Nicky Blair's Carnival

 

It's been a while since I've posted one of these souvenir photo folders.  

So, I was able to find out a few things about Nicky Blair's Carnival. It was located in the Hotel Capitol in New York City, a hotel that doesn't seem to still be in business.  I wasn't able to find out when the hotel opened and when it shut down.  The same with the nightclub. Did Carnival die with the hotel, or did it close before the Hotel Capitol closed its doors for good? I have no idea. 

I found an advertisement for the hotel with a rather long caption, "Nicky Blair's Carnival, 51st and 8th Avenue, New York. NEW YORK'S MOST BEAUTIFUL NIGHT CLUB.  Presenting Olsen & Johnson, Beatrice Kay, and America's Loveliest Girls in a spectacular revue staged by John Murray Anderson, two shows nightly at 8:30 and 12 (Sats 8, 10, and 12:30). New York's biggest evening of Dinner, Show, and Dancing...All for the price of your dinner alone! NEVER A COVER CHARGE!" Well, I hope I transcribed that correctly. 

On the back of the folder, "Souvenir Photo $1.50. For extra copies write to: PLANETARY PHOTO, 311 West 34th Street, New York 1, N.Y. Use Number on back of Print Stating date taken and name of Club along with description of the photo." The number, handwritten, "146" and the date stamped, "JUN 6 1947."  I wasn't able to find anything about Planetary Photo, but I've found the name on some of the other souvenir photo folders I own.  

There's an inscription on the inside of the folder. "To Sam my samba partner Jackie Goldete. At least that's what I think it says. Her handwriting isn't the best in the world. And before I forget, the folder was too big for my scanner so all I've got is a somewhat marginal cell phone photo. 

Alway's Raquel

 

It looks like Raquel is on a stage, so I'm going with a theatrical photo rather than a costume party.  Too, that's a great kick.  Written on the back, "To Dear Leo, Sincerely your's Raquel."  

The Service Dance

Written on the back, "How do you like the back of my head.  How about that Crowd?  Nice heh!  All service personel."  Looks like the World War 2 era to me.  Mostly navy with the army thrown in. 

Leg Show

This one is labeled "Christmas 1940"  It's nice to know that the holidays had enough room for a chorus line.  If nothing goes wrong, I'll be camping and hiking in the desert on Christmas day, so this one is getting posted a few days early. 

Queen Elizabeth

That's her in the funny hat.  Actually, this one is captioned, "R.M.S. QUEEN ELIZABETH. Nassau. Cruise of 1965."  We are not amused.

Party Girls

It looks like they're feeling the music.

Hindu Dancer

This one's labeled, "WINTER 1959-60."  It's cut from a larger picture.  But was it taken in India or is it from a  performance in the United States?  Haven't a clue.

The Waterbury Paper Box Co. Wedding Album 9

This one's a real question.   Is this the owner of the album, or did the person who put the album together just like the image?  I've got another explanation, that I concede is almost certainly wrong, but I'm going to throw it out anyway.  Is this a 1920s version of a boudoir photo?  Did the lady in the photo travel to Chicago to have an exotic picture taken of herself?  Probably not.

Click on Waterbury Box Co. Album in labels to see the rest.

Nude Dancers

It's not every day that you run across something like this.  If the photographer was going for porn, he clearly missed the mark.  These three 4x5 transparencies have to be photos of some sort of performance.  But what kind?  Nude ballet, modern dance, Oh! Calcutta?  I once worked with the brother of a woman who was in Oh! Calcutta.  I won't mention her name.  Things that seem reasonable at twenty can be embarrassing at fifty.

May You Live In Interesting Times, Lilian Harvey

I'm sure most people have heard the old Chinese curse about living in interesting times.  Well, I'm not sure such a curse ever existed or if it's the invention of some B-movie writer, or if it's all that bad to live in such eras.  In any case, Lilian Harvey lived in interesting times.

Lilian Harvey was born Helene Lilian Muriel Pape in 1906, in London.  Her mother was English, her father was a German businessman.  Not a good combination for the twentieth century. At the beginning of World War 1, Lilian and her parents were living in Magdeburg, Germany.  Unable, or perhaps unwilling to leave, Lilian's parents stayed in Germany, but fearing for their daughter's safety, they sent young Lilian to live with relatives in Switzerland, where she learned to speak French, along with the German and English she already knew.

After the war, she returned to Germany to be with her parents.  After graduating form the German version of high school, she began studying voice and dance at the Berlin State Opera, while also pursuing theatrical work.  She also changed her name to Lilian Harvey.  She danced in revues, sang on stage, acted in plays, and also began working in silent movies.

One of the things about silent movies was that they were an international art form.  A silent movie made in Germany, with translated inter-titles, could play anywhere in the world.  When sound came along, suddenly, there were national cinemas.  Movies made in the large market of the United States, with an audience in other English language markets, continued apace, but  a country like Germany, with a much smaller population, had to adapt.  What the German, as well as other European film industries did, was to film the same movie, in multiple languages, all at the same time.  A situation made for Lilian Harvey.  Thanks to her training, she could sing and dance, her stage experience had given her a  good voice for talkies, and she could speak fluent, unaccented, German, English, and French.  And while these were all advantages, she was also a charming performer, with a gift for light comedy, as well as enough range to handle a dramatic role.  Far more important for a movie actor.

So, with the advent of sound movies, Lilian Harvey became an international star.  Not all of the German actors could work in multiple languages, so Lilian often found herself filming a scene with a German costar, then doing the same scene again with an English, or French actor.  Laurence Olivier's first film role was opposite Lilian in an English version of Hokuspokus.  In the mid thirties, Lilian Harvey accepted an invitation to work at Fox Studios in Hollywood.  She made a few films, none as popular as her European films, so she walked away from George White's Scandals.  The film was a major hit, and her replacement, Alice Faye became a big star.

While Harvey was still popular with German audiences, she had fallen out of favor with the German, Nazi government.  Despite the Nuremberg Laws that made it impossible for Jews to work in film, she continued her friendship with many of her Jewish colleagues.  In 1937, she bailed out her friend, choreographer Jens Keith, who had been arrested for violating Paragraph 175, a Nazi era law criminalizing homosexuality.  While out on bail, Keith fled to Paris.  Lilian Harvey was arrested by the Gestapo, but  released several days latter.  In 1939, Lilian Harvey herself fled Germany, moving to France.  Eventually she was stripped of her German citizenship for entertaining French troops.  Her large real estate holdings and bank accounts were also seized.

In 1942, Lilian Harvey, once again, moved to the United States.  This time there would be no film work.  (Her last films were shot, in France, in 1940.)  She did work on stage, and was also a nurse in Los Angeles.  After the war, she moved to France, where she worked as a singer.  It wasn't until 1949 that she returned to Germany to give a series of concerts.  Her career petered out after that.  Eventually she retired to Antibes on the French Riviera, where she supported herself running a souvenir shop.  She died in 1968, at the age of 62.

The photo is a German tobacco card, from the 1930s.

La Dolce Vita

I don't know what they're doing, but it looks like they're enjoying themselves.  I'm thinking early to mid sixties and somewhere in Europe.  Don't know why, it's just the impression I get.

Dancing the Night Away

How did she get on the dance floor without knocking stuff over? At the very least, that dress must have kept other dancers off the dance floor.

The Dancer

Way back when, this young lady would go to her audition, dance away, hand this picture and a resume to the show's producer, and wait for a call-back. I don't recognize her, so she didn't make it in the movies.

Green Bay Business-Crowning the Queen

I haven't put up any of the pictures from the Green Bay Business College collection for awhile, and it's time to put some up some more. To recap, i bought a bunch of prints, some of which came in envelopes addressed to Kenneth Bierke, 225 Quinton, Green Bay, Wisconsin. Some are of a school dance, some are from some school banquets, and some are family photos of, I assume, Bierke clan. Click on Green Bay in the labels section to see some of the other prints I've already posted. This one looks like the Queen of the school dance is being crowned.

High Steppin' Mama

It is labeled "High Steppin' Mama" That's not my idea of a title. A show girl or chorus girl from the roaring twenties would be my best guess.

Culture In America 2

These photos were found in the same envelope of the ones in the previous post. While there is no proof that they were taken at the same function, the number is right for a single roll of film, and the lady with the fur muff in the first image is in the party photos. No dates or location.

Prom Queen and Graduate

Three photos of Miss Candy Fickes, very likely from Cloverdale, California. The photo of Candy in her prom gown is labeled, "Candy Fikes, first formal." The two graduation pictures not only have Candys' name written on the back but a photographers stamp, "PHOTO BY C. FRANK TILESTON, Jr. CLOVERDALE, CALIFORNIA." I tried running Candy Fikes on Google and didn't come up with anything. C. Frank Tileston, however, came up with a death notice and dates, March 25, 1918 to December 7, 2002. If these photos were taken in the sixties, that means Tileston would have been in his forties or fifties when taken. I also found a notation of a Chester Tileston, a student at Cloverdale High from 1961-65.

Green Bay Business College- Another Dance

Another picture from the Green Bay Business College package. A dance, but with a different date from the two previous posts. On the back of the photo, "THIS IS A KODACHROME PRINT Made by Kodak WEEK OF FEB. 16-59 RD."

Green Bay Business College-Riverside Dance #2

These square format photos are from the same Green Bay Business College dance as the previous post. Those photos were done by a professional photographer, these look like amateur pictures. Stamped on the backs of the color images, "THIS IS A KODACOLOR PRINT MADE BY EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY T. M. REGIS. U. S. PAT. OFF. Week ending June 23, 1956. Ro 3" With the June 3 post mark from the earlier post, the dance was probably end of May. An end of term dance.

Green Bay Business College-Riverside Dance

I've got a lot of these. A few years ago I purchased a group of pictures from the Green Bay Business College in Green Bay, Wisconsin. There are far too many of them to put up in one post. There is also some variety in the collection. Many of them are family pictures that appear to be family pictures of a faculty member. I'm starting with a small group of pictures that were all in the same envelope. The envelope is addressed to the "Green Bay Business College, 123 S. Washington, Green bay, Wis." The return address is "G. Ashert Studio, De Pere, Wis." The post mark is from De Pere and dated July 2, 1956. The theme of the dance is I Love Paris. There is an image of three guys standing in front of the punch bowl, written on the back, "Three too many." The name Ken Bierke is written on the back of several of the photos.