Post Number 1,000

I started The New Found Photography as a way to impose some sort of order on a mess of a collection.  While I've added text from the very first post, I expected few visitors, no comments, no followers, and I sure as hell never expected to hit the 1,000 post milestone.  The fifteen photographs that I've chosen to re-post, to mark the occasion, are far from representative.  Are they my favorites?  They are right now, but if I made a choice tomorrow, there would be changes.  They're not the most popular.  A couple of them have had a lot of views, and some, almost none.  Is there a post number 2,000 in the future?  I've still got a lot of photos in the collection that have never seen the light of day.  And, despite my ever shrinking income, I still visit antique stores, thrift shops, EBay, garage sales, estate sales, and flea markets.  Who knows where it will all end.

Eileen Heckenbach Loved the Accordion 3

Perhaps this post should have been titled Eileen Heckenbach loved HER accordion.  I don't know who Hal was, but he knew that Eileen was an aspiring, professional accordionist.  So who was Eileen, and did she make it in the world of accordion professionals?  Well, I ran Eileen and I got a couple of hits.  Not much information and there wasn't anything about music in what I found.  I don't even know if it was the same Eileen Heckenbach. For what it's worth, An Eileen Heckenbach was born in Chicago in 1923.  That means that the dated photo of Anthony Galla-Rini from the first of these posts was inscribed when she was 17 years old.  I also found an Eileen Heckenbach Retzke, the wife of Norbert Retzke.  All three of the photos in this series had pin holes.  I think Eileen had these photos up on her bedroom wall.

Eileen Heckenbach Loved the Accordion 2

Who was William Switzer?  Well, obviously he was an accordionist, but I would loved to have gotten something else on the man.  I checked IMDB, IMBD, Google, The American Accordionist's Association, and even tried EBay, thinking there might be some old 78 for sell.  But, nothing?  Maurice, the photographer,  is most likely Maurice Seymour.  Click the name in the labels section to come up with some other examples of his work.

Two More From Maurice Seymour

I'd love to know who this woman is. Taken by Chicago based Maurice Seymour, this is another post of theatrical portraits from one of the most talented commercial photographers I've run across. To pull up some more Seymour portraits, go to the labels section at the bottom of this post and click on Seymour's name. Stamped on the back of both prints, "Chicago Herald-World S. BJURSTROM", and "THANKS FOR CREDIT MAURICE SEYMOUR PHOTOGRAPHER CHICAGO, ILLINOIS."

Another From Maurice Seymour

Yet another theatrical portrait from Chicago photographer Maurice Seymour. As I noted in my two previous posts (published 8/7/09, and 6/22/09) of Seymour photographs, he was an immigrant from Russia who opened up a studio in Chicago in the 1930's. Until his retirement in the 1970's, he specialized in society and theatrical portraits. No name, dates, or any other identification on this photo.

Three More From Maurice Seymour

As I've noted before, (Two From Maurice Seymour, posted 6/22/09) Maurice Seymour was a Russian immigrant who opened a photo studio in Chicago, in the 1920s, who specialized in theatrical portraits. There is a stamp on the back of the photo of the dapper gentleman in the wild, print shirt, "THANKS FOR THE CREDIT MAURICE SEYMOUR PHOTOGRAPHER CHICAGO, ILLINOIS." There is no other info on the print. On the back of the man and woman, "JACK HOLLAND, JUNE HART" I found two movie credits for this couple on http://www.imdb.com/ One for Dance band, from 1935 and Rubinoff and his Violin, from 1939. Also, I found info that they were a ball room dancing team that worked the night club circuit in New York City in the 1930s. On the two ladies sitting on the drum, hand written on the reverse, "Ray and Geraldine Hudson (The Hudson Wonders)" A web search found a theater credit on http://www.ibdb.com/ for Ray, Geraldine and Helene Hudson appearing in Star and Garter, a musical revue that opened on Broadway in 1943. The only interesting thing is that Ray is listed as a male performer. Either this is a picture of Geraldine and Helene, or Ray's sex was misidentified on ibdb, or Ray was a drag performer, or it's all a coincidence, and these two have no relation to Star and Garter.

Two From Maurice Seymour

Maurice Seymour was a Russian immigrant who opened a photography studio in Chicago in the 1920's. He specialized in theatrical portraits. The seller told me that these two images were of a stripper, and taken during the 1950's. There was type on the bottom, Pat Windsor. I've done an Internet search, and couldn't find any trace of this lady.

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Time for a correction. According to the comment left by Mr. Charles Rosenberg, Pat Windsor, also known as Pat Windsor Mitchell was a singer. The dealer who sold me these photos was wrong about her being a stripper.