Duke & Diane

As a rule, I don't show the decorative borders found on many old photographs.  Most are pretty much the same and unless a particular border is unique, I kind of figure, if you've seen one, you've seen them all. 

So, information on the back of the print.  "Dec. 27, 1935.  Duke & Diane Andrews. Taken at 1228 S. Wisconsin Ave. Berwyn, Ill.  9-7 years."  Let's start with the obvious, the helmet Duke is wearing is probably a Christmas present.  Football, would be my best guess, though in an era that was mad about aviation, it could also be a flyer's helmet.  The leather jacket was also the type of clothing worn by early, open cockpit aviators, so perhaps Duke wanted to be like his hero Charles Lindbergh.  There is a dark blob against the wall that I think could be a dog.  I tried looking up the names on line but pretty much struck out.  Diane Andrews is too common of a name.  Also, if she got married, any mention would have probably been by her married name.  Duke is probably a nickname which doesn't really help, though there is a Duke Andrews basketball league in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.  A connection?  Perhaps, but impossible to tell.  And finally, Berwyn is a suburb of Chicago. 

Bold choice for an amateur photographer, taking a picture next to light patterns from the window, which is very difficult to print. 

A Creepy Cabinet Card

Take a close look at the second girl on the left.  Her eyes seem, at least to me, to be kind of lifeless.  Too, it looks like she's being held up by the rest of her family.  The child on her left is holding on to the dress, meanwhile we can see a hand on her right that looks well placed to hold the child upright.  In the nineteenth century, a time of high childhood mortality, a rather creepy photographic service was being offered; photo portraits with the dead kids.  There's no way it can be proved, but I think second on the left was dead when this picture was taken.

There's nothing on the back of the card, and the slight impression on the card front doesn't really scan.  It's difficult to see, but I was able to make out Ottawa, Kansas.  The photographer's name, however, well, I'm not really sure.  I think it's C Wain, though maybe not.

Higgins' Pocket Gallery 9

And so it comes to an end with a criminal nicknamed Pickles.  And let's be honest, he looks a bit like a pickle.   Click on Higgins Pocket Gallery in labels to bring up the whole lot.

Higgins' Pocket Gallery 8

Alright, I know I promised I'd find out more information about Honest Jimmy Higgins, but it looks like, not so much.  I'm headed out to the California desert to do some hiking and camping, I haven't had as much time as I had hoped, so here goes.  James Higgins was a reformer, yes he was honest and introduced forensic, scientific policing to Buffalo.  That's it, I just was too backed up to dig up more.   As usual, click on Higgins Pocket Gallery to see more.

Bus #4

This has to be from somewhere along the beach.  I bought it in Los Angeles, so maybe Venice or Santa Monica.  I really like that guy on the far left, looking back behind him.  Perhaps he had to jump out of the way of whatever number 4 was.  It's clearly not a full size bus but is probably one of those small local transports taking people from attraction to attraction.  Stamped on the back, 'JUL 21 1926."

Higgins' Pocket Gallery 7

I know.  It can be confusing.  Criminal number 6 is in post number 7. Click on Higgins' Pocket Gallery to see more.

Higgins' Pocket Gallery 6

The second on our list who managed to get arrested in Pittsburgh before showing up in Buffalo.  So, did these guys move to Buffalo to commit more crimes or for a second chance?   Click on Higgins Pocket Gallery in labels to see more.

Higgins' Pocket Gallery 5

Finally a hat!  Spongy the larcenous tailor.  Click on Higgins Pocket Gallery in labels to see more.

Interesting

I bought it because I thought she had an interesting face,  Not beautiful, interesting.

Higgins' Pocket Gallery 4

I've established that Honest Jimmy Higgins was the Buffalo, New York Chief of Police.   I have to wonder if the pocket Gallery was only distributed in Buffalo.

Yet again, click on Higgins Pocket Gallery to see more.

Let It Snow

It's been raining in Los Angeles, and snowing in the mountains above the city.  I bought this picture in the L.A. area, so it was likely taken in the Angeles National Forrest.  For all you White Christmas fans.  It's the only Christmas movie I can watch over and over.

In the Camps

Three Asian ladies, standing in the snow, looking none too happy.  I almost passed on buying this photo, then I turned it over and looked at the military censorship stamp.  I couldn't help but wonder if this snapshot was taken in one of the World War 2 Japanese interment camps.  Certainly places like Tule Lake in northern  California and Heart Mountain in Wyoming were more then cold enough for lots of snow.

Higgins' Pocket Gallery 3

Chemist is an odd profession for a criminal.  While reading the descriptions of these people's criminal lives, I couldn't help but notice that they all had connections to Buffalo, so I did another search for Honest Jimmy Higgins, this time as Buffalo Police Chief James Higgins and I found him.  What few details I found will follow in future posts.  As usual, click on Higgins Pocket Gallery for more info.

Higgins' Pocket Gallery 2

Blink, what a great AKA.   Click on Higgins Pocket Gallery in labels to see more.

Higgins' Pocket Gallery 1

It's not a true photograph, so much as a photostat.  I wasn't able to find out much about the Higgins' Pocket Gallery.  I found a brief mention in an old article that referenced the gallery and mentioned it was compiled by police chief, Honest Jimmy Higgins.  Then, when I typed in chief Jimmy Higgins as well as a few other combinations, all that came up was current police chiefs, and assuming they aren't 100 years old, not honest Jimmy.

So, this will be the first in a series.  Additional posts will be individual images of the various fugitives as well as the small descriptive paragraphs on the back of the page.  Click on Higgins Pocket Gallery in labels at the bottom of the page.  As of yet I haven't decided if I'm going to put them up with out interruption.

Gender Fluid?

There was this thing in the 19th century where small boys were kept in girl's clothing, skirts, dresses, long hair, that sort of thing.  Once the boy got to a certain age, usually around four or five, and then, the hair was cut, boy's clothing replaced the girl's clothing.  Breeching was when that little boy started to wear pants.  Anyway, when I see the short hair, I think this photo is probably a little boy who's about to go from dresses to trousers. 

So, recently I read an article about parents raising their children as gender neutral.  I didn't think much about it until I was in a fast food place when I saw a young mother put lipstick on both her children,  a six or seven year old girl and a four or five year old boy. 

Power!

This is an interesting photograph.   The unit in the front looks like it's some sort of mock-up.  There is a control panel in the background that has a certain amount of depth, but the front one looks like it's only a few inches in depth.  The room also looks more like a carpentry shop rather than some place where electronic equipment is manufactured.  I did buy it in Los Angeles, so perhaps it's part of a movie set.

Three In A Park

There is some lettering on the arch in the deep background.  I thought I might find where "Palmer Park" is but there are at least six Palmer Parks I was able to identify, and I suspect there are a lot more.  Oh well.

Big Hat Collection 7

The last of the Big Hat real photo postcards and this one has a lot of info written on the back, some of which is covered by black photo album paper so I'll do my best to cobble things together.

 "Dear Mother, 5-6-15  (Obscured) just decided (Obscured) last to have "out siders" to the App Ball & have changed the date to the 14th So Be sure & come Thurs. if not sooner.  Hope Maye & Babies all are fine.  Excuse card as was best I could do now.  (Obscured) us a card & let us know when you can come, Love E.E."  Mailed to "Mrs. F. M. Baker,  1111 Glendon Way, So. Pasadena, Cal." 

In an earlier post I speculated that Elliot Baker might me be the son of Fannie Baker despite a mere 16 year age difference.  That card lists an E.F. Baker, but then again if was written in a different hand, and E.F. could be mis-written or poorly written.  In any case, as noted above, this is the last of the collection and all can be seen by clicking on Big Hat Collection in labels.

Big Hat Collection 6

I cropped the large white bar at the bottom of this card.  I mean, who want's to look at that.  As usual, click on Big Hat Collection in labels to see the rest.  Or, since I'm posting these without interruption, don't be lazy and just navigate back to see what's already up.

Big Hat Collection 5

There are some identifications on the back of this one.  "Maye Blake age 33, Fannie age 30, Maye Baker age 16 Taken Feb 23 1..., Redondo Beach, For Maye to keep."  As far as the year taken goes, there's black album paper glued to the back, and I didn't want to damage the card to uncover the exact year, especially when it wasn't necessary.   The second card in this series has Fannie age 36 taken in 1911.  Subtract six years and we've got 1905.  I suspect Fannie and Maye Blake are sisters and Maye Baker?  Well that's a tough one.  If Maye is Fannie's daughter that means Fannie gave birth round  14 years of age. (Perhaps 15 depending on birthdays.)   Not unheard of, especially in an era when women were more likely to wed at younger ages, but still very young.  Perhaps a sister-in-law or cousin. 

As usual, click on Big Hat Collection in labels to bring up the whole collection.   

Big Hat Collection 4

This one looks more like Los Angeles than Guthrie, Oklahoma.  Again, click on Big Hat Collection in labels to see more.

Big Hat Collection 3

She looks a lot like Fannie Baker from the last post.  She is not, however, in Guthrie, Oklahoma.   This postcard has an embossed studio name in the bottom right corner.  "Mitchell, 619 SO BROADWAY, LOS ANGELES, CAL."   The only thing I could find about Mitchell Studios was an ad in Camera Craft, from 1913.  Mitchell Studios was looking to sell some used equipment and buying new.  So, I guess, at least in 1913, they were successful enough to upgrade. . 

And of course, click on Big Hat Collection in labels,

Big Hat Collection 2

There is actually some useful information written on the back of this one.  "Taken Fri. Apr. 21-1911, Fannie M. Baker age 36, Elliott F. Baker age 20, Guthrie, Ok. For Maye Baker"  Oklahoma became a state in 1907 so the photo used to make this real photo postcard was made just a few years after statehood.  I couldn't find any information on these two which isn't to surprising.  I have to wonder, mother and son?  Step mother?  Siblings?

Click on Big Hats Collection in labels to see more.

Big Hat Collection 1

I recently bought an envelope of real photo postcards featuring women (And some men.) in biggish hats.  A couple of them are clearly related.  They have writing on the back, and  some same names.  They all have bits of black album paper, and my strong suspicion is that the seller ripped them all form the same photo album.  I hate that!  Anyway, since there aren't that many of them, I'm going to post them without a break and I'm also going to crop out any white borders lacking writing.  Click on Big Hat Collection in labels at the bottom of the post to bring up everything.

Drowning His Sorrows

Am I a terrible person for thinking this is funny?  No publisher listed on this unused postcard.

Pat Brown For Governor

I, of course, knew who Pat Brown was when I bought these photos.  Even though I was still living in Pennsylvania during his two terms as Governor of California,  he was famous enough that even a school boy from a coal mining town on the edge of Appalachia would know his name.  I didn't know what he looked like when I purchased these,  perhaps forgotten or perhaps I never knew, so I had to look it up before starting this post.  I kind of assumed that Brown was the bald guy who's in every picture, but I was wrong.  It's possible that Brown is the glasses wearing man on the center couch in the bottom picture, but it's only a resemblance, and I can't really be sure. As far as the year these pictures were taken, Brown ran for governor three times.  1958, which he won, 1962, also a victory, but he lost a third term bid in 1966 to Ronald Reagan.  So these are either from 1962 or 66.

So about Edmund Gerald "Pat" Brown Sr.  There's a lot on the net about the man, easy to research for anyone wanting detail, so I'm going to limit myself to an overview.  Brown was born in 1905 in San Francisco.  He graduated college and went to law school at San Francisco State.   His first foray into politics was a failed 1928 run for the state assembly as a Republican.   By 1934, at the height of the great depression, having lost faith in the Republican party he re-registered as a Democrat and became active in New Deal politics.  There was another electoral failure when he ran for San Francisco D.A. in 1939 and finally won the office in 1943.  From the beginning Brown was in the liberal camp, breaking with FDR by opposing the internment of Japanese Americans as well as the attempt to deport Harry Bridges.  In 1950, Brown ran for state attorney general, a win made him the only Democrat holding statewide office.  serving from 1950-1958.  In '57 he ran for governor, serving from 1958-1966.  In many ways, Brown invented modern California.  As governor he championed massive infrastructure projects, including massive water projects that made the central valley the most important agricultural region of the United States as well as providing the water needed to fuel the growth of southern California.  Also major highway projects and a major expansion of the UC system and the state college system. In 1960, Brown was the favorite son candidate for president, running  only in  California.  Because of the state's size, technically Brown finished second to Kennedy, but the plan had always been to pledge his delegates to JFK. Brown died in 1996.  Too, his son was Jerry Brown who ended up serving four non consecutive terms as governor as well as making several far more serious runs for the presidency. 

There's a photographers stamp on the back of these photos, "PHOTO BY Bob Crabtree, 8733 E. HOVEY ST., ROSEMEAD, CALIF.,  ATlantic 7-0317."  I couldn't find a thing about Crabtree.  Rosemead is a suburb of Los Angeles.

Ryan's Daughter

Despite the fact that I live in Los Angeles and work in the movies, albeit in a rather minor position, I don't have a lot of photos from movie sets.  This one is from Ryan's Daughter, directed by David Lean.  Lean was a British director who made some rather nice adaptations of plays by Noel Coward and several books by Charles Dickens who went on to make a series of historical epics that made him into a major figure in the film world.  Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, and Doctor Zhivago, before returning to a couple of tasteful literary adaptations.  Ryan's Daughter which was based on Madame Bovary and A Passage to India, based on a book by E.M. Forster.  Although, there was a certain amount of criticism of the last two that Lean couldn't shake the epic feel which overwhelmed his story.  Well, as Edward Abbey once pointed out, it's not critics that make these decisions, it's the democracy of time. 

So, the two actors in this photo.  Leo McKern and Sarah Miles.  Other members of the cast included Robert Mitchum, Trevor Howard, John Mills, and Christopher Jones.  Jones is pretty much forgotten today, but when his career was just hitting it's stride he was thought of as the heir to James Dean.  He made a movie that's now considered a cult classic.  Wild in the Streets was about a 28 year old rock star elected president of the United States after the voting age is reduced to 16 and the age requirement for the office is eliminated.

The Attorney for the Defense

There's a fair amount of information written on this print, "St. Michaels Luther League Cast for "The Attorney for the Defense" Sunday, May 15, 1932."  With all that I had. I still had a lot of trouble finding a very small amount of information.  The Luther League is an organization for young Lutherans founded in New York City in 1888.  St Michaels is probably a church, but without a city, it's not possible to narrow down which chapter.  Despite checking a number of sources, I couldn't find any information about the play named.  I checked IBDB, The Internet Broadway Data Base.  Apparently it was never made into a movie since there's no listing in IMDB.

On the Waterfront

I love the bridge in the background.  I'm trying to figure out if it's over a river or a bay. 

Woman With Mustache

When I first saw this very small photograph I could tell that the mustachioed gentleman on the left was actually a woman.  What I couldn't tell: Was the lady on the right a man?  After scanning, and blowing it up, it became obvious that, yes, she was a she. 

A California Home In Midwinter

Because I don't have a conventional job, and because I'm one of the many  leeches accepting socialist handouts in the guise of social security I was able to hit the road for three weeks at the end of summer.  While in Hurricane, Utah, I found this unused, near mint postcard of a California home, amongst the flowers, in midwinter.  (Yes, I know, all I did was type out the caption on the card.  No imagination.)  The truth is, the only reason I bought it was because I was amazed that I found such a thing in a small town in Utah.   The really weird thing is that the antique store had a stack of these.  Published by "M. Kashower Co., Los Angels, Cal."  M. Kashower was in business from 1914 to 1934, so this card is at least 85 years old.

The Really Steep Part of the Mt. Lowe Railway

Okay, I'm not going to write a lot about Thaddeus Lowe and his bizarre attempt to build a tourist  railroad and resort in the San Gabriel Mountains above Los Angeles.  Go to Mt. Lowe in labels at the bottom of the post and go to the only other post about this rail line and you can read a rather long post I've already put up.  As a rule I don't scan the backside of postcards, but I liked the Mt. Lowe logo so I thought I'd share it. 

What Happened to the Guy in Glasses?

From four to three people in a single photograph.  Well, it looks like the two ladies spent at least some of that day sitting in apple boxes that had been converted to push cars. 

Heartland

I've had this photo for years, and I didn't think I'd ever post it.  Anyway, while I'm not a big fan of Ken Burns, I've been watching a bit of his documentary series on country music.  It seems to me that if you're doing a series on country music, you'd include more performance footage.  Like maybe an actual complete song.  As I said, not a big fan.  While I was watching tonight's episode I remembered I had this photo in my collection.  It took me a bit to find it.  I've got a lot of boxes with photographs I haven't yet posted.  I looked up Heartland on Google.  I found a band by that name from Huntsville, Alabama, founded in 1996.  I have no date on this image, but the hair styles say seventies or eighties.  Too, the 309 area code is from Illinois, the actual heartland. 

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.