Tattered and Lost EPHEMERA

M. EMMA MUSSELMAN paper doll in 1920

2012-01-23T15:34:00.000-08:00

“Here are the twins, Margery May’s little sisters”

These little dolls are from the November 1920 Women’s Home Companion magazine. The illustrator was M. Emma Musselman. The first one is named Gladys, the second Madeline. Click here to see the complete page from the magazine.

Click on either image to see it larger.

I can find little biographical information about Musselman other than she was born in 1880 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and she lived in Philadelphia. She was considered one of the top fashion illustrators in the first few decades of the 20th century.

Look around enough online and you’ll find many stunning dolls and fashion illustrations done by Musselman. Now, it’s only my opinion, but I think she illustrated some of the most beautiful paper dolls ever created. I do wonder whatever became of her original art. I imagine it’s long gone. Heartbreaking.

Click here to see another illustration done my Musselman for the May 1913 Women’s Home Companion. Click the links below to see more paper dolls:

The Companion Paper Doll: Introducing Margery May

Margery May's French Chum, Marie Louise, 1920

Margery May's Big Sister, 1920

Tom, Margery May's Brother

Margery May's Japanese Friend, Tamaki, 1920

To see some vintage snapshots of little girls with their dolls visit my other site Tattered and Lost Photographs.

Dennison INDIAN PAPER DOLL from 1905

2012-01-22T12:34:00.000-08:00

This vintage paper doll was produced by the Dennison Manufacturing Company around 1905 and would have cost 15 cents when new.

The Dennison Manufacturing Company, which was located in Framingham, Massachusetts, was founded in 1844 as a jewelry and watch box-manufacturing company by Aaron Lufkin Dennison, who later became the pioneer of the American System of Watch Manufacturing. Five years later Aaron turned the Dennison Manufacturing Company over to his younger brother, Eliphalet Whorf Dennison, who took over and developed the company into a sizable industrial enterprise. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

In the 1870s Dennison produced colored tissue paper. Around 1890 they introduced crepe paper. In the late 1800s they introduced their jointed paper dolls. This Indian doll is badly damaged (missing rattle, portion of pipe, and obviously his legs) but still worth the few dollars I paid for him.

The crepe paper outfit was handmade and came with the doll when I purchased it.

Look through the posts from this previous week to see more antique paper dolls. And to see some real dolls with their dolls visit Tattered and Lost Photographs.

CARNIVAL paper dolls by Saalfield in 1944

2012-01-21T16:13:00.000-08:00

If you have been following my other blog, Tattered and Lost Photographs, this week you'll know I've been featuring photos of little girls with dolls. Meanwhile, at this site I've been featuring paper dolls.

Today I'm featuring a doll created by Jean Morse for Saalfield, Carnival, published in 1944.

The cover features die-cut windows showing two of the dolls heads riding in the carriage.

Inside, first page, the two complete dolls.

There are many more costumes than what I feature here.

If you take a look at Tattered and Lost Photographs you'll see paper dolls being held by two little girls. I know one of them is Patty and Sue also published by Saalfield in 1944. Do you think it was also illustrated by Jean Morse? Any information would be helpful.

And I've mentioned this before, but I think with this doll set it could be mentioned again. Why were male dolls always so effeminate? Was it because parents or the manufacturers simply didn't want little girls dressing and undressing "masculine" looking dolls? Was it that the artists couldn't draw masculine images? Somehow I doubt it. And considering how homophobic this country is, were these dolls ever a problem for the manufacturers? Just something I've wondered about since I started collecting paper dolls. As a child I never noticed it.

HILDA MILOCHE and WILMA KANE paper dolls

2012-01-20T16:42:00.000-08:00

A vintage Hilda Miloche and Wilma Kane paper doll, Mother Goose Land With Judy and Jim, published by Simon and Schuster in 1949. Miloche and Kane worked together on many beautiful paper dolls, unfortunately I can find very little about either illustrator. If anyone has some definitive biographical information or where I can find it let me know.

These came in the huge box of paper dolls I bought on eBay several years ago. I featured another doll yesterday from the same box.

Click on either image to see it large.

To see a little girl with a doll in a carriage visit my other site Tattered and Lost Photographs.

MOTHER GOOSE CUTOUT PICTURE BOOK paper doll

2012-01-19T16:23:00.000-08:00

Years ago I bought a huge box of paper dolls on eBay; a purchase made around 2 in the morning for $300. I can’t blame the Ambien for that one. I walked around for a few hours thinking of buying it; back and forth between my computer and a walk around the house. Then I just thought, “What the hell….”

When I got up the next morning I was glad I remembered making the purchase. I did have some misgiving when it arrived; I looked through it and thought, “This is all crap!”

Within a few days I’d calmed down and realized what I’d actually bought. It was worth far far more than what I’d paid. Hundreds of paper dolls, most cut, but some still uncut in their folders. I put all the cut dolls into special archival albums. This is one of the ones from that box.

This is the Mother Goose CutOut Picture Book published by the National Art Company in 1915.

Click on any image to see it larger.

Below is what the actual cover would look like uncut.

One of these books is currently for sale here. I should be so lucky.

If you like dolls you might enjoy clicking over to my other site Tattered and Lost Photographs.

POLLY'S PAPER PLAYMATES from 1911

2012-01-18T12:55:00.000-08:00

This antique paper doll is from The Boston Herald Sunday supplement in 1911. Looks pretty good for being over 100 years old.

There were 12 dolls in this series as shown below or here. Alas, I only have two from the series.

Click on image to see it larger.

And click on over to Tattered and Lost Photographs to see a young girl with a Madame Alexander doll.

Estey Organ Co. ADVERTISING PAPER DOLLS

2012-01-17T13:16:00.000-08:00

These two dolls advertised the Estey Organ Company. I imagine they were printed around 1900, give or take 5 years either direction.

These same dolls were also used by the McLaughlin Coffee Company and others. That would be an interesting item to collect; all of the dolls from the different manufacturers.

Sadly there's never any artist information given about these old advertising paper dolls.

Click here to see other dolls in the series that Estey sold. Click here to see more at the Estey Organ site and hear an actual organ being played.

The Estey Organ Company was founded by Jacob Estey when he bought out a Brattleboro, Vermont manufacturing business in 1852. The company went on to become the largest manufacturer of organs in the United States. The original company had been founded in 1846. It employed more than 500 people and its high-quality items were sold as far away as Africa, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Around 500,000 to 520,000 reed organs, or 'pump organs' as some term them, were built between 1846 and 1955. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

Click here to read about the Estey Organ Company Museum.

To see a couple of real dolls with their dolls visit Tattered and Lost Photographs.

UPDATE: From reader WJY:

Your dolls were probably made between August 1898, the end of fighting of the Spanish American War, and December 1898, when the Treaty of Paris was signed, which resulted in the annexation of Guam, Puerto Rico, the Phillipines, ended the occupation of Cuba, and recognized Cuban independence.

None Such JAPANESE AND CHINESE PAPER DOLL

2012-01-16T21:15:00.000-08:00

I collect paper dolls and am fondest of the ones made pre-1950s. I especially love old advertising dolls. The lithography gave them a richness you would never see in later day dolls.

I purchased this doll several years ago on eBay. The seller was elderly and selling off some dolls his late wife had owned. I told him they'd be taken care of.

When looking at old dolls like this I wonder more about the hands they've passed through than who manufactured them. This particular doll dates to 1895.

To receive this doll back in 1895 the buyer had to first buy five packages of None Such New England Mince Meat and cut the heads off the woman holding a pie on the package. Sounds a little brutal. They were then supposed to send 10 cents in silver along with the heads. Starts to sound a bit like a ransom. If they didn't have the 10 cents, which was apparently the shipping charge, they could cut off 20 heads and get it for free. Now it's just starting to sound like an episode of CSI.

To read about the company that sold the dolls, Merrill-Soule headquarter in Syracuse, click here. The printer was Forbes Lithography located in Boston, Massachusetts.

This post ties in with this weeks posts on my photography blog, Tattered and Lost Photographs, where the category is dolls.

Samuel E. Lowe and VIOLET IDELLE HIGGINS in 1916

2012-01-12T22:18:00.000-08:00

This vintage children’s book was bought a couple years ago at an estate sale. What remains memorable is that there was a beautiful bookcase in the living room with many children’s books inside; such a rare thing to find at an estate sale. If there are children’s books they’re usually reprints or books from the last 20 years and pretty low end.

Click on any image to see it larger.

This book, The Camp Fire Girls Duty Call (1916), is from The Camp Fire Girls series written between 1912 and the 1930s. Though the author says Helen Hart a little net digging shows that this was just a pseudonym for Samuel E. Lowe (1890-1952). According to Wikipedia he wrote a total of 5 books in the series as Hart. You can find this information here. I'm not finding biographical information about Lowe, but he did write several other books including The Court of King Arthur.

If you look around online you'll find Samuel E. Lowe & Co. listed for a lot of comic books. I also found a reference for Lowe working for Western Printing and Lithographing Company. Whitman, publisher of this book, was a subsidiary of Western.

There is a college scholarship, Samuel E. Lowe Scholarship, established by Western. Same Lowe? I'm guessing so. I just can't find any definitive biography of this man. Perhaps someone will find this post and fill in some details.

As to information about the series, it’s spotty at best. I did find the following information at the University of Minnesota Libraries “Girls Series Books: A Checklist of Titles Published 1840-1991” list:

Note: Publication information on this series is still a puzzle. Many of the  volumes have no copyright or publication date listed. Girls Series Companion  1990 notes that chapters from volumes 2, 4, and 5 also appear in three of the  MARY LEE books. (Mary Lee is also a character in the Camp Fire Girls  series.) The NUC attributes volumes 5 and 7 to Samuel Edward Lowe under  the pseudonym Helen Hart, and it is possible that others in the series are his  work. The NUC attributes another book published by Whitman, Marigold's  Pony (not part of the series), to Lowe under the pseudonym Howard B.  Famous, but copies of Marigold's Pony have been seen with Rietz listed as  author on the cover and Hart as author on the title page.

If you read enough of the notes at this site you’ll see why trying to pin down this series is so confusing. That said, let’s enjoy it for what it is. A book of a time period long gone.

The illustrator was Violet Idelle (Moore) Higgins (1886-1967) who attended the Art Institute of Chicago in the early 1900s. She illustrated children’s books, magazines, and even a weekly comic, Drowsy Dick. Click here to read a biography of Violet and her husband, Edward Roberts Higgins, also an artist.

You can click here to see more information about her methods and media.

Here and here are a few more of Higgins illustrations.

And let’s hear it for series books for girls. I remember when the San Francisco library was refusing to carry Nancy Drew books because they felt they weren’t literary enough. Balderdash! They were missing out on what girls series books have done for girls over the years. They were never meant to be literary. They were meant to give girls a different perspective as to what was possible. Yes, the stories were formula writing, but there was a comfort in seeing a girl triumph each time she set out to do something. Girls were able to see themselves in the world beyond the narrow path set for them by others. Not all series were created the same and I can’t say if the Camp Fire series challenged girls to think outside the box (an expression that should be boxed and put on the shelf), but if it helped girls feel good about themselves then it succeeded.

The MAKING OF A SOLDIER in 1918: Part 4

2012-01-11T15:53:00.000-08:00

The final scans from The Making of A Soldier. Click on the links to the previous posts:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Click on any image to see it larger.

The MAKING OF A SOLDIER in 1918: Part 3

2012-01-09T13:30:00.000-08:00

Taking the chance that the post card folder would not fall apart, I scanned the remaining pages of The Making of A Soldier.

You can see part 1 here and part 2 here.

Click on any image to see it larger.

My next post will contain the final pages of this 1918 vintage ephemera.

The MAKING OF A SOLDIER in 1918: Part 2

2012-01-07T16:50:00.000-08:00

More images from this World War I post card booklet dated 1918 published by the Seattle Engraving Company.

In order are the last page, the inside back cover, and the back cover.

Click on any image to see it larger.

To see the first post click here.

The MAKING OF A SOLDIER in 1918

2012-01-05T19:36:00.000-08:00

This was a Christmas gift which belonged to my best friend's grandfather who served in World War I. I have been unable to find one online so I have no information to enlighten us and as you can see part of the front cover is missing, thus I'm not positive of the title.

Is part of it offensive? Yes. It's a product of its time.

I probably won't be able to scan all of it because it is so fragile. The cover has already completely come off and it wasn't like that when I got it. So I may or may not be able to post more of this vintage post card ephemera in days to come.

For now, this is the front cover, interior front cover, and first page.

Click on any image to see it larger.

HAPPY NEW YEAR: START on the count of three

2012-01-01T09:58:00.000-08:00

Go ahead, blow your own horn. Then keep it down. I've got a headache.

Click on either image to see them larger.

Another card illustrated by Bernhardt Wall. A copy is available here at Card Cow.

HAPPY NEW YEAR as the last hours tick away

2011-12-31T11:25:00.000-08:00

By this time tomorrow...

Click on either image to see them larger.

A card similar to this is available on Card Cow.

Happy New Year with BERNHARDT WALL

2011-12-30T13:41:00.000-08:00

A card created by Bernhardt Wall. I'll be featuring another of his cards this weekend.

Click on either image to see them larger.

Bernhardt Wall was born in Buffalo, New York on Dec. 30, 1872. He died in 1956 in Sawtelle, California.

After studying at the Buffalo Art League, Bernhardt Wall began a career in lithography in 1889. He soon became known as the "Postcard King" and designed over 5,000 comic cards. He served in the Spanish American War in Cuba.

About 1915, he decided to make etching his vocation. He then had studios in NYC, Houston (TX), Lime Rock (CT), and Sierra Madre (CA). He died in Sawtelle, CA on Feb. 9, 1956.

As an historian, he specialized in famous people and historical events. He was the illustrator and author of Odyssey of the Etcher of Books, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson. Member: Sierra Madre Art Guild; Chicago Society of Etchers.

Exh: San Antonio AA, 1894 (medal); Fort Worth Museum, 1929, 1935 (solos); Witte Museum (San Antonio), 1936, 1955 (solos); Laguna Beach AA, 1945-46. In: Huntington Art Gallery; Grosvenor Library (Buffalo); British Museum; Lincoln Library (Shippensburg, PA); Library of Congress; New York Historical Society; Southwest Museum (LA); Newark (NJ) Public Library; Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Iowa State Universities. WWAA 1936-53; Pasadena Star-News, 2-14-1956 (obit). (SOURCE: Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940")

To see other cards by Bernhardt Wall click here, here, and here at Card Cow where you can actually buy a card like this. Click here to read about his archive at the library at Texas A & M. Click here to go to Google Images.

Over at Tattered and Lost Photographs I'll be featuring some photos the next few days to get you in the mood for the New Year.

CHRISTMAS: And...ANOTHER WHITNEY CARD

2011-12-21T23:09:00.000-08:00

Like I said the other day, I had no idea I had so many Christmas themed cards by the Whitney company. If you need to see what the back of this card looks like just go back a couple days and look at another post. I'm just getting lazy now.

Click on image to see it larger.

CHRISTMAS: Official CADET BICYCLE SPEEDOMETER!

2011-12-20T22:21:00.000-08:00

It's not too late to get your order in to Santa. I know you all want a Cadet bicycle speedometer. It's probably the most eye-popping mind-blowing item that could be under your tree!!!

Be maniacal about your obsession! Tell everyone over and over again until they start to sneer when you walk into a room. Drive them nuts! NUTS I TELL YOU! NUTS!!!

Put it next to dad's place at the dinner table. Remember, subtlety makes you weak. We don't want to appear weak around Christmas. You'll be the talk of your block as they cart you away!

Just imagine making your folks turn gray before their time!

And oh yeah, getting a bike under the tree is nice, but a speedometer is OUT OF THIS WORLD! And a magical tissue floating in front of your sister is just the best!

Click on image to see it larger.

SOURCE: February 1964 She's Josie.

Manufactured by the Stewart-Warner Corporation:

Stewart-Warner is a US manufacturer of vehicle instruments, a.k.a. gauges. The company was founded as Stewart & Clark Company in 1905 by John K. Stewart. Their speedometers were used in the Ford Model T. In 1912 John Stewart joined with Edgar Bassick to make vehicle instruments and horns. Bassick owned Alemite Co and Stewart had bought the Warner Instrument Company, thus the name was changed to Stewart-Warner Corporation. The company started in Chicago and built a manufacturing plant on Diversey Parkway. The building kept expanding and finally covered one-million square feet (93,000 m²) and six floors. They also made radios and refrigerators, and produced the ubiquitous "zerk" grease fitting, named after its inventor, associated with the company. In the last years of the company's Chicago factory, it owned a number of aging six-spindle Brown & Sharpe and New Britain screw machines.

They also made heat exchangers starting in the 1940s under the "South Wind Division", but since then it became independent of its parent. They still use the Stewart-Warner name, and the web site is hyphenated: http://www.stewart-warner.com/

In the 1980s the company was bought by BTR plc who in the early 1990s decided to relocate to Juarez, Mexico and Stewart-Warner was taken over by another management team. In early 1998 Stewart-Warner was bought by Datcon Instrument Company (later renamed to Maxima Technologies), but kept the Stewart-Warner brand. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

Now that I've got the speedometer I want those tassle thingies that went on the handle bars. I want my Huffy decked out.

CHRISTMAS: On a WHITNEY roll

2011-12-19T22:55:00.001-08:00

Until I scanned some holiday post cards I hadn't even realized how many were by the same publisher.

I give you the third in a row Whitney card. Another card with embossing where I like the back better than the front.

Click on either image to seem them larger.

CHRISTMAS: Get a HORSE!

2011-12-17T13:24:00.000-08:00

Does anyone remember yelling out "Get a horse!" to someone whose car had broken down? I can also remember kids yelling it out school bus windows at kids who were walking to school. An old phrase, long out of fashion. I would guess that the meaning of it is not known by anyone under 50. I'm of the generation who still related to the comment through memories of my grandparents. Yell at someone these days and you'll probably get a most curious look.

Click on either image to see them larger.

Another card from the Whitney Company in Worcester Massachusetts.

CHRISTMAS: SHOP 'til you drop!

2011-12-16T11:12:00.000-08:00

This message is brought to you by the retailer's of America. Shop until you drop and then shop some more. It's how we do things in this country. And by all means, WANT a lot! And then want even more!

I'm not opposed to gift giving, I enjoy it. I am against the making a demand list. I'm especially against children making huge lists of wants/demands. As a child I was told I could ask for one thing, only one thing. I was happy if I got it. Anything else I received was just icing on the cake. I wish people would go back to this way of thinking.

Yes, shop. Support retailers, but be a thoughtful shopper. Wisely spend your money and consider where it's going.

Click on either image to see them larger.

The card was produced by the Whitney Company in Worcester, Massachusetts. You can read a bit more about the company here.

CHRISTMAS: When you're FAR FROM HOME and NOT FORGOTTEN

2011-12-15T13:16:00.000-08:00

They might be far away, but we should never forget them no matter if they're currently serving or served in the past.

Click on either image to see them larger.

Manufacturer was Illustrated Post Cards and Novelty Company. If you click here you'll be taken to a book called Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Errors of the..., Volume 85 which lays out an interesting case brought by the company.

CHRISTMAS: Card DOESN'T LOOK CHRISTMASSY to me

2011-12-14T15:45:00.000-08:00

This card, published by Wolf & Co., mailed in 1919, doesn't look the least bit Christmassy to me. I'm guessing this was a generic image that just had holiday messages slapped on as necessary. Still, a nice little card badly worn.

Cannot read the artist's signature. Perhaps someone will find it familiar.

Click on either image to see them larger.

Thanks to the observant reader Lori for pointing me in the right direction about the card's illustrator. It is indeed an Ellen H. Clapsaddle image. You can read the Wikipedia entry about her here. Here is a portion of the piece which points out exactly how close Clapsaddle was to the owners of the company Wolf & Co.:

Ellen Hattie Clapsaddle (January 8, 1865 in South Columbia, New York, died 1934) was an American illustrator/commercial artist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Not only is her style greatly admired and well recognized, today she is recognized as the most prolific souvenir/postcard and greeting card artist of her era.

Career
Clapsaddle’s father died on January 5, 1891, and she and her mother went to live with an aunt in Richfield Springs. Clapsaddle spent her next fourteen years not only giving art lessons, but also creating and selling illustrations, landscapes, and portraits commissioned by local wealthy families, and freelance artwork that she submitted to various publishers through the mail out of an art studio in downtown Richfield Springs.

Initially, two of her designs were accepted by the International Art Publishing Company in New York City to be used as souvenir/postcards that became an immediate success as bestsellers. After that initial purchase of two designs, several others followed and they retained her to work along with other artists. Because she became their premier illustrator due to the popularity and successful marketability of her designs, the company invited her to move to the city around 1895.

Soon, by 1901, the International Art Publishing Company also offered her a paid 2-year trip to Germany for her and her mother. While in Germany, she refined her art talent by working directly and closely with the German engravers who were the actual manufacturers of the products offered for sale. Her designs started to appear in various forms like Valentines, souvenir/postcards, booklets, watercolor prints, calendars, and trade cards and other objects in the world of advertising.

By this time, Germany was the center of the high-end publishing world and many publishers in the United States depended on them for the final products that were shipped to the U.S. Clapsaddle was in Germany when her mother, died on March 2, 1905.

Clapsaddle spent some years in Germany, funded by the International Art Publishing Company, and then returned to New York around 1906. It is said that she established the Wolf Company backed by the Wolf brothers—a full subsidiary of the International Art Publishing Company of New York City. She was the first and only female souvenir/postcard artist of the era to establish her own enterprise. She was the sole artist and designer for this company.

At that time, few women were even employed as full-time illustrators. For 8 years she and the Wolf brothers enjoyed their success and there seemed to be no limit to the growth potential in the souvenir/postcard industry. (Some sources suggest that she was employed by the Wolf brothers). Nevertheless, confidence in the boom and high return in profits in this specialized area of commercial art during this boom period, led her and her partners to invest heavily in the years that followed in many Germany engraving and publishing firms. She returned once again to Germany to work with the engravers and publishers they used because they had the best printing plants.

The postcard and greeting card business was doing well, and Clapsaddle was making good money most of which she invested in German printing firms.

World War I
By 1914, the war broke out. The majority of the souvenir/postcard publishers in the United States depended on German supplying firms but once they became disconnected from them, they had to go out of business. Many German factories suffered total destruction from bombings and all of Clapsaddle's recent original artwork was lost along with the investments in those firms because of the destruction of the records and messages going back forth between the continents that never arrived or were never answered. Clapsaddle was totally displaced and could not be found. She was penniless, lost, and alone in a far away land in the middle of the turmoil of the First World War.

By 1915, many firms in the United States, like the Wolf Company, did not have a business any more and in their case, their sole designer-artist was lost in Germany.

Although the United States did not enter the war until 1917. Between 1914 and 1919, Clapsaddle was trapped and unable to leave the country. The end of the engraving and publishing industry in Germany came about suddenly and so did her livelihood and her future—so did her life and spirit and desire to live as she witnessed and suffered the war first hand.[

Post-war
With the end of the war in 1919, nothing was known in the United States about Clapsaddle's fate. One or two of the Wolf brothers borrowed money so they could go to search for her in Europe. She was finally found six months later. By then, she had had a complete mental breakdown as a victim of the war, was wandering through the streets hungry and sick, and her health and spirit were totally broken—she was only 55 years old. When the Wolf brothers approached her, she was so disconnected from the world and reality that she barely recognized them. The Wolf brothers brought her back to the United States.

Unmarried and childless, Clapsaddle had no close relatives. Furthermore, she had spent all of her time and productive years dedicated to her artwork and there was no one to take care of her under those circumstances. The Wolf brothers took care of her as long as they were able and alive but they too died destitute and poor. When they passed on, she was left penniless, alone, unable to work, and mentally incapacitated. She had lost the ability to make a living and her deteriorating health rapidly became a major obstacle.

She was admitted to the Peabody Home for the elderly and destitute on Pelham Parkway in New York City in January 1932. One day short of her 69th birthday in 1934 she died. Like many residents of the home who had no relatives, she was buried in a potters' grave. She died totally destitute through no fault of her own just like the Wolf brothers—innocent victims of the world tragedy of the First World War.

CHRISTMAS: A CATTY card

2011-12-13T13:56:00.000-08:00

An unusual Christmas greeting for sure. One of those times where I really like the back of the card because of the embossing.

Click on either image to see them larger.

From the E. Nash company.

E. Nash Co. (1908-1910)
New York, NY
A well known illustrator and publisher of high quality holiday cards. (SOURCE: Metro Postcard)

CHRISTMAS: Old German SANTA SCRAPS

2011-12-12T12:00:00.000-08:00

A crazy antique dealer relative gave this to me a long time ago. If only I'd been able to get my hands on the hundreds of sheets of scraps she had. But she wasn't that crazy.

Click on image to see it larger.

CHRISTMAS: Take the NEW YORK CENTRAL for cheer

2011-12-11T13:17:00.000-08:00

Want to have a good time traveling over Christmas? Want to visit family and friends who live far away and arrive feeling rested and happy? You do? Well...good luck with that. Unless you can time travel to 1953 I think you're out of luck.

Click on image to see it larger.

Alas, the New York Central doesn't even run anymore.

The New York Central Railroad (reporting mark NYC), known simply as the New York Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the Northeastern United States. Headquartered in New York, the railroad served most of the Northeast, including extensive trackage in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Massachusetts, plus additional trackage in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec.

The New York Central was known as the "Water Level Route", as its mainline to New York City followed the Hudson River, the Erie Canal, and the Lake Erie shoreline.

The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St.Louis in the midwest along with the intermediate cities of Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Detroit. The NYC's Grand Central Terminal in New York City is one of its best known extant landmarks.

In 1968 the NYC merged with its former rival, the Pennsylvania Railroad, to form Penn Central (the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad joined in 1969). That company went bankrupt in 1970 and was taken over by the federal government and merged into Conrail in 1976. Conrail was broken up in 1998, and portions of its system was transferred to the newly formed New York Central Lines LLC, a subsidiary leased to and eventually absorbed by CSX and Norfolk Southern. Those companies' lines included the original New York Central main line, but outside that area it included lines that were never part of the New York Central system. CSX was able to take one of the most important main lines in the nation, which runs from New York City and Boston to Cleveland, Ohio, as part of the Water Level Route, while Norfolk Southern gained the Cleveland, Ohio to Chicago, Illinois portion of the line called the Chicago line.

The famous Water Level Route of the NYC, from New York City to upstate New York, was the first four-track long-distance railroad in the world. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

Click on the Wikipedia link above to read more about the New York Central.

Buick STOCKING STUFFERS!

2011-12-06T11:00:00.001-08:00

Giving someone a Buick for the holidays? Need some stocking stuffers? How about seat covers or a center bumper guard for a 1936 Buick from the Buick Magazine?

Click on image to see it larger.

What? You say that now that you've been on that Paleo diet and exercising 3 hours a day your socks are too small to hold a center bumper guard?

No worries. Just point your recipient to this helpful video teaching them the rules of the road. It shows you care...and you don't have to spend any cash. And they'll be convinced big brother is always watching which in many cases in many cities is absolutely true.

Get more JUNK IN YOUR TRUNK with Buick

2011-12-03T22:43:00.000-08:00

Inside back cover of The Buick Magazine from December 1936.

Click on image to see it larger.

And when you think about buying that iPad, remember at one point you could buy a Buick for $845. Can you imagine with what gas cost in 1936 how far you could drive for $845?

I'm guessing the trunk of this car was packed by an engineer with a slide rule or someone who worked at a sardine factory. You judge.

Click on image to see it larger.

It's a BUICK KIND OF CHRISTMAS

2011-12-02T23:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I gave you the back cover of the December 1936 "The Buick Magazine" with Santa hawking Buick. Today I give you the front cover.

Click on image to see it larger.

I generally like to do a bit of research about the ephemera I'm posting; sometimes I find a lot, sometimes I find little, and sometimes I just don't have the time or bandwidth to do it justice. Tonight will be the latter thanks to the windstorm going on. I'm expecting to lose power at any moment.

Fortunately someone else has already done the research about the illustrator of this cover, H. E. Vallely so I'll leave it to them to fill in the blanks.

http://henryvallely.blogspot.com/

IT'S BEGINNING to look a lot like...

2011-12-01T18:40:00.001-08:00

Did you know Santa was an authorized Buick dealer? I'm assuming the elves ran the service department. Try to imagine those little fellas with their pointy green hats with their heads under the hood. Probably needed step ladders.

Click on image to see it larger.

SOURCE: The Buick Magazine, December 1936

The J. J. Jacobs Motor Company in Sacramento, California.

STUDEBAKER AD in 1929

2011-11-25T23:01:00.000-08:00

The crash was coming, but for awhile everyone could dream of driving a Studebaker in 1929.

Click on image to see it larger.

SOURCE: May 1929 Cosmopolitan

The signature of the illustrator of this piece is OTIS. I have not found anything online showing this signature.

It's THANKSGIVING. Remember...

2011-11-24T12:24:00.000-08:00

be cordial. You only have to see these people once a year. Give them the bird and then leave.

Click on either image to see it larger.

Card manufactured by M.W. Taggart, N.Y., 1908.

Your Source for STUDEBAKER JOKES!

2011-11-23T12:43:00.000-08:00

Wondering how you're going to deal with the relatives on Thanksgiving? Have nothing to say to them that doesn't begin with "You know what ticks me off about you...?"

Well, worry no more. I'm making it easy for you. Here are some jokes from 1937 courtesy of the Studebaker Wheels magazine. Thigh slappers every single one of them!

Click on image to see it larger.

The EXTRAS for YOUR STUDEBAKER

2011-11-22T14:06:00.000-08:00

Go in to buy a car and just when you think the price is set they start in with the nickel and dime stuff.
“Do you want carpeting? How many speakers do you want? Undercoating? We recommend undercoating. We can’t be held responsible if you don’t get the undercoating."
What if they offered you luggage? Custom-built luggage for your Studebaker. Would you buy it? Made to fit. And yeah, if you don’t buy it you don’t get the blond dame in the passenger seat. She's an extra.

It’s up to you big spender.

SOURCE: The Studebaker Wheel, July 1937

MEN and THEIR STUDEBAKERS

2011-11-18T00:08:00.000-08:00

I've been doing a series of posts at my vernacular photography site about men and their cars; old snapshots of men standing next to their pride and joy.

This weeks Sepia Saturday has inspired me to post the following from the July 1937 magazine called "The Studebaker Wheel." According to a site called The Studebaker Wheel there were a total of 117 issues of this promotional customer oriented publication. I have only one, but it's a gem. You can see a previous post I did about this issue here.

The images below are mostly of men and their Studebakers. Do click on the images to see them larger. The captions are well worth reading.

Click on either image to see them larger.

NO MEDICAL PROBLEM TOO BIG or too small

2011-11-11T21:52:00.000-08:00

Have an ailment? Looking for solutions? Have I got the ads for you!

IF A DOG POOPS ON A RUG IN VEGAS does it stay there?

2011-11-09T16:51:00.000-08:00

I don't understand Vegas. I don't understand the lure of Vegas. I don't understand the marketing of Vegas. I never will. It seems to be a Jekyll and Hyde sort of place. Bring the kids; don't bring the kids. Pirate ships and fine art; hookers and cheap buffets.

"What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" leaves me shaking my head. That said...

Click on either image to see them larger.

On the back:

At Systems, Math, Computers All, I’ve been considered apt. But then I laid my money down and what do you know “I crapped”!

The Golden Gate Hotel & Casino:

...opened in 1906 as the Hotel Nevada. In 1907 it was assigned Las Vegas' first telephone with the number 1. In 1931, with gambling being re-legalized in Nevada, the Hotel Nevada was expanded and renamed Sal Sagev (Las Vegas spelled backwards.)

The hotel gained its current name in 1955 when a group of Italian-Americans from San Francisco Bay Area started the Golden Gate Casino. The 106-room, four-story hotel was renovated in 2005.

The Golden Gate was the first to serve a fifty cent shrimp cocktail in 1959, now a Las Vegas cliché. Called the "Original Shrimp Cocktail" on the menu, has become a mainstay of the San Francisco Shrimp Bar and Deli and is a favorite of both locals and tourists. It is what the Golden Gate is best known for. The idea came from owner Italo Ghelfi, who based it on Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.

The Original Shrimp Cocktail consists of a regular-sized sundae glass filled with small salad shrimp and topped with a dollop of cocktail sauce. In 1991, the price was raised from 50¢ to 99¢. The price was raised in 2008 to $1.99. Unlike many other Las Vegas establishments that offer a 99-cent shrimp cocktail, the glass is not padded with lettuce or other fillers, which is often cited as the reason for the Original Shrimp Cocktail's popularity. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

Dogs, shrimp, crap, and gambling. I just don't get it.

JUSTICE IS SWIFT if somewhat confusing

2011-11-07T15:04:00.000-08:00

This is an odd vintage post card. The copy on the back doesn't seem to make much sense or provide any guidance as to what this was about.

Click on either image to see it larger.

Here's what I have found.

The manufacturer, Elba Systems based in Denver, created video and audio content for rather dry subject matter. The company was actually E. L. Barrett & Associates dba (doing business as) Elba. I believe this card, titled "The Case That Nobody Won," was for a filmstrip for the Guarantee Mutual Life Co. The image below is from here.

Other exciting Elba titles released as 33-1/3 RPM recordings include:

Bury Me In Eden
Introduction to Modern Tools
A Trust in Your Future
A Plan for You
He Never Knew
Tax Free Dollars for Your Retirement

and yes, you can even get "The Case That Nobody Won" as a record.

Thinking to yourself, "Well doggone it! I want a copy of this post card!" Spend $1.79 + postage and you can get it here. But better rush because the auction mallet will be coming down within 22 hours. Suitable for framing if you're an attorney with a license from some online diploma mill.

So if you ever do find it hanging on the wall of an attorney you're using try to remember you've been warned.

IT'S ONLY ROCK 'N' ROLL...

2011-11-02T15:32:00.000-07:00

but I like it.

I will leave you to figure out who these famous faces are from a 1973 post card.

HOME FROM SCHOOL on Sept. 10, 1974

2011-10-13T16:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, so you've managed to con your mom into believing you're not feeling well so that you don't have to go to school. How will you while away your hours? With television of course. And you know I Love Lucy will be on at 9 am. I swear all over the country she was on at 9 am. But what else is on?

The world before cable. Make sure to take a look at the stuff that was on for the early risers who were trying to get their act together and get out the door to work. I'm sure there were a lot of people who got in late because they were enraptured by the 6:30 showing of "Superintendent of Schools Annual Report"* or perhaps "Group Therapy with Dr. Irene Kassorla." I don't even want to know what "Across the Fence" was.

Okay, by 1974 I was already one of those poor souls already out the door by a little after 6 for my two hour drive to work.

*Please note that should you not make the first viewing of "Superintendent of Schools Annual Report" you can catch it again at 10 am. Remember this is pre-VCR days so you could not tape it to watch later. Pity, huh?

LOOKING FOR EASY MONEY?

2011-10-12T14:47:00.000-07:00

You'd better check the back and bottom of that dresser drawer to see if you've got a collectible. You could be the proud owner of a genuine Lincoln-Kennedy penny. It might be lurking beneath your unmentionables. Wonder what it's worth? 1 cent. That's right, the penny is still worth a penny. The Lincoln-Kennedy penny is basically a fraud. It wasn't government issued. It was some guy thinking he could make a buck so he defaced official US coins.

(SOURCE: TV Guide, Sept. 7-13, 1974)

Now, the cardboard the penny is stuck on, the actual ephemera, that is probably worth more than the penny, but barely. You can see one of these coins and read a bit about it here and here.

Decades come and decades go, but there's always a snake oil salesman with a new gimmick to sell. And there are always suckers willing to part with their pennies.

Two pennies for a dollar! This sounds like a Wall Street scheme.

TALK SHOWS in 1974

2011-10-11T15:46:00.000-07:00

Talk shows in 1974 were different. There was no Jerry Springer. There was no Maury Povich. People didn't throw chairs at each other, beat each other up, or trash talk each other about things they should have been talking about in private. When you turned on a talk show in 1974 you got entertainment, showbiz, not skank biz. Granted it wasn't always GREAT showbiz, but doggone it the people knew who their babies fathers were.

Now, quick...count how many people shown or listed on this page are dead.

And for the younger crowd just count up how many people you've never heard of.

Who knew that showbiz would turn into "You show me yours and I'll show you mine."

TV SEASONS come and go, PART 4

2011-10-10T11:58:00.000-07:00

In 1974 I was looking for work. I'd been out of college for awhile and bounced around several jobs before finding one to stick with. Okay, I only stuck with it for a year and then chose the world of freelancing. So the last time I had an actual job in an office with benefits was in August of 1975. On weekends I went to the mountains. Weeknights I watched tv and dreaded going back to the office.

I do not remember the tv show Paper Moon (based on the wonderful movie of the same name) which apparently ran for 13 episodes, but I do remember the actor Christopher Connelly. When I lived in Los Angeles he lived near where I lived and I used to occasionally see him drive by. When I'd see him behind me I'd find myself just staring into the rear view mirror and sighing. And I don't think anyone needs a reminder as to who Jodie Foster is. As a kid she always played the part of a tough little cookie.

I didn't watch Police Woman, but it's at least a show that had a run longer than most of what came on during the 1974 season. It ran for 4 years and had to have made life tough for any woman on a police force. Sexy cops soon gave us the horrendous Charlie's Angels which has now apparently been revived. No comment other than to say if you like what you're seeing in this new Charlie's Angels I'd recommend you make backup copies because I don't imagine it's going to have a very long run.

The Paul Sand show Friends and Lovers did not last long, but I watched every single episode. I was a big Paul Sand fan. The show was created by James L. Brooks who also created The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lou Grant, Room 222, and Rhoda which premiered in '74. He also co-created Taxi. So the Sand show had a pedigree, but no viewers except a friend and me...and probably his mother. This friend and I still chat about him.

1974 was also the year Little House on the Prairie premiered. I watched it every week. It's still in reruns.

Movin' On, starring Claude Akins and Frank Converse, with a catchy opening theme by Merle Haggard, ran for only two seasons. I loved it. It reminded me of Route 66 which I also loved. Both shows can currently be seen on the RTV network. Each of these shows bring back vivid memories of what it used to be like to travel across this country. Each show was filmed on location. The diners and the motels seem all too familiar.

Chico and the Man premiered on September 13, 1974 and ran for 4 seasons staring Freddie Prinze and Jack Albertson. Had Prinze not committed suicide who knows how long it might have run.

And then there's my favorite show from 1974, The Rockford Files. I still love this show. I'd loved James Garner in Maverick and loved him as Rockford. And Angel...loved Angel, played by Stuart Margolin. Both Rockford and Maverick have been rerun for decades.

It's funny when you look back at old shows because you remember where you were in your own life and I personally wonder what happened to some of the actors from the old shows.

Christopher Connelly died from lung cancer.

Angie Dickenson dated Larry King...oh I just won't say it.

Michael Landon died of pancreatic cancer.

Melissa Gilbert continued her career, but suffered from alcoholism and drug abuse.

Claude Akins died of cancer.

And of course Freddie Prinze shot himself.

The only one I have anything in common with is James Garner. My knees are now crap.

TV SEASONS come and go, PART 3

2011-10-09T14:31:00.000-07:00

If I can't tempt you with some of the tv shows from 1974, how about some classic hits on 8-Track?

Now remember, you only get to choose 10 for 99 cents and then sign over your life for the next 3 years and or your first born.

Click on either image to see it larger.

TV SEASONS come and go, PART 2

2011-10-08T21:12:00.000-07:00

Raise your hand if you remember any of these television shows from the 1974 season, two of them based on feature films.

The New Land was originally a Swedish film starring Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann, released in 1972. The tv show ran only 6 episodes. The stars of the tv show, Bonnie Bedelia and Kurt Russell, have stayed fairly busy over the years, but I find nothing about Scott Thomas after a 1986 tv movie called Charley Hannah.

Planet of the Apes is of course a tv version of the 1968 film with Roddy McDowall reprising his role from the film. The show ran for 13 episodes starring McDowall, James Naughton, and Ron Harper.

And then there's Nakia. I have no memory of this show. The two preceding shows create momentary memory bursts in my muddled brain, but this one doesn't light up any neurons. It ran for 14 episodes. Appears to have had a pretty pretty good cast with Robert Forster, Arthur Kennedy, and Gloria DeHaven. Who knows what went wrong. From what is written in TV Guide it almost sounds like a Tony Hillerman novel. It will be forever relegated to the "Huh?" pile of tv shows.

More shows to come, including one of my all time favorites.

TV SEASONS come and go

2011-10-07T22:18:00.000-07:00

Is it any wonder that the network tv season shows up in the fall? Most of the shows wither and die before the first frost.

I can remember when the fall premier of the three networks was a big deal. They really had us where they wanted us. Same with sweeps month. Now...fuhgetaboutit. I have no faith in what the suits will turn out anymore. I have my HBO and I'm happy. And from what I have seen of this seasons new shows I don't hold much hope for any of them to be in constant reruns 37 years from now.

But what about the shows that premiered in 1974? Were there any hits?

Before we get to the hits lets look at some misses and one cult classic.

Now, I'm a big Jack Elam fan, but I have no memory of this show with Mark Hamill and Gary Busey. And think of it, this is only a few years before Hamill became a household name for Star Wars and 36 years before Busey became whatever it is he became for Trump. Mind you, The Texas Wheelers was pulled after I think the fourth episode. Don't expect a Blue-ray release any time soon.

As to the young girl shown above, Karen Oberdiear, she died in a plane crash in 2009.

More to come.

The PURPLE PROSE of the POTOMAC FALLS

2011-10-04T16:15:00.000-07:00

What's truly stunning about this vintage post card is not the image on the front, nor the ornateness on the back, but the purple prose used to describe the scene. The sender was left with little space within which to write their note.

In the wildness of its rock formation amid which the rushing Potomac, after leaping the falls, still churns, eddies and foams into the great gorge below, Great Falls presents from a hundred different points a new surprise of enchanting scenery that makes the hours spent in its vicinity seem composed of winged moments all too fleet.

This card was published by the J.P. Bell Company in Lynchburg, Virginia. Such an unfortunate sounding name for a town except that it's actually named after a man named John Lynch and not what first comes to mind upon seeing the work "lynch."

J.P. Bell Co. (1891-)  Lynchburg, VA

A printer and publisher of a variety of materials including many books and tinted halftone postcards of regional views. Some of their cards were printed under contract for businesses and groups. While their own printing was not of the highest quality, they had some of their cards printed by other well known publishers like Raphael Tuck & Sons. (SOURCE: Metro Postcard)

VENEZIA long ago

2011-09-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

I have no idea how old this real photo post card is or where I got it. Two interesting views of Venezia with the one on the back obviously cut-out and glued on.

Click on either image to see it larger.

Down the left side on the front is the word "depositata" which apparently means deposited. No idea why it's on the front of the card.

OUTRIGGER CAMERA & GIFT SHOP in 1970

2011-09-28T14:00:00.000-07:00

I've written on my vernacular photography site about tourist photos. You know the kind I'm talking about. You're on a ride, or a ship, or just somewhere with a group and they take a shot of you standing or sitting with the group or your loved ones. After the ride is over you can buy a copy or two of the photo. Or you're walking down the street and a photographer steps out, takes your photo, then hands you a card letting you know where you can get a copy.

Click on either image to see it larger.

This particular card was handed to my family after getting off a plane in Honolulu. They put leis around our necks and handed probably my mother this card. My family did not go to look at the photos or buy them. The only time I remember my folks buying such photos was on our cruise aboard the Matsonia to Hawaii. The shots were taken as we sailed in the fog under the Golden Gate Bridge bundled up in our East Coast woolens. Not even slightly tropical.

I do like the line "There is no charge unless you like it." So I'm wondering if you went in and said, "I think it's a horrible photo. I don't like it, but I'd like to get 10 copies." Would they have charged you if you stressed how much you didn't LIKE it? I'm thinking yes.

I imagine the Outrigger Camera & Gift Shop is long gone. Perhaps the "no charge" line put them out of business.

Wonder what my photo looked like on roll 39?

STERLING MOSSMAN, the Hula Cop at the BAREFOOT BAR

2011-09-26T17:17:00.000-07:00

I remember hearing my folks talk about going to the Barefoot Bar in Waikiki to see Sterling Mossman. I have no memory of him other than this card.

"Hula Cop Hop" - Sterling Mossman

Sterling Mossman, a man as versatile as he was talented, literally led a double life. A detective with the Honolulu Police Department during the day, after dark he was one of Hawaii?s most popular entertainers. His diversified careers earned him the nickname “Hula Cop”. Holding forth from the stage of the famous Barefoot Bar at Queen's Surf in Honolulu with a unique potpourri of beautifully performed songs, rollicking comedy and some sharply honed but good-natured needling of the Barefoot Bar regulars and the tourists alike, Sterling Mossman became one of Hawaii?s most popular entertainment attractions. Sterling Kilohana Mossman lived from February 3, 1920 to February of 1986. (SOURCE: Territorial Airwaves)

Click here to go to Territorial Airwaves to hear Sterling Mossman sing Hula Cop Hop. If you have memories of Hawaii in the late 1950s to late '60s this should make you smile. And here's another brief post about Mossman.

To read about the lovely dancer on this card, Varoa Tiki, click here.

And to see images of the Queen's Surf Hotel click here. Click here to read an interesting letter from 1947 extolling the quality of the hotel for meetings and tourists.

LES BAXTER, WILLIAM GEORGE, and EXOTICA

2011-09-23T13:48:00.001-07:00

Another album I heard a lot as a child was Ritual of the Savage by Les Baxter. Sometimes the living room just wasn't large enough for my dance moves. I was a skinny little blue eyed blond with a soul calling out for Exotica and Mahalia Jackson. Even my mother called me weird.

Click on any image to see it larger.

Les Baxter (March 14, 1922 – January 15, 1996) was an American musician and composer.

Baxter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory before moving to Los Angeles for further studies at Pepperdine College. Abandoning a concert career as a pianist, he turned to popular music as a singer. At the age of 23 he joined Mel Tormé's Mel-Tones, singing on Artie Shaw records such as "What Is This Thing Called Love?".

Baxter then turned to arranging and conducting for Capitol Records in 1950, and conducted the orchestra of two early Nat King Cole hits, "Mona Lisa" and "Too Young", but both were actually orchestrated by Nelson Riddle. (In later releases of the recordings the credit was corrected to Riddle. Not an uncommon practice these days: Baxter himself had arranged Nat King Cole's "Nature Boy" in 1947 for a recording conducted by Frank De Vol. In 1953 he scored his first movie, the sailing travelogue Tanga Tika. With his own orchestra, he released a number of hits including "Ruby" (1953), "Unchained Melody" (1955) and "The Poor People Of Paris" (1956). He also achieved success with concept albums of his own orchestral suites: Le Sacre Du Sauvage, Festival Of The Gnomes, Ports Of Pleasure, and Brazil Now, the first three for Capitol and the fourth on Gene Norman's Crescendo label. The list of musicians on these recordings includes Plas Johnson and Clare Fischer.

Baxter also wrote the "Whistle" theme from the TV show Lassie.

Baxter did not restrict his activities to recording. As he once told Soundtrack! magazine, "I never turn anything down".

In the 1960s, he formed the Balladeers, a besuited and conservative folk group that at one time featured a young David Crosby. He operated in radio as musical director of The Halls of Ivy and the Bob Hope and Abbott and Costello shows.

Like his counterparts Henry Mancini and Lalo Schifrin, Baxter later worked for the film industries from 1960s to 70s. He worked on movie soundtracks for American International Pictures where he composed and conducted scores for Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe films and other horror stories and teenage musicals, including The Pit and the Pendulum, The Comedy of Terrors, Muscle Beach Party, The Dunwich Horror, and Frogs. Howard W. Koch recalled that Baxter composed, orchestrated, and recorded the entire score of The Yellow Tomahawk (1954) in a total of three hours for $5,000.

When soundtrack work reduced in the 1980s, he scored music for theme parks and SeaWorlds. In the 1990s, Baxter was widely celebrated, alongside Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman Group, as one of the progenitors of what had become known as the "exotica" movement. In his 1996 appreciation for Wired magazine, writer David Toop remembered Baxter thus:

Baxter offered package tours in sound, selling tickets to sedentary tourists who wanted to stroll around some taboo emotions before lunch, view a pagan ceremony, go wild in the sun or conjure a demon, all without leaving home hi-fi comforts in the white suburbs.

Les Baxter has a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6314 Hollywood Blvd. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

Click on the Wikipedia link above to see a list of his recordings. Click here to read more about Baxter. And click here to go to the official Les Baxter site.

As to the cover artist, who I believe is William George (1930-):

William George is a world-famous illustrator who studied with Norman Rockwell and began his career painting covers for magazines such as Argosy and Cavalier, as well as for paperback westerns and crime novels by authors such as Zane Grey, Louis L’Amour, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. He has been commissioned to paint portraits of figures ranging from Charlton Heston and Bette Davis to Cole Porter and Frank Sinatra and his art has appeared in publications ranging from Reader’s Digest to The Saturday Evening Post and Life magazine. His work can currently be found in a number of art galleries. (SOURCE: Hard Case Crime)

Click here to read a bit more about the artist. And click here to see what I believe may be a photo of him. If anyone else has anything to contribute about William George just let me know.

Now on to some Exotica. As I said the other day, kick off your shoes and go native. Dance baby, dance!

ARTHUR LYMAN...sounds of my childhood

2011-09-19T15:56:00.000-07:00

There was a background music for growing up in Hawaii in the late 1950s and early '60s: Exotica. Of course I didn't know at the time it had such an exotic name, it was just the music I heard all the time. It was the music that had me dancing in the living room. It was the music I used to teach my best friend how to dance. No Arthur Murray dance lessons for us; it had to be Arthur Lyman. Think seven year old Isadora Duncan's in the jungles of our imagination.

Click on any image to see it larger.

From left to right: Allen Soares, John Kramer, Arthur Lyman, Harold Chang

Arthur Lyman was born on the island of Kauai in the U.S. territory of Hawaii, on 2 February 1934. He was the youngest of eight children of a Hawaiian mother and a father of Hawaiian, French, Belgian and Chinese extraction. When Arthur's father, a land surveyor, lost his eyesight in an accident on Kauai, the family moved to the island of Oahu and settled in Makiki, a section of Honolulu. Arthur's father was very strict with him, each day after school locking him in a room with orders to play along to a stack of Benny Goodman records "to learn what good music is." "I had a little toy marimba," Lyman later recalled, "a sort of bass xylophone, and from those old 78 rpm disks I learned every note Lionel Hampton recorded with the Goodman group." He became adept at the 4-mallet style of playing which offers a greater range of chord-forming options. He became good enough to turn professional at age 14 when he joined a group called the Gadabouts, playing vibes in the cool-jazz style then in vogue. "I was working at Leroy's, a little nightclub down by Kakaako. I was making about $60 a week, working Monday to Saturday, from 9 to 2 in the morning, and then I'd go to school. So it was kind of tough."

Exotica Music
After graduating from McKinley High School in 1951, he put music on hold to work as a desk clerk at the Halekulani hotel. It was there in 1954 that he met pianist Martin Denny, who, after hearing him play, offered the 21-year old a spot in his band. Initially wary, Lyman was persuaded by the numbers: he was making $280 a month as a clerk, and Denny promised more than $100 a week. Denny had been brought to Hawaii in January on contract by Don the Beachcomber, and stayed in Hawaii to play nightly in the Shell Bar at the Hawaiian Village. Other members of his band were Augie Colon on percussion and John Kramer on string bass. Denny, who had traveled widely, had collected numerous exotic instruments from all over the world and liked to use them to spice up his jazz arrangements of popular songs. The stage of the Shell Bar was very exotic, with a little pool of water right outside the bandstand, and rocks and palm trees growing around. One night Lyman had had "a little to drink," and when they began playing the theme from Vera Cruz, Lyman tried a few bird calls. "The next thing you know, the audience started to answer me back with all kinds of weird cries. It was great." These bird calls became a trademark of Lyman's sound.

When Denny's "Quiet Village" was released on record in 1957 it became a smash hit, igniting a national mania for all things Hawaiian, including tiki idols, exotic drinks, aloha shirts, luaus, straw hats and Polynesian-themed restaurants like Trader Vic's.

That same year, Lyman split off from Denny to form his own group, continuing in much the same style but even more flamboyant. For the rest of their careers they remained friendly rivals, even appearing together (with many of their former bandmates) on Denny's 1990 CD Exotica '90. Although the Polynesian craze faded as music trends changed, Lyman's combo continued to play to tourists nearly every Friday and Saturday night at the New Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel in Honolulu throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. He also performed for years at Don the Beachcomber's Polynesian Village, The Shell Bar, the Waialae Country Club and the Canoe House at the Ilikai Hotel at Waikiki, the Bali Hai in Southern California and at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago. During the peak of his popularity Lyman recorded more than 30 albums and almost 400 singles, earning three gold albums. Taboo peaked at number 6 on Billboard's album chart and stayed on the chart for over a year, eventually selling more than two million copies. The title song peaked at number 55 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July 1959. Lyman's biggest pop single was "Yellow Bird," originally a Haitian song, which peaked at #4 in July 1961. His last charting single was "Love For Sale" (reaching number 43 in March 1963), but his music enjoyed a new burst of popularity in the 1990s with the lounge music revival and CD reissues.

Lyman died from thoracic cancer in February 2002.

Recording Details
Most of Lyman's albums were recorded in the aluminum Kaiser geodesic dome auditorium on the grounds of the Kaiser Hawaiian Village Hotel on Waikiki in Honolulu. This space provided unparalleled acoustics and a natural 3-second reverberation. His recordings also benefited from being recorded on a one-of-kind Ampex 3-track 1/2" tape recorder designed and built by engineer Richard Vaughn. All of Lyman's albums were recorded live, without overdubbing. He recorded after midnight, to avoid the sounds of traffic and tourists, and occasionally you can hear the aluminum dome creaking as it settles in the cool night air. The quality of these recordings became even more evident with the advent of CD reissues, when the digital mastering engineer found he didn't have to do anything to them but transfer the original 3-track stereo masters to digital. The recordings remain state-of-the-art nearly 50 years later. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

On a trip back to Oahu, after once again living on the Mainland, we went with friends to a lounge where the Arthur Lyman group was appearing. One of their good friends was Arthur's percussionist, Harold Chang. In between sets Harold came over and sat down at our table, Arthur dropped by too. I kept thinking how cool it all was. I was actually meeting Arthur Lyman and the man who did the percussion and bird calls. If only my friend had been there we'd have been dancing on the tables. It wouldn't have been pretty, but it would have been lively.

The Kaiser Dome at the Kaiser Hawaiian Village Hotel also has special meaning to me. I performed (badly) on the stage twice. One show was with my ballet troupe. We performed Sleepy Beauty. I was the purple fairy and the fairy before me stole my lines leaving me standing at the microphone speechless. I was so popular I was brought back years later to appear in a Hawaiian variety show. I performed several numbers with my hula troupe. I then retired from the stage except for one truly horrendous performance as a mother in a Christmas play in the 7th grade.

Another piece of info about the Hawaiian Village is that it was where the headquarters for the detective agency was located on the tv show "Hawaiian Eye." I was a big fan of "Hawaiian Eye" and had a crush on Poncie Ponce. I had my Poncie hat and record and was a happy keiki. A few years ago I found out a friend's dad played poker with Poncie each week. As a surprise she called me one time and told me there was someone who wanted to speak to me; she put Poncie on the phone. Oh I was all giggles and 10 years old again. She sent me a signed photo from Poncie. It's a keeper!

Now everybody, kick your shoes off and go native!

OFF TRACK with Zdenék Brdlik

2011-09-16T11:32:00.000-07:00

The final Ceskoslovensko postage stamp for a while. From what I've been able to translate it is celebrating a 6 day motorcycle race.

Click on image to see it larger.

The only information I find about the artist, Zdenék Brdlik, are the years of his birth and death, 1929 to 1983. To see two other examples of his work click here.

The engraver, J. Mracek, is just as mysterious. I find his name listed as an engraver, but find no biographical information. Here and here are examples of his work.

JOSEF LIESLER and the SURREAL WORLD

2011-09-15T17:24:00.000-07:00

I shall now show my ongoing ignorance by asking...WHAT THE HECK IS THIS THING?

Click on image to see it larger.

I appreciate the beauty of the stamp, but profess complete ignorance as to what is being celebrated with flowers and a bird on a globe...under the St. Louis arch. Okay, I know it's some sort of earthmoving equipment, right? Digging dirt with a wheel with scoops. I look at it and think science fiction movie. I can hear the metal clanging, the sound of a steam engine, and birds flying away as fast as possible.

The artist of this piece was Josef Liesler.

Josef Liesler (19 September 1912 Vidolice near Kadaň - 23 August 2005 Prague) was a Czech surrealist painter, graphic designer, illustrator, exlibris and postage stamp designer.

He studied art at University of the Architecture and Structural Engineering, Prague in 1934-38 under professors Cyril Bouda, Oldřich Blažíček, and Josef Sejpka. He became a member of S.V.U. Mánes (1942) and SČUG Hollar (1945). He illustrated over one hundred book titles and he created many drawings of postage stamps and exlibris. He received a UNESCO award for the finest stamp design (Hydrologic decade). His production is representated in many prominent Czech and international collections, including the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

To see more of Liesler's work click here.

The engraver's name appears to be L. Housa, but I'm not sure. I have not found anything about an engraver named Housa.

Max Švabinský and Alfons Mucha

2011-09-13T14:11:00.000-07:00

I used to collect stamps when I was a kid. I never had much rhyme or reason for my collecting. I liked getting a stamp and then find the corresponding image in the album. Eventually I stopped buying anything but blank pages and just stuck the stamp near their place of origin. Some of my favorites are from Ceskoslovensko. Beautiful clean line drawings.

Now, with the net, I can actually do some research about the people who created the stamps.

First up a stamp from Ceskoslovensko by artist Max Švabinský honoring artist Alfons Muncha.

I believe the name on the right is the engraver, Jindra Schmidt. To see more of his work click here.

Now, as to the designer of this stamp:

Max Švabinský (1873–1962) was a Czech painter, draughtsman, graphic artist, and professor in Academy of Graphic Arts in Prague. Švabinský is considered to be one of the more notable artists in the history of Czech painting and produced significant work during the first half of the 20th century. He was relatively unusual among modernist artists in that his work was accepted by the communist regime; this was due at least in part to his having formed his artistic personality prior to 1900, prior to the advent of cubism.

Biography
Max Švabinský was born on September 17, 1873 in Kroměříž. Together with Jan Preisler, Antonín Slavíček, and Miloš Jiránek, he was one of the founders of Czech modern art. Early on, Švabinský exhibited period tendencies towards Plenérian Realism, Symbolism, and Art Nouveau. Some of his most important early works were portraits or family-oriented paintings. Švabinský and his wife Ela often stayed with the Vejrych family in Kozlov near Česká Třebová. There he was inspired by the picturesque landscape. This is the period in which he painted some of his most famous works.

In Kozlov, at the beginning of the century, he took up graphics systematically, especially etching and Mezzotint. On account of the high quality of his graphic work, he was appointed a professor of the Prague Academy in 1910, and in the same years completed murals for the Municipal House in Prague. In the pages of Paradisiacal Sonata in 1917, he extended his range with wood engraving, at which time his graphic work began to overtake his painting. During the thirties, he had the chance to work in monumental forms. After the mosaics for the National Monument on Žižkov Hill, he painted boards for three stained glass windows of the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague. At the same time, and with the same graphic skill, he was able to design in miniature for a postage stamp. At the first session of the government in 1945, he was awarded the title of “National Artist”.

Max Švabinský died on February 10, 1962. The cottage in Kozlov (near Česká Třebová, East Bohemia, Czech Republic) where Max Švabinský stayed has recently been renovated and now it is open for visitors. The interior looks just the same as 100 years ago and many of Švabinský's pictures are shown there. The tour can be performed both in Czech and English. Painted "Kamelie", Camellia in 1903. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

To see other work by Švabinský:

poster
self-portrait
a stamp honoring him
another stamp drawn by him and engraved by Jindra Schmidt
fine art
a variety of images from previous auctions
a d rawing for a diploma for the Czech Academy of Scienc es from 1933

As to Alfons Mucha, the subject of this stamp, if you've studied art or design you'll know Mucha.

Alfons Maria Mucha (Czech pronunciation: [ˈalfons ˈmuxa]; 24 July 1860 – 14 July 1939), known in English as Alphonse Mucha, was a Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist, known best for his distinct style. He produced many paintings, illustrations, advertisements, postcards, and designs.

Early years
Alphonse Maria Mucha was born in the town of Ivančice, Moravia (the present Czech Republic). Although his singing abilities allowed him to continue his education through high school in the Moravian capital of Brno, drawing had been his main hobby since childhood. He worked at decorative painting jobs in Moravia, mostly painting theatrical scenery. In 1879, he relocated to Vienna to work for a major Viennese theatrical design company, while informally augmenting his artistic education. When a fire destroyed his employer's business during 1881 he returned to Moravia, to do freelance decorative and portrait painting. Count Karl Khuen of Mikulov hired Mucha to decorate Hrušovany Emmahof Castle with murals, and was impressed enough that he agreed to sponsor Mucha's formal training at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts.

F. Champenois Imprimeur-Éditeur, lithograph, 1897.

Mucha moved to Paris in 1887, and continued his studies at Académie Julian and Académie Colarossi. In addition to his studies, he worked at producing magazine and advertising illustrations. About Christmas 1894, Mucha happened to go into a print shop where there was a sudden and unexpected need for a new advertising poster for a play featuring Sarah Bernhardt, the most famous actress in Paris, at the Théâtre de la Renaissance on the Boulevard Saint-Martin. Mucha volunteered to produce a lithographed poster within two weeks, and on 1 January 1895, the advertisement for the play Gismonda by Victorien Sardou was posted in the city, where it attracted much attention. Bernhardt was so satisfied with the success of this first poster that she began a six-year contract with Mucha.

Mucha produced a flurry of paintings, posters, advertisements, and book illustrations, as well as designs for jewelry, carpets, wallpaper, and theatre sets in what was termed initially the Mucha Style but became known as Art Nouveau (French for 'new art'). Mucha's works frequently featured beautiful young women in flowing, vaguely Neoclassical-looking robes, often surrounded by lush flowers which sometimes formed halos behind their heads. In contrast with contemporary poster makers he used pale pastel colors. The 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris spread the "Mucha style" internationally, of which Mucha said "I think [the Exposition Universelle] made some contribution toward bringing aesthetic values into arts and crafts." He decorated the Bosnia and Herzegovina Pavilion and collaborated with decorating the Austrian Pavilion. His Art Nouveau style was often imitated. The Art Nouveau style however, was one that Mucha attempted to disassociate himself from throughout his life; he always insisted that rather than maintaining any fashionable stylistic form, his paintings were entirely a product of himself and Czech art. He declared that art existed only to communicate a spiritual message, and nothing more; hence his frustration at the fame he gained by his commercial art, when he most wanted to concentrate on more artistic projects.

Marriage
Mucha married Maruška (Marie/Maria) Chytilová on 10 June 1906, in Prague. The couple visited the U.S. from 1906 to 1910, during which time their daughter, Jaroslava, was born in New York City. They also had a son, Jiří, (born 12 March 1915 in Prague; died 5 April 1991 in Prague) who later became a well known journalist, writer, screenwriter, author of autobiographical novels and studies of the works of his father. In the U.S., Alphonse expected to earn money to fund his nationalistic projects to demonstrate to Czechs that he had not "sold out". He was assisted by millionaire Charles R. Crane, who used his fortune to help promote revolutions and, after meeting Thomas Masaryk, Slavic nationalism. Alphonse and his family returned to the Czech lands and settled in Prague, where he decorated the Theater of Fine Arts, contributed his time and talent to create the murals in the Mayor's Office at the Municipal House, and other landmarks around the city. When Czechoslovakia won its independence after World War I, Mucha designed the new postage stamps, banknotes, and other government documents for the new state.

Death
The rising tide of fascism during the late 1930s resulted in Mucha's works, as well as his Slavic nationalism, being denounced in the press as 'reactionary'. When German troops moved into Czechoslovakia during the spring of 1939, Mucha was among the first persons to be arrested by the Gestapo. During his interrogation, the aging artist became ill with pneumonia. Though released eventually, he may have been weakened by this event. He died in Prague on 14 July 1939, of a lung infection, and was interred there in the Vyšehrad cemetery.

Legacy
At the time of his death, Mucha's style was considered outdated. His son, author Jiří Mucha, devoted much of his life to writing about him and bringing attention to his art. In his own country, the new authorities were not interested in Mucha. His Slav Epic was rolled and stored for twenty-five years before being shown in Moravsky Krumlov and only recently has a Mucha museum opened in Prague, managed by his grandson, John Mucha.

Mucha's work has continued to experience periodic revivals of interest for illustrators and artists. Interest in Mucha's distinctive style experienced a strong revival during the 1960s (with a general interest in Art Nouveau) and is particularly evident in the psychedelic posters of Hapshash and the Coloured Coat, the collective name for British artists Michael English and Nigel Waymouth, and Bob Masse. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

Click here to go to the Mucha museum.

So, I learned something new today. Though I knew of Mucha I did not know of Švabinský. Little piece of old paper provided the impetus to broaden my mind.

LET'S EAT OUT: Part 5...Farmers Market Los Angeles

2011-09-08T13:54:00.000-07:00

In all the years I lived in Los Angeles I never once went to the Farmers Market. I drove by it a lot and ate up the street at Canters, but for some reason I didn't go to the Market. Sad really. I'd been there in the 1950s and '60s and have fond memories.

This card and souvenir booklet date back to most likely the 1940s or early '50s. I believe they probably belonged to my maternal grandmother who made at least 4 trips west during her life.

I'll let the booklet give you their version of the history. If you need more you can go to the Farmers Market official web site. Or try the book Los Angeles's Original Farmers Market by David Hamlin.

Cover art was done by Alex Perez. Alas, I cannot find anything about him.

The photos were taken by Herbert Bruce Cross. No bio information about him either, but you can Google his name and find many shots, mostly architectural.

And if you've a keen eye you'll notice something the same, but not really.

Click on any image to see it larger.

LET'S EAT OUT: Part 4...with Kojak

2011-09-07T21:53:00.000-07:00

I wish I had a bunch of history to share about eating at the Sheraton-Universal Hotel, but I don't. I do have memories which most will find boring. And I can tell you that the restaurants shown no longer exist.

I will briefly say that in 1972 two friends and I drove down to Los Angeles for vacation. We stayed at the Sheraton-Universal because, well...it was right on the grounds of a movie studio! We were hunting for movie stars! We were in search of our own "I Love Lucy" William Holden episode. Alas, we did not find it on that trip.

Click on either image to see it larger.

In 5 years I returned to the hotel with one of the friends and we did have a wonderfully awkward moment worthy of Lucy but with Telly "Kojak" Savalas. Kojak lived in the hotel so it was hard to miss him. And I can tell you it involved me kicking a friend under the table at breakfast as Kojak came up behind her to get to a coffee pot. I was subtly pointing and whispering "Kojak" over and over again only to have my friend turn around hesitantly to see what was going on and end up face to face with Kojak. She did a slow motion turn back to me, her eyes bugging out. By now I was in my best Ethel mode trying to smile and act like all of this behavior was normal.

As to the images on this card...I never saw the Four Stages Restaurant, but I can confirm that the Circus Room was just as 1970s tacky as it appears here.

One night upon returning to the hotel from whatever escapade we'd been on we decided to go to the top floor and see what the Circus Room looked like. We figured there would be some sort of an entrance, we could get off the elevator, then go and look in the lounge. Unfortunately that wasn't how it panned out. When the elevator door opened on the packed room we were IN the Circus Room. The door opened, we three numbskulls stuck our heads out, in unison we said "ohhhhhhhhhhh," the door shut, and we rode back down to our floor. We still laugh about how stupid we were. We were not cut out for the Circus Room.

A few years later I went back to LA and got to eat at the Universal Studios dining room. Now THAT was an experience. Dining with one of the top execs at the studio. People turned to stare at us figuring we had to be someone. What a disappoint we were, but I did see quite a few stars including one I had a big crush on. Wish I had a postcard of that place. Cool, very cool.

In 1977 I moved to LA and lived right over the hill from the hotel and never visited it again.

Now as to what the heck a "poolside Portuguese lounge" is....

Should you wish to visit the Sheraton-Universal now you'll find the garish colors of the 1970s gone. It's all subtle hues and mood lighting.

LET'S EAT OUT: Part 3...Spenger's Fish Grotto

2011-09-01T16:48:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time there was a restaurant in Berkeley, California called Spenger’s Fish Grotto that had a history dating back to the early part of the 20th century. The food was abundant and good. The waiters were often as crusty as the wonderful sourdough bread that was served.

As a kid and young adult Spenger’s was a regular Friday night adventure. The wait in the bar for a table could take hours. The place was always packed. When I say packed, I mean people out on the street waiting for a chance to even wait inside. And who knows, you might even see someone famous waiting with you.

Click on either image to see it larger.

I never saw the bar as well lit as shown on this card. It was dark and smoky. Okay, I wasn’t fond of the cigarette smoke, but it was all part of the atmosphere. There were several dining rooms, but my favorite is the one shown here on the postcard, the Teak Room. I can remember sitting at one of those center tables watching waiters buzzing through the kitchen doors. The room was always busy. It was my mother’s favorite restaurant.

I bought this menu and napkin several years ago. I don't know exactly what year this menu is from, but it looks exactly like the ones I remember from the 1960s. I like to think that at some point my mother actually held this menu.

Click on any image to see it larger.

It was a family owned restaurant for generations.

My mother's favorite dish was the “Shrimp Scatter” described as “A platter full of Golden Fried Tiny Shrimp. Served with Cole Slaw and French Fries.” Look at the price. $1.85. A whole meal for $1.85. This included lots of crusty sourdough bread which was a classic with their clam chowder.

If you have memories of this place this napkin will look familiar; the only thing missing is the wet ring your glass would have made while you waited and waited for your table.

Sadly, all things change and the Spenger family sold the restaurant to a corporation. For awhile the place was closed. We worried about what changes would be made. I’ve been back once since it reopened. It looked the same outside, the entrance seemed to be similar, and the bar looked as close as my memory would allow. The dining room we were seated in bore no resemblance to the old place. The wait staff was pleasant, but generic. The food…I’ll never go back. What once was a landmark is now nothing more than another restaurant in a corporate chain of over 80 restaurants across the country. Think Red Lobster, but more expensive.

The shining history that may still linger in people’s minds when they hear the name Spenger’s was created by a family dedicated to their customers. There was no website with headings called “Our Investors” or “Our Culture."

As I’ve said before, support family restaurants. Keep the money in your community and not sent off to a corporate headquarters. Cookie cutter food prepared by people towing the company line means that the MBAs are in charge of everything and look how well that turned out for all of us.

LET'S EAT OUT: Part 2...Vanessi's

2011-08-28T17:18:00.000-07:00

Another city and another restaurant that no longer exists. Vanessi’s was a familiar name when I was growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, though I never ate there.

It was part of mid-century San Francisco and a staple of North Beach. For me, North Beach has always been the most interesting part of the city. Most of the hip places from the '50s and '60s are long gone. I haven’t been there in years.

To see a photo of the outside of the original Vanessi’s click here.

In 1936, Silvio Zorzi opened the happening Italian restaurant Vanessi's on Broadway. Counter-side seating around the open kitchen was one of Vanessi's trademarks, as were specialty dishes such as the Chicken Cacciatore and Spaghetti Cabonara. Though Vanessi's was a major hotspot on Broadway for years, in the 1980s new owners moved the restaurant to California Street in Nob Hill. Sadly, slow business in that location led to the restaurant’s abrupt closure in 1997. (SOURCE: San Francisco Restaurants.com)

I also found this interesting piece about Paul Robeson trying to eat at Vanessi’s in 1940. Hard to believe in a town known for its openness and inclusiveness a man would be turned away because of his color.

Wherever he spoke, whenever he was quoted, his theme was about segregation, discrimination, the theme of being put in the position of second-class citizen. After all, here is a man who was twice named All-American in football. An all-around athlete and student at Rutgers University. Then a degree from Columbia Law School. Then famed as actor and singer. He could play the leading role in Othello—and yet he still was a man even up until the 1950s who couldn't go into a restaurant or into the same hotel with other members of the same company.

This became a public issue in 1940. After a concert, he and a group went to Vanessi's, one of the better restaurants in North Beach, in the Italian area of San Francisco. It was a mix of several whites and Negroes including John Pittman, a black newspaperman. I knew Pittman at Berkeley, at the university. He had very light skin and was allowed to walk right into Vanessi's and then the man at the door—the head waiter—said, "That guy in back of you can't come in." He pointed up to Robeson who was probably three heads taller. The group walked out and sued Vanessi's. It became a front-page scandal. Consider the public recognition of Robeson on the one hand, and the insulting behavior on the other hand—all because
of his color! The group sued Vanessi's but nothing came of it. I've been listening to Robeson's speeches in the last few recordings I'd made where he'd spoken. More and more he emphasized a link among people whom the white race considers inferior or second-class or third world. A common bond shared by people who have been put upon by their society or other societies. People of different color or religion. Third-world people. Shearer: Did he actually use the term "third world"? (SOURCE: calisphere)

Surprisingly for a restaurant with so much history I'm not finding much worth looking at other than this photo of customers in 1952.

What's there today? A slick chrome and black marble bar.

You can judge which place will be historically memorable.

And is it me or does this building look like a smiling face that could tell a few tales about what goes on inside?

LET'S EAT OUT: Part 1...Long Champ...Longchamp...whatever

2011-08-26T18:04:00.000-07:00

During our journey around the country checking out first class places to stay we never stopped to eat. It's time to check out some high and low class food joints.

Now, don't get your hopes up because I can't guarantee they're all still in business, let alone still standing.

First stop Long Champ Dining Salon (also Longchamp) in Amarillo, Texas. I'm guessing this card was picked up by my grandparents in 1949 when my folks drove them across country from Pennsylvania to San Diego along Route 66.

Click on image to see it larger.

So was it Longchamp as shown on the sign or Long Champ as on the back of this Curt Teich card? I have no idea. How could advertising screw up from the front to the back of a postcard?

SOURCE: Amarillo by Ron Smith

SOURCE: Amarillo: The Story of A Western Town by Paul Howard Carlson

Homer Rice didn't just change the name of the place, he changed the whole feeling of the place with advertising in a completely different direction. You can see a few Rice Dining Salon postcards here, here, and here. Doesn't feel as classy, does it? How about an old matchbook or Yellow Pages ad from 1965? I'm sure if I continued digging I'd find more, but I'm not really that interested in what the place became; I'm interested in how it started. Unfortunately, I'm not finding that information.

I did however find a recipe for Rice's Dining Salon Turkey Dressing. Go figure.

As to what sits on the spot once occupied by Long Champ? It's not pretty. According to this web site it's now a "parking lot between Taco Villa & Pinkie's Liquor."

I give you the former site of Longchamp, or whatever it was called, according to Google maps.

The only other thing I'll bring up about this is that Longchamp/Long Champ was recommended by Duncan Hines. I did a post last year which included how important the Duncan Hines guide was when traveling across country which you can read here.

LET'S GO FIRST CLASS across America: Part 10...THE END

2011-08-23T20:57:00.000-07:00

Well folks, this is it for the first class travel. We've now crossed to new territory, which this was sitting on when this card was made. Hawaii was a territory of the United States, a serious offense if there ever was one fueled by greed.

Click on either image to see them larger.

The Royal Hawaiian Hotel opened to guests on February 1, 1927. The hotel was built by Captain William Matson of Matson Liner fame. It was built specifically to house and entertain those who sailed to Hawaii for vacations on his ships.

With the success of the early efforts by Matson Navigation Company to provide steamer travel to America's wealthiest families en route to Hawaii, Captain William Matson proposed the development of a hotel in Honolulu for his passengers. This was in hope of profiting from what Matson believed could be the most lucrative endeavor his company could enter into. Matson purchased the Moana mansion, fronting the Ainahau royal estate. Christening it the Moana Hotel, it opened in 1901 as the first hotel in Waikiki. With its overwhelming success, Matson planned and built the Royal Hawaiian Hotel which opened in 1927.

During World War II, the Royal was closed to tourists and instead served as a place of rest and relaxation for U.S. submariners. While the Royal Hawaiian's lush tropical garden was (and still is) tranquil and poetic, on the beaches fronting the Pink Palace (sometimes referred to as the Pink Lady) one saw reminders of the war with rolls and rolls of barbed wire planted in the sand. The hotel was sold, along with the rest of Matson's hotels in Hawaii, to the Sheraton Corporation in 1959.

During the 1960's, the Pink Palace was home to "Concert by the Sea" which broadcast daily through Armed Forces Radio Network (AFN). Soldiers would listen to sounds of home all across Vietnam, and then on R&R would come to Waikiki to visit the Pink Palace in person. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

This card was sent by my mother to her folks when we stopped over on Oahu on our way to live on Midway Island for a year in 1953. Somewhere I have a slide of my wee self standing on a step at the Royal Hawaiian.

If you've read my blogs for a few years you'll know that I met my best friend on a Matson Liner, the Matsonia, when our families were both transferred from the East Coast to Hawaii in 1959. Click here to read an old post about the Matson Liners.

For the first few months after arriving on Oahu in '59 we lived just a few blocks from the Royal in a hotel called the Islander until we got military housing. The Islander was a dump, but the military paid for it so you kept your mouth shut.

We used to walk to the International Marketplace in the evening for the shows and then walk along Kalākaua Avenue looking in shops and maybe stopping in to the Jolly Rogers for a piece of coconut cream pie and a root beer float.

The gardens at the Royal abutted the avenue and were beautiful, tropical, magical. There was a man who used to walk along the avenue with a parrot on his shoulder which impressed the heck out of me. If you were really lucky Duke Kahanamoku would walk by. A stunning man. If you don't know who Duke was I recommend you do a little side reading about him here.

When we moved to Oahu the Royal was one of the largest buildings in Waikiki. It was stunning and special. Then the jets started flying into the islands and things began to change. Developers moved in and by 1966 it looked like this in Waikiki. I've added a slight blush so you can find the Royal.

Photo: from Here's Hawaii by Tongg Publishing Company, Ltd.

Today...

Photo: Gerald Farinas

I hope you've enjoyed this odd little journey, first class and not so first class, around the United States of yore. There will be more travel adventures to come.

LET'S GO FIRST CLASS across America: Part 9

2011-08-18T12:12:00.000-07:00

Back into the middle of the country for this one, the Hotel Tallcorn in Marshalltown, Iowa. It is apparently still standing, but don' t unpack your bags, you might want to sleep standing up in anticipation for tomorrow which is a truly first class hotel.

This postcard was sent by my mother to her folks when she drove across country in 1941 from Pennsylvania to Los Angeles. It was purely a trip for fun. She had a ball.

Click on either image to see it larger.

This hotel, like the Hotel Bonneville, was a community project.

The Hotel Tallcorn is located at 134 East Main Street in Marshalltown, Iowa. Today it is called the Tallcorn Towers Apartments. Built in 1928 by the Eppley Hotel Company, local citizens contributed $120,000 to ensure the successful completion of this seven-story hotel. It was completed in connection to the seventy-fifth anniversary of Marshalltown. The hotel's sale in 1966 from the Eppley chain to the Sheraton Corporation was part of the second largest hotel sale in United States history. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

It looks like it might have been the place to stay in Marshalltown once upon a time.

Local Boosters Made Tallcorn Possible

February 18, 2011
By MIKE DONAHEY, TIMES-REPUBLICAN

An event which would later be described as the "welcoming of the dawn of a new era in Marshalltown" started off modestly with a Sept. 3, 1927 meeting at Elmwood Country Club.

A group of Marshalltown citizens joined to discuss financing a downtown hotel, but they needed funding to induce the Eppley Hotels Co. of Omaha, Neb. to build the facility.

That night, $38,500 was raised and the group set its eyes on a $120,000 goal.

Those who pledged funds of $5,000 each were the Fisher Governor Co., J.C. Penney Co., Lennox Furnace Co., Marshalltown Rotary Club and the Times-Republican, among others.

On Nov. 1, 1927 a meeting attended by 200 witnessed "the shrieking of whistles and ringing of bells," a T-R reporter wrote, as the last $4,161 had been raised.
The fund drive totaled $125,000 and the contract with the Eppley Co. to build the $500,000 hotel was signed.

It would be called the Hotel Tallcorn, in honor of Marshall County's rank as one of the top corn producers in the state.

Construction started in the spring of 1928, the same year Marshalltown celebrated its 75th anniversary.

The new hotel was seven stories tall and contained 150 rooms, each with a private bath.

Grant Wood was commissioned to decorate the ballroom and restaurant, known as the Iowa Corn room.

On Oct. 4 the Hotel Tallcorn formally opened to the public. George Gill was appointed first manager.

© Copyright 2011 Times-Republican. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

(SOURCE: Times Republican)

(SOURCE: Library of Congress)

You can see another post card of the hotel here where you will also see what I imagine to be the drugstore/soda fountain with an awning. I imagine it had a lot of non-guest business. Who wouldn't want to go here for a rootbeer float or a sundae?

(SOURCE: America's Main Street Hotels)

The post card was published by the E. C. Kropp Company out of Milwaukee.

E. C. Kropp Co. 1907-1956
Milwaukee, WI

A publisher and printer that began producing chromolithographic souvenir cards and private mailing cards in 1898 under the name Kropp. These cards were of much higher quality than those that would printed under the E.C. Kropp name.

They became the E.C. Kropp Company in 1907 and produced large numbers of national view-cards and other subjects. Their latter linen cards had a noticibly fine grain. Sold to L.L. Cook in 1956 and they are now part of the GAF Corp. U.S. (SOURCE: Metro Postcard Club)

Tomorrow: looking for some new territory for our final first class stay

LET'S GO FIRST CLASS across America: Part 8 - Plus a BONUS!

2011-08-12T14:11:00.000-07:00

Here's the second oldest card I collected as a child. The Northern Motel in Indiana. Alas, it seems to be gone having been replaced by a Days Inn. No sense getting an image from today; we all know what it's going to look like.

Click on either image to see it larger.

This little motel looks like so many I remember. There was a sameness to a lot of these places, but they were more personal since a family ran it and not a corporation. You didn't expect to find cookie cutter sameness across the country. Now you can go to Days Inn in every state and eat at a Denny's and feel like you never left home. For some that makes travel seem secure. The food and lodging each night is the same and they don't even need to watch local tv channels because we're all hooked into the same networks.

You really have to spend some extra time looking for what once was America. The question is are people willing to spend the time doing that? I think a handful of us still are.
__________

UPDATE: It's time to head out to find AMERICA

Last year I did a post about the card below. Today I heard from a relative who is the grandchild of the man who built this station.

The emails reads:

The (this) Log Cabin Service Station was built in 1925 by my grandfather, Charles G. Lindquist.

  This article gives some history about it. The 'Jim Knapp' in the article is my father.

And here is the article they referenced from the April 21, 2007 Fergus Falls Journal:

Fergus Falls retiree Jim Knapp’s grandfather, C.G. (Charles) Lindquist, came to Fergus Falls in 1925 from Fairmont, N.D., and built the Log Cabin gasoline station on the southwest corner of Lincoln and Vine, where Century 21 now stands.

Even though the Log Cabin has been gone since the mid-1960s, its memory lives on — through ceramic replicas. One is owned by Knapp and his wife, Janet.

“It’s a prized possession,” Janet said, “especially in light of the historical ties of the Log Cabin to Jim’s family.”

Jim’s cousin, Joe Forbes of Bemidji, also has a ceramic Log Cabin. Another Log Cabin ceramic replica, part of the House in Snow Village collection produced by Department 56 of Minneapolis — just like the one owned by the Knapps — is treasured by Obert and Mary Houg of Fergus Falls.

“Our daughter Sally saw the replica in Fargo and bought one for Obert as a Christmas gift in 1999,” Mary said. “Sally and our other daughter, Jill, remember eating at the Log Cabin lunchroom with Obert and me back in the 1960s, after some of Obert’s softball games.”

The lunchroom was added to the Log Cabin several years after the original construction in 1925. A long counter for customers faced Lincoln Avenue, to the north, and a second counter faced eastward, toward what’s now Service Food.

C.G. (Charles) Lindquist operated an oil business in Fairmont prior to moving to Fergus Falls and running the Log Cabin starting in the mid-1920s. Before that he was in the shipping business at Big Stone Lake and Lake Traverse. He began his business career as an elevator operator at Diamond, S.D., a town that no longer exists.

The Log Cabin survived a serious fire in 1930, only five years after it was built. The pumps and tanks were not damaged, so gasoline and oil service went on uninterrupted. But much of the wood was damaged and had to be replaced.

The father of Charles Lindquist — Jim Knapp’s great-grandfather John Lindquist — fought in the Civil War with the Minnesota One fighting unit. His final resting place is at Ortonville where veterans pay homage at his gravesite each Memorial Day.

Charles Lindquist sold the Log Cabin station in 1946, after 21 years of ownership.

John Schrom ran the Log Cabin gas station and lunchroom in the 1950s and early 1960s. Eventually the station made way for the Western Station, one of the early convenience stores in Fergus Falls, established in the late 1960s.

The Log Cabin lunchroom later was moved to Wendell and is now part of the Wendell Cafe owned by Diane and Rick Branson.

Today the renovated Holiday Station on South Union Avenue in Fergus Falls reminds many old-timers of the Log Cabin that once stood at the southwest corner of Lincoln and Vine.

“It’s fun to remember the former eating establishments and other businesses from bygone years in downtown Fergus Falls,” Houg said. “And It’s nice to know that we have family and historical ties to the Log Cabin through the Knapp family.” (SOURCE: Fergus Falls Journal)

Once again a little piece of paper ends up telling a story.

Thank you to the family of Mr. Lindquist for providing this information. I really appreciate it.

LET'S GO FIRST CLASS across America: Part 7

2011-08-11T13:58:00.000-07:00

I think it's pretty obvious we've now moved away from first class travel. This is not The Broadmoor.

Click on image to see it larger.

Welcome to the Town House Motor Lodge, circa late 1950s. This is a place I stayed as a child. I don't know which year, but this is the very first post card I ever saved. Strangely, of all the times I took post cards from motel desks I actually now have very few. I don't know what happened to them. It's possible that anything from the 1950s got thrown away when my family moved to Hawaii or simply, along with a lot of other stuff, never came out of storage.

Click on image to see it larger.

Doing a quick search of the Town House Motor Lodge, I find that it still exists at the same address. Alas, it no longer has the charm it once had. It is drab looking with a hideous sign. The old sign was wonderful with the flashing arrow pointing to what awaited you. Times have been hard for the Town House.

Google Street View

You can see from the post card that at the time a selling point was a telephone and tv in every room. That was a big selling point back then because you still ran into a lot of places without tv. Telephones were getting pretty common. Nice old black heavy dial phones with a rumpled yellow pages on a shelf or in a drawer.

These days, according to the online Yellow Pages, the Town House offers:

Free Internet
Cable Television
Refrigerators
Weekly Rates

Aging takes a toll on all of us and if you don't change you don't survive.

Tomorrow: another oldie

LET'S GO FIRST CLASS across America: Part 6

2011-08-09T13:39:00.000-07:00

I think we need to redefine what's first class.

We've been touring around looking at large hotels, all claiming to be first class locations. Now, if you're a hotel kind of person that's great. If you need someone to carry your luggage, order room service at all hours, and maybe have a view of the big city, a hotel is what you're looking for.

Me...not so much. Though hotels can be interesting, I'm just not the sort of person who gets jazzed about them. I like the open road, out-of-the-way motels, and campgrounds. The fewer people the better.

Raise your hand if you ever stayed at a motor court. Not a motel, a motor court. If you have to ask the difference you haven't stayed in one. These days most motor courts are gone. If they're still standing they've been turned into run-down apartments or left to gather amongst the native weeds. It's all pretty sad, because I have fond memories of motor courts as a kid. I loved the fact that it was a little bungalow, sometimes attached to other bungalows by an open front garage. My favorites were the detached bungalows, especially those that looked like log cabins.

As cars got larger the little garages were too small to accommodate what was coming out of Detroit. These days my little car would fit fine and dandy into one of those snug garages.

I recently found this brochure at an estate sale. I've not been able to find anything about Best Camps other than that this brochure is in some archives at UCLA. The brochure was valid until the end of 1933.

Best Camps was an organization extolling the virtues of motor courts and lodges up and down along the Pacific Coast from Canada to Mexico. They provided various listings along various highways; all the courts were individually owned, no chains. There are actually 7 pages of listings.

Click on any image to see it larger.

Click here to see a wonderful article in the November 1936 Modern Mechanix about motor courts.

Click here to see Wikipedia's entry about motels.

And stop in at Vintage Roadside to see some wonderful articles about motor courts and motels, diners and drive-ins, and roadside attractions; all the things that made cross country travel in the US so wonderful.

Or try Motel Memories or visit Motel Americana.

Give me a two lane road and plenty of time!

Tomorrow: Who knows? We're on the open road and we stop when we stop.

LET'S GO FIRST CLASS across America: Part 5

2011-08-08T13:01:00.000-07:00

Worn out yet jumping from one location to the next all in the hopes of getting some first class treatment?

Today, Chicago.

Now, don't go unpacking because you might not want to stay here.

Click on either image to see it larger.

The Hotel Sherman was one of the city's premier hotels and a leading night-life venue during much of the early twentieth century. The hotel's origins, however, date back to 1837. In that year, Francis C. Sherman, a three-time mayor of Chicago and father of the legendary Civil War general, opened the City Hotel on the north side of Randolph Street between Clark and LaSalle. The hotel, renamed the Sherman House in 1844, measured a mere 18 by 84 feet. (SOURCE:Chicago Urban History)

Francis Cornwall Sherman (September 18, 1805 – November 7, 1870; buried in Graceland Cemetery) served as Mayor of Chicago, Illinois three terms (1841–1842, 1862–1865) for the Democratic Party.

Sherman arrived in Chicago in April 1834 from Newtown, Connecticut. He was a brick manufacturer and made the bricks for Archibald Clybourne's mansion. In July 1835, he was elected a village trustee. In 1837, he opened the City Hotel, later the Sherman House. He continued to work as a contractor and builder, eventually serving as mayor of Chicago three times.

His son, Francis Trowbridge Sherman, was a brigadier general in the Union Army during the Civil War. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

The venerable Sherman House endured many changes over the years, not the least of which was the great fire of 1871, when the hotel burned to the ground alongside the rest of downtown. Quickly rebuilt, the new structure was larger and more elaborately decorated than its predecessor. By the turn of the century, however, the Sherman House began to lose its luster and popularity. Gradually, it gained the reputation as the "deadest hotel" in town.

Not until the hotel was acquired by entrepreneur Joseph Beifeld was its decline reversed. Beifeld, a Jewish Hungarian immigrant, dramatically improved the hotel's image with the help of first-class customer service and top-flight entertainment in the evenings. By 1904, the new and improved Hotel Sherman and its famed restaurant, the College Inn, were the talk of the town, increasingly frequented by local celebrities and members of high society.

Buoyed by the turnaround, Beifeld invested several million dollars in new construction at the hotel. In 1911, the main hotel structure was rebuilt, followed by an additional $7 million, twenty-three-story expansion in 1925. By the end of the 1920s, the Hotel Sherman contained 1600 guest rooms, a banquet hall seating 2500, and stunning new marble lobby. Local newspapers reported that the new facilities made the Sherman the largest hotel west of New York City.

The Hotel Sherman remained one of Chicago's premier night spots through the 1910s and 1920s, attracting celebrities, tourists, and members of high society. It was during this period that the College Inn restaurant, with the help of band leader Isham Jones, became a notable jazz venue. Jones broke with the genteel tradition of violin-based hotel performance when he replaced many of his orchestra's waltz-oriented numbers with new, jazz-inspired tunes. Though there were critics of the change, most of the restaurant's patrons applauded the livelier arrangements and the freer dance styles they encouraged.

After the Second World War, the Sherman retained its position as one of the city's leading hotels, popular among visiting businessmen and conventioneers. In time, however, the hotel began to show its age and had an increasingly difficult time competing with newer hotels along Michigan Avenue and in the suburbs. In January 1973, the hotel closed. At the time, it was the oldest hotel in continuous operation in the state of Illinois. There were plans to remodel the building into a fashion mart and build a replacement hotel at the corner of Randolph and LaSalle, but nothing came of them. In 1980, the hotel was demolished. Its site is now occupied by the Thompson Center, formerly known as the State of Illinois Center. (SOURCE: Chicago Urban History)

"Frank W. Bering, night clerk at the Sherman House," 29 Sept. 1903

(SOURCE: Library of Congress)

"Sherman House Site," 1909 (SOURCE: Library of Congress)

"Top of the Sherman Hotel building during construction," 1909

(SOURCE: Library of Congress)

"Sherman House hotel, exterior sculpture," 4 March 1911

(SOURCE: Library of Congress)

So what sort of things went on at the Hotel Sherman?

On October 20, 1926 John O'Berta and Joseph "Polack Joe" Saltis call a peace conference at the Hotel Sherman in Chicago in an attempt to broker a ceasefire among Chicago's major bootleggers. With the establishment of Madison Street dividing the Chicago Outfit and the North Side Gang territories, the two sides agree to peace. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

So who was Joseph Saltis?

Joseph "Polack Joe" Saltis [Soltis] (died 1947) was an early Prohibition gangster who, who with Frank McErlane, controlled bootlegging in the Southwest Side of Chicago, Illinois.

Originally a Polish saloon owner from Joliet, Illinois, Saltis moved to Chicago with the announcement of the Volstead Act in 1920. With the assistance of John "Dingbat" O'Berta, a candidate for the Illinois State Senate, began supplying illegal alcohol to Chicago's speakeasies and by 1925 Saltis effectively controlled the Southwest Side. Saltis, by now extremely wealthy from bootlegging, purchased a residence in Eagle River, Wisconsin which, employing over half of the town's sixty citizens, later had the town named Saltisville in the town's general election.

During this time, Saltis remained on good terms with his South Side neighbor Al Capone, whose Chicago Outfit began dominating Chicago's bootlegging soon after his arrival in the early 1920s. Indeed, by the mid-1920s, only the Saltis-McErlane organization remained independent from the eight satellite gangs under Capone's control. However, soon becoming entrenched in territory disputes with many of Capone's satellite gangs, Saltis began talks for a secret alliance with Capone rival Earl "Hymie" Weiss's North Side Gang. Throughout the next year, Saltis began preparing for war as smaller rivals such as the Southside O'Donnell's (for which an attempt would be made on his life in late-1925) and sometimes allied Sheldon Gang began to threaten Saltis's hold on the Southwest Side as soon gunmen such as Frank "Lefty" Koncil, Charlie "Big Hayes" Hubacek, and Frank McErlane joined Saltis's ranks.

On August 6, 1926, Sheldon Gang member John "Mitters" Foley was killed by Frank Koncil while in Saltis's territory. While Koncil, along with O'Berta and Saltis, were arrested and charged with murder O'Berta's considerable political influence (as well as assistance from Weiss) was able to get the case dropped on November 9.

The following year O'Berta, with Saltis, managed to arrange a conference at the Hotel Sherman on October 20, which included Al Capone, George "Bugs" Moran, Vincent "The Schemer" Drucci, Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik, Ralph Sheldon, William Skidmore, Maxie Eisen, Jack Zuta, and Christian P. "Barney" Bertsche, and managed to agree on a general ceasefire of the various gang wars, specifically between the Chicago Outfit and the North Side Gang, as well as the gang war between Saltis-McErlane and the Sheldon Gang. The ceasefire lasted a little over two months before war broke out again when members of Saltis-McErlane gang killed Sheldon Gang member Hillary Clements on December 30. As the gang war continued between Saltis and the Sheldon Gang over the Southwest Side, Al Capone had begun to move in on Saltis's territory, as the war was beginning to turn in favor of the Sheldon Gang. When Koncil and Hubacek were lured into an ambush and killed on March 11, 1927, Saltis appealed to Capone to negotiate peace between the Sheldon Gang in exchange for a cut of Saltis's profits. By the end of the gang war, however, Saltis's gang began to disintegrate as Frank McErlane left Saltis in late 1929 over disagreements over McErlane's share. When O'Berta and his chauffeur, Sam Malaga, disappeared on March 25, 1930, allegedly taken for a "one way ride", O'Berta was later found dead of a gunshot wound to the head. With his associates gone and his organization all but destroyed, Saltis quickly retired to his home in Barker Lake, Wisconsin.

Joe Saltis later died at age 53 from complications of a stomach ulcer in Chicago's Cook County Hospital in 1947. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

So what we're sayin' here is that they had some foist class clientele. Yeah, sure, them guys were tough, but you was just a customer. They ain't gonna mess with youse, right? They wouldn't, say, slip you no mickey would they?

"Drugs to the Non-Tippers Arrested Chicago Waiters Confess Poisoning Hotel Guests. Detective Seize Large Quantity", The Kansas City Times: 3, June 23, 1918 "Evidence against the waiters was obtained by a detective agency employed by the Hotel Sherman after several guests had become ill suspiciously...Large quantities were found in a drawer behind the bar at the waiters' union headquarters. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

Okay, some straight up legit stuff happened there too:

On April 11, 1914 Alpha Rho Chi, a professional architecture fraternity, is founded in the Hotel Sherman in Chicago.

In February 1939, the Chicagoland Glider Council, sponsored a Winter Get-Together and Soaring Forum at the Hotel Sherman in Chicago, with Frankfort’s Stan Corcoran and Ted Bellak as the guest speakers. About 200 pilots attended.

Like I said, you might not want to stay here anymore. In fact, I think we best get out of town before weez be wearin' our noses on the side of our head. Youse know what I mean?

Tomorrow: bring your own linens

LET'S GO FIRST CLASS across America: Part 4

2011-08-07T16:08:00.000-07:00

Well, I've found myself in Idaho Falls. Isn't the first time. I remember spending one night in Idaho Falls in a motel back in the '60s. We'd have been excluded from a hotel because the family dog was along for the trip. But I do remember the lovely little falls. I say little because for me all falls look small after seeing Niagara as a child.

So let's take a look at the Hotel Bonneville, "Idaho Falls ONLY Fire-proof Hotel" which makes me a little nervous because I'm wondering why this is featured so prominently on the card. What were the other hotels in town like?

The Times-Register, Tuesday, May 31, 1927

Brief Outline of Activities of Local People Who Made Financing of Hotel Bonneville Possible

The Hotel Bonneville, Idaho Falls' outstanding community endeavor, is the result of the desire on the part of a number of the people of Idaho Falls, and community, to have the use of a strictly first class hotel, with adequate accommodations and quality of service which would enable Idaho Falls, as a community, to invite public gatherings and conventions and to be prepared to take care of them in a way and manner, which would reflect credit on the community.

Another object was in view, and that some place in the community where the people might gather for social recreation and business discussions and at the same time be entertained.

The need was felt for an institution in the kind that Idaho Falls and community might keep pace with the growing demands, and as a city, meet the requirements which are expected by the traveling public, and local residents, and local residents when the occasion required.

The idea, once given root, the desire grew and a canvas of the situation developed the fact, that such an institution was not only needed, but was possible. The fact, once determined, the wheels were set in motion with the idea in view that something out of the ordinary, something outstanding, must be done or the effort would not be worth while.

The matter was taken up by the Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce. Prominent business interests and residents were called into consultation and the idea presented, and while the undertaking loomed large in the imagination, the fact that it has been accomplished proves the fact, that any community, actuated by the proper spirit and ambition, can help and benefit itself.

The fact, once determined upon, ways and means were discussed, and the conclusion reached, that if it was to be done, nothing short of the best would satisfy, and the most expert advice must be sought.

Correspondence was taken up with the Hockenbury System of Pennsylvania, the formost hotel builders in the United States, who have build and have under operation, more than one hundred and twenty-fife outstanding hotels of the nation, all community built. The very fact that it had been done inspired those with the thought in mind that Idaho Falls could do what others had done.

Mr. Lewis D. Barr, western representative of the Hockenbury system, was invited to visit Idaho Falls and make a survey, which was done. Weeks were devoted to this work and nothing was done until those in charge were satisfied in their own mind that the plan was workable and would be successful. The survey developed the fact, that the community could and would support a hotel of a certain type, under proper management. The survey also developed the fact, that the community must not make the mistake that many have in the past, and over-build. The fact being established, that the community needed the hotel, and the sentiment prevailed, generally in the community, that the hotel could be built, the matter was once more in the hands of the executive committee of the Chamber of Commerce.

A contract was entered into with the Hockenbury System and Mr. Barr again came to Idaho Falls and took charge of the campaign. The survey developed the fact, that an eighty-room hotel, built on the most available site and at a cost not to exceed $325,000, was what the community could build, and which was needed and which would pay.

The question of location was the first to be decided, and like all ambitious communities, there was a decided difference of opinion as to the site. When the question of the location was determined upon, after a thorough study and with all available sites studied, the announcement was made that the northwest corner of "C" street and Park avenue, was the most desirable. Objections were made, the most frequent, that the location was "too far away from the business center." The statements and arguments were met with good logic and experience, principal of which was, that if Idaho Falls is to grow the business district must be enlarged and that "C" street was the logical location. How good the prediction was, has been proven by the building program which has resulted as a result of the hotel being placed on the location determined.

The site was occupied by another building, the owners of which held a long time lease. It became the duty of the Chamber of Commerce to buy the ground decided upon, and some difficulties were encountered, but overcome. The owner of the property, Mr. J. L. Milner, was most generous in the offer to the hotel company, and an agreement was entered into with him by the Chamber of Commerce, which in the meantime had secured an option on the lease.

The accomplishment to that point was satisfactory, and the next step was to interest the community in subscribing for the stock, and here again the Hockenbury system proved its ability and efficiency.

Under the direction of Mr. Barr, the Idaho Falls Community Hotel Corporation was organized and the company incorporated, officers elected and the work of the campaign begun. Under the direction of Mr. Barr a number of committees were appointed, men and women, giving freely of their time and ability. The general committee functioned first, and through their efforts were able to secure subscriptions well over one hundred thousand dollars. The progress and course of the campaign was discussed at nightly meetings and dinners, and the situation canvassed. The first meeting, after the committee was organized, showed that $20,000 had been subscribed and from that time on there was never any doubt or hesitancy. As the campaign progressed, an enlarged committee was appointed until the entire personnel totaled some one hundred and thirty-five men and women, each becoming a trained salesman, presenting his or her proposition to those whom it was expected to interest in a clear, concise and business like way. Confidence was established. The belief grew that the community owned hotel was a possibility and those handling the matter became more fixed in their minds and became determination, until, after sex weeds work, the committee reported in stock subscriptions, about $185,000, not enough to couple the structure, but enough to insure its ultimate completion and success. The options on the property, were executed and the location became the property of the corporation.

In the meantime the services of the H. L Stevens Co., of San Francisco, were called upon, as they are recognized as the foremost hotel architects and engineers in the country, and how good was the judgment is best testified to by the completed structure, a credit to them and the community, which made the hotel possible.

The institution, partially financed, the plans accepted, the contracts let, the construction started, the hotel assured the community began to take stock of itself and to realize that their work, so well started, was not as yet half done. Funds were to be had to insure the completion and furnishings. Capable management must be secured in order to insure success, and through the Hockenbury System an agreeable contract was entered into for the management for a period of thirty years with Mr. Geo. Relf, successful manager of the Hotel Utah, of Salt Lake.

Further financing was necessary in order to complete and the members of the executive committee interested the High & Fritchman Co. investment brokers, of Boise, Idaho, in order to finance the building so that it might be completed and equiped. It was necessary to issue bonds to the amount $115,000. The bond selling campaign was taken personal charge of by Mr. Ira High, senior member of the investment company. The Idaho Falls community, already subscribers to the stock in the corporation to the amount of $200,000, bonds to the amount of about another $100,000, leaving but the small balance of $25,000 to be disposed of elsewhere, which was readily done, as the investment was considered good, and the security ample.

Idaho Falls was assured of what it had so long needed. A community hotel, under high class management. The community deserves a great deal of credit for what has been accomplished and the completed structure, equipped on the scale far beyond anything of the kind in any other community of like size in the inter-mountain west, stands as a lasting monument to the foresight, the energy and the determination of the community, which will realize well on its investment in cash dividends and satisfaction of a service well rendered; with the further asset, the community has something of which it is proud, which is its own and above all which has been dedicated to community use.

The entire community is entitled to the credit for the completion of the magnificent structure. The entire community is proud of its achievement. The entire community will contribute toward its support and success. (SOURCE: My Web)

Well, I was just looking for a bed for the night. As far as I can tell the hotel is no longer in business. Since I can't find an address I can't Google it to see what's standing in its location. Perhaps we could contact the manager whose name is stamped on the front of the card except I can't read it because the stamp competes with apparently the old managers name. I'm guessing they hired someone to stamp the front of the cards and when they discovered all had been stamped like this there was a lot of discussion going something like this:

"We need to get rid of Corbett's name. He's not the manager anymore."

"Well, we could just cross it out."

"No, that doesn't encourage people to think of this as a first class hotel."

"We could get a stamp made with the new manager's name. Then people would know Corbett's not there because we'd stamp over his name."

"Excellent. Let's do it."

So they farmed this out to a local printer who came in with the lowest price and...they got what they paid for; complete confusion. Who did replace Corbett E. Mills as manager?

The card, like the past several cards, is a Curt Teich linen.

The photographer, Wesley Andrews, if I've found the correct Wesley Andrews:

Charles Wesley Andrews was born December 10, 1875 in Aurora, Ontario, Canada. He set up his first studio at Baker, Oregon in 1904. He captured many early Oregon views and was perhaps best known for his perfectly framed shots of the beautiful Oregon Coast. For a time, he was publisher of the Morning Democrat.

In the 1920s, Wesley Andrews moved his production studios to Portland. Eventually, the business was sold to Herb Goldsmith. Andrews died in Portland on December 22, 1950. (SOURCE: PDX History)

You can click here to see photos of Andrews with his family. He donated "hundreds of his negatives to the Oregon Historical Society."

So where to the next time? Which first class location shall I choose?

I don't know.

LET'S GO FIRST CLASS across America: Part 3

2011-08-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

So you’re in Kansas City, Missouri and you just want a place to rest your tired puppies. How about the Hotel Commonwealth located at 12th and Broadway? It might not be first class, but it looks inviting.

Click on either image to see it larger.

Hmmmmm…I see on the back of this card it says “downtown apartment and transient hotel” which doesn’t sound so good. I’m now thinking of the hotels in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, transient hotels. But hey, it looks really nice so let’s go there and see what a room costs.

Ummmmmmm…I ummmmm…think it’s gone. Urban renewal.

Okay, the fact that on the front of the card it says Hotel Commonwealth and on the back it says Commonwealth Hotel leads me to believe even when it was standing people weren’t really sure where they were.

And let's talk about the patrons. This ad is from the November 27, 1943 Billboard magazine. A guy set up shop in the hotel to hire workers for carnivals. That must have been interesting to have that across the hall. Did animal acts show up or just guys who ran the tilt-a-wheel?

As to this card, most of what I’m finding online gives the date around 1937. It is a Curt Teich linen. I’m assuming people decided on this date due to used cards with postal dates because there is no copyright date.

Next Up: Idaho Falls

LET'S GO FIRST CLASS across America: Part 2

2011-08-05T12:27:00.000-07:00

Let’s take a trip to Palm Beach, Florida and stay at the Biltmore Hotel. Oh, wait…it’s not a hotel anymore. It’s a long story.

Click on either image to see it larger.

In 1894 the Palm Beach Hotel opened at 150 Bradley Place. In March of 1925 it burned down. In its place was built the Alba Hotel for between $5 and $6 million.

The hotel's furnishings were worth more than $2 million, and the Alba was surrounded by formal gardens.

But from the opening night's festivities, which the house staff threatened to boycott, the Alba seem doomed. Fewer than two months after opening, the hotel was awash in red ink and later closed.

On Sept. 16, 1928, Palm Beach was hit by a Category 4 Hurricane that destroyed much of Palm Beach and blew the roof off the Alba. Somehow repairs were made, and it reopened as the Ambassador for the 1929 season. (SOURCE: Restaurant Ware Collectors)

This too, failed, and the 1933 Hotel Red Book listed it as the Alba again until it was sold to a company that owned the Biltmore in Coral Gables, Florida and was renamed the Palm Beach Biltmore. I’m not sure if this took place in 1935 or ’38.

During WWII, the Biltmore served as a women's Coast Guard Training Center, and after that, a U.S. Navy convalescent hospital. When the Navy left the hotel, it once again became the opulent Palm Beach Biltmore Hotel. (SOURCE: Restaurant Ware Collectors)

The Palm Beach Biltmore Hotel was transformed into a U.S. Naval Special Hospital from mid-1945 to the end of the war, accommodating 1,400 soldiers convalescing from rheumatic fever or arthritis brought on by exposure. In June 1943, before it became a navy hospital, the Biltmore was used for the first dedicated school for the Coast Guard Women’s Reserve. SPARs, as it was known for its creed, “Semper Paratus, Always Ready,” was created by the U.S. legislature on November 23, 1942, to allow more men to be sent overseas. Until the Palm Beach school was ready, enlistees were trained on the campuses of Oklahoma A&M, Iowa State Teachers College, and Hunter College.

Male reservists spent a month converting 430 rooms in what was then reputed to be the most expensive building yet constructed in Florida. They replaced hotel furniture with “sturdy stuff” and knocked out walls to accommodate six women per room, removing doors and luxury decorations.

The initial four-week boot camp was expanded to six weeks and included classes in organization, personnel, ships, and aircraft. Enlistees practiced deck swabbing in the hotel hallways. Disciplined physical training was held in part at the Surf Club, which was dedicated to their exclusive use of the tennis courts and beach. Graduates either were assigned to active duty or remained for 12 more weeks of specialist training to become storekeepers, yeomen, cooks, bakers, commissary stewards, dental or pharmacist mates, or recruiters. (SOURCE: PBC History Online)

So, what of the hotel after World War II and today? If you thought yesterday’s was expensive wait until you see the numbers for this one.

In 1946, the Biltmore, then owned by the Hilton chain, returned to civilian service. The hotel closed in the 1970s and fell into disrepair, but was rescued from demolition by famed developer John D. MacArthur. MacArthur sold it in 1977 for $5.3 million to investor Stanley J. Harte, who renovated it and reopened it in 1981 as the 128-unit Palm Beach Biltmore Condominiums.
(SOURCE: Historical Palm Beach)

Interested in living in the Biltmore? Are you in that 1% of the American public who haven’t been hurt by the economy? Then have I got a place for you. Take a look at some of the current condos available. (If this link doesn’t’ work in the future all I can say is sorry, it was current for the day this post was written.)

At one point the former Shah of Iran’s sister lived in the building. Her penthouse was on the market in 2009.

So I guess this means we won’t be meeting in the coffee shop around midnight in the Biltmore for a pie and coffee. I’ll see if I can find a place still open to the public for tomorrow. In the meantime, pack your bags.

This card, like the one yesterday, is a Curt Teich linen.

LET'S GO FIRST CLASS across America: Part 1

2011-08-04T13:04:00.000-07:00

Time for some vacation travel. Let's check out some hotels via some vintage post cards.

First stop Colorado Springs and The Broadmoor.

Click on either image to see it larger.

Does the hotel still exist? Yes indeed, and it's going to put you back a pretty penny.

The Broadmoor is a 5-star/5-diamond luxury hotel and resort, located in southwestern Colorado Springs, Colorado. Built in the early 20th century as the "Grand Dame of the Rockies", it was one of the finest resort destinations along the Rocky Mountains during the age of railroads. The hotel sits at an elevation of 6230 feet (1900 m) above sea level.

History
The resort dates from 1891, when it began as a small hotel and casino. The current resort was built in 1918 by Charles L. Tutt and Spencer Penrose, a Philadelphia entrepreneur whose brother was Senator Boies Penrose. Nicknamed "Spec" for skill at speculation, Spencer Penrose amassed a fortune from mining claims at nearby Cripple Creek, and after a grand tour through Europe's finest hostelries, decided to build one, with no expense spared. The hotel attracted a wealthy clientele in the early 20th century, drawn to the beauty of Pikes Peak, as well as to the mountain air which aided recuperation from tuberculosis. Penrose was so pleased with the Broadmoor that in 1937 he completed nearby a monument to its creator — his tomb, taking the rather novel form of an 80-foot hilltop observation tower which overlooks the resort. Persuaded not to name the structure after himself, it is instead called the "Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun," honoring Penrose's friend who died in a plane crash in 1935, during construction of the tomb.

The Broadmoor has over 700 rooms, 18 restaurants and cafes, 3 golf courses, and a world-class spa. The El Pomar Carriage House Museum houses an extensive collection of vintage carriages and automobiles on-site. The Penrose Room, named after Spencer Penrose, is the only Five-Diamond dining in Colorado. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

This card has two publishers: C. T. Art-Colortone (Curt Teich) and Sanborn Souvenir Co.

And now, as to that Cripple Creek reference...no, it's not the same one, but who cares.

Tomorrow...Florida.

Who is a BUMMEL-PETRUS and why does he know PAUL TELEMANN?

2011-08-03T13:35:00.000-07:00

I mentioned months ago that my friend Bert gave me a huge box of old sheet music. This piece is from that box.

I wish I could say I found a lot of interesting information about the composer and illustrator of the sheet music. Nope. This is not to say I didn't find enough to keep me happy, but you'll have to create your own narrative out of what I provide.

Click on any of the following four images to see them larger. They are as follows: front cover, inside cover, first page of music, back cover. NOTE that I do not know who did the inside and back cover art.

Bummel-Petrus is a song once popular in Germany in the 1920s written by M. Werner-Kersten. As you can see, by the battle-of- the-bands below, it's apparently still popular. Think beer and pretzels as you sing along.

So what is a Bummel-Petrus?

Bummel-Petrus is a very amusing song from the 1920's about St. Peter creeping from heaven with a 'heavenly' young lady for a night on the town. Before leaving he locks the gates of Heaven. After a 'great' night out he arrives back only to find that he has lost the keys and is thus caught and all the angels in heaven are in stitches at the old saint's impropriety.

The Bummel-Petrus song was written 1920 after the WorldWar I in a crazy and high spirited Berlin. (SOURCE: Andre Rerieu Translations)

Click on the source above to go to a page which shows the songs words in German along with an English translation.

I find no biographical information about the composer, M. Werner-Kersten. Zip, nada, zero. Even in a hardback book full of biographies he or she didn't make the cut. Nor did I find any biographical information about the illustrator, Paul Telemann, which isn't to say I didn't find a lot of examples of his work, mostly sheet music.

The following images, all by Telemann, can be found online at Images Musicales along with many many more.

Here and here you will find bookplates done by Telemann in 1904.

Below is another piece of sheet music he illustrated in 1908.

(SOURCE: Wikipedia)

Hopefully someday I'll find more information about this illustrator. Until then oomp-pa-pa, oomp-pa-pa...

Okay, now for the hip-hop version...