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New York, November 1936. "Hair tonic salesman advertising his wares, Seventh Avenue at 38th Street." View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Russell Lee.
I enlarged the photo as best I could to get a better look at the signs in the upper left of the photo. It appears to read "Hamburger Sandwich 10 cents." This is somewhat amazing to me because as I recall from my mother, McDonald's hamburgers in the 1950s were 10 cents and cheeseburgers were 15 cents. So is it safe to assume that food prices remained almost virtually unchanged for 20 years? Now THAT'S amazing! Or, conversely, as a friend pointed out, hamburgers were probably a nickel everywhere else, and had already climbed to a dime in NYC. Either way, what an incredible snapshot in time!
My grandfather was a haberdasher in NYC back then, I wonder if any of the hats were made by his company. How fascinating!
As I read it, that banner ends with the words, "If any hairologist is among you, please step up and examine my hair." Sorry to see that word never caught on.
Don't know what it is, but the black lady to the left just has "class" written all over her.
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