at Randolph Road, anchoring a 205,000-square-foot discount shopping center with 3,000-car parking lot (and a "Jolly Trolley" to get you from car to store). Today it's a "lifestyle center" called Montrose Crossing. Below: A long time ago, in a shopping center far, far away ... Wow. Just wow.I, too, worked in a grocery store in the late-70s when I was in high school. As earlier commented, apparently not a whole lot changed from when this picture was taken to then (well, except the hairstyles and clothes -- which changed a *lot*). I remember the registers well -- the columns of keys were dedicated to 10's, 1's, 10 cents, 1 cent. The large palm-contoured key to the right would "enter" in the decimal digits. Lots of noise and moving parts. A good cashier could move the goods along the conveyor belt as quickly as the scanners of today. The rapid spinning of numbers on the register display was mesmerizing. The one big holdup was the dreaded "price check" if a stocker had to be summoned -- but more often the checker already had the price memorized (good thing too, since price label "swapping" was a problem). I stocked shelves using the incredibly complicated but efficient label gun used to print and affix the prices to the products. As a stocker you had a large holster that held this amazing device. The more I think about it, things have not changed that much. We still have lines, conveyor belts, "separators," shopping carts, impulse displays, checkers, baggers, stockers, butchers, and produce guys (the latter two being union jobs). At least until the self checkout and then later RFID based systems (you just walk out of the store with the goods and the store will automatically figure this out and bill your card). Top Value StampsMy mother collected those, they were also used at Kroger's in the Middle South. What surprises me is that there are no cigarette racks at the checkouts. When I was a kid, every grocery store had the cigarette packs in racks right at the checkouts, with a sign screaming "Buy A Pack Today!" Maybe it was a Maryland thing. I also remember drugstores and groceries where cigarettes were sold only in the pharmacies. Go figure. More of these pleaseI add my request for more photos like this of just ordinary life from the '50s & '60s. Sure brings back memories of simpler and I think happier times. When I was a kid I used to imagine how marvelous life would be fifty years hence in the 21st century. Well I'm there now -- and I'd like to go back to the 1950s please. [And you can, thanks to the magic of the Inter-nets! I wonder when we'll have those TVs you can hang on the wall like a painting. And Picture-Phones. Can't wait. - Dave] Mama can I have a penny?You know what would be right next to the electric doors (and that big rubber mat you had to step on to make them open) -- a row of gumball machines! Whatever happened to those? I loved just looking at them. Those glass globes, all those colorful gumballs. Sigh. RealityThats a highly posed photo. Everyone in the photo would have had to sign a model release for this to be published in Life. It is "possible" that the people where chosen for their looks. [I've worked in publishing for over 20 years. You wouldn't need a release for any picture taken in a public place, and certainly not for a crowd or group shot. Actually you don't need releases at all. Some publishers may have looked at them as insurance against lawsuits for invasion of privacy. Probably most didn't bother. As for "posed," I doubt it. - Dave] Blue StampsWhile I miss the concept of Blue Stamps or trading stamps, I get points from my store and they send me a check each quarter to use in the store. I have one premium my parents redeemed from a trading stamp program - a really hideous waterfront print which they had in their home until they divorced. I claimed it from my father and it's hung in the laundry room of every house I've ever lived in since I moved on my own. I remember the old way grocery stores were laid out, and I was always fascinated by the registers. Link: Whatever Happened to Green Stamps? [Down where I come from we had S&H Green Stamps -- Sperry and Hutchinson. And "redemption centers" chock-full of cheesy merchandise. Or you could get cash. When I was in college I chose cash. My fingers would be all green (and minty) from sticking wet stamps in the redemption books. - Dave] Lived next to one just like it in VirginiaThis is just like the Super Giant on South Glebe Road in Arlington, close by where my family was living in 1964. It's where my mother shopped and I loved to accompany her and browse around. You could buy anything from a live lobster to a coat, and just like the Rockville store, it was 20 minutes from downtown Washington. Deja vuMy supermarket experience goes back about 10 years before this one . . . but what a photo! We had women cashiers, and man, were they fast. I was a stock clerk and bagger, and had to move fast to get the groceries in those brown paper bags (no plastic). I also had to wear a white shirt and bow tie. Naturally, we took the groceries to the car for customers and put them in the car or trunk, wherever asked. That was known as customer service. We, too, gave S & H green stamps, although Top Value stamps were available a number of places. Price checkerMy father was a lifelong grocery man, making a cycle from clerk to manager to owner and finally back to clerking in the 1950s until he retired in 1966. He took pride in doing his job well, whatever it was. Each night, sitting in his green leather chair, he'd read our two newspapers, one local and one city, end to end. One night I noticed that he'd paused for quite some time at the full-page weekly ad for the market he worked at and I asked him why. He was memorizing the prices of the specials starting the next day. Brach's candy displayThe shot of the boy near the candy display reminds me of a time back in the very early 1960s where I did help myself to a piece or two. I looked up, saw an employee looking at me and boy, I was scared to death he would tell my parents. Also, with the evolution in scanning and so forth, it brought to an end, more or less, of checking the receipt tape against the stamped prices for mistakes the checker made. Checking ReceiptsI worked in a store just like this while in high school in the early '70s. The main difference I've noticed is that Sunday is a major shopping day now. Our store was open on Sunday, because the crosstown rival was open. We (and they) didn't do enough business to pay for the lights being on. Two people ran the store on Sundays - a checker and a stocker/bagboy. And we didn't have much to do. All we ever saw was people picking up a single item or picnic supplies. How times have changed. Now we check the receipt for mistakes made in shelf pricing. Did I get charged the sale price or not? [So after your groceries are rung up, you go back down the aisles checking the receipt against the shelf prices? Or you make note of the shelf prices while you're shopping? That's what I call diligent. - Dave] Stamp dispensersWhen I was a kid back in the late sixties, there were stamp dispenser next to each cash register, with a dial a lot like a telephone dial that would spew stamps as the cashier turned it. I'm surprised they don't have a similar thing in this store. [The grocery store we went to had an electric thingy that spit them out. Which looked a lot like the brown boxes shown in the photo. - Dave] Checking ReceiptsWe don't check every price - just the sale prices which are listed in the weekly ad, available at the front of the store. Sometimes the ad price doesn't get properly entered into the computer, so I pay attention, especially if it's a significant savings. Relative CostsMy mother kept note of her grocery bills for 40 years -- and in 1962 complained that it cost $12 a week to feed a family of four. Considering that my dad's salary was $75 a week, that was indeed a lot of money. We used to save Green Stamps, Plaid Stamps, and cigar bands for giveaways in the store. [That's a good point. I had to chuckle when I noticed that the most these registers could ring up is $99.99. - Dave] Amazing how pictures take you backThis is what grocery stores looked like when I was a wee lass in the '70's. This could have been our local A&P, except the freezer cases would have been brown instead of white. And I bet if you checked the ingredients on the packages those thin people are buying, you wouldn't see corn syrup as a top-ten ingredient of non-dessert items. A & PSee the short story by John Updike for the perfect literary pairing to this photo. Well, in my opinion anyways; it's the first thing that came to mind upon seeing it. I Remember Those Elephants!My great-grandma lived in Rockville at that time and I remember those elephants!! What a floodgate of memories just opened up! Thanks again, Dave! [Now we know why memory and elephants go together. - Dave] Making ChangeAs those cash registers (most likely) didn't display the change due, the cashiers actually had to know how to make change. [Cash registers waaay back in 1964 (and before) did indeed show change due. And sometimes were even connected to a change-maker that spit your coins into a little tray. - Dave] Brown paper packages tied up with stringThis is such an amazing photo -- I love it! As someone who was still 12 years away from being born when this photo was taken, I'm not familiar with the old customs. What kind of items would have been wrapped up in brown paper like the woman in line at register 7 has? It looks like a big box, so that ruled out meats or feminine products in my mind ...any ideas? [It's probably her laundry. - Dave] White MarketsIn Knoxville we had groceries called White Stores that looked like most any other grocery of the late 70's, early 80's: Dimly lit with greenish fluorescent tubes, bare-bones interior decoration, and indeed a Brach's candy bin. My mom used Green Stamps for years. It took eons to fill a book. At the White Stores you could "buy" various pieces of merchandise. She got a floor lamp one year and a set of Corning Ware the next. It seems like over the last 5-10 years, they've made grocery stores all upscale looking. Almost makes you feel like you're getting ripped off. Warehouse LookSay goodbye to this timeless shot and hello to the warehouse stylings of the local Costco. Grocery stores have been jazzing up their interiors hoping to attract and keep customers. It's not working. When I go to one, they are far less busy than even in the recent past. They have cut the payrolls down significantly here in San Diego due to losing profit to the warehouses. Consequently, the help is far less competent, far younger, far less helpful, and far below the wage scales of the wonderful veterans they cannot really replace. We need some grocery stores for certain smallish items that the warehouse giants will never carry. But they will dwindle down to a very precious few, and do it soon. Of course, this grandiose Super Giant displaced their mom-and-pop competitors. Same tune, different singers. Multi-tasking fingers>> the columns of keys were dedicated to 10's, 1's, 10 cents, 1 cent. And a really good clerk would be pressing at least two keys at a time, which modern keypads can't do. Pure gold.What could lure me from my busy, lurk-only status? Only this amazing photo! Wow. Just wow. And not a cell phone in sight... Pre-Obesity EpidemicAnd look. No great big fat people. Sure, there a couple of middle-agers spreading out here & there, but you know the ones I mean. Smaller aisles and carts!Because people are much bigger these days, everything else is too! I remember shopping with my mom and for the big holidays and having to use more than one cart. Super GiantThe Super Giant was in the shopping center that now has a Sports Authority, Old Navy and a much smaller Giant. Super Giant was similar to what you would find at WalMart now -- part department store, part grocery store. I grew up in Rockville and we used to shop there all the time, until they closed that is. Guess the world wasn't ready for that combination. I could be in that picture, but I'd be too young to walk. GurskyesqueThis reminds me of Andreas Gursky's photo "99 Cent" -- it could almost have been taken in the same place. Fiberglass tubs on conveyor belts.Great picture & website. I remember them bagging your groceries, putting them in fiberglass tubs, and giving you a placard with a 3 digit number on it. The tub would go on a conveyor belt to the outside of the store, you'd drive up, and they'd take your placard and load your groceries. Wonder if there are any pictures of those... Proto-WalmartThis store was huge and it was quite unique in the same model as today's Walmart with groceries, clothing, etc. It is odd that the concept did not survive in that era considering the success of Walmart today. Personally, as a kid, I didn't like it when my mom got clothes for me from there. They were the off-brands. I also remember the GEM membership store which was in the current Mid-Pike Plaza on the opposing SW corner, which was a precursor to Price Club except that it didn't have groceries. I Remember It WellI grew up in Rockville, MD and was in this store many times. It was a full "one stop" department store with a grocery store attached. I loved going there with my mother because while she was grocery shopping I could make my way to the toy department. Kid nirvana! I might have been there!Oh do I remember that! My family lived in Rockville until 1965, and my mother usually took me along. After moving, we'd go to the Rockville Super Giant only if we needed to stop at the department store side. The beige boxes that you see at Checkouts 6 and 7 were the Top Value Stamp dispensers. (The man in the T-shirt is signing a check on top of one.) They automatically spit out the right amount of those yellow stamps. We bought quite a few things with Top Value Stamps, including a well-built Westinghouse room dehumidifier. The Giant Food at Friendship Heights had a conveyor belt but this store did not. This one had so much land, there was a huge sidewalk area out front where you could bring your carts -- but not to the car. Instead there were pairs of plastic cards, one with a hook for the cart, one with a hole. They had a three digit number, and the note "NO TIPPING". Took me a while to understand that wasn't about tipping over the carts. When you pulled up, an employee (probably young) put the bags in your car for you. Speaking of brand names, I can see the stacks of Mueller's spaghetti in Aisle 6. It's the brand we ate then. (Now I know Farina flour has no business in pasta!) The meat department is along the wall at the left. Deli and seafood were at the far back corner. There were a pair of "Pick a Pickle" barrels in front of the deli counter. One Dill, one Half-Sour. Good pickles, and great fish. The fish department has always been a source of pride for Giant. Of course this was back when a flounder was over a foot long, not these six-inch midgets we get today. All the fish were whole on ice, only gutted, and they scraped the scales, and cut or filleted the fish to your order. The produce department starts behind the Brach's counter, and extends out the photo to the left. There were one or two manned scales there, where they would weigh your brown paper bag of produce, mark the price with a grease pencil, and staple it shut. If it was something tender like cherries, they would put "XX" on it, so that it would be correctly bagged. So the checkers only needed to know the prices of "piece" produce. There was a "post mix" soda machine at the end of Aisle 12, 13, or 14, which would mix syrup and soda water into a cup. I'd often get a Coke. Probably 5 cents. I remember getting Mercury dimes as change from that machine -- this photo is from the last year of silver dimes and quarters. (Serious inflation was kicking in to pay for the Vietnam War.) Cigarettes? Where were they? I should know, my mom smoked then. They were only in cartons, they were so dirt-cheap that nobody bought them by the pack, except in vending machines. They certainly didn't need to be kept "out of the reach of children" then. They were in a six-foot set of shelves somewhere. I suppose I had no taste in clothing at the time, as most of my clothes came from there. Well, let's be honest -- they were much nicer and more stylish than clothes at Sears. (Oh, those horrible Sears Toughskin jeans with the rubber inside the knees!) The department store side, which started to the right of the checkouts, was easily twice the size of what you see here. It had a lot of selection, and lots of good specialty counters. There was a photo counter at the front of the store (pretty much under the photographer, who was up in the balcony where the restrooms were). They sold things at fair prices, and gave good and honest sales help. There was a hobby counter in the far back right corner. Speaking of the restrooms, they had seats that automatically flipped up into the back of the toilet, with UV lights to "sanitize" them. Spooky. The current Giant Food store at that site, which my friends call the "Gucci Giant," is on the former department store side. When they first shut down the three Super Giant department stores, they left the grocery store were it was. I think about the time that White Flint Mall started "upscaling" Rockville Pike, they built a much fancier store on the old department store side. Compared to now, Rockville Pike was very working class, very blue collar. Congressional Plaza (on the site of the former Congressional Airport) had a JC Penney as the anchor, and a Giant Food. Near the Super Giant was an EJ Korvettes, now the site of G Street Decorator Fabrics. A little off Rockville Pike was GEM -- Government Employees Membership. These were the days when "Fair Trade" pricing (price fixing) was still legal, and enforceable everywhere but the District of Columbia. But GEM, being a "membership" store, could discount, so that's where you bought Fair Trade products like Farberware at a discount. Of course, GEM had to compete with discount stores in the District, which Congress had conveniently exempted from the Fair Trade Act, so they could shop cheaply. Scan itI enjoyed coming back to this photo for new comments -- I had one before, but long before the new post. I live not far from Troy, Ohio, where the local newspaper just had an article about the bar code scanner. The very first item scanned -- anywhere -- was at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, in 1974. Troy is less then 30 miles north of Dayton, where NCR developed the scanner. The Marsh store is still there, but NCR is leaving. King Soopers, 1960I work for a division of Kroger called King Soopers in Colorado. My store, which opened in February 1960, has a lot in common with this one. They have tried to modernize it but you can still see the old store showing through in places. Great photo. Bagger NostalgiaRegrettably, the baggers are out of view to the right. My greatest nostalgia for supermarkets past concerns the bag boys, practitioners of a high art. They took pride in how compactly they could pack your groceries with attention to putting the fragile items on top -- not to mention that they all tried to outdo each other in speed. Bagger Nostalgia...Part DeuxWhen I was a kid (1950s) I used to go with my father to the grocery (Kroger's) on Saturday morning. I always helped bag the groceries, especially if they were short handed, and he would always remind me of his bagging rule: "Don't even think about putting the meat next to the soap or even in the same bag." In the 50s as I remember it the majority of the cashiers were women and that was their only job at the store. I notice that even as early as the 60s they had the security screens next to the cash register to keep unwanted fingers out of the till form the adjacent aisle. I also remember making the family excursion to the Top Value redemption store to select the "FREE" gift that the household needed when we had sufficient stamp books filled. The other Super GiantThe third Super Giant is in White Oak. They took the "Super" off ages ago, but it is all still there. Mostly we went to the one in Laurel, which still retains its huge circa-1960 sign in the parking lot. Around 1980 it ate the old Kresge store next door, but by that time the department store features of the biggest stores were mostly gone. It's kind of funny -- the mall they built just south of the shopping center almost killed the latter, but now the shopping center is very busy and the mall may well be torn down. Memories from the early '60sMy mom worked at Chestnut Lodge and would often stop by the Super Giant on Rockville Pike on her way home to shop for groceries -- and clothes for me! I was much too young to be brand- or fashion-conscious and I remember loving the little cotton A-line dresses that Mom would bring home. We lived in the District and a big thrill for me would be to drive up to Rockville with my parents on the weekends and shop at the Super Giant and Korvettes! Crossing the PotomacThe hype of Super Giant was enough to entice these Northern Virginians into crossing The Potomac River into Maryland. The commute is commonplace today but not so much in 1964. We had not seen anything like it. Racks & racks of mass produced clothing and groceries, too! Grandmother bought the same suit in 3 different sizes. She and my mother got their money's worth. I was 13. It never left my closet. The NoiseThe old registers were so noisy. No screens to check what was going on, just quick eye movement to try and keep track. Ahh...back in the day when every item had a price on it. Ohhhh yeah and is that Blake Shelton?I spent many weekends at this gigantic store on Rockville Pike. I think I even bought a prom dress here....is that possible? I very clearly remember going up to the glassed in observation balcony on the second floor, which gave an overall view of the store (as this photo shows). That way I could scan the aisles in order to see where my Dad was at any given moment. I love this photo, and HEY isn't that a time-traveling Blake Shelton a little left of the center wearing a white short-sleeved shirt?? (LIFE, Stores & Markets)
Bloodbath on Wall Street: 1920
... George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size. Sign of Irony What lends a certain bit of irony to this horrible scene is the sign in the background: "Albert A. Volk House Wreckers." Thanks, Dave, for ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/11/2011 - 9:21pm -

"Wall Street bomb." Aftermath of the explosion that killed dozens of people in New York's financial district on September 16, 1920, when a horse wagon loaded with dynamite and iron sash weights blew up in front of the J.P. Morgan bank at 23 Wall Street. The attack, which was attributed to Italian anarchists, was never solved. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size. Sign of IronyWhat lends a certain bit of irony to this horrible scene is the sign in the background: "Albert A. Volk House Wreckers." Thanks, Dave, for yet another impressive photo to add to our viewing enjoyment. Nice workNice work - I'm sure we all wanted to see a picture of a horse with its head blown off. What the hell, you couldn't have picked a different one? [The horse's head is not blown off. We're looking at its rear end. Speaking of which ... - Dave] 23 Wall St.Anyone have a current picture of this area, same basic angle? They like to look.What is it about human psychology that makes us all stand around to watch? Even the statues seem to be observing. Nothing Has ChangedAnarchrist are still doing the same type of thing today. No regard for innocent people and animals, just their own political view. [The Anarchrist, huh? Spooky! - Dave] Thanks for the EducationI had heard about this, but I thought it occurred in from of the NYSE, not the Subtreasury. Understand that you can still see marks where the iron weights hit some of the buildings. Now, I will have be able to go down there and check it out. "Terror on Wall Street"From one of my other favorite sites. http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=847 PhotojournalistI like the guy in the background setting up his camera on a tripod. Newspapers paid for photos like this back then, too. But it was a lot more work with the glass plates and likely developing them yourself. And how many pictures could they shoot at a time? Probably had to make every shot count... Such impatience!All they had to do was wait 8 years - or 88 - and the financial institutions would've done the work for them. Wall StreetThis is in front of the New York Stock Exchange. Washington is in front of the Federal Building. Straight back is Trinity Church. To the left of that is the NYSE. You can see the view today on Google if you go to the street view of Wall and William. It gets close but is one block away. Anarchists?Those who condemn anarchy should engage in some quantitative analysis. In the twentieth century alone, governments managed to kill – through wars, genocides, and other deadly practices – some 200,000,000 men, women, and children. How many people were killed by anarchists during this period? Governments, not anarchists, have been the deadly “bomb-throwers” of human history! http://disinter.wordpress.com/2008/09/13/what-is-anarchy/ [Dumbness and nonsense. - Dave] Quite a blastIt shattered and bent the upper level windows of the buildings. With the wagon completely destroyed, I'm suprised the horse is as intact as it is. [According the the various historical accounts of what happened, the horse pulling the bomb wagon was blown to bits. So this would seem to be a different animal. - Dave] Dear DaveDave, which part of my quote is "Dumbness and nonsense."? Do you have anything other than ad hominem to offer? [All of it. Is air safety unimportant because more people get killed in car accidents? Or AIDS inconsequential because many more people die of malaria? Back to the freshman dorm. With a side trip to Mumbai. - Dave] +90The view on Wall Street hasn't changed much since 1920 (except for the dead horse, destroyed car and other carnage). Below is the same perspective from April of 2010. It Gets WorseIt gets worse. If you read detailed accounts of this nasty incident, you'll learn that they found a woman's head, still wearing a hat, stuck about 30 feet up onto a wall. (The Gallery, Fires, Floods etc., G.G. Bain, Horses, NYC)
Sins of Passion: 1937
... View full size. I want that Phillip Morris sign. Is this Lee Harvey Oswald's dad? Still standing on Main. ... movie, the only non-tobacco things I can see here are a sign pained onto the glass for Peoples Beer (a small brewery out of Oshkosh) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/01/2010 - 2:21am -

August 1937. "Early morning scene. Tower, Minnesota." Medium format nitrate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. I want that Phillip Morris sign.Is this Lee Harvey Oswald's dad? Still standing on Main.View Larger Map Opera singers!Not only does Lucky Strike have Madeleine Carroll selling tits wares, but also Metropolitan Opera singer Helen Jepson. Even better than a doctor! The resemblance to Oswald is spooky! So that's where all those Norwegian bachelor farmers wound up on a Saturday night! "Sins of Passion" does not show up on IMDB. Were there second rate theaters that sidestepped the Hayes Office, showing this kind of film without getting arrested? [The Hayes Office was an arm of the motion picture industry. Which of course didn't have the power to arrest anyone. - Dave] It's HIM!! Wow, I was thinking the same thing! Suspicious cigarette he has there. B.V.Ralph Fiennes, Before (Lord) Voldemort. Saturated MarketInexplicably, I have the desire to use tobacco products. CALLING...PHIIIIIIIIILLLLIIIIIIIP MOOOOOORRRRRIIIIIIISSSSSS!!!!! Time traveling tterraceWhere'd tterrace get the time machine? And if he could go back in time, why'd he pick this bar to hang around? "Sins of Passion"A "sex hygiene" short produced by Maurice Copeland. Generally classed as an exploitation film with the ostensible topic of venereal disease. As if we needed itEven more proof that LHO had been in some unexpected places. People's BeerFrom Oshkosh. First black-owned brewery in the U.S. http://www.mainstreetoshkosh.com/2008/02/peoples-beer.html Lucky Opera SingerHelen Jepson chose Lucky Strikes because of her voice. Her arias must have been something, punctuated, as they must have been, by coughing fits. On the Sunny Side of the StreetThis place does not appear to be there any longer. The building below in the Google Street View is on the south side of the street facing north. The shadow of the time-traveling tterrace shows him to be on the north side of the street facing south. Helen Jepson saysHelen Jepson sang lead soprano with the Metropolitan Opera from 1935 to 1941. She was also popular on radio shows and had a brief film careen. Do you suppose she REALLY smoked Luckies "because of her voice"? SundayReminds me of Edward Hopper's "Sunday" from 1926. Beautiful downtown TowerI've been to Tower -- on business, believe it or not. Can you say "middle of nowhere"? SmokesWe see ads for Lucky Strikes (before Lucky Strike green went to war and didn't come back) featuring actress Madeleine Carroll and soprano Helen Jepson; Chesterfields (whose theme song contains a line "while your Chesterfield burns" that was highly alarming in Canada where chesterfield is another name for a sofa); Philip Morris (featuring Johnny, the Bell Boy), Camels, as well as Van Dyck and White Owl Cigars, and "Model" which looks to me to be some sort of pipe tobacco or tobacco pouch. In fact, besides the ad for the movie, the only non-tobacco things I can see here are a sign pained onto the glass for Peoples Beer (a small brewery out of Oshkosh) and a small sign telling people that this place "serves" "we have Wrigley's" Spearmint gum. JohnnyThe "Call For Philip Morris" Bellman was Johnny Roventini, a 4-foot-7 actor who was a national celebrity in his time. More Doctors Smoke CamelsDid you know? Censorship, Mad City styleA November 1937 edition of the Wisconsin State Journal reports that the City of Madison's censorship committee (led by its acting mayor) concluded that "Sins of Passion" could not be shown in the Capitol Theatre - but instead could be shown only "as an educational film in a school auditorium or some other public place." The Mayor's last name was Gill, not Quimby. The sun is in the morning. The sun is in the morning. In Minnesota, the sun rises in the northeast in the summer. So I believe the google picture could be correct. This ain't Florida. In summer you have 18 hour days or longer. [Back to school for you. The sun doesn't rise in the northeast anywhere north of the Tropic of Cancer.* - Dave] *Actually, back to school for me. The sun will never pass directly overhead north of the Tropic of Cancer, but it can rise north of due east, and therefore can shine from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere. I think. - Dave North and SouthIt's not astrophysics, but the sidewalk is sloping downhill to the left in the Lee photo. The Google Street View below seems to show the sidewalk sloping in the opposite direction. From what I can tell, most or all of Main Street in Tower slopes downhill east to west. The two stores are probably on the opposite sides of the street, the Street View store on the south side and the Lee photo on the north. On the other hand, step down the street to the old building next to Hardware Hanks on the north side of Main Street. View Larger Map I think this is probably your old store, or at least a better candidate. The sidewalk has been raised (as wasn't too uncommon in many midwest towns as the roads were improved and built up) but the short step inside the alcove seems to still be there. The photo isn't very good and someone parked a silly trailer home partially in the way of our better view!! Sunrise[Back to school for you. The sun doesn't rise in the northeast anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere. - Dave] Oh, yeah — just like a rocket can't work in a vacuum, I suppose. I suggest that you go back to school. In the northern hemisphere, for instance, after the autumn equinox and before the spring equinox, the sun rises south of east — and between the spring equinox and the autumn equinox, it rises north of east, the number of degrees north dependent on the latitude and date. In extreme cases, such as just south of the Arctic Circle (which one might note is in the northern hemisphere), on the day of the summer solstice, say, the sun will rise just east of due north, and set (24 hours less a bit later) just west of due north. Thus, there certainly are dates and (north) latitudes where on those days and at those locations the Sun will rise exactly in the northeast. (Similar arguments might be made about southern latitudes, but that wasn't what you tried erroneously to dismiss.) [Back to school for me indeed! - Dave] This Post's PopularityCourtesy of Instapundit. (The Gallery, Movies, Russell Lee, Stores & Markets)
Mr. Magazine: 1908
... in color with all those magazine covers too. Dietz Sign Co. Saw that at the top of the picture. Googled it. Got as far as ... taken indoors. Sidewalk Cafe LOVE the tile sidewalk sign for the Jewel Cafe. It's the same type that some streets still have that ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/14/2012 - 3:46pm -

1908. "Smallest news & post card stand in New Orleans, 103 Royal Street." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Next doorI see cabbages, bananas, oranges, apples, peaches, walnuts, and ... waffles? Re: BlueBookAnother bid for one of each! From Antiques Roadshow archive: APPRAISER: "This is one of the later ones-- there's no date here, I think this was done about 1915, 1916 or 1917.the last copy I was able to track down at auction, sold for more than $2,000, some years ago. GUEST: Wow. APPRAISER: My guess on this is it's worth somewhere between $3,500 and $4,500. GUEST: My goodness. APPRAISER: Not bad for something you picked from the garbage, right? Magazines and NewspapersI'll say what we're all probably thinking: I'll take one of everything on your stand, sir. Hey, there's a magazine for everybody. The Information HighwayBefore the internet was invented. Sagebrush Philosopher"Sagebrush Philosophy" was published by the Wyoming writer Bill Barlow: Shortly after locating at Douglas he began the publication of a little monthly magazine called Sagebrush Philosophy, which soon had a circulation that extended to all parts of the Union. His writings scintillated with wit, philosophy and optimism, and his vocabulary was both extensive and unique. Sagebrush Philosophy was built up on his personality and when his death occurred on October 9, 1910, it was realized that no one could continue the publication of the magazine, so its last number was issued in November following his death. The JewelThis photo has a great example of an Etched - Glue Chipped Glass doorway on the right. I would lay money down and say that the gilded wood letters (on the upper left & above clerk) are most likely manufactured by the Spanjer Bros. This photo would look great in color with all those magazine covers too. Dietz Sign Co.Saw that at the top of the picture. Googled it. Got as far as this page. Dietz Lantern Company. Read through it, you'll see mentions of places and things seen on Shorpy. I will start a-looking. The Big QuestionHow did he get IN there? ThurberesqueShe came naturally by her confused and groundless fears, for her own mother lived the latter years of her life in the horrible suspicion that electricity was dripping invisibly all over the house. It leaked, she contended, out of empty sockets if the wall switch had been left on. She would go around screwing in bulbs, and if they lighted up she would hastily and fearfully turn off the wall switch and go back to her Pearson's or Everybody's, happy in the satisfaction that she had stopped not only a costly but a dangerous leakage. Nothing could ever clear this up for her. -- James Thurber ("The Car We Had to Push") No Business Like ItPublications suspended under the ledge, below the proprietor, are The Dramatic Mirror, Billboard, Variety and Show World. Someone once said that everybody's second business was show business. Looking at these magazines for sale in 1908 New Orleans sort of reinforces that theory. Gimme the lot!I'd buy the whole lot. Can you imagine what all those are worth today? It looks like this may have been a cafe entrance once. June 1908The Saturday Evening Post in the lower right corner was dated 13 June 1908. I did a quick search online and voila, now I have that warm, fuzzy feeling one can get from a successful treasure hunt. Thank you, Shorpy, for the thrill of the hunt. My Order"Hey buddy, I'll take a bunch of bananas, two pineapples, some mixed nuts, five melons and a dozen postcards. By the way, do you have July's edition of The Railroad Man's Magazine?" Ex-PresidentGrover Cleveland--definitely him--has been out of office for nearly ten years. Why is he gracing the cover of the Chicago Tribune? [His uncanny impersonation of William Howard Taft. - Dave] Naughty BitsInteresting to note that on the bottom row is the notorious "Blue Book," the guide to houses of ill repute in Storyville, the area of New Orleans where prostitution was legal until WWI. Just CuriousHow did they close up shop for the night? It looks like this is right on the sidewalk. I can see that some of the display looks like it might swing into the opening where the proprietor is standing but it still looks like there's a lot of effort to open and close for the day. Tag SuggestionCould you also tag this and future images like it with "Postcards"? Images like this that depict the retailing of postcards are incredibly rare and of great importance to we deltiologists. Thank you. Taft of Ohio, Not ClevelandThe Chicago Tribune cover is graced by the future president, William Howard Taft. He was the Republican candidate in 1908. [I think you're right. At first I thought it was Cleveland, who had died on June 24, but this does look more like Taft. Especially the ear. - Dave] Oh yes, we have bananas!Didn't say they were fresh, just said we had them. For everybody, indeedCowboy Bill is surely referring to this. 1908.It took me a while, but here is the evidence. First, "The Railroad Man's Magazine" on the bottom cannot be from 1906, because it wasn't published until October of that year. I then found the cover for Collier's Magazine from June of 1908. Finally, there is an advertisement on the bottom left for the 1908 World Almanac! [I misread the date on the cover of the 10 Cent Story Book last night when I posted this, thinking the 8 was a 6. Thanks to all who set me straight! - Dave] Hardly Naughty The Blue Book Magazine displayed on the bottom row is not the notorious Blue Book guide to "sporting houses." It's a copy of a legit magazine that was published until 1975 featuring fiction by writers like Agatha Christie, Booth Tarkington, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. [This particular magazine, Stageland Blue Book, was a theatrical publication. - Dave] Re: Naughty BitsThe Blue Book would not have been sold openly at a newsstand. It was also very plain in appearance. Sugared SnacksThe stacked, flat items in the case on the far left could be beignets, the Official State Doughnut of Louisana, but more likely are New Orleans-style Pralines. Clean 'em outAccording to my rough count, there are about 100 different postcards on display. Figuring 10 of each at 15 cents per dozen, one could have the entire stock for just over $12. Great magazines, buttucked in among the postcards is a very interesting, small publication: Sagebrush Philosophy. It wasn't the magazine for everybody, but that's what made it so special. MoneyTime travel to this place in order to buy these itmes would be very interesting, just don't forget to first get into your family's coin collection and grab some Barber dimes and quarters, Liberty nickels, and Indian Head pennies. You show this guy dead president coins and bills and he'll have you hauled away by the police. Another ClueChecked one more thing on why that is probably Taft on the Chicago Tribune cover. The Republican convention that nominated him was held in Chicago from June 16 to June 19, 1908 which would coincide with the time frame here. It is interesting, however, that Grover Cleveland died June 24, 1908. Please note that the Tribune was a very Republican leaning newspaper in those days, so it's more likely they would feature the new Republican nominee that the recently departed former Democratic president. Dangerous leakagesWe can laugh at it now, of course, bit it was common during the early years of electricity for people to believe that electrical sockets "leaked electricity" if they didn't have something plugged or screwed in. Many families have stories of people insisting on removing the plugs or bulbs and putting in stoppers at night. People even complained of smelling the electrical "vapours" coming from the sockets. Closing up shopRegarding how they closed up shop at night. The middle section above the hatch flips down. The two shutters on either side close inwards. The magazines below are simply unclipped and taken indoors. Sidewalk CafeLOVE the tile sidewalk sign for the Jewel Cafe. It's the same type that some streets still have that say Rue Royale or Rue Bourbon. Very cool. Then and NowThis photo is featured in the 1996 book "New Orleans - Then and Now." In 1996, there's also a newsstand, just to the right of this one. In addition, I found a vintage postcard (postmarked June 1908) that shows this same newsstand. So it's a postcard of a postcard stand. (I know there's a name for things like this, but my coffee hasn't kicked in yet.) Speaking of post cards within postcardsWonder if any of the pictures featured on those postcards ever appeared on Shorpy? Now there's a heck of a scavenger hunt for you. Politically Incorrect Period HumorLook inside the kiosk to the left of the proprietor and you'll notice section of postcards devoted to those comical darkies and their antics. Very popular at the time, and very collectible now despite (or perhaps because of?) the transgressive stigma of racism. Now I understandI always wondered why they called it the Kelley Blue Book. Now I get it. It lets you know how the car dealer is going to #@$% you on the value of your car. Learn something every day on Shorpy. Cornucopia--The younger man on the right has the look of one not to be trifled with; --The cafe doors are almost identical to the doors on the front of Antoine's Restaurant; --I wonder who the ball player is on the front page of the Sporting News. Walter Johnson? Ty Cobb? Honus Wagner? --Among the many old framed articles and pictures on the walls of the main dining room at Antoine's there is a lengthy one about W.H. Taft and his eating exploits at the restaurant during a trip to New Orleans. Marvelling at his stature as a "trencherman," the writer tells that Taft had a great love of boiled shrimp but didn't like to have to peel them. Taft claimed there was no serving of boiled shrimp so large he couldn't finish it. In an attempt to test this claim, Jules Alciatore (the proprietor at the time) had 50 pounds of shrimp delivered the morning before Taft was to dine there. They boiled them and he and his staff peeled them all, yielding a seving bowl with 7 1/2 lbs. of shrimp meat. According to the article, Taft finished them all but was so surfeited that he could barely speak afterwards! --The items in the case look too big, flat, and uniform to be either beignets or pralines, but I'm not sure what else they would have been. They certainly do look like waffles, which would have kept all day in the case I suppose. About that ArgosyIt's the July 1908 edition. What fun hunting this stuff up! Cover BoyWhile the individual covers of Sporting News are not readily available, issues of Sporting Life can be easily found. The photo shows the June 13, 1908 issue of Sporting Life with Edward Siever of the Detroit Tigers on the cover. Five days after this was published Siever played his last major league baseball game although he played another two years in the minors. Less than a year earlier he had been in the 1907 World Series. A copy of the front of this issue of Sporting Life, along with the caption that goes with Siever's photo, is shown below. Note that most sources state he was born in Kansas in 1875 (not Illinois in 1878). He died in 1920 while coming home from his job as an inspector for the City of Detroit. "EDWARD SIEVER. Pitcher of the Detroit American League Club. Edward Siever, the noted south-paw pitcher for the Detroit American Club, was born April 2, 1878, at Lewistown, Ill. Siever was originally a locomotive fireman of the Grand Trunk. He made his professional debut with the London Club, of the Canadian League, in 1899, which, largely owing to Siever's fine pitching, won the championship. He was sold to the Detroit Club the following year, and sported the Tigers' stripes continually until the Fall of 1903, when he was transferred to the St. Louis Club. After a season with the Browns he was transferred for 1905 to the Minneapolis Club, with which he did such fine work that St. Louis re-drafted him for 1906. During that season he was sold to the Detroit Club for which he has played since. In the 1907 season he very materially helped Hughey Jennings' Tigers to bring to Detroit a championship pennant for the first time in twenty years." Jewel CafeThe Jewel Cafe, at 131 Royal Street, was listed in the program for the 5th Annual Sugar Bowl Classic in January of 1929 as a sponsor:         Jewel Cafe ... 131 Royal Street; Oysters 45 cents per half dozen; First time in the history of New Orleans, Oysters a la Rockefeller are prepared before your eyes. This deep mystery of the culinary arts is now almost within the price range of raw oysters. Louisiana's choicest cultivated oysters, served in all styles at our counters and tables; open all night. (The Gallery, DPC, New Orleans, Stores & Markets)
Northward Ho: 1905
... Interesting.... Fine example of the sign painter's art! And to think that we Canadians sometimes like to ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/20/2012 - 2:07pm -

Circa 1905. "Motor car, Canadian Government Colonization Co." I wonder if there was a calliope aboard, or bagpipes. Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Comedy Imitates LifeIn his album "Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America, Part 2" the founding fathers invent a new medium called Tele-wagon. It would be pulled around Europe while people extolled the new country's virtues through a small hole cut in the side. I wonder if Mr. Freberg knows how close to reality he came with his seemingly-goofy idea. Early HybridThere's an electric motor on the front axle, and what looks like a big radiator just aft. And a boiler tank in back. How'd this thing work? What propels this - um - contraption?Looking underneath, I wonder if this wasn't some sort of early hybrid... There appears to be an electric drive on the front axel but just behind it there is what appears to be a radiator and at the rear, what appears to be a gas or water tank. And finally those large boxes underneath appear to be battery boxes used in electric trucks of the period. What's your guess - steam/electric? Gas/electric? Interesting.... Fine example of the sign painter's art!And to think that we Canadians sometimes like to make fun of Americans for being "over the top." I guess we're caught this time! An amazing variety of typefaces, though. Oily AcresThe driver appears to be a bit slippery looking. I don't think I'd buy a necktie from that guy let alone travel thousands of miles for free land. John A. would be so proudFrom the federal agency that brought you Miss Canada astride her wheat-swagged bicycle... When it came to platitudinal boosterism, nobody beat the Canadian Government in the early 20th Century. Free land, mild climate, peerless soil, and the promise of happy, rosy-cheeked offspring playing amongst the wheat. Of course they never really told you that the land wasn't really free...there was a $10 service charge when you got to the Dominion Lands Office which some simply didn't have, having spent the last of their money on Canadian Pacific passage. And there was always a chance the surveyors' maps were off and you'd land was mostly under water. And the least said of the weather the better. But still, an admirable (and fantastical) showing from the fair Dominion. Considering the speed at which the Last Best West was settled between 1890 and 1914, it seems to have worked! What the heckare all of those electric bells and whistles for, the ones behind the vehicle operator's head? The signage on this wagon is magnificent. GadzooksMonty Python meets Kids in the Hall, and Charlie Chaplin is driving! Please Tell MeThat this thing survived and is in a museum somewhere. Canada, eh?Our much-advertised self-effacement isn't much in evidence, here. My mother came to Canada based on a lecture extolling the virtues of Canada's wide-open spaces and the ease of British subjects to get work. Ironically, her attempts to get a job as a teacher, here, were initially rebuffed with the terse "We don't hire Scottish people". Turned out it was a receptionist who didn't like Scots. "We don't hire your type..." --- I should have mentioned that efforts at convincing immigrants to settle the west, which also included "free land", often led to clashes in cultures. Those people from Eastern Europe fell afoul of suspicious governments (Federal and Provincial) and their neighbours when they gathered together to farm land communally. The Doukhobors, for instance, arriving in 1899 (7900 people) and 1902 (another 500), were initially permitted to own land individually but farm communally. However, but by 1905, the government of the day disallowed this practice. This and the Doukhobors refusal to swear the Oath of Allegiance, led to the government cancelling their homestead entries. They rejected government interference, which led to radical action by various sects (sometimes by carrying out bombings or nude protest). They were eventually disenfranchised, and their children removed from their care. It wasn't until the 1970s and 1980s that the Doukhobors began to reclaim their culture and, in some cases, their family ties. The Doukhobors immigration was the single largest mass migration in Canadian history. The photo was apparently a gift from the State Historical Society of Colorado to the Detroit Publishing Collection in 1949. There is more information about the Canadian Colonization Company (a privately owned company that bought land and then distributed it for a fee) and other companies like it. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=a1ARTA0... Coming and GoingFunny, my ancestors (part of the Mayflower crowd) settled in Canada as Tories but my grandfather and his 12 siblings immigrated back to the US around 1900 and became US citizens. What goes unsaidOh yes! A land of plenty and prosperity. Then there's the arctic climate six months of the year. Hope you like it uber-cold. Steam Lines?There appear to be steam lines, with sliding joints and valves, going to the wheels. What the heck? Actually, given the boiler and radiator, I really like the idea of a steam calliope. HomesteadersIn 1906 my Gr. Grandfather and family of 11 boys, (two with his second wife)set off with this dream from Minnesota to Saskatchewan. Every son went back to Minnesota to find a wife, and that is how I ended up being Canadian. ElectricDoes that motor drive the wheels? or is it just for the lights? Filling the Promised LandAt this time Canada was enthusiastically promoting immigration. Here's another 1905 promotional wagon, somewhat less hi-tech. Steam, I think.Considering the front "blow down" valve and the pipe leading to the boiler. The "radiator" is the condenser for reusing exhausted steam from the engine to turn it back into water for greatly extended mileage. The electrics are provided by a dynamo which charges batteries for all those lights. Oddly, the head and tail lights appear to by acetylene lamps. And, strangest of all. I think the rear wheels steer the thing. Hey, only on Shorpy, right? Bells whistles etcBehind the driver are two large meters that probably gave the amount of remaining charge in the batteries. A bank of knife switches that operated the numerous light bulbs are in evidence as well as what appears to be a large round rheostat to control voltage. The temperatureWhen our Fellowship sponsored a family of Kosovar refugees during the war in the former Yugoslavia, we were trying to impress upon them that the winters were "very, very cold". After bringing this up a number of times, the father finally said "If the winters were that cold, no one would be living here. Since you're living here, I think we can manage." Manage they did. Although part of the family returned home after the conflict ended, part of the family remained and remained good friends. And it wasn't until we saw photos of Kosovo in winter that it dawned on us that cold winters weren't exactly a surprise to them. That's something we still joke about (amongst other cultural misunderstandings on both our parts). Early day hybridAccording to "The Golden Years of Trucking" published by the Ontario Trucking Association in 1976, this was a gas-electric four-wheel-drive truck built by the Commercial Motor Vehicle Co. of Windsor, Ontario. It had an electric motor on each wheel, was 20 feet long and had an 81-inch track. The four cylinder engine produced 20 HP. The truck was sent to England to visit "every town and village in the country." Because it was so underpowered it never made it out of London. Presumably it was left in England. The sides could be hinged up to expose examples of the wonderful Canadian produce. [Fabulous. One question: When? - Dave] Wondering no moreI always wondered what possessed the various branches of my family to come to Canada. Now I know! Northern LightsI'm hoping the lighted letters on top worked thusly: each letter lights up in turn (C-A-N-A-D-A), and then the entire word flashes several times ("CANADA" "CANADA" "CANADA"!). That would have been all kinds of awesome! The CPR and Western ImmigrationThe Canadian Pacific Railway was instrumental in promoting immigration to Canada and settling the western provinces, in particular. 1905 was a pivotal year because that was the formation of the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta. Since the CPR had the only available transportation method of getting settlers into these new provinces, and they had a vested interest in encouraging both the agricultural future and the urban future of the west, they made it their business to encourage settlement. Since they also had a vested interest in getting settlers from Europe via their steamship line, they were VERY interested in advertising both the method and the reason for getting to Canada. They advertised in the form of lectures and through films (William Van Horne hired film maker James Freer to film all aspects of Canada (discouraging the use of winter scenes) "James Freer, who began shooting scenes of Manitoba farm life in 1897, and who was being sponsored on tours of Britain by William Van Horne as early as April 1898, was a pioneer in every sense of the word. None of his films appear to have survived, but his promotional literature indicates the eclectic nature of his offerings, part hard sell and part general-interest subjects to attract the audience. Entitled "Ten years in Manitoba -- 25,000 instantaneous photos upon half-a-mile of Edison films," a typical Freer "cinematograph lecture" included Arrival of CPR Express at Winnipeg, Harnessing the Virgin Prairie, Harvesting Scene with Trains Passing and Winnipeg Fire Boys on the Warpath. The first tour was evidently considered both a popular and a commercial success, though its immediate impact on emigration figures cannot be calculated. In 1901 Clifford Sifton, then minister of the Interior, agreed to sponsor a second one "under the auspices of the Canadian Government." This 1902 tour, using the same program of films, was less successful than the first, and neither the CPR nor the federal government was prepared to sponsor a third." http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/publications/archivist-magazine/01500... A joint effort between the CPR and the Canadian government IN THE WESTERN US STATES featured an "exhibition van" "which travelled the highways and country roads, much after the fashion of the van used in England by the railway company. The car was in charge of L.O. Armstrong, an effective speaker who represented the railway. According to the same book, "Building the Canadian West - The Land and Colonization Policies of the Canadian Pacific Railway (cited above), there was a colonization company (Beiseker and Davidson) active in the western US states and eventually brought 23 settlers from Colorado to found the Bassano Colony, in Alberta. This was in 1914. http://books.google.ca/books?id=CxsA_rOLK1UC&lpg=PA113&ots=2geF2e37ks&dq... No description of the van is given. I have contacted the CPR Archives to see if I can find out more. The automated response tells me that I can expect to wait 6-8 weeks for an initial response... Great. Similar to the Homestead ActThe promise on the wagon of 160 free acres reminds me of the promises of the American Homestead Act that promised anyone 160 free acres of land if they stayed on (and improved) the land and stayed for 5 years. In the corner of the prairie where I grew up (NW Iowa) my ancestors and lots of people made it, but lots of people didn't make it in the wilds of South and North Dakota. I can't even imagine how you could make it in a sod hut or tiny cabin even further north in the winters of Western Canada. All of those pioneers were made of sterner stuff! CPR Archives responseI received an email this morning from the CPR Archives... The photo of the motor car is interesting and new to us. The CP exhibit car was a railway car promoting farming in western Canada (see photos NS16354 and NS12974). CP also had a "trailer" which was hauled in Europe (see NS11550 in Paris)." I also came across this, which is unfortunately unaccessible in its entirety without purchasing the book. In my reply to the archivist, I cited the posting earlier by Jimmytruck. Curiouser and curiouser. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Curiosities, DPC)
Sign Gang: 1925
... 1925. "California State Automobile Association. Setting sign for Golden Gate Park Conservatory." Before there were state or federal ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/18/2015 - 12:26pm -

San Francisco, 1925. "California State Automobile Association. Setting sign for Golden Gate Park Conservatory." Before there were state or federal highway departments to do the job, it was the auto clubs that put up road signs. 8x10 film negative, originally from the Wyland Stanley collection. View full size. No ParkingIn the 1970s I remember seeing porcelain-enamel NO PARKING signs along the curb in Redwood City with the CSAA diamond at the bottom. Dapper Men at WorkDay-Glo orange vests suffer by comparison to the Homburg and bowtie. Road signs history in the NetherlandsIn our country we had a similar history for placing road signs. They have been placed in the beginning by the Dutch Tourist Association, the ANWB. Interesting is that they started in 1883 as the Nederlandsche Vélocipèdisten-Bond (Dutch Velocipedes Association), renamed in 1885 in Algemene Nederlandse Wielrijdersbond or ANWB (General Dutch Bicyclists' Association), which changed its name in 1905 officially into the Koninklijke Nederlandse Toeristenbond (Royal Dutch Tourist Club), which made the letters ANWB from then on meaningless. In 1898 a similar organisation especially for automobilists was formed, the N.A.C. (de Nederlandse Automobiel Club, or Dutch Automobile Association), in 1913 the Association got the predicate "Royal", and was hence named K.N.A.C. Koninklijke Nederlandse Automobiel Club (Royal Dutch Automobile Association) from then on. K.N.A.C was one of the founding members of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA). Nevertheless, the road signs for motorists have been placed during decades by the ANWB. Especially for bicyclists ANWB placed so-called "mushroom signs". (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, San Francisco, W. Stanley)
Cracker Barrel: 1939
... evidence appears to be that it is independent. Note the sign that says "sell your tobacco". The distinction is important. Independent ... guessing. [The caption is correct as is. Note the sign "Sell your tobacco in Roxboro." - Dave] Country store of all country ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/28/2022 - 6:28pm -

July 1939. Gordonton, N.C. "Country store on dirt road. Sunday afternoon. Note kerosene pump on the right and the gasoline pump on the left. Rough, unfinished timber posts have been used as supports for porch roof. Negro men sitting on the porch. Brother of store owner stands in doorway." 4x5 nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Admin. View full size. Country StoreLook how the threshold is worn down. A lot of repeat customers have passed through that door. Gasoline PumpI remember old stores like this growing up in Dyer County Tennessee. Those old gas pumps were all mechanical with no electrical power, notice the hand crank, you pushed the crank back and forth to pump the gasoline up into the glass container at the top which had gallon markings, then you put the hose nozzle into your tank and it was gravity fed until the container was empty. Overalls and a tieI love it. The second guy from the right might be living in tough times, but he's still cool enough to make that look good. Set a SpellThe only thing lacking here is an old hound dog lying around somewhere ... under the porch or in the yard. Is that 22 cents on the gas pump?? Wow! Great picture. 'nother onewhat a great picture! untold histories laid right out there. Go DaveI don't know how to describe humor but I know it when I see it . . . ROTFL Dave as in David Hall, I presume - this blog is awesome. [Yes, that's me. Hi, Tom! - Dave] BOOM!Anybody else notice that the gentleman on the far left is sitting right next to the gas pump AND smoking a cigarette?! [At least he's not holding a baby! - Dave] 22 cents in 1939According to this inflation calculator, 22 cents in 1939 was the equivalent of $3.04 in 2006. Gas wasn't really so cheap back then. What, No WiFi?A wonderful composition. Hollywood set designers would poor [?] of this type of picture to recreate rural America in the 1930s. Life before the Internet sure looks simple. Lotus07@gmail.com Homepage: http://www.bruceandsueinencanto.com 22 centsThat 22 can't be correct for gas a gallon--unless it didn't change for 35 years or so! [22 cents per gallon is correct. Click here for a chart showing historical gasoline prices in the United States. From the 1920s to 1970s the pump price of a gallon of gas changed very little. And adjusted for inflation, it's about the same now as it was in 1920. - Dave] ChickensThe casual nature of the chicken-keeping situation . . . is awesome! Wha?Is that Dave Chappelle on the left there? Country StoreI love the props under the porch, stacks of stones with bits of timber at the top! The accumulation of Stuff has taken off, the ads, the little Pepsi-Cola off to the side, the BIG Coca-Cola! Great shot. Extraordinary textureThe image is beautifully composed, and (I think) truthfully depicts a country store in the rural south of the 1900s to the 1950s. While it is not entirely clear if this is a "plantation" store, the evidence appears to be that it is independent. Note the sign that says "sell your tobacco". The distinction is important. Independent rural stores sold on a cash basis (though there was also credit). Plantation stores existed largely an extension of the sharecropping economy and "furnished" their hands with credited food and household items until the crops were brought in. There were widespread abuses as plantation owners cooked the books. The cedar posts on the porch were selected to withstand rot and insects, and the stone pillars under the joists that support the floor also were selected to withstand moisture and insects. And the store was open on a Sunday. No blue laws in the countryside, I suppose. All those signs...It looks like the inside of a Crackerbarrel restaurant. Georgia, 1950s?I'd be willing to bet that this is 1954 or 1955, in southern Georgia.The fourth guy from the left has a new pair of bib overalls,but with a wide top. The top of these got narrower in the early sixties. Some of the tin signs on the wall date to the early'30s, and I would expect that the building dates to the late 1890s, with some updates in the late teens or early twenties. All guesses, but I've been dealing with old photos for a long time as a museum dude, and have spent a lot of time in the south. Again--Just guessing. [The caption is correct as is. Note the sign "Sell your tobacco in Roxboro." - Dave] Country store of all country storesI am only on page 434, so it is hoped that I am not too premature, but this has to be the best of the lot. It depicts the rural South minus the hard times between people. It is one of the greatest shots I have ever seen in print. This picture was taken in Person County, NCFor those of you who have pondered the origins of this photo, it is indeed a photo taken at a country store in Roxboro, N.C. This was called Bayne's Store and we do get a lot of questions and email here at the museum pertaining to this picture. It is a wonderful snapshot of a period and location in history in which racism doesn't seem to be at the forefront of the community and there are still several community stores around here today where a picture similar to this one could still be captured. Country Store 2010My wife and I found the building and took theses pics. http://www.panoramio.com/user/1811082/tags/Gordonton Born the same year as the creation of this image, the current owner is the nephew of the man in the doorway. The store stopped operating in the mid forties whereupon it was used as a tobacco curing barn. It would be terrific if this structure could be preserved. Only thing I don't recognizeThe small gray box mounted on the right side of the window above the last man on the right (in blue shirt). Looks like an electric panel but a tad too modern for the period? It's gone in the recent pictures taken by Cole Image. Anyone have any idea of what that is? [Cutler-Hammer junction box. - Dave] Set a SpellWas in Gordonton on May 11, 2011. The building is still there, talked to the owner, and he said they are trying to get the historical society to restore it. Wish them all the luck. Its a great old building. He took us inside to see everything there. Out of the Dark AgesRE: Electrical box The date of the photo and the apparent newness of the object are all consistent with what was going on in NC at the time. I did a little research and found out that in 1930, only 3% of NC farms had electricity. By 1935 it had grown to 11% and by 1961 93% of rural farms and residences had electricity. So, by 1939, it appears this store had their wiring installed sometime during the early period of electrification and that new box is a good example of one of the period. The men are smiling because that soft drink is ice cold! More on the buildingThe building is still standing and I photographed it. And I met the great-nephew of the man standing in the doorway. In addition, this almost exact setting is used in the American Adventure at Epcot (see photo in link). My story and photos are here. KolorizedLest we forget, this was colorized by a fellow Shorpy-ite. https://www.shorpy.com/node/11281 Not a lost artI disagree with Sewickley. Club I belong to does not have a working TV. Everyone I know there are chatting and joking. No working TVs, only a broken one. Yes, there are times technology (computer or cell phone) comes into play, but it does not dominate. Conversation and good cheer dominate. The Lost ArtWhat's the lost art? Just sitting and talking with your neighbors. Look at their faces, and it's clear that they're fully present, living in the moment. Today, you're unlikely to find six men gathered together. If you did find them, they'd be staring blankly at a television. Watching the storeHere is the Google Street View. The store is in Gordonton, NC. Spin around to the other side of Wheelers Church Road and you'll see a house maybe as old as the store. I'm going to believe this is where the brother-owner lived and from which veranda he kept an eye on his store. Well wornThe front step reminds me of the steps going to the basement in an old hardware store I worked at in high school. The steps were so worn in the middle they were at least half an inch thinner in the middle than at the ends. Coveralls and Tie GuyLife has blessed me with a lot of luck: I'm a white American male in the 21st century. But, just one day in my life, I surely would like to look that cool! (The Gallery, Dorothea Lange, Gas Stations, Rural America, Stores & Markets)
Selfie-Help: 1942
... negative. View full size. I can't read the sign Your w______ is for you. Be for _______. Decades ago, we were ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/12/2023 - 6:25pm -

November 1942. Washington, D.C. "First aid class of the air raid warden unit in the Southwest area. Mr. Elmer House, instructor, demonstrating the head bandage." Self-portrait by Gordon Parks for the Office of War Information. 4x5 inch acetate negative. View full size. I can't read the signYour w______ is for you. Be for _______. Decades ago, we were given first aid training at work after we had an incident. I still remember the order of breathing, bleeding, broken bones. Plus, if your secretary is having a heart attack, don't put her in your car and drive her to the emergency room (exactly what I had done). Get the EMTs to come to you. That Stunning Talent"Self portrait" made me look up Gordon Parks; thought I knew a little about him, but I was wrong ... there's so much more. Thanks for making me explore his colossal legacy. Elmer and Thaddenia HouseMr. House and his wife Thaddenia had earned college degrees by the 1940 census, and were living with her parents and her sister at 1113 23rd Street NW that year. He was working as a messenger and his wife was a "new worker." By the next census in 1950, he was a file clerk in the Department of Agriculture. The couple had a 7-year-old daughter but had separated, with Elmer living in Capitol Heights near the Maryland line, and Thaddenia living with her daughter in an apartment two blocks east of what is now the home of the Washington Nationals. (The Gallery, D.C., Gordon Parks, Medicine, WW2)
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