The Service Dance

Written on the back, "How do you like the back of my head.  How about that Crowd?  Nice heh!  All service personel."  Looks like the World War 2 era to me.  Mostly navy with the army thrown in. 

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. 

Did You Hear What They Said?

So, the photographer is focused on the band.  He's taken a picture of  three guys, hands on the microphone, so people can't hear what they're saying.  The woman who is standing by the bandstand has a shocked look on her face.  What were they discussing?  I'll bet it was about that  newfangled rock & roll and how it would go away by 1960.

Zombies

Don't tell me I'm the only one thinking it.  Probably a rock band.

English Theater, The Kiltie Show

Ah, those Brits.  It's always a leg show.

Anyway, like yesterdays' post, there's lots of info on the back, including hand written stuff that looks a lot like the writing on, well, yesterday's post.  So, starting on the stamped info, "KIN 5638 ORDER No.  PHOTOCRAFT OF KINGSTON, 3 & 4 EMPIRE CHAMBERS RICHMOND ROAD, KINGSTON-ON THAMES."  And the hand written entry, "Laughing Room Only, Comin' Thru' the Rye.  Finale of Kiltie Show.  Oct. 1951." 

So, if it the same handwriting, rather than an example of a rigid school system that made sure everyone's handwriting looks exactly the same, was it the photographer or a cast member? 

Strike Up The Band

Or lock up the band.  Emeryville is in the bay area.  So is San Quentin.  Not exactly Johnny Cash, but then again, this might be the county jail rather than California's infamous big house.  I'm assuming that the Emeryville VFW hadn't been arrested for illegal marching, so it looks like they were nice enough to give a free concert to the prisoners. 

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.

Major Medinger

It looks like Major Medinger is moving on, and if the last photo in the column is what it appears to be, the poor Major enjoyed his party a bit too much.  I have no idea why Major Medinger is being honored by the 4th Signal Corps, but I suspect he's either being transferred, or more likely, he's leaving the army.  If that's so, then we can be sure these photos were taken after World War 2.  That one was an in for the duration conflict.

The fifth photo in the column is the only one with any labeling, "Capt Wilson, Mr Vandiver, Capt Stevens"

The Green Album 4

The last entry from the Green Album had military pictures which made me think of World War 2.   Think of this page as the home front.  Makes me wonder if this album got sent to some military base.  So if it did travel, where did it travel?

Click on The Green Album in labels, etc., etc., etc.

The Pforzheim Album 9

So, the town band, and what, the ladies chorus?  What happened if a woman wanted to play the coronet and a man wanted to sing?

Only one image on this page.  There's a photographer's stamp on the back, but it's so faded that I can't make it out.

The Town Band

Yesterday I listened to music on the CD player, (I've yet to go the Ipod route.) watched a DVD, and broadcast television.  I started off the morning with all news radio, and have moved on to sports, and right now, I'm sitting in front of a computer.  Every time I run across one of these late nineteenth, early twentieth century photos of the town band, or people singing around the piano, I wonder if we could go back to the pre-electronic media age, and amuse ourselves.  

Strike Up the Band

No names, dates, or locations on this one, and it's hard to guess based on a band uniform.