The Cheap Wedding

 

Ah for the good old days when ordinary people didn't go into massive debt for a wedding.  Great band in the background. Guitar, bass, accordion and marimba. 

Velda

 

Written on the back, "(Velda Hartley) June 1950 Fort Collins, Colo."  I wonder if she still plays the accordion?  I wonder if she's still alive? She'd probably be in her eighties. 

Oh Those Eyes!

 

Oh that loving stare.  Is she in love with the accordionist or is she wishing he'd stop so they can all play Monopoly?  My guess. Monopoly. 

Is It Polka Time?

Maybe it's a polka band, maybe it isn't. but it is a real photo postcard printed on Agfa paper.  It's also slightly larger than postcards found in the U.S, a size commonly found in Europe.  Germany, Austria, or somewhere else in central Europe.  Forgive give me music aficionados, but I like accordion music.

The Pforzheim Album 7

Do we have a wedding?  That would be my best guess on the top postcard.  Still, since all but two of the women are wearing the same white dress, I have some doubt.  Note the accordions in the front. There is a photographer's stamp on the back, "Hubert Gombert, Buhl I.B."  I ran Mr. Gombert's name and found some commercially produced cards, all scenes of Buhl, for sale, at 19 Euros.  I guess the European economy is doing better than I thought.  Buhl, like Pforzheim is a town in Baden-Wurttemberg in southwest Germany.

As far as card number two, Frieda Meyer and Else Huck are exchanging pictures.  School pictures I think.  My other guess would be conformation photos, but wouldn't young Else be in white for that?  Or is it young Frieda?  I did try doing a search on those names but came up with nothing.

Wild Party

Alcohol and accordions, what more can I say.  I have no reason to think this, but this photo says Europe to me.

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.

Eileen Heckenbach Loved the Accordion 1

Anthony Galla-Rini was an American accordionist born in 1904.  At the age of four, he was part of his father's Vaudeville act.  In time, Galla-Rini would master twelve instruments including the accordion.  In 1924, he quit his father's act in a salary dispute and formed a new act with his sisters.  In 1932, he left the act and opened an accordion studio in San Francisco.  In addition to teaching, he also began composing and arranging for the accordion.  Within a few years, Galla-Rini and his wife and son moved to New York City to be closer to the music publishers located in the city.  In 1938, he founded The AAA, The American Accordionist's Association.  In 1941, he composed the Accordion Concerto in G Minor (No. 1) which premiered with The Oklahoma City University Symphony Orchestra.  In 1942, he returned to California, formed a rumba band which headlined the Trocadero in Los Angeles.  He also began a long career composing music and performing for the movies.  In 1976, he returned to classical music with the Accordion Concerto in G Minor (No. 2).  In 1983 he composed the Sonata in D Minor For Accordion.  Anthony Galla-Rini died in 2006, aged 102.

The Apeda Studio was in business in New York City from 1906 to 1990.  It was founded by Alexander W. Dreyfoos, the photographer, and Henry Obstfield, the businessman.  With it's industrial developers and mechanized postcard printers, the Apeda Studio was an immediate success.  Like many studios servicing the theatrical community, Apeda, and it's staff of photographers sold prints to the general public of their sitters.  They also bought up the negatives of their competitors as well as making copies of photographs distributed by other photo studios, going so far as removing other studio logos and replacing them with the Apeda mark.  Dreyfoos and Obstfield would eventually be sued for violating the copyright of rival The White Studios.  Apeda won by arguing that copyright was the property of the sitter, and not the photographer.

Love Those Accordions

Please tell me he's wearing a pith helmet.  Who doesn't love an accordion?