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.