S.S. Drottningholm

 

The S.S. Drottningholm was built in 1904 by Alexander Stephen and Sons in Scotland.   Her first owner was the Allan Line and was named the Virginian.  During World War 1, she was chartered by the British as a troop transport.  Sold to the Canadian Pacific Line in 1917 and then sold to the Swedish American Line in 1920, renamed the Drottningholm, and operated by the line until 1951, then sold to the Home Lines, an Italian company that renamed the ship Brazil.  The ship's final owner was the Hamburg American Line, which renamed the ship the Homeland.  She was scrapped in Italy in 1955.

It's partially obscured, but I'm fairly certain that this postcard is postmarked, "NEW YORK N.Y. SEP 10 5 P.M. 1947."  The message, "The time is getting closer but just to say "Hello" Feeling fine and all looks interesting-Don't forget to write.  Love Ingrid."  The card was mailed to "Mrs. Imogene Abzug, 1342 Sunland Ave. Jamestown, N.Y." 

And the captions, BREKVORT CARTE POSTALE, S.S. DROTTNINGHOLM, SVENSKA AMERIKA LINIEN, SWEDISH AMERICAN LINE, GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN.   Printed in Sweden, 45.1 55,000 11.6.47, 645." 

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. 

Have a Pepsi

 

I've always been rather fascinated by the idea of a World's Fair, and it's one of the regrets of my life that I've never been to one.  So, the caption, "PEPSI-COLA PAVILION, New York World's Fair 1964-1965.  Peace through Understanding.  Animated figures representing children in national costumes entertain visitors on a Walt Disney-created cruise taken in specially designed boats.  A UNICEF exhibit is also included."  Child labor laws, I guess. 

Music To My Ears 5

Stamped on the back, "PLEASE CREDIT Kerr 43 west 51st street new york, n. y. eldoarado 5-3178."  And yes, they did use lower case letters as I've typed them.  Well, I did find a bit about The Kerr Studio.  It was opened in 1951 by husband and wife team, Justin and Barbara Kerr.  Originally they specialized in theatrical portraits, but by the late 1950's they began restoring and photographing pre-Colombian artifacts from Mexico and Central America.  I dug up a bit on Barbara, but nothing about Justin.  Barbara went to the Pratt Institute and died in 2014.  As I wrote, a bit.  This collection isn't finished yet, but I'm going to shelve things for awhile and move on to other photos.

Once again click on Music To My Ears to see other posts from this series.

Woman on Horseback

I got tired of having my desk covered in loose photographs and old postcards, so I bought a plastic box and shoved everything in and was finally able to see wood grain.  True, it's fake wood grain, but small victories.  On the other hand, out of sight, out of mind, so I now find myself having to make time for The New Found Photography.  Just in case anyone was wondering about the slower pace of my efforts.

So, despite the card stock this was printed on, lacking a publishers name and address, this is not a real photo postcard.  Blow it up and take a closer look and the very tiny dots found in mass commercial printing are quite visible.  I can remember, when I worked in photo labs, if we wanted to make a copy negative of something from a magazine we had to use a special filter on the process camera to descreen those images. 

While this postcard was never mailed there is something written on the back.  "Hazel Jester 595 St. Ams Av N. Y. City  Lovingly Nanna 1921"  Anyway, I was pretty sure that there wouldn't be a St. Ams Avenue in New York City, or for that matter anywhere  else.  I figured it must be a hastily written corruption of St. James Ave.  I looked it up, it's in the Elmhurst section of Queens at the corner of St. James and Broadway.  Not the Broadway in Manhattan.

The Singer Building

Perhaps it's my age.  Perhaps it's my mother making clothes for the family on her sewing machine.  For whatever reason, say Singer and I think of the sewing machine company.

The Singer Building in New York City was designed by architect Ernest Flagg.  It was completed in 1908 and for two years at, 47 stories and 612 feet high, was the tallest building in the world.  The Singer Building has another interesting distinction.  In 1967 it became the tallest building to be torn down.  It seems it's extraordinarily difficult to raze really tall building, which might explain why there are so many old, ugly skyscrapers in cities all over the planet.  (Perhaps, they'll be our version of the great pyramids.)  Before the destruction of the  twin towers of The World Trade Center, the Singer Building remained  the tallest building razed and is still the tallest to be razed voluntarily.

Printed on the back, "SINGER BUILDING and part of the financial district, New York City.  Singer Building located on the corner of Broadway and Liberty Streets is 47 stories high rising to a total height of 612 feet.  In it are 5,000 tenants who are carried to their offices by 16 Otis traction elevators.  The foundations consist of 36 caissons sunk to bedrock 92 feet below the surface.  Built by the Singer Mfg. Co."  This card was published by The Manhattan Post Card Company and credits Irving Underhill as the photographer.  Irving Underhill was a prominent commercial photographer in New York City specializing in urban and marine landscapes.  He was born in 1872 and died in 1960.  Underhill provided photographs for postcards and book and magazine illustrations.

Stony Point

Another undivided back postcard, this one never used.  There are a lot of Stony Points in the United States, but I think this is the one in New York.  Along the Hudson River, it's considered part of the New York City metropolitan area. 

The Lucky Crocodile

Not very lucky, considering he's dead, stuffed, and mounted on a wall.  This is another one from the studio of Lehnert & Landrock, so navigate back one post for some biographical info on the pair.  This card was used, and the message is, "Hello all.  Hope you & Pop are still well. Joe"  Mailed to "Mr. Al Sweede, 168 West 98th St., New York City, U.S.A."  Hey, when it's New York City, you don't need the state.  The postmark is smeared, so no date.

The U.N. Restored

I like playing with the color restoration setting on the scanner.  Sometimes it works well, sometimes not.

Visiting the United Nations

I'm not going to write much about the United Nations.  There's a ton of written material about the U.N., both on line and in books.  The U.N. was an outgrowth of the World War 2 alliance that fought Nazi Germany and the Japanese militarists. The conference that laid out the structure of the U.N. was held in San Francisco between April and June 1945, and the actual treaty that created the institution was signed on October 24, 1945 at Lake Success, a small village on Long Island, New York.  It's headquarters has been in New York City since it's founding.  It's current building opened in 1952, and was designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Neimeyer.

Remember  the good old days when most Americans supported the United Nations.  I know lots still do, but those numbers are a lot smaller today.  The first photo in this column is labeled "UN TRIP AUG 10."  The second and fourth, "W L WALTER," the lady, "A M WALTER."

New York (And a bit of the fair) 1939

As I mentioned in the last post, the Czechoslovakian Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair closed after the German invasion of the country in 1939, and didn't reopen for the 1940 season, so dating these photos was easy.

All of these images are captioned in the same neat hand.  Top to bottom, "S.S. Queen Mary, NYC," "Riverside Church, NYC," "Columbia University, NYC," "Lower Manhattan NYC,"  "Lower NYC Skyline from Staten Is. Ferry," "Empire State Building," and "Czecho-Slovak Pavilian-NY World's Fair."

More From the 1939 New York World's Fair

It must have been an interesting time at the fair.  Even though all the countries of Europe were invited to submit a pavilion, Germany declined.  All things considered, not a bad idea.  In 1938, the Munich Agreement was negotiated by England and Germany, giving part of Czechoslovakia to the Nazis.  In 1939, the first year of the fair, Germany would take the rest of the country, and Germany and the Soviet Union would invade and dismember Poland.   The Czech and Polish pavilions would close for the 1940 season.  The Soviets dismantled their building and left a vacant lot in the middle of the fairgrounds.

 Of course, the Polish invasion led to declarations of war by France and Great Britain, with German invasions of Denmark and Norway soon to follow.  And then the big push, Germany moving through Belgium, the Netherlands, and France, pushing what was left of the British military into the channel at Dunkirk.  I can't imagine that smiling German greeters would have been welcome in New York City.  In any case, many of the employees of the European pavilions were stranded in New York for the duration.

I don't know whether these photos are all by the same photographer.  All I do know is that I found them all stuffed in the same envelope.  The picture of the statue and the night shot were both trimmed, so they may, in fact, be the same format as the others, but they were also printed on a different paper, so, different photographer or printed at another time?  Who knows.  Take a close look at the next to last photo in the column.  It's flopped.  For those who wish to print for themselves, camera original film reads right through the base, the shinny side.  That is, unless, someone deliberately loaded the film backwards.  Some people do.  Color film, shot through the base, saturates the red dyes on the film.  Black & white changes the contrast.  

The 1939 New York World's Fair

I just picked up an envelope of photos of New York from 1939.  It reminded me that I already had some photos from the 1939 New York World's Fair, so I've decided to put them up over the next few days.  This one, found in the quarter box at the antique mall, shows the Trylon and Perisphere.

World's fairs are, essentially, massive trade shows, allowing countries and large corporations to sell themselves to the paying public.  The 1939 fair was the first to be built around a theme, The World of Tomorrow.  The Perisphere and Trylon were designed as the theme center.  The buildings were  by architects Wallace Harrison and J. Andre Fouilhoux.  The Perisphere contained a massive diorama, Democracity a depiction of an ideal city of the future, by industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss.

Rose & Neddy In Brooklyn

Written on the back, "Rose L age 16, March 26 1922-1115 40th St Bkyn Neddy C. 15"  I can't remember how many times I've found information that specific on the back of a print.  I'd bet, the structure in the background is an elevated train and I'd bet it still there.

Meet Me At the Fair

Remember World's Fairs?  When I was a kid I desperately wanted to go to a World's Fair.  Seattle was the one I wanted to visit the most.  I really wanted to go up into the Space Needle and ride the monorail.  Eventually I would do both, though the awe factor was lessened by age.

World's Fairs were basically trade shows writ large.  Big companies  like General Motors and IBM had their own pavilions, while countries would showcase everything from the arts, national customs, and of course, business opportunities.

Written on the back, "Again the "Unisphere."  Notice the beds of flowers.  The landscaping was beautiful.  In the distance on the right is the New York State Pavilion and tower which we went up into and from which the next picture was taken.  New York Worlds Fair May 1965."

The New York World's Fair ran from 1964 through 1965.  The Unisphere is still there.

Leo Rosenthal, Photographer 5

The last of the Leo Rosenthal photographs.

Leo Rosenthal, Photographer 4

A heated discussion at the U.N?  As I noted in an earlier post, I'm just pulling these out of the envelope at random.  When I started deciphering the captions, I saw that they have been written by one of the subjects in the second photo, so my apologies to Leo Rosenthal for my criticisms of his hand writing.  And, for some reason I don't understand, bits to the right of the horizontal images seem to be cut off, but click, bring it up in a larger window, and the whole width of the image becomes visible.  That's important on the last one in the column, since some of the writing can't be seen except in a separate window.

Leo Rosenthal, Photographer 3

Once again I'm posting the backs of the prints because I'm baffled by Leo Rosenthal's handwriting.  I can make out Carnegie House.  I did a search on that and found a rather expensive apartment house in Manhattan.  My guess is that the Carnegie House mentioned is actually the Carnegie Mansion, now owned by The Smithsonian, current home of The Cooper-Hewitt Museum Design Center.

Anyway, I'm just pulling pictures out of the envelope, and posting them as they come, so there's no attempt to bunch them in any order.