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Circa 1910. "Columbus, Ohio, from Great Southern Hotel." Photobombed by the Mail Pouch Tobacco horse. 8x10 inch glass negative. View full size.
Mail Pouch painted your barn or whatever free, in return for the space. The last Mail Pouch barn display around here disappeared in the 1980s.
The Gayety theater was an unofficial class trip senior year of high school.
Now whatever is the guyed tower at upper left? 1910 is too early for almost any kind of radio antenna, and certainly too early for commercial radio.
[Radio got its start as wireless telegraphy in the 1890s. The wireless mast shown here, on the roof of the Harrison Building, played a role in rescue efforts during the Columbus flood of 1913. There's a photo of the mast in the Oct. 13, 1906, issue of Street Railway Journal. - Dave]
The flat topped tower in the upper left of the photo is the state capitol rotunda.
And in Columbus, Ohio as well. In the background is the rear of an individually lettered sign probably on the building that housed the theatre "Gayety Burlesque". I managed to transpose it for those of us with lesser backward reading skills.
In the days before vinyl billboard artwork, painting that Mail Pouch sign on the side of the building has to be a work of art that took some time to complete. J.S. Wrinkle Advertising Signs deserves to have their name prominently displayed.
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