Don't Take Our Picture

  

Someone always has to take the picture.  There's a camera case hanging on the back of the empty chair, but his companions seem to be going out of their way to ignore the photographer's presence.  Or were they?  Perhaps our photographer wanted a candid feel to his picture.  Anyway, someone cut the top half of the picture off, making it close to impossible to identify the location.  

Drinking Flapper

  

But what is she drinking?  Coffee, tea, beer, or something stronger?  Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong year.  The roaring twenties would have been great fun.  Of course, the great depression and World War 2 would have been really miserable. 

Happy New Year

 

Written on the back, "Sylvester, 1955/56" I don't know if Sylvester is the name of the photographer or the last name of the woman in the photo.   Whoever Sylvester was, we can be sure he or she didn't know on which side of midnight this photo was taken.  Rather dressy for a home party.  Printed on Agfa Brovira paper, so far more likely this was taken in Europe than the U.S.

Get Out of My Hammock!

 

The standing guy has a huge bottle on his shoulder.  I suspect that alcohol has something to do with what's going on. 

The Stare

 

This is another photo from a mystery envelope of prints I found in the box of already posted pictures.  The problem is that I put individual photos in that box, not envelopes of mixed pictures.  So, I 'm not sure if I've put this one up before, and there are just too many images on The New Found Photography to really search them all.  So, this woman has this great stare, and with that bottle in the foreground I have to wonder if she's a bit tipsy.  Written on the back, "March 1952."  And if this has now been posted more than once, so what. 

Who Left the Bottle?

 

And while we're asking questions, are those earmuffs she's wearing?   It doesn't look that cold to me. 

Jam Session

Would these guys even know the term jam session?  The guy with the guitar looks like he's in a uniform, while the mandolin player is clearly a civilian.  The bus in the far background looks 1930's give or take.  A nice outdoor cafe and a couple of drinks so the music sounds better? 

Party Hats

Bored looking people, smoking, drinking, funny hats and the family dog who wishes everybody would go home. 

Music To My Ears 8

 

This is the only photograph I have of Mary Reagan, or Ann Parker or whatever stage name she was using, while actually performing.  The guys at the bar are drinking beers rather than cocktails.  A low rent dive or do the drinkers just prefer beer? 

As usual, click on Music To My Ears to see more. 

Party Time

This one's going to the last from the throw-in file for awhile.  So, there's a clock on the wall, it's ten after eleven, it's dark out, so it's P.M.  Too late for dinner, so it has to be a party.  The color restoration setting really worked well on this one.

Party In the Rain

Well, they are holding umbrellas, so it must be raining.  Looks like the sixties to me. 

The Fairmont Hotel, Atop Nob Hill

Ah, the good old days when ladies and gentlemen dressed for dinner, smoked in restaurants, had cocktails and were served by waitresses dressed somewhere between 19th century Viennese servant and Vegas showgirl.

This postcard was mailed and it does have a message, "July 11, Just had luncheon with Golda Woodworth at the Crown Room-a new edition-very posh!  Heard Fiedler in concert a very fine concert.  Weather cooler again.  Leaving for L.A. the 15th.  Rec'd your nice letter.  Am enjoying my trip such a lot-Love- Florence E."   Mailed to "Mrs. George  Woodward. N. 2418 Pacific Ave., Spokane 43 Wash."  And the caption, "Only the stars are higher than the spectacular Crown Room Cocktail Lounge atop the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.  Soaring 29 floors above the city, scenic ascents may be made via an exciting outside glass-enclosed Sky-lift."  The postmark is pretty much unreadable, but The Crown Room opened in 1961 and, based on a few still visible letters, I'm making a guess that it was mailed from Tiburon.

Well, maybe it wasn't the good old days.  Smoking, cocktails and wearing ties doesn't sound that good to me.  Woodworth and Woodward?

Have a Rheingold

There's nothing written on this print, but the bar sells Rheingold Beer, and Rheingold was brewed in New York state.  From 1950 to 1960 Rheingold sold 35% of the beer purchased in New York.  Amazing the things you can learn on line. 

And He Rolls In

As the caption reads, "2 A. M. And He Rolls In Quite Early."

When I was in college, I had a history professor who liked to speak of CK,  common knowledge, thinks that everyone thought of as true, but were in fact not true.  A perfect example of CK is the widely held belief that the prohibition movement began with conservative Christians who wanted to impose their own sense of morality on everyone else.  Other than the fact that prohibition had broad support, if it had any single point of origin, it was in the early women's movement for a very simple reason, women who had drunk husbands had a tendency to get beaten and killed.  Women who had sober husbands didn't. 

Anyway, I found a bit of information about T.W. Ingersoll.  Truman Ward Ingersoll (1862-1922) was an American photographer and publisher of stereo cards.  I was unable to determine if he was the only photographer or if his company had  a staff of cameramen.  He was noted for his views of Yosemite.

On Pass

One of the first people I worked for after arriving in Los Angeles loved to tell stories about his less than stellar past.  One of my favorites was about a weekend trip he took to Tijuana.  He had rode down on his motorcycle and was wandering around back streets looking for a good place to have a drink.  Suddenly, a door flew open;  one of those doors that's below street level.  There stood an American sailor.  "Help me," he cried.  My boss looked down and saw that the young American was being chased by half a dozen Mexicans.  So, my boss put his foot on the guy's chest and pushed him back into the bar.  "Weren't you worried those guys were going to kill him?" I asked.  "No, I worried they were going to kill me." 

So, a few Americans on a pass, having a drink or two and not being chased by the locals. 

Crazy Drunk Guys

My favorite is the guy, dead center, with the great sun glasses, so wasted that he can't tell that his head is being used as a table.  Is it just me or do some of these drunks look like they're wearing wigs.

Growler

The older I get the more I find myself explaining things to young people.  Most of them know what a land line is, even if they haven't seen one, but the idea of a rotary phone or a party line seems beyond them.  Yes, TV was once in black & white.  Carbon paper seems to be a head stumper, and so is the practice of sending picture postcards through the mail. 

So what is the lady on the right holding?  Is it a canning jar?  There was once a time when it was common for people, even people in cities, to have a backyard garden.  They'd grow a few vegetables and, in the fall, they would do some canning.  I can still remember the horrors of green beans, all pale and soft.   I was born in the mid 1950s, and when I was growing up fresh fruits and vegetables were still considered seasonal.  Chilean strawberries didn't show up in December. Frozen foods had become common, but if your family needed to save a few bucks, what could be found on the cellar shelf was cheaper.  Blow off the dust, unscrew the zinc lined lid, and flavorless green mush was dinner. 

Yes, it could be a canning jar, but I think it's far more likely a growler.  In our age of mass market and craft beers, it's hard to imagine that there was a time when people brought large metal bottles to the local beer garden and got a fill up of whatever was on tap.  If the local bartender knew your parents, he'd do a top off for the youngest child in the family.  Chores were expected, and what could be more important than fetching dad's evening libation.  But what really sold me on the growler interpretation was the goofy look on the two women's faces.  Who gets that happy over green beans?

Oh, and before I forget, they were called growlers because of the sound they made when they were first opened. 

Ladies Who Drink

Looks like the same era as yesterday's post, but with alcohol. 

Okay, I scanned a number of square format prints into the computer, and for some odd reason, I didn't bother to look at the back before uploading to the blog.  So, as an addendum, written on the back, "Maria Sompgna, Carol Mercusic, Feb. 56." 

Drunken Carousing at Christmas

That's a hell of a tree in the background.

Drinking at Christmas

So how do I know it's Christmas?  Take a look at the cards hanging on the back wall.  My mother used to string up Christmas cards like that, and I always thought it an odd thing to do.  Anyway, written on the back, "Fran, Tim, Betty, Bill, Mary, Bonnie & Joe."