Faded Intense Stare

 

Continuing with this brief series of faded, old photos.   Anyway, I buy the occasional lot of photos, usually an envelope, where I want a couple of photos and end up with a few extras.  This is one of those extras, and like the next couple I'm going to publish, it was printed on cut up real photo postcard stock.  

Dorothy

   

Well, it's a wallet-sized photo, and when I worked in photo labs, I hated printing that size.  You don't know how hard it is to dodge and burn an image that's this small.  So, she looks young, so there's a real probability that this is a school photo, and it's also been hand-tinted.  

Movie Star Glamour

 

I started this blog not to share all of my old snapshots with the public.  In fact, I've always thought my obsession with other people's photos a bit odd.  I started it  because it was easier to look at things if I didn't have to go through the old shoe boxes.  In any case, I think I've put this one up before but I can't be certain.  The collection has become too big for me to just sit down and scroll back to see everything.  Now, I've started to buy archival boxes and sleeves to separate the scanned and posted from the non, well whatever.  Collecting is an addiction I don't wish on anyone.  It is, however, better than a heroin addiction.  She may be a movie star and this may be a wallet sized photo given to the public for publicity.  Then again, imitating glamour photos is good business for a street corner photo studio.  

Swedish Portraits 7

 

The last of the Swedish portrait series.  Click on Swedish CDVs to see the rest.  I saved this one for the end because it was the only one with anything written on it.  It can be hard to read, but "Grandma & Grandpa Erikson."  Grandpa is wearing a medal, but from which war?  Or is the medal military?  It could have been for years of service as a postman.  I guess we'll never know. 

Swedish Portraits 3

 

I can't imagine that all of these photos from Swedish Photographer Arvid Kjerling aren't related in some way.  Some are clearly from the same family, others could be friends.  Click on Swedish CDVs in labels to bring up others.  Eventually, there willl be seven of them. 

Who Is This?

I know I've seen this man before.  I'm fairly certain  he's a character actor from the the 1950s?  Anyway, he looks like he's standing there, script in hand, waiting to rehearse. 

Eibau

There's nothing on the back of this small portrait, and while I was able to find more of the photographer's work, I couldn't find any information on Emil Roitsch, himself.  His studio was in Eibau, Germany.  Eibau was in Saxony, near the current borders of Poland and Czechia. If this picture was taken before the end of World War 1, then Czechia would still have been part of Austria-Hungary, and Poland would have been part of the Russian Empire.  In 2013, Eibau merged with two other communities forming the city of Kottmar.

More June Roselle

Different outfit, different lighting, and a bird cage.  All the June Roselle photos are 4x5 prints made on a double weight, fiber based paper. 

June Roselle

A couple of days ago,  I went on eBay and bought an envelope of theatrical photographs.  Those haven't arrived yet, but it did remind me that I already had a few theatricals sitting on my desk that hadn't yet been added to the blog. 

Written on the back of the top image, and the only one with any information, "June Roselle, daughter of composer L. Crist Carson."  In my search for information, I started with Carson and found absolutely nothing.  I tired the usual sources, IMDB, the internet move data base, IBDB, the internet Broadway data base, and of course, the plain old general Google search.  Then I decided to try the same approach with his daughter.  After all, show business has a lot of multi generational artists.  There wasn't much there, either, but something. 

June Roselle understudied Florence Henderson, on Broadway, in the title role of Fanny.  Fanny ran from 1954 to 1956, book by Joshua Logan and S.N. Behrman  music and lyrics by Harold Rome.  She was listed as having been a replacement for a handful of performances, so she did act on Broadway.  And then, that's it.  Nothing, nada.  No other Broadway  credits, nothing on IMDB, so no movie or television career.  It's as if she just disappeared. 

So, did she decide that show business wasn't for her?  Did she get married and go the family route?  Perhaps she died. 

The Here, There, and Everywhere Collection, A Gentleman's Portrait

Wow, the stick-pin, tie and the facial hair.  If I was picking a stereotypical image of the southern gentleman, pining for his grandfather's slaves to bring him a julep, this would be the photo.  Not a good look.

Click on The Here There and Everywhere Collection in labels to get background on the lot.  Also, it saves me from typing for the next ten minutes.

Still a lot to go, but not in the near future.

Ethel

As promised, the third and last real photo postcard from the Philippine (?) envelope.  No, I can't be 100 % sure that all three photos from this small envelope of cards are from the Philippines, but this one looks more  a sure bet than the last one.  There is some information written on the back, "Ethel, one of old pose," but that doesn't give a true location.  Obviously, it's the clothes that do not say North America, so considering the Carving P.I. label from the first card, well why not jump to the conclusion.

Now, for those who have wondered about the "AZO" that is often seen around the stamp block on photo post cards.  The first two cards from this mini series had an "ARTURA"  identifier, while this one has "AZO."  So, what's the difference?  To start with, both are Kodak products.  Artura was made by Kodak from 1905 to 1921, and while the label is almost always seen on pre-manufactured postcard stock, the paper was actually available in a variety of formats.  It was usually used as a contact paper, and since Kodak and a number of early camera and film companies  made products that yielded a negative that was postcard sized, it was a natural for the market.  It tended to produce images with a very slightly green tone.  Artura was discontinued after Kodak lost an antitrust suit, and had to either divest or eliminate some of it's products.

Azo, was also a slow paper best used for contact prints, and like Artura, it came in a variety of sizes.  Azo was noted for having a wide tonal range and could  easily give rich blacks and hold highlights, making it a favorite with amateur printers and photo labs alike.  Azo was originally manufactured by The Photo Materials Co. in Rochester, New York in 1898.  Kodak bought the company the same year, and kept Azo in production until 2005.  It was the longest continuously manufactured photographic paper in history.  In one of the photo labs where I used to work, we would make contact prints  from 8X10 negatives on Azo.

Tiny Pictures 1

I run across these small strips of photos, from time to time.  At first, I thought they must have come from some sort of photo booth, which didn't really make any sense.  It's true that camera manufacturers were making self developing systems in the late 19th century,  but they were very expensive, very unreliable, and very rare.  I latter found out that camera makers offered film holders with a movable slide.  Take one photo on a glass plate, move the slide and take another image, then process and contact.  And, of course, there were cameras made with multiple lenses that could make multiple exposures at the same time.  This isn't one of those.  If it was, both exposures would be the same.

Like A Painting

Hand tinted photographs are quite common.  It's hard to go to a flea market or antique store without seeing them by the dozen.  Some of the colorists were quite good, some quite bad, and then there are those who went the imitation painting route.  Kind of like having you're own portrait gallery of distinguished ancestors, but not quite.  

A Gentleman

The original on this one is a very tiny image, about an inch on the long side.  It has one of the weirdest ties I've ever seen.  It looks more like a scarf.   The lapel ribbon looks a bit like a butterfly.  And, after I scanned the image and blew it up, it looked like the mustache was a glue on.  I think this might be a theatrical portrait.

Smooth College Boy

That's one of the great stereotypes of  silent movies of the Jazz Age.  The smooth college boy who seduces the innocent girl while the stalwart hero pines for his wayward lady love.  Of course, in the end true love conquers all.